Chapter 188: Chapter 188: Sandworms
Chapter 188 – Sandworms
"What a surprise, sister-in-law." Cassius said with a smile, looking at Anesthesia standing in front of them amid the dust-tainted atmosphere of the black dune.
As expected, Anesthesia Amaris didn’t have a single wound on her body, looking as though she had been on the ground since the beginning.
Her black hair was neatly tied into a ponytail, and she wore a tight black training suit with purple stripes.
Her fists were covered in gauntlets.
She looked at Cassius with obvious distaste, wondering why her luck was so dreadfully low. All she had wanted was to find a few lackeys to use during the test — and instead she had found the most annoying person in her life.
The one she had wanted to avoid at all costs.
"What?" she responded irritably. "Are you going to eliminate me here?"
"Do you think I would do that?" Cassius arched an eyebrow.
"Why wouldn’t you?"
"You know exactly why I wouldn’t eliminate you." He answered, sensing a slight disturbance beneath them. "If not for Isolde, then certainly for my uncle. And that’s why it’s perfect that we found each other this quickly. Let’s work together and get through this test, sister-in-law."
"What makes you think I will agree?" Anesthesia asked, then snapped her mouth shut.
All three of them leapt from the ground instantly, shooting high into the sky and using their own powers to hold themselves aloft.
Loud screeches overlapped each other and boomed harrowing across the blistering hot black dunes, causing the air to rattle and quiver, and horrible soundwaves to slam into Cassius, Océane and Anesthesia’s minds.
They winced, feeling a strange power weighing down on their bodies as though mountains had been placed on their shoulders.
They looked down, taking in the sight of enormous, half-building-sized black sandworms, their small mouths filled with rows and rows of sharp little teeth opened wide.
Their bodies were divided into many ring-like segments, each protected by incredibly tough black scales that glimmered under the hot sun.
There were three of them, screeching and moving erratically, causing sand to erupt skyward.
"This..." Anesthesia frowned, her voice tight. "Tier Five sandworms! What did you do to provoke so many of them?"
Tier Five was equivalent to Exalted rank, one rank above Imbued.
They were monsters with potent skills, and some even possessed one Skill at the level of Ultimate.
The simple fact the Academy had allowed this many of them during the Test was staggeringly shocking.
Added to the fact that the sandworms were in their natural habitat, their power would be elevated well beyond normal.
Anesthesia cursed her luck, her body glowing as she enhanced herself.
Océane bit her lips tightly, feeling her body go still with fear, yet still doing her best not to show any weakness.
The Test had barely begun, and the maid was already realising she may have chosen the worst possible path.
This Academy was dangerous. And the more time passed, the more she understood one thing.
’...I am going to die!’
"What did I do?" Cassius shouted over the deafening cacophony of screeches. "I might have killed many of their young while landing."
Before Anesthesia could reply, the three sandworms moved.
All three braced for the impact of their skills. However, the sandworms instantly vanished from sight, as if swallowed by some invisible jaws.
Even their perception was unable to pinpoint the monsters’ locations, the strange dust-choked environment making everything feel identical in every direction.
"My perception is my weakest attribute!" Cassius said, looking around, feeling a strange drumbeat reverberating beneath them, as though the world itself was in intense turmoil. "Anesthesia, have you—!"
Cassius didn’t even have time to finish as two of the enormous sandworms burst forth from nowhere, bringing with them an avalanche of sand so densely compacted it was harder than gold.
The rain of sand blurred and obscured the vision of both Anesthesia and Cassius for a moment.
Yet even so, their eyes were still able to see that the two sandworms had attacked Océane, at the exact same time.
Océane’s face drained of all colour as she opened her mouth wide. "YOUNG M—!" She was swallowed by one of the sandworms before she even finished the word.
Anesthesia’s body shivered with dread. At the same moment, the third sandworm appeared directly in front of Cassius a second later and hurled its scaled body — heavier than anything he had yet encountered — straight at him.
