Living Moutains In Snow

”I require a fork Ni-Ju, I can’t possibly eat with my fingers, I only use my fingers to eat for finger sandwiches and cookies alone.” The noblewoman said, snapping her fingers as she listened intently to the mayor’s explanation. He pointed at several locations on a map, causing her to sit up slightly and peer over the table to get a better look as to what he was marking up and pointing at.

Living mountains? Goodness gracious. There were only four of them, how could they possibly fight off giants? Especially since they practically stepped on a couple of towns and left barely any survivors. Ophelia shuddered slightly as she sipped at her tea, feeling the warm liquid rush down her throat. Just imagining what they looked like made her uncomfortable. She has had her fair share of beasts, and all of them ended up with her in a total mess, drowning in her tears and self-loathing.

”Any questions?” The mayor asked.

Currently, Ophelia didn’t know what to ask. She hoped Naraca had a plan in store for them after looking over the map of the mountainous region. The noblewoman leaned back in her seat, staring about at her guild mates before finally speaking up. ”I have no questions, but I am curious to see the fortifications you have made on the village.” She said, setting the tea cup down on the kettle as she glanced over at her butler, still awaiting her eating utensil so that she could at least fill up on a small snack before heading back out into the freezing cold and most likely get creamed by these so called ‘Living Mountains’. The villages fortifications most likely wouldn’t be enough to block off even one kick from those beasts, and since that mayor had pointed out and ocean, maybe the group had a change to chase them out into the water? If their body was mostly compromised of snow at least, which it most likely may be.

Talen leaned forwards to get a better look at the map that mayor Conner had brought out to show the group of mages the origins of the so called "Living Mountains". When he spoke of the earthquake that had presumably awakened the giants, Talen could not help but wonder how long the giants had been trapped in the mountains, years, decades, centuries? Who knew? and why? Were they trapped there by some unfortunate series of events, or had some powerful mage locked them in the cold mountains for some reason lost to time.

As the mayor spoke about the fate of the two previously attacked towns, Talen shook his head. From the sounds of it the villages never stood a chance against these mysterious giants. He wished that there had been something that he could have done to help those people, but knew that that kind of thinking was pointless now, the only thing that he could do was try his hardest to help the people of this village and stop the gradients from destroying another village, another home.

When Conner finished explaining what had happened, he asked if any of the mages had questions. Ophelia did not have a question, instead she wanted to see the defenses that the town had made to try and stop the threat. The summoner nodded his head when Ophelia finished, he too wanted to see what they had made in preparation.

Talen looked up from the mape and asked, "Have you evacuated everyone?" having grown up homeless, Talen did not really know what it was like to be attached to a place. The only place like that for him was the Lamia Scale guild hall. He did not really care if the town was destroyed as long as the people were saved.

Talen took another long drink of the warm tea. It had cooled down slightly since he had poured the cup, but it was more then enough to warm him.

"I must apologize mistress." Ni-Ju whispered, returning with a fork from the small mess kit from his bag, polishing it with a produced handkerchief, and passing it solemnly to Ophelia just in time to hear her inquire about the state of the defenses that had been erected to defend the village. As he turned his attention to the map the mayor was pointing at, several thoughts sprang to mind, chiefly among them exactly how big were these creatures and how intelligent might they be? These thoughts continued to puzzle him as he tried to imagine what would or for that matter could be a viable set of traps or defenses against a creature so large it was referred to as a "Living Mountain". The terrain offered up a plethora of options to anyone with an experienced knowledge of hunting and trapping but nothing that stood out as an ideal spot to fight something big enough to wipe a village off the map like it was just a child's afternoon playtime.

Well I guess they don't call wizards this far out for the easy jobs, now do they? Ni-Ju reminded himself, taking in the serious, or in Ophelia's case worried, faces presented by his allies. In an effort to better understand the terrain while remaining useful, Ni-Ju took it upon himself to retrieve his notebook and pen once again from his vest pocket and and begin sketching a rough copy of the map in case it was possibly needed. After all these were a fairly large set of mountains and becoming lost could easily end up getting someone in the group hurt. Finished with his sketch, Ni-Ju stopped to look over the resulting drawing, adding in a few small details he had missed as they presented themselves. Finding it a close enough approximation to the original, he slipped his pen inside his notebook and promptly stuffed it back into his vest pocket. Everything now in order, Ni-Ju resumed his place behind Ophelia and waited for Talen or Naraka to take the lead.

Naraca closely observed and listened to all the mayor had to say of what they had happened from the first sign of this anomaly to today. His two fingers wrapped round his chin and his eye's narrow as he scrutinized the map and the details of the 'Living Mountains' movements and actions. The entire Glacier Mountain area had some strategic value with it's vast surrounding mountains and thick weather. Area's like this were pretty good for keeping anything that you wanted hidden unseen, and it was typically a lot tougher to send ground troops over to places like this. He did make note of the location of the ocean. It would be much easier to just shove these thing in the water, that is if there was able to cover at least 15 miles of snow, ice, and possible glaciers from the village to the water.

Naraca leaned forward and hung over the map partly, studying the movement patterns of where exactly the monsters were moving and how.

Earthquakes come from the south

Groaning to the east

A village called Jackville destroyed.
Naraca's kept a bit of a longer gaze on the circle where the former Jackville was marked. Why that town? From the looks of it on the map, it was much smaller so if it was a planned attack then it would make sense if whatever was doing might have been trying to start slow and work it's way up. But then why all the noise? It couldn't be planned, it was a mere three days before the city was found. To which the trail actually leads close to the village Naraca and the others were in now, only for it to veer off and attack some smaller encampment. A smaller place, easier to destroy and clean up that has three survivors whereas Jackville had none?

