The Hunter's Odyssey-Chapter 67: Against the Falling Titan

Chaos swallowed the battlefield.

The moment the Troll King hurled itself into the sky during its feral rage, every hunter had already known what was coming. The memory of the Fearful Roar still lingered inside their bones. Even those who resisted the full paralysis felt the cold residue of that terror gripping their instincts. It was the primal understanding of prey staring at a falling predator.

Now that the predator was descending.

Hunters scattered across the ruined street in every direction as the air filled with the sound of panicked shouts and grinding stone. Boots splashed wildly through rainwater and blackened blood as fighters scrambled for any patch of ground that might carry them out of the impact zone. Some sprinted with desperate clarity while others froze completely, minds unable to catch up with what their eyes were seeing.

A Bastion hunter stumbled backward, sword trembling violently in his hands as he stared upward at the shadow devouring the sky. Someone screamed behind him to move, the voice cracking through the rain and chaos, but the command reached him too late. His mind locked in place, refusing to accept the scale of the thing falling toward them.

Nearby, a Bloodclaw fighter dropped to one knee in the rain. His chest rose and fell in ragged bursts as the last fragments of bravado drained from his expression. The weapon slipped from his fingers and struck the pavement with a dull metallic clang before skidding across the broken road. For a moment, he stared upward, strangely calm, as though some part of him had already accepted what was coming.

Thirty meters above them, the Troll King fell.

The monster's massive body plummeted through the rain like a collapsing mountain. Its remaining arm hung outward, claws flexing slowly as gravity dragged its enormous bulk downward. The jagged spikes that had erupted across its back during its feral transformation stretched outward into brutal spears of bone. Each one glistened darkly beneath the flickering orange firelight from burning vehicles and shattered storefronts.

Those spikes pointed downward.

Toward them.

Wind howled around the descending titan as its shadow swallowed the battlefield whole.

Jane saw it first. Her eyes snapped upward as the immense silhouette blotted out the rain-streaked sky above Orchard Road. A curse escaped her lips before she even realized she had spoken.

"Shit."

She did not hesitate. Her hand shot out instantly, grabbing Porpo by the arm and yanking her sideways.

"Move!"

Porpo stumbled violently as Jane dragged her across the slick pavement. Her boots slipped through rainwater and blood, forcing her to catch herself before falling.

"Fuck…" Her voice died instantly.

"OH… Fuck."

The Troll King's shadow stretched across the entire street like a descending wall of death.

Lynis was already running. His massive shield remained strapped to his forearm as he barreled through the rain like a charging bull. Hunters scrambled out of his way as he surged forward, grabbing one terrified Bastion hunter by the collar and threw him with brute strength.

"RUN! RUN! RUN!" Lynis bellowed, his voice tearing through the chaos.

The young Bloodclaw he had grabbed earlier could barely keep his feet beneath him. His legs stumbled uselessly behind Lynis as he was hauled forward like dead weight. Zaila bounced weakly against Lynis's shoulder, the exhausted archer barely conscious from mana depletion.

"Don't stop!" Lynis roared. "Don't you dare stop running!"

Across the battlefield, Kade's eyes locked onto the falling monster. For a single heartbeat, he stood completely still, calculating angles and distances. Then instinct snapped back into place.

"Disengage!" he barked.

Deck did not argue. He broke away instantly, pivoting sharply as his boots slid across the rain-soaked asphalt.

"Spread out!" Kade shouted. "Do not cluster!"

He glanced upward again. The spikes glinted through the rain like a descending crown of spears. If those landed directly, they would not leave bodies behind.

Across the battlefield, hunters ran, stumbled, or froze as shock paralyzed their minds. The Troll King continued to descend through the storm. Its shadow grew larger with every passing second, its bone spears gleaming like weapons forged for a god of slaughter.

Gravity dragged the monster toward the shattered street below.

Shin Lu did not run.

While panic swept the battlefield around him, he remained planted where he stood. Hunters crashed past him in blind desperation. Bastion hunters, Bloodclaws, and wounded survivors shoved past one another as they fought to escape the falling titan.

Shin Lu did not move with them.

His hands tightened slowly around the shaft of his spear. Rain slid down the polished wood and across his knuckles as he lifted the weapon slightly. His fingers adjusted their grip once with deliberate precision.

He inhaled.

The chaos around him faded.

His stance shifted with quiet finality. His left foot slid forward across the rain-slick asphalt while his right foot anchored firmly behind him. His spine straightened. His shoulders rolled back as if settling into a familiar rhythm of battle.

Nearby, another presence moved in the opposite direction.

Reika did not retreat.

While hunters scattered across the battlefield in blind panic, she surged forward instead. Her boots struck the pavement with explosive speed as she cut straight through the escaping crowd. Hunters dove aside as she passed, barely avoiding being knocked flat beneath her momentum.

