Life Review Ch. 06

The pain in his body faded away and he suddenly felt weightless. He moved his fingers experimentally and found that his body obeyed without any issues. Great White removed her jaws from his neck, trickles of crimson painting her pristine white scales.

"The effects will last half a day, less the more you are active. I suggest finding medical assistance immediately should your survive," Great White hissed softly, licking her snout clean.

"Thanks," Shawn croaked, his tongue feeling sluggish in his mouth.

Great White walked back to the tunnel and disappeared from sight. Nessa crawled over to his side and pulled his face close to hers and started checking his eyes, "How are you feeling? Do you feel any sickness?"

"I can't really feel anything, actually," Shawn admitted. He felt full of energy that was bursting at the seams to get out. "I feel like I'm buzzing."

Nessa put a finger on his neck and felt his heartbeat, "Your blood pressure is through the roof, your artery is literally bulging from your neck. Your heart rate is elevated too. Your body can't sustain this, something will rupture."

Shawn took a deep breath, "Then we need to end this quickly and do something about it."

"Shawn, this could literally make your heart burst!" Nessa cried out.

Shawn stood and rolled his shoulders, his left side felt tight and his right felt oddly creaky, but they both worked. He then noticed something that had completely escaped him. He couldn't sense his own energy levels.

"Nessa," Shawn said, puzzled. "I don't know how much magical energy I have. I can usually tell, but now..."

"It's probably the effects of the venom. Your body is in an extremely excited state. That kobold mentioned a burn out in the others of her species when affected, which would lead me to believe there is a metabolic reaction too. You might be consuming yourself, in other words." Nessa's tone was nearly hysterical.

Shawn stepped out of the hole he had made when the giant smacked him through the wooden walls, "Well, I guess we need to make this quick."

Once he had extricated himself from the buildings he surveyed the scene. The giant was dancing around, trying to smash Bishop underfoot who was stabbing his sword into the wounds Shawn had created. Cassidy and Denza were jumping from rooftop to rooftop avoiding projectiles the giant was flinging towards them.

The giant himself was covered in arrows like a pincushion, with blood streaming down his face from where Shawn's spear poked out from one closed eye, the other was bloodshot and clouded with rage.

"I crush you all!" the giant bellowed.

"Shawn!" Cassidy shouted. "Are you alright?"

"Of course he's not!" Nessa shouted back, her wand already crackling with electrical energy as she began casting a spell.

Denza hopped down and sprinted to his side, taking potshots at the raging giant. She took one look at him and went pale, "I thought you were dying!"

"He was!" Nessa snapped. "I saved him and his little kobold friend drugged him."

"Shawn, stop pushing yourself!" Denza pulled an arrow from her dwindling supply and fired it at the giant's face. "I won't let you kill yourself trying to help me!"

"Seriously, guys!" Cassidy called, jumping across to a new perch, double casting orbs of fire and lobbying them at her target. "Less talking, more giant killing!"

"I have to agree!" Bishop added, nimbly dodgng out of the way. "I could really use your help here!"

"I need a new weapon," Shawn looked around for anything to use. "My magic isn't strong enough to do any real damage."

Denza narrowed her eyes, a surge of irritation pushed its way through the numbed bond between them, another interesting side effect of the venom. She took the climbing axe from her belt and pushed it into his hands. Shawn looked at his axe dubiously. It was made of carbon steel, and it did have a sharp point and blade, but would it really do anything to the giant?

Shawn shrugged, "It's better than nothing I guess."

Nessa flicked her wand and set free arcs of lightning that struck the giant in multiple places like he was the center of a tesla ball, leaving blistered burn marks on his skin. Cassidy was a blur of motion in sending out spell after spell in a blinding series of flashes that rained elemental energies down around the massive humanoid.

Shawn swung the climbing axe experimentally. He figured the axe would be classified as some sort of small sickle. He jogged forward and waited for the giant to finish his flailing and leapt forward and swung mighty at the bleeding cut in his thigh.

To Shawn's surprise, the axe bit deep and tore through the giant's flesh far easier than his spear had. The giant jerked away and snarled down at him, "I thought I smoosh you!"

"You missed!" Shawn taunted, pushing the offensive now that he had a weapon that could harm the giant.

"I no make that mistake again!" The giant roared and smashed both fists into the ground, the earth trembling at the mighty impact.

