ROTLE- Chapter 181- The Shoulders of Giants

Missing a shot was one of the many things Telma hated in her life. It often drove her to rage.

“Revenge?” Aiden Lacheart asked, looking at her as if he had never seen her before. “I don’t even know you.”

That outweighed her anger towards missing. Telma knocked another arrow, summoned straight from her storage space and let it fly. It was a massive thing, capable of shattering trees, even though the tree that she had just struck had stayed intact.

Aiden frowned at her knocked arrow. His frown deepened when her arrow glowed a bright purple. Pleasure filled Telma when recognition crossed his eyes.

“Good,” she said. It was the last word that he was going to hear.

Then she let the arrow fly.

Aiden’s hand shot out at the last second, and he slapped the massive arrow to the side. It sent it askew, flying into the ground like a harmless thing.

Telma started. She took a step back, hesitated, then thought better of it.

You are a warrior, she reminded herself.

It calmed her a little, gave her the motivation to step forward once more. Aiden kept his eyes on her. Despite his recognition, he only looked annoyed now.

“A member of the tribe of Mbachukwu,” he said calmly. “I’ve met you before, fought you.”

“Yes,” Telma spat. “And you won.”

Aiden shook his head, as if disagreeing with the core of the conversation. “I took something from you. Is that why you are here?”

Telma hesitated. What was the angle he was playing at? Why was he so direct, and how did he guess the reason she had hunted him down. Revenge would be the proper line of thought. In fact, she had quite literally pointed out that she was here for revenge.

Aiden’s eyes darted to the side momentarily before returning to her.

“Yes,” he said, as if figuring it out, needing no confirmation from her. “Your bow.”

Telma gritted her teeth, her anger rising. He was so dismissive, so uninterested. It was as if she was nothing but a waste of his time to him.

“Yes,” she growled. “My bow.”

Aiden held out his hand and the air around it fractured with light. His storage space opened. When the broken space finally disappeared, her bow settled comfortably in his hand. It was without blemish, as clean as the day she’d lost it.

Aiden Lacheart had taken care of her bow. She could see a new polished sheen to it. He had respected her bow.

It changes nothing.

Reclaiming her bow was only one part of her mission.

“Take it,” Aiden commanded. “Take it and leave.”

Telma shook her head. “No. I will fight you for it. I am a proud daughter of the clan of Mba-chukwu. I have lived my life standing on the shoulders of giants, and I have earned it.”

Even if the main giant, Oyedi, king of her people, was dead.

Aiden’s brows furrowed.

“On those shoulders I shall continue to stand,” she said, nocking a new arrow, “until I become a giant upon whose shoulders another will stand.”

“Return and you will live to be that giant,” he said simply.

Telma pulled her arrow back and let it fly. It boomed through the air, cutting through it like a fired spell. Again, Aiden slapped it from the air just before it reached him. It was almost a casual strike, sending the arrow askew once more.

Even though she had suspected it, Telma had needed to confirm it. The first deflection was not a fluke. But it was not enough reason to fear, because she had also learnt something else. Aiden could only deflect her arrows with his black arm.

“Leave now,” Aiden warned, “or you will die on the shoulders of those giants.”

“Those are fighting words, Aiden Lacheart.”

Telma was pleased at the shock on his face when she said his name. He had not been expecting her to know his name.

With a shrug of will, she summoned her spear from her storage space. She took a combat stance and prepared herself.

“Prepare yourself, Aiden Lacheart,” she said. “I will not have it said that I slayed an unprepared enemy.”

She looked down at her shoes. They were made of a [Naruvian Bird]’s skin, granting them unique features. They were not necessarily a trump card, but their effects tended to leave people shocked.

Aiden sighed. Her bow vanished, replaced by a longsword of an unfamiliar design. Telma’s attention went to his blackened arm. Aiden left it free, used it as his off-hand. Her side throbbed a little. She could still remember how he had stabbed her with his bare hand.

She needed to keep a careful eye on the arm, it was special in many ways as far as she was concerned.

Holding his sword to the side in a casual stance, Aiden spoke. “I’m ready,” he said. “Let’s get this over—”

Telma closed the distance in a single step. The world warped around her as she stabbed forward. The wind caressed her hair as the tip of her spear met Aiden.

