He returned the weapon to its normal size, and teleported back into the fray. To his delight, he found that he could turn the weapon back to its original form at will, the form that he was used to using. It was like having Mjolnir, but with control over its size. As he moved in, the Titan roared in rage. As he fell towards the monster, he expanded his weapon to its maximum size. His Dao energy and elemental energy rushed into the expanded form, allowing him to use more of his substantial reserves.

The weapon blazed like a meteor as it fell, and Sam laughed. The Titan raised one arm, forming a buckler of crystal around it. The hammer met the buckler, and exploded through in a storm of translucent shards. The Titan stumbled backwards in shock, its hand cracked. With his new weapon clutched tightly, and his Dao billowing around him, Sam looked every bit the conquering cultivator. Only, the battle was just beginning. This would be a long and hard fight.

The Titan recovered quickly, a mantle of blue energy repairing its wounds. Sam could still tell that it was far from fully healed though, as his own Dao Seed energy lingered within the wounds, preventing them from repairing themselves fully.

“You are an irritating gnat,” the Titan spat. “I am ashamed that I have to use this much of my power to destroy you.”

Sam ignored the taunt, and simply drew upon his Dao, channeling it through his body and weapon. He shone with power, using as much as he could to limn his weapon in energy. Despite the power of his upgraded hammer, this was a fight that he could easily lose. The only reason he was still in the fight was because the Titans were engineered to be beatable, even by those of a lower rank.

The Titan began to channel its element to a greater degree, summoning armor of Order around its form. The skies trembled as it enacted its will on the world around itself. Sam sent his Dao Seed expanding outwards, matching the sudden explosion of power erupting from the Titan. Its Dao mingled with its element, creating a domain in which it could manipulate reality. The air seemed to align, instantly inert of all motive power. Sam struggled to breathe, but he managed to lock down reality around himself, preventing the Titan from controlling the air. He took a deep breath, and teleported, heading towards the massive form of the monster.

In his left hand, the rocky spear of Sky Splitting Wrath formed, burning with power as he filled it with his Dao Seed. Because the conceptual nature of the skill was already in line with his new Dao, he would have to upgrade it through use and realignment, rather than through adapting it to a completely different Dao. Still, there was a very noticeable increase in power.

Stolen novel; please report.

As he streaked forwards, he loosed his attack, sending the spear of energy and light towards the Titan. Another pulse of elemental energy surged out of the monster, tearing through the air. The air began to fall out of the world around Sam as he moved, as the Titan turned the world within its domain into a vacuum. A normal, sane cultivator would never have taken their elemental energy so far as to be nothing more than an avatar of it, but the Titans were different. The Lawful Titan likely sought true order, which could only be achieved through nothingness. It was lucky that the monster was far too weak to do such a thing.

Sam reached the monster’s skin a moment later, hearing a few projectiles streak his way from his captains. They had played a lower role in this fight that he had expected, given the terrain. There was no real way to safely approach the Titan without either flight, or teleportation. More importantly, shielding them from the Titan’s aura would have drained him of his own power, rendering their chances much lower.

The Titan swiped forwards, creating claws of energy upon the fingers of its massive hand. They moved strangely, contorting themselves to track down Sam. They reminded him of the abilities used by the Order elemental wielder back in the tournament. He could not remember their name, but he had remembered the targeting effect that their elemental usage imparted upon their attacks.

The claws snaked through the air, somehow tracking him even through his teleportation. It was clearly more than simply elemental power, drawing upon the monster’s Dao. However, Sam had something to say about that. A spike of his Dao and will surged outwards, slamming into the claws like a hammer strike. They crumbled into blue mist, and dissipated as he disconnected the Titan’s Dao from the attack. He had learned that the Titans had their Daos spread quite thinly across their body. Although a Dao Seed was powerful, it was not that powerful.

When it came to raw power, the Titan had him beat, but his focus and ability to leverage his power was superior.

The Titan seemed to be growing angrier and angrier as he resisted its attacks. Normally, he wouldn’t have had a chance of ignoring its Dao, but he was improbably gifted in that field, and was far beyond what he should have been at this stage of the initialization.

Sam brought his hammer arcing around as he neared the monster, slamming it into its football field sized shoulder. The cracks that were already there widened further, and chunks of crystal fell. Just as Sam began to think that he had this fight in the bag, the Titan finally started fighting seriously. A massive pulse of energy rocked its body, and hill sized chunks of crystal broke off, hovering in midair. Their forms quickly began to change, turning into what looked like facsimiles of living beings. Drakes, birds of prey, even flying serpents flitted around the body of their maker.

Sam leaped off of the shoulder, but it was too late. Dozens of crystalline monsters sped towards him, moving far faster than their master could. Sam was quickly beset on all sides, his armor taking the brunt of the damage. Even with his ability to teleport, he was swamped. His body was soon covered in bruises as the monsters shattered themselves against him. They were nothing more than kamikaze projectiles with a modicum of self control, but there were too many of them to count.