Gifted Ones

Chapter 23 Haven

The statue opens its stone eyelids, revealing the lifeless marble orbs underneath them. It rolls it's shoulders back and lifts the hammer by its feet, raising it above its head and sinking into a fighting stance. Everyone starts yelling at once, our voices mixing in a harmony of panic and fear.

"We have to fight that thing?" Chase calls out.

"Just one of us!" Garret adds. "The voice said to choose a champion, so only one of us can fight it at a time."

"The weapons! Behind it! We have to defeat it using those!" Morgan explains. "That's the challenge. He's signaling us out, so our strongest member will be all we have!"

"Who do we choose?!" I ask, watching the statue swing the hammer around its head.

"CHASE PARKS!" Chase yells immediately. "Our champion is Chase Parks!"

The mysterious force that had him pinned suddenly lets go of him and he drops to the floor in a crouch. I see the statue immediately focus on him. Emotion surges in my chest and I yell out "no, don't!" But Chase doesn't listen to me, instead dodging around the monster to the cave of weapons. I suck in my breath and keep my eyes on him, silently praying for his continued safety.

The statue's hammer shoots towards Chase at top speed, missing his head by mere inches as he ducks quickly. I gasp out loud as he drops into a roll, coming up right next to a metal , club-like object. As the hammer's momentum is spent on the backswing, Chase readies himself and leaps at the statue with incredible speed and strength. There is a loud, destructive, crashing sound and pieces of rock go flying from its shoulder as the club hits its target. Chase lands in a crouch on the other side, all attention focused on the statue.

But rock cannot feel pain, so even as Chase orients himself the hammer is swinging right towards him. With a gasp he leaps back, the head just missing his face by inches as it slams into floor where he was standing seconds ago. He stumbles and falls, lying prone on the now cracked cave floor. The statue lifts its hammer once again to crush him.

I think about the relative mass of the great stone weapon compared to Chase's human frame, and it's all I can do not to call out in distress. One hit from that thing would break every bone in his body, smashing the life out of him. Whereas it would take many, many powerful blows to incapacitate the giant. Considering the fact that it could lose its head and still function pulls Chase's chances down even further. I feel my heart stop as the hammer swings down in an arch towards him.

Chase rolls desperately out of the way, narrowly avoiding death once again as he scrapes through the shards of debris on the floor. I hear him grunt as he gets to his feet, and see that he's bleeding profusely from a long cut on his forearm. He winces as he stands, but has no time to recover before the giant is after him again.

And so the battle continues, Chase barely getting away from every attack while landing a few scattered blows on his enemy one at a time. The whole thing transforms in front of me into this bizarre dance, the smaller performer twisting around the larger as he tries to catch him. Chase has to have some serious jumping ability to be physically able to hinder the statue at all. I can see him kick off of walls, debris, and even the giant itself to reach its head and shoulders. With every swing of the hammer I'm sure that it will finally take him down once and for all, but somehow Chase manages to avoid him every time.

Eventually his own attacks start to make themselves apparent. Both arms have suffered damage, as well as various spots on the legs and torso. But I can tell that Chase is getting tired. The swings from his club have significantly less power behind him, and most of his attacks are focused on the lower half of the statue. It's a good tactical move, but also lets Chase stay low most of the time, no energy wasted on reaching a higher target. His breathing has picked up to the point of near panting, and the empty space between him and the hammer as he dodges has decreased significantly. I'm worried for him.