Shawn and Bishop leapt free of the impact zone. Bishop rolled his eyes at Shawn, his face covered in sweat and grime, still looking no worse for wear, "Can we stop antagonizing the creature that can easily crush us to death?"

Bishop darted forward and stabbed his sword into another smaller wound, opening it to bleed freely. The giant swatted at Bishop, but the spy had moved out of range. The giant, being on the receiving end of magic and weapons that could actually harm him, bellowed his frustration and sought out slower targets than the monk and spy harassing him.

A beach ball sized fireball crashed into the giant's back. He whirled around to glare at Cassidy, her staff filled with fire magic and the ends burning like tiki torches as she spun the weapon quickly in her hands. Shawn saw the giant bend down and pick up a large rock and wind up to throw it with all his strength.

"Cassidy, get down!" Shawn bellowed, smashing the blade of his axe into any exposed flesh he could reach on the giant to try to throw off his aim. The rock Shawn saw in the giant's fist was bigger than his head.

The giant's arm snapped forward and the rock screamed towards Cassidy who barely had time to hit the roof before the projectile blasted through the air where she had been moments before. The giant whipped around and backhanded Shawn in the chest and sent him cartwheeling through the air.

For the third time in the operation, he found himself flat on his back. He still couldn't feel any pain due to Great White's venom, but he couldn't seem to make himself breath. He groaned and rolled onto his hands and knees. He felt his bond, still numbed, flair with panic.

"Shawn!" Denza cried in alarm. She pulled her last remaining arrows from her quiver and snapped off uncanny shots that forced the giant the shield himself with his massive arms while Nessa and Cassidy hammered away at him with their magical bombardment.

Denza hopped off the rooftop she was occupying and sprinted over to him. He felt her hand on his back as he gasped for air, his chest creaking with the effort of expanding. He felt her concern and waved her off.

"Give me the axe, I'm out of arrows," Denza demanded sternly. "You need to sit the rest of this out. We can handle it from here."

Shawn tried to argue but all the came out was a ragged wheezing sound. Denza rolled her eyes at him and tore the axe from his grip. He could only watch, struggling to breathe, as his bondmate sprinted forward and began a blistering series of attacks against a foe easily three times her size. She worked with Bishop and avoided the giant's attacks. While he was busy fending off Bishop's stabbing strikes, Denza snuck around and carved the axe deep into the giant's hamstring.

As the giant fell to his knee, his leg unable to support him, Denza leapt onto his back with feline grace and started slashing mercilessly into his back and neck. The giant howled in pain and tried to throw her off. The giant's thick blood gushed from the savage rent Denza had opened just below his neck, coating his back and caused Denza to lose her footing.

Bishop closed in, aiming for soft spots as the giant was hunched over only to be swatted away in a savage opened handed slap that sent him tumbling head over heel into a nearby building, unmoving.

Nessa's yell of anger and fear was drowned out by the giant's own scream of rage, his remaining eye bloodshot with fury. He threw Denza off his back and she tumbled to the ground, barely landing on her feet. The giant's hand darted out towards Denza, who was still trying to fully regain her balance, and grabbed her in his oversized hand.

The giant trained his remaining eye on Shawn and grinned at him evilly, "You take my eye, human, I take her life!"

Denza screamed as the giant closed both hands around her chest and began squeezing. Shawn's blood ran cold and he willed his body to move, for his lungs to take in air so he could fight.

"Let her go, you rock brained inbred!" Cassidy bellowed, blasting the giant with every spell she could muster, but he ignored her efforts. Nessa added her own spells to the mix, but her focus was split in too many directions for her to have any impact.

Shawn could hear bones cracking and snapping, and Denza's agonized screams went silenced as she went limp in the giant's grip. Shawn felt his heart stop. The bond that connected him to the elf was still there, but it had begun to weaken. She was unconscious and dying. Every fiber of Shawn's being fought against itself as he struggled to find any part of his body that worked.

"Shawn!" Cassidy screeched at him, her voice full of panic and desperation. "Do something!"

"I...can't..." Shawn gasped, barely managing to move his mouth and draw breath to speak.

"Shawn!" Cassidy screamed, nearly hysterical.

"Shawn!" Nessa pleaded, tears streaming down her face. "You need to do something!"

