The sharp pinpricks of diamond scrape across my scales, gouging ugly scars through the once pristine shine. But the marring of my scales is hardly a concern right now.

What's far more distressing is the major presence squeezing down on me. The power of the Lynx's growl crushes my scales and clenches every muscle through my body without permission. It bellows through the cavern, bouncing off the diamond spike walls and repeatedly slams through my chest with a rolling rumble.

The growl is consistent, overwhelming even the sound of grinding earth.

But that grinding soon stops. The crystals growing from each wall push back the fluid gravel and the churning that has remained for as long as I’ve been on the Other Side. Soon there is nothing left in my sight except the diamond growths. They spike out from the walls like a predator’s teeth, a maw of spears all pointed directly at me.

Each spike shifts, ready to pierce me should I move.

I cannot see the Lynx, but its deep growls are impossible to misplace.

I cannot move. Paralysed by the presence, my body refuses my commands. The pressure squeezes down on every fibre of my being. I feel sharp pinpricks through every scale, regardless of whether the stalagmites of diamond pierce me or not.

How did it find us?

How could it follow us?

I fell so long down that Titans tear. The fall should have made finding us far too difficult. With how rapidly the earth shifts down here, it should have been impossible to find us.

Did it follow my blood trail?

As much as the earth should have dispersed my blood through the rock, it is the only way I can imagine it could have caught us. We fell so far it shouldn’t have chanced upon us, but it has and that's all that matters.

Scia, frozen on my back, is no different than myself. Her eyes are wide, ears flattened against her head; the growl doing terrible things to her.

Suddenly the growl stops, but not all goes quiet. The immense mass of diamond and crystal around us scrapes and shatters as it moves and reforms the cavern around us. What was once a relatively small cavern, sized only enough to fit my full length, now grows. Widening until the massive paw of the lynx steps into the open space.

The giant claws are identical to the diamond they step on, yet they scrape through with a shrieking wail. Above, the glistening ceiling splits down the middle and opens up to reveal the Titan's head glaring down on us.

I may have called the lynx a pseudo-Titan back up in the Graveyard, but down here it doesn’t seem all that much different from a true Titan.

It is too large to fit in any cavern, but that means nothing when you can twist the earth to your command. The crystal peels back for the beast to tower over everything in this cavern, yet most of its body from shoulders to tail remain hidden from sight. A mere head and paws, but it is still the largest thing in sight.

I hadn't ever considered the possibility that Titans could move through the earth like this. It was foolish, but I had assumed that they would be stuck to the Graveyard of the Titans where the space was both large enough to hold them, and keep them away from us. I shouldn’t have; I’d already seen one Titan tear its way through solid stone. There was no reason to think they couldn’t come after us down here.

This was supposed to be at least some form of haven from the beasts that hunt us. But that was a foolish mistake. The lynx was hunting us. It may have taken a while to find us, but it has.

The damn beast gloats, it stands above us, obviously capable of collapsing the cavern in an instant, like it did with every other of the hundreds of ones around, but it doesn’t. It could destroy us with the wave of a leg, and yet it prefers to stand there gloating.

It roars, demanding we submit to its supremacy before it kills us. It’s pressure crashes into us once more, spearing through my body, paralysing me further. My eyes, completely frozen, catch sight of the sole rend to the abyss.

That is our only hope of survival. If we can get there, we can live.

I struggle, twisting any muscle that will answer against the pressure. I writhe against the weight bearing down on us, trying to fight against the overwhelming strength of the beast.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But it is too strong.

With one final snap, I unleash a hiss, layered with my own presence. It does nothing against the massive beast, but it is enough to push back against its command on my terror and my body jolts. As soon as control is mine, I snap forward. A bend swallows me and the abyss rend appears ahead of me.

So close, and we’ll be free.

But the lynx is aware of my plan. Its paw swats me from the air. Hardly with any force for a being as large as itself, but still strong enough to slap me to the diamond ground with enough power to send throbs through my aching body. Growing to my max size might make such strikes easier to deal with, but I was four times larger the last time I took it head on, and that didn’t help at all. All I can rely on, is the distortions I’ve always known.

If only my wound didn’t prevent me from shrinking further.

I try to twist, to move back and try for the rend again, but I notice Scia is no longer with me. I scan the cavern, immediately spotting her beneath the beast's head. She seems so tiny there, a mere pinprick beneath the titan's heft. A single hair of the beast is thicker than the small bat.