Afterwards the monsters run off to some large mountains only to cross a river that can only lead them in a circle? There was just no way this was planned...Naraca might even guess this didn't even have Mal-intent. So now they can only go to an ocean or to the village. They had to assume it was the village, in which case...

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After explaining the situation Conner was hit with his first question. It came from Posh girl.

"We...Don't have much here sadly, we're a simple mining village. What we've been able to do so far is erect walls on the main bridges. Luckily, between the bridges lie a river that judging from there trail, would fall in and be washed down to the ocean." He said somewhat nervously.
"Other then that...Well we don't have much other then guards towers in key structures. But to be honest this is why we called you, we don't have the equipment to fight monsters like this" He added in.
The man with the keys asked his question, if they had evacuated everyone. Conner nodded his head in reply.
"Yes we've evacuated all the civilians to a safe place. All we have is just a skeleton crew of all personnel and just a handful of soldiers. I we had more but...Well after the word got out about these things not many people wanted to stay" He explained.

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Naraca continued to listen, those were good questions, however there defenses would likely only about the equivalent of a gust wind with some dust in it. It was good everyone was evacuated, in case the fight got taken to the village, at least no one would get hurt...Although it was no doubt preferred that no one would be coming back to a destroyed home. He had to come up with a plan of action, something they could do to either push these monsters back or perhaps kill them. If they really mountains though...Could you kill a mountain? He needed more information. He looked for where his heard Conner said they found tracks that lead to a river.
"These tracks here, what did they look like exactly?" Naraca asked Conner and placed his finger on the red oval where the tracks were marked.
"It was hard to tell" Conner replied
"They were...Well quite hard to track to begin. They looked like the footprints of a colossus size but very hard to follow...Kind of like drunk men standing around. They were three sets of prints each I believe" He explained somewhat slowly as he was trying to remember the reports of how the tracks were described.
"So they walk on legs then, two legs each" Naraca assumed
"Yes I believe that's safe to say"
Naraca nodded his head and took another moment to look at the map.
Conner thought to himself for a moment as well.
"Now that I think about it...I think it was described that they had arms as well" Conner remarked.
"Giants then" Naraca said.
"I guess so"

If these things were in fact just giant humanoid type monsters then they might have a chance here.
"Alright, for the looks of it they'll be coming on towards the southwestern area here" He pointed towards the edge of the village gates by there western bridge. Around the south and western side was a deep trench that lead to a large river that lead to an ocean.
"The bridge here, can it be removed?"
"We can fold it yes" Conner replied
"Alright, you'll want to concentrate what forces you have on the walls here." Naraca explained, circling his finger around the map are before he remembered he spotted an orange felt pen. He took it, uncapped it and made a circle with three X's in the wall, marking it as where soldiers would be.
Conner's eye's shifted between Naraca and the map for a moment as he began to draw on it.
"W-why would you say just there?" Conner asked.
"These Giants are panicking" Naraca replied.
"What?"
"The giants came in from the far south, move east to Jackville, then back west to the ocean. You say the tracks were hard to read, like a drunk man walking. I don't believe these things have any idea where they're going. They're just stumbling around. Jackville and that camp just so happened to get in there way" Naraca informed him, speaking to his team as well as Conner.
"These things are strong, but I don't think they know what they're doing. So long as we play this right I don't think this will be a hard fight." Naraca said reassuringly and with confidence.
"You really think so?" Conner asked curiously, sounding somewhat excited.
"Yeah, now you three, I have an idea." He said, looking towards Talen, Ophelia and Ni-Ju.

"Ophelia, you and I are going to be here" He looked to make eye contact with Ophelia before he'd point to the southwestern area that was...Right in front of the walls and where the giants will be coming.
"We'll be in the air to confront these things directly when they come, but we're gonna have some help" He said with a small half smile before looking towards Ni-ju.
"Ni-ju you...Heh, your roll with probably be the most important. I'd like for you to set your explosive traps in these locations" He explained before drawing several small orange X's on different parts on the ground, by the map they were structurally weak parts of the ground.
"Talen, I'd like it if you could stay behind the walls with the soldiers and use your summons to help me and Ophelia in the fight. Your the highest rank, which is why if something goes wrong, you'll be by the wall ready to act"

After explaining this he leaned back and looked at the three of them.
"What do you think?"

”Thank you, I knew I could rely on you, dear.” Ophelia cooed, giving the boy a nod of approval before picking away at her tart, taking small bites while she listened to Naraca and the Mayor speak.

Those snow giants -whatever the hell they were-. Those things were panicking, although Ophelia thought otherwise, however she didn’t bother saying anything and merely nibbled on her tart. After Naraca’s explanation on the giants, he then began to tell them their plan.

I have to fight those things head on? She thought, merely nodding as the man glanced over at her. The noblewoman gripped both ends of her fork and bent it under the table out of frustration. ”The plan sounds fine.” Ophelia said, giving the group a small smile before setting the fork on the table. Quickly, she cleared her throat and looked over at Ni-Ju. ”I’m done with my tart, Ni-Ju, get me another cup of tea.”

She enjoyed the comfort of the lounge, and wanted to stay just a little longer until every was completely aware and sure of what they were supposed to do, but that most likely wouldn’t be possible. Ophelia leaned forward and placed a hand on her cheek, her elbow propped up against the edge of the table to that she was able to rest her head. The life of a mage was surely an aggravating one. ”Add sugar to it if you can, or honey, anything to make it taste less like murky water. Oh, can you also clean up this mess? Thank you again dear.” The noblewoman added, using her free hand to point at the empty ceramic cup and the plate. Ophelia wasn’t necessarily a selfish woman she was just rather lazy, especially when it came to jobs... Her stereotypical rich girl behavior often got her into trouble.

