Harper stepped out of the Shadow Realm near the treeline at the rear of the fight. Blood dripped from both bladed tonfas as she surveyed the battle, trying to find where she was needed. It was a chaotic mess. What had started with somewhat defined lines was anything but now. Giants stood everywhere, turning and slamming clubs and axes down into the ground trying to hit the much smaller humans surrounding them. Most giants had three or four members of Clan Brady facing them, keeping them turning constantly. Some only had one or two.

  Brian swung his huge club, shattering a giant’s knee. The monster fell to the ground, Brian immediately moving and swinging the club down on the giant’s head. The ground shook from the impact. The annoying twins, always finishing each other’s sentences, she could never tell them apart, attacked another giant. One stabbed with their spear, causing the giant to turn, giving the other an opening. They kept moving in a circle, clockwise and then counter clockwise, leaving the giant confused. Drew and Davis were and weren’t working together. One would charge a giant, engaging it and then moving on. The other would follow up, attacking the distracted giant.

  Everywhere she looked, the giants seemed to be on the losing end of the fighting. The problem was that there were more giants and she didn’t think the leaders, the higher Leveled ones had gotten involved yet.

  A group hung back by the tents, avoiding the periodic blasts from what were being called Spirit Cannons. Harper thought it a dull name, but it worked and fit what the weapons did. The blasts were enough to keep the next wave of giants back. But it wouldn’t last long. Harper knew they would join the battle. She thought Clan Brady would be able to hold out, but it would be much harder.

  She had seen a couple Clanmembers fall, dragged out of the fight and up the hill to the waiting healers, but if the other giants attacked it would mean spreading out and more would fall. She’d been moving from giant to giant, cutting tendons and making a nuisance of herself. Harper knew she could take a giant one on one. Not easily, but she could do it. Her role had been to cripple or hurt the giants, moving around the battlefield and letting the others finish the monsters. If a group of Clanmembers was getting overwhelmed, jump into the fight with a couple quick attacks, and move on.

  There had to be more she could do.

  The multi-colored sparks of experience danced around the battlefield, some entering her. It provided an odd glow to the fighting, as did the glow of Abilities and the lights from the casters on the hill, doing the same as the cannons and keeping the rest of the giants out of the fight.

  Harper Activated Shadowskip, the world losing its color, turning to shades of gray. Time slowed down, every movement of those outside the Realm dragging as if moving through water. It didn’t affect Harper as she ran, crossing the distance in seconds. She moved into the giant’s camp, running around the tents, searching.

  Fires had started early in the battle, but those had been extinguished, the ruined tents moving in the constant wind, some pulling at the ropes that barely held them down. There were fire pits, the fires still going, snapping and cracking in the wind. The oranges and reds looked odd, turned into shades of gray. Then there were the giants, a dozen of them, standing back among the tents, watching the battle. A couple crouched, ready to rush into the fight.

  Explosions came from in front of them, rock and debris thrown up. Oddly colored streaks of energy striking the ground or any giant that got too close. At some point the casters would run out of Spirit, the cannons run out of the propane gas projectiles.

  One of the giants stood away from the front. He barked out, pointing at various spots around the battle, the others turning and nodding. That was the leader.

  Harper could feel herself getting chill. She had spent too long in the Shadow Realm.

  Stepping out, she slashed a tonfa, cutting through the rope holding the hide tent. The wind took it, flying it right into a fire pit. The dry hide went up quickly, the wind pushing the flaming tent beyond. The giants saw it, and the next, which Harper had to throw into the fire herself. Using her tonfa’s tip, she pulled it out, throwing it on the undamaged tent. Both were on fire, the flames spreading.

  She jumped back into the Shadow Realm, running around the camp, jumping out on the far side. Her tonfas slashed across the heels of a giant, cutting deep. The giant humanoid screamed in pain, falling to the ground as the tip pierced the back of his knees. He slammed hard, the ground shaking. Harper jumped up onto his back, spearing a tonfa down into muscle to hold herself up. The other slashed across the back of the giant’s head. She ran up and to the side, tonfa spearing into the shoulder, the other slashing across the neck. It wasn’t an angle where she could get a deep cut, but it was enough.

  Harper heard another giant coming, felt the pressure wave of the air being pushed forward. Pulling her tonfa out, she leaned back, falling into a roll down the body as a club passed where she’d been. She skipped back into the Shadow Realm, jumping out behind that giant. Her tonfas cut across the giant’s back, a female one. She twisted, the club coming down where Harper had been. Missing as Harper jumped to the side, the club followed, just missing again. Harper leapt up, tonfa cutting across the giant’s hand. With a roar, the giant swung the club down, realizing at the last second where it was aimed. The club slammed into the first giant’s head, crushing it.

