Nido hit the ground hard.
But not just any ground. This one shook like thunder was trapped beneath it. When he opened his eyes, the sky above was red with fire and smoke. Shouts and battle cries rang out in the distance.
And all around him... chaos.
Armored soldiers clad in gold were clashing with creatures the size of trucks. GIANTS! Swinging clubs and boulders like toys. One soldier flew through the air like a ragdoll and landed with a metallic crash just a few feet from Nido.
"Okay. Nope. Nope. Nope... Nope," Nido whispered, scrambling backward, heart punching his ribs.
A giant spotted him.
It roared, shaking the ground, and raised one massive foot, ready to squash him like a bug. Nido froze. His brain had completely checked out. This was it. He was going to die as the world's most confused tourist.
But the stomp never came.
BOOM!
A force field erupted around him with a burst of wind, sending dust flying and the giant stumbling back. Nido looked down.
He was holding a sword.
No, a hilt—with no blade.
Yet the air around it shimmered with something sharp, something fast. Like the wind itself had been forged into a weapon. A translucent, glowing edge hummed at the middle of the hilt, flickering like lightning caught in a breeze.
The sword pulsed.
Then it screamed.
Not out loud. Inside him. A sharp jolt crawled up his arm. Glowing runes burst across his skin, spiraling from his hand up to his shoulder and spreading toward the side of his face.
Nido gasped.
His right eye flashed green.
Then... everything shifted.
He couldn't feel his fear. Couldn't even feel his feet on the ground.
He moved.
In a blur of wind, Nido launched into the air like he'd been shot from a cannon. The world below blurred into streaks of fire and metal. His sword, the blade of wind, sliced through a giant's shoulder as he flew past.
Another turned to grab him. Nido spun midair and released a cutting wave of air from his sword. The wind slash tore through the giant's chest like paper.
He landed on a soldier's shield, pushed off, and flipped higher, slashing another down. He moved with impossible speed, riding gusts, deflecting boulders with wind barriers, slicing limbs and weapons with precise, roaring gales.
One by one, the giants fell. Others turned and fled.
The sky quieted. The faint roar of victory was in the air.
Nido hovered, suspended in a swirling orb of wind high above the battlefield. His green eye dimmed, the runes on his body fading into his skin like vanishing ink.
Then... the sword's glow stopped.
The wind disappeared.
He dropped slowly from the sky, weightless, until his feet brushed the earth and he collapsed.
Blackout.
End of Chapter 2.
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