Kaylun and Xerxes held steadfast trust in one another. Their roles were clear, and all Xerxes needed were a few minutes.
His priority was simple. Reach Thornfum, Xerxes knew there were too many unanswered questions right now. There were multiple Orpheus' on the map and Thornfum was likely the only person who knew the scope of Orpheus' plans.
Kaylun's aim was simpler: to unleash the storm he'd kept buried for centuries and drive courage through the giants.
The giant split from Xerxes in the opposite direction, toward the same entrance Orpheus had strode through minutes prior. Thornfum's cage sat on the far end of the tribe, and every guard being drawn to Kaylun's fury would clear a path.
Airi's voice brushed against Xerxes' thoughts as he strode through the snow, "Do you believe he will buy you enough time? We've barely had the chance to assess his strength."
Nodding without hesitation, Xerxes answered, "He will. He has a warrior's frame, a steady breath, a quiet pulse, and balanced steps. Fighters carry themselves in a certain way, I'm sure of it. After all, I would know that after spending so much time around a formidable fighter."
Xerxes immediately thought back to Leiya's body language in battle and outside of battle, and as someone who specialised in hand-hand combat, he was sure Kaylun represented that.
"Trust me, Airi. I can depend on him."
His gaze flicked towards the distant cage, "Because in the end, no one fights as fiercely as someone with something left to lose."
When the two reached their position, Xerxes crouched low. Snow gathered on his shoulders and hair as he waited patiently, coiled like a serpent ready to strike.
***
Kaylun quickly reached the entrance Orpheus had passed through. He peered into the tribe, into the heart of his people's suffering. He saw slavers. He saw brethren treated as livestock.
His jaw tightened, and his hand rose to the collar around his neck. It blemished his people's greatness with humiliation.
"This humiliation that binds us, I have had enough." With a rage-instilled grip, his hands clamped around the frosty steel. The metal bent and shrieked and with a single wrench, it snapped free.
The sound rang across the blizzard and it caused several of Orpheus' men to pause what they were doing, squinting into the storm.
"Marcus... did you hear that?"
A veteran scoffed. "You're always so superstitious. Orpheus is here, you're just a wimp, one that will neve-"
His words ended with a wet crunch. The broken collar punched through his jaw, shattering his bones, ending the veteran's life before he had a chance to hit the snow.
"M-M-Marcus..." he stammered, staring at the mangled companion until a shadow eclipsed him.
An unshackled giant stood before him. Kaylun.
Raising a single finger, thicker than the man's torso. His voice rolled like thunder. "For years we've lived in chains. Today, they rust. Today, we remember what it means to break free. I am Kaylun of the Gem'rafh... and I will promise that."
The soldier's legs buckled as he yelped, "NO, NO, NOO!"
Kaylun's leg came down like a hammer. The man's scream died beneath the foot of the giant.
Men who witnessed this began barking across the camp, "A giant's loose! Giant loose! Send reinforcements!"
He bent his knees, as his muscles tightened. He didn't use magic, he didn't use any otherworldly blessing. Kaylun simply used the power of a Gem'rafh.
Snow burst away in a gust as he launched forward, and he didn't hesitate. His fist blurred faster than their spell-casting, and with a swift strike, his knuckles tore through the flesh of a soldier's chest, propelling him through many others who were taken out with him.
And that was only the beginning.
He raised his fist, looking towards the giants who recognised him, as they fell into conversation:
'That's him, it's Kaylun?'
'I thought he had died alongside the elders.'
"This is my declaration of freedom! Brothers, sisters, I call on your aid. Raise to your feet, break Orpheus' hand of control and do not settle for something as simple as survival. When you look to our future, do you wish to walk among our kind? Do you wish to live peacefully? If you do take a stand and resist."
Amidst the chaos and declaration of resistance, Orpheus finally looked up. His expression barely shifted.
"Rogue livestock?" he murmured, almost amused. Then, he lifted a hand. "Men. Capture 'it'." Disgust settled in his command.
Dozens obeyed and rushed forward, spells igniting in their palms. Fire flared orange, water glistened azure, wind spiralled emerald, earth churned murky brown.
Kaylun drew a deep breath, as he looked at his comrades who were too afraid to move. Most of their minds had been stripped of confidence and conviction in their own ability.
The giant drew in a deep breath, understanding what he had to do. He had to show them all, the collective ability that defined them all.
Men rushed forward and Kaylun began to draw a deep breath.
'I must picture them, visualise my enemy and everything they embody.'
He then shut his eyes. The world before him roaring in a storm of mana.
'Tier five mixed with tier six mana ranges across them... six seconds before they reach me.'
Another breath.
'Their aim is predictable, they are precisely targeting my central mass, the weakest part of a giant. Two seconds.'
Counting down the seconds wasn't simply for show, Kaylun knew the Gem'rafh combat was built on three arts.
Timing, precision and the last.
He exhaled. His stance stiffened, he became immovable just like a stone wall. He counted each heartbeat, measured every spell and then used the last part of the Gem'rafh art.
