Trials

When the fourth bell rung it marked the time of the forsaken hour. All the villagers fled back into their huts and waited for the impending battle to pass. A tall ghastly giant towered over the great redwoods and his face was crooked with a smile hidden behind a thin layer of pale flesh. As his feet hit the ground all of the earth shook as though a thousand bombs went off all at the same time. On the other side of the village stood a worrier buried by the lush green leaves of the dark oak forest. This warrior stood tall though he was dwarfed by the giant. His chest was squared and in his hands he held twin blades, double edged and sharp enough to cut a leaf horizontally down its middle. His eyes were black with a golden shimmer of the sun within them. Both his blades appeared smooth yet somehow rugged within the cool shade of the trees towering over them. Whoever was to win this battle was to be allowed to live amongst the humans in the over world. The one who lost however, was to be banished to the grey place.

The giant snickered at the idea that the great Raven had thought this puny thing had any chance of beating him. The, "puny thing," was another monster by the name of Ruinhaw, a beast hand picked by Raven to face the giant. Whilst the giant thought of how to beat his foe, Ruinhaw's mind lay blank. They both met within the center of the village, Ruinhaw watched as the villagers peered out of their huts to awe at his impossible figure and his dead eyes, whilst the giant walked he watched the villagers run from neth his foot as he trampled their homes. Facing each other, Ruinhaw looked up at the giant with an emotionless expression and the giant gazed back with excitement in his eyes. In between them, from the well rose a thick black liquid so dark one could not tell if it was in the third or second dimensional plain of sight. This liquid began to form a vaguely humanoid shape with talons and a crowd beak, soon the liquid settled into a solid being, known as, Raven. Raven was looked to as a god by the monsters of the grey place, "You both know the stakes of this battle," Raven said, "the one who loses shall be banished back to the grey place and will never be allowed to see this world again, the one who wins however, will be free to visit this place as much as they please and wreak havoc upon the peoples of this world in the name of the grey place, but. If you should ever be caught by the foundation and have no means of escape or death, you are to deny the existence of the grey place, is this understood?" Ruinhaw and the giant both agreed to these terms, "Well, I see no reason to further delay, I'll be watching." The Raven said before melting back into a liquid state and flooded the well once more, perhaps receding back into the grey place.

Upon seeing the final trickle of black liquid fall back into the well the giant slammed his first on to Ruinhaw, but missed as Ruinhaw slid underneath his fist and thrust a sword Into the giants arm, sending the giant backward in pain. Still clung to the handle of his buried sword he used the other to begin climbing up the arm of the giant. The giant felt each blow with an unbearable pain as he swatted at his arm, desperately trying to throw Ruinhaw off of him, but it was to no avail. Ruinhaw reached the shoulder of the giant and watched as the holes made by his blade painted the once brown roofs of the village a dark red. The giant swung his arm and brought his hand down on Ruinhaw seemingly crushing him. It wasn't long before two black blades emerged from the giant's hand and moved apart, severing the top half of the giant's hand. the giant's arm recoiled and he held his mutilated hand with agony. Ruinhaw quickly made his way to the back of the giant's neck and located his spine, then thrusted both sword into it just far enough to latch on to its bone. The giant reached to try and grab Ruinhaw with his hand which still was useable. Ruinhaw, seeing the hand become closer, dug his swords in further to cut into the spinal cord and then let his feet drop, carrying him down until he jumped off of the giant's back, and on the way down he fileted the giant's back open with spinal fluid and blood pooling out. The giant fell to his knees then lay flat on the ground dead. The giant's body disintegrated into black flakes with a red tint to them.

When the giant's body was gone, the shadow of an oak tree slithered towards Ruinhaw and stood up, to show itself as Raven. Raven walked to Ruinhaw and shook his hand, "You've won this fight, you've done well for yourself, you may now roam the humans world freely, the giant will be re-born shortly and remember, though you are powerful, fear the foundation try and do nothing to put yourself in their cross hairs. Besides that, have fun, cause havoc and chaos, and be safe." Raven said to Ruinhaw with a soft voice before seeping back into the grey place, leaving Ruinhaw to wonder the earth as he pleased.