He walked forward as if in slow-motion, covering fully one-half of the intervening distance between himself and a terrified Si'Wren in two huge strides with his great spear and shield raised to the attack, and stood staring down at her as if trying to make up his mind whether to kill or capture her.
Si'Wren took a step back from her horse, and became paralyzed with fear.
All at once several of Emperor Euphrates' archers looked around, and reacted with blinding speed. One quickly nocked and loosed an arrow from close range, hitting the giant in the right thigh just above the plank-sized metal shin plate on his lower right leg.
"YAAAAAAWWWW!" he howled in a deep ox-bellow of a voice as he staggered in anger and pain.
Swiftly another archer drew and fired, hitting him in the neck. Finally, two more shots hit him in the chest when he let his guard down momentarily, and he let out another outraged yell.
Emperor Euphrates' personal guards finally turned and saw the giant then, and quickly fired their powerful bows, transfixing the staggering giant with several more arrows.
Seeing he had lost all hope of scattering them, the giant came forward in a berserk charge, ignoring his many injuries as he rushed the guards.
Behind his royal bodyguard cowered a fearful Emperor Euphrates with a useless curved and jeweled little dagger in one hand.
The charging giant's spear went through one of the guards, and the other was killed by a single blow of the giant's huge fist.
A brawny archer nocked an arrow, stepped forward, aimed, and fired from point-blank range at full draw, straight into the side of the giant's torso.