The giant is made up of some kind of dark, twisted metal. An oily liquid pours off of it in small waterfalls, painting large swathes of the beast pitch black. It is vaguely humanoid, with two legs, four arms, and an extremely square head made of concrete with pieces of rebar sticking out of it. A glowing green core of some kind of energy sits directly in the center of its chest.

"Just a sec." I dart forward and grab Sarah's phone, standing back to take a quick picture. Sarah stands, sword drawn and held in a two handed grip by her side, leaning slightly forward with a focused expression on her face. By her side, Hollis looks tiny, looking defiantly up at the giant. Their dress blowing in some breeze kicked up by the arrival of the monster, it flows behind them lending an air of epicness to the pose. It really looks like two heroes ready to take down a boss.

"You can do it!" I cheer from behind them.

Hollis teleports both of them on top of the monster's head.

Sarah gets to work, cutting off pieces of rebar and cleaving deep gouges into the concrete, breaking huge pieces off with every swing. The titan reaches up with one of its arms to smash the Hero, only to hit itself when Sarah dodges out of the way. Sarah runs along the concrete, jumping off the head to avoid another grasping hand, and landing on the shoulder. She plunges her sword into the metal and half runs, half slides down the arm, I can almost hear the sounds of rending metal from here.

When she reaches the end of the arm, Hollis appears again to teleport her away, avoiding another grasping hand. They reappear on the opposite shoulder and Sarah holds her sword up, filling it to the brim with shining, golden power, before slamming it into the titan and leaping off it, using her momentum to drag the sword through the shoulder towards the ground. She kicks off the titan at the last second, avoiding getting crushed by a finger, and sending herself out into the air.

Hollis appears and shoots a massive lighting blast which smashes into the shoulder the Hero just left. The crack Sarah left widens and breaks apart until the entire shoulder dislocates and falls from the titan, slamming onto the street below. Hollis flies out to catch the falling Hero and teleports them back onto the head.

The titan has an answer for them this time, simply tucking its head down and slamming it into a nearby building. The skyscraper shakes and begins to lean heavily to the side but miraculously stays standing.

My two companions reappear on the ground near the titan's foot, completely unharmed. Hollis blinks away to fly around the titan's head as it withdraws it from the ruined structure. The Magi shoots bolts of lightning into the giant's head, blasting chunks of concrete off with each hit.

Sarah runs towards the nearest foot, leaping on top of it and hacking at the ankle. She strikes several times, getting deeper with each swing, until the massive monster lifts its foot up and shakes the Hero off, sending her flying into a nearby pile of rubble.

The giant misses Hollis as they easily fly around the creature's hand. Several rapid fire lightning bolts crack another arm off, sending it hurtling towards the ground below. The Magi flies under another clumsy swipe from an arm only to get caught by a blast of green energy that suddenly shoots from its core. A barrier protects my vess, only cracking slightly under the continued beam of energy. Eventually the beam dies out, and my vess drops their barrier to resume firing lightning bolts.

Sarah picks herself out of the rubble and shakes herself off. She takes off at a sprint, reaching the same foot that shook her off and leaping back on top of it. The giant immediately tries to shake her off again, but she plunges her sword into the foot and holds on. It gives up trying to dislodge her and goes for another tactic, crouching down to brush her off with a hand. The Hero leaps with the blow, digging her sword into the hand and letting herself get carried away with it. She notices, a little too late, the second hand coming to smoosh her against the first.

She is forced to let go, dropping out of the danger area just in time as the monster crashes its hands together. Sarah plummets to the ground, hitting the concrete hard and kicking up a plume of dust. Her high stats seemingly let her stick the landing, not hurt much as she staggers to her feet, looking up at the titan and clenching a fist.

Hollis flies by the hand with the sword lodged in it, launching a particularly bright lightning bolt at it, striking the sword and causing some sort of magical explosion. The fist explodes and a shower of broken superheated metal rains down towards the ground, forcing Sarah to sprint for cover. "Sorry, Sarah!" Hollis calls, but I doubt the fleeing human can hear.

