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I forced myself to slon and walk up the last few steps I needed to be close for this to work, and I couldn’t afford for hiht in front of ic to ic tore through ripping him, my power crashed into an invisible wall, ricocheted, and slaainst the wall Every bone in edme of my voice I couldn’t speak I couldn’t think I couldn’tin the building

It didn’t work My poord had backfired

Time stopped My head swam A vortex of pain cla was being shaved away one thin layer at a time Razor blades filled my mouth and throat Dear God, it hurt It hurt so much My ears hurt My hands bled My chest refused to rise It felt like I was dying

I clung to life, but it hurt so et up

My legs had turned to Jell-O It felt like my bones were broken, and htened and raised his fist A person struggled in his fingers Black hair Don’t be Juke

The giant’s cavernous maw opened Yellow teeth bit down

You sonovabitch

He tossed the botto aside like a used tissue and reached down again

No, you don’t

My fury cut through the agony I gripped it like a lifeline and forced et up I had to get up

Cohten An inch Another inch

He would not get aith this I would make him pay He wouldn’t kill anybody else

The pain snapped inside me White haze exploded inCalm I needed to stay calm

The haze burned off in another explosion of pain I sheathed Sarrat and pulled out two throwing knives Now I just had to run Piece of cake

I charged up the stairs The pain tore inside me One step, two, threeThe last step looiant’s back under rasp ed down, both knives out My feet connected with the giant’s back I slid and dug both ofthe door to a burning stove

The giant swung around, trying to knock me off with his hand, but I had landed almost in the dead center of his back, next to the spine His fingers passed harmlessly below

I yanked the left blade out, stretched, and sank it in six inches higher Blood seeped froiant shrugged his shoulders, ht blade out and jaht The effort renching ht

Thick, coarse iron spikes burst fro into a crest His skin was alht noas helpinghand reached over the shoulder and slapped the spot a foot above her, he would flatten me into a Kate pancake

A cloud of flies the size of tennis balls erupted froiant’s head He waved his arripped the knives and hung on He stopped turning and slapped at his face I glanced up The flies hung in a dense cloud off to one side, then slowly iant swiped at theiant’s back, one knife thrust at a ti a spike when I could His shoulder loo my knife in one last ti and three feet wide His neck was less than three feet tall I grabbed a handful of his hair and threw one leg over the shoulder, straddling it His face was barely hue al out of nowhere like the nose of a bull The flies still buzzed around the giant’s head Far below, Ken stood out in the open, chanting, hands out, his face strained

I pulled Sarrat out The jugular wouldn’t do it It could take him ten minutes to die I raised my blade and stabbed it deep into the side of his neck, below the Adam’s apple, in the spot before the carotid artery branched into exterior and interior Blood wet ush I stabbed deeper, slicing into the artery I didn’t have to sever it I just had to cause enough dae A partially severed carotid would bleed him out faster anyway