Shadow of the Giantess

(Alexh4070)

Prologue
The Forbidden Lands And Dormin

The moon shone through the cloudy, night sky, high over the canyons mountains. Mist covered some forested areas below. However, due to the large amount of clouds floating in the sky, it would be very hard to see the stars. This was no problem for a hawk as it soared overhead. Its large eyes helped it see in the starless sky. The bird was tired after a long day of flying and wanted to rest.

Suddenly, something caught the hawk’s eye. It flew to one of the canyon’s cliffs and descended from its position to encounter this new object in question. The bird flew under a waterfall and soared by a cliff side path. As it got closer, the raptor found that the object was, in fact, two objects together: A young girl and her horse. The hawk zipped past them like a bullet, almost spooking the two companions. The girl and her horse stopped and watched as the hawk flew into the distance, before continuing to move on.

The girl was named Lucky “Wander” Prescott, with her middle name referring to her constant wandering around her home. She was a tall and skinny girl with striking hazel-colored eyes and long, brown hair accessorized with a blue headband. She wore a short-sleeved shirt that varied in shades of brown, and sported a cloak over it with a symbol on it. Her arms were rapped in bandages and blue wrist-guards. She also donned knee-length, faded green shorts and blue sandals with shin-guards. She was holding onto something wrapped in a cloth sheet. On her shorts, she carried a sword in a reddish-tint colored sheath.

Her horse was named Spirit, after his courage and bravery. He was dun-colored Kiger Mustang, with a patch of white running from his nose to his forehead. He and Lucky had a special bond when they first met, and the two had become inseparable ever since.

As they moved forward, they came to a dangerously, wide gap in the center of the path. Spirit stopped, then backed up ten feet from the gap. He then took a running start and leapt over the gap… safely making it to the other side. Lucky looked back at the steep drop, before letting Spirit know to move onwards. The two companions continued forward, leaving the canyon and its unforgiving cliff-side paths behind.
Soon, they were traveling through a forest. Fireflies hovered around them, lit up with bioluminescent lights from their lower abdomens. Moonlight shone through open areas in the canopy and onto the forest floor, casting shadows of trees. While Lucky and Spirit marveled at this spectacular sight, they were more focused on a river flowing through the forest. They decided to follow it along the riverbed to its source. But it wouldn’t be easy.
Dawn soon arrived, and so had a rainstorm. Thunder echoed through the sky. Lucky and Spirit had reached the edge of the forest, and took shelter from the rain under a small cliff. While the mustang grazed on the vegetation, Lucky looked out at the nearby grasslands. She decided it be best if they set out when the storm died down. And they did that, leaving the forest behind and continuing across the grassy savanna.
After hours of traveling, the two companions made it to their destination: a tall stone gate with a narrow passage. Spirit stopped for a bit, before continuing up the steps to get through. After reaching the other side, they saw a narrow bridge of near-otherworldly construction, standing at least 60 meters in height. The bridge spanned over a wide, vast, sandy desert, leading to a building in the distance. Lucky and Spirit started to cross the bridge to get to that building. They were now entering what many called “The Forbidden Lands.” The name was clear: setting foot onto this place is strictly forbidden.
But Lucky ignored the warnings. She knew that in these lands was something that would grant her wish. A wish that would carry a high price…

————————————————————
At the end of the bridge was an old building called the “Shrine of Worship.” It was covered in bushes, trees, and vines, had cracks in various places, and an elevated path led to the top of the building. It stood in the center of the Forbidden Lands, and the only entrance to it was the bridge.
The hawk from before flew near the shrine before flying back up, calling out to two other hawks in the sky. 
After making it across the bridge, Spirit and Lucky reached the door of the shrine. When they got to it, the door shook as it suddenly rose up on its own. Spirit made his way to the doorway, but stopped when he peered in. Inside were steps that led downward into the dark. The mustang became scared and backed away.

"It's okay, Spirit. I've got your back. Well, metaphorically speaking." With that said, Spirit started walking down the steps. Lucky looked behind her to see the door lowering itself and closing with a light thud.
When they reached the bottom of the steps, they entered a cylindrical room with a hole in the roof. Sunlight shone through that hole, lighting the area up a bit. A spiral ramp winded around the room’s edge, descending to ground level. The two companions went down that ramp.

Reaching ground level, they found a shallow basin of water in the center of the room, directly in the same position as the hole in the ceiling. Lucky ordered Spirit to go, literally, right around the basin. He did so, and both reached the next room: the Main Hall of the Shrine.
The hall contained an altar, a balcony that overlooked the lands to the north, a sunlit aperture in the ceiling, and 24 idols lining the east and west sides of the hall. It was these idols that caught Lucky’s attention. She was amazed of how well detailed they looked. Only when she saw the altar did she remind herself of her mission.

"Whoa, boy. We’re here."
The brunette then got off the mustang, grabbed the clothed object, and took it off Spirit, holding it in her hands. Based on how she was carrying it, the object was a human body. She carried it up the steps to the altar, then laid it down gently on the pillar. Lucky then removed the sheet, which floated slowly to the ground, and looked sadly at the body.
The body was that of a deceased, young girl. Her name was Solana, and she was Lucky’s sister. She looked just like Lucky, except she had dark skin and black hair. She was dressed in a long-sleeved lilac dress equipped with plastic butterfly wings.
Lucky knew that this was where she could bring Solana back. She remembered it from Lord Turo’s speech:
That place...began from the resonance of intersecting points...
They are memories replaced by ens and naught and etched into stone.Blood, young sprouts, sky - and the one with the ability to control beings created from light...In that world, it is said that if one should wish it, one can bring back the souls of the dead.But to trespass upon that land is strictly forbidden...
She knew that trespassing on this land is forbidden, but she had to do it… to resurrect her sister. However, unknown to her, she and Spirit weren’t alone. Spirit sensed danger and neighed in fear.

"What’s wrong, boy?" Lucky turned towards her horse, only to see something that made her gasp: A shadow-like figure, staring at her. Or at least that’s what she thought because this thing didn’t have any eyes, or ears, or face. In fact, it wasn’t human. It’s body was made entirely of black smoke. It almost seemed supernatural. "Um, hello?" The figure didn’t speak. Before Lucky could do anything else, four more shadows rose out of the ground. They staggered towards the brunette, but she was frozen in shock. She couldn’t move, and she didn’t until one of the creatures raised its arm towards her and sent her flying into the pillar her deceased sister laid on with a psychic attack. While her horse backed quickly away, Lucky managed to recover.
"I don’t know who or what you are, but you should know I just got here. I want to revive my sister, and I’m not going down without a fight." The brunette stood up and took her sword out of its sheath, and pointed the weapon at the shadowy apparitions. "Come on, I dare you to take me down. But let me warn you I have a weapon so powerful, even I don’t know what it’ll do."

She discovered it sooner than she expected, for the sword began illuminating white light, emitting otherworldly energy. The shadowy figures could only stand and watch(if they really had eyes) as they quickly dissolved into thin air by the sword’s energy.
"Wow! Didn’t see that coming?" She looked back at her sister. "Don’t worry, Solana. It’s all over."
Suddenly, three different sounds echoed through the halls. The brunette looked at the entrance and saw a human-sized creature slowly lumber into the room.
"Or not."

The beast had a pair of black, antennae-like horns on its head, red eyes, a small nasal horn, shoe-like feet, and a long tail. Instead of hands, this creature had black, whip-like arms. It was tan in color, with tan-colored spikes jutting out of its back, upper arms, feet, and tail.

Lucky stood in a combat pose, ready to face this new foe. However, the trouble went from bad to worse, as two more creatures stepped out from behind the east and west sides respectively. Emerging from the east side was a creature with a pointed beak lined with sharp teeth. Its eyes were raptor-like, with blue pupils. Its skin was like that of a worm, being brown in color, with a long spike jutting out from its back. It had human-like hands and feet, equipped with sharp, white claws.

The other creature had a pair of horns emerging from its skull. Its eyes were large, yet its pupils were small. It had similar skin to the other creature, except it was a darker brown. It had crab-like pincers for hands and feet, and a long tail tipped with small barb-like quills.
The three creatures gathered to face their enemy. Lucky tried not to panic as the beasts slowly zeroed in. Suddenly, from outside, clouds gathered as lighting flashed and thunder boomed. But this was no thunderstorm, because no rain was pouring down. The creatures stopped just fifteen feet from the steps to the altar. They looked up at the hole in the ceiling. From that hole came a voice…
“Hmm? You possess the Ancient Sword?” The voice sounded like both a male and female at the same time, leaving its gender ambiguous. “So you are a mortal. Sadola. Gudon. Telesdon. Please leave us be.”
The three creatures surprisingly understood the voice, as they turned and left the main hall and back to where each of them first emerged. When they were gone, Lucky sheathed her weapon before she looked up at the hole and spoke.

"Are you Dormin? That’s what many people call you, right?"

“You are correct.” The voice answered. “We are the one known as Dormin.”

"I was told that here, at the Southern Ends of this continent, lives a being that can control the spirits of the dead. Is that true?" She asked hopefully. "Please, you must revive my sister, Solana. She was sacrificed because she was doomed to a cursed fate."

Dormin just snickered. “That circus maiden’s soul? Souls that are once lost can’t be reclaimed… Isn’t that the law of mortals?”

"Please! I really want her to come back to life. I miss her dearly. If you were in the same position I was, wouldn’t you ask the same question?"

“I am but a humble supernatural being. I have no family. So it doesn’t concern me. Your loss.”

…

…
…
“With that sword, however…” Dormin continued. “…it may not be impossible.”

"Really?! You can revive her? You can revive Solana?" Lucky asked hopefully.

“Honest truth, sweetie.” Dormin answered. “That is, of course, if you manage to accomplish what we ask.”

"Anything! You name it!" Lucky responded, wanting to see her sister come back to life. "What do I have to do?"

“Behold the idols that stand along the wall… You must destroy all of them.”
"With pleasure!"
The brunette unsheathed her sword and ran to the first idol on the west side of the hall. She leapt into the air with incredible power and performed a midair slash on the idol. After landing on both feet, she expected the attack would’ve been super effective. She was wrong. As she looked behind her, she saw that the statue was still in one piece. Not even a scratch.
"What?! Why didn’t it work?"
“These idols can’t be destroyed by the mere hands of a mortal.” Dormin replied.

"My fists like to say otherwise."

She sheathed her weapon, deciding to prove her point. She walked up to the idol, formed her left hand in a fist, and punched the idol hard. But all she did was hurt her fist. She held her hand, moaning in pain.

“Like I said…" Dormin said. "Indestructible to a mortal.”

"Nothing’s truly indestructible. Everything has its flaws."

She started kicking the idol, then pulled random objects from out of pocket (bats, sledge hammers, crowbars, jackhammers, axes, maces, etc). She didn’t care what she used. She just wanted her sister to come back to life. But whatever she did, the idol didn’t even fracture. She then turned to you, the viewers, and said, "Now there’s a well built statue." She then turned to the supernatural being. "I guess you’re right, Dormin…" She said. "Maybe the idols are indestructible to a mortal."
“Glad to see you’ve finally realized the truth.”
"Yep. So indestructible, it might not be destroyed by a… PLASMA COIL!"
She pulled out a laser gun(seemingly from out of thin air) and pointed it at the idol. She pulled the trigger, and green beam of energy shot out, hitting the stone statue with an explosion. As the dust cleared, Lucky thought she won this battle. But once again, the idol was still standing in one piece, proving her wrong.
She chuckled nervously. "Did I say plasma coil? I meant to say… NEUTRINO CANNON!"

She pulled out another blaster and pointed at the first idol on the east side, pulled the trigger, shooting a red energy beam at the statue. However, like the previous one, this idol remained in one piece.

"PULSE BLASTER!"

She fired a blue beam of energy at another idol on the east side of the hall. Once again, no effect. Consumed by rage and obesity of seeing her sister alive again, Lucky pulled out more weapons, calling out their names and firing at the idols. Spirit just watched, annoyed by his master’s futile attempts.
"ELECTROBEAM! ION RAY! PARTICLE PHASER! FUSION TURRENT! LASER WAVE! BOMBZOOKA! SMASH ATOMIZER! ZAPOMATIC 9000! BIG BERTHA!"
No matter what weapon she used, the stone statues remained in one piece. At last, she gave up. She thought she would never see her sister again. This time, she really believed it.

"Maybe some things are indestructible. And perhaps it was a mistake coming here. I should’ve just let things be" the brunette lamented.

“Young mortal, the idols of the hall are only indestructible to the physical strength of mortals like you. But, there is one way to destroy them…”

"What? Really? How?"

“In these Lands, there exist colossi that are the incarnations of those idols. If you defeat those colossi and reincarnate them as mortals like you, the idols will fall.”

"So all I have to do is slay each colossus that match the idols and reincarnate them to be like a human? Wouldn’t that be like keeping the idols in one piece?"

“When you reincarnate each colossus as human, their connections with the idols will be shattered.”

"Thank you. I completely understand now."

“But heed this: For every colossus you defeat, the price you pay may be heavy indeed.”

Lucky was shocked. She now had two choices: either losing her sister forever, or sacrificing herself to resurrect her. The brunette knew there was no other way to revive Solana.

"If I complete that task, will you survive Solana?"

“Depends on if you succeed. If you do, I’ll retrieve her lost soul.”
"I’ll do it.” She said in a serious tone. “For my sister."
“Very well…”
Lucky looked out at the vast land beyond the Shrine of Worship. If she was going to revive her sister, she needed every ounce of strength, speed, cunning, and planning to do so. There was no turning back now.
————————————————————–
Ch. 1
Lynn and Mount Lady
————————————————————–

“Your first foe is…” Dormin said. “A giant that walks along the valley. The servant shall rise from behind, and make the earth quiver.”
"And how am I suppose to find this giant?"

“Raise your sword by the light, and head to the place where the light gathers. There, you shall find the colossus you must defeat.” Lucky walked to the altar to see her dead sister. She had to do this risky task… for her. “Now, be on your way.” Dormin said.

The brunette ran out onto the balcony, leapt off it, and landed perfectly on her two feet. She then unsheathed her sword and raised it above her head. The sword then glowed blue from absorbing sunlight, and several scattered lines of light shone from the sword. As Lucky pointed the sword to the South, the light gathered, forming one big line of light that pointed to the Southern Cliffs.

"Bingo!" Lucky said as she whistled for Spirit. The stallion galloped towards his master, and screeched to a stop next to her. The brunette then climbed onto her companion and gave him three pats on the next, letting him know that he could go as fast as he could. "Head to the cliffs, Spirit. That’s where our first target lies. Or stands. You know what I mean."
When the reached the cliffs, they saw the remains of what was once a temple. They stopped at the base of the temple, and Lucky saw that because of the terrain, Spirit couldn’t go through. She had to go on all by herself.

Lucky looked to her right and saw a group of vines growing on one of the walls. She jogged towards them, then looked back at Spirit. The stallion often worried about her when she was alone. "I’ll be fine, Spirit. When this is over, I promise I’ll come back down."

The brunette started to climb the vines towards the top of the wall. Once she was at the top, she carefully navigated across the wall. She leapt onto the next wall, then climbed onto the next one, slowly walking across a wooden platform, then leapt over another gap to the other side. Then, there was trouble.

A column had fallen on the path, seemingly blocking it. But Lucky knew that what you can’t go over, you must go under. She saw an opening underneath and rolled under the pillar, then continued on the path to the next level. She came upon a pillar with a damaged stone block on top. The brunette grabbed onto the top of the pillar as she shimmied her way around it and to the other side. Once there, she jumped to the small path behind her. She walked quickly up the path near the cliff edge.
"Dormin said that the colossi are incarnations of the idols in the shrine." Lucky said to herself. "I wonder if they look like them." Suddenly, the ground started to shake. But this was no earthquake. It felt like something very large and heavy was making its way to where Lucky was. Something like…

'A colossus', Lucky thought. She poked her head from behind a large rock to see the colossus. What see saw surprised her.
Instead of looking like what Lucky thought it would, the colossus was actually a 70 foot tall giantess. It looked like a preteen girl, with freckles, thick brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, a red and white jersey with a red “1” on it, tan track shorts with red markings, and brown cleats. Interestingly enough, it had four digits instead of the usual five on a regular human, and had fur on the back of its left leg. On its back were three stone platforms. In its right hand, it carried a large, wooden bat. For those of you who don’t know, this is Lynn Loud from “The Loud House.”

Lucky backed out of sight as the female colossus walked by. Every time it took a step, the ground shook, as did the trees (with one falling over in the process). Birds took off and started flying around the Giantess, hoping to pick off any parasites in her hair.
Meanwhile, our brunette was still shocked of what she saw.

'A giant woman!' She thought angrily. 'Dormin said that the colossi are incarnations of the idols in the Shrine. But he didn’t say that the colossi would be giantesses. That cheapskate!'
But Lucky knew she had to finish the task, by slaying this behemoth and reviving it to normal size. Slowly, she stepped out from her hiding spot, and ran after the giantess into the cliff valley. Lynn, meanwhile, stopped to scratch her head. This gave Lucky to walk up behind it and give time to think of a plan…
"Excuse me! Miss Giantess!"

…Or not.

Despite its size, Lynn was able to hear Lucky clearly. She looked behind her to see the smaller brunette at her heels. Lucky ran under the giantess’ legs and in front her to give out a clear message.
"Now that I have your attention," she went on. "This spiritual being named Dormin wants me to slay you, then revive you as a human being, in order to revive my sister, Solana. So, let’s do this."

Lucky pulled out her sword, and stood ready to fight. The giantess, meanwhile, looked confusingly at this smaller being. She didn’t even move. All she did was tilt her head and blink.

"Well?" Lucky impatiently asked. "What are you waiting for? Let’s fight! Or are you just chicken."

That’s when the hazel-eyed girl could see her mistake. Lynn’s eyes went from confused to anger. She raised her bat into the air and thrusted it downward. Luckily, Lucky rolled out of the way as the wooden weapon struck the ground, creating a shockwave that sent the human flying forward, behind the colossus. The smaller brunette managed to recover quickly and started to run back to the cliffs to safety.

"Me and my big mouth. I should’ve just rushed in to attack when I had the chance."

But she knew she couldn’t give up this easily. She had one task and she had to finish it, or she would break her promise to Dormin. She stopped by the fallen tree and took out her bow. She loaded an arrow on it and aimed at her target.
As the dust settled around her legs, Lynn looked at the ground to see if she got the smaller human. To her surprise, there wasn’t any blood or smashed body pieces. She looked at her club and found the same result. As the giantess wondered where the human went, her answer came when something small, but sharp, struck her right shoulder. She looked closely at the object and found that it was an arrow. The giant brunette looked behind her to see the answer to both of her mysteries.

Lucky had just reloaded her second arrow when the colossus began walking towards her. She fired that one, and another, and another. She kept firing until she felt that the giantess was close enough. She made a dash towards the legs of the giantess. Due to her size, Lynn couldn’t keep up at the pace her attacker was moving at. Our hero then unsheathed her sword and struck at the giantess’ left heel. Like the idols in the hall, the sword couldn’t pierce through.

"How on earth am I suppose to bring this thing down?"

“Hold up thy sword to reflect the light onto the colossus.” Dormin’s voice spoke telepathically to Lucky’s mind. “Its vitals shall be revealed.”

"Vitals?” Lucky asked. “Do you mean guts or weak spots?"

"Every colossi has a weak spot… many different from the rest. Find them and destroy them to complete your task."

Lucky nodded in agreement, and raised her sword up to the light. She found red mist hovering a crack on the back of the colossus’ left leg. She pulled out her bow (after managing to stay behind the giantess), loaded an arrow, aimed at the area where the weak spot was, and released the arrow. It made a direct hit, but nothing happened.
"I thought you said…"
“Only with the Ancient Sword can you bring down the colossus. You must climb the colossus to reach its major vitals.”

"How?"

