The thousands of demon ground worms quickly gathered around us three. If we don’t do anything, we will surely die. Even if this is our last, I wouldn’t just stand still and wait for our end.
“Ember, barricade!”
I decided to sacrifice some of Ember’s clones to create a barricade. At least to limit the directions we need to guard. Using three of her clones, they simultaneously used [Expand] and [Polymorph] and transformed into a semi-transparent wall on our three sides, extending upwards to as high as the ceiling.
Luckily, the worms do not have any elemental attacks; they are purely physical. Ember is extremely resistant to physical attacks. The barricade should hold on for quite some time.
The worms circled around and were trying to swarm towards the last entrance that was left.
“Fang! Use [Nightmare] on them!”
[Nightmare] was a powerful skill that, if the opponent was unlucky, could kill them in one go. However, it’s extremely taxing for the user.
“Alright, Leader!”
Fang steeled her resolve as she cast [Nightmare] over a wide area. Hundreds of the demon ground worms fell unconscious. However, Fang fell to her knees at the same time. She used up a large part of her reserved energy.
“Ember, support from behind. Take this and use the potions to heal Fang. Leave the rest to me…”
I said as I threw my storage ring at her. I then drew the sword that I never got a chance to use. It was a plain iron sword with no special effects. It’s only sharp and tough, nothing else. .𝙘𝙤𝙢
The demon worms that fainted from [Nightmare] were blocking part of the open side of the barricade, making it easier to protect the last safe area we have. However, Fang, our only pure attacker, was still out of commission. I need to buy time for her to recover.
“Leader! I-I can still-!”
Fang tried to stand up but fell forward. Ember supported her body as they retreated to the center of the barricade.
“It’s fine. I’m not going to die from just this.”
I smiled to reassure them. Of course, that’s a lie. If the demon ground worms even landed a scratch on me, I would be critically injured. Their danger level was Black, meaning I have no chance of surviving a full-on offensive from them.
“But in this cramped space, it’s hard to move your large bodies, right?!”
Shouting to boost my confidence, I ran in between them. As I passed them, I landed a slash or two. However, it didn’t even leave a scratch on their tough skin.
As expected, the worms couldn’t move freely and kept bumping against the others near them. They were extremely restricted by their large builds.
“Master, one’s coming from above!”
Ember shouted from behind. I looked up and saw an open mouth. I quickly dodged to one side but ended up bumping against another worm’s body. In a panic, I raised my sword to guard, but it snapped instantly.
I avoided a direct hit but received a large gash running from my right shoulder to my abdomen. My right arm’s bone was probably fractured just from the impact of blocking the large worm’s attack.
Furthermore, the broken end of the blade bounced back and got stuck on my left thigh. To add further injury, the worm I bumped against swung its tail and hit my back squarely. I felt that a large majority of my ribs turned to powder with just that.
I was sent flying by the tail, but Ember quickly caught my body in the air. She then returned to the center of the barricade and added one more clone to completely seal off the space.
“Master! Master! Please don’t die!!!”
Ember cried as she held my wrangled body. My consciousness was faint, and I felt no pain; however, seeing Ember and Fang’s worried faces, I felt a prick in my chest.
[System Message: User detected to be gravely injured. Fatality: High… Initiating Heavenly System’s Halo.]
The system quickly activated as a golden light covered my body. My injuries, however, didn’t completely heal.
[System Warning: Energy is insufficient to completely recover the body. Prioritized the healing of important organs. Complete.]
Lack of energy. It seems that due to this, besides my ribs, lungs, and other internal organs, the rest of my wounds were left as is. The end of the sword was still sticking out of my thigh, and the gash was still bleeding profusely. In this state, I doubt I’d survive until we return to the elevator.
As I was about to be enveloped in despair, the system suddenly started bugging out.
[Sy$%3m Mes54g3: Deìt3d 4nci3nt b10odl!ne str3ng7hen!n9… Par7ial1y a(ti^atin9 the 20th 5yst3m functi0n… [0mp1ete.]
Before I could understand the meaning of the garbled words, my consciousness faded.
—
When I woke up, the surroundings were pitch black. Ember and Fang were nowhere, and the cave we should be in was gone.
As I was sitting on the floor, wondering about what happened, something weird started happening.
“What the… Matrix?”
All around me, the empty space started being filled out by green and red text that kept changing. After about five seconds, the figure was completed. It was the demon ground worms, thousands of them. They look as real as can be.
“Sh-!”
Before I could even shout, a worm from behind me chomped on my head. I could feel every moment that happened. My skull cracked, and my ears and eyes popped. Blood and other fluids started leaving every orifice in my head.
Then… I woke up again.
It was the same situation: me sitting in the middle of a dark space. I touched my head in a panic and checked that it was still there. I sighed in relief. The feeling was so real that I didn’t even want to remember it.
However, time is a cruel thing, and without giving me rest, the same phenomenon occurred. Demon ground worms appeared from blocks of data and started attacking me. This time, I was still sitting down, so I was simply squished by two of them from both sides.
Before I could completely savor the feeling of all my bones getting crushed, my vision blacked out.
The third time, I quickly stood up and ran. However, after 5 seconds, the worms spawned, and I was stuck in their midst. My body got shared by five worms as they played tug of war with my limbs.
The fourth time… The fifth… The fiftieth… The hundredth… The thousandth… I continued counting until I got tired of it.
“I need to return…”