Leaving Unit 404 was harder than Thalos expected.
It was just a rusted metal box in a stack of other rusted metal boxes. It smelled of mildew and old synth-grease. But it was the only home they had known for ten years. It was the place where they had hidden from the gangs, where they had shared meager meals, where they had survived.
Now, they were abandoning it.
Thalos cinched the straps of his heavy mining pack. He had taken everything useful. Two oxygen tanks, a water filter, three days of protein rations, and the few spare batteries they owned.
"Are you ready?" Thalos asked.
Elara stood by the door. She was wearing her old grey poncho, but it did not hide the faint blue glow pulsing from her collarbone. She had wrapped a scarf around her neck to conceal the crystals, but the air around her was noticeably colder than the rest of the room.
"I am ready," she said softly. She did not look back at the apartment. She was looking at the hallway, her head cocked to the side as if listening to music only she could hear.
"The rats are gone," she whispered. "But the others... they are waking up. We need to move. Fast."
Thalos nodded. He opened the door and stepped out into the neon lit walkway.
He felt exposed. Before today, he was invisible. Just another grunt in the machine. Now, with his bulkier frame and the heavy aura of a predator, he felt like a lighthouse in a storm.
"Stick close to me," Thalos murmured. "If anything moves, you tell me."
"Okay."
They moved quickly through the residential district. The streets were emptier than usual. The "Tremor Pulse" from the Titan's heartbeat earlier had spooked the locals. Most scavengers were hunkered down in their hab-blocks, waiting for the aftershocks to pass.
This worked in their favor.
They reached the northern edge of Sector 4 without incident. Ahead of them loomed the entrance to the Bronchial Maze.
It was a massive, chaotic junction of industrial pipes. Some were small, the size of a human arm. Others were titanic, wide enough to drive a tank through. They twisted and turned like a bowl of petrified noodles, leading upward toward the Titan's throat and the Upper Spine.
The air here was turbulent. A constant, howling wind rushed through the pipes, carrying the smell of ozone and sulfur. This was the Titan's respiratory system. Or what was left of it.
"Put your mask on," Thalos ordered. "The wind carries dust."
Elara pulled her respirator over her face. Thalos did the same. The familiar hiss of the air filter filled his ears.
They stepped onto the maintenance catwalk that ran alongside the largest pipe. The wind buffeted them immediately, tugging at their clothes.
"Which way?" Thalos yelled over the wind.
Elara closed her eyes. She placed her hand on the vibrating metal of the pipe. Frost spread from her fingertips, freezing a patch of rust.
"Up," she said, her voice distorted by the mask. "The heartbeat is louder up there. But... there is something else."
She frowned behind her goggles.
"What?" Thalos asked, scanning the shadows.
"Echoes," she said. "Something is bouncing sound off the pipes. Like a sonar. It is tracking us."
Thalos gripped the handle of his piston spear. He had recovered it from the apartment before leaving. It was a crude weapon, but with his new strength, it felt like a toothpick.
"Keep moving," Thalos said. "We don't stop."
They climbed.
The Bronchial Maze was a nightmare of verticality. Ladders were missing rungs. Catwalks were rusted through, swaying dangerously over drops that fell miles down into the acidic darkness of the Stomach.
Thalos moved with surprising agility for his size. His [Toxic Filtration Lungs] processed the thin air effortlessly. He did not get tired.
Elara struggled more. She was still physically frail, despite her mutation. But every time she faltered, Thalos was there. He would grab her arm with his armored hand and hoist her up ledges that would have been impossible for her alone.
After an hour of climbing, they reached a junction. A wide, flat platform where three massive airways intersected. The wind here was deafening.
"Stop!" Elara suddenly screamed.
Thalos froze instantly. He dropped into a combat crouch, his spear raised.
"Where?"
Elara pointed up, into the gloom of the ceiling pipes.
"Above us! Falling!"
Thalos looked up. His [Predator Senses] flared.
He saw them.
Four shapes detached themselves from the darkness. They were not rats. They were spindly, multi-legged creatures with translucent wings stretched between their limbs.
[Target Detected: Draft-Spider.]
[Level: 4.]
[Attributes: High Agility, Wind-Riding.]
Draft Spiders. Ambush predators that rode the thermal currents of the bronchial tubes. They were fast, silent, and their venom caused paralysis.
They dived.
They did not fall like rocks. They glided, spiraling down the wind currents with terrifying speed.
