194 The Shadows - Part 19
It bellowed in dismay, realizing that it had been foolish, realizing that its doubt was all for nought. It was merely that its opponents were fools who could not tell his true strength. It opened its beak and let out a great roar, before turning to face the rest of the goblins.
Just before its strike landed, Beam's control over the goblins faded, and they gave a shriek of alarm, as they turned and attempted to run away. But it was far too late for that. The Titan came after them. With two swift strikes, it ensured their death.
Blood flew into the air as the Titan's claws tore the goblins in half. It howled in delight. Even after it had killed them, it ran to follow up on the corpses, so that it might grind them to a halt, but a terrible feeling of dread stopped it midstride. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
It looked up over its shoulder, back into the air, its heart pounding. After just regaining its confidence, something overwhelming was forcing it back into the depths of fear. Up, under the starlight, he caught the shadow of a boy, his sword raised.
He'd forgotten. In his obsession over the goblins, he'd forgotten where the true threat lay. He'd forgotten that this measly creature was able to survive some of its attacks. How could it have forgotten? To miss what was important, to allow itself to be roused by the weak, to be unsettled so greatly.
Yet something was off. The boy it was fighting earlier, he wasn't this large, was he? What was this darkness that cloaked him, that gave him mass? What was that burning looking in his eyes, as golden flecks danced around, demanding that he yield?
What now gave him such a powerful force? Why did the Titan feel the sudden urge to kneel? Why did fear run through it so strongly, against an opponent that he had already injured, that he had already dominated?
The strike came down from above. The Titan thought it saw a golden light catch the blade. A golden light that conflicted with that shadow of darkness that hung about him. The Titan was overwhelmed by fear, and then with beauty. Its heart was moved, and then destroyed.
Despite its strength, Beam broke its soul.
Though, at least now he knew there was something of a limit. That if several monsters were bound together through a crystal, it would create a beast of nightmarish proportions, but that would have an equally unstable soul to match.
What he didn't know was the effect the crystals had on the binding strength of that soul. It was highly likely that they had something stronger, that was capable of supporting an even more nightmarish creature. After all, they had used crystals of different colours on the rabbit and on the goblin.
With such new information in mind, despite the absolutely crushing level of exhaustion that Beam now felt, he was forced to once more rebuild his fire.
He gathered more wood from the forest – which was growing increasingly harder to find nearer the clearing, especially without his axe to tend to any of the thicker pieces – and built up a raging bonfire in that gap in the cliff, making it even larger than before.
Despite how large he made it, it would have been impossible to get the Titan corpse on there. Just as it would have been equally difficult to move the Titan corpse in the first place. The end result of such a predicament was a good deal of grizzly work, as Beam was forced to cut the Titan down into more manageable bits with his sword.
His clothes, that were already a mess, now became dyed almost exclusively with green blood.
Little by little, he completed his task. The only thing managing to keep up with his exhaustion was a growing sense of satisfaction, as he cleaned up the clearing, little by little. He dealt with the smaller pieces of flesh first, leaving the Titan until last, since at least that was in one piece, making it easier to defend should more monsters come.
Need name suggestions for the Vice-Captain of the soldiers!! He's gonna be a stocky bearded guy with a loud mouth. Any ideas???
Nick_Alderson
Creator's Thought