For now, she remained quiet until everyone had agreed on their role. Her legs were crossed on her lap as she changed sitting positions, removing her hands from the able as she leaned back onto the chair, both of her hands resting on the arms of the comfy chair.

Talen nodded when the mayor said that there were only a few members of the town remained. That meant that he could focus more on defending the village and less on protecting someone who was unfortunate to be caught in the cross fire.

Once Naraca had finished explaining his plan to the group, Talen sat up and looked at the map. He had to admit it was a good plan, force your opponent to go where you want them, where you have troops and bombs waiting. Then have your heavy hitters attack from above. Just in case they managed to escape towards the city, you had your strongest guy waiting. it all made seance, except for one minor part. "Naraca," Talen said, facing the veterans, "I think you may have made a mistake, if memory serves Ophelia can only use her magic when she is touching the ground. If that is the case, she would have to be on the ground fighting where Ni-Ju's explosives are." Talen glanced over to Ophelia before continuing. "I am sure that she could exade the explosives well enough, but maybe we should come up with a slightly different plan." Talen thought for a moment, "maybe have her help the guards we have at the wall."

Talen had never been great at tactics, Melissa had always been the one to make plans when he was growing up. The spirit was good at making elaborate plans, and she had tried to teach that to Talen, with little to no success.

Talen turned to Naraca once more, "I still like the plan, but I just thought I should point that out." Talen sat back and took another sip of tea. "Also, which of my spirits do you want to take with you? I would recommend one of my medium level summons just so that I still have the energy to summon a powerhouse if one of them manage to get through." Talen leaned back in his hair and sipped his tea. "I would recommend either Melissa or Aello, they are both good offensively, and, just as important, are likely to listen to you orders."

Talen thought back to the first mission he had with Naraca, Artemis had almost completely ignored Naraca. It would not be good if that happened during the fight to come.

Ni-Ju listened intently as Naraca laid out the details of his plan to defend the village. As Naraca finished speaking, He watched as his mistress agreed to the plan with the small smile that he was quickly learning meant she wanted to punch something before asking him to fetch another glass of tea.  Stepping out from behind her, Ni-Ju made his way a short distance across the room to the tea service and began wiping out another glass when Ophelia asked him to add something sweet to the tea and take care of the mess. Taking it all in stride, Ni-Ju dropped a large dollop of honey into the glass and gently mixed it together before taking it back and setting it on the table in front of her.

While Ni-Ju moved around the room and took everyone's discarded glasses, Talen spoke out bringing up several valid points that got him thinking about his own roll in the coming fight. "Exactly how big do you want these explosions to be sir?" He queried, unsure of the reactions of Naraca and Talen whom he had never worked with before. "If I have the time to gather a small amount of supplies and set them up at the locations you've shown then I can probably turn a decent sized area to slag on command but I feel I must mention that I will have to have a decent vantage point in order to do so." Ni-Ju added, taking care to keep his voice as confidant as possible so that the others might disregard his age and believe he actually knew what he was talking about. "Also, in addition to the the three traps you had in mind I was thinking of setting up an extra trap that is a bit smaller a little past each of the locations so that if everyone has to fall back for any reason we have a distraction to get away under.". Finished with his two cents worth, Ni-Ju retook  his normal position to wait and see what if any changes were going to be added to the plan.

The plan seemed to be well received, however Talen spoke up with his opinion on it. Pointing out a clear flaw. Naraca's brow furrowed as he heard Ophelia would actually be useless in the air. Her rock based magic only worked when she had rock nearby which she could use. So her magic must have been similar to earth form, only being able to use the rock itself and not able to take any with her.
He was relieved to know that now, better he knew now then when the time came and they had to fight the giants.
"I still like the plan, but I just thought I should point that out." Talen last said before Naraca would reply.
"Very well, Ophelia we can have you behind the wall with Talen then. There's plenty of rock you can use behind the wall where you could help the guards behind the wall with fire support" He explained, speaking of course of how she could be helping the guards as they would be shooting what weapons they had at the giants from the wall.

Naraca didn't exactly like the idea of fighting the giants head on with no one else with him. They still didn't know how many there was, and flying around and trying to dodge would could be several giants at once as well as projectiles from the soldiers by the wall, it would just be cutting it too close.
Talen asked which of his spirits should be used, suggesting his medium level summons. That meant his C-rank keys. The first thing he remembered was Artemis and her dislike of him, and all humans for that matter. Her archery wouldn't be a decent addition but he wanted to spread around there methods of attack to more then just shooting from the wall. These giants took down two villages already, they no doubt tried to fight them with guns. So naturally arrows wouldn't do much.
There was a spirit which he had yet to meet but he heard about named Melissa. She was a card user, one that had a fire spell. Against ice that would indeed be useful and probably the most damaging ranged attack they'd have.
Then there was Aello, a harpy with wind magic, and more importantly a flying type. Her wind magic wouldn't be quite as effective, but with both him and her in the air at once, with the giants perhaps looking to her as he dealt powerful blows...That could work. Just having someone else in the air so they could better control where the Giants went would mean a lot for landing good strikes and leading them into traps and gunfire.
That sounded like a plan then.

"Aello would be best, she can help me lead the the giants into traps and keep them away from the walls." He replied to Talen.

