Accidental Healer-Chapter 82 - A Handsome Cyclops?

To make matters worse it was obvious my jump had not been enough to clear the entire town. I twisted midair, trying to shift my weight—but it was useless.

I braced myself right before impact.

CRASHHH.

I hit the cabin's branch and twig roof in a sideways cannonball punching through the roof as if it was paper. Splinters and dirt flew in all directions. My momentum was brought to an abrupt halt by the thick cabin wall.

Dazed and in a crumpled mess I looked around the room, a bench and what I can only assume had been a kitchen table were reduced to kindling.

Even with my barrier spell active the impact was enough to knock the wind from my lungs. I hacked, coughed and wheezed, I sucked in more dust than air. bits of furniture fell from my body as I forced myself to my feet.

After a quick assessment I was pleased to learn that aside from getting the wind knocked out of me I was otherwise unharmed. The combination of my constitution and my barrier had been enough to absorb the damage.

The cabin? Not so much. Luckily it was vacant when I landed. I pushed my way through the rubble of the collapsed roof and found my way out the door.

My jump fell just short of clearing the entire town. The cabin I crashed through was only a few rows from the very edge.

The people and crowds were behind me now.

Jordan’s militia had most likely all gone to defend the town at the point of the first attack. They probably didn’t even know about the threat Mischief had been holding off.

So–It would be just the two of us?

Free of the cabins and not hurtling through the air I finally had the chance to get a solid look at our enemies.

They waited patient, still as statues. Dozens and dozens of giants–all at least nine feet tall–some approaching closer to fifteen.

Each of the massive human looking people wore what appeared to be steel plated armor. Aside from the size and the armor it was totally impossible to tell what kind of creature was underneath, since they each wore different styles of slitted helmets.

Well this was definitely not the same run of the mill riff-raff that had stumbled from the raid portals.

But why weren’t they attacking? I couldn’t be more than a few hundred yards off, there was no way that I’d gone unnoticed.

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Intrigued, I drew Tranquility from storage and began my trek across the meadow to the armored giants.

The giants were armed with an assortment of different styles of weapons. Swords, halberds, bows, crossbows, spears, and many others.

All the makings of a professional army in the middle ages were present, and the closer I got the more I could tell the weapons weren’t just for show. The giants had been busy, many splattered in red orange blood that dried and caked to the armor.

It was an intimidating sight.

Mischief already killed some of these monsters? Where was he now?

Obviously I loved the fact that Mischief had telepathy, but man it would really come in handy if I had the same skill. It’s not like I could just shout Mischief's name.

Then again…

It’s not like these guy’s could even understand me anyway. Why couldn’t I?

About fifty yards separated me and the giants. If I shouted, would it spook the giants into an attack? Maybe. But wasn’t that bound to happen anyway? I made up my mind.

“Mischief!”

My shout echoed out across the meadow.

I waited. Nothing. At least not from Mischief.

For the first time, the giants that seemed more like statues, shifted. One in particular caught my attention. It wasn’t the biggest, still, it was easily over ten feet in height. It carried a strange looking wooden spear adorned with tassels at its grip and a pitch black spear head.

It tilted its helmeted head–waited a moment–then it strode alone from the formation. Right towards me.

Why had I shouted again?

Clink, clunk, clink, clunk each step the giant took the sound of its heavy armor grew louder. As was my habit I silently recast a barrier spell and adjusted my grip on Tranquility.

The giant’s head inclined just slightly. Had it caught that slight movement of my hand? It was barely a twitch.

I lifted my free hand. “OK, that’s close enough.”

Clink, clunk.

The giant stopped. From only twenty feet away I still had to look up. In the stillness the occasional crash or explosion made its way into the scenic mountain meadow. Neither the giant or myself made the first move. An especially loud explosion reminded me that I didn’t have the luxury of time here. There were other people that still needed help.

Still, so far these giants hadn’t been violent and I didn’t want to launch into another conflict if it could be avoided. Inwardly I was kicking myself for sending Ellison away.

Seconds had already passed and the silence stretched from awkward to uncomfortable. This was just too much, I can’t stand here forever and I can’t communicate. I was just about to raise Tranquility and get to work–when a strange sight caught my attention.

From across the meadow a massive black cat burst from the forest.

Mischief?

I cocked my head in confusion and raised my hand to wave him down when it got weirder.

At his heels–hundreds of short little...cats? Or not cats exactly, it was hard to make out from here but they seemed to be five or six feet tall cats that ran on two feet.

Were they chasing him or following him? Had he tamed them? Saved them?

“Mischief…? What the hell are you up to?”

The scraping of metal drew my attention back to the giant, who was now watching Mischief and the miniature cat people make a beeline into town. They disappeared into the shadows of the homes.

What on earth was that?

“Is the dark one your friend?” The voice was muffled, deep and gravelly. My head snapped back onto the giant.

Could it communicate?

“What? Do you have the gift of tongues or some kind of translation skill?” Did this giant have a gift like Ellison’s?

The giant didn’t answer right away. Its hand moved and I twitched ready for an attack. But it wasn’t an attack. Slowly the hand rose to the visored helmet, the hand flicked some type of latch–there was a click and the visor raised.

Gradually the giant's face was revealed.

Square chin covered in dark stubble, human lips, a sharp nose, dark tanned skin. For a moment I thought it might be another group of humans that had just grown large, similar to Alex.

Or at least that was until the visor uncovered his eye. Smack dab in the middle of the massive forehead of the giant sat one big perfectly round red eyeball.

Cyclops.

“I can understand your language.” He points to where Mischief had disappeared. “Is that monster your friend?”

I found it strange how handsome this cyclops might be if it wasn’t for the single red eyeball with weirdly long eyelashes. Movies had set a much different expectation.

“He’s not a monster, and yes. That is my friend.”

The giant nodded. “Your friend wouldn’t let us kill our spawns, even going as far as killing several of my men. You should know, experience stealing is not taken lightly.”

Well ok, I guess that is one question answered–kind of. Why did it seem like this cyclops was more upset at the experience loss than losing his men? Also, those were spawns? Plus what exactly did this guy want from me?

“Well I’m sorry about your men.”

The cyclops' lips pursed. “Not as sorry as I am.” He nodded his head and the visor snapped closed. “No matter, it seems we’ll still get our experience and then some.”

Whoosh

I ducked low, the strange black tip spear zipped past my ear so fast that it created a suction of air as it passed. I had my barrier up but I had no intention of revealing it yet and besides that I didn’t like the look of that strange spear head.

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Looks like we weren’t talking anymore. Did they just declare war because Mischief was in my faction? Was it really that simple? Had they been waiting for a peaceful negotiation until Mischief showed up?

It didn’t really matter anymore.