Edited by: Priapus, Marethyu, Old man of the mountain, Immortal Spank

– Ruby –

Her silver eyes focused; she weaved and dodged the Titan's talon swipes. Ruby remained on the defensive, managing to keep up rather well. The boost from the uniform was amazing. This was the second time she'd ever used it in actual combat, and the difference was like night and day. She didn't think it'd ever get old.

Ruby still didn't like that it left her half-naked, though. May as well ask Reid and see if he could fix that once she was out of here.

The Harpy Queen looked like it wanted to eat her, trying to bite down on her head pretty often. It quickly reminded Ruby of the time that other Titan tried to do the same, making her realize that she most certainly attracted this one accidentally. Magic was cool, but if it was going to keep luring out all the scary Grimm to her, she didn't think it was worth it.

…Ah, who was she kidding? Magic was still awesome, even with the risks. If she was given that offer a million times, she'd take it every single time.

Ruby used the recoil of her rifle to launch herself away from an attack, casting a few swords of light that pierced through the Grimm's armor. Angelica screeched and twirled around, spreading its wings and shooting razor-sharp feathers at Ruby.

She simply waved a hand in response and made a barrier big and thick enough to block the feathers. She smirked, but then her confidence dropped as the Grimm appeared behind her with impressive speed, landing a nasty hit on Ruby's stomach.

Her aura was more than tough enough to withstand the attack, but it still hurt. She gritted her teeth, trying to keep a distance between her and the Titan by using her semblance. As rose petals scattered everywhere, Ruby took a deep breath, calming her nerves before trying once again.

She could do this.

As the Grimm followed her, Ruby took a sharp turn and changed her trajectory, going behind the Titan before sweeping her scythe at it. Her enemy blocked the attack with its talon, only for it to start burning at the touch—the enchantments that Reid put on her baby doing their job.

Angelica screeched in pain and surprise, and Ruby took the chance by casting several weapons of light directly above it. However, the Titan moved half a second faster, covering itself with its wings. Black feathers quickly fired toward her.

She wasn't quick enough to avoid them, her aura suffering quite the beating. Some even pierced it, slashing her across her sides and face. In a panic, Ruby used her semblance to get away, not wanting to take any more damage. This could've been terrible.

She kept moving through the woods, jumping off the floating island she was on, as the Titan was hot on her tail. Using her semblance in tandem with Senketsu's boost, Ruby was faster than the beast, but it still had very sharp reflexes and could respond to nearly everything she could throw.

She needed a plan, but what could she do?

The Harpy Queen uttered a piercing scream as it kept firing its sharp feathers at her. Ruby kept her distance, evading the feathers while aiming at it. She kept calm, lining up her shots with steady hands. With the light-enhanced bullets Reid had made for her, Ruby started shooting with extreme precision, considering how fast they were moving.

She shot five times, and four of those hit. One in the beast's thigh, two in its chest, and one in the head. Ruby knew it wouldn't be this easy—this was a Titan after all—but the loud, agonized cry coming from it told her that she did a lot of damage.

With lightning-fast movement, Ruby switched to gravity bullets and propelled herself toward the Grimm, delivering a heavy kick to its face that sent it crashing against and through the floating island. She kept the charge, catching up to it in the blink of an eye before swiping and spinning the Crescent Rose at it.

As the Titan tried to use its wings as shields, Ruby acted quicker, using the pointy end of her scythe to stab it in the throat before mercilessly dragging it across another floating island, through every tree, boulder, and ruin in her way until she pinned it on the ground and pointed the rifle at its head.

Ruby did not waste a second as she pulled the trigger. However, a powerful gust of wind pushed her away just in time to break her balance, causing the bullet to hit a tree. Suddenly, Ruby felt searing pain throughout her whole body, as if several blades tore through her aura like paper and cut her.

More and more of these invisible blades slashed her, causing blood to spurt out of the wounds they made. Ruby gasped, and with what little aura she had, she used her semblance to get out of there as fast as she could.

What was that?! She thought, wincing at the shallow cut on her chest.

All of a sudden, a massive typhoon ripped through the island, destroying everything in its path. In the center of the typhoon was the Titan Grimm glaring at her with hatred. Ruby shivered at the powerful magic at display, remembering what Reid told her and her friends once upon a time.

