A thundering roar that shook the earth.
Hikari got up.
She felt the earth shaking beneath her.
A sudden surge in mana from the fortress ahead.
"Meow! What's going on?"
"Camilia. Run."
"Huh? Hey, we ain't gonna leave you here!"
"Run!"
The beastkin was taken aback by the force of her voice.
Boom. Boom. Explosions overhead.
The scintillating of the sky fortress's shield as it took a barrage of heavy shells coming from the spire city.
The scout master was scrambling the scouts.
"Evacuate anyone who can't fight. Anyone without a horse began marching. Bring only your weapon!"
The knights hurried out of their tents.
Some of them were still putting on their pants.
Hikari assembled her armor.
Throwing daggers, steel balls floated onto her.
She strapped her claymore to her back.
"Hikari, what are you doing?"
"I fight."
Boom. Boom. Explosions all around them.
The shell was of a caliber that would punch through the walls of fortresses.
Whole trees the size of buildings were smashed, leaving only their stumps.
"Can you really fight something that big?"
Hikari drew her sword, swinging it around to warm up her arms.
"I fight."
"Alright, fine. Remember, don't force it; just run if you can't beat it. There isn't a thing that can catch you at full speed."
"Yes, scout master."
The scout master rallied a troop of house-mounted troops.
They formed a screen behind the retreating columns.
Hikari dashed into the swamp along the road the engineers had been building.
Roar! The ground shook.
Something huge was up ahead.
Explosions. Shells flying over her head.
As she got closer, shouts and musket fire.
Soldiers getting eaten by flesh abominations.
She swings her claymore, cleaving through a horde of them.
A golem appeared, blocking her way.
She sidesteps the aether fire, cleaving through the golem with her flaming sword as she dashes past at full speed.
The giant mangrove tree up ahead.
Using her momentum, she scaled the ancient tree.
From its top, Hikari has a full view of the carnage unfolding in the city.
A flesh titan the size of a city. Its body was like a battleship, scrapped together from the carcasses of several vessels.
Vines held the scrap metal together. Pink flowers blooming.
Six legs, each taller than the walls of the city itself.
Boom, it lifted one leg over the city walls, crushing a siege ramp as it landed.
Boom! Boom! A broadside from the sky fortress.
The shells chipped away at the titan's armor.
But the vines grew out of the titan's body to cover the exposed flesh.
The massive guns mounted on the titan's back were raised.
Its cannons fired back at the sky fortress.
The floating behemoth's shield fizzled.
Down below, the troops meant to storm the city rushed out through the breaches in the carla wall.
Flesh abominations crawled out after them, strangling those left behind in the hasty retreat.
Hikari pulled out her hand cannon and aimed.
A steel ball sat in the chamber.
She focused in, channeling her mana.
More. The steel ball flared with RazenHeir flame.
The searing bullet left the barrel at the speed of sound.
It pierced into the titan's flesh.
She loaded another bullet.
Aimed shots targeting the patches of flesh that the sky fortress blew open.
Bullet after bullet pierced into the titan.
The Razenheir flames burns slow but sure, even on the innards of a titan.
An explosion caused several cannons to fly out of the titan's hull.
A lucky shot struck a powder magazine.
The titan felt that.
Hikari felt its gaze turn to her.
The front cannon ports opened.
Hikari stood her ground as the shrapnel rained down on her position.
The small metal pieces could not pierce her wyvern skin.
She aimed her handcannon.
The RazenHeir flames built inside the chamber.
The bullet flies, slipping through the gun port just before it closed.
An explosion destroyed the front battlements as it hit the powder magazine.
The titan waved and roared.
A volley of cannonballs flew towards Hikari.
She drew her short sword and parried.
She aimed her handcannon and fired.
Parry. Fire. Parry. Fire.
An explosion knocked out another powder magazine.
Hikari drops her handcannon.
The barrel had been burned from overclocking.
She jumps off the mangrove tree.
As she lands, scores of flesh abominations surround her.
Her flaming claymore cleaves through them as she charges.
Volleys of cannon fire land around her.
She draws her short sword and parries the cannonball.
The knight leaps into the clear onto the flat ground around the city.
The insides of the flesh abominations splatter on the ground as she hacked and slashed through them.
A flaming dagger in her hand.
The titan's gunport opened above her.
The powder magazine exploded.
Several golem cores were exposed.
She readied another flaming dagger; destroying the cores would weaken the titan.
But before she could toss it, the vines closed up around the cores.
Its flesh regenerates.
Several lumps detached themselves from the titan.
They dropped on the ground, turning into golems.
Hikari dashed to the side to avoid them.
Taking down several golems together is far too slow.
She spots a hole in the wall where the coalition army tried to break into the city.
Her daggers fly, impaling the flesh abominations crawling out.
She draws her short sword to cut her way through the confined space and emerge into the city.
It was a hellspace behind the walls.
Vines everywhere. Tortured flesh and mucus covered the buildings.
Cages stacked on top of each other.
The unprocessed prisoners died starving, their arms hanging out of the cages.
The titan's belly loomed overhead.
Its womb glowed with aether crystals embedded in its skin.
Hikari drew a flaming dagger.
More. The dagger flared with more flames than it could hold.
She tossed it several stories, hitting the titan's belly.
The titan roared. The ground rumbled.
