"How much further?" Mirvelle groaned, dragging her feet across the dirt road.
   
"Not much," Michy replied. He was bouncing up and down the road with more energy than a 5-year-old on a sugar high.
   
Tilamo held up his hand to shield his eyes from the midday sun. "The walls are getting bigger so it shouldn't be more than an hour or two."
   
The road in which they traveled was surrounded by grass on either side. Up ahead was a small bridge which stretched out over the top of a small and shallow river. The river flowed by with a strong but calm stream. The edges of the land that bordered the river had been worn smooth, soft and even muddy. Smooth rocks lined the riverbed and small decorative fish swam around with ease. Michy looked over the edge of the wooden bridge and eyed the fish.
   
"We'll get food in town," Mirvelle told him as she pulled his view away from the water.
   
It wasn't long before they reached the city gates. The metal gates were retracted into the guard towers and dozens of people moved through the gateway. It was midday, roughly an hour past noon and the general public of workers ventured back out into the meadows.
   
The guards at the city gates saw the group of adventurers lead by Michy and much like the tasaki up north, the ones here recognized him. There was an exchange of barks between Michy and the guards which wasn't understood by the group. Falcher's linguistic passive ability didn't help much either with translation. The guards gestured to Falcher seemingly confused.
   
"What are they saying?" Mirvelle asked as she tapped Michy's shoulder.
   
"They're just curious as to why there's a gnoll with us," Michy replied.
   
Mirvelle turned to Falcher and shrugged her shoulders.
   
Tilamo rolled his eyes, "You have played other MMORPGs before, right?"
   
"Nope. this is my first." Mirvelle told him.
   
"And you're how old?"
   
"Eighteen. Look, I lived a sheltered life. Overprotective parents."
   
Tilamo pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "People are nuts sometimes. In just about every game, gnolls are your equivalent of bandits and slavers. Richer being the sadistic bastard that he is, exaggerated this trait when he made the game. He said so himself during several interviews."
   
"Oh. I only found out about the game like a week before it launched," Mirvelle chuckled awkwardly. "I had a friend who pressured me into getting it."
   
Michy then interrupted their conversation. "We can head in now."
   
The city was built much the same as the village. Houses were standing upon stilts with climbing ropes and staircases heading up to the front doors. Some of the bigger houses sat normally upon the ground but were made of stones, bricks and other non-rottable materials. The road network consisted mostly of flattened grass paths and gravel.
   
Michy looked around as the road from the gateway spider webbed into every direction in front of them. "Uh... I believe it's the third from the left."
   
"Food first." Falcher said holding his stomach as it growled. "Been awhile since I've stuffed something in my gullet."
   
Michy nodded. "Well, in that case then, I believe the second road on the right has a cafe. Or is it the butcher?" he scratched his chin and shrugged his shoulders and took point down the road.
   
After a hot minute of walking, they found the cafe. It was revealed to them by a wooden sign with a picture of sandwich carved into it. It too was on stilts and they took the ladder up and crawled inside. The cafe looked much like the dwarven pub except it was much more lively and lacked the distinct odor of alcohol. It held a rustic feel with its hand carved wooden acacian walls. The windows that lined the walls provided the majority of light for the main eating area with the servers carrying lanterns on their hips.
   
There was one thing that them off guard and that was the people both working and eating there. The variety was much higher than they thought. There were a few humans, an Aldail here and there and even a Khundait. Couple of the patrons were in armor, likely city guards on lunch break.
   
Then someone broke their distracted gaze. A short Mudkipper female in less clothing than Mirvelle could hope to wear as a mage, coughed and spoke up. "Welcome to Faa's Rudimentary Eatery, FRE for short. How many of you are there?"
   
Falcher held out four fingers and spoke a little louder than the average volume of conversations around them. "Four!"
   
"My name is Keegan, I'll be your server so if you'll follow me." She turned around and headed off through the cafe. She lead them to their booth and tossed out a couple of pieces of parchment which contained a small menu. "I'll be back with a couple of drinks."
   