Titans will almost always have this 'second phase' when sufficiently damaged or threatened, where they'll unleash their magic to its fullest potential. According to him, that is when the real fight begins, and whatever you had before was mere 'warm up'.

It uses wind magic. Ruby thought. What should I do?

Ruby grimaced, tightening her grip on Crescent Rose. There had to be something she could do; she was winning the fight just then. She had what it took to be like Reid, and she was not going to fail now.

The potions. Ruby remembered. I can't win without them.

She needed to go back to the first floating island they were on. Her backpack was there; her key to defeating this monster was there. Even one of them could turn the tide of the battle in her favor.

Using a considerable amount of her mana, Ruby created a row of spears, firing them at the Grimm as a distraction. At the same time, she used the recoil from the gravity bullet to propel herself toward the first island.

Unfortunately, the cyclone was far more powerful than she expected, and all her spells disappeared once they got close enough. Ruby felt something cut her hand, nearly making her drop Crescent Rose. She gritted her teeth as she gained more momentum with every shot, combining the recoil with her semblance as she sped toward her bag.

But no matter how fast she was, she couldn't seem to avoid being hit by those invisible wind blades. She bit down a cry as a particularly powerful slash finally destroyed her aura, disabling her semblance in the process. This caused Ruby to slip, smashing through a few trees before stumbling on where she dropped her bag.

Acting quickly, Ruby grabbed the bag and jumped off the island, tightly holding her scythe between her thighs as she hurriedly rummaged through the bag. One vial was all she could get before the cyclone caught up, dragging the bag to it.

Ruby opened the vial and drank its contents as she grabbed Crescent Rose with her other hand. She felt herself grow even more powerful; her reflexes grew sharper as her body felt lighter. Exactly the potion she needed!

Though, restoring her aura would've been pretty swell too. Fighting without it was way more dangerous.

…Because how the hell was she going to land a hit when that jerk was hiding inside a very dangerous tornado? Trying to get in there without aura would tear her to ribbons, and Ruby didn't want to be turned into ribbons.

Wait! She blinked as she had an idea. Who needs aura when you have Magic?

With a plan—highly dangerous and probably stupid, but still a plan—in mind, Ruby took a deep breath and concentrated, using all her remaining mana to cast a small but very sturdy barrier around her body, then launched herself toward the Titan Grimm, ignoring the slight light-headedness from using so much of her mana too fast.

It wasn't particularly ingenious of her to use all of it like this, but her magic regenerated at a decent pace, and she needed to do this. She could fight using only her scythe for a little; as long as she's patient and focused, she'll be able to use magic offensively in no time.

She felt dozens, if not hundreds, of wind blades try to hurt her, but all of them simply bounced off her light barrier. This prompted a confident smirk to etch itself onto her face as she surprised the Harpy Queen with her bold maneuver.

Ruby landed a clean and very powerful blow, slashing the beast across the abdomen. However, the Titan Grimm wasn't going to take this lightly, as it responded with a kick to Ruby's head, sending her to one of the smaller islands in the sky.

While it did hurt a lot, even with the barrier around her, the Grimm looked more hurt by that than Ruby herself, as its talon burned from the intense light.

"Heheh…" Ruby giggled, getting back up. "I was scared when you showed up, but you're not so tough after all."

Reid was right. She was ready to fight Titans, and knowing that fact made her feel powerful.

The Harpy Queen screeched at her in response, prompting the cyclone to rage and grow in size. Ruby wasn't sure if it understood her or not, but it looked pretty mad, so it probably could understand human speech.

Even with her injuries, Ruby's confident grin never wavered as she pointed her trusty scythe at the beast.

"I will strike you down," She said as blood seeped from the shallow wound on her head, dripping down her face.

And that she swore.

– Reid –

Having tonnes worth of rocks and stones fall directly on me didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I mean, I didn't cast any defensive spells either because I was out of mana. That one light shield cost a lot.

I can tell everyone else made it safely, though. Good, at least that plan worked. Digging through to them shouldn't be too hard once I'm out of this funny situation. I have some blood ink I can use to draw some circles, and with some of the materials I got from my late-night dungeon-clearing session, I'll make some golems that can drill their way through to the rest of the gang.

Alright, that's a sound plan. However, I need to be able to move and have a flat surface to draw a magic circle, and I'm currently stuck under too much weight to be able to do anything. How will I get out of here without collapsing the rest of this place?

