"I'll give it a shot." He stated to Sipley, then hoisted his greatsword and charged forward, letting out a grunt as he slammed the blade into the closest giant's stomach. He wanted to chop the thing to pieces. but he found out that would not be so easy as his sword seemingly bounced off the creature's incredibly tough skin.

The force of the swing still causing the giant to stumble backwards, Aldred doing the same as he tried to figure out where to hit it, glancing at his sword then where he swung it, not even a mark. He watched as arrows whizzed by, along with some daggers. Those impacted on the legs and shoulders but like his sword simply bounced off.

"These bastards must have a vital areas, hitting them in the obvious areas doesn't do anything. Go for the eyes, ears, neck, back of the legs!" Aldred shouted to the group, then turned as he watched the giant dart forward, it's large hand reaching down and plucking Aldred right off the ground which caused him to drop his sword in the chaos.

The creature lifted the armored man upwards, close to its ugly face. The giant let out a threatening roar which caused saliva to cover Aldred. He noticed the sharp teeth, wondering if it was going to try to eat him. Aldred began to squirm in the grip, trying to get his arms free.

Meanwhile, one more giant emerged from the darkness, walking with intent towards the inn. It likely saw the survivors and was going there to finish them off.

Caspian took a large swig of his Maple Gin. He was already on his fourth drink, but he was in complete control of his bodily functions. After drinking all kinds of beers, gins, rums and many others. They almost no longer any affect him.

Caspian was rudely thrown from his thoughts by the sound of splintering wood and screaming. Caspian immediately through himself to the floor and rolled back onto he feet. From the whole Caspian could see the iron golem of a man and a giant square off. Caspian noticed the silver haired girl run off the help other, everyone else was scattered around the general area. Caspian had made the decision to help the iron golem out but when he saw one of the Giants come for the Inn. Caspian grabbed his Gin and one of his cutlass and strolled into battle.

"Oi! Over here!" Nyx's neck snapped to the side as she heard someone call out towards her and pulled the reins in their direction. A woman in light armor with red hair came in to view. Nyx reached down and grabbed the hand of the lady and hoisted her up on to the back of Balto. She quickly guided Balto's way out of the crumbling hole and out in to the snow, revealing the beasts to her ally. "What the hell are those things?" She asked bewildered. Luckily Balto seemed to always remain calm in any situation as long as Nyx was guiding him. She trotted him to hover around Aldred and another woman who attempted to spear through the thick skin of the monster.

Nyx watched as the armored man shot forward clashing his sword against the rock like creature, nothing seemed to penetrate it. Nyx gasped as the man was grasped in the large hands, Nyx's hands were shaking too much to pull out her bow and arrow, she was sure that she wouldn't have any better of a shot. She panicked, what was she doing here? She couldn't fight in combat, not against these things. She bit her lip and shook her head. She was in this for whatever this was. She turned her head back to the girl, "this is your stop. I'm going back for others!" She waited for the girl to climb down hoping she was doing the right thing to go back. Once she was free she headed back for another searched for a disgruntled team member that could use some help or an easier way out.

Something was wrong.

Even before the man stumbled into the tavern and spoke with Aldred, Lander could feel something wasn’t right. The natural hum under his feet was pulsing. He couldn’t explain what he felt but the ground always had a certain ebb and flow. Most people never noticed it but Lander had grown in tune with the natural forces under his feet. The pulses got louder as Aldred excused himself from the room and as the cold night air blew in from the door Lander stood up and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He focused on the air, mentally parsing apart the smells.

Snow.

Smoke.

Wolf.

Mud.

And then he smelled it and his pulse quickened. No, it couldn’t be. Not this far south. It was the smell of high altitudes, of goats, snow and mildew. It smelled like a mountain. It smelled like a giant.

He was sure of it now. The vibrations through the wooden floorboards were undeniable. Step. Step. Step. He looked around, not sure what he should do.

Esterfell was not a large town and did not have a Dominion military presence. Their small militia would do little to stop a mountain giant. A well-aimed pitchfork would hardly pierce the thick, leathery skin and getting close enough to use their swords would be a fools errand. He looked around at all the people gathered in the room. They had to move. Now.

“We have to−” was all he managed to say before the wall of the inn exploded in a shower of wood and brick. Lander dove toward the far wall as a large boulder came to rest just before the bar. People screamed. Every stranger that had gathered all dove for cover and were now regaining their bearings. Lander jumped to his feet and looked out the giant hole.

