The Battle of Giants

Nessa bounced off his hammer and swung her arm backwards. Half the metal split off of it, and by the time she landed, she had two giant arms, each made of fifty swords, and each about the size of a person. She frowned

“Only a hundred swords? I’d really like some more to work with.”

Benkei glowered “Each of my nine hundred and ninety-nine swords has a deep history with me and was earned through hard-fought combat. They cannot simply be mass-produced like some cheap-”

“Only triple digits?” Nessa pouted. “And I thought people got more competent after I died.” She turned and called back to Marlo, who was staring at her stunned “You did not even have a thousand?”

“Is… Is she just ignoring what he’s saying?” Marlo thought. Nessa shrugged.

“Oh well. I still want them!” Benkei stepped in and swung the great mallet from the right. Nessa jumped up, and span as she did so, bringing a fist around. Benkei saw it coming and blocked it, but the metal split apart, reforming as chains. They wrapped around Benkei’s arm and trussed it up tightly.

“Got you!” Nessa brought the other hand down, and the metal fused into a point, which hurtled towards Benkei’s scalp, as his head turned to react to the chains. His free hand, however, flashed up to meet it, faster than Marlo’s eyes could track. One second it was going to split him down the middle, the next it was trapped in two fingers and a thumb.

“By the way you fight, you appear to be… eighth, no, seventh century. Likely European due to your aggressive attack style. That places you three hundred years behind me. Despite that, I can’t name you at all. Of course, if you were anyone of any relevance, you would be my ally.” His trussed hand grabbed the chains and jerked them. Nessa was brought down rapidly, and into a knee to the gut that resulted in an awful hacking noise from her.

“If DVIN didn’t want you, I don’t have much to fear.” He snarled. Marlo’s eyes widened. His ticket out of here was not looking well after that. Nessa spat in Benkei’s face, and as he recoiled, the chains began to move, slivering up his arm. The spike in her other arm moved too, turning into cables that wound up and up, slipping through the chains to trap him in a helix. At his neck, the two strands spread out and grew sharp, jagged blades all along the inside loop. A bear trap, the two constituent pieces grinding against each other so hard they released awful scraping noises that made Marlo wince. It snapped shut.

Marlo blinked. It had just been around Benkei’s neck. And it had definitely clamped down. Very hard. Easily hard enough to kill a person, like, say him. So why had it done nothing to Benkei? He rubbed his eyes. Yes. It hadn’t even hit him. That’s because, in the time the jaws had closed, his head had gone from in the grasp of the trap, to completely below it. Not because he had ducked, that would have made the jaws go through his head, and he was too bound to do so anyway. Bindings that were now not even touching him. That was because he had shrunk. His entire body had shrunk, making him still enormous, but only two or so metres, smaller than Nessa. However, his strength clearly hadn’t left him. He demonstrated this by reaching out and grabbing the chains and metal cables that couldn’t close on him in time. His footing widened, and he leant back, dragging the chains with him, and picking Nessa up off the ground. He span, sending the chains whipping around and around, with Nessa on the end. Marlo could faintly see her, little more than a blur. Then he brought them down.

With a massive crash of dust, Nessa was slammed into the gravel. Marlo’s heart dropped, and he leapt off the floating platform. He fell onto all fours and ran forwards.

“Nessa!” He called. He pushed into the dust cloud and tried to look around, but his eyes immediately started streaming. He was trying not to breathe and feeling around with his arms. Then, the dust cloud parted, and he looked up. At Benkei.

“Oh no.” He gasped. He tried to turn, but a hand almost as big as him grabbed him around the torso, and he yelled in pain as massive fingers hefted him. He was lifted up, out of the dust cloud, and stared down in shock. Benkei was big again, possibly even bigger than he had been at the start, but he looked… off. His proportions were wrong, arms too big, torso too thin, legs too long.

“Did you believe I would not have an ability of my own? That I could not eat Noble flesh also? I have the ability to control the size of each of my body parts. Bindings do not work on me, and your strength means nothing against mine. You should have left my blades and ran. Though likely, even that would not let you escape my grasp. Now, let us ensure you can’t run again.”

His grip tightened, and Marlo grit his teeth. He was going to break his bones! He couldn’t even take in a breath and felt like a toy in a dog’s mouth.

“Do your worst.” He managed to choke out. Benkei’s grip tightened further, and he couldn’t hold his screams any longer.

“Oh God stop! Don’t do your worst, stop, stop, please I’ll do whatever you ask, just let me go!”

Benkei’s brow furrowed, but then, from behind him, a huge mass appeared. A chain link fence hurtled into his forearm from above, the posts stabbing into the ground on either side, and the main body rolling up and pushing his forearm down. The platform hurtled in from behind and crunched into the back of Benkei’s distended hand. He grunted, and let go of Marlo on reflex, who plummeted down, into the arms of Nessa. She looked a little shaky on her feet, and was bleeding from the head, but was still standing.

“Do not be cruel to my new friend.” Her face was a picture of rage “Even if he is pathetic.”

“Thanks?” Marlo wiggled in her grip “Can you put me down now?”

