Chapter 536

The enormous winged Titan swooped down from the skies once again.

Six huge dragonfly-like wings beat the air so fast they were a blur of motion. Like most of the previous Titans Jake had encountered, this one possessed insectile features. Its body resembled a monstrous fusion of hornet and mantis. Overlapping armored chitin plates covered every inch of its enormous form.

Four hooked forelimbs folded beneath its chest while two powerful hind legs ended in razor-sharp talons, which gouged deep furrows wherever they landed on the organic matter covering the entire city. A segmented abdomen stretched behind the creature, tipped with a stinger almost as long as a truck.

Faceted eyes covered most of the creature’s head, each reflecting the Saurian Prowler as it plummeted toward Jake from above. Instead of roaring, the monster emitted a series of threatening clicks as it pounced on him.

The Titan darted toward him with terrifying speed, lashing out with its claws. Jake was barely able to throw the Saurian Prowler aside, and the huge insectoid’s talons sliced through the empty air instead. The Titan passed over him, then immediately twisted around, impossibly agile for its size. It struck again, and this time Jake wasn’t able to dodge the blow.

He felt claws rake across the Saurian Prowler’s shoulder. He immediately answered with a sweeping tail strike. The Titan folded its wings and slipped beneath the blow by mere inches. The tail smashed into the ground instead, leaving a long, deep furrow in the thick organic layer. The Titan was fast, but luckily, Jake had an ability that could pull flying or agile creatures right toward him.

He opened his mouth and employed Void Siphon just as the Titan passed overhead. The beam of invisible energy struck the winged monster smack-dab in the middle of its body, arresting its passage through the sky. The monster beat its wings vigorously, but it could hardly move. Little by little, it was dragged downward, and there was nothing it could do about it.

As soon as the Titan was within reach, Jake lashed out with his claws. The Titan shrieked as one wing tore free. Jake was about to follow up the successful hit with another when his opponent utilized its first special ability. Thousands of glittering spores burst from its wide-open mouth, flying every which way and landing all around Jake.

Wherever they landed, thick cords of pulsating organic flesh erupted, immediately wrapping around the Saurian Prowler’s body. The living growth tightened around his legs, tail, and forelimbs with shocking strength. The tendrils were powerful and surprisingly long. Some of them crawled up the Kaiju’s body and slid into its mouth, instantly breaking the effect of Void Siphon.

No longer affected by Void Siphon, the Titan instantly rose high into the air. Jake strained against the tendrils of living flesh. They stretched taut and, in the next instant, snapped apart. The Saurian Prowler was free, its movements no longer restricted. Jake quickly looked around and located the Titan soaring high overhead in circles.

But before he could do anything, the insectile beast unleashed its second special ability. The countless faceted eyes covering its face flashed in chaotic, bright patterns, blinding him for an instant. Suddenly, instead of only one Titan, there were now twelve circling overhead. Only one was real, the others were mere illusions.

Jake hesitated. Only for a second, but the Titan immediately took advantage of it. Several winged beasts pounced on him, and he felt claws rip across the Saurian Prowler’s back. Jake lashed out at one of the creatures, but his claws passed through the illusion while the real one slipped away.

The illusion he’d struck disappeared in a bright flash of light. Jake mentally instructed his wyrmcallers to deploy several wingclaws and sent them after the winged insectile monster. One by one, the illusions disappeared in flashes of light until only the real Titan remained.

Jake employed Void Siphon once more. Once the Titan was within reach, he lashed out. His claws caught solid chitin. The Titan shrieked in rage and agony as green goo burst from the fresh gashes across its body. He hurled it across the street. The monster crashed into a building. Its chitinous carapace cracked in several places, leaking viscous green fluid.

The Titan’s clicking became frantic. The monster was enraged. It lunged toward him, launching spores from its mouth once more. Immediately upon landing, they erupted into long tendrils that tightly wrapped around his body. This time, Jake was ready and slashed through some of them with his claws.

Still, some survived and wrapped around his powerful hind legs, restraining him. The Titan got within striking range. Its abdomen curled beneath its body. The stinger lunged toward him, but with the tendrils restricting his movement, he wasn’t able to dodge the blow.

The stinger plunged into the middle of his chest, injecting paralyzing venom. It was the creature’s final ability. Jake felt the Saurian Prowler become slow and weak as the venom took effect. Still, the Kaiju wasn’t out of commission yet. He grabbed the stinger and yanked it out of his chest.