Aldred had dodged the boulder as well and was lying on the ground with his sword. Past him were the giants, definitely more than one.

This doesn’t make any sense, he thought. They were a days ride to the foothills of the Jagged Peak mountains and another days ride up to where the giants made their home. Why were they here? Giants usually don’t leave their lands, unless something forced them out. Lander shivered at the thought of what a giant would be afraid of.

A few of the others had began engaging the lead giant as Aldred had regained his footing and charged at the monster. His blade did little damage and Aldred himself was caught in the grasp of the giant. A blood-curdling roar ripped through the night air and Lander could see the giants teeth glistening in the lantern light of the inn. Other than the flicker of light, the giants were barely visible in the moon-less darkness as clouds had filled the sky.

Lander looked around the inn. Behind the bar was a confusion of fear and debris. A stack of ale barrels had toppled over and one of them was broken and leaking onto the floor. He had an idea.

Running over to one of the barrels he drove his sword into the top of it, piercing the wood. His muscles strained as he hoisted the barrel onto his back with the foul-smelling liquid pouring out behind him. As fast as his legs could move he ran out the hole in the wall and made a large arc around the first giant, trying not to slip in the freshly snow-covered ground.

He ran into the darkness and behind the remaining giants, circling back around to where the others were gathered. He dropped the now-empty barrel and jumped into the inn, grabbing one of the lanterns off the wall. He knelt down and removed something from his satchel. It was a small vial of oil.

Lander held it into his hands and focused all of his energy into the object. It felt red hot in his hands and then ice cold. After the infusion process was complete, he emptied the vial into the lantern and ran back outside. He threw the lantern through the air, toward the back of the giants.

“Everyone watch yourselves!” Lander yelled as the lantern found it’s mark, exploding in a small red fireball and igniting the alcohol on the ground. The whole area was washed with light as the wall of flames traveled around the perimeter of the giants. Infused by Lander, the flames burned larger and brighter than regular flames and created a wall of fire that startled the giants and left them unable to escape. If it was one thing that giants were not fond of, it was fire.

“That should keep them here until we can deal with them!” Lander said, readying his sword. “We can pick them off one by one!”

“Shit.” Sipley cursed, watching the sword bounce off the giant like it was nothing. She cursed again as Aldred was picked up and held in the knuckles of the giant oaf. Snarling, Sipley took a deep breath – how stupid, he should’ve taken care of himself.

However, this offered a way in. If you can’t cut them from the outside, boil them from the inside. Sutton swung her rucksack off her back and squatted on the floor, searching through the empty vials to find a certain favorite of hers. Finally retracting a larger-than-usual vial filled with lavender liquid from the bottle, she smirked. It was one of her favorite poisons: it didn’t take long to kill, alas it needed to be ingested. Above her, Aldred struggled against the stupid thing’s grip and a clever idea hit Sipley. She extracted her grapple hook from her bag and began to twirl it around and around to gain momentum and then…there was fire.

An inferno pulsed around her and Sipley startled, sweat beading across her forehead and the assassin had hard time breathing with the smoke that seeped into her lungs. Her eyesight was getting hazy and black dots danced around her – she couldn’t fucking stop coughing. Afraid of what would happen with the orange eddy swirling about, she picked up speed and let the grapple hook fly. It snagged onto Aldred’s armor and she sincerely hoped he could hold her weight as she began to climb quickly, her eyes seeing clearer and clearer the higher she went. Finally she scrambled onto the giant’s finger and held the vial in her hand, waiting for him to come closer.

“Sorry ‘bout that.” Sipley muttered distantly to Aldred. The silver-haired woman tensed, preparing herself to drop it in the giant’s mouth.

The giant approaching the tavern looked at Caspian as the pirate stepped in front of the creature's path. It pulled its arm back, then swung from the right side, aiming to connect the blow with Caspian and send him flying out of the way.

---

The giants stared at the flames for a moment, then one of them kneeled down slightly, inhaled and blew as hard as it could, slowly but surely putting out the flames. The others did the same, apparently they were smarter than they seemed which did not bold well for those fighting them.

---

Aldred felt something latch onto him, and turned his head to see a grappling hook twirled around his leg. He noticed Sipley climb up right by his side with some sort of poison in her hand. He managed to get his arms free and snatched the poison from her hands. With his other hand he drew his dagger.