Dormin didn’t reply. Lucky then realized that this was something she had to figure out herself. She looked for anything that might help her. Suddenly, she realized that the fur on Lynn’s left leg were like the vines from the temple. If she climbed up the fur strands, she would be able to get to the weak spot.
The hazel-eyes girl made a dash to the left leg, leapt off the ground, and grabbed onto several strands of fur. Slowly, she climbed up the leg to the weak spot. Every time to giantess took a step, her leg rumbled, meaning Lucky had to hold on for dear life. When she reached the weak spot, she pulled out her sword and struck at the spot. Lynn felt pain and knelt to the ground to regain footing. This was Lucky’s big chance. She climbed up toward one of the platforms just as the giantess was getting back up. Once she reached it, the colossus started to move. Lucky had to rest and regain stamina, but also had to crouch in order not to be thrown off.
Once she had enough stamina, Lucky quickly climbed up the colossus to the top of its head. There, she saw a sigil that matched her cape symbol. 'This must be the vitals Dormin was talking about', she thought to herself. She took out her sword and positioned it over the sigil. Then, with all her strength, she thrusted the sword into the sigil, causing a jet of black liquid to erupt out of the area she stab. The giantess moaned in pain and tried to shake Lucky off her. But the brunette held on, and stabbed the sigil again. The colossus furiously shook its head to get its attacker of it. But Lucky was now determined to finish this beast, and delivered the final blow.

That did the trick, as Lynn’s body went limp as she dropped the bat and fell to the ground with an big ‘bang’. Lucky leapt off the body and looked at what she did. 'If I was able to bring her down, I think I can bring all the colossi down', she thought.

“Now, young mortal”, Dormin telepathically spoke. “Raise your sword and point it at the body of your fallen foe. Use its power to reincarnate this colossus.”
Lucky pointed her sword at the dead colossus, and watched as the sword glowed like when she destroyed the shadows. Suddenly, a beam of white energy shot out from the sword and into the corpse. Lucky then saw a ball of white energy fly out from the corpse and onto the ground in front of her. Soon, the sword stopped glowing, the beam vanished, and the ball revealed itself to be human-sized lookalike of Lynn, with red shorts, red striped socks, and black cleats. No longer did she have fur on her left leg. She also lost the platforms on her back.

Lucky was interested in this preteen, and so focused on her that she didn’t see black tendrils emerge from the corpse of the colossus. By the time she did, it was too late. The tendrils struck through Lucky, and she fell unconscious. Three seconds later, Lynn opened her eyes and looked at the comatose girl in front of her.

————————————————————–

When Lucky opened her eyes, she was no longer in the valley. She was back in the Shrine of Worship, and Solana was still on the altar. Lucky got back up, with her sword still in her hand, and walked over to the altar to see her dead sister. She sheathed her weapon, and looked at her sister. Suddenly, the shrine shook. Lucky looked to her left to see the first idol on the west side of the hall (the one she had tried to destroy before) crack, with beams of light emerging from said cracks before exploding in sparks, causing the statue to crumble and fall. The brunette was shocked at what she witnessed. She really could bring the idols down, and maybe even revive her sister in the process.

"Awesome explosion!"
Lucky leapt in fright at the sound of the voice and fell down the steps before landing on her back. Miraculously, she was unharmed. As she got up, she saw Lynn walking towards her.
"Sorry I spooked you", the younger brunette said. "I was so amazed at the idol falling. I should congratulate whoever made that happen."

"Um, that was me", Lucky said, curiously.

"Of course, it was you. I was just joking. I was amazed of how you were able to defeat that big version of me."

"So, you aren’t mad that I killed you?"

"Heck, no. In fact, I was in awe of how well you stood your ground against me and my bat. You’re awesome!"

"Thank you, Ms…"

"Lynn Loud", the preteen replied. "My name is Lynn Loud Jr, but you can call me Lynn."

"I’m Lucky", Lucky introduced herself. "Lucky Wander Prescott."

"Nice to meet you, Lucky."

"The pleasure is all mine, Lynn." As they shook hands, Lucky saw that Lynn still had four fingers instead of five. Lynn noticed this and just giggled.

"My hands? Don’t worry, I’m not the only one with four fingers. Where I came from, the people in my village all had four fingers."

Lucky was still weirded out from hearing that. A whole village where everyone had four fingers instead of five? What kind of place was-

"Wait! Did you say village?!"
"Of course, what did you think I said?"
"It’s just that I haven’t seen anyone else here. Where’s your village?"

Lynn opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She closed it and scratched her head in confusion.

"Strange, I can’t remember. The only thing I can remember is seeing you after I was reincarnated."
"So, is your village home to colossi?"
"No, it’s just that I can only remember my village, but I don’t know where it is or how I became a colossus in the first place."

"You mean that you were once human? How is this-"
Before Lucky could finish her sentence, Dormin interrupted.
“Congratulations, young warrior. You have proved yourself worthy of taking down the other twenty-three colossi.”
"Thanks. But you didn’t say that the colossi would be giantesses."

“Did I?” Dormin said. “Must have slipped my mind.”

"So are all colossi in this land giant women?"

“Only nineteen of the twenty-four colossi, like your friend. The other five are male children, but they’re just as dangerous as the females. Remember to stay smart and exploit their weakness.”

"And Lynn? Do you know anything about her past?"

“What am I? A therapist? I haven’t seen any mortals in these lands whatsoever.”

"But if she’s not from here, then…"

"Don’t worry, Lucky", Lynn said. "I don’t care if I don’t remember what happened. I’m just glad I’m a human again."

Lucky smiled, but soon frowned. She looked at the lifeless body of her sister. If she was going to succeed this mission, she’d need help. And Lynn might give her an advantage over her foes.

"Lynn, please help me. The reason I came to these lands is to revive my sister, Solana. She was sacrificed to prevent a cursed fate. I want to bring her back and lift that curse."

"Don’t worry, Lucky. If you’re going through all that trouble of slaying giants just to revive your sister, count me in."

Lynn embraced Lucky in a hug. For a moment, the brunettes felt like sisters-in-arms. Close allies. And they needed to be, to face the challenges ahead.

“Your next foe is…”, Dormin said. “In the seaside cave, moving slowly. Raise your courage to defeat it.”
Lucky and Lynn ran out onto the balcony, and Lucky raised her sword to find where the light gathered. However, she couldn’t find any place where the colossus could be.

"Looks like it would be North", Lynn hypothesized.

"How would you know?"
"Just a hunch."

"Wait a minute. I’ve got it. Imagine, if I found you high on the cliffs to the South, then I’d  probably find it in the caves to the North", Lucky finished. "That’s it! It has to be north of the shrine. Come on!"

"I’ll never understand you, even though we just met."

The two brunettes leapt from the balcony and landed squarely on their feet. They climbed aboard Spirit (who was waiting for them at the bottom) and started riding around the west side of the shrine. They soon spotted the bridge to the shrine and cliffs in the distance. Lucky raised her sword and saw the lights gathered somewhere to the north. They went under the bridge and past two old, stone structures to a clear path north. The trio soon crossed a land bridge to the other side. Once there, they felt the ground quake. Spirit panicked and rose up before settling down.
"Uh oh", Lynn exclaimed.

"Uh oh what?" Lucky asked.

"Uh oh that!" Lynn pointed to where the paths split. One went straight, while the other turned and went downward towards a sandy beach. 
Remembering what Dormin said, Lucky decided it was best to go right. As they rode on, they saw that the light grew darker as they descended. Upon arriving at the beach, Lucky raised her sword and found that the gathered light pointed towards what appeared to be the cave. Not only that, it turned yellow as it did. Lucky found this strange, but decided to continue.

After riding underneath an old aqueduct, Lucky, Lynn and Spirit arrived to the area the light pointed to. However, they didn’t find a cave, only a large wall with a large crack in it. "Are you kidding me?" Lucky shouted.

"Where’s the cave?" Lynn asked. "Dormin said the next colossus would be in a cave. Are you sure this is the right place?"

Suddenly, the wall shook as dust and loose pieces of rock fell from it. The trio soon felt heavy booming, and it sounded like it was coming from behind the wall. Just then, the wall exploded as the second colossus bursted through it. Large chunks of wall and rubble fell to the ground as the behemoth walked into view.

"Well, it looks like it."

The colossus resembled a young woman with long, voluminous blonde hair curled into two strands and purple eyes with white pupils. She had a purple, domino-like mask and horn-like protrusions on the sides, with the sharp half of the right horn missing. Her attire composed of a purple and creamed colored bodysuit, accented with orange stripes, orange shorts, and purple gloves and boots. The suit also had three peculiar, orange, diamond-shaped dots on the purple top underneath its chest. Despite her humanoid appearance, she walked on its hands and feet like a Stegosaurus. She had a platform on each shoulder, with overlapping plates running down her arms, and a spine-like structure coming from her back. To fans, she was known as Mount Lady, aka Yu Takeyama.

"When you said ‘Uh Oh’, did you mean the path or the giantess?" Lucky asked Lynn.
"Both!" Lynn answered.

"How the heck am I suppose to climb up that thing?"

"Think about what Dormin said: ‘Every colossi has a weak spot’. Where would the first weak spots be?"

The quadrupedal colossus saw the three and started slowly crawling towards them. Spirit backed up while Lucky looked at how the giantess was moving. Before she knew it, she, Lynn, and Spirit were cornered into the cliff base. As Mount Lady rose up onto her hind legs, Lucky saw bronze-colored markings on the giantess’ palms. That’s when she realized the weak points were on its hands and feet.
"Her weak points are her hands and feet. She’s walking slowly to make sure she doesn’t give them away."
"That’s great, Lucky. But, can’t we talk about this later when we’re not about to squashed?"
Lucky looked to see Mt. Lady forming her right hand into a fist, unknowingly leaving her left hand exposed. The older brunette quickly took out her bow and loaded it before firing at the colossus’ exposed hand. It struck precisely on the spot, and unlike her battle with Lynn, this caused pain to the giantess. She held her hand and pried the arrow off before blowing on her hand. This gave the trio a chance to run underneath the blonde colossus to safety. As Mount Lady got back onto all fours, Lucky and Lynn vaulted off Spirit as the horse ran for the cave for cover.
"We’ll need to work as a team", Lucky told Lynn.
"Got it! I’ll distract her while you find a way up her body."
"How?"
"With this." The young brunette said as she pulled a sub from behind her back.

"A meatball sub?"

"What?! They're full of protein."

"Okay, fine. But try not to get killed."

"Come on, Lucky. You’re talking to an athlete. I’ve got this."

Lynn sprinted towards Mt. Lady as Lucky loaded her next arrow. The sporty brunette ran towards the giantess, waving her sub and started calling to the giantess. This got the blonde’s attention, which was mainly on the sub Lynn was holding. The blonde licked her lips and started lumbering after the jogging brunette.
Meanwhile, Lucky tried to get a good aim at the giantess’ foot. She ran close behind her while trying to keep a steady aim. At last, she locked onto the marking on the colossus’ right foot and released the arrow.
…
…

…

Direct hit!

Mt. Lady knelt down to prevent herself from toppling over. This gave Lucky a chance to grab onto her shorts and climb up her leg. She reached the top of the giantess’ back and started leaping over the structures sprouting from the spine. The brunette then ran to her head, when the major sigil was located. She held on to some strands of hair as the giantess shook her head in attempts to shake her off. After the shaking stopped,  Lucky stabbed her sword into the sigil, causing black liquid to erupt like a geyser. She stabbed it again, then again. Before she make a fourth stab, the sigil vanished.

"Lynn! I stabbed the sigil three times, but it didn’t work!"

"There must be another sigil on her!"

"Another hunch?"

"Just keep looking!"

Lucky ran along the giantess’ back, all while trying to hold on for dear life. As she climbed up, she saw something glowing on the giantess’ rear end. As she got closer, she saw it was a sigil. While it may have been a relief to find it, the position where it was was… uncomfortable. 
"Seriously? Of all the places the sigil would be, this is where it lies?" 

Nevertheless, Lucky had to complete the task. She raised her sword up, then thrusted it down with all her might.

Meanwhile, Lynn saw that giantess’ eyes widened, before roaring out in pain. The brunette then saw black liquid spewing from the giantess’ rear end. She figured that Lucky had found the second sigil.
"Ooh, that’s going to leave a mark."

After one last stab, Mount Lady’s eyes slowly closed, and her lifeless body timbered onto the sandy shore. As Lucky climbed down from the carcass, Lynn ran over to her.

"That was amazing, Lucky! Even though it might have been uncomfortable for finding the last sigil on her butt."
"It was. But hopefully, I won’t have to do that again. I mean, who else would have a sigil on their gluteus Maximus?"

Lucky turned to the fallen Mt. Lady and pointed her sword to the dead giantess, and watched as a beam of white energy entered the body and a white ball of light landed in front of her. As the light dimmed, it revealed the unconscious body of the now human-sized Mt. Lady, with both horns being the same length. 
But she still had the shorts for reasons unknown. ;-}
"Two down. Only twenty-two more to go."

Lynn heard something and looked behind her. She gasped as she saw black tendrils leaving the body of the colossus.
"Umm, Lucky?"
"Yes, Lynn?" Lucky turned to her friend before gasping at the sight of the tendrils. "Run!" The two brunettes quickly ran to the caves where Mt. Lady first emerged, but the tendrils were much faster. They flew into Lucky, causing her to fall unconscious. Lynn screeched to a stop and ran over to her  friend, checking her pulse. She was relieved that Lucky was still alive.

Suddenly, a moan behind her caught her attention. Mt. Lady was waking up. She saw Lynn with the unconscious Lucky, and cautiously walked over to her.

"Who are you?"

"I’m Lynn. And the girl who stabbed your colossal butt is Lucky. Sorry about the butt thing, Ms…"
"Mt. Lady. But call me Yu. Takeyama Yu." The blonde looked at the unconscious Lucky. "What happened to her?"

"Several black tendrils embedded themselves into her. But, don’t worry, she’s still alive."

"That’s a relief. Hey, can I have your sub now?"

"Really? You’re asking for a meatball sub at a time like this?"
"Um, yes?"
"Sure, why not?"
Lynn handed her sub, a six footer, to the blonde, who took a bite out of it. She loaned at the taste of the sandwich she was currently consuming. Lynn, meanwhile, looked at the comatose brunette in front of her.
"Don’t worry, Lucky. I promise we’ll finish Dormin’s request and revive your sister."

"She has a sister?" The blonde asked, having heard the conversation.

Before Lynn could explain, a scared neighing sound echoed along the beach, followed by a blood-curdling roar. They saw Spirit gallop around the corner from the cave and towards them. He screeched to a stop next to them, while Mt. Lady covering her sub from raining sand.

"Who’s the horse, Lynn?" The blonde asked.
"This is Spirit", Lynn answered. "Lucky’s horse. He’s normally brave, but whatever scared him had to be very frightening."
Another roar spooked the three. They turned towards where the giantess first emerged.
"Please tell me you have a friend in there."
"Actually, from what I can remember, he’s more foe than friend."
Suddenly, a large creature appeared from the corner of the cliff base. It looked like a T. Rex, but was smaller, with even smaller arms. It had two, black, bull-like horns on its head, four fingers on each arm, a long tail, and a row of white bumps running down its back. It was magenta-colored on top with a pale underbelly. The creature roared at its prey.
For those of you who don’t know, this is a Carnotaurus, a South American dinosaur made famous in Disney’s Dinosaur. Of course, Yu and Lynn didn’t know about the creature.
"That thing looks hungry. Do you think it’ll eat us?"

"Well, it was docile when I first saw it."
"But you were big when you first saw it!"

"Fair point."

The Carnotaurus soon began to charge at its newest victims. Mt. Lady shoved the rest of her sub down her gullet, hoping the creature would leave if the scent of meat was gone. Unfortunately, Carnos would eat anything, dead or alive, as long as it could fit into their mouths. The blonde then climbed onto Spirit and beckoned Lynn to come.
"Come on, Lynn! We can’t stay here or that thing will have us for dinner, as the main course!"

"But we can’t leave Lucky. We have to get her onto Spirit."
The blonde knew that Lynn was right. Leaving Lucky behind would be worse than ending up as Dino dinner. She leapt off Spirit to help Lynn…
…only for her, Lynn and Spirit to be swatted away by a hit from the Carno’s tail. The three landed in a heap on the sand, next to the carcass of Mt. Lady’s giantess form, with Spirit on top of the two former giantesses. The abelisaurid was more interested in scavenging than hunting right now. As it opened it’s maw to engulf Lucky’s head, suddenly, a beam of light energy shot out from the carcass of the colossus. The theropod raised its head towards the light. It began to back away slowly, unsure what this beam was.
Lynn, Yu, and Spirit managed to recover from the blow, and were amazed to find the body of Mt. Lady’s giantess form illuminated by the beam, which was slowly expanding. Lynn managed to free herself from under the mustang’s body and rushed over to Lucky. She cupped her hands underneath the comatose brunette’s shoulders and started to drag her towards Spirit.
Suddenly, the beam of light engulfed Lynn and Lucky. The sporty tomboy felt the body of her friend being lifted into the air, pulling her with it. As she got higher and higher, Lynn was wondering if this beam was related to the black tendrils from earlier.

All of a sudden, Lucky seemingly disappeared from Lynn’s hands. The beam got smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Then, gravity took hold as Lynn fell from a height of twenty feet or so. Luckily, she landed safely in the hair of the dead giantess. She quickly swam out of the sea of blonde hair and landed on the soft sand.
Yu ran towards her. "Did you see that? What happened?"

"Lucky, somehow, dematerialized from my grasp. It’s as if she was erased from existence."
"But if she was erased, how are we still here?"

"I’m not sure."
"And why is he still here?" Yu pointed to the Carnotaurus, who, no longer afraid, appeared to be staring hungrily at them.

"Isn’t it obvious?"

The theropod bellowed at the two before charging. Lynn and Yu hopped onto Spirit, who galloped as fast as he could. The two former giantesses looked back to find something surprising, but relieving. The Carnotaurus was feasting off the dead body of Mt. Lady’s colossus form. It ripped off a chunk of meat before swallowing it whole.
"Well, that’s a relief" Lynn said.
"Who’d knew my old body would still be useful?"
"I know, right? But what are we going to tell Dormin?"

"Who?"
"Mr. Being of the Forbidden Lands?"
"I don’t know. I was just reincarnated."

Fortunately, they wouldn’t have to tell Dormin anything…
————————————————————
Lucky groaned as she opened her eyes. She was somehow back at the Shrine of Worship. Solana’s corpse still on the alter. Suddenly, the ground shook as the idol of Mt. Lady crumbled after the energy in the idol was released in a series of sparks.
"Well, that cares of that giantess" She said to herself. Then, she realized Spirit, Lynn, and the blonde girl she reincarnated weren’t with her. "What happened?! Where are they?!"
A neigh answered her question. Lucky looked to see Spirit clambering up the steps, with Lynn and Yu riding on top of the horse. The sporty brunette vaulted off the mustang and ran towards Lucky, embracing her in a bear hug.

"Don’t ever do that again! I thought I lost you!"

"Fortunately, you didn’t. Don’t worry, I’ll be here for you." The tomboy hugged Lucky some more, while the latter noticed Yu getting off Spirit. "Sorry about stabbing your butt, Ms…"
"Mt. Lady", Lynn said.
"Please, just call me Yu."

"Okay, Yu."
The three women laughed together until the sound of a gust of wind brought their attention to the hole in the ceiling as Dormin spoke. “Your next foe is… a devil that haunts the grass. Its power disrupts the natural order of anything around it.” Lucky, Lynn, Yu, and Spirit walked onto the balcony and looked out at the Forbidden Lands. They looked at each other, knowing that they would need help to rid the Lands of colossi and revive Solana.
"By the way, how did I get back here in the first place?" Lucky asked her companions.

"That’s easy. But you might not believe it at first…" Lynn started.

————————————————————–

Meanwhile, out on a grassy plateau, several men on horseback navigated around the dangerous terrain. Leading them was Lord Turo, who wanted to get past the cliffs and to the Forbidden Lands quickly before something terrible happened.