“I expected more from three hundred years of advancements.” She continued, ignoring Marlo. Benkei’s eyes narrowed, and his other arm swelled and bulged, muscle straining against rapidly stretching skin. It tore the fence off, and he shrank them back down, reaching back and gripping blades

“Seven hundred Swords: Tetsubō!” The swords, slotted together, blades overlapping as the hilts merged. Within a second, Benkei was twirling a colossal iron staff, about the size of a telephone pole.

“Tell me you’re not still trying to steal that.” Marlo muttered.

“Not leaving without it!” Nessa insisted.

“Do you think so little of me that you believe you could take it?” Benkei swung the pole in from above. Nessa slung Marlo over her shoulder and reached up. Marlo managed to look back in time to see her catch the iron pole. It stopped dead, and the faint humming showed that she hadn’t caught it, but was instead repelling it, stopping it just short of crushing the pair of them.

“Actually, it is a compliment.” She called, through gritted teeth “The best thing about you is your sword collection. You should be proud to have one this good. It will be better in my hands than yours!”

Benkei couldn’t attack her with his weapon, but soon he’d realise that. Just his raw strength and size changing would be enough to take Nessa down. He had to get them out of there, but how did he do that if Nessa was so set on the collection?

“Nessa!” he called. “I just remembered… This guy didn’t actually steal my swords!”

“He did not?” Nessa’s head snapped around to stare at him.

“No.”

“Hmmm.” She grinned “Well that means you like me so much you gave me a hundred of another person’s swords. I knew you were my best friend!”

“Oh, God.”

“I have got to get them now. Hold on!” She shoved her hands up, and the resultant repelling blast forced the staff up. She leapt up with it, and, as Marlo grabbed on for dear life, landed on the staff, and ran down it. Benkei’s eyes widened. She was running straight down, anchoring her feet to the metal with magnetism. Poor Marlo was slung around like a sack, desperately trying not to fall.

“Four hundred Swords: Masakari!” The swords under Nessa broke apart. Her determined gaze on the weapons didn’t falter though, not even when they were swirling around her. Nor did it waver even slightly as she fell towards the giant axe that appeared. Instead, she kicked her feet into the blade as it came up to meet her. With a blast of repelling energy, she shot forwards, directly towards Benkei. Her fists lashed out and smashed into his cheek. He fell down, landing with a crash, and Nessa rolled free.

“And that is half!” She clicked her fingers. The axe flew towards her right hand, and the cables that had been the hundred other swords to her left. Marlo groaned.

“Please never do that again. My body’s not made to go in that many different directions that fast.”

“Hmmm.” Nessa stared at the pieces of metal in her hand. She clapped them together, and they fused, turning into one long axe on a chain. She wrapped it around her hands and began to spin it back and forth. Marlo hurriedly pulled his limbs in before they were cut off.

“You will not take this from me again!” Nessa yelled.

“They’re my blades!” Benkei was glowing with rage. Blood was dripping from his nose, but Nessa looked much worse. He took a step forwards, and by the time the foot landed, it was triple the size it had been when it set off. He loomed over the pair, body mutated so his shoulders blotted out the landscape above, and his fists blocked any sideways escape, each bigger than a car.

“There’s no avoiding this!” He roared. Nessa smiled.

“Do not need to. Why do you think I jumped over here? I didn’t just come to this checkpoint with no metal, and that last hop over you just got me in range of it!” She clapped her hands, and Benkei leapt back, staring into the distance expectantly. Which meant he completely missed Nessa transforming her axe, pulling it in around her arm, and making it into a spire which lunged for his neck. “Kidding!” She yelled gleefully “I forgot to bring any here today. Why do you think I want yours so bad?”

Benkei was already leaning back, so he managed to lean back further and avoid it, just. But Nessa pointed the fingers of her free hand down, and the motion of the spire followed, the metal bending and twisting with another terrible screech, curving into a V shape, and stabbing into, and through, Benkei’s left leg. He bellowed an indiscriminate cry in pain and raised that leg. It shrank, muscles folding and skin sucking up into itself. It shrank so fast the metal broke, but now his foot was off the ground. Nessa ripped down with both her hands, and the remaining four hundred and ninety-nine blades on Benkei’s body pulled down, taking him with them, flipping him and sending him sprawling.

“Now Nessa!” Marlo yelled, suddenly seeing the path to getting out of here.

“Already doing it!” Nessa clapped hands and pulled them back towards herself. The swords followed, slicing through Benkei’s robe and flying towards her. Dozens upon dozens swirled around her in a tornado, as the spire she’d stabbed into him retracted and transformed with them. Within a second, she stood on a large disc of metal, composed of all nine hundred and ninety-nine swords.

“See you later!” She waved to Benkei. As he got up, the disc lifted off and started to take the pair away.

“Wait!” He yelled. He stomped a foot like a sumo wrestler and screamed “Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Blades: Nokogiri!” The disc stopped dead, then started to return, unravelling as it did so.

