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Chapter 436: The Great Worm (2) - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2025-09-03 06:00:53 +0000 UTCAs the massive worm prepared for another attack, the heroic-grade shooter took a very different approach. I had expected him to wait for the worm to surface, before instantly launching an attack that the worm would be hard pressed to avoid. Instead, he started shooting lasers into our surroundings, seemingly at random. Each beam of light maintained its usual speed… for exactly one bounce, before they slowed down as if they were crawling through a mountain of gelatin. Previously, the beams of light had been so fast that my eyes couldn’t properly track them, just like a regular beam of light - but after hitting a random object, each laser beam was travelling so slowly an average six year old could probably dodge them.
I assumed this was yet another ability that the shooter had gained from having a heroic-grade skill, but I had no idea what he was trying to accomplish. Why had he made the beams of light slow down so much? Why was he firing at random?
After firing twenty slow-moving cannon beams into the battlefield, the heroic-grade shooter fired another two laser beams at the aggressive blob of animated flesh. This interrupted the creature as it was trying to pounce on another nearby group of scavengers. It wailed in agony, before another three beams of light ripped it to shreds and annihilated several surrounding monsters.
I swallowed nervously. In seconds, one of the larger threats on the battlefield went down, and the scavengers were taking actions I didn’t understand. That was never a good sign on a battlefield. Understanding the actions of a potential enemy was vital to defending against their attacks, especially since we were planning to step onto the battlefield the next time the worm attacked.
<Do we still step in?> asked Sallia. <I don’t like the look of those beams of light. Something about them is off.>
<I don’t think we have a choice, sadly,> said Felix. <Based on Miria’s vision, the worm will attack again in less than five seconds. Get ready.>
I had a brief moment to wonder whether our strategy was a mistake. Even if Anise blinded the shooter, if he could pull the trigger, he could hit us - even around walls or via trajectories that made no sense at all. His ability to bend the laws of physics to favor his shots, combined with the speed of a laser beam, made it very hard to fight him head on.
Then, I glanced at the shrunken numbers of the scavenger crew, as well as the half-dead worm, and the monsters that were still constantly swarming the scavengers. I gritted my teeth.
The first member of their group that we had met had tried to kill us with little reason or forewarning. The first girl we had seen seemed hostile to the Market in general, and I had little reason to believe that the other members of the scavenger team had any goodwill towards us. It was better to grab what we needed from people who had already opened hostilities with us and proved that they were enemies.
A moment later, the worm sprang towards the surface again, like a dolphin leaping out of the surface of the ocean. For some reason, it didn’t hit any of the scavengers this time - the nearest scavengers rolled out of the way, almost as if they had been tracking the worm, and had been expecting it.
Then, the laser beams floating lazily through the air sped back up. It was as if they had been nearly frozen in midair beforehand, and someone had returned them to their original speed. For a moment, I lost sight of the worm, as several beams of light tore through its flesh. I realized we might be too late - and worse, we might not have a real chance to interfere with the battlefield anymore.
I felt a massive surge of hope emulate from the scavengers, right before an even greater surge of essence swarmed through the body of the worm. I blinked in surprise, as I looked at the worm, and realized it looked fine. There was basically no difference between before it had been hit by the shroud of laser beams and afterwards - except for the fact that the worm’s body was now faintly translucent, and looked almost like it was glowing.
What in the world was going on?
The worm leapt towards the heroic-grade shooter, and spun like a ballerina. I felt the hope in our surroundings dim, as if the worm had devoured all of it - and then, I felt another tidal wave of essence roll out of the worm’s body. After three spins, the worm’s body started to glow brighter and brighter, reminding me faintly of a lamp that had been switched on. After four spins, I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. By the fifth spin, the feeling of essence streaming out of the worm’s body started to become nearly unbearable.
Then, there was a sudden flash of light. I felt a burst of searing pain tear through my eyeballs, and then, to my horror, I felt liquid start dribbling down my cheeks, accompanied by the sharp, acrid stench of scorched flesh and charcoal.
<Ahhh! My eyes!> Yelled Felix. <I can’t see anything! What happened?>
My other friends also yelled into our communication bracelet in complete confusion. It wasn’t until I touched the liquid dribbling down my cheeks that I realized what had happened.
