"Tom, can I talk to you for a second?" Korbin asked, tapping my shoulder along our trek through the rather noisy forest, our army trailing behind the 30 prisoners Cassi captured yesterday. Apparently they're touched by the Giant Demigod named Tytos, the only mage and scholar of his brothers and sisters.
Phoebe explained he was renowned as the second most passive Giant Demigod in the family, outside of Jaia herself. Much like Jaia, his brothers and sisters took advantage of his passivity, as well as his talent for manipulating multiple affinities of mana. Phoebe didn't have a lot of information on Tytos, only stories passed down by Garrin between their Pylon defenses. I looked over at Cassi, who'd been in a rather spirited discussion with Lonni for the last hour. Hayden and I walked ahead, though he swore he only wanted to catch up with me rather than distance from their bubbly cackling.
"Yeah, yeah sure." I replied. Korbin and I stepped to the side, allowing our formation to continue ahead. Hayden stepped out as well, but I waved him ahead. He nodded, hopping back into the current of soldiers marching through the forest.
"What's up?" I asked, after letting most of our troops move ahead.
"Listen, as angry as these giants may be, I need you to keep those blades of yours sheathed. I don't care if they attack me, unless I say otherwise, stand down. Are we clear?" Korbin instructed, looking at me expectantly for confirmation. I sighed, remembering how big of a proponent he was for diplomatic negotiations.
"Fine. These guys had wands on them though, I don't expect them to use brute force if they're to attack." I replied, trying my best to at least have an impact in protecting our people.
"I know. They're also a rather educated race of Giants, and will no doubt have something up their sleeve. I feel pretty prepared for whatever the fuck they have cooked up, but good catch." Korbin said, patting my shoulder and walking after our troops. Our 50 druids and human recruits leading the march had nearly made me forget the 20 towering giants watching their backside. My eyes traced over the differing races of Giants walking side by side, adopting an odd sense of pride when a powerful smack slammed into the small of my back. I stumbled forward from the force, nearly unsheathing my twinblade to retaliate when a familiar voice washed away all my wariness.
"Humans at the front, soldier!" Barry barked through a wide grin, his cleaver slung over his shoulder.
"Barry? How long have you been here?!" I asked, feeling rather concerned at not seeing him the prior 5 hours of our overnight journey for the Giants of Tytos, the 'Forsaken Scholar' Giant Demigod.
"The whole time. I tried to talk to you but, you looked busy with Korbin and the others. Besides, I'm leading our Giants squads moving forward now that Derricks is here for a while. Don't have time to bully you too much now." Barry joked, slugging me in the shoulder with his newly healed arm. At leastI assumed it was healed, though the entire arm was covered in shiny new armor from fingers to shoulder, long sharp spikes jutting out the back of his gauntlet and to the side of his shouter.
"Woah, what kind of armor classification is that?" I asked, knocking on the armor covering his bicep.
"It's technically a gauntlet. Korbin hooked me up with some TP to find armor, and well, I don't like armor. However, this felt too perfect to pass up, and I wasn't allowed to return until I had more protection, per request of my father of course." Barry explained, looking reverently at his full arm gauntlet.
"Why not get two?" I asked, curious if they could be used to assemble rather powerful armor sets.
"Too expensive. This thing ran me 8,000 TP, and I didn't really have enough to get anything worthwhile afterw-"
"8-fucking thousand TP?!" I interrupted in shock at the absurd price.
"Yes, 8,000. You act as though we all can't see you wearing well over 15,000 TP's worth of armor and weaponry at all times." Barry shot back, looking me up and down. I grinned, realizing he did have a point. I really have no room to complain about big spending, considering two of my items ran me 15,000 alone. I wasn't going to tell Barry that, though.
"Fair enough, I'm honestly just happy to have you back. Especially since it was my fault for you ever getting hurt in the first place." I said, remembering our foolishly ambitious expedition to that damned island surrounded by a massive archipelago. The Wyvern at the center island was way too strong, and we had multiple opportunities to leave it well alone. Of course, I decided we could take it, because why the fuck not?
"Don't beat yourself up too badly. Going to that island gave me a great deal of closure over my brothers, I would've happily traded another arm to know their fates." Barry replied, being oddly kind for a guy I usually enjoyed competing with, just because it fucks with him.
"Right.."
"Tom!" Cassi shouted out from ahead of us, squeezing between the giants to meet me.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked.
"The Tytos settlement's been spotted, Korbin wants you with him at the front and make sure no prisoners try to make a break for it." Cassi replied quickly.
