Within the ruins of Mould-on-the-Would, Auror Percius Clements begins to feel a bit dizzy and weaker as the poison rapidly circulates throughout his body. He slowly turns to eye the somber, veteran that he found himself next. The two Auror's share a glance at feeling the earth shake and thunder at the giant's roaring approach. Their best bet for an attack was to wait until the giants were within close range, but the giants had their own means to easily keep the Auror's at a distance even at close-range combat.
Percius did not even bother to inquire to ask, where the veteran Auror's partner was. Either the Auror had departed with a child or his partner had been instantly killed by the miasma attack. They were too far too deep in the ruined village for reinforcements to reach them before the giant's arrival.
"Auror Shepard," Percius rasped holding a painful cough at bay, "It is has been an honor to serve with you." He paused and stretched out his hand to momentarily shake the other veteran Auror's hand.
"Likewise, Auror Clements," the veteran Auror grimly answered clenching his wand tighter in his fist and turning briefly to shake Percius's hand with his clammy hand.
Percius nods his head once more before they both face forward and ready themselves. He knew that Auror Shepard was married and had two boys who were 8 and 7, and a daughter just turned 4. His wife, Mrs. Shepard would be left desolate, but the Auror widows and widowers' funds would see to it that she received her husband's pension. It would be enough to neatly tie the family over until the children were grown.
The row of houses before them is smashed to pieces as a Giant before they easily cleared them out of their path with a giant club. Wooden splinters fly in the air as Percius raises his wand and aims for the Giant's fingers that clench the giant club. The finger-removing jinx a whirling color of sparks crash into the giant's hand. The sparks fade harmlessly away causing Percius to curse privately in his mind, before throwing himself to the side to dodge the descending club.
The club cleaves the street, but Auror Shepard takes advantage of the opening in the Giant's defense. "Oppungo," the veteran Auror shouted casting the jinx. From the tip of his wand, sharp ragged wooden shards are conjured, before hurling themselves speedily at the selected target of the caster.
The giant shrieks in agony as the wooden shards embed themselves into his eyes and face. With a loud thud, the wooden club falls to the ground as the giant clenches his bleeding eyes. Blood gushes between his now blind eyes that are filled with hundreds of wooden shards.
Percius without hesitation casts the same spell. "Oppungo!" He cried out as dozens of gleaming knives are conjured from the tip of his wand and fiercly darted towards the giant's ears. The giant falls to his knees in agony now both blind and deaf.
Seeing the giant at their mercy, Auror Shepard moves forward only to suddenly disappear as part of a building smashes into his location. A pool of blood begins to seep from Auror's Shepard's previous location, but Percius is unable to mourn the loss of his companion. Percius barely manages to throw himself behind a stone fountain for cover as part of a wall and home are thrown at him.
The former wall and home collapse upon him, but the stone fountain takes most of the impact. Cold freezing waters sweep on top of him drenching him from head to toe. The cold of the winter night digs into his flesh causing him to shiver, but the poison burns him on the inside setting his inner veins aflame.
Shaking Percius staggers to his feet and almost slips, but hurriedly climbs around the wreckage. It certainly does not help as the ground violently shakes as giants attack and are repelled as best as the Auror's can. The scent of blood and carnage is heavy as the Giants roar in pain or in triumph. In the distance, a captured Auror can be seen screaming before falling silent as he is literally torn into two.
Percius stumbles forward and falls to the ground as another wreckage flies inches above him before destroying the ground and pelting him with dust and fragments. Rapidly blinking the dust from his eyes, he scrambles to his feet and shouts, "Expulso!" The flying fragment towards him is engulfed in blue light, before being blasted apart and crashing into the ground on either side of him.
With the explosion still ringing in his ears, Percius is unable to hear anything except to feel the ground shaking around him. Peering through the dust he can faintly make out a large dark figure nimbly darting forward causing the dust clouds to be swept away. Without hesitation, he pours all his magic into his wand to cast the statue curse.
