The Worm was more interested in him than he previously had thought. It was moving right towards him with its mouth agape; gobbling up everything and all in its path.
“Not good!” He grabbed for his backpack and threw it away. His food rations spilled once it hit the ground.
The little trick had worked and the Worm went for it, buying him precious time to escape. He ran to the nearest tunnel, reached the entrance and just kept running without even looking back. The Worm didn’t seem to be pursuing so he slowed down to a jog.
The Miasma de-buff disappeared, at which point he felt much better. If not for the temporary perk the armour gave him he didn’t know if he would have made it. He continued jogging in the tunnel, and out of what must have been sheer luck he found a group of lamias who were vigilantly guarding the tunnel exit.
“Hey, It’s me.” He waved at them.
“Come-sss quickly”. They gestured for him to hurry.
The lamia parted and let him into the large cave. This one was larger than the one Kobolds were living in. In the middle of it, he could see hundreds of leather tents clustered together.
A small lamia slithered to greet him. “King of Spiders-sss, follow; the Queen is waiting.”
He did as told. He was led past the tents and past many curious gazes towards what looked like a huge natural pool. It was encircled by rocks and in the middle of the pull was the Queen lounging on a flat rock. Wisps of steam told him that this was a hot spring.
“Come-sss.” The Queen invited.
He didn’t need to get wet, there was a stone path towards the flat rock where the Queen was lounging. He jumped from one rock to the other; the gaps quite wide and the rocks slippery. Somehow he didn’t slip and embarrass himself.
“Are you Okay-sss?” She asked with worry.
“I made it out alive. Now I know what you are dealing with.” The memory of a terrible monster flashed in his mind.
“Yes-sss, our last remaining farm is ruined. If not for your help we would sss-starve.” Conveniently she popped a whole fruit in her large mouth and demolished it with a single crunch.
“I’m glad I was able to help. This is a nice village you have, I’m still glad I came.”
He looked around, the border of the pool was now surrounded by lamias, there were hundreds of them all staring at him with interest. He now knew how the Queen must have felt on his farm when surrounded by his spiders.
“Yes-sss, we had this place for centuries.” She sounded proud.
“Would someone mind showing me around? I am interested in your village.”
The Queen clapped her hands and out of the large crowd a tiny form of white lamia emerged; obviously another child of the Queen. The child had no qualms about getting wet and swimming right through the pool to the middle where he was. It was clear that Lamia were an expert swimmers.
“Come-sss.” The child hissed imitating her mother’s mannerisms.
He was shown the tiny details of Lamia's life. The tents in which they slept, the place where they made their spears, a large kitchen where they would cook and prep the food. In many ways, this was a village like any other, but also it was different. It was clear that Lamia were strong people but they didn’t excel either in building or farming or in any other crafts which didn’t involve muscle; they led very primitive lives. Actually, it was obvious that they were most suited for hunting.
The child dragged him to the large burrow in the ground, it was quite dark since there were no glowing moss or mushrooms, but he could make out the silhouettes of eggs. They were large and leathery.
“We keep our eggs-sss here in the hatchery, they won’t hatch for another month or sss-so.”
The child looked at him in an odd way. “I don’t think I was sss-supposed to show you this, but there is nothing else to sss-see.” she began twiddling her thumbs.
Apparently, this was the last destination on this tour. He had seen everything except for a male lamia, not even one.
“Where are the males?” He asked curious.
The child laughed at him. “Ha-ha, you silly. Lamia can’t be males.” She stated it as if it was the universal truth.
He looked at all the eggs again. “When how do you…” And stopped midway realising that he was asking a child. “Aren’t your people mostly warriors and hunters?” He changed the subject.
“Correct-sss.” She nodded while picking her nose.
“Why farm mushrooms when you can hunt your food?”
“The Great Worm of Oberon, sss!” The child spat on the ground in displeasure, likely in imitation of adults. “The prey-sss left our caves-sss a long time ago.”
Despite the unchildlike behaviour, the child made sense. He would want to leave too after seeing what lurked nearby.
