As Fu Zhu's pickaxe struck the Firmament Wall, a faint cracking sound echoed. In almost the same instant, both the diamond pickaxe in his hand and the colossal Firmament Wall shattered simultaneously!
A cascade of cracks spread one after another, and fragments of the Firmament Wall began to fall from the sky, a torrent of collapsing firmament.
"Watch out!"
Stelle was the first to react, summoning her lance to project a shield over the group's heads. A second later, however, she retracted it, as a ceiling made of cobblestone materialized out of thin air, blocking the falling debris.
The fragments crashed against the cobblestone wall with a thunderous roar, which only gradually subsided after a minute or two.
Once all the debris had fallen, Fu Zhu dismissed the cobblestone wall. The group looked up at the sky once more. The darkness was gone, replaced by a swirling chaos of variegated colors.
And within that chaos, a single, gigantic eyeball with concentric, rainbow-colored rings swiveled to stare down at them. It was a deeply unsettling sight.
Without needing any prompting, Stelle, Dan Heng, Phainon, March 7th, and Evernight all drew their weapons at the same time. Even the non-combatant Cyrene frowned, tucking herself nervously behind the others so as not to get in their way.
"That eyeball is the Sky Titan? It's way too creepy!" Stelle couldn't help but exclaim. She had seen other Titans before, either in person or through records. While not all of them were handsome, they at least had an aura of domineering power. This one just felt... creepy.
"It's alright. At least it's not so gory that it needs to be censored," Fu Zhu remarked. He didn't find it particularly unsettling. He'd seen plenty of ugly bosses in Minecraft; the Sky Titan was small potatoes in comparison.
However, the sight of a constantly flying Sky Titan did bring back some unpleasant memories of playing certain modpacks—specifically, his experiences getting bullied by flying mobs, like the dragons from the Ice and Fire mod.
Their aggro range was massive. He would just be passing by, trying to get to another area on the map, and suddenly a dragon would fly up and start spewing fire everywhere. And sometimes, the damn thing just wouldn't land, using its flight advantage to piss on his head from above!
He had been absolutely infuriated back then. It wasn't until he watched a video and discovered that chains could completely immobilize a dragon that he finally got his revenge. He'd stand half a world away, slowly humiliating it with a bow and arrow.
This time, however, Fu Zhu had no intention of giving the Sky Titan a chance to "humiliate" him, even if it hadn't shown off its skillset yet!
"Sis, you guys wait here a sec. I need to make something."
Before Stelle could respond, Fu Zhu had already placed a crafting table on the ground and began stuffing materials into it.
"What? You want us to fight it?"
Stelle was flabbergasted. Her big brother was the team's main damage dealer! Why was the carry going on strike right as the boss fight was starting?!
Stelle glanced at Fu Zhu, who was already busy at his crafting table, and was about to tell the others to hold off on engaging. But to her surprise, the Sky Titan struck first!
A sharp shriek echoed from above as the Sky Titan's massive form emerged from the chaos. Its body was constructed from some unknown metal, resembling a great, fleshless bird.
Seeing the Sky Titan reveal itself, Hyacine quickly stepped forward. "Lady Seliose, can you still hear my voice? If you can still hear me..."
But before Hyacine could finish, the Sky Titan flapped its wings in their direction, and countless "meteors" streaked across the sky, hurtling down towards them.
Stelle immediately jumped forward, raising her lance to create a shield and block the attack for the group. But with every "meteor" that slammed into the shield, a pained grunt escaped her lips.
Seeing this, the others gave up any hope of communicating with the Titan. They raised their weapons and charged, attempting to engage it in combat. But since none of them could fly, all they could do was watch helplessly as the Sky Titan lorded over them, raining down destruction from above. Among them, only March 7th could consistently hit the airborne Titan with her bow.
Dan Heng and Phainon tried to jump up and attack the Sky Titan, but doing so left them unable to evade its attacks, putting them in grave danger. Phainon attempted to engage it in the air several times but was knocked back to the ground each time. If it weren't for Stelle promptly covering him with her shield, he might have been seriously injured.
"Dammit, it's staying in the sky! We can't land any effective attacks!"
March 7th's bow alone was far from enough to bring down the Titan. She nocked arrow after arrow, but the Sky Titan was incredibly agile, dodging most of her shots.
"Evernight, help me out!" March 7th called for aid, only to turn around and see Evernight, Khaslana, and Cyrene gathered around Fu Zhu, watching him work at the crafting table.
Seeing this, March 7th fumed, planting her hands on her hips and shouting at them.
"Hey! We're in the middle of a serious boss fight here! Why are you guys slacking off in the back?!"
Putting aside Cyrene, who had little combat ability, why was Khaslana, the "Beta Tester," slacking off too?!
He and Fu Zhu were the two main powerhouses of the team! It was one thing for him not to help, but he wouldn't even offer any strategy advice!
Phainon, also annoyed, glanced at Khaslana. How could his future self, after tens of millions of cycles, be so "cold-blooded"?
This prompted Phainon to snap at Khaslana, "Me from another time, tell me, how do we get the Sky Titan to come down?!"
Khaslana finally looked up at Phainon, but he remained silent.
It wasn't that he didn't want to say anything; it was that he genuinely didn't have a good method. In his past cycles, the Sky Titans he faced were mostly Hyacine after she had merged with the Coreflame. She was willing to communicate and would voluntarily descend to fight him.
The few times it wasn't the Hyacine version, he had relied on brute-forcing it with the immense power of the Coreflames in his body...
While Khaslana was lost in thought, Stelle was struggling to hold the front line. She couldn't help but shout in complaint.
"I told you Dan Heng should have built tank! Why am I the only tank here!!!"
"Stop yelling, sis! They're ready!"
After a long bout of crafting, Fu Zhu finally stopped his work. It had been a while since he used a crafting table, and he felt a bit rusty making things so quickly. He then took the dozen-plus stacks of iron chains he had made and tossed a set to everyone present.
"Catch! Use these to restrain it.".