Over the next "week" our little group created a routine that I dubbed a "day".  

I'm the "morning" Sooty would patrol through the village, de-rezzing any unwanted guests. 

Cupe would be working in the broken building, clearing the debris, and sorting it in to piles.  

I would finish up processing the soul marbles that had been collected the day before, then I would head to the grain mill to work on my idea for creating a new core there. I limited myself to a reasonable time, before I would make my way to the threshing yard. 

Sooty was inevitability there working on his sword forms, and beating anything that decided to wander into his reach.  

I would sit and continue with my experiments in the magicicle reservoir bellow. 

Cupe would join us later, collect wheat stalks from the field, with Sooty watching over her. Then she would move to a table under the threshing roofs, and work on here latest craft. She had already woven a basket that we used to collect the soul marbles we collected. 

At some time later we would all return to the sitting room in my house and talk for a while. Sometimes it was me explaining my conjectures about this world, others it was one of the others telling stories from their lives. 

- I guess our days help to regulate our time sense, and I'm not zoning out for long periods of time. But it's kind of frustrating not to be able to stay on one thing till I get it right. 

I was sitting in my usual spot in the threshing yard looking at my latest idea that hasn't worked out the way I had hoped. I could collapse magicicles into a crystalline tube, which turned out to be a surprisingly complex task that required a huge amount of time.  

- All that work and all I ended up with is a single crystalline cylinder the size of a coffee straw. If I wanted a siphon to run to my house it would probably take me a decade or so to build something big enough to make any difference. 

I frowned watching the magicicles that were starting to cloud around the crystalline straw. 

- Crystallized magicicles exert a gravitational effect on the ' gaseous ' free magicicles, which is good for my core and the grain mill, but it just interferes here. 

I gave the straw some spin on its axis so the attracted magicicles would form a disk around it instead of obscuring it. A spinning accretion disk would be way easier to find later. 

- I have to figure out why the roads form a magicicle stream under there surface. Maybe I can build my own. I might even be able to build something better if I knew the under lying principles. Are the roads forming a ' low ' spot that the magicicles flow into, or is it more like a conductor, or at the road creates a path of least resistance compared to the surrounding ground. 

My eye shot open at the sound of a large deep roar. 

I stood up and walked over to stand by Sooty. I could see off in the distance a massive figure moving. 

 "It looks like it came from the forest and crossed the river. I think it is now headed towards us." - Sooty 

 "Rat turds! Any idea what it is?" - Me 

 Sooty peered off into the distance. He suddenly reminded me of the senior non-coms that war movies always showed guiding the protagonist. 

 "At that size, does it really matter?" - Sooty 

He looked at his club and then to look at me. 

 "I think that this one is a bit out of my league. Can your magic handle this, sir Volk?" - Sooty 

As I watched it became clear that the gigantic figure was moving towards the village. 

 "We are going to find out soon, and it's pronounced as Volt"- Me 

The monster roared again, and I heard a scared gasp from behind us. 

-A duh, staring here all manly and confident is ok for Sooty and I, but Cupe isn't used to this. Hell, I'm not used to this! 

"Cupe, I think that you might want to head to the house. There is a window in the upper most room that you'll be able to see from. If we fail you should have time to run across the bridge and hide till this thing loses interest. "- Me 

I looked at her, she seemed to be frozen in fear.  

"Cupe! "- Me 

I cracked my voice across the yard. She startled and looked at me with panicky eyes. 

"Did you understand what I just said? "- Me 

“Uh, yes, uh... Go to your house, watch from the top window, and run to the fields across the bridge of you can't stop it.”- Cupe 

Sooty nodded his head beside me, as I smiled. 

“Good girl. You run, and don't worry too much. I haven't meet anything yet that I haven't been able convince to go back to living."- Me 

I watched as she hesitated for a bit, then nodded, turned and ran into the village. 

Sooty and just stood silently for a moment.  

"It's not moving very fast, is it?" - Me 

"Giant monsters are like that. It will seem like its moving way to fast when it is up close."- Sooty 

- Odd it feels like something is missing here... Ahh there is no music in the background. It's just making this whole thing feel surreal. 

“Do you have a plan, sir? "- Sooty 

“Yes. It's a bit crude, but then how fancy can we get with two men against a moving mountain?"- Me 

Sooty nodded again. 

 "Well sir, I think we'll be ok. After all, it is only a very small mountain." - Sooty 

I looked at him with a mock serious look. 

 "Sooty?" - Me 

 "Yes sir?" - Sooty 

 "Did you just steal my moral raising, defiance in the face of death, witty, lead protagonist line?" - Me 

Sooty smiled from ear to ear. 

"It seems that I did." - Sooty 

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders exaggeratedly. 

 "Then I guess I should find an appropriate job for someone that would stoop so low as to steal one-liners."- Me 

I pointed out into the field next to the yard. 

 "We need to get it where I can hit it with the biggest, heaviest shot that I can fire, here next to this yard. That means someone's going to have to lure it to the right spot." - Me 

 Sooty was silent for a moment.  