Turo was a man in his twenties. He looked robust and had tan skin. He wore a light-blue robe equipped a hood. He wore a mask over his face. Said mask resembled a bear face, being white with red marks running down from the eyeholes.
"Lord Turo", one of his men asked. "How long until we get there? We might already be too late."

"Don’t say that", Turo answered. "If we were too late, the end would upon us right now. We still have time. However, we must retrieve that stolen sword before she does something reckless with it."
As they continued forward, they were unknowingly watched by two, cloaked figures. They had followed Lord Turo and his men for the same reason: To find Lucky and bring her home.
————————————————————
Ch. 2
Toko(Genocide Jack), Sakura, And Alice
————————————————————
To the east of the shrine, a flock of human-sized creatures grazed in the fern prairies near the forest. Each had a long neck, a toothless beak, large eyes, a long tail, three-fingered hands, and long legs. They were covered in fur-like feathers, with wing feathers and a tail fan, making them look like an ostrich. In fact, they were 'ostrich mimics', or, in Latin, Struthiomimuses.
Not all of the flock were grazing, though. A few individuals acted as sentries, or look-outs. Their eyes would catch the slightest rustle of vegetation in the forest. And more eyes were better than one. If one caught sight of a predator, it’ll alert the rest of the flock. Luckily, there weren’t any predators today. But that didn’t mean all was calm.
Suddenly, a thundering boom rolled across the plains, heard by all. Birds flew from the trees in fear. Soon, all the turned their heads towards the sound in question. Three miles west of their location, a cloud of smoke billowed from where a explosion occur. It could be seen rising behind the treetops. One of the ostrich-like creatures puffed up its neck and uttered a grunting noise, signaling to the flock that whatever caused the explosion was miles away. The creatures continued to graze while the sentries kept watch.

————————————————————
*CRASH*

A pillar shattered as it fell on the cobblestone ground of an old temple. This was where Lucky, Lynn, and Yu would find the next giantess and slay it. But, unknown to them, their target was already in a fight with another opponent.

The giantess was fifteen feet tall and had long dark purple hair flowing freely, with several thin hair clips. She had large wire-rimmed round glasses and a mole on the left side of her chin. She wore a purple Japanese school female uniform with a long skirt, but it was in tatters and her skirt revealed tally marks. For those of you who don’t know, this is Toko Fukawa from Danganronpa. However, instead of grey eyes, they were bright red. Her hair was more messier, and her long tongue stuck out. This was the murderous Genocide Jack, Toko’s alter ego due to her suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. But like the other giantesses, this Jack was different than her human counterpart. She had a pair of horns with numerous branches on them. She also possessed a pair of bat-like wings on her back, each with a hook claw.
Her opponent was a dragon. But this wasn’t your ordinary fire-breathing lizard: it was bipedal, possessed winged forelimbs(with small hooks at the end of its wing joints), and was about the same size as the Carnotaurus they encountered before. It had small, yellow yet keen eyes with black pupils. In front of its eyes was a curved nasal horn. Its lower jaw was shorter and wider than the upper jaw, giving it an overbite. Ringing its skull was a set of spikes, and coating the tail was a series of spines. It had small black feathering on the back of its legs and four black claws on its feet. Its body color was a combination of blue, gold, red, purple, and tan with a light beige underbelly; the main body color being blue, a bright and light turquoise. Its wings were mottled with darker shades of blue spots circled by gold and red spots closer to its reddish shoulders. Under its wings was a mixture of gold and tan. Its tail was blue and gold. This was Stormfly, the Deadly Nadder from the How to Train Your Dragon series.
The dragon fired a magnesium blast from its mouth, which struck Jack precisely on her head. The giantess, however, was unfazed by this attack, and charged at her opponent. Stormfly, fortunately, was more agile and was able to dodge Jack’s attack. She flew behind the devil and unleashed a barrage of spines from her tail, some striking the giantess on her back. One was able to strike precisely where one of the main sigils would be, causing Jack to shriek in pain.
As she tried to remove the spine from her back, Stormfly, meanwhile, quickly realized that the center of the giantess’ back was a weak spot. The nadder dove towards her target, her mouth starting to light up as she readied her magnesium blast. Unfortunately, the purple-haired colossus somehow managed to predict this. She pulled out a pair of scissors from her skirt and spun around to face her opponent, slashing at it. Stormfly, luckily, was just able to fire her attack at the devil’s weapon, melting the sharp ends to a point where it couldn’t slice or dice.
With her weapon now obsolete, Genocide Jack had no choice but to fight fire with fire. She tossed aside her pointless scissors and squatted down before unfolding her bat-like wings. With one powerful flap, Jack propelled herself into the skies and flew after Stormfly.

————————————————————
The temple the two were fighting on was at the top of a mountain, next to an old dam that was fifty meters in height and fifteen meters wide. One would get to the temple by crossing over a path with 'void' holes before reaching the entrance to a cave. At the other end was a cliffside path that led to a bridge, which crossed over the steep and precarious chasm. On the other side was the temple, surrounded by blades of tall grass, perfect to hide from threats.

Lucky, Lynn, and Yu were now at the entrance of the cave, oblivious to the battle that was taken place in the skies. Because of the 'void' holes on the path behind them, Lucky had to leave Spirit on the other side less he accidentally fell through one of those holes. Along the way, Lynn and Yu were telling Lucky about how the beam of light shining from the body of the colossus sucked her into the sky and how the black tendrils might be related to that.

"So you’re telling me that the beam of light sucked me up is somehow connected to the black tendrils that strike me into unconsciousness?"

"Well, it’s a guess" Lynn replied, "I mean, when I was reincarnated, I saw you being absorbed by the beam. Then I saw a flash of light in the Shrine. That caused me to go there and meet you."

"Well, just to be clear, why didn’t you ask Dormin about them?" Yu asked.
"I don’t want him to think I’m suspicious of his place in these lands. The beams might be his doing, so he might be doing me a favor by making sure I arrive back at the Shrine alive."

"But what about those black things?"

"Could be pure evil."

"Evilness isn’t a thing. It’s an action or thought."

"Well, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all this."

"And what’s that?"

"That there’s an evil warlord who wants to conquer the universe and sees me as an obstacle. Said warlord probably planted those black things in the giantess to knock me out before he came along and finished me off. That might also be the reason why the colossi are hostile. And might even be the reason why Lynn was turned into a giantess in the first place."

"Well, I might agree with the 'warlord' turning me into a colossus and making me lose my memories," Lynn said. "But I’m going to have to disagree with the whole colossi-targeting-you deal."

"And why would you say that?"

"Because if the colossi are only aggressive to you, then why would that one attack a dragon?"

"What dragon?"

Lynn pointed to the sky, where Stormfly and Genocide Jack were duking it out. Already, the giantess was on the back of the Nadder, who was trying to get her off. Jack knew that creature couldn’t blast her if she was on its back. But she didn’t take in account of the creature using its tail, as Stormfly lashed it at Jack’s back. The sharp spines pierced through cloth and flesh, causing the giantess to scream. The dragon then flipped over as Jack lost her grip and fell, but the giantess managed to use her wings to slow her descent. She flew back up at her opponent.

"Oh… that dragon."

"Looks like that thing can handle that devil giantess," said Yu, "but not for long."

And, unfortunately, she was right.

Stormfly was getting exhausted, and Jack seemed to understand this. The Nadder charged up its magnesium blast, as its mouth grew bright-yellow. Suddenly, Jack’s mouth also started to light up, but with a reddish-hue. Just as Stormfly unleashed her attack, Jack fired a concentrated beam of red energy from her mouth. Both breath attacks collided, as an orb of energy formed where both beams met, growing larger by every passing second.

It wasn’t long before Genocide Jack got the upper hand, as the orb of energy was pushed towards Stormfly. Despite the dragon increasing the power of her magnesium blast, it was no good. The orb soon exploded in front of the Nadder, sending the dragon flying. Jack’s energy beam struck the reptile, forcing the Deadly Nadder towards the temple.

Seeing Stormfly almost getting killed while trying to fight the giantess made Lucky think about herself when she first entered the Forbidden Lands. Suddenly, something in her gut told her to help this reptile. Rage and anger soon consumed her, and she rushed towards the temple, leaving a surprised Lynn and Yu in the dust.

"Lucky!" They both shouted  as they ran after her.

Stormfly crashed onto the cobblestone floor and slid into a pillar. As she tried to get up, Jack landed nearby and pulled out a pair of scissors. The giantess walked over to the downed dragon, ready to finish her off. Just as the reptile got back on its two feet, the purple-haired devil knocked it onto its back, then stepping on its wings so it couldn’t rewrite itself. Genocide Jack then grabbed Stormfly’s neck with one hand and raised her scissors with the other, as reptile closed its eye and waited for the killing blow.

Suddenly, an arrow struck the hand that slowly choking the dragon. Jack screeched in pain as she held said hand, unknowingly stepping off Stormfly’s right wing. The Nadder then blasted her fire breath at the giantess point-blank, causing her to fall on her back and releasing her grip on the scissors. The reptile flipped herself over and stood back up, finding what saved her life; a brown-haired girl with a bow.

Jack turned her attention towards this new enemy. She hissed in agitation, hoping to scare her away. But Lucky didn’t run, and she wasn’t going to. No one hurts an innocent creature and gets away with it.

"Listen here, she-beast! If you want to finish that dragon, you’ll have to go through me!"

Jack pried the arrow off her hand and threw it at Lucky. The brunette was able to evade the incoming object and leap into the tall grass. The purple-haired giantess grabbed two more pairs of scissors from under her skirt and stomped towards the grass. She then slashed and hacked at the vegetation, cutting off the top halves of the grass. She searched for her target, but she was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, she heard stones falling on the cobblestone. She turned around to find nothing, not even the dragon that was on the ground where she left… it…

Jack realized that she had been duped. Enraged, she unleashed a beam of energy from her mouth into the sky. Then, she calmed down. It didn’t matter if the dragon was gone, there would be other animals to slaughter.

*DING*

Jack heard the sound of metal hitting rock and looked towards a group of pillars. She slowly, and quietly, crept over to said group of pillars. The purple-haired giantess then peered from the side of the pillar to see what was hiding. Nothing!

Or so it seemed…

The devil giantess got on her hands and sniffed the ground, hoping to catch a scent. If something was there, it would’ve left a scent, and a fresh one, too. Jack then picked up a scent and started crawling around the pillars to find where it led. She didn’t know that she was going around in circles, and her target was right above her.

————————————————————

After Lucky leapt into the tall grass, she lied on her stomach to avoid being sliced and diced by Genocide Jack’s scissors. After the giantess was done slicing the blades of grass, Lucky quickly crawled over to another grove of tall grass. As the giantess searches for her, the brunette quickly, and quietly, ran over to a nearby column, and hid behind it. She soon found Lynn and Yu hiding behind that same column, and both former giantesses hugged the brunette in glee.

"I’m so glad you’re okay, Lucky," Lynn said.

"The same to you two, too."

"Well, now that we’re all okay," Yu began, "how are we suppose to take that thing down?"

"Easy!" Lucky explained, "I use the sword, stab its sigils, and it’s dead."

"Shouldn’t you come up with a plan, first?"

"No need; I already came up with one. And this is how it goes…"

————————————————————

Lucky crouched as she waited for Jack to come exactly where she wanted her to come. She was on the group pillars, just out of the giantess’ eyesight. This was all part of her plan.

Lucky had climbed to the top of the pillars and dropped some stones on the cobblestone path to get Genocide Jack’s attention. When that didn’t work, she banged her sword on one of the pillars as an alternative. The scent Jack was following was actually coming from one of Lynn’s meatball subs. Lynn was literally walking behind the giantess to trick her. Yu, meanwhile, was waiting for Lucky’s signal.

It wouldn’t be long before Jack found out she was being duped again. She stopped crawling and felt something bump into her leg. She looked behind her to find a small brunette with a white shirt with a big, red 1 on it. The brunette grinned nervously before speaking.

"Oh, hi. This isn’t what it looks like. I was just…uh… having a snack. Right here! And I seemed to have accidentally walked into you, and drop my lunch." Lynn looked at her sub, now messy and dirty. She then looked back at the giantess. "So, now that I dropped my meal, I’d better be going. Okay?"

The devil giantess didn’t look fooled by this. She licked her lips before lunging at Lynn, who just managed to dodge her toothy maw. As the sporty tomboy ran, Jack charged after her. Because she was so focused on Lynn, she didn’t see Yu step out from her hiding place nor hear Lucky shout.

"Yu! Now!"

"CANYON CANNON!"

Jack looked up too late, as a blonde with a horned mask kicked her in the face. Yu’s superpower, Canyon Cannon, can send enemies flying by a kick with the force of a speeding freight train. Genocide Jack was sent flying into the group of pillars. Lucky held on as the pillars shook from the impact. After regaining her balance, she unsheathed her weapon and leapt from the pillars. She struck the sigil on Jack’s head with incredible force. Due to the amount of force the sword was applying while being thrusted, and speed of Lucky’s descent, the pain was unbearable for Genocide Jack. Black blood erupted from the spot, as the giantess screeched in pain. She felt the sword being removed from her head and realized what was going on. She quickly got back onto her feet and unfolded her wings.

"Uh Oh."

That was all Lucky could say before the giantess launched herself into the skies, with Lucky hanging on to one of the strands of purple hair for dear life. Due to the force of the takeoff, Lucky dropped her sword, which meant she couldn’t fight back. Lynn and Yu watched as both brunette and giantess disappear into the clouds. Just fifteen meters above the battleground, Genocide Jack shook her head violently, in hopes of flinging the pesky human off her head. Sadly, Lucky couldn’t hold on for long, and the hair strand she was holding onto slipped out of her grasp. The brunette fell and fell as the flying devil flew right behind her, ready to consume her next victim.

The giantess opened her mouth as wide as she could, then folded her wings, as she descended faster and faster. Lucky flipped over and gasped as she saw the giantess’ maw getting closer and closer. The brunette tried to swim faster through the sky to get away from her oral demise, but it was no use. She knew she would die somehow: either by being eaten or splattering on the ground.

Just then, something knocked Genocide Jack aside. Lucky looked back to see it was Stormfly, apparently returning the favor for her savior.

"Well, look who decided to repay their debt."

Lucky grabbed Stormfly’s nasal horn and hoisted herself up the Nadder’s head and onto her back. The brunette looked back to see Jack still flying after her. 'Flying', Lucky thought, 'that’s it.' She patted the reptile’s back to get its attention.

"Miss dragon, we need to destroy that giantess’ wings. Without them, she won’t be able to fly."

The dragon was surprisingly able to understand what she said. She stretched her wings out to slow her descent, as Genocide Jack zipped right by her. The giantess then stretched her wings to slow herself down.

"Now!" Lucky shouted as she fired an arrow from her bow. Stormfly, meanwhile, unleashed a dozen spines from her tail. The arrow and spines shot through Jack’s wings, ripping holes in the membrane. Stormfly then unleashed her magnesium blast on the giantess, which set the wings on fire. As the membranes slowly burned away, Jack could no longer control her descent. She continued falling even as the last piece of wing membrane burned away, even as she smashed through the bridge that led to the temple, destroying it.

Lynn and Yu looked from edge as they saw Jack disappear into the dark below. They looked up and saw Stormfly land on the cobblestone floor. Lucky got off and patted the dragon to let it know it did a good job. The Nadder then nuzzled Lucky, purring in satisfaction.

"Lucky!" Lynn ran towards her friend, tackling her to the ground with a hug. "I was so worried! I thought I lost you."

"So did I," Yu added, "But I managed to pull through."

"Didn’t you cry when you saw Lucky disappear into the clouds?"

"I thought it was you who cried."

"I don’t cry."

"Whatever," Lucky interrupted, "the important thing is that I’m alive and I have a task to complete."

Lucky picked up her sword and raised it into the air. But it didn’t glow. Lynn looked over the edge. There wasn’t any glowing orb in sight.

"Are you sure you killed that thing?"

"Yes, maybe. I mean, what’s the possibility of that thing surviving a fall? Even after it crashed into a bridge?"

"Yeah, you’re right. Maybe you’re just too far away from the corpse to revive it."

Just then, Lynn saw something glowing at the base of the dam.

"Lucky, I think I see the orb. It just started glowing."

"Good job, Lynn. Except for one small detail…" Lynn looked back at Lucky. The sword still wasn’t glowing.

"Maybe it’s Dormin."

"Can’t be. He said he was just a supernatural being. Even if it is him, why would he be here now?"

"Maybe he saw how much we were struggling and decided to do the reincarnation for us." Lynn looked back down at where the orb was. It was getting brighter, and had some sort of reddish-hue. "He sure is strange. The orb he made looks red."

"Red?!" That’s when it hit her. It wasn’t Dormin. "Lynn, get back!"

"Why?" Lynn asked as she looked up

"The giantess is still alive!"

"But you said it…"

Lynn looked back down and saw the 'orb' rocket towards her. She leapt back as a beam of red energy shrieked past her. It suddenly tilted as it struck the ledge Lynn was squatting on. The ledge exploded into pieces as they fell to the base of the dam.

"I thought it was dead!" Lynn exclaimed, scared out of her wits.

"You almost 'joined it'," Lucky said.

Lucky walked over to another ledge and looked down. She couldn’t see Jack, but she knew she had already left the base of the dam, and would be back to settle the score. If only she knew where without being spotted. The only problem was that with the bridge destroyed, there was no way back. Unless they were able to fly over.

The thought of flying once again popped into Lucky’s mind. She looked at Stormfly; the only member of their group who could fly.

"Dragon," Lucky said, "Think you can fly me down to find our enemy?"

As if by some sort of understanding, Stormfly squatted to let Lucky on. The brunette hopped on as the reptile took off. Lynn and Yu watched as the two descended to the bottom.

Stormfly glided above the path to the temple. Lucky knew that if the giantess was going to get her revenge, it would have to find its way up somehow. But where it would be: That was the question.

Suddenly, Stormfly squawked at something. Lucky gasped when she saw giant shoe-prints. The Nadder landed on the path and sniffed at the tracks. These were fresh, and made recently. Too recently.

"It’s been here," Lucky said, "And it seemed to be in a hurry."

A blood-curdling screech proved her right. She looked up and saw Jack bounding towards the path with 'void’ holes in it.

"We’ve got to stop it!"

Stormfly nodded in agreement. She stretched her wings and took to the skies, after the devil. By the time they got to her, she had already crossed the path and was heading towards the cave entrance.

"No you don’t," Lucky said.

Stormfly fired her magnesium blast, which struck the ground in front of the giantess. The devil colossus shrieked to a stop before looking up at her foes. She hissed in agitation before continuing bounding towards the cave.

"We have to warn the others," Lucky said, "Come on!"

————————————————————

Lynn and Yu were already waiting for Lucky to return. When they heard the giantess’ screech, they looked over the edge saw her bounding across the 'void' hole path. Then, they saw Lucky and the dragon attempting to slow her down, with minimal success. After Jack disappeared into the cave, Lucky and the dragon flew back up to the battleground. As soon as the reptile landed, Lucky hopped off and ran towards them.

"She’s coming! And fast!"

"We saw. What are we going to do?"

"I’ll come up with something. But for now, we need to hide. Dragon, up."

Stormfly once again took to the skies as Lucky, Lynn and Yu ran towards the tall grass. Suddenly, a familiar screech got their attention. Genocide Jack was standing on the cliffside path, and her mouth was glowing a reddish-hue. An all-too-familiar reddish-hue.

"GET DOWN!" Lucky cried.

Her companions did exactly as she said. Lucky ducked just as a beam of red energy struck the grass, burning it. But that didn’t end there. She continued expelling red energy from her mouth, and directed it towards other parts of the battleground. Her beam vaporized grass, destroyed pillars, and scorch the cobblestone ground. She was destroying any chance of their survival. When she felt like she had done enough damage, she ceased her attack and galloped towards the ledge.

