Stone Giant

Kade woke up as the sun rose from the horizon. He climbed over Maaya and continued into the forest. Kade has been practicing the water whip technique and hoped to complete it today. In the distance, a large lake appeared, and he excitedly ran towards it.

Kade manipulated the elemental particles on the surface of the transparent water to condense. He walked on it to the center of the lake and sat down.

'Guide the water and condense it into a line.' Kade held his hands up, as he read the directions of the module. Water was floating toward his hands and begin to form into a thin line. But, his head ached, and his hands began to shake, as the water collapsed.

"I have never seen somebody control the water element like you," Lillian said, lazily sitting on a rock across the lake. "In Velnair you would be a prodigy in the elemental department. Most of the water elemental losers don't know any combat. Your only problem is that you seem to be attempting an application of a module, which you don't have enough spirit for. You have near perfect control of water element, but without enough spirit, you won't be able to form anything.

"Then how can I quickly increase my spirit?" Kade asked.

"I have a spiritual pendant that you can use." Lilian took out a silver pendant out of her pouch and flung it at Kade.

"Thanks!" he yelled as he caught it. 'Soul chip examine the pendant."

Name: Spiritual pendant?

Properties: +5 spirit, .5% spirit refund

Kade looked in shock, his increase in spirit has stagnated, and he could barely gain a few decimals points of spirit. But a little pendant could artificially raise 5 points of it. Kade lifted the water out of the lake and began to condense it again. It started to form into a great whip. Kade used all of his spirit and he made the whip as long as he could.

He brought his arm up, then the whip came crackling down to stone Lilian was sitting on. Frightened by the sound of the whip tearing through the air she quickly jumped off the rock, and the whip smashed it to pieces.

"Are you crazy! That could have smashed my head apart." Lilian screamed.

Kade smiled "I'm sorry, I was just testing, how far out I could bring the whip."

'But, it would be better if I made it shorter, I can't have all my spirit depleted in a fight,' he thought.

Kade suddenly fell into the water 'Unable to maintain water walking without adequate spirit,' The soul chip told him. Kade swam to the bank of the freezing lake and walked out shivering.

"That's what you get, now come on we have a mission to finish," Lilian said pouting her face.

They walked back to the champ and Maaya was already up. She looked at Kade and nodded, and he patted her head. The previous fight with the adept has made them closer.

"Alright, let's find those stone giants, Maaya bend," Lilian commanded. Kade and Lilian walked on top of Maaya's head and sat down. Maaya slithered toward the center of the forest. They traveled for a few hours until they caught sight of their target.

A giant made of stone was seen walking down the forest path. "We found a stone giant, looks like their alright." Kade sighed.

"No, something doesn't seem right about it. Its eyes seem lifeless, and they never travel alone. Let's follow it." Lillian observed.

Maaya sneakily trod forward and had her cloaking illusion on. The stone giant went down the ravine and opened a stone gate. As soon as the giant passed, Maaya slithered in before the gate closed.

They all gasped at the scene before them. In the center of the stone city, thousands of stone giants were gathered, standing lifeless, while thousands of others were in cages. Two people approached one of the pens and opened it. The stone giant inside roared, the man on the right smirked. His chest split into two, and countless tentacles bounded the giant each seeming to have a mind of their own.

They dragged the stone giant up to the altar. The adept on the platform began to crave a symbol on the stone giant, and the stone giant started to squirm. He poured a liquid to fill the gaps of the emblem, then a few seconds later it stopped struggling and got up.

"Good, stand over there," the adept said inspecting his work."

"So this is what happened to the stone giant tribe." Lilian said shaking her head. "They have been captured by those adepts and are being enslaved."

"Ok, now can go and report this to the adept conclave," Kade said with relief. With the investigation concluded, Kade wanted to leave this dangerous area as fast as they could.

"No," Lilian said with a calm expression, and Kade couldn't believe his ears.

"Why not, we have found the stone giants, now we can go report it to the adept conclave," Kade said with desperation in his voice.

"Because, If we can also defeat these adepts then the adept conclave will be forced to give greater rewards. Don't worry only the guy on the altar is an advanced adept. The other two are quasi- adepts."

Kade wanted to cry. 'She... is insane' he thought with tears glistening in his eyes.

"Hey morons, we have been employed by the adept conclave to apprehend you. Come with us now, or we will use force." Lilian yelled.

The entirety of the city looked at the duo. And at this point Kade lost all hope of returning alive. 'This is it,' he thought disparagingly.

The adept on the altar looked at them with contempt. "Foolish apprentices, in coming here you have ensured your demise. Kill them, my disciples."

The two quasi-adepts rushed at them. Kade sighed and jumped off Maaya; he brought his arms up. A water wave appeared above him as he flew toward the body modification quasi-adept like a meteor.

The quasi-adept looked above, and his chest split apart once again. Countless tentacles formed around him like a shield. As the wave struck the tentacles, the quasi-adept flew back. He looked at his mangled tentacles as blood as blood seeped out of his mouth.

A dark look appeared on his face as countless tentacles lashed out at Kade. Water quickly surrounded him and took the shape of armor. Then his water wave collided with the incoming tentacles. But some of them made it passed the wave, and they stabbed at Kade's body as he tried to doge back.

Kade took heavy breaths. He looked down, and holes littered his body. Blood and pus sprayed out of the pits as Kade looked worryingly.

'Soul chip give me a battle plan."

"Ok," The soul chip replied as it drafted a plan.

Kade looked at the bold plan with hesitation, because of the 40 percent win rate. But this was his only option 'Here goes nothing' he thought.

Two water waves formed at Kade's sides. He brought his hands together, and they merge into one, he thrust it at the quasi-adept. The tentacles formed a shield in front of him once again. Kade smirked then ran behind the water wave. He took a firm step then jumped over the wave; the quasi-adept failed to notice him due to his blind spot.

As the wave smashed into the quasi-adept, Kade flicked his wrist, and a water wiped cracked toward him, then as the whip snaked around his throat, Kade violently pulled it. The quasi-adept's eyes bulged as his body flew back. He desperately grabbed his throat and gasped for air.

Kade brought his other hand up, and another wave formed. As the quasi-adept attempted to pry the whip away. Kade propelled the wave, and it smashed against his skull, caving it in.

Kade looked in satisfaction as the dead adepts tentacles went limp and he stopped struggling.

He turned around and saw Lillian engaging the other enemy. Maaya coiled around him and bit his head. He let out an agonizing shriek, then Lilian drew her spear back and thrust it inside his neck silencing him forever. Mayya then proceeds to devour his corpse.

The adept sighed on the platform."Those incompetent fools, must I take care of everything myself?" A mass of stone ripped out of the ground and rose above the altar. It separated into huge pieces of condensed earth and stone.

'Adept level elemental abilities are powerful.' Kade thought in fear.

The boulders flew at them like a meteor shower. Maaya quickly coiled around them. Then Kade almost fainted as he created a water shield with his remaining spirit.

Kade's barrier didn't last a few seconds before being destroyed. Maaya hissed in agony as the rest of the boulders hit her body.

Lilian gave Kade a potion to recover his lost spirit and heal his injuries.

"I think we can still defeat him. The only reason why I dared to fight an advanced adept, is because he's used most his spirit while enslaving those stone giants. He has probably used the last of his spirit for this attack."

Kade looked at Lilian and hoped she was right or they would soon be dead. Suddenly his eyes flashed. "I have a plan, but you need to distract him for me."

"Go ahead I'm listening."

Lilian's lips arched into a smile as Kade described his plan. " Ok, I'm trusting you on this." She said as she gulped another down another.