A Soldier's Life
chapter-97

The blue light of the moon lit the road below us, maybe a quarter mile away. Creatures started scurrying across, fleeing the destruction behind them. “No glowstones!” Adrian warned us unnecessarily.

Two deer and then two large boars crossed the road, fleeing for their lives. Branches were shattered as a behemoth burst onto the road behind the fleeing creatures. It took me a moment to process what I was seeing. Adrian whispered harshly at Lucien, “Keep the horses quiet!” A massive bipedal giant was on the road. In one hand, it held a small boar, and in the other, a club. Its head made no sense until I realized it was not one head but two. Adrian told us all, “Stay low; it is hunting the forest creatures. It will pass us by.”

It stood in the road, seemingly confused by the clearing and looking both ways, one with each head looking in each direction. Blaze whispered, “What is it?”

Adrian answered as we all crouched low, “An ettin—a two-headed giant. I’ve never seen or fought one before, but I heard they are a nightmare to fight. Each head controls an arm independently, but that is all I know about them.”

We watched as the ettin decided its next move. Adrian commented, “He is a big boy, easily over fifteen feet and, my guess, over two thousand pounds. We should be fine and will ride out when it gets far enough away.” As if he cursed us, the horse Decimus had been riding whinnied. The mare started to get scared, and it was because the foul smell of the ettin was blowing in our direction. The ettin’s heads were feverishly scanning for the source of the noise.

“Dragon shit. Lucien, tie that horse to a tree. We will leave it behind, and it should satiate the ettin’s hunt,” Adrian ordered.

“Maybe it won’t find us,” Blaze added, and then the horse panicked and neighed louder. Both heads quickly looked at us up on the hill. That horse was never getting another apple from me. The ettin charged toward our hill, intent on harvesting more food tonight. Lucien had only saddled two horses while Decimus had been tying the riding horse off. Blaze was firing arrows even before Adrian ordered it.

“Take the horses down the far side of the hill, but leave that riding horse behind!” Adrian ordered. He was not panicked, but his voice was stressed. The riding horse was not cooperating, and its lead line was pulled free. I heard Lucien swear at the alchemist for not trying the line tight. The riding horse bolted down the far side of the hill. Our hopes of leaving behind a target for the ettin dashed.

You could feel the ground shake as the ettin lumbered toward us and up the hill. We only had a few dozen seconds. Blaze no longer had a line of sight on it. Lucien was leading the remaining horses away with the petrified alchemist.

“Blaze retreat as well,” Adrian ordered. “Take a few shots if you can from a distance, but get the alchemist to Sobral. Eryk, go with them. I should be able to frustrate it long enough to delay it. Tell Delmar I am sorry about not returning his runic sword.”

I don’t know why I didn’t follow the order, but I said, “I still need some practice with my wind barrier. It would be a shame to waste the opportunity.” I took a defensive stance next to Adrian.

I thought I sounded pretty cool, but Adrian just said, “Fool,” and prepared himself. The trees parted in a cracking of branches and flurry of leaves, and the ground shook, and the two-headed giant raced up the final stretch. The giant was wide and thick. Its ugly faces reminded me of the manticore and ogre. I did not have time to think as it was about to reach us.

“Back up. I will trip it with my air discs,” I said, and Adrian nodded. I laid two air discs side by side about three feet off the ground. Adrian and I retreated, and the trap worked. With five arrows in its chest, the ettin tripped in its run at us. I dove to my right to avoid the behemoth crashing down. The left head focused on me, and the boar in its hand was flung at me.

I was surprised, but it only took a thought and push of aether to summon another disc in the path of the projectile. The limp boar crashed into the shield and halted its flight. The air shield broke and was a lot bigger than I had thought, but it never reached me. The massive ettin thundered into the ground, shaking trees. A wave of foul air hit me, and all I could think was this was worse than the ogre.

Adrian had already closed and slashed at one of the heads on his side with his runic blade. The head screamed in anger and panic as the creature swiped widely at Adrian, who danced away. I did not hesitate to outline a box inside the creature’s upper chest and move it to my dimensional storage. I overcame a strong resistance, and my aether bottomed out. I was getting accustomed to the slight vertigo in losing all my aether. The ettin had been getting to his feet, and was currently on all fours. It paused, both its heads suddenly confused. It crashed back down into the earth, shaking everything again.

Adrian was breathing heavily on the other side of the downed creature. “Did you kill it? Or is it playing dead?” I asked with my spear in hand and kneeling behind the boar.

Adrian said nothing and studied the creature, “I don’t think it would play dead; it didn’t seem smart enough.” Minutes passed as we waited. Adrian offered, “Maybe the arrows Blaze got into its chest pierced its heart when it fell on them?”

That sounded very plausible. “Blaze the giant killer then,” I returned and let out a laugh.

“You shared in the victory, Eryk. Nice thinking with the air discs,” Adrian returned happily and finally started to relax.

My adrenaline was finally wearing off as well, and the creature’s smell was overwhelming. Adrian considered and said, “Gather the rest of the things in camp. I will go get the others.”

I objected weakly, as I wanted the essence from the giant, “I am fine with getting them. I am the scout, after all.”

“No, you stay,” Adiran said, holding his nose. “You won’t have to search the dark woods as a reward for helping kill the creature.” It was obvious Adrian wanted to retreat from the smell.

I wrapped a bandana around my nose and mouth as Adrian hurried off, calling into the darkness in a moderated voice. Sure that he was gone, I produced the collector when I had restored enough aether and approached the corpse. The stench came through the mouth covering. I placed the plate, activated it, and waited. Blue wisps of glowing smoke swirled toward the disc. A major essence formed in the moonlight, and I needed to use a glowstone to see that it was light green. I had thought the giant would yield a physical essence, but instead, I had an essence for the mental attribute of perception.

