Chapter 429: That's odd.

Alex crouched beside the fallen woman. He squinted at the liquid pouring from her body, but there was no doubt about it. This was blood. He’d seen more than enough of it at this point to be completely certain of his decision. But that left him with two options.

The first was that there were now some Mirrorlands monsters that did, in fact, bleed. But he got the feeling he’d have at least seen some of that at some point before. Nothing about this particular opponent had been anywhere near significant enough to separate her from the rest of the monsters in the Mirrorlands.

She’d been weak.

And that really only left one option as far as he could tell. The woman hadn’t been from the Mirrorlands at all. Not originally, at least. It had been another human.

“What the hell?” Alex muttered. “How did another human get into the Mirrorlands to attack us? Glint, have you ever seen anything like this before?”

“I am not that familiar with the Mirrorlands,” Glint replied, shaking his head. “There are too many potential answers to your question. But—”

A deep rumble rolled through the forest. He shot back to his feet and spun toward the source, peering through the viewing window in the root giant’s head. A chill ran down his spine as a shadow passed over their heads, briefly blocking out the storming skies.

Dragging itself up from the forest ground just a few hundred feet away was another giant. And it wasn’t alone. There were three more of them. Trees shattered and cracked beneath the monsters’ enormous weight as they all rose to full height. Three of the four were exactly the same as the giant that Alex and Glint currently stood in.

The fourth, which stood farther back than all the others, was about half their height. There were far fewer gaps within the roots making it up and it bore a gnarled book made of wood rather than a huge sword in its hands. Even the roots that composed it were different. There was a faint silvery-golden color within the wood, as if they were painted metal rather than anything organic.

“Shit,” Alex said.

A rumble shook the earth beneath them as the giants started lumbering toward Mirrorwane. The forest bent and broke beneath their advance, trees crunching like nothing more than brittle snow.

“That is a problem,” Glint agreed. “We will not be able to stop all of them before they reach the town. Perhaps you should have completed the Endbringer Culverin before summoning a horde of enemies.”

“Oh, shut up,” Alex said, his mind spinning in search for a solution. “We didn’t have the resources for it. And since when did you become so defeatist?”

“I wasn’t done,” Glint said. “We can’t defeat them as we are now. Which is why you should give me more power. A lot more power. I can cut through this wood. If we target the closest giant, we should be able to hop between them and take them out. Claire can assist once she knows the truth of how they operate.”

Alex sent a sidelong glance at Glint. Then he turned his gaze back to the giants slowly advancing toward Mirrorwane, passing just before the one they stood on. His eyes fell to the writing control panel before him. The roots still swayed, searching for a master that no longer lived.

A slow grin spread across his lips.

“I think I have a better idea.”

***

Claire’s eyes narrowed. She watched the giants approach from the branches of the tree she’d alighted on. Their slow movements didn’t seem particularly threatening to an individual. There was no way they’d ever be able to catch her. But Mirrorwane couldn’t exactly stand up and run away.

She’d been waiting for some manner of signal from Alex. The giant that he’d entered had stopped moving even though there hadn’t been any significant external damage. That made it fairly easy to tell that it must have had some manner of internal power source he’d taken out.

But he should have re-emerged already to share that information. Claire didn’t suspect for a second that Alex had been killed. Princess was still at the feet of the giant he’d entered. For some reason, she wasn’t attacking it anymore. Something had made her stop. Alex had clearly found something important. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter. She didn’t have the liberty to wait for much longer.

The giants were going to reach the town. Every step they took made the ground buck and heave beneath her. These monsters were far heavier than even their great size implied.

I’ll just have to deal with them normally, then. My Partial Soul Manifestation will have to be enough. It’s optimized to fight against big opponents anyway.

Claire’s wings snapped down. She launched herself into the air, streaking toward the nearest of the giants. She wrapped around its side, flying in for just long enough to sprint several steps along its back and pick up momentum before her wings snapped down again.

She sailed up past its head, spinning around as she drew her whip across the palm of her left hand, staining its thorns with blood.

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“Partial Soul Manifestation,” Claire hissed, spinning to look down at the giant as she readied her magic.

And then her eyes went wide.

One of the giants’ massive wooden swords arced through the air. But the angle was completely wrong. Instead of getting anywhere even close to Claire, the blade crashed straight into the side of another giant. There was a deafening crunch.

Fragments of gray wood spun through the air. The struck giant stumbled wordlessly, its own sword slamming down into the ground in an attempt to keep its balance. Tremors shook the earth under its weight.

Claire watched in disbelief as the attacking giant tore its blade free from the other one. Then it raised the huge weapon a second time, bringing it down a second time upon its fallen ally’s head. A second crunch echoed through the Mirrorlands. The sword drove deep through the fallen root monster’s body and continued deep into the ground beneath it.

What?

Then Claire’s eyes widened. The giant that had betrayed its comrade was the very same one that Alex had entered. His giant pulled its sword free from its victim. Then it took a lumbering step forward, driving its heel down onto the skull portion of the dead monster and grinding what remained of it into dust.