"Hope this works!" He said to her, then leaned forward, driving the dagger into the creature's eye. It howled in pain, the large mouth opening wide. Aldred tossed the into the creature's mouth right before it released him from its grip. He landed on the ground, looking up to see the giant growling in pain with his dagger still in its eye. Then the poison took effect, causing the great beast to fall to its knee in a fit of coughing and severe pain.

He found his sword nearby, picked it up, then moved towards the kneeling giant with the blade at the ready. Aldred swung hard, aiming right for the exposed neck. The greatsword connected, slicing into the soft flesh of the creature's neck. The fell forward, Aldred stepping out of the way. Then just to make sure, he drove the blade downwards with all of his strength, tearing through the back of the skull. It was dead now.

"Five more of these bastards, we can do this!" He said to the others as they continued their assault. Another giant charged forward, enraged after seeing its companion die.

Caspian swayed out the front door of the the Tavern, holding his Gin in his left hand and his Cutlass in the other. Caspian took another swig of his Gin, savoring it's warm, dry taste that heated up he belly in a good way. Twirling his Cutlass around his hand, he wondered were the giant had gone, he had just seen it only seconds ago. How could something so large just disappear like that.

Caspian got his answer when out if know were a giant hand came flying at his head. Caspian without a thought in his head stumbled out of the giants reach by stepping back and hitting the Inn door. "Maybe I am a little drunk." Caspian mumbled to himself as he regain his composer.

"Five more of these bastards, we can do this!" Rion had heard quiet clearly as another giant began advancing towards the front line, consisting of Aldred, Sipley, Cassbian who was down and the Sonia girl who he didnt see at the moment. He didnt have the time to find out where the girl was considering that another giant was coming over and he would do his best to stall this giant again, hoping that his allies would have another plan to take 5 more of these down...

So he began the process and pulled out his bow, he pulled out an arrow as he began to set it up... Once done preparing he began to channel his Ki into his arrow, which glowed a faint blue-ish, purple; enchanted from his elvish magic leaking out. It took some time as his Ki lightly covered the arrow now completely before he smiled to himself hoping this would give them some more time... Then he fired the arrow, as the arrow almost left the string of the bow; the coat of ki that was surrounding the arrow had split from the original and turned into another arrow made from ki. The arrows flew true as Rion had aim at the giant's legs and head mostly the eyes, alternating the firing order every time he fired with his double shots. It was a tedious task but he was managing so far, he could do this for a couple more minutes if he didnt fire as quickly but he didnt have much of a choice did he at the moment...

Bregil and Faervel got a few civilians to safety when she turned around to see one of the Company members light a wall of fire around the giants. She saw the Assassin helping Aldred who was in the giants fist.

“Faervel, get the rest to safety come meet me when you're done,” Bregil said to him as she ran off toward the giants. Just as she did she saw the one holding Aldred and the assassin get on it's knees and blow out the flames. She couldn't believe her eyes,how can they defeat these things? Bregil braced herself against the gust of his breath and continued to run towards them.

She saw Aldred slay the giant and then shout. "Five more of these bastards, we can do this!"
Bregil nodded and ran behind one of the giants remembering what Aldred had said about their weak points. She concentrated for a moment to summon a force shield around her and began to fire arrows at the back of it's knees and neck as Faervel came running up to her.

“These guys are hard to take down,” she said as she dodged the giant making a swing at her. She got back behind the giant and set up another arrow. “When I get this thing down you go for it's throat.”

The half-elf's response was a letdown on many levels. He said no again, probably because Mel had it all wrong because the bartender was some type of royalty, not the musician. Not only that but music really wasn't that special, at least according to the bard. Mel's wildest fantasies involving civilization were all wrong. Royalty wasn't some noble, handsome faced figure with plenty of regal qualities but rather just some plain clothes, angry man. Music wasn't special and instead, it was just something 'anyone' could do. It was a letdown and Mel's excitement was extinguished. "Oh.... okay." Mel replied to the half-elf's lecture on why he couldn't play. She understood, you shouldn't angry any royalty.

Of course the bard departed for a minute, Mel watched him talking with the "king" of this place before coming back. It appears there exchange went well as he suddenly pulled out the key to his music making. Mel oogled over it as the half-elf began playing it in a sweet melody. She watched intently on how the half-elf ran his fingers across the tightly pulled threads. A pattern was formed in which strings he pulled and those strings had to have been the source of the sound. Regardless, it sounded just like she had hoped, except better even. Mel allowed herself to get lost in a bit, closing her eyes and lightly swaying. Her heart thumped rapidly against her chest as this was the happiest she had been in decades.

