Chapter Fifty-Six: A Real Challenge

Meg looked down upon the sea of corpses, as Tim waded through them to finish off the injured survivors. Dark clouds swirled above them, and the wind blew hard across the desert.

"Well that was pointless." Meg stated to no-one in particular, and new words appeared on the piece of card she held in her hand.

Most things are. Let's clean up and move on, shall we?

Shortly after, the bodies of the creatures began to turn to dust, and were eaten away by the wind like they were piles of dry sand. The blood began to bubble, and fizzled away until there was nothing left. Tim watched his arm in mild surprise as the blood that covered him did the same.

"You know if you could do that, I have to wonder why you had me deal with them at all." He remarked, and felt a piece of card press into his hand.

I already said that I wanted to get some entertainment out of them since I have to get rid of them anyway.

"Not to me you didn't."

Well why couldn't you have known about it anyway?

"That's extremely unreasonable."

Bite me.

During this spat between a man covered in bubbling blood and a piece of card, Meg floated down towards Tim, and landed next to him.

"Now what?" She asked.

For a start you should probably go back up, maybe a bit further this time.

"Oh. Joy." Meg followed the card's advice and returned to her spot out of the way.

And you should get ready.

"Already am. Hopefully it'll be a little more interesting than that mess was. Fighting an army is fine and all, but after the first few hundred it's like, what's the point?"

A response showed up on the card, a little delayed this time.

Alright asshat how about this?

A second after Tim looked at the card, there was a blinding flash of white light that blinded him and Meg. They winced, and looked away, as an explosive rush of air tore past them. The pressure front assaulted Tim, and his chest was forcefully compressed, causing him severe pain. Meg didn't feel any effect, however, and only heard the sound of the air rushing by.

The light faded, and in its place, a mountain of flesh now stood.

A jet black being towered over the landscape, reaching over 100 metres tall. It had two rear legs that were bent, keeping the back of its body relatively close to the ground. Four front arms helped support its weight, the front most arms being larger that those behind it. Several more arms were position further down its body, but were folded inwards, covering its chest. The creature's eyes were completely black, and jutted out from its skull, and the creature's mouth hung open.

Tim was stood by one of the creature's hands, within arms reach of one of the creature's digits. He looked up at the creature in awe, and Meg gave a similar look mixed with fear from her spot in the air.

As the two stared in shock, the creature slowly shifted its head to the side, looking around. Then it pulled its body upwards, its chest expanded, and it introduced itself to the world.

The roar reverberated across the landscape, and people in towns and villages in the neighbouring countries looked to the sky as it echoed off of the clouds.

Hearing a muted version of this roar, Meg screamed out, without once taking her eyes off of the creature.

Calm down, you're completely safe.

The card's words went unnoticed however, as Meg failed to notice.

Tim, on the other hand, was subjected to the full force of the roar, and could feel his insides reverberate from the sheer volume. The impact of the sound shook him, and inside of him, his heart began to beat faster and faster.

This creature, its size and presence, Tim was enraptured by it. As the adrenaline pumped around his body, he stared at the creature, and deep inside himself he understood.

'This thing could kill me.'

And Tim could barely contain his excitement.

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The creature itself was extremely confused. Moments earlier it had been roaming the world it called home, heading towards the spot where food usually appeared in abundance at regular intervals, when suddenly there was a flash of light, and it appeared here. Looking around, it could see no traces of its previous home. It had called out, but had received no response from any of its fellows that inhabited its world alongside it.

Suddenly, for no reason it could discern, the creature felt compelled to look down at its hand. There, next to it, the creature could see one of the beings that would watch it from behind a small clear section of one of the unbreakable walls surrounding its domain. The creature knew nothing about these beings, but could tell that the one by its hand was tense, and was prepared to move suddenly.

Looking down at the little being, the creature decided that it was of no consequence, and began to move away.

Kill him.

The creature jerked to a halt, and its full attention was brought upon the being. Hatred and rage erupted inside of it, and every cell within the creature cried out for the being's death. And the creature moved to oblige.

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Tim felt the ground quake as the creature quickly shuddered to a halt after beginning to move, and he understood that the creature was looking at him.

