Wormer had never ordered his worms to move at maximum speed, nor did he ever really know they had a maximum speed. He found that out when he watched his quickly made siege worm army get destroyed quickly, being torn apart by the most bloodthirsty plants he had ever seen.
Which considering Wormer was an elder among his kind who had lived in a magic forest filled with different varieties of magic plants, including several that survived on blood alone. Well, the fact that the strange undead roots had out shown even them with their need to find out if his worms could bleed and how much blood they could get out of them if they did ended up distributing him to his core, which wasn't the biggest surprise all things considered.
So he spent every single moment on the ride back constantly looking forward, then back wishing for his only surviving siege worm from the disastrous attack to just be a bit faster. Well, he imagined the undead roots creeping down the tunnel after him, a mere moments away from sinking themselves into him and tearing him apart. But eventually, through some miracle, Wormer made it to the other side of the tunnel and was back in his lair.
So now that he was in his own territory and feeling just a tad safe because of that, he began to act to make sure his lair was ready for whatever retaliation was to come. So first he cast his skill ENLARGE on his last siege worm and then had it collapse the tunnel behind him that led to the caverns filled with undead roots.
Once that was done, he then ordered his enlarged siege worm to expand this side leading into the collapsed tunnel until he had a large chamber. Then once that chamber was big enough, he used his skill DUPLICATE to create several more giant siege worms and hide them. Wait in the now massive chamber for anything that might come through the collapsed tunnel with the early defense settled. Wormer made his way back to the chamber of his lair, where he worked on his WORM SHAPING craft.
Wormer made quick time, quickly finding himself back at his stone table thinking of his defeat and wondering how to combat the undead roots. Though he wasn't finding much luck on that as he couldn't think of any modifications he could make to his worms that would make them capable of standing up to the undead roots onslaught.
As he stood there over his table stumped, a voice filled his cavern, shaking him out of his thoughts. "Wormer you scoundrel, get up here now." Grekal shouted, her voice bouncing off the cave walls of Wormer's cave home. Wormer took a moment for the ringing to clear his ears before making his way to his work elevator.
"Well, it looks like I get to talk to my good friend Grekal again. How joyous the occasion this will be." Wormer said with clear sarcasm to himself as he made his way to his work elevator, walking through several stone platforms that passed over his more dangerous creations.
Wormer looked at a few of them, wondering if perhaps he might need to use his more abominable creations against the undead roots if he wanted to emerge victorious. Though he eventually shook his head, clearing his mind of such thoughts as he had other, more pressing things to do, like finding out what Grekal wanted.
So he made his way over to the work elevator, getting on, and it took him up to the surface, where a clearly impatient Grekal waited. "Grekal always a pleasure to see you; to what do I owe the pleasure?" Wormer said it with a tone so sweet you could get a sugar rush from hearing it.
Grekal clearly having no time for the formalities nor wanting to engage in them with him to begin got straight to the point of her visit. "Have you attacked the underground of the young undead kingdom or not, you scoundrel?" Grekal hissed with urgency.
Wormer thought on his he should answer that for a moment before honest was probably the best answer, especially since he didn't have anything to hide. "I did attack, but the young kingdom you mentioned has a garden of undead grass roots below that took my siege worms by surprise, slaughtering them and forcing me to run got my life. Which I don't remember you mentioning." Wormer stated, looking at Grekal with a questioning gaze.
Grekal understood the implication and replied quickly. "No, we did not know about the undead roots, or I would have warned you. We need your underground assault to succeed." Grekal stated simply restraining her rage that a disgrace pixie like Wormer would dare to insinuate her on the elder of tragedy, and when she was in the form of the Shepard defending her clan, no less.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"Well, then the bargain was struck, and I still have to uphold my end. Not to mention I doubt the undead kingdom will let me off for my little attack on their little realm, no matter how easy it was for their underground plants to tear my siege worms apart literally." Wormer said confirming that he would honor the early deal made between the two of them.
"Good, how long before you can gather enough worms for another attack?" Grekal asked intently, needing to know when Wormer's next attack would be so that she and the other elders could use it to their advantage on whatever they ended up planning.
Wormer looked at her moment, not speaking, merely thinking on his answer before he finally spoke after a long moment of silence. "It will be a few days at least before I can have another attack." Wormer stated simply to which Grekal gave him a look that demanded why.
"I will have to come emeoth's type of siege worm that can best fight effectively the undead roots that protect the underground if the undead kingdom to the north. Once I do, I will launch my attack." Wormer explained simply to Grekal frustration at the delay.
"Fine, I understand, but do not take a second later than necessary to get your army ready before you attack. The clan will not wait forever for you to do what you are going to be paid for." Grekal stated coldly, to which Wormer simply nodded, then had the worm elevator lose him down back into his lair, watching as Grekal stomped off back to her chains village.
Wormer, free of his employer's annoyance, made his way quickly back to his stone table to work on creating worms to battle the undead roots. But as he made different siege worms, one covered in sharp blades to cut through the roots, as he tunneled another siege worm producing a poison from its skin that would burn the roots when it touched them.
But the more he thought on it, the more flustered he got as he realized that, well, these siege worms might have early succuss doing some damage to the network of undead roots; they would be completely overrun by the sheer weight of roots as he could only make so many at once. So Wormer realized he would have to use the darker things he had created taboos of his creation.
He had broken the taboo by modifying the worms as he had long ago, but in order to master his craft, he had taken that even further. Creating creatures that were not just modified worms, but we're a combination of worms and other things. He did this by typically using the worm as the spine and adding on extra limbs and other such things to make a more dangerous creature.
Though these creatures were usually so outside of how worms lived that his creations became far more aggressive as a side effect of not knowing how to deal with all the additional limbs, making them rather effective war beasts. The problem was that if such a beast were a taboo within a taboo, their mere knowledge of their existence getting out would probably get a bounty for his head.
As he thought about whether he should use such taboo creatures, hoping the nature of the underground fighting would keep his pixie kind from finding out about their existence, Though as his mind spun in circles with how everything could go wrong with the use of such creatures, knowing he needed them to lead, he charged if he wanted in an effective attack on the underground of the undead kingdom.
Though the descion was taking from Wormer as he heard a loud crash and then sound of fighting on the northern edge of his lair. He then realized to his horror that it had been a good night and a half since his I'll fated attack. He hadn't noticed the time pass as he had been lost in his work then in his indescion while the enemy had been getting closer.
The undead kingdom was in his lair and was fighting the enraged siege worms he left behind. "It looks like I don't have a choice now." Wormer said to himself as he charged towards the special cells that kept his taboo creations, hoping his siege worms bought him the time he needed to release them and lead a counterattack.
As Wormer made a run for the taboo cells, there was only one thing he could say to the whole situation. "It just isn't my day today, is it." Wormer stated simply as he ran like his life depended on it because it may very well.