Giants! Due North!

These frost Giants most certainly lived up to their names, each one was atleast sixty meters tall, pale blue skin and wearing ancient leather clothing, made up of countless animal skins. Each one carried gigantic clubs of ice and stone, “This is going to be one hec of a fight… why Didn’t I make Ukan come…” Kihia then examined the area behind him… I can’t fortify this area until Xavier arrives… I guess its best to take to the offensive… Kihia then started to charge his magical power as he primed himself to use one of his more unique spells, “Crystallized Wings of the Earthen Guardian…” Sudden two large wings of Crystal formed on Kihia’s back as four shards also formed from separate feathers and hung behind him. “I finally have perfected this spell… Now it is time to make use of my promise to that bird that helped me out so long ago…”

Kihia then took off flying at incredibly speeds as he rapidly approached the giants that just reached the first step. Kihia whipped out Icarus and channeled his magical power into it, “Ice Make Glaive…” The Glaive blade quickly formed on his weapon, and as he drew in, the first giant easily took notice but simply tried to swat him away with his massive hand. To which Kihia responded by slashing the giants hand which made it howl and rear back its hand. It then looked at Kihia as shards of ice suddenly started raining from the sky trying to impale Kihia, however the Frozen Knight quickly responded by doing defensive aerial maneuvers, at which Kihia grimaced, He had drawn the attention of one giant but the other two ignored their friends plight and continued on up the steps, “These things certainly live up to their name sake… I may have to stop pulling my punches… I only hope Xavier gets here safely…” Kihia then flew around to the front of the Giant he had been fighting with and started to inhale, “Of the Sacred voices of Ice and Crystal… Fuse yourselves together and become my call, Cease your Advance! Call of Crystallux!” Kihia then let loose a mighty breath attack of ice and crystal that impacted the giants chest making it start to fall back, “That will stun that one for a bit… but he won’t be out of the fight yet I believe…” Kihia then nodded and then started to fly towards the other two giants approaching the canyon.

In lieu to meeting with Kihia he was faced with what he had hoped wouldn’t have come so close to the village. The frost guants had already began their march, and had no intention of stopping. Like a mosquito Kihia went after one of them in particular and darted around it avoiding its lackadaisical telegraphed attacks and a shower of icy projectiles as he did quite a number on the first one, as it fell in seemingly slow motion to the ground causing a massive tremor sure to wake everyone nearby as it’s companions walked away without him.

“This is going to be quite a challenge…” He muttered under his breath staring off into the distance. Then he heard a familiar voice, a very annoying voice at that. Ironic to say considering it was his own within his head. “What are you doing, lummox? You’re wasting time!” Xavier glanced to his left, and there was a mirror image of him wearing his clothes in purple standing there with its arms crossed. “You again. I thought you didn’t care about people.”
“You’re right. You always are. But are you just going to let the eskimo show you up?” Suffice to say by now that all of this was only in Xavier’s head. The mirror image grinned cruelly. “Or perhaps… aww, isn’t that cute. Mean ol’ lightning dragon slayer still afraid of heights?”

Xavier put his full weight behind a punch that sent him barreling into nothing but air, as the image of him was behind him now, and he wouldn’t show it but he was blushing from embarrassment. “Don’t you worry your little childish head. I’ll take over for this one…” he finished taking a step inside of Xavier as he rejoined him. Xavier stood up from his crouched position, with that same canine toothed grin, and tossed aside the goggles on his head bolting at high speeds towards one of the giants. He closed the gap in literally seconds and unloaded several punches at him one after another. They didn’t hurt the giant at first, but they progressively hurt more and more. It reached out its hand, conjuring a snow gauntlet to crush him, and Xavier met it with his fist shoving it inside of its snowy mass. “Lightning Dragon: Lightning Bomb!” Xavier flew back in the explosion as the entire gauntlet seemed to evaporate.