When the bard finished, Mel took a step back, her hands on her chest, and her mouth hung open like she could just scream in excite. Instead of screaming she took a deep breath, her chest expanding and contracting, "That was.. everything I could hope for." Her voice was hushed, almost difficult to hear. Mel was still intoxicated by the music that she didn't hear the silver-haired lady's taunt or even worse, the rumble of incoming boulder.

The boulder crashed through the wall, sending debris flying through the building. People scurried for cover and Mel was left for a moment where she was in utter shock. She didn't move until well after the boulder broke through the wall and continued its progress inside the building. Unfortunately the boulder found one of the building's many supports and snapped it clean off at the bottom. That support was sent into free fall and very unfortunately the wooden beam found someone to break its fall. The wooden support landed on a diving Mel. The wooden beam wasn't heavy but the force of it slammed against Mel's ribs and forced her to the ground, pinning her for between the wood floor and the beam itself. A thin layer of dust kicked up like a fog and other than a few shouts, Mel couldn't see anybody. Her left side was killing her as the beam pressed down on her ribs. She couldn't tell if something was broken but it hurt like hell.

Panic was beginning to settle in as Mel attempted to lift the beam off but could only get it to budge. Each staggered breath caused a flare in pain and the beam felt like it was pressing on her side harder and harder. It was almost a bad situation. Almost. If it wasn't for magic, Mel would have had to wait for someone to save her but she had a way out. Mel let out a labored grown that quickly turned into a beastly growl as her skin morphed and grew hair. Her body grew and bulked up. Her mouth extended into a snout and a little pudgy stub formed for a tail. Mel morphed into a bear and with that, she roared and lifted the support beam off with her mandible claw. With another roar she staggered out on all fours to the street outside. Outside, there was even more carnage. Giants were advancing onto the slumbering town. One had been slain but five others remained with one alarming close to the inn.

Mel's form changed again and she returned to her normal self. Weakened by that accursed beam, Mel fell to a knee as she found moving her left side hard and healing herself was always a little tough to do so instead she decided to help that convict pirate from before. Her right hand closed in a fist and soon lit on fire. Her fist trembled a bit before she left fly a strong fireball that flew right for the giant's face.

When Lucio finished his song, he was definitely satisfied with his performance. Some people didn't seem to care, one girl told him to shut up, and the scantily clad elf girl seemed to really enjoy it. He was completely used to all three of them, so the girl who told him to shut up didn't bother him in the slightest. You simply can't please everybody. Ah well, she would be fun to pester later on. The scantily clad girls' response was a little surprising. "Have you never heard music before?" He asked in total shock, one of the few times he actually showed the enough he was feeling.

Though he never got his answer, as a freaking boulder broke through the wall of the inn, scattering everyone. In one fluid motion, Lucio diving to the side and stuffed his harp back into his pack. He looked through the hole the boulder had created and saw Aldred facing down several giants. The bard shook dusty out of his silver hair and drew his sword from the sheath at his hip. He knew for a fact that he couldn't hit hard enough to pierce through a giant's skin. But he was nimble, fast, and a great trash talker. He could make for a good distraction. Before he could go outside, he saw the scantily clad elf girl had been pinned underneath a support beam. He moved to help her, but then stopped as she turned into a freaking bear and hoisted the beam off of herself. "You sure know how to pick them Lucio." The bard muttered to himself.

His protective nature kicking in, he decided go to for the one closest to the inn. Lucio threw himself at the giant, sticking it in the foot with his sword. The giant roared, more irritated than hurt. When it took a swipe a him, he simply danced out of the way. "I'll keep it distracted, you guys take it out!" He called to those focusing on said giant. Ducking another swipe, he slipped between its legs and thrust his sword straight up, half hoping giants had genders, half not. Either way, it really pissed the giant off. It seemed that the others had already taken one down. At this point in time it was a good thing to have so many people.

The giant closest to the inn yelled in pain Lucio danced around it, the beast was angry and began kicking around it, one of the kicks from its large feet connecting with Lucio who was knocked back by it. Just as the giant thought it was fine, its face was ignited in flames as Mel's fireball connected, causing the monstrosity to roar in a mixture of pain and shock, it's large hands slapping at its face as it tried to put out the flames. The giant in its shock lost balance and fell over, right onto the inn, knocking down the back end of the building. It laid painfully in the rumble for a moment, its face still covered in flames, now was the opportunity to go for the kill on the creature. The opportunity might need last that long as a giant was bounding towards its fallen companion as well as the normalfolk surrounding it.