Lucky looked back just in time to see the giantess taking the leap of faith. However, she missed and plummeted out of sight. Just then, an awful screeching sound was heard, similar to fingernails being dragged across a blackboard. Lucky got up and rushed over to the ledge to see if Genocide Jack survived. Unfortunately, she did.

The giantess has driven her horns into the cliffside to slow her fall, leaving large gashes in the rock. Using her left hand(as her right hand was hanging onto an outcrop), she pulled out a pair of scissors and drove them into the rock. Then, after getting out another pair of scissors and doing the same thing, she pulled her horns out of the rock and started to climb, using her scissors like ice picks.

Lucky knew this was no time to stare in awe. She rushed over to Lynn and Yu, who were just getting up.

"We’ve got a problem. Ms. Psycho’s coming, and fast."

"No kidding," Lynn said, unaware of what Lucky was afraid of, "We’ve got nowhere to hide from that thing! Now how are we suppose to bring down that… Hey, where’s the devil?"

"On the cliffside," Lucky answered, "But I wouldn’t look down if I were you."

"Come on, what’s the worst that could happen?" Lynn would find out soon. As she looked down, a sticky tongue shot out in front of her face, barely grazing it. As it recoiled into the giantess’ mouth, Lynn, face covered in saliva, backed away. She looked like she’d seen a ghost. "I stand corrected."

"What are we suppose to do now?" Yu asked.

"We have to stand and fight," Lucky answered. "There’s no other option."

"What about running?" Lynn asked.

"If we run, that thing will keep chasing us. And if we were to run, where would we go?"

"Good point."

"We just need to come up with a plan."

"Too late for that." Yu interrupted, pointing to the cliff.

A pair of scissors attached to a hand rose from the canyon and embedded themselves into the ground. The same for another hand with another pair of scissors. Then, the horned, twisted head of Genocide Jack came into view. She licked her lips as she stared at her foes.

"Now what, Lucky?" Lynn asked.

"I’m going with what you said earlier: RUN!"

The trio turned and ran to whatever hiding place was still available, but Jack wouldn’t let them get away. Suddenly, she flung herself up into the air like a bullfrog after a fly, scissors still in hand. She landed behind the trio with a earthshaking *BOOM*, knocking them off their feet. The giantess sheathed her scissors and snatched Lucky before she could recover from the blow. The devil then ran towards the center of the battleground, with the brunette trapped in her grasp.

By the time Lynn and Yu stood back up, Genocide Jack was already holding Lucky in her right hand.

"Lucky!" Lynn shouted.

"Wait," Yu interrupted, realizing something, "Why is that thing more interested in Lucky than with us?"

"It’s because she blasted off its wings, remember?"

"Oh, right. Hold on, Lucky! We’ll save you!"

Jack then pulled out a pair of scissors and pointed them at Lucky. When Lynn took one step forward, the scissors got closer to Lucky.

"Lynn, Stop!"

"But what about you?"

"She’s holding me as a hostage. Each time you move closer, she’ll continue to point those scissors closer to me. Pretty soon, she’ll kill me for sure."

Lynn knew she couldn’t argue. If she tried to rescue Lucky, Jack would kill her before she got to her. She was in a stalemate.

Suddenly, a familiar squawking sound could be heard. Stormfly flew towards Jack at high speed. Her mouth opened, revealing her sharp teeth. She couldn’t risk burning Lucky with her magnesium blast, so she went for a physical attack. But she hadn’t planned for what came next.

As the Nadder came closer, Jack sheathed her scissors and stretched her left hand towards the dragon, as if she was trying to stop it. Just then, Jack’s hand grabbed Stormfly’s nasal horn and, with incredible power, flung the reptile to the ground, on its back. Fortunately, the horn didn’t break. But now Stormfly was in trouble. The giantess clutched the reptile’s throat, squeezing it in an effort to choke it to death. She also began to squeeze Lucky. It wouldn’t be long before she popped like a balloon.

"What do we do?!" Lynn screamed.

"I don’t know," Yu answered, "But if we try to get to them, that thing will just kill them both. We just need a way to distract it."

Suddenly, a lightbulb in Lynn’s brain lit. "I’ve got an idea."

"One that I might definitely won’t like?"

"Afraid so…"

"Crud."

————————————————————

Lucky could feel her organs getting ready to rupture, and her bones were on the point of breaking. She could say the same thing for the dragon, if she could breathe. All she could do was look at the giantess’ villainous face as it showed signs of pleasure for choking the brunette and the reptile to death. Lucky would’ve almost passed out from the pressure had it not been for two voices that got the giantess’ attention.

"Hey, Yu," said Lynn, "I just thought of something."

"What is it?" The blonde nervously asked.

"What do you call an evil, flying giantess devil with half a brain?"

"I-I don’t know, w-w-wh-what?"

"Gifted!"

As Lynn laughed and Yu nervously giggled, Lucky looked up at the giantess’ face. The sign of pleasure was replaced by anger. Then she realized Lynn and Yu were trying to rescue her by focusing the colossus’ attention to them. And, apparently, it worked.

Genocide Jack felt insulted. They were joking about her. Furious, she released her grip on Lucky and Stormfly and stomped her way over to the two troublemakers. 

"Uh, Lynn?"

"Yes, Yu?" The blonde pointed to the purple-haired giant serial killer, who was growling in agitation. "Oh, hi?"

The devil colossus shrieked in anger. Lynn and Yu smiled innocently before rocketing away from the giantess, leaving behind cartoonish dust that resembled them. The two ran as fast as they could. Suddenly, Jack leapt in front of them, giving the two a spook. The serial killer licked her lips before trying to take a chomp at the duo. Fortunately, they evaded the mouth of death and under the giantess. Jack turned around and followed them.

As the two former giantesses climbed over a large piece of a broken column, Jack tried to impale them with her horns. Unfortunately, she missed and got them stuck in the stone cylinder. She tried to raise her head, but the pillar was heavy. When she did manage to lift her head up, the weight of the pillar caused her to stumble around a bit until she fell backwards. As she landed on the cobblestone ground, the pillar shattered upon impact, freeing her horns. As she got up, she flung one of her scissors at the duo. Lynn and Yu ducked as the projectile flew above them, and towards the dam. It flew into the enormous structure, becoming embedded in the process.

Meanwhile, Lucky saw this as an opportunity. No sooner did she recover did she hear the crashing of stone. After watching Genocide Jack get up on her feet and continue chase, she looked and saw a large chunk of wall still standing. If she could trick Genocide Jack into running into one of the wall, she’d have enough time to finish her off, once and for all.

She ran towards the wall, unaware that it had been built so close to the cliff edge. Meanwhile, Stormfly had just recovered and was curious in why the girl who saved her was running towards a broken wall when she could’ve just charged at the distracted giantess. The reptile would find out sooner or later. But she did see something that made her squawk in surprise.

As the giantess chased after her prey, Lynn tripped on a loose piece of cobblestone and fell. When she flipped herself onto her back, she shrieked as she saw Genocide Jack bearing down on her. Just as the purple-haired devil opened her mouth to eat the tomboy, something sharp struck her head. Although it didn’t hurt, she felt it very easily. She looked back and saw the pesky brunette who destroyed her wings. But she didn’t see the wall behind the brunette.

The serial killer turned around to face her opened. The giantess then pawed at the cobblestone ground. Lucky sheathed her bow and pounded her fists. The battle had now turned into a life-or-death version of Cat-and-mouse.

Then, Genocide Jack charged, galloping at unimaginable speeds. Lucky didn’t move, and she wouldn’t until the giantess came close enough. But Lynn, Yu, and Stormfly didn’t about that. The blonde and tomboy ran after the giantess, waving their arms to get her attention, but failed. Suddenly, Stormfly landed in front of Lucky, much to her irritation.

"Dragon, what are you doing?!"

Stormfly’s mouth then illuminated in a light blue glow, different from her usual yellowish-orange magnesium blast. Suddenly, she shot out a series of bluish-white sparks that struck the still-charging giantess in her face. Not only did it hurt, it also blinded her. Jack kept galloping towards the wall, unaware of what was ahead.

The Nadder then picked Lucky up by her cape with her beak-like mouth. She then quickly carried the brunette away from the charging giantess. Still in the dragon’s grasp, Lucky gasped when she saw the ledge.

By the time Genocide Jack regained her vision, it was too late. When she saw the wall, she tried to screech to a stop, but failed. Then, she crashed into the wall, her horns becoming embedded in the bricks. Suddenly, they broke off with a loud crack from the amount of pressure applied to them. With nothing to stop her, the giantess crashed through the wall, breaking it. This would be her last mistake. Jack tumbled off the cliff edge and plummeted down to her doom.

Lucky, Yu, Lynn, and Stormfly watched as Genocide Jack, her horns, and large chunks of the wall go over the ledge behind it. Stormfly released Lucky from her grasp as they walked over to the broken wall. They looked down the ledge, and were joined by Lynn and Yu, who were in awe of how deep it was.

"I didn’t know that wall was so close to the cliff edge," Lucky said as she looked at Stormfly, "Thanks, Dragon."

The dragon nuzzled the brunette, purring in happiness. Lucky giggled when it started to lick her. It reminded her when she first met Spirit. Wait… Spirit?

"Spirit!"

"Lucky," asked a concerned Lynn, "What is it?!"

"Spirit! I think I might’ve left him in that spot the giantess plummeted to. He could’ve gotten squished!"

"There’s a possibility he might’ve moved when he heard the battle," Yu added.

"But if he did, what would happen if that giantess was still alive? We have to get down there!"

————————————————————

By the time they landed at the base of the dam, it was already dusk. Lynn, Yu, and Stormfly were already exhausted from the battle. Lucky, however, didn’t show any sign of fatigue. She wouldn’t rest until she made sure her friend and trusty companion was alive and well. The brunette hopped off Stormfly and called out to her horse.

"Spirit! Spirit?! Where are you?!"

Silence was her only reply.

Tears started to form from her eyes. She was too late. She had just arrived at the Forbidden Lands to revive someone close to her. Now she probably lost her best friend.

Lynn hopped off and slowly walked to the crying teen. "Lucky," she said, "I’m sorry. I don’t know how long you knew Spirit, but I know how important he was to you."

"If I could just see him one last time, I would’ve told him I’m…" Suddenly, a familiar whine echoed throughout the area. Lucky quickly identified that sound. "Spirit?"

"You’d tell him you’re a horse?"

"No, he’s still alive."

And indeed he was. For galloping from the forest was none other than Spirit himself. The mustang stopped in front of Lucky and licked her face. The brunette then responded by licking his face, despite it being covered in short strands of hair.

"I’m so glad you’re alive, boy."

The horse nickered in agreement. As Lucky hugged him, Spirit looked to see Stormfly staring at him. He didn’t know what this thing was, but it sure didn’t look friendly. Stormfly growled and Spirit groaned at each other.

"Um, Lucky?" Yu asked, still on the back of an irritated Stormfly.

"What is it, Yu?"

"I think your horse and this dragon are going to get into a fight."

"Wait, what?" Lucky released Spirit from her grasp and stepped in between the two creatures. "Hold it, you two. Let’s not get physical here." She turned to towards Stormfly. "Dragon, this horse is my companion. And I’d be pretty bummed if something bad happened to him." Then she looked at her horse. "Spirit, this dragon saved my life after I saved its life."

The horse and reptile looked at Lucky, then at each other. Both realized there was no reason to fight. Well, even though dragons and horses were enemies in fables and folklore.

"There we go. See? All better." Suddenly, a loud scream echoed through the area. And it sounded like it came from Lynn. "Wait! Where’s Lynn?!"

"She got bored from your pep talk and decided to wander off."

"By herself? What about that thing? What if it’s still alive?"

"Now that I think about it…"

"No time for thinking! Come on!"

Lucky vaulted onto Spirit as he galloped towards where the scream originated from, with Stormfly running behind him. 

————————————————————

Lynn was paralyzed in horror. She couldn’t take her eyes off what tragic sight she was seeing, which meant she couldn’t see Lucky and Yu arrive on Spirit and Stormfly respectively. Lucky hopped off her horse and ran towards her.

"Lynn, what’s wrong?!"

…

…

…

"That tree…"

"What about it? Is there something hiding inside?"

"Worse… It’s upside down."

Lucky looked at the tree. It did appear to be upside down. But that was because it was an upside-down conifer, a rare species found only in the Forbidden Lands. The older brunette looked back at the younger brunette, annoyed.

"That’s the reason we came all the way here to rescue you?"

"Well, yes. That and from that pile of rubble on top of something gigantic."

Lucky looked at where Lynn was pointing at. Indeed, there was a giant body, and it was covered in rubble. She gasped when she realized what it was. The body of Genocide Jack, covered in rubble from the wall from the battleground. However, it was her upper body that was mostly covered.

Just then, she felt her feet getting wet. She looked down and almost shrieked in fear. Trickling from the body was a small flow of pink liquid. Blood. However, it was coated in black smoke, making it even more horrific. But how did it form, Lucky wondered.

She looked back at the body and found the reason. The horns of the giantess were sticking out of the back and head of the corpse. Apparently, Jack was trapped under the rubble after she landed, and when the horns impaled her skull and back, she was killed in almost an instant. Lucky then remembered that there was a sigil on the colossus’ back, and that was where the horn was sticking out. That meant there was a sigil on the head as well.

"Well, so much for finishing our fight." Lucky then raised her sword into the air, and as it illuminated, a ball of energy emerged from the corpse and landed in front of the brunette. When it vanished, there was Toko Fukawa, standing(or lying) at her normal height, with no horns or wings. She looked cute when sleeping. Lucky looked back at her companions.

"And thus concludes another successful slay-and-revive. But we still have a long way to go. We will never surrender to these colossi, as long as we have each other. We will fight to the very end. We will…"

Before she could finish her statement, black tendrils struck her. As they buried into her body, she lost consciousness and fell down. Yu, Spirit, and Stormfly all gasped in horror. Lynn, meanwhile, had fallen asleep from the speech. That is, until Yu nudged her.

"Wha… I wasn’t sleeping. Lucky!"

She ran over to the comatose teen, but screeched to a halt when Lucky’s body was covered in smoke. Suddenly, two glowing red eyes peered from behind the smoke.

"Found you," it said in a dark, twisted singsong voice.

Before Lynn could react, something bursted from the smoke, grabbed the tomboy by the throat, raced by Yu, Stormfly, and Spirit, and pinned her to a tree. When Lynn opened her eyes, she thought she was experiencing deja vu. There was Genocide Jack in human form.

"W…Who are you?" The sports girl asked, gasping for air.

"Aww. Ms. Tough Girl is begging me to tell her my name," the serial killer said, "If you must know, it’s Genocide Jack. The worst serial killer in the world."

"Genocide Jack?" Yu asked confused. "But aren’t you a girl?"

This prompted the purple-haired psycho to drop Lynn and rush up to the blonde’s face.

"You have a problem with that, horns?"

"N-no! Not at all! Jack really is an ironic name."

Genocide Jack then looked at her giantess corpse. "So what happen to this thing? Couldn’t take the pressure and decided to kill itself before I arrived? Well, I’m not interested in killing animals."

"Wait," Lynn said, regaining her strength, "You don’t know what that thing is?"

"Of course. Why?"

"That thing is… I mean… was…" Lynn stuttered in fear.

"What?"

"…you."

Jack then rushed to Lynn and knocked her onto her back. She placed her foot on the brunette’s stomach to keep her in place. "Liar! If that’s me, how am I here?" Lynn pointed to Lucky and explained the whole thing to the serial killer. "I see… Well, since there’s no alternative, I guess I’ll have to accept it."

"So, can you get off of me now?"

"Sure."

"Well," Lynn said after Genocide Jack stepped off her, "that was…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Jack grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and flung her at Yu, who managed to catch her. Just as soon as the blonde placed the tomboy back on the ground, both were met with a pair of scissors pointed at their throats.

"Now, tell me where Master is, or I’ll slice and dice you into next week."

"Who’s your Master?" Lynn asked.

"Stop lying!"

"We don’t anyone else here besides ourselves. Even if we knew, we wouldn’t know where." Yu protested.

"You have until the count of zero to tell me where Master is or your geese are cooked! 10, 9…"

"We don’t know!"

"…8, 7, 6, 5…"

"Honest!"

"…4…"

"We’re telling the truth!"

"…3…"

Spirit roared at the serial killer while Stormfly readied her spines.

"Don’t push your luck, beasts. Lay one hoof or talon on me, and these girls go bye-bye! 2…"

"Stop!"

"…1…"

Lynn and Yu huddled in fear. This was it. They’d probably never see Lucky again.

"…0!"

The duo waited for the killing blows.

…

But they never came.

When Yu and Lynn opened their eyes, they saw Genocide Jack frozen in place. Her scissors were rattling in her hands. They didn’t know if this was a trick or health risk. Then, Jack grunted as if she were trying to say something.

"I think she wants us to push her hands down." Yu guessed.

"Are you sure?"

"There’s only one way to find out…"

Lynn sighed and pushed Jack’s left hand down while Yu took the right. Suddenly, Jack’s eyes started spinning rapidly like a Vegas casino machine. This went on for a bit until they stopped completely. In place of murderous red eyes were innocent purple eyes. She was no longer Genocide Jack. She was now Toko Fukawa. Of course, Lynn and Yu didn’t know about this.

"Uh, Jack?"

"What?!" Toko gasped, "Where?!"

"Um, I’m talking to you."

"My name is Fukawa Toko. And who are you two?"

"What?!" Both girls shrieked.

"Not so loud!"

"You don’t recognize us? You almost sliced us with your scissors!" Lynn stuttered.

"Scissors?" Toko looked down and saw she was still holding scissors in her hands. "Oh, right. Sorry about Genocide Jack."

"What is going on here?"

The literature fan sighed. "Okay, listen. That me you encountered before was my twisted counterpart, Genocide Jack. I had her ever since I was locked in a closet. She’s taken over control of me several times and made herself known to the public due to her killings. I managed to control her a little bit, but it’s not easy."

"And how do you have that counterpart again?"

"I have a disorder that allows me to have two personalities. One, what you see in front of you, is normal me. The other is Genocide Jack."

"I get it," Lynn said, "only a little bit."

Toko sighed before looking at the corpse of her giantess-self. "What’s that?"

"About that," Yu began, "That thing was a giant devil version of your Genocide Jack."

"And how am I here?"

"She revived you."

The teenage girl looked at Lucky, still unconscious.

"Are you sure?"

"Honest truth."

"Fine." Toko turned around and gasped when she saw Spirit and Stormfly, looking confused. The purple-haired girl leapt into Yu’s arms. "Save me whoever you are!"

"The name’s Mt. Lady, but I prefer Takeyama Yu. Just call me Yu."

"And I’m Lynn. Lynn Loud Jr. Don’t worry, Toko. They’re friends of us. They won’t hurt you."

"Who are they?"

"The horse is Spirit. The dragon… we haven’t got a name for her."

Stormfly squawked in annoyance. If she could talk, she could tell them her name.

"Then who’s the girl lying down?"

"That’s Lucky Wander Prescott. She came here to the Forbidden Lands to revive her sister."

"Her sister’s dead?"

"Well, she won’t be if Lucky completes the task Dormin told her to complete."

"What’s a Dormin?"

"A mythical being of energy. Don’t bother looking for him when we reach the Shrine of Worship. He’s invisible."

"Mythical being? Dragon? Giant me? This is so confusing and almost made-up! What’s going to happen next?!"

She was about to find out. A beam of light emerged from the carcass and engulfed Lucky. Toko hid behind Stormfly, probably because she thought dragons were powerful creatures. As instantly as the beam appeared, it vanished. And so had Lucky.

"What was that?" Toko asked.

"The thing that happened next," Lynn answered.

"What happened to that girl?"

"She’s probably back at the Shrine."

"And where is this shrine?" Lynn told her how to get back to the Shrine of Worship. "Thanks!" Toko then raced off at astounding speed, leaving Lynn, Yu, Stormfly, and Spirit in the dust. Literally.

"Uh, your welcome?"

