SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant Chapter 518: Trafalgar vs Sand Worm [II]

The plunge was fierce enough to warp the world itself.

Trafalgar's form ripped through tumbling sand and shattered rock as Widow’s Whisper gripped tightly between two armored segments, pulling him along behind the worm like a snared phantom. The desert ground had split open for just a moment before shutting above them once more, and the faint light that chased him downward vanished in an instant. The warmth fled with it. The atmosphere grew suffocating, heavy, infused with the flavor of dust untouched by daylight for countless ages.

He finally tore himself aside and slammed one armored boot into the tunnel wall. The jolt raced through his entire frame, yet it provided the purchase needed to yank the dagger loose. Widow’s Whisper faded into a faint glow and disappeared from his grasp right before the worm hauled him around the next curve.

Trafalgar hit the ground in a deep crouch.

The space surrounding him was vast.

This wasn't merely a tunnel. It formed a subterranean realm shaped by endless hunger and eras, a maze of colossal corridors spacious enough for the worm to glide through unimpeded. The walls bore smooth, sweeping marks from those plated bands grinding against hardened soil repeatedly until the rock molded to their form. Narrower branches veered off into shadow, some angling up, others plunging lower, each echoing the same domineering design of a behemoth that had dominated here for years.

'Wow. I didn’t know the Academy had kept a sand worm here long enough for it to do all this.'

That idea flashed through his head just once before the passage trembled anew.

The worm kept surging forward.

Its massive form slithered onward in the blackness ahead, emitting a rumbling grind that vibrated the walls before the sound hit the air. Fine sand trickled from overhead in slender flows. Dust clouded his visor. Each advance felt less like delving into a cavern and more like invading the guts of a colossal engine forged by ravenous need.

'Shit, visibility is bad down here.'

He raised Maledicta a bit and unleashed [Arc Slash] into the gloom. The deep-blue arc sped forward, scraping sand from the ground and carving a lengthy gash in the right wall. The slash lit the tunnel briefly, revealing a broader cavity ahead before dust engulfed it once more.

Movement stirred within.

The worm burst from the left passage first, but just a portion. A stretch of its armored bulk rammed through the chamber like a animated siege weapon, not aiming to snap at him now, but to transform the whole area into a zone of death. Trafalgar countered with [Severance Step], his figure streaking in a sweeping dash that propelled him along the chamber's rim and behind a protruding stone spur moments before the thundering body pulverized his former spot.

The chamber quaked.

The overhead tunnel split.

A broad slab of compressed soil collapsed from above.

Trafalgar seized the chance. He swung Maledicta once more and fired another [Arc Slash], this time targeting not the worm's exterior plating but the weakened roof over its route. The dark-blue surge sliced through the remaining support, dumping half the ceiling onto the beast's back amid a torrent of fractured dirt and boulders.

The cascade barely halted the worm for a heartbeat before it bulldozed ahead with raw power, pelting the chamber with debris. Trafalgar shielded his visor with one arm as stone shards exploded around him.

'Tch. Its body really is a tank. Hard enough that I’ll burn through my mana before doing anything meaningful to that armor.'

That summed it up perfectly. Up top, he had realized superficial strikes wouldn't suffice. Underground, the issue intensified. The monster commanded the environment, and whenever it hid its jaws or belly, he faced the task of breaching a mobile bastion.

The worm struck back with greater fury.

It charged from the shadows head-on now, its jaws expanding into rings of serrated fangs. The confines amplified its horror. On the surface, its scale had awed. Here, it overwhelmed, suffused every sight, smothered the mind if allowed. Trafalgar spotted the gaping maw and triggered [Severance Step] anew, the next streak of speed arcing him across the chamber precisely as the worm barreled through his prior position.

Its bulk crashed into the far wall, gouging a furrow through solid rock before whipping back at him.

Swifter than earlier.

It was adapting to him as well.

Trafalgar braced his stance and retaliated with [Morgain’s Requiem].