Aiden stepped to the side, dodging it smoothly. Telma moved in accordance. A thrust became a swing as her spear cut a horizontal line to tear Aiden’s stomach open. Aiden’s sword came up just in time. The sound of metal clashing filled the air as he parried her attack.

Her spear went up, and Aiden closed in on her. Telma reacted immediately. She had been a fighter all her life. She had fought enemies with levels too high for her to win. Aiden’s sword came at her from below and she raised her foot to meet it.

The edge of the sword slammed into the sole of her boot, stopping there. Aiden changed the trajectory of the attack, moved from a cutting strike to a slicing strike. The blade of his sword slid along the breadth of her booth, forcing her to step away from it.

She launched back into him, spear swinging. Aiden ducked the first attack, then stepped out of the reach of the second attack. To Telma’s chagrin, he stopped the third in the same manner she had stopped his sword slash.

As much as she hated to admit it, he was strong. But that did not mean that she was weak. She would win this fight or die trying.

She channeled her mana into the spear, activating it.

[You have activated weapon attribute Burning Thunder]

The length of her spear turned a molten red. Sparks of lightning coated it at the point and the butt. When she moved again, her spear trailed lightning with every move.

She struck again, peppering Aiden with attacks. Aiden moved, no longer attempting to block—not that he ever had. Where lightning touched the grass, the grass fizzled, igniting in red flames that didn’t last. Normal blades of grass would’ve been burnt to crisps.

Aiden stepped in and out of attacks, seeming to dodge just at the right moments. It vexed Telma to limitless ends. She turned, spun, switching through stances of spear combat that she knew. For some reason, Aiden was always moving at the right moment to break the rhythm of her combinations.

She could feel it deep in her soul that he was merely toying with her, and it annoyed her.

Between a combination with eight flows, Aiden slipped his sword through an opening that she did not know she had, and she was forced to leap away. She vaulted backwards, spinning in a spiral. When she landed, she leapt backwards, then held her spear out like a bow.

[You have used Class skill Arrow of the land]

A brown arrow materialized in her hand while she was midair. She nocked it against nothing, using the spear as the haft of her bow and let the arrow fly.

It shot through the air, sparking and crackling with red lightning. Aiden’s eyes followed it as it came at him. He leapt away from it, going high, too high for a normal jump. His strength stats were either terrifyingly high or he was using a skill.

The arrow planted itself in the ground where Aiden would’ve been then erupted into jagged spikes of dirt and stone, stalagmites that would’ve impaled those within its reach.

Without hesitation, she turned her grip on her spear, wielding it like a javelin. Channeling more mana into it, the fiery lightning blazed, crackling so brightly that sparks leapt from the weapon to strike the ground around her. She felt the lightning run through her, burn her at the finger tips mere moments before she let it go.

With all the strength and precision that she could muster, she heaved it at Aiden. In the air his maneuverability would be limited.

The weapons shot through the air like a falling star. Her aim was true. Something past the her spear, shooting down at her at the same time. She frowned, realizing at the last second that it was an arrow.

She ducked it immediately, rolling to the side. Aiden appeared next to her in an impossible show of speed.

A blow cracked her in the jaw, moving in a blur of speed. Before she could recover from it, she was hit in the stomach as if by a small boulder. She doubled over, coughing up saliva. She held her hand out immediately. The spear she had thrown tracked its way back to her. It zipped through the air, returning to her hand. Aiden stood between her and the spear. She did not expect to hit him, but she hoped to graze him.

Aiden moved in what looked like a blur. It was as if he simply stepped to the side and back because the weapon seemed to go through him before returning to her hand.

Telma’s eyes widened in horror.

It had to be some type of skill. It was the only way what had just happened would make sense, because if Aiden had moved on his own, then it meant that his movement speed was so fast that she actually couldn’t follow it with her eyes. And if that was the case, then it meant that Alobam had underplayed just how outleveled she was.

No, she swore, defying fate. She had already accepted death.

She leapt back, away from Aiden, midway, she activated her skill again.

[You have used Class skill Arrow of the Land]

…

[You have used Class skill Precision Aim]

Her sight sharpened as she focused on Aiden. He mind sought out strategies in the moments that existed between a second and the next. There had to be something she could exploit.

[You have used Class skill Eye of the Archer]

The mana in the world lit up. [Eye of the Archer] helped her see the flow of mana. It helped her see where the mana was least powerful. In a human, that was the best part to attack. It was an opponent’s weak link. Everything alive had one.

