Giant Slayer

"Is that him? Is that the giant slayer."

"Yeah, I saw him kill the giant single handedly."

Whispers filled the tavern as Lucas and a group of armored knights drank to their hearts out in the middle of it all. They all cheered and celebrated, still riding the high from the earlier battle. 

"How are you even alive?" A golden haired knight asked with a mix of wonder giddiness. Leandro was one of knights who was close with Lucas but even he had never seen him pull off such an inhuman feat. 

"Well I've always been tougher than you all." Lucas said boastfully. His seriousness had disappeared as he conversed with his comrades. He swelled with pride after such an accomplishment. "I'd die before I'd let  a monster even hurt me." He said flexing his scarred but uninjured arms. 

"I still think you should've." Matthias said jokingly. "What were you thinking, jumping out of nowhere like that?"

"Yeah," Oliver, a short, baby-faced knight chimed in. "I would never do something that stupid."

"The call came and I answered." Lucas said matter of factly. He then reached over and ruffled Oliver's unruly hair. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Quit that." Oliver said, swatting Lucas's hand away. The rest of the table got a good chuckle out of this. With Oliver being only slightly younger than Lucas it was always funny to see him being treated like a junior.

"So, most eldest one, how did you survive?" Matthias asked slightly more seriously. "Don't think we haven't noticed you sporting a few new battle scars." Matthias tapped on his cheek. For some reason the scars from the battle where Lucas got his mana ability hadn't gone away. It seemed the traces of that fight were stuck with him. 

Lucas looked around before learning in. He figured he could tell them. They were basically brothers after all. Deciding it would be faster to show them Lucas picked up a knife from the table and brought it to his exposed arm

"What are you-!?" Matthias began to ask before seeing Lucas cut into his arm. Blood leaked out slightly before Lucas's mana quickly got to work. The stunned knights watched on as the cut quickly began to stitch itself back together. Before long the wound had completely healed, not even leaving a scar.

"A mana ability?" Leandro was the first to say. Of the people in Carmek, he was the second most knowledgeable about mana after all. 

"Yeah." Lucas said in a hushed tone. The rest of the knights looked astonished. Someone of common origin developing a mana ability was unheard of. 

"Are you a noble?" Oliver asked, looking confused. 

"No, I'm not." Lucas said quickly dismissing him. It was an enigma how he managed to develop a mana ability. He generally knew that nobles received a mana ability once they had a certain amount of mana but raising the amount of mana one could store was an impossible task. Nobles were just born with it. Maybe for Lucas it had something to do with him siphoning mana from the dead giant.

"Well that explains how you're still alive.  So you're basically unkillable?" Leandro asked, leaning back in his chair. 

"Everyone's got limits." Matthias said, answering the question for him. 

"Yeah." Lucas said, wondering what his own limits were.  He looked out the tavern window noticing just how dark it was. "Hey it's getting pretty late, why don't we head back." He told the group. Matthias nodded and Oliver set his drink down.

"We're not gonna celebrate more!?" Leandro asked in surprise.

"Remember the war meeting." Matthias reminded him. "Now isn't the time for you to drink yourself to death."

"Yeah, Yeah." Leandro grumbled standing up to go. The rest of them did the same. Lucas began to fish through his pockets for coins. They had yet to pay for the drinks. Just then a kindly older lady walked up to them.

"Are you all leaving?" She asked with a pleasant smile.

"Yes. Don't worry, we'll pay." Lucas tried to reassure her but she only shook her head.

"No no. You're the Giant Slayer, right? Me and my husband run this tavern. We heard about what you did. The drinks are free." She told him with a smile before leaving. 

"Oh." Lucas said simply as he watched her leave.

"Well that's why we do it, right? The fame. The glory." Leandro said confidently

"No." Lucas said simply as he watched the woman from before reaching her husband behind the bar. They exchanged words, both seeming so happy. Just like the rest of the people here, able to enjoy every moment of their lives. Not having to run or hide away in fear. "That's not why I do it."

*****

As Lucas walked back to his quarters alone he took a moment to stop at the main entrance to the castle interior. Lucas once again looked out thoughtfully from atop the castle walls. torch light illuminated his surroundings but the stars and moon were invisible, blotted out by dark clouds. Instead of looking up to the sky, he looked down toward the city. His mouth curled into a satisfied smile. He knew that each small light he saw was another person. 

"It's been a hell of a day, hasn't it?" Lucas turned, recognizing the voice. Walking up behind him was Lord Brinton. The lord was still dressed in his singed combat attire and wore a cheerful sm. He slowly walked up and joined Lucas in looking at the city below. 