My eyes were gone.
I immediately realized that the worm had counterattacked somehow. Everyone who had been looking at the worm had lost their eyes during its counterattack. Somehow, the worm had… absorbed all of the laser beams, turned them into a burst of pure light, and then empowered it with magic? That was my best guess for how it had just destroyed my eyes, at least. A moment later, my brain kicked in.
I didn’t have time to panic. I didn’t have time to analyze. My friends were hurting. I was the team healer. I only had one job right now - to heal.
I reached out a hand towards where I remembered my friends being, and a moment later, my hands caught someone else’s hand. It felt like Sallia. I immediately poured some alteration essence into both of us, in order to restructure one of our eyes, and then used my single healed eye to look around.
Five of the scavengers were dead, but the heroic grade shooter was doing fine. Somehow, he had avoided losing his eyes to the worm’s blast of magic light, and he had evidently hit the worm with several cannon blasts right after it had counterattacked. The worm’s life force was incredibly low now - barely equal to the base life force of Grade 10 Fortitude.
However, the heroic-grade scavenger had also lost his laser cannon. Somehow, the worm had smashed it. The shooter didn’t seem to actually be in danger, though. The worm was slowing down, and the shooter was more than capable of dancing circles around it as the creature got hit by round after round of smaller laser fire.
I reached out a hand to Anise and Felix, and healed one eye for each of them as well. I didn’t have enough essence to heal both, but all of us could make do with one eye for now. As my friends gazed at the battlefield again, I hesitated for a moment.
Then, I turned to Anise.
<Now!> I said.
Anise immediately opened her mouth, and a wave of essence surged out of her body. I didn’t hear a thing, but I felt as if a wave of pressure had entered and exited my ears.
The heroic-grade shooter groaned, and clutched at his ears, but he didn’t let up. Constant potshots from his laser pistol kept hitting the worm, even though he seemed distracted. The worm tried to take advantage of the opening Anise had created, but it was too close to dead, and at this point, its speed was nowhere near what it had been at the start of the fight.
<Using my illusory mental attack!> said Anise, before she emitted a second wave of essence. This time, the heroic-grade shooter collapsed to the ground. I saw him quickly start to shake it off a moment later - but that second was enough time for the worm to enact its revenge against the shooter that had put it on death’s door. It leapt towards him, and its maw opened up like a gate to the abyss.
One of the other scavengers teleported in front of the leader, taking me completely off-guard. The would-be rescuer still had both of her eyes intact, and I could feel a desperate, frenzied wave of hope pouring otu of her body as she reached towards the leader of the scavengers. She locked one of her arms around the scavenger leader’s body, and I felt another wave of hope emanate out of her body, followed by a surge of essence.
Once again, I stepped in, and destroyed their hope. The last of my absorption essence tore out of my body, leaving both of my essence pools empty. Far more importantly, the woman’s teleportation spell failed.
Then, the heroic grade shooter, along with his would-be rescuer, disappeared into a cavern of teeth and essence as the worm ripped him to shreds. I looked at the battlefield. The surrounding scavengers were mostly blinded from the worm’s previous attack, and perhaps five still had intact eyes. Those who had kept their ocular organs intact were now running for their lives - apparently, after their leader died, they had deemed the situation hopeless.
I felt a flash of relief, before I looked at the worm in horror and realized that the splinter we needed was now inside of its stomach. Worse, the monsters around us weren’t letting up - they were still flooding the battlefield. Whatever instinct made them gravitate towards valuable items was still working as usual, and the scavengers weren’t around to keep them distracted anymore.
We had to deal with the flooding monsters, finish off the worm, dig out the wooden splinter, and get out of here, fast - or all of this would have been for nothing.
Author’s Note:
Join my Discord! (I’m at least sometimes active there, while I admit that I don’t generally check the comments section. I’m not very active anywhere, though - writers are antisocial people, okay!)
Comments
Touch
Edit frenzied wave of hope pouring *otu* of her body Out
xMoses
Yes very innocent. Grave robbers are innocent especially when they try to off you at the first instant. They’re even more innocent if you are both two groups fighting for power. You must back away and let it go 👍
IDFree
"A Scion of the Market" title obtained! +5% damage when attacking innocent people with the goal of taking their loot.
