Roxene having failed in her latest attempt to persuade Marcus to leave this fight against the Dread Burrower began to frown.
He was her chosen caretaker and really, she was not sure what would happen if he were to end up perishing.
‘Just stay alive no matter what. Now I am taking Inten and getting out of here. Send me a message when it is all over, or you finally decided to make the move to escape.’
After saying this Roxene turned around and shot straight south, running at full speed towards the crystal caverns while carrying Inten on her back.
With the two of them now on their way to safety, Marcus turned his gaze towards the west and flew over towards the next nearest village.
There were still more people to help, and now that those closest to him were on their way to safety he would focus on everyone else.
…
Quickly another day went by as he lifted people around in his form as a caladrius, and Gwyneira and Retharin did the same.
They had managed to bring most of the people to a safer location leaving them, in the capital city of the nearby Scriven Duchy.
It was by far the largest city in the area and was over two hundred miles away from River Landing which was soon to turn into a battlefield..
‘There it is.’ Marcus thought as he looked out on the horizon from far above.
The Dread Burrower’s main body had just come into view though the destruction it had wrought was visible from an even greater distance.
The Great Gome Woods for hundreds of miles had been destroyed, and all that was left was a dusty baren land devoid of life.
Pulling out his sending stone he contacted Gwyneira and told her that their enemy was now on the horizon, and that it would only be a matter of time until it reached the edge of the woods.
Though its tendrils had already come this far and had begun destroying the abandoned Norr Village that Marcus was floating above.
Luckily no one was left, and while it did demolish the place, at least no lives were lost.
‘Time to get started.’
Gritting his teeth Marcus prepared himself for his roll in their current plan that was quite drastic.
Still, they needed to do what they could to slow this thing down while reinforcements arrived to help.
Currently it was still just the four of them, as anyone else close enough to offer assistance was honestly too weak and would just end up getting killed.
‘Eat this.’
‘Phenix Fire.’
Recodifying and starting off with one of his biggest moves, Marcus cast the tier seven spell from the blaze glove.
Immediately the form of a giant fiery bird formed around Marcus, before launching off towards the Doomsday Worm.
Naturally this sudden explosion of energy from within its range of perception got its attention, and it began sending its thousands of tendrils right towards Marcus.
He was easily the best meal within a hundred miles, and it was intent of eating what looked like a glowing morsel to it.
However, before it could get to Marcus it had to deal with the spell that he had just launched which flew quickly and soon hit its main body.
A huge explosion of flames engulfed the gigantic worm’s head, and it began thrashing around for a few moments, before the flames went out and the burns they had caused quickly healed away.
Nevertheless, Marcus never intended to do any meaningful damage as he simply could not. No what he wanted was the horrid incarnation of destruction’s attention.
‘Well, time for a game of tag I cannot lose, or win.’
Turning around Marcus began flying away as the Doomsday Worm single mindedly chased after him.
Its two-mile wide and thirty-mile-long body left a scare through the ground as it hastily moved after the prey that was getting away from it.
Of course, it sent out an unending amount of its tendrils to ensnare Marcus, but they had no chance of getting him.
He would blast them away for a bit until he was overwhelmed and then disappear into his ghost form.
Even at level ninety-three the Dread Devourer had no means of using spiritual energy or a way to interact with Marcus once he had gone ethereal.
It was a practically mindless monster that ran on instinct alone and did not have the understanding necessary to deal with Marcus’ ability to shift from tangible to intangible.
However, what it lacked in brains it made up for in its unmatched regeneration and unfathomable power.
The stupid thing was pretty much unkillable, as any damage done to it was healed and gone in a couple of seconds.
Along with that they had found no weak points to exploit as even if its head was blown off as Retharin had done, it bounced back all the same.
However, there current plan was not to kill it, but just to stall it and wait for reinforcements.
But they had learned that a forward assault was a bad idea, as the Doomsday Worm could perform acts of unexpected agility and launch its body incredibly fast.
Along with that it had unleashed a massive beam that had taken Gwyneria’s wing off and vaporized it just by being grazed.
Its mouth was truly dangerous, and they needed to keep away from it if at all possible.
‘That is right. Keep following me.’ Marcus though as he led the Dread Burrower into their trap.
Quickly he flew across the open land beyond the woods and as soon as the gigantic monster reached the area, the snow began to turn a sickly reddish-brown color as it had everywhere the Doomsday Worm went.
This was just the vile desolation it left in its wake showing that it had drained the life out of the area.
Still even though it was pretty awful to watch, Marcus had no way to stop this thing and could only keep up his role in leading this thing around.
Soon, he had led it to the edge of River Landing which was now devoid of human life.
Every single person had been evacuated away and now the town was still and quiet.
Floating inside the town, Marcus waited for the Dread Burrower to follow him in so that they could spring their trap. Yet as the monster reached the road, it suddenly stopped which was very uncharacteristic of it.
Then it turned its head to the west and its glowing eyes stared off into the distance.
‘What the hell is it doing? Why is it not following me in?’ Marcus thought seeing this uncharacteristic behavior.
Even the tendrils coming after him had lessened a bit, though they were certainly still trying to get ahold of him.
Yet the Dread Burrower who may have been very interested in Marcus, turned away and began heading west.
This was far from what Marcus as well as Retharin and Gwyneira had planned, since they were trying to lure the thing into River Landing.
‘Damn it. The thing is heading for Loursend all of a sudden. Why has it now decided to no longer head directly south?’
Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.𝘤ℴ𝑚 for the best novel reading experience