90.

  I flung myself to the side, narrowly avoiding a sledgehammer the size of my face. It crunched through the wall behind me, obliterating the desiccated brickwork. Shards of shattered brick rained down on the back of my head. I stumbled on all fours, crawling like a wild dog, desperately trying to flee the mammoth, sledgehammer-wielding monster behind me. I heard him chuckle again as he came bounding after me. I pulled myself up and turned, before wildly throwing myself back down barely avoiding being decapitated. More bricks rained down on me as I wrapped my hands over my head for protection. How the hell could this monster swing that giant sledgehammer so quickly? Even more impressive, he never seemed to be taken by the swing, managing and controlling the sledgehammer’s arc as if it weighed nothing.

  "Stay still little magic man," he drawled, as if my desperate attempts to stay alive were a mild irritant.

  "Stop trying to kill me then!" I spat back at him as I scrambled to my feet.

  "No," he snapped petulantly, jabbing the head of the sledgehammer at me, catching me off guard and hitting me square in the chest.

  I fell back into the wall as he raised the weapon above his head. I couldn't keep fleeing this monster. The space was too cramped and confined. There was too much debris and I was exhausted, all it would take is stepping in the wrong place for me to turn my ankle and end up as a Gutter Mage pancake.

  I scrabbled against the wall. I grabbed a fistful of loose bricks and flung them at the beast's face. It wasn't enough to really blind him, but it was enough to distract him. I lurched away from the wall and slinked past him, squeezing through the gap between him and the wall, planning to just sprint away. I'm sure I could outrun him. The problem was, the hallway was so debris-laden that I'd only gotten about 5 or 6 steps before my foot hit something loose and twisted underneath me. I cried out as I fell, skinning my forearm badly on a jagged piece of wall. The hammer slammed down again, narrowly missing turning my knee to dust.

  I rolled away, leaped to my feet, and then whipped my Grapple Cord at the sledgehammer. It was the perfect cast, even in the darkness, and the Grapple Cord wrapped around the hammer handle near his hands. I grabbed the Cord with both hands and yanked, but nothing happened. I might as well have been trying to pull over a building. I yanked again, and the sledgehammer-wielding monster looked down at the Cord curiously, then at me, as if he wasn't sure what I was trying to do.

  "Crap," I moaned as I saw him grin, reach down, and grab hold of the cord, wrapping it once around his hand.

  He whipped me, quite literally, like a wet towel. My body jerked one way and then I was flung bodily off my feet into the wall the opposite way. I heard him guffawing and clapping his hands as if he'd never seen something so amusing. He let go of the sledgehammer and grabbed the Cord with both hands, wrapping it tightly around his fists.

  "Wait…" I started, but there was no stopping him.

  He yanked me back onto my feet and then flung me into the next wall, slamming my body through it, and shattering the bricks. Before I could even breathe, he yanked me again, and I felt like my shoulder was going to tear out of its joint. I had to grab hold of the Grapple Cord with both hands just to give myself some support and stop it from destroying my shoulder. He flung me down into the ground and then somehow whipped me upwards into the ceiling. I smashed into it and fell straight back down, so hard it drove all the air out of my body. I lay there groaning piteously, coughing into the dust. He was whipping me around like a human yo-yo, doing all the tricks that he knew: Walk the Dog, Cat's Cradle, Around the World.

  Every time my body slammed into something, he laughed louder and louder, stamping his feet and clapping his hands like a toddler at the circus. But eventually, like most toddlers, he grew bored and picked up the sledgehammer with one hand, and waddled towards me.

  "Time to go bye-bye, magic boy," he said, swinging the sledgehammer above his head, raising it as high as he could.

  I saw his knuckles whiten. Panic flourished in my chest. Was I out of moves? No, I had a couple of tricks left. I took my bloodied finger and pressed it against the cloaking charm on my belt, sending every ounce of will and strength I had left into the Cloaking Charm. There was an instantaneous puff of black smoke, and in the dim light, it looked like I'd suddenly vanished.

  The giant goon blinked in surprise.

  "Where'd you go?" he said, looking around left and right. "Hey, no fair! I didn't know you could go invisible," he said, stomping around. He actually turned a full 360, the hammer still raised above his head, as he tried searching me out. "No fair," he said again, and I just lay there completely still, inches from his thundering feet, not even daring to breathe.

  He turned finally to unknowingly face me again, the sledgehammer wobbling over his head as he peered into the darkness. Slowly, I raised both feet, locking my heels together, and then I dropped the charm and mule-kicked him straight between the legs as hard as I could. The mountainous beast squeaked in surprise, dropped the hammer, and clapped both hands between his legs, his face going red as he wheezed and fell backwards.

  The force of his bulk crashing into the floor set boards and beams creaking and groaning. For a horrifying moment, I thought we were going to collapse through the floor, and I had this vision of me falling all the way down to the first floor and having to fight my way back up again. Thankfully, the dust settled and the floor held. The behemoth rolled and whimpered, then began stamping his feet like he was having a tantrum.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "You hit me in the balls," he squeaked out. "Why would you do that?”

  "You were trying to crush my head like a grape," I said to him.

  "Yeah, but I didn't hit you in the balls," he spat back.

  He had me there, I guess.

  "Listen, you should just stay down and stay out of this," I said to him, heaving myself back up. "I don't want to have to hurt…" I didn't even finish the statement.