Time seemed to stop.
Amid the rain of sand, the screeching of the monsters sending soundwaves sharp enough to cut flesh, and the sandworms now attacking from all sides, Cassius’s mind was still replaying the last expression on Océane’s face.
An expression of pure terror, her hand stretched out toward him.
Cassius’s mind went blank for an instant, and his body shuddered,,as though thunder were tearing through him from the inside.
In that instant, when his mind dropped offline for a moment, the conscious regulator of his body vanished with it. Pure and unfiltered instinct took over.
His Second Skill — Chains of the Accursed — activated at full power. The crimson portal of its realm opened directly between the still-open jaws of the sandworm that had swallowed Océane.
Crimson Chains erupted from the realm, binding the creature’s mouth open so it couldn’t close, while a single chain shot inward to grasp Océane — who, in her desperate attempt to save herself, had clawed at the inside walls of the monster with everything she had.
At the exact same moment, Cassius let himself be swallowed by the sandworm attacking him.
Inside that darkness, as he fell, the Last Born pressed his hands against the oily, poisonous walls of the creature, making contact with its blood.
He activated his Third Skill, marking the monster with a Weakening Mark, dropping its defenses by 30%.
Then his crimson essence flared, and his left draconic eye momentarily awakened fully, pushing his fire and blood power to a level far beyond Imbued rank.
With that, Cassius detonated the monster’s own blood from within, causing the Tier Five Sandworm to explode into a mess of gore and chunks of burned flesh that sprayed through the air.
The spectators in the arena gasped, then roared in jubilation, slamming their feet on the ground in excitement.
In the black dune, the temperature surged to a fever pitch after Cassius’s skill.
He reappeared outside, his mind clear as still water. And there, just in time, he saw Anesthesia attacking the monster still chained by his Second Skill with practiced boxing strikes.
Cassius reached quickly into his space ring and pulled out an artifact.
It was a long black needle, the size of an adult arm. A Tier Five artifact with a single Effect: Increase Piercing Effect by 60%.
Cassius smeared his blood across the tip, took his stance, spun on himself and threw the needle with explosive force straight toward Anesthesia.
"Anesthesia!!"
The Fallen Heiress snapped her head toward him and saw the needle only a couple of metres away.
With impossible flexibility, she twisted her body and caught the weapon with her right hand.
She groaned loudly, gritting her teeth as her hand burned from Cassius’s crimson fire. Still, the Fallen Heiress ignored the pain and used the weapon’s momentum to spiral her body six times in two seconds, then hurled the needle straight at the chained sandworm, pouring all of her enhancement into the throw.
The needle zipped through air and sand alike with vicious force.
With Anesthesia’s ridiculous talent and power behind it, Cassius’s fire burned so hot the surrounding space looked scorched. The Piercing Effect climbed from 60% to 85%, while the poison in Cassius’s blood became instantly lethal — after all, it had originated from a Tier Five monster itself.
When the needle reached the first sandworm, it punched through with ease and continued straight into the one behind it, creating gaping holes flickering with fire — each the diameter of hundreds of metres — through both creatures.
Their hearts stopped completely from Cassius’s poisoned blood.
And so...
Thud.
The monsters fell heavily to the ground below, sending black sand breathing upward in great plumes that blanketed the surroundings.
Anesthesia was the first to land, dropping to one knee and gritting her teeth against the pain, her right hand still burning. Her glove had melted entirely.
She drank a healing potion quickly and enhanced its effect. The wound closed soon after.
Sighing under her breath, she lifted her head and looked at Cassius pulling Océane free from the crimson chains, drawing her into his arms.
He looked down at her and saw the maid completely unconscious, black veins spreading across her entire body. On her lips were the remains of some unknown organ from the black sandworm.
Cassius’s crimson eye quivered.
Océane was poisoned. On the very first battle of the very first test.
—End of Chapter 188—