---

The giant charging that was getting attacked by Rion raised a hand to cover its face, then turned its body just enough so that the arrows would harmlessly bounce off of it, which they did. It stopped going forward, a thought seemingly going through its mind as it changed directions, going to the left, towards several cabins containing townsfolk. It was likely trying to draw attention away from its brethren. Another giant following its lead.

---

The other giant towards the back of the group grunted as Bregil fired arrows into the weak point on the back of its knees. It grunted as its large form stumbled forward, falling to its knees. It still managed to turn around and take several swipes at Bregil and Faervel. But for the moment it was stuck in the vulnerable position on its knees. Right as it looked away, Aldred came bounding from another direction, blindsiding the creature as he jumped towards it, stabbing his greatsword right where the ribcage and heart would be if the creature's anatomy was anything like a human's. The blood actually pierced through the thick skin as the attack came from point blank range.

"Go for the neck!" Aldred ordered Bregil and Faervel, the act bringing back memories when he was a commander during the war. He continued twisting the blade embedded in the beast, causing grunts of pain and surprise. The giant bringing a fist towards the armored man who tried to duck, but was hit by it, albeit not at full force, but just enough to make him lose grasp of his weapon.

"Oh so you guys going to pester some other folks? You cant handle a simple old Elf then? Im even flimsier than a normal human you you guys cant touch me!" He yelled at the giants who were heading to the cabins, hoping to provoke them as well as catching the attention of his allies to maybe show that he might need help... One giant was difficult enough, two was an overkill for him. His body was starting to burn with a slight fatigue as he deftly shot his Ki arrows at the Giants to gain their attention as he move closer, a very foolish idea but he was cautious of how close he got making sure he was indeed 10 feet away from their range of grabbing him. He sighed as his arrows wouldnt get him anywhere so he decided to see if he could do anything with his Ki.

This was fairly new to him but he placed his palm out forward, before he felt his ki began to swirl around collecting into a sphere in his hand. It was a very awkward feeling as he never had felt his Ki before in such a way, as he always had them infused with his arrows, but now he had managed to make a physical apparition of it; including its destructive power... he hoped. The skill that he preformed didnt require him to be this close but provoking his targets would be the best option as the town folks in the cabin were hopefully fleeing... The ball of Ki in his hand flared with energy, it felt very... weird as the ball of ki twitched randomly before he fired once... twice... and a final third time. These spheres of ki flew quickly to the giants, two of them to the one who he previous had fought and one of them to the newcomer. The three Ki Sphere exploded creating some sort of cloud most likely steam or something as he couldnt see the two giants. From his skill it was unlikely these sphere of Ki would do anything but at this rate they would much more keep his Ki consumption lower... So in the mean time, he wasnt going to wait for these Giants and began forming these Ki Spheres once more waiting for the fog to blow away to see what he did...

"Go for the neck!" Aldred ordered

Bregil summoned a force field around Faervel. “You heard him, attack it's throat.”
Faervel didn't need to be told twice and lunged at the giant's throat. Bregil continued to shoot arrows at it. There was a lot of gore and it took a moment but with Faervel ripping out it's throat and Aldred piercing it's heart the giant was dead.

Bregil let out a whoop and Faervel jumped on her, she gave him a tight hug but regretted it due to the blood on him.

“Someone will need a bath when this is over my friend,” she said petting his head. He let out a whimper and got back on the ground. Bregil thanked Aldred for his assistance and saw the Elven Monk facing two giants by several cabins. He was holding them off as villagers fled.

“Come on Faervel we have to help him,” she said as she collected her arrows from the giant and ran towards the giant. She set up her arrow and took aim for the back of the neck. She hit its neck and then turned to Faervel and summoned another force field around him.

“Get the back of it's knees,” she told him as he let out an enthusiastic howl and ran off toward the giant. Bregil let loose another arrow at its neck.

Lander watched as the giants extinguished his flames without as much as a blink. He was confused. These giants were much different than any ones he'd ever encountered.

With the help of the woman named Sipley, Aldred had managed to free himself and take down the first giant. Lander watched as the thick blood began to pool beneath the dead giant. For a moment he flashed back to the war and the Orc blood that he bathed in day in and day out. The same adrenaline was coursing through his veins, pushing him toward the battle. No, not again, he thought. I will not allow the monsters to make me a monster.

