36 Kill or Get Killed (1/2)
She had no doubt that the worm would take this opportunity to strike. She wanted to help, but Darius was in no way important enough to her for her to risk her life, not to mention that she was anyway too far to do anything measurable. Considering what little damage she had caused the creature, she felt a pang of powerlessness overcome her at this instant.
Darius's lapse of concentration, fortunately, occurred when the heat was once more conducting from the hammer. Before he could react, the heat flowed into his arm and spread through his whole body.
”Oh no!” Darius screamed inwardly, but it was too late. The bloodlust was already getting to his head. He felt his blood boiling as an intense rage washed over his heart. At the same time, a powerful clarity stilled his mind. He clenched his teeth while his eyes instantly became bloodshot. From the center of his body, he felt the power of Overdraw increase along with his sudden emotional stability.
Overdraw was designed to work best with Imperishable, so the effects of Indomitable could only truly display themselves when both the primary and secondary abilities worked in tandem. The worm rose up, about to swallow Darius and a whole pile of earth along with him, when the young man swiftly reacted instead of falling into a lapse of panic like the creature expected.
Using his free hand, he slapped the ground, using the opposing force to propel himself sideways. There was a loud noise from the impact, indicating the true strength applied by the young man.
Darius was propelled ten meters within an instant, shocking the observing Lara. The worm roared in triumph, only to realize that it had solely swallowed a chunk of earth. It squealed in anger and violently shook. The squeal was loud enough to make Lara wish she could cover her ears as she rapidly backed away. Nevertheless, her years of combat training allowed her to resist despite the grimace she wore.
Darius seemed unfazed as he slowly stood into a steady stance. He had a deadpan expression as he calmly observed the wiggling worm with his bloodshot eyes. He tightened his grip on his hammer as a plan of action quickly formed in his mind. As he was strategizing, the elder's words from this morning echoed in his mind, ”Kill them before they kill you!”
The basic premise seemed simple enough: kill your opponent before they killed you, yet the truth was that actually fulfilling the idea was far from simple.
”Princess, throw me one of your swords! Hurry!” Darius bellowed as he readied himself. Lara heard the boy as she had put down her hands, exposing her ears once again. The worm had stopped squirming and now prepared to retreat underground once more.
The stark contrast between his general appearance and countenance overwhelmed Lara. Before she knew it, she had already thrown her sword to the young man.
She was shocked by her own actions. After all, two swords were always better than one. By giving him one of her swords, she weakened her own battle strength, not to mention that the worm could attack her at any moment. After all, there was no guarantee that it would continue its sole pursuit of Darius. Despite her logical reservations, the young woman had unconsciously thrown Darius her sword without hesitation.
As the sword was in mid-flight, Darius ran toward it. His keen intuition and senses were keeping track of the worm's whereabouts underground. It was a simple-minded creature, thus its attack patterns were rather easy to read. Darius snorted as he ran to the sword. Just as he was about to reach it, the worm burst up from the ground!
Darius was expecting this, so he nimbly circled the creature, arriving quickly by its side.
Boom!
With a swing of his hammer, he smashed whatever portion that had come up straight into the ground. Except he didn't retrieve his hammer. The worm's top half remained embedded in the ground with the hammer above it.
Thanks to the hammer's special enchantment, only special means could be used to lift this. Darius knew this from experience, and the elder had given him even more information regarding this. The elder had said that this fact had applications for battle, and Darius was using one of them.