Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

"WAAAGH!"

Rockwell let loose a furious roar and charged headlong into battle.

The strange wormlike creature snarled deep in its throat and lunged forward, colliding with him. In a flash, Rockwell and the creature were locked in a tangled struggle.

Despite the frantic melee, Rockwell kept his head: he focused every strike on the tear he'd made earlier with his whirling slash.

But the worm wasn't stupid. It tried to keep its wound covered and even used that weak spot like bait, gradually luring Rockwell into the crushing snare of its coils.

Screeeech!

Rockwell swung his stone axe, hacking squarely into the old wound and splitting the worm in two.

"Gotcha!"

That was Rockwell's first thought, but he felt a surge of alarm as the beast continued its death grip, refusing to let him break free.

"Lorelia!"

In desperation, Rockwell shouted for Lorelia, hoping she'd fire off some support.

Whoosh!

An arrow coated in corrosive poison streaked through the air and struck the worm's single eye, gravely injuring it. Rockwell seized the opening, shifting his weight to dodge the gaping jaws that had been certain to clamp down on him.

Even with its lone eye half-destroyed, the worm still refused to abandon its effort to crush Rockwell. Its body kept contracting, closing its coils tighter.

At that moment, an even stranger sight occurred. After the worm's agonized roar echoed through the cave, the severed back half of its body suddenly bulged and writhed.

A moment later, its tail-end split open. Two horns, a single eye, and a huge maw appeared on that new edge, forming a second, smaller worm right where the tail had been severed.

This new worm immediately shrieked and lunged toward Lorelia.

"Hold it off!"

Lorelia's voice rang out, anxious but firm, and she momentarily stopped worrying about Rockwell. She commanded her four spider guardians to intercept this newly formed creature. Meanwhile, she moved closer to the passage exit, fully ready to make a run for it if things went south.

"WAAAGH!"

Rockwell saw Lorelia wasn't coming to his rescue and realized he was on his own. He grit his teeth, refocusing on taking down the worm before it could finish him.

Suddenly, another eerie roar sounded. This time, though, it came from the opposite direction of the bottomless abyss, at the far side of the underground fissure.

Lorelia glanced over her shoulder and spotted a giant Dark Fiend barreling straight toward the abyss. Her face went ghost-pale.

"Dark Creatures…? How the hell did one get here?"

Her voice shook so hard she could barely get the words out. The small bow in her hands trembled right along with her.

Escape.

Her master had told her that as long as she could get back to the lair, she'd be safe. Lorelia was about to ditch Rockwell and flee when she heard a voice call out from behind the Dark Fiend.

"Lorelia, it's me!"

It was Thundar's unmistakable voice. Right away, Lorelia paused mid-retreat.

In the distance, Thundar hopped off the Dark Fiend's back. Moments before, the creature had been bounding forward so fast that Thundar had to flatten himself against it, which was why Lorelia hadn't noticed him.

"Elder of Combat… that's really you? Then… what's that big thing?"

Looking mighty proud, Thundar gave a booming laugh and offered a brief explanation.

"It's my newly tamed mount! Gimme a minute to kill this underground beast, then we can talk!"

With that, Thundar hefted his greatsword and rushed the second worm pinned down by the four spider guardians. As for the Dark Fiend, it planted all four limbs against the ground and lunged over to the monster constricting Rockwell, biting fiercely into it.

"Warden Rockwell, team up with my Dark Fiend and finish off these underground monsters!"

Hearing Thundar's familiar voice, Rockwell spotted a sudden glimmer of hope.

He could feel the worm's coils losing their deadly tension. Seizing the moment, he raised his stone axe once more and hacked away.

Meanwhile, on the outside, the Dark Fiend sank its teeth into the creature's body, trying to drag it off Rockwell. That action freed Rockwell from the crushing stranglehold.

With its snare broken, Rockwell caught sight of the Dark Fiend tearing away at the worm's flesh. He gawked, looking about as stunned as Lorelia had moments earlier.

"Hey, big oaf, cut the damn thing already!"

Lorelia's shout rang out as an arrow thudded into the monster's head, drawing another guttural screech. Jolted back to reality by her words, Rockwell raised his stone axe and brought it crashing down on the worm's neck.

A few moments later, Rockwell, Lorelia, and the Dark Fiend joined forces to dispatch the first worm. Then, working together with Thundar, they also destroyed the second one that had split away.

Thundar dug a crystal core out of the monster's corpse and compared it with the one Rockwell was clutching. They were identical.

"What a weird underground beast—it had two identical crystal cores!"
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Thundar marveled, taking both cores from Rockwell and stowing them away.

"Maybe there are more than two," Lorelia said in a hesitant tone. When the two men turned to look at her, she pointed at a section of the worm's body that was still twitching.

Thundar and Rockwell both scowled. Following Lorelia's gesture, they saw swathes of the two worm sections were still writhing, showing faint signs of regenerating.

"What the…"

"Eat it!"

Thundar cut himself off midsentence and swiftly ordered the Dark Fiend to swallow one of the worm parts. Lorelia's eyes lit up, and she immediately instructed her nearby spider guardians to devour the other half.

During that earlier scuffle, two of those guardians had been badly injured—one nearly had its entire abdomen crushed. Strangely enough, as soon as the four spider guardians consumed the worm's remains, their wounds began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"How wild is that?"

Lorelia's eyes went wide. "Oh, crap—I should've saved some for my master!"

Hearing her startled cry, Thundar and Rockwell both tensed, thinking another threat had appeared. When they realized what she actually meant, they exchanged a wry smile.

"Elder Thundar, how'd you end up here?"

Rockwell strode toward the edge of the bottomless abyss, lopping an emerging subterranean creature in half with his axe mid-question.

"The fighting at Blackstone City has settled for now. We scored a decent victory. The Elder of Stewardship caught wind that something was brewing at this underground fissure and dispatched me to back you up."

Standing beside Rockwell, Thundar gazed at the bottomless abyss, frowning as he answered.

In truth, Orion had declared this place off-limits. Thundar wouldn't have come here without a solid reason. He never expected that the one time he did, he'd run into such a bizarre worm with freaky powers.

"So, what's the story with that Dark Fiend?"

"Taming collar," Thundar said matter-of-factly. "It's under my control."

"That's… something else," Rockwell murmured, falling quiet. After a thoughtful moment, he gave the Dark Fiend a long, serious once-over. Finally, he sighed.

"Elder Thundar, I can't lie. I'm jealous."

"Hahaha, don't worry—your day will come too!" Thundar chuckled, clearly satisfied with his new Dark Fiend mount.

"Oh, and by the way, the prophet also got a little reward in this battle."

Thundar let that tidbit slip but didn't reveal what exactly Onyx had gained.