————————————————————

When Lucky woke up, she was back at the shrine. Her sister still lying motionless on the altar. 'Lynn might be correct,' she thought, 'maybe it’s Dormin who teleports me back to the shrine after I slay a colossus.'

"Out of the way!"

Lucky looked back to a panicked Toko Fukawa running towards her. She didn’t have much time to react, for Toko crashed into her, causing both girls to tumble on the cobblestone floor and into the basin of water with a splash. The 'Super High School-Level Writing Prodigy' quickly surfaced, inhaling a large amount of air before exhaling. Lucky later rose out of the water, soaked like a sponge.

"Your welcome."

Toko looked back. "Are you Lucky? The girl who was absorbed by that beam of light?"

"I KNEW IT!l" Toko leapt back in fear when Lucky said that. The brunette then realized her mistake. "Sorry. I am Lucky."

"Thank goodness you’re alright. I was worried. Well, your friends were worried."

"Wait, where are they?"

"Guess their coming back here."

"Well, they’ll be glad to see I’m alive. And wet."

"Wet?" Toko looked down and realized she was standing in knee-deep water. She screamed and rushed out of the shrine. Lucky followed her, and found her rolling herself in dirt. "No baths! Baths are evil!"

"Um, miss?"

Toko stopped and said, "It’s Fukawa Toko," before continuing to roll in the dirt.

"Yeah, Toko? You realize you’re rolling in dirt, right?"

"Yes, I do. I hate baths."

"But you’re taking a dirt bath."

"At least you don’t need shampoo or soap to do so."

"Okay?" She then looked south and saw Yu riding Spirit and Lynn riding Stormfly. She leapt from the shrine and ran towards them. Stormfly landed as Lynn hopped off and ran towards Lucky. The two brunettes embraced each other in a hug, and were join by Yu. "I’m so glad you’re okay."

"Us okay? We were worried about you, again."

"Well, all that matters is that we’re back together again."

"Yawn!" The trio looked back to see a mildly-annoyed, and very dirty, Toko looking at them. "I’ve heard that statement. When someone says the same thing over again, it’s a running gag."

"What?"

"It’s gibberish! Okay?!"

"Anyway, what’s for dinner? I’m starving."

"Well, I did make some meatball subs for the road," Lynn said as she pulled a bag out from  nowhere and looked into it. "Bummer, they all spoiled."

Suddenly, Toko swiped the bag from Lynn and poured all its rotten contents into her mouth. After checking if the bag was empty, she started chewing up the spoiled grinders, with her cheeks having expanded from the extra amount of food in her mouth. It reminded Lucky of a chipmunk or squirrel. In fact, Toko kinda looked cute in her moment of bliss.

"Uh, Toko?" Yu asked, "What are you doing?"

The young prodigy swallowed her fill and spoke. "If I look dirty, I have to have bad breath, right? Plus, these things are delicious."

"Well, at least we have our own mobile trash can," Lynn joked.

"Who are you calling a trash can?" Toko fumed before burping. She then snorted and giggled at her misfortune. The others, however, weren’t laughing.

Suddenly, the sound of a gust of wind brought their attention to the shrine. Lucky, Yu, Lynn, Spirit, and Stormfly ran back to the shrine, with Toko nervously trotting behind. When they arrived, they looked at the hole in the ceiling. Then came Dormin’s voice.

“Your next foe is… a giant canopy that soars to the heavens… The anger of a sleeping giant shatters the earth.”

Toko almost fainted while hearing the hole talk. Lucky, meanwhile, looked out from the shrine. What did Dormin mean 'giant canopy that soars to the heavens?'

"You’ve got to be kidding me," Lucky said.

After going left at the path Lucky and Lynn went to face Mt. Lady, across a part of the desert Lucky had seen when she first arrived at the Forbidden Lands, and navigating through a canyon, the group had arrived at their next location. It was a giant, elevated arena slightly tilted to the left. It would’ve been easy to get to, if it weren’t for one thing…

The arena was sitting in the middle of a wide, and deep, lake. And unless you were an expert swimmer, crossing that lake was easier said than done. Not only was the lake very deep (around twenty-five meters in depth), but it was thirty meters wide. Lucky could see something lurking beneath the surface. She could tell it was green, snake-like, and swam like a crocodile.

"What are we waiting for?" Lynn asked impatiently.

"There’s something in that lake," Lucky answered, "and I don’t think it’s friendly."

"Well, there’s no way I’m going in there," Toko said.

"Don’t worry. You don’t have to swim all the way there."

"Thank you."

"Just take the dragon."

"What?!" The prodigy looked at Stormfly. Sure, the dragon could fly. But Toko wasn’t sure if she could ride a fire-breathing reptile. "No thanks! I’m better off here."

"Okay. It’s just that riding on a powerful creature would keep you safe from harm."

Toko raced into Stormfly’s back. "You had me on 'safe' and 'powerful'. Let’s go, Sharp-Shot!"

"Sharp-Shot?"

"What? She shoots sharp spines with perfect aim. Plus, it sounds cool and catchy."

Stormfly, meanwhile, couldn’t believe it. She already had a given name. But, unfortunately, she couldn’t speak. However, she had to admit that Toko was right with her alias being cool and catchy. Plus, it was true she had a perfect aim when it came to her spine shot.

Seeing no other option, Stormfly stretched her wings and took off. Meanwhile, Lucky looked at the large lake in front of her. She could see that there was a narrow path leading up to the arena. The only problem: It was also at the center of the lake.

"If we can quickly make it across, we could climb up that path to get to the colossus."

"Well, why are we still standing here? Let’s go!"

"With who knows what lurking in that lake?" Yu argued, "No way."

"What could possibly be in there to scare you? A shark? A crocodile? An octopus? Maybe even a Sharktopus."

"Lynn, be serious."

"For what? A little fish?"

Suddenly, something bursted out of the lake and landed in front of Lynn. The brunette looked in the blue eyes of the beast, and shivered. It was just as tall as her, and was longer than Spirit.

The creature’s head slightly resembled the Carnotarus, with brow horns. But the horns weren’t jointed together, and curved forwards. Instead of teeth, the jaws were lined with shear-like plating, perfect for slicing and dicing meat. The carnivore’s body was long and sinewy, with four short limbs. The forelimbs were muscular and ended with four fingers tipped with black claws. The hind-limbs were shaped like flippers. This was a creature adapted for swimming. It was covered with yellow-green scales, with three yellow-brown stripes running down its back, made of some sort of spongy material. Dull-colored spikes sprouted from its forelimbs and the back of its head. The tail ended with a white bony tip, and a small sail-like structure formed from it before disappearing into the animal’s back.

The creature was a Ludroth from the Monster Hunter series. These leviathan-class monsters were similar to the prehistoric nothosaur from the Triassic. But they were deadly in their own right.

"Lynn! Keep calm."

"If you’re telling me to keep calm, you’re crazier than I thought!"

"It’s just anxious. Remember, there haven’t been any humans here before I arrived."

"What if it wants to eat me?"

"Trust me, it’s probably frightened from us getting close to its home. Probably defending it."

"Probably?"

"You’d do it too. Just back away slowly. If it is hungry, it might ignore us and go back into the lake for fish."

Unfortunately for them, Ludroths didn’t just eat fish. Like crocodiles, they would wait for prey to come close to the water’s edge, then they’d snatch an unfortunate victim and pull it into the water to drown. Sometimes, they would hunt prey on land, surrounding it before finishing it off.

As Lynn slowly backed away, the reptile followed her. It bared its plated jaws and grunted.

"Lucky?"

"Stay calm, Lynn."

The Ludroth lunged at Lynn, who managed to dodge it. The tomboy was now in full panic mode. She dashed around the lakeside, with the Ludroth following suit. Thankfully, its stubby flippers and forelimbs meant it couldn’t run very fast.

"'Stay calm', you said. 'It might ignore us', you said. What’s next? You want me to stop and let it devour me?"

"I was going to say keep running and don’t stop."

"Now that’s an idea I can live with. If I’m able to live."

Lynn sped faster, while her pursuer struggled to keep up. It then took notice of Lucky and slid to a stop. The aquatic reptile then turned towards her and charged. Lucky pulled out her sword, ready for combat.

"Looks like we’re doing this the hard way."

"Cool line," Yu commented.

"Thanks. I always wanted to use that quote. But I didn’t know how."

——————————————————————

Meanwhile, Stormfly and Toko has made it to the arena. And I wish I could say they were getting along fine. But…

"And it’s not like I wanted to come. That Lucky decided to pull me into her deal with Mr. Invisible Man and help slay these colossi. I wasn’t that horrible when I was a colossus, was I?"

Stormfly clucked in annoyance. Just then, she saw something lying at the center of the arena. It was 97 feet tall if standing. Right now, it was asleep. Rather, she was asleep.

The giantess had short, honey brown hair and fair skin. She was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with red and white sleeve cuffs, a white neckerchief with a red stripe, and a white pleated mini-skirt with a frilly white knee-length petticoat. She had white socks and black Mary Jane shoes on her feet. This was Sakura Kimonoto, a well known character in many giantess fanfics.

"So that’s what the invisible man meant when he said 'sleeping giant'. Sharp-shot, we gotta tell the others."

Stormfly agreed and turned back to the others. However, they found that Lucky, Lynn, Yu, and Spirit were preoccupied with the Ludroth.

"…after we assist them in getting rid of that thing."

Before they could do anything else, a explosion echoed through the skies. Toko looked to where the sound came from. A cloud of smoke rose from a mountain nearby. Out of it came a beast of unimaginative origins. It was 100 ft tall, had the head of a theropod, four digits on each hand, human-like feet with four toes, magenta scales, and two cannons mounted on its back. Its eyes were bronze with no pupils.

This was Bazoogara, a monster from the Kinnikuman franchise. Summoned to assist a giant mind-controlled Natsuko in destroying Japan, it was specially designed to fire leeks, Kinnikuman’s weakness, rendering him unable to fight. But just as he was about destroy Terryman, Kinnikuman managed to regain strength and was able to destroy the monster with the help of Terryman.

The beast stared at its new foes with great fury. It started to levitate and aimed its cannons at its target. Out of them came a pair of energy beams.

"Do something, Sharp-shot!"

Stormfly fired her magnesium blast at the beams, causing an explosion, which resulted in a cloud of smoke forming in front of them. Bazoogara bursted out of the fog, claw raised. Stormfly barely had anytime to react as the clawed hand smacked her, sending her and Toko falling towards the arena. Thankfully, the reptile managed to regain control of her wings. She looked up at the monster wondered what it was and why it attacked.

Toko, meanwhile, landed safely in what she thought was a field of brown grass. After she recovered from the fall, the literary fan crawled out from the vegetation and saw the monster hovering above. 'Why is it attacking us?' She thought, 'What does it want? And why does the ground feel like human skin?' She looked down and almost yelped in fear, for a pair of emerald-colored eyes were staring at her.

Toko had landed in the giant Sakura’s hair, which woke her up. The giantess blinked, causing a small gust of wind to blow on Toko’s face. The literary fan didn’t move. She was frozen in shock, which meant she didn’t notice a giant left hand reaching towards her. When she did, it was too late.

The giantess picked up the stiff human by her dress and brought her closer to her eyes to get better look. Toko flailed in it’s grasp. The giantess then sniffed her, then licked her. The purple-haired girl cringed, for she was drenched in saliva. Was it going to eat her? Or was it doing something else?

Fortunately, she didn’t have find out. A barrage of spines struck close to the giantess’ leg. As Sakura sat up to investigate, she felt the little human slip from her grasp. She checked her left hand, and found the purple-haired girl missing. A squawking sound got her attention, and found her missing human in the talons of a dragon.

Stormfly was quick to notice Toko’s sudden disappearance, and quickly came to the rescue. Though Toko wasn’t happy be in the talons of a flying reptile, she was at least relieved to be safe.

"Thank you, Sharp-Shot."

A sudden roar interrupted their moment. Bazoogara slowly hovered towards them, and it seemed to be charging up its cannons. Stormfly knew there wasn’t enough time to launch a counterattack. Toko closed her eyes and waited for the big finish.

Suddenly, something struck Bazoogara on its side. The kaiju looked to see Sakura, now standing up, holding a staff. Her sealing staff. It was pink, 72 feet long, with the head of the staff resembling a bird’s head(with the red gems for eyes, a pointy end that resembled a beak, and tiny wings on the back of the head). Sakura had used the Fiery Card to launch an attack at the monster, agitating it.

The pink monster turned to its new enemy and aimed its cannons at her. But Sakura came prepared. She put away the Fiery Card and pulled out another card. Then, she shouted a command as she threw it in the air.

"Shield! Protect me from the enemy’s attack!" She slammed her wand on the card, as a wave of energy erupted from the card and swirled around Sakura. Eventually, a semi-translucent dome of energy surrounded the giantess.

…and just in time.

Bazoogara fired its attack at the brunette. But, as predicted, it simply crashed into the dome before exploding. As the smoke settled, there stood Sakura, unharmed. Then, the dome vanished as the giantess recalled the Shield. Then, she pulled out another card and threw it into the air.

"Freeze! Encase the beast’s weapons in ice!"

Once again, she slammed her wand on the card, and a stream of white energy rose from the card. Then, it rushed towards Bazoogara and surrounded the kaiju. As the monster looked around it, the cannons on its back were slowly being covered in ice, just like Sakura said. In a mere matter of seconds, the cannons were completely encased in solid ice.

Feeling the cold air on its back, Bazoogara realized that its cannons had been frozen. Furious, it flew towards the giantess at ramming speed. But Sakura didn’t move. When Toko opened her eyes, she saw the giant brunette lower her wand to the ground next to her and stood in a defensive position as Bazoogara zoomed in.

Then, to Toko, Stormfly, and Bazoogara’s surprise, Sakura grabbed the monster’s head with both hands as it came close to her. Despite the amazing stunt, the force of the charge still pushed the giantess back very close to the edge of the arena. Using all her strength, Sakura slammed Bazoogara onto the ground. She then grabbed the monster by the shoulder and helped it up, before pounding her fist on its head. Meanwhile, Toko and Stormfly watched as the battle took place, before looking back at Lucky and the others. The Ludroth was gone, however.

"Well, so much for coming to their rescue," Toko said. "But who wants to help experienced fighters anyway. They probably handled it all by themselves. Plus, I’ll be back on the ground. The grassy ground. So let’s go, Sharp-shot."

Stormfly clucked in annoyance as she flew over to the lakeside.

——————————————————————

The appearance of Bazoogara and Sakura didn’t go unnoticed by Lucky and the others. They heard the explosion and saw the kaiju emerge from the mountain. It was enough to send the Ludroth retreating back into the water, as it was smart enough to know when to quit. After seeing Stormfly being slapped by Bazoogara and Toko falling onto the arena, they feared the worst. But as Stormfly descended towards them, they saw her carrying the purple-haired girl in her talons. The Nadder dropped the prodigy on the ground before landing. Lucky ran up to Toko.

"Are you alright?"

"Define alright," Toko replied while getting back on her feet.

"I was worried about you. I thought you were…"

"Well, I’m not. But, thanks. I didn’t think anyone else cared about me."

"I do. And so does Sharp-shot, right, girl?" Stormfly squawked in reply, mainly because she wanted Lucky to think so. "See? You’re not alone, Toko. We’re friends."

"Friends?"

"To the end."

"You really mean it?"

"Really. I’d hate to see anything happen to you. Plus, we’re in this together. But if you want to head back to the shrine, I understand. I don’t blame you."

"Thanks, Lucky." The literary fan embraced the brunette in a hug. It was as if she viewed her as a big sister, much like Lynn did after being reincarnated.

However, the moment didn’t last for long, as a near-deafening explosion got the group's attention. It came the arena, where Bazoogara had finally managed to break the ice off its back. However, it was severely bruised and battered, and exhausted. The kaiju tried to finish Sakura off with a powerful blast from its cannons. It crouched down and aimed its cannons at her. However, as it was charging up, the cardcaptor pulled out a card and shouted as she threw it in the air.

"Sword! Slice and dice the enemy’s weapons into nothing!" She slammed her wand on the card as a large sword suddenly materialized in front of her. It resembled a European rapier with a winged hilt and guard on the handle. A red gem was mounted between the hilt-wings. The sword then pointed its tip so it faced Sakura’s feet. Then, it rushed towards Bazoogara. In a blink of an eye, it sliced through the cannons before returning to Sakura, who recalled it.

Then, the cannons split in half and fell off Bazoogara, landing on either side of it with a loud crash. The kaiju felt the wind on his back and realized what happened. Quickly, it got back up and turned around before levitating away.

Suddenly, Sakura grabbed the kaiju’s tail and started to swing the monster around and around with all her might. On her fifth swing, she flung Bazoogara upwards above her and released her grip on the tail. She then picked up her staff and pulled out another card.

"Shot! Aim at the evil creature that brings death and destruction and vanquish it!" She slammed her staff on the card. Suddenly, a red beam of energy erupted out from the card and pierced through Bazoogara’s flesh. In a matter of seconds, the kaiju exploded into pieces that rained down back to the ground. Most fell onto the arena, with some bouncing off Sakura’s head, while the others splashed into the lake. Some of these pieces landed on the shore, where our protagonists has to duck and dodge the meaty projectiles. 

As soon as the rain of flesh stopped, Sakura recalled Shot and placed the card away. Then, her staff glowed as it suddenly shrank from sight. When the lights died down, a key laid in Sakura’s hands. It had the head similar to that of the staff, and ended with two prongs. A chain sprouted from behind the wings. This was the dormant form of the staff. The brunette hung the key around her neck before stretching and yawning. Slowly, she got onto her hands and knees and brushed away any pieces of flesh in her way. She picked up a large piece of flesh and popped into her mouth. She moaned at the taste before she swallowed it whole. Then, she laid down and placed her head on her arms before falling back to sleep.

On the lakeshore, the others were astounded at the power of this giantess. For Lucky, it seemed as though this would be the hardest she had to face, yet.

"Did anyone else see that?" Toko asked aloud.

"Yeah. She may be a fighter, but she sure is a sleepyhead," Lynn replied.

"I was talking about how she was able to utilize cards to attack. It be suicide to take her on, and not just alone."

"You’re just saying that to avoid coming with us to fight her, aren’t you?" Yu asked.

"Um… well…" Before she could answer, she felt a hand being placed on her right shoulder. She looked back and found Lucky giving a warm smile. "Lucky?"

"It’s okay, Toko. I understand that you’re scared. If you want to head back to the shrine, be my guest. I don’t blame you."

"Really?"

"Definitely. This is something I have to do, and I do need help. But you don’t always have to be by my side when I’m facing a colossus. And that’s okay. I have Lynn, Yu, and Sharp-Shot to help me."

"So I can head back to the shrine?"

"Yes. But please take Spirit with you. I don’t think he’ll make it across the lake what with all the reptiles in there."

"Thanks, Lucky." Toko slowly walked over to Spirit, who knelt down to allow the literary fan to get onto his back. Lucky then looked at Lynn.

"What?"

"I think you should go too, Lynn."

"What?! Why?!"

"You saw that thing, didn’t you. It’s more powerful than anything we’ve ever faced, and I don’t want to lose you."

"But, I helped you when we faced the giant, animalistic versions of Yu and Ms. Rip Van Wrinkle. Why can’t I help now?"

"Well… because…"

"Don’t bother saying it. I know why. It’s because I’m young, right? The reason you brought me along was so I wouldn’t feel alone while you were gone. And now the reason I’m being sent back with Pigsty is because she’ll look after me."

"Well, you’re half right. Mainly because I don’t want you to get hurt. After seeing what nearly happened to Toko, I can’t stand losing you. Plus, you won’t have to face any of those aquatic lizards, right?"

"Well, now that you mention it, the shrine should be a safe place. And if you come crawling back saying you need help, I won’t blame you for doing so. But I don’t want to be watched over by… Toko."

"Okay. So, you want to watch over her?"

"Are you pulling my leg?"

