From afar, Sura watched through an orb of sight and laughed as the old sickly man was defeated and left behind. "The Catholic is in critical condition and his friends are going the wrong way. I think it's time we introduced ourselves to them." The images on the orb blurred and refocused on a group of mismatching characters walking down a dirt road.
   
The other person she was with was a Tasaki in chitin armor. His fur was the color of stone and he held a strange looking staff. It was carved with intricate patterns and like a vine, wrapped around itself and a restrained green gem at its head. "So these are the friends of the Catholic?"
   
"Yes. These are the ones who've been wreaking havoc on Boudal's war. With the Catholic separated from them, they'll be easier to take down." Sura told the Tasaki. "However, do not underestimate their resourcefulness. They did already take down one of your giants."
   
"I'm well aware of that, mistress. If anything, each giant they topple is a test to bring about an even stronger giant, one who is more durable, faster, more responsive." The Tasaki grinned. "Besides, I have a few new ideas in my mind as it is and I know just the spot to unleash them."
   
"My, my, you sound confident if not downright arrogant."
   
"These giants are more than capable of leveling the entire region and with the other territories exposed, I can disrupt those as well. Emporia will never rise again. But now I wonder, how fares our sickly counterpart?"
   
Sura rolled her eyes and laughed. "Emeril wasn't successful. The Catholic escaped with the help of Enderia but he is in critical condition." She paused for a moment as her tail started to sway faster. "I think I need to have a chat with our regional slavers."
   
"Thezec?"
   
"If not him, then whoever he left in charge."
   
"What will you have me do?"
   
"Raise your next giant but keep it out of the city."
   
"You know I have no control over them."
   
"Manipulate it, it's just a battle thrall," Sura opened a portal and stepped through it.
   
"Yeah... a sixty plus tonne battle thrall..." the Tasaki groaned. He looked over at the quarry beside him. It was a massive crater spanning half a mile wide and a hundred feet down. He stood his staff upright in its artificial cradle, a small hole in the ground, and mumbled hundreds of arcane words. The ground shook again sending violent tremors outwards like a nasty spider web. "Come Silesia, I have a target for you..."
   
Up from the crater came a large stone hand, followed by a second hand. Those hands pulled up a large body and head. The giant he called 'Silesia' was a monkey who stood four stories tall and nearly all of it was covered in grass.
   
The ground shook violently forcing them to stop for its duration. Falcher shook his head, "That's the second one today."
   
"The ground rumbles, nothing to fear," Michy reassured him. "It's always rumbled."
   
"Has it always been this violent?" Tilamo asked him as he looked around.
   
"Not that I remember but I'm also only ten." Michy shrugged his shoulders
   
"Wait, back up. You're ten?" Tilamo was a bit surprised to say the least.
   
"Oh, right. You elves age a lot slower than we do. I'm full adult, just sooner." Michy smiled trying to pass it off. "Falcher's people live even shorter lives than we Tasaki."
   
"I'm fifty-two." Falcher commented.
   
"Oh wow! You're ancient! Gnolls never get passed their twenties!"
   
Falcher shook his head and quietly laughed it off. "Thanks..."
   
"How much further to town?" Tilamo squinted at what seemed like a distant structure to the south.
   
"Not much, follow the road. It'll take us all the way to the Fummau City."
   
The ground shook again but with less volatility. "Three..." Falcher mumbled.
   
And again, "four..."
   
And again, "Something's coming and it's coming fast." Falcher unsheathed his rapiers. Tilamo drew his scythe and Michy, his bow. Then the game's combat music kicked in. "Definitely not liking our odds."
   
The shaking and rumbling got progressively louder and faster like a horde of horses across a stone plateau. From the west came a large stone monkey. "INCOMING!" Falcher shouted, pointing to it. "Disperse!"
   
The monkey launched itself into the air giving them very little time to spread themselves out. It came crashing down and body slammed the planet with nearly seventy tonnes of rock. Everyone was thrown afar. The shockwave effect sent the lot of them flying and then bombarded them with rain of boulders. The monkey itself was stunned and dazed, unable to move. Mirvelle, from her spot on the ground, shot spell after spell at the monkey's back. Balls of purple energy followed by black beams and even a few mixed discs of plasma.
   
Falcher tumbled and rolled and pushed off the ground. He sprinted towards it with immense speed and ran up its leg, latching onto the giant's thigh. Michy scrambled and grabbed his bow, nocked an arrow and shot it. The arrow flew through the air and burrowed into the quartz eye of the monkey. It was awake again and furious. Tilamo recovered and ran for its hands. He leapt, spun and jammed the scythe into the fold of its wrist.
   
The monkey slammed its tail into the ground sending out another wave of violent shaking. It raised its right fist and punched the ground where Tilamo stood. He was knocked backwards again and beaten down by yet another swarm of large rocks.
   
Falcher faced little difficulty with the climb. There were plenty of grabbing points as well as grass for him to hold onto. He climbed up onto the lower back of the monkey and looked up towards its head. It was a straight shot up to the blue glyph. The path was clear but the monkey knew very well where he was and what he wanted to do. The monkey arched its back and shook itself like a dog shedding water. Falcher laid flat against the giant and held on tight. Once the shimmying stopped, he began the climb. Fist by fist of grass he went until he came over the crest of the monkey's back. From there, it was a hundred foot drop to reach the glyph.
   