Well, I barely have mana to do anything, so restoring some should be my first move. I can't afford to wait for my natural regen.

The problem is somehow being able to use a potion. It's too cramped in here; I can't even take out a potion. I may have an idea. It's probably going to hurt really bad if it works, but it's either pain or the deaths of my friends. Worth a try.

I take a deep breath and take a mana potion out of my inventory and directly into my stomach, using my Conqueror's to crush the vial and my armament to protect my innards from the shattered glass pieces.

I unintentionally let out a pained grunt, shutting my eyes and grimacing. Good god, this feels even worse than I imagined.

Clever but also very irresponsible. This could've been lethal.

I had my fucking heart ripped out of me and lived. I'm literally Him.

So anyway, does this mean I can do this to enemies?

No.

Damn.

With my mana now above 50%, I try to come up with another plan to break out of here in a graceful way. Can't bulldoze my way through this unless I want to get my squad killed.

"Hm…" I try to move my limbs, but I'm completely pinned in place, and I'm a little concerned with using a bit too much strength. "Yeah, I'm pretty much stuck in here."

I hear my familiar suddenly bark.

"Gwyn, no." I stop him from doing something stupid. "We can't have you using your semblance to push the rocks away. This needs a… delicate solution."

Gwyn is not impressed if his snort is anything to go by.

"Don't you sass me." I scoff before sighing. "Look, just go find the others and help them out. I can get out of here on my own just fine. We don't know what's deeper in the mines, and they might need your help right now."

He barks again.

"Ah, right, no tunnels. Because of the collapse." I grimace and then shake my head. There gotta be something I can do.

"Reid?"

My train of thought stops as I hear someone familiar say my name.

"Reid, is that–?!"

"Woof!"

Blake screams in fright as my dog terrorizes her by merely existing near her. I can't see what's going on, but I do sense his confusion and her abstract terror, which I would've found utterly hilarious if I wasn't under a bazillion rocks.

"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?!"

I can hear the click of a gun's trigger being pulled.

"NO, don't shoot him!" I yell in a panic. "That's my familiar!"

"What?" She responds, calming down. "Ah… Sorry…"

Bullets wouldn't have damaged him, but it would've annoyed him, and I don't need him acting pissy and antagonistic right now.

"Wait, where are you?" She questions. "I can hear you below me."

"Because I am," I confirm. "Cave collapsed on us. Everyone else is safe, if you're wondering, including me. Just kinda stuck here. The rest is… around somewhere."

"How can I help?"

"I don't think you can," I say. "Don't worry though; I've been through worse."

Alright, back to where I–

"Woah, keep your distance." Blake suddenly says, following up with a lie. "I'm uh… I'm allergic to dogs. Or wolves."

Right, back–

"Canines. I'm allergic to canines."

….Back to where I was.

My best way out of here is through magic, but what element is best for the job? Water's not gonna help much, and neither is light. My earth magic isn't strong enough to do anything in a situation like this, so my only solution is fire. But how's fire going to…

…Wait a fucking minute.

"Okay hold on; I think I have a plan," I say. "Find a ledge or something to stay on. Might get a little dangerous."

"Alright."

I take a deep breath and focus most of my magic into an aura spell, refining and empowering it as much as I can to not cause any destruction. At the same time, I cast a barrier around my body as the rocks begin to melt from the heat of my aura.

The magma simply slides off me, barely doing any damage to my barrier. Eventually, I melted enough rocks to make my way out without causing any destruction. I see Blake looking at me in awe as Gwyn's tail swishes in happiness.

…I just realized I could've used fire magic to incinerate the rocks instead of making a light shield. Holy fuck, I'm so stupid. Sure, it would've probably damaged the cave more, but it's way safer for everyone and far less costly. Why did I cast a shield?

It was the safer option, actually.

Was it, though?

Yes. You would've rained magma on your allies if you didn't have enough mana.

But I did have enough. My fire magic is way more powerful than my light magic. It can melt steel in seconds.

Even worse. What do you think happens when you vaporize magma? Aura won't protect you from the highly poisonous–

You can VAPORIZE magma?!

…Where the fuck were you going with that in the first place?

"I-I'm sorry." Blake suddenly apologizes, casting her gaze downward. "I know I should've said something before trying to come here…"

"Er, no, it's fine." I shake my head and smile at her. Probably looked weird to her just now. "If anything, you just proved what I said about you."

