The Crescent Hour ✓

Chapter 16. Unleashed

In one moment she was staring at the giant’s foot as it came crushing down and in the next, Clara was diving out of its way. Tamer was standing on the other side. He slid a dagger on the floor and she took it.

“Stand back. I’ll handle it,” he said.

There was no quaver in his voice, no sign of fear on his expression. He released his scimitars and sized up the massive blob of flesh. Mecha squealed and he ordered it to hide.

Green veins palpitated from the giant’s skin. Its face was swollen and slanted so that one foul black eye stood above the other, its nose so flat that the nostrils were nothing more than tiny holes. Few strands of dark hair fell from its misshaped scalp and slimy drops of spit spilled from its snarling mouth. From its neck, a thin string held a crescent-shaped pendant. A deformed neuter it was, with no scrap of cloth to hide its nudity.

The behemoth growled and stretched its three-fingered hand to knock them out. They jumped back.

Clara felt her back press against the wall. There was nowhere to hide. The giant was blocking the entrance, forcing them to fight it.

Infuriated, it attacked again, determined to swat them away but Tamer slashed at its long fingers, hacking off two of them. Thick blood and sliced flesh spattered on the floor and the creature drew back its hand, moaning in pain. She took out the Smog shard and gripped it in her palm.

I have to do something. I can’t let him fight it alone.

She visualized a black cloud of smoke stunning the giant. Aiming at its right eye, she threw the shard. No layer of smog was visible. Her magic had failed her once more.

“I’ll distract it long enough for you to leave unnoticed,” Tamer said. “Get ready.”

Clara nodded, disappointment and shame lancing through her mind. She was a coward, unable to fight alongside Tamer, unable to protect herself from the impending danger. She was going to flee while he fought the giant on his own. She grasped the dagger that lay useless in her hand.

So much for being a saviour.

Tamer ran behind the creature while it clutched at its wounded hand, paying no attention to him. Swinging his twin scimitars in a wide arc, he slashed at the back of its calf. The giant shifted its foot with the intention of kicking him off. He leapt back, evading it.

Without a show of mercy, Tamer sliced at the bleeding cuts and the giant’s leg buckled, its knee dropping to the ground. He climbed onto its back, using his blades as handholds.

Clara ran towards the entrance. She turned her head over her shoulder to see if Tamer was unharmed but in that moment of hesitation, the monstrous giant grabbed her and threw her back. She hit the wall, the dagger falling from her grasp.

Pain corkscrewed at the back of her head and her neck ached as she slid down the floor.

The giant screamed before grabbing her right leg and dragging her towards it. Clara kicked the creature’s hand with her left foot. It tightened its hold and she yelped as pain flared up her leg. When the behemoth brought down its other hand to crush her, fear struck her body.

Move, Clara. Move!

A cry of pain and fury ricocheted off the walls. Clara looked up to see the giant’s hands thrashing over its head. Perched on its forehead was Tamer, a scimitar embedded on the giant’s eye. He moved forward to the other eye and pierced it. Blood splayed on his clothes as he pulled out one of his blades. It screeched and punched its face. Tamer grabbed the lanky shocks of hair and swung to the creature’s shoulder, dodging the attack.