Kiara muttered something incoherently, but right then another fireball smacked my face. It was like getting hit by a red hot crowbar. My skin burned with pain and I struggled to think clearly. As I recovered from the daze, I launched myself at the inn where the players were hiding.

I tore the fragile inn like it was made of paper. I scanned the rubble and debris for the players. I found them writhing like maggots underneath fallen beams. Beating my chest savagely like King Kong, I smashed my fists on them. Then one by one I picked the limp bloodied bodies and catapulted them into the sky.

I exhaled, observing the blood on my hands. There was a time when I would faint seeing such a sight. I suspected being a stone giant was multiplying my aggression. Well, the players deserved it. Nothing to feel sorry for.

I turned to Kiara.

Except she wasn’t at the spot where I had left her.

“Kiara?” I said aloud.

A muffled sound reached my ears, and I was quick to identify it as her voice. I glimpsed her being dragged round the corner of a building, but I couldn’t see her captor. A single jump, and I was right next to the building.

Kiara was struggling, but there was nobody except her.

“Kiara?” I said, perplexed, “What’s happening to you?”

A sword appeared in the air out of nothingness and hung right next to her throat.

In a flash I figured out everything. I recalled how Kiara had been stolen from the chamber. I should have seen the abductor taking her out of the chamber, but I hadn’t.

I was dealing with a really powerful invisible player. The others I had killed were just pawns. This was the real boss.

“One step and she’s dead,” a male voice snarled. And then, perhaps to himself, “Darn it! Why isn’t this working?” The next moment, a part of Kiara’s arm disappeared, but immediately regained visibility. The player was trying to make Kiara vanish like himself, but for some reason was failing.

“What is it that you want?” I asked the player.

“What is it that I want?” the player said. “You of course!”

I focused on the spot where the voice was coming from, but I couldn’t get any stats. Perhaps the invisibility spell cloaked the player’s details.

“Then, have me,” I said.

“No, Vicky,” Kiara pleaded, “he’s powerful. Leave me and run!”

“I wouldn’t do anything like that,” I told her. It was illogical, especially after I had sacrificed my only chance to return healed to the real world.

“You are the ultimate quest, aren’t you?” the player asked me. “I know there is something about you. If I kill you, I will become the greatest player ever!”

“How did you find my palace yesterday night?” I asked. I wanted to buy some time to think of a way to save Kiara. A conversation should do the job.

“I got lucky,” the player said, there was a cheery edge to his voice like he was really happy for something fortunate that happened to him. “I was deep in the land of the demons, when I saw you wading to the forest from the river. At first I thought that you were a player and I was about to call you, but then I decided to get your stats and found you were the evil lord that had come for the discussion. You led me to your palace.”

I remembered my night in the forest alone. I had heard sounds. I had thought they belonged to the innocent rabbits I had seen. How wrong I was! The shadows had hid someone far sinister.

“Why didn’t you kill me that night?” I said to continue the chat. A small movement in the periphery of my vision informed me of the presence of one of those little pinkie-sized eviluns. Soon I realized there were hundreds of them. The Littlefuts had come to assist me.

“Well, you were far more powerful than me,” the player replied. “It would have been stupid. But now, I have power. I can do anything now!”

He uttered a special word. Electricity sprang from the vacant air behind Kiara and struck me. I was forcefully thrown backwards, in the process flattening small houses behind me.

The electricity was continuous. It penetrated my core, and jolted me with explosions of pain. My mind went blank and I could think of nothing. I fought for control over my body.

And then as the moments passed, I discovered that I could take the torture. I was a stone giant after all. The agony was immense, but I wasn’t someone to perish so easily.

I looked up from my kneeling position and winked at the space behind Kiara where I supposed the player was.

“Is that all you got?” I grinned. The player ceased his spell, realizing it was a wasted effort. “Is that all you got?” I asked again, as I took a heavy step forward.

“You want me to kill her?” the player asked. The sword edged even closer to Kiara. The player’s voice was outwardly calm, but I could sense the underlying fear. The blade touched Kiara’s skin. Blood trickled. Tears welled in Kiara’s eyes, but she kept herself very still, otherwise the sword could slice her neck.

“No!” I cried. “You idiot! Do you want to be a murderer?”

“Murderer?” the player laughed. “An evilun calling me ‘murderer’ sounds so stupid!”

“No, you moron!” I said, my heart hammering. “You don’t understand! This isn’t about players or eviluns! She is a real woman. From the real world. Can’t you understand?”

The player guffawed.

“Good joke,” he said, “Anyway, if you don’t want me to hurt her, then do as I ask. Change to your human form. We will find out just how tough you are in your true form, all right?”

“Okay, okay,” I said with my palms open. “Just don’t harm her.”

“Don’t do it, please,” Kiara said, as tears trailed down her cheek.

“He must!” the invisible player snarled, pulling her hair. I thought of the player. What was he? Some teenager in the real world? He had absolutely no idea of the seriousness of his actions. But then, there was no way I could convince him. Even if I told him the truth about how Kiara had entered Dharti, he would assume I was fooling him.

I reverted to my human form. I felt so weak in my own skin. The houses and the buildings that were just a little taller previously now towered over me.

“That’s more like it,” the player said gleefully, assured I was too frail to survive his spell. “Prepare to be annihilated—urgh!”

I peered hard. Littlefuts.

They had climbed up on him just by feeling his invisible clothes. And judging from the point in the air where the little monsters hung, I presumed they were attacking his crotch. Served him well!

Kiara grabbed the opportunity. She bit down savagely on the invisible arm of the player so that he dropped his sword and she dashed away.

“You little slut!” the player hollered. He discharged electricity in her direction, but just before it could hit her, Kiara took cover behind a broken wall. The electricity hit the wall, which flew many meters away, thankfully sparing Kiara.

But now she was in plain sight. The player grunted with irritation. He muttered the activating word for the spell again. I initiated my own spell and flung myself in the space between Kiara and the invisible player.