What can a man do?(part 2)

The fight kept going for nearly two hours. Chiron watched and endured, as his body was cut tens of thousands of times, nearing a hundred thousand times. The assassin having swapped out nearly 10 daggers due to his toughness, but not without a price!

Blood flowed from everywhere, as if he was a water sprinkler loaded with blood. He endured and kept watching the assassin's movement. His height now at 5'3". The crazed smile on the assassin was as wide as before, as if he wasn't even remotely tired.

*Not yet! Not yet!* Chiron kept chanting, as his eyes, the only part of his body still of original size, moved rapidly and kept watching the assassin, who was barely a perceivable blur. "This isn't even a workout for me, tortoise. I can keep going till you bleed out completely. Actually, how about we turn the difficulty up a bit."

And within seconds, 5 cuts appeared on Chiron's body and blood sprayed out. He grit his teeth, as he slowly condensed down to 5 feet, over a minute, as over 200 cuts appeared on his body.

Chiron could feel every cut on his body. He could tell the assassin got serious and was actually going all out, finally tired of their fight, as he already learned all he wanted after the one hundred thousandth cut. He was moving in circles around him, almost like his legs were on autopilot, circling him, while he fully concentrated on cutting him. He wass confident and knew Chiron wouldn't be able to do anything, so he ignores his surroundings and focused solely on Chiron... and Chiron realized that.

Within second suddenly, the opportunity presented itself. *NOW!* Chiron's left arm, almost magically, returned to its normal size and he quickly stretched it out so fast it was beyond what any normal human should be able to do. The assassin, not expecting such quick movement from the blood fountain of a soldier and his body being on autopilot, collided into the bloody and cut up arm, which, to his absolute surprise, didn't move even slightly.

Chiron gritted his teeth, as his right arm also returned to normal and quickly joined his arms together and embraced the assassin in a bloody hug before he regained his bearings and within the same breath, his hands began condensing. His body condensed so fast, the assassin only had time to get his left arm free in his panic.

*Bunker down!*

His arms condensed, slowly, pushing the assassin into Chiron's bear hug, squeezing the life out of him.

"Aaaaaahh!" The assassin groaned as his expression finally changed. What could a man do against a stronger, faster, smarter, better equipped and skilled than him? In such a situation, a man can only do one thing, ambush and surprise said opponent!

The crazed look the assassin had was gone and his face finally showed panic, before it went passive and he swung his dagger down. He directly hit Chiron's scalp, but it only left a shallow dent, rather than piercing it, as he expected it to happen. With his mobility limited, he had so space to use proper technique, greatly weakening His strength. His screams of pain continued, as the assassin now aimed for Chiron's eyes.

Once he realized he couldn't penetrate his skull, he decided to go for the other avenue of death and he stabbed. His left arm thrust relentlessly. He stabbed 5 times every second directly into Chiron's left eye.

Ding

Ding

Ding

Ding

Ding

Constant sounds of metal hitting metal were heard. The assassin used so much force his dagger's tip dulled and he had to throw it away and grab a new one and keep stabbing, but his body was too durable, cutting into it quickly is impossible.

The attacks kept coming and Chiron kept becoming smaller and smaller, squeezing the assassin with both his physical strength and durability, becoming a human hydraulic press. His height kept decreasing. From 5 to 4'11", then 4'8", 4'7"and when he reached 4'5"-

*Crunch*

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH"

A blood curdling crunch sound was heard by the slum dwellers, followed by an even worse scream, as Chiron's arms finally gave out and broke apart his fingers.

The assassin didn't let this opportunity go, but he made a mistake. He got his right arm free, rather than stabbing his mouth. This was the second mistake he made throughout the fight and Chiron would not give him such an opportunity again.

*BUNKER DOWN! CONDENSE! CONDENSE! CONDENSEEEEE!*

His ability went into overdrive, as he ignored the pain of his fingers breaking and locked his own joints up. *Even with broken fingers, all.*4'4" *I* 4'3" *need.* 4'2" "*IS* 4'1" *This* 4'0.5" *SOUND!* 4 feet

*Splat*

*Crunch*

The assassin's arms stopped moving, his daggers fell out of his palms and his upper body's flailing stopped. His torso fell backwards in an unnatural limp position.

The assassin was on the smaller side, so the hug was around his torso, meaning this bear hug directly broke his spine, ribcage and caused all the broken bones to cut apart his lungs and heart. This can even be considered bad luck for him, as was he even a bit taller, the hug would have only squeezed his kidneys and his spine, which would still be acceptable to him. He could have lived, but his ribcage endured the compression from all around it, causing the entire thing to break down at once, leaving him no chance at all!

With a completely broken body and every immediately vital organ damaged, the assassin couldn't move, but the same was for Chiron. If he left his form ease, his wounds would burst open and he would bleed out. All he could do was keep the form and wait, hoping his absence would be noticed and he would be rescued.

He stood there, embracing the dying assassin and waited. His left eye bleeding, while his fingers were most definitely broken and his wrists dislocated.

Hours passed. He stood there, waiting and bleeding out a few drops every minute, but it would add up eventually. He kept himself condensed, not moving at all, not even attempting to move, as he knew exactly what would happen the moment he did.

His ability forced the wounds shut, it didn't forcefully close them. They were tightly packed together, so blood was forcefully traveling through his veins, as everything around it was similar in durability to bronze. His left eye bleeding was even a boon, as it gradually lowered his blood amount, guaranteeing he would never coagulate enough blood for it to seep out of the forceful mend.

Hours went by and soon night came. He could tell, as his right eye was open and looking around, but he couldn't say anything, as his throat was too condensed to allow his vocal chords to vibrate and make sound. Even if he tried to speak, he would only end up breathing and if he let up even a little bit, over 200 wounds would open up and his body would collapse, leaving him with no hold over the rest of his ability and he would die.

*Can't. Let. Go!* Chiron struggled. His muscles screaming to be released, crying in pain, but he knew the moment he did, his wounds would burst open and death would embrace him, not the sandman. *Hold! On! Someone, call the guards!*

The night quickly came and went. The people of the slums didn't care for the military and would rather die than even meet a soldier, much less help one or risk going to a watchtower to help a soldier, as they were mostly criminals or held a grudge due to where they were settled. Help wasn't coming and Chiron felt faint from the blood-loss. *Keep! going!*

And in this fashion, night came once again and went. Not allowed to rest even a bit, Chiron stood. His bleed rate decreased significantly, as the wound on his eye shut, permanently taking it away from him, but at least he wasn't bleeding anymore. He wasn't gaining any nutrition to make more blood cells and his energy reserves kept going lower and lower. *Bunker down! Bunker down! Bunker down! Bunker down! Bunker do...*

He chanted the sentence in his mind and waited. Another day came and went. The assassin's corpse in his hands had began to rot at this point and maggots gathered around Chiron, eating said assassin. He was losing his mind, as he kept chanting the name of his ability and kept going, but he kept going.