Exertion.
He raised his palm and the world cracked before him.
A torrent of spells slammed into him but the rigidness he expressed made the spells fold and redirect around him, bending like waves crashing against stone. Fire curled past his shoulders, water split around his torso, earth shattered at his feet and wind howled but it couldn't break him.
Kaylun then roared, "Gem'rafh! Take a stand! This is our moment!"
The collection of spells broke before him as he charged toward the epicentre of hundreds of soldiers.
At his cry, the giants stirred.
After so long they thought that their hope had been extinguished, but as long as someone could dream, it was intrinsic for one to have an ember of hope for that outcome.
All that the Gem'rafh needed was wood to set the spark ablaze and Kaylun was that very thing.
One by one giants rose, one that was as thin as bone and trembling grunted. Another elder whose eyes were a dull grey took a stand and bludgeoned one of the slavers with his cuffs.
A third giant slammed her heel into the ground, knocking her slaver off balance.
"Hold them! HOLD THEM DAMNIT!" Soldiers shouted.
But the fear began to shift, for many years no one stood against them, besides one who couldn't accept his fate.
The Gem'rafh who could fight grew in number and despite not carrying any weapons, they still used every facet of their body.
They fought with knees, elbows, they swung shackles like hammers. This was their land and they knew it in and out.
Though uncoordinated, they all shared the same instincts, the same depth of mastery of timing, precision and exertion. And that was all that they needed for chaos to ensue.
It was a bloodbath, spells ripped against the skin of the giants, fists met the feeble bodies of the slavers and Kaylun charged forward, directly towards the master of them all.
***
From his vantage, Xerxes watched the tribe erupt into chaos. The plan was working, one giant had lit the spark, and the rest followed.
But Orpheus... he was the biggest concern.
"He isn't acting normally," Xerxes muttered, "I can't shake the feeling that something's up with him."
Airi narrowed her eyes and studied Orpheus. She didn't see the world as others did, she viewed mana and surroundings differently.
Instead of seeing a world dominated by physical interpretations, it was like Airi saw the lines in between that, she saw the world dominated by magical interpretations. Every detail of someone was personified through mana.
And when she looked at Orpheus, something was wrong; it was almost like an artifact was encompassing his entire body.
Various flares of mana shot inward and outward, but a pressing detail was one long string of mana that extended beyond the camp itself; it seemed to go deep into the interpass.
Whatever it meant, both her and Xerxes couldn't know, but they were sure to keep that detail in mind.
Xerxes looked down and finally, enough guards were drawn away. Originally there had been more than a few dozen, but now there was only four.
It seemed like this was the best opportunity he would get, so he inhaled, watching his breath cloud the air.
Xerxes then gathered wind mana, making it coil around his legs and then said, "Fifth tier wind, encirclement."
Xerxes bent his knees and then vanished, he was like a blur and in the next moment, he was suddenly before all the guards, his blade unsheathed, then he struck with precise lethality.
With a swift strike, one of the guards were knocked out.
Xerxes then channelled the wind that was circled around his legs, to travel towards his arm and with increased speed, he drew his fist back, striking the soldier's temple, knocking him out cold.
The remaining two managed to conjure spells, but Xerxes' wind was already active and as their spells shot out, Xerxes released the wind as it intercepted them mid-flight, halting it in place.
Xerxes dipped under the clash of mana, dragging his blade through the snow and then he embedded it with wind and struck in an arc, as wind blades erupted outward, throwing the guards off their feet straight into the wall.
He then sheathed his blade as silence settled around Thornfum's cage.
Xerxes approached and inside, Thornfum's bruised and bloodied face lifted.
"Whatever it is ya's want, I hope ya' get demolished by them rogue giants, leave me alone, blind bastards!"
Xerxes smiled, slightly, "I'm glad to see you're still an uptight cunt, Thornfum."
Thornfum's head tilted, as his voice cracked. He blinked twice, as if unsure whether he was hallucinating. Xerxes also had a smile on his face, something that he had never seen.
"Xerxes?"
Xerxes immediately drew fire in his palm and said, "Let's get you out of here. Conjure your big old hammer."
He began to instil his fire into the steel bars, as they got weaker and weaker, but Thornfum still wasn't moving, he remained still.
Xerxes grunted slightly, and then pulled back his fist and punched directly through the molten steel and then tore out the bars, and walked in the holding cell.
"What's gotten into you Thornfum, we don't have much time, I need to know-"
Thornfum then said in a very sombre tone, "It's all gonna' go to shit."
Xerxes frowned, "What? Thornfum, I've allied with the Gem'rafh, these giants that Orpheus has been using as slaves, we can win, Orpheus' men are being overwhelmed, don't you understand?"
Walking towards him, Thornfum pushed a finger into Xerxes' chest, "Na, you don't even have the faintest idea of what is to come!"
And Thornfum's next words, was something that Xerxes couldn't have possibly prepared for.