Key Rush (11)

The worms were massive. Too massive, even. Just from slamming down on the sand, they create a small crator right where they slammed down. The strength their massive bodies carried was nothing short of impressive, even i couldn't compare to it.

But I quickly realized a weakness these gigantic worms had.

First of all, these worms were massive. The most obvious weakness is that they were slow due to their size and lacked the freedom to be agile—so, when facing me, a much smaller and extremely agile prey, they would find it difficult no matter how strong they were.

The second was that the worms seemed vulnerable to sword attacks. Their durability was mainly enhanced towards resisting blunt blows, not being sliced through. Was this the result of their adaptation over the years? They must have faced alot of predators with an affinity to attacking with blunt blows for them to adapt such powerful resistant to it.

But in turn, they neglected sword attack resistance. They are extremely weak to being sliced with a sharp object, which was another advantage for me.

Thus, even as the Sun-Cursed Worms teamed up, jumping me at once from the sand. I held the advantage. With both [Probability Pryer] and [The Zone] active, this powerful combination allowed me to evade their attacks with ease.

Side-stepping to the side, I watched as a giant worm slammed down to the ground, blowing yellow sand in all directions. I swiped the sand away with [The Cleave] in one hand, but it wasn't enough to block them all out.

Taking advantage of my momentary disorientation, another Sun-Cursed Worm appeared from behind me. Instead of slamming down to crush me under it's weight, it opended it's massive maw, in an attempt to swallow me whole.

I turned back and saw the giant worm heading my way. To make things worse, from my sides, even more of them was coming.

Luckily, with [Probability Pryer] I managed to see exactly what they would do ahead of time. I have started getting used to seeing all sorts of probabilities, instinctively avoiding things with the highest percentage of certainty with relative ease.

However, I couldn't just move out of the way of this one. It was already too late for that—so, I didn't bother trying. Instead, I raised [The Cleave] and then with my enhanced physical attributes with the use of [The Zone] and [Fury Counter], I turned into nothing more than a blur for a brief moment.

Cleaving right through the Worm, I appeared behind it. Lowering the blade and watching over my shoulder as it was sliced into half—my sword skills have improved rapidly with use of the [Fool's Rapier]. Still, I would say that I was more familier with a Rapier, than I was with an actual sword. Regardless, it worked fine and I was sure I would get used to it eventually.

From the corner of my eye, I prepared for the other two Sun-Cursed Worms to attack me. But they didn't. Even with the use of [Probability Pryer], I only saw a bizzare scenario.

"What the hell are they doing?"

My eyes widened in both wariness and curiosity, as I watched them both. Both of them was looming over the corpse of their dead comrade. They don't seemed focus on me at all—instead, the third one, who didn't have a dead body to stare at, lunged towards me.

"Argh!"

I was momentarily distracted and was barely able to move out of the way, my eye barely managing to catch the probability in time to side step gracefully. That didn't mean sand didn't get in my eyes, though. As I was busy wiping them away, I was barely able to catch what the Sun-Cursed Worms were doing.

By the time I recovered, all I managed to witness was….The Sun-Cursed Worm leaning downwards towards the corpse of it's comrade, then opening it's maw to devour the corpse in one single move.

'W–what?'

I faltered, unable to hide my confusion at this strange thing they have done. Was it some sacred ritual or something?

I didn't have time to ponder, though. The third Sun-Cursed Worm had already recovered and started attacking me, radiating malice and hunger. It was starting to get frustrating, so I tightened my grip on the hilt of the blade, clenched my calves, then…

Slash!

With a wet slash, I sliced the Sun-Cursed Worm in half, enjoying the sensation of the Abyssal Fragments pouring into me. I didn't linger though and quickly turned my attention towards the two corpses.

"Where are they?"

They were gone.

"Did they eat it?"

I murmured, confused. They ate the corpses and left? I don't see them around anymore. Will they come back to eat this corpse? Wait, Isnt this the perfect bait? I can just pile up corpses here, since they seem to enjoy eating them….

My eyes sparkled with enlightment at that bright idea that just entered my head.

"Oh, right. Im not here to commit genocide, im here to get that Key of Ruin!"

I quickly reminded myself of the purpose. I couldn't get lost in the idea of growing stronger, even though it was tempting. The real tempting one was getting the Key of Ruin, then sprit binding the Skull of Ruin himself. That would give me power, more power than whatever the hell the Abyssal Fragments had to offer.

Without waiting any longer, I turned my heels and began running towards the next level. But just as I did, a shadow loomed over my head.

"Huh?"

I halted in my steps, as I suddenly felt my hair standing on end. Slowly, my head turned backwards, looking up with a crooked smile, expecting the worst.

It was the Sun-Cursed Worm.

"What the hell?!"

I exclaimed, as I quickly took a step back and got into a fighting stance instinctively at the creepy sight before me. The Sun-Cursed Worm had underwent a change.

