The shape had a surface of what looked like rock or a turtle shell covered in algae and small lake plants. Amongst the plants a small ecosystem had grown up, small fish, crabs, crustaceans, and even a pair of turtles had made their home on the giant slow-moving object.

Sparrow spent a little while staring at it, marvelling at the way the plants rippled with each slow-moving step.

'This must be some sort of giant turtle,' Sparrow decided, 'perhaps even a Turtle God, the thing is the size of an island.'

He thought about dipping down into the water, trying to talk to the being but then, it was getting late and Sparrow wasn't sure how the Turtle God would react. He certainly wouldn't want to battle the creature in its own environment in the dark.

So Sparrow memorised the spot, pointed his nose back towards his little camp and started the long journey back.

****

Two days later and Sparrow was blindfolded. A large piece of lake grass covered his eyes. His bare feet were standing in the dirt, poised and ready for action.

'Three, two, one,' he said to himself and hurled a bolt of fire in the direction of one of the wooden figures he had built as a target. He dropped and rolled then used the air to conduct a pathway directly into the heart of another target. Through the earth, he felt the wooden target go up in flames. Sparrow ran a few more steps using pathways through the ground to detect where his enemies lay.

He wrapped stone skin around a piece of wood and used it like a sword to cut the head off another wooden target and then through the earth he started to sense something else.

This thing was big, it shook the ground as it moved. He wondered if it was just a far-off earthquake, but no, the rumbles were too close together. Sparrow frowned as he tried to work out what was happening from beneath his lake grass mask.

Whatever it was, the bottom of their feet would be larger than the length of his entire body and the weight they carried was enormous. Sparrow pulled down his mask and there standing in front of him was a large creature made entirely out of rock, alge, lake plants, shellfish and little crabs that appeared rather annoyed they'd been plucked out of the water.

'So Sparrow,' a voice boomed from the centre of the rock, 'we meet again.

Sparrow, realizing he was in the presence of some form of Turtle God got down on his knees and bowed, 'Oh great Turtle God. I'm sorry for I do not recall our first meeting. Please don't take it the wrong way, us mortals aren't the best with our memories.'

The large rocky creature let out a growl, 'Turtle God? Who said anything about Turtle God? I am your greatest nemesis. I have been hunting for you for years, one step at a time. I spent six months under that lake, slowly making progress towards where you've been hiding from me.'

Sparrow scratched the side of his head, 'I'm sorry. I really don't know who you are.'

The giant rock creature clenched his fists, and the rocky muscles on its arms doubled in size. Weed and crabs and shellfish flew off in all directions and the giant rock monster screamed - only it wasn't a scream of anger, it was more a scream of hurt and disappointment.

'Years I've wasted hunting you down, every second planning my revenge,' a gravel tear the size of a landslide slipped down the rock monsters cheek, 'and this is how you treat me Sparrow? You insult our years-long feud? Your arch nemesis like this?'

Sparrow just held up his hands. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you at first - um...'

The giant rock creature huffed and puffed and another gravel land slide slipped down his cheek. 'I am Megarock.' he screamed so loud the water of the lake vibrated with the power of his sound waves.

'Right, right...' Sparrow said clicking his fingers, 'Megarock, of course. You were one of those guys who were working in the mines, weren't you?'

Megarock shook his head furiously. 'I was in the mines to assassinate you Sparrow, I would never mine or seek wealth or power, all I want is to destroy you and for you to show some respect to me.' After every word Megarock stamped his foot on the ground, sending an earthquake in Sparrow's direction.

'Well,' Sparrow said wobbling to maintain his balance, 'I'm still not entirely sure who you are then, but hey, if you want to fight I've been training and I suppose I owe you - after all, we've been fighting for months.'

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

'Years!' Megarock shouted. 'We've been fighting for years, and besides, I'm not even sure if I want to fight you now after the total lack of respect you've shown for your opponent.'

The giant rock crossed his arms and turned away from Sparrow.

Sparrow rolled his eyes, 'All right then I've got better things to do than listen to you whine, I'm going to the tower.'

'No!' Megarock yelled, stopping the very birds from singing, 'You don't get it, Sparrow, it takes me months, years even to reach you. Aside from when I'm fighting, I can only shuffle forward at a very slow rate, so if you leave now, it's gonna be years before I can hunt you down again.'

