Although strong, the explosion alone wasn't able to completely stop the giant, however it had enough power to startle him thus opening a small gap for us to escape.
"Come here quickly, we don't have much time"
A small figure wearing an oversized blue coat appeared on the other side of the road, waving his hands in the air to catch our attention he urged us to run.
Not letting this chance slip, I grabbed Francis from the collar and threw him to the other side.
Landing next to the young boy, he cursed at me. Regaining his posture he placed his hands on the ground, the small lights previously revolving around his body disappeared and cracks formed on the ground. Running from his fins to under the colossal legs that blocked my way green vines shot out from the gaps and slowly but steadily enveloped the monster's limbs impairing his movements.
"I can't hold him for long!!!"
When he shouted I rushed toward the other side, sadly I could see the vine starting to rip apart as Francis complexion grew paler trying creating new ones.
In a desperate attempt to save my life he ended up depleting most of his energy.
Staggering he ended up leaning on the young boy's shoulder. As the corner of the child's mouth rose a rumbling explosion-like sound could be heard in the distance.
The situation was dire, extremely so. I couldn't understand what could make him smile so joyously while everything was going downhill, but right now there was no time to think about it. The giant was almost out of the trap, and I was right between his legs as the roots that tangled him snapped.
Uprooted from the ground some of the vines snapped in my direction like a whip. Quickly dodging forward the whip-like plants brushed over my head as cold sweat run down my forehead.
Lifting its leg in attempt to squash me the giant grew unstable and suddenly a red stream of light shot past my shoulder and jumped toward the monster's chest. The impact was strong enough to make it lose its footing.
Falling backwards on a building, its weight collapsed the walls and dusty clouds covered the area.
Small debris impaired my vision for a moment as I watched this surreal scene unfold. Scratching my eyes, a small figure with long red hair, pale skin and beautiful green eyes run down from the monster corpse.
"Now it's time, run!!!"
As the young boy shouted the red haired girl quickly grabbed my hand before running.
After a while we entered an alley and before long a huge maze of streets displayed before our eyes.
As me and Francis gasped in awe, the boy talked.
"Here in the slums it should be difficult for the sentinel to find us…"
"…but we are not in the clear yet"
Answered the girl in a rough voice.
….
—Pant! Pant!
After diving deeper through the slums to make sure no other sentinel was chasing us the boy gasped for air. Leaning back on a wall he then sat down taking long deep breaths.
Sweat ran down his forehead, as he regained some energy his look slowly turned in my direction.
"Now we should be safe, so… who are you an why are you here?"
Still shocked from the event earlier I opened and closed my mouth for a while before finally deciding what to say.
"We're merchant from the nord, to be precise he is a merchant and I'm his escort."
An awkward silence fell. I was clearly lying and god if I'm awful at faking. Looking at Francis for support I exhorted him to back me up. Seeing my troubled look he quickly entered the conversation and coldly answered
"….yes. I'm Francis, an independent merchant from Lugan, and he's Boja, my hired escort. Sadly we lost the carriage at edge of the forest as we were attacked by goblins. "
"I see… odd, most monster left the forest after the cataclysm. But we will have time to investigate later. "
The story stands, it's not totally impossible for two merchant to come here looking for fortune, especially from Lugan which had a profitable partnership with Cariam dice ages ago.
Looking at his partner the youngster stood up, lightly tapping his coat to shake off the dirt he then procede to shook our hands.
"I'm Milo, much like you two I'm new to the city, and she is Gurdis the strongest among the survivors."
"Survivors, there are others?! "
Asked Francis with a surprised look on his face.
"Yeah, a lot actually. One of them knew about a safe heaven near this place and before long many gathered there, or so I've heard. It's where we are headed."
Walking in front of us Milo and Gurdis made way towards their hideout, meanwhile Francis muttered in low tone
"Merchant? Really? That's the best you could think of?!"
What else could I do? It's not like we didn't think of a cover up story for our presence here, as a matter of fact the 'merchant story' was the cover before the situation changed, but when I hear the question I got flustered and couldn't adapt to the changes.
Of course I couldn't just say 'I got flustered', chances were he would mock me to death if I ever said something like this, so I shrugged my shoulder and ignored his question.
….
After a while we found ourselves at the entrance of a large cave. Gurdis took a silver key from his pocket and proceeded to open the sturdy wooden door that stoop in our way.
'A bit anticlimactic'
Of course I didn't say it out loud, giving us refuge was plenty it didn't have to also be cool.
Opening the door, a stinging smell of sulfur invaded my nostrils and an obscure passage with no light inside was revealed.
"You will get used to it in no time. Just to be sure, don't use any fire in the passage if you don't want to be burnt to a crisp. Milo can you help?"
Without answering the boy moved it's hand forward before muttering [dancing lights]. Soon small circular shaped orbs of different colour appeared before us lighting up the way.
The more we dove into the cave, the clearer air became. Solid wooden trunks enveloped the walls, preventing the cave from collapsing on our heads. Taking a couple of secondary path during the walk we got deeper with each step. Soon the small light guiding us faded away, leaving room for a bigger, stronger light to take their place. At the end of the tunnel we could now see the exit.
Going out of the passage I involuntarily brought my hand to the forehead shielding my eyes. In front of me silhouetted the ruins of a city far below Cariam filled to the brim the chattering of people.