Grappling with Giants

Chewing on the nicotine gum, Kasumi lowered herself on the ground as she eyed the metal casings of the bullets. There were literally hundreds of them on the floor within the street that it was hard to miss them. Some of the buildings have grooves in them as if there were scratch mark made by the creatures and there were a few buildings that were now nothing but a pile of rubble safe for the foundations. Tracking the creature in question was easy enough...one merely need to look for the giant footprints and flatten vehicles. In fact there was enough in the place that she could recreate the whole scene of what happened inside her head as if she was a witness of what happened earlier.

Her thought was interrupted upon hearing the beating of wings followed by sound of foot landing on the ground. Even without turning to face her she could tell it was the Underboss as her inquiry confirmed her guess soon enough. Straightening up from the floor, Kasumi flicked the bullet casing away before turning to face her. She bore a serious expression on her face, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Not sure yet, but if you meant the general direction then it's from the wasteland ahead of us. Bullets ain't gonna do the trick for this thing we'll need something with more impact. I suggest ballista or cannons...probably won't kill them outright but ought to slow them down enough to buy time for reinforcements."Kasumi explained, her mind already working on the countermeasures. She would then walk towards the part of the wall where a huge hole have been busted through by said giant.

"We may need to add caltrops to the list but make them as huge as possible. Looks like those giants were charging instead of waddling when they breached through this wall. If we can make them step on those caltrops, that would slow down their charge."she remarked after watching the gait of the footprint on the ground.

"That's all I can suggest for defense now Aneue. What do you think?"she finally asked.

Ivory Volkov

Kasumi watched as the man who had accompanied her earlier made his way back towards Asgard to fulfill the request they made. She knew that feeling all too well...the crushing self loathing feeling when you questioned the value of yourself upon failing those that you swore to protect. Ivory suggested tracking them down and she nodded in agreement. There was no time to waste, the sooner they take care of these creatures the better.

"Understood. I'm expecting a delivery though but we can immediately head out after that."Kasumi replied and no sooner than she had said that, the sound of a lacryma powered bike greeted their ears as another made man rode up towards them. He immediately got off it and pass her what appeared to be a rucksack. The female mage gave him her thanks before putting it on immediately. She glanced towards the bike then Ivory, remembering her pegasus form last time. A moment of consideration passed before she move closer towards the bike instead.

"I shall be riding this vehicle then. It would be less exhausting than running."

Ivory Volkov

Kassypoo?

Kasumi's cheek grew slightly pink at that though she maintained a neutral expression. At least while they are still in front of the other made men...her "sister" really does love making her embarassed. Even though they were not blood related, she had enough respect for the woman that she had considered her as one of her own blood. When the girl posed her the inquiry upon the content of the bag, Kasumi chuckled slightly in response.

"Not quite, it's something more experimental."Kasumi replied as she get onto the bike. When Ivory proposed a race, Kasumi flashed a small smile. Perhaps the lightheartedness was what she needed...she's gonna fight a giant. Possibly more than one of them. If it weren't for her training she would probably be shuddering with fear right now. But right now she was shuddering...with excitement.

"You're on Aneue."Kasumi replied as she revved the bike she had hopped on. The mount would tore off across the road carrying the mage at full speed. It was slightly slower than her own sprinting speed but she needed to conserve her energy to fight this creature. Tracking the footprint of this thing was quite easy...only a blind man could miss them. In fact, it only took within 10 minutes of riding the vehicle across the wasteland plateau they could what looked like a giant tower in the distance. She had known the are around Shale town enough to know there was no such structure built lately...not to mention the tower was actually moving.

Ivory Volkov

Kasumi had expected that they would be doing a bit of travelling before they'd spotted one of those things. Maybe she could just gauge how tall these things were and worked from there. Unlike her Aneue, she do not possess wings so she would be suffering from disadvantages from size difference so she would try and see if there were other ways to bring them down to her level.

When Ivory landed from above, Kasumi swerved her bike to a brake as well. When confronting something they do not know, it's best not to rush in. There's still some distance between them and that tower so she imagined they could still retreat if they have to. When Ivory proposed that they'd work together to take that tower from distance Kasumi nodded in agreement...though at the same time, she probably need to reveal to Ivory that her experimental wasn't exactly something of that sort. But first, she would whip out binoculars to identify what they're looking at.

"Aneue....you may want to look this."Kasumi said as she handed over her binoculars to her underboss. Should Ivory do so, she would notice that the tower was actually a giant tall enough to be mistaken as one. It seem to be sitting on an old ruins of sort. But that was not the part where she was concerned about. The giant was like a tall humanoid...completely nude and with exaggerated deformed body proportion. And it was helping himself to a poor traveler who had the misfortune to stay there, holding it up into an open jaw to gobble him up. Not to mention there were more than one of those things....they were small enough to have parts of their body concealed by the buildings but still big enough that they couldn't try playing hide and seek.

Ivory Volkov

"Yes, just a ridiculously sized creature. Piece of cake."she quipped though a chuckle also escaped from her lips. Adjusting the rucksack on her bag, she would offer her hand to take away the binocular should she offered to though she would not press it should Ivory decided to cling to it still.

"Well, close range is my forte. I'm sure I'll manage."Kasumi replied to her query when she saw the tree stirred. Her eyes would turn to face the shuddering tree which revealed another giant. She didn't expect one this close however at least not without any warning. The creature was smiling at them, showcasing a perfect display of huge white teeth which would make one wonder to what dental plan did this giant behemoth subscribe to? For now though, there was a need to evade less they would be thoroughly acquainted with those shiny white teeth.

"Move!"

Channeling magical energy to her feet, she attempted to leap out of the way as the giant reached out to grab them both to dine them in one go. For now, they would need to handle this creature before going to the ruined town. If they could find some sort of weakness for these beings then it would be a whole lot easier later.

Ivory Volkov

The gigantic hand that reached out missed Kasumi by a foot, though the rush of wind that accompanied said kicked off blades of grasses and dust up in the air. That much force would have easily overturned a parking car and she was glad she didn't take her chances to try and take the attack head-on without magically enhancing herself. Though their speed were slow, they could have easily caught one offguard should they failed to pay any attention to their surrounding.

"Tch..."

Her eyes would trace her surrounding before locking onto the body figure of her senior. Kasumi let herself breathe out a sigh of relief, she was worried that the woman would have decided to take that attack head-on. A crimson sphere of energy growing at the tip of her finger causing the purplehead to stop in her track. She would observe as Ivory launched the energy sphere straight into the giant's face. A huge explosion followed afterward as crimson ball of fire engulf the giant's face. A perfect shot like that, would have incinerated a human being completely and even weaker magical beasts to boot. Surely any moment by now, they would have toppled backward and crashed to the ground.

Yet, the creature didn't fall. His face was completely singed by the attack to the point that she could see burnt flesh underneath but the creature didn't fall. Smoke could be seen from his face...smoke and steam. Then before their eyes, the creature's flesh would slowly mend back towards how it was before. It's regenerative properties was no match compared to a vampire but it was still visible enough to make her grow wary of the creature before her. Even worst, it had just taken a direct hit to the head and survive. No wonder their made-men had trouble facing such creature.

"Fire again! Blow it's head off!"Kasumi requested as she moved around to flank the creature. She would have done so herself but felt Ivory's method would be a safer approach when probing creatures of this caliber.

Ivory Volkov