Falcher wasn't given a choice however. The monkey shook itself again and he lost his footing, sliding down its back. As he neared the bottom, his foot caught a jagged outcropping and hitting it launched him into the air. He had no control over his flight path and he hit the monkey's head hard. He bounced and slid over the edge. He frantically grabbed fistfuls of grass until he locked his fingers into a gap in the artificial eyebrows of the giant. His legs dangled in front of the monkey's left eye and it shook its head hard, flinging him around.
   
Mirvelle round the corner to distract the beast. She chanted another tier 5 spell and hurled purple lightning at it. Sure enough, the giant stopped moving and focused on Mirvelle. Falcher hastily scrambled topside and unsheathed his rapiers. "Round two..." He groaned and jammed the sword into a small hole in the center of the glyph.
   
The monkey hollered and slammed its fists into the ground sending powerful shockwaves outward. Black blood spewed out from the hole where Falcher's rapier was wedged into. He grabbed the hilt, pulled back and slammed it again, forcing the blade to dig deeper into the brain of the giant. It screamed as its health was rapidly decreasing. The geyser of blood became more powerful, resisting Falcher's best efforts to jam the blade into its cranium.
   
Mirvelle channeled her power into a dark matter spear, a tier ten spell, and threw it as hard as she could. It soared through the air and penetrated the crystalline eye of the monkey. Even more of its health was lost. It was growing weak, its movements were slowing down and losing strength.

A second glyph glowed on its underbelly and Tilamo saw it. "Mir! Distract that thing, I see another glyph!"

Mirvelle nodded and casted another barrage of dark magic spells.

Tilamo straightened his scythe into a proper battle scythe configuration and charged. He vanished from the monkey's sight and ran along the beast's underbelly, stopping when he was directly underneath the glyph. "Mir! Knock a leg!"

She could barely hear him but she saw him point to its right leg. She quickly threw another distracting spell at its other eye and then madea  break for its leg. Once next to it, she pressed the palm of her hands together and muttered her final tier ten spell; Auric Shockwave

It shot out between her palms creating a series of vertically standing shockwave discs. The repetitive impact caused the monkey's forearm to give and break and the monkey fell over. As it did, Tilamo thrusted his scythe upwards lodging it into the center of the blue glyph.

Falcher fell off and tumbled to the ground. The orange glow faded from its eyes, returning to a bland crystalline grey.

Gelmen, who'd been standing back and watching the whole fight, rather cowering from, rushed forward and clapped excitedly, "It dead!"

Mirvelle and Tilamo walked out from underneath the dead giant just as its other forearm gave way and the body merged with the ground. Mirvelle, despite being exhausted and breathless from her onslaught of spell casting, was exhilarated and thrilled, filled to the brim with adrenaline fueled joy. "Hell yeah! Now that's what I call a roaming boss! Friggin' love colossal battles!"

"I doubt that's the last one too but now I'm curious." Tilamo corrected his scythe to its natural look and put it away. "This one actively targeted us."

Falcher stood up and dusted himself off. He walked over to the gathering group. He turned to see the monkey's face up close. It looked rather accurate for a stone mock up. The left eye was cracked and leaking a steady stream of black blood. "One of you got a pickaxe?"

"Pickaxe? What for?" Tilamo turned and saw the eye as well. The other two wounds in the colossus had stopped bleeding when it fell over dead.

"Storm said she found a corpse with a soul gem embedded in it. I'm wondering if this one has that too."

Tilamo pulled his scythe out and swung it. It dug into the cracked eye and broke a few bits off. He swung a few more time, whittling away at the eye's outer crystal shell. The eighth hit broke a large enough hole to fit an arm in it. The blood flowed out for a minute and then trickled to a stop. Falcher reached inside the eye and touched something slimy. "Corpse." he called out. "Probably the arm. Not enough reach for me to get to its head."

"Get back then."

Falcher pulled his arm out and stepped aside.

Tilamo slung his scythe over his shoulder, spun in a circle and dropped it into the nasal structure of the fallen monkey. The blade caught the stone and with the momentum built up from Tilamo's spin, it cracked the rock and brought him to a sudden and vomit inducing stop. As he fell, he landed on the handle of the scythe and snapped it, rendering the weapon broken and useless.

Falcher pulled the bladed head out and tugged on the rocks but to no avail. "Mirvelle, got any mana left over?"

"Not enough to be useful," she replied.

"Damn. Got another scythe or hammer Tilamo?"

He stood up and tossed the splintered handle aside. "Unfortunately no. We'll have to come back for this corpse then with an actual hammer though."

Michy took point and lead the group down the beaten path once again, the land now quiet and still.

The tasaki stood at the edge of the crater that served as the birthing grounds for the giants and groaned. "If I summon enough of these, I wager I'll dig a hole to the center of Eonus..." He started to chant another summoning spell to create another giant but he stopped himself partway through it. "I have an even better idea..."