Arakim's Legacy(#Wattys2015)

Chapter 33

Arakim, he's not real. Mena told him. It's an illusion.

How do you know? Arakim asked, opening his eyes.

My knife passed through like its water.

Then what's he hoping to achieve here?

I don't know. Maybe just checking out the competition.

I doubt it. He's been very clever so far. There must be something. I'm not getting a good feeling right now. Maybe I should just take us back to the castle.

Don't you dare. We need to find out what's going on?

Alright but stay behind me please. Unable to deny her, Arakim started moving closer to the figure and halted abruptly when they heard a tremendous crash from their right, shaking the ground under their feet. They turned to see what made that sound only for a similar one to sound on their left. Arakim stood back to back to Mena to see and wished he didn't.

What came out the forest was beyond their worst nightmare. It was the biggest monstrous creature they had ever seen. They were about twenty feet tall, wide as they were tall, arms as big as tree trunks wielding a mighty club with sharp pointed metals on them. Their legs were bigger than their arms and they were mud-coloured. Heads were as big as three human heads joined together in a misshapen way with their beady lidless eyes on the sides instead of the front, making the whole thing look monstrous. The mouths were big enough to swallow a large house cat in one gulp and teeth that looked large and strong enough to crush metal. But no sound came from them except from their thunderous feet on the ground.

Feeling a chill rise up his spine, Arakim urgently asked Mena to reconsider but didn't even finish his thought before she drew her sword and ran towards the monster heading their way, saying something that sounded like, finally, a worthy opponent.

Fearing that this would not end well, he withdrew his own sword and rushed the one in front of him, easily dodged his clumsy attempt to hit him with that club and slashed through his legs, cutting through the thick hide while sliding under and between them. He was shocked and horrified when the beast barely flinched and turned quickly to face him, his wounds healing instantly.

For a clumsy looking monster, it could move fast and since none of the wounds inflicted on him lasted for more than a few seconds, Arakim became chilled to the bones and wondered how they were going to defeat them. And worried how Mena was getting on, chancing a look at the pair and wasn't surprised to see Izumi fighting with her. But he knew that any miscalculation on their part would be fatal. He kept slashing and stabbing hoping to find a weak spot on the beast while keeping away from his club not willing to think about the kind of injury that would cause if it hit him. He threw fireballs at it, only causing it to flinch and not even slowed it down.

One little mistake a moment later when he became distracted by Izumi's cry of pain and watched her sail across the glade into the forest, the beast was able to clobber him on the side with his massive hand and sent him flying, gasping for breath. He laid dazed for a second, unable to stop his movement, only slowing it down to mitigate the impact of his fall. He struggled to his feet while searching for his sword and wondered why the beast didn't finish him off when he laid dazed, probably thought I was dead. It would take more than that to kill me, beast, feeling the slight pain in his side where it hit him. Arakim sent some healing magic to the bone that was cracked and looked up to see where the beast was, for he could still hear its footsteps and became frozen in fear.

Not again he screamed in his mind, his heart dropping to his feet but already knew that this time there was nothing he could do to protect her. The beast he was fighting was almost on top of Mena, for once moving silently not to alert her to its presence. Mena seemed to have gotten the better of her own beast, sticking two of her knives in its eyes blinding it. It didn't stop it from swinging wildly at her trying still to get in one hit which would be more than enough but it did the job of causing Mena to jump lithely away but into the path of the beast coming behind her.