The creature standing before us let loose a deafening roar as the last bits of dust from the shattered door floated to the ground. As the beast roared, I could see the gills that lined its thick neck opening and closing. Duncan drew both his knives from their sheaths as Tee readied his flute. I watched in awe as Rose pulled a tiny stick from a small pouch she wore on her hip. As I wondered what effect she thought a twig would have on a creature as massive as the one standing before us, she flicked her wrist. The tiny twig she held quickly grew, and in less than a second, the twig was replaced by a sizeable two-handed hammer. I could hear Tee begin to play a song on his flute as the monster’s roar died down.
I could feel the power of Tee’s song coursing through me, and I suddenly felt like I could run a marathon. I took a guess that the song Tee was playing was giving us a haste spell. Duncan must have reached the same conclusion because he crouched in a low stance and launched himself towards the giant. Duncan was moving so fast that he was nothing more than a blur when he reached the legs of the monster. Rushing behind the giant before he had a chance to react, Duncan slashed twice with his knives into the creature's calves.
Letting lose a howl of pain, the creature turned at inhuman speed, swinging its meaty fist towards Duncan. Despite the haste spell, Duncan could not dodge the attack and took the full force of the punch in his kidney. Duncan was hurled across the chamber like a rag doll and crashed into one of the vats lining the walls. I watched as Duncan fell to the ground after the impact. I couldn’t tell from my position across the chamber if Duncan was still alive. As I watched, Duncan grunted and attempted to drag himself back to his feet.
I began launching fireball after fireball towards the creature. Thanks to Tee's haste spell, my arms felt like they were going a million miles an hour. I dared not use one of the larger explosive fireballs in this room. I had no clue what was in those vats, and I didn’t intend to find out if it was flammable or not. The never-ending assault of flame enraged the monster, and he turned to look right at me and lowered his head, preparing to charge.
I continued my relentless assault as the giant ran towards me like a freight train. Waiting until the last possible moment and depending on Tee's spell to give me the speed I needed, I jumped to the left. It worked as I had hoped, and as I launched myself away, the monster ran through where I had been standing less than a second before. I hoped to catch the beast off guard and cause him to crash into the wall. Unfortunately, it was able to stop itself before that happened and turned its attention towards Rose.
“Bring it bitch.” Rose said as she twirled the hammer in her hands.
The creature obliged and reared its head up, letting out another ear-shattering roar. It took two steps toward Rose before she reacted with an overhead swing from her hammer. The natural power of her swing combined with the spell made the head of the Warhammer almost impossible to see as she brought it down onto the creature’s left hand. The sound of bones being crushed echoed throughout the room as the hammer connected with the massive hand. Rose didn’t hesitate and used the moment of the first attack to bring the hammer into an upward swing. The weapon impacted the creature’s jaw, and once, the chamber filled with the sound of bones breaking.
A faint smile crossed Rose’s lips as she paused to look at the damage she had inflicted. That hesitation gave the giant the opening it needed. Despite its injuries, the giant brought its head down towards Rose at a speed that seemed unusual for the monster's size. It all happened so fast, and I could do nothing but look on in horror as the creature bit into Rose’s shoulder. Blood sprayed from Rose’s shoulder as she cried out in pain. The creature must have struck an artery because the blood continued to gush like a fountain as the creature sunk its teeth further into her shoulder. The crimson liquid coated the ground and the walls behind Rose as tears began streaming down her cheeks.
I could feel the power of Tee’s spell leave my body as the music he was playing began to change. I assumed that he was changing to a healing spell to keep Rose alive. The amount of blood coming from her injury was unheard of as the giant continued to bite down on her. I began launching more fireballs into the back of the monster to get it to release its grip on Rose. Fireball after fireball continued to pelt the back of the giant and had no effect. I made the decision to summon a more immense explosive fireball. I was running out of options, and Rose was running out of time. The healing spell was fighting against the jaw of the creature. I could see Roses's shoulder attempting to heal itself, but it was repeatedly opened by the teeth of the creature's relentless attack.
The room shook from the explosion as the fireball impacted the back of the monster. I could smell burning flesh and saw the charred remains of flesh hanging from the back of the creature. The pain of my attack was enough to cause the creature to lose its grip on Rose, and finally, Tee’s spell could do its job.
Rose sank to the ground, and the blood coming from her shoulder slowed to a trickle as the spell finished knitting her flesh and muscle back together. The music changed back to the first song, and I could feel the power of the haste spell coursing through me once again. My mental state was starting to fail me. The number of spells I had cast in such a short time was taking a toll. That was when Duncan launched forth from the shadows.
I hadn’t even seen him move from the back of the chamber to where Rose and I were. He had blended into the shadows almost entirely, only revealing himself when he was ready to launch his attack. Duncan landed on the back of the creature and wrapped his left arm around its shoulder to steady himself. Lifting his right hand up, knife in hand, he ran the blade along the monster's throat. A river of black, crimson blood poured from the wound as the blade made its way from one side to the other.
“R..Ro..Ros…Rose.” The creature managed to say while choking on its own blood.
The giant reached towards Rose as its wounds overtook it, and it collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
“What did that thing just say?” Rose grunted as she stood.
“I think it was your name,” I replied.
Rose’s eyes widened as if some grand realization was washing over her. I had no idea what any of this meant, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Duncan walked slowly towards me. It was obvious that his wounds had affected him more than he thought, and now that the adrenaline was leaving his body, he was feeling it. The sound of Tee’s song faded into nothingness as he stopped playing the flute and flew towards me.
Our small group huddled in the chamber next to the corpse of our foe. We had to figure out what was going on and how that thing knew who Rose was. Right now, however, we all needed a minute to catch our breath.
