The speed at which the Bucket Knight advanced was terrifying, Gwen thought, gawking at the boulder of flesh tearing through the ground to reach her. She expected she would be in for a fight however, this wild onslaught heading for her seemed unfair. The Bucket Knight’s image grew larger with every second. Gwen tightened her posture and embraced for-

THWUMP!

Gwen soared through the air, her head rapidly bobbing up and down from the resisting wind. When she finally crashed to the ground, her body tumbled and bounced like a skipping pebble until finally sliding to a stop. Her face throbbed, and she checked to make certain her jaw was still attached. Scrapes covered her body and her torn rags now hardly covered much, but mostly Gwen found herself in horrified awe. How could the Bucket Knight be so powerful to simply swat her away like some bothersome insect?

“Gwhaaah!” cried the horrible creature.

Not a minute could be allowed to tend to herself and she heard the rapid stomping coming for her again. Gwen picked herself up as quickly as she could, her body fighting against her, begging the battered girl to stay down. Covered in a coat of slick mud from the fall, Gwen used the cracked shield to gain a stable foothold as she pulled herself to her feet. With the torch nowhere in sight, she gripped the shield in both hands and pressed her shoulder into it, shifting all her weight in hopes to better defend herself this time.

Once again, the Bucket Knight was upon her. The beast screeched and flailed his scrawnier arm at Gwen. His attack, as wild as it was, Gwen could track it and quickly placed the shield above her head, where she projected the arm would strike. The Bucket Knight’s arm fell, and Gwen let out a painful gasp. She successfully defended herself from the creature’s hammering, but not without taking damage; her arms pulsated in pain and found she had been forced deeper into the ground a few inches where she stood. There was no chance Gwen could endure a second thrashing. With no warning, the beast’s other arm seized her wrist and lifted Gwen off her feet, bringing her face up to his bucket helm.

Gwen could hear little else now, so close to the Knight. Heavy, tin breaths of air trapped behind his contained head pushed against the metal with every exhale he let out. Long seconds passed, and the Knight remained frozen in action. Gwen, entirely at the Bucket Knight’s savage mercy, dangled helplessly in the beast’s clutches.

Thoughts ran through Gwen’s mind at a rapid rate, each one overlapping the last before completion. Was he studying her? Curious who this insect refusing to be swatted away might be? Does this monster even contain such thoughts? Until now, she assumed the Bucket Knight a mindless and bloodthirsty beast, capable of naught but destruction.

Then she focused on the strange bucket helmet. Imprints of stretched and thwacked steel covered much of the headpiece. Perhaps what were once separated sheets of metal had become fused and made smooth by force. The placement of subtle ridges and twisted lines suggests a different form before becoming this cylindrical, featureless shape.

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Could this bizarre bucket he donned once been a traditional knight’s helmet? A thought she validated, remembering Baldwin’s comment regarding the beast.

A glint of light caught her eye from below. She looked down at the bloated belly of the Knight and could now see the object protruding had been a handle of some sort.

Gwen felt the Bucket Knight’s grip quickly tighten and before she could react, one powerful clutch crunched the girl’s clasped hand. A wave of excruciating pain overcame Gwen and she couldn’t help but scream out. The Knight dropped her, and she fell onto her knees, collapsing into herself. The pain unsubsiding, she raised her hand in front of her and found it a mangled mess of flesh and bone. She couldn’t help but weep at the sight.

Unrelenting, the Bucket Knight allowed no reprieve and kicked into Gwen’s hunched stomach, throwing her onto her back. Then he mounted her, his heavy body trapping her in place. With one arm free, Gwen desperately threw her still capable fist into the Knight’s bulging, ashen chest. To no effect, the action was as if throwing a flask of water into a raging forest fire.

The Bucket Knight returned with his own clenched fist, ramming directly into Gwen’s bare face. The attack devastated the girl, crushing her nose and sinking her hollowed features deeper. Not letting a moment pass, he followed with a second punch and then a third and a fourth; the flurry of fists flattening Gwen’s face more each time.

A numbness took over, and she now felt distant from the pain. Each impact shook her body, but the pain began to feel like it was no longer hers to bear. Gwen’s mind continued to retract further from reality. Slipping into a dream state, she found herself standing in a deep well, looking up at the brutality destroying her body. She looked away and around the mind she had escaped to, in every direction, a black void. Was this death? she asked herself.

“Gwaarrrgh!”

Gwen’s consciousness was wrenched back to life from the Bucket Knight’s deafening wail. His assault on pause, Gwen raised her good hand to inspect the damage the monster had done. Her face had been destroyed, and every bone pummeled into dust; each place Gwen’s fingers touched was nothing more than a jumble of flesh. She would have cried out had she been able, but the Bucket Knight’s attack crushed her throat as well. A wet gargle found its way out and Gwen felt the liquids in her throat leak from the broken openings.

How was she still alive? Why was this horrid body of hers clinging to life? Gwen questioned in both sadness and anger.

Furious the beast couldn’t finish the job, Gwen lashed out with both hands, punching, clawing and flopping at any part of the Knight she could reach. The monster, no longer bellowing though still sporadically moaning, did not react to the desperate attacks. Gwen’s able hand punched into his belly, her fist bounced off the Knight’s bloated stomach and as her hand retracted, Gwen grabbed the handle poking out from the monster. The Knight erupted in pain, instantaneously shooting up to his feet and grabbing Gwen by the ankle as he rose. Unable to see, she felt waves of dizziness spiral through her as the Bucket Knight swung her many times before finally flinging her into the air.

Gwen flew just briefly before crashing into something that broke her fall. She and the object violently tumbled many times into the ground before stopping and her crumpled body lay twisted among the remains of the many others before her. Slipping in and out of consciousness, Gwen believed she had been successful. The release of death had finally arrived.