Chapter 39: The Stone Giant and the Black Mage

Without any further warning, and with more speed and agility than the paladin ever would have expected to see from such a large man, the stoneskinned giant launched the weighted end of his chain straight at Lexi. The paladin just barely got her sword up in time to block the hurtling iron sphere, intercepting it with the flat of her blade before it came crashing into her face. The raw power behind the blow was like nothing Lexi had experience so far in Fantasy Adventure Quest. It took every ounce of the paladin’s strength for her arms not to buckle from the impact, and she was actually driven back by the strike, her feet skidding in the leafy ground cover as was forcibly driven backwards several feet by the huge man’s attack.

Fuck me! He’s ridiculously strong AND ridiculously fast.

As if reading Lexi’s mind, Ivan darted in towards Samantha with almost blinding speed, slashing at her with the sickle end of the kusarigama. The monk only just managed to sidestep the wickedly curved blade, following the line of Ivan’s attack with her own body to combine her dodge with an attack, driving her elbow viciously into his exposed ribs. Lexi’s hope rose, but were immediately crushed. Not only did the giant not even flinch from the monk’s powerful blow, but Samantha leaped back, clutching her elbow in a show of obvious and serious pain — the panic of having herself been the injured party in that exchange plain on her face.

Not wanting the monk’s attack to have been wasted, Lexi shot in quickly with a thrust from her broadsword, hoping to skewer the enormous man through the other side while his attention was on Samantha. Though the paladin’s thrust struck home, the tip connecting cleanly with the broad expanse of “flesh” just below his armpit, the jarring impact Lexi felt from the her own attack was like trying to drive her sword into the side of a cliff. Her hands inadvertently slid up the handle, bucking up against the guard as the blade’s tip struck the incredibly hard and solid target, the impact nearly jarring the sword from Lexi’s grip. She did see that the stoneskin chipped slightly, but that was the extent of the “damage” inflicted by what should have been a deadly — if not mortal — blow.

What the actual fuck!? the paladin thought to herself when no system alert popped up into her peripheral view indicating that she had even scored a hit. If I can’t even knock down this fucker’s hit points with an attack like THAT, what the ever-loving-fuck are we even supposed to do?

“Bwahaha!” Ivan laughed, letting his gaze linger on each of the two fighters in turn. “A little harder than you were expecting, eh? Let me clue you in on a little something then, especially you blondie. My skin’s not the only part that gets hard.” The giant groped his crotch, grinning lewdly at Lexi. “Maybe I’ll show just how hard a big cock can be before we sell you at the market.”

“Eat shit motherf—” Lexi started to yelled.

Her train of insults was cut off before she even got started when Ivan hurled the sickle end of his kusarigama straight at Lexi. The giant’s blinding speed once again caught the paladin unawares, the blade cutting deeply into her upper leg, penetrating several inches into the well-muscled white thigh.

Before the paladin could even draw the breath needed to cry out either in pain or to level a curse at the gigantic fighter, Ivan gave the kusarigama’s chain a hard yank. Since the sickle blade was still lodged deeply in Lexi’s leg, this both pulled the leg out from underneath the paladin, and tore a deep ragged gash out of the original puncture as the blade was ripped free by the giant’s tug.

“Kyaaa!” Samantha’s battle cry resounded in Lexi’s ears, driving the blossoming pain temporarily from her mind. The monk swung her iron staff with every ounce of her considerable strength straight at Ivan’s head. Her corded muscles bulged under the brown skin as the staff made contact, the iron striking hard stone producing a deep resonating sound. It was not, however, the giant’s head with which the staff had connected. In the blink of an eye, he had somehow managed to get his massive stone-covered forearm in place to intercept the blow. To the utter shock and dismay of both girls, Ivan appeared to have suffered no apparent damage from even so mighty a blow. The only effect visible to Samantha was that a few more chips of stone fell from his forearm. Indeed, Samantha’s staff incurred more damage than he did, having bent at nearly a ninety degree angle around his arm at the point of impact.

“Feh!” the monk spat, hurling the ruined weapon to the ground.

It looked to Lexi, who was attempting — and failing — to get to her feet, that Samantha was about to try for another barehanded strike against Ivan. But, before the monk could do anything, he dropped into a low stance, his speed once again catching both the paladin and monk completely off guard, and delivered an absolutely brutal uppercut directly into Samantha’s side. Despite the automatic tensing of her thick wall of abdominal muscles from her decade of combat training, the monk felt several ribs crack from the sheer power the giant produced. The large warrior woman actually lifted off the ground and flew back several feet, landing in a crumpled heap on the forest floor.

“Bah!” Ivan laughed dismissively. “With that attitude you first came in with, I thought you two might be tough, but you’re just soft little girls. And, soft girls have no business trying to fight a hard man like me. The only thing you lot are good for is meat.”

Meanwhile, at the same the that Samantha and Lexi were struggling against Ivan, Sascha intended to make good on his task. The diminutive man lifted a single black robed arm menacingly in the elf maid’s direction. A tendril of black fabric, similar to that which covered his arms and hands, shot out like the writhing tentacle of some aquatic beast, wrapping itself tightly around her legs from ankles to knees. With her legs bound so tightly with such rapidity, the elf toppled at once, dropping her small knife in the jumble of leaves and arboreal debris into which she fell.

“Not on my watch, you creepy little fuck,” Gretel muttered under her breath.