35 Look Out! (1/2)
As Lara had started walking away, Darius's senses had started tingling, and his ears had started to pick up a vibration from the ground. As the seconds went on, his ears had zeroed in on the ground directly underneath Lara. It had been a shuffling noise akin to one moving large mounds of dirt. His sixth sense had started to scream danger, leading to Darius feeling extreme fear and pointing below his counterpart's feet.
The old Darius would have turned tail and run at that moment, but within that split second, his instincts had changed from 'I need to run away' to 'I need to warn her.' Within that short instant of time, Darius character was revealed: he saw Lara and himself as one entity. It never even occurred to him that he was doing something out of character.
Darius could hear the rumbling of the earth beneath her feet intensify. He wondered whether he would even get a word out before she was attacked by whatever was coming. To his surprise, she reacted immediately and managed to leap away just in time. Within a split second, she was already beside him.
”Fast!” Darius did not have time to marvel more at her speed. It was here that…
Boom!
…
”What did I ever do to deserve this?” Darius screamed as he ran at full throttle away from the monstrosity chasing him. It was a spirit that looked like an earthworm, with its mouth's circumference covered in sharp teeth. This mouth was actually just an opening at the front of the worm while the teeth acted as drills, allowing it to freely move through the earth like a fish swimming in water.
The worm was incredibly thick. Each hole it created through its passing was at least three meters in diameter while it was at least twenty meters long. Its size wasn't the worst part. For the life of him, Darius could not figure out why the worm was chasing him!
At first, it had appeared under Lara, who had swiftly dodged its attack, but then the worm had single-mindedly rushed at Darius, completely ignoring the lass.
Darius cursed his misfortune as he ran for dear life while Lara ran after the duo. Like Darius, she was also confused. From time to time she would catch up to the worm and cut it with her two swords, causing some minor wounds here and there, but her taunting did nothing to sway its actions.
She was well aware that Spirits had the habit of targeting the weaker person first, but that was only if the gap was significant enough, which she did not think was the case here. Spirits had the ability to judge a human's strength with their beast-like intuition. Both Darius and Lara were humans of the first step of power, Courage, but Darius was a two-star Spiritknight while Lara was only a one-star Spiritknight. Under normal circumstances this would make Darius the stronger one, but the lack of bloodlust said otherwise.
This difference made Darius the primary mark; thus, for its survival, the worm had designated him as its target, then it will be able to face the real threat Lara.