Part 7

Knight’s arms had begun to tire from his, although lazy, constant swinging of the pickaxe, bringing him to rest. He let out a long sigh, contemplating why he was actually mining rocks in another world.

He leant the strange, rustic pickaxe against the chiselled rock, allowing himself to rest his left arm by leaning his left elbow on the almost ethereal handle of the pickaxe, watching as his dead right arm swung in motion. With his course hand now covering his sweaty face, a stray thought entered his idle mind, the girl.

He lifted his head slightly from his cushioning hands and peered over to the location where he last remembered the girl mining.

“…?” The girl wasn’t there. Knight stood fully up, his pickaxe falling with a clang against the rocky floor due to the sudden movement, and shifted his vision across the room.

“…!” Knight’s vision morphed into a glare when he noticed the girl wasn’t the only one missing; here was no sign of the small, dirty girl nor the amorphous limbed guard. Where are they?! He was confused, why had they both disappeared? He was hardly consumed with the sole objective of mining rocks; he was just absentmindedly etching them away, yet he hadn’t realised their disappearance. Was there some needed secrecy to their disappearance? To be fair, it was likely, after all, the girl seemed like the type to comply with whoever orders her about, which would answer why there was no yell. Though maybe that was because she was actually the type to shoulder the pain herself, not wanting others hurt trying to save her.

From what Knight had gathered so far, the girl seemed extremely wary of other people, and if she were to make contact with them, she felt like she had to obey them, that was the type of girl she was; or maybe she’s a hardcore masochist, Knight joked to himself.

After having a little chuckle to himself amidst this confusion, he felt that he may as well stop mining and go look for her. Any opportunity to get out of work is a good one, that’s what he believed in anyway.

Well, the guard must have left for a reason so this must be a break of some sort. Apparently, Knight hadn’t picked on to the cruel nature of the guards like how he picked onto the submissive nature of the girl, dismissing the chance that the guard had taken the girl somewhere for something other than a break; especially considering barely even an hour had passed. It definitely wasn’t a ‘break’.

As Knight looked behind him to the tunnel he had trudged through earlier, he noticed that just before the dead-end that he and the girl had started to lengthen, there was a clear offshoot to the right, I can’t remember that being there... It was clear as day, there was no way he could have missed it.

After noticing the new tunnel Knight walked over to the rocky edge so he could fully view the offshoot he hadn’t noticed before. It wasn’t like the wide corridor-like tunnels he passed through to get to the dead-end, it was like a narrow back alley one would find in a compact city centre, although, much different to back alleys of an urban city; it wasn’t inconspicuous.

He then noticed a faint light illuminating the darkness within as he stepped inside. Although the frame was as narrow as a tight back alley, the tunnel widened to the same width as the others that led the trio to the dead-end.

As Knight started down the suspicious tunnel, he decided to slow his pace and glance backwards, to make sure he would be safe; he didn’t trust this offshoot, but it was his best bet for finding the girl.

He could hear the clanging of steel on rock growing in volume as he dove further and further into the tunnel. Why is this way spookier than all the other tunnels? There’s got to be something hidden here. Knight theorised as he approached the light source.

"Huh?" An inquisitive noise escaped from Knight as he saw that the light illuminating the tunnel was but a small white crystal trapped inside a wiry black ball. What a weird design.

Suddenly a yelp filled Knight’s ears grabbing his attention from the wiry ball he had yet to pick up.

He looked forward towards where the yelp had come from, realising that the tunnel was now dimly lit, the brightness increasing every couple of metres. Huh? It’s as if it’s inviting me further. It was baiting him to walk further inside, it had ought to be a trap, oh whatever, though that combined with the yelp insinuating something bad was happening, wasn’t enough for Knight to go back to mining.

After a slight delay, he shook off his questions and, after pocketing the oddball, followed the light down the tunnel, the clanging now ringing in his ears.

Knight noticed that the tunnel did not continue ahead of him, but widened into an etched-out room instead; with curved offshoots to the left and right.

A snowy chill travelled down his spine as he saw gaunt figures heavily swinging dull, metal pickaxes, bigger and completely different to the one Knight was using.

This room was only dimly lit due to the lights that gleamed off the tunnel roof; down the right offshoot; being the only light source as there was no light source inside the room, luckily for Knight.

His gaze drifted from the gaunt figures to the lights that illuminated the tunnel that continued to the right. However, the lights were barely bright enough to illuminate more than a slither of the left offshoot, for they were positioned on the right side of the roof.

Knight, not noticing the dark left offshoot, began to walk down the tunnel once more, ready to follow the right offshoot as his grey sneakers scratched the rocky surface.

As he reached the curve, he noticed two figures ahead, inadvertently causing him to take a step backwards. That's! That’s the guard and…who else? He didn't have to look to know, but he peered his head around the corner to confirm his suspicion.

He could see the giant figure and its disfigured limbs, the lights also allowing him to make out a small girl alongside the giant. Except, the girl wasn’t simply alongside it...

Knight's nails dug into his palms, nearly drawing blood as he clenched his left fist. The huge right arm of the giant was wrapped around the girl’s, dangling her in the air.

"The fuck is he doing!?" Knight spat.

He couldn’t understand what the thing was rasping but even if he were able to understand the inhumane sounds, he wouldn't be able to make them out over the girl's sniffing. She was trying to keep them hidden but it just made them even worse. However, the rasps were clear enough for Knight to identify a tone, allowing him to have a solid guess of the subject - it was definitely barking orders

Suddenly, the sniffles came to a halt, as the girl fell with a thump to the hard tunnel floor.

The rasping issued from the giant's mouth seemed like orders, and although the girl was scared, it seemed like she would follow them, hence why it had let go of her.

As Knight anxiously looked about for some way to know what the girl would be doing, he noticed a pickaxe lay against the side of the etched out room where the clangs of mining could be heard a few seconds ago; however, now Knight could hear nothing but the rasping of the giant as the figures stood silent.

A sudden yelp shifted Knight's focus back onto the two figures. Silenced followed the yelp as Knight shoved his nails back into his palms. The drip of blood could be heard amongst the silence before it was drowned out by more cold rasping. However, it wasn’t blood drawn from Knight, the blood was coming from the girl.

Damn, l do not want to risk my life for some girl irrelevant to me, I barely know her. Knights thoughts were spinning like crazy as he tried to form a decision.

He wasn't the type of guy to save people he had just met, in fact, he would barely help anyone and mostly focused on himself. However, he wasn't a complete jerk. No, there were scenarios where he would try to save people; if he had a chance of safety, he would do it, though the only times he has actually done so is when he profits from it… which definitely equates to being a jerk, even if he is saving someone.

However, that doesn’t explain why he had gotten angry at the sight, it was only a bit of blood. Even if it was disturbing to the normal person, Knight didn’t care about anyone else’s misfortunes unless it affected his. Maybe cute young girls were his weak spot, forget mature women.

So, he had finally made up his mind and rushed across the intersection to the etched-out room. He ignored the chilly atmosphere and grabbed the steel pickaxe placed by the wall, Light enough, before rushing back and taking cover on the curve of the offshoot

He moved his fingers to the bottom of the handle; he was getting ready to throw it. He was prepared to risk his life do this girl could be spared from the horror she was enduring, although Knight thought there was no chance of failure, after all, a lump of metal lodged inside someone would do damage any day of the week.

After taking refuge on the curve of the offshoot, he peered round to see the creature clasping the girl’s cheeks in its huge right hand. Knight could barely see the red smudges, hidden by the hand, which had annoyed him so much.

"Well, fuck it I guess," Knight muttered before propelling the pickaxe towards the giant.