Stella realised that the Fire Salamanders had been heading toward their caravan because they wanted to use them as bait. The Salamanders were going to lead the Dune Worm to them and then use that distraction to escape. But Stella decided to flip their plan on its head! Once Stella got close enough, she poured more mana into her [Heart of Snow] skill, and she slashed her sword across the air! A massive wall of ice suddenly exploded out from the desert ground and blocked the Salamanders’ path! The Fire Salamanders all hissed in anger when they slammed into the wall, and they turned to the left and started trying to run around the massive ice wall! But Stella wasn’t going to let them go, and she quickly began to run across the wall as well and continued to create more ice to make sure the Salamanders were completely trapped inside!
DOON!
DOON!
RUMBLLEEE!!
The sand began to vibrate as a massive tremor travelled through it, and Stella looked up as she felt a shadow over her head! A massive sand dune that was as tall as a mountain was rising quickly over the desert, and it grew so tall that it managed to block out the oval moon in the sky and cast a shadow over the entire region! As it grew, the sand poured down from the figure underneath and slowly revealed the enormous Dune Worm in all its majesty!
’Titan Rank. Tch.’
Stella clicked her tongue in annoyance once she saw the worm’s true form and felt its mana. The worm was treated as a deity in this part of the world because of the sheer power it wielded. The Nazin were terrified of it, and no one ever dared to try to fight against it since they knew that they would die. They all believed that the worm was an inescapable force of nature. But Stella knew the truth about this worm. It was nothing but a TITAN Rank Magical Beast that had found its way into this world somehow. It could bleed and die just like any other beast, and that was all Stella needed to know.
The giant worm slammed into the ice wall that Stella had created and easily broke through it! All the Salamanders screeched in fear as the worm moved forward, and they never even had a chance to fight back before they vanished into the worm’s dark, cavernous mouth! Stella jumped back away from the worm, and she glanced to the side to see that the Caravan was still within the worm’s range. She had to stand her ground here.
[Lightning Storm]!
Stella raised her hand and activated a skill, and a massive storm cloud gathered in the air above the worm’s head before it unleashed a blast of pure lightning that struck the worm on the head!
BZZTTT!
The worm let out a massive roar in pain when it felt the lightning, and it turned its head towards Stella and released another angrier roar as it charged at her! Over the past few years, Stella had fought against many beasts to try and protect the tribe, but she had never even once pushed herself to the extreme because she knew that she was far stronger than every other beast that she faced. But right now, Stella knew that one mistake would mean her death! Because even though she was also a TITAN Rank, it was obvious that the lack of serious battle for so long had dulled her senses.
DOON!
The worm burst out from the ground right in front of Stella, and Stella activated two skills, [Wind Storm] and [Wings of the Sky God], at the same time! A massive storm erupted in front of her, and it gathered a ton of sand and formed into a massive sand storm that blinded the beast, and at the same time, a pair of translucent wings erupted from Stella’s back and allowed her to take off into the sky!
TWOOM!
But Stella was shocked when she saw something fly out from the sand storm, and she quickly crossed her arms in front of her body as a giant ball of sand slammed into her and threw her back! Stella barely managed to remain in the sky, but she noticed many more sand balls flying out from the storm and heading straight for her! Stella quickly started to fly out of the way to avoid them, but there were so many that they continued to slam into her body and push her down! Stella used [Fragmented Vision] to get a better look at what was really happening, and she noticed that it was the Dune Worm that was spitting the balls at her.
The dune worm travelled by creating a massive tunnel under the desert sand using its cavernous mouth. The sand it swallowed would easily be expelled from its body to refill any holes in the sand that it left behind once it moved away, but the Dune Worm also had the ability to store the sand it had swallowed and form it into balls that could be used as projectiles against opponents. These balls were hardened and held together using the worm’s mana, so they were more than strong enough to harm a TITAN Rank like Stella!
Stella grit her teeth and quickly moved out of the way as more balls flew straight at her! The worm was spitting out at least a dozen balls a second, and Stella was finding it hard to dodge all of them!
’This would’ve been a simple kill twenty years ago. Fuck, what have I been doing? All my skills are dull!’
Stella cursed in anger as she felt irritated by her own weakness! She struggled to remind herself what life was like on the battlefield! The blood, the death, the constant battle for survival! Her eyes sharpened, and she could feel adrenaline surging through her body as she slowly started to return to that mindset, and she turned and dashed straight for the worm! The worm roared, but she ignored its intimidation and activated a skill [Swordmanship of the Red Disciples: Vertical Slash]!
WOOOSHH!
Stella’s blade was immediately coated in the red aura of her skill, and she brought it down in a perfect vertical slash to try and tear the beast in two! But Stella never took into account that the beast could sense the danger that was approaching it! Twenty years ago, during the war, Stella would have known that you should first make sure a beast couldn’t escape before trying to use a skill like the Red Disciples’ swordsmanship! That would make sure that the attack landed properly and killed the beast in one move! But after so long, Stella’s senses had dulled, and that was what prevented her from predicting the Beast’s next move! The beast immediately dropped its body down to the ground and sank beneath the blue sand! Stella’s attack landed a few seconds later, but the beast had already gone deep enough that it only received a small graze on the back from the deadly attack! Stella felt her eyes widen in shock when she saw what had happened, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she cursed her own shortsightedness!
DOON!
The Dune Worm suddenly erupted from the ground right beneath Stella with its dark, cavernous mouth wide open! Stella quickly tried to get out of the way, but before she could escape, a long tendril shot out from the worm’s mouth and latched onto her leg! Stella’s eyes widened in shock as she felt herself getting pulled down towards the beast’s mouth. In her mind, Stella could see many images flashing by quickly. Images of her previous world and the friends she had, of her time on the battlefield, and the people that she lost. Images of her king, and how she had let him down. Stella knew that she was going to die here.