As I was mulched in Emelia's grasp, I had time to think about my future. I knew I had opportunity to escape, but it had been so long since I had used that method that I couldn't guarantee it would work.
Just as I was about to give it a try, her grip relented, and I found myself being dangled pathetically from my cloak.
"You see this, you little scrubs?!" Emelia shouted, holding me up for everyone to see. "Do you see this crumpled little man? Your so called "hero"!" She continued, giving me a shake.
"Even a "giant slayer" is no match for me! And just because SOME OF YOU DECIDED TO HELP HIM. . . . No rations for anyone for the next 7 days!" She decreed, and an audible gasp came from the crowd.
I still didn't even know what a "ration" was in this case, but apparently this was serious. I didn't have much time to contemplate it, as she lifted me high above her head. The villagers could only look on in terror as their hopes and dreams were smashed into the cobblestone along with my body.
I lay still, broken as the cobblestone beneath me. It had been so long since I had experienced the full strength of a giant, and I didn't miss it at all. Neither did my body as it twitched and spasmed without my permission. It meant my energy was just about gone. If ever I could be crushed, now was the time, and Emelia was determined to see that through.
As a giant slayer, we were created or born without a fear of death. It was imperative when your soul purpose was to fight the God's biggest and most brutal creation. As such, I wasn't afraid now. I would say I was. . . Regretful. . . If anything.
My dream was always to go out fighting toe to toe with a legendary giant. A warrior with prestige and honor. Not getting stomped out by some no name housewife playing queen in the outer rim of the human realm.
Oh well, there was no time to dwell on it because as the dust cleared I saw Emelia's boot raised and poised to stomp me into the afterlife.
The first stomp.
A small cloud of dust kicked up as her foot made contact with a sickening force that shook the entire street. I found myself in the somewhat familiar position of the bottom of a footprint. This one made of sunken stones and crushed rock. I was still conscious, and if I could catch a moment to breathe, I knew I could still probably get up, though I didn't know how far that would get me.
Then. . . . The second stomp.
It was probably my imagination, but this one seemed twice as strong as the first. Chunks of stone were blasted aside from the force, and around me women and children began to weep. The crowd began to thin, the people not wanting to be around when Emelia finished with me.
At this point, the chances of my body responding to my will alone were almost gone. I knew the next stomp would either immobilize me completely, or crush me entirely. And here it came.
I closed my eyes, accepting my fate of being flattened in the streets of Ellenworth. But. . . it never came. No bloody footprint. No stomach churning crunch. Nothing.
I opened my eyes and to my surprise, Emelia's boot was hovering a few feet above my body. A second later it was set back on the ground and she turned away from me.
Confused, I looked up to see the cause of the distraction and it was the last thing I expected.
The prisoner.
The man from last night and a group of other workers were on a nearby rooftop. Their distraction was crude at best, as they were merely hurling stones, bricks, and insults at her, but it was enough to draw her attention away for a moment.
I knew I couldn't waste the time they had bought me, and with my remaining strength, I drug myself to my feet and out of the crater.
The men on the roof scattered as Emelia made a grab for them. She snagged one, and with a simple squeeze of her fist, he was pulped and tossed aside. The remaining rebels sprinted and jumped to the ground, before running down a narrow alley to another street. Apparently Emelia wasn't fond of destroying her city haphazardly now, because she didn't smash through to pursue them. Instead she stepped around to block their escape from the other side.
I watched and listened to the thunderous footsteps of Emelia as she caught my saviors. A man's scream was silence in conjunction with a stomp and I knew he was gone. More stomps as the commotion became less and less until eventually all the shouts were silenced.
Sorrow overtook me as the tremors signaled Emelia's return. She rounded the corner and what she had in her hands made me sick. In each fist, dangling by their tattered cloaks were the men who had saved me not 3 minutes ago, their corpses mashed and flattened looking.
The ever present scowl let me know that I was ruining Emelia's day by just still being alive as she spotted me in the center of the street. Without a care, she dropped the bodies in a heap on the street, no doubt planning to string them up later as a reminder and warning to the villagers. It was at that moment that I made up my mind.
There was no letting her live.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you?!" She screamed at me, about 70 yards between us.
I didn't banter. I was building energy for what would come next. My final attack.
