Leaving the robot behind to prepare for his new job, Sam headed back towards the city hall, wanting to check in with the captains about the state of the world. As he moved, his mind started to pick up that something was wrong. The air began to grow more humid rapidly, too fast to be natural. Beads of water began to form on his armor, and he found his breaths coming with greater difficulty. His enhanced mind easily made the connection. One of the Titans was calling. The Flood Titan. It seemed that the monster had been waiting for his return, perhaps out of a desire for revenge.
Sam teleported towards the wall, where his presence would be most useful. The defense system of the city was so advanced at this stage that he would be more of a hindrance in central command than anything else. Instead, once he alighted on the wall, he was greeted to a front seat view of the arrival of the Titan.
A rolling mass of water, shaped loosely like a humanoid, the Flood Titan washed away everything in its way, leaving behind flattened earth, with nothing else left to see. Sam wondered how it had gotten over the canyon, what with its form, but it seemed to have some degree of control over its body. As it neared, the elemental effect became more and more noticeable. This had not been present with the other Titans, because they were less overt in terms of their concept. With the Flood Titan, and presumably the other three classically element based Titans, their nature would radiate out into the world for everyone to see.
At this point, the air felt soupy, far beyond the humidity that would have been possible before the coming of the System. Eventually, it stopped growing worse, but Sam knew that this would be a large detriment to anyone who used fire based elemental powers. Luckily for the city, the majority of the defenses were powered by pure mana, which was unaffected by any particular element.
As the Titan continued to roll, the cannons spat out wave after wave of mana bolts. Some of them struck home, but the Titan simply opened up spaces within its body, letting many of them pass right through. Sam recognized the wisdom of the people operating the cannons, as they had waited to test things before wasting a charge of the Superior cannon. To actually hit this monster with the cannon, they would need to pin it down so much that it was unable to discorporate in time.
“Butchers of my brethren, I greet you,” the Titan called out, its words sounding like the pounding of ocean waves. “I have come to show you the true might of the Titans. You see, we were not all born equal. With Gaea at our head, those closest to her were naturally enhanced. With the crushing power of the ocean, and the inexorability of water, I will wash your city away, like a sandcastle, left to the vagaries of water and time.”
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Every word sounded like a tsunami, and they rolled over the land in a way that did not seem entirely natural. The Titan seemed a lot more full of itself than the others did, but that was probably justified.
As it continued to dodge the mana bolts, it gathered up a ball of water above its head, leeching it out of the air around it. It spun in place, and defying all of the laws of physics, began to compress itself. Water was supposed to be completely immune to compression, but apparently the power of a Dao Seed was enough to reverse that. The only problem was what happened to water when forced into a small enough space.
A moment later, a rent opened in the side of the water ball, about the size of a pencil. A beam of fluid, so dense and fast that it looked like a laser beam, slammed into the city walls. The beam was almost invisible, but its effects were more than evident. A lake’s worth of water forced down into a hole the size of a pencil created so much force that the shield began to flicker barely a second after impact.
The Titan chortled wetly at this, seeming delighted at its power. The hole began to grow smaller and smaller, increasing the speed of the water until it finally broke through. The last bits of the beam slashed across the city, severing buildings from their supports. It was by far the most damage one of the Titans had done so far.
As the beam petered out, the city returned fire, pinning the Titan down with a wave of artillery. As the Titan struggled to avoid the attacks, the Superior Mana cannon finally fired, straight into the middle of the monster’s body. Stretched thin as it already was, the Titan was unable to dodge, and the resulting blast boiled away an entire lake’s worth of water, noticeably cutting its size down.
The creature spluttered in indignant rage, and started to roll forwards, uncaring of the few impacts that got through its unique defense. Sam began to gather his own power together between his hands, creating a spear of crackling energy that he loosed towards the Titan. It impacted a few moments later, exploding in a wave of red and blue light. The titan seemed to set its attention upon him at this, and then spoke.
“Ah. Sam Atlas. I was wondering when you would show your face. Chief among the butchers of my siblings, and the strongest man on Earth. I am looking forward to drowning you in the depths of infinite sorrow.”
With that ominous message, the Titan began to gather more water above its head, preparing another beam attack. At this point, the city defenses were rallying, and a wave of automaton fighters leapt over the wall, racing towards the Titan. They had absolutely no chance of defeating it, but they could slow it down.