Suddenly, he was assaulted by noise again, as the creature screeched directly at him, He flinched back a little from the sound, and saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

Tim launched himself into the air as the hand of the creature swung sideways underneath him. The air currents caused by the creature's sudden movement buffeted Tim, and he was shunted about in the air.

The creature lurched forwards, and as its front arm swung outwards and upwards, its rear arm positioned itself above Tim, and came crashing down. Tim used his flying capabilities to rush downwards faster than gravity would've taken him, and he managed to hit the ground and dash away before the hand swatted him.

As the creature's hand collided with the ground, the earth cracked, and large chunks of dirt were flung into the air. Tim had dashed backwards, directly away from the creature, and as the creature's upper body sank downwards due to the force of its slam, he found himself looking directly at the creature's face.

The entire exchange was over within a few seconds, and every action Tim had taken was done on pure instinct. He hadn't time to think through the consequences of his actions. If he had, he'd have probably tried to escape in a different direction.

As Tim had jumped back, he had then pushed again, trying to give himself a moment to assess the creature, and decide the best way to attack. This turned out to be a mistake, as the creature lunged forward at frightening speed unbefitting of its size, and fast enough that Tim couldn't accelerate fast enough to reach the ground, before the creature reached him.

The creature opened its mouth wide, and Tim saw past the creature's teeth, and into the blackness of its throat. Thinking fast, Tim pulled out two swords, extended rope from his fingers that wrapped around the handles, and launched them both sideways. As the creature's mouth closed around him, he strengthened the rope and the swords, and swung them both forwards.

The now hardened ropes collided with the creature's jaw, and using this as a leverage point, Tim launched himself out of the creature's mouth as its jaws snapped shut, severing the ropes.

Tim felt the earth shake beneath his feet as the creature scrambled to pick itself up off the ground. It had lost its balance when it had lunged for him, and that gave him precious seconds to gather his composure.

As the creature began to rise, Tim rocketed forwards, over the creature's head. The creature lunged upwards to try to meet him, but wasn't able to, and Tim soared over the creature's head.

As he did so, he pulled out another sword, and launched it at one of the creature's huge eyes. The sword connected, but then bounced off without causing the creature any noticeable pain. A closer look at the eye would reveal that it wasn't soft, or even completely round, but was instead formed of a hard substance, and comprised of many hexagons that connected at small angles to form a sphere shape.

Tim brought himself down onto the creature's back, at the base of its neck, and brought out another sword. Bracing himself as much as he could on the creature's body, he brought down the point as hard as he could on the creature's skin, but the blade refused to go in.

"Tch!" Tim tutted in exasperation, as none of his attacks so far had done any damage, and he looked up.

At that moment, Tim noticed something about the creature's anatomy. From a distance, during regular functions, the creature's shoulder looked relatively ordinary. However, with the creature's current arm movement, Tim could tell that its shoulder was actually comprised of two joints close together, which allowed the creature to reach up onto its back.

Tim realised this too late, and the creature's palm slammed into him, picking him up. The creature's arm swung up and outwards, pressing Tim against it with its acceleration, and slammed him into the ground.

The earth shook, and a large circular section of ground sank downwards slightly. Immediately after, the creature pulled its arm upwards, howling in pain.

As Tim had been slammed into the ground, he had stretched himself into a standing position, and once his feet hit the ground, he had strengthened a large portion of the ground and himself.

This had prevented him from sinking into the earth, and as a result, made the situation as if the creature had slammed its hand into a nail. As the creature reeled in pain, Tim shuddered. The event had pulled a tremendous amount of power from him in a short amount of time, and he felt dazed and weakened by it.

'So this is what it's like for Meg to do magic.' Tim's brain noted, momentarily taken away from the fight by the shock.

As the creature stumbled, getting used to the pain in its hand, Tim felt cold drops on his body, as the black skies began to drop icy water down onto him, washing off the creature's blood. The cold water helped draw him back into reality, and as the creature returned its attention to him, he pulled out his favourite weapon.

The creature began to moved towards him again, shambling slightly on its right side, as the hand that had grabbed him still caused it pain. Aiming for its second-right shoulder, Tim launched his large hammer to the side, having attached a rope to its handle. Strengthening it, he planted his feet firmly into the ground, and strengthened a large portion of it to give himself more weight, and swung.

