A flash of light appeared next to Sam, and Eduardo suddenly stood beside him, looking down at the scene before him.
“They just keep getting worse, don’t they?” The man asked, pursing his lips at the devastation behind him.
“You would think that the basic Titans would be the easiest to deal with, but the System never gives up.”
“I know. God is testing us to an unprecedented degree,” Eduardo replied, staring off at the Titan stoically. He briefly steepled his hands, as if praying. “You know, He is out there. Of that I am sure.”
“Mm…”
“I know that there is little proof, but all the System shows is that true power is possible.” Somehow the setting made these words much more profound. “If there are beings that can casually destroy universes, beings that were once mortal men, then it stands to reason that there is something far more powerful out there, something that our puny minds might understand as God.”
Before Eduardo could continue, a blob of water accelerated to supersonic speeds hurtled towards the wall from the main body of the Titan, straight towards Sam. Almost bored, he batted the water out of the air, tearing apart the elemental imbuement with his Dao. The words of Eduardo were far more interesting in that moment. His time to fight would come, but it was not yet.
The Flood Titan inched across the ground like an aquamarine slug, leaving a trail of waterlogged soil in its path. If not for the magic that held its body together, the creature would have flooded the entire landscape around the city. Instead, it merely leaked out a monsoon’s worth of water rather than that of a small sea.Sam slowly gathered power within his body, preparing to release it with one apocalyptic burst when the time came. His other captains had arrived, the strongest of the lot. Many of them remained behind in the city hall, as they had leadership Skills and abilities along that vein, but the true powerhouses were all gathered upon the precipice of the wall standing between the city and utter destruction.
Screams rang out from the city behind them as people struggled to free themselves from the rubble that the Flood Titan’s first attack had left. The worst thing was that there was nothing that any of them could do about it, save for leaving it to those more qualified for relief operations. Sam merely stored all of this energy within his Dao Seed, using his desire for revenge to empower himself to ridiculous heights. His new Dao was a lot like the Overlord’s in that it was able to bolster his power beyond its natural limits in the right situation. It would never be as powerful as a Dao Seed of the path of Supremacy, but it didn’t have to.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
It did not have the ego based weaknesses that the Overlord had, which suited Sam better. He would rather be a versatile fighter with a few minor weaknesses than a one trick pony with a major one. In any case, his strength was slowly rising in time with the rage filled beats of his heart.
All of the other captains were doing whatever they could to prepare as well. They would have to take a much more personal role in this fight than before because of the resistance of the Titan to the city’s artillery. It was very likely that some of them would die. Sam, to his own chagrin, found himself quantifying which of the captains were worth the most to him. He could not help but discount the lives of the majority of them, in favor of those he knew closely. Warriors could always be replaced, but friends could not.
Sam managed to snap out of this fatalistic mindset by focusing on his Dao and his path. He would do his best to make sure that nobody died, but war was war. The dead would be mourned, but there was no other option. It was either fight to the death, or let everything that they stood for be razed to the ground.
When the Flood Titan was finally within range, about five miles away, they leapt from the walls, over the moat of plasma, and towards their foe. The monster chuckled in delight, and sped up, rolling across the ground. Sam began to chain his teleports, eyes blazing with rage. His Dao raged within his body like a miniature star, fueled by his utter determination to enact a bloody toll upon the Titan.
His hammer began to burn like a sun as he funneled all of his concentrated Dao energy into it, turning it from a powerful armament into a weapon fit for a demigod. As he neared the Flood Titan, he howled a wordless challenge, imbuing it with his Dao. The Titan faltered for a moment, surprised that he possessed a Dao Seed. Sam used that moment of distraction to close the distance fully. He flew through the air and brought his hammer down, loosing its full charge upon the monster. As he did so, he empowered it with his purified mana and elemental energy. He had to make this attack count.
As his hammer touched down, a pillar of light erupted from the impact point, piercing the heavens above. His hammer ruptured the magic holding the monster together, and a large portion was evaporated in an instant. The Titan staggered backwards, almost losing control over its body, but it was still an E Rank creature, and too strong to be killed in one shot by any F Ranker, no matter how exemplary they were. As the monster moved, a massive crater was revealed beneath it, the legacy of Sam’s all out attack. Knowing that his power was spent, Sam teleported backwards, back to the safety of his allies.
“That attack took a lot out of me. Will you all be able to continue the battle when I recover?”
“It would hardly be becoming of a faction’s captains to never see the light of battle because their leader was too strong, would it now? Rest assured, we will help kill that oversized sack of piss,” Talnor spat.
The beam of water had razed part of the alien district as well, likely killing a good number of his people. Sam smiled at the man’s conviction, and he used Mantle of the Arbiter, empowering his allies. As his Dao energy slowly ticked back up, they charged, using their strongest abilities in unison.