"Shawn! Shawn!" the giant mocked him in his rockslide of a voice. "Elf meat taste good. I take my time!"

Shawn closed his burning eyes. He felt sick. He felt cold. The bond between him and Denza was diminishing quickly. He felt panic gnawing at him, his breaking heart hammering in his chest. The menu in his mind was flashing red, reminding him that he was already near death. He always wondered what being at one hit point was like for characters.

One hit point. Shawn's eyes snapped open. He still had one hit point left. If he was still alive, he could still fight. This wasn't game over. Not yet. Shawn pushed away the warnings that his menu blasted into his mind. He sluggishly pushed himself to his feet, his body fighting him every step of the way. He saw the axe, still in Denza's slender fingers. The sight filled Shawn was even more determination. Denza hadn't stopped fighting, even when all seemed lost. She still had a weapon.

"You get one shot!" Shawn called out. His voice was rough and ragged.

"One shot is enough!" the giant grinned. "Dead man walking!"

Shawn drained every last bit of energy he had left, feeling light headed and dizzy as he felt like he was trying to drain the last drops from an already empty bottle. He activated Gale intercept one last time. The wind picked him up in its buffeting embrace and carried him at breakneck speeds towards Denza.

Time slowed again. He hung in the space over the giant's outstretched arms that were crushing his elf, and the giant's gloating face. He snatched the axe from Denza's stiff fingers and draw his fist back. Time resumed and he threw the axe at the giant's head. The blade of the axe sliced deep into the giant's cheek before whizzing off behind him. The giant looked startled, but then began to chuckle as Shawn also flew past him and fell to the ground in a heap.

"You miss!" the giant taunted, dropping Denza to the ground as he started to walk over to where Shawn lay.

Shawn looked up in time to see a dark figure leap off the nearest rooftop and collide with the giant's back. The giant staggered forward, looking around in bewilderment. There was a flash of shining carbon steel and a spurt of blood fountained into the air. The giant howled in agony and danced around wildly. He tried to reach behind him with his massive arms but couldn't quite reach. Steel shined in the bright morning light and blood splashed in all directions, forming large pools on the ground.

Nessa sprinted to Denza while the giant was struggling to dislodge his attacker. With Denza being dragged away, Shawn pushed himself to his feet once more as the giant began to slow. The massive humanoid's remaining eye looked dazed and unfocused as he began to stumble before ultimately crashing face onto the ground.

"No, he didn't miss," Cassidy panted, gripping the hilt on the climbing axe.

Shawn walked over to the moaning giant and found that the loss of blood had finally caught up to him. Cassidy had leapt onto his back when his attention was focused on Shawn and finished what Denza had started. The axe was buried deep in the giant's neck, the curved blade of the pick stuck under an exposed vertebrae.

"Come on, you need to help me kill him," Cassidy said through labored breaths.

"With pleasure," Shawn snarled. He clambered onto the giant's back and gripped the handle of the axe with both hands. With a herculean effort, he and Cassidy tore the axe free while severing the giant's spine in the process.

The giant beneath them let out one last feeble gasp of pain before his life was extinguished. Cassidy collapsed onto the giant's bloody back and stared into the sky as she caught her breath.

"We did it," She said. "I thought we were toast for a moment there."

Shawn looked sadly to where Nessa was working furiously over Denza's unconscious figure, "Barely. Denza almost died and my own bravado and stupidity almost cost us dearly."

Cassidy followed his gaze with a sorrowful expression, "This power we have, it's intoxicating. I fully admit that I thought this would be a total stroll in the park. The plan was sound and killing is easy. I thought Saoirse was just an anomaly. I thought, surely there wasn't many creatures out there that were stronger than us."

"We were fighting a giant, Cassidy," Shawn snapped angrily. "A fucking giant! We have our own stories about them too. Living in castles floating in the sky, being sixty feet tall. Tricha said that this was the smallest of the giants. Let's face it, we got lucky."

Cassidy shook her head and said firmly, "No, Shawn. We didn't get lucky. We won because we are good. We accomplished what it would have taken a raiding party of masters from the guild to accomplish. We won on our own merits."

"We almost got the others killed!" Shawn exclaimed.

Cassidy got up and hugged Shawn from behind, the giant's blood squelching against their armor, "Shawn, they signed up for this. You didn't persuade them into coming. Let's be honest here.. You're angry because Denza almost died and you were powerless."