Kihia noticed Xavier arriving on the ground and went to engage one of the Giants, at this Kihia nodded and went to engage the other one still walking towards the canyon. Kihia flew down in a dive and angled upward slightly so he was flying right at the Giants ankle level at high speeds, he then sent a large amount of his magical power to the glaive blade making it grow five times larger, directed the blade so it would cut across the Giants ankle leaving a giant gash. The Giant roared out in pain as it dropped down to one knee with a resounding crack as its knee it the ice. Kihia then flew upward regaining his high altitude as he began to survey the battle, Two of the giants were now on the ground for one reason or another, and the third giant was busy trying to fend off a feisty lightning dragon Slayer by the name of Xavier.

Kihia then nodded the fight was going well so far, however he then noticed the giant he initially assaulted was getting up and giving him a glare that spoke only of pure rage, he then noticed the ball of energy that had formed above the giant, “Perish you Insect! We are Gods of this Land!” Kihia frowned, suddenly understanding why they were probably frozen in ice in the first place, annoying beings who got it in their head they were superior. The giant then unleashed the beam of energy that flew right towards Kihia, “I guess its time to up the ante a bit…” Kihia then sent a mental command out to Icarus releasing all twelve shards, he then pointed Icarus at the incoming blast as the shards took on a cone shaped formation around the end. When the blast should of hit Kihia it was instead absorbed into Icarus, leaving the giant completely aghast, “I am sorry ancient one… you should have stayed in your prison…” The shards then took on a different formation. Then suddenly a sphere of magical energy appeared within the shards, it consisted not only of the absorbed spell but the blue energy of Kihia’s own magical power, “Find Peace where you go…” He then unleashed a powerful beam of magical energy that hurled back at the giant and then impacted its chest after traveling twenty meters, then it a detonated in a 100 meter wide explosion the encompassed Kihia yet didn’t reach either of the two giants or Xavier. After a second the light faded revealing the giant gone and Kihia flying high in the air with a shield of ice infront of him protecting him and his flying spell.

Xavier had to make a recovery after that counter-attack or else he end up splattering all of the ice beneath him. Ripping out his staff once more, he channeled his power through it to charge it up with great haste for one of its abilities. He spun it around him in a great show of skill, then poked the giant in his gut as he fell down. His whole body and equipment temporarily transformed into electricity and moved to the top of this giant’s head, panting due to his luck. The giant however didn’t seem to know that he was on top of him, so he had the element of surprise. Even then however, it was still rapidly approaching the village. He jumped from the giant’s head making sure to pass in front of its eyes, he casted a spell. “Lightning Dragon: Wing Attack!” Lightning formed like large whips from his arms, and whirled them around before bringing them down on the jerk’s face. He cringed, but endured the blow as Xavier landed on its chest, managing to grip on of its chest hairs before he went sliding off of him.

The giant, needless to say wasn’t impressed in the slightest. It rubbed the scorch marks off of its faces and didn’t even bother to regard Xavier. Reaching its hand up into the clouds, he began to shout. “By the winds and blizzards that rule dominant in these lands, I beseech you, give me aid. I call upon Vodrir! Cold steel bearer of frost, bane of the living filth. Hear my cry, your assistance is needed!” The clouds, as if under his control spiraled down from the sky swirling in a pillar. The giant flung Xavier down from his chest almost effortlessly, and clamped the pillar as it solidified as a mass of cold steel, with a glacier the size of the giant’s head flattened on one side used as the hammer’s head.Xavier landed on a tall cliffside of Ice that acted sort of like a plinth on out int middle of this terrain, and the giant aimed to bring his hammer down on the child, and crush him.

Kihia then turned his attention back to the giant Xavier was fighting and saw things had taken a turn for the worst, The Giant was summoning a weapon and Kihia had little time. He Flapped his wings as hard as he could flying and the same intense speed he did when he first took off. He spied the cliff Xavier landed on as the Giant started the motion to bring down the hammer, at that point Kihia dived with no regard for his own safety, he spread his focus to the ice Xavier was on and expanded it making a small plateau through his Cryokinesis. Kihia then landed right above Xavier and started to spin as Crystals started go out of his body, and ina instant a dome of Holy Crystal had formed around them both as the Giants hammer reached them…

