Sarah finally gasped awake and her eyes opened as Oaken put away his canteen of water.

  “Get up we got a Bone Giant to kill. Frazier is leading one away and Franco is being a hero and taking one on by himself.

  “What?” Sarah said. She wasn’t sure where she was until the smell of bat dung hit her nose and the grimy water running down her face jogged her memory.

  ***

  “Well here comes our dance dance partner,” Oaken said as he started to move away from Sarah. He just had time to drag that ogre of a passed out elf away but now it was sink or swim. Oaken used only his spells he had gained from Abilities or from his two wands.

  Ability spells were fast, efficient and impossible for most magic users who studied all their lives to match with free casting. He loosed, [Magic Bolt] and [Light Arrow] as fast as he could waiting until his mana ran low before he used his onetime wands. Oh how he wanted to be a Wizard, someone who could do what he was now doing but with dozens of free casted spells. Not waiting for a level but just the need to learn and master a spell so well he could cast magic bolt in seconds. Like how he could with his Ability, but right now he would need the spell written in front of him and almost four minutes to cast with no distractions. Not something he could do in a fight.

  He finally got a [Light Arrow] into the eye socket of the damn human Bone Giant. Its head snapped back and some faint greenish smoke drifted out of the eye slot of its helm. It turned toward him and started moving directly his way. There wasn’t much he could do but to try and draw it away from Sarah and Maph and there was no place to flee but back into the plaza past Franco and his fight. Oaken kept peppering the Bone Giant with [Light Arrows] and the occasional [Magic Bolt] but now it kept its head down, top of its helmet facing him. It was three times Oaken's size so he was still able to get shots into its face without getting past that damn helm.

  Oaken was jogging and loosing spells while the Bone Giant walked after it. He was able to get past Franco’s fight without losing the attention of his Giant. Oaken had heard enough stories from his father to know that this Greater Undead was waiting him out. Letting him get tired and use all his spells. Once it thought he was weakened or if it thought he was a real threat it would sprint and actually try and kill him.

  Greater Undead were not only tougher and smarter but they were patient. His father had said to kill and kill them fast. If left to their own they would walk or run you down depending on your own speed. Or if they thought they could ambush you they would just sit and wait months until you came back. It was all the same to them. One of their big weaknesses was this. Did the Bone Giant forget about Sarah, not at all. It would return once it had dealt with Oaken and then kill Sarah who it expected to be there, who cares if it was a day or a year later. Well the living did and once Oaken saw Sarah pick herself up off the floor he turned and trilled a war trill of his people.

  A sound that millions had heard over the millennia and had grown to fear. He went from pointless harassing shots to pinpoint shots at the Bone Giants joints. Armor and bone began to melt or break apart with each shot. Knees to bring down the tall monster. Elbows to make him drop that red spear. Shots to distract and annoy. Oaken cast [Invigorate] on himself and felt energy flash throughout his body and then they closed quickly.

  The Bone Giant raised its spear and threatened him with throwing it while Oaken loosed spell after spell now using his one use spell wands to double his rate of shots and he waited without ever looking at her, he waited for Sarah and just before the Bone Giant could attack him it turned, finally sensing Sarah but Oaken put all his spells into its turning head as Sarah leaped. She had been aiming for its back but landed on the arm holding the spear. The Giant stumbling from the onslaught of Oaken’s spells hesitated which allowed Sarah to wrap her legs around its lower arm. The arm that held the spear.

  Oaken thought that Sarah’s reaction to the bad backstab attempt was dumb but very like her. The Bone Giant continued to turn to keep its armored back to Oaken while it used its left arm to try and pull Sarah off it.

  She tore into its elbow using her [True Strike]. Using one of her daggers then the other. Driving her daggers into its armored joint. Breaking the mail shirt it was wearing and damaging its magically held together bone joint.

  He ran holding his spells as he saw it fail to pull her off and then saw as it formed a fist with its left hand as she continued to attack it. The giant's hand blurred in speed as it punched her. He hoped her head was out of the way as the force of its own punch and Sarah’s attack broke loose the giant’s arm from the elbow down. Sending Sara, its own arm and the red spear skittering away.

  With its back still to him Oaken had been moving towards the fight to help Sarah but now he put as many shots as fast as he could into the back of its right knee. After his third volley into it at near spitting distance he saw the knee blow apart as the Giant was turning away from him but instead fell as it missed its step with half its right leg gone.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Oaken low on mana now started to back away. With its spear gone and down to one leg all he had to do was wait for backup as he could actually outrun the monster now. He looked over to Sarah to check if she was still alive. He hoped she was.

  She was in fact using the red spear as a crutch because her right leg below the knee was broken with a nasty compound fracture. Her face was ashen white in shock and blood loss but she was moving to help him or fight the Giant.

  “The fool” he muttered and started to move towards her trying to keep the shambling Bone Giant following him.