Ni-Ju now replied about the traps, how big they were to be and his own idea. Naraca looked over to him, the boy who was still standing and servicing Ophelia when she called for him. Naraca smiled a very small smile, more like a twitch of the corners of his mouth really.
"You'll be putting down a lot more then just three traps." He told Ni-ju, looking down at the area he marked, the X's showing the whole area that he intended to be rigged with explosives rather then just where the X's were themselves.
"I'd like for the whole battle ground to be covered as much as possible, enough so that if we have to we can sink them all down into the ice." He added, drawing another circle around the circle that had the X's on it, showing that basically the whole area where they would lead the giants would be like a minefield. So needless to say, the option to fall back would be possible as falling back would just lead the giants into more traps. He considered for a brief moment that they should set traps inside the village in case the giants got in. But the mission as a whole was to protect the village, so much so that even a little damage would come out of there rewards for this job, so it was better to leave the village untouched and just focus on garenteeing that they wouldn't come inside. Even if the did, Talen and Ophelia would be there, and Naraca and Aello could get there very quickly.
He would be the first to admit he didn't fully like the plan as it basically hindered on a chance that the giants would be coming in the southwestern area. If they didn't do this though they would be spread to thin then they wouldn't be able to do a thing otherwise.

"It's not the best plan in world, but so long as the giants come to the southwestern wall, this should work. So should we get started?" He asked, not asking for permission but more so just confirming that they could begin preparations.

Ugh, it was good that Talen had managed to point out the major flaws in Naraca's plans. Thankfully Ophelia wouldn't have to do much, and that made her relax quite a bit. [color:0044=#aquamarine]"That is much much better." The noblewoman nodded in approval and watched as her butler left to retrieve the tea that she needed for relaxation. She graciously took the cup from the table when he set it down and took small sips, blowing at the hot air that rose from the sweet scented tea. She inhaled deeply before leaning back in her sofa and releasing a small content sigh… If only she could spend forever in this chair, but sadly she had a job to do, and that was to maintain peace across Fiore. ”Ugh, what a bother.” The girl muttered, setting the tea cup back down and using both of her hands to push her curly orange hair away from her face and behind her ears, the tips of her lobes still red from the frozen environment she was placed into earlier.

Plan this, plan that, plan plan plan. Blah blah blah, there had to be a plan with everything and it all made Ophelia exhausted. Complaining wouldn’t do her much in this situation, she was already in too deep, and sadly couldn’t get herself out of the whole she had dug into.

No matter, at least there was the experience bit to this mission? New lands, more trinkets to collect, and it would be nice to stack knick-knacks onto Ophelia’s empty shelves.  By the end of this task, she half-heartedly expected to get at least a small souvenir, maybe a bobble-head to bring home, but due to the town’s overall income and soon to be damage, she was most likely going to leave with a bottle of spring water.

The noblewoman picked her tea cup back up and resumed drinking it until the murky colored liquid was gone and the ceramic cup was empty.

Talen sat back and listened to Ni-Ju as he said what he could do with his explosives. Talen did not know much about such things, other then you did not want to be standing where the big boom was going to be, but saying that you can "turn a decent sized area to slag on command" sure sounded impressive to the summoner.

As Naraca explained the revised plan to the mages, Talen nodded slightly. Having Ophelia as part of the last line of defense would be really useful, if any of the giant managed to get past Naraca and Ni-Ju's traps. Talen doubted that they would have to fight, but it was better safe then sorry.

When Naraca said that he wanted to work with Aello, Talen shook his head a little, he had not summoned her since the battle with Zuo, and he doubted that she had changed much in that relatively short time.

Talen reached for the keys at his waist, grabbing one of the many silver ones and holding it up. He figured now was as good as any time to summon her, she needed to know the plan as much as anyone else, and there was no way to know exactly when the giants would arrive, so the sooner they all knew what to do the better. Besides, it would be better for her to get the flirting out of her system now, and not during a fight.

"Gate of the Harpy, I open thee, Aello!" a doorway to the spirit world opened, and the harpy made her way out, a slightly annoyed look on her face. "You don't summon me for a long time, and when you finally do, it's in such a cramped place. It's enough to make a girl feel unwanted!" the harpy said with a theatrical sigh. She looked around the room, her eyes lingering on each person in turn, however her gaze was slightly shorter on Ophelia then the rest. She smiled and walked over to Ni-Ju, smiling the whole way. "Well aren't you cute," Aello said to the mage, "Aello, I didn't bring you here to flirt," "I know, but why can't I multi task?" "Focus," Talen said in an exasperated voice "We need you to help Naraca," Talen pointed to the mage, "fight some giants." "Oh fine, you're no fun anyway." She walked over to Naraca, somewhat awkwardly, due to the fact that she did not like to walk if she could ever avoid it.

The Harpy looked the man up and down appraisingly, finally saying, "I have no problem with this," "Aello..." but before Talen could finish, she cut him off, "don't worry, I'm just... getting more acquainted with him is all." Aello warped on of her wings around Naraca, holding him close. Talen just rolled his eyes.

The summoner turned his attention to the rest of the people gathered, and asked "Is there anything else that we need to know before the fight?" this was meant to be an open question for anyone to voice concerns before they started preparations for up come fight.

Finding the plan pretty much laid out to everyone's satisfaction, Ni-Ju decided it would be a good idea to get started on gathering the materials he would need for his part. "Please excuse me." He announced just as Talen's newly summoned companion began getting better acquainted with Naraca. Ni-Ju dropped a quick bow before turning around and making his way across the room and back through the door to the hall. Once out in the hall alone he could barely keep from bursting out into what could be construed as truly awful song. Finally a chance to be useful that doesn't involve bringing drinks for someone!

