The four of us ran down toward the beach, Bob, being an unranked, trailing far behind.

Harold was running away from the beach, headed in our direction.

Koren and Vyrania reached him first, and his boots squeaked as he came to a stop in front of them.

He was drenched with what I hoped was water, though still fully dressed.

“What is it?” Vyrania asked.

“Titan! This place is cursed.”

It was the first time I’d ever heard him speak.

I have to say, his voice did not at all fit what I’d expected. While his grunts and grumbles had been suitably deep, his actual voice was high and soft.

It was incongruous enough that I briefly didn’t register what he’d said.

Then an explosion erupted from behind him on the beach, and I saw what had elicited the scream.

Coral Spirit

Titan-class Monster

Level: ???

The towering monster was a sight to behold. It easily stood several stories tall and inspired fear and awe in equal measure.

Its body comprised a dense and intricate network of coral, arranged in such a way as to form a vaguely humanoid shape. The coral was a variety of colors, ranging from shades of pink and orange to blue and green, and even bright yellow. The whole thing was covered in a slimy layer of mucus, globs of which were flung off into the sand as it battled the tower staff.

Its head was possessed of two massive eyes that either glowed, or simply reflected the sunlight. What passed for a mouth was lined with jagged coral teeth. It had multiple snaking appendages like crispy chow mein radiating off numerous parts of its body, as well as a pair of long, sinewy arms that ended in sharp, coral claws, one of which held Wayne’s forty-foot boat easily in its grasp.

It slammed the boat down with a crash, scattering the gathered group of tower staff, and startling me from my awe.

From the regrouping crowd came a metallic-looking bolt of something, which slammed into the creature and knocked it back.

“This is perfect!” Koren shouted.

“What?” I asked, incredulously.

He turned to me, a manic smile plastered on his face, his eyes wide like he’d just inhaled something illegal. “You have a chance to face a Titan!”

“Yeah, no thanks!”

“Nonsense.” With that, he grabbed me, and we disappeared.

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

Only to reappear a moment later on the beach.

I was woozy and felt my stomach drop, so was pretty sure we’d only moved so fast it felt like teleporting, not actually teleported.

“Kor!” Vyrania shouted angrily. She was running toward us, but was still a good distance away.

“This wasn’t the kind of practice I meant!” I shouted at him.

“There’s no better practice than having your life on the line.”

“Are you insane!”

“Not at all. Look at everyone. We can take it out. That’s not something you get to do every day.”

“It’s Titan!”

“And look how powerful they all are,” he said, gesturing at the tower staff engaged with the monumental monster.

“I can’t inspect them.”

“Open your eyes. Look at their mana.”

I did, and nearly stumbled back in shock. The whole battlefield was a mess of it, and the Titan-class monster wasn’t making things any clearer, but the mana coming from the tower staff was far beyond what I’d expected. I didn’t know what their ranks were, but I didn’t see anything that looked like Copper or Iron. They all had to be Steel or better.

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Koren nodded, reading my expression. “You see. It’s rare to have such powerful prospectors on a NewCiv. Rarer still where there in a position to help you defeat such a formidable foe. Now come on, we’ve already wasted enough time.”

He grabbed me again and disappeared just as Vyrania reached us.

I heard her swear, then I rolled out of the way as the mast of Wayne’s boat flew overhead.

“Holy balls!” I cried, spitting sand. I was not prepared for this.

Koren was, however, and was already dashing in, landing several punches and kicks on the monster before stuttering out of existence like a glitching video, only to reappear and land more blows, his fist wraps snaking out and multiplying his attacks many-fold.

Not all the tower staff were fighting, but I was surprised to see both Torath and Meredith engaging the monster. This close, I could see how powerful their mana was. It wasn’t a match for the Titan, but it wasn’t all that far off either.

I realized that the metal bolt I’d seen a few moments earlier that had staggered the monster had come from Torath, as he launched another one now that again staggered the towering Titan.

Meredith had a giant zweihänder at least five times her height and was darting around and swinging it like it weighed nothing.

She must have summoned the sword, but apparently didn’t have summoned armor, as she was clad only in tight undergarments that struggled to contain her grandeur.

Olivia was back a ways, sending out black oily tendrils that whipped at the monster, but if they were having any effect, I couldn’t see it.

“He’s insane,” a voice said from beside me. It was Vyrania.

“I just pointed that out to him.” I glanced at her. “Are you smiling? You’re both insane.”