“No, no, no!” Marlo said, skipping around to not fall through the cracks. Nessa plucked him out of the air, chucked him onto the back he had just escaped, and clapped her hands again, veins sticking out on her arms from the strain. The swords froze, as the owner and the thief vied for dominance.

“You shall not…” Benkei became a flesh eruption, a huge mass of meat which resolved into an enormous hand grabbing either side of the disc, and a huge head yelling “…hinder me from meeting with him again!”

Marlo shrank back in terror, given full view of this beast on Nessa’s back. The mouth shouting at them was gigantic and cavernous. The arms that loomed on either side were bulging with misshapen muscle, literal squirming and shifting under the surface, bloating further and further. How could any human end up like this? This was a monster!

“Nessa. Give him the swords!” He yelled, terrified. From below him, he heard Nessa laugh. He looked up, over her huge, wide shoulders, to see that her face was splashed with a wide, mad grin.

“Funny. That was my exact idea.” She span her hands like she was turning a DJ turntable, and the disc moved with her. She cackled maniacally, as the blades span, faster and faster, spinning round and round, and Marlo fought to hold on. The bladed rim sliced deep into Benkei’s hands, cutting into what should have been the webbing between thumb and forefinger. Foul-smelling blood gushed forwards in a torrent, and the disc began to slide out of his rapidly weakening grip, inching towards freedom as it sprayed crimson.

“I… will… not…”

Nessa looked back “See, this proves I deserve these swords more than you. I know how to handle them. If you’re interested in learning, I would start by not doing what you are doing!”

Which one last sickening slice, the disc cut free, and hurtled, up and away. Benkei bellowed, but the slicing seemed to have damaged his growth rate, and he couldn’t extend quickly enough to catch up. He likely couldn’t even grip them again, not with those sliced hands.

“Shame.” Nessa said “I wanted to get his thumbs. That’ll stop him from chasing me. Whenever someone attacks you, you go for the thumbs. Makes it way easier.”

Marlo stared at her. “Are we safe? Did we get away?”

“Looks like it.” Nessa peeked over the edge. “I would say this has been a very successful mission.”

“Was it?” Marlo asked. “What were you trying to do by attacking the checkpoint?”

“Oh, that?” Nessa laughed. “That was a terrible failure. I was retreating when I saw you. I lost three of my closest friends today.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Marlo was thrown off by the difference between her words, and her behaviour. This disjoint continued when she shrugged “Oh well. New slots are open, and you have just filled all three. With a gift of this many swords, we’re now bonded forever.”

“Yeah…” Marlo thought about how desperate Benkei had been, holding onto a spinning blade “I think Benkei was pretty bonded to these too. Someone important must have given them to him. Nessa, do you think you could-”

“Nope.” Nessa crossed her arms. “These are mine, I earned them, fair and square. If he wants them back, then too bad. Besides if I went down there, he would kill me.”

“Really? You did okay against him there.”

“Would not have lasted. Were I not a tactical genius, we both would have perished.”

“Ha.” Marlo thought about how they were describing him, the sudden interest Hermes had taken in him, Benkei’s orders to do non-lethal damage. “I don’t know about that. So… where are we going?”

“I am going to regroup with my cell.”

“Your what?”

“My rebellion cell. We act in small groups that know nothing about each other to maintain our forces. However, we absolutely failed today. We took heavy losses… gosh it was half of our crew. We may just be disbanded!” Her smile never dropped.

“You don’t seem too worried.” Marlo observed.

“Oh, I could not possibly get angry or sad near such a large amount of good metal.” Nessa stroked the hard metallic floor lovingly. “Strong negative emotions tarnish the metal.”

“Right…” Marlo inched away from her. Now, how did he get away from this mad woman?

“And of course, we still have four members. Me, the old man, Monticello, and you now!”

Marlo’s eyes widened “Woah, I didn’t agree to anything-”

“You do not get the choice to. The DVIN council want you, for some reason, and that means rebellion is the smart option. Also, you have been spotted with me, stealing an artifact from a Knight of the High Council. Any chance at a normal afterlife is absolutely ruined! I would hate to be you right now!”

“I… see.” Marlo looked down.

“Please do not get sad. The swords will get upset.” When Marlo didn’t respond, Nessa tore her gaze away. He was staring at the floor, motionless. “What is wrong, new best friend? Worried about the new state of permanent chaos and discomfort you have been thrown into, likely with very little warning since you died recently and lost all of your old life? Struggling to come to terms with the fact everything you knew and cared about is completely beyond your reach, and you now need to adapt to a whole new way of life, that being that you do not have one?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“Well, I know just who can help. Monticello is great with moody stuff like that.” She looked up. “Oh wow. We’re a lot closer to the mainland than I thought. I wonder when the gravitational switch will-”

Marlo suddenly found himself falling, away from the disc. In a sudden, sickening lurch, up became down, down became up, and he became airborne. He plummeted, suddenly and ferociously, towards the ground, which had been above him but was now below him. He flailed madly, and for the millionth time today, began to scream.

“-happen.” Nessa finished, falling next to him, and stroking her chin. “Maybe it has already happened, and I have not noticed? No, impossible. My eyes are as sharp as a hawk’s!”