She raises her head to look at me as I put a hand on her shoulder.

"I knew you had it in you, Blake," I say. "I'm very proud of you."

I can sense her immense joy as I say this to her, smiling at me gratefully.

20 Affec–

Can these notifications be turned off?

Done.

Goddamn, finally. Should've asked ages ago.

"Thanks…"

I pat her on the shoulder and then refocus on the situation at hand, taking out a vial of blood from my inventory. Mushy feelings later. There's still a mine that needs clearing.

I use the blood to draw a small magic circle on the ground. Gwyn takes some of the dust that survived the cave-in and brings it to me. The element doesn't matter a lot, so I just throw whatever I find in the middle of the circle alongside some various metals I have in my inventory.

"Um…" Blake looks at me in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"You'll see."

I crouch and let my mana seep into the magic circle, lighting it up as several golems begin to form, with drills for hands empowered by the magical energy of the dust. Blake watches in awe at this. Right, this is her first time seeing me create golems in real time.

"Wow…"

"Should do," I mutter. "Alright, half of you drill this way, and the other half that way."

I point at the two currently blocked tunnels each group took. Weiss is with Adam, which is very concerning, but the second group consists of the rest. That's Sienna, Kiryu, Ilia, and the other White Fang soldiers. Forgot to ask for their names.

The golems salute, which looks a bit funny with their drill hands, and obey my commands. That's when I get a vision, though, prompting me to cast a shield around some of the golems quickly. The Arbalest bursts out of the walls, screeching at me in anger.

"There you are, you bastard," I growl. "Where's your shit little brother?"

I sense an attack from the ground, and just as soon as the Lacerator digs under me, I push Blake away and stomp it on its stupid face. However, the bastard, as if it anticipated that, bit on my feet, forcing me to tank a powerful fire blast by its twin.

It doesn't do much damage, but then the Arbalest charges at me with extreme speed, ramming into me. This does hurt a lot because one of its teeth pierced my aura and stabbed my stomach.

I use both my fists to smash its face in, force-feeding it a bomb of light. It screeches and lets go of me, but then I feel the other one trying to bite me from behind. I simply backhand it and engulf it in a wave of flames, making a distance between them and me.

Alright, I see what's going on.

"Reid!"

"You go ahead," I say calmly. "You too, Gwyn. Each of you take one of the tunnels the golems opened up, find the others, and assist them."

"But you–"

"I can handle this." I wave off her concerns, rolling my neck. "Go on now."

As Blake sees Gwyn listen to me without hesitation, she too leaves me to deal with these two.

"You fuckers want me to stay here?" I growl as my blood starts to freeze. "Fine, I'll stay."

My Conqueror's Haki leaks as blue flames begin to envelop me, causing the walls and ground to crack from the pressure.

"It will be the last mistake you ever make."

– Sienna –

"Don't falter now!" She ordered those around her, stomping on a bug. "Fear makes them more vicious!"

She did consider getting separated, but she did not think it would've been this bad. Granted, they weren't dealing with the big bugs anymore, but most of the swarm targeted them specifically for whatever reason.

And their numbers seemed endless. No matter how many they killed, more and more just kept coming out of every single surface. To make matters worse, their tunnel was cramped, different species of Grimm were beginning to attack, and they were running out of ammo very fast.

Sienna used her dust-infused bladed whip to cut down a line of Grimm of various sizes and shapes, from those new bugs to Centinels to Antlions. Her soldiers were holding their own rather well, looking confident, which would've been strange, considering how bleak things looked, if not for one Kazuma Kiryu.

When she was first introduced to the man, she was confused. Why in the world would the Titan Slayer need a bodyguard? It did make her doubt Reid's true strength, in all honesty, but the boy more than proved himself when he manhandled those two big bugs on his own.

Then this man came along and surprised her nearly as much.

Using only gauntlets, the bodyguard mercilessly crushed every bug that dared to attack him, not showing even a bit of struggle. It did not matter how big or tough the Grimm was; he tore it down with relative ease, regardless.

She still was not sure why Reid would need a bodyguard, but she understood that this Kazuma was more than met the eye—no wonder the Titan Slayer would recruit someone of this caliber. Power and skill like this were one in a million.

