'How is he catching up?'
Isaiah caught himself as he momentarily lost his balance. Running barefoot on top of the heavy carpet wasn't helping his already abysmal running speed, not to mention the friction it caused on his soles. It was only because they ran first and Titan was carrying his heavy gear that they managed to gain some ground, but even that was quickly disappearing.
Thud thud thud thud,
Despite his massive size and weight, the giant ran as fast as a four-legged beast. It almost looked like he was flying. Isaiah, being that he was behind Nicole who ran faster than him, began to fire off bolts of lightning at their chaser. But without the luxury of being able to aim his attacks meant that only a few reached their target, and even those that did hit didn't stop the giant's charge the slightest.
'Damn this...' He gritted his teeth. He could feel his heart pounding like crazy, every beat was feeling like he was being beaten by a thick plastic baseball bat. He looked forward and focused on running, in front Nicole was breezing through the hallway, their distance was a bit far but not too far that he couldn't hear her ragged breaths as they went across the mansion and its maze-like interior.
Isaiah continued to look up, having given up on slowing Titan down with his magic he focused most of his consciousness on keeping his foot and breathing as calm as possible when he was suddenly enveloped by a vast shadow. Panic took over his mind and in desperation, Isaiah began wildly throwing the many statues lining up on the side to his back to stop the giant, and though it did meet some level of success, the ache in his head began to grow stronger and stronger, and now his sight was beginning to grow blurry.
'Shit... Shit, shit shit.'
Thinking that all was lost, Isaiah braced himself for death when Nicole sharply turned right. Isaiah quickly followed after her, seeing a statue nearby he held onto its arms to allow him to 'drift' into her direction, this allowed him to turn instantly whilst maintaining his speed but at the cost of his soles and legs which grazed the ground to burn in pain. Titan meanwhile couldn't stop in time and went past through the hallway and crashed into the wall in a massive explosion. This gave them some breathing room, but the race wasn't over yet.
"Stop!" Two guards, who were patrolling the area noticed the two running for them and reached out for their weapons.
Nicole was caught unaware and accidentally slipped her foot, her legs turning red from all the static energy she got from her slide. Isaiah meanwhile slowed himself down and reached his hand out, blowing both guards away towards the door.
"Gah..." Nicole tried to stand back up, but her legs refused to move. What's worse, a thin trickle of blood appeared from where her foot was planted.
"Are you alright?"
"Its... It burns, grk..." She tried to stand again, but as she was unused to such pains it was too much for her to handle. "Agh... I-I can't move."
Isaiah gritted his teeth, he began to wonder if he should continue on helping her or run on his own...
For one, this was a great opportunity. She was cute, well within Isaiah's liking and so, a moment like this to show off his heroism and manliness is hard to come by. This was his moment to shine and show to this woman just how great he was.
But should he?
There is the burden she carries with her as well. The fact that the fat noble was dragging her by hand meant that she held some importance to him and that they would probably do everything in their power to bring her back. Their escape relied heavily on forcing the hunter to chase many rabbits, however, she could be a huge magnet that would force all hunters to prioritize him instead.
So the question now is if its worth all the hassle to assist her? Isaiah feels confident in his abilities but does she have anything to offer other than herself?
Nicole saw Isaiah's hesitant look and felt worried,
"Please... Help me... Please."
Isaiah looked the other way but seeing her crawl desperately towards him made his heart ache, he cannot leave her alone her. No, that would be cruel.
"I took you far enough... Might as well finish this." Isaiah clicked his tongue as Titan was now only a few meters away from them.
Isaiah confronted him.
'I've dealt with you once, I can do it again.'
Titan, seeing that rather than run away they are determined to fight, slowed down and took out his axe.
The fight was quick,
Isaiah crushed all the statues around them but failed to use them as missiles against the giant as his head ached like never before.
"Gah!" He gasped out loud and fell to the ground.
Titan, who had raised his guard, was rather surprised to see this sudden turn of events, but quickly made his move.
"You were brave enough, trying to fight against me... But a fool you are, thinking you could beat me."
"God, damn it!" Isaiah spat out his anger, and lightning raged in his body. "This stupid magic..." The lighting on his body began to intensify before suddenly disappearing, "DIE!"