There was a booming crash as the giant hammer impacted the dome and the ice underneath it cracked from the strain, Kihia however stood over Xavier panting heavily as well… as crying… “Forgive me Xavier…” His crystal wings were spread wide as he had been prepare to try and take the hit himself, the giant outside obvious dissatisfied with his initial hit began to rear his hammer back for another blow…. “I am sorry… for failing you…. The Guild…. I failed to protect you all… I failed to protect the master…” At this point Kihia was looking at the ground his head bowed in shame… “I understand… if your confidence in me has been shattered…. I apologize for any rifts or pain I caused for my failures…” He then went quiet as another blow was dealt to the dome making it start to crack, “If you will… and the others… allow me to restate my Vow on life… and live it… to protect you all… but in turn… I know I cannot do that by myself…. I just ask… Would you help me uphold my vow for the future and keep fighting by myside as well as the Guilds…” As he said this the Giant started to rear back the hammer once more for the finishing blow… or so he thought.

Getting to his feet. Xavier stayed quiet only shaking his head as Kihia spoke to him what sounded like a bunch of nonsense, looking dejected and upset about how he could do all this on his own and yadda yadda yadda. He slugged Kihia in the shoulder. “Damnit Kihia!” he almost choked on his words as if swearing actually hurt him inside. “Your one of the wisest guys I know, people, me among them come to you in our time of need. But I never heard you say anything so… inconceivable!” He stamped his foot and the sound echoed in this cramped space. “You’ve never been alone, Kihia! We’ve been by your side the entire way, fighting beside you! How can you be so blind!?” The ice giant finally raised the hammer all the way back up, even further this time thinking it would be the end. “We’ve never left your side! And you…” Xavier looked away from him in the moment to hide his face “…you’ve never left my side Kihia. You were always there for me. And I want to be there for you…” Tears were streaming down his face, and wiped his eyes. He didn’t like to get all emotional on people but speaking from his heart doesn’t really work akin to that motive. He tried his damnest to be some sort of cool guy someone that people could look up, get away from this childish image of his, so to speak but nobody could ever really see passed it. Nobody except for Kihia. “You’ve always been like a father to me…” That sentence hung the air for a while in silence, as the blizzard raged outside. The giant smiled at his quarry, as they sat still and appeared to await their fates in this little bubble shield. “You’ve been a nuisance to me and my fellow giants. But you both brave enough to take us on, these great beings and for that, I’ll make your death swift!” he called to them.

Kihia closed his eyes as Xavier spoke up, berating him for being blind… something Iarok used to do often when Kihia entered into a depression. He remembered back to one of the old mans lectures, and then moved on to every moment with Lamia Scale, Clustering Wishes, and all of his new family, I was an idiot wasn’t I… always heading into battle first… to make sure I provided cover… That’s one lesson the old man couldn’t have taught me… for that I thank you Xavier and the rest of Lamia Scale…. I thank you from the bottem of my heart… Kihia then looked up tears still rolling down his face, his eyes hidden by his hair… “Thank you Xavier… now… let us fight…”

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At that moment the hammer hit the dome shattering it and creating a giant snowcloud in its wake… The giant held its massive hammer there in satisfaction thinking he removed the nuisances, however he noticed something was off, his hammer hadn’t hit the ice, and was being held back by something.

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Kihia stood there a gigantic magical pressure was being emitted from his body that had undergone a drastic transformation, strands of his hair had turned into either holy ice or crystal, and veins of both elements could be seen on his face and neck as a layer of ice and crystal started to cover his entire body…

“As ONE!” Kihia then reared back his right fist his arm of ice acting more responsive than normal being completely fused to his body, he then thrusted his fist forward as he struck the hammer a truly gigantic blast of magical energy enveloped and then destroyed the entire hammer head, he then spread his wings out wide, “Xavier I have an idea for a combination attack… get on my back and use one of the spells you would use to charge at an opponent…” Kihia then adapted a low stance as he sent a gigantic amount of magical power to his arms, “Glacier Demon Secret Art!” He would the wait for a moment for Xavier to possibly jump on his back before lifting off as snow started to envelope him and his potential passenger, “Heavens Piercing Whiteout!” His forearms turned into gigantic glaive blades that he then pointed infront of him and made himself into one gigantic spearhead that was headed straight for the giants chest.