As Lander looked for a way to attack the weakest part of these creatures, one of the giants headed toward some cabins on the edge of town. It was soon followed by a second and the young elf archer named Rion was trying to grab their attention. The young elf girl with the wolf was also heading over to help after she had killed a second giant on the rubble of the rear of the tavern. Lander wasted no time.

Bounding through the darkness, Lander raised his sword, readying for battle. He caught up with the elf girl and her wolf.

“Get the back of it's knees,” she commanded. The animal immediately obeyed and Lander was awed at the connection they had. Lander almost thought the wolf began to do what she had said before she finished the sentence.

Rion was now throwing balls of pure energy at the giants. The bright blue balls caused a mist of energy that floated in the air.

They closed on the giants and now the three of them were side by side and Lander heard the girl shooting arrows toward the giants. Lander bent over and cupped his hands around his boots. Infusing them with energy, he felt lighter and more agile but it was a quick infusion and he knew it would only last a few minutes. He ran towards the closest giant and jumped onto its back. He found a foothold on the giants loincloth that was wrapped around its waist and lunged up toward its neck locking his arms under its chin. As hard as he could, he squeezed. His muscles screamed and the burning in his arms was almost too much but they were almost at the cabins. He couldn't stop, not now and he squeezed the giants throat even harder.

It had been a long time since she had been home. A strange letter had arrived days earlier that required her to meet with a man to join a band of mercenaries called the Crimson Company. It wasn't unusual for healers to accompany mercenary bands to help keep them at fighting strength but the way she was invited seemed a bit odd. Why would they summon her to meet in Esterfell? Her hometown was barely even a town and mercenaries wouldn't have much work in that area. There was no payment discussed in the letter either so she assumed that they would negotiate in person, which was probably to her benefit.

Upon her return in the midday she went straight to the Spotless Rock Inn to see her brother Jonathan who had nothing to do during the day when everyone else was working the mines. They had a few laughs and reminisced about their childhood. It was good to be home, even if she wouldn't be staying long. She made a point to visit her old mentor Thadius who was more than happy to talk her ear off and insisted that they share a drink, and then another, and another. When she finally wobbled back to the Inn she was far too drunk to deal with the Crimson Company or anyone for that matter. Jonathan gave her a room to sober up in and Emilia made sure that Jonathan wouldn't let them leave without getting her out of bed.

She slept for several hours before waking up to the sounds of rumbling. They were subtle at first and slowly they started to build up. It was rhythmic like footsteps but nothing in town was big enough to cause that kind of disturbance. She started to right herself out of bed then suddenly the entire building shook, throwing her out of bed. Emilia scrambled back up and slung her bag over her shoulder rushing downstairs to investigate. Whatever had shaken the Inn had to be bad news and Jonathan would have been working the bar.

What she saw when she got downstairs seemed unbelievable. A boulder had smashed through the Inn, rubble was strewn about, and beyond the breach that it had made in the wall were giants rampaging through town. She stood in awe of it all for a moment until a thought came up. Where's Jonathan? She cried out his name as she clambered over the rubble and debris to get behind the bar where he was likely to be. On the other side lay Jonathan and Ansa, the barmaid. Ansa was crying over Jonathan who was laid out on the floor among broken bottles and tankards. Jonathan was in bad shape. He was bleeding from various cuts, many of them deep, and a splinter from a fallen support beam had punctured his right lung. Ansa cried out, "You have to save him!" Emilia immediately cleared a spaced of broken glass and laid out her satchel. His pulse was weak and she couldn't risk anesthetizing him. She fought back her panic and tears while trying to stop the bleeding with restorative magic. He was conscious and she could see him trying to speak but no words came. Emilia tried to console him, "Just stay with me Jon, okay? You're going to be alright." Her words barely resonated with him as he struggled to breathe. The bleeding from his punctured lung was starting to fill his chest so she made the decision to open him up. It was risky with all the cuts he already had but she had managed to stop most of the superficial bleeding. The tears came pouring out of her as she reached for her scalpel, made a hasty incision and then placed a tube inside to relieve the pressure. "Emi..." She could see the pain in his eyes as he finally spoke. "I know it hurts, just stay with me please." Emilia smiled but the battle for his life wasn't over yet. She still had to remove the splinter.

