After rereading the notification about the new branching skill, Healing Blast, I figured it’d probably be safer to just use a regular heal, rather than one that “greatly depletes magic”. So, I charged up the power within myself again, waiting until it nearly built into healing blast, and unleashed my silent roar upon Karavos’ prone body.

The aurora borealis effect appeared again, and I couldn’t help but admire it. Even something as uncaring and cold as a misty rain could make something so beautiful, with a little help. It danced across the air before me, and I could only hope that the sounds of metal clashing down below indicated that Grenzer was still distracted by the Outriders. I could hear words, but I still wasn’t capable of translating without great thought, and most of my focus went into casting heal.

Slowly, but surely, more of the plagued skin cleared up, vanishing as welts disappeared at a snail’s pace, and blackness faded away.

The titan coughed, and a burble of blood rippled through the small lake.

How has this guy not drowned, yet?

Vara had finished up with whatever she’d been doing. The wound on Karavos’ side had vanished, with only a fat white scar left behind to show there had ever been one.

Ah. We are kindred spirits in belly scars.

I had no way of measuring the time it took for me to finish expelling the healing energy, but as soon as I had, I swiftly bit the cork out of the next bottle and poured the contents down my throat.

To make it the process more efficient, for the final heal, I charged up the power within myself while my mana regenerated, enabling me to cast the spell sooner. In fact, doing it this way seemed to help the duration of the spell, because the mana potion must’ve restored more than the amount I had in my pool.

It certainly felt like the spell was far longer this time. Perhaps these last two might just heal the damn titan. There was only a little corruption left on the dinosaur’s body. I spread the heal down his body, blasting the most corrupted areas with as much energy as I could.

To be honest, there was no guarantee that where I used the spell would matter, but if it followed any kind of reasoning, I would imagine the densest concentration would affect the area the strongest.

It made sense.

Karavos rumbled as the disgusting skin peeled away, revealing a fresh new layer underneath. The ground shook underneath me. Or rather, his body did. I lost my footing, stumbling backward. But I made sure not to waste any of the energy.

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Only a few more moments of the heal and he’d be fine. But it was like I was running out of oxygen now.

Have you ever breathed out of your lungs until it felt like you couldn’t anymore? And then, refused to breathe in for a few seconds? It felt like that, but somewhere else in my body. Nearer to my heart.

A sharp pain punctured that location, and the healing cut off instantly.

The last of the corruption disappeared. The night was silent but for the clashing of the humans beyond the dinosaur.

And then Karavos moved.

I glanced towards Vara, but she’d already disappeared. The body of the titan rumbled underneath me, drowning out the sound of the waterfall. Quickly, I stumbled to the edge of the hill and dismounted his body, turning to watch as the monster rose.

“Out of the way!” Scilla’s terrified voice called. I could see her now, running towards the snake-head. She leaped, spinning in the air, and the snake-headed dinosaur ducked underneath her, scooping her up, and swimming away down the river. The three idiots were running towards the woods, and Brin was pursuing them.

The monk had vanished.

“You aren’t going to vanish in this chaos, Grenzer!” Brin shouted. His rocky armor was broken in places, but he wasn’t as bad off as Santa. The man was dripping blood from all over, his hair matted and sweaty.

The two idiots had apparently engaged Brin as they ran, clumsily firing off arrows and magic spells in his direction. But the Outrider swatted them away with ease, as though their attacks were simply Egg Suckers.

Then, they disappeared into the woods, the sounds of their fighting fading away. Seemed like Grenzer might escape this time.

Karavos’ rising brought with it a flood.

Blackened water sloshed freely from underneath him as he rose, as though a dam were slowly being removed.

Suddenly, I was no longer standing on a hill far above a drained river.

I was now standing on a slight rise above the banks of the dark water down below. I glanced upwards, towards the feathered titan, and saw he was still stained with watery blood. His entire right side seemed coated in it, but at least it was dripping off easier than blood itself might.

The titan turned his head to the moon, and roared, shaking the trees surrounding me. The sound echoed off the mountainside, making me think Karavos’ might cause some sort of mudslide.

But instead, the triumphant sound ripped through the silence of the night, and I’m sure it could be heard from miles away.

In fact, I was certain of it, because only moments after the roar had dissipated into the rainy sky, I could hear something else from the distant woods, back towards the Dino Cave.

This wasn’t the sound of Karavos’ triumph over death.

This was a roar. A familiar one. One that commanded. One that hunted. It was a savage roar that shook the night, the direct parallel to Karavos’. The titan slowly turned his head in the direction of the sound, his eyes wide, and his claws flexing.

He’d heard it. Of course he had. Every being residing within the jungle had probably heard it.

It was the savage roar of the mighty Djanak, Jungle God.

And it was a challenge.

The ground rumbled, as though the earth itself was hungering for a divine fight between behemoths.