The Colossus's foot slammed into the ground, sending a shockwave across the valley. Carlos and the others dove aside, the heat scorching their skin as molten rock sprayed upward. The ground beneath them cracked and split, forcing them into a desperate scramble to stay upright.
Carlos pressed himself against a jagged outcrop of stone, gasping for air. The titan loomed above them—an obsidian giant with a furnace for a heart. Every movement radiated both power and inevitability, as though nature itself had chosen to take the shape of destruction.
Lys crouched beside him, her bow already drawn. Her eyes tracked the faint blue mark glowing at the base of the Colossus's spine. "That's it," she said. "That's the weak point."
"Then we hit it," Carlos replied, though his voice was tight. Hitting it meant climbing the thing, and the creature was already tearing the land apart with each step.
Thalor pounded his shield into the ground to steady himself. "I'll draw its attention. You climb."
Rina scoffed. "Draw its attention? You're a knight, not a miracle worker. One swipe from that thing, and you're a stain on the rocks."
Thalor met her glare without flinching. "Better me than all of you. Do you have a better plan?"
Rina opened her mouth to argue but fell silent.
Carlos forced his thoughts into focus. This wasn't a game anymore—hesitation would kill them. "We move as a unit. Thalor distracts it. Rina and I climb. Lys provides cover from below. Maren supports with magic. If we take down one, maybe the others will hesitate."
"Or get angrier," Rina muttered, but she drew her daggers anyway.
The Colossus roared again, its voice like thunder tearing the sky. It swung a massive arm downward, the wind from the motion enough to knock Carlos to his knees. Thalor raised his shield, bracing against the blow, and the ground around him cracked with the impact. Somehow, impossibly, he stood firm.
"Now!" he shouted.
Carlos ran, every muscle screaming as he sprinted toward the titan's leg. The Blade of Ascension thrummed in his grip, eager, alive. He leapt, driving the blade into a fissure in the Colossus's armor. Sparks flew. The sword held.
With a grunt, Carlos hauled himself upward. Rina followed, moving with impossible agility, her daggers finding handholds where there should have been none.
The climb was brutal. Heat radiated from the Colossus's body, scorching their skin. The stone plates of its armor shifted with every movement, threatening to crush them or fling them off. Twice Carlos nearly lost his grip, saved only by the Blade of Ascension wedged deep into the cracks.
Below, Lys's arrows whistled through the air, striking the titan's joints to slow its movements. Maren's voice carried faintly, chanting spells that wove shimmering wards around Carlos and Rina, shielding them from the worst of the fire.
Step by step, they climbed higher.
The titan seemed to notice them now. Its massive hand swung backward, clawed fingers raking the air. Carlos pressed flat against its back as stone scraped past him, the force nearly tearing him away. Rina wasn't so lucky—one of her daggers slipped, and she dangled by a single handhold, teeth gritted.
"Hold on!" Carlos shouted. He stabbed the Blade of Ascension into the Colossus's hide, anchoring himself, and grabbed Rina's wrist. With a roar of effort, he pulled her back into place.
She smirked despite her ragged breath. "Didn't know you cared."
"Just climb," Carlos muttered.
At last, they reached the spine. The faint blue glow pulsed like a heartbeat, carved into the stone flesh of the titan. Energy radiated from it, vibrating through Carlos's bones.
"This is it," he said.
Rina drew both daggers, their blades catching the eerie light. "Then let's end this."
Together, they struck.
The Blade of Ascension plunged into the glowing mark, white fire exploding outward. Rina's daggers followed, piercing deep into the wound. The Colossus let out a scream that shook the heavens. Its entire body convulsed, the ground quaking as though the world itself was collapsing.
Carlos held on for dear life as the titan thrashed, molten blood spraying from the wound in rivers of fire. The blue glow flared brighter, then shattered in a burst of light so intense it blinded him.
When his vision cleared, the Colossus was falling.
The giant crashed to the valley floor, the impact sending a shockwave across the Expanse. Stone shattered. Lava rivers burst. The air itself seemed to split with the force.
Carlos and Rina were thrown free, tumbling across the scorched earth. Carlos rolled to a stop, his chest heaving, ears ringing. He forced himself onto his elbows, eyes darting to the fallen titan.
The Colossus lay still. Its furnace-heart was extinguished, its body crumbling to ash.
They had done it.
A new message flickered before Carlos's eyes:
Colossus Defeated. Four remain.
Carlos's relief froze in his chest.
Four.
He turned, his stomach twisting as the other titans moved across the horizon, their roars filling the crimson sky.
The battle was far from over.
And the Expanse was only beginning to test them.