I considered adding it to my collection. I had consumed the second glossy black essence to enhance my aether channeling during the ride to Lorvo. I still had the minor essence of empathy but was holding on to it in case I needed to sell it. The idea of consuming this green ball from something that smelled so bad made me hesitate. I got myself upwind and then let the sphere dissolve in my mouth. Holding my nose even though it was unnecessary.

I suppressed my gag reflex and let the essence do its work. I had a slight brain freeze, and my eyes ached for a time before normalizing. Maybe things appeared a little sharper in my vision. I was not sure, though, under the blue moonlight. Unlike the ogre, the ettin had clothes on. Not really clothes but hides. He had a bandolier of pouches now trapped under his body—except for one. I collected everything in the campsite, sat upwind of the creature, and waited. It had been almost two hours before they returned with the horses. They also caught the riding horse that had escaped and altered the ettin to our presence.

We quickly packed the horses, and before we left, I asked Adrian, “Are ettin normal in the Telhian Empire?”

“No. They are from another continent. If I had to guess, then this is another summoning by the Bartiradian mages. They are trying to disrupt cities and roads as much as possible to draw the legion companies from the war. When we reach Forgabua, I will report the killing.”

“Should we search the pouch?” I asked, pointing it out. Adrian took out a glowstone as the moon had wanned with the night. He approached, covering his nose. He took a belt knife, cut it free, and dragged it to us.

The horses were already ancy from the smell, so we walked a distance away before opening the sack. “Probably made from the stomach of something it killed,” Adrian noted. He cut the bag open rather than work the cord that cinched it shut. I was expecting chunks of meat or bones. Instead, a myriad of colorful gems spilled from the bag in the light of the aether stone.

The alchemist, who looked sick for most of the encounter, moved in immediately interested. He smelled strongly of urine, and I assumed he pissed his pants. He started going through the pile using a glowstone, “Uncut and raw stones. I use a few in my work. Let us see, some amethyst, citrine, and garnets here.” He sounded disappointed. “Ah, this is an emerald, I believe.” He held the glowstone behind it to confirm the green color.

Adrian was done waiting, “Blaze, pack it up and load it all on the horses.” The alchemist put the emerald down and reluctantly let Blaze collect stones. “My guess is the ettin liked shiny things. Some species of giants act like no more than petulant children. We will let Castile decide what to do with them.”

“Some decent stones in the bag. I am not a jeweler, but maybe two or three hundred gold there,” the alchemist offered hopefully. “The yellow citrine stones are of some use to me in my alchemy. The others, not so much. I use ruby and sapphire dust mostly.” No one was listening to his rambling as the wind shifted and the ettin smell came to us.

“Should we search the other pouches under its body?” I asked reluctantly.

Adrian looked, considering, “You are welcome to it. Anything recovered would be yours.”

“I think I will pass,” I said, remembering the stench that Mateo had for days after the ogre.

Lucien and Blaze were not as reluctant and took up Adrian’s offer. They worked under the light of the glowstones while we moved a safe distance away. Since everyone else was awake, I took the time to get some sleep, spreading my bedroll on the ground.

I was awoken with a soft kick to my boots. “Eryk, we are heading out. Sun is coming,” Adrian said.

I sat up to find Lucien and Blaze still working, covered in gore. “Did they find anything,” I asked while rolling up my bedroll.

Adrian nodded, “Another sack filled with merchant silver bars and coins. They think there might be a similar sack of gold and have been going hard at it the last hour.”

“Guess I missed out,” I said, unconcerned.

“Well, they plan to share it with you. After all, you were the one who stayed behind to help me fight it.” Adrian called to them, “Twenty minutes, and we ride out whether you find it or not! And you ride twenty yards behind us!”

We waited an hour after sunrise until they finished. They had cut the ettin’s arms and legs off and rolled its torso. The other two pouches had rotting meat in one and white ivory fangs in the other that the alchemist thought were from a species of large cat. They were disappointed there was no gold. Still, they had 60 gold worth of silver, almost thirty-eight pounds in merchant bars and coins.

Blaze noted from a safe distance, “It was a lot lighter than I thought it would be when we rolled it.” I nodded, glad they had not searched its chest cavity and found the hollow space inside. I was the last to leave and dumped the ettin’s internals from storage before mounting Titan and following.

Lucien and Blaze were still happier than a pig in shit, and they smelled like it too. Maybe worse. It was so bad that even the horses did not like them riding on them. We stopped at a wide stream and gave the two an hour to clean off. Like Mateo’s ogre encounter, the smell lingered, and they were forced to remain twenty yards behind as we rode.

We stayed in a town that evening about fifty miles south of Forgabua. The red-skinned Decimus got a lot of stares, but I could already see his red skin tone fading. It was no longer glossy red, and he confided in me that the coloring would take nearly a month to return to normal.

Lucien and Blaze ended up staying in a barn on the edge of town while we took to the modest inn in town. I do not think the horses appreciated the two joining them for the night when I came to give them apples. I even gave an apple to the Decimus’ riding mount that had almost gotten us all killed. My forgiveness lay in the fact we lived, and I got an essence from the ettin.

I had my own room in the inn, and the bed was relatively comfortable. I put on the amulet and spent my time in the dreamscape, divided between studying the three books on Tsinga and working on my spell form for the time affinity.

We made the fifty miles to Forgabua the next day, pushing the horses and Decimus’ aching body. I could see Decimus regretting his life’s decisions as he ran out of potions that relieved achy feet and killed fungus. Still, he mentioned he would rather be in a city tonight than have another night encounter with a giant ettin—not that Decimus participated in the battle.