Maledicta executed motions too swift for elegance and too precise for frenzy. Around him, six sweeping blue-black arcs erupted, flooding the chamber and slashing the shadows like segments of one ferocious ballet. In the vast desert, the move would have expanded farther. Here underground, it grew suffocating. The room compressed it. Compelled it. Every arc tore into walls, ground, roof, and any portion of the worm in its trajectory. Rock fractured. Sand erupted outward. New gashes ripped open amid plated segments as the slashes raked the beast’s flank in rapid succession.

The worm jerked back with a bellow so profound it dislodged fresh dust from above.

Good.

That strike had stung.

The issue lay in the aftermath.

The whole chamber started to crumble.

The sweeping arcs had performed their task excessively well. Fissures raced across the ceiling from edge to edge. Trafalgar sensed the shift in the cavern’s integrity before the initial chunk plummeted. He spun around, felt the ground heave beneath his feet, and triggered [Severance Step] once more, his form slicing through the space in a sharp arc right as the area behind him caved in.

Rocks crashed down with thunderous force.

The worm disappeared amid the debris.

For a brief instant, Trafalgar heard only his breathing echoing in the helmet amid the din of tumbling dirt clogging the passage.

Then the debris stirred.

The worm exploded upward through the wreckage from underneath, exploiting the ruined chamber for concealment to strike from an unpredictable angle. Its head rocketed skyward with power enough to fling boulders aside like scattered pebbles. Trafalgar twisted aside and slammed Maledicta downward in a vicious [Severing Fang]. The forceful slash tore diagonally along the jaw’s edge, shredding a line of barbed fangs and ripping the flesh hidden between two armored bands close to the upper gullet.

The worm slammed laterally.

Black ichor gushed across the ground.

Trafalgar spotted it.

Not the injury proper, but what lurked beyond.

The beast had gaped wider than previously in that charge, and farther down the throat, past the initial fangs and armored layers, a fleeting glimpse revealed something tender. A light-colored inner fold lining the mouth’s depths where the protective rings failed to connect fully.

’There it is, huh.’

That held the solution.

Not its interminable length or any external spot. The fatal blow demanded entry via the maw, past the front teeth rows, into that vulnerable inner seam the worm relied on bulk and speed to guard beyond the plating.

Before he could exploit it, the worm charged anew.

Trafalgar countered this time with [Earthsplitter].

Maledicta descended in a savage double chop. The initial blow hammered the floor ahead of the advancing jaws. The follow-up unleashed via the earth, a mana surge cracking the tunnel floor and blasting upward through compressed soil. The ground ruptured, the worm’s leading assault veered downward, and its entire forward section smashed askew into the chamber.

Fragments of stone sprayed around it.

The gap created allowed Trafalgar to dart beyond the head’s flank and plunge another strike into the damaged area by the mouth. Yet another profound gash. Another foul outpouring of ebony blood. Not sufficient still.

The worm convulsed in torment and rage, prompting the walls to emit another prolonged rumble.

The passage was collapsing.

Trafalgar ducked into a lateral tunnel moments before the primary chamber gave way. An entire upper wall segment sheared off under the worm’s mass pressure, and sunlight pierced the fissure for a split second prior to a torrent of sand cascading down like molten gold.

There lay his escape.

The worm noticed as well.

Its form barreled toward the rupture in a frenzied, destructive path, aiming to pulverize him amid the downfall. Trafalgar refused to flee further inward. Instead, he surged alongside the surge, slashing through the tilted tunnel as rubble pounded his plating. The worm pulverized the broken exit in an explosion of rock and grit, carving its own ascent to the surface.

Trafalgar pursued the fissure an instant afterward.

He burst into the open amid scorching heat and blinding glare, boots sliding over a crumbling sand incline while the worm erupted from the sands in a massive, wrathful upheaval behind him. Fresh air struck like liberation. Gusts whipped his armor. The heavens appeared purer than ever.

He whirled immediately.

The worm loomed before him, gore staining the borders of its maw, the inner lesion concealed once more by those dread rows of fangs. Their surroundings had transformed. The outburst had demolished one dune flank, baring solid stone protrusions under the grains, reshaping the area into harsher terrain with scant gentle inclines and diminished cover for the worm’s advances.

Better.

The battlefield for this battle’s conclusion was at last forming properly.