  ***

  Franco was sweating hard but as he jumped away from the counter blow he knew it would just miss him. His passive [Fleet-Footed] Ability had kept him alive during the fight. Allowing him to move in and hit the giant before getting struck in return in most exchanges. The second arm fell from the Bone Giant this time above the elbow where Franco had noticed the patch work of old and broken chain mail. The arm clattered to the ground, the sound ringing on the marble tiles as the stone club fell.

  He ran past it and the giant waited, stepping in tight circles to keep Franco in front of its third arm which held its long blade up. Its steps loud to Franco as bare bone slapped the marble floor of the plaza with each step. The silent undead monster waited for him to shoot it with another shock bolt to stun it for a second but Franco only had two shots left in his wand and was merely threatening the giant with his wand now. It respected him now that it had lost both of its major arms but it had cost Franco no matter how fast on his feet he was. A deep cut on his right leg that was still seeping blood and one good hit by a club that had sent him spinning on the plaza floor and dented in half his brigandine plates.

  He stopped well outside its range and caught his breath as they stared each other down. He could take one more potion he thought before potion poisoning made him throw it all up and he knew he would need a healing one soon. He was losing too much blood but his body hurt and his energy was gone. It couldn’t keep doing this so he sighed, he had to do this now.

  He smiled at the Bone Giant and saluted it with his saber and got in a traditional dueling stance. Right wounded leg forward, pain shooting up his leg but his toe pointed directly at the Giant while his left leg was slightly behind him and his foot pointed 90 degrees away from the Giant. Saber held up, wand close to his body as he advanced, as if on a tournament field.

  The Bone Giant turned so its right shoulder faced him, long blade held high in its third and only intact arm. It moved forward as if to meet him on the tourney field. Its reach with its sword was far greater than his but it feared the shock bolt. So when he got just inside the long reach of a lunging downward attack Franco let loose both of his remaining shots. The Bone Giant moved to its left as it stabbed its sword downward to block one spell with its sword and was moving to avoid the other but Franco had guessed right and the Giant took the second shock bolt in its crouch, locking up its legs. Franco lunged blade out and swung downward as he dropped the spent wand and pulled out his wand of magic bolt. Chopping at the left bare foot of the Giant.

  His saber cut into its unprotected ankle and his sword with his full remaining strength behind the swing bit into the bone but not through, which made him fall forward onto his knees as he slid past the momentarily stunned lower body of the Giant. His right arm wrenching at the pain as he tried to pull his saber free while he brought his wand up and across his body. His first and second shot missed but the third and fourth shot of magic bolt broke the ankle and freed his saber which he pulled to himself as he tumbled forward a few feet and jumped to his feet in time to see the Bone Giant take a bad step towards him and fall forward in a loud bang as its armor rung off the marble floors.

  Franco pounced as well as his bad leg allowed him. Wildly swinging his saber and shooting magic bolts into the back of the neck of the scrambling giant. It tried to get back up but it never made it more than a few inches off the ground before its head rolled free after one last downward swing of his saber. It was downed and he had done it and he felt elated and faint headed about it.

  He stumbled back and sat down, his head spinning as his adrenaline immediately disappeared and his injures hit him at once. He could see his vision tunneling as he was about to pass out. He scrambled as he pulled out another Healing potion. He only had one left after this. He took a sip of it and poured the rest onto the deep cut in his right leg. The cut was at least 6” long and he saw bone and muscle before the wound started to close up. His head swam from the blood loss and pain but he had no time to pass out. Once his lightheadedness passed he turned to see how the rest of them were doing.

  He saw Sarah with a badly broken leg using a red spear she had gotten from somewhere to hobble after a Bone Giant that was missing both an arm and a leg that Oaken was peppering with magic still. He looked to see the third Giant and Frazier but he didn’t see anything among the piles of blown apart bones covering the Plaza.

  He stood up and looking around again he thought he saw Frazier lying on the ground by the steps leading up to the building. He looked back to check on the other two and saw that Maph was walking back into the plaza sword in hand and a pained look on his bare face.

  So he went after Frazier and found her after a few minutes of searching. She was at the foot of the steps of this giant building, on her back but smiling a full bloody smile as she took deep breaths, her eyes alight as her face looked partially burned.

  He helped her to sit up and used one of her Healing potions on her before he got her standing. Just in time to see Maph running towards them, the third Bone Giant killed behind him. They waited there both tired as Maph approached and when he got closer Frazier pulled away from Franco and threw her arms wide as Maph dropped his sword and picked her up in a hug. Both now helmetless kissed. A deep passionate and bloody kiss as Frazier’s feet literally dangled a foot off the ground kicking gently against Maph as they embraced each other.

  Franco snorted at the sight and laughed as he turned away to let the couple enjoy living as he looked over the battlefield. Nothing was moving around them and only the sound of bats could be heard above them and Sarah yelling at Oaken about something.

  “Hey,” Frazier said.

  He turned to face her and she was holding Maph's hand. The elf looked at him and nodded in appreciation.

  “Help me find my crossbow and the three ancient enchanted short swords this guy had. I want them.” She smiled, happier than he had ever seen her in their short time together.

  He smiled back. “You got it boss.”