-- James --

"Fuck." I had to say this was a first. I had been beaten stabbed, shot, burned, electrocuted, and clawed, but I never had the experience of having my leg torn by a pincer. It was like my leg was both being sliced open and crushed at the same time. Needless to say, something I did not want to experience again.

Not to mention I was still in the air when the monster sliced into me, knocking me off course and spinning. I was forced to use everything Hawthorne taught me to twist and contort to not land on my now torn leg and land somewhat safely. Despite only a week of training, I was getting pretty good at it. It was kind of fun. Unfortunately, I had never tried any of this with someone on my back, and Bay had her own training that did not include twisting and contorting the body. Let alone how to ride one. As I twisted, desperately, Bay flew off plunging forwards hitting and sliding rolling across the giant's shoulder.

I winced seeing her slide across, only for me to immediately need to jump as another attack came from my side. This time I was more careful paying attention to the pincers, even kicking one away, with my bad leg, which shot pain all the way through my entire leg. "ARGG!" I screamed, falling and rolling away as another attack hit where I landed. Standing I took a moment to look over at Bay who was glaring at me as she was starting to get up. She was already surrounded and there was no way I could get to her in time.

The second I took to check on her was a mistake as I felt a claw dig into my back, I instinctively turned to see it on my back now its head sucking blood from the wound.

"Fucking gross."

I spun ripping out its tongue, keeper I hope I got all that out of me. I let out an involuntarily shiver as I cycled as fast as I could through my body feeling my muscles expand and tighten like a coiled spring as I jumped toward Bay.

That's when I realized my mistake. Sure Bay was surrounded, sure she had hit the ground hard, but I had forgotten two very important things. One she was already getting up, and two she could handle herself. I caught the site of a small spark right before a wave of electricity shot out from her hands cratering a network of death through the monsters. I was lucky I was on the outside of the spell as when I hit face-first into the spell I only suffered a minor electric shock, and thanks to cycling through my muscles I was saved from the worst of the effects.

I caught a tired look from Bay as she casually stepped out of the way and I barreled past, hitting the ground and rolling eerily similar to what happened to Bay. To her credit, she held back a chuckle, and I saw her holding it back as she ran up to me, "Let's go, James."

I was still getting back up when I heard Rowan yelling, "Come on everyone the path is clear."

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Looking towards the voice I saw Rowan and Violet holding off the monsters, creating a clear path right to the ear. We were close enough that I could see the amount of earwax inside. Way more than I realized.

I stood my leg mending slowly but I could put weight on it now. Bay smiled, "Next time. Wait for my spell before jumping."

"Solid advice," I responded.

With the path cleared we all made our way to the Titan's ear, I was defending against the back with my leg still healing. Thankfully, though whatever Rowan and Violet did, the lice were now wary of us, and not mindlessly throwing themselves into suicidal attacks. Then all too soon we were right outside the ear. It was massive, almost twenty feet in height but despite all that, the ear canal in the ear was not much taller than us. It would most likely not let more than one in at a time if we wanted to walk into the brain itself.

We were standing right outside the ear, not wanting to wade ourselves through the monster's earwax. Delaying for as long as possible I asked, "Bay, how far do you need to be in able to reach the brain?" Please say you can do it from here.

"As close as possible." She replied dashing any hopes I had of us not having to go inside.

Shaking my head, "This is going to be gross."

"You think?" Violet asked oozing annoyance.

I ignored her, "We enter one at a time Bay first, then Violet, then Rowan, and I'll keep guard at the entrance to make sure nothing comes in."

"Fuck!" Violet shouted, surprising us all

Bay was the first to turn to her and ask, "What?"

"I just realized we're going to have to practically bash our way in."

"What?" This time it was my turn to ask.

She looked at me like I was an idiot, "Did you think there was a straight tunnel to the brain from the ear? There's an eardrum liquid fill areas and other things all in the way."

I didn't want to think too hard about what we were going to have to go through so I just tiredly said, "Just get moving we need to be in deep when...O shit Move!" That was when I saw the hand again coming right for us. Except, it was a finger heading right for the ear. I don't want to die from a finger. "Go!" I shoved everyone into the canal, as one by one we stepped in, and at the first squelch of earwax, I knew this was going to be gross.

The world went a shade of red as the giant's finger covered the entrance as it tried to dig us out. From this close, I could see the dirt and grass under his nails, the micro-tares in them too. It was fascinating to see what fingernails looked like up so close. Thankfully, we were in too deep for him to reach.

It was surprisingly easy to kill the giant. As soon as we reached the eardrum non of us wanted to even try to go further. "Stop. I'm going to try from here." She cast a long fire spell into the monster's ear boiling it from the outside. The giant flailed around us but thanks to the tight quarters we were easily able to hold our position. That and Bay burned away the fluid behind the ear so we were spared being covered in more bodily fluids as the fire penetrated deeper and deeper. I think the giant was going to attempt something as everything became still for a moment, but by then it was already too late as we had moved deeper into his head.

We were stuck. As blood and viscera began to cover us, as Bay just continued her stream of death, cooking the thing from the inside out. The smell was thick and pungent. While we were being flung around inside his head I threw up and then got blood in my mouth creating a cycle of gross.

Then suddenly we were all in free fall. That's when I knew it was dead.

"Everyone brace for impact!"