Heading into Danger

Noble had known the chasm under the ground was large.

She just had no idea how massive. The more the ground split, the more it kept crumbling. Like a zipper, the ground unraveled. Gravity pulled everything into the open maw of the ground, including the colossal Titan.

It was so much more than what Noble had hoped for, yet even as the Titan fell into the depths, she could not bask in the victory.

For the fall would never kill the Titan. And once Noble decided that they had to stand and fight, her options became increasingly limited.

But even when Jet repeated the order to throw her across the chasm and into the deep, Noble hesitated.

That option seemed exceptionally bad.

'But you'll die!' Noble screamed through the Memory.

'Wouldn't be the first time,' Jet answered.

Noble blinked. She wasn't lying!

The Saint's jaw clenched as the humor left her eyes.

'Now hurry!'

Noble shut her eyes and focused on the moving target of the Titan. When she opened them again, Jet was already sailing through the air.

It wasn't so much of a throw as a controlled fall. The Titan had plummeted many meters before the ladies decided to pursue, so they needed to make up ground.

And both ladies did pursue the Titan.

There was no way that Noble was going to let the ghostly Saint enter the darkness alone.

All around them, the rocks and adders threatened to take out the humans before they ever met the hydra. Noble zigzagged through the debris, taking out whatever she could while avoiding being bitten.

Surrounded by an ethereal mist, Jet managed the descent admirably, raking her ghostly weapon through anything that got in their way.

Soon their target was in sight. There was only one place that Jet could land where she would be away from the flailing arms and close enough to the heads to have a fighting chance: on the first vertebrae of the hydra's back.

Jet readied the Bec De Corbin and bent her knees. The hydra was still spinning as it fell and she would need to be able to run to stay atop the monster.

'Three. Two. One. Now!'Noble released her hold on the Saint, letting Jet touch the surface of the beast with graceful ease. She used the hooked end of her weapon to brace herself against the plate-like bone.

And not a moment too soon.

Finding the wall at last, the hydra dug its claws into the side of the clifface.

Sixteen hands and feet pulled against the forces of gravity, bringing the gargantuan body to a halt.

Clinging to her weapon as an anchor, Jet came to a halt as well.

But not for long—as soon as she could get her footing, the woman began running up the hydra's spine toward the space between its shoulders.

Noble was at work too.

Using the [Hummingbird's Wings], the Dreamscape champion dashed and dodged the fangs of the many heads threatening to swallow her whole.

She funneled her essence into the Zenith. In the dim light, the edges of the beautiful sword turned black.

A feeling of power surged through Noble. She resisted its tantalizing pull as she searched for an opening to strike.

The interlocking scales of its torso passed before her in a never-ending line. Noble tried to stab between two of the scales, but it was useless. The sword bounced fruitlessly off, leaving only a thin scratch.

'Find a weak point.'

A Corrupted Titan should have no spot that a Master like her could exploit. Yet she had to try. There was only one place that she could think of which was sensitive no matter how mighty the creature was. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't an easy place to approach. 

'I have to try.' 

As Noble wove through the mass of necks, she could hear the battle with Jet below. In order to keep her balance more easily, the Saint had taken on her transcendent form. 

Her weapon had resumed the shape of the more recognizable scythe and she used it to deal devastating blows. 

Or at least they should have been devastating. At best, a few of her hits made shallow marks on the leathery hide, drawing a small amount of blood from the abomination's back. It would take millions of those scratches for the hydra to be affected. 

And something told Noble they wouldn't have that many chances to take down their foe. 

Realizing her error, Soul Reaper abandoned the relative safety of the Titan's spine. As long as the creature was climbing, its arms and legs were busy.

All she had to do was avoid the heads. The ghostly wraith needed to hurry. 

'I need a distraction.' 

Noble heard the words loud and clear.

'On it!' 

She was already planning on trying something foolish. Why not help Jet while doing it? 

Instead of avoiding the heads, Noble came up alongside one of them and waved. 

The other five heads protruding from the wide shoulders turned on her. Suddenly, she was surrounded. 

Noble belatedly realized she was no longer the Queen of Crestfall. She was the queen of bad ideas. 

'Not good.' 

The ring around her ankle activated, pushing Noble up with inhuman speed. The heads crashed together in a fury of fangs. Noble narrowly avoided one of the dastardly teeth, even managing to push her boot against the beast's upper lip for an additional lift. 

Her escape was nothing short of a miracle. 

A miracle that she would need to repeat. 

Taking a deep breath, Noble dove. Holding her Zenith in her hand, she aimed for the third head of the hydra. Her jaw tightened as she pointed the blade at the only spot she could think of to deal any real damage. 

The Titan's eye. 

The slitted pupil grew wide just before Noble reached it. 

'Just a little more.'

Pushing her essence into the sword, the Zenith seemed to glow darkly as it touched the soft barrier of the lens. 

Noble expected to meet at least some resistance, but the sharpness of her Supreme Memory overcame any defense of the snake's head. 

The head hissed, but the Zenith continued to dig deeper. Even the hilt of the sword did not stop the forward progress. Noble felt her arm enter the gelatinous mass. She recoiled, pulling her blade down and out before her body was absorbed. 

She flew backwards. 

The massive tear in the creature's eye began to ooze with venom, further blinding the head. 

A moment later, the head stopped moving. 

It went limp, then tumbled from the massive shoulders and into the void below. 

Soon a second head followed the first, falling into the darkness, neck and all. Two gaping holes on the shoulders were all that was left of what had once been. 

'You got two heads!' Noble congratulated the Saint. 

Jet glanced up at her, confused. 'I only got one. I assumed you got the other.' 

Avoiding the remaining attackers, Noble frowned. 'I only stabbed one in the eye.'

'Whatever you did, it worked!' Jet was too relieved to argue with the success.

Noble was more cautious.

A lump formed in her stomach as she waited to see if two heads would indeed grow back where the others had been removed. To her relief, the holes remained empty, closing over with some sort of flap. 

The Titan continued to climb with its remaining skulls. 

Two heads were lost...only five remained. 

Even though it had been immensely hard, it was much easier than Noble imagined. 

Too easy...