Gladius Cognitus the Scrivener, Master of Languages, did not know English because it wasn’t native to the world of Miros. Instead, he understood Common, the language everyone in the game spoke.

  I gave my sword the order to spell out the words KEEP HIM OCCUPIED. My blade deftly sliced the air in a matter of seconds, writing letters big enough to fit a billboard. Dino had taught me that a looser grip on weapons was the most resilient, so holding on to a hilt that rapidly moved on its own wasn’t a problem.

  I’d fallen behind the giant, so Flagboi had no clear view of me or my instructions.

  Fabulosa Roger that, partner.

  Flagboi Roger what? What did he say?

  I slipped Gladius into his sheath, erasing the message, and darted toward the golem.

  Fabulosa materialized and dropped to the street. She landed hard, taking 65 falling damage. It seemed strange that she hadn’t invoked Hot Air to break her fall until I watched her reaction. To her credit, she desperately scrambled from the kaiju, looking back with panic in an expression that I knew to be a ruse. She ran toward the nearest doorway.

  Flagboi took the bait, making the kaiju lumber after her. The goliath took extra stutter steps to correct its balance with every stride, but the awkward gait closed the distance, almost falling head-first into the tower Fabulosa entered. Like a bear clawing apart a bee hive, it raked through the free-standing tower. Gnomes, humans, and dwarves abandoned the building, which wobbled from the damage hollowed out by the colossus. Some landed safely and fled, using Featherfalls and other escape mechanics, but others didn’t.

  Fabulosa leaped out a second-story window, several floors beneath the giant’s attack.

  A red circle appeared beneath her feet, and a new icon appeared on her nameplate, which explained the visual effect—Locked On. When she sidestepped, the circle followed.

  The giant stopped smashing into the building and staggered around it, but the structural damage it caused had been enough. The tower’s upper half teetered, and Flagboi avoided its fall. He dove the golem sideways, hurtling it into an intersection with a crash, and dodged the falling tower.

  Flagboi Timber!

  Toadkiller It sounds like someone is causing a lot of collateral damage.

  Duchess Is anyone here a citizen of Heaven’s Falls? I want to know how many kills he’s racking up.

  Audigger I used to be—but switched after I left. Gnome mandates are worthless.

  As Flagboi returned the giant to its feet, I ran toward it, looking for ways to climb onto its legs and reach the open hatch. The crashing tower fell between us, leaving a long pile of rubble billowing with dust so thick that I needed Magnetism to navigate. Luckily, the scarf Fabulosa gave me allowed me to breathe. At least our opponent wouldn’t see me in this smokescreen of dust.

  Flagboi took longer than I expected to stand the golem. When I reached the ridgeline of the pile of rubble, it was still crouched in the intersection, righting one of its legs.

  Fabulosa cast a spell called Elemental Blast, aiming at its head, but it landed for zero damage.

  By the time I ran past the rubble of its wake, the giant had nearly righted itself. It leaned against nearby buildings for support, its hands crumbling their facades as it gained its footing.

  Neighboring skyscrapers cleared after the tower collapsed. The commotion informed citizens that the basalt highrises gave no shelter. Rivers of gnomes spilled out of doorways, fleeing to other parts of the city.

  Locked On kept Fabulosa in his sights, and the giant lumbered toward her once it regained balance.

  Flagboi may have realized our plan, but the dust lingering in the air hampered his visibility. Unless controlling a battle mech gave him a magical survey of battlefields, he’d have little chance of spotting me from dozens of stories above the ground.

  Fabulosa ran toward a broad bank of basalt structures that formed into a curved wall significantly higher than the golem. They looked sturdier than the spire Flagboi toppled behind him. Given the giant’s reaction to the falling tower, he wouldn’t be so cavalier to bring them on top of himself again.

  Fabulosa Hot Aired herself upward, raising 240 feet—roof-level with many of the towers, about eye-level with the colossus.

  I’d forgotten the blessing’s scaling potential. Hot Air worked for ten seconds per blessed follower. Giving Glowing Coals to six citizens substantially increased Hot Air’s duration.

  The giant reached her before she finished her 80 seconds of hang time, swiping at her with its great fists.

  Fabulosa used her spectrometer to become immaterial before its fists connected. And Hot Air comboed with her cape’s Windsong power, giving Fabulosa lateral movement toward the bank of buildings. After it missed its attack, she Air Jumped up an invisible staircase, reaching an undamaged terrace overlooking the scene.

  The overhang of the golem’s basalt helmet blocked Flagboi’s field of view, so it had to lean back in order for its pilot to see her. The posture caused it to stagger to regain its balance, giving her time to ascend.

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  Fabulosa threw flowerpots at the head to keep its attention.

  My legs weren’t idle during their interactions.

  Though great boulders and rubble fell around me, I dashed toward its ankles. The only problem with Fabulosa’s maneuverability was it forced me to keep up with them, and the faster she moved, the more damage we caused to the city.

  I ran between the giant’s legs, planning to climb its ankle and Slipstream into the open hatch on its thigh. Without a weapon, I could manage, and since Flagboi devoted his attention to Fabulosa, he wouldn’t try to shake me off.

  But Flagboi had other plans. Before I could reach his ankle, he raised the giant’s foot to a terrace three stories above ground level—testing its weight on the tower. When the giant wasn’t flailing its limbs, the basalt towers offered sturdy support, and the terrace held. The tower golem lifted itself off the street and up the face of the buildings.

  Fabulosa disappeared into the building like a clownfish inside a reef.

  Fabulosa I’m running out of building, and I can’t shake this Locked On debuff.

  Audigger Is he doing what I think he’s doing?