Ni-Ju exited the Town Hall back into the frozen streets of the village as quickly as possible with thought given to the time constraints placed on the Lamia Scale mages and began his search for materials. A couple of discarded burlap sacks made for carrying vegetables were found next to one of the village's wells and the surrounding houses yielded a plethora of various sized icicles ripe for the picking. Fifteen minutes of frenzied gathering had one of the sacks bursting at the seams with its load of scavenged ice shards. With that done Ni-Ju left the filled bag to lean next to the front door of the Town Hall and went in search of small stones to fill the second bag.

With the excitement of the impending battle starting to wear thin He couldn't help but review all of the myriad of possible ways that even the most carefully laid plan could have go wrong. Ni-Ju had only faced something this large on one occasion and that with a decent sized chunk of the guild with him. But then again theoretically his detonations should be just as effective as anything else against something so big and probably quite a bit better then some magics would fare if his estimate of the creatures toughness was anywhere near correct. Shrugging off his train of thought, Ni-Ju began picking stones from the snow with a renewed vigor.

The plan felt solid now, it was a good start for an unknown enemy whom they only knew was large and probably panicked. Beyond that, they should have had everything well prepared for any possible mishaps with the plan. They had to keep the Giants out of the village all together, apparently even a little damage was gonna come out of there rewards for completing this mission. The main battle field had to be outside the village walls.
Naraca wasn't really worried when it can to this fight, he felt confident in the plan and any new developments that came up they could deal with just so long as the giants remained on the mine field and not inside the village. The only thing he didn't like was how little he knew about these things. These giants levels villages, crashed through solid houses and buildings. They were strong alright and very capable of killing people. These villages had to have fought them, they weren't cave men, they must have had weapons, guns, cannons, vehicles. These things had to be tough enough for there bodies to crash through buildings and be able to survive whatever resistance the towns must have given them.

Talen had pulled out his key and opened the gate for Aello the step through. The moment he saw what stepped through he suddenly remembered how Aello acted. He sighed and put one hand on his forehead, his fingers rubbing into his skin.
She eye'd Ni-ju who quickly left the area to begin preparations for the setting the mine field. No doubt the boy was doing himself a favor in leaving the boy would hit on by a harpy woman. He wasn't sure on the boy's relationship life, but he'd bet that Ni-ju would want a human girl to start things off before getting...Creative.

His finger tips grazed down his face and into the thick stubble just above his jaw. He was looking forward to the, oh! No wait there it was.
A weight depressed into the couch cushion beside him and a soft, feathery arm went around his broad back. The span of the wing covering his back in a blanket of feathers. He kept his eye's forward and a displeased look on his face as he felt Aello's body snuggle in closer to him. He simply ignored it for the time being.

"Is there anything else we need to know before the fight?" Talen asked.
"I've told you all I know" Conner replied simply.

"Good" Naraca replied, quickly standing up on his feet and therefore removing himself away from Aello's arm.
"In that case lets get back out there and get things set up. Conner if you'll come with me we can get to work on fortifying the southwestern wall" He said rather rushed, as if he was late to go somewhere.
"Of course, I'll just get my coat" Conner replied, getting up from his chair and walking to the coat hangers.
Naraca followed and put his coat on followed by grabbing his sword and going back outside to begin setting up.

___________________________________________________________________

Hours had passed and what was apparently day before, had now turned to night. The entire outside of the village would be pitch black were it not for the white lamps and street lights that illuminated the darkness of this glacier. The weather was calm, a faint chilling breeze but certainly not as bad as it was when they were just arriving in. The whole village looked like a ghost town. Black windows in all the houses and shops, only a few inside lights on by a few people that stayed just to maintain the village itself. Snowflakes slowly fell from the star studded sky. Stars of all shapes and sizes lit up the atmosphere and upon looking up you could make out all kinds of shapes and designs with how many there way. The clouds barely were able to cover the radiance of the white jewels that twinkled in space like little pinholes into heaven.
Everywhere in the village was quiet and dead, like no one had ever lived here. The southwestern wall wasn't even all that different. There were soldiers manning the much larger, fortified wall made of metal and concrete, all of whom were carrying rifles or manning larger automatic machine guns. There were two watch towers, both with large spotlights that were off for the moment, although every 15 minutes they were both turned on so the soldiers could scan the area for any signs of movement or changes in the environment. Despite all this, all the planning was actually finished, and now all everyone had to do was wait, and thus it was quiet. A few distant echos of talking from other soldiers or pings and clangs of metal were about all noises that were being made.

The wall was as high and as strong as the village could make it, which was about 30 feet high. The entire ground where the wall was facing was laced with Ni-ju's explosive mines for almost a mile long, enough to collapse the entire icy ground into the ice cold river that was in between the wall and the snow ahead.
Naraca was inside one of the watch towers with his back leaning against the cold, concrete wall. He stood patiently beside the spot light outside, unaffected by the cold and like a guard dog. It was warm inside the watch tower office, but he chose to remain outside for the time beside the spotlight.
There were no sign of the Giants yet, but he was ready, just like he knew everyone else was.

Oh great, another woman would be joining them on their adventure... Woman, beast, whatever that bird thing was supposed to be. No matter, Ophelia still felt like the top girl in the group, a magical bird monster won't hurt her self esteem not one bit. "Can we just get moving already?" She snapped, crossing her arms as she grew tired of their bickering. Naraca was an old coot anyways, why would that she-harpy be into such a homeless wacko?

