The Search for Gram by Chris Kennedy

do,” said the Aesir, “this fight won’t last very long.” He let out a high-pitched giggle. “Neither will you.”
    Calvin unleashed a series of attacks, but all of them were blocked with ease. Farhome reached back and thrust one of his rapiers into the ground behind him so he could cover his mouth while he yawned. “This is really quite boring,” he said when the yawn ended. “Time for some fun.” He recovered his second sword without looking.
    “Maior!” the Aesir said. In a blink, Farhome swelled in size, growing from just under six feet tall to almost eight feet tall. Worse, where before he had only been blocking Calvin’s attacks, now the Aesir began attacking him in earnest. With a shock, Calvin realized his opponent also now had a tremendous reach advantage. The additional height allowed his opponent to rain blows down on Calvin from an altitude he wasn’t used to defending against, and after only a few blocks he could feel the muscles in his arms burning. Before he could adjust to the new fighting style, Calvin was hit in a number of places, and blood began streaming down his body.
    “Maximus!” the Aesir said. Farhome grew in size again, now standing almost 10 feet tall. Along with the additional height came even more reach, and Calvin found himself blocking strikes from all directions. He was forced to backpedal as the Aesir reached over and tried to skewer him from behind.
    The Aesir took two large steps and was back within reach of Calvin. The Terran took another cut at Farhome’s midsection as the Aesir approached, hoping to land a blow that would even the fight.
    It wasn’t to be.
    Calling out, “Minimus!” the Aesir shrank to just over three feet tall, and Calvin’s sword passed over his opponent, doing no damage. Stepping forward, Farhome drove one of his rapiers through Calvin’s right foot and into the ground, pinning him firmly in place. Before Calvin could adjust to his smaller height, he also stabbed Calvin several times with his remaining sword.
    “Mediocris!” the Aesir said, returning to his normal height. He stepped back to survey the results of his attack, and he smiled as he watched Calvin try to remove the rapier from his foot.
    The pain in Calvin’s foot was intense, and his grip was too slick with blood to pull out his opponent’s rapier while still holding onto his own swords.
    Farhome turned to address the Thor. “This is the person that is going to solve our problems?” He giggled. “I don’t see how. He seems to be having problems going anywhere at the moment.” He giggled again.
    Through the pain, Calvin had a moment of clarity. He knew he was never going to beat the Aesir the way he had been fighting; Calvin needed a new plan or he’d be dead. Dropping both his rapiers, he grabbed the hilt of the sword piercing his foot with both hands and pulled with all his augmented strength.
    The pain was blinding, and he almost passed out, but slowly…slowly, he could feel the sword give way. Finally, with a spurt of blood, the rapier pulled out of the floor and through his foot. The pain was enormous, but no longer blinding, and his vision cleared as the Aesir turned back toward him. Seeing Calvin free, he said “Maximus!” grew to his full height and charged. He held his rapier extended in front of him, intending to run Calvin through.
    Calvin could see the rage in Farhome’s eyes, and knew the Aesir was done toying with him. This time, Farhome intended to kill him. Realizing he was out of time, Calvin took the Aesir’s blade and threw it at Farhome with all his might.
    The sword glimmered in the artificial light as it flew end over end toward the challenger. The Aesir saw it coming and stopped in place. “Mediocris!” he said, shrinking to his normal height. He grinned as he followed the flight of the rapier as it spun past him overhead.
    A complete miss.
    What he hadn’t noticed was Calvin had followed the throw and was charging right behind the sword,