Her sight focused on Aiden.

[You have used Class skill Draw of Battle]

She felt her muscles tighten as she pulled back on the arrow in her hold. She felt the world fight against her as it served as her string to a bow that did not exist.

Her eyes focused on Aiden, and she paled.

There was so much mana. It filled the air around him and drowned everything in blackness. It was hard to see. It blinded her, crippled her sight for what seemed like eternity.

All that darkness, she thought as she choked on it.

Unwilling to die in the dark, she let her arrow fly regardless. Then she chucked her spear in the general direction of where Aiden had been standing before she lost her sight.

When she hit the ground, she activated her shoes.

[You have used item attribute Walk of the Naruvian]

She felt the warmth in her shoe. With it she soared high, jumping into the air. The moment her feet settled on nothing, she jumped again, moving to the side as she deactivated [Eyes of the Archer].

The world came back to sight. The darkness no longer stole it from her. Telma realized that in her fear of the dark she was panting, already short of breath.

Hovering in the air, she found Aiden standing in place, watching her. He stood casually beside a mound of spikes and stalagmites that were designed to impale him. In his hands was her bow, the one he had stolen from her… and he had an arrow befitting of the massive bow nocked in place.

The engraving on the knuckle guard was already shining a deep purple. He had been waiting for her. Panic filled Telma. She wasn’t going to die from being hit. She’d been hit before, but it was definitely going to hurt.

Telma moved, activating her shoes once more.

[You have used item attribute Walk of the Naruvian]

When Aiden let his arrow fly the whole world heard it. It was heralded by a terrifying boom, a sound Telma was all too familiar with. She had listened to it many times, pleased as she had hunted down preys and fought off enemies.

To be on the other end of it, pained her heart. But she would be safe.

She crossed the air, landing on another spot higher up, only to find the arrow heading straight for her.

Aiden had adjusted his aim, predicted her evasion.

[You have used Class skill Battle Rage]

Mana flooded Telma, and she swung her spear with all the might that she could muster. The red lightning was dying out now. Her spear had lost its spark. Soon, it would return to being nothing but a spear, while its attribute use went into cool down.

The spear struck the arrow. Telma grunted as she strained against the blow. With the arrow empowered by the shamanic engraving on the bow, it was more than just an arrow.

It’s just a fucking enchantment! She swore, sending it skewing off into the sky.

It flew, going far and high, and a hand wrapped itself around her neck.

Aiden stood in the air before her. His hold on her neck was firm, the look in his eyes calm, pitiful.

He pitied her. His pity was an insult.

She swung her spear on instinct and Aiden caught it in his hand, not too far from where she was holding it, dispelling all the momentum. His eyes never left her. They looked sad where they had once looked at her like a waste of his time.

“On the shoulders of giants,” he said.

Telma snarled at him, defiant. She would not die here. “On the shoulders of giants.”

Then she kicked him.

“Fall,” he said, and it was a command.

The attack did not meet him, midway through her kick, something seemed to pull her down.

[You have been enchanted with Enchantment of Lesser Gravity]

[You are currently being used as the power source for Enchantment of Lesser Gravity]

Aiden released her neck, and she dropped.

Falling was so peaceful. And Aiden watched her do it, a witness to her descent. He had been wrong. She was falling now. She would die when she hit the ground. Her defeat was eerily poetic. In the end, staring up at Aiden as he watched her descend, she had fallen… as if from the shoulders of giants.

When you lose, Alobam’s words came to her, take him here. To where the giants wait.

…

“I know you are awake, child.”

Sam frowned then opened his eyes. He had been awake for a while now. The ground was soft, so he knew that he was no longer in his cell. He could also feel the breeze against his skin. It was cool against his torso, which meant that he was not wearing a shirt.

“Keep pretending and I might have to kick you awake,” the voice said.

With a sigh, Sam opened his eyes. The first thing he did was place a hand against his chest. He still had the scars that Elaswit had given him from her plenty visits. One of the few things that had helped him sleep at night were dreams of all the horrible things he was going to do to her one day. He had always known that they were nothing but dreams, things that he could not truly do. But they helped him sleep at night so he held on to them.

Eyes open, he set his gaze upon the night sky and the stars above. They were countless, and somehow that calmed him.

How am I here?

The thought brought memories to the front of his mind. The memories came with a name.