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  The female giant yelled something, a name or curse, Harper didn’t know. The giant was angry, swinging the club wildly. Harper disappeared into the shadows. The giant looked around, trying to find her. Harper appeared right in front of the giant, jumping out of a nearby tree, tonfas leading. They pierced the chest of the female giant, who looked down in surprise. A hand reached down, trying to grab Harper, but she had already flipped away, dragging the tonfas through the giant’s body, leaving wide slashes. Landing on her feet, Harper ran forward, ducking low and running between the wide spread legs. Tonfas slashed out, cutting deep as she ran, Activating Shadowskip and disappearing.

  The giants pulled together, back to back, eyes watching everywhere. They didn’t see Harper reappear back by the treeline, not until they felt the small sharp pains from throwing knives. Enraged, a couple of the giants chased after Harper, forgetting where they were. A blast from a Spirit Cannon caught one in the shoulder, knocking it down. A fireball slammed into the chest of the other.

  Harper didn’t stop to finish off the two, seeing a group of Clan Brady fighters in trouble.

  ***

  “Stay up here Piper,” Kim Hudson called out.

  Piper waved a hand, acknowledging that she heard. She didn’t move though. Kim was too busy firing her spells to really pay attention, allowing Piper to take another couple steps down the rocky slope. She fired another blast from her wand, the pure silver energy streaking down and striking a giant.

  She saw her remaining inksummons darting around the battlefield. Only a cat and wolf remained. The bear and lion had been destroyed early on. Which is what she had planned. Those two had managed to nearly take down a giant on their own before others had smashed them with clubs. She had sent out more of the smaller, having them assist other Clanmembers, not focusing on any one giant, but wounding and distracting multiple. A couple had been destroyed when they’d leapt in front of an attack meant for a Clan Brady fighter, blocking and disrupting the attack, possibly saving the Clanmembers life.

  She knew she could send out some more larger ones, but was trying to conserve her Spirit. It was a balancing act. She had a role to play in the battle, which required inksummons, but she had an idea of something she wanted to try, which would require a lot of ink. Piper knew if it came down to it, she’d unleash more bears and lions, maybe even the inkdragon that she had redrawn and added detail, making it stronger. If the Clan was in trouble, she knew what to do.

  But part of her really wanted to try out her idea. It was dangerous. She’d get yelled at by a lot of people, not just her dad and Harper. But if it worked, so many more possibilities would be opened up to her. A whole new way to use her Abilities.

  She’d reviewed the drawing with Mr. Verner, who her dad had said was an engineer. He’d been impressed with her blueprint. That’s what her dad had called the drawing he’d shown her once of how a piece of equipment was built. The blueprint showed all the pieces and how they went together to make the final machine.

  Piper had made a sketch of what she wanted first but realized, with Cerie’s help, that all she had was the outside. She didn’t know how the inside worked and she needed that knowledge to make her sketch turn into the final idea.

  With her inkanimals, even the wall she had made, Piper didn’t need to know how they worked, just what they did. Claws were easy. They scratched and did damage. A bear was strong, she could show that in her sketch even if she didn’t know how the muscles worked. But a machine was different. She needed to know how it did what it did.

  So she’d looked up blueprints in the books they’d taken from the library, able to find some thanks to the help of the new librarian, Quinn Hanna. She even had an Uncommon Class related to being a librarian. Archivist. It sounded cool to Piper. Ms. Hanna had helped her look up blueprints, giving Piper an idea of what she had to draw. Then with the help of Mr. Verner, she’d finished it.

  Now she just had to find a time to test it out.

  She shot another blast from her wand, hitting a giant in the shoulder. The creature looked up at her, shouting something in its language. It took a step toward the slope but stopped as arrows peppered its skin. They stuck out of its shoulders, neck and cheek, missing the giant’s eyes. It started that direction, so she hit it with the wand again. It turned and arrows hit it, turning it again. Piper felt kind of bad for the giant, from where she was she couldn’t tell if it was male or female. Feeling bad for it didn’t stop her from sending a new inkcat at it.

  Not a housecat, but puma sized, the inkcat ran down the hill and jumped onto the giant. Landing on its back, the claws dug in, cutting long gashes in the monster as the inkcat slid down. Bracing its back legs against the giant, the inkcat leapt off, racing across the battle for another enemy to attack.

  Cerie had said that when she created an inksummon of a living creature, Piper had an idea of how the creature behaved but that the Spirit helped assist, giving the form function. If she drew a bear, the Connected System knew what a bear should do. Making a machine was different. Piper really didn’t understand it, but if Cerie said it, it had to be true.

  She sent a couple more inkcats, housecat sized, into the battle. Sometimes she wished there was an actual way to measure how much Spirit she was using and had left. The mental image of a bar was good, but it was just an estimate. Having numbers would be better. She’d always liked numbers and math.

  The mental bar felt a little over half way full. If it went too much lower, she wouldn’t get to try out her new sketch. Piper really wanted to try it out.