Hatches opened up; lumps of flesh dropped onto the ground around her.
The seeds germinated, vines growing over the flesh into abominations.
Hikari threw another flaming dagger at the titan's belly.
She drew her claymore, cleaving through the scores of flesh abominations.
Gigantic flowers bloomed above, charging up aether flame.
She dashed through the streets for cover.
Aether fire blasts swallowed whole buildings.
The mass of vines sprouted all around her, attempting to smother her.
She spun her claymore, releasing a circle of flame that incinerated the vines.
A window for her to throw another dagger.
She aimed at a flower.
It exploded in a burst of brilliant aether flame, burning away at its soft belly.
The ground rumbled as the titan roared in agony.
Hordes of flesh abominations surround her.
She jumps over them.
The flowers charge up; Hikari ducks behind a building, letting the stone absorb the aether fire.
A flower explodes as a flaming dagger strikes it.
The ground rumbles.
The last flower explodes.
The titan's womb was torn open.
Eggs hang from it.
Hikari's dagger flared with fire as she held it in her hand.
The melting steel strikes the cluster of eggs, setting the whole area alight.
The ground rumbles.
The titan lifts its legs and walks, knocking down the walls of stone.
Its belly was engulfed in the raging RazenHeir flame as Hikari sank dagger after dagger into it.
Hikari chased after it, slashing and hacking through the flesh abominations that blocked her way.
She jumped up the wall as the titan was looming overhead.
With another leap, she sank her claymore into the titan's flesh.
The gunport pointing at her belly opened.
She pulled herself up, kicking the cannon into the battlement.
An explosion sounded below as the cannon fired just as she pulled herself up onto the top of the titan's back.
Boom! A shell exploded right in front of her.
She stabbed her claymore into the titan's flesh to avoid being blown off.
Vines shot out from the titan's flesh, attempting to smother her.
Incinerate.
Boom! The titan fired the massive cannons on its back.
The recoil from the siege cannons shakes even Hikari to her core.
Hikari studies her surroundings.
"The cannons."
Their powder magazines must be enormous.
She charges towards the base of a cannon.
Vines shot out of the titan's back to stop her.
She cleaves through them with her flaming claymore.
A giant flower bloomed, charging up aether fire.
Hikari strikes it with a throwing dagger.
It explodes. The aether fire burns her mana even as she sidesteps it.
Flesh abominations emerged from the titan's flesh.
Hikari jumps over them and pushes her claymore into the base of the siege cannon.
Incinerate.
She channels her flames through the steel stuck in the titan's flesh.
Incinerate.
The massive flesh structure flared in flames.
Hikari pulls out her claymore and dashes away.
A massive explosion.
Hikari sinks her sword into the flesh as the shockwave almost blows her off the top.
The siege cannon detached itself and rolled towards her.
She pulled out her claymore and jumped over it.
Vines shot out from the titan's body, converging on her.
Her whirling daggers sliced through them.
"Two more."
She charged towards the base of the seige cannon.
Golems emerged from the titan's flesh.
She dove straight into the volley of aether flame through the gap in the golems.
Her flaming claymore slashed through them.
Stab. Incinerate. Incinerate.
The vines wrapped around her body.
Incinerate. She released a wave of flame around her.
Boom! The powder magazine exploded in her face, sending her flying.
After a brief concussion, she found herself flying over the side of the titan.
With quick reflexes, she stabbed her short sword into the side, breaking her fall.
"One more."
She whispered to herself as she had a moment of respite.
The titan roared in agony.
It shook from side to side.
The stacking damage of the Razenheir flame was burning its vines as it grew out of its body.
Boom! Boom! A volley from the sky fortress strikes it.
Hikari holds on tight as the titan wobbles.
She was feeling the recoil from her own flames.
Boom. The titan fired its last cannon at the sky fortress.
Hanging from the titan's side, Hikari saw the shell pierce into the fortress's hull.
A chain explosion ripped through the sky fortress.
It began losing altitude in a smoking spiral.
"Ivory berries."
Her biggest ally against the titan just went down.
She grabbed her sword with both arms and pulled herself up.
One more cannon remained.
Pulse. Pulse.
She can feel pulses of energy from the titan's beating heart.
Its core was partially exposed from the explosions and the constant barrage from the sky fortress.
Flesh abominations emerge from the titan's flesh, replacing the previous horde that was obliterated by the last barrage.
Hikari draws her remaining daggers. She drills a path to the base of the last cannon.
Stab, she stabs her short sword into the flesh.
Her claymore is gone, so her flames can't reach as deeply into the flesh.
Incinerate. Incinerate.
She drives the flames through anyway.
Holds of flesh abominations and vines close in on her.
She released her steel balls as she had run out of daggers.
A whirling steel rips through the flesh and vines.
She feels the sting of aether fire on her back.
Incinerate. Incinerate.
Her short sword began to melt from the immense concentration of mana.
Incinerate. Incinerate.
Her bottomless mana pool concentrated at one point.
Engulfing herself and her surroundings with RazenHeir flame.
She senses the flame reach deep into the flesh.
"Now."
At the last moment, she jumps into the air.
The powder magazine exploded below her.
The titan's core is exposed below, glowing brilliantly with aether.
Pulsing, beating, vines still growing out from it despite being burnt by RazenHeir flame.
She closed up her boots and dove towards it.
Crunch.