I motioned for him and he moved close to me. With a wave of my hand, I showed him the spot where I needed the bomb to go off, then made a shrug at him, asking if he could do it.
The young hunter drew his first light grenade off his vest and tossed it up and down into his hand, waiting on me to give the order. I raised my bow, True Arrow loaded and ready to rock. This was it. Now or never.
I nodded and Trig tossed the small sphere with all of his might. It sailed through the air, straight towards the center of the vortex and exploded, causing a flash so bright I had to look away for a second.
There came a wild and hideous scream as the light expanded in the center of the vortex, creating a bright sphere, shoving all the shadows away immediately. At once, I could see the core, plain as daylight, and took aim, ignoring all else around me. Trig shouted something, but I only had time to focus on one thing: shooting that core.
My arrow flew through the sky, striking the core with startling speed. The beast let out a hideous shriek once more as I restrung an arrow and let it loose, watching as it too struck the core, piercing the round fleshy orb.
Bright red blood burst from the core, spattering everywhere as the light continued to keep everything else at bay. The darkness was trying to push back in, to cover the orb, but it could not suffer the artificial light created by Trig’s grenades.
Trig’s muffled shouting came back into focus after the second arrow hit with ease. “We gotta move! There’ something underneath us!”
He leapt down the hill, sliding on both feet to escape whatever threat lay below, but I was not so lucky. As the great light illuminated the entire area, I realized that I had not been standing on a hill at all, but rather the head of some enormous, scaled beast! It opened its jaws wide and for the third time in one adventure, I found myself being eaten alive.
I tumbled downwards into the open maw, grabbing in vain at something to hold onto. A long, red tongue came out to greet me, wrapping around my torso and yanking me into the mouth. The teeth slammed shut above me, sealing me inside.
Despite my predicament, I still had my bow and thus, gave the beast a great reason to spit me back out. Three arrows to the back of the throat caused this great creature to begin coughing and wheezing, its tongue releasing me, giving me an opportunity to jump through its opening and closing mouth as it gagged from the injuries. I was tempted to remain inside the mouth and to keep firing, but Trig and I had agreed on a plan. Strike and retreat. The only way this would work was if we stuck to the plan. This was something I had drilled into every last student back at Hunter’s Hope.
“Is the plan stupid?” I had shouted while pacing back and forth. “Is it dangerous? Is it suicidal? Stick to it. As long as you can carry out the plan, don’t change things up. Stick to the plan no matter what. Otherwise, your partner will have no clue what to do. We aren’t lone wolves out there. We’re a team. And teams always stick to the plan unless the Huntmaster calls otherwise.”
I stumbled out of the mouth of the beast, not even bothering to look behind me. Several other monsters were in the region, a few Griffins, some of those crab beasts and even a Fitzon which was wriggling towards me at full speed. The light gave everyone the ability to see me and I had no choice but to disappear into the darkness below, leaping off the beast’s head.
Luckily, the green torch had not gone out while inside the mouth of whatever creature had swallowed me. The flames did not seem to react to anything in particular. Not even the wind seemed to bother them. This was the only reason I was able to leap down into the darkness once more, vanishing from the swarm of beasts.
“Oh thank goodness you’re not dead,” Trig said as I landed beside him. The green lights danced across his leg, revealing that he had broken it on the way down.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said, grabbing him and hoisting him over my shoulder. “You can keep an eye out behind us.”
“I was sliding down that hill monster but it started freaking out, kicking me off hard,” Trig said. “I’m assuming that was you killing it?”
“Not quite. I just gave it a sore throat, nothing more,” I replied as I raced across the woods, following my instincts to find the arrows sitting back at the Stabwagon. Despite our undetectable approach to the Shadow Titan’s core, the arrows I had stuck into the ground were long gone. Perhaps the beast had a passive ability that made all trails simply vanish. Trig would have not only been lost if I had remained, but he would also have been too injured to scout the woods out and find his way back home. A monster could have followed the blood and taken him down easily enough.
“Well, I’d say our first hit was a success,” Trig said. “Did you see how many beasts popped up the moment that grenade went off? I counted at least 20.”
“I’m glad we planned for this in advance,” I replied as we reached the Titan Blind. The entire structure seemed undisturbed, perfectly safe from the rest of the world. We entered and I dropped Trig onto a cot, then sank down on the ground to begin dressing his wound immediately. A healing potion would fix it up right quick, provided that the leg break
