“Dom, Ivan, and Angela, can the three of you come into my office real quick?” Luke called out to the warehouse.

  The two muscled brothers and the tall black lady walked to the front of the warehouse and into the small office Allen had given him. It was smaller than his own, but Luke didn’t mind. He didn’t spend much time in it anyway.

  “We are going to fight a titan today, a huge ocean going monster. Our goal is to divert it from the town, but if we get lucky, we’ll kill it. I would like to invite the three of you to join us on the fight. I don’t know if you are ready yet, but I do know that this is a fantastic opportunity for you. The more impressive things you do during your assessment period, the better the classes the system gives you at the end. Killing a titan would certainly qualify as impressive. But I’m not ordering you to join us today. I’m giving you the choice. This will be an incredibly risky fight with a monster that could kill you in one hit. Only come if you want to.

  “Your assessment period only advances when you are on Kalibutan, so don’t worry about missing your chance. You can train some more and maybe we’ll find some other awesome monsters to fight. I’m leaving the choice up to you. If you do decide to come with, suit up. We’re heading out in fifteen.”

  Dom and Ivan looked at each other and nodded. Dom said, “We’re in. We want to fight Kaiju.”

  Angela didn’t change her perpetually angry face. She just said, “I will accompany you today.”

  “Good. Talk to Allen after you suit up. I’ve got some extra munitions you’ll need to carry in your storage.”

  They nodded agreement and headed out. Luke was just about to leave the office when Vanessa walked in with a pensive face.

  She said, “Got a minute? I wanted to talk about my power armor.”

  Luke grimaced. “I’m sorry I didn’t fix it yet. I had an idea for a weapon that might work against the titan and that took up all of my free time. We still have a free set of the standard power armor. I can add elemental runes to the gauntlets while we are waiting for the sea monster to show up.”

  Vanessa shook her head. “It’s not that. I had some ideas for a new mech, going a new direction with it. I would love something smaller, way less bulky. I don’t want to duck when I go through doors. Also, I need some translation software installed. If it wasn’t for your cell phone yesterday, I would have been shit out of luck. I want to talk with Kruro without having her frustrated over English words.”

  “I could do that. Now that I think about it, I should add translation software to everyone’s suit, starting with leadership. But I don’t know how small I can make your new armor. Most of the reason they are so big and bulky is because of the layers of armor. If I make a thinner suit, you’ll be less protected.”

  “I don’t always have to be in the middle of the fighting, maybe I can spend some time in the estate village and help the company make money that way. There have got to be dozens of untapped markets, we just need to discover them.”

  Luke paused before he replied, “Are you doing ok, Vanessa?”

  “I’m fine,” Vanessa said, clearly lying.

  “This is about yesterday, isn’t it? You nearly died, of course that’s traumatic. I knew I should have stayed over last night.”

  “This isn’t about you. I just wanted some time alone.”

  Luke bit his lip so he wouldn’t argue with her. He took a deep breath and said, “Of course I can make the armor you want. We can call it our negotiator armor.”

  Vanessa walked around and gave him a quick kiss. “Thanks. I know this is weird, I just need some time. I promise I’ll go out with you next time.”

  “You don’t have to rush yourself, you can take your time. Wait until you feel like you are ready. We need someone to lead the training today anyway.”

  She nodded and looked away. After a bit she brightly said, “Hey, you mentioned negotiation. Maybe I’ll help Allen today. We’ll find some movers and shakers on Earth that will help us fight against Atticus Adelson. I’m sure I’ll be able to get some meetings when people hear about your stunt with the Kalibutan merchants working with his companies.”

  “It would be nice to have a powerful person from Earth on our side. Although honestly, I wish that Atticus would just leave us alone. I want to kill monsters, not play politics.”

  “That’s what winning the fight looks like, doing your own thing without his interference. Trust me, we can make that happen. Allen and I are going to do some wheeling and dealing and make your life easier.”

  Luke wondered how optimistic she was being. She had experience as a paramedic, not a political powerbroker. On the other hand, it wasn’t like she could make things worse.

  “That would be great, thanks. Let me know if you need anything,” Luke said and gave her a hug.