 "And how do you suggest I lure something that big?" - Sooty 

 My smile was extra-large. 

 "Why Sooty, that is very easy. You just have to look especially tasty!”- Me 

... 

I stood in the centre of the yard, making sure all of my preparations were ready. I held the gold needle marble in my hand, and stood on a stone paver. 

-I really need to find a conductive mount for this marble.  

I had constructed 12 points of crystalline magicicle around me, locked a leader from the gold needle marble to each, and then down into the reservoir bellow. And lastly, I had positioned the crystalline straw under the surface just below the marble then run a braided leader from the marble through the straw, and down into the reservoir. 

- This my limit, even with the crystalline magicicle points as anchors. This thing better go down with this. 

I looked out in to the field. 

“I think Sooty was wrong about the small mountain part.”- Me 

The monster was probably twice the size of the village, and half again as tall. 10 massive tree-trunk like legs joined massively muscled joints on its oval shaped body. A massive head mounted like a turret on the body had two large eyes looking forward with smaller eyes ringing around the rest of the head. Two Long oddly jointed arms hung from each shoulder by the head, reaching down to skewer prey with its sword shaped claws, bringing its victims up to the wide mouth, ringed full of grinding square shaped teeth. It was covered in a mottled brown and grey hide, short dark hair, and weird bald spots. 

- It hasn't caught much, probable has some sort of magical attack that it uses to stun or incapacitate its prey. Why isn't it showing any reaction to eating the soul marbles, or for that matter the de-rezz, of its prey? 

“Because we should be thinking about that right now.”- Me 

Sooty came running out of the field yelling and hitting his club against my chair leg, making as much noise as possible. He stopped next to me and looked back. 

“I think I was wrong about the size.”- Sooty 

I snorted in unexpected laughter, losing one of my leaders as my concentration lapsed. 

Sooty looked at me with an odd look. I smiled back at him. 

“Sorry, I was just thinking the same thing. You did a good job luring it here.”- Me 

I closed my eyes and started to rebuild the dropped leader. 

“It wasn't really that hard. It cannot turn, or walk, fast and it heads towards the largest thing moving it can see. I've had maybe one recruit dumber than it, but I wouldn't bet on it.” - Sooty 

I nodded as I was linking magicicles into a new leader. 

By the time I was done the monster had gotten closer. 

“Thanks, Sooty, but I think that you should move ways back. I do not think it will be healthy to be near me when I fire.”- Me 

Sooty put his hand on my shoulder and nodded, then walked towards the village. 

“Just you and me now, you giant pile of ugly”- Me 

The monster walked by moving alternating, staggered legs. It looked ungainly and the ground shook every time a leg came down. I could hear its teeth grinding like concrete buildings colliding, as it opened its mouth. It roared. The single sound reminded me of concert speakers when the lead guitarist hammered the first note. I watched the tops of the wheat vibrate as my ears just stopped working. 

- So, you got the first hit, now just lift your legs to take another step. And.... Now! 

I locked leaders from the marble, on to the closest two legs still on the ground on its left side. Pulling from six of the twelve anchor points, I twisted the magicicles I poured into the gold needle marble. The world turned violet. 

The ground jumped, then shivered. 

- @#$! I'm blind and deaf. Should I just start blasting away? I can even see if where the leaders would be going! 

The ground started a rolling shiver, as I was hit with a strong blast of wind. 

Fortunately, my eyes cleared up quickly, showing the gigantic monster collapsed on to its left side. Three of its arms were holding the front half of its body off the ground. The last arm on the right was reaching out towards me. 

 "____________!"- Me 

 I'm not sure what I was yelling as I quickly threw a leader at the reaching claws, grabbing three of the ground leaders and twisted magic through the gold needle marble. There violet arcs twisted up around me from the ground, hitting the marble. A much larger bolt leaped to the claw that were approaching with disturbing speed. This time the violet flash didn't completely blind me. The monster's arm spasmed as the violet lightening crawled up its arm leaving huge black lines in its hide, then it crashed to the ground, sending a new cloud of dust into the air. The monster dragged the unresponsive arm back towards its body leaving huge furrows in the ground. 

- Now let's see what effect this has 

The monster was struggling with its remaining good arms and slowly righting itself, getting its damaged legs back into position to stand up. I braided three leaders together and landed them on the turret like head, then checked my braided ground leader quickly. 

- This is going to be really interesting if the straw does what I think it will. 

The monster was started sucking in a huge volume of air as it finally got back up on it legs. I could now see the two on the left that I hit were charred, burst open ruins, all likely unless now. The mouth stopped sucking in air, and the monster seemed to lean forward a bit bracing its self for its next attack. 

 "Fire the main gun!" - Me 

 I smiled wildly as I got say the one line I knew must be said. 

I twisted as many magicicles as I could through the gold needle marble. 

This time it wasn't a snap of lightening. This time it was sold bolt that switched paths several times, coloured a deep vibrant purple that reminded me of ultra violet lights. The main bolt connected to the monster's turret like head, but sent off smaller lines over the rest of the body in stop motion poses. Then it was gone, leaving faint after images fading in the air. 

