章 44: Pack of Worms.

Across what felt like an endless desert, two humanoid-looking figures sped through it.

Leading the pair, Raian dashed forward, taking long strides confidently.

Behind him, Liala glided across the sand. Ever since her skill matured two weeks ago, gliding seemed to become her new style to keep.

Since being a sleeper left no option to gauge their soul essence, both of them were loosely strict with spending their essence.

Keeping watch, constantly alert as they sped through, there was not a lot to look out for. In every direction Raian looked, vast sands of the gray desert with few objects thrown in between looked serenely peaceful yet mysteriously terrifying.

He didn't know whether the boring nature of the environment made it harder for him to spot nightmare creatures.

"One o'clock."

Hearing Liala call out, Raian's eyes followed the direction.

At a medium distance, he spotted something like a worm, long and slender, repeatedly jumping from the sand and diving back down. Every time it jumped in the air, the spiraling crooked front teeth rotated a little, welcoming them

The worm had no eyes to see, yet its movement always centered on Raian's location. Its color mimicked the desert, it was quite impressive how Liala managed to spot it. Maybe his aspect compelled him to ignore the worm as it looked somewhat weak, but Raian stopped thinking further.

Analyzing the worm, Raian soon relaxed a little. Unless the little worm had some secret inside its body, he decided there was nothing it could do to threaten them.

"Formation A." Behind him, Liala softly declared, then jumped in the air.

Remembering their formations, a moment later Raian followed up, activating his aspect as a golden aura shimmered softly upon his body. The light moved like it was pulled by an unknown force towards his legs.

Learning from his past mistakes, the amount of willpower infused was much lower than when he jumped the cliff. Without needing the extra abundance of power, Raian easily matched the height Liala jumped at, getting closer to her.

Watching the worm enter their assault range, Liala held herself motionless in the air as she raised her claymore, starting a swinging motion.

Jumping slightly above the claymore, Raian pressed horizontally against the flat side.

Taking a deep breath, muscles tightened as veins popped up on her forehead, Liala swung the claymore in one clean, arduous motion.

Shooting forward like a meteor, before he could hit the gray worm, a golden aura bloomed like a flower, reinforcing everything.

Truly descending like a shiny meteor, both knees forward, Raian swiftly collided with the worm.

Following the law of sight, the desert worm proved to be bigger than Raian expected closer, but the difference wasn't large enough to change the outcome.

About three meters long and about a meter in width, the worm couldn't look threatening no matter how much it tried in Raian's eyes. not counting its horrifying teeth of course.

Blasting through the worm with his strongest piercing attack, the creature folded like a wet napkin centering where his knees connected.

Despite killing the creature and the spell whispering into his ear, sudden chills ran through Raian's spine, visibly recoiling as he pulled himself out of the worm.

'There might be more than one.'

Opening his mouth to warn Liala, he quickly closed it. Liala was a competent person in his mind. Warning her was a compromise of his position. The worm was able to move accurately despite missing vital sensing organs.

It most likely located him using sound or something similar to insects.

Next step planned out, Raian slowly got up and ran back, watching whether Liala was in trouble or not.

Looking forward with a stern expression while expecting the worst, Raian saw Liala running toward him.

Sighing with relief, he was about to ask her what had happened, but the rising dust behind her stopped the conversation from happening. Trailing the dust, the earth beneath his feet slowly started to shake.

No explanation, no talking, just a flip over Raian's head. Liala continued to run with a smile as she said, "Good luck, I will flank them soon."

"What?" Slowly piecing it together, Raian immediately activated his aspect, full throttle.

Looking at the incoming dusty mess, dozens of desert worms clung together to make a sharp formation aiming at him.

Raian thought of running but quickly disregarded that thought.

He couldn't explain it, but somewhere inside his heart, mind, or soul, there existed an unwavering confidence leaning against everything.

Standing still, analyzing the worms, Raian raised one arm forward and leaned forward, diverging his weight upon his toes. Left leg leaning a little before the worms could attack, Raian struck the ground, taking the initiative from them.

