I began to cough spasmodically from my attack. My internal temperature had dropped 4 degrees from the rapid attacks, well within hypothermia range. I could already feel the numbness in my chest, legs and arms, as well as a deep urge to simply roll over and go to sleep. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my health had dropped down to 50% from the shock attacks. Maybe passing out wouldn’t be so bad.
“Holy crap! Did you just breathe ice? Was that on purpose?” Trig shouted, his boyish glee snapping me out of my stupor. That’s right! He was still here and there was still a core to destroy. I shook my head and activated my second wind ability. While it wouldn’t restore health, it would at least give me enough energy to jump back into the battle.
A bit of energy surged through me, not enough to counter my intense sleepiness and fatigue, but enough to get me off the ground, bow back in hand. Trig was already atop the core, stabbing with all his might, but his attacks kept bouncing off.
“This...won’t…break!” he grunted with each strike, his knives utterly useless.
I fired a few shots as well, only to see them barely puncture the surface. The skin around the core had toughened considerably and I didn’t have the strength to really give it my all. My body temperature dropping so suddenly had dealt some real shock to my system. Well, that combined with the trauma from getting hit with lightning twice. And from all my other injuries I had racked up this week.
“I got an idea,” I said. “And it’s stupid.”
“Stupid idea? Let’s do it!” Trig said. He was panicking as he continued to swing, over and over, his knives doing nothing but causing him more frustration.
I staggered up to the pulsing core. “The Shadow Titan thinks its core is in danger. It’s probably using some strong defensive abilities since the light is holding it back. Let’s return the core to where it belongs.”
“What?”
“With a parting gift, of course,” I said, pointing to the two grenades hanging off of Trig’s vest. “You said you can detonate them remotely, right?”
Trig looked at me with a blank expression, then grinned as what I was suggesting clicked into place. “You got it!” he said as he unhooked his grenades and began rapidly sticking them to the bright core, using some kind of sap to glue them in place.
“You okay?” he asked as I staggered backwards, my hands out trying to keep me balanced.
“Whatever my enemies do to me seem to always pale to what I do to myself,” I replied, bending over to breathe a little easier.
“Just hang in there. These babies should do the trick.”
In spite of his confidence, I mustered what energy I had left to create one more True Arrow. Overkill, in my experience, never hurt. Fortunately, casting this spell wasn’t difficult at all. Focusing on infusing another arrow with mystic power actually seemed to get my mind off the pain. As a minute passed, I heard the sounds of cracking behind us.
“Looks like our buddy’s waking up…” Trig said, pointing to the frozen gembeast. The ice was slowly beginning to melt and crack, and within I could see the glowing red and blue lights of the Masara as it was trying to break free. “Should we kill it?”
“Did you hear what it was saying?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you believe it?”
There was silence there. “I don’t know. But at this point, I say we call it and just kill the thing. Who knows if it can empower the Shadow Titan?” Trig said. “Better safe than sorry.”
“No…it’s not in charge,” I said. “Because if it were, it would have tried to bargain with us. Instead, it just made threats. Tried to scare us off. Because it has no power.” I glanced back at the rows of crystals that were still attached to the walls in the cavern section behind us. “These Masara are not independent. I think they’re being controlled by the Titan. And if the Titan we’re fighting is intelligent…”
“Then maybe it imbued one of them with the Memory Shard, giving it enough smarts to speak and to manage this cavern. And to even fix damage to the core,” Trig reasoned out.
More cracking answered his words. He looked at me. “Can you freeze it again?”
“Not without falling into a coma,” I said. “Let’s just blow this core up and go home. I’m too tired to think about anything else.”
“More beautiful words were never spoken,” Trig agreed. He leaned against the large core and gave it a shove, rolling it straight towards the darkness.
There came a loud schwoom sound, as the core was sucked up into the nexus, back into the Shadow Titan’s body, or at least, into the center of the vortex. Trig looked at me, gritted his teeth and focused for a moment. A massive explosion sounded high above us, followed by the shrieks and wailing of the Shadow Titan. But, for all the pained sounds of the creature, we did not hear any confirmation that it was dead.
“Get your light grenades ready, Trig,” I said, placing my True Arrow on my bow and staggering forward. “It’s time to finish this.”
Chapter 43
The shadows were retreating from the ball of light, moving almost like paint across a canvas, recoiling and retracting up into the sky. For the first time, I could see the forest for what it was, a gigantic stretch of red trees, green grass and beautiful flowers everywhere.
There was a small clearing in front of us, with the wreckage of a large metal structure strewn about. The metal was
