The bang that jolted Kyle awake wasn’t just loud—it was felt.
A deep, stomach-churning thud that echoed through tal and bone alike.
He sat up with a grunt, the shift nearly tossing Ollie off his chest if not for him bracing the blonde in ti. Only for the mop to let out a quiet snore before flopping back down, completely unaware of all the banging and the looming threat.
Another BANG—closer this ti. It wasn’t random. It had rhythm. Intent.
Sothing was moving beneath them.
Kyle’s hand darted to the cockpit console, pulling up seismic readings. His screen was blinking red, but the cause remained a mystery.
It was like a targeted earthquake, for visually, nothing was shaking, nothing remotely close to how they were being thrown here and there by the quake caused by the roots.
But Kyle wasn’t the only pilot awakened by this forsaken clamor.
Xavier was annoyed because it woke Luca up. He didn’t think the nap of his little chipmunk was enough, considering everything that happened earlier and was now pissed at this incessant banging.
"Sid," he whispered sharply, voice still raspy with sleep. "Report."
"Master, ground tremors are being detected even now. The source is localized, but the number of signatures is unclear. Sothing’s moving."
From across the shared comm channel, static gave way to Gisella’s groggy voice.
"What the hell was that?"
"Did we trigger sothing again?" Cece asked, her voice already rising with concern. It was difficult for a dwarf not to feel connected to the land, and she was itching to check it for herself.
"I don’t think so. If anything, it’s probably been waiting on here," comnted the Duchess, who had always thought that sothing was likely unique to this place.
"Kyle, do we have visuals?" Asked Xavier, whose comm video flickered into attention.
"Negative, Captain. I’ve been looking for ground imagery, but it’s looked the sa since we got here."
However, the most bothered was probably D-29, who comnted on how there were no changes in the spiritual reading anywhere.
Which was really odd, as even the tree roots carried spiritual energy.
Luca thought it was unnatural, unless they were being affected by moving rocks?
But then the readings stopped showing changes, and sothing about that made Xavier stop.
It was quiet.
And suddenly too still.
Then—
The ground erupted.
A massive pillar of dust and rock shot up like a geyser. An entire plot of land was launched skyward in clumps in an explosion of dirt and debris.
And rising from it was a beast unlike anything they had seen before.
It towered like a living pillar. Its massive, ridged body was armored in stone-like plates, and to Luca, it was like seeing an upright public bus.
Jagged spikes jutted from its upper carapace like a crumbling crown, and its head—if it could be called that—was a faceless wedge, with a spiraled maw and no eyes.
Definitely not pretty.
And that body that looked like it was part of the ground with all that sedint may be one reason why they couldn’t detect it.
It didn’t roar.
It didn’t screech.
It just moved, looking for the target that should’ve been there.
The Duchess.
But as if by instinct, Duchess Alia revved up the thrusters and flew up in a sudden motion that surprised everyone before they managed to follow suit.
"Up! Everyone, up!" barked the duchess.
Their chas launched into the air in synchronized bursts of thruster light, just as the ground caved in beneath them.
However, when she was nowhere to be found, the giant thing burrowed back, displaying what was probably worse than seeing the monster out in the open.
The burrowed worm tore through the ground with a terrible silence that was louder than any screech.
Then, not long after, it erged from the last position of Butler Gary.
And had he not imitated the Duchess, it wouldn’t have ended well for him with that maw that opened up to gobble the expected prey.
It was another miss.
And as if frustrated by this failure, it had decided to up the stakes.
Likely the true horror of this monster: There were more.
Another worm burst forth, then a third, each one massive, ancient, and equally silent, like they were peeling off layers of the land itself and shooting up from wherever there was space.
"Are you seeing this?" Cece hissed as the cha piloted by Gisella spun into position.
"I wish I weren’t," Kyle muttered, adjusting Ollie’s sleeping form against him.
Another worm slamd into the dirt where Kyle had been seconds ago, its head spiraling open like a corroded drill, exposing rows of gnashing, grinding teeth that looked like they could shred solid alloy.