  Together, they walked out to the warehouse. Everyone else was there and suited up by now, Sandwich, Bumblebee, Dom, Ivan, and Angela. Vanessa gathered the other new hires to give them their training for the day. Jinx joined her and meowed along.

  Luke hopped into his own set of power armor and called the other mechs over to the back corner of the warehouse. “I need everyone to grab one of these wedge shaped clubs. Be careful, they are very heavy, even for someone in power armor.”

  Bumblebee was the first to grab one. He let out an oof and rested the heavy club on his shoulder. “What is this thing? And are you sure we should be trying out new weapons the day we fight a titan?”

  Luke grabbed the final wedge club and said, “These aren’t for you. They are all for me.” When he saw their confused faces he said, “I’ll tell you about it after we get there. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

  The six of them headed out then. Luke told Jinx he was leaving, but the cat ignored him and continued to weave through Vanessa’s legs. That was a relief for Luke. He didn’t want to worry about keeping Jinx safe and Vanessa could use the comfort.

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  The sun hadn’t risen yet by the time they got to Kalibutan, but it was up by the time they got to the estate village Bona Urbo. Unlike most days, they couldn’t jog to the village and had to walk instead. Luke’s new weapon was too heavy for anything faster. They all left deep footprints in the dirt as they walked.

  Luke led them around the village because of Lord Edobar’s order to stay away. They trudged through the forest and scrub brush until they got to the beach. Seer Theobaldine was already there when they arrived. The morning light was sparkling off his bald head, the opalescent skin refracting dozens of different colors.

  “I was beginning to wonder if you would arrive on time,” the dwarf said in English. He frowned slightly. “Is this all you have brought with you today? I was given to understand you have more servants.”

  “I do have more employees, but the six of us are the most powerful. It wouldn’t be helpful to bring the rest along,” Luke said. Which was true, but ignored the fact they only had one more suit of power armor.

  Theobaldine sliced his hands down slowly. “I doubt the six of you will be enough, but the Inner Runewright has warned me not to underestimate you.”

  Luke smiled. “I bet she did. So, what can you tell us about the titan heading this way?”

  “It’s a tier one titan, which is stronger than any monster you have ever fought. But it isn’t impossibly strong. If you fail, Lord Edobar’s aristocracy has a chance of defeating it before it reaches the estate. We can avoid the shame of our lord taking the field,” the Seer said and pointed out to the ocean. “It will arrive within the hour, making landfall over there.”

  “What kind of monster are we fighting today? A dinosaur, gorilla, giant moth?” Sandwich asked.

  “Beyond the fact that it is an aquatic monster, I do not know. My title is Seer because I can see deep into the tapestry of mana, not the ocean. I sense the disturbance from the titan core, but I haven’t laid eyes on the thing.”

  Luke gave him jazz hands. “Yes, Seneschal Cormac told me as much. Any advice you can give us?”

  Theobaldine rolled his eyes. “I gave you when and where the beast will appear. What more do you want?” He turned and started walking away. “Although I can give you one bit of advice. The top of the estate tower can see this section of beach. It is far enough away that you will seem like dots in the distance, but close enough that if you make a mistake they will see it. Try not to embarrass yourself.”

  Luke bit his tongue. The dwarf was a jerk, but he had been helpful. “Thank you, Seer Theobaldine, for your advice.”

  After the Seer left, Luke turned to his squad and said “Alright, we’re going to set up a bit north of here, and try to lead the titan towards the tidal caves you can see in the distance. Everyone drop your wedge club in the sand over there.” Luke said. Once they complied he continued, “Everyone should have two bombs in their storage compartments.”

  “Bombs! You have us carrying around bombs?” Bumblebee shouted.

  “Chill, man. They are totally safe. I have the triggers and primers.”

  “Is that even legal? With the treaty, you know?”

  “Sure, it’s legal on both worlds. They won’t explode without magic, so they aren’t considered bombs on Earth. And these types of explosives aren't covered by the treaty. It’s all good,” Luke said.

  Bumblebee still hurriedly removed the bomb components and threw them in the sand. Everyone else followed suit. Luke assembled two of them and placed them atop the magic drone hovering by his side. The Machine Soul piloting the craft wasn’t scared of holding bombs like the humans were.