And having someone like this on their side would undeniably make them feel much better. At the same time, this meant that the Schnee girl was with Adam, and that sounded like fate wanted to play a funny little prank on them.

Please do not do anything stupid. She thought to herself. For once in your miserable life.

Still, the situation here remained grim. They were slowly getting tired. The wave of darkness would eventually whittle them down and overwhelm them with sheer numbers. It did not matter how strong the bodyguard was; he could not fight forever.

It was startling, in a way. Sienna never expected there were this many Grimm underground. Dozens were expected, and hundreds were less likely, but these numbers might as well be in the thousands.

And that wasn't counting those Dreadnoughts. She wondered what happened to the Titan Slayer, hoping that he somehow got out of there in time. He helped her and all of Menagerie too much already; she didn't want him suffering a fate like this.

A hero like him did not deserve it.

Sienna kept fighting, gracefully swinging her whip around and taking out a dozen enemies at once. The group stuck close, protecting each other as, slowly but surely, their aura levels began to lower with every passing second. They still had some of those potions, but even with those, they couldn't keep this going much longer.

That was when several figures dug out of the collapsed portion of the tunnel—metallic humanoids with multi-colored patterns around their bodies. Sienna did not know what they were until a white blur caught her attention.

The giant wolf rushed past all of them and bit down on one of the bigger bugs, easily crushing its armor and tearing it in half. She'd seen it before in the mine pit, but she did not know where it came from. What Sienna knew was that it was an ally.

Thank the gods for that.

The wolf did something that caused a powerful gust of wind to push all the Grimm away from them, giving the group a moment to breathe. It then turned to look at the bodyguard, panting and its tail swishing from side to side.

"Seeing that you're here means that Reid sent you?" Kazuma asked with a smile, petting it.

Surprisingly, understanding his speech, the wolf nodded.

"Good. It means he's fine."

"This wolf belongs to Reid?" Sienna asked.

"Yes." He confirmed. "His name is Gwyn."

That man had everything, apparently. Miraculous drugs that can do anything, robots that are not robots, incredible wealth, impossible strength, and now a massive wolf that could understand common speech. Where did he even come from?

But this wasn't the time to be impressed by his… eccentricity.

As the bugs recovered, they roared and shrieked. The wolf howled in response, and in an impressive feat of strength and speed, he vanished from sight and began tearing the Grimm apart. With fangs and claws, he crushed and mauled everything that was in his way.

This made the group more confident as they all rallied behind the wolf named Gwyn. Sienna felt rejuvenated, even though she hadn't taken any of her recovery potions yet, because, for the first time since coming here, it felt like they were making progress.

The Grimm were decreasing the more they killed now, as it should be.

The group pushed back against the tidal wave of darkness, killing them faster than ever before. They were barely getting out of their holes before getting crushed by their might. Just as they've finally turned the tides…

The entire mine suddenly shook as a loud, monstrous, and petrifying scream echoed out, making everyone stop. Even the Grimm froze at the noise, momentarily pausing the battle until all of them began retreating, digging underground and into the walls.

"What was that?" She muttered out loud.

That sounded horrifying.

The wolf then began barking and growling threateningly at the wall before speeding off to where he came from. Quickly, the group followed after him. Whatever that was, it did not sound good at all.

Sienna had a terrible feeling about this.

– Weiss –

She'd always been relatively confident in her abilities, especially after training under the strongest man in the world. Still, Weiss never truly processed how vastly more powerful she'd become compared to a few months ago.

Adam Taurus was an infamous White Fang member across all of Remnant. His skill and brutality were known to be in a league of their own. He was an elite, likely capable of giving even S-ranked Hunters a run for their money, and he was only in his early twenties.

To compare, Winter, a highly valued specialist in the Atlas military, was only on the level of A-ranked Hunters, and before Reid, she used to be the best active combatant Weiss knew. Adam was a scoundrel with probably half the training her sister went through, and yet he was her superior.

Indeed. Adam Taurus was a dangerous man.

So to see him barely keeping up with her was absurd.

Weiss easily evaded his slashes and shots as they fought near the convulsing cocoon, not even bothering to use her semblance or magic. True, he might be more skilled and experienced than her, but Weiss was far more nimble and stronger than him.

Her thrusts were faster than the blink of an eye, hitting him several times in the chest, shoulders, and stomach before he could even react. He was getting more and more frustrated as the battle continued, likely not expecting this level of power from Weiss. Why would he? Her scholarship under Reid wasn't exactly known outside of Vale.