"How many more of my villagers need to die in the name of your tiny, pathetic, weak attempt at liberation, huh? Why do you even care what happens to them?! A giant slayer hasn't been here in 20 years, and suddenly here you are! You could have just left, but no. . You decided to stay and destroy everything! Now look at you! You're barely standing! And I think one last. . GOOD stomp ought to be enough to finally send you to the afterlife!" Emelia proclaimed, and began to close the distance.
It was time.
Reaching over my shoulder, I gripped the hilt of my sword and pulled. The blade screamed as the steel touched sunlight for the first time in 2 years. It was something I had tried to avoid, and for the most part I had been successful. Running away from fights was the only way to keep a low profile when every single battle that was witnessed by villagers only added to your legend.
Emelia was closing the gap, at only 40 yards now, when I reared back, gripped it with both hands, channeled my energy into the blade, and let loose with a vertical slash.
It was something I hadn't done in even longer than 2 years and it showed. The beam of energy that screamed from my sword was red and jagged. It tilted this way and that, rapidly growing in height on its way to its target. Ripping a trail in the stone, it rose to match Emelia's height and she was too slow to react as the beam kicked up a cloud of dust and hit it's mark.
Everything was silent. The dust made it impossible to see, and it hung in the air for an eternity. When it finally did clear, it revealed a sight that I had seen many times before. A sight that I had been running from for the past few years.
Emelia stood upright and unmoving, A blank look on her dirty face. From the front, she looked unphased by the attack, except for a thin red line that spanned from her hairline and down the center of her body.
Her clothes were ripped along this line, and hung loosely from her shoulders. The damage seemed minor, but behind her told the true story.
Although the cut on her front was thin, the gash on her back was about 5 feet wide. The exit wound of the blow left everything within 30 yards of her coated in blood. Every villager watched on, frozen in anticipation.
Emelia swayed forward gently, before she toppled backward, stiff as a board. The whole city shook as their tyrant for the last 20 years crumbled to the ground, taking several buildings with her. The silence lasted a brief moment longer as the shock settled in, before cheers and applause erupted from villagers. People seemed to come out of every crack and crevice to join in the celebration.
It would have been wise to wait and see if Emelia was down for the count, but the villagers flooded the street anyway, surrounding both myself and my fallen foe. It had been a long time since I had been given this type of reception from a city. It reminded me of the old days, when slayers were common place and could be relied upon. It felt good. Then, as if being applauded by the gods, there was a massive thunder strike, before the skies opened and it began to rain for the first time in 20 years.
In the days that followed, the city was a mess with people running around making arrangements to leave the city, clearing rubble from the streets, and disposing of Emelia's body.
It took a team of 30 horses to drag her body awkwardly to the front gate and outside the wall to a nearby clearing. There, a ceremony was held, as the whole village watched as her body was burned, as was the custom.
I spent my time recovering. My body ran out of steam shortly after the fight, and I had been brought to a medical building where the city's women kept me on 24 hour watch, attending to my every need. They kept me informed on what was going on outside the building.
Although the nurses were constantly bringing in small trinkets from the villagers as thanks, one nurse brought with her the most unexpected item. . . Julius.
"Why are you here?" I growled, and he kept his distance.
"I. . . I came to thank you!" He stammered, confused by my reaction.
"Ha! Thank me!. . . You have no idea what we've done, do you?" I asked, ominously. "What YOU'VE DONE!
"Me? I liberated the city!" He shouted defensively.
"No boy, you've doomed the city!" I replied, chuckling.
"You're delusional! Emelia is dead! We're free! People have already begun to go home to places they haven't been in years!" He argued, pointing out the window.
"Precisely! Those people go home, they tell my tale and eventually the story spreads throughout the whole outer rim and beyond! It doesn't take long before somebody worse than a bored housewife appears at your door."
"A bored housewife?! Look, I know that Emelia wasn't much for YOU to handle, but do not insult us by making light of her in front of me! She has enslaved a population, and killed our loved ones, both quickly and taking her time!" He screamed, causing a nurse to stick her head into the room.
"Listen. . . Nobody understands that better than me, but getting me involved wasn't the answer. Not right now."
"If not now, then when?! Another 2 decades? I did what I had to do!"
"You didn't think that maybe there is a reason I didn't just confront her right away?" I asked, tapping my head, telling him to use his brain.
"Yes! Because you got captured!"
At this, I laughed myself into a coughing fit.
