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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerulean_Wings" data-source="post: 4031239" data-attributes="member: 55060">Another chapter done! I really didn't expect to have the energy for one today, but since it took practically an hour to write it and proof-read it, I don't see why not post it  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I'll be updating the Rogue's Gallery shortly, as our dear characters have gone through many recent hardships, getting a well earned level up in the process <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> Chapter 20Stone against stoneGon jumped forward, using the momentum from the long run to propel himself just as the giant’s axe came down diagonally after him, seeking to separate his torso from his waist.  The roguish soldier twisted his body in mid-air, just as he felt the axe’s fine edge begin to cut his leather armor on his back, and thus turned the deadly slash into a long, thin cut. The wound hurt very much, nonetheless.Landing was even trickier, for he had changed his posture and footing while jumping, but his credit, Gon was able to return to solid ground without tripping or losing his burst of speed. The giant was still right on his heels, however, and Gon had to abandon his position at the back of the group by speeding up. That left Vincent as the nearest target for the monster’s deadly reach.“Sorry Vincent, but you’ve got steel between your body and its weapon!” Gon apologized as he dashed forwards, reaching Gilliam at the front of the group in a matter of seconds.  The squire acknowledged this with a nod, but there was little he could do, since their only hope was to reach another safe haven.Darius, a few feet behind Gilliam and Gon, turned his head, and seemed to slow down for just an instant. Gilliam caught this change and yelled “Damn it, Darius, don’t you even think of stalling it! You’ll only grant us a few seconds, at best!”. This seemed to change the soldier’s mind, and he cursed under his breath before accelerating his march once again.For the next minute of their desperate run, the four ahead of Vincent heard the sound of an axe splitting and chopping the ground almost non-stop as the giant attempted to cut the squire down with abandon. Fortunately for Vincent, the giant wasn’t in a mood for finesse, and thus all his attacks had missed, if narrowly, so far.“You killed Stone Crusher!” the rampaging monster bellowed at one point in-between swings. Vincent had to side-step to avoid the next one, which predictably split the ground as if it was made of butter. “And now you killed my other pet, Mauler!” the monster continued with even more ire. “You will pay in blood!”Gon looked over his shoulder, his face a mask of confusion. “Now look here, mister, we may have killed that land shark of yours, but we most certainly didn’t kill-“ he was saying, but got interrupted by the giant’s next angry shout.“LIES!”The giant swung at Vincent’s moving form yet again, his luck at striking the elf down even lower, for he attacked in a blind rage. “All lies! My bear is dead because of you, just like the man told me!”.“Man?” Gilliam mouthed, losing his focus on the run for just a moment. In the back of his mind, he thought he had an idea of who it could be, but he had no time to ponder its significance, with an angry brute chasing after them. “Gilliam” called the voice of Kahleen, sounding awfully tired. “I don’t think I can run much more than this”. Gilliam glanced back at the shaman, and she looked on the verge of collapse. He knew that Kahleen hadn’t trained her endurance like the rest, but he had hoped she would last more than this.“Just a bit further, Kahleen” Darius said in Gilliam’s stead, right besides the woman. “If need be, I’ll carry you over my shoulders!” he said with determination, although his claim was a bit exaggerated. His breastplate wasn’t allowing him for much movement, and its extra layers of metal were a curse more than a boon at times like these. His words seemed to bolster the shaman’s resolve, though, and she kept going without another word. For how long, nobody knew, and they hoped it would be for long enough to reach the city in the valley. The map they had indicated they were close, very close, to Wellspring, but the exact distance was impossible to determine. While Kahleen might very well be the first to fall from exhaustion, the rest wouldn’t take long to follow.Darius spotted a natural bridge ahead, connecting one wall to the other at the very top of the canyon, and dearly wished he could somehow drop the entire thing on top of their pursuer. An idea sparked in his head, then, and turned his face to Kahleen. “Can you use your magic to drop that bridge of stone?” he asked. The shaman looked up to where the soldier was referring to. “I’m afraid not, Darius. It’s too far away for my powers to reach it” she explained, leaving Darius disillusioned, lamenting his idea wouldn’t help. They were passing right under the stone bridge moments later, when they heard a cry from above, drawing their attention upwards, not sure what to expect next. The giant cried in pain as a large rock that had been thrown from the bridge’s edge fell on his head. “Damnation, more giants!” Gilliam cursed. “But these ones have bad aim, boss!” Gon pointed out, seeing how the giant had a nasty bruise on its shoulder where the rock had hit.  