Chapter 288: Chapter 288. Gigantic Crawler
"Alright, it’s decided! You are going to take that evolution, Theo!" the baron said after getting up with a happy grin.
Theo looked at him in surprise and then nodded before the baron moved his head toward the side at the same time.
"My aura invited a beast that you all are not ready for yet," he spoke and then moved his hand as if he was shooing the trio.
"Get to the corner, this can get dangerous."
Theo got up and asked for the mantis to come back quickly. He could tell it was not with the group of beasts of Clara and Elias.
They all moved to the back with the beasts ready to go. Yet the baron stood casually with his sword out of the scabbard.
There was nothing for a few minutes, and Theo kept calling on the mantis but could not see it coming to him. From the bond, it always sent the emotions that it was coming back soon, like a child not wanting to come out of the playground.
Theo just shook his head and decided to force it this time. He gave a firm order, to which the mantis finally reacted properly.
Soon, Theo started feeling some tingling all around his body, especially in his legs. It felt like the ground itself was tingling him.
The ant queen kept sending distressed signals, mentioning that there was something coming to them.
The tingling feeling became a literal earthquake, where Theo decided to hold on to the wall only to look at it with slight scare.
"This won’t fall on us, right?" he asked while looking at the rocky wall, making his attendants look too.
"I think not, but let’s move a little forward just in case, young master," Elias spoke, but his focus was on the ground with a frown, as if he wasn’t liking it one bit.
The tremors intensified until Theo saw the ground literally crack apart. A big white head bobbed out in mere seconds.
Theo could sense the speed it had to travel to do something like that with a body like that.
The baron smiled lightly with his knees bent. He was in some formation that Theo could guess from miles away.
’He is going to jump,’ he thought, and the baron did it right away, making Theo feel somewhat good about his intuition before going back to guard mode, looking at the beast keep coming out of the ground.
BURST
The ground itself cracked, and the dirt moved everywhere when the baron jumped. The explosiveness behind that simple jump could be felt by anyone.
The beast moved its head down to look at the baron, already approaching it with his sword ready.
’Wait, he is not going to use aura?’ Theo thought with surprise. He didn’t think the baron would take risks like that. Or was this not even a risk?
Curiosity got the better of him, and Theo checked the status of the big worm.
Colossal Burrower
Grade- Rare
Level- 12
Type - Earth Beast
Only to realize that this was way above his pay grade.
The baron’s sword was going to plunge deep inside the big opened mouth of the worm, where there was enough space for the baron to just dip inside.
When it was going to connect, the baron’s sword got covered with aura at the last second, and with a big grin, he was going to puncture it deep in the worm’s body, only to stop with surprise.
He moved his leg and kicked the worm’s teeth instead, making him go back and the worm’s teeth fell inside and it halted.
The baron landed with a loud "THUD". Theo could feel the pressure on their knees from here, but the baron was surprisingly okay.
"Theo," the baron spoke with an irritated look, making Theo straighten up.
"Get your beast to get down already. It’s ruining my fun," the baron spoke with a frown.
Theo took a moment to realize what he was saying, but soon his face turned to that of being horrified.
He looked up at the worm’s head and the body that kept bobbing here and there as if trying to get something off of it.
"MANTIS! GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!"
Theo spoke and tried finding where the mantis was, but no matter how much he focused, it was just too far away.
But there was really something there on the worm’s body that was making it get distracted from them.
"Now it sprayed some liquid onto the worm’s body. This is a brave one, I see," the baron spoke with a grin and readied his sword again. "Alright, I will join you in defeating this beast."
The baron was right by Theo, and when he jumped back up in excitement, all the dirt that got out went to Theo, making him skillfully deflect it from his face.
’That spray could only be the poison one, or the spore, as father doesn’t know the difference.’
While Theo thought, the baron was already at the worm’s body. He slashed his aura-coated sword horizontally toward its body’s middle.
The slash was visible to the naked eye, and Theo saw it cleanly go inside the worm and then get out.
"You all need to cover yourselves. It’s going to rain blood soon!" the baron spoke.
At that very moment, it was as if something clicked inside Clara, and she grabbed Theo’s arm before dragging him toward the trees in a hurry.
Elias ran toward them too, hoping to spare himself and his clothes from getting dirty.
And they were right. The worm’s body opened from in between, and all the blood seemed to pour out as if a dam had been opened.
Theo got a glimpse of it while running, making him think just how ridiculous this world was. A creature this big was living inside the land. There was no wonder there were so many crawlers; it needed them to sustain itself to be of such size.
’Or... were these this one’s offspring?’
Theo thought until a notification came to him.
{Your Bloodbloom mantis helped defeat a Gigantic Crawler (Level 12)}
{Grade (+) and level difference detected (+)}
{50% added to the base EXP}
{EXP gained}