Air bags are good, Carapace is better. The car crushed against the side wall, tumbled and flipped over several times. Marcus was thrown around inside the cabin but it was more disorienting than painful. Carapace and his nearly 70 vitality absorbed the impact easily. The car on the other hand suffered heavily from the reaction of Carapace. Once the movement stopped the vehicle had been demolished from the outside and inside. The moment Marcus remembered where up and down was, he smashed one of the heavily deformed doors open and crawled outside the car wreck.

The pavement was hot from the blistering sun and Marcus got to his feet, looking into the direction he expected to find his attacker. He had always wondered what other monster types, if any, existed on this world besides the hell monkeys. I hate spiders, he thought. About a hundred meter away the body of a monstrous spider climbed over the protective wall. The sheer size and weight of the monster bent and crushed the metal wall.

This must be a second stage monster. Marcus agreed and observed the movement of the colossal white spider. It generally looked like a spider, but it was completely white and had red eyes, which Marcus could see even from this distance.

How did it attack my car?

It must have some kind of ranged capability. More worrying is the possibility of webbing. If that thing can ensnare you, we are in trouble. You do not have the strength to break such a binding. Marcus had to agree with Xeen, he had to avoid getting immobilized at all costs. This monster could actually turn out to be extremely dangerous for him, but running was not an option.

The spider had crawled onto the road and now went into an odd pose pressing its massive body onto the ground. Marcus strained his senses to the maximum, expecting some kind of attack from his enemy. In a flash the spider jumped, bridging the 100 meter between them in one go.

It is the jumping type of spider! That is good! Marcus was about to agree when something hit the pavement just a meter away from him and shattered the dense material like it was glass. Debris sprayed the area and cut Marcus' clothes and left a few bloody cuts on his skin. They vanished as quick as they had appeared, but he had no time to think further about the projectile attack, several tons of spider were descending upon him.

Marcus Burst jumped backwards and avoided getting pancaked. The monster hissed and propelled forward to cut him apart with its razor sharp mandibles. This was not his first rodeo with a monster like this and Marcus used a short Burst to get under the deadly instruments and prepared to bring the hurt. He stepped up and delivered a punch into the unprotected lower body of the spider, only to scream in pain as electricity ravaged his body. The moment he had touched the weird stubbly fur of the monster a powerful electric shock had hit him. The moment of disruption was enough for the monster to step back, and now its glowing eyes stared down on and its mandibles spread wide. Marcus acted on instinct alone and moved his arms in front of his chest and tugged his head in. A heartbeat later something smashed against his arms with such force his arms got shattered and he was thrown back ten meters. He had Carapace running and yet the attack had thrown him around like a sock puppet.

Marcus ached in pain as his maimed arms reformed and he pushed himself up, he needed to stay mobile. His head was still swimming and his eyes were blurry from the heavy impact, he tried to get into a stance before the spider could reach him. What do I do against the shocks?

You need to push through it. Now that you know it is coming it will be doable. Use fast rotational moves, avoid the head! Marcus nodded out of reflex and turned to face the beast. The massive spider lay on the ground, a big chunk of its head was missing together with several of the menacing red eyes. What?

Marcus slowly walked closer to the corpse and now he could see the massive hole inside the head of the monster.

It is dead. HA! Marcus tried to understand what happened and slowly it dawned on him. Carapace had reflected the massive projectile back right at the monster. Marcus started to laugh, harder and harder until he burst into uncontrolled laughter. The irony was just too good.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After his body had completely healed he retrieved what was still left of his belongings from the car and crouched down next to the impact hole in the pavement. The projectile was still stuck inside the road. It was a ball of the size of a melon, it looked vaguely like metal but it was most likely some kind of organic material. But coming from a monster it could very well be stronger than steel.

Marcus looked along the road and wondered if he should run towards the portal or wait until help arrived. All shuttles had an emergency beacon in case something went wrong and no doubt people were rushing here to help. Marcus decided to wait a few minutes and see if somebody showed up.

