The giant proved much more skilled than Joe ever thought possible, the thing dropping to its chest even as the arrow spiraled harmlessly off over the top of the giant. It howled in pain for the movement, but seemed unconcerned, as it remained focused on Joe. Joe, however, didn’t have any time to notice that, none at all. Only his panic roared in response to the massive danger that thundered at him, his Instinctual title screeching warnings that overwhelmed his thoughts. Mana that had been flowing up into his arrow suddenly redirected, but Joe was much too busy to care or notice. It twisted, rushing outward into his entire body even as it rushed upward into his head. Everything slowed down, even as the giant became that much more aware of him, his massive head turning and zeroing in on him with even more focus as it snarled in rage, turning to face him. It knew exactly where he was, down to the micrometer. How Joe knew that, he couldn’t say, but somehow, Joe’s position, his very existence, was highlighted before the monster’s perception. Mana surged from his chest, and time seemed to slow to a crawl, his mind whirling faster than he’d ever experienced before, thoughts and ideas racing through his conscious, then discarded so quickly that he’d thought of, evaluated, and discarded dozens of plans before the arrow had even left his bowstring. Time continued so slowly.
Big. Coming. Dodge? Impossible! Clipped… dead. Defense. Allanar!
“Allanar! Now!” his cried echoed out, the entire sentence stretched out and at an incredibly low pitch Joe almost had a hard time recognizing his own voice and what he’d said.
Jump. Ball! Shield! Too slow… too slow! Now… faster Allanar!
His body leapt into the air even as his left arm came up, pulling the shield into himself and wrapping his left arm, shield outwards, around his legs. His knees were pulled up against his chest. He twisted as he leapt, turning so that the strike would hit his left knee and side more, making sure the power of the strike would distribute through his arm and left leg much more than his chest and ribs. The twist had his right arm thrown out, sweeping away from in front of him around to behind him. He allowed the sweep to pull him so that his left side was faced more towards the giant’s massive incoming heel strike.
Bow! Delicate. Toss. Where?
Joe’s thoughts and mind quickly turned his focus from the incoming heel strike moving only a few meters every five or ten seconds and tried to turn and look around. His head did not move. It could not move. He tried his eyes, but they barely twitched, and he panicked, then dismissed the panic immediately. No time! He then focused on his surroundings, and at the very edge noticed the city walls off to his left and, maybe, an ally or even Allanar. Good enough.
He then returned his focus on the giant’s incoming heel but let his right arm twist around just that bit more before twisting his wrist and letting the bow slide up and over his hand before pulling it back in close to his chest. It took a long time, dozens of seconds, but he didn’t notice, his eyes simply focused on the heel and watching the giant cautiously.
Tighter. Right leg up just a li… perfect. Head down… forward on chest, shoulder’s up. Right arm… support neck. Left arm in tighter, pull the legs. Tense core. Line up shield!
Time continued to slow, or be slow. Joe wasn’t certain which, then water suddenly billowed out of his chest, and tense fear exploded out from him before evaporating and his mouth twisted into a feral grin. Hope its enough!
The column of water erupted out slowly from his shield and Joe quickly noticed it was a bit off to the side and he quickly growled as he put immense effort into twisting his shield to face the giant’s heel head on. With that, time sped up, going faster and faster, until the column of water seemed to explode directly into the giants heel. A massive spray blasted outward, misting almost immediately and turning into a cloud in which he found himself engulfed. He could barely see the heel except as a massive spray of water that sheeted outward explosively, but it didn’t stop at all, pressing ever closer and closer, speeding up faster and faster, his mana retreating back to his chest. Suddenly, Joe felt like he’d been hit with a bowling ball to his shoulder and left leg, despite the shield and massive spike of water between him and the giant’s heel.
The world disappeared, blackness enveloped his sight and all he sensed was the sound of whistling wind. Then he slammed into a wall of water and slowed so rapidly that he grew just as disoriented once again. He slowed, then dropped, falling directly out of the water to the ground where he hit hard and tumbled to the ground. Well… that… crap! Can’t believe I survived that!
He huffed and scrambled, badly dazed, back to his feet. To see the giant peering in his direction through a hazy fog. The fog was very thin, and already baking off under the afternoon sun, so Joe could see the giant looking towards him, so Joe stilled, not moving at all. Nearsighted… or movement… either way, I’m pretty tiny for him to see me now. He remained unmoving until the giant finally lost interest and curled back up around his core, his angry roars turning to whimpering cries. OK… mana infusion next to a big monster… bad idea!
With the giant no longer focused on him, he dropped his hands to his knees and whoofed out a long sigh, then stood up and danced a bit, bouncing from leg to leg to shake out things. Well… not too bad. My HP… He took a look at it and saw it almost half gone, but grinned when he saw it already refilling, if a bit more slowly than he was used to seeing. Huh… slower with harder hits? Interesting… and not now!
