Sleep refused to come to Bargar as he lay on a crudely-fashioned bed in the dark of a cave. The pain rushing through his arms and legs didn’t allow him to sleep. After following Shalmat to the wizard’s hideout – a crevice that cut deep into an enormous cliffside, before gradually becoming a labyrinth of caves – he at once demanded that the old man fulfil his end of the deal and restore to him the use of his limbs. Shalmat handed him a large flask filled with a liquid that resembled blood, and told him to drink it to the last drop. Bargar did so, not without extreme difficulty, for the liquid tasted foul. Then he watched in astonishment as his broken arm straightened out on its own accord, almost as if the fluid he’d drunk was pushing the shattered splinters of his bones back into place. His broken leg mended too, and the one that had been amputated regrew in a matter of minutes, like a shoot of grass pushing up through the ground.
Bargar was elated, but only for a moment, before an agonising pain made itself felt in his reconstituted limbs. At first, he thought it was only a side-effect of the potion he’d drunk, but after waiting and waiting, without any sign of the pain going away, he knew it would be permanent. He cursed wildly and looked around for Shalmat, meaning to kill him at once, but the old man was nowhere to be found. Since then, it had been two days, but the pain continued unabated, and Bargar wished he’d never accepted the wizard’s bargain.
After a week, however, he’d begun to think differently. His arms and legs were still in working order, even better than they’d been before. He was able to pick up large rocks, boulders even, and split them in two with a swing of his sword. He also found that he could run at full speed for miles without feeling tired or even breaking a sweat. Eventually, he even took a liking to the constant feeling of agony in his limbs. It kept him awake, but it also kept him focused and alert, almost forcing him to constantly be on the move, driving him towards his ultimate goal of revenge on the giantess Valerie. Once she’d been dealt with, he’d consider coercing Shalmat to undo the potion’s effects, but until that was the case, he’d force himself to live with the pain and discomfort.
When, after a fortnight, Shalmat did eventually return to his hideout, Bargar put on a façade of civility and friendliness. He greeted the old man pleasantly and thanked him for the return of his strength and fighting capabilities, and asked him when he’d be allowed to leave this desolate area and head north to Vandan, to fulfil his one and only current desire.
“You can do as you please, Bargar, you are not my servant,” Shalmat said in reply. “But you may wish to follow me and see what I can offer you next. The strength of your restored arms is greater than that of other fighters, but it is still insignificant compared to the might of a giant – even a female one. However, for many years now I have been working on a weapon, one that can defeat a giant. I would like you to wield it when you confront Valerie.”
“A good idea,” Bargar agreed. “I can’t wait to make that damned overgrown wench sorry she ever crossed paths with me! Come on, show me this weapon!”
He followed Shalmat along the foot of the long cliffs, a route that Bargar had often walked the last two weeks. He felt sure that he’d have seen any miraculous weapons if they’d been lying around in the vicinity, but he was astonished once again by what he saw. Shalmat, standing before a nondescript section of the cliffs, suddenly lifted his arms and shouted an unearthly-sounding incantation. The cliffs then began to crack and, as the two men ran backwards for cover, suddenly collapsed in a landslide, revealing a hidden cleft behind, larger than the conjuror’s own lair. Inside, lying on the ground and almost filling the floor of the cleft, was a gargantuan suit of armour. Next to it lay a colossal sword, as long as a tree was tall.
“A relic of days long past,” Shalmat explained to the former bandit, who stood and stared open-mouthed at the extraordinary thing lying before him. “I found it where it lies, the bones of its former owner still inside. It took me many, many years to clean it, place my enchantments on it and hide it away as you saw just now.”
“It’s…it’s huge…bloody huge!” Bargar stammered. “As big as that stupid girl Valerie, or even bigger! But how exactly is it supposed to help me…us, I mean? We don’t have a giant who could wear it into battle…or do you have some kind of spell up your sleeve that’ll turn me into one?”
“No, such magic is beyond me,” Shalmat said, smirking slightly. “But, as I’ve said, there are many enchantments which are known to me, and which I’ve perfected over many decades of study. The mystical arts are more varied and effective than your unsophisticated mind can comprehend, Bargar! Let me show you what I mean.”
They walked around to the other side of the armour, Bargar ignoring the insult lobbied at him. The cuirass was attached to a rudimentary collar, but there was no helmet attached to this, as would’ve been expected. Instead, the steel collar was topped by a small platform, also made of steel, but inscribed with rows and rows of arcane symbols. Shalmat pointed at this curious feature.
“Whoever stands there can command the armour, as surely as if he were wearing it himself,” he explained. “If I pronounce the words of the spell written out in those symbols, then whoever stands on them becomes one with the suit.”