The now freed, falling sword is snatched out of the hair in Hollis' telekinetic grasp, drawing it closer until the Magi can grab it in their actual hands. The Magi teleports down to Sarah and looks down at the ground, blushing and muttering, "Sorry." As they hand her the sword.

The giant clocks them, its core lighting up again and a beam of death shoots towards my friends. Hollis is quick to teleport them away, this time to the damaged foot Sarah had been working on. The fluffy vess launches their own beam of magic into the cracked ankle, increasing its intensity until Sarah has to look away. The result, an ankle that has almost been completely melted through and a panting vess. Sarah lunges forward, her golden blade cleanly slices through the rest of the metal, severing ankle from foot. Another teleport brings the two a safe distance away as the whole titan starts collapsing.

When the dust settles, all that's left is a torso with a mangled head and one arm.

An absurd amount of magic lifts the titan up and flips it onto its back, exposing its core. The two teleport on top of the torso and Sarah fills her sword with a blinding amount of power before plunging it down into the core. The green light battles with the golden, going back and forth until the green light suddenly dies, completely overwhelmed by the Hero's golden power. The core shatters and the rest of the body begins to crumble into dust.

+100,000 XP

One final teleport brings my two friends back to me, covered in dust, oil, and exhausted.

Sarah drops her sword and falls onto her back, "Damn! That thing was huge! And it wasn't even the final boss."

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"If by final boss," Hollis pants, "You mean, the individual responsible for sending us here, then no." Standing is too much for the fluffy one, who sinks to the floor, legs folded beneath them. The poor vess has pieces of metal sticking out of their hair.

I kneel next to Hollis and begin removing the debris from their fluff, "Good job. Thank you for protecting me."

The Magi looks starstruck and beams up at me, "It is an honor to fight for you, my lady!"

"What about me?" Complains Sarah, still laying splayed out with her eyes closed.

"You did what was expected." I tease, "I mean, killing big monsters is what heroes are for, right?"

The Hero holds up a single middle finger, before the arm flops back onto the ground. "You get the next one." She grouches, a slight smile on her lips.

"Absolutely not! I will kill a thousand of those before I let-"

"Hollis!" Sarah yells, interrupting, "Chill, just kidding."

"R-right." The loyal vess blushes and seems to sag in on themselves, "I just need to regain some mana, and I'll be good to go."

"Don't push yourself." I pick the last big piece of metal from their hair, throwing it behind me. Cupping my vess' face, I smile at them and take a page out of Sarah's book, planting a kiss on their head, causing them to blush furiously.

The two pick themselves up and a wave of mana cleans the grime off them. Sarah takes the lead again with me right behind her and Hollis following me. We walk a few blocks; the city must be as tired as us because it doesn't try to throw anything else at us. My legs get tired quickly, but I'd feel bad if I asked Sarah to carry me after that huge fight, she still looks tired too. Hollis seems to pick up on my conundrum as they summon a floating cushion for me to sit on. It's very reminiscent of the cushion bed I had with the orcs and it only takes me a minute before my eyes start to get really heavy. I fight it as much as I can, but in the end, I pass out.

The next time I open my eyes; I'm staring at the roof of a tent. The entry flap opens, and Sarah walks in with a barely suppressed yawn. She immediately starts buckling on her pieces of armor.

"Good morning, my lady!" Hollis cheerily greets me, "Well, there is no way to tell the time here, but anyway, we stopped to rest for a while. Sarah just woke up, so we are going to continue. Please, stay on the cushion, it's no trouble at all for me to carry it."

My stomach rumbles but is quickly silenced by a quick pulse of magic. I raise an eyebrow towards my magi, who quickly explains, "Magic can provide energy for your body, although it can only sustain you for so long. That goes doubly so for Sarah, magical food is much less effective for humans."

"Pretty unsatisfying too." Sarah tightens her sword belt, "I take it back though, if we didn't find Hollis first, we would have been a lot more uncomfortable, plus they are pretty good in a fight. Sorry, Hollis."