Only ten minutes later several large cars rushed down the road at extreme speed. The emergency team jumped out and assessed the situation. Seeing Marcus more or less unharmed next to the massive monster made a lot of people drop their jaws until one young man pointed out that he was Marcus Freimann, the Titan. Some photos and autographs later he was on his way to Mihr Jhel in one of the special armored cars. No doubt the media would learn of this in no time.

He reached the city even earlier than planned and said goodbye to the hyped men and women who escorted him. He watched them drive off and turned to the city gates only to see Azaa rushing to his side. Her face was a mixture of joy and worry and her long, lavender colored dress fluttered as she moved. As she reached him, she did not hesitate and embraced him. Excited about this welcome, Marcus put his arms around her and they kissed passionately. Her hands were in his hair and his back and he felt her back and a bit further down, her hips too. After a minute Azaa, carefully freed herself and took a step back, Marcus' face was red and the rest of his body was highly excited. Azaa eyed him up and down and he remembered that she could read his life essence… which meant she knew how excited he was right now. After a moment her eyes moved up to his face and finally they talked.

"My love, what happened? Your clothes are all torn." A direct attack against Marcus self control! My love! Happiness bounced through his brain and made him giddy.

Marcus, you might want to change to mute mode.

XEEN! I forgot, I'm sorry. He quickly changed the mode and now he was deeply embarrassed. Azaa was still waiting for an answer and Marcus told her he had not muted Xeen for their reunion, it had happened to quickly. "I hope it will be alright. We did not do too much, yet." She said and that "yet" made Marcus' heart change gears into race mode.

Azaa was observing Marcus, still waiting for a response. He took a deep breath, tried to calm his raging hormones and told Azaa the story of the monster spider. She was not amused "Your people should be more vigilant about exterminating monsters. What if a third stage monster appeared? Will the humans be able to handle it or are we forced to move then?"

Marcus had no answer to that and instead reached out to hold her hand. She calmed down in an instant and Azaa's warm eyes sunk into his own. "I missed you so much." she whispered. "Me too. I was so busy all these days, that I somehow made it through the whole week. But once it was time to visit you, I could not get to you fast enough." He said and they kissed again. Somehow, even though they had been apart, their relationship had matured further, Marcus realized.

Azaa smiled and guided him into the city, but not to her home, instead they walked straight into an area of the city filled with shops. They entered a clothing shop and Azaa talked with the owner. Two young ginghi men escorted Marcus in a back room and helped him get rid of his torn, burned, ripped clothing. In minutes the professionals found and fitted new clothes for Marcus. It was a common ginghi style and the material felt soft and silky. Every part of his new attire was handmade and even as an amateur he could tell it was of the highest quality. When he stepped back into the main room Azaa approved with a smile. She paid for Marcus and as they walked out he wondered if Azaa was his "sugar mamma". At least this is how it must have looked like to onlookers.

"You look great in these clothes. A fitting attire for a meeting with my father." she said while pulling Marcus along the streets. "Are we going to meet him right now?" Marcus asked and stress started to rise inside him. "Yes, we are going to share breakfast. He wants to finally meet you properly and Xeen too." Azaa seemed to be unburdened by worry but with every step Marcus got less and less air into his lungs.

Azaa realized his distress and stopped. "You understand that your father is in general a very impressive person but in this case, he is also your father… and I'm being involved with his cherished daughter." Marcus said with a weak voice. Azaa looked at him for some time and raised an eyebrow "Does that mean, if my father would not approve of me courting you, you would wish to dissolve our relationship?" her words made Marcus tremble "NO!" the word shot out of his mouth. "But I might worry he would kill me or ban me from seeing you ever again." said the mouse, who had decided to go up against a lion.

Azaa gently touched his face and her eyes searched his for some time. It looked like she wanted to say something but decided against it. "Please tell me what you think." Marcus said and she looked apologetic "There are too many words in my mind that all belong to you. This is not the right time or place to share them. My father and Uela are waiting for us." Azaa said and pulled Marcus along. As they walked, he enjoyed the warmth of her hand and wondered about those words inside her head.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.