Timeless Hero Without a Goal

37th Tick: Empty Town 3

“What’s up with these rocks all the time.” Rose complained, standing up warily.

Starting from the creature they met in the desert a couple of days prior, to the creature at the island to the stone statues in the town, she was sick of stone things. Rose stepped to one side, the states form the stone statues following her. Their gazes were expressionless, their faces stuck in a permanent look. Rose held Thomas close and slowly made her way away from the statues.

She hit into something, she she turned around, locking gazes with a statue. It was the exact same one she saw on the bench across from her, a woman whose face was stuck in a permanent cheek to cheek smile. Rose jumped away from it, her heart beating fast. She cursed and kicked the statue, the stone woman falling over and shattering. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, finding comfort in the fact that she could destroy the stone statues. Another thought crossed her mind not long after, why had Thomas’ blessing not taken effect and shattered the stone lady?

She felt a cold, hard object press on her shoulder. She turned around, seeing the statue of the man who was with the woman. She tried to free herself, but the grip kept tightening. Rose wrenched herself free, her right shoulder starting to bruise up. The statue turned towards her, his joints producing a scraping sound that hurt her ears. Rose cursed as it tried to reach out.

Something was wrong. These statues did not shatter from Thomas’ ability. Rose was also unable to sense them with her sixth sense magic. The stone creatures she had previously met were, in a sense, living and had their own will. They held I’ll intent towards her, was that why they were affected? Unlike Truth, unlike things like trees or water, the stone statues had no ill will towards her? Rather, did they have feelings to begin with? She saw as more started approaching her, their legs creaking as they took a step at a time to reach her. Rose backed off, checking behind her before running. Luckily, the stone statues were slow.

“Sure would be nice to have a certain ClockKeeper with me now.” Rose complained as she ran past more statues who turned towards her and chased.

Rose felt insecure about the situation. Over her years, she had become accustomed to having a sixth sense, to know when danger was approaching and how to deal with it. Without her magic, she felt vulnerable, like she could be killed anytime. Rose reopened the injuries on her knees, gritting her teeth, she continued running. When she stopped, there was not a single statue in sight.

She caught her breath there, sweating and breathing hard. She collapsed into a sitting position on the ground against the wall. She looked into the sky, seeing that it was technically still night. She felt tired, but could not afford to close her eyes just yet. Thomas was sound asleep despite the running. She leaned back, hitting a wall of a house. She wondered how was the best solution to her problems. It would have been nice to have a weapon with her, maybe something to hit them with. She looked at her leg, noticing something. She cursed out loud, gritting her teeth. She had kicked the statue, but as a result of the moment, she was too busy to realise the pain in her ankle. She had ran around, worsening the sprain. She rubbed the swollen part of her ankle, cursing more. She was already in enough trouble, she did not need to be anymore injured than she already was.

“God dammit.” Rose sighed.

She was suddenly pushed off the ground, sent tumbling some distance away. Pieces of wood stopped near her as she got up, her injuries reopened and bleeding again. Her ankle hurt more than ever, but she only pushed through the pain. The statues had tracked her down, following her and eventually just crashing through the wall of the house. Rose had protected Thomas from the impact by being his shield, luckily, there were no major injuries, just a few more scrapes here and there. Rose tried applying pressure on her ankle, the pain preventing her from doing anything.

“Sure would be nice to have a certain ClockKeeper right now, huh?” Rose said again, louder.

Thomas was still asleep and showed no sign of returning to normal. Rose grabbed a piece of wood, crouched to prevent any more unnecessary strain to her injured ankle. She waited for the nearest statue to approach her before smashing the wood into its torso, the wood shattering and splintering Rose’s hand. The statue, however, was unaffected. Rose used her hood leg to jump, slamming into the statue with her shoulder. It hurt quite a bit, but Rose was able to push the statue over. When it fell, it knocked into another, and another. Like a domino chain, they fell and crashed, breaking apart.

Rose looked at the c*****e she created. Whispering to herself, “Wow that actually worked.”

Despite the number of statues she annihilated, there were simply too many left. Rose desperate tried getting up, but failed. She grabbed the heaviest piece of rock she could lift and threw it at a statue approaching. It knocked the statue slightly backwards, but did not knock it over. Rose threw more to no avail, and eventually, she moved to the side when the statue tried swinging an arm at her. She pushed herself against its legs, the statue falling forward. Realising what she did, Rose tried moving out of the way, but was too slow. The statue fell on her, trapping her under its weight. She did not feel too good, the weight was close to crushing a few bones. She was in something like a plank position, her arms shaking as she tried to go against the weight of the statue. Thomas was under her, still asleep.

“Get out already.” Rose said, her arms shaking violently.

Her elbows were grounded into the ground, worsening the injuries and the blood stained the ground. She knees touched the ground, more pain wrecked her mind.