The first thing the titan did was lift its head and launch a gigantic roar that shook the hallway, causing dust and pebbles to settle off the ceiling and onto the ground. The shaking struck even the Spartan, who was forced to scramble and stagger around on the shaky terrain. He lost his footing during the ordeal and fell onto his butt. That was when he grabbed onto a nearby bench, that which was bouncing up and down, and tried to use it as a means to get back up. Thankfully, he was able to do so, though he still had to lean on this furniture piece for support.

Eventually, the rumbling subsided, and the titan went still. It took a deep breath, before looking down at him with a growl. Without warning, the ballista arm was aimed right at him. He barely had a chance to dodge before it opened fire, the projectile sailing through the air to strike him.

He managed to back step quite a good amount to avoid the incoming attack, but that was when the bolt curved. Rather than go into a straight line as he anticipated, the damned thing warped its direction to go directly at him. He didn’t have time to dodge anymore, and the only thing he could do in this instance was lift his shield up. All he could hope was that the attack didn’t do much damage and the incoming projectile was more akin to that of force than penetration.

He certainly had not expected for the thing to explode in front of him. The blast launched him away for some distance before he slammed against a bench. The sheer power caused him to topple over the furniture, knocking down any stone statues to the ground. He continued to sail as the momentum continued to send him a bit further, before he was allowed to skid to a stop on the ground.

There was no time to lay back and moan in pain. With that single shot, the titan had started rushing towards the fallen Spartan with its shield up in front of it. The fallen warrior quickly scrambled back to his feet before dashing out of the way in the nick of time, as the enemy rushed forward and slammed into the wall. A giant roar and rumble shook the entire room, with the wall cracking and shaking from the impact. An obvious testament to the strength and capability of this monstrosity.

Without any other options available, the Spartan activated his divinity. All the world came to his sight and he focused on the titan. That was when his mind came to a screeching halt. He couldn’t navigate any paths to strike the enemy in front of him at all. Any attempts seemed to be deflected off of the monster’s body, meaning there was no means for him to use his abilities to take down this monster or even the scales. Meaning that the only means his divinity could be used at this time was redirecting attacks or dodging attacks.

How terrifying. Even after upgrading my divinity and my abilities, this is the best I could do? How strong is this titan? No, if this is a guard, then that means this has to be the strongest monster in this entire area. It means that if I can defeat him on my own, then I can claim more divinity.

That was the thoughts on his mind. The idea of securing even more power was rather enticing for certain, and he could not deny the fact that the greed was certainly getting to his head. But he endeavored and shook all of those thoughts out. After all, being caught up in those poisonous thoughts will make his mind deteriorate and get reckless. No, he was a warrior of great renown, and he would not allow himself to be caught up in the what-ifs and the possibilities. Right now, the focus had to be on survival and victory. Nothing more, nothing less.

Whatever the case, he kept his divinity focused on the monster, and he could see exactly what the titan was plotting. It was going to throw the shimmering trident right at him, which was something that he was prepared for. While he couldn’t navigate directly into the giant, he could possibly redirect the weapon path when it was launched. So, with his teeth grit, the Spartan got into a defensive position once more with his shield, goading the titan to strike.

It did. The trident came soaring through the air at such a fast pace that he almost missed the opportunity to move. In fact, he barely managed to redirect the trident to change its trajectory towards the titan, which used up a decent amount of his reserves to do. That was something that threw him off quite a bit, but he was able to witness the beautiful sight of the titan being thrown off by the weapon turning around to strike back at him.

It lifted its towering shield in the direct path of the trident. The weapon slammed into the defensive tool and with that, the weapon began to glow before erupting. A lightning bolt struck from the ceiling right into the shield, knocking the titan back a few steps before screeching to a halt. The surface of the shield was charred completely black, with some shards beginning to flake off. However, it began to glow and every single last bit of damage seemed to recover until it was back to being pristine once more.

The Spartan couldn’t help but growl at the sight. He did not know fully if this meant that the titan had the capacity to regenerate any of its wounds, or if that meant the shield had regeneration as its special ability. Whatever the case, there was still the double-headed axe that proved to be a mysterious danger. However, the ballista was unloaded now, and the trident was stuck to the shield. In any case, now was the best time to strike.