And Duchess Alia had a feeling she understood more now.
"I believe this is the reason the barren lands are like this. The roots don’t grow here because they get eaten from below. These monsters own the underground."
"Wonderful," Cece chid in, voice dry as dust. "So the land is dead because it’s crawling with apex burrowers. What’s next, lava whales?"
"Shush your mouth! Don’t jinx it!" Gisella wanted to bonk her as she tried firing a barrage of bullets at one of the advancing worms. The shots struck true, chipping parts of its armor, but it kept coming.
"Guns won’t work against these things," Gisella growled through gritted teeth. "The rounds bounce off like we’re throwing pebbles."
Her rounds hit another worm square in the flank. The impact scattered shards of its rocky plating, but the damage was superficial. The creature didn’t even slow down.
She was trying to probe for weak spots from afar, but even that seems like it can’t be done with just bullets.
"Then we switch to close quarters," Xavier answered, re-routing thruster output to compensate for mid-air weight shift. He reached for the sheathed weapon slot on his cha’s side panel, retrieving a blade longer than a hovercraft.
"Keep them mid-range. We can’t let them drag us down."
"Agreed. Everyone, draw lee weapons," Duchess Alia ordered. "We cut through the soft seams. Behind the jawline. Beneath the plate ridges."
Duchess Alia led the charge, her borrowed blade a sleek dual-pronged weapon that extended with each strike, leaving glowing trails in its wake.
It took a while to get used to the weapon, but knowing their House, she was bound to find sothing like this in the cha’s arsenal.
She spun mid-air, slicing through the flank of a surfacing worm, exposing a thin underlayer of flesh. Or sothing that looked like it.
It screeched internally—no sound, just a twitch of recoil—as it tried diving back underground.
"That’s the spot!" she called out. "Beneath the third ridge!"
"Copy that!" Gisella swooped in with a wide, arcing slash, only to pivot and block as another worm shot upward, jaws gaping like an ancient siege engine.
They had successfully made it easier to deal with the worms, but even as they made clear dents, the vast land just kept feeling more crowded.
And maneuvering was starting to beco a challenge.
The worms were fast. Much faster than expected for sothing of their size. And more terrifying, they were coordinated.
"They’re cornering us," Butler Gary muttered, trying to keep high altitude. "We stay too low, we’re done."
Luca had heard all that, and while Xavier was the one piloting, he had been there thinking precisely about energy and fuel usage.
They had so with them, but how long would they have to battle, and how much would they have to use before they’re done fighting?
Or should they book it back to the grasslands?
If anything, these monsters wouldn’t have to even beat them. They’d just have to exhaust them and their resources.
Kyle was looking at the sa information and saw the high burn rate.
While the guardian chas would be fine as they were going to thrive in a place like this, how would the other chas survive this ordeal?
"You’ve got to be kidding ," Kyle muttered.
And that’s when the mop in his cockpit stirred.
Ollie felt a shift in his position, but what really stirred him up was the sudden change in his white noise—Kyle’s heartbeat and the sounds he was suddenly making.
"Mmmph..." Ollie whined, stretching like a sleepy cat. "Why’re you so noisy, Kyle...? Can’t a guy nap—"
His eyes finally opened.
At first, he was squinting, but then he saw the screen.
His sleepy blink turned into a double-take. Then a triple. Then a gasp.
"???"
Worms?
WORMS?!
Kyle didn’t even look down. "Oh good, you’re awake. You might want to brace yourself better."
Ollie looked at the incredulous sight. Even the worms were capable of being this tall?!
"Since when do worms eat tal?! Shouldn’t they be eating plants?!" Ollie’s voice hit a new octave.
His voice was shrill and sudden, but Luca, who overheard his outburst, suddenly stilled.
Wait a minute.
It seems like his brother was a genius all along!
"Brother! You’re so smart!" Exclaid Luca, who suddenly had a sparkle in his eyes.
"Huh?"
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