He shook himself out a bit more then began jogging back to the giant. OK. Part deux, no mana edition. He detoured on the way to pick up his bow, checking it carefully before dusting it off and then slipping it back into his holster. That action reminded him of being tossed around like a rag doll, and he checked his other equipment, finding it all still in place and sighing softly in relief as he did so. He then looked over at the giant and the two spikes he’d brought still lying on the ground near its feet. One was still plunged upright into the ground, if listing to the side a bit, while the second had tumbled away a good foot or two, which kind of terrified Joe when he realized that an iron bar got tossed to the side from a punch. That’s… how am I still alive? Something… Later… focus now.
Joe pulled out his longest sword again as he ran up cautiously towards the heels of the giant and he made sure to remain silent and quiet as possible, stilling himself as if he was stalking a creature. Just a hunt… move quietly… silently. His sword was already in his hand when he made it to the wedges and he took his time picking them both up before continuing on to left foot of the giant.
He dropped one wedge there then slipped quickly across to the right foot, coming to a stop by the heel. Joe shivered, worry coming to him for the first time when he realized the sheer size of the giant. The giant had the top of his feet pressed into the turf while it knelt on the ground, and despite that, the back of the giant’s calf at the Achilles tendon still came up to about his chest. That… Joe glanced up towards the giant, gulped deeply, then brought up his sword. Hard and fast! Hard and fast!
Holding the sword badly in a two handed grip, he handled it mostly with his left hand while holding the wedge with his right, pressing the wedge into the sword to help with the swing. Joe grunted, keeping the noise to a minimum, and the blade came down and sliced straight through the tendon with ease! The giant groaned, his entire leg twitching, as he started skittering the leg to the side to get away from the damage. Despite the giant’s movement, Joe rapidly dropped the sword and grabbed the wedge with both hands, angling it to follow down the same wound as he shoved the wedge into the heel, making sure to keep the Achilles tendon separated. The giant roared angrily, and crawled forward a few steps, dragging itself along the ground. Joe quickly leapt back although it proved unnecessary when the giant chose to crawl away instead. Joe sprinted towards the other leg. The giant was already on the move, shoving itself upright so it could move the leg away from whatever was damaging it.
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Please work! Please work! Please work! Joe ran, even as the giant rose up, his head twisting to the right to look over his shoulder back at his heel. The movement still seemed so ponderous to Joe, but despite that, it was a struggle for Joe to grab his sword, the second wedge, and sprint around behind the left foot of the giant before the giant was able to peer over his right shoulder to look down at his heel. The giant seemed to pause for a moment, then dropped back down, his forehead slamming into the earth again as he moved his hands back to his groin, tenderly but desperately attempting to pull the arrow out. Huh… guess it really is the worst pain! Joe didn’t rejoice too much in his victory, bringing his sword and the second wedge up.
With a hard grunt Joe tried his best to keep silent, his blade passed through the giant's tendon and sliced it easily. The wedge slid in as easily as the first had, and Joe quickly looked up to follow the giant’s movement, trying to catch the direction the giant would turn to look. This time, the giant reacted with much greater violence, attempting to stand but stumbling when his foot twisted, unable to remain aligned, so he quickly started crawling forward. The giant attempted to stand again and was able to get a foot under him but he suddenly tumbled again, roaring in pain. Both hands dropped to the ground, even his left which had been protecting its eyes. Joe cursed quietly, sprinting after the giant. Didn’t take many steps, but what a stride!
The giant howled when he hit the ground, looking back at his heel. A hand drifted back, but then curled back up around to the groin, the focus of his pain primarily seeming to be in his groin as it continued to fumble there. The giant collapsed again in a face down fetal position and stayed there long enough for Joe to arrive back by the giant’s legs. Joe took a moment to glance at both legs, seeing the Achilles tendon still severed by the chisel tool he’d left behind and the flesh of the heel already healed back up. In fact, the right one was almost completely healed over, the wound coming back up to cover even the chisel tool he’d embedded between the two halves of the tendon. Right… would be best if the giant can’t grab it.
He considered the left tendon separator chisel again with some thought before he frowned. That’s… too far out, still. He buried his massive sword blade down in the dirt with a grimace and a soft sorry, but he didn’t want to try to sheath it out here and he needed both hands for this.
He grabbed his hammer and skittered up to the side of the giant again, a bit more skittishly now. He kept glancing up at the giant, checking to see where it was looking, before finally firming his resolve. His hammer swung around behind him then came up over his head in a massive arc before slamming down hard into the spike. Without even waiting or checking, he leapt away immediately, scrambling to be outside the arc of the giant’s foot.
He heard a moaning growl and the scraping across grass as he sprinted away a good dozen meters or so before whipping back around to stare at the giant. Surprisingly, it hadn’t moved much, scrambling only a few crawling steps before it moaned and collapsed back to the ground, forehead against the ground as it stared back at its groin and its hands scrambled to remove the splinter of pain there. Joe nodded and jogged up after the giant, staying out of line of sight to the side of the giant. He chose the left side because he wanted to check out his spike to make sure it was better seated in the giant’s ankle. After getting up to the foot, he slowed down and glanced at his work.