Claire couldn’t help it. A shocked laugh slipped from between her lips.

Alex is controlling the giant. I have no idea how, but he’s figured out a way to puppet the one he went into.

But Alex had very specifically targeted the head of the monster he’d killed. Given the number of blows he’d sent into it after it had already gone down — and that he himself had entered a giant’s head — Claire quickly put together exactly what was going on.

That explains why we couldn’t see their status. The giants aren’t actually alive. Something inside their head cavities is controlling them. Maybe a power source that can be commandeered.

The other two giants stopped their advance toward Mirrorwane. They turned toward Alex’s giant. Meanwhile, the third and smaller one took a step backward.

There was a moment of stillness.

Then both of the enemy giants started to lumber toward Alex. There was something almost slightly amusing about the generally slow pace of the entire thing. The giants really couldn’t move all that fast at all. Unfortunately, that also included the one that Alex was in.

He wasn’t going to be able to win a fight against two of them on his own.

Princess turned. She launched herself into a loping sprint toward the nearest of the two giants. Claire’s wings snapped down as she launched herself back into the air, heading for the very same monster.

She drew on her magic once again, slamming the gate in her soul open.

“Partial Soul Manifestation,” Claire hissed. “Hollow Court.”

Power twisted through the air above her. A wave of brilliant crimson flower petals poured out over the nearest giant, enveloping it in a rushing river for a brief second before the wind blew the magic away. What remained were a dozen patches of glowing magic shimmering all over the huge giant’s form.

Claire’s eyes locked on a bundles near its face, even as she briefly alighted on the monster’s side to pick up the speed to launch herself up toward its head. There were two targets for her — one on its neck and another behind the area where its ear should have been.

The giant didn’t even seem to notice her. It was completely focused on Alex. Perhaps it didn’t see the much smaller opponent as an equally significant threat.

That was a mistake.

Her whip snapped out.

At the same time, Princess slammed into the giant’s knee. The monster creaked, momentarily taken off balance. And then Claire’s whip connected with the bundle of flowers she’d been aiming at. There was a deafening blast. An explosion rocked the Mirrorlands air.

Roots shattered, blown apart by the magic to leave behind a smoking crater in the giant’s neck. Claire shot down toward it. She landed on the sharp root-covered shoulder, finding a spot between the spike-like growths. A huge crash split the air from off to her left.

Alex and the remaining giant’s huge swords had met each other. The smaller giant was still watching from farther back — but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t make a move of its own soon.

Claire turned back to her own opponent. Her attack hadn’t completely blown its head open, but she’d torn a sizable chunk of the roots away to reveal a few gaps leading into a cavernous room within the giant’s skull. There was a man sitting in a throne near the front of the room, roots wound around his wrists.

The System’s shimmered into the air above his head the moment she laid eyes on him.

Rootseer (Initiate 8)

That explains it. Initiate 8, though? That’s it?

Claire didn’t question their good fortune. She raised her hand. Blood flowed from the cuts on her palm, sharpening into a razor. She carved deep gouges into the remaining roots in her path. Then she drove her foot into them. The roots shattered like kindling, and she dropped into the room.

The man at the console jerked. He tore his hands away from the controls of the giant as he spun to face Claire. The upper half of his face was blocked by some kind of helmet. He raised his hands. That was about as far as he got.

Claire’s whip snapped out.

The man’s head exploded like a crushed grape.

Even she couldn’t help but feel a flicker of surprise as his body crumpled to the ground. He’d died so easily that he may as well have been a Novice. That was… odd. But it didn’t matter at the moment. If Alex could puppet one of these things around, then she could too.

There’s a chance these do have some kind of mental connection. But if someone wants me to fight me in my mind, then I’m more than willing to let them.

Claire stepped up to the writing roots. They reached out to her, as if in anticipation. She grabbed onto them. The world jerked.

And then she looking out from eyes she didn’t have.

Claire looked down to the huge sword in her wooden hand. Then she raised her gaze up to the other two giants, who were locked in a thunderous fight before her. They’d already trampled the forest all around them. Princess was still beating on her leg, trying to rip it off.

The monster’s attempts weren’t very effective.

Claire ignored her.

She took one slow, lumbering step forward. Then another, coming up behind the two giants as their swords crossed once again with a deafening crash.

Claire drove her blade into the base of the enemy giant’s neck, right where the room housing its controller sat.

It locked up. Alex’s sword hurtled through the air a moment later to obliterate the monster’s skull in a spray of root fragments.

The giant pitched back and crashed to the ground, sending a tremor rolling outward.

Claire and Alex’s giants looked at each other. Then they both turned toward the final, smaller giant. It took another step back.

Alex raised his sword. Claire did the same.

The final, smaller giant lifted its book.

Then it dropped it.

And, as Claire watched in surprise, it raised its hands into the air, palms outward.

She blinked.

It was surrendering.