"Well…"

"Consider it done." Lynn hopped onto Spirit behind Toko. "I promise we’ll keep Spirit safe, Lucky. You can count on us." Once he felt Toko and Lynn on his back, the mustang stood back up before looking at Lucky, who gave a warm smile to him.

"It’s okay, boy. I’ll be back." Spirit anxiously snorted as Lucky walked over and placed a gentle hand on his snout. The mustang nickered, still worried. "I promise."

Spirit made a quick snort before rearing up on his hind legs and trumpeted loudly. The horse then galloped away towards the canyon they went through, with Toko holding on tightly. As soon as they disappeared into the canyon, Lucky looked backed towards her companions, who just looked at her.

"What?"

"While I’m glad you were honest with Lynn, I can’t believe you just let Fukawa go back to the shrine." Yu said.

"I was worried about her. This isn’t her fight. It’s mine."

"But you asked us for help. And you reincarnated her like you reincarnated us. Therefore, she should help us. Well, you and I. I feel the same way with Lynn."

"Just because I reincarnate a giantess into a human doesn’t mean all of them are going into battle. At least, not yet. And Lynn might not be able to handle that thing, and there may be other colossuses that might be as powerful as or even more powerful than this one, but if she wants to come along, I don’t blame her. I just want her to be safe. For now, I have you and Sharp-Shot."

"Yeah, and who knows? Maybe Fukawa will come to her senses and join us. "But in the meantime, you can count on us."

"Thanks, Yu," Lucky said. "Now, let’s go colossus hunting."

"Yes, sir!" Lucky whistled for Stormfly, and the Nadder ran to her. She lowered her right wing as the two girls ran up it onto her back. Once they were on, the dragon took a running start before taking off.

Stormfly flew high above the lake, where the girls could see a reddish-hue surrounding the arena, including the narrow path. Blood. In that hue, a pod of Ludroths were splashing like crazy.

"Talk about vicious," Yu said.

"Actually, I think they’re in a feeding frenzy," Lucky guessed. 

"A what?"

"Like a pack of wolves back home. Their scavenging off the pieces of the monster that giantess destroyed. Now I can see why Toko didn’t want to go in."

"I thought it was because she hated baths," Yu said.

"Maybe that, too. But I’m glad we’re not swimming in there right now."

"Yeah, we’d be ripped into shreds."

A Ludroth surfaced from the lake, with a large piece of Bazoogara’s flesh dangling from its mouth, and swam to the path. It slowly hauled itself onto the path, away from the feeding frenzy. As it trudged up the stone walkway, the pod suddenly dispersed. A large black silhouette appeared from the depths, and it appeared to be getting bigger. As it got closer to the surface, something yellow appeared out of the water and headed straight towards the pathway. Then, it quickly disappeared beneath the surface, along with the silhouette. 

Suddenly, the water surged upwards as a large creature exploded from the lake and landed on the part of the path that was submerged underwater, shaking it. It was a Royal Ludroth, the alpha male of a Ludroth clan. It looked like an oversized Ludroth, but with many key differences. The spikes on its forelimbs were larger and more jagged. The claws were longer. The eyes were a lighter shade of blue. Instead of having spines on the back of its head, it had several finger-like appendages tipped with black claw-like spikes that formed a crown-like crest. Finally, the most notable difference was a large, yellow, spongy mane that resembled the mane of a lion.

The vibrations of the shaking caused the Ludroth to stumble and drop its piece of flesh. As it landed in the water, the Royal Ludroth dove back into the water, after the flesh. The lesser leviathan followed, hoping to find another piece.

"And now there’s an alpha," Lucky said, unamused.

"That doesn’t matter now," Yu said. "The important thing is that we’re almost there and we won’t have to deal with… DUCK!"

"Ducks?" 

"No, duck! Incoming!"

Lucky looked forward and gasped as something headed towards them, squawking.

"Sharp-shot!"

Stormfly dived as the object zipped overhead, with Lucky and Yu ducking as it did. They looked back behind them to see what it was. The object in question resembled a bird or bat, but none like Lucky had seen before. As it turned around, the brunette realized it was neither a bird nor a bat.

The creature had a long, slender toothless bird-like beak that ended in thin, sharp points. The upper jaw was longer than the lower jaw, and curved up slightly. It had a small bump on the back of its head, and yellowish eyes. It had a kite-like body, lanky legs(each with four clawed toes and a vestigial toe on each foot) and a short tail. The wings were somewhat of a mix between a bird, bat, and Stormfly’s. Like all three, it had winged forelimbs. But instead of having a wing hook(like Stormfly) or a single clawed finger(like a bat), it had four fingers. Three normal-sized fingers and an elongated fourth finger, forming a bird-like wing. Like a bat, though, it had an orange skin-like membrane that extended along the body, attached to the ankles and fourth finger on each forelimb. Smaller pieces of membrane stretched from the shoulder to the wrist on the wings, and from the ankle to the base of the tail down below. The creature was covered in some sort of hairy filaments. Its body was gray with a red head. If you haven’t guessed already, this was a Pteranodon. A female Pteranodon.

The sudden sounds of more squawking brought the girls attention to the front. More Pteranodons were arriving, at least hundreds. Some individuals were bigger than the others, and had a large cranial crest that pointed upwards and away from the head. These were the males. The heads of the Pteranodons came in either red, blue, tan or brown.

Lucky watched as most of the pterosaurs landed on the arena and started to feed on the chunks of Bazoogara’s flesh. Some of them roosted on the back of the sleeping Sakura. Some of the Pteranodons didn’t have to land on the arena to feed on the flesh. Instead, they swooped in low and grabbed a chunk of meat before flying back into the skies. Of course, a piece of flesh would occasionally fall into the lake via a slip of the beak or a squabble. But that meant more food for the Ludroths. Lucky could see a male roosting on a pillar adjacent to the pathway, presumably on lookout.

Eventually, Stormfly came to a landing on the arena, and Lucky and Yu hopped off. They slowly made their way towards the sleeping Sakura, navigating around the feasting pterosaurs, which was easier said than done as they had to stop or sidestep when a Pteranodon walked in front of them(or a foot or wing got in the way), or had to watch for low-flying pterosaurs and duck when one came too low.

(Oh, and did I forget to mention that there was a large peculiar, shimmering plate in the center of the arena? Must’ve slipped my mind.) ;)>

It wasn’t long before they came to the head of the giantess. She was still asleep, unaware of the scavenging reptiles or the approaching humans. It seemed all too perfect for Lucky…

…

…until a sudden squawk alerted her. The brunette looked back and saw the Pteranodon sentry squealing at a Ludroth that had dragged itself out of the lake and up the path. The distress call alerted the other reptiles, who turned and faced the leviathan. Lucky quickly realized that the sounds could wake up the sleeping giantess, and they would all be in trouble. She looked at Yu and whispered, "We need to go, now." The two humans tiptoed to Stormfly as she lowered her wing.

But before they could get on, a large male Pteranodon swooped very close to Stormfly, startling her. The surprised dragon accidentally swung her tail at Lucky and Yu, who thankfully managed to back away quickly. Also thankfully, the spikes on the Nadder’s tail hadn’t gone up. But their luck would run out. As Lucky backed away, her heel caught on a piece of meat, causing her to lose her balance. And that’s when things went from bad to worse. She fell backwards…

…and landed against the left hand of the sleeping Sakura Kinomoto. Once she felt the falling stop, Lucky rubbed her backside.

"Owww… that’s smarts." The brunette silently whispered.

"Uh, Lucky?" Yu stuttered.

"I’m fine, Yu. I just tripped and landed against…" Lucky slowly looked behind her and found the fingers twitching. The feet of the giantess slightly twitched as well. This alerted the Ludroth and the Pteranodons, some of which that were close to the giantess slowly backed away as the body shook. The ones on her back took off into the air and away from the arena. Then, the giant Sakura raised her head, eyes still closed, and opened her mouth. Out of said mouth came a great, big yawn. To Lucky and Yu, the sound was deafening. They covered their ears until the yawning stopped. Then, the giantess slowly lowered her head back onto her arms and continued sleeping.

Slowly and quietly, Lucky backed away from the sleeping colossus and back to Yu and Stormfly. She then felt like she was being watched, and looked to her left. The Pteranodons and Ludroth were all staring at her, somehow figuring out that she was the one who almost riled up the giantess. Then, the animals continued doing what they were doing. Lucky silently sighed in relief and looked at the sleeping giantess.

"Boy," Yu whispered, "For a thing that could suddenly be awakened by something falling on it, that colossus is sure one heavy sleeper."

Suddenly, the eyes of the giantess popped opened. They looked around before focusing on the two humans and Nadder. Lucky and Stormfly looked angrily at Yu.

"Oopsies," the blonde said.

Sakura lifted her head off her arms and raised her right arm. One of the Pteranodons caught this from the corner of its eye and squealed a distress call. The male Pteranodon squawked in reply and launched itself off the pillar and into the air. The rest of the flock followed suit, and in a matter of seconds, the sky above the arena was almost obstructed by hundreds of panicking pterosaurs. It wasn’t along before the entire flock flew away from the arena, towards the shrine. The Ludroth on the path turned around and propelled itself off the path and into the lake.

Sakura positioned her right arm over Lucky, Yu and Stormfly. The Nadder grabbed Lucky by her cape with her beak and wrapped her tail around Yu before carrying the two to safety just as the arm crashed down behind them. Stormfly released her grip on the two girls. Just then, the hand started to move towards Sakura as the elbow of the right arm bended. Lucky looked at the body of the giantess and saw that it was moving. She was flipping herself over.

"Guys, we need to go, now!"

Lucky and Yu hopped on Stormfly as she took off, and just in time. Sakura flipped herself onto her backside and stretched her arms and legs, like anyone getting out of bed would do.

A sudden grunting sound got Lucky’s attention as she looked back at the lake. She could see the pod of Ludroths, including the Royal Ludroth,’leaping out of the water and running into the canyon. Apparently, like the Pteranodons, the leviathans were trying to get as far away from the giantess as possible. Lucky then looked back at the giantess. Sakura got up to a sitting position, then she grabbed the key, took it off her neck and held it with her right hand. Suddenly, a bright light glowed from her right hand and in an instant, the key transformed back into the sealing staff. She grasped it with her right hand and used it to help support her weight as she stood up to her full height.

Stormfly landed back on the arena as Lucky and Yu hopped off. The brunette then looked at the dragon.

"Sharp-shot, we’re going to try to wear that thing down so I can take it out. Cover Yu."

The Nadder clucked in response as she took off into the air again. Lucky then looked at Yu.

"Why did you ask her to cover me?" The blonde asked.

"Because you’re covering me."

"But, then…"

"No time for questions, Mt. Lady. Let’s do this!"

"Oy vey."

——————————————————————

At the same time that these events (starting when Lucky, Yu and Stormfly landed on the arena) were going on, back at the Shrine of Worship, Lynn stood on the balcony and stared at the Southern Cliffs, the very same place where Lucky found, fought, slain and reincarnated her. Although she agreed to go back to the shrine, a part of her was uneasy about being sent back. First, Lucky asked her for help. Now, here she was. Back at the Shrine of Worship.

In the Main Hall, Toko and Spirit watched as Lynn stood alone. The mustang felt sorry for the brunette. After all, it was her that brought him back to the shrine. Well, he brought her back to the Shrine. But it was Lynn who helped him find out that Lucky was alive after her first battle.

——————————————————————
Flashback
——————————————————————

At the base of temple, Spirit grazed on the low-lying vegetation. He was still worried about Lucky. What if she wouldn’t come back? What if she couldn’t beat the colossus? Who would save her if she was in trouble?

Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed from the cliff valley above. This startled the mustang, who feared the worse. Confused and scared, Spirit roared as loud as he could. Hopefully, if Lucky was alive, she would call back. No reply. He roared again, and again. After a fifth try, his calls were answered. But instead of Lucky calling out to him, he heard a moaning sound, which sounded strangely feminine. Then, he heard the sound of something big falling onto the ground.

As the sound died down, it suddenly became quiet. Spirit thought that Lucky must’ve brought down the colossus. He neighed in happiness and waited for the familiar sound of "Coming, boy." from Lucky. But he didn’t hear anything. He neighed again…

…and again…

…and again.

But Lucky didn’t reply. The mustang knew his rider wouldn’t forget a promise. He realized that something terrible must’ve happened to Lucky. The horse ran up towards the vine-covered wall and reared up. He grabbed the vine with his mouth and tried to haul himself up the wall. The vine, obviously, couldn’t hold his weight and snapped.

Spirit fell back onto the ground with a loud thump. The horse then got back up and ran back to the wall. He slid to a stop in front of it and roared as loud as he could. He continued neighing and roaring until he felt like his vocal chords were about to fall off.

Tired, bruised and out of breath, Spirit hung his head low in sadness. If he couldn’t get up there, there seemed to be no way to rescue Lucky. As hard as he tried to resist, he was coming to the conclusion that Lucky may be already…

"Whoa!"

A sudden shout got the mustang’s attention. He looked up and saw a young girl appear from above the wall. Of course, we knew it was Lynn, having been recently reincarnated by Lucky. The brunette then leapt off the wall and landed squarely on her feet. Spirit slowly backed away as the tomboy looked at him.

"Um, hi," the brunette said. "My name is Lynn Loud. Don’t be afraid. I won’t harm you. At least, not anymore."

Spirit was still uneasy about this new girl. What did she mean by "not anymore?" Why did she come down from the battlegrounds instead of Lucky? He continued backing away as Lynn watched on.

"Please, I mean it. I won’t… wait. Ugh. Of course, you can’t understand me because you’re a horse. All you understand is 'neigh.' And why am I busy talking to an animal when I should be looking for my village?"

That’s when Spirit stopped backing away from Lynn. If there was a village nearby, they could probably help him find Lucky. All he had to do was persuade Lynn to take him there. Slowly and cautiously, he approached the tomboy.

"Huh? You want to see my village?"

Spirit hung his tail low as a sign of submission, signaling that he did. If this girl lived in a village, she had to have seen horses and know their body language.

"Well, if that’s a yes, I don’t blame you. But just one teeny tiny problem… I don't know where my village is or which village I’m from."

Well, there went a chance to saving Lucky. Spirit was dumbfounded on how a girl could forget where she lived and where she came from. Getting lost was one thing, but forgetting where your home was when you knew where you lived was a whole new level. The stallion back away and stared at the vine-covered wall. If this girl didn’t know where she lived, then there was probably no chance of saving Lucky. Unless…

Spirit looked back at Lynn and gestured towards the wall, whining and neighing. Maybe Lynn could help him. If she made it this far into The Forbidden Lands, she had to have been very tough in order to survive. The brunette just starred at the mustang.

"Okay, are you trying to tell me something’s up there?" Spirit nodded, hoping Lynn would understand. "If you are, then I guess you’re right. I just woke up there and saw some older girl lying on the ground."

Spirit’s expression then turned glum. Lucky was up there, but if she was laying on the ground…

The mustang reared up and roared. This spooked Lynn, who thought she did something wrong. Spirit then rested his front hooves on the ground and moved to the wall. He once again reared up and placed his hooves on the vine-covered wall. He looked at Lynn and starting tapping his hooves on the wall, and gestured his head up. Lynn, meanwhile, was trying to understand what the horse was doing.

"Are you getting bored and want to play music?" She asked. Spirit shook his head, both in reply and in shock of how this girl said something unrelated unexpectedly.

"No? Okay then, do you need to go to the bathroom?" Once again, Spirit couldn’t believe it. "If you have to go number two, do it after you’re number one." How dumb was this girl? "You need a hoof clipping? Trying to fly? Hungry for vines? Parasite infestation?"

Spirit roared again, louder than before. Lynn yelped, fell back and panted as she tried to catch her breath. Then, she got back up, cleared her throat and spoke.

"I’m not sure if this is correct but… you want to see the girl?" Spirit nodded. Finally, she got it. He stepped away from the wall and got back on all fours. He raised his left front hoof and pointed it at Lynn then gestured back to the wall.

"You want me to go get her?" Lynn asked. Spirit neighed in reply. "Well, why didn’t you say… Wait, because you’re a horse. Anyways, I’d be glad to get her… if she hadn’t… *gulp* vanished."

Spirit couldn’t believe it. Lucky… vanished?! How? When? The mustang stamped the ground as he felt fidgety. He then looked at Lynn and snorted.

"Wait, did you know that girl? Well, I don’t mean to things sound upsetting, but that girl kinda killed me. Giant me if you were wondering."

Spirit snorted again. What did Lynn mean by 'Giant me?' And why would she say that Lucky killed her if she was already alive? Lucky was a gentle, caring person. She was only asked to kill the colossi by Dormin to…

Suddenly, things began adding up. Lynn woke up on the ground. Lucky was said to have killed a giant version of Lynn. Lynn had came down from the battlefield Lucky had slain the first colossus. That’s when it hit him…

…Lynn was the first colossus Lucky had killed and reincarnated as a human. The mustang lowered his head and slowly walked towards the brunette as she backed away.

"Um, I said I didn’t want to make things sound upsetting. I was just telling you what she did. And if you were wondering how I became big, I don’t know how. One moment, I was having fun in my village. The next, I was a hundred feet tall in a cliffside valley with a big baseball bat in my hand. Well, actually, I just woke up standing in that valley. I was curious so I investigated. I went to see the end of the valley and found pieces of some ancient ruins sticking out. I thought there’d be people there, so I began walking there to find out, when I heard someone calling me. Well, she called me 'Miss Giantess.' When I looked back, I found the girl running towards me. I thought she was a native here so I waited to get some answers. She ran under me and stopped… I don’t know, at least two giantess feet away. She then mentioned something about slaying me so she could revive me as a human so a dude named Dormin could revive her sister, Selena. No, Solana. I was still curious about her so I stared at her, forgetting about asking her for help. Then, she called me Chicken, and I got angry. Just then, something took control over my body. I couldn’t do anything but watch. It forced me to smash her with my bat, but she thankfully missed. Then, she shot me with an arrow. Then, she climbed my left leg and stabbed it with some sword. Then, after climbing onto my head, she stabbed it three times before everything went dark. When I woke up, I was back to normal. And there was the girl, lying down on her stomach. I became worried about her so I got up and flipped her onto her back. I checked her pulse, and thankfully, it was beating. She was alive when I found her. Then, I decided to head up to the ruins to see if anyone else was there. I thought they could help her. So I went there and climbed the cliff-face to find them. But when I got there, no one was around. I check the place three times, and not a single soul around. I then thought about the dude Dormin. Maybe he could help. But when I got back to the carcass of my giant self, the girl was gone. No signs of footprints. She couldn’t have just vanished into thin air. So I decided to find Dormin myself and ask him to help me find the girl. So I climbed down the path from the valley and found you, waiting."

As she was saying all that, she backed into part of a column. Spirit drew closer and closer as Lynn became more and more scared.

"I’m guessing she was your friend. If you must know, I’m telling the truth. I wanted to save that girl’s life just as you. If you know Dormin, do you think you could bring me to him? For help?"

Lynn closed her eyes and waited for the pain. Instead, she felt a gentle nudge against her arm. When she opened her eyes, she saw Spirit looking at her in a calm way. Did he finally understand her?

Only one way to find out…

Lynn slowly extended her left hand out, still uneasy of how Spirit would react. The mustang then pressed his snout on the palm of her hand, and sighed. Lynn followed with a sigh of her own.

"Glad you understand me, horse. Now take me to Dormin." Spirit knelt down as Lynn hopped onto his back. With a gentle pat on his shoulder by Lynn, Spirit turned towards the entrance of the temple and galloped back to the Shrine of Worship.

When they arrived, Lynn leapt off Spirit’s back and walked to one of the stairs that lead up to the main hall. She stopped and looked back at Spirit.

"Are you sure this is where Dormin is?" Spirit nodded. Lynn then looked at the stairs and started walking up it. When she reached the top, she stopped. Suddenly, an explosion was heard from the hall, followed by the sounds of rocks crumbling. After a bit of silence, he finally heard Lynn saying, "Awesome explosion!"

