System Break

With each stride the Titan shook the building we were on.

"Go," I said. Gisael ran down the wooden walls and crossed the street and when she topped the next building she jumped from roof to roof to a four story building and she perched on top. It was the only building taller than the Titan and that was only by a handful of feet.

These buildings were packed with city folk and I imagined there were several family apartments in each. They screamed and some ran while others were frozen in place. I felt a twinge of guilt because I could have drawn the Titan back out onto the plains. It had me in its sights, it was intelligent it knew I was a threat and it would have followed me anywhere.

I stood and waited as it loped towards me. It ran with a slow motion jog but due to its sheer size it was actually quite quick. When its shoulder barged into a warehouse it sheered off a section which fell to the ground and smashed on the cobblestone street. 

The lumbering Titan was covered in heavy stone armour, when it hit a building the building came off second best.

Qi flowed over my muscles, tendons and wooden endoskeleton. My mask was covered in qi and I hefted the magnificent mithril glaive. I was seven foot tall and my weapon weighed a hundred and fifty pounds. I was insignificant compared to the giant which ran towards me.

I waited until it swung the huge stone mace. It lifted it behind, over its head and was bringing it down with an almighty blow. I leaped past the Titan, under its arm and hit the ground as its eyes tracked me but its body could not react quick enough. It was bigger, stronger and had super heavy armour and weapon. 

But I was faster.

I turned on my speed and flashed past its Achilles tendons with my glaive raised horizontally. Qi flowed over the edge of the blade and it sheered off the same as Peppin's technique. The crescent shaped qi strike hit the Titan with precision and my heart sank when it dissipated on impact. 

The qi which flowed through its entire body repelled my attack with ease. No wonder the protectors were missing in action. This fucker was beyond strong.

It turned like a lumbering ape and its stone mace followed me like a death knell. The Titan wore stone sandals on its feet, and I could hardly believe a giant ape like god of monsters thought sandals were a good look.

My back was to the Titan, but Demon Bird was flying overhead, and I could see it turn and track me. I was wary and ready for it to start anticipating my attack because those bright blue eyes shone with intelligence. This was no Gargscarab. He might be big and slow, but he would be working out a way to kill me.

I ran up the wooden building and rather than reaching the top I circled around the side. I kept running and watched him using the bird's eye view. His knee smashed into the building, so I jumped to the next before circling back. Judging by his head and the way he stomped into the building I figured he lost track of me.

I was the height of his upper leg and readying my next attack. I pulled back the glaive readying a full swing at top speed and I charged his thigh. The glaive sizzled through the air with every ounce of my strength and speed behind it. This time I relied on the heavy weapon head and not a flying qi strike.

Barrin had said this was a weapon capable of taking down a mystical creature. Dark Bear was a strong, big and blessed with qi; he was a mystical creature. I had no idea what a Titan was, I probably should have asked the Scholar when I had the chance.

The magnificent weapon ploughed into its flesh and then it was a battle pulling it out before I was squished like a marshmallow on a hot summers day.

The Titan roared and an arrow grazed its eye as it turned. Gisael had waited for a moment of weakness to press her attack. Without seeing it I was sure she had poured qi into one of her prized ebony arrows. It was her ultimate, she attacked a weak spot at a moment of weakness, and she was still only able to graze its eye.

The stone mace came down and broke the street.

I didn't think you could break a street. But there it was – the street collapsed at the point of contact into a deep depression of dirt, water, and cobblestones. The mace was undamaged it's lattice work of qi kept it in perfect condition despite the raw power of the blow.

I laughed. The Titan's strike was so powerful he didn't add qi to it he used qi to keep his weapon from disintegrating.

I ran up the next building and onto the roof. The Titan was still lifting his stone mace, but his eyes were on me. I had wounded him, but it was a tiny cut in the scheme of things. His core was well protected behind his stone armour and it was no accident that it covered his stomach and lower back.

To get to his core I was going to have to get through that armour. He watched me looking at him and the lattice of qi which protected his mace spread to his armour around his centre.

"Fuck," I swore. The bastard knew what I was thinking. I racked my brains. I had no idea how I was going to take this bastard down. The only thing I had was death by a thousand cuts, but that was an awful plan. It was likely he would catch me, or I would run out of qi or both well before the bastard went down.

There was only one thing left to do. I hefted my glaive in the air and spun it in a circle.

"Come get me you ugly bastard," I yelled, and I ran towards the wall. "Demon Bird," I called through our link. "Go find Sakaala. Lead Peppin to her." I didn't only use words when communicating with the bird through the link - it was images and the words just came with it.

I taunted the Titan.

"I will kill you on the plains you big ugly bastard. When you die you'll stink out the city." I had no idea if he understood me, but he followed which is what I wanted.

Gisael followed and she retrieved my throwing spear - bless her heart.

I leaped from a building onto the wall and pulled myself up and over. I jumped off and rolled onto the grass below then I kept running because the Titan was picking up speed. He knocked down a building as if it were an old rotten post and kept crushing his way up the cobblestone streets.

I was going to lead him to Loctris or the Dokkalfar stronghold. Maybe their siege weapons could take care of him. I had no idea; I just know I had to get him away from the city or those folk would die. Maybe he would lose interest in it if I could lead him far enough away.

I turned and to watch him break through the wall. His armoured knees had no problem smashing their way through.

He slowed and hesitated. 

I waved my glaive and shouted. "Come on you ugly bastard. I cut you remember." I danced and taunted egging him on to chase me.

I sighed. The titan wasn't a stupid monster. His mouth stretched into what I thought was a smile or it was a sneer I didn't care. Then his eyes lit up and a beam of bright blue light shot our straight at me. 

In the milliseconds it took for his qi to reach me I remember thinking it's a fucking laser. This massive unkillable stone monkey has fucking laser eyes. The laser cut through my like a hot knife through butter.

I was completely outmatched. The fucking Qizhu Scholar talked me into a fight I didn't have a chance of winning.

As I died I prayed Gisael would save herself and get the hell out of dodge. But I knew she wouldn't. She would save my core or die trying.