"She still might..." Shawn started to say thickly before Cassidy spun him around and smooshed his face between both hands.

"Stop being a pessimist!" Cassidy said fiercely, her eyes flashing. "She will survive. We now live in a world filled with magic. There is literally a cure for cancer in this world. It's a very complex and expensive spell, but it exists. We can control the elements. Resurrections are a commonplace thing in this world, you need remember that this is a whole new ball game."

Shawn sighed and closed his eyes, reining in his wild emotions, "You're right. Being unable to do anything...it was the scariest thing I've ever felt in my life. When you were dying back on Earth, It was an inevitable thing. Your illness was something I never had any power over...but this whole thing..."

Cassidy smiled softly and nodded, "Because if you were stronger, she never would have been hurt like that. Am I right?"

Shawn sniffed, his numb body beginning to shake, "Because If I'm not strong enough I can lose both of you now."

Cassidy crushed herself against him, resting her head on his chest, "Then we both need to get stronger. There is still so much I want to do, and I can't go around dying to some rando giant."

Shawn hiccuped as he laughed, "We didn't even know his name, that's pretty fucked up."

Cassidy joined his laughter, "We almost got killed by a nameless miniboss. That would have been embarrassing. We can't be red shirts in our own damn game."

As their mirth faded, the somber mood returned. The two of them walked over to where Nessa was fussing over Denza. The elf looked pale where she lay, her chest barely moving. Her lips and the skin around her mouth were tinged red while the rest of her complexion was almost ghostly pale.

"We need to get her to a hospital," Nessa fretted. "I've done what I can, but without the proper equipment and spells, she won't last the night."

Shawn felt his stomach drop. "Where is the nearest hospital?"

"Days away, even by horseback," Bishop answered brusquely. He seemed to wince as he moved, but otherwise alive and well.

Seeing Shawn looking him over, Bishop grinned, "The brute got me good, but nothing I can't take in stride."

"You have three broken ribs and a fractured wrist," Nessa said darkly, glaring at Bishop.

Bishop blushed but waved her off, "You've done me wonders, Nessa my dear. I'll be right as rain in the 'morrow. In the meantime, I have a Gate scroll to return me to Oculsa. I'll take it there and bring back aid."

Nessa pushed her dark hair out of her face and nervously bit her lip, "Please hurry, Bishop. Denza is deteriorating as we speak. Go, with the wind at your heel."

Bishop bowed with a flourish, Shawn barely catching the wince of pain as he moved his bad wrist. He pulled out the scroll and the now familiar spatial magic materialized into existence. The pulsating thrumming of the magic made Shawn's wounds itch something unbearable, but was soon over as Bishop vanished into the dark portal and the magic dissipated.

Shawn sat with Denza's head in his lap. He was absentmindedly stroking her hair as the numbness finally reached his brain. The next thing Shawn knew, he was being ushered away by a tall Elven man with short brown hair in a strange silver coat with a colorful crest over the breast pocket.

He sat in a daze as the man looked him over. He was vaguely aware of the Elven man asking him questions. Shawn didn't know if he answered or how, but through the fog in his mind he felt a sharp stab in his arm and the daze began to lift.

Shawn blinked slowly, shaking his head, "Wha-?"

The man's face became clear to him, and he realized the man was some sort of doctor, or whatever the Niverran equivalent was. The crest on the elf's jacket was of a wand resting under a flask that was watched over by a single eye.

"Shawn, are you with me?" The Elven doctor asked him.

"Erm, yeah. I must have spaced out for a bit there, who are you?" Shawn asked, furrowing his brow while he tried to remember the events after Bishop left.

"I would say so," The man smiled at him. "I am a physician from Oculsa. My name is Welcan. Your witch friend, Nessa, said you had been bitten by some sort of venomous kobold you made a deal with?"

"Something like that. She didn't like her boss, so she helped me get back in the fight," Shawn said ruefully.

The physician fixed him a disapproving look, "Nessa also said you were exhibiting dangerously high blood pressure and heart rate, while also experiencing numbness among other side effects?"

"That seems about right," Shawn confirmed.

Welcan sighed and shook his head, "I gave you a little something to help your body purge the venom.. I've also given you a once over. Besides the stab wounds in your shoulder and abdomen there wasn't anything life threatening. The emergency cauterization saved your life. "