“And why didn’t you leave?”
“This is-sss our place, we can’t leave our home. And if we left-sss where would we go?”
“I don’t know, but this doesn’t look safe. What prevents the Worm from attacking you?”
He was asking all these hard questions to no one else but a child, this was probably why the earth began to rumble.
“Is this?” He felt slight déjà vu.
The child began crying. He wanted to cry too.
The shakes were so strong that he had to kneel on the ground or he might fall. A warrior lamia slithered in rapid motion and scooped up the child hauling her who know where, hopefully to safety; if there was a place like that at all.
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“Are we running again?” He asked but no one replied.
Lamia was moving all in random directions, there seemed to be chaos. He projected an Aura of Calmness, the Lamia calmed and even the rumbling ceased. He used that chance to make his way back to the Lamia Queen. He didn’t even make it halfway through…
In the distance, he could see the large form emerge, it shot out from the ground with a spray of boulders. The air was filled not just with rocks but yellow fruits he recognised. The Worm must have hit their storage area. The monster closed its maw gulping a large amount of fruits, and then its body flopped on the ground sending a shockwave through it.
He didn't see Lamia running away, quite the opposite, they were grabbing their spears and moving to charge the Worm. His instincts told him to run, but how could he then he saw such bravery at display. He grabbed his spear tighter and ran towards the overgrown worm.
Lamia warriors were stabbing the Worm with their spears, its skin was scally and thick; they weren't doing much damage. The interesting peculiarity was that the Worm didn’t retaliate, it simply moved from one sack of fruits to the other, devouring fruits with the sack and all.
It was easy to understand the fixation, the fruits were very delicious, and he in different circumstances could take it for a compliment. However, he might be the one to blame for what was happening here.
“The Worm must have had developed a taste after it ate my backpack.” He whispered to himself.
And the scent of the fruits must have led it here.
“What will the Worm do when it runs out of TomGrape to eat?”
He was done thinking out loud and ran towards the fat body of the Worm. He trusted the spear with as much power as he could muster and it sunk into the monster's flesh. For whatever reason his spear seemed to be more effective than the crude Lamia spears.
The damage was dealt but pulling it out proved to be difficult. He had to get close and use all of his body weight to dislodge the Apex Spear. He might have gotten too close because one of the Worm’s digging appendages swung at him and slashed right through his armour.
He was surprised at the sharpness of the claw, but the appendage was made to dig through hard mountain rock.
Lamia swarmed all over the Worm stabbing at it mercilessly. Their efforts seemed futile. And the fruit ran out all too quickly. The monster opened its large mouth exposing the oversized teeth. The air was filled with the overpowering scent of rot, [De-buff active: Miasma], then It roared in a low booming roar and went after the Lamia.
It was quicker than its size would let you believe, hundreds of little arms surrounding it’s body must have something to do with it. The mouth opened and closed, and one of the lamia was gone; swallowed whole. Then it moved targeting another one.
Of course, the Worm wasn’t left alone to harass the Lamia. There were holes all over its body leaking yellow blood, and some of the arms were missing but the damage was not enough.
With a well-aimed thrust, he poked another hole into the side of the Worm. The monster moved sharply and hit his armour with its body.
“Ah!” He was sent flying into the air.
He landed like twenty feet away from the Worm and the landing was not pleasant either; almost as bad as the hit itself. The armour couldn't take the beating and the chips making it came apart.
[Temporary perk Minor Regeneration lost.]
He began to cough, the miasma burning his lungs and eyes. Through tears, he could see Lamia trying to fight it still. Some were being eaten others were flung away like he had been moments ago.
“We can’t win this…”
It didn’t look like he will be the hero he thought he could be.
“We must run.”
He projected the Aura of Authority. It wasn’t his call but, “Retreat!” He shouted as loud as he could, which wasn’t easy considering that his lungs felt like burning. He had gained a few stray looks but the Lamia didn’t listen. A reason for that might be that the Worm was moving towards where all the Lamia eggs were.