She stood up from her seat and snatched her coat from the coat rack and headed out the door with the rest of the gang, paying no mind to the dialogue between the group.


The plan was finally being put to use. The small team left the warm building, making her dread the consequences of staying in the bitter cold. It made her wonder how the villagers were able to live in such cold climates. As her face came into contact with the soft winds she cringed and moved towards the wall were she would remain there with Talen. "What a bother..." She whispered to herself as she wrapped her arms around her waist. The girl exhaled softly and watched as her breath rose into the air into a thick cloud and dissipate.

Soldiers squabbled about at a quick pace, to prepare for the upcoming attack while she stood there with a watchful gaze. Any time will be a good time for an attack... Let's just get this over with already... Out of sheer annoyance she bit her bottom lip and did a small dance, the dance was mostly to keep herself warm and active, but it did help her vent slightly. The cold seemed to have quite the affect on her mood, and made her crankier than she usually would be, which may or may not have a positive affect on her fighting and teamwork this night. Her eyes averted to her feet, then at the soldiers, then towards the sky as she hopped up and down.

Talen raised an eyebrow as he watched Ophelia as she jumped up and down. He was not surprised that she was doing it, he was wondering weather it was from the cold or nerves . The two mages had been told to wait and guard the town just in case any of the giants managed to get past Naraca, Aello or Ni-Ju. Although He knew this was an important job, Talen could not help but feel worried about the others. If anything happened, he would be to far away to help. Talen shook his head thinking, I need to trust them, they are all Lamia Scale mages, they can handle themselves.

Aello was in a bad mood. Talen had summoned her to a frozen wasteland from the comfort of her home of the Spirit World. Instead of flying around with Okypete, she was out here, waiting to fight some giants as her feathers froze. Talen owes me something extra special after this, Aello thought too herself as she flew a bit further from the town they were protecting. The harpy had yet to see anyghing of real intrest so far, a few wolves here and there and a few other smaller animals. The cold was starting to really get to Aello as well. At first Aello had been complaining about the cold just to complain, but it was really starting to get to her, she did not wear much clothing and her feathers were only so warm.

Aello sighed and landed on a pine branch, the tree shaking slightly with her waight, and she huddled up against a particularly strong gust of wind. This sucks! the spirit thought shivering.

Suddenly the tree shook with something that was not the wind. Aello looked around for the source of the shaking, but was unable to see anything. Curious, Aello flew up to see what was going on. In the distance she saw three blurry objects approaching the town. The ground started to shake once more, and Aello excitedly flew back towards town. This must be them, she thought excitedly.

When the harpy reached where Naraca was waiting she shouted excitedly, "they are coming!! They are coming!!!" Finilly, soon I will be going home.

Ni-Ju's mind was wandering as he sat waiting in the small stone backed deer stand that had been found for him to work his magic from. For some reason he couldn't get his mind off of the the harpy women that Talen had summoned. Her feathers were easily among the most beautiful he had ever seen in a lifetime of bird watching but that was the least of it. Something about her just captured his interest in a way that had him blushing and looking around to see if anyone had noticed despite the fact he was alone in the blind. Thinking back to when she had teased him during the planning session in the Town Hall, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed at his inability to say so much as a word in greeting.

Lost in thought, Ni-Ju didn't even notice as a herd of deer crossed in front of the blind, followed by a teeming mass of every type of forest creature he had ever seen and a few he hadn't. From the direction they were fleeing from a great booming noise began to emanate through the trees as if the world had suddenly gained a tremendous heartbeat that was steadily getting faster. From out of the darkness the shape of something just a shade lighter then the night around it towered over the treeline, the force of it's footsteps rocking the ground as it passed through the woods as if stepping through some bushes. Getting his first real view of an actual giant rocked Ni-Ju to his core. How could any creature ever manage to get to that size before someone got scared and tried to kill it. And what in the name of all that is holy would something like that eat.With a sickening sensation in the pit of his stomach, Ni-Ju came to the sudden realization that it most likely ate small mages that pissed them off and got between them and what they wanted. Ni-Ju waited nervously until the bell strewn line he had set began to ring, signaling that the giant was about to pass the first of his planned detonation sites when he whispered a final prayer for good luck. The first of the giants brought it's foot down almost directly on top of one of his prepared bags when he loosed the first macro detonation, unleashing a devastating series of blasts that tore the giant's left foot from its body and sent it toppling. With that first blast the fight to save the village had finally begun.

OOC:

HP:100%
MP:88%

Macro used in this post is of the Earth variety. The targeted bag contained 5 stones detonating for C-Rank damage each. (Damage is equivalent to one A-rank spell and one C-Rank)

(OOC: Auto-rolling the boss upon staff permission)