  Somehow, he spun around on his back, lunged forward, picked me up by the ankle, and hurled me off my feet, tossing me into one of the walls. I smashed through the brickwork and went tumbling until I hit the farthest wall in the building. I groaned, pulled myself up, and saw that he had teetered back to his feet, or at least tried to. One of his hands seemed glued to his crotch, and he was moving like an old man searching for his cane.

  As he hoisted himself back up I limped as fast as I could towards him, sending power through the Zap Knucks. I launched myself at the still struggling behemoth, punching anywhere I could. The man was such a large target that I had my pick of where to hit him. I zapped him perhaps a dozen times in quick succession, but he just waved his hand at me as though I were a particularly irritating mosquito. He yelped a little when I got him in the fleshy part of his inner thigh, and then he spun around and backhanded me so hard that I felt an out-of-body experience as I watched myself crash into another wall. I groaned, leaning against the wall, my vision spinning. Then I heard the scrape of the sledgehammer as he picked it back up and swung it at me.

  I was so tired that for a split second, the thought crossed my mind to just stay there and let him hit me. Even as I thought this, my body lurched out of the way. The sledgehammer tore a chunk from the wall. There was nothing for it, I had to attack. I didn't have many tricks left, and I was too tired to do anything else. I was even getting too tired to dodge or duck anymore. I had to end this battle soon. One blow from that sledgehammer, and I would never get up.

  I stayed inside the wide arc of the hammer and began firing shots into his girthy stomach. The behemoth growled and swatted at me again. I was too close to him, too inside his defenses for him to put any real power behind it, so I danced around his legs, punching everywhere I could, even trying to get him in the crotch again. But he managed to turn his hips just in time to stop me from hitting him where it hurt the most. That strategy worked for perhaps 30 or 40 seconds. Then, eventually, the man simply turned and rammed me with his sheer bulk, sandwiching me between the wall and his stomach. I felt every vertebrae for my arse to my neck click at the same time. He reared back with his hips and slammed into me again, repeating the action three more times before standing back and watching me slowly slide down the wall.

  It was in moments like this that the old adage that size truly matters really proved itself to be timeless wisdom. It didn't matter how fast, agile, or nimble you were, sheer size and power would win nine times out of ten. I was learning that the hard way. It seemed like there was nothing I could do to him. Even kicking him in the crotch had only put him down for a few seconds. I had no plan or strategy, it was too dark, and I was too exhausted. My brain just wouldn't kick into gear. All I could think about was how to create distance, how to stay out of the arc of that deadly sledgehammer. But that too was beginning to fade away as my exhausted body screamed at me to stop, to just lay down for a minute and rest.

  I stood there, my hands hanging dead in front of me, my body curled over like a dry leaf waiting to be stepped on. My breathing was ragged; I think he had cracked a rib or two, but I couldn't be sure with all the other pains and wounds. He raised the hammer again, grinning at me stupidly, and then I noticed a space behind him. It was where he had originally tried to smash me into smithereens and missed, instead he took chunks out of the floor. I realized it was the place where I'd also felt the tremors. This monster had literally stripped a layer of concrete from the floor and exposed the beams underneath.

  An idea occurred to me. Using what felt like the last dregs of energy I had left, I charged at him. His eyes widened, and he took one hand off the hammer to swing at me. I ducked the blow and went straight for his flabby kneecap, punching it as hard as I could with the brass knuckles. He howled in surprise and stumbled a little, grabbing me by the back of my jacket and pulling me off my feet. I sandwiched his wrist with both of the Zap Knucks and sent volts of energy through them. He yelped like a burnt cat, and dropped me. I staggered behind him and then feigned tripping. I heard the hammer scrape across the floor as it whipped in the air again. I leaped forward, rolling with the jump as he took another massive chunk out of the floor. He was red-faced now and sweating, and I could see the desperation in his eyes to finish this fight. Perhaps his strength wasn't as unlimited as it had seemed.

  "Why don't you stay still and let me smush you," he snarled, taking a step forward.

  "Why don't you come and make me, fat boy," I spat back at him, and I saw his face contort.

  "Don't call me fat," he roared, raising the hammer and stepping forward straight into the divot that his sledgehammer had created.

  I saw the floor buckle, but it didn't give. This was perhaps my last chance. I ran at him again to ensure he stayed where he was. He swung the hammer, missed, but the handle caught me on the shoulder. It felt like it had snapped my collarbone. I grunted and fell to one side, but not before I had managed to drop a small handful of Bang Rocks at his feet.

  "I'm gonna turn you into paste and smear your guts all across the…”

  Bang!

  He had stepped straight on the Bang Rocks, and the explosion was awesome. His immense bulk triggered the Bang Rocks and blew a hole in the floor. There was a brief second of suspense. The monstrous man’s eyes widened as he registered what was happening. One second, the monstrous sledgehammer-wielding toddler was there, and the next second he was gone in a puff of dust and cement. I heard him roar and then scream, and then there was a second massive thud and a crack.

  I scurried towards the edge of the hole on my hands and knees, looking down, and saw that his tremendous bulk had smashed through into the next floor. I stared down into the chaos of destroyed cement, shattered wood, and twisted beams.

  "I can't believe he fell for that," I said, chuckling dryly to myself, which then turned into a wheezing cough, and I fell back clutching my injured ribs.

  Bits of the floor were continuing to break, and I realized I needed to get out of here before the whole damn floor gave in. I pulled myself to my feet, wound my treacherous Grapple Cord around my wrist, and half-limped, half-ran to get to the other side of the floor as I heard it caving in behind me.

  Just another couple floors. I’m coming, Sherbert! Although, it might kill me doing so.