The Magi's fluffy hair bounces as they shake their head, "No, no! It's fine! I completely understand your sentiment, and I hope we can find Caretaker Enna soon."

"Weird how you just know about that earlier conversation without me needing to fill you in. It is convenient though." Sarah shrugs.

"Um…" Hollis looks lost, darting their eyes back and forth between me and Sarah.

"It's fine, fluffball. You worry too much." Sarah gives their head a pat on her way out of the tent.

Hollis relaxes, looks at me, and smiles, "Sarah is so kind."

My pillow is levitated and the tent dissolves into motes of light that soon disappear. Our campsite seems to have been in the entryway of one of the buildings. A few steps takes us back out onto the street and we are on our way again.

The further we get into this dead city, the more run down it gets. Pretty soon we have to start climbing over piles of rubble as whole sections of buildings are collapsed out onto the street. Often there are huge pits in the road that need to be carefully skirted, and all of the streetlights are officially broken and gone, forcing either Sarah or Hollis to provide magical light.

The monsters are back too. Refined and more deadly. While they used to look like twisted, vaguely humanoid hunks of metal, they have begun to look more refined. Smooth, untarnished metal forms the bodies of the new enemies, making them much faster and much tougher. Most of them are twice as tall as Sarah, and they have begun to carry weapons, swords and maces. They have begun to show more intelligence too, requiring much more effort to dispose of safely, often forcing both Sarah and Hollis to coordinate to take them down.

The biggest group yet, six of them, stand menacingly just down the street, brandishing weapons.

Sarah quickly strategizes with Hollis, "Going to need your barrier again. When I give the signal, lift my target up and hold them, and make sure to stay back this time. I don't want you to get grabbed again, that really sucked last time."

Hollis nods quickly along with the instructions and soon the two are throwing themselves into combat again.

Sarah ducks under the swing of one golem, parries the attack of a second, and takes the third on the shimmering barrier that surrounds her, sending her skidding back a few feet. The monsters are relentless, a sword cuts towards the Hero's neck, only to be parried, Sarah slides under the weapon and brings her sword up to cut the offending arm off. She doesn't overcommit, immediately dodging to the side and moving behind the wounded golem. Her footwork is incredibly hard to follow, and she is always careful to put the golems in between each other, getting surrounded isn't an option.

A lightning bolt leaves a steaming scorch mark on a golem. Hollis flies above the fight, staying out of range and throwing bolts down periodically. Sarah gives a signal, and the Magi levitates the targeted golem, holding it helpless as the Hero lands the killing blow to its chest, her sword piercing through the thick metal to pierce the hidden core.

Landing with a roll, Sarah narrowly avoids a decapitating blow from an axe. A bolt from Hollis sends the attacking golem off balance and Sarah finishes it off with a golden glowing sword to the chest. The metal abomination collapses into a pile of useless scrap.

Hollis is surprised when a golem throws its spear, they erect a hasty barrier that is broken and sends the small vess into the ground.

The golems are briefly pushed back by a golden wave, Sarah stands over the prone vess, catching a mace on her sword and redirecting it into the ground. She pivots to parry a sword swing and crouches under a massive cleave from a halberd wielding golem. The next attack meets empty space as Hollis teleports them away.

Sarah helps the fluffy vess stand, a massive hole is quickly closing in the vess' tummy.

Her sword in a two handed grip, Sarah dumps golden power into her blade and dashes into the group of approaching golems, sending one crashing to the ground, missing a leg. The disabled golem is quickly finished off with a twirl and downward thrust. The Hero's golden raiment bursts to life and turns away all the attacks of the encroaching enemies. The goddess touched forges indomitably onward. It is possible that Sarah's class is even stronger than mine.

Nothing can touch her when she goes all out. All of her attacks are devastating and soon the golems are reduced to nothing. She strikes an awe inspiring figure, standing on top of the pile of dead metal, long blond hair flowing and shining with a divine light, I swear there is a barely visible halo around her head.

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