Rosemarie yawned, twisting her lips to smile. “So, do you want to take the first shot, or—”

“Sorry.” Hermano gave Rosemarie a thumbs up, and the giant beside him copied him. He shrugged, widening his smug grin, making the giant follow his lead and move its chest up and down to show it was laughing. “I am a firm believer that ladies, no matter what the occasion, should go first.”

“Pussy.” Rosemarie’s left eyebrow twitched. She was about to laugh but was stopped by a pack of wraiths that materialized at the front of their target’s house. They seemed to be holding off from attacking, so Rosemarie opened her palm towards Hermano while keeping herself keen. “Come on, you know what this is.”

Hermano jolted, looking away and scratching his cheek. “Are you gonna hold my hand—”

“Hair,” Rosemarie muttered. “I have a plan. I need your hair.”

Hermano sighed. “Well, why didn’t you just say so.” He pulled three strands of his black hair and handed it over to Rosemarie.

“Thanks.” Rosemarie took out three straw dolls from her bag before hanging it on her shoulder. The wraiths began to march. They were grasping their weapons with anticipation, but Rosemarie took her time, still keeping them in check as she wrapped Hermano’s hair around the wooden nail that was sticking out from the doll’s chest. “So, for the plan…”

“You want me to smash the house like a barbarian.” Hermano grinned, snapping his fingers with pride to make the giant beside him flex its muscles and dance like a male prostitute in the limelight.

Rosemarie froze, slowly parting her lips and blinking her tired widened eyes. Her brain groaned like a person panicking on a breaking sheet of thin ice above the water. She dragged the corpse giant out of her view to regain her focus, and after piecing her thoughts, she raised her chin and glared at the wraiths gathering in the distance. “N-noo,” she leered at Hermano. “The plan is that I would give you an opening, then you would go smash the house like a barbarian.”

Hermano raised his brow. “Same thing.”

“No, b-because it d-doesn’t have m-me in it,” Rosemarie blurted, almost stuttering.

“Fine,” Hermano scratched the back of his head. “that’s a great plan.”

Rosemarie sighed. “You’re supposed to thank me while looking at me with those puppy eyes of yours, which I would then proceed to call gross.”

“Ew.”

“Don’t you dare—”

Hermano patted Rosemarie’s head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine. Just watch my back, okay?”

The wraiths started with a fierce high-pitched symphony of an army of babies as a battle cry. Hermano covered his mouth in confusion, protecting his pride to not let out a laugh. He watched the wraiths raise their weapons and run towards him as though they were chasing a prize. It seemed that they wanted to draw more blood as the edges of their weapon shone against the morning sun, but to that Hermano bowed and rubbed his palms, smiling so sweetly as though to accommodate his fans.

Hermano didn’t bother to count. He raised his chin and snapped with both hands to make the giant beside him jump in and crush his opposition.

The giant rammed itself against the wall of his enemies, breaking their formation upon impact. Their makeshift barrier of ethereal spears did nothing. He took them all; he was stabbed, his arms were slashed, almost to the point of breaking, and he was hammered throughout his body, but his unrelenting force prevailed. Every bit of damage that the wraiths had dealt, as they roared, was returned by a storm of punches that blew them back and ripped their bodies apart. The giant would always wound its fist and widen its smile before flattening or breaking those who tried to stop him.

The relentless and destructive exchange went on. Hermano was certain that his giant could tank their attacks like a sandbag, but the problem was their ever-increasing numbers. To what looked like to him that was a one-sided pummel party was now turning into a fair battle. The wraiths seemed like ants; they were easily crushed, but more had swarmed to their comrade’s aid even before the giant could dent their numbers. In a few minutes, his giant would be devoured, and it was evident at the sight of its flesh being rendered with blades.

Hermano nervously smiled, but he kept his position as he took out another catalyst from his jacket, holding it in between his fingers like a cigarette.

“Wraiths are nice and all, but it has one teenie tiny bit of problem.” Hermano looked at the faint green luster coming from the glassy surface of his catalyst, an old finger suspended in formalin. “It isn’t that sustainable.”

The giant was devoured by swords and spears just as Hermano expected. Hermano heard the crowd gasp before holding their breaths in the distance. He smelled their fear and worry, but it only caused him to smile, watching as his giant waver, step back, and fall onto its knees as the group of wraiths drew more and more of its borrowed blood.

Hermano snapped his fingers. “Get them, Bob.”

The giant, as though it was received an order that had leashed it for so long, flung its arms forward to create some space between it and the wraiths. It began to regenerate with a green radiance enveloping its skin, and it ended its display by raising its chin. The wraiths, as though they had remembered their mortality, didn’t dare to attack him. They all watched as the giant opened its mouth, screeching as it unfolded its yellowish teeth even to the point of its jaws cracking and breaking.

Everyone held their breaths as they waited for this hallowing siren to finish but it didn’t. Just as the crowd needed and took only the shallowest breath as they waited, the wraiths that surrounded Hermano’s giant didn’t wait to test the might of their opponent. One stepped forward and aimed its spear at the giant’s body. The tip of the wraith’s spear caught and ripped through the air, but its head was consumed even before it could step back. It caused the other to falter, freezing at the sight of the monster that had a green streak of fluid, flesh, and skin, overflowing through the gaps of its teeth.

Nothing could be done. Their wraith’s fabricated vigor and morale didn’t waver, but no amount of damage stopped Hermano’s giant from feeding on the blood of its enemies. It took on their strongest attacks like its body was a mountain that laughs on their blades that seemed to be no better than sticks. This battle was as good as won.

But, his enemies had someone in command. Hermano grit his teeth as a wraith appeared before him. It aimed its spear against his neck, but he had little to no time to dodge. He begged for gravity to take his body down faster as the top of the wraith’s weapon reached the space under his chin, but the attacker disappeared even before it could touch his skin.

Hermano stopped himself from falling, wondering what happened as his surroundings were consumed by flames like the lights on a concert stage. He was about to laugh his nervousness off but Rosemarie walked in and punched his shoulder.

“You turned me into a side character, you bitch.”

Hermano chuckled as Rosemarie crossed her arms and looked away, but he saved his additional remark and turned to his giant. He turned the bottled finger into ash to double the monster’s size, allowing it to demolish half of their target’s house in a single punch.

“If I were a cocky certain character who likes pizza, I’d say jackpot. Oh, I just did—” Hermano turned to Rosemarie to celebrate, but his vision, like the house that he destroyed, was shattered at that very second.