  Luke left the other bombs in pieces and moved further down the beach. He stopped about halfway between the expected landing zone and the safety of the tidal caves. This would be a good spot to assemble the new weapon. He took the six wedges and stacked them together in a circle. He added a few bands of metal to hold it together. It made one enormous club, one as tall as he was and about ten times as heavy. Even with his best mech and a strength score of 6(+5), he couldn’t hope to lift it. Not yet anyway.

  He slotted in one of the cores they got from the velociraptors, a tier four core. It was worth about 50k on the open market, but he would be earning a lot more if he was able to bring down the titan. He activated the Master Inertia rune on the head of the weighty club and easily picked it up. He swung it around, marveling at how easy it was. It felt like he was holding an inflatable hammer.

  He quickly put it back down and deactivated the rune. That five second test had used about a tenth of the mana in the core. He wouldn’t have a lot of time. But he was feeling optimistic. He could make this work, he knew it.

  With that test complete, Luke turned to the three new hires. “Your assessment from the system of the world shows around 50 percent complete, right?”

  “Forty-five percent,” Dom supplied.

  “Excellent. So you have about two days of fighting before you get your class. What you do over the next few days will influence your choices. Only your actions here on Kalibutan matter. Does anyone want a class related to explosives? I can teach you how to assemble the bombs and pressure plates so the titan sets them off as it walks along the beach.”

  Angela immediately shook her head. Dom seemed indifferent but Ivan said, “I will try. Show me what must be done.”

  Luke smiled. “Ok, so these bombs are super duper simple. We have the accelerant here, you push the primer into here, and it’s all set off by the flame rune here. The activation rune is on this plate here, kind of a magic pressure plate. We’ll bury them in the sand along the path we want to lead the monster. Any that don’t get triggered we will shoot from a distance. We won’t leave a minefield for someone to stumble onto later.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous to set up? What if it goes off in his hands?” Dom said, clearly concerned for his brother.

  “No, it’s fine. The activation rune is unpowered and it will slowly fill from ambient mana. There is literally no danger of an explosion right now. It will absorb enough mana about a half hour from now. Speaking of which, let’s get going. Dom, if you want to help your brother, go dig some holes.”

  They worked together to get the bombs assembled and placed along the beach. When they were done, they scouted out the cave that was to be their escape if the titan proved too strong. There were a few crabs inside, but they easily killed them, gaining two possible summons for Sandwich.

  They rejoined the Seer at the edge of the beach. Theobaldine headed out then and encouraged them to put on a show. They waited for the titan to appear. Time passed slowly.

  Luke practiced the technique Cormac mentioned for sawing away at his oath. He moved mana from his core to the tendrils around his heart. It was like trying to make a saw out of jello. He kept at it, glad to finally have a path forward for getting rid of the oath.

  Something distracted him from his practice. It was here. He sent his drone out to the ocean to get the first look at the monster through its cameras.

  The titan appeared as a darker patch of ocean at first, startlingly immense. The swiftly moving monstrosity was as wide as a city block and half as tall. It created its own wave before its head broke through the surface. Its skin was a deep purple with swaths of green lichen and seaweed running along every crevice.

  As its body rose up above the water, its shape became clearer. It was fish-like and covered in huge iridescent scales. It had a horizontal body and a sharp beak. Two bulbous eyes sat atop it’s skull and a dozen smaller ones grew beneath its mouth. It reminded Luke of a parrotfish on its side. It didn’t have fins though, instead it swam and walked with thousands of branching tentacles along its bottom. It was like it had a forest of tentacles and used them to flow up and onto land.

  It was there much faster than Luke expected. Each movement seemed slow and ponderous, but it covered so much ground with each wriggle. He hurriedly ordered his magic drone to tip its payload onto one of the eyes.

  Both bombs fell a hundred feet through the air and landed atop the same eye. The pressure plates did their job and ignited the bombs. The double explosion was huge and loud enough to thump Luke’s chest.

  Adrenaline flooded his veins and a grin spread across his face. Everyone else was scared of this overgrown fish, but Luke was excited. They might start calling him a titan after this.

  He took a deep breath and activated Overcharge.