Derenet.

The first son of the king, younger brother of Elaswit, had developed a new interest in him, visiting and simply talking about the most mundane things. It was a change from how he previously would simply come into the cell and watch him without a word.

Last night the boy had visited him and spoken any and everything—the color of the sky, why eyes are blue, short cuts to leveling up. Then he had asked if Sam wanted his freedom, and Sam had agreed. Freedom was all he wanted.

“And what would you do if you find Aiden Lacheart?” Derenet had asked.

For a moment, Sam had realized that his hate for Aiden was pretty much gone. All he wanted was just his freedom. And he had told the boy as much.

“Is all you want still your freedom?” the voice asked. “Just that?”

Sam turned his head at the question. He found Derenet sitting on the grass not too far from him. There was something in the way the boy sat. Somehow it gave him the feeling of a tired and old man, a man who knew too much, who’d seen too much.

Derenet looked back at him from over his shoulder. “Do you still want nothing but freedom?”

Sam nodded very slowly, unsure. “Yes.”

“That’s sad.” Derenet returned his attention to his front, something in his voice sounded disappointed yet thoughtful. “Is this that thing that they call character development?”

Had Sam grown as a person? Did he think that he had?

He did not.

As far as he was concerned, his priorities had just changed. Nothing more and nothing less.

“Alright then,” Derenet said. “You have your freedom. Here’s the sky and the grass and the world. Do with it whatever you will.”

Sam hesitated, then sat up. “Just like that?”

“Are you looking for a catch?”

“Maybe.” Sam looked around, there was nothing but nature around him. “Will your father not be displeased?”

Derenet snorted in amusement. “King Brandis is not strong enough for his displeasure to matter.”

King Brandis?

Did the king and his son have a falling out?

All this did was grow Sam’s suspicion.

“So you have no use for me?” he asked.

Derenet shrugged. “Only as a slave, maybe canon fodder. But that is a want not a need.”

“Then why did you free me. You know very well that I deserved to be in a cell somewhere.”

“Chaos.”

It was one word, but it rang in Sam. There was so much nonchalance in the single word that Sam could not help but believe it. The boy had called it chaos, but in truth, he meant he had simply done it because he could.

“Are you going back, then?” Sam asked, finally getting up. He walked over to Derenet and paused.

The boy had not been looking at the world in front of him but at the grass in front of him. It was scorched into a pattern that he could not recognize. He peered clearer at it, then got a headache. He staggered, hit by unjustified vertigo.

He put his hand to his head and fell to the ground on his ass.

“What the hell…” he muttered, voice trailing off even in his head.

“Humans,” Derenet muttered with deep condescension. “Stop trying to understand what you cannot.”

Now, he got up and swiped his foot over the scorched grass.

“Hopefully they won’t be too pissed by this.” He looked at Sam. “So, what say you, would you like to follow me on my little adventure? It will always be good to have someone with a strong connection.”

A strong connection?

“Where are you going?” Sam asked, leaving the thought unsaid.

“Well, I’ve gotten all the pieces of information I need from my father’s network of spies and trackers. I must say that the world is interesting.” He paused, made a vague gesture as if dismissing the line of thought. “Anyway, I have been able to find out in what direction your friend, Aiden Lacheart is heading. His level of knowledge indicates that he knows too much about this world, which is interesting enough.”

“He’s just a lucky asshole, that’s all,” Sam grumbled.

Derenet laughed. “Luck is a skill too, child. Anyway, I’ve realized what he’s doing, and I have decided to cut him off at his next stop. What I find more interesting is how he has this specific information and can be so sure of it. Without the vast knowledge I possess, even I would not be able to guess.”

Sam was suddenly interested, very interested. Especially at how intrigued Derenet sounded.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“What are you, Aiden Lacheart,” Derenet mumbled to himself.

For a moment, Sam thought he had not heard him when the boy answered him. “Tell me,” he said, “have you heard of the Order?”

Sam shook his head. “No.”

“A shame.” Derenet shook his head. “Then you certainly do not know about who we’re going to meet.”

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t tell me, though.”

Derenet paused, shrugged. “True.”

Sam waited, but Derenet did not say more. It annoyed him a little to know that the boy was making him ask.

“Who are we going to meet?”

Derenet gave him a wry smile. “We, you and I, are going to meet the only being devious enough to be called the enemy of the Order.”