I sum up here a few stories from our facebook page(
www.facebook.com/TheArtOfGaming2019/photos/a.2042829839156185/2084466218325880/?type=3&theater):Author:
Adrian Muntean A new day dawned. 15 April 1264. China and Mongolia had fallen. They were the last nations on the mainland to resist the Giants of Himalaya. Now, the giants, whose goals were unknown, but certainly destructive in their nature, were heading east. There was no time to contact the West, to contact India, Persia and further, Europe. And even if there was enough time, what could they do? The Great Empire of China had fallen in less than a month.
Those who were able to flee took boats and ships and headed to Japan, hoping that the Giants weren’t able to cross the Sea of Japan. They were terribly wrong. Slowly, but surely, the behemoths were advancing towards Honshu, the biggest island of the Rising Sun nation. One huge step at a time.
The Japanese, along with the other Asians who managed to cross the Sea ran towards the fortified city of Kyoto. Hoping to mount a defense against the giants, they needed to buy some time. They had to fortify the city further, set up traps, and call upon forces from every part of Japan.
As such, they requested the help of the Samurai Kyoshi, and the Mongolian mercenary Hu. Kyoshi was already a veteran of the war, having battled and survived against a Giant attack in Shanghai. Hu managed to escort hundreds of people away from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and made his way to Kyoto. The leader couldn’t spare more men.
The pair were tasked with delaying the first Giant to reach the coast as much as they could. Knowing they would surely not leave with their lives, they agreed to face the Giant in a rocky canyon, close to the beach, at night.
The next night, the two were standing upwards, chests forward, waiting in silence as the terror was approaching under the shine of the moon. His face was like the Devil, white, dead eyes popping out of his shadowy mask. He was armed with a club as big and as huge as one of those watchtowers they mount at the edge of a fort.
Kyoshi stood ready, gripping tight his enormous bow that bore red flags, signifying the colors of his family crest. At his hip was his trusted katana, sheathed away in a leather cover. Hu was checking his steel for the last time. A shield big enough to cover his whole upper body, round so that arrows would bounce off of it. He had in his hand a sword which he had stolen from a dead Japanese soldier while running for the ships. On his back, his back-up weapon. A fierce heavy axe, which was still shining in the moonlight despite the dried blood that covered parts of it.
“What are you thinking about, Samurai?” said Hu with a gruffy voice.
“I’m thinking about how we can stall this monster. A plan.” said a confident Kyoshi.
“I don’t think that this demon will be troubled by any plan that we come up with.” Replied the Mongolian, who was looking disgracefully at the Giant, while keeping his balance because of the shock waves that were produced as the behemoth was walking.
“Maybe not troubled. But certainly angry. If we infuriate him, he may battle us so that the others stand a chance.” Said Kyoshi, looking up and down as if he was assessing the situation.
“We’ll die anyway, but I’ll not die without making the bitch remember me. Let’s hear it, then.”
“You’ll go before him and keep slashing at his feet, so he focuses on you. You need to make him try to stomp on you, and then dodge enough so that I can come close.”
“And what will you do, look at me as I’m being swatted from up close?” said an irritated Hu.
“Listen, I would have done it myself, but you don’t use a bow. When I get close, I’ll use this rope, given to me by the elders. They traded for it with Indian merchants. They say it’s strong enough to capture elephants. As you dance around the creature, I’ll swoop around him, trying to tie him so he falls to the ground. Then, you can deliver killing blow.”
“Does this thing look like an elephant to you? It’s more like 50 elephants on top of one another. That rope’ll break before you can do anything with it. It’s suicide.”
“It may be suicide, but it’s the only suicide that we can attempt while hoping to buy enough time. C’mon, he’s coming. Remember, whatever you do, when he falls, aim for his eyes, he is vulnerable there.” Kyoshi was saying, while hurrying Hu.
The Mongolian approached the beast, bashing at his shield with his sword, in order to grab his attention. The Giant responded with a dead look, and then aimed at the Mongolian a fierce, bone chilling scream, his breath so strong that it produced wind for a few seconds.
“You want to destroy me, you demonic piece of shit? I’ll pull out your fucking eyes! Give it your best, I know I’ll do!” Hu wasn’t really expecting a reply but said it more out of wanting to man up and gather energy for the impeding battle ahead.
And soon, it was on. The beast started walking towards Hu, and swung the club from right to left, cutting every tree it touched and flung them tens of meters away. Hu already anticipated that and backed away in time, so he was around 20 meters behind the hit. Without hesitating, he started running towards the Giant while he wasn’t even finished swinging the first hit, his aim to sprint towards the giant’s feet. He knew that the Giant couldn’t swing the club so close to his body without falling.