“He’s right about one thing, this is a rare opportunity. You should participate, but it’s up to you.”

With that she was gone, summoning her blades and joining the fight.

Unlike with the ice giant matriarch, many of her attacks missed. But some hit, though only one in ten leaked the black blood that would tether the monster.

My vision hazed suddenly and I panicked, thinking I’d been afflicted by some invisible toxin, before realizing it was just a cloud of smoke.

I waved it away and turned to find Bob beside me. I’d been so distracted watching the battle, I hadn’t even noticed him.

“This is no time to be smoking.”

“This is the perfect time. That’s what nearly took out…” He trailed off, seeing the wreckage of Wayne’s boat. “Bloody bastard.” He looked at me. “You just going to stand there like a twat, or are you going to help them?”

“I’m only Copper!”

“Look yellow to me.”

I grunted. I did want to fight, but the rational part of my mind was warring with the eager and reckless part.

Maybe just a few hits.

I attempted to summon my weapon, but nothing happened.

Of course, I wasn’t in a broadcast area. I couldn’t use my Fodder-hobby abilities.

Still, I attempted to use Avatar of the Sentinel.

As expected, it too failed to work.

I took stock of the cards I had at my disposal. Contract, Smoldering Caress, Blood of the Phoenix, and Deckmaster.

Deckmaster wasn’t any use until I got more cards, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to get any kind of contract to take hold. I wasn’t sure I could even shout loud enough for the coral monster to hear me over the battle.

And I doubted my Smoldering Caress would do much damage.

I really wished I could use my Avatar ability. This would be a great test of it.

But all I had were my cards. I needed to get more. Maybe participating in this fight would help that.

It would certainly help level them up.

So, like an idiot, I dashed in, chanting the incantation for Smoldering Caress.

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

It was nothing like fighting the undead ice giant, that was for sure.

The only upside was that the monster was too busy with the others to bother with a mere Copper. I landed several solid hits on it before nearly getting crushed underfoot.

To my surprise, a few of those hits actually set off small fires on the thing’s hard coral skin, though I couldn’t tell if I was doing any damage to it.

I was just about to go in for another hit when it looked directly down at me with eyes the size of my torso, made a whistling sound, then swiped its fist in my direction.

“If you hit me you’ll bounce back!” I shouted the first thing that came to mind even as I rolled out of the way.

“Let Fate’s ledger our covenant bind,” I finished as I popped to my feet.

Just in time to see one of its chow-mein tentacles hurtling toward me.

It caught me in the midsection before I could dodge, but what happened next was not at all expected, though I guess it should have been.

Contract success. Contract enacted.

Mana siphoned away from me as the four-story tall monster literally bounced off of me, flying back a good fifty feet and splashing into the waves.

I stood there, unmoved. While it had drained away a lot of mana, I felt only mildly enervated, likely thanks to reaching Copper, unlike when I’d used it on Rilen.

I was stunned. I had just affected a Titan-class monster. As a Copper.

It wasn’t some huge effect, but still.

I wasn’t the only one surprised. Everyone was staring at me with varying levels of astonishment.

“That’s the way!” Koren cheered, breaking the silent moment.

Then Meredith cried out and lifted her sword, leaping toward the downed monster and stabbing into it with a concussive force that rattled the air.

The others quickly followed, laying into it with everything they had.

Before it could get up again or defend itself, Olivia and Vyrania had it pinned down, Olivia with those black tendrils she shot, Vyrania with the black blood her blades caused it to bleed.

A minute later, it was dead, its corpse sparkling grandly.

A slow clap started up from behind me, and movement at the edge of my vision caught my eye.

I turned to see someone slowly clapping, scuttling sideways as though to get into my field of view.

When he saw that I saw him, he stopped moving, though continued his slow clap.

Several feet behind and to the side of him were three other people, who looked both bored and embarrassed.

The tower staff, mistaking the intention behind the slow clap, took it up, clapping and cheering and congratulating each other, which did not make the man who had started the whole endeavor happy.

He shouted something I couldn’t hear over the ruckus, clearly upset at not getting everyone’s attention like he’d planned.

When this didn’t work, he held out his hand toward one of his companions, who handed him a glowing green object, which he put to his mouth, and spoke.

“Silence!”

The amplified sound reverberated up and down the beach like a gunshot, causing everyone to fall silent in surprise as they turned toward the source of the sound.

“More bloody tourists,” Bob muttered from beside me, puffing out a cloud of smoke.