Beneath the shattered earth, the worms began to jump up at Raian, unfazed by the earlier impact. The nature of the ground being mostly sand had divided the power behind it. The first attack not meeting his expected requirement, Raian roundhouse kicked the first worm to the side and dodged the rest by quickly ducking down.

Just like mindless beasts following their instinct, after Raian managed to evade, they didn't stop, they couldn't stop. Colliding against each other, the lucky worms rebounded unground to pursue Raian while the less fortunate sustained light injuries from each other.

Looking at the skin-deep slash the worms gave, Raian's temperament snapped, disgusted by their mindless bloodlust and the audacity to injure him, he entered assault mode.

Reaching forward as he dashed in, Raian redirected the first worm to smash against others.

Pulling his right leg back and compressing it to the limit before it could launch, Raian kicked one of the worms in the air.

Wasting no time and clenching his fist, Raian leaned back, positioning like an Olympic javelin thrower and motioned a punch. Like flicking a finger, Raian mimicked it with his whole body.

Explosively launching the tensed body forward, his right hand smashed into one of the worms, piercing into its flesh and instantly killing it, then carrying its lifeless body with the leftover force, slamming it into the ground.

Pulling his hand back from the slimy innards, 'Two down,' he thought as he wound up another punch.

Twisting his upper body to its limit, a wide right hook planted another worm into the afterlife.

'Three down.' While Raian wanted to take more down before they massed up, his time had ran out. 'No more, one against one for me i guess.'

Throwing the carcass for distraction, he guided little more of the willpower towards his right arm.

Enhancing it further, Raian gestured a welcoming motion against the worms as they attacked him.

Dodging and striking were the fundamentals of any battle. Simply hitting while not getting hit was the simplest path to victory. As long as it was executed successfully, the results were predetermined.

At least that is how Raian saw it fit. Body stronger than many, enhanced with his overbearing willpower, guided by a cold analyzing mind, the worms stood no chance.

The results of their battle would change instantly if the worms started working together, but it seemed unlikely.

Using redirection kata to nullify their attacks, Raian positioned himself with flame kata, adjusting minor errors in his plan amidst deadly teeth flying hair length near his face.

The world felt great.

While too weak to demand respect from him, the worms were enough to scratch the itch.

'Four down.'

'Five down.'

'Six down.'

'Seven down.'

Eliminating them one by one, using his strongest attack, Raian thoroughly enjoyed the battle.

Despite lacking the life-threatening thrill, he found other ways to challenge himself.

Grinning from ear to ear, he felt like an addict taking the stimulation after days of being free from it.

With an intoxicated smile, Raian ignored his sustaining injuries to enjoy the battle more.

Raising his right leg in the air one hundred eighty degrees and performing an axe kick, the kick pulverized the worm, planting the body deep withing the ground.

'Eight down. Three or four should be left,' Raian looked around.

A little far from him, Liala was gliding between the rest of the desert worms, slashing when she could, slowly but surely driving them to their end.

An uncertain emotion surfacing upon his face, Raian dashed towards her but not out of worry.

Seeing Raian come within her peripheral vision, Liala pointed at a certain worm. "Finish it, it's almost dead."

Not listening to whatever she spoke, Raian dashed close and kicked both worms which were about to jump towards Liala.

Before she could question, Raian started to spin in place, grabbing her forearm.

Seeing question marks spawn on Liala's face, Raian threw her in the air and yelled, "Go find the person, can't waste time. Will catch up after i m finished here."

Understanding the reason behind his actions, Liala nodded and softly glided across the air, aiming where she spotted the light hours ago.

Watching Liala slowly leave, Raian walked near the heavily injured worm which Liala pointed at.

Usual human face formed into a hideous smile as he summoned the potion of cursed vitality, his enjoyment wasn't over. It couldn't be over until Raian felt satisfied.

Pouring the cursed vitality over the worm's critical wounds, Raian swore he almost heard it's high-pitched screams. Seeing the worm's slimy insides immediately boil upon contact with the potion, the smile across his face widened ever more.

"Don't die on me, little Dormant Demon, I have some theories, after that you can try to kill me."