The monsters head had a massive open black hole drilled into it, the eyes were now clouded a solid grey, and the rest of the body was covered in jagged black lines.  

- That worked way better than I thought it would! 

From examining the fulgurites, I had guessed that certain structures could change the nature of the free magicicles that were attracted to them. Or in this case, with greater efficiency, through them. The crystalline tube was my attempt to change the heavy ground magicicles in something closer to a highly charged electron. 

Nothing moved for what seem like hours, then black gas started to spill out for the monster's body. A lot of black gas. 

- On this is bad, very bad. 

The de-rezz sun rose, but I paid little attention to that or the silver particles accumulating on the monster's claw, I watched as the black gas coalesced in to a massive black whirlpool. 

I fired off the first of the two ground leaders that I had left, the violet arc ripped through, blowing a large chunk of the whirlpool in to glittery dust. The gas seemed to never end and the pool started to grow again. 

I lined up my last ground leader and push as much power as I could as fired another violet arc into the expanding black whirlpool. A second huge explosion of glittery dust erupted into the air.  

The whirlpool shivered and rolled, then reformed into its usually sludge like swirl. As the gas stopped falling, tentacles started to form, reaching out to grasp and pull anything close into its depths. 

Brilliant blue arcs of electricity, powered from my internal supply, flew out from the marble as I used all of the tricks I had learned, blowing greasy black tentacles into showers of glittery particles. Fans of electric arcs spread out from my left hand chewing away at the whirlpools tar like edge. When I had reduced it to about half its size, it changed, the whirlpool no longer blindly reached out. All of the tentacles formed on the nearest side to me, stretching out wildly, trying to grasp the source of its destruction. I moved constantly, changing the direction I fired from, pouring out blue snaps of lightening that blew away the probing tentacles. 

- The twist etched into the marble is helping, I can concentrate on the fan from my charred left hand. @$% this starting to really hurt, and I'm going to run dry soon. I'm going to have to change this up. 

I stepped back and only fired from my left at the tentacles that were getting close. I sank a leader into the ground from the marble and pushed it down under the whirlpool, the reservoir was massively depleted but there was still a lot of free magicicle gas left. When that was firm, I pushed a second leader up into the air and locked onto the huge de-rez sun hovering above. This time I started my leader vibrating as hard as I could get, then pushed a huge rush of magicicles to the ends of the both leaders. I had to stop firing at the whirlpool, and I couldn't move or I'd lose the ground leader. 

-  I'm trying too many to many half-cocked seat-of-my-pants ideas here! 

New tar black tentacles flailed out towards me, blindly searching in its mad ravenous hunger. One thin black line shot past me fell to the ground and pulled back following one of the groves plowed by the monster's claws. 

- Why do I keep trying new things while I'm about to get eaten? 

This time it felt like I was pressing a button when I pushed through the twist engraved in the marble. A violet arc of lightening rose from the ground through the marble and danced around the globe of the sun. It shivered and grew slightly brighter, but everywhere its light shone onto seemed to glow brightly.  

- What? Why didn't it complete the circuit bellow the pool? 

I watched as a larger tentacle seemed to sense the lightening arc turn towards me, and started to pull more black sludge from the whirlpool, swelling in size. 

I push everything I had left through the twist in the marble intending to blindly fire at the liquefied miasma. Instead, the violet arc followed the after trace from my previous shot hitting the de-rezz sun again.  

A massive yellow bolt fired from the sun, through the gigantic monster's silver form and hammered into the whirlpool, the yellow bolt danced into four, separate, after images that played between the sun and the black pool below.  

The entire whirlpool exploded into crystalline mist, a fog of clear drops that split the light into a rainbow hued fan slowly settled to the ground. The monster's silver glittered outline dropped as if gravity had suddenly been turned back on. The silvery dust fell into the rainbow hued fog bellow. The globe of the sun shivered and shed violet and gold metallic like ribbons, before fading out as it rose into the sky. It had diminished to half its original size. 

I just stood and watched in complete silence as the metallic looking ribbons fluttered down into the slowly condensing mist. 

- There was no pale bead this time. Did, I just miss it in the chaos, or did then last yellow bolt destroy it when it passed through? 

I stepped closer to the cloud as I reached up to rub my nose, which brought the marble in to view. It was blackened a bit on the outer face, but I could see the glint of gold twisted around inside.  

- I put so much power through it that is warped the needle?  

I tried rubbing it against my charred jacket to no avail. 

- I'll have to polish this later, I guess. 

As I was about to take another step towards the shrinking rainbow hued cloud something grabbed my shoulder. I jumped, trying to twisting and see what was attacking me. 

Sooty’s left hand was clamped down on my shoulder preventing me from falling over in my spaztic dodge attempt. I still couldn't hear anything making his normal steps up to me into a deadly sneak attack. 

With a second look in could see a black lightening burn mark over his right arm, which explained why his left was on my charred shoulder. I looked down at my left arm and winced.  

- That's going to take a bit to return to normal. 

I looked back up at Sooty and nodded, then just remained in place watching the colour shimmering fog coalesce.