Sparrow rubbed his chin. 'Interesting... So you're saying if I want to avoid you, all I have to do is keep moving?'

Megarock nodded very slowly, then froze and shook his head. 'Yes, I mean - why would you want to do that? Don't you want to finish our battle for the ages right here, right now?'

'I guess,' Sparrow said, 'depends on how much longer you're going to keep talking, I've got things to do you know.'

Another rocky tear fell down Megarock's cheek. 'Oh, what is it now?' Sparrow said.

'Well, it's just you don't have to be so mean about it.' Megarock said. 'I have feelings, too. I didn't ask to be born this slow. Hell, I didn't ask to be born at all!'

Sparrow shook his head. 'Look, we're enemies, we’re meant to insult eachother.'

Megarock wiped a boulder-sized booger from his chin, 'Yeah?'

'So let's do it,' Sparrow said, bouncing around, 'Let's fight!'

'Okay.' said Megarock, he slowly clenched his fists and moved towards Sparrow. Sparrow slipped into stone skin without even realizing it and flew straight between Megarock's legs, then latched onto a couple of pieces of lake weed that still clung to the giant creature's back. He tried a couple of quick jabs with either fist but they didn't seem to have any effect on the hulking beast.

Megarock grunted angrily and tried to grab at Sparrow. The creature was built powerfully, but it suffered one of the stupidest weaknesses Sparrow had seen - its arms could not reach behind its back. They were too short and stubby.

Megatock circled and swayed and it almost looked like the giant creature was dancing. Sparrow laughed, 'let me know when you're finished here?'

Megarock bellowed, swinging wildly again at Sparrow. The creature spun in circles over and over again until it was dizzy and its feet stumbled and then finally it threw itself off its feet and onto its back.

Sparrow saw the ground coming, felt the weight of the creature bearing down on him and jumped as far as he could out of the way. Megarock thumped onto the ground like an earthquake and bounced, landing just millimetres from Sparrow's foot. Sparrow peered down at his ankle and his heart leapt into his chest.

'You were almost jelly.' he said to himself, 'Let's not do that again.'

But clearly, Megarock wasn't finished. The great hulking creature tilted its head up and down, attempting to rock itself onto its stomach. Sparrow hovered over the beast.

Why don't I just leave? Sparrow thought, look at it. It's slow, so slow, it'll take it years to reach me again.

But no... Sparrow didn't like the idea of an indestructible monster hunting them down. He had to finish this now.

Megarock picked up a giant boulder and hurled it through the sky at Sparrow. Sparrow slipped to the side and felt the air displaced by the boulder swish across his cheek.

Another boulder hurtled towards his left. He moved right then ducked as the boulder that had gone up first came shooting back towards him. The two rocks collided and splinters of stone exploded into the air around him, cutting his cheek.

Sparrow wiped at the blood and covered himself back in stoneskin.

He dropped from the sky and sank slightly as he hit the ground. He sucked air through his cheeks and started running towards Megarock as the giant hurled boudlers like bowling balls towards him.

The weighted boulders destroyed trees and scrub and bushes around him as Sparrow leaped over one, slid past another and then sucked all of the air out of his lungs as a boulder passed on either side of him. Nearly crushing his chest.

This is getting close, Sparrow thought. Way too close. I have to find some sort of weakness some way to shut the creature down.

He flew towards it, fist pointed straight ahead, stoneskin covering his entire body. This was going to hurt. Megarock's arms reached out towards him, but they were slow. Sparrow scooted between them and Sucker Punch the creature right in the belly.

The impact sent a magnitude ten jolt through Sparrow's body and even though they were now made of stone, the impact ruptured the discs in his back.

Cracks appeared in the skin of his skull. Sparrow fell backwards onto the sand and Megarock laughed.

Sparrow couldn't breathe. He had no choice. He had to get rid of stone skin. His body was too slow to heal while he was made of granite. His mind was going into shock. Everything trembled.

Megarock bent with a groan and picked up Sparrow. The giant's touch was surprisingly careful. It held Sparrow in both its hands and brought him up to its granite ringed eyes.

'Sparrow,' Megarock said, 'We could have been friends.'

Sparrow wheezed. His heart was trying to jump out of his chest, and his whole vision was taken up by the cliff like being above him.

'Okay,' Megarock said, 'No more talk. Goodbye, Sparrow.'