Chapter 406: Smart Fool

The Twin-Headed Ogre seemed to have reached a decision about Kael. Darin and Roth were easier to catch, but neither had annoyed it quite as much as the man sitting beside the enormous pit.

While one head followed the two Red Sun members across the arena, the other kept turning toward him. Kael noticed the attention and stared back, wondering how long it would take the creature to accept that another chase would end exactly like the last one.

Then its single eye shifted toward the debris scattered across the ground. Kael followed its gaze just as the ogre bent down and wrapped one massive hand around a chunk of stone nearly as wide as his chest.

"Oh, you bastard." He was already moving when the creature drew its arm back, throwing himself sideways as the boulder crossed the arena. It smashed through the pillar behind him, blasting apart the masonry and dropping most of the remaining structure where he had been sitting.

Kael came out of the roll on one knee while fragments bounced across the dirt around him. Through the settling dust, he could see the ogre’s left head grinning. The thing looked thoroughly pleased with itself. After a moment, Kael slowly began clapping.

"Ha. Smart little fucker." The grin widened, which made the whole situation considerably more irritating.

Its companion apparently found the achievement less impressive. The ogre’s free hand rose and smacked the grinning head across the face while the other head roared toward Darin and Roth.

Both men had used the distraction to put more distance between themselves and the creature. For several seconds, Kael thought it might actually start fighting itself, but hunger eventually settled the argument.

The ogre turned and charged after the easier meal, leaving him to brush the dirt from his coat and choose somewhere else to stand.

For the next several minutes, Darin and Roth concentrated entirely on running. Neither attempted another counterattack or tried to restore the formation they had discussed so confidently before entering the arena. They simply moved whenever the creature approached, keeping as much distance as possible between themselves and its club. Kael watched them evade another charge and nodded.

"See? Learning." Neither heard him, but the timer overhead had fallen to [19:48].

With less than twenty minutes remaining, they might actually survive.

Then Darin looked toward him, and Roth followed his gaze. The two exchanged an expression Kael immediately disliked. He had seen it before, usually on people who had discovered an idea they considered much cleverer than it actually was.

Darin changed direction first, turning toward Kael instead of continuing along the arena wall. Roth approached from the other side, and Kael sighed as he watched them converge.

"Oh, c’mon don’t be idiots again."

The ogre noticed their change of course almost immediately. Instead of two targets fleeing in different directions, it now had three gathering in the same place. Both heads agreed for once, and the creature lowered its shoulders before charging toward them.

Darin reached Kael first, with Roth arriving moments later, breathing heavily. Both moved behind him, leaving Kael to glance over one shoulder and then the other.

"Finally using your heads?"

Darin kept his attention on the approaching creature, but Kael did not need an explanation. They had decided to bring their problem to him. With all three Climbers together, the ogre would no longer have to choose between pursuing them and wasting its time on Kael.

He could hardly remain comfortably seated while they stood behind him. It was selfish, certainly, although Kael had heard worse plans.

The ogre reached the edge of the pit and stopped. One head snarled before the creature began moving around the opening, forcing Kael to walk along his own side to keep the gap between them. Darin and Roth followed closely. When the ogre reversed direction, Kael did the same, and within seconds they had returned to the pattern that had frustrated it earlier.

Darin glanced between Kael and the creature. "This works. Why didn’t you tell us?" Kael looked at him, wondering how much of his earlier advice the man had managed to ignore.

"I did. But in case you missed something important..." He raised a hand as the ogre stopped circling and looked down. Its fingers closed around another piece of masonry, and Kael pointed toward it.

"...it can use its heads too."

Roth shouted for them to move as the creature threw. Kael dove left while Darin hurled himself right, but Roth reacted a little too slowly. The stone missed his body and struck the dirt less than a meter away, shattering on impact. Several fragments tore across his side, spinning him off his feet.

By the time Kael regained his footing, blood was spreading beneath the edge of the man’s armor.

"Up." Kael was already moving along the rim, but Roth had only managed to push himself onto one knee. He tried to inhale, and his face twisted as a wet wheeze escaped him.

One hand pressed against his side while he struggled for another breath. From the way he held himself, Kael suspected broken ribs, perhaps worse.

There was no opportunity to check. An injury that interfered with breathing was troublesome enough under ordinary circumstances, but here anything that slowed a man down could get him killed.

Darin caught Roth by the shoulder and dragged him upright. The three continued along the pit as the ogre followed on the opposite side, occasionally stopping to pick up something else to throw.

They dodged the next stone, although Roth needed help regaining his footing afterward. The following throw missed badly enough that none of them had to change direction.

The crowd cheered anyway, apparently satisfied as long as something large was moving through the air.

That enthusiasm did not last. Minutes passed, and the pattern became obvious. The ogre circled the pit while the Climbers kept to the opposite side. Occasionally it stopped to throw a rock, which they avoided before continuing.

Kael noticed the audience losing interest before either of his companions did. The cheers shortened, the chants faded, and conversations spread through the stands until the general murmur began competing with the creature’s roars.