He had to strain his eyes but there in the distance, the Queen and her guards were forming a line of defence around the egg hatchery. He ran towards her and the lamia guards parted letting him in.
“I don’t think we can win this.” He stated the obvious.
The worm was closing the distance towards the hatchery, brave Lamia were trying to slow it down.
“We must-sss.” The queen hissed.
He understood why the Queen stood here between the eggs and the Worm, but there must be a better way.
“I’d hate to see you die. I hate this!” He was a stranger to so much death. “Let’s gather the eggs and run!”
“Where? Where to? SSS! The worm will only follow-sss.”
“We can try my village for a start.” He offered.
“You want-sss this calamity in your village?” The Queen asked with a face that betrayed that she tough he was mad or something. “It will follow.”
“We will deal with it, then it comes to that.”
The Queen was thinking, but there was no time to do that. The Worm had reached the guard line of Lamia.
“Just gather the eggs! Run!” He made a call.
“Do it! As he say-sss!” She commanded after giving him a nasty glare. “but Lamia, don’t run, sss, we are warriors-sss.” She hissed mostly to herself and began slithering towards the Worm.
The small lamia and other nonfighters began gathering the eggs.
“Hey, aren’t you going to escape?” He shouted to the Queen.
“I will hold, sss, the Great Worm, while you flee. Buy us-sss time.”
The rest of the warriors apparently had the same idea.
“Then I will fight too.” He decided and joined the ranks.
The Worm crashed into the Lamia ranks, scattering them like stray pebbles. It was hell-bent on getting to the eggs, but the lamias jabbed their spears and managed to stop its movements.
“Attack-sss, kill it!” The Queen shouted. She two was wielding a huge-ass spear and committing to their efforts.
The stationary worm was easier to attack, so he used his spear to widen an already nasty gash in the monster's flesh. But of course, this was not enough. The Worm tensed its muscles and began to move either breaking the spears or letting them rip chunks of the flesh when they came loose. It was moving once again.
It roared enraged and set its sight on the Lamia again. The tactic changed, It began to spin and slither in a circle, deflecting all attacks. Now and then, it would turn its head and nab a stray Lamia who dared to be too close.
“What now?” He asked seeing that attacking it was impossible.
“It’s not after the eggs-sss. We wait, buy more time-sss.”
That didn’t mean that lamias weren’t dying.
The tactic changed again and the Worm launched itself in a straight line, towards the tunnel where the evacuees escaped.
“After it!” The Queen commanded.
He sprinted struggling to keep up with the incredulously fast Lamia. He was beginning to lag behind, “Can I?” He asked something unforgivable.
“Hop on.” The permission was granted.
He jumped on Queen’s back like a little goblin on a warboar would. The Queen slithered even faster, and being the first one to catch up to the Worm she thrusted her long spear at its side. The spear sunk deeply in the weakened flesh, widening the hole he had made moments ago, a small fountain of yellow steamed from it, however, the weapon was stuck.
“Worry not, I can help.” He used his spear to make the injury even worse.
Small digger arms would try to go and get him once he was too close, but the Queen moved away just in time. They repeated the strategy, it worked quite well. Who knew that the giant Lamia Queen could be such a good ride?
He wondered if he could train some of his spiders to be ridden just like that.
But it was not the time for such thoughts. The Worm stopped, likely tired from all the pricks it received. And it stopped it in the utmost meaning of the word stop; literary it was stationary in the blink of an eye. The Lamia still slithering were unable to break their sprint as fast as the Worm did, plus the Worm even began to move backwards.
And here they were right in front of its mouth. It changed direction again lunging with its mouth agape and into the mouth they went. No, not all of the lamias, The Great Worm Of Oberon was not that large, only the Queen and her rider.
It closed its teeth and like a garbage truck would it crushed Lamia Queen’s body.
[Perk Chaos Blessed activated]. By the grace of being comparatively small, or by some divine intervention, he avoided those teeth, but deep in the gullet he went.
He was swallowed whole!