That wasn’t stopping it, clearly, but it had given the group a few seconds of distance between it.Within another second, more rocks descended at the same time, and they were all aimed for the lumbering humanoid, striking the giantmore often than not, its massive frame an easy target for the rock-throwers above.Vincent was the only one looking thoughtful at this turn of events, and glanced back at the bridge once they had passed it, trying to discern the figures on top of the stone. The squire’s eyes widened in surprise as he made out the shapes of their helpers with the aid of his low light vision.“Good Gods,” he gasped, “it’s the Mountaineers!”. The only one who didn’t react positively to this was Darius, for the soldier had never been to the Gray Spears, and thus wouldn’t know what Vincent was referring to.By now, the giant was being bombarded by an avalanche of stones of different sizes, all of them bigger than a chair, some even as large as a horse. This prevented the giant from running after the five, as he attempted to block the incoming projectiles with its big arms, throwing back some of them when he had the chance. Its aim was off, however, as launching the stones up towards the bridge was hard, even for someone as strong as the giant. Seeing that the chase was over, for now, the group stopped for a brief rest to regain their breath. Vincent collapsed on the ground with a loud clank, joined by Darius and Kahleen a second later. Only Gon and Gilliam had the strength left to remain standing, and the former used the break to ask the latter to examine his wound on his back. “It’s not that bad” Gilliam informed Gon. “But we’ll have to take care of it soon, lest it gets infected”. Gon nodded and lowered his armor back to cover his back, readjusting the straps afterwards.Gilliam looked back to see the giant still attempting to bring the bridge down, even after realizing how futile it was to attempt throwing rocks at it from down below. The monster yelled angrily, its body covered in bruises and thick blood everywhere, and after another exchange of heavy stones finally decided to retreat, running back the way it came.There were cheers and hoots of victory, then, on top of the stone bridge, and while no one down in the valley could see very well in the distance, it was easy to tell by the sounds of movement that their saviors had started to go somewhere else.The five watched the giant’s dark form get smaller and smaller as it went away, and they would’ve cheered as well had they not been dead tired. Darius had somehow managed to obtain a sitting position, looking no less tired than the rest.“What’s a Mountaineer?” he asked in-between heavy intakes of air. Vincent pointed with one finger at the valley’s wall from his prone posture on the ground. Darius looked that way, but failed to see anything of importance.“You’ll see soon enough, once they get down here” Gilliam responded, looking in the same direction as Darius. The soldier frowned and turned to face him. “They’re going to climb all the way down, in the middle of the night?”.Gilliam only smiled and nodded, taking long breaths as he waited. Darius couldn’t see in the dark, but he heard voices and sounds of something climbing down the wall. Within minutes, a quintet of mounted figures approached them, two of them dwarves, and the other three humans. They were all dressed in the same outfit, gray leathers covered by dark green clothes, carrying bows on their backs, along with axes on their belts. Much to Darius’ surprise, they were riding lizards that were not as tall as horses, but certainly longer than them. They had approached them in a diamond formation, and the leader of the five, a crusty old dwarf, laughed loudly after reaching the group.  “Ho ho! Lookie here, my men! We’ve got five fine folks coming from the west, all exhausted from that mean giant chasin’ ‘em”. The dwarf’s humor wasn’t appreciated as much due to their current condition, but Gilliam smiled back at the comment nonetheless.“Mountaineer Graybeard, if my memory doesn’t fail me” the mercenary greeted. The dwarf nodded back and saluted him formally. “That be me, lad, the one an’ only” he replied more seriously. “Are ye folks a’ight?”.The sight of three out of five knocked out cold on the ground should’ve been answer enough for him, but Gilliam indulged Mountaineer Graybeard nonetheless. “Apart from exhaustion and a rough wound for Gon, here, not much else” he explained, turning around to gesture at Gon. Somehow, the man wasn’t standing anymore, but instead was laying on the ground face-down, as if he had collapsed from tiredness.“I’m alright, I simply tripped on a rock” Gon said as he began to get up, his face practically unrecognizable from all the dirt that was over it. Gilliam frowned, but said nothing. One of the Mountaineers broke from their formation to get closer to the prone forms of Kahleen, Darius and Vincent. “Can you folks move?” asked the human on top of the lizard. The replies came in the form of groans and grunts, and the rider dismounted in order to carry one of them onto his mount. Mountaineer Graybeard nodded in agreement, offering Gilliam a hand to mount his lizard with him. “Let’s go, lad. Ye’ll tell me the whole tale once we get to Wellspring”. The mercenary took it without a word, sitting himself right behind the dwarf. Darius had just been placed on top of a lizard as well, looking confused. “So, you are, what, Wellspring’s scouts?” he inquired to the rider who was controlling the lizard he was on.“More like Wellspring’s guard, lad” the leading dwarf responded with wink.</blockquote>

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