Part 8

The pickaxe sliced the air as it spun through the tunnel towards the giant. It was on target. It was going to lodge itself under the ribs of the giant. It would surely pierce the liver.

It was undoubtedly going to; it was definitely going to at least bludgeon the body. Knight started to worry about what to do if the girl didn’t run, watching as it slowly turned in mid-air. It was going to work. It’s going to work. It’s going to work

It was going too…

"...What?!"

He barely shoved his body backwards to hide by the edge of the twist, with the perturbing image engraved in his mind, stiffing his body.

N-no… Knight slowly peered his head past the corner.

He gulped at the sight, a sole thought in his mind, What the actual fuck is going on?

The pickaxe was not lodged inside the rib; it was lodged inside the things arm; this wasn’t because the giant moved its arm to protect himself. The pickaxe hadn’t stuck itself inside the arm. It hadn’t even hurt the giant.

No; it wasn't stuck inside and hadn’t hurt it.

It failed.

The pickaxe was indeed lodged inside the creature, however, the creature had actually moved its arm not to soften the damage, but to stop it completely; it wasn’t a sacrifice. However, 'inside’ probably isn’t the right word. Knight would have mistaken the pickaxe for being lodged inside the creature’ s arm but the same black splatters that adorned every giant he had seen, were glowing a bright white; illuminating exactly what had happened, engraving the clear picture into his vision, showing him that the pickaxe was not lodged in the giant’s arm. Although that could be classed as a technicality.

The giant's disfigured arm had multiple juts that resembled bones. These bones poked its grey skin - which is why they looked so messed to Knight and probably everyone else - and to threatened to cut that loose skin that covered them.

However, the skin was now tight and the bones had somehow contorted, forming some sort of hole in his arm that you would be able to see right through if it wasn't for the pickaxe lodged in between the bones of the arm. It was like the radius and ulna bones multiple joints in which the creature could control like the elbow joint, creating this scenario. Although Knight doubted whether or not the thing actually had a radius and ulna, never mind a skeleton similar to his.

Before Knight could dwell on the details of the lodged pickaxe, the contorted bones suddenly clamped shut, snapping the wooden handle, and crushing even the metal point, in the process; the shards dispersing across the tunnel; before the strange bones began contorting again, back to their original uncomforting state.

It took that one very audible noise of the snapping of wood to reboot Knight's composure (‘where the fuck can I hide?’).

He looked behind him towards the walls of the eerie etched out room he was now inside, noticing the shadowy shapes once more. As Knight started moving further down the room, the gaunt figures still didn’t acknowledge him but stood lifelessly staring at the hard rock, heavy pickaxes in hand.

“Please be friendly” he muttered as he dashed further into the dim cave, praying that he wouldn’t be hurt because of a stupid decision to save someone that ended up in failure.

The cave was too dim for Knight to know how big it was; he could barely keep himself from knocking into the ominously idle figures.

‘Oh yeah,’ The thought of the darkness luckily brought back his memory of the crystal ball that he had earlier placed within his tracksuit pocket.

However, for some reason, when Knight brought it out, it was only dimly lit, nothing like when he first found it, “the hell!” He tried squashing and smacking it against his thigh to light it up, ‘of course this won't work but why is it like this?’

As if reacting to Knights questions, the crystal finally reacted; the brightness seeping into the dark room. “…”

After thinking to himself, ‘seriously?’, Knight shoved the now bright crystal ball forwards, irradiating the rocky walls ahead.

“…!” The time spent getting the light to work had cost Knight, ‘Shit, Shit, Shit!’ Heavy slaps, like slabs repeatedly crashing onto hard concrete, put him into a frenzy. He didn’t want to die but he knew the creature was coming this way; he knew it would catch him soon and he guessed that would lead to a high chance of death. He really didn’t want to die after being given the chance to become a glorified hero in this new world.

“Shit, erm, shit, shit, shit, errrrrm” Knight kept cursing to himself as he started following the wall to the left, hoping for another tunnel for an easy escape, ‘that thing can't be fast...I should have time.’ He told himself, hoping to calm his frenzy and locate an escape route.

He had quickly reached the corner of the room but he didn't find a tunnel, nor any other chance of escape. However, in the corner of the room, he had found several dull wooden boxes and barrels but… “Fuck” They all contained some sort of rock, identical to the walls he had been chipping away at, which he wouldn't have time to remove and jump in.

Suddenly, he dropped the ball of light, a strong, musky smell entering his nose, "ugh… what's that smell…" Knight's useable hand had shoved his nostrils, forgetting the light as the smell sickened him; however, the light had illuminated a rather unfortunate thing for his eyes to lay upon. Although you could say that in his current predicament, it was instead rather fortunate.

"Oh, no…" Knight sighed, shaking his head at the site. "Oh, please no.” He sighed once more as he wracked his brain for better options, only to make the realisation that it was his one and only option.

What the light had shown was an indentation housing a facility Knight and everyone from Earth was familiar with, albeit stripped down a thousand years.

The contents of this indentation are what you'd find in a bathroom, although, a better comparison would be a roman toilet.