But he had picked this fight, and now he was going to pay the price.

She ducked under a horizontal slash and responded with a kick to his shin, breaking his balance before dancing around him and kicking him again in the back, prompting him to tumble forward and fall on his back.

"Enough of these games." She said, "Give up. You're very clearly outmatched."

Adam snarled and stood back up, charging at her blindly as he kept swinging his blade. Weiss effortlessly blocked, dodged, and deflected every single one of his blows, and even though the energy wave from his semblance pushed her back, it barely did any damage.

"This is no time or place to be doing this." She added. "Drop it now, and I'll look the other way."

"Be silent, Schnee." He pointed his rifle at her. "You and your family haven't done enough, huh? Now you're here to smear your filth to our home as if your inhuman treatment of our kind in your land wasn't satisfying you anymore."

Weiss scowled at the accusation.

"I'm not here to–"

"Save it." Adam cut her off. "I don't want to hear another word from you. I'll end your miserable life here and now."

"Yes, doing a rather good job at that too." She responded sarcastically. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you have yet to land a single hit on me, so for your sake, yield. You don't stand a chance."

Adam remained silent for a few seconds, and for a moment, Weiss thought that was enough to convince him. Sure, beating someone into submission wasn't particularly civilized. She wasn't a fan of that; unfortunately, a situation as dire as this called for it.

Suddenly, a wicked smile took over his face, making her blink in confusion.

"You're right." He aimed his rifle at the cocoon, and her blood froze. "I don't."

"Stop!"

He pulled the trigger several times, riddling the cocoon with bullets. Weiss could do nothing but stare in horror as the cocoon immediately burst open, a massive and heavily armored Grimm falling out of it and into the pond under it.

It let out a shriek so powerful that it brought her to her knees. The rocky walls and stone floor cracked under the weight of the beast. If she thought the other big bugs that Reid fought were dangerous, then she didn't know what to classify this as.

It was three times as large, for starters, with an external exoskeleton and thick armor that covered its entire body. A single leg was several times the size of Weiss herself—its teeth and tusks were sharper than the finest blades around.

Weiss had never seen such a monster in her life. This Dreadnought—this thing was most definitely a Titan, and no amount of preparation could make her able to handle this on her own.

"Do you think you can get away with this?" Weiss looked at Adam in a panic. "Even if I die and you live–"

"Your precious Titan Slayer would still execute me." He finished for her with a scoff, seemingly well aware. "Yes, I know that. That bastard is too sharp for his own good. He'd figure things out immediately."

Adam slowly took off his mask and threw it to the side, making Weiss inhale sharply as she saw the branded 'SDC' on his face.

"But if that meant I'd get rid of at least one Schnee–" He added as the Titan roared again. "Then that is a price I'm willing to pay."

"You're insane," Weiss stated. "I thought maybe you'd see the bigger picture, especially in a situation like this… But you're completely out of your damn mind. There's no hope for you."

Adam's grin almost looked maniacal.

"I know."

Weiss didn't want to do this, but such hesitation was a mistake. She should've attacked to kill right from the beginning; it was very clear to her now that she could never convince him to do this later, even though she was willing to grant him a duel any time he wanted.

He didn't believe her good intentions and never would, no matter what she said or did. He was convinced that she was here to spread the same corruption and destruction her father did in Atlas, and perhaps, in some way, that was understandable. She couldn't expect everyone to be accepting and understanding. There would be those who shared his darker thoughts. His stubbornness.

However, there was no doubt that he was completely and utterly mad—a monster that her father created, but a rabid dog she needed to put down regardless. Weiss felt slightly sympathetic after seeing that scar on his face, but that was as much as she was willing to give him.

Adam Taurus had to die if Weiss wanted to atone for her father's sins and restore honor to the Schnee name. And while Weiss wouldn't enjoy it, she knew she would not regret it either.

And so, as the giant beast approached the two, Weiss waved her arm, forming several glyphs as well as sharp ice crystals around her. She'd seen enough. No more holding back. She'd get rid of him quickly, then hold off the Titan until reinforcements arrived.

It didn't need to end this way, but he left her no other choice.

I just dropped a fat 13k-word chapter on the money-making site. Just something to consider ;)