Luke had been fast enough to heed the warning; he had physically shoved Cissel and Ricky away from the direct line of the two beams. However, they hadn't escaped the aftershocks. The explosion had tossed all three of them into the air like ragdolls. They were scattered dozens of meters apart, lying motionless on the ground.
'No notification of their death... No notification of quest failure,' John thought, his heart hammering hard. 'That means they are still alive.' He forced his surging worry down, anchoring himself in the hard facts provided by the system before turning a gaze of pure, freezing ice toward the giants.
"Attack! Finish them!" the leader of the giants roared, wasting no time. Ten of the shielded warriors broke their encirclement of the unshielded five and charged forward to stomp out the humans. Meanwhile, the five unshielded giants' arms began to pulse again, recharging for a second volley.