Yes, it was exactly that: a roman toilet, except with a hole big enough, and deep enough, for Knight to hide in.

Walking into the indentation, Knight swallowed saliva, knowing what he would have to do if he truly wanted to avoid pain, or worse and most probably, death.

As the light irradiated the indentation, Knight realised, accurate to his assumptions, that the circular hole, was meant for excreting; spotting a joint combination of putrid orange liquid with hard black rocks mixed in with the brown slosh. It was undoubtedly a toilet, though Knight still wondered how someone his size was meant to use it without squatting over it.

Suddenly, a cold rasping voice entered Knight’s ears, it was talking to the lifeless figures. Before Knight could decide if he would risk his clean body to hide from the giant, he remembered something. Something that would reveal his location – ‘Shit! The light.’

Remembering the dropped light, he dove out of the indentation towards the wiry ball that lay beaming, of the floor. The light would have been illuminating the space around Knight, and if the giant walked any closer to the indentation, it would surely have noticed it, if it already hadn’t, that is. The creature would have thoroughly inspected the toilet and Knight’s location would surely be revealed, meaning he would surely be inflicted with a tremendous amount of pain, or, he would die; maybe both. He made the right decision to squash the light and not to hide straight away.

Before Knight could snuffle the light and snatch it off the floor, he heard cold, ragged breaths...not incomprehensible words, but breaths. They were extremely close to him; it wasn’t talking anymore, the worst possible timing had come to fruition, it was close to the indentation when Knight had dropped the ball.

Quickly, he squashed the illuminating ball, hoping it was before the giant could fully register that Knight was there, and stuffed it inside his pocket before running back to the toilet sparing no expense on quieting his movements.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.' He silently shouted as he hopped onto the stone slab and began to hoist himself down into the cesspool of urine and faeces, 'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!' He silently screamed repeatedly, his legs now soaking in orange acid. Luckily, the faeces were so hard they only smudged his trainers, allowing the possibility of removing the brown stains.

Just as he had hidden within the toilet, white light illuminated the dim cave. Poking his head out, Knight noticed that the creature was towering above the lifeless figures, right in front of the indentation.

The disfigured thing let out more rasps and groans, Knight still couldn’t comprehend the language but something gave him the strange feeling that it was asking the miners if they had seen him. It was strange because it should have seen him, had it not? Did it not realise the sudden disappearance of the light?

“Oh, shit,” knight cursed as he ducked his head so his body was completely in the hole, his legs covered in more warm, musky liquid.

Suddenly, a hard shatter reverberated through the room, startling Knight inadvertently causing him to flinch, his hand slapping the urine, resulting in a splash of the liquid to his face, (“oh for shit's sake…”).

Poking his head out to see the cause of the sound, the new light showing white rocks scattered across the rocky floor just ahead of the indentation. ‘white…!’ A puzzled face appeared on Knight before it quickly contorted into a look of pure shock.

The lifeless figure that was rasped at by the giant was now missing a head. It was fully covered in a pale rag before but now Knight could tell what was really under there before it was smacked away.

With the body language of the giant, Knight assumed it had slammed the figure’s head in raw anger, resulting in the shattering of the skull. However, with blood missing and a look at the broken skull, Knight realised that it wasn’t anything ordinary that the creature shattered. It was undoubtedly a skeleton.

Unlike the preternatural giant, this was a creature Knight knew from many fantasy books, so Knight would boast anyway, as it was obviously common knowledge. So, although took back at first, it meant that Knight was able to quickly adjust to the sight.

However, it was the giant he was focused on now, the skeleton merely distracting him for a moment.

‘What force…those massive hands could crumble a rock, never mind a skull. How hard was he squeezing that girl?’ With the girl re-entering his mind, his gaze quickly darted about the room. Yet, with everything the light illuminated, he couldn’t spot her.

‘Damn, where is she? Maybe I don’t see her 'cause she ran off whilst she had the chance.’ He hoped that his failed effort to save her and still keep his life, at least accomplished the saving part. Although he didn’t factor in that all the walls of this roman fashioned toilet were blocking about half of the room and only a portion of the other half being lit by the light that appeared. Suddenly, that light was blocked from Knight’s eyes, “shit.”

He ducked as fast as possible, once again throwing himself into the deep hole. Towering in the indentation, the creature, neck arched (reaching almost a nearly ninety-degree angle), was staring at the hole Knight was ducked in. The thing’s ragged breaths the only noise to be heard, apart from Knight’s increasing heartbeat. It must have heard the splash. He was lucky once but he wouldn’t be lucky twice, such was his fortune in the new world.

Time stopped for Knight, this was the first time he had truly experienced fear; his easy, lazy life had ended and this was the first sign of that.

Suddenly, a clang of steel on rock broke the silence, and with it, the giant turned his back letting out more grating moans, followed by the shatter of even more bones.

Knight was shaking all over. He simply stared at his trembling hands, as if shocked by the feeling of intense fear.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he slouched against the hole wall, sticking himself in place with his knees pressed against the juts of the toilet, dousing more of his body in musky urine. He let out a long, exasperated sigh as he placed his head in his only useable hand.

“Aye, aye, aye. I really can’t be bothered with this.”