Gage didn’t have a lot of time to act. “Rima – whatever device you used to shrink me – give it to me.”

Rima fixed her gaze on the little man in her fist. “What? But – ”

“They can’t see me, and I’m not Silenced,” hissed Gage urgently. “Give me the item and I’ll be able to shrink them!”

She nodded and dropped to one knee, simultaneously lowering Gage to the floor. Then she drew out a swirling, black and blue orb from her cum-soaked cloak and handed it to Gage. To Rima, the orb was about the size or a marble, but to Gage it was like a beach ball. Still, he hefted it easily enough. Now, he just had to activate it, and…

“Watch out!” Gage twisted his head just in time to see a building-sized finger collide with him and Rima. The impact easily knocked the orb from his hands, and all three of them were sent flying across the bed. Pain exploded in his head and throughout his body, sending spots of color across his vision. With the simple swat of a hand, Alicia had essentially incapacitated him, so large was the disparity in their levels.

Still, it was unclear whether or not any of the giantesses were aware of his presence. Owing to his lighter weight, Gage went much farther than Rima or Charis, so he appeared to be out of any immediate danger. Unfortunately, the marble had flown yet further, and in his weakened state, it would be a monumental effort to simply retrieve it – but he had to.

Setting his lips into a grim line, Gage took stock of his injuries: he couldn’t put any weight on his right leg, and his insides stabbed with every breath. He reached into his inventory for a Healing item, only to discover that almost all the his consumables had been crushed by the giantess’s finger. Forcing himself to remain calm, he saw that he still had a Speed Charm and a Healing Salve. The latter wouldn’t do much – it was a minor healing item that wouldn’t stand up to his present grievous injuries. As for the former… well, he would at least be faster. Moving anything at all would hurt like crazy, but he would fight through it.

He activated both, and felt his breathing relax slightly. He didn’t know why he even bothered to get an item as useless as a Healing Salve, but obviously it helped now. He looked ahead to where he saw the marble, a tiny speck of blue in a sea of white blanket. He cast a glance backwards, where once again his eyes met a horrifying scene: two tiny women at the mercy of cruel giantesses. Fending off the now familiar feeling of helplessness, Gage dragged his good leg forward, trying his best not to put any weight on his bad one.

He probably looked ridiculous. Even in his hobbled state, the boost of the Speed Charm allowed him to move at a jogger’s pace – sort of a superhuman speed shuffle. By his estimation, the orb was only a few hundred yards away. On the other hand, with each step, pain lanced through his legs and back, and worse than that, he could feel his lungs crackling and fluttering in his chest. Still, if he could just have a minute, he could get to the item, activate it, and they would be home free.

“Enough playing around, Alicia,” whined one of the girls. “I wanna really hurt them.”

This elicited a peel of giggles from all the girls, but it sent Gage’s heart racing faster – each beat rattled his chest. Gritting his teeth, he forced his screaming legs forward, and he sucked in air through hissing lungs. The pain threatened to overwhelm him. His vision blurred, and he concentrated only on lifting one foot in front of the other.

Suddenly, a shriek daggered through the haze of his consciousness and he looked back again. His eyes widened, and his throat caught. Charis hung in the air, her arm between Alicia’s thumb and index finger – if you could call it an arm. Even Gage could see that the limb had been completely pulverized, crushed by the awesome pressure of the giantess. Bones, muscle, and tendon had all been reduced to a thin mush covered by skin, like a scarecrow’s paper appendage.

Gage spun around and redoubled his efforts, struck suddenly by white-hot rage. His fury crashed through him like a great wave, blasting aside the profound agony of his limbs and chest like mere irritations. He couldn’t stand it any longer. All of this scrambling and fleeing and fumbling – and for what? – just because a few sick and twisted girls happened to gain the upper hand in a stupid game. They wanted to have their fun, not knowing that their fun meant the lives of his friends. The injustice of the situation suddenly burned him more than any pain, igniting an anger borne out of frustration, pure and simple – a deep, intense frustration that erased his consciousness, destroyed his deliberateness. The situation was ludicrous, unacceptable, and he wouldn’t allow it to continue. Their power over them was so utterly undeserved – Gage yearned for some sort of justice in the world.

A second shriek split his ears, sent shivers down his spine. He didn’t look back, couldn’t look. Some bizarre, indifferent part of him wondered who designed the tears in this game. They were very life-like; the guy should get a medal. Only a little further – the blankets rose and fell like dunes in the Sahara. That he could see the little blue orb at all was a bit of a miracle. The tiny thing could have easily fallen into one of the folds of the bed; but instead it perched upon a kind of hill, where the blanket seemed to wrap around it like a nest.

Gage had no idea how he reached the top – it was a blacked out mystery, a blur of suffering and desperation. Yet when he opened his eyes once more, the mountainous bodies of his enemies had disappeared, and he gripped the black and blue orb against his heaving chest. Good had prevailed.