21:47 AT, Day Twenty | Arena of Geoff The Titan

  The {Sand Storm} starts to die down and visibility returns.

  I emerge from my huddled position behind my {Lightning Barrier}, no longer in danger from the storm of flying rocks and sand.

  Other groups across the arena emerge from similar situations. Though, it does appear that we lost a few high-levels and even one great-level to the storm.

  I now see why the system recommended having so many people, because it's not a battle of raw strength. But rather one of attrition, who can last longer: us, or The Titan.

  Not giving us much time to recover, the beast lets out a roar and activates {Rock Storm} again.

  I engage my inae-based movement and dash around the falling rocks, I even manage to knock a few people out of the way. We cannot afford to lose many more soldiers, so it's time for us to get to work.

  “Yuin, take your groups and work on breaking up the largest rocks so he can't throw them. Ray, Linda and groups A-D, target his chest and unload everything that you can. Rigar, Emil, and groups F and E, move in and aim for the left knee, let's see if we can take this fella down.”

  Shouts of “pro luce lunae” arise from around the arena. This beast picked the wrong people to mess with.

  Though, technically we were the ones that started the fight. Oh well, history is told from the perspective of the victors and all.

  Personally, I joined the squad targeting the knees. I become a blur in the air as I move around, really getting into the flow of things.

  Geoff staggers and swats, trying to knock people away. He does manage to land a few hits, but we are dealing far more damage than we are receiving.

  My spear makes contact and with a great shattering sound, his entire knee collapses. He falls onto his side as the rest of his leg starts to crumble.

  He lets out a massive roar, filled with some form of anguish.

  Moments later, the world shakes and It seems like he activates a skill.

  “Quickly, everyone get back!” I shout

  Everyone rushes away, taking shelter behind rocks near the edge of the arena.

  With a massive cracking sound, Geoff seems to break completely apart. A large cloud of dust arises. When it clears, standing in the place of Goeff are five smaller golems. They each stand about seven meters tall. Still massive, but not nearly as large as the big guy.

  The skill {Ultimate: Create Golems}, destroys him, but produces five smaller golems.

  The golems let out smaller, but still terrifying roars. They move to pick up some smaller rocks and they throw them, smashing into the hiding spots of our soldiers.

  “Everyone Scatter! Hit that golem with everything you’ve got!” I say, marking one of the golems with my handy battlefield target designator.

  We lose several more in the barrage, but everyone quickly gets back to work.

  Bullets pelt the poor golem, singled out from his brethren.

  The other golems attempt to defend, pickup up rocks and trying to hit our soldiers out of the sky. But they don't manage to land any meaningful hits.

  The first golem falls, and we move onto targeting the next one.

  I charge in, my spear ready, breath ragged and aim right for its chest. I launch myself at maximum speed, impacting the golem with the force of a lightning bolt.

  I almost go clean through the rocky shell, leaving a gaping hole in the beast’s chest.

  Within short order, we take the second one down as well.

  The remaining three golems let out a loud roar and activate two skills at once. Rocks rain down from {Rock Storm} while at the same time they reinforce themselves with {Rock Shell}.

  Rocks crash into the ground, hitting a few soldiers, even taking out another great-level. Most of our attacks harmlessly bounce off the {Rock Shells}.

  With a great amount of effort, the golems pick up gigantic rocks, lobbing them across the arena. But not quite as quickly as Geoff, allowing our forces to dodge them all.

  “Koooo, what do we do now? If we focus one of the shells, the others will just attack us again.” Ray asks, a hint of mania in her voice. Though, she already knows the answer and is excited for it.

  “Well, we initiate the backup plan of course!” I say, sharing a similar excitement.

  Everyone quickly pulls out an explosive satchel that we each carry. Those at range hand them to melee fighters to place. We all charge in, placing nearly forty satchels on each golem. They frantically try to get them off, only to end up hurting themselves as they hit their {Rock Shell}.

  “Well then, let's blow these guys up, shall we, darling?”

  “Yipee! Explosion time is always the best time. Well, headrubs are better of course, but explosions are a close second!” She says, pressing the detonator that some foolish NEET decided to place in her possession.

  The explosions go off, rocking the arena.

  The golems basically just detonate into a million tiny fragments, going everywhere. Some of the shrapnel hits our forces, but somehow no one dies. Well that's good atleast, but I bet it still must hurt.

  What remains of the golems crumble.

  The battle is over, and I didn't die this time!

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  ‘Legend Raid: Geoff The Titan has now been completed.

  Rewards have been dispersed into inventories and commendations unlocked.

  Fallen challengers shall receive compensation if they survived for more than 15 minutes.

  Zone 3 will be open in ten days.’

  With that, our third legend raid comes to an end.

  The arena disappears and everyone quickly heads back to camp. Excited to see the new commendation and open their equipment drops, no doubt.

  Ray practically teleports next to me and grabs me in a tight hug.

  “Ko, the foolish and jerkish hero saves the day again. Defeating the super duper powerful Titan.

  That's what the headlines will say, no doubt. Isn't my darling just super duper cool!” Ray says, leaning into me, quite exhausted from the fight.

  I give her a few headpats, "Don't forget about my super duper cute darling that really worked that railgun to its limits. You were so cute with that excited grin at detonating the explosives. Perhaps we should let you have more explosives, just so I can admire that expression again.”

  “Oh stahp, you're such a jerk, darling.”

  “Am I at least a cool jerk?” I ask, wrapping my arms tightly around her.

  There, amidst the vast emptiness that is the mesa, she finally admits it. “Fine, you're a cool jerk. Are you happy?”

