Balm in Gilead: Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Taylor vs Goliath

The towering monster pushed itself to its feet. Between gargantuan limbs, I could see flashes of Lili’s worried face.

I twisted the hammer in my hands, steel fingers against steel haft.

The Goliath’s arena formed a rough circle, with walls of jagged rock leading up to a domed roof. I stood just where the walls started to curve in towards the exit door, about halfway past the midpoint. The floor boss barred me from the other member of my Familia, and left me with no way through but through it.

“Taylor!” Lili shouted. “Just run! Lili will be fine.”

The Goliath turned, glaring down at me. It shook its arms once, a bizarrely human gesture. I shifted my feet against the stone.

“How will you make it back?” I asked.

The Goliath lumbered forward, slowly this time. No more wild charges or flying tackles. This thing wanted to crush me like a bug.

“Lili will figure it out!” she shouted.

I laughed once, short and sharp. “Don’t ask me—” The Goliath swung, an overhead swat to smash me into the stone. “To abandon my Familia!”

I swung back, not targeting the palm, for the Goliath was far too large. Instead, my hammer found the pad of a finger, bending it backwards as the rest of its hand hit the floor with a stone shattering crash.

The monster roared as I danced my way backwards. I ducked and rolled beneath a limp slap. The moment I regained my feet, I darted forward. The closer I was, the harder it would be for the Goliath to see me.

“Then let me help!”

I dodged a wild stomp by jumping to the Goliath’s other foot. My hammer dug into its rough skin, deep enough to wound, but not to debilitate.

“Don’t!” I shouted. I spun my raven’s beak, slamming it into the Goliath’s ankle hard enough to make it stagger. “The dungeon!”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Lili take a step back and lower her crossbow. The dungeon had rules. You could break those rules by, say, attacking a boss outside of its arena where it couldn’t reach you. But if you did, the dungeon got to break other rules.

Right now—I hissed out a breath as I rolled away from a series of stomps that bounced me off of the stone with their aftershocks—I could dodge. I could maybe even maneuver my way free. But if Lili shot the Goliath and got the dungeon’s attention, it could kill me. It could spawn new monsters to bog me down, or collapse the floor, or maybe even spawn another Goliath.

Sometimes, you had to face the monster alone.

I slammed the slammed the spike of my hammer into the ground, raven’s beak carving a divot in the rock. I could feel the ache settling into my muscles. But it wouldn’t slow me down like it would another adventurer. Not with my skill.

“Come on then.” I reset my grip. “Let’s see which one of us breaks first.”

The Goliath roared. I roared in answer and when we charged, I could almost make myself believe it was my footsteps shaking the ground.

It threw its body forward, a massive shadow to crush everything beneath it. I turned in my sprint hard enough that my boots did shatter the stone. In two steps, I broke free from the floor boss’s looming shadow. It crashed to the ground beside me. I jumped over a wild sweep of its arm and landed on its back.

With another roar I sank my hammer into its skin, again and again. My raven’s beak found it’s spine, digging deep enough to draw thick, oily blood. The Goliath screamed as I hammered the same spot. It rolled.

I jumped.

Distantly, I heard Lili hurling insults at the monster in lieu of crossbow bolts. They proved about as effective. I dashed forward as it climbed back to its feet.

A hard blow to the ankle provoked another sweep. I jumped over its wrist, and the Goliath’s eyes flashed red.

“Taylor! Arm!”

I swung my hammer blind, somehow, it hit the Goliath’s other hand. The force of the blow rang up my own arms, even as I tumbled through the air.

I heard a snap of wind as the Goliath closed its grip on nothing.

On its knees, it herded me backwards, slamming, thrashing, baiting me to get close so it could try to snatch me up again. Behind me, there was the door back to the upper floors of the dungeon. I could run; on its knees like this it probably couldn’t throw itself far enough to catch me. But I’d already promised Lili that I wouldn’t leave her behind.

I slammed my hammer against the floor. “Come on then!” I cracked the stone with another smash. “Just gonna kneel for me?”

Like most bullies, the Dungeon hated when someone stood up to it. The Goliath gnashed its teeth and charged. It lumbered across the ground on four massive limbs.