With a force greater than that of the swing that caused the cave on at the God of Darkness' mountain, the hammer impacted the creature's shoulder, and the creature let out a yelp as it shuddered to the side.

A wide grin appeared on Tim's face as the creature propped itself on its left hands, but that grin soon faded when it returned to its previous stance. The attack had done no discernible damage to the creature. Tim looked at the creature, a rush of emotions inside of him. Anger at his inability to hurt it using his own power, awe at the creature's strength, fear that he might fall having done basically nothing to it... and joy, that there was a creature he was having trouble killing.

And high in the dark sky above, there was a flash of light, and the rumble of thunder.

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Where are you going?  The piece of card that had appeared in Meg's face read.

"I'm getting as far away as possible!" She yelled as both Tim and the creature were staggering after the large attack.

You're completely safe.

"The hell I am! That thing's huge, even if Tim beat it easily all it'd have to do is fall on me and I'm dead!" Meg looked up at a flash of light and subsequent thunder. "And now there's lightning too! Fuck this, I'm out of here!"

Oh for goodness sake.

At that moment, several bolts of lightning flung themselves at Meg in quick succession. She shrieked as their image was burned into her retinas, but then she noticed, even though they had come towards her, they had arced away at the last second. As if tracing the image of a sphere around her.

I said you're safe. Stop throwing a fit.

Meg stared at the card for a moment. "You're protecting me?" She asked incredulously.

Yeah, he's not lost yet.

"...So if he does lose, I'm going to die?"

Well I'm not fucking about sending that thing back where I got it from. Way too much effort for nothing.

"...Good to know."

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The multiple lighting strikes didn't go unnoticed by Tim, and in a similar flash of inspiration, he had an idea.

"Don't know if it'll work, but may as well GIVE IT A GO!" He shouted, and launched himself directly at the creature.

Seeing him heading straight towards it, the creature swung its arm along the ground in an attempt to hit him, without causing the same damage to itself as before.

Seeing the creature's arm head straight towards him, Tim jumped upwards at the last second, and propelled himself further by pushing off of the creature's arm. By doing this, he once again managed to place himself above the creature's head, initiated his plan.

He pulled out a two-handed sword with a long blade, and launched it at the back of the creature's neck. As the blade headed towards its goal, Tim flew downwards, and swung out his hammer on a rope. Timing his fall so that he hit the ground at the same time as the sword hit the creature, he hit the hilt of the blade with his hammer, and strengthened the rope, the hammer, and the sword through the hammer, and pushed down with all his might, strengthening the ground as additional weight to allow him to hit harder.

The blade of the sword pierced the creature's skin, and sunk into its flesh, drawing out a howl from the creature that echoed across the land. Using the leverage of the sword, Tim released his hold of the ground beneath him, and pulled, using the strengthened rope, hammer and sword to pull himself towards the creature's neck.

He reached it, and ceased his strengthening, regaining his hammer. Grabbing hold of the sword, he pushed down, and taking into account the swords position, he assumed it to be touching the creature's spine.

"HEY BEASTY!" Tim yelled as the creature rocked beneath him. "I WONDER IF MY ROPE WILL CONDUCT LIGHTNING!"

The creature stumbled as it lifted its left arm to grab Tim, having momentarily forgotten the damage in its right hand. Tim launched his hammer into the air as hard as he could, the magic rope extending from his hand as it shot upwards.

"LET'S SEE!" Tim roared, and lifted his feet from the ground, placing all his weight onto the sword. The creature roared back, and reached up with its damaged right hand to grab him.

And then lightning truck.

It hit the metal hammer, and traveled down the rope, through Tim's arms, through the sword, and into the creature's spine.

The creature convulsed, as spasms rippled through its body, and it collapsed to the ground. Not willing to take chances, Tim whipped the hammer back down, and after  a second of travel, it slammed into the sword hilt, which drove the force straight down into the creature's neck.

There was an audible crack from beneath the creature's flesh, as the sword penetrated into the bone. The sword sunk in hilt deep, and Tim placed another sword on top of it, strengthening it to attach it to the first, and using it to drive the sword further down, until the creature stopped convulsing.

Tim stood in the rain atop the creature for a few seconds, panting from his exertion, and the pain of having his flesh burned by the lightning. Once he was satisfied the creature was dead, Tim's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto his back.

And with a big smile, he began to laugh.