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So, he rushed forward. Using this divinity, he navigated a pathway to get right at the neck of the titan, before lashing out with his spear in an attempt to deal some damage. If he could rip open an artery or destroy its throat completely, then all would be over. There was no capacity for the monster to maneuver and use its shield to defend in time, and his attack went through.

His spear plummeted into flesh and stopped partway through, his intent halted prematurely. His eyes widened as he found that his blade had only gone halfway through, with the remainder stuck and unable to push further in. He grunted as he tried to push in further, but found no capability to do anything else. With that, he had to take out the weapon and try to attack once more from a different angle. Besides, with his current position, he did not have the best means of continuing forward, so getting out was the optimal goal here.

He hefted and got ready to pull the spear out. Had it not been for that exact move, he would have most likely died at this current time.

The titan was reaching out with its open hand towards him, ready to grab him and possibly crush him in its grip. The Spartan’s eyes widened as he quickly navigated a path away from the incoming hand, getting back to the ground in a heartbeat with his weapon.

He moved. The spear came out and followed him along his flight path, before slamming into the ground next to him. He then scrambled and dashed away from the incoming strike from the titan.

The blade did not come overhead to slash down onto him, it did not come horizontally. One moment the axe was above the giant’s head, the next it was coming diagonally towards his legs. He barely managed to move away with his divinity, but not before getting slammed with the blunt end of the axe blades.

What was that? Did the titan have the same capabilities as him?

The Spartan couldn’t help but grimace at the thought. However, before he could move to do anything, the titan’s ballista seemed to reload without any input at all. The string reared back before another bolt seemed to spawn in out of nowhere, giving the titan another chance to shoot a bolt again.

That made his eyes widened and moved backwards. Without any bit of hesitation, it lifted its ballista and opened fire. However, the shock gave way as he was able to use his divinity once more to divert the incoming projectile back towards the titan. However, instead of using the towering shield to defend against the attack, the monster merely slashed out with his axe. An explosion erupted with the strike, but there was no damage done to the weapon or to the titan himself.

The Spartan grimaced as he tried to plan around the situation at hand. He couldn’t navigate a path into the monster’s flesh for serious damage, his strength wasn’t enough to puncture the titan’s flesh, and he had to deal with the fact this titan was able to fight competently. Right now, he had to figure something out, anything to turn the tides. He–

Barely reacting in time, his shield clashed with the incoming ax blade. He went sailing through the air before slamming into the wall. He gasped and struggled to get back up to his feet, before looking back at his shield. His trusty tool had been dented in, with some slash holes made into the attack. There was no longer any use for this item, except for one last defense.

He shook his head. No, he could not let the rage get to his head. He needed to get back into his game and with that, he focused on his divinity for defense.

That double-headed ax was something that had to be taken care of. His divinity should be capable of providing some means of detecting any attacks that should come from the titan, even more. Perhaps…

He looked at all the stone statues around him. What if… Well, there was nothing else he could do, and thus this was the only possible means.

He moved towards the nearby stone statue and lifted it up with his one hand. With a deep breath, he twirled before throwing the statue towards the titan. Though, he made sure to redirect its path to slam against the titan midair, all in an attempt to see if any of that would do some kind of damage.

What he ended up witnessing was something he did not anticipate. Rather than get slammed in the head with the stone statue or even using its shield to destroy the incoming figurine, it caught it. The titan seemed to hold onto it for a little while, before placing it down into a nearby bench with full respect.

The Spartan didn’t understand what he was looking at. What was this? Why did the titan stop its battle lust to look over a single statue? Unless…

He grabbed another and launched it at the titan once more. Once again, instead of destroying or dodging, it caught the incoming figurine before placing it down onto another bench again.

Was this some kind of cognition that the titan had that was connected to its past life? Perhaps it was a preacher of this world’s god before dying and being turning into this beast? No, more than that, this was useful information. He could use this as a means to defeat the titan once and for all. Distractions were lethal in battle, and he had a constant means to do so without much problem.

He could do this. He could win. Without further ado, he grabbed another stone statue and threw it in a different direction, before rushing forward.

Time to make the tides of this battle change to his favor.