Rain whipped through her short blue hair as violet-blue wisps of energy began swirling around her, drifting like glowing embers carried by a violent wind.

Her greatsword dragged behind her for a moment as she ran. The blade carved a glowing line through the asphalt, sparks bursting behind it before it lifted free.

She did not slow.

Her eyes remained locked ahead.

Jane saw them both.

Even through the chaos, her gaze snapped instantly toward the two figures moving against the tide of fleeing hunters. One stood unmoving, rooted to the earth like an unbreakable pillar. The other charged forward like a blade cutting through the current.

Both aimed directly at the falling monster.

Her chest tightened.

They were going to intercept it.

Her mana reserves were nearly empty. Every spell she had cast during the battle had drained what little remained inside her core. Her breathing had already grown shallow as the tremor of magical exhaustion spread through her limbs.

Still, she raised her hands.

"This better be worth it," she muttered.

The last fragments of mana gathered painfully inside her chest.

"Inspiring Vanguard."

Golden light burst outward in a sharp pulse, cutting through the rain like a flare. The energy streaked across the battlefield before splitting cleanly in two. One thread wrapped around Shin Lu, and the second wrapped around Reika.

The glow settled across their bodies like a second skin.

Two new panels appeared in their vision.

-

[Inspiring Vanguard]

Massive boosts to strength, speed, and impact force for the next decisive attack.

Duration: 10 seconds.

-

Jane exhaled sharply as the last of her mana drained away.

"Don't waste it," she whispered.

Shin Lu moved.

One step forward. Then another.

Momentum gathered through his hips and shoulders as faint blue-white energy began condensing along the blade of his spear. His final step struck the pavement with explosive force.

The asphalt cracked beneath his foot.

Energy condensed violently along the shaft of the weapon as blue-white light flared across the spearhead. The red tassel snapped violently in the wind.

His arm moved fast and precisely.

"Absolute Crushing Spear."

The spear left his hand.

The air screamed.

A concussive shockwave erupted outward as the weapon launched forward. Rain flattened mid-fall while debris ripped from the ground in a violent expanding ring. Glass shattered behind him as the shockwave punched the breath from nearby hunters.

The spear did not arc.

It rocketed forward like a missile.

Wrapped in spiraling bands of blue-white energy, it tore through the storm and left a warped distortion trail behind it. The sound it produced was not a whistle but a continuous thunderclap stretched across the air.

At the same moment, Reika moved.

She exploded forward through the rain. Her path curved wide across the battlefield until she aligned herself directly beneath the Troll King's falling trajectory.

Her eyes burned with ruthless focus.

And she kept running.

The impact of the Absolute Crushing Spear arrived first.

The collision detonated with deafening force. A localized shockwave burst outward as the spear slammed into the Troll King's descending body. The monster's hardened bone spikes resisted the strike, but Shin Lu had never intended to pierce them.

He intended to redirect.

The spear struck the creature's rib structure and detonated its force outward. Combined with the monster's own momentum, the blow shifted its descent by half a meter.

A tiny margin.

But enough.

Reika arrived beneath it at the same moment.

She dropped into a low squat, the balls of her feet and toes digging into the asphalt. Her entire body compressed like a coiled spring as energy surged through every muscle.

She roared.

"Crimson Comet: Sky-Cutter!"

The street erupted beneath her. Asphalt shattered violently as she launched upward. Spiderweb fractures raced outward across the ground as her leap blasted her into the air like a cannon shell.

She streaked upward through the rain.

A purple-blue comet rising toward the falling titan.

Her greatsword rotated slowly above her head in a two-handed grip as the blade glowed beneath the swirling energy surrounding her.

She met the Troll King halfway.

The collision was catastrophic.

Steel struck flesh with a sound like thunder colliding with a steel shriek. Her strike drove downward with unimaginable force. The blade punched through the monster's ribcage, and a fountain of black blood exploded into the storm.

The Troll King's descent shifted again.

Its massive body twisted violently as its trajectory skewed away from the clustered hunters. Instead of crashing into the center of the battlefield, the titan slammed toward the eastern end of the street.

Its enormous body smashed through the front of Paragon Shopping Mall.

Concrete exploded.

Glass shattered outward in a violent storm.

The building's entrance collapsed inward as the Troll King crashed through its facade.

Reika rode the recoil of the impact backward through the air. She flipped once before landing smoothly on the ruined street.

Her boots touched the ground in a controlled crouch.

Her greatsword slammed into the asphalt beside her.

The blade sank deep into the fractured pavement with a dull metallic thud.

Rain continued to fall across the battlefield.

And for the briefest moment, everyone watching understood that something impossible had just happened.

Two hunters had just altered the fall of a falling titan.