"Yeah....yes my lord" Lucas responded almost absentmindedly. "But it won't be the last I'm sure." In the span of one day Lucas had fought harder than he'd ever fought in nearly his whole life. 

"Indeed," The lord agreed. "So much has changed. So many cities, much stronger than this one, have already been razed to the ground. I can't help but worry." It was hard for Lucas to hear this. He was brought to Carmek when he was 8 by Lord Brinton himself. He knew him better than he even knew his father. 

"You shouldn't." Lucas said, his fist clenched tightly. "Whomever or whatever comes, I'll protect this city just as I always have." This earned a slight chuckle from Lord Brinton.

"I'm sure you will." Suddenly a wistful smile came across the lord's face. "You know I used to be like you. God, I was a force on the battlefield. I defended my home with everything I had, putting myself on the line." H pulled down his collar revealing a large scar across his neck collar bone. It looked like a wound that surely would have killed a normal person. 

"What changed?" Lucas asked. The lord he knew was never so brazen as he was describing.

"At some point I realized there was more I could do then just give my life away." Lucas nodded despite not knowing what the lord meant by that. His eyes were still fixed on the city. Then the lord spoke again.

"But what I did, wasn't that. I gave up on this city, on these people, without even putting up a fight." The regret on the lord's face was evident. Then his expression suddenly shifted. "How'd you do it?" He asked simply.

"Do what my lord." Lucas said, bewildered by the question.

"Survive." The lord turned and looked Lucas in the eyes. "I'm sure someone already mentioned it to you, but from where I was standing, you should have died at least 4 times. Not to mention how fast you were moving. Something has changed. " Lucas sat in silence for a moment. Then he spoke.

"When I rode into that small river town, the monsters had already arrived. There was an overwhelming amount of them. I held them off at the bridge. They clawed and tore me to shreds but somehow it all healed."

"A mana ability." Lucas nodded his head in agreement. Lord Brinton turned his eyes back to the city. He paused, before letting out a small chortle. "It figures you'd be the one. You were always good with mana. That's why I chose you after all." The lord seemed to be reminiscing.

"But how?" Lucas asked. "I thought only nobles were born with the mana capacity to awaken one." Lord Brinton shook his head silently.

"There are ways to increase your mana, it's just extremely difficult. You have to gather an excess of mana into your body and forcibly expand your capacity. You must have done it unconsciously. I'm impressed." Lucas was surprised. It seemed like he was just told very secret information. But he was still confused.

"Surely someone else would have figured that out before? There are hundreds of knights that are trained to use mana. Thousand throughout history." The lord's smile faltered at this.

"There have been a few…rare cases, all of them put down before word could get out. But something is different here. This last month I could feel the mana in the air get denser. Each day it increases." The lord scoffed. "I'm surprised you haven't noticed it yet. Something is changing."

Lucas paused for a moment. Questions filled his head but his eyes remained steadfast. He looked up to the sky. It was still bleak, not a single star lighting piercing through.

"Yeah, something's changing."

*****

Lucas stood atop the city walls looking out over the plains. He had a good sleep after his talk last night. The lord permitted him to leave his post in the castle and walk amongst the citizens. Still Lucas chose to stay on watch, atop the eastern gate.

Everything seemed so peaceful in comparison to the day before. Soldiers went about their duties as normal, patrolling the gate. One soldier stood atop a tower with a spyglass to spot incoming enemies.

Just below where the giant had been felled, a group of men works together to haul away the corpse. It seemed the danger had already passed.

Just then Lucas spotted a black spec in the distance. Far off, an indiscernible form came over the horizon. Lucas could hardly see what it was but the soldier atop the town fell back in surprise. He quickly scrambled to his feet and leaned over the tower's edge. The people on the wall looked to him.

"DEMONS!" He yelled. Quickly the soldiers who'd been peacefully patrolling the wall got moving. The sound of bells rang out as people began to panic.

Demons!? Lucas quickly made his way to the tower and ascended the stairs. He moved aside the soldier and took a look through the spyglass. 

What he saw was a strangely humanoid creature sitting atop a monstrous steed. An army of diverse monsters surrounded him but marched slowly at his pace. The creature had purple skin and strange flesh covered horns protruding from his head. He was draped in fur covered armor and held a large spear in his right hand. 

Lucas watched as the demon raised his left hand.

He paused for a moment, just before throwing his arm down. All at once the creatures surrounding him surged into action and charged the city. At that moment a flood of monsters was headed for Carmek.