Records of Rebirth

Chapter 172 - Purple Rain

The worm was pinned inside the tunnel with Typhon continuously using his earth spikes to pierce into its wounds to stop it from breaking free.

But it wasn't enough to hold it down for long.

As soon as the giant worm realised it was trapped, it had begun to bash through the spike impaling its lower body with brute strength. Typhon extended more spikes in their place, but under the creature's fierce struggle, his spikes were being destroyed as soon as they came out. 

My instinct was to fire off poison blades to keep its wounds open, but that would force it to escape underground. 

It wasn't very smart, as it was focused on fending off the attacks that poked at its wounds instead of eating its way out of the tunnel wall. I could only imagine Typhon's spikes made it unable to think properly. 

On closer inspection, I saw the wounds on the worm's lower body had stopped bleeding and a part of the wound was already covered in pale grey tissue.

In the short time it had escaped, it seemed to have begun to recover from such severe wounds! 

Its neck injury that was much worse was still far from closing, but the new skin that stretched over the smaller void cuts from the dark fae's magic were very apparent. If it had perhaps a full day or two to rest, I could see its injuries disappearing completely.

The worm was just as strong as before, seemingly not slowed down by its injuries. And since it had managed to escape once before, I was determined not to let it go again until we rescued the dark fae.

But to do so, I had to be more strategic, by first cutting off its chances to escape. 

The giant worm bashed through parts of the tunnel in retaliation, its body twisting violently in its rush to eat through the spikes restraining its body. 

I immediately instructed Typhon to grind the rocks around it to fine sand in order to coat the slippery mucus surrounding its body.

Typhon looked confused, but he did as told and next I created enough shadows around myself before leaping into the tunnel to fight the worm.

I landed on its back and targeted its head, my intention being to blind it with my shadows. 

Its severely accurate senses were a bane to deal with, and as soon as I reached its head, I spread my shadows far and wide enough to cover the top of its gaping mouth. 

I reasoned its eyes had to be somewhere on top of its head, and as soon as my shadows spread out, the worm's attacks slowed down, shaking its head in confusion. 

With a perfect chance to attack, I decided to use my newly made shadow blade to finish it in one swoop. Although I was hesitant to use the unstable [Shadow Blade], it was the only thing strong enough to blast through its armour. 

The shadows around me fluctuated in and out of stability, as I struggled to condense it into a proper shape. And I nearly fell off its body as the giant worm reared its head around, but it finally created a thin. pitch black blade. 

I immediately fired it towards its injured neck, eliciting a loud shriek as the blade savagely tore through its armour. 

The parts that had regenerated were now hanging off by its skin, bleeding profusely in an injury far worse than before.

But I was disappointed that it did not cleave its head clean and it seemed such a small blade wasn't very powerful. 

However, from the damage it had caused, I only needed one more to sever its head completely.

But instead of attacking blindly in its blood loss and pain, the worm showed a bit of smartness by throwing the full bulk of its body against the tunnel wall, bringing down an avalanche of rocks over its head. 

I was unable to react to the sudden influx of rocks and was harshly knocked down its back to land on the ground where more rocks buried me.

The impact caused me to lose a bit of HP, but I still had plenty of strength left to throw off the rocks that buried me. However, I realised too late that I was caught in the worm's recovered sight. 

As its salivating maw surged forward with speed to swallow me whole, and I hastily readied another shadow blade to sever its head, but Typhon was quicker as a massive spike skewered the creature's head through its open mouth, stopping it in its tracks. 

The worm immediately shredded through the spike but the second of delay was enough for me to scramble out of its way. 

Our combined attacks had made the creature all the more enraged, and with nothing more holding it back, the worm attempted to bring down the entire tunnel over us, lashing out at everything in sight to bury us both. 

The effect of the sand was immediately noticeable as smaller rocks began to stick to it, covering its body and reducing its slippery mucus coating without the worm's knowledge.

It began to pursue us with its attention fixed on us as we led it through the sands of the plateau. 

Without the ease of slipping over the rocks, its movements became slower, and we were able to bypass its attacks. And although its destructive power remained the same, the more it destroyed its surroundings, the more sand Typhon could create. 

In due time, its capability to move would be reduced to nothing, but until then we continued to keep it occupied. 

I attacked it with poison blades while Typhon used his spikes to try to hold it back, but without the aid of the tunnel that proved difficult. 

And when his spikes failed to pierce it, he switched to using his poison instead. And although his poison spheres weren't as fully formed as mine, he aimed them at its wounds, slowing it down even further. 

Soon enough the worm's purple coating had all but disappeared, as it became covered in smaller rocks and sand instead.

It realised that it was cornered and tried to burrow underground, but it's fluid movements over the rocks had slowed to a crawl, revealing its true colouring which was that of a dull grey. 

While it could consume the rocks like before, it was impossible to move freely through the rocks and we approached it eagerly to finish it off.

Typhon formed spikes at both sides of its head to keep it still, while I prepared another [Shadow Blade] towards its head. 

The blade soared ahead, cleaving its head clean off in a loud explosion that shattered the spikes holding it, raising up a cloud of sandy debris. 

We waited for the dust to settle, only for the worm's tail spike to pierce through the dust cloud to strike at us, forcing us to leap back to evade it.

Even with its head completely blown off, it was still moving?! 

I should have guessed as much when the system did not ding, but what an annoying creature. 

Its tail spike continued to attack us with startling accuracy whenever we came close, somehow able to tell where we were even without its eyes or ability to smell. Typhon suggested that I spread my shadows all around its body like I did with its head previously.

And the moment I did, it was unable to detect us and I was able to approach its body without getting attacked. Typhon stayed behind, refusing to enter into my shadows.

I was only aware they could take away the sight of opponents, but now it seemed it also included scents? Had that always been the case or was that because I levelled up my shadow magic? 

Either way I was amazed at the effect. It was far cooler than just plain darkness!

However, my joy quickly vanished at the sight of the worm's severed neck. 

Considering it was still alive, perhaps I needed to destroy its heart to kill it and not its head. But from what I could see, its body was a complicated network of oddly shaped, elongated organs and I couldn't begin to tell which of these was its heart, or even its stomach.

At this rate, killing it or finding the dark fae would be utterly impossible and I worried I would have to mince through every segment of its body to finally defeat it.

Still, I garnered my shadows once more and compressed the unstable energy to form a blade like Sensei had shown me, firing it quickly before it blew up in my face.

The dark blade soared down the length of the worm, slicing through its thick armour as large amounts of purple blood shot out of the wound.

My blade was not as powerful nor as clean as Sensei's, but it was just as effective, and the worm's guts spilled out over the ground as the system went off in a flurry of dings. 

?You have killed LV32 Grazerimn!?

?You have earned 294XP?

?You have gained a level!?

?You have gained a level!?

?You have gained a level!?

It was finally dead!