The giant bell echoed. Every person awake froze in place. It was the exact sound they feared the most.
Ragnion sat on a chair. The royal Scholar watched his little sister sleep peacefully. Then the noise reached his ears.
GONNNG! GONNNG! GONNNG!
The effect was instantaneous. Ragnion heard frantic screams and panicked shouts from the neighbors. His house stood closest to the East Gate, so the people in his neighborhood panicked much more than the citizens further away. Before Ragnion could wake his sister, a loud explosion rocked the entire city.
KRA-BOOOM!
Back at the battlefield, the pursuit team finally caught up. The Titan managed to destroy the East Wall before the Adventurers arrived.
Thorne had just cast a powerful blast of fire while hovering in the air. He was slammed backward, but Chris caught him from behind. He deactivated the float spell right after the attack, so Kaelen, Thorne, Nia, the veteran Healer, and the Light Swordsman dropped heavily to the ground.
The sudden return of the earth's natural pull violently scrambled their balance. A harsh wave of dizziness immediately hit the five Adventurers, making the ruined walls spin wildly in front of their eyes. Shifting from absolute weightlessness to a sudden, heavy drop always ruins a person's equilibrium.
Thorne still felt the terrible motion sickness twisting his gut. He was an experienced Mage, so he was entirely used to this nauseating vertigo whenever he canceled a float spell. He quickly swallowed the sour taste in his mouth and pushed forward. The others gritted their teeth to force their wobbly legs to work, and they rushed toward the front of the Miasma-Titan. The monster finally stopped its march after it breached the Capital of Voragale.
Hundreds of civilians stood on site. They saw the figure of the Calamity, and it made them completely horrified.
"Run!" Nia shouted at them.
Her shout brought the civilians back to reality. They started their escape and drove their carriages frantically.
Ragnion stood among the crowd. He carried his crying little sister and a big backpack. He froze when he saw his horses down. Wall debris had completely destroyed his carriage.
Slowly, the scholar tilted his head upward. A towering mountain of rotting timber and black sludge entirely eclipsed the street lamps. His breath caught in his throat, and a crushing wave of absolute despair instantly paralyzed his legs. He pulled Leifa tighter against his chest and buried her face in his shoulder so she would not see the walking nightmare. He had read hundreds of academic books about ancient beasts, but no text could ever prepare a man for the suffocating terror of a real Calamity.
While the frantic citizens scrambled blindly through the ruined avenues, the monster stepped fully into the city limits. Down on the broken cobblestones of the collapsed East Wall, the Adventurers held their desperate ground to block the beast.
Nia stood near the rubble. She saw the toxic fog leak from the monster. It built up slowly across the street. She knew the situation was terrible.
If that toxic fog accumulates, it will kill the civilians.
Kaelen raised his broadsword and iron shield. "Everyone, hold this line with your lives. We will not let the Calamity pass this line to give time for the civilians to evacuate."
He spoke with absolute resolve. It was very clear that his body sat almost past its physical limit, but the Adventurers had to fight anyway. The eight people defended the breached wall. They stood as the last line of defense, and they prepared to give every ounce of their strength and their lives to buy time for the citizens of Voragale.
The Titan moved forward and raised its enlarged right arm log high into the sky. Chris noticed a strange detail about how the Titan swung its arms. The arm started its ascent, but the speed seemed much slower than the very first day they fought the monster. The log arm slammed toward the location of the eight Adventurers. Chris watched the speed of the descending timber.
Just as I thought, Chris concluded in his mind. The speed of its attack decreased significantly. Could it have drained its energy when it ran fast earlier? No. Maybe it moves slower this time because its physical stamina dropped due to the thirteen days of battle without rest. Monsters are like every other being. They have limitations. If a monster fights a long battle, it will start to become sluggish as well.
Chris knew this was valuable tactical intelligence. He looked at the log as it almost reached them. He knew the information was useless now. He believed this was the final day of his life. He saw the log incoming fast toward his face.
Mom,if the afterlife is real, I hope you can forgive me for not visiting your grave even once, Chris prayed silently.
The arm log came close to his face. Before the timber could hit him, he vanished. He dodged the heavy wood at the last possible second. All eight Adventurers successfully evaded the attack.
Vance looked at the Titan after he dodged. He saw the beast's Mana Pool hovered around thirty percent. He felt like he stared at an unbreakable wall. He knew they could not drain it.
Like humans, a monster's stamina depletes, but it is also true about the recovery, Vance thought. If the Titan stops fighting for a while, it can recover its stamina and its Mana Reserves. In one month or so, its Mana Pool will increase to a hundred percent if this monster manages to rest.
Kaelen stared at the towering Titan while the memory of their very first encounter burned in his mind. Back on day one, the beast did not even bother to move from its crater. He remembered the moment his knees hit the ground, fully expecting a fatal blow, but the monster simply turned around and walked away. The bitter truth finally clicked in his head.
This bastard never even considered us a threat, Kaelen thought, his grip tightening on his broadsword. It just looked down on us.
That realization stung deeper than any wound, making it the worst humiliation for a proud warrior like him.
Being looked down on by a human was one thing, but being mocked by a monster he was supposed to hunt felt like the ultimate insult. It hurt his pride as an Adventurer. He realized the monster was not serious from the beginning. Even now, he could feel that the monster did not actually take them seriously. The beast treated them like toys.
Whenever they fell down, it just turned around. Kaelen knew he was supposed to be thankful that his comrades survived because of that mercy, but he knew it was not out of pity. It looked down on them, and it basically said humans were not worthy opponents. Kaelen felt it like a heavy slap on his face.
The Titan moved forward toward them.
"Listen. We cannot step back," Kaelen commanded. "We will hold this line no matter what."
The Titan casually moved even closer to them. With a deafening grind of petrified wood against stone, the beast raised a massive root and planted it squarely inside the city limits.
Kaelen roared and charged. He swung his broadsword, channeling every last drop of his glowing yellow Aura into the steel to strike an advancing limb.
KRRR-SHHHK!
Sparks exploded across the dark street.
But the monster ignored the damage without flinching or slowing down. A thick wall of thorny vines swept horizontally across the cobblestones, forcing the melee fighters to raise their weapons in a desperate block.
The sheer kinetic force hit them like a falling mountain.
Their boots scraped violently backward. Kaelen and the Light Swordsman dug their heels into the ruined pavement, leaving deep trenches in the stone as they tried to halt the bulldozer.
From the rear, Thorne fired a blinding barrage of fireballs towards the Titan.
CRASH. BANG.
The explosions baked the outer bark, yet the monster just marched straight through the thick smoke. It casually stepped forward, using its weight to crush the barricade of human bodies.
The Adventurers gasped for air as their defensive wall entirely shattered. They tumbled backward, slipping over the broken rubble and completely losing their footing. The line they swore to protect was officially breached.
With a sickening crunch, the roots of the Miasma-Titan slammed directly onto the paved street. The crushing weight turned a stone streetlamp into gray powder. Shockwaves ripped through the earth, knocking the remaining fighters flat on their backs.
They frantically scrambled backward across the rough cobblestones to escape the advancing roots. Thick dust and toxic smog violently kicked up right in front of the Adventurers, completely choking the air between them and the monster.
So, as they stared up at the unstoppable wall of sludge and timber driving them deeper into the city, the bitter reality of their failure finally settled into their tired bones.
"It's no use," Thorne muttered.
Kaelen wiped a mixture of sweat from his chin. A pressure pressed down on his aching shoulders, and he quickly realized their defensive wall was entirely shattered.