"Get behind me!" Thalos roared.
He shoved Elara toward a cluster of pipes and stood his ground.
The first spider hit him.
It slammed into his chest, its legs wrapping around his torso. It tried to bite his neck, its mandibles dripping with clear venom.
CLANG.
The fangs skidded off Thalos's [Dermal Plating]. The spider shrieked in frustration.
Thalos dropped his spear. He did not need reach. He needed grip.
He grabbed the spider by its thorax. His grey hands dug into its chitin.
"Get off," Thalos growled.
He ripped the spider away from his body and slammed it onto the metal grating. He punched it once.
CRUNCH.
Green blood sprayed.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[XP: 25.]
"Thalos! Left!" Elara warned.
Two more spiders were swooping in from the flank. They were avoiding Thalos, aiming for the soft target. They were aiming for Elara.
Thalos turned, but he was too heavy. He was a tank. He lacked the speed to chase down flying enemies.
"I can't reach them!" Thalos yelled.
The spiders extended their legs, ready to snatch Elara off the ground.
Elara did not cower. She pulled down her mask, revealing her mouth. Her crystal eyes glowed.
She took a deep breath of the freezing wind.
"Freeze," she whispered.
She exhaled.
It was not air. It was a cloud of glittering, blue mist. The "Frost Breath" caught the wind current and washed over the two attacking spiders.
The effect was instant.
The moisture on the spiders' wings froze. The thin, translucent membranes turned to brittle ice.
SNAP.
The wings shattered in mid air.
The spiders screeched as they lost their lift. They tumbled out of the air, crashing onto the platform, skidding across the metal. They tried to stand, but their joints were stiff with frost.
Thalos did not waste the opening.
He charged.
He stomped on the first frozen spider, crushing it instantly. He grabbed the second one by its head.
It tried to bite him, but it was sluggish. The cold had sapped its energy.
Thalos looked at the struggling creature. It was fast. It was agile. Everything he was not.
[Skill Activated: DEVOUR.]
Thalos unhinged his jaw. He bit into the spider's abdomen.
It tasted like ozone and bitter fluid.
[Consumed: Draft-Spider.]
[Analyzing DNA...]
[Agility +2.]
[Skill Fragment Acquired: Reflex Boost.]
A jolt of electricity ran through Thalos's nerves. The world seemed to slow down slightly. He felt lighter. His reaction time sharpened.
"One more!" Elara shouted.
The fourth spider, the largest of the pack, had seen its pack mates die. It aborted its dive. It flared its wings, catching an updraft to escape back into the shadows.
"Oh no you don't," Thalos snarled.
He grabbed his fallen piston spear.
He judged the distance. The spider was fifty feet up and rising fast.
Thalos engaged his new muscles. He engaged the [Reflex Boost].
He wound up his arm and threw the spear.
WHOOSH.
The heavy mining tool flew through the air like a missile. It cut through the wind.
THUNK.
The spear skewered the spider through the chest. The impact pinned it against the wall of the pipe high above. The creature twitched once, then went still.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[XP: 30.]
[Level Up!]
Thalos stood there, panting. He waited for more.
"Clear," Elara said, her voice shaking. She pulled her mask back up. "I don't hear any more wings."
Thalos walked over to her. He checked her for wounds.
"Did they touch you?"
"No," she said. She looked at the frozen gore on the floor. "The cold... it slows them down. It makes them weak."
"It makes them dead," Thalos corrected. He looked at his hands. He felt faster. The lethargy of his heavy armor was gone, replaced by a twitchy, coiled energy.
He looked up at the spear embedded in the wall. He couldn't retrieve it. It was too high.
"We lost a weapon," Thalos grunted.
"We gained ground," Elara replied. She pointed to a ladder at the far end of the platform. "That way. The heartbeat is stronger there. It leads to the Esophagus."
Thalos nodded. He grabbed her hand. It was cold, like holding an ice cube, but he didn't mind.
"Let's go," he said. "Before the bodies attract something bigger."
They moved toward the ladder.
[Status Update]
[Name: Thalos]
[Level: 2]
[Class: Titan Eater]
[Agility: 7 (Enhanced)]
[New Skill: Reflex Boost (Passive) - Increases reaction speed by 15%.]
They were surviving. But the climb was far from over.
Above them, deep in the throat of the Titan, a massive, singular eye opened in the darkness. It had felt the death of its spiders. And it was curious.