  Duchess He’s King Konging it! Go Flagboi! Go!

  Toadkiller Buildings didn’t go well for Kong, as I recall.

  Duchess Oh, shush. Don’t spoil the fun.

  Audigger I can’t believe I’m missing this.

  Toadkiller I know. I’m almost in Heaven’s Falls.

  Audigger Bah. You’re days away.

  Toadkiller I’m closer than you!

  Audigger Maybe—but I know a guy.

  Enemy players complicating the struggle wasn’t something I needed to worry about now. Fabulosa had already reminded me of Hot Air’s staying power, so I invoked the blessing. As I rose, a chunk of falling basalt triggered Anticipate, sending me sideways by 20 feet.

  My ascent with Hot Air moved faster than Flagboi’s climb, for he needed to test every handhold and foothold with care, and manipulating the giant still seemed awkward for him. I considered casting Earthquake, but I could only cast it once. The golem’s size trivialized the spell’s 30-yard area of effect, and I couldn’t be sure removing one foothold would knock the giant off the building.

  When I passed the giant’s knees, I activated Slipstream’s interface to see if I could reach the giant’s leg. I couldn’t. I willed Hot Air to stop raising me and targeted a point in the air next to me. The Compression Sphere sailed me close enough to the opening that Slipstream bridged the gap. I snagged onto the iron bands within reach of the open hatch.

  Unfortunately, the thunderous collapse of Compression Sphere caught Flagboi’s attention. He shifted his leg against the skyscraper, hoping to scrape me off.

  Using my robe, I reset Slipstream and swooshed through the hatch, landing inside its leg with my feet and arms wrapped around an interior brace.

  A sudden lurch of the giant’s leg against the building dislodged me. He’d smashed his leg against the building. I’d become the proverbial pebble in his shoe.

  I fell inside the leg but caught onto another brace at the price of konking my head on a metal frame. The hit cost me a momentary Dazed debuff, but I’d lost only 60 health, something a quick Rejuvenate could patch up. The ladder, running the length of its leg, lay beyond my reach. My inability to see outside severed my sense of which direction the leg moved or when it would change momentum. Hanging onto the iron brace in its moving leg disoriented me like a Tilt-a-Whirl.

  The body parts and deplorable smell captured little of my attention during my fight to hang on. But survival instincts filtered out the unpleasant sensations.

  A crunching sound from the bottom of the shaft signaled when the giant stepped into the building, anchoring it so the other foot could find another foothold. The pause wouldn’t last forever, so I jumped at the ladder. I clunked my jaw against the rung, but I landed in time to wrap my forearm around it and hang on.

  More crunching below preceded a gravity increase and a moment of freefall before the giant stepped onto another terrace.

  I climbed while the leg jostled me. Since my trident inflicted structural damage, I could disable this thing from the inside. The body parts ensconced in the walls lacked classic undead animation, but destroying them should interfere with the giant’s workings.

  But hanging on inside its extremities made for a violent ride, and motion sickness made me dizzy. I’d seen enough sailing to know that the center of gravity wouldn’t be so jarring. By climbing into its torso, I could sabotage more centralized functions in a more stable environment.

  Updating Fabulosa about my progress in the group chat tempted me, but I didn’t want to tip off Flagboi that I’d made it inside his mech. The g-force of the leg’s movement waned as I climbed past its knee and toward its hip.

  Magnetism showed an iron girder whose attraction surpassed those around it. The spell’s arrows showed a hollow inside the brace, filled with a chewy center of silver. Using Mineral Mutation, I targeted the silver vein and turned it into wood.

  The world inside the leg shook, nearly causing me to lose my grip on the ladder. Metal squealed above me, and stones outside shattered and broke. A grinding sound began as if the golem were dragging its foot over basalt rooftops. While the noise deafened me, most of the leg’s reeling stabilized into gradual shifts.

  Remembering that I stood inside the construct, I decided not to do that again. Falling from hundreds of feet without Anticipate wouldn’t end well for me.

  I climbed faster, throwing myself into the chamber at the bottom of its torso. The oval chamber tilted and shifted, but the movements were gentle compared to rattling around in its lower leg. I bypassed the bedroom, lunged for the stairs, and pulled myself up by the railing to the closed hatch.

  The last time we were here, I almost Mutated it open before the golem sprang to life.

  I had 50 seconds left on my Mineral Mutation cooldown when Fabulosa broke the radio silence.

  Fabulosa I’m sorry partner, I’m out of spectrometer juice and had to pull the cord. I am currently drifting north, but whatever you did to the leg seemed to work. He’s hobbled.

  Apache Are you okay?

  Fabulosa Yeah. My hood is up, and I’m heading to the plateau. I kept him occupied as long as I could, but I’m tapped. Unless the winds shift, it’ll be a while before I return.

  Flagboi It looks like it’s down to you and me, Patch.

  Duchess What’s going on Flag?

  Flagbio I’ve got a mouse in the house.

  I didn’t like seeing Flagboi use my nickname, nor did I like his confidence in reaching the inside of his golem—it should have been a source of weakness. If he thought of me as a mouse, then I’d show him I was a rodent of means.

  I cast Earthquake on the hatch. Its area of effect wouldn’t amount to more than a vibrating massage, but it caused enough damage to breach the ceiling.

  Dust fell down the stairs as the ceiling shook. The railing that I’d been steadying myself with pulled off the wall and slid over the edge, landing in the oval chamber’s center. The ceiling that once anchored it fragmented with zigzagging cracks, but the stairway still held.

  The room reeled to the side and settled in a distant crash. Lying on the floor, I felt every vibration, and when it stopped, the room’s orientation told me the torso was still upright.