Xavier without hesitation clambers onto Kihia’s back, the wind rubbing the tears out of his eyes and he proudly observes as they ascend quickly towards the giant’s level. Then as the snow starts to get a little annoying, Xavier sets himself free from the back of his friend, and calls upon his own spell. “Lightning Dragon: Static Comet!” he shouted, almost directed at this giant. Xavier himself in enveloped in electricity too, as he gained speed himself, catching up to Kihia and basically orbiting around him as the approached the giant. In response the giant angrily swung his hammer around, trying to hit them, but Xavier separated from Kihia and swarmed the guy to distract him while Kihia set up the strike, buzzing around his head as the giant swatted him like a fly.
“If you think you’ve already won this fight, we’re going to show you just how wrong you are!” He rejoined with Kihia once the big idiot was sufficiently dazed. “We fight as one. The spearhead lance of the knight, and the dragon’s ballistic comet!” The two torpedo like attacks swirled into a massive attack that look oddly reminiscent to a falling star streaking through a night sky. Crashing into the giant, who tried to withstand the force, slipped on all of the ice and was carried through the air by the attack, crushing mounds of ice and snow in their wake and many more. When he finally fell to the ground the vibrations shook all the way back to the village, and Xavier felt elated, almost like he could feel the smiles of those people so far away. The giant reached out a hand to them as they were just on his stomach, but lacking the strength he passed out, and his fist once again crashed to the ground. “We can’t settle down just yet, there’s still one more to deal with.” Xavier’s smile faded however when he looked to the very last, and injured giant.

Kihia hovered high in the air after their initial attack hit home leaving the giant that tried to squash them both had left it on its back on the ground unconscious, He then unhooked the two blades and held them at his sides, and stared at the last giant. Kihia unaware of the drastic changes of his own body due to the surge of magical power that came from being a Hybrid slayer took a step forward as he bent down and got ready to take off once again, his wings grew wide as he prepared, “Xavier… if you want to do that again… this time don’t separate from me… I have an idea…” Kihia would wait to see if Xavier would jump on his back.

If he did Kihia would yet again fuse the two giant glaive blades together and take off with a resounding whoosh from the flap of his crystalline wings. Onward they would fly as the snow quickly built up around Kihia and Xavier he would then command the shards from his wings to cover his front, “Now hang on tight!” Kihia would then flap his wings harder and harder picking up speed but then started to spin his body in a lateral motion.

In turn the snow around Kihia responded as it swirled fiercer and fiercer around him making him and Xavier look like a giant drill made out of snow. The Giant in turn responded with the same beam attack his predecessor had attempted. However Kihia made no attempt to dodge it as it first hit the crystal shards and shattered them and then went on to Kihia and Xavier, however…

The spinning motion they were in was creating such a force that they were literally drilling through the beam straight for the giants chest area, Kihia then started to push hard with his wings making them go faster and faster until they looked nothing more than a spinning blur heading straight for the giant.

Xavier like before obliged, and climbed onto Kihia’s back. It worked so well the last time there’s no reason not to continue. Spinning like a drill and piercing the laser-like beam with basically nothing barred, despite the opposing forces they sailed like a dream toward the giant. Eventually it gave up on the beam and went to swat at them as they came into contact, a little slow on his part as Kihia and Xavier pounded directly into his chest. The two bore a hole straight through to the back of the giant’s chest, needless to say landing behind it like bad asses. Xavier got off of Kihia, and looked back at the giant as it shivered in its last moments, feeling the cold of death’s embrace. It was made rather quick when a gory explosion went off inside of the hole, and Xavier had to guess it was probably his heart that was just removed. Showering blood about the snow, and Xavier turned away. He couldn’t bare to watch this sight. The loud rumbling thud soon followed as the giant’s body fell to the snow, and a shroud of dirty snow poured over them momentarily.

