The silence was broken. The atrocity had let out a ferocious yell. The taran maintained intelligence, but were still animalistic in nature. They were merely masquerading as anything but. Their behavior? Only inherited through encounter after encounter against the elmannise.
Syllis wanted to laugh as well as cry. She was bleeding already. At least she had been before she froze over the wound. Now the nibbling pain of the cold bit down against her. This was nothing but a distraction though. She could handle the cold, it was her dominion.
‘Seriously? Where is your god to save us?’ Syllis scolded the elmannise internally. They prayed to the abyss and revered it. In return they were given the power to shape it. But what could that accomplish? The taran still attacked them every single day and the abyss made no attempt to keep them out.
‘Does a god let its people die? Coryzan heard me in a time of need. How does one in another realm provide me with more than a local god to its entire base of followers?’ Syllis fought against letting out a sigh. This was an inappropriate train of thought. Her mind was needed in the battle at hand. She did not have the time to waste debating internally.
“What do you think,” Syllis said, “Clyde? Are you ready for this?” Her tone was not that of a question being asked. She already knew the answer.
“Does it make a difference if I am not ready?” Clyde answered, defeatedly. “I don’t know if I will ever be ready to face something so horrific. Only a lunatic could ever be prepared.”
‘Right a lunatic…’ Syllis stared forward. A grin spread across her face. She was this lunatic. She was raring to tear this tar-like creature into pieces.
The regular taran were flies to be swatted away and the amplified… Unintelligent predators that were used to feeding on even dumber prey. They were a tease. They were the lackeys of these titans. Every step they took sent vibrations through the pitch-black floor. Each and every breath was another life cleaved and each scream was not one of pain. Instead they were reminders. A battle-cry for their own people to fight until their last breath.
A large roar echoed out, this one much closer than all the rest. It was visceral and pulled the attention of Syllis’ larger group as well as several groups beside them.
Syllis was pulled away from her slaughter of taran—not that she was particularly engrossed in it. The titan took prevalence and the slaughter of taran that had not coalesced with one another was only a means to pass time, to wait for the main threat to arrive.
Aura had long summoned her ephemeral dragon again. Shortly after their group and the debilitated group merged, she invoked her bond again. She was proficient with the longsword she had argued to be given. But her true ability lay in her bond. This green-glowing dragon towered high above, refraining from participating in the obliteration of taran below. It signaled the beginning of the true fight.
Syllis studied the titan as it approached. Its form was nothing short of an abomination, unlike anything she had seen before. This was not compared to much though. She had never left Asanoch. Heasen were the most common mammal in Ethrailia or at least the northern area and that was about the only animal she ever laid her eyes on.
The titan had four arms, each with seven fingers. Barbs seemed to weave beautifully around each other forming deadly, lacerating nails. It had formed absurdly large wings which most certainly did not allow it to fly. The stomach was ripped open giving a view into its pink organs.
‘And… Teeth.’ Syllis remarked.
Nearly every surface of this creature was littered with a slew of teeth that were not made of the pitch-black tar that the main body was formed of. Instead they seemed to be made of rocks and ash. They were a near pristine white color, unexpected of material that was perpetually scorched daily under the fury of the four suns.
‘This is troubling. My spear will get caught in those grooves…’ Syllis tried thinking of a way through.
The titan was nearing them and the amplified taran that assaulted them slowed down and retreated. They were waiting for the titan to ambush Syllis and her companions. This titan was a mere twenty-five meters away. They would engage it in a mere couple minutes.
With this in mind, Syllis had a thought. She began to manifest a large javelin in her free hand and began condensing it into its very purest form. ‘If stabs will follow the contour of the teeth… Then I might as well shatter them.’
Syllis utilized a similar technique as she had during her demonstration to Veria and her fight against Ansel. She had since refined it though. In the months she had been attending Lurgica she picked up on a couple students’ use of their bonds. One in particular inspired her though.
It was a frail man who did not like to fight. He wanted to use his bond to entertain. In his mind anathema were the cause of pain and suffering so their boons should be used to entertain and give joy. It was a naive view but a pretty one. He performed one night in the courtyard of Lurgica. A pale wave carried him, allowing him to spin. At the apex of his height he performed an incredibly impressive flip which utilized the rotation of his body.
Syllis was already applying something similar to her own technique, but it lacked the sophistication. She deemed it sloppy and spent ample time improving it.
Icy-blue waves carried Syllis’ right foot while her left kept her anchored in place. The momentum made her dizzy and her vision blurred, unable to keep up with the surroundings. She narrowed her eyes and as the beast bellowed another roar it was met with a pale spear.
The creature had inhumane reaction time—suited to a demonic looking creature—and hit the javelin away the second it collided. Still, an entire clump of near a hundred teeth were shattered. Under half were from her own attack but Syllis did not complain. Her goal was to unearth a weak spot and that was accomplished.
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Another roar sounded. It held the grittiness of the titans other bellows, but this one was tinged with a great sadness. It was laced with pain.
“What was that?” Hfroht called out. A look of disbelief was suspended on his face.
“A javelin,” Syllis said, deadpan. She was not interested in conversing with Hfroht. The titan was throwing its own first blow, after all.
Crash! Pillars of ice were shattered in an instant. They had no place harming the great titan. They were nothing but an inconvenience. This interaction demonstrated just how much Syllis’ newfound adaptation in throwing her javelin had improved her ability. It held more power than a dozen pillars, each twenty times thicker!