While holding the stinger with one hand, he grabbed the Titan’s tail just below where it met the stinger with the other. Exerting every ounce of the Kaiju’s remaining strength, he pulled in opposite directions. After a moment’s resistance, the stinger tore free of the tail in an explosion of green goo.

The Titan shrieked. Before the monster could recover, Jake lashed out with his tail, striking it across the chest. The chitin cracked, spraying green fluid. The monster collapsed sideways. It attempted to get back up, but Jake didn’t give it the chance.

He vigorously lashed out at the fallen monster, shattering its armored chitin exterior and severing chunks of flesh. He then seized two of its forelimbs. Realizing what Jake planned to do next, the monster attempted to flee. Its wings beat desperately as it tried to lift into the air and escape.

But Jake didn’t let it. The monster never left the ground. Two wings tore free with a thunderous snap as Jake lashed out with his whip-like tail. Then, with a vicious yank, he tore away the two forelimbs he held. The monster convulsed, shrieking.

The remaining wings beat the air frantically, trying to drag its ruined body into the sky. The Saurian Prowler’s massive claws hooked around the Titan’s thorax just before Jake drove the Kaiju’s jaws into the seam between the monster’s armored plates. The shell resisted only for a fraction of a second.

Then it gave way. With one violent wrench, the armor ripped open. Green goo burst from within in abundance. The Titan’s frantic clicking grew weaker by the second as its wings slowed. Then the insectile beast stopped writhing beneath the Saurian Prowler altogether. Its clicking ceased. Just like that, the final Titan was defeated.

Jake rose to his feet, tilted the Saurian Prowler’s head back, and let out a thunderous, victorious roar that split the air.

He then took a quick look around. Groups of ravagespawn surrounded him, but his crawlers and wingclaws kept them busy. While he had been fighting the final Titan, his army of creatures had been locked in combat with the smaller ravagespawn. From the look of it, they were more than capable of taking care of those monsters without his help, so he turned his attention to one of the buildings instead.

He leaned slightly toward the building and employed Void Siphon. The beam tore chunks of organic matter from the structure, creating a huge hole. Once it was wide enough, he jumped toward it and lashed out at the living core inside the nest. It didn’t take him long to shred it to pieces. Once the core was destroyed, the organic matter composing the nest began to vibrate as it withered and shriveled.

A few seconds later, the nest was gone, replaced by the skeletal carcass of the high-rise building. Jake then turned and approached the next nest in line to give it the same treatment. A minute later, the second nest was gone, and he moved on to another. One by one, he destroyed the nests, and with no Titans remaining, the Ravage could do nothing to stop him.

He destroyed two dozen more nests before the Ravage counter dropped all the way to zero percent. Then something began to happen. He felt the ground tremble beneath him. All the ravagespawn around him stopped whatever they were doing as their bodies shuddered violently. One by one, the ravagespawn exploded, leaving nothing behind but drifting dust.

All the nests around the Saurian Prowler, along with the organic matter covering every inch of Dead City, began to tremble and shrivel. Jake detached from the Kaiju, rose to his feet atop its head, summoned the nearest wyrmcaller, and merged with it. Soaring high above Dead City, he watched as it rid itself of the Ravage Contamination.

The organic matter quickly shriveled, turning to dust. The towering walls surrounding the city underwent the same transformation. The nests fell apart, revealing the empty skeletons of the buildings beneath them. The whole process took only a few minutes. When it was over, the city looked very different.

Jake continued soaring through the skies, examining the streets below. Everywhere he looked, there was no sign of the organic matter. Not a single ravagespawn had survived. The cracked asphalt was visible once more, and every nest was gone, leaving behind only the empty carcasses of buildings. Dead City had become an empty skeleton.

That was it. The Ravage Contamination was gone. Dead City was finally free. Jake wondered if the Spartans had received a notification. They probably had. They were most likely already aware of what had happened. Still, Jake decided to visit their base and inform Silvia personally.

He plummeted toward the streets below like a meteor. Just before he could crash into the asphalt, he spread his wings, drastically slowing his descent and leveling out just above the ground. He then detached from the wyrmcaller’s body, quickly looked around to get his bearings, and headed toward the nearest subway entrance.