Michy eagerly picked up a menu and licked his lips. "Alright, I know what I want."
   
"Already? We just sat down." Falcher complained. "How many times have you been here before?"
   
"Twenty in the past year. I like the fish."
   
Tilamo nudged Falcher with his elbow. "Don't pretend like you haven't done the same thing yourself when you went out to restaurants back home."
   
"I can honestly say I haven't. I rarely ate out, too pricey. That and most of the places around me were crappy." Flacher snatched a menu from the table and buried his face in it.
   
"Someone gets feisty when they're hungry. Hangry much?" Tilamo poked fun at Falcher's ill mood.
   
"You're never you when you're hungry. Now stop distracting me so I can pick what I want to eat."
   
"What do you think the librarian has in store for us given that it made Oswald uneasy."
   
"Hush will you? Just for FIVE minutes. Is that too much to ask?"
   
"Yes. Yes it is."
   
"UGH!" Falcher groaned.
   
Mirvelle chuckled and glossed over the menu. "They got sushi!"
   
Michy immediately shook his head. "Don't. They never make it right. Gives me the runs every time."
   
Mirvelle's smile faded. "Oh, what are you getting?"
   
"Third one down on the second page, the grilled salmon with lemon juice."
   
"That one your favorite?" She asked him.
   
"Of the fish items, yes. But the chicken is top of the line. Even Jodi envies the recipe they have."
   
"Why's it called Cartwheel Scraps?"
   
Michy looked around them to see if anyone was eavesdropping. "Between us, most of the non fish stuff got run over during rush hour. Thanks to our natural affinity to necromancy, a lot of it is salvageable and edible."
   
"Oh... ew?"
   
"You'd be amazed at how well they treat the meat-"
   
Then their server returned with glassware and a pewter pitcher loaded with cold water. "What can I get the adventuring lot to eat?" Before Tilamo could get a word out, Keegan interrupted, "Women first."
   
Mirvelle stuck her tongue out at him playfully and then pointed to the meal choice. "The Cartwheel scraps."
   
Then one by one, they listed their lunch choices and off their server went towards the kitchen to see to the making. Just as they were about to resume their typical small talk, a Tasaki approached them. His fur was mostly black with a thick bright white stripe running down his front. He smiled widely when noticed the group. "Pardon me, but are you the ones Oswald sent?"
   
Falcher nodded. "Yeah, you are?"
   
Tilamo immediately recognized the Tasaki. "You must be Taka, the librarian?"
   
The tuxedo Tasaki nodded. "I am, I run the Archive across town. It's good that I found you guys."
   
"Why? What happened?"
   
The tasaki quickly sat down to make himself appear part of the group. "Someone's been tailing me. The archive got raided a few days ago and whoever did it has it out for me."
   
"What did they take?"
   
"That's the thing, I don't know. The whole place is in shambles. It'll be months before everything is reorganized. Whatever they stole, they wanted to hide the fact they stole it."
   
"What do you have in there that would be that, damning?"
   
"Depends on who deems it damning. We got records on old politicians from the Dominions, birth records, everything that the Sunkai region was ever involved in." He was starting to visibly sweat. "I'm concerned who did this more so than what they took."
   
"Who or what is following you?" Tilamo flicked his eyes up at the rest of the group and readied himself to jump out of his seat.
   
"It might just be paranoia due to the raid but it changes. Ten minutes ago it was a hooded Tasaki. Yesterday it was a gnoll and the day before it was a human." Taka explained.
   
Then the ground rumbled. The group looked at each other. It shook again. Footsteps. Tilamo jumped out of his seat and onto the table. "Everyone! Get out of here! Colossus inbound!" He shouted. The ground shook hard, knocking him to the floor.
   
Suddenly, the whole restaurant broke out into chaos as everyone ran out the door in panic, leaving three on the floor trampled to death.
   