With a grim smile, Percius is easily flung away as if he is a mere doll by the backhand of a large giantess. Airborne one second like a bird, Percius feels sheer agony as gravity sets in, before he is painfully impaled on a staked wooden timber. Dangling in the air, he desperately tries to breathe. He loudly gasps in pain feeling the poison race that much more rapidly consuming his burning flesh. He begins to feel cold as his body warmth and crimson fluids begin to depart from his body and steadily drip down onto the crumbled cobblestones down below.
Gasping, Percius spits out a wad of blood as he sees a tall, slender giantess with an ample chest and hips. She was on the slender size rare in giantesses, but there was a terrifying air about her. Her sharp teeth gleam in hunger as she copes to a stop before him and holds her razor-sharp nails capable of tearing flesh from bone in the night sky filled with bright lights of a barrage of spells.
"Well fought, wizard," Iwara solemnly declared acknowledging the dying wizard's cunning. The impaled wizard had fought valiantly despite the stacked odds against him. He and his deceased companion both fought valiantly to the end despite knowing that only death awaited them.
"I will give you the honor of being added to my collection," Iwara vowed, before reaching to tear the head of the wizard clean off his shoulders. She extends her hand, before frowning at feeling her hand much heavier than normal. Had she accidentally inhaled remnants of the miasma?
"Finally," Percius croaked showing a blood-stained grin, "but I suppose the curse took so long to work considering your size."
"Wizard, what have you done?!" Iwara raged but found that her limps were extraordinarily heavy. She barely shifted and glanced down at her arms only to see in a horrifying spectacle. The surface of her flesh began to stiffen as flesh was replaced by white marble stone rapidly creeping up the length of her arm. In a panic, she tried to move her knees and elbows to find that her joints are hard and rigid unable to bend anymore.
"The statue curse is rarely ever cast," Percius choked in triumph. "It costs the caster most of their magic, but the curse cannot be broken except by the caster's death."
Iwara fiercely grins feeling her flesh harden up to her forearms and chest. "You will shortly be dead, wizard, and I will rend your flesh into twain."
"I cannot deny that my time is nearly up, giantess," Percius painfully coughed feeling dizzy and weaker with each passing breath. He was so cold that his body shivered violently only causing the loss of blood to hasten. "But so is yours," he chuckled loudly, before coughing painfully seeing black dots in his vision.
Struggling to retain the last bit of strength in his body, Percius's arm shakes as he lifts his wand into the air. Iwara's face blanches causing the painted symbols on her face to darken in harsh contrast. "You-!" Is the last word, the giantess is ever able to say; her face remains frozen in an angry snarl frozen forever in stone.
Gathering the last of his magic left, Percius faintly gasps, "Confringo." A fiery orange light is emitted from his wand and is hurled at the large frozen stone giant.
The giantess, Iwara can sense all that is occurring around her, but she cannot even bat a single eyelash. She tries to scream, breathe, anything, but she can only watch in horror as the orange curse strikes her stone flesh. The spell causes her flesh to explode and she silently screams in terror watching her stone flesh loudly break apart. In slow motion, she watches her stone limbs crumble to a thud before her stone head rolls to a painful stop across the broken cobblestones. Everything turns into a dizzying blur as she struggles to cry out for her mate before a hungry, creeping darkness consumes her.
Percius' wand loudly clatters loudly onto the stone ground as he tiredly coughs. Closing his exhausted eyes, he feebly blinks his eyes seeing an increasing number of dots in his vision. He is unable to hear nor see the ongoing battle anymore as his senses have become dull.
Percius lets out a shocked gasp at seeing blurred figures becoming increasingly visible in his fading eyesight. A sad, joyful bloodstained smile appears on his face at seeing the trio of approaching figures. How he had missed, the salt-peppered witch with owl-like eyes, his partner, Sara Vinovich with all his heart. At her side is the smiling pale face of Alphard Black with flashing gray eyes filled with warmth. Grimacing at Alphard's side is the scowling cold figure of Damocles Belby with his usual sleeked black hair and chartreuse colored robes.
He wasn't alone anymore. Not feeling scared nor in pain, Percius closes his eyes with a smile. He gurgles one last time before the breath of life eagerly departs leaving behind an impaled corpse.