A scream followed. An all-too familiar scream. Then he heard a thump, followed by talking. One voice was Lynn. The other voice belonged to Lucky. She was alive.

A few minutes later, Lucky and Lynn leapt from the balcony and landed on their feet. Lucky looked over at Spirit and smiled. Spirit smiled back as well. It was a miracle that Lucky was still alive.

——————————————————————
End of Flashback
——————————————————————

A miracle it was. When Spirit first met Lynn, she was crazy and funny, and a tad bit annoying. Now, here she was, depressed and jealous, and still a tad bit annoying. The horse looked over at Toko and grunted. The purple-haired girl looked at the mustang, who gestured his head to Lynn.

"You want me to go talk to her?" Toko asked. Spirit nodded in reply. "Fine. But she’s the babysitter and I’m the baby. Ironic, right?" Spirit only rolled his eyes and snorted.

Lynn didn’t see Toko walking up besides her, but she wasn’t startled when she spoke.

"You’re still upset about not being with Lucky, aren’t you?"

"Still am."

"I’m not."

"Because you’re scared."

"No! Well, maybe a little bit."

"A whole lot bit, maybe."

"Do you know why Lucky sent us back?"

"She was worried about me. She sent you back to look after Spirit and because she was too nice."

"She cares about us."

"I thought she only cared about her sister. Why else would she bring us along? To,make it easier."

"That’s what I first thought, too. But after talking with Lucky, I suddenly felt like she’s experienced something similar before."

"You mean back when we fought you?"

"No, I mean that when she… Argh. Look, Lucky said she hated to see anything happen to me."

"That’s because if you die, Solana won’t come back."

"Didn’t she say that to you? Do you really think she’d say that?" Lynn tried to speak, but paused and thought. "Thought so. Lucky didn’t see us as strangers when she first met us. She treated us like family. And family has to look out for one another. The expression I saw on Lucky’s face felt like a mom happy to see her kid after he/she was lost for some time."

"You really have a way with words, do you?"

"I just picked it up from a book. Same thing with that running gag."

The two girls laughed as they walked into the main hall. Toko looked at Spirit, who smiled. The literary fan smiled back. Somehow, making Lynn feel better made her feel better.

"Toko?" Lynn called. Toko looked over at Lynn, who stood at the east side of the hall. She was staring at the idol that supposedly belonged to Sakura.

"What is it?"

"Something’s wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"This thing should’ve exploded by now."

"Are you still upset of not going?"

"No, I meant that when Lucky was battling, it took at least eight to ten minutes. But for you, I guess it was like half an hour."

"Maybe we’re looking at the wrong statue?"

"No, look." Lynn pointed at the destroyed statue at the west side of the hall that represented her. "That’s me." She then pointed Yu’s. "That’s Mount Lady." Then she pointed at the second destroyed statue on the west side of the hall. "And that’s you. So this must be the fourth colossus."

"Do these things break after Lucky kills you and revives you?"

"Guess so. Don’t know any other reason."

"Do you think there in trouble?"

"Maybe. But I’m sure there alright. Lucky said we should stay here until she comes back. So there’s nothing that can drag us back out there."

Suddenly, a yawning sound echoed in the hall. "Don’t tell me you’re sleepy," Lynn complained "The sun hasn’t gone down yet."

"It’s not me," Toko replied. Then, squawks and squeals could be heard from outside the Shrine. "Something’s definitely wrong here, Lynn."

"We have to check this out."

"But it sounds like it’s coming from the other side of the Shrine. We can’t go outside down the stairs and around the shrine. Who knows what we’d find?"

"Is there another way to get a glimpse?"

Then, Spirit neighed, getting the girls’ attention. He gestured towards the Main Room of the shrine.

"Looks like he wants us to follow him," Toko said.

"Lead the way, Spirit," Lynn said.

——————————————————————

The entrance to the Shrine of Worship opened as Lynn, Toko and Spirit walked out of it. Lynn looked to her left and gasped as she saw the flock of Pteranodons flying straight towards them. She stepped back as the swarm flew past.

When the last pterosaur flew by, Lynn slowly walked back out to where she stood. Then, something caught the corner of her eye. She looked at the beach were she and Lucky fought Mt. Lady. In the water were Ludroths, the whole pod from the lake. On the shore was the Carnotaurus, which was pacing back and forth, staring at the Ludroths.

"If those things are there, then…" Lynn looked at the direction the arena was at and saw the giant Sakura, standing up. "Something must’ve gone wrong. We have to help them."

"But you said…"

"You said Lucky treated us as family. And family should help each other out, right? So that’s what we’re going to do. I don’t care if you’re afraid of going back, because Lucky cares for us. She cares for you. Don’t you care for her?"

"Dang, that’s some enthusiasm you cooked up. Alright, I’m in. So what do we do when we get there?"

"What do we do? We fight, no matter how scary the thing is. And speaking of scary, is Genocide Jack still available?"

"If I can bring her out, then yes. But are you sure you need her?"

"Trust me."
Back at the arena, a thundering boom echoed across the area. Sakura had thrusted the bottom of her staff onto the arena, causing it shake. This also caused Lucky, who was running counterclockwise around the giantess, to stumble and trip on a lone piece of Bazoogara flesh. She lost her grip on her sword and landed on her bottom. The sword clanged as it landed behind her.

Lucky heard the noise and turned her head to the source. She scrambled towards it, but didn’t see Sakura raising her right foot. By the time the brunette reached the sword, the giantess had positioned her foot over her, ready to stomp her flat.

"LUCKY!"

Yu screamed her friend’s name at the top of her lungs as she ran towards her. Quicker than ever before, she leapt into the air and used her Canyon Cannon attack on the giantess’ foot just before she could stomp Lucky flat. The amount of force applied to said foot caused it to be pushed away from Lucky. This also caused the whole leg to turn, into a position where she could easily lose her balance.

Yu landed in front of Lucky and helped her up. "You should be more careful," she said.

"I’ll try to."

Meanwhile, Sakura managed to regain her footing thanks to using her staff as a cane. She looked in front of her and saw Lucky and Yu staring up at her, determined looks on their faces. The giantess raised her staff into the air, but the two girls could predict what was going to happen.

The two ran in opposite directions and leapt out of the way as Sakura slammed the beak of the staff onto the ground where the two were standing. Lucky and Yu rolled to a stop and braced as the shockwave went past. Lucky stood up and tossed some strands of hair off her eyes. She then observed how Sakura was having a hard time trying to pull to beak of her staff out of the ground. She had both hands on the handle, and was pulling it very hard.

That’s when it hit her. If she could get to the staff, she could hold onto one of the "wings" and wait for the giantess to pull out the staff. And seeing how difficult it was for Sakura to pull the staff out, Lucky figured it’d take a few minutes for her to pry it lose. Long enough for her to scan her body for sigils.

Using her sword, she scanned the giantess’ body and found two sigils; one on her midsection and one on the top of her head. Sheathing her sword, Lucky ran to the staff as fast as she could.

However, Sakura managed to pull the beak of the staff out of the ground(causing her to briefly stumble). Lucky slid to a stop as dirt rain on her. She coughed after accidentally inhaling some dust, which got the giantess’ attention. After the dust cleared, Lucky saw Sakura with her staff already raised. She knew she couldn’t dodge in time, as Sakura thrusted the staff to the ground with all her might.

Suddenly, a yellow beam struck the giantess’ forehead. The brightness of the beam caused Sakura to shield her eyes, which meant she no longer paying attention to her surroundings.

The beak of the staff smashed onto the ground a few feet behind Lucky. The shockwave was enough to send Lucky forward and land on her stomach(not to mention sending all the pieces of Bazoogara into the lake). As she got up, she looked up and saw Stormfly flying overhead. Clearly, the Nadder saved her life.

Lucky then looked at Sakura, who was using both hands to clear her eyes. Lucky then looked at the staff. If she could get on undetected, climbing up it would be a cinch, hopefully. Then, Yu came running up to her.

"Lucky, are you ok?"

"I’ve been better. But I’ve found the sigils on her. The nearest one is on her midsection."

"And how do you plan on getting to it? She doesn’t have any hair on her legs."

"Her staff. If I can get onto it, I should be able to hold on when she pulls it out. Once she does, I’ll either slide down onto her hand or shimmy up the staff to her hand. Whatever way I use, once I get to the hand, I’ll run across her arm to her shoulder, use her clothes to climb down to her midsection and… well… you get the picture." 

"But what if she’s holding the staff upside down and shakes you off?"

"Sharp-shot will catch me. Plus, I have you…"

"Aw."

"…to distract her."

"Boo."

"Make sure she’s holding the staff the way a king or queen would it. Or like how I hold my sword when I search for the light."

"What’s this got to do with me distracting her?"

"When she’s holding it like I described, I’ll slide down onto her hand and do the rest. Make sure she pays absolute attention to you. Keep her sight off me. Make it look like you have no fear."

"But she’ll kill me."

"Once I’ve reached her shoulder, then you can move. Just buy me some time, okay?"

"I’ll do it. Anything for a friend."

"Good. Once I’ve stabbed the sigil on her midsection three times, I’ll signal Sharp-shot to pick me up and drop me off on the head of the giantess. You know the rest."

——————————————————————

After Sakura was done rubbing her eyes, she heard someone yelling. She looked down and saw Yu waving her arms and shouting.

"Hey, Ms. Card Carrier, bet you can’t hit me."

This made Sakura upset. She grabbed the staff by the handle and tried pulling it out with both hands, just as Lucky had predicted.

And speaking of Lucky, she was holding on tight to one of the "wings" on the staff. Really tight. Surprisingly, the "wings" almost looked like real wings. They were made out of the same material found in real feathers(a quill with filamentous material attached), and they were attached very tightly into the staff. Lucky had no problem holding onto one of the quills.

And good thing, too.

It wasn’t long until Sakura managed to pull the staff out of the ground(once again stumbling). Lucky held on with all her might as she was almost flung off the staff. Fortunately, she didn’t. After regaining her balance, Sakura stared at Yu and turned to face her. As Lucky had said, the giantess held her staff like a queen would do. This was what Lucky was waiting for.

Lucky leapt onto the stem of the staff and slid down it like a fireman going down a fire pole. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long drop. After only about 10 ft, she landed on the hand of the giantess. She then began to run towards the arm, but when she got to the wrist, she ran into something and fell back.

Sakura felt something on her hand and looked down to see Lucky recovering from her accident.  The brunette got back up and carefully walked towards the wrist of the giantess. As she looked carefully at it, she walked into something again. Lucky staggered back, but managed to regain her balance. Once again, she walked towards the wrist, but stopped just two feet away from it. She stretched her hand out and felt the air in front of her.

To her surprise, she felt a large, solid object, like a wall. Yet, she didn’t see anything. Then, it hit her…

It was an invisible barrier.

A wiser person would’ve realized his or her mistake. But Lucky wasn’t ready to admit defeat yet. She unsheathed her sword and struck at the barrier. But the sword bounced off every time she did.

"Dang it," said Lucky. "Why isn’t this working? And more importantly, why is there a barrier here?"

A loud snicker caught her attention. Lucky looked up and saw Sakura looking down at her. The giantess grinned evilly and held up a card with her other hand. Lucky looked at it and saw that the card had a wing-like object with a red orb wrapped in chains. She read the words underneath which said "The Shield."

"Uh oh…"

That was all Lucky could say when she realized her mistake. Sakura put her card away and leaned her face closer to the brunette. Lucky sheathed her sword and smiled innocently… and gulped.

"Hey, Ms. Big Shot!"

Sakura moved her head toward the source of the yell, which was none other than Yu.

"If you’re looking for someone to squash, why not me?!"

The giantess smiled a wicked smile. She then looked down at Lucky and gave the same smile. Suddenly, before Lucky or Yu could react, Sakura blew Lucky off her hand, sending her flying.

"LUCKY!" Yu shouted.

The brunette began to fall towards the lake. Even though it was free of predators for the moment, landing in the lake from such a great height would certainly be fatal. Lucky screamed as she fell.

But just before she made contact with the surface of the water, a pair of clawed feet grabbed her underneath her armpits and quickly raised her above the lake. Lucky looked in front of her and saw Stormfly looking underneath her to make sure the brunette was okay. Lucky smiled when she saw the dragon’s face.

"I’ll never understand how you always save our lives, Sharp-Shot."

Yu looked down and was relieved when she saw Stormfly rescue Lucky. But she didn’t notice a shadow looming over her…

…until it was too late.

Yu looked up and saw Sakura holding the bottom of the staff over the blonde’s head. The giantess raised it up before slamming down onto the ground. Fortunately, our blonde leapt out of the way just in time, but the force of the impact sent her flying over the edge of the arena. She disappeared over the edge.

Sakura laid her staff on the ground and got onto her hands and knees. She crawled over to the edge to get a good glimpse of the blonde's outcome. But when she took a peak…

…she got a magnesium blast to the face. The giantess squealed in pain as Stormfly flew above her, with Lucky in her talons and Yu on her back.

"How is she always there for us?" Yu asked

"She’s a dragon. They work in mysterious ways." Lucky replied.

Stormfly just clucked in appreciation.

Sakura, meanwhile, rubbed her eyes to regain her sight. Once she got it back, she stood back up and walked over to her staff. She picked it up and looked up at her attackers.

Unbeknownst to them, the giantess had one more trick up her sleeve. She pulled out another card; however, this one was different than the others. It had a light blue orb on it that was covered with white jagged lines.

Thankfully, Stormfly saw this new card and alerted Lucky and Yu as she flew back towards the arena. Sadly, her reaction came too late as Sakura was already preparing to use the card.

"Dome! Encase this arena in an impenetrable forcefield to keep out distractions!" She slammed her staff on the card, and lightning blasted out of it. It roared up towards the heavens before stopping twenty-three feet above her. There, it formed a disk-shaped object that crackled with energy. Then, the disk started to expand as it began to encase the arena in a dome-shaped forcefield.

"She’s going to block us out!" Lucky cried.

"We’ve got to get back in or we’ll never beat her," Yu replied.

As Stormfly got close to the arena, she suddenly realized that the dome would limit her flight range and attacks, making things complicated for her, Lucky and Yu. She didn’t want them to get killed because of her disadvantage.

As they got close to the arena ground, Stormfly released her grip on Lucky who landed perfectly on her feet. Yu, meanwhile, hopped off the Nadder’s back, but tumbled when she landed until she rolled to a stop. Stormfly made a U-Turn as she got close to Sakura and flew back in the direction she came. Lucky saw this and, after the dragon flew over her, ran as fast as she could to follow her.

"Sharp-Shot!" She cried. Stormfly didn’t stop, and she didn’t until she was out of the arena. And just in time, for the dome had fully encompassed the arena after she flew out. Lucky slid to a stop as she reached the edge. Unlike the barrier on Sakura’s wrist, Lucky could see the barrier, but only a little bit.

Yu ran up to Lucky and could only feel ashamed about what just happened. How could Sharp-Shot just abandon them? Wasn’t she their ally?

Stormfly flew back towards the arena and stopped just inches away from the dome. She could see Lucky looking all teary-eyed. The dragon’s eyelids lowered slightly, and she uttered a sorrowful cluck. She hoped Lucky could understand why she left them there…

…and luckily for the Nadder, she did.

"It’s okay, Sharp-Shot. I understand why you left us."

"And may I ask why did that traitor leave us?" Yu asked suspiciously.

"She’s not a traitor!" Lucky retorted, looking back at the blonde. "Look around you. What do you see?"

Yu did look around her. Of course, (minus the giantess), all she saw were faint traces that the barrier was there. "Duh, the barrier."

"Exactly."

"So she left us so she wouldn’t get trapped?!"

"Well, that’s half-correct. Look at the top. Above the giantess." Once again, Yu did as told and examined the top of the dome. This time, she could see it clearly thanks to the sun. That’s when it hit her.

"The top of the dome looks flat. But then it curves towards the edges of the arena."

"Correct. Sharp-Shot knew that if she remained trapped in the dome…"

"Her ability to fly would be almost obsolete in this environment."

"And what does that mean?" Lucky asked Yu even though she knew the answer.

"It means she didn’t want us to worry about her. Gah! I feel like such an idiot."

"Don’t worry. You didn’t know." Lucky stood up and gave Yu a hug. "Sharp-Shot was just looking out for us."

"Guess you’re right." Yu waited until Lucky released her and walked towards the barrier. She placed her hand on it as Stormfly hovered close enough to the barrier for her beak to touch it. Even though they were separated, they were still together. "Sorry I called you a traitor, Sharp-Shot."

A cluck from Stormfly was all that was needed to confirm that she accepted Yu’s apology. Lucky walked up beside Yu and also placed her hand on the dome. The three shared a brief warm moment together…

…that was easily interrupted when the heard the stomping of feet coming towards them. Yu and Lucky looked behind them and saw Sakura kneel in front of them. The giantess smirked evilly at the two humans. That’s what really ticked Lucky off.

"Change of plan, Yu. First, we have to find a way to break the dome spell. Then, we target the sigils."

"Easier said than done. But I’m willing to take the risk."

"Glad to hear. Sharp-Shot, we’ll handle the barrier. I promise we’ll get you back into the fight."

Stormfly nodded, but then unleashed a magnesium blast onto the dome. As Sakura said, the dome was impenetrable, so the blast didn’t even make a scratch. But the dragon didn’t give up. She flung her spikes at it. Not even a scratch.

"Sharp-Shot, I said we’ll handle this." Stormfly squealed in retaliation. This made Lucky realize that the dragon would do all in its power to help. "Ok, then. Fire away."

"Seriously?"

"Sharp-Shot won’t abandon us. She’ll do everything she can to help us."

"Well, at least she’s trying."

"Meanwhile, we’ll take on the giantess. Sticks and stones might not break her bones, but determination always triumphs."

"Sounds like a stubborn and dumb move… I like it."

Lucky and Yu charged at the giantess: bow and fists ready respectively. Sakura raised her left hand and slammed it down on the ground in front of them. Luckily, they were able to leap out of the way before it hit the ground. The two ran circles around the colossus, with Lucky shooting arrows at the giantess’ pockets and Yu aiming her "Canyon Cannons" at the heels. Meanwhile, Stormfly continued shooting blasts and spikes at the dome. Any impenetrable object must have a weak spot. Sakura smirked at the pathetic attempts the smaller beings had at beating her.

Little did she know that help was on the way…

——————————————————————

Riding on Spirit through the gorge, Lynn and Toko arrived back at the lakeshore. They hopped off as the mustang slid to a stop. They saw Stormfly blasting at the dome and could faintly make out Lucky and Yu going all out on the giantess.

"We’re too late," Toko said.

"But we’ve got to do something," Lynn replied. Sadly, she didn’t know what to do next.

Like mosquitoes trying to bite the two-inch hide of a hippopotamus, all of Lucky's arrows and Yu's fist attacks were ineffective against Sakura. The only thing they did was annoy her.


Stormfly was having similar problems as well. No matter how hard she tried, her attacks all but dented the dome. It was like trying to break open a rock with only sticks and fire. And rocks aren’t even flammable, mind you.

Sakura slammed her foot on the ground, creating a shockwave that sent Lucky and Yu flying. The brunette landed in front of the shimmering plate in the center of the arena. Her sword clanged on top of it when it landed. Lucky heard the sound and got up. She walked onto the plate and retrieve her sword. She then tapped the tip of her sword lightly on the surface. The plate was made of some kind of metal, one probably durable enough to withstand a blow of Sakura's staff.

 

Suddenly, Dormin’s voice spoke telepathically to the brunette.

“The armor it wears seems brittle… Knock it to the ground to break it…”

"How?" Lucky replied. "The ground probably didn’t dent the barrier on her wrist. It's made of stone except for this metal thing I’m standing on…"

That's when it struck Lucky. If she could trick the giantess into slamming her staff onto the plate, it might stun her enough to fall down, and allow Lucky to destroy the sigils.