Emilia took a deep breathe and readied her hands to remove the splinter. "This is going to hurt a lot worse. Are you ready?... one... two-" She started to pull using psionic magic to keep him steady as it slid out of his chest. Jonathan cried out in pain but she couldn't stop, she had to save him. The moment it was clear of his chest she started to close the wound using restorative magic, mending the flesh to keep his injuries from getting any worse. Once that was sufficiently repaired she had to remove the bits of glass that were left in his cuts. One by one she removed that shards of broken glass while trying to keep him stimulated. Covered in blood, sweat, and debris, she started telling him a story as she continued to work closing each cut with magic. The process was painfully slow.

"Remember when we were little? You always used to tell me that I was too clumsy and that I would get hurt if I wasn't careful. In the end I always ended up being the one to patch you up, just like I'm doing now... You used to make up funny stories when you got into fights about how you'd found a dragon in the mines and had to fight it off to save the world or a horde of undead Dwarves had tried to invade Esterfell. You always had the best stories. Do you remember the last story you told me before I left? You said that Hector, the big one, tried to bribe you to make me marry him and you got into a big fight because he wouldn't let me see the world. I know that one was true. You tried to pretend it was just another story but I always knew. I always fixed you up then... Jon?... Jon?!"

She checked his pulse....... nothing. His heart had stopped. She started to panic. "Jon you can't die!" She put herself on top of him and placed her hands over his heart. A single brief pulse of magic went straight to his heart. She checked his pulse again........... nothing. Another pulse, still no effect. Another pulse, and another, and another. "Please Jon don't die! I can save you! Please!" She was begging, to her brother, to god, to anyone or anything that would listen. He was already gone but she wouldn't give up. Another pulse... and another... again... again... again...

Sipley descended to the ground, her arms reaching and stretching to catch hold of something. It was with a dull thud that her head smacked against earth and everything went black.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

The assassin gradually opened her eyes to see chaos surrounding her; she couldn’t have been out for more than a second, but it felt like an eternity. She was sluggish to get up from the floor and she pressed a hand to the back of her head. It felt warm, sticky, and Sipley knew this feeling well: blood. Groaning, she stumbled and fell to her knee, unsteady. A nauseous swirl in her gut occupied her mind and everything was spinning and spinning and spinning. The woman shook her head vehemently and everything righted. Gathering her bearings, she rose slowly to her feet and concentrated on the fallen giant before her.

He had smashed the inn and his neck was bare, she had an estimated twenty-second margin to kill him before he got up again. Sipley made a move towards him, uncaring that she would take the others’ kill. She wasn’t a team player. This was hers. Her breath was shaky and her ankles seemed to quiver side to side. Sutton tried to calm herself, head wounds always seemed worse than they actually were. She fell again, her knee bruising from the hard impact on the ground. How did Aldred get up after a fall like this? Maybe she had landed weird. Sipley, for once, decided to rely on the others to get this giant until her heart rate calmed down and her head stopped pulsing.

Within a few minutes the giant was on the floor withering while it's face was nor fire. Caspian had to admit that this Crimson Company was a formidable on, this supposed him more than it should off. He took a large swig of his Gin and finished it off, throwing it on the ground by his feet, "Shame, that was some good Gin." Caspian mumbled to himself sadly.

He looked over at the other members to see how they were faring. Iron golem and the poison lass seemed to be able to hand them selves against one of the giants. Another member decided to turn and run for the cabins, distracting the giants that were stationed there. And inside the Tavern was a nasty sight. People were hurt, some of the the members trying to save the wounded and carry them to safety.

Caspian looked back at the fallen giant that was in front of him, then looked at the incoming giants, hoping to save the fallen on. Caspian yawned dramatically, not really knowing what to do, one of the members would eventually kill the giant, but they know had another one sprinting towards them in anger. " Well this shouldn't be to hard." Caspian said to himself as he primed his crossbow and shot a blot aimed for the giants knee cap. This shot was intended to bring the beast to is knees.

The giant was apparently really pissed off by Lucio's taunts and stabs. It started viciously kicking at the bard who simply kept up his movements and danced around them. Until he miss stepped, one tiny slip on his foot and suddenly one of the giant's feet was slamming into his midsection. He grunted at the impact and as it knocked him backwards, he tucked in his head, as to not get a concussion. He wasn't sure what was worse, the impact from the foot, or the ground. Both knocked the wind out of him. He landed on his back and stayed there for a moment, coughing as his deflated lungs tried to force air back into his bruised body. After a minute, by then the giant that had kicked him had fallen. He didn't care who it was who got the kills, as long as everybody was alive at the end.

