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forearms of its assailant ceased as the corpse fell to the ground with a thud that caused Vara to lose her footing for a moment.
    Cyrus, however, followed the surviving titan through the smoke, toward the square … and stopped at the edge, stunned at the sight his eyes beheld there.

6.
    It was clear to Cyrus that the titans counted on hardened hands to beat their foes to death with slaps and strikes that could shatter bone and rend asunder the flesh of their smaller prey. Here, in the square, however, they had finally met a foe their equal, and four of the massive creatures were having at it, matched against their lone opponent whose gravelly voice did not hold back any of his obvious fury.
    “GRAAAAAAAAAAGH!” The bellow of the rock giant was sharp in Cyrus’s ears. Stony hands struck at the groin of a titan and brought him to his knees, retching, as the rock giant grabbed at an ear and ripped it off. It was hardly an equal battle by size; the rock giant was roughly half the height of the titans, but he seemed to have more than enough fire to take the creatures on. He threw the ear into the face of a titan coming at him from the side as a third grasped hold of his smaller arm in the way an adult might manhandle a misbehaving child in the Reikonos markets. The titan dragged the rock giant for three paces before the rocky creature dug in, dropping low and ripping his arm free, leaving bloody wounds on the titan’s hand where the jutted, stony skin tore great rents in its palm. The titan who had lost his ear came back to his stumbling feet, one hand clutching his grievous wound, and the rock giant found himself encircled once more. Any other, less courageous creature might have fled under the assault of so many obviously superior enemies.
    But Fortin the Rapacious is no coward , Cyrus thought.
    Before the titans could spring against him, Fortin bellowed again, giving his opponents pause, and leapt high to land an enraged punch upon the jaw of the titan who had just laid hands upon him. The sound of bone breaking was as loud as the crunch he’d heard earlier when J’anda’s pets had struck down their own with furious punches. The titan’s eyes fluttered and he went limp, toppling over backward into a general store that collapsed under the fall of the beast. Makeshift carpentry went asunder in an instant and the rest of the structure fell in on top of the downed enemy.
    “AHHHHH!” Fortin’s yell crackled in the night once again, and he came at the next of his enemies as J’anda’s pet charged forth in front of Cyrus, intercepting one that went to attack the rock giant while his back was turned. J’anda’s titan grabbed his opposite number by the wrist at the apogee of his attack on Fortin; pulling him off balance, J’anda’s pet dragged him to the ground and stomped his throat without mercy as Fortin tackled the knees of his own opponent, breaking bones and pulling his foe to the ground in a screaming, pummeling brawl that saw a rocky hand raised and lowered in fury again and again until it came up glinting with dark blood in the square’s light, the shouts of the titan silenced.
    Cyrus did not issue an order, sprinting instead toward the last of the unoccupied titans. It was moving to drag Fortin off its fellow, grasping him around the waist and lifting him under an arm. The rock giant threw back his elbows ineffectually, clanging against the titan’s soot-covered breastplate. He writhed and squirmed and shouted as Cyrus came in and drilled Praelior into the back of a dirtied, crusted leather boot, ripping his blade into the sensitive spot behind the ankle and drawing a surprised scream out of the titan.
    Fortin dropped immediately, wriggling out of his imprisonment and punching squarely into his enemy’s knee. This caused the titan to topple faster, and as soon as his head dipped low enough, Fortin grabbed hold of it, bringing his hands together and pulling hard. With no chinstrap to keep it in place, the