 

Hearing the booming behind her, Lucky boldly turned to face the ninety-seven foot tall Cardcaptor walking slowly towards her. The giantess smirked at the being below her, thinking that it had given up. She stopped just meters in front of Lucky and raised her staff high into the air.

But she was unaware that was all part of Lucky's plan. Ironically, so was Yu. The blonde saw Lucky and called out to her to run…

…she did, though. As Sakura thrusted the beak of her staff towards Lucky, the brunette leapt off the plate.

…and just in time.

The beak of the staff struck the plate, creating a massive clanging sound. Surprisingly, the metallic structure held together against the force of the impact. But the same couldn’t be said for the invisible barrier on the giantess' wrist. It cracked from the intense vibrations before shattering. The shards flashed in the light before disappearing. Sakura's body shook from the vibrations caused by the impact and her eyes became swirly.

Lucky tumbled a few feet before stopping; Sakura was still vibrating by the time she got up. A sudden crunching sound caught her attention. She looked up and saw cracks starting to appear on the dome, spreading from the center downwards to where the dome met the arena.

 

By the time the vibrations left Sakura, the dome was starting to come apart. Another cracking sound was heard; this time from Sakura's pocket. The giantess reached into her pocket and pulled out the Dome Card. She looked at it and gasped. Cracks had appeared on the card as well, apparently from the vibrations caused by slamming her staff on the metallic plate. Suddenly, the card shattered like glass. The pieces fell to the ground before vaporizing into nothingness.

Fury raged inside the giantess. She whipped her head back and forth before focusing on Lucky. She furiously stomped over to the brunette, who accidentally fell on her behind when backing away. The ninety-seven foot schoolgirl raised her leg over the terrified swords-woman.

Suddenly, just before she could step on Lucky, the top of the dome shattered as Stormfly flew in and blasted Sakura on the head. This caused the giantess to miss Lucky, who managed to get back up on her feet and run behind the giantess.

From the lakeshore, Lynn and Toko saw the dome shatter as Stormfly bursted through the top and blasted Sakura on the head with a magnesium blast. They could guess that either Lucky or Yu did something. No matter what caused the dome to shatter and how, the important thing now was that they had a clear path to the battlefield. And with no predators in the water, they could now swim across.


…At least, Lynn could. She sat down and took off her cleats and socks, got up, and carried them over to the weeping willow that stood in front of the canyon entrance; resting them near the trunk. Lynn looked back at Toko and Spirit. The violette looked nervous.


"So… what's the matter?" Lynn asked Toko.


"N-nothing!!" The purple-haired girl exclaimed. "It's just that… I…"


"Yes…"


"…I…I…I………can’t swim."


Lynn had to hold back a snicker. "The creatures in the lake are gone. They ran to the beach, remember?"


"It’s not that. It’s that I don’t like getting wet. It's like a nightmare to me."


"So you have hydrophobia?"


"If you're gonna laugh, make it quick."


"In a moment as serious as this? Not going to happen. Besides, I know how it is to be afraid."


"You do?"


"Everyone is afraid of something; however, many conquer their fears by facing them."


"I’m not sure if I can do it."


"Being brave doesn’t mean not being scared. It means that you're willing to help despite being scared."


"I’m still not sure."


"You will, eventually. But how about we focus on saving Lucky and help you conquer your fears later?"


"And exactly how am I suppose to get over there?"


"Remember when Lucky said that riding on a powerful creature would keep you safe from harm?"


"What are you-" Toko froze in her speech after remembering those words. "Oh, I get it."


"Glad you did." She then turned her attention to Spirit. The mustang quickly got the message and bellowed out loud to signal Stormfly to help. Fortunately, the Nadder must’ve heard him because she flew down the shore of the lake and landed near Toko.


"Well, looks like we're going to be working together again," the violette said to the dragon. She then looked over at Lynn. "Aren’t you coming with us?"


"I’m a fast swimmer, so I'd get over to the ramp in a few seconds."


"And what happens when you do? Your feet…"


"Don’t worry. My feet are more than capable of handling the bricks and rocks of that arena."


"If you say so. Alright then, let’s do this."


"Spirit," the brunette said, "make sure my shoes and socks are still there by the time I return." The mustang nodded, but he rolled his eyes at the silliness of the request. "Let's go, Toko."


"Whatever you say," the violette said, "Up, Sharp-shot!"


Stormfly spread her wings and took off, flying towards the arena. Lynn, meanwhile, sprinted towards the edge of the lake and leapt into the air. She dove into the water and, after shooting up towards the surface to breathe, started swimming in a similar fashion to a frog.  Just as she said, she made it to the ramp in under a few seconds.


——————————————————————


Lucky ran over to Yu, who was flabbergasted of what just happened. She was almost speechless. All she muster up was…


"How…?"


"Lucky guess, I presume?"


"No wonder they call you Lucky. If you keep putting yourself in danger, it’s going to become a habit."


"Well, if it does, we better all get use to it."


Stormfly landed next to Lucky and clucked in admiration. Lucky just smiled back at her.


"Thanks for saving me again, Sharp-Shot."


Suddenly, a loud bellow echoed across the area. Stormfly sensed it was a signal for help and flew towards the source, which was coming from the lake shore. Lucky and Yu ran to the edge of the arena and saw Spirit, Lynn and Toko at the edge of the lake.


"I can’t believe they disobeyed you," Yu said


"Well, first, I’m not the parent," Lucky replied, "and second, Toko must’ve gain some confidence and came back to rescue me."


"Well, why is Lynn here?"


"Well, maybe she wants to help as well. And I admit, she did disobey my suggestion of staying in the castle. But I felt that she’d be safe there. After she almost got killed by Toko's demon colossus form, I was afraid that she might be in more danger than ever before."


"Well, it was her idea to distract the giantess. And remember when you took my colossus form? She distracted me while you attacked from behind. She’s more than capable of handling herself."


"Well, if you say so." Suddenly, the duo heard grunting from behind them. They looked and saw Sakura holding her staff over her head. Lucky and Yu leapt out of the way as the beak of the staff slammed into the ground they were standing on.


The two rolled to a stop and bounded to the metal plate. Once they met, Lucky leaned in close to Yu's ear and whispered into it.


——————————————————————


On the plateau the canyon cut through, Gudon, Sadola, and Telesdon watched the battle wage onwards. While Lucky was explaining her plan to Yu (and Lynn was telling Toko about being brave), the three suddenly turned away and headed back the Shrine of Worship.

Once again, Sakura tried to pull the beak of the staff out of the ground. However, she seemed to have hardly any trouble of wrenching it free. But before she could completely pull the beak of the staff out, she felt it being knocked back into the ground. The force was so powerful it almost ripped her arms right off their sockets.


She looked down at the ground for the source and found it: one Yu Takeyama, aka Mt. Lady. She had used "Canyon Cannon" on the staff to prevent it from being pull out. This would give Lucky and her enough time to let Lynn and Toko in on the plan.


Speaking off which, Stormfly landed near Lucky, with Toko onboard. The violette hopped off the reptile and turned to Lucky, who smiled.


"Glad you managed to gain some confidence, Toko," the brunette said.


"Well, I had a bit of convincing, mostly from myself. And Lynn said I might come in handy. Well, another side of me."


"Another side?"


"Sorry, I almost forgot to tell you about it."


Lucky and Toko looked towards the sound of the familiar voice. Lynn came running up to them. Although wet, Lucky and Toko could tell the tomboy was hardly sweating at all.


"Ok, two things. A: How did you get up here with out riding Sharp-Shot? And B: What do you mean 'another side' of Toko?"


"Okay, A: I managed to frog-swim over to the ramp, run up it, and come to a square thing standing on a pillar. It had a ledge so I jumped over and grabbed it tightly. Then, I shimmied over to a rocky, outcropping platform and leapt over to there. I then ran up the steps to the arena."


"Well, the ledge and leaping parts had me scared. But I’m impressed of how you were able to make perfect jumps from ledges."


"Lots of practice. Weeks. Months. Years. I perfected everything. Well, this slaying colossi stuff is still new to me."


"The feeling's mutual. Now, about Toko's other side?"


"While you were unconscious after resurrecting Toko from that devil, she was still Genocide Jack. She almost sliced me and Yu up before she froze. When we pushed her arms down, she returned to normal."


"You pushed her arms and she returned to normal?"


"Well, it was because when my own conscious tried to retake control over Jack's, I was at war with her before Lynn and Yu saved me."


"So pushing your arms…"


"The pain caused me to revert back. Almost anything can make me become Jack: the sight of blood or death, a sneeze, a shock from my taser. It also works in reverse, except for the sight of blood or death part."


"Ok, first, ew. And second, how is this going to help us?"


"Trust me. If Genocide Jack was able to take both me and Yu on," Lynn said, "then Mrs. Speak-n-Spells over there won’t know what hit her."


Yu suddenly ran towards the group. "I managed to give us enough time to discuss a strategy. But we better make it quick."


"Okay," Lucky said. "Now we all know that the main objective is for me to stab the sigils. I just need help getting up there without being squashed."


"Of course," Lynn said, sarcastically.


"So here's what me and Yu planned: Lynn, you stand on the metallic plate and get the colossus to smack you with the staff."


"Ok, then you want me to jump off before she can hit me."


"Exactly, and in case you're wondering, the beak of the staff won't get stuck in the metal."


"I was thinking that!" Lynn exclaimed.


"Glad you did. But, when she slams her staff on the metallic plate, the force will make her shake. She'll get dizzy, so dizzy, that after Yu gets her to slam the beak of her staff into the dirt, she'll barely have enough time to react when I rush up and grab onto one of the feathers."


"Will I need to dodge the attack?"


"Even if she does miss, I want you to anyway. I don't want anything to happen to you. You're like a sister to me. You all are." The others were warmed by her words. "Once that's done, I'll hold onto the feather when she pulls the staff out of the ground. Once she's holding the staff the way I hold my sword when searching for the light, I slide down it onto her hand, then run up her wrist."


"Just like before?" Yu asked, knowing where this was going.


"This time there won't be any barriers in the way. If she tries to squash me, distract her. I'll climb up her arm to her shoulder. I’ll grab her hair, climb up to the top of her head, and stab the sigil there."


"How are we supposed to distract her?" Toko asked.


"Try to divert her attention from me by attacking her legs."


"Once you stab her heads three times, we'll win?" Lynn guessed.


"There's another sigil on her chest. I just need Sharp-shot to fly me over there so I can grab her clothing. I just hope she doesn't pull anymore tricks. Her Dome card's destroyed, so I wouldn’t need to worry about any barriers on her bellybutton."


"Anything else you want to add?" Toko asked again.


"Yes. Why are you barefoot, Lynn?"


"I might be daring, but losing my socks and shoes is risk I’m not willing to take. Plus, my feet are just as tough as steel."


"If you aren’t exaggerating, then I’m impressed. Well, I’ve got nothing else to say but…"


"But what?" Toko asked.


"Go!"


"Go?"


"Go! Go!! Go!!!" Lucky yelled like a army commander.


With that said, everyone ran to their positions. Lynn ran onto the metallic plate just as Sakura pulled the beak of her staff out of the ground. The sporty tomboy shouted to the giantess.


"Hey! Ms. Card Carrier! Come on and hit me with that stick of yours!" Sakura hesitated. She knew this was another trick. She wouldn’t fall for it again. "Are you a giantess or a chicken?!" Then again, she wouldn’t let anyone call her chicken and get away with it. The schoolgirl raised her staff above her head and once again slammed it on the metallic plate. And just like before, she missed her target.


Lynn jumped off just in time. As she tumbled to a stop, she heard a loud, metallic clang behind her. She looked back and saw the giantess shaking like crazy. Her eyes were once again swirly.


But it didn’t last long. Her eyes returned to normal and she shook her head. But as Lucky had said, she was still dizzy from the shaking. And that's when Yu came in.


"Hey, Ms. Wanna-me, I dare you hit me. Get your revenge on me. I know you’ll like it."


The dizzy colossus raised her staff and thrusted towards the blonde. Yu hoped it would miss her as she leapt out of the way. She was fortunate. The staff missed her original spot by three feet. The giantess then "tried" to pull the beak out. When I said tried, I meant it. She was doing her best to pull it out, but because she was dizzy, she was stumbling back and forth while pulling on the staff.


Lucky ran towards the staff as fast as she could. After almost being crushed by one of Sakura's feet, she reached the beak and scrambled up it, and just in time, too.


Sakura snapped out of her dizziness. Using all her might, she pulled the beak of the staff out of the ground.


Unbeknownst to her, Lucky was hold on tight to one of the feathers. When the giantess held the staff upright, Lucky released her grip on the feather and grabbed onto the stem of the staff. Sliding down it like a fire pole, she landed on Sakura's hand and ran up her arm.


Sakura felt Lucky running up her arm. She looked down and saw the brunette climbing her sleeve. She raised her free hand and prepare to squash Lucky like a bug.


Fortunately, she didn’t. 


A blue blur raced past her and slashed at her cheek. Using her free hand, she felt a cut a long gash on her cheek. Black smoke seeped out of the wound. A sudden squawk confirmed her attacker.


Suddenly, she felt something climb onto her shoulder. She turned her head and could make out her attacker. Lucky had just reached the giantess' shoulder and was about to grab a string of hair when Sakura looked at her. But just before either could react, she heard shouting.


"Hey, you big bully!"


The schoolgirl looked down and saw the girl that landed on her head when that big monster appeared. She wasn’t afraid like last time.


"Say hello to my equally-sized friend and/or other personality…"


Toko grabbed one of her braids and used it to tickle her nose. The slight rubbing sensation made her nose tingle. Suddenly, she leaned forward and sneezed…


"AACHOO!!!"


She quickly stood back up, with recognizable changes. Her eyes had changed from purple to red. Her teeth were as sharp and pointy as a shark's. Her tongue dangled out of her mouth and squirmed like a worm. She was now…


"Genocide Jack!"


The psychopath pulled out two pairs of scissors from seemingly nowhere. She gave Sakura a glare so evil it would make Thanos cringe. The serial killer licked her lips in anticipation. She longed to slash someone; too bad it wasn’t a boy.


As Sakura looked confusingly at this "new" girl, she felt a sharp pain on top of her head. It was as if her skull was burning.


The moment Sakura had turned to face Toko/Jack, Lucky managed to grab some strands of hair and quickly climb up it like the vines back at the temple where she found Lynn. Once she reached the top of Sakura’s head, she unsheathed her sword and quickly stabbed the spot the sigil was.


As she was about to stab it again, Sakura's free hand suddenly appeared from her left. But before it could grab Lucky, a barrage of spines struck the giantess' arm. Stormfly flew by, squawking a "You're welcome" to Lucky.


Lucky once again thrusted her sword into the head of the giantess. Black smoke billowed from the wound. Before Sakura could counterattack, she felt something slash at her tendon.


The schoolgirl looked down at her feet and saw Genocide Jack looking up at her, grinning evilly. The scissors in her hands had smoke sizzling from the tips. A deep gash crossed the tendon of her left foot. No doubt she slashed it with her weapons.


Lucky thrusted her sword one last time into the skull of the colossus. And just as it happened with Mt. Lady, the sigil disappeared.  She would have to talk to Dormin about these when she got back to the Shrine of Worship.


The brunette sheathed her weapon, placed her fingers on her lips, and whistled for Stormfly. The Nadder flew up to the giantess' head, but before she could grab Lucky, Sakura tried to swung her free hand at the reptile. Unfortunately, the dragon didn’t have enough time to dodge, and was swatted away like a fly. However, she did recover quickly from the blow.


Sakura then shook her head in order to shake Lucky off. The brunette, sadly, couldn’t hold on for long. She lost her grip on the hair strands and fell past the face of the giantess. Fortunately, she managed to grab the schoolgirl's neckerchief and clung onto it like a vine.


Stormfly saw Lucky dangle from the neckerchief and flew in to rescue her. Sakura turned to face her and held her staff like a baseball bat. She swung it, but missed. Strike one!


Stormfly prepared for a counterattack. She flew at the giantess' face and opened her mouth. She was expecting a magnesium blast coming out of her mouth. But it didn’t. She suddenly realized she had reached her shot limit.


In her universe, all dragons have a certain limit of how many times they can fire. For Nadders, they have can only fire six shots. But they do reload very quickly.


Lucky did not account for this mishap. She would have to improvise. Which meant climbing down to the stomach area without falling off. Well, she did come here to save her sister. And she would go to extremes to do so.



——————————————————————


Inside a dark, secluded area laid a metallic panel. Tied to the panel was a girl who looked about 14 years old. She had long black hair and two side plaits with chain pieces at the ends. She wore a red coat with a white diamond design, a black tight skirt and laced-up white, heeled boots. For those of you who don’t know her, this was Alice Baskerville from Pandora Hearts.


(Of course, many of you wouldn’t know her since who probably haven’t seen the anime or manga).


The humanoid-like spirit opened her purple eyes to find herself in a strange place. She didn’t remember what happened, but she knew she wasn’t with Oz in his mansion. She looked around, and found small tubes running into her arms, legs, and the side of her neck.


'Either I’m at a hospital or someone is planning something diabolical,' Alice thought to herself. 'I hope it's not one of Jack Vesalius' servants' plot for revenge.'


"Excuse me," said a voice. Alice looked to her left and found a young boy tied to a smaller version of her panel. He looked to be around five years old with walnut-brown hair, wore a sunshine yellow t-shirt and chocolate brown shorts. Unless you haven’t guessed, this child was Sosuke from Ponyo. He also had tubes running into his body.


"Sorry. Did I disturb you?" Sosuke asked Alice.


"What do you think?" The brunette sarcastically asked. She wasn’t fond of kids.


"Sorry, I’m just scared." The boy meekly answered. "I don’t know where I am or how I got here. All I can remember is having fun at the beach with my family before everything went black."


"Same thing happened to me. Except I was at a mansion with a boy I loved."


"Was he cute?"


Before Alice could reply, a creepy-sounding voice echoed through the dark. "Ahh, the test subjects have awoken."


"Test subjects?" Sosuke whimpered.


"Who are you?!" Alice shouted.


"Me? I’m just someone who is delighted in my experiments." The voice answered.


"Experiments?" Sosuke meekly asked.


"Yes. I especially like making innocent boys and girls into giant monsters. That is what I call chaos."


"You've done this before?" Alice asked in curiosity.


"Of course, my sweet. Once I turned a harem of high-school girls into giantesses with a special formula. It wore off after forty-eight hours, though. But seeing how the military reacted was enough for me to continue my quest."


"Is that why you need me?" Alice questioned suspiciously.


"Not just you," the voice replied. "That boy is also important."


"R-r-really?" Sosuke stuttered.


"Yes. You two are perfect for a new creation I’ve been working on." A holographic projection suddenly appeared in front of them. It resembled a horse-like creature made of stone  with bone-legs. "Behold: Project Phaedra."


"You're going to turn us into that?! I thought you liked turning innocents into giants!" Alice cried.


"I do. But this is just phase one. Phase two will commence sooner than you think."


As the voice said that, black liquid was pumped through the tubes into their bloodstream. Alice and Sosuke struggled to get free, but their efforts were in vain.


"I suggest you get comfy. This is going to be an exciting experience… for me."


Suddenly, the tubes popped off Alice and Sosuke's bodies. Black smoke rose from the openings. The binds that held Alice and Sosuke on their panels suddenly unclamped their arms and legs, releasing them. They landed on their feet and walked over to the projection. Alice tried to touch it, but her hand went through. Suddenly, the projection changed. Now, it showed a side view of Alice, with Sosuke standing right behind her. They were inside the outline of the horse-like animal.


"Is that suppose to be us?" Sosuke asked. No reply.


Suddenly, Alice and Sosuke felt pains in their bodies. Normally, one wouldn’t lean forward when in pain. But the two didn’t. They were frozen in place. However, Sosuke's body suddenly forced him to step behind Alice, at least three feet from her. The two started to lose consciousness. But before they fainted, the last noise they heard was the voice laughing.


"Hahaha! Try not to scream. I hate it when an innocent's voice becomes… 'horse.'"

To be continued...