"Taka, we have to run, now!" Tilamo ran towards the door and held it open motioning for the rest of the group who quickly ran outside. Once on the ground, they saw exactly what monstrosity was creating all the ruckus. Above them, towered a stone giant with eyes that glowed a fiery orange. In its left hand was a maul that looked like a rook chess piece. Its right hand contained fully functional fingers and as soon as it saw Taka, the giant reached out for him.
   
Mirvelle stepped between the hand and Taka, casting a quick ball of explosive magic.
   
The giant retracted its hand and stepped back. Its eyes hadn't changed colors like the ones before. "Taka," the giant spoke with a heavy boom. It had a working mouth on its bull-like face. "The mistress of the hunt wants to thank you for your care of the vault."
   
Taka peered out from behind Mirvelle. "What did you take?!" He shouted.
   
"It's not what we took but what you gave us."
   
Taka gulped. "Gave?"
   
The giant raised its left arm over its head. "Them." With immense speed, the maul came crashing to the ground.
   
"Dodge!" Tilamo shouted.
   
Everyone quickly fanned out barely able to escape the impact of the maul with the ground. The cafe collapsed to the ground behind them becoming nothing more than a large pile of flaming splinters.
   
The Giant raised the maul off the ground and pulled it to its side. "You made good bait, Taka."
   
Tilamo shook the dizziness from his head. "Guys, we have to get this thing away from the town! On me and run! Taka, stay here."
   
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Taka took off running deeper into the heart of the crowded town.
   
"Mirvelle, I need you to cloud that giant's vision. Everyone else, on me." He gave orders as quickly as Storm did.
   
Mirvelle stood up with a wide grin. "This bitch is paying the check!" Spells generated between her hands and her aura grew a frightfully bright purple. "And then buying me a new lunch!" From her hands came a crystal spear which soared effortlessly through the air into one of the eyes of the giant.
   
The giant took a step back and used its free hand to yank out the javelin.
   
"Boom, bitch." Mirvelle snapped her fingers and the crystal spear exploded doing a small bit of blast damage.
   
The group used that moment to make their rush to the giant's feet. Michy stood beside Mirvelle and rapidly shot arrow after arrow at the colossus to keep its attention on them. Gelmen stood behind them with his staff out. "Beefy, need more meat." he muttered to himself.
   
Tilamo pulled a backup sword from his inventory and held it out as he climbed the giant's leg. Falcher followed suit on the other leg. Gelmen's spells had enough range to reach them and what few buffs the Nature's Prophet class contained, proved useful: Stamina and endurance boosts, a constitution boost and a weak regen boost.
   
The giant needed only a moment to realize what was going on. Once it regained its bearings, it felt something on its legs. What followed was nothing short of a miracle. The giant dropped its hammer and stood on its hands, kicking its legs out. Tilamo was quickly thrown off and bounced off the ground several times. The numerous impacts took two-thirds of his health out of him. He came to a dead stop at Mirvelle's feet and groaned. "It's sentient.."
   
Falcher was barely holding on with fistfuls of grass-like fur lodged between his fingers. The giant, quickly losing balance, rolled back onto its legs and straightened out its back. Falcher quickly began to ascend. On the giant's back was a platform made of stone. It had no grab points but it provided a launch platform to get onto the upper back. From the giant's thigh, Falcher leapt and grabbed the edge of the platform, crawling onto it. The giant had no idea he was there.
   
The giant bent over to pick up the maul and readied it for a swing. There was a deafening whistling noise as a skyscraper sized hammer knocked its way through the outer edges of the city's houses brining a rain of splinters upon the group.
   
Michy was beginning to show signs of rage and threw down his bow. "This is my fight!" He growled and began to change. His tasaki form was drowned in newfound muscle, redefined by distinct build lines He grew three sizes larger than normal and the growl became the infamous howl of a werewolf. He foamed at the mouth and his eyes bled black. Claws the size of human leg bones extended from his hefty paws. In an instant, he bounded off on all fours towards the giant.
   