Hope tha… no… that’s good… should be enough can’t get to it… then… The massive spike that was embedded in the left heal was still sticking out, but it was only a centimeter or so above the skin and a glance at the giants massive fingers made it pretty clear the giant would struggle to remove the left heel wedge. If he can even see it easily as blinded as he is…
He nodded to himself. That… should be enough… let’s get this done. He turned to the giant’s calf and prepared to remove the giant’s HP as soon as possible. But even as he set his sword, preparing to do so, Joe stopped. Crap! That’s not going to work. Still can see… one eye. If I do this… it’ll crawl again. I can’t… Joe found himself at an impasse. If he really hurt the giant, he would rapidly crawl away and Joe still hadn’t found a way to incapacitate his legs. Can I crawl up to his back? That would be…
Joe glanced between the giant’s legs, the fingers of the giant fumbling poorly in its attempt to pull out his arrow. The giant’s fingers were massive, each one greater in diameter than Joe's own head, even at the finger tips. He’s going to be stuck getting that out for a while! Joe felt a bit more confident and slowed, taking a moment to think. He remained at the foot of the giant, both off to the side and a bit behind, this way if the giant swung his leg left and right or kicked it back, he was off to the side and wouldn’t be hit. It wasn’t the safest place, but it was safer. Joe wracked his brain but couldn’t really come up with anything else. The giant was still too mobile but he couldn’t remove that mobility until he’d removed the HP. Finally, Joe made the choice as no action was the worst choice possible.
Joe ran up the outside of his left leg, holding his massive sword and shield ready. Sword in his right hand and shield hand pressed against the blade just about a third of the way up the blade, Joe prepared to slice into the calf of the giant right behind the giant’s knee. The calf was almost two meters off the ground, making it difficult to place his sword correctly. It would be much easier if he started at the bottom of the calf back up towards the knee, but… if the Giant runs…
Joe took a deep breath, grimaced, clenched his teeth, then drew back a bit, suddenly spooked. He glanced around but there was nothing. He stayed still for a bit. Right… shake out of it! Get in gear! Joe breathed deeply then committed. His blade sliced into the calf of the giant, angled down to dig in as deep as he could then changed its angle to slide along the bones of the giant’s calf. Joe had gotten over half way into the calf when the giant roared, its leg jerked forward and up. His blade dug in even deeper as the leg went up, but then quickly sliced down towards the heel of the giant, its pained reaction of scuttling forward only pulled Joe’s blade down through the calf, skipping off the bones.
As his right hand directed the sword’s angle and direction through the meat of the giant’s calf, his left gave the blade power, his left hand pressed about a third of the way up against the back of the blade even as he shoved his elbow into the wound and angled it up as high as he could so that the meat of the calf that he’d cut was pressed up and away from the giant’s leg. When the giant jerked its leg away, Joe snapped his left elbow as quickly as he could, forcing it upward with as much force as he could. He flipped the sword up as well, attempting to fillet the giant’s calf and press the cut calf over and off the giant’s leg. The weight of the calf almost proved too much, but the giant’s jerk added force Joe wasn’t able to apply himself. The meat of the calf flopped into the air, wobbled, then slid off to the inside of the leg, its massive weight enough to pull it the rest of the way off as Joe’s sword slid through the rest of the calf.
The giant’s howls only grew in intensity and pain, rage now long lost and completely replaced with pain and fear. It brought its right leg forward and again attempted to stand but collapsed as its foot failed to hold. With that failure, it scrambled away on hands and knees just as Joe had feared, but was completely lost in its pain as the direction of its fearful scramble was towards the walls. Joe was grateful it didn’t go into the other monsters, but he still cursed because he was chasing after the giant once again. Joe ran past the slab of meat that was longer than he was tall and jogged after the giant. The giant scrambled away almost a hundred meters and Joe grumbled the entire way he ran. The thing stopped and Joe slowed down a bit, almost a habit to save stamina then grinned and pushed himself when he remembered he had stamina as a cheat. He returned to sprinting, making it all the way to the giant without emptying his stamina. He didn’t feel the bite of his personal stamina taking over.
As he came forward, he looked at the giant’s left calf and grimaced, finding the calf completely healed. Massive amounts of HP … sheesh! They weren’t lying. Wonder how many more times… hope not too many times. Joe came upon the giant again and came to its left leg once again. Same spot and place… increases the damage… but… how many times can I get away with it… hmmm… maybe change it up after three or four times?
He came around to the outside left leg, pressed his left hand against the back of the blade about a third of the way up and prepared once again. Once again, his blade slid easily into the calf, his shield arm angling the calf meat up again. The giant’s howling pain thundered across the field again as the calf cut off sliding off to the ground again. The cut wasn’t clean, however, and a small corner of the calf remained attached to the giant’s leg just at the heel. It immediately began crawling away, this time not even attempting to stand. As it chose a random direction and scrambled across the field, the calf of its right leg flopped messily behind it and tore off half way through the giant’s mad scramble. As soon as the flopping piece of calf fell off, Joe noticed the calf began regenerating and Joe grimaced when he saw it completely regenerated once again only moments later.