"So...Y-you really think Giants are gonna come here?" The soldier on the spotlight beside Naraca asked as he looked up at the human giant, breaking the silence and his train of thought.
Naraca's head stayed turned to his left, towards the outside where the tree's were in front of the mine field. Yet his eye's turned to the soldier, catching sight of him in his peripherals before looking back out at the faded shapes of trees underneath the thick darkness of the night.
"Yeah" He replied dryly before swallowing.
"Oh..." The soldier nodded quietly.
"And uh...You're really a wizard?" The soldier asked curiously.
"Yeah"
"Wow...That's really cool" The solider said with a smile, looking back to where he was pointing the spotlight, putting it back on it's proper search pattern.
"I always wanted to be a wizard, but I wasn't born with any magic. But wizards still always fascinated me, I wanted to be just like them, being hero's, saving the world, protecting people and all that good stuff ya know?" The solider explained, his eye's staying where he was pointing the search light but clearly doing it out of routine while his mind actually was looking back through his past.
Naraca now turned his head to the man, or no...Boy rather. He barely looked over 20, someone that must have joined the military here just recently. The boy wore heavy clothing but from his stature and the thinness of his neck he could see the boy likely grew up the small, or puny one of the group.
"So that's why you joined the military" Naraca assumed for him.
The boy turned his head to Naraca, eye's looking surprised that the wizard had asked him that and acknowledged him. He looked at Naraca for two seconds with glance that spoke of a warmed heart before he turned back to his spotlight, a grin plastered on his face.
"Yeah...I mean I just...I wanted to do something ya know? Something to help...Even if it is just...Turning around a big flashlight like this" He explained solemnly before laughing a little to himself at his sorta half joke.
Naraca nodded his head in understanding of the boy's desire and his reason for being here now. He saw a bit of himself in the boy, the desire to help, to give back in someway.
"What's your name?" Naraca asked the boy whom he no longer felt like knowing as just 'boy'
"Jackie...Jackie Payton" He replied, turning his head back to Naraca.
Naraca nodded his head at the name and took his back off the support beam of the watchtower.
"You're just as good as any wizard Jackie" He told him, keeping his eye's on him now, the light blue eye's the boy had.
"Wha? But-"
"Being a mage isn't about magic, it's not even about the fighting or the heroics. It's about doing 'your' best, not the worlds best."
Jackie was speechless, yet his mouth was closed and his eye's were narrow, taking it in.
"A good soldier doing his best is exactly what a mage does, there own best. You holding this spotlight is your job, which means that you're doing exactly was any wizard is doing, there best." Naraca explained, feeling a bit of what he felt like when he was about Jackies age. Being a solider, and doing all he could to help his country.
Jackie seemed to be feeling moved, but then he smiled and scoffed.
"Hah...Even if I'm just pointing this light at those giants while you're out there fighting them head on?" Jackie asked jokingly as he compared both his job and Naraca's job in this coming battle.
"I can't fight blindly in the dark Jackie, I'll need you to keep the light on them so I can see. I'll be counting on you" He replied, placing his hand on Jackie's small shoulder.
Jackie's shoulder tensed from Naraca's touch yet he smiled and looked up at the man before nodded his head.
"I won't let you down...Thank you"

"They are coming!! They are coming!!!" Aello yelled, almost screamed as she flew towards Naraca. The motion of her wings silhouetted in the darkness before they took shape as she got closer. The shout also startled Jackie and the spotlight shook side to side briefly.
He looked up towards her as she flew closer, yet the sinking feeling in his stomach brought his gaze down almost to his boots as he had to deal with the sad reality that his theory was right. The giants were real and they were coming right for the village.
He looked towards where the alarm bell was, even though he knew the alarm man heard Aello, he still made it know.
"They're here!!! Sound the alarm!!!" Naraca shouted with a booming voice that traveled right to the alarm man's ear drums.
The alarm triggered the reactions of all the working soldiers on the wall as they all double-timed there walks and movements on or around the wall.
Naraca reached up and wrapped his gloved hand around his great sword, pulling it up and out of it's big sheathe. He then turned back to Jackie for a moment who had a look of fear in his eye's.
"Stay strong Jackie, and keep that light on them. Do that and you can tell everyone you were a hero who slayed giants" He told Jackie, followed by patting the man's shoulder with his hand.
Jackie simply smiled and nodded, his attention turning back to the spotlight as he held the handles that turned the light more determined then ever.
Naraca lifted his leg up and put his foot on the ledge of the watchtower and lifted himself up, and over the edge, but instead of falling he ascended up into the air like he was standing on an invisible elevator. He rose up, then flew back a few feet to stand on the roof of the watch tower.
"Aello, with me" He told her, basically saying to come beside him and stay with him for now, even if they had to move.

He looked out into the darkness, his eye's scanning the trees for any signs of disturbances. Be it movements of the tree's themselves or birds flying away. Yet it wasn't the nature he had to pay attention to in order to get the first sign that they were near. Instead, it came first as a hard rumbling of the ground. Like a pulsing earth quake that came in small, but heavy waves. The ground shook underneath the weight of whatever was coming. It was shortly after that, that there came the clear sign nature was afraid.
Jackie, ever on the ball with his spotlight was the first to notice a few snow rabbits hopping through the snow in the opposite direction of the source of the booming quakes. Naraca then noticed them as well, he was proud of Jackie for noticing them so quickly since right after the rabbits came deer, then moose. Wolves then followed, even some glacial wolves that seemed to show no interest in the running meals that were just a few feet from them. No, they all wanted the same thing right now. And that was to get away from the increasingly more powerful booms.
The tree's then all moved to either side, like there was something pushing them aside like someone shouldering there way through a crowd of people that stood in place. Was it just one? Naraca thought. Did these things split up maybe or was this one just moving faster then the others?
Either way, the Giant finally revealed itself. The first sign of it, were two little blue lights that looked more like symbols. Yet he quickly realized they were eye's.



The first Giant lumbered it way through the last of the tree's. It's body was massive, wide like a wall of it's own and arms that were bigger then the tree's they shoved aside like twigs. it's arms were longer, and bigger then it's legs. Legs that had thighs, yet below the knee's were curved like horses back legs. The entire body was covered in a thick fur that might have been a dark green color, yet was lost due to the frost and snow that decorated it's entire body. It was completely snow layered, looking like it had just rolled down a hill of snow it had ice frosted over what looked like...Armor? Yes...It looked like it had a pauldron on it's left shoulder. In fact, it's face was actually solid as well, the eye's even looking more like lights rather then natural eye balls. It's lower body and legs even had armor that was covered with ice and snow. Hard to see at first, but the spotlights gave what little glimmer was left in the stone that was on it's body. He began to consider something that both intrigued him, and scared him. If this thing wore armor, and was indeed holding in it's right hand what looked like a club...Could these things be intelligent?