Titan reached his axe out to shield himself, but his speed could not overcome the speed of light, and was struck by lightning. An explosion rocked the mansion as Titan's massive frame was thrown deep into the halls. Before he could stand back up, Isaiah reached out to the roof and collapsed it. His head once more ached, but it was a lot more softer than it was before.
"Haa, haa, haa, haa..." Isaiah wiped his face, he realized that there was blood now pouring from his head. "This stupid weakness." He turned around and looked at Nicole, he wanted to look brave and smile at her to raise more points, but rather than find a face full of admiration, all he saw was her face filled with worry,
"Look out!"
It was too late,
The next thing Isaiah knew, he felt something hard hit his back. Then in the next second, he felt wind rushing his side as his face crashed straight at a wooden door. Bringing it down along with him. Titan was unscathed from the attack, and as Isaiah looked away he threw the stone ceiling that Isaiah had used to trap him and broke his back.
"Aaaaah! Aaaaah!" Isaiah screamed and cried. His whole body felt painful and painless at the same time, his mind was filled with thoughts of dying, pain, sadness, and all other negative emotions. His legs felt grainy, his face felt wet, and his whole body felt was figuratively and literally pushed down by heavy stone. It was a miracle that he still lived, yet at the same time a curse as he felt pain throughout every inch of his body, both inside and out. "Aaah! Mama! Mama!"
"Herr mage..." Nicole ran towards Isaiah and held his hand. The stone ceiling was too heavy for her to carry, but she had to do something. "Err, err..."
In her hesitation Titan's shadow enveloped them both. With one hand he lifted the stone ceiling,
"Your, alive..." His voice shook, "Impressive."
"Stop..." Nicole mumbled as Titan turned to her, "Please... Stop this."
"Then you will return... Quietly."
Sob... Nicole began to cry, having almost escaped this broke her heart...
"I... I dont..."
Titan reached out towards her and in that moment, accidently broke the cuffs that held her back.
"Please..." Her tears ran through her cheek and dropped at Isaiah's body just as Titan dragged her away, little did she know she activated her magical affinity.
For you see, she was born with an affinity for a certain rare type of magic, that of healing.
Suddenly, Isaiah's body was enveloped in white light as his wounds began to heal, even his bones began to take shape and reform. Panful as it was, her magical ability was extraordinary.
"Ugh, Ah..." Isaiah moaned in pain as he slowly got up,
"Healing? Titan gasped as he left Nicole in the hallway and returned to Isaiah, prepared to finish his job, "Blame yourself..."
Titan's body somehow slipped causing him to punch the air as his whole frame turned upside down and crash into the ground, then the ground shook as Isaiah lifted his arms, every single thing within their room began to fly. They were in a large ballroom where tables were being set by servants who left in a hurry, hundreds of cutlery, tables, chairs, and other small paraphernalia began to fly high up in the sky and assault Titan.
Titan held his hand out as he stood up, but the silverware's noise and thick wall covered his vision and when the tornado ended they were both gone. There were three exits from the ballroom. Though it may be difficult to figure out exactly where the two had run off, Titan knew that all three would converge in the exit. And thus he went through the middle path.
Both Isaiah and Nicole ran as fast as they could, having taken the left door and both unaware of the layout of the mansion. That said, they had begun to unconsciously relax and slow down a bit after realizing that Titan was nowhere to be seen or heard. As they turned a corner, Nicole froze up in shock as she saw Titan standing not too far from her, she turned her back and bumped into Isaiah,
"Wha... What's going..."
"Titan..." She looked around and found an open room from the side, "Quick!" She pointed over to the room and the two made their way inside as quickly as they could, they didn't notice the wet floor on the ground and the two fell into each other, buckets of water spilling all over them as mops and brooms and all manner of cleaning materials fell around their bodies. The smell of dirty water, strong soaps, and chemicals permeated in their bodies.
The whole place was a mess, it also didn't help that the room was pitch black with the door closed. Thus, to not create more noise, Nicole simply stayed still in a very compromising position on top of Isaiah. It also didn't help that the pitch darkness of the room made both very conscious of each other. Both were healthy, young individuals after all.
He was already enamored by Nicole's beauty, but now he got to feel her whole body up close. Her soft but warm breaths were brushing the side of his neck constantly, making him blush redder, while his whole body burned hot from the lust now beginning to boil deep inside him. Though he did his best to suppress himself, her proximity and the touch of her skin didn't help at all. Even with his best efforts, as this was his first time having such close contact with a lady, his lust began to explode, the lewd thoughts on his mind simply wouldn't disappear with every passing second.