Lucio forced himself back to his feet, grateful not for the first time that he was incredibly stubborn. His breathing had not yet returned to normal, it was still coming in pants as he tried to replace the oxygen lost on both impacts. He was pretty sure there wasn't anything broken, but he would definitely be sporting some nasty bruises later. He could practically feel them forming right now. It was then that he noticed the fallen giant was still breathing, and simply fallen. Cursing at himself for not noticing sooner, he charged at the giant.

A graceful leap got him on top of the giant near its neck. He did a practice swipe, just to make sure he could cut through the exposed flesh and let out a breath of relief when he could. There was no way with his puny bard muscles that he could do enough damage with a slash to kill the thing. So he went with something much less honorable, but then again, he was killing a downed opponent. How much honor was there? He sliced once on each side of the neck cutting the arteries there. The giant bled out in a matter of seconds. With a triumphant grin on his face, Lucio turned to face the battle, still standing on the giant. He saw another girl, this one probably human, on her knees near the giant. She didn't look like she was doing very well. He also noticed that this was the one that had told him to shut up earlier.

He could have been a jerk and just left her there after the comment. But it wasn't in his nature. He jumped down from the giant's corpse and made his way over to her. He knelt down in front of her, examining her for wounds. "You okay?" He asked gently, genuinely worried about his comrades.

The giants moving towards the cabins both paused as they were overcome by arrows and a strange mist of fog. One of them took an arrow the back of neck, causing it to yelp in pain. It turned around to see the attacker but its vision was block by the strange mist. Both of the giants only seemed to become even more angered as a result, then Faervel lunged at the back of one of the giant's legs, causing the beast to wildly slap a hand downwards, making contact with the wolf and sending it bouncing to the side.

---

The giant running towards the people by the inn continued running as the arrow bounced harmlessly off its hard kneecap, the beast continued moving as it came closer, its mouth agape as it prepared to attack. Right as it was about to, Aldred came from seemingly out of nowhere, running as fast as he could, his sword clenched in one hand. He paused midstride, putting himself in the position where if he timed his strike right could hit the creature right in the back of its leg and likely send it to the ground. As it drew closer, he began the swing and connected, the blade slicing into the giant's backleg, causing blood to spray from the wound as the giant seemingly collapsed.

It hit the ground hard, sliding along the ground as it was sprawled out face down. Aldred quickly moved, coming from behind the creature. He slammed his sword repeatedly into the exposed back of the knee, causing the giant to grunt in pain every strike. He paused and walked onto the giant's back, stopping on the top of its back, right behind the head. After ducking a futile swing by the giant, he swung his great sword down, tearing into the back of its head. The beast stop squirming after several long seconds of Aldred twisting the blade. Once it was done, he jumped off of it, moving towards Sipley's down form, sheathing his bloodied sword along the way.

"She might have a concussion, she helped me take down one of the beasts, guess she must have gone down with it when it toppled over in death, same thing happened to me, but I'm wearing enough armor that I could probably fall of a church with no injures" Aldred said with a smile to Lucio as he too knelt down near her body, his expression changing. "It was my fault, should have tried a different way to take it down, maybe not let myself fall into its grip." He said, his tone one of anger at himself, then he reached down and lifted Sipley off the ground, hoisting her over his shoulder before turning to the others

"Go help the others if you are able. There's two more of these monstrosity's left, they seem to have them on the ropes but you never know with these things. Make sure they are dead. I'll find some aid for this one." He said to the group, another order, though not as harsh as it seemed. Then Aldred began towards the damaged inn, walking through the large hole on the side.

As he entered the damaged tavern, he noticed a woman kneeling over the bartender, magic emitting from her hands as she tried to resurrect the man, who was already gone. Aldred never wanted civilians to get dragged into these kinds of battles, but sometimes it couldn't be helped. He paused, laying down Sipley's injured form on the floor, clear out of the way of any rubble. Then approached the woman, recognizing her as another one of the people he had been told about who would join their adventuring company.

"I'm sorry for your loss, miss," Aldred said, his voice calm, his facial expression one of sorrow, he had said the same thing too many times before, often during the war after searching through orc assaulted villages for survivors He hated saying it each time. "One of the people fighting the beasts suffered a head injury, she could use some aid." He added, looking at Emilia.