Keneric was alive but trapped.
Earlier, he had wedged himself into one corner to escape the golem's reach, but as the minutes passed, that strategy began to feel like a huge mistake.
The giant continued dragging things out one by one. Its massive hands worked like an excavator, tearing through the locker room in search of him. By now, most of the lockers had been yanked out, the benches were gone, and even the underground plumbing had been ripped out along with chunks of the tiled floor. The entire place now looked more like a cave than a college locker room.
Meanwhile, the mushrooms outside slowly crept inside, trying to locate Keneric. But he didn't let them hang around for long. As soon as a mushroom crossed the threshold, Keneric killed it and moved away. The drawback? Doing so alerted the giant to his previous location—but letting the mushrooms get too close was even riskier.
From an outsider's perspective, it might've looked like a stalemate, but the giant was making slow and steady progress. Keneric knew the golem could've just crushed him in one sweeping blow by collapsing the walls. But it didn't. It moved with care. With patience.
The conclusion was obvious: it wanted him alive—and it wanted him in one piece.
Finally, all the lockers, benches, and other debris blocking the path were cleared out and dragged from the long-room-now-cave. The giant reached for him. Its hand came straight in to grab him, but at the last second, Keneric jumped sideways, barely saving himself from a cruel fate.
The same couldn't be said for the spot where he had been. The shower pod was now gone too, yanked outside and leaving behind only broken privacy glass and a crater.
But Keneric smiled.
Because above the shower area, there had once been a sealed vent—closed off with a metal cover, punctured only with holes for air and steam. Now, after the latest attack, that cover had been bent out of place, half-turned from the ceiling.
There were only two problems. First, the vent cover was still half attached and needed to be dealt with. Second, the ceiling was now even higher—after the giant had ripped out everything, the room's depth had increased.
Keneric had a crazy idea. And in this desperate situation, anything was better than sitting there like a duck, waiting to die.
But the golem didn't give him much time to think. It attacked again. Keneric dodged—barely. The giant's hand felt faster this time.
Instantly, he sprang up and killed the new batch of mushrooms that had wandered in while he was distracted. The floor was now littered with deflated mushroom corpses.
This time, though, he let one live.
Using the sharp end of his spear, Keneric yanked the mushroom from the ground and hurled it toward the half-open vent.
He missed. The mushroom landed with a dull thud and glowed faintly with silver light.
The golem attacked again. Keneric dodged again—but the dodging was getting harder. The giant was clearly growing frustrated. Each swing came quicker, heavier, fiercer.
And each attack was different. The first time, it struck in a straight line. The second time, it tried to sweep across both corners after Keneric dodged sideways. The third time, Keneric ducked, letting its smelly, rotten hand pass over him. But on the fourth attempt, something changed.
He finally succeeded. One mushroom stuck to the vent above and glowed.
This time, he didn't kill the other mushrooms that walked in.
When they reached the right distance, they lit up like the first one—glowing in the darkness and alerting the giant.
Just as Keneric had suspected.
These mushrooms were the giant's eyes—or ears—in places it couldn't reach.
In the next moment, the golem confirmed his guess. Its hand struck the ceiling and ripped apart the last piece of vent blocking the way.
And as the smelly, wooden fist retreated, clutching crushed wall panels in defeat, Keneric ran. Sprinting at full speed, he launched himself forward. He had always been athletic and years of playing volleyball had paid off.
He closed the distance in an instant. With his right leg, he stepped on the giant's hand like a springboard and leapt. One hand caught the vent's edge, the other pushed his makeshift spear inside for leverage.
The giant froze, startled. It tried to grow more mushrooms on its hand.
But it was too late.
Keneric had already pulled himself into the vent and began crawling through the large tube.
Two paths waited ahead.
The right one led back to the volleyball court, where the giant's main body had stood earlier. The left led to the parking lot behind the gym.
Obviously, Keneric chose left.
He crawled through the narrow space until he reached the end. Instead of a vent cover this time, he found a blower fan pushing air out.
That was easier to deal with.
A cover would've slowed him down—but this only took two strong kicks to break. The ventilation fan cracked open, clearing the way.
Back inside, the golem had lost its patience. It smashed through the sidewall and peered into the locker room, looking confused. Keneric was no longer where it had last seen him. And thanks to the height difference, it missed the small ceiling vent—small, at least, from its perspective.
Frustrated, the giant spread its mushrooms into the adjacent rooms, trying to search again.