In the confusion of it all, that same mirror image was back staring at Xavier when he had finished panicking. “I thought I told you I wasn’t going to kill anymore!”

He only grinned at Xavier. “Maybe you did. I probably wasn’t listening.”

“You’re ruining this mission, it could have been resolved without them dying out in such a brutal way!” Xavier’s hand motions spoke more of his emotional state that his mirror image, who’s hands didn’t move at all.

“Oh come on, don’t be so prissy all the time Xavier, you know damn well this is how things work around here. There’s a problem, you eliminate it. You can’t hope the world will just get better if you but the villains in time out.”

“THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS!!!” The volume of his voice probably started an avalanche somewhere.

“Don’t you understand Xavier? Deep down you know it’s true… we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you didn’t feel that way,” He slowly walked towards Xavier as the snows started to dissipate. “After all… I’m technically you…” he finished as he melded back inside of Xavier. Kihia would only find him still with tears on his face standing absently in the snow.

Kihia stood there after the giant collapsed, as he did he turned slightly towards Xavier in concern when he seemingly started talking to himself, seemingly stressed out for some reason. Kihia took a step toward Xavier when he suddenly shouted. Kihia’s expression saddened as he looked back at the giant’s corpse and then back at Xavier. He stood there for a moment as Xavier cried, he then sighed as his magical pressure steadily dropped, dismissing all of his spells, his body also seemingly slowly returned to normal. However now he looked heavily fatigued but was holding his legs underneath him. Kihia then placed his right hand onto Xaviers shoulder and paused for a moment, “Xavier… Find peace…”

Kihia then would pause for a moment longer, “As long as it is not a human… find peace… Wish for the creature or opponent that may fall in battle to find peace… do not hold onto the bitterness… the guilt... let it all go and find a calmness in yourself… and in the end… Give your enemy, a proper burial…” Kihia then nodded at the young Lightning Dragon slayer and walked forward shaking slightly, he then stared at the giant and bowed his head, “Oh Ancient Frost giant… May the ice Accept you back into her embrace… and help you find peace in the next world…” Kihia then shoved his hand into the ice and concentrated his magical power to rip open the ice under the giant into a giant chasm. The giant’s corpse fell into it and into the darkness and as it did Kihia reformed the ice creating a crypt for the giant in its ancient home, where it belonged. Kihia then pulled his hand out and fell on his rear, “oooouh… I don’t think I should fight like that often…. My magic reserves are on empty…” Kihia then reached down and grabbed a shard of ice from the battle and took a solid bite out of it as he waited for Xaviers Response.

Xavier with lack of enthusiasm no matter what kind of consolation Kihia managed to offer up, just fell to the ground beside him. For a moment he just stared up and thought, but with an odd break in silence he slugged Kihia in the shoulder. “You were on fire, er… ice out there man. What I would pay to see the look on Uma’s face right now after watching us go to work.” He looked to Kihia with a thoughtful smile. “And someday, you’re going to have to stop hogging the spotlight.” He was only joking of course, but it was implied that he felt a little out of the loop. It was at this moment that Uma appear above both of them, looking down at the two appearing to be resting. “Are you two okay?”

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After all of the chaos erupted, the village held a massive ceremonious thank you party for the two, and surprisingly enough Uma was the life of it. Xavier wasn’t really the party type of person, he just stayed back and watched people himself, and tried to relax the best he could. Him and Kihia, they were very alike, as he practically did the same thing, only with his intent focused on Xavier as one might imagine. It was great, and no matter how much he denies it he was at one point coaxed into dancing for a while by some young ladies. A great night, and yet it seems like it will only be a memory now as sad as that is. He never really contemplated before how much of his time he spent fighting until now.

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After all the celebration and thanks were given, mutual feelings were expressed people began to say their goodbyes and it was clear Xavier would finally get a break from this hellish weather. However Uma explained to the two of them that now the problem was dealt with, he wouldn’t be able to give them a ride out of the village, there was too much to do. “I don’t suppose the Ikarones is nearby, is it?”