-- Edelweiss --

I was slicing through the horde of monsters as close to the front as I would dare, not wanting to get pummeled with intense amounts of energy, when I saw Hawthorne holding up a speaking crystal and smiling.

"Report!" I shouted at Hawthorne. I knew he had some news as he was smiling like an idiot and the last time he looked like that he had finally figured out how to fight with his weird movements. It had taken him a decade of dedicated training to figure it out, but once he did all he wanted to do was teach it.

"It seems they've decided to take on a Titan."

I let out a long breath, "Finally, I can't believe they waited so long." We couldn't actually attack due to old agreements about questers taking the first step. It was why we put them so far in the back. They would get bored and inevitably go after a larger target. Surprised, they went directly for the Titan instead of just the front. That just makes it easier. For us. We could finally make a move, "And are they alive?" I asked curiously if they even made it to the creature.

Hawthorn, relayed my question as I waited for an answer I cut down another giant tentacle thing. I didn't even know what they were but they smelled awful. Finally, Hawthorne answered, "We don't know. But we do have confirmed reports that they made it to the top."

"Ok." I had to think about what we should do, as I thought about the old agreements. After our last talk, I had gone through them to see if there were any other weird things, "We still have to give them time. After an hour if the thing hasn't fallen we can assume they died and we can send in the teams to disrupt them and take them down."

"Understood." Hawthorne relayed my orders through the crystal as we continued to thin out the monster wave.

This was so tedious. Why did anyone ever agree to something so stupid as to let the questers have glory like this? We lose people every minute the wave continues and some don't make it back or choose not to. With them hear we were just stalling, though I had to admit we were thinking out the creatures. If the monsters weren't holding them back there would be no way for us to hold back so many.

-- James --

"Fucking lice!" I shouted in frustration and disbelief. I still couldn't believe that the defending monsters were lice. Let alone that we would have to fight through them. I mean their fucking hair lice. How could they even grow this big? Where were they born with the giant or someone who scale up in some kind of fucked up symbiotic evolution? To top it off no one ran when I shouted to, though in hindsight it was really short-sighted to just run into a collection of monsters.

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"Stop Shouting James," Bay said annoyed, before asking "James how thick was their carapace."

Yes, James stops focusing on the large group of gross white parasites. I thought back to when I took down the other monster and remembered the resistance I felt when my sword cut into it, "Thick I was able to get through but I had to use a lot of my strength. Oh Shit" one of the lice jumped directly for me and I instinctively ducked and kicked it off the giant's shoulder.

I looked over to see violet crushing one of them with mixed success and Rowan just kind of standing there staring hard at one of them. The odd thing was none of the ones around him were moving.

"Rowan. Just kill them." I yelled.

"I'm trying their brains aren't developed enough for me to convince them to do anything." He explained.

"Are they too developed for your sword?" I asked not with a small amount of derision.

"No, but I'm having trouble getting through the carapace with my sword."

"Shit." That was not something I was expecting. I guess he wasn't as strong That's when another group fell from the monster's scalp and onto the Titan's shoulder. We could handle them in small numbers but the amount that was falling was going to be a problem.

"Bay wind tunnel. We need to take a break for the ear." I yelled. We needed to end this now, but when I looked over Bay was busy tossing a big group of parasites off the edge. I don't think she even heard me. "Bay!"

She turned to me looking exhausted. The constant spell use must be wearing on her. "What?" She bit at me.

"Wind tunnel." I pointed over to the monster's ear.

She looked over and stared, "I need a minute to recover before we do this."

Then I heard Violet's shaky voice, "Not sure we have a minute." The panic in Violet's voice made me turn to see the number of enemies had multiplied by a hundred. It was a variable tide of them. And the worst part was they appeared to be forming up in ranks. Were they that smart or were they being controlled?

I grabbed Bay. "Sorry, it's now or never. They're in our way, and they only seem to be multiplying."

"This sucks," Bay said sounding sick.

"Yeah."

Bay cast her spell, and I could feel her start to shake as she created a small corridor for us to enter, blowing hundreds off. And just as quick the spell ended. "I can't keep it going. Just run."

We did.

I felt like we had done more running than fighting today. Especially since the creatures never seemed to end no matter where we went. How did they handle this every eighteen years? They did mention the Titans were new so maybe it's not usually this bad, but I couldn't wrap my mind around a monster wave every eighteen years. I found my mind wandering as I carried Bay through the path she created for us. I was so lost my foot hit a wet patch, of something I don't want to linger on, and I nearly lost my footing.

"James pay attention." Bay admonished.

I felt a bit of heat. We were still in the middle of a swarm yet I just didn't feel the urgency. Despite it all once my panic had dissipated, I felt tired and realized nothing had been a real challenge sure it had been annoying to get here but I couldn't help but want something more.

I kept running and felt disappointed, if this was a story something would happen as soon as I had that thought but this wasn't a story, though with everyone always talking about the show I was expecting something. But there were just the exact same lice. Some were bigger than the others but the corridor was enough to keep them away.

One of the parasites launched itself toward us and I jump over only for another to reach out while I was in the air and clip my ankle.

"Fuck."

We were close to the ear, and the creatures were starting to just throw themselves in our way. Doing anything they could to stop us from reaching the ear.