"Didn't they sign his contract? I'm pretty sure he'd have a clause in to stop that." I pointed out, recalling the 'Randy' issue I had from one of his contracts.
"Yeah, but he doesn't want them dying in front of their people. At least before we're inside." Cassi replied, matter of factly. Part of me wished to call it crude, though brutality wasn't exactly unnecessary the last few weeks. Mincing words now just felt disingenuous.
"That's fair. Alright, I'll head back up. We got to spar soon, Barry!" I said, starting to jog ahead of the towering marching formation of giants.
"Not a chance asshole!" He yelled back, nearly making me stop and turn around. Because, why the hell not?
"Tom! Come on, hustle up." Korbin hollered, standing beside Cassi, Lonni, Derrick, Phoebe, and Hayden. How I somehow manage to be late to literally every single meeting, regardless of setting or format was starting to even piss me off.
"Sorry, catching up with Barry. You didn't tell me he w-"
"Yeah he's here now. So their settlement is only 3 miles away. Issue is, they're plopped at the center of three mountains." Korbin said, dismissing my excitement at seeing an old friend.
"Well, isn't that bad for them? We can just pepper ranged attacks and your spells at them from above, no?" I asked, recalling the casters style Korbin had slowly been adopting the last few sieges he was present for.
"Yeah, except they're mages currently standing atop the mountains surrounding every form of entrance to their settlement." Korbin pointed out, the realization we suffered the same disadvantage as their settlement does until we win a mountain.
"We could use Larry? I'd have to ride Steve Southwest until he can pick up my pings from back home?" I proposed, recalling I'd sent my land-shark back to Savants Elysium to protect trade ships until further notice.
"It'll take too long, and frankly we won't need it. I just need you, Cassi, and Steve to make sure none of these prisoners try to escape. Your presence should be enough but, worst case, just make an example out of one. Nonlethally." Korbin ordered, looking directly at me when clarifying killing was off the table. Truthfully I didn't intend on murdering unarmed prisoners but, there's no point in defending myself. Not like anyone cared anyhow.
"Got it." I said, though we didn't leave immediately.
"Phoebe, you and Becky stay in the trees further north, away from the rest of us. If shit pops off, rain hell on those filthy wizards." Korbin ordered Phoebe, who nodded and promptly hopped onto Becky and slithered off. Steve looked at me with his head turned, appearing confused at our delay.
"Lonni, Derrick, you're with me on the front lines if things get dicey." Korbin continued looking towards our tanks.
"Got it."
"Easy enough."
"And Hayden?" Korbin looked the necromancer up and down, squinting his eyes in consideration.
"You still got that Gryphon?" Korbin asked after a pause. Hayden nodded, pointing high above to his undead Gryphon perched onto one of the many massive trees filling the forests' branches.
"Good, then you go with Cassi and Tom. If any of those prisoners die, they're your responsibility to make honorary members of our forces. Be ready to provide aerial support if needed." Korbin ordered, sounding unsurprisingly comfortable in telling a new ally what to do.
"Of course, General Korbin." Hayden replied with a short head bow. Cassi's metal armor audibly shook from how hard she'd balled her fist after hearing that. The three of us hopped onto the back of Steve, who dropped us off along the backline of the 30 prisoners leading us towards the mountains ahead.
My feet planted into the tall grass waving in the wind, taking in the refreshing freedom of sight seeing a severe lack of towering trees leading up the mountain. Looking at the mixture of sluggish half-zombies and able minded prisoners walking ahead, one in particular ran from giant to giant trying to get the 'urgent' moving quicker. Curious, I approached the guy, who was actively pushing one of his allies in the back to speed their dragging limp-walk along.
"Hey, I'm pretty sure there's no reward for first place." I said from behind them. The giant flipped around urgently, peering down having immediately spotted my twinblade.
"Korbin spoke of you. I promise, I'm doing exactly what my contract requires of me." The giant quickly replied, a tinge of fear in his voice.
"Relax, I have no reason to be cruel to you. I'm just curious as to why you're doing my job for me?" I asked, avoiding any unnecessary authoritative bullshit. I'm sure they've had their fill of that by now.
"Korbin employed us all to keep each other accountable in not trying to escape, and making it up the mountain safely. I'm just…I want to live, sir." The prisoner replied, clearly choosing his words wisely. It's incredibly difficult getting used to 9-12 foot giants looking down at you with genuine fear in their eyes, though this one possessed an element of hate twitching in concert with his eyelid.
"You'll be home safe, and left unbothered by us soon. As long as your people don't try anything stupid, everyone should leave here better." I replied, hoping to cull some of this prisoners' very understandable resentment he probably harbors.
