They possessed zero tactical moves left to hold the monster back. Kaelen was completely out of options, so he resorted to the only desperate measure they had left.
"Let's drink Mana Potions," Kaelen ordered.
Everyone quickly grabbed their vials.
"I'm out," Nia said. "That was the last vial I had."
"Same here," the other Healer added.
The rest of the team confessed they had consumed their final potions. Kaelen drank two vials of Mana Potions. His body wanted to vomit, but he managed to force the liquid down.
"I drank the last two potions I had because I'm almost empty," the Light Swordsman said.
Kaelen wiped his mouth. "Let's dig a hole."
Chris and Thorne widened their eyes in surprise.
"Calamity Child almost did it earlier," Kaelen explained. "If we focus our attack on one single point in its chest, then maybe we could destroy its Monster Core without emptying its Mana Reserve."
"That's ridiculous," Thorne argued.
"Yeah, you're right. That's ridiculous," Kaelen agreed. "The success rate is almost zero. But before I die, I want to try to kill a Titan with a ridiculous method."
What Kaelen said did not sound like the words of a proper commander, but they stood at the edge of a hopeless situation.
"Thorne, you will fire your strongest magic at the monster's chest," Kaelen said. "Give everything you have."
Kaelen looked at the three Thieves and the Light Swordsman. "After Thorne does that, you four will dig the hole. Do not stop no matter what. I will attack at the bottom to divide its attention."
Kaelen looked at everyone. "We will bet everything on this one final shot."
Thorne laughed hard. Everyone was confused by the sudden laugh. The Titan approached them steadily.
Thorne stopped laughing and gripped his staff. "Let's do it."
"Go!" Kaelen barked the command.
Upon hearing the signal, Nia gripped her staff hard. She could not do anything to participate in the physical digging, and the feeling of being useless frustrated her deeply.
She cast a wide purification spell across the area to wash the air. She did this for two reasons. First, it cleansed the air that could potentially reach the running civilians. Second, it helped the fighters breathe clean air right before the final attack.
Eventually, a few minutes later, the toxic fog would just return because the Titan constantly leaked the Miasma from its body. The purification spell did not help that much in their final attack, but Nia thought it was the only thing she could do. She refused to do nothing, so she found a way to contribute.
Thorne gave everything he had left to fuel one final magic spell. The massive blast pushed him five meters backward. Kaelen threw his shield away, and he coated his broadsword in a brilliant light.
I'm almost at my limit, Kaelen told himself, so I will give everything I have in this one final attack. I could at least deal enough damage to its roots to buy precious seconds for the citizens to run.
At this exact moment, broken fragments of his glorious past violently flashed across his mind.
He saw a bloody dungeon where his old comrades laughed, shouting loudly, "As long as Kaelen holds the front, we will never die!"
He remembered the damp caves of his prime, where the sheer density of his Aura made ferocious monsters completely freeze and step backward in pure, instinctual terror.
For four decades, he relentlessly polished his heavy swings and bled to forge his human body into an unbreakable iron wall. He built his entire life on the fierce pride of protecting the weak, so he entirely refused to let a mindless walking tree mock his legacy.
He raised his brilliant broadsword. "This is the weight of forty years of Adventuring!"
He started to land the blow and roared. "Don't look down on Adventurers, you bastard!"
The three Thieves and the Light Swordsman climbed up the Titan. They gave everything they had to attack relentlessly. They dug into the wood while maintaining their footing on the Titan's body. They used their feet and body strength to hug the Titan's body, and the Thieves used both their hands and daggers to dig. The Light Swordsman used his two hands on his sword to dig deep into the bark.
But the Titan's vines with thorns started to move. The Light Swordsman and the Thieves saw the threat coming, but they did not stop their continuous attack. They bet everything on that final strike.
Before they could dig deeper, the poisonous thorns hit them hard, and they fell in different directions. The Light Swordsman's sword with an orange-colored hilt fell onto the ground.
The final attack failed.
Kaelen was thrown backward as the Titan suddenly moved forward. He tried to stand, but his knee gave out. He fell to the ground and knelt, and he used his sword as support. The Titan marched forward. The other Healer and Thorne quickly stepped back.
Nia was left alone in front of the approaching Titan. She froze when she realized they failed. She just stood there. She saw the sword with the orange-colored hilt on the ground. She remembered her own words to her teacher years ago.
"I want to learn how to wield a sword."
She gritted her teeth. She dropped her staff and picked up the sword with the orange-colored hilt. Thorne and the Healer were totally shocked by her action. Nia raised the sword and ran toward the Titan. She was blinded by the exact same rage she felt when she confronted her teacher in the past. She attacked the Titan's root.
CLANG.
"You cannot wield a sword." Her teacher's response from years ago echoed in her mind.
Nia's attack did not cause any damage. The thorny vines lashed out to hit her. The thorns reached almost two centimeters before they could rip her body apart, but she vanished before the vines touched her skin.
The next moment, Nia saw the bleeding Korinn. He embraced her and pulled her away from the Titan. From a distance, she saw the sword with the orange-colored hilt fly away into the sky. Korinn dropped to his knee, and he bled heavily from the poisonous thorns.
Nia looked around. She saw Chris, Thorne, and Kaelen resting nearby. She also noticed she was bleeding. A thorn hit her right eye, so her right eye could not see anymore. She sat helplessly on the cobblestone.
Before Nia could even inhale to breathe, the Titan moved closer. Its thorny vines extended and moved fast toward them. Everyone seemed heavily injured and exhausted. She could see that dodging the attack in their current condition was not possible.
At that moment, she knew it was over. She just looked at the ground to accept her fate.
But before the thorny vines reached them, she heard the sound of footsteps.
Pat. Pat. Pat.
Someone ran across the cobblestones without boots or shoes.
Shing!
The next moment, Nia's left eye saw the thorny vines splatter onto the ground. She looked closer, and she realized the vines were completely cut down. She realized they were saved. Her mind concluded that someone cut the thorns. But who?
She looked at the ground. Her left eye saw someone standing barefooted. The feet were small. They were the feet of a teenager. She saw the tip of a sword resting on the cobblestone. Her mind automatically concluded that the person who cut the vines used a sword. She noticed the white fabric covering the person's legs. Only the person's ankles were visible.
Something made her mind realize something was wrong. The white fabric looked extremely familiar, and she recognized what clothes they were. She wore the exact same pattern of clothes. In other words, the person who cut down the vines using a sword wore a Healer's robe.
That can't be! Nia thought frantically. A Healer cannot cut a vine from a Calamity-class monster. It requires Aura coating the sword.
A strange light flickered, and her left eye caught the glow. She felt something was incredibly wrong. The person in front of Nia raised the sword.
Nia's heart beat faster. Her gaze slowly raised. The figure of the person slowly emerged in her left eye, so she saw a young lady's body. When her left eye saw the neck portion, she was totally stunned. Her mind already knew who she was, but her brain could not accept it.
The person raised their blade high. The steel, gripped by an orange hilt, caught the dim light as it leveled toward the dark sky.
Nia saw the person wearing a Healer's robe and stood barefooted. She had blonde hair and looked like a fourteen-year-old girl.
She had pointy ears.
The orange-hilted sword shone incredibly bright. A brilliant yellow-green light coated the entire steel blade.
The blonde girl tilted her head while she searched the ruined cobblestone.
"I can't find my staff," the blonde girl complained.
As Nia stared at the glowing weapon, her rational mind completely shattered.
"Impossible!" she gasped.