Return of the Fallen Volume 11 Chapter 12
Heading in the direction Kazuki saw the reflected light, he trekked through the seemingly endless desert. Hills became mountains of sand which then dipped into valleys of emptiness. Not a tree nor plant, not an animal nor insect. All that could be found was sand, well that and the sandworm.
Every few thousand feet, the ground would shake before this same Sandworm would appear from below. Kazuki would again remain still and wait. He could tell it was the same creature from before and not a different worm because he could sense its soul with his soul reading ability. Out of curiosity, he tried to inspect it with his aura but the results were disastrous.
The moment his aura touched this hundred-foot worm, the strange fin atop its head turned in his direction and zeroed in on him. Its wide-mouth opened and revealed row after row of spiraling sharp teeth before it dove at him in an attempt to swallow him whole.
(SHIT!)
Kazuki’s ki circulated as fast as possible and with the help of his aura, he leaped off the ground and just barely dodged the monster. The giant sand worm slammed hard into the ground cracking it apart like an egg shell. This thing wasn’t particularly fast but in this strange world, you didn’t need to be. All you needed was persistence and this worm had it in strides.
The moment it hit the ground, the fin atop its head changed direction. Its head swiveled and it chased after Kazuki Or rather it chased after his aura. Its mouth opened and it dove into the path of Kazuki’s aura. Kazuki didn’t realize what it was doing at first and thought the monster was just stupid and couldn’t find him but a second later he realized he was mistaken.
Kazuki felt the aura holding him up was suddenly severed by the monster below him and eaten. Kazuki felt a sharp pain in his soul and he fell out of the air. Since the worm had dove under him to eat his aura, Kazuki fell right on top of it and landed squarely in its mouth. Before he fell down its throat, Kazuki reached out and grabbed at one of these sharp teeth.
To his shock, his hand was immediately cut and it was almost completely cut through. Kazuki’s eyes went wide and his natural instinct was to use his aura to propel himself out of the beast’s mouth but as soon as his aura left his soul world and was in the physical, he felt his aura be severed once more.
(This bastard!)
Once again there was a sharp pain in his soul and he quickly pulled the rest of his aura back. He felt his hand falling apart and he quickly reached into his waistband and pulled out several talismans and threw them beneath him. The talismans disappeared into the depths of the beast. As soon as they were out of sight, Kazuki activated them with a thought.
*FWHOOOSHHH*
Blazing fire erupted from the depths of the monster’s insides. A flame of pure white came rushing upward and Kazuki planned to use this explosion and ride it up and out of the monster. The explosion of fire reached him and rushed upward another 5 or so feet. Kazuki prepared to let go but he immediately noticed something was off. His body was still heavy as shit and not just him but so too were these white flames. Just as the fire had climbed a little higher them where he hung, the fires suddenly reversed from the massive weight and it was dragged downward without reserve.
The massive explosion simply fell back down within the monster before it was snuffed out. Kazuki was left stunned but he knew this was not the time to think about all this wild shit. He grabbed another handful of talismans. Each one contained a different element and without warning, he activated them all at once.
Light, space, lightning fire, water, ice, wind, stone, darkness. These talismans lit up the surroundings and went in every direction but once again none were of use.
Just as Kazuki was going to try something else, his hand that grasped this tooth was cut all the way through. He quickly grabbed the tooth with his other hand and felt the tooth slice into this one while his other hand fell down the monster’s throat. In less than a second his regeneration kicked in and he regrew a new hand almost instantly.
(Great, all I have to do is fill up this monster’s stomach with a mountain of my severed hands and I can climb out of here.)
A stupid joke was the first thing that came to mind before he thought of something else. Lifting his foot he awkwardly kicked at the tooth. With ki flowing through him, this powerful kick left a small crack on the surface of the tooth.
(I’ll break this fucking thing and then use it like a pick and climb out of here in one shot.)
As he was attempting to break the tooth, some of the blood that remained on his arm hit the inside of the beast’s mouth. The entire worm shuddered and the worm suddenly began to shake its head back and forth violently.
(This type of reaction!)
Kazuki didn’t know why it was so offended by his blood but right now he didn’t have the time to care. As he gripped the tooth, his hand that was continuously regenerating and getting wounded over and over again, Kazuki made up his mind and suppressed his healing. This hand was cut through with no problems and more blood spurted out. Kazuki swung his wrist around wildly in every direction as he began to fall, making sure to coat and cover as much surface as possible.
“How do you like my pain job.”
Kazuki’s healing didn’t just include repairing and regenerating new flesh muscle, bone, etc. He could also increase the speed at which his body produced more blood. Add the fact that his ki could accelerate this as well and in a fraction of a second he had spilled out enough blood to fill a small pool.
A low rumble echoed out from down below and for a split second Kazuki actually thought his fire might have not died out fully yet and he somehow just missed it. That line of thinking was overturned in a deafening way as the rumbling turned into something much greater. It was almost as if mountains were crumbling continuously and the sound of thunder combined and ad a baby. These two distinct noises warped into one and echoed and grew. Suddenly Kauzki’s entire vision went black before the world seemed to spin around him.
*BANG!*
Kazuki hit the desert sand and dozens of bones in his body shattered on impact. He had been vomited out. Kazuki slowly sat up and caught the sight of the sandworm shaking before it dove back below the surface and vanished. His bones healed in no time but right now as he looked himself over he felt slight disgust. His entire body was covered in a smelly foul grey mucus-like substance. This mucus contained a bit of the creature’s stomach and Kazuki could feel his flesh constantly melting and regenerating at every passing second. Pain of the flesh he could always deal with but this smell was worse than a sewer combined with many rotting corpses. Kazuki instantly used his ki to shut off his sense of smell.
Standing up he felt a weird shift in the weight atop his head and found that his hair was slicked upward like the peak of a mountain top. Kazuki was for a moment grateful he had disguised himself as an old man who had shorter hair. Had it been his regular hair, it would be like another creature entirely atop his head.
Shaking himself, he got some of it off but the vast majority was unbelievably thick and sticky. Kazuki dug in his waistband for a talisman with water but he was out. He tried to write one with his blood but the slimy mucus got in the way and messed and blotted whatever he wrote. Eventually, he gave up and just started to roll around in the sand like a dog. It was starting to help and it was slowly coming off when Kazuki heard a small chuckle behind him.
*Hehe*
“Now that was a first for me. I’ve never seen anyone escape a sandworm once they’ve been swallowed up like that, especially not in such a weird way. Actually, come to think of it, I ain’t never seen anyone get swallowed by a sandworm. What the heck did you do to piss off one of those gentle giants to get swallowed up?”
Kazuki looked behind him and was prepared for a fight but he was instantly disarmed by the appearance of the person. A thin old woman with long grey and blue hair. The woman wore thick goggles and had a bright smile. Kazuki just kind of looked at her dumbfoundedly for a moment before the lady tossed a small flask to him.
“Here, you probably need this first.”
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