The giant metal lobster was the closer of the two, but Hirrus altered his course to circle around it towards the other monster. Archaeotitan was already losing the fight, and so Hirrus’ instinct was to deal with the weaker foe so that he could focus his full attention on the stronger. He entertained the idea of trying to make some kind of unspoken temporary alliance with the bloated lizard creature to defeat the larger enemy first, but he suspected these beasts wouldn’t be smart enough to form such a contract.

Hirrus ran to the left around the giant metal lobster, and had one of his Echoes run ahead of him. The other Echo he sent to the right, pushing himself mentally to keep track of the upcoming fight from multiple directions. He found himself somewhat appreciating the ability to see the fight from another angle, too. It was awkward to watch himself - two of himself - from outside, but he recognized the sudden value to be had from being able to watch his own back.

He found it most difficult to direct the actions of the Echo who was out of the fight. Despite his concern for any potential survivors - who might be trapped in their homes as Dahlia had been - he found that the fourth Echo was moving more haltingly and with uncertainty. His attention was consumed by the giant monsters he was energetically moving towards.

Both giant beasts seemed to be ignoring Hirrus and his Echoes, so he was able to rush in and slash into the side of Archaeotitan unmolested. His Echo struck first, doing a very disappointing seven hundred damage, but Hirrus followed it in, landing his own blow for over two thousand.

As soon as he struck, the beast turned on him, its giant metal foe forgotten. The giant mouth lunged down at him, and Hirrus threw himself to the side, away from the monster.

It took a moment to realize that he’d dodged with his real actual body, rather than moving the Echo that the Archaeotitan was actually attacking.

Giant glowing jaws clashed closed with a sound of uneven teeth grinding together. Hirrus felt the pain of three thousand damage done to the Echo. The attack didn’t completely destroy the Echo, but it didn’t leave it with very many hit points remaining.

It wouldn’t survive another attack.

Hirrus directed the wounded Echo to back away from the fight. He wasn’t sure what he could do with the extra body if it wasn’t going to be physically in the fight, but he knew that letting it get slapped down was not going to be a helpful use of resources. If nothing else, having it stand out of range of the monsters would give him an extra pair of eyes.

Archaeotitan seemed intent on spoiling that plan, though, as it lunged after the fleeing Echo, ignoring Hirrus' actual body. Hirrus capitalized on the opening, hitting the monster with his own sword again. This time he earned a critical hit, doing over three thousand damage and accumulating a stack of Crushing Blade.

Hirrus wasn’t the only one capitalizing on the distraction. Kodetlan lunged as well, one of its claws swinging down in an overhead slam. The strike sent the bloated lizard to its knees for a moment, letting Hirrus' Echo escape.

Archaeotitan whirled on its original foe, the glow in its giant maw intensifying as it unleashed an Arcana on its foe. The whitish glow turned to a harsh blue as a line of energy blasted from its maw. The energy engulfed the lobster, and continued on beyond it for over a hundred yards, flattening a huge chunk of the burning town.

Kodetlan took a huge chunk of damage. Nearly 9% of its total hit points at a single blow. Hirrus jumped back from the fight as the two giant creatures clashed again, snapping and posturing.

That huge blast of harsh blue energy made him reevaluate the two monsters' threat levels. Archaeotitan had been losing the fight before, but it was now obvious why. While Kodetlan’s primary strength was the power behind its metallic claws, Archaeotitan’s power was in its Arcana, which it hadn’t been employing before. It was possible that these two were actually evenly matched - it seemed even more likely when he thought about why Rumi’s underlings would release two beasts at once if they were going to fight. If one was significantly weaker, it would just be fodder for the other.

What was alarming was the realization that the people who had delivered these monsters had known where Hirrus was, so closely that they could comfortably release two monsters that would attack each other on sight.

They had known when he would arrive, and had arranged for this fight to happen just like this.

He was going to have to approach this problem once the current one was dealt with. For now, he was standing behind Archaeotitan, in the direct line of fire of what Kodetlan was going to do next.

Both giant claws raised and came down in twin hammer blows. Despite Archaeotitan’s size, it was able to lunge to the left - either dodging the blows, or just moving towards Hirrus' Echo - leaving him to deal with the huge claws as they came down over him.

