That was a good thought. I hadn’t much considered the idea of actual stealth here. I glanced at him while I rubbed my chin. “And we know for sure the green fire hides us?”
“The village has never been found before. At least, not until we arrived with our regular fire, which apparently draws the Shadow Titan like flies to honey. So the green fire works. And with the people hiding underground and Blue to protect them, I think taking the fire is a good strategy.”
“Okay…so this isn’t a hunt. It’s an assassination,” I said after a few minutes of thought. “We move as quietly as we can, get to the core and then attack it as quickly as possible, ignoring everything else. Forget about monsters, forget about weakening the beast, just a straight up assault on the core.”
“And if the attack fails, we fall back,” Trig said. “A hit and run. The green fire will keep us hidden, so we can easily just escape. No reason to waste our valuable resources and health on fighting it. Even if we have to do this a few times, eventually the beast will crack.”
“Using stealth against a shadow beast,” I chuckled. “That’s a bit ironic, isn’t it?”
“I suppose so. Now the question is, how do we get to the core? You said you saw it within the shadows, right? Meaning the beast has some kind of…I don’t know, shell? Protection?” Trig asked.
“No clue. My regular attacks went right through the Titan’s arms without much of an issue. So I’m not sure what the shadows actually are…but let’s assume they can protect the core. Light always has an adverse effect on the shadows. So, if you can create a cluster of light bombs, we could illuminate the area where the core is, pushing the shadows away. Maybe that would open up the core to attack?”
Trig nodded. “I suspected we’d need the light bombs, so I put a lot of points into making them better. They last longer now, 10 minutes per bomb. And each one has a 60 foot radius. And now, we can trigger them remotely; I just need to focus on them to cause them to explode. No need to prime them.”
That was great news. “Fantastic! How many can you make?”
“Four.”
“Four?” I repeated. That news wasn’t so great.
Trig shrugged. “The more buffed they became, the more Firnin and Estoan they required. But 10 minutes and 60 feet is a crazy amount. And the light stays fixed wherever the detonation takes place, so if I chuck one at the core, or where you say the core is…”
“It should recede enough of the shadows to make an opening,” I finished. I opened up my Hunter’s Profile to look at the Titan Hunter skills that were available to me.
Titan Hunter Tier One:
- Territorial Awareness: You automatically become aware of a Titan’s presence and location when entering its territory.
- Tempting Recipe: Brewing Bloodpoints, Firnin and animal blood creates a Titan Lure. Depending on the amount of Bloodpoints and Firnin spent, this Lure will attract a Titan to the location over a number of days, weeks or months. The Titan will seek the lure and consume it once it is found.
- Titan Blind: You gain the ability to construct a Titan Blind out of monster bone and foliage. These small buildings render occupants invisible to Titans. Even a Titan actively searching for the occupants is fooled by the Blind and will not engage unless directly attacked from within the building.
The Titan Blind would let us easily retreat to a place where we could rest and ready our next attack. Constructing one near the enemy would let us easily hide in case things went south. Best of all, we could build the blind around the Stabwagon, giving us access to additional supplies in case we needed them.
“So here’s what I’m thinking then,” I said, purchasing Titan Blind for the painful sum of 5,000 Bloodpoints. “I can create one True Arrow at a time. They always hit the core. And I have some abilities that let me follow up with another critical strike. Cores don’t take much because they can’t regenerate damage, right?”
“Right,” Trig said, grinning as he began to sense where I was going. I could see a gleam in his eye, a mischievousness that made me feel a little better about this plan.
“So, we don’t fight this Titan on equal terms. Four light bombs, four True Arrows. We move in, throw a bomb, shoot as much as we can at it, then leave as soon as our attacks are finished. Hide in a little building I can craft, ready up for the next hit,” I said. “The Titan might have some kind of intelligence, but that doesn’t mean it’s omniscient. Hit and run tactics should really confuse it.”
“Best of all, we’re not risking our lives by hanging around, waiting for a siege of monsters to swarm us,” Trig agreed. “I made a few heavy hitter bombs as well. Like, last ditch effort type explosives.”
“Save those for the last strike then,” I said. “In case the beast can somehow adapt to our attacks.”
“Keep it guessing,” Trig murmured. He grinned. “I like it.”
“And hey, who knows? Maybe it’ll die on the first attack,” I said. “Saving us lots of time.”
“Isn’t that the dream? So, let’s get to it!” Trig said, hopping up and clapping his hands together. “I’ll talk to the wife and see if she can help us figure out how to get green fire onto torches. If we’re going to do this stealthily, we can’t do anything without the green fire. Got it?” He paused for a moment to realize that he had just barked an order at me and turned bright red. “Erm, I mean, I