She is nothing compared to the Titan.

Whether it doesn't notice her, frozen between its paws as she is, or if it just considers her too small to pay attention to, I don't know.

But the lynx only has eyes for me.

Scia’s eyes remain wide, yet she still cannot move. Paralysed as she is, she can only experience terror as it stands over her.

The titan growls once more. A deep, rumbling threat floods my body with terror. Its massive teeth snarl, gnawing, gloating at its supremacy. It knows it's stronger than me. I can feel the hate directed at me through its sharp eyes that shimmer with an ever so slight ripple. It despises me for whatever stupid reason it has decided to hate me for. Whether it is intruding into its lair, or stealing the moss from it, I don’t know, but knowing wouldn’t change my current situation.

The lynx knows it is stronger than me, and it is all too happy to enjoy its time before ripping me apart.

The beast plays with me. In its eyes, there’s nothing I can do against it. Again, I raise my head, ready to try anything that might save us, might get us to the abyss before it kills us both.

Its massive eyes narrow, as if it knows I still intend to escape. The lynx wants to cow me. It wants to see me curl up and accept my inferiority.

But I refuse. If I were alone, I’d probably never let my pride do the same as it did with the phantom Titan. But I need to do something to protect Scia, so I allow my pride to give me strength in opposition to this obviously overwhelming being.

I must take us from this cabin while I can, there's no other way to hide. The earth is this Titan's domain; the longer I stay, the more likely it'll give up on its haughtiness and finally end us.

The titan doesn't take kindly to my returning glare, it stomps its paw into the diamond ground, sharp claws scraping through the earth, and a wave of diamond ripples outwards. It slams into me, but I have no eyes for the damage I take. I see blood, and suddenly, nothing else matters.

The wet drip carries on the diamond and I lose sight of Scia. The diamond stalagmites rise to block her from view. I spin, looking for another bend to find her, and when I spot her, I freeze as if the lynx’s presence crushes me once more.

Scia lies there, blood trickling down a pair of crystal stalagmites she’s pinned between.

Her wings are shredded and a tiny leg is missing, but all I can focus on is the blood. The scent of her blood stings my nose. I dare not taste the air. The scent is so strong; so intense for such a small creature. Scia remains as still as before, but the lack of movement now stabs at my mind.

Immediately, the Titan's presence disappears from my mind. All that matters is that Scia is hurt.

All restraints are discarded. I shrink myself down as small as I can and dive forward. I push myself past the limit. Agony spreads along my lower spine, but it hardly registers in my mind.

The lynx snarls, sending out a wave of crystal my way to stop me from moving. I dive to the nearest bend, but a spike of diamond hits me before I can reach. I’m battered through the air, but as the pain continues to ramp along my tail, I search for a distortion.

I find one, but it is tiny. With a firm grip on my size muscle, my body squeezes on itself. My body forces itself to lose size faster than ever to fit through the bend. A snap. The agony gutting my spine suddenly hits unimaginable levels and despite my attempts, I cannot ignore it. My body stiffens as I pass through the bend, but I glance a the back of my tail.

The lower half of my tail sheers clean off.

My wound, unable to spread further across my body with the reduced size cut right through my spine and severed the lower portion of my tail. For a moment, I stare blankly as it flops through the air, twisting as if still alive. That moment quickly disappears as a spike of diamond rushes towards me.

I fall through another bend and orient myself toward another. In an instant, I've passed through three more and land right before Scia. The Titan must have expected me to dive for the rend, as it sent diamonds to spear through me had I chosen that direction. Glistening, sharp spears that would have been my end.

I snap Scia up in my jaw and dive through another bend before the wave of diamonds can hit us. The lynx has not yet given up and collapsed the cavern on us, so it is clearly still playing with its food. That is the only thing saving us right now.

I shrink even more and the agony reaches a crescendo. Too much to manage. It is unbearable, but I throw myself through the next few bends, regardless. Even as small as I already am, I scrape through a hole that is nearly too small for myself.

I push through, diamond scraping along my sides as they try to stop me reaching the abyss rend. The Titan thought I was too large to fit through that bend, but I still had room to shrink. A painful change, but it works.

The lynx shrieks again, an enraged roar, stronger and more crippling than the others. I hiss a burst of pressure to hold off the Titan’s presence just enough to push through the rend and slide out into the abyss.