The Giants head turned to the wall, a wall that the Giant stood taller then by 30 feet. It walked not quite towards it, but looked more like it was turning to walk beside it. Naraca was already thinking he was wrong about something. This thing didn't look like it was panicking...No...it looked almost nonchalant, or aloof.

A loud explosion ignited underneath one of the Giants feet once it took another step. One of Ni-ju's mines, Naraca winced at the result. It was a good explosion, but he was questioning his judgement on just what this things intentions were. The Giant slowly fell to it's knee and landed one knee, while the Giant club it was holding was placed into the snowy surface and propping it up. A low rumble, like a bass growl came from the Giants throat as it fell to it's one knee. It's head looked down at it's injury. It then looked back towards the wall with it's eye's now glowing red.
It reeled its head back, like it was looking up to the sky. However it's head snapped forward towards the wall and it's body bent forward like it was going to spit on the wall, yet it was no spit that came out of it's mouth, but instead a massive blast of pure white air with blue streak lines shot out from it's mouth like a tornado pointed right towards them.
Naraca's eye's widened at the site and recognized it as an attack.
"Get down!!!" He barked while turning his head to the soldiers that were standing along the wall on guns and turrets.

Some of the soldiers reacted quickly and dropped to there haunches and hid behind the concrete wall for cover. The white, blizzard like blast of air traveled up and slammed straight into the second watchtower with a loud crash as the white air engulfed the watchtower and blotted out the spot light that was on it. The stream stopped coming out of the Giants mouth once it hit, and the white fog around the watch tower quickly dissipated, only to reveal and image that brought a much more larger feeling of danger then before.
The watch tower was completely wrapped in several inchs of solid ice, and everyone inside was completely frozen solid.
It was ice breath...

The soliders all saw this in horror at seeing the men inside the watchtower frozen in there last position, mostly covering there faces or hiding behind the walls that the watchtower had provided. Yet that would now be the last thing those men ever saw.
"Damn it!" Naraca growled, his hand tightening around the hilt of his greatsword. That was all it took and just like that they lost that watch tower, and there second spot light. The Giant's eye's then turned to the second watch tower and Naraca saw this.

"Fire!!!" Naraca shouted, pointing his finger at the Giant.
"Bring it down with everything we have!!!" He added.
The soldiers all found there courage and readied there weapons. Rifles, cannons, machine gun turrets and a couple mortars. The rilfles fired first with a series of booms from the barrels of the guns followed by small streaks of white smoke rising from the hot barrels.
The bullets traveled through and peppered the Giants body with about as much effectiveness as the falling snow itself.
The Giant was still pulling it's head back like it was going to shoot it's ice breath at the next watch tower where Aello, Jackie and Naraca stood. The first cannon final shot with a lower concussive boom that Naraca felt in his chest. The cannon ball rammed into the Giants neck yet made it only slightly react as the ball bounced off like it had a protesting itch on it's neck. More cannons fired as well as the mortars and turrets, eventually giving the Giant everything the wall's armaments could offer, causing the Giants to somewhat stagger and lift up one of it's arms to block the gunfire. Yet the mortars that landed on top of it's body it simply took and toughed through.

"It's not enough..." Naraca growled under his breath. The ice breath shot was going to come.
Indeed it did, The giant lunged it's head forward and another white blast of air exploded out of it's mouth and came soaring straight for the second watchtower.
He had to react fast, so Naraca's instinct took over and he jumped off the tower, as he did his sword lit up red hot for a moment before bursting into flames due to activating the flame lacima in his great sword.
He flew down a few feet, then straight forward, charging directly for the tip of the ice breath. He held the heated handle of the blade tightly then quickly began to spin around in a circle, using the weight of the sword as momentum to make his spinning look like that of helicopter propellers where his movements look like that of a shimmer. The flame coming off his sword was wrapped all around him like a flaming tornado. He figured maybe he could stop the blast.

The flaming tornado rammed into the ice breath that had previously frozen what it touched on contact. Yet this time the ice breath was beaten back by the fire and blast was dissipating all around Naraca, shooting in every direction around him as he continued to pass through it and melt the icy air itself as it was thrown around him. He could feel the ice try and freeze him, it was all around him and only getting stronger and he pushed forward and went straight for the giant itself.
Once it almost got up to it's face, the giant stopped the flow of breath only to have a 50 pound flaming great sword slam right onto it's cheek. The powerful smash caused a small explosion of fire to ignite the icy fur around it and set it ablaze. The impact was strong enough to turn the giants head far to the side like it was just punched on one side of it's face. Naraca could tell due to the speed of his spin, and how fast the chain of events were, but his sword had also cut through it's body and cauterized the tissue inside. Only a few drops of black blood were drawn and splashed on the snow floor.
The giant was forced back a little and it defensively raised it's arm up to swat him away like a fly. Now that Naraca stopped spinning and saw that he did hurt it he quickly flew back as fast as he could, narrowly avoided the Giants massive hand that would have slammed him to the ground.
As he flew back, he was just barely to see the drop of midnight blood on the snow.

"Aello! Help me bring this thing down on Ni-ju's mines!!!" He shouted out, hoping Aello would be within ear shot as he pointed towards the location of one mine that was by the Giants side.