'Little one, calm down... Don't rise, don't rise... Don't destroy my image now...' Isaiah lamented his lack of underwear as he began to think of plain and simple things like houses and buildings, roads and bridges, beaches, and the women in bikinis, hills, and mountains that looked like breast. 'Calm down, calm down...'
Nicole herself became very aware of Isaiah, she was able to pick up his emotions rather clearly. Despite her efforts, the weight of the mops from behind weighed down on her making it rather difficult to separate herself from him for fear that they might make a sound. And then, there was also one thing that she had a hard time trying to ignore no matter how hard she tried.
'Settle down,' She whispered, her voice partly shaken after she felt the poking thing between her legs, 'Not now...'
However those words spoken by a beauty had the opposite effects, especially the words 'Not now' which implied something else entirely. This broke Isaiah's reasoning, and with the possibility of dying without every feeling the warmth of a woman, his gave up suppressing himself and his body now began demanding to feel her even more. Isaiah tried to stop himself, he knew it was wrong but his hands began to move by themselves, they first touched her back.
He felt her shaking body suddenly go still when he moved his hand on her back. He felt guilty and told himself not to continue but when she gripped his shoulder tightly, it was giving him mixed signals. Just as he was about to continue with his adventure, the sudden loud thud of Titan's footsteps made him go limper than a man with erectile dysfunction.
Gone were all notions of perversion in his thoughts as he waited and listened to the sounds of his steps. Even Nicole who took rapid breaths had grown very quiet, both had stifled their breaths. Soon, the footsteps grew quieter and quieter, before eventually growing silent. Nicole was the first to break the silence, she asked in the lowest voice possible,
"Is he gone?"
"I... I think so." Isaiah took a deep breath and began to move out of Nicole, "That..."
"It... It's alright, it wasn't your fault..."
"It... Still, I am sorry."
The room was still dark, and the two, though no longer touching each other were still aware of each other's presence. Silence befell them as they tried to figure out how exactly they could move out of this embarrassing situation when they felt the air suddenly drop. Isaiah grabbed Nicole and shielded her when the door exploded into a thousand pieces, followed by Titan pulling away the entire front wall, the stone crumbling from his back... Light entered the room instantly, and their wet figures emerged. Nicole froze still as she stared at Titan's eyes while Isaiah looked back,
All of a sudden, Titan grabbed Isaiah by the neck and lifted him.
"Gaah!"
Isaiah flailed about choking, he vainly smacked his fist onto Titan's massive arms as his head turned blue,
Nicole broke out of her fear and began to throw at the items that littered their area in an effort to free Isaiah,
"Stop!" She loudly demanded as she struck him with a broom, only for the handle to break, "Put him down! Why are you doing this?"
Titan turned his eyes to Nicole and quietly glared at her. Being subjected to such an intense hate-filled gaze made her breathing grow heavier and her legs began to shake before giving in entirely. With her now silent, Titan turned back to Isaiah only to find him holding his helmet, as his palms erupted into an intense storm. The electricity began to surround his helmet and enter his body,
"Gah!"
The large knight recoiled in pain as he let go of him. Isaiah took a deep breath to keep himself steady and without wasting even more movements, turned back and crushed the wall behind them. Taking Nicole by the hand, they then both leaped down and crashed into the ground below, a bush of some kind cushioning their fall. Their fall wasn't too deep and thus both managed to get away with only minor injuries.
"Are you alright?" Isaiah asked Nicole who still looked scared,
"Y... Yes, yes... How about you?"
"Good, now, let's go..."
"Right."
The two then proceeded away from the mansion as quickly as they could, thankfully the guards were all busy dealing with the slave revolt inside thus they met minimal resistance. What little did intercept them were swiftly dealt by Isaiah with a swipe of his hand.
They finally reached the wall, and here Isaiah used his powers to create little holes for their feet to latch onto as they climbed up, above he paused to survey the mansion, sweat drenched his whole body with stagnant water making it feel even more sticky, but still he felt happy. He had escaped,
He could see Titan staring back from the hole but the giant seemed to have given up. He raised the middle finger before dropping onto the other side and disappeared into the forest