Hirrus had to leap straight back from the fight, and even as he dodged the giant metal appendages, their impact kicked up dirt, ash, and other debris in a huge wave, filling the air and blinding him.

It only blinded his real body, though. He could still see through three other sets of eyes. One pair was staring at the inside of a burning building, but the other two were here and present to help. The wounded Echo could see nothing but the Archaeotitan’s jaws lunging towards it, and Hirrus kept that body moving away, seeking to split the two monsters up. His other Echo could see the giant lobster creature sweep its antennae into the cloud, apparently searching for Hirrus.

Using that point of view, Hirrus jumped, and one handspan-thick metallic antenna swept along the ground beneath him. As soon as he hit the ground, he ducked low, letting the same appendage fly past over his head. He couldn’t see it, but he felt its passage, and through separate eyes, he could see the creature tipping back, its mouth plates quivering as the glowing green ooze dribbling down began to redouble.

Kodetlan was preparing to drench the area in an Arcana, since it couldn’t physically find him.

It would have been devastating if he hadn’t been able to see it coming.

But he could.

He found himself starting to get used to this tactical advantage, and wondered at how long it would take him to master this ability. Even this soon, and so inexperienced, he was believing more and more that the practice was worth it.

Hirrus activated his Jump Arcana, lunging high into the air, out of the cloud. He guided his trajectory using the extra point of view his Echo gave him, and as he emerged into the open, he was right in front of Kodetlan’s face. He reached out with his sword, stabbing the hooked tip into one of the mouth plates. The attack did over two thousand damage, and gave him the leverage to swing up onto the barnacle-encrusted top of its metallic shell.

As soon as he landed on top of its head, its Arcana activated, mouth plates opening and spraying green ooze into the ash cloud. Even as it hit nothing but dirt and debris, the cloud suddenly dissolved. The goo was visibly dissolving everything it touched, and beyond that, it gave the area a disgusting glow beyond the obvious effects of the attack. Hirrus wasn’t sure what that glow did, but he had an intense desire to avoid it.

Beady stalk eyes regarded Hirrus with palpable anger as he stood atop the monster. Claws reached for him - obviously dexterous enough to attempt to pluck him free. But it couldn’t employ the hammering strikes it had been, which made the snapping claws reach too slow to catch him.

Hirrus ran along the creature’s back, and slashed at the metallic shell twice as he went, once for another critical hit for nearly three thousand five hundred damage, and then another normal attack for two thousand five hundred, thanks to having two stacks of Crushing Blade.

He had to keep his attention divided, however. The wounded Echo darted back to dodge a bite attack, but then darted in again, slashing the blade of its sword across the scales where he estimated its eye must be. His attack did only seven hundred and fifty damage, but it was enough to make the monster emit a deep bassy rumble of displeasure, and continue to chase the Echo.

The other Echo in the fight was too valuable, serving as eyes for the fight, for him to direct it elsewhere. He had it hold its ground, even if to outward appearances, it was just staring dumbfounded at the fight. He was vaguely aware that he could sense Alric standing near at hand to that Echo, but without looking over, he wasn’t sure where exactly or how far away.

All the extra noise from having so many senses feeding into one brain was causing him to struggle to pick out the finer points of any one body’s reports.

Directing the final Echo was the most challenging. He was staggering through a burning building, but he couldn’t quite figure in which direction relative to his real body. One hand was covering his mouth to guard against inhaling too much smoke, but he swore he saw movement in here from one of the windows. Something was alive in here, and might need help. If someone was trapped in here, they might need help - either a pair of strong hands to open the way to the exit, or a clear head to coax them out of hiding from the monsters outside.

Hirrus reached the far end of Kodetlan’s body, and leaped down to the ground just as a giant claw snapped closed right behind where he was standing. He hit the ground in a roll, whirling to assess the fight.

It was very apparent that the distraction of managing the Echoes was reducing his damage output. Neither monster had taken much damage compared to their health bars, and he knew it was because he had not been using any other Arcana to augment his abilities. The three-headed reptile he’d fought before had been demolished by liberal use of buffs and attacking Arcana. He hadn’t used anything yet, and it was obvious from their health totals barely touching 80%.

He turned his attention to his other Arcana, planning the moves that would bring the fight to a swift conclusion.