"Glad to hear it." He replied dismissively.
"What's your name, by the way? In case I need you to chase one of them down." I asked. The prisoner stood there, avoiding eye contact for a moment before reluctantly responding.
"Sam."
"Nice to meet you Sam." I said, not daring to offer a handshake. There's probably now world where this guy would want to shake hands with the captors that, from what I heard, liquified his friends' minds via madness. Supposedly the effects should wear off with enough healers and willpower, though they'd been locked into cells covered in anti mana and stamina glyphs carved into the floors. Having only health points to recover was apparently a no-go, though I can't remember ever spending either resources to heal myself.
"Yeah. Thanks uh, I got to go." Sam said, before nervously walking away. I nodded to dismiss him, seeing he was clearly afraid to just walk away. Weird guy, considering how willing he was to do as he's told.
The rest of our trek up the mountain was relatively smooth, outside of a couple crazies trying to take off here and there. Sam and a few of the other giants kept the majority of their more troubled friends in line though, making my job heading to their people a cakewalk. It was when we'd reach the top, met by a force of mages all casting different utility skills. The front line manifested different formats of shields, some being stone and fiery walls while others created clear, greyish outlines of walls. Above the crowd of hooded mages, wielding staff and wands alike rose an older giant wearing purple and black robes. The purple designs across the dark clothed robes shimmered in the light.
"I demand that your leader show themself at once." The elderly giants sternly requested. Korbin raised his hand, remaining at the back of the 30 prisoners now standing awaiting further update on their freedom status.
"Hello, Winston! I am the man of which you seek." Korbin said, in what I would consider a provokingly affable tone if it weren't for the audience. The assumed leader of these Tytos Giants hovered to the front of his forces, peeking just above their defensive spells.
"What is the meaning of this?" He asked, glancing among his people staring blankly into space.
"Your recon team wasn't so sneaky. I brought them here to ask you the exact same question." Korbin shot back. It was refreshing to see he wasn't taking the overly nice approach. Though, considering how little it worked and resulted in an all out battle, maybe his annoying kindness wasn't such a bad thing.
Winston, the confirmed leader of this settlement didn't take this accusation well, body movements becoming far more jittery at the mention of his squad.
"I…I mean that's not exactly what they were. More scouts, or representatives." Winston replied, fear seeping into his shaky voice.
"Okay! Why'd you send scouts? Why not send word, establish some mutual communication?" Korbin asked. Winston's worried demeanor turned curious at the mention of communication.
"And would you not use that to lay claim on our home? We've heard what you and your people have done, what you're capable of, and most importantly who's backing you. Make no mistake, we are a peaceful people as I'm sure you already know. That being said, no mortal wins in deals with devils." Winston replied, beginning to sound more offended than concerned. I wonder if some demon came through and pissed in his coffee or something for him to be this prejudiced to us based on association alone.
"Are you referring to my Patron? I assure you, Beloris is revered as the most lawful of all the 9 Hells. I'd like to adopt that trait, starting with a peaceful end to what would usually be a rather…aggressive alternative to negotiations." Korbin said with a welcoming smile.
"You are his chosen, no? Do you not already possess many traits similar to your new master?" Winston asked with vitriol in his hushed tone.
"Does Tytos make you call him 'master'? I thought he was a scholar, not a slaver. Listen, I'm going to make this simple." Korbin began, his smile quickly fading away.
"I have Paul. I will kill Paul unless you stand down. We don't want to hurt anyone, but your clear prejudice towards us has already dissolved majority hope for a level headed negotiation. You have 15 seconds to decide before we wipe you from the multiverse." Korbin threatened, stepping back and counting down from 15 aloud.
"What do you want?" Winston asked, his eyes wide in panic at hearing his son at risk. Korbin stopped his verbal countdown to respond.
"I just want to be friends, is that so bad?" He replied, before resuming his countdown.
"You don't want control over our Pylon?" Winston asked, sounding pleasantly surprised.
"Control? Maybe. But it's yours to officially possess, I came here prepared to set trade lines and discuss how we may genuinely assist one another moving forward. 10 seconds." Korbin answered. Winston turned back to his warriors, whispering something that each mage passed on to whoever's closest.
"Okay! If you free our people, including my son, we won't react with hostility. But, we can't help you with your little conquest." Winston answered, earning a chuckle from me under my breath.
"Why not? What's stopping you?" Korbin asked. Winston's eyes fell to the floor, a look of shame overtaking his face before responding.
"Not what, who."