Magium - Project Zero (A What-If Story)

Chapter 8 - The Drunken Giant

From in between the trees, Daren pops up from the thick forestry, closely followed by Rose.

"Hey! We were waiting--" Daren begins to say before noticing the injuries on both of them. "What the hell happened?!"

"It was the group from before." Kate says immediately. "They appeared out of nowhere and attacked us, but we managed to fend them off."

"By the gods!" Rose exclaims as she rushes to their side. "Is there any serious pain anywhere? Do you need to lay down? Is there something I can do? Hey Daren! Come here and heal them!"

Kate is taken back by Rose's unstoppable and genuine care, that is a feeling she hasn't felt in a long time.

"I'm on my way--"

Daren gets cut off as the earth begins to shake violently again.

"An earthquake?" Daren asks as he puts his hands on a tree.

"Please don't be a dragon, please don't be a dragon, I beg the gods, please don't be a dragon," Rose says in a panic as she grabs onto Kate.

Suddenly, above the treetops, a giant head can be seen, at least fifty feet in size. The only thing the group can see is that the giant man has a big grin and a beard that goes on forever. Then the voice begins to sound, so loud that every other sound is drowned instantly. His yelling doesn't help.

"Now that I have everyone's attention," the giant says. "I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Hadrik, but my friends call me 'the dwarf'. I came to this tournament for only one reason: to test my strength against the strongest mages in the world! So, what do you all say?! Shall we have a fun little practice bout before we get our objectives? I'll be waiting right here for any challengers! I'll try to hold back as much as I can, but I can't make any promises. Hahahahahaha!"

His laugh is loud and jolly, the same you hear from friendly bartenders and innkeepers.

"Some of us clearly didn't come here for that purpose..." Barry thinks. "But still, such a bold claim and call... he must be confident."

The giant shrinks as he laughs and disappears behind the tree tops.

"Damn!" Daren says, a smile on his face. "That has got to be one of the most impressive shapeshifters I have ever seen! He must have a lot of magical power to be able to turn into something that big!"

"Can you please heal Barry and Kate before giving him more compliments?" Rose asks politely yet urgently.

"Oh yeah, sorry," Daren says as he heals both Kate and Barry.

"Where does the blood go?" Barry thinks as he sees the once red soaked clothes be miraculously cleaned.

"Do you have no knowledge of even the basics of shapeshifting magic?" Kate asks Daren. "You can't just turn into something ten times bigger than your normal size, no matter how powerful you are. It violates the fundamental principles of shapeshifting. This was obviously an illusion."

"Oh yeah? Since you're so sure it was an illusion, could you perhaps care to explain how he managed to make such a realistic earth tremor while he was busy maintaining the illusion spell?"

"How am I supposed to know that? Maybe he has an ally that specializes in earth magic. How is that even relevant?"

Barry stares at the tree tops, and begins to rub his chin.

"Hey, I'm sure we can figure this out if we all think this through together--"

"You're both wrong," Barry says, interrupting Rose.