It was the same size, the same thickness. But that's not what really gave me the creeps this time. Rather, the Sun-Cursed Worm seemed to have….eyes now? And two limbs protruding from its slimy body. The limbs resembled a humans, only with three fingers and much sharper fingernails.

A thought came to my mind.

'Did it change this much after eating a corpse of itself?'

That didn't make sense. How could it gain limbs from devouring one of it's own? I didn't know what to think of it. But right now, it was here. Right in front of me. I couldn't be thinking about how much it made sense, or how this was possible.

It happend and that's it.

Now I need to deal with it.

The Sun-Cursed Worm stared at me for a moment with it's little eyes. Before lunging towards me—despite having limbs, it was still trying to attack me with it's horns.

Without hesitating, I jumped backwards, letting the Sun-Cursed Worm slam into the sand. Then, as it was trying to get up, I dashed towards it, jumping right on its backs, my hands grabbing on to it's horns. Using my superior strength I easily pulled at them, tearing them away.

The Sun-Cursed Worm whined and thrashed in pain, trying to get me off. But it was futile. Without even bothering to use innate spirit, i had plunged my sword right into the skin of the Sun-Cursed Worm, dragging the sharp edge over it, tearing it open.

The Sun-Cursed Worm continued to struggle, desperately moving it's new limbs, but still wasn't in full control over it. This time, I wasn't using [Probability Pryer] or [The Zone] As I wanted to me efficient with my use of innate spirit, hence me taking some time to kill a Sun-Cursed Worm.

Instead of trying to cleave right through it's entire body, I stabbed right into it's head, plunging the blade into the depths of it's brain. Then, I twisted and turned the blade, trying to keep my footing on the slipperly Worm that was thrashing around desperately. Eventually, it stilled, going limp on the ground.

I sighed in relief, wiping off some sweat from my forehead. But this relief didn't last long.

The sand began to move once again, more worms popping out from beneath it, one of them being a similar worm like the one i just killed, having little limbs and eyes. Likely the one that ate the other corpse from earlier.

'So it really is the Sun-Cursed Worms that ate the corpse….'

I groaned, suddenly feeling annoyed at that amount of Sun-Cursed Worms heading my way.

"I can't stay here. These worms are things I could kill, but there is too many of them. I need to focus on running away."

I have now suddenly started regretting now having a skill that let's me travel. Everything was related mainly to the offensive. Which wasn't a bad thing, per say. But for something that required me to travel, it was pretty bad.

I didn't bother trying to fight them. Instead, i jumped right off the corpse I was standing on, then began dashing towards the next level—I was much faster than them, their speed being hindered due to their immense size.

However, instead of chasing me on the surface, the worms just plunged down beneath the sand, then started moving towards me. Their speed was enhanced, but it still wasn't enough to keep up with me—a me that is brimming with Stamina and energy, that is. Once i start showing signs of slowing down or exhuastion, they will catch up to me.

So, I had to unfortunately keep [Probability Pryer] and [The Zone] off. This was dangerous, as it left me vulnerable for surprise attacks. But I needed to reserve Innate spirit when the Crimson Moon inevitability rises, I can't be wasting it carelessly here. Just because I could kill a few didn't mean a thing when there was a thousand hiding beneath the dunes.

But I didn't forget to do one thing, though. Back then, I was a bit too caught up to do this. Running closer to the Blood River, I lowered [The Cleave] down towards it, the sharp edge being devoured by the crimson water.

I was gonna have [The Cleave] absorb it. For some reason, I had realized that the worms seemed to avoid the blood river. Whenever I got close to it, they didn't seem to. Perhaps they were as vulnerable to this posion as I was? This will be very useful when the crimson moon rises, if true that is.

I watched as [The Cleave] absorbed the crimson water like a sponge, almost like it was hungry for it. Then, I pulled it out from the water and continued running beside the blood river, dismissing [The Cleave], as just keeping it on drained my innate spirit.

I wasn't gonna be running around completely defenseless, though. So I kept [Duskweave Mantle] on, without dismissing it. All three of it's skills was passive, anyway. Even If keeping it active drained innate spirit, I needed it active. I could be surprise attacked from anywhere, so I needed to be careful.

All this was to prepare for the Crimson Moon when it rises and the monsters inevitability become stronger because of its effects. Back then with the Bloodroot Stranglers, i wasn't aware of it, thus I ended up unnecessarily exhausting myself and almost dying because of it. However, now that I'm alive, I needed to make sure I didn't repeat those same mistakes twice.

There was still time left for the Crimson Moon to rise, but not nearly enough time for me to run a full 15 kilometers. So, I knew it was inevitable that the crimson moon will rise, no matter how fast I try to clear this level.

What I knew for sure is that I needed to atleast lower the distance requiring me to run by the time the crimson moon falls and the sun rises.

So, i ran and ran, with the Sun-Cursed Worms just behind me.

Time until Nightfall: 28:34 minutes.