I rushed to meet it. Once more, I jumped over its clumsy grasping sweep. My feet found the back of its wrist, and I leapt again, spinning in the air. My hammer snaked out and snagged the thumb of the Goliath’s other hand as it tore through the air. I landed on its elbow, sprinting up the thing’s massive arm, hammer drawn back.

I swung hard enough to crack bone. I felt the snap as something gave away in my palm. Metal groaned against metal, the Goliath screamed, the hooked beak of my hammer driving deep into its eye with all my weight behind it.

The haft twisted and snapped.

Suddenly, I was falling down it’s back. I gained my feet and jumped. Behind me, the monster continued to scream.

My boots pounded against the floor, twenty feet from the exit, then ten, five.

Once more Lili shouted. “Look out, Taylor!”

This time, though, I was closer. I didn’t throw myself to the side, instead I sprinted forward, feet pounding, arms driving. I scooped Lili up with my metal arm and dove. We soared down the exit tunnel.

A massive finger hooked my ankle for one gut wrenching, heart stopping, instant, and then I tumbled free, down the stone hallway. The Goliath roared and scraped, buried up to its shoulder in tunnel and unable to go any further.

I stood. At my side, Lili sat up, rubbing her head. “Lili thinks you should have dodged…” she groaned.

The Goliath slammed its hand against the floor of the tunnel, fingers scrapping at the stone as if it could drag itself forward. I looked at the remains of my weapon. The haft had snapped right under the head, leaving behind a twisted spike of metal over half my height. I flipped it over, took one gathering step, and stabbed the spike down into the back of the Goliath’s hand.

It screamed again. I pulled back my prosthetic, metal fingers clenched into a fist, glinting black and gold in the light of the dungeon walls.

With a scream of my own I hammered the spike down, down through the Goliath’s hand, down through the bone, down, down, down into stone and through. Once, twice, thrice I struck until I’d nailed the monster in place.

Pressed as it was into the tunnel, it would have a difficult time ripping its hand free. My gift to whomever came by to kill it.

“Come on, Lili.” I stepped back, cradling my own broken palm. “Let’s go.”

Lili looked at the hand, then to me. With a grunt she stood. “Why was Lili even worried?” she asked.

“Because you care,” I replied.

“I care that you lost your weapon at the very start of our delve.” She grumbled something unkind under her breath. “If we were just going to turn around, we should have done it before the giant boss monster…”

I shrugged. Some foes you could run from, others…

I heard footsteps and paused, holding my hand in front of Lili. Another Familia came up the stairs from the safe zone. A small group of women, armed with fine weapons and little armor. They had tanned skin and dark hair, laughing and joking loudly as they came into view. Lili and I stepped to the side to let them pass.

Naturally, when one of them caught sight of the Goliath, they came to a stop.

“The fuck did you do, newbie?” one of the women asked.

“Had some trouble with the Goliath.” I waved my hand at its hand. “But I softened it up for you.”

“Ha!” She walked up to it, poking it with the tip of her spear. “What happened to the rest of your Familia, meat? Did it get caught when you ran away.”

“Just the two of us.” I folded my arms. “It wasn’t supposed to be here.”

“Well, it is.” She turned to face me. “And now you’ve made a problem for us.”

The other women laughed.

“The way I see it, I did you a favor,” I replied.

“Funny. That’s a good joke.” She grinned at her Familia members. “Isn’t that a good joke?”

They laughed again.

“So.” She turned back to me. “Now that we’re done joking, what are you gonna do to make it up to us?”

“I think giving you an easy kill on the Goliath is enough,” I said.

“This thing?” She walked closer, planting a foot on its hand. “We’re the Ishtar fucking Familia. We could eat the Goliath for breakfast. You’re gonna have to—”

With a massive jerk, the Goliath tore its hand free of the spike, bloody fingers squeezing tight around its new prey. Whatever I was going to ‘have to’ do was ripped out of the tunnel with a scream and a gust of wind.

“Better go help her.” I jerked my head to the newly opened tunnel. Beyond, the Goliath roared. “Unless you want to hear more of my jokes.”