“You’re not joking!” Bargar exclaimed. “Well, what are we waiting for, then? Say the words, and let me take command of this monstrosity! Then we can make for Vandan right now, and I can have my revenge!”
“If that is what you wish…very well, since there is no reason to delay, go ahead and mount the platform, and prepare to become the mightiest warrior since the days when giants were still a threat to be feared.”
“Not as feared as I will be, old man! I will make the witless peasants of Elgon…no, of every nation…wish that the giants were back instead! But first, I will make Valerie scream with the pain she so richly deserves!”
He awkwardly climbed onto the steel platform and stood in its centre, all the while urging on Shalmat to give him control of the armour. The conjuror then did his part and recited an incantation, and Bargar watched with amazement as the rows of magical symbols that were inscribed on the place where he stood rose into the air. They formed long strings of characters that whipped through the air like tentacles and began wrapping themselves around his arms, legs and body. But, instead of ensnaring him as they would have had they been solid ropes, the symbol-strings penetrated beneath his skin and he felt as though some living thing was moving inside him. He also for the moment forgot about the pain he was feeling in his restored limbs.
“Now is the time!” Shalmat cried out. “You and the armour are joined together – now control it!”
The brigand lifted up his arms and, slowly and ponderously, the colossal steel behemoth arose from the ground and stood upright. Bargar was carried upward as he tried to maintain his footing on the platform, until he found himself standing over 150 feet above the ground, where the suit of armour’s missing head would have been positioned. He then lowered his arms to his sides and, on either side of him, a pair of eighty-foot-long steel arms did the same. Then he took a small step forward, and gave a cry of wonder as the massive armour suit obeyed his will and stepped forward forty feet.
“Ha-ha-ha, incredible!” Bargar cried, his pain completely forgotten now as he contemplated the limitless possibilities his newly-gained power could achieve. “Now I can truly be the master of all I can see! No army on Earth would dare to challenge me – I’ll crush them underfoot like worms! As for Valerie – well, we’ll just see if that face of hers still looks as pretty after I…”
He made a fist and struck forward with his right arm, and again the suit of armour mimicked his movements. A metal fist, twice the size of a man, crashed into the nearby cliffside, cracking its rocks as though they were glass and causing boulders to fall down onto the ground far below. Bargar laughed loudly and was about to do it again, when a booming voice called up to him from somewhere near the armour’s boots.
“Careful, Bargar, do not let this newfound strength make you take leave of your senses!” Shalmat warned him, using a magical technique to make his voice heard over the din Bargar was causing. “Remember, you still need me! If I were to die, so would my magic, and the steel giant that you now control would return to nothing more than a large heap of metal. Also, don’t forget our arrangement! You can have the giant girl and do with her as you please, but to me belong all of the knowledge and treasure that’s locked away in her castle’s vaults.”
Bargar took two steps back and bent forward, in order to see the old wizard on the ground beneath him. He placed his hands on his hips and stamped his foot on the ground, but if he had hoped to intimidate Shalmat, he was disappointed.
“Yes…yes, very well,” he agreed. “A deal is a deal, right? So, when do you want to leave, old man? I’m ready now! Every second that Valerie still lives, is one second too many for me.”
“Do you wish to leave for Vandan at once? All right, then I suppose there’s no stopping you. But you’ll have to carry me along too, or else I won’t be able to keep up with you.”
Bargar didn’t argue. He stooped down and lowered his left hand, until the left gauntlet of the armour slammed into the ground. He watched as Shalmat climbed into the open palm of the gauntlet, while also picking up the giant-sized sword with his right hand. The oversized weapon must have weighed at least forty tons, but when he lifted it, it only felt as though he was lifting a couple of pounds with his physical arm. He couldn’t wait to test it out in battle – but would it really be proper to call it a ‘battle’, he thought, when he swung his sword into whole neighbourhoods of houses, or against the towers of castles in Elgon and other cities? He would be an unstoppable force, and he didn’t plan on letting anyone or anything stand in his way to gaining supreme power.
The only thing that irked him was the presence of Shalmat. He wondered if the wizard was telling the truth or not, when he’d said that his magic would fail if he were to die. He didn’t like the idea of having to share his brand-new might with anyone but himself, or of being dependant on someone else in order to hold on to his power. Perhaps, in due time, he’d find a way to get rid of Shalmat and his hold over him somehow – perhaps once he’d taken care of Valerie, and amassed a large-enough army for him not to need the giant armour anymore. But being his own master again would have to wait. There was someone else who had it coming first, and Bargar couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she sees the man whom she’d treated with such disrespect return and claim his revenge.