The titan turned, revealing the back of its wing. Similarly it was covered in teeth. It charged towards Syllis. She had clearly already been noted as a threat. Along with it, several amplified each funneled in at the titan’s side.
Syllis quickly raised several walls. She isolated the amplified taran from herself and the titan, leaving them for Clyde and Hfroht to deal with. However, this also essentially locked Syllis in a room with the gargantuan threat. She was more than satisfied with such an outcome. The entire act of banding together to kill the hoard of taran made her vastly uncomfortable. She was used to being alone, fighting alone. The idea that her living or dying could be influenced in any way by her friends was a difficult concept to wrap her head around. She was much more comfortable with a simple fight against the titan. Just her and the monstrosity.
‘Come on you bulky bastard.’ Syllis mused within. She was not seriously expecting to slay the monster by herself.
There would come a moment where the walls would need to fall, but not until she weakened it to a state where it could not harm Clyde. His life was not more important than her own but in a way it was equally as valuable. As long as he died, Syllis would likely be hunted down by Anahita.
The titan pulled its wing over the front of its body again and prepared to charge. It repositioned its thick legs and turned slightly.
‘Wh—What?’ Syllis’ pupils dilated as it approached her with absurd speed. This was far greater than what it had previously demonstrated. ‘Dastardly deceiver… This is going to hurt…’
Syllis could only grit her teeth and minimize the damage. The titan was too swift for her to evade entirely. She was caught off guard. Never in a million years would she expect such a large creature to move with such grace.
She bit down on her lip as some teeth on the side of the wing bit into the bit of her arm that remained in its path. The teeth had ‘chewed’ through a large portion of her arm which she hastily cooled down, the pain subsided.
This infuriated the secare nymph. This was an injury that would not heal for at least a couple months. There were doctors residing on the wall but they did not possess the skill that anathemic doctors did. In fact the elmannise mostly died to taran. Either they were completely fine at the end of the fight, or they crumbled under the might of strong taran. Injuries were practically nonexistent. For this reason, the doctors were specialized in treating the burns of scouting researchers.
Syllis ran towards the large beast. It would not catch her off guard again. Next time, icy-blue waves would quickly and safely move her out of harm's way. They conceded more space in Syllis’ mind than she was comfortable with though, so she opted for close combat. No matter the unnatural momentum such a beast could incur, it had limits. Turning would be a chore for it.
The secare nymph rushed forward holding her needle-point spear. Her free arm was half covered in ice, swaying as she ran.
Several wide sweeps were made by the powerful hands, covered in brambles and teeth. Syllis could only narrowly avoid them. Acknowledging the titan’s swiftness, she utilized her sanity and ice to evade the attacks. They demanded her utmost concentration.
Ordinarily, Syllis would have moved to attack the open stomach that gave a glimpse into its organs. But with a creature so dastardly and traitorous, that was assuredly a trap.
Syllis could only think of one way to ensure hers and Clyde’s safety, as well as the rest of her companions’ own. ‘Carve its limbs until they aren’t his anymore.’
Without its lethal weapons blessed with an unholy agility, the titan would be nothing more than an amorphous eyesore.
Syllis latched onto a couple teeth. They made more than decent handholds aside from the occasional cut, tearing through her prized black gloves.
‘Sacrifices have to be made…’ Syllis was somewhat sentimental over them.
One of the titan’s colossal arms bent at an impossible angle and moved to crush the secare nymph.
‘Of course…’ Syllis rolled her eyes and leaped from the colossus. An icy-blue pillar rose from below creating a small platform. Her mind was eaten away at and she heard the slight mutterings of Coryzan.
The tar-like arm crashed down at the spot where Syllis had just leaped from only a couple seconds prior. Several dozen teeth were instantly shattered into dust. The titan did not have eyes littering the entirety of his body and could only operate on sensation.
Syllis heaved a sigh of relief as she narrowly avoided certain death. Again, she jumped onto the colossus, this time latching onto its arm that had not quite been drawn back to its regular position. She dug the needle-point spear that she had taken from her mouth and stuck it into the flesh.
The titan immediately belowed, signaling its injury to all other taran. The scream was louder up close, almost deafening.
Syllis managed to form a thin box of ice, nearly encasing her. If she had not done that, her hearing might have been significantly impacted if not lost all-together.
Purple-pink ooze seeped from within the pitch-black arm, covering Syllis. She nearly vomited upon smelling the substance before continuing her ascent. Using the teeth as handholds, she maneuvered around the side of the titan, continuously shifting to the side to avoid getting crushed by a colossal hand.
The taran were becoming more problematic because of their adaptation though…
Crush! Several dozen more teeth were shattered in an instant. This time they were not voided at Syllis’ previous position. The hand had collapsed onto where the titan had believed that Syllis would be. It was only by a slight glance up that Syllis was able to let go before being assimilated into the great abomination.
‘Damnit!’ Syllis cursed as she slightly flailed. She had been startled and pushed herself away from the titan, leaving any teeth out of reach to grab.
Syllis desperately clawed before pulling her needle-point spear out of her mouth and jabbing it into the creature. It was nothing short of a miracle how it managed to pierce directly between five tightly set teeth. As much as she wished to take credit, her accuracy was not so good. Such a miracle could only be attributed to fate or destiny.
The secare nymph looked upwards with more a strengthened resolve. This titan was adapting quickly and needed to be dealt with before another one approached their group. The roaring in the distance was a warning that this scenario was nearing much closer than Syllis had anticipated.