I shrugged. “Your kill, your keep. Besides, I’ve got some new abilities of my own as well. So nicely done.”
“How’d the scouting go?”
I was quick to tell him the story, while a few villagers came to bring me water and food. They looked well for now, but I worried about the meat they had gained access to. There was no way the people here weren’t suffering from malnutrition and starvation. Eating a lot of food might seem like a godsend but…their bodies might not handle the nutrients coming in. Refeeding syndrome was a serious issue. They might seem fine today, but tomorrow? Or the day after that? There might be casualties piling up soon enough. A cruel fate for any who had been starving just days ago.
“So the Titan has a core…” Trig said, rubbing his chin as Little Hig imitated him. The monkey was sitting in his hair, as usual, mimicking just about every action his master took. “So, it’s your call here, Aves. The people can wait it out down in the depths, with Mr. Blue using his power to keep monsters at bay. That’ll give you and I time to kill the Titan once and for all. Or…we could take the risk and make a run for it. I think Big Blue can keep the monsters at bay.”
“But one little mistake could cost the entire village their lives,” I said, reaching out to pick up Little Hig. He happily accepted my grasp and began to immaterially pull at my nose and hair, curiously inspecting me as I petted him. “I’m thinking that the time the Overseer was able to extend its influence over the enemy must have coincided with my first encounter with the Titan. If the beast is focusing on us, it’s possible it could fight back. We don’t know how strong it is, or just how much of the Overseer’s power it is using.”
Trig nodded. “True…it could be that the Titan can naturally control these things. Hence why it was in charge of the Nursery.”
“I want to err on the side of caution, still,” I said with a sigh. I felt a twinge in my leg and glanced down to see that the stump was beginning to grow, slowly but surely. I let out a sigh of relief as the flesh grotesquely grew itself, taking its time to begin developing an entirely new leg. I sort of wished that I had thought of this sooner. Removing the leg would fix the injury once and for all. But…then again, that was so unbelievably gruesome. Could I have really gone through with it without an emergency? “So we’re going to bunker down here, figure out how to kill the Shadow Titan and then make a move on it, fast as possible.”
“You got it,” Trig said, trying to conceal his own disappointment. I could see that he had grown weary of this dark world and wanted nothing more than to leave. In truth, I felt the same way. The idea of getting the hell out of here was greatly appealing. But, we had come this far, had we not? We just had to push a little further.
I retired for the evening, getting some much needed sleep for a few hours. It was hard to stay fully unconscious, however, because of my leg’s constant growth. It ached a bit as it grew back and by the time I was unable to sleep any longer, it had fully returned, glistening, wet and perfectly ready to be used once more. A bit of practice running and jumping revealed that I hadn’t really lost any muscle memory. The leg didn’t need to be broken in and worked perfectly fine, almost like I had never lost it. The only thing it was missing were a few scars from the times I had taken a pair of jaws or claws to the thigh. Otherwise, I was in perfect working condition. I suppose I was ready enough to begin planning the most difficult hunt of my life. No reason to keep lingering in bed.
Chapter 37
Planning the hunt at the great table was a time-honored tradition that allowed all leaders of the Titan hunt to speak their minds and formulate a plan. But we were far from that table, far from the warmth and safety of Hunter’s Hope. We had no map, so really no need for a table. But still, Trig and I sat opposite of each other across a large, round stone workbench that was used mostly for crafting iron bars and chains.
“So, the Shadow Titan can’t seem to affect water,” I said. “In fact, when underwater, I could see plain as day, as if there were no shadows above us, blocking out the sun.”
“Is there anything we can do with that information?” Trig asked. “Maybe lure it to fight us by the water?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think it’ll move its core around if it can be lured anywhere. Since the beast covers everything…damn…” I trailed off, crossing my arms and leaning against the table with a huff. “Is it just me or does this seem impossible? I mean, fighting and killing a shadow?”
“Come on, don’t second guess yourself,” Trig replied. “You have the core located, yeah? So we don’t need to fight a shadow. We just need to fight the core. And that’s not hard. Right?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure. This thing is smart enough to stage ambushes, move monsters in tactical positions and even sacrifice its own to lure me into dangerous situations. It has to sense that we know where the core is. And that means we’ll be meeting heavy resistance if we get there.”
Trig tapped on the table in thought, prompting Little Hig to awaken from its napping spot in his hair. The monkey began tapping on its master’s head, smiling at me all the while. “Yeah that’s a bit of a puzzle, isn’t
