The two massive, milky-white eyes fixed on him, cold and devoid of recognizable thought. For a heartbeat, Hillel was paralyzed, pinned by that alien stare. Then, pure survival instinct screamed louder than terror. He scrambled backward, crab-walking frantically before finding his feet on the slick earth and launching into a dead run, away from the looming giant, deeper into the grotesque field.
Behind him, the ground trembled as the giant let out a bellowing roar—a sound less like anger and more like disturbed machinery. Heavy, earth-shaking footsteps immediately gave chase. Hillel risked a glance over his shoulder and his blood ran cold. The giant moved with deceptive speed, its long legs covering ground far faster than Hillel's desperate pumping legs ever could. Worse, the other two giants near the farmhouse had also turned and begun loping towards him, their twin heads bobbing gruesomely with each stride.
He was hopelessly outmatched in speed. They would catch him in moments. But then he noticed something odd. Despite their furious pursuit, the giants moved with a strange, almost comical gingerliness between the rows. They stepped carefully, avoiding crushing the organ-laden plants, their massive feet placed with precision on the narrow paths. They valued their horrific harvest.
A desperate idea sparked. With a sob of exertion and fear, Hillel stopped trying to navigate the paths and veered sharply through a row, slamming his shoulder into the thick, fleshy stalks. Organs burst with wet, tearing sounds, splattering him with viscous fluid. The stench was overwhelming up close, making him gag, but he didn't slow down. He crashed through another row, then another, ignoring the repulsive contact, creating a path of destruction directly towards the distant, dilapidated farmhouse—his only hope.
Behind him, the giants roared again, the sound definitely tinged with fury now. He heard the snapping of stems as they were forced to follow, but their careful movements had become a hindrance. His reckless path forced them to either damage their precious crop or navigate around the destruction he caused, slowing them just enough. But not enough. He could hear their heavy breathing like bellows, feel the vibrations of their footfalls getting closer, closer...
Panic seized him entirely. The farmhouse loomed, seeming quite far still, but it was his only chance. He put his head down and sprinted, lungs burning and legs screaming, the horrifying shapes of the giants looming larger in his peripheral vision. Mud sucked at his feet, the thick, sweet stench filled his senses, but he ran blindly towards the structure.
He burst through the final row of plants and scrambled up the short, rotted steps onto the farmhouse porch, throwing himself against the warped wooden door. It groaned open inwards, revealing darkness. He stumbled inside, collapsing onto a dusty floor, and kicked the door shut, though he knew it wouldn't hold them for more than a second.
He scrambled upright, eyes adjusting to the dim light filtering through grimy windows. The farmhouse was cavernous and starkly empty. Dust motes danced in the gloom. No furniture, no tools, nothing but bare walls and floorboards... except for one thing. Standing in the middle of the empty room was a single wooden door, set in a frame that seemed anchored to nothing. It was closed.
CRASH!
The sound of splintering wood came from the farmhouse door he'd just closed. A massive, pale fist punched through, sending shards flying. The giants were already here.
The strange door in the center of the room pulsed faintly in his vision. It made no sense, but nothing here did. His gut screamed at him. Trusting the sheer insanity of the moment, Hillel lunged for the out-of-place door and wrenched it open.
Instead of revealing a closet or another part of the farmhouse, the doorway shimmered, showing a distorted view—like looking through thick, heated air—into a different room entirely. Stone walls and flickering torchlight... He didn't have time to process more. Behind him, the farmhouse entrance exploded inwards as the first giant crawled through, its two single eyes fixing on him instantly.
With a strangled yell, Hillel threw himself forward, diving headfirst through the shimmering doorway.
He came tumbling out not onto wood, but onto cold stone, crashing directly into someone standing just beyond the threshold. The impact sent both of them sprawling amidst... bodies. He landed hard, the wind knocked out of him, tangled up with the person he'd hit.
"What the hell—?!" a startled male voice exclaimed beneath him.
Hillel pushed himself up, gasping, finding himself face-to-face with the man he'd tackled. The stranger had startlingly deep red, almost carmine-colored hair that fell messily around his face, and wide, surprised dark pink eyes. He wore a heavy, practical-looking duster coat over his clothes, and a large, thick scarf was wrapped loosely around his neck despite the indoor location.
Hillel's gaze darted around, taking in the new surroundings. They were in a large chamber with damp stone walls, lit by flickering torches. And strewn across the floor everywhere were corpses, dozens of them, clad in varied armor and clothing. His stomach lurched again. A portal, he realized dimly, the door linking the nightmare farm to this rock room.
"Move!" the carmine-haired man suddenly hissed, shoving Hillel roughly away from the still-shimmering doorway they'd fallen near.
Not a moment too soon. A monstrous, pale, bloodstained hand—easily five times the size of Hillel's head—reached through the portal, fingers grasping blindly.
The man was already moving. With fluid grace, he drew a long, elegant sword that seemed to sing as it left its sheath. In a single, devastatingly fast movement, he lunged forward. The blade flashed, shearing clean through the giant's thick wrist, then continued its arc, slicing right through the shimmering fabric of the portal itself, severing the connection.
The portal snapped shut with a sound like tearing cloth. The giant's severed hand and forearm fell heavily to the stone floor with a wet, meaty thud, twitching once before lying still amongst the other dead. The carmine-haired man stood breathing slightly heavily, sword tip dripping, regarding the massive limb and then Hillel with a mixture of shock and intense curiosity.