Hu was out of breath but managed to hide below the monster behind some bushes. Blinded by his fury, the beast lost the track of the mercenary and was searching with its petrifying gaze. A few seconds later, cursing the pipe he used to smoke for slowing him down, Hu regained his breath and started chipping away at the monster’s feet with his sword. The beast let out dark red blood and again, a demonic cry of anger. He looked down and saw the mercenary.
“Oh, fuck!” cried Hu as he ran for the other foot of the beast just before he stomped with the former. Out of breath, he couldn’t believe that the beast was already trying to stomp with its other foot. Just as Hu was about to be stomped to death, a wheezing arrow flew in the beast’s face, causing him to stagger and put his leg behind, away from Hu. Another arrow soon hit the devil; this time tied with a rope that got stuck in his leg. The beast led out a cry of fury, rather than pain. He wasn’t really that hurt. After all, he did have thick skin. Angry to face two different targets, the beast didn’t notice the rope tied to his leg and started walking towards Kyoshi now.
Kyoshi started running, drawing with his movement a big circle, trying to circulate around the beast and trap it. Hu was constantly harassing the beast from below, with each hit praying not to be stomped and sent to an early grave. This process repeated for a few minutes, Kyoshi trying to tie the beast’s legs and Hu hitting it from below, drawing attention away from Kyoshi, while also keeping the Giant from making too large steps that would break the rope.
However, tiring from the constant running and battling, Kyoshi made a mistake. He got a bit too close to the Giant, and that prompted the monster to try and club Kyoshi. The devastating hit, swooping from left to right, destroyed and entire bulk of trees, but fortunately didn’t connect with Kyoshi’s body, as he leapt a few meters outside of the swing. He felt safe, but then it hit him: the rope had been destroyed by the Giant’s hit. All of that effort for nothing.
Hu, not knowing the beast didn’t kill Kyoshi, was full of blood, sweat, and fury. He threw the sword away and pulled out his battleaxe. He shouted at the monster, out of sheer inner pain.
“I’M GOING TO CUT YOU SO HARD YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO MOVE!” and then lunged to one of the feet, planting the axe deep in the beast’s right foot. The monster let out a cry so loud, every bird and creature of the forest ran away terrified. If the beast were to shout directly at Hu and not into the sky, his eardrums would have certainly exploded. But still, the beast wasn’t badly hurt, just annoyed. However, both of them noticed that the beast was losing energy.
The Giant turned his back to Kyoshi and was wildly swinging the club in every direction while stomping, trying to break Hu in half. And then, Kyoshi saw it: A small red wound on the back of the demon’s neck that shined in the moonlight, no doubt received during a former battle. It seemed small to him from a distance, but it was surely the size of a room. It was healing already and had a thin crust that formed on it. The kind of crust that formed on Kyoshi’s knees as he fell when playing with the other kids long ago. He knew he had to hit that.
Meanwhile, Hu was sweating as a pig, trying to dodge the beast and cursing Kyoshi for his plan. Just as the beast was raising its feet, leaning a bit backward to press force, a flaming, long arrow wheezed like a hawk and stuck in the beast’s neck. Kyoshi waited for the beast to destabilize, oiled a longer than usual arrow, burned it, and, with a precise aim, launched it. The flaming arrow hit like a needle in the wound, and as the beast was already out of balance, it caused him to drop the club and fall backwards on his back. He fell like an asteroid that hits the Earth, and Kyoshi barely managed to not be impaled by one of the beast’s horns.
Hu didn’t believe the beast was falling and was completely absorbed by the fact. However, he didn’t stand a chance to run away, because everything happened too fast for him to register, and the falling club impaled and crushed the life out of him. Minutes later, searching for him, Kyoshi saw his skull coming out from beneath the club, the eyes popping from the sockets due to the pressure. He kneeled, solemnly, just as Samurai’s do, and meditated for a bit. He was thanking Hu for his bravery, his devotion, and vowed that his death would not be in vain.
And his death wasn’t in vain. The beast, although not dead, would be unconscious for at least a few days, until it would recover its former strength. The task was completed, and Kyoto managed to prepare. Hu and Kyoshi were successful. Kyoshi grabbed Hu’s shield, now snapped in half, and took it to Kyoto.
He showed the broken shield to the leader. “It is done. The beast has been delayed for a while.”
With a respectful voice, he touched the shield, humbly looking at it, and then he ordered his guards: “Mount the catapults. Stock up on barrels of oil. Polish your swords. Check every structural weakness. Tell every soldier to meditate and focus. Soon war comes, and honor along with it”.