  “I think I am happier than you could ever know. After all, who wouldn't be super duper happy when their super duper cute girlfriend says they are cool?” I say, grabbing her face in my hands and pulling her in for a nice and long kiss.

  “Dont forget about the jerk part.”, she mumbles with a faint blush creeping onto her face.

  23:00 AT, Day Twenty | Camp in the Mesa

  “To the light of the moon!” Emil says, leading the toast.

  “To the light of the moon!” the four hundred or so gathered soldiers echo, clinking glasses with those nearby.

  Ray and I sit off to the side around a small campfire. Drinks in hand, we quietly clink them together. Then, Ray proceeds to down hers in about half a second.

  I take a bit more time drinking mine as Ray sets her glass down and leans into my side. Her sparkling blue eyes fixed on the cracking campfire.

  The fake sky of stars glimmers beautifully high above, the moon shining brightly.

  I wrap my arm around Ray’s waist, pulling her in closer, to which she gives a grumble of happiness.

  We sit there for a while, watching the fire and the stars. Listening to the merry cheers and chatter of our soldiers a bit away.

  So naturally, while enjoying the company of my super duper cute girlfriend, I check out the new commendation we got.

  I open the menu and find it in the second tier of commendations. Which I can infer to mean that each zone 2 has one legend, and the final zone 3 has one legend.

  It has an icon that is a split sword and shield, so perhaps some sort of all around-er type commendation. The skills support this idea, it appears that this one comes with three skills:

  {Rock Crush}: Temporarily boost the user’s strength by a tremendous amount. Do be aware, this does not grant invincibility, and must be used carefully. Duration: 15 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

  {Rock Shell}: Temporarily grant a massive boost to armor, practically making one immovable. This comes at the cost of drastically reduced agility. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 15 minutes.

  {Rock Summon}: Summon a large rock that can be either thrown at an enemy or set down to act as a defensive structure. Cooldown: 30 minutes

  It seems like quite an interesting commendation. It also says that the passive significantly increases base armor and resistances.

  Ray stirs slightly against me, turning her head to stare at me. I look right back, our eyes meeting.

  “Hey Ko, I know a great way to spice up this evening.” She whispers.

  “Hmm, what could it be?”

  “Lets open loot drops!” She says, excitement in her voice. I'm starting to think it's a good thing she never played videogames. She definitely seems like one to be addicted and spend her life savings for just ten more spins of the wheel.

  “Your wish is my command, darling.”

  I reluctantly release my grip on her and we stand up. We each got 5 of the loot drops, but I gave one of mine to Ray, she needs it more. We excitedly retrieve them from our inventories.

  I go through and select a new spear, armor suit, as well a bracelet. For my last item, I got a fancy new pistol. Perhaps I'll use it more if it's at the same level as all my other equipment.

  The spear and armor suit both have the same effects as before. But it seems that my spear can now channel any type of energy, not just lighting. Plus the agility bonuses of the armor are increased. Naturally, the general strength of the weapons is also improved.

  My new plasma pistol is very fancy as I hold it in my hands. It seems to somehow link into my brain and provide some heads up displays to assist with aiming and such. Not that I'm a particularly bad shot, but it will definitely come in handy mid-combat.

  The pistol seemingly has a toggleable effect, one mode shoots an explosive ball of plasma at medium range. While the other mode is more of a long range plasma lance, great for piercing armor it says.

  The bracelet looks quite fancy, and it improves my healing ability as well as improves the handling of my weapons.

  Ray also selects stuff and moves to excitedly show me a new pair of blades she got. They have the familiar curve, and glow with some sort of plasma. Apparently they are plasma blades, able to cut through just about anything. Quite rare, due to the difficulty in actually using plasma-based melee weapons. Something about having to handle and store it carefully so you don't accidentally slice yourself into two pieces.

  She gets a new set of armor which improves her flight capabilities and includes a dash that allows her to basically leap forward, both on the ground and in the air. She also got a new railgun, which seems to just be a total upgrade over her previous one. It even has a function that supposedly allows it to pass through plasma shields.

  For her last piece, she chooses a bracelet, and it matches mine. Which is good, considering how close she often gets to the heat of the action. It makes me feel a bit reassured knowing that she is now way more protected.

  “Ko, are you thinking about how glad you are that I'm more well-defended now?” Ray asks, getting close and looking up into my eyes with her lips curled in a devilish smirk.

  “Of course, I wouldn't want anything to happen to my dear Ray, now would I?” I say, meeting her gaze. Sparks practically leaping between us.

  She places her hands on my chest and reaches up to whisper into my ear, “well, that's good, I want you safe too, ya hear. No more suicidal bombing runs.”

  I wrap my arms around her and give her a kiss. “No promises, after all, I am the insane one.” I say, with a smile.

  I am sure that whatever shall come next, Ray and I will overcome it, together. Whether it's a giant dragon, a horrific blizzard, or a super duper cute pet. We will prevail, after all, we have an empire to build.

  So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 114

  Next: Chapter 115 | Stone Ridge

  Skills For Geoff The Titan

  {Rock Body}: Passive. The beast is not alive, thus the only way to defeat it is to completely destroy it. It is also very tough, weak munitions will harmlessly bounce off its immense rocky body.

  {Rock Storm}: The beast summons a storm of large rocks from the sky that rain down and crush foolish challengers.

  {Rock Shell}: The beast can temporarily surround itself in a hard shell that is impenetrable to all but the largest weapons. This effect lasts until the shell has been broken or absorbed a certain amount of damage.

  {Sand Storm}: The beast spins, creating a massive vortex of sand that drastically reduces visibility and causes damage to mechanical devices and vehicles.

  {Ultimate: Create Golems}: The beast tears apart its own body in order to create five smaller golems. Each golem is around 30% the strength of the original.