"What is one of Sura's own children doing helping these otherworlders? This will not stand." The giant bellowed and brought the maul down on top of the werewolf.
   
He rolled out to the side, dodging the impact and used the vibrations to launch himself onto the maul. With little hesitation, the werewolf ran up the arm and clawed his way to the giant's neck.
   
Falcher pushed off the platform and landed on the nape of its neck. "Werewolf?" Falcher sounded confused. "Help me bring this down."
   
The werewolf nodded in agreement and used its heavy duty claws to tear chunks out of the giant's face.
   
Falcher climbed the rest of the way to the top of the head and drew his rapier. A faint blue light emitted from a hole in the head. Falcher lined his sword up with the hole and pushed it in.
   
The giant shook and hollered quickly bringing its right arm up to smack Falcher. Falcher tumbled off and narrowly avoided the full fall by grasping the edge of the platform. "Oh fu-" However, the moment was lost as his fingers slipped and he fell into a freefall.
   
The werewolf, being the last one on the giant parked himself in front of the last working eye and snarled, punching it repeatedly.
   
"You mangy mutt!" The giant brought its hand around and grabbed him, applying a heavy squeeze to his body.
   
Mirvelle charged up her next big spell. She lobbed up a dark energy sphere and smacked it harder than a volleyball spike. It flew through the air and blew out the giant's eye. A violent geyser of black blood rushed out causing the giant to stumble and release the werewolf. However, the werewolf threw himself onto the forearm and ran to the head, sticking an arm inside the eyesocket. He yanked on everything he could grab, pulling out chunks of rock and crystal fragments. He found something fleshy and yanked on it even harder. Out from the socket he held a severed arm. It wasn't decaying but it was alive. It had fur on it.
   
The pain from having an arm ripped off was translated to the giant which dropped the maul and held its left shoulder. It was being controlled from the inside like a suit of armor. Michy reached in again and grabbed what felt like a neck and pulled.
   
The giant froze. A snap of bone echoed out from the head of the giant. Then came the collapse in which the giant fell forwards towards the group and the town. Mirvelle rattled off explosive spells as quickly as she could to shatter the giant's descending corpse. "We need to go, now!" Tilamo grabbed her arm and pulled her out from underneath.
   
The front half of the city was little more than rubble. The remains of the giant shattered on impact and sent boulders in every which way causing collateral damage to the extreme. Nearly a hundred buildings in the first quarter mile were toppled over and caved in. Four hundred tonnes of rock were piled up at the impact site. Tilamo pushed a smaller boulder aside and propped himself up on, coughing. "Everyone alive?"
   
Another rock beside him moved and a dark elf's head popped up into view. She pushed her frizzy hair aside and huffed. "Barely."
   
"Gelman good!" Gelman called out a few feet back.
   
"Where's-" Tilamo coughed hard. "Falcher?"
   
"I saw him get knocked off the giant. I don't know if he survived the fall." Mirvelle replied.
   
"Michy!" Tilamo called out. "Michy!"
   
The rocks rumbled as a ginger tasaki emerged. He limped out on top and laid flat across the piles, groaning from the pain.
   
There was another rumble from the same rock pile and a second tasaki with grey fur emerged. This tasaki however had only one arm, his right arm. In his right hand he held the topmost piece of a Summoner's staff.
   
Michy growled again and crawled to the other tasaki, wrapping his paws around his throat.
   
Mirvelle, with what little strength she had left, leapt up and tried to peel him off the other tasaki. Fortunately, she was successful in restraining Michy and pulled him aside.
   
Tilamo held his sword and approached the injured one. "Speak."
   
The grey tasaki looked up at him and laughed. "Otherworlders... Stealing our bodies once again."
   
Tilamo raised his sword and beat the hilt into the Tasaki's head, knocking him out. "Let's go find Falcher."