Chapter Twenty-Six
The man with his hand on the sand shouted again, his voice trembling with dread: "Damn it! There are other tremors! Everyone—be alert!!"
His shout sounded like a torn warning-whistle, equal parts caution and despair, and it sent a shiver through the air that ran from bone to heart.
Emotion flipped across the camp in an instant. Laughter died; the glow of triumph vanished from their faces. Feet stilled, bodies went rigid, and tension filled the air anew. Some exchanged quick, urgent glances; others held their breath as if waiting for the sky itself to fall.
Then… the ground began to shake again. Harder this time.
Dust trembled on the surface and hearts trembled with it. A mercenary in the front rank screamed and flung himself aside, saved by some animal instinct. In the blink of an eye a new worm burst up where he had stood — smaller than the first, roughly eight meters long.
[Name: Desert Worm]
[Age: 7 years]
[Rank: D]
[Life Stage: Juvenile]
[Health: 468]
[Strength: 143]
[Speed: 25]
[Endurance: 321]
[Mana: 652]
[Defense: 278]
[More details 巛]
It lunged forward but, mercifully, struck nothing; it smashed into the sand and left a shallow pit.
That was not all.
Suddenly another worm erupted from a different spot — about the same size — and this one seized a mercenary stationed near the rear of the formation. Their heads turned at his horrific scream; they watched him writhe inside the creature's maw, his voice rising, breaking, then vanishing altogether as the worm swallowed him whole.
Breaths tangled, gazes froze. The echo of that scream lingered in ears long after the moment passed. They resumed the attack, but fear had planted itself in their chests and crept into their minds like a stifling smoke.
The leader barked an order, voice booming: "Everyone, spread out! Watch the ground beneath your feet for attacks, and strike the worm nearest you — that's it!"
He called to a man in the back to hand him a fallen branch so he could throw it, but the man remained rooted, frozen by fear, his eyes fixed on the sand as if it might swallow him alive.
The worms struck again. They lunged at two men, who—by luck—escaped, and the mercenaries surged to counterattack. But this time their blows were scattered and uncoordinated; the worms had appeared unpredictably, and no one had been prepared. Survival, not victory, was on every mind.
Worse still, the two worms did not attack simultaneously, so standing perfectly still to swing a branch as before was impossible.
(Things are getting chaotic…) fear swelled among the mercenaries after several rounds of strikes; three lay dead already. Yet skilled fighters had managed to gouge a clear crack in one worm's hard shell, exploiting brief openings with practiced efficiency.
A band of six mercenaries decided to retreat toward the horses. At the start of a new assault they sprinted for the mounts — and in their path were Daniel's group.
After each strike the men froze, terrified they might be next. When that group moved, everyone suddenly realized who the likely victims would be.
It was clear those six understood they were the most likely prey, yet they chose flight anyway. Inwardly they hoped, perhaps, that the worms would turn on Daniel's group instead of them — even if that meant sacrificing the others as bait.
The three watched this from about ten meters away. They had been unable to move, but when the cowards charged toward the horses, panic seized them. Daniel shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Spread out!"
(At least that's better than being seized and used as a human shield!)
Daniel ran for one flank, away from Lucas and Sanjay and away from the fleeing six; Lucas did the same. Sanjay, however, froze — his feet rooted by terror. His eyes tracked the ground more than the enemy.
No one expected an attack to come so fast. Only moments after they separated, Lucas felt the tremor under his running foot grow stronger, until a cold certainty rose inside him:
(It's targeting me this time!!!...)
He waited for the moment to fling himself aside as he had seen others do — but he hesitated by a heartbeat. The worm was almost on him. At the last instant a coil of water whipped around his torso and yanked him away, shifting his position by a hair's breadth.
The second worm chose one of the fleeing cowards and swallowed him whole. The mercenary screamed first in terror and pain; then his voice was drowned in the creature's throat. Yet none of his companions looked back — they fled on as if nothing had happened.
They halted before a burly man, seized him roughly. He struggled, but his resistance was futile; they waited to see if the tremors would sweep toward them or toward the others. One counted breaths, another sweated despite the cold wind.