"Kid. . . You think anyone who can kill a giant is getting captured by a bunch of amateur guards if they don't want to? I was here getting information until you decided to blow my cover."
He was silent, his face red with embarrassment.
"The best advice I can give you. . . Get out. Take yourself and whoever you have, and get away from here. This city is free for now, but there is no guarantee that it will stay that way.q" I said, as I took off my blankets and stood.
"We will pay you to stay!" Julius said, quickly stepping in front of me. "The city has money!"
"I'm not for hire. I need to get back to my camp before somebody worse than you have ever met, comes to kill me." I explained, moving him out of my way with two fingers.
". . . . . Fine. But can you live with yourself knowing you left us all here to die?" He asked, his face dead serious.
I only laughed.
"It's as simple as leaving. Convince as many people as you can. Then you can say that you truly liberated them." I told him, before walking past him and out the door.
I only had one stop to make before I was ready to leave town.
Booze.
It was as I was getting some free booze from the village merchant, that I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
"Why you slimy piece of horse waste!" The man said, a grin on his face.
I turned to face him. I recognized his voice from our brief conversation, but this was the first time seeing his face. He was a middle aged man, with a grey and black beard. His hair was trimmed short and his face was well wrinkled. He had a scar over his right eye, and appeared to be from a coastal city.
"And to what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked, calmly.
"Just wanted to say thank you. . . Giant slayer!" He said, punching me in the arm. "All that talk in the jail cell was for show wasn't it? You already knew you were going to take Emelia down!"
"I didn't come here to do that. I was here for information. Something bigger than Emelia." I told him, unsure of whether I could trust him or not.
"Believe me friend, there's not much out there bigger than Emelia!" He said with a chuckle. "I came here ten years ago with a band of 5. . . I'm the only one left and that's not from lack of trying."
"Hmm." Was all I said, as I turned away to continue choosing booze for my return trip.
"So. . . Where will you go now?" The man inquired. "If you don't mind me asking."
"Well I do mind you asking. Humans will say just about anything when inside the fist of a giant." I said, grabbing a bottle and storing it in a satchel I was given.
"You want to know why I was in that prison cell? It's because I was too useful for Emelia to just kill me! I was a barricks spy!" He proclaimed.
"Well, good for you. You made life worse for those around you." I said, and nodded to the merchant before walking away.
"No! I sheltered them from her full wrath! I was able to pick and choose what information she received!" He said, as he walked up beside me.
"I'm sure you did. But to me, that just makes you more untrustworthy. The people couldn't trust you to keep their secrets and Emelia couldn't trust you to give her the full truth." I said, bluntly.
He was quiet for a second.
"Please just bring me along with you!" He begged, grabbing me by the arm.
"No."
"You. . . You rightfully owe me a debt of gratitude! I saved your life!" He said, stamping his foot.
I only laughed and kept walking.
"Is a debt unasked for, really a debt?" I asked, giving him a wink.
"I doubt you could have asked, what with your face being smashed into the ground by Emelia's boot! You were one more stomp away from us scrubbing you out from between the cobblestone!" He shouted.
I knew he was right. I also knew it wasn't a good idea, but I it couldn't make things that much worse.
"Fine, you can come along. . . But I'm not waiting for you, and I'm not protecting you." I said, coldly. "Gather your things and meet me at the gate in 1 hour. " I finished, before I crouched and lept up to a rooftop and disappeared.
An hour later, my jaw dropped when I saw him at the gate. He was standing there in front of a beautiful covered wagon, being pulled by a pair of gorgeous horses. Not only that, but the wagon was filled with supplies from the villagers. He had a proud look on his face.
"What's that look for?" He asked laughing.
"I just didn't expect. . . All this." I said, motioning to the wagon.
"Yeah, well. . . At least SOME people around here see my worth and know of my contributions to taking down Emelia." He replied, confidently straightening his cloak.
"I'm sure they do." Was all I said, as I climbed into the back of the wagon.
"I'm glad you are so thankful! And talkative. " he spat as he climbed up into the driver's seat. "What's your name anyway?"
". . . . Ant." I said from the back of the wagon.
"Well "Ant", which way are we headed?" He asked as he drove the horses out through the gate.
"The big forest, North of here."
I heard him sigh, understandably before bringing the horses up to speed.
"My name is Cassius, by the way" He said over his shoulder.
"Pleasure. . . " I said, as I opened a bottle and began to drink.
Giantess World
