~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter! Your votes keep this climbing. Thanks!
"So you were hiding this trick all along."
"No wonder you weren't afraid of the Titans."
The experienced Jared had already pulled back behind cover well before the shockwave hit, then kept moving, retreating further from the fight.
He still found himself glancing back at the two colossal figures trading blows.
This guy looked completely human most of the time. No one would have guessed he could turn into something this massive when it counted. And the power — he wasn't giving an inch to the MUTO.
That was a female MUTO. This alien was really that strong?
I underestimated him.
"WROAR!!"
The MUTO's offensive forelimbs were locked in the giant's grip. It strained, found it couldn't pull free, and reared up on its hind legs — driving its second pair of limbs at the giant's waist and abdomen from both sides.
The street was too narrow for this. As the MUTO swung, its limbs carved through the side of a building. Glass and concrete shattered in cascading layers. Entire offices were ripped open to the night air, everything inside smashed to pieces.
"BOOM!"
Both limbs drove into the giant's midsection. The impact rocked him back half a step. His bright eyes met the MUTO's crimson ones.
He'd taken the hit. Now he used it.
One foot planted, the other came up , aimed straight at the gap the MUTO had left open.
"BOOM!!"
A direct kick. All the force concentrated at one point. The MUTO's massive body launched backward.
Every building lining the narrow street was demolished in its path. The sound of collapsing structures didn't stop. It landed a kilometer out.
"NO!"
Rao had already been separated from his unit, thrown to this spot earlier. He'd barely taken a few steps when the Titan beast came crashing toward him again. He shouted, lunged for a streetlight, and grabbed on.
"Damn it!"
The shockwave hit. Rao, the streetlight, and the entire slab of ground beneath him went airborne. An abandoned car nearby spun up with them, all of it hurled further down the street. Where they'd been standing was now a deep crater webbed with cracks.
A MUTO weighing over seventy thousand tons, kicked and sent crashing down , the impact was catastrophic.
The giant that had kicked it that far was something else entirely.
"Shit!"
"SHIT!!"
Rao tumbled through the dark air, wind screaming past his ears. Below him, the ruins were being demolished a second time. Above, fighter jets had started dropping missiles. His heart was slamming against his ribs, adrenaline redlining.
Why did I have to be on this mission!
Half a second later, gravity found him. He dropped.
Two missiles streaked past him on their way down, their exhaust trails close enough to feel.
"Missiles away, target locked — MUTO." The pilot's voice crackled through the military channel.
"BOOM! BOOM!"
The missiles lit up the night sky. They hit the downed MUTO before Rao reached the ground.
"WROAR!!"
The blasts left sooty scorch marks across its armored hide. That was all. The skin didn't give. The missiles had done essentially nothing.
Rao fell through the rolling smoke.
"Cough!"
"NO!"
The ruined ground was rushing up. His eyes went wide. A fall from this height would turn him into paste.
Then, just before impact, something invisible caught him, a cushion of force that bled off the speed.
He hit the ground and stayed in one piece, sprawled flat.
"What... what just happened?"
He pushed himself up, still dazed, looked back at the MUTO clambering to its feet, then saw the giant already pouncing. His heart lurched.
The adrenaline hadn't gone anywhere. He ran.
One leap through the window of an abandoned convenience store nearby.
Then the tremors hit.
"THUD!!"
The giant slammed the MUTO back down before it could rise, straddling it, one hand pinning it, the other fist already clenched.
Rao was still catching his breath when the collapsed shelves jolted off the floor again. The shaking was violent, relentless, like riding a rollercoaster through an earthquake. The ceiling cracked. Chunks of concrete rained down. He threw himself from one side to the other, just trying not to get buried.
Outside, the giant's fist came down.
"THUD!"
The MUTO's slender limbs couldn't stop it. The punch connected with its skull and rattled it senseless.
The cracks in the ground spread wider. The buildings on both sides collapsed harder, some of them pitching inward toward the street, shedding slabs onto the giant's back. Rubble and dust swallowed everything.
Through the haze, Rao caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye , both massive figures buried under the avalanche of debris.
His chance.
He didn't think twice. He sprinted for the window and vaulted through.
Out on the street, rubble piled knee-high in every direction. He clicked on his tactical flashlight and ran.
"God, please!"
"God, PLEASE!!"
Wind and dust poured into his lungs. He stopped caring about any of it. One thought, just one: get out.
The road was uneven, broken, treacherous. He wasn't moving fast enough.
He'd barely gone two steps when a roar tore out from behind him.
"WROAR!!"
The MUTO erupted. Every limb fired at once, heaving the giant off its body and into the air.
The giant's base height was fifty-two meters, but he'd adjusted his size at the start of the fight, scaling up to eighty-five meters, his weight climbing from forty-two thousand tons to sixty-nine thousand. Only five thousand tons lighter than the female MUTO.
"GOD!!"
Rao watched it happen and couldn't do a thing. The eighty-meter giant was thrown, arcing through the air, coming down right toward him. The MUTO hadn't aimed , Rao was just too close to the battlefield.
The giant's body blotted out the moon. The shadow swallowed him whole, growing larger no matter which direction he ran. There was no edge to it. He wasn't going to make it out.
"THUD!!"
The giant hit the old crossroads at the center of the ruined city. Every abandoned vehicle beneath him was flattened. The ground fractured, caved, sank. The shockwave stripped the faces off nearby buildings and sent rubble screaming into the sky.
Rao's world went sideways. He didn't know if he was alive or dead.
When awareness came back, there was only darkness. A few thin lines of light filtered through gaps somewhere in front of him. Through those three cracks, he could make out the Titan beast hauling itself upright, shaking its head.
Where am I?
He couldn't figure it out.
Then his stomach dropped, the sudden, violent weightlessness of a free-falling elevator.
"What's happening!?" He grabbed at whatever was around him. Pitch black, couldn't see anything. His hand found something solid, something that curved like a wall. It was warm to the touch. And hard as steel.
He clicked on his tactical flashlight.
Bright silver. Almost identical to actual steel.
"A hand?"
"I'm in the giant's hand!?"
It hit him all at once. He was being held, loosely, carefully, in the giant's fist. The realization sent a shock through him that had nothing to do with adrenaline.
The weightlessness disappeared.
The giant's right hand opened. Moonlight poured in. His feet touched the ground.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
Read up to (50+ ) advanced chapters on Patre\on
Visit us here: patreon.com/DarkGolds
Happy reading, everyone!