The leader raged at the sight, cursing and threatening them to return; he knew, deep down, that their cowardice would set a precedent and make others think of running too.
Suddenly the leader felt the tremors draw frighteningly close — and fell silent. Faces around him shifted. They exchanged rapid glances, rooted their feet, and prepared for the worst.
The cowards rejoiced at this, dropped the hefty man so he tumbled like bait before them, and then kept running. The scene was ugly and shameful, but no one dared speak.
The worms struck again — one lunged at the woman from the elder's party, who had earlier helped Lucas; the other attacked the leader directly.
Both survived with difficulty, and the rounds of assaults continued from both flanks. The air changed, heavy with the smell of blood and sweat and burnt sand.
Half an hour of fierce combat passed. With the leader's efforts, they managed to kill one of the worms, which made dispatching the other far easier. It was finished within five minutes.
Daniel, Lucas, and Sanjay had stayed rooted where they were; not a single step did they take. Their feet felt like they were planted in the earth, their eyes tracing every shadow, every tremor.
Five mercenaries fell in that battle.
After two hours spent quartering the worms and loading the pieces onto carts — and gathering the remains of the fallen — everyone decided to depart. Night would bring more danger; the scent of blood might lure other beasts. The sun slanted toward the horizon, shadows lengthened, and hearts remained heavy with what they had witnessed.
On the road, Daniel's group drew near the elder's party. Lucas thanked the woman from the depths of his heart — she had saved his life.
As they walked, Daniel began asking the elder about Eira, since he shared the same element — lightning.
Then, quietly, Sanjay said: "I… I'm going to stop being a mercenary."
Daniel and Lucas turned to him and understood immediately. It had been plain from the start that Sanjay had never been comfortable with the life of a mercenary. He had agreed for the sake of skills and power, dazzled by the idea. But after seeing the harsh reality, he chose to give up.
Lucas replied softly to Sanjay, "No one will stop you if that's what you want — it's your life, after all."
Daniel turned to Lucas and asked with curiosity, "And you? Will you continue?"
Lucas paused, thinking, then said, "It's different for me. I want to become stronger, even if my life is threatened every minute. I have a mother and a sister; if they ever come to this world, I want them to find me helping them, not begging for help."
He fell silent for a moment, then asked, "And you? Will you go on?"
Daniel answered without hesitation, as if the reply was already waiting in his mind: "Of course. Gaining supernatural power… that's incredible in itself. Besides, there's someone I care for who's already in this world; I'm sure they'll be all right."
(Yes… a bookworm like that would be good at everything.)
At that moment the elder interjected from the side, "So — what do you say? Will you join us?"
Daniel and Lucas looked at the old man but did not answer immediately. Their eyes followed his conversation with the woman and the man who accompanied him while their minds turned the matter over.
Daniel leaned toward Lucas and whispered low, "This looks good… they're stronger than us, with far more experience. They helped you — which means the chance they would betray us is small, especially during missions… that's what we want."
Lucas nodded without hesitation.
The elder spoke to his companions, "We seek new members, but not just anyone. These youths… when trouble came, the black-haired boy counseled them before they fled. That shows they care for one another; such people are less likely to betray us. Isn't it better to recruit those we know to have some goodness rather than gamble on strangers?"
Lucas turned to the elder and said with assurance, "We accept your offer."
Everyone agreed, and conversation flowed as they began to learn more about each other. Their measure of one another was surprisingly simple: how much they cared for their fellows. To see a mercenary willing to sacrifice himself for another — rare in stories, rarer in real life — was a mark of character.
Daniel, Lucas, and Sanjay learned the names of their new companions: the elder was Azrian, the man Malik, and the woman Risha.
After a long day they returned to the kingdom, and Daniel and Lucas arranged to meet Azrian the next day after a rest.
Daniel, Lucas, and Sanjay were convinced the two men who had spoken to them before the mission had indeed followed them — but had done nothing in the end for lack of proof. The cowardly group that fled the battlefield would pay: they would receive no reward and would be required to contribute part of their money to compensate for the losses their flight had caused, since others had died because of it.
And so — for now — it was over.