Giant Headworms couldn’t really jump, but this one certainly appeared to try. It flung itself over the edge of the cliff with no sign of its earlier hesitation, its malevolent gaze locked firmly on Bob’s flailing body. Seemingly in contravention of the laws of physics, the massive worm-like body with the multitudes of tiny, tiny legs scaled the side of the cliff like a billy goat, weaving back and forth to spread out its weight.

It got about halfway before physics politely cleared its throat.

The sheer amount of mass it was trying to hold in the air against the cliff became too much for its stubby little legs and it lost its grip with a rather comical look of concern on its massively oversized face.

Only about half the monster had weaved over the cliff, but its little legs seemed to be rather bad at holding grip. More than that, the creature’s thick, fat body was heavy.

The tail began to slide over the edge while the rest of it suddenly discovered what a bad idea this was and began trying to retreat back up the cliff. However, that only made its tail slide faster and very quickly the entire titanic monster was tumbling arse over teakettle down the side of the sloped cliff.

It impacted the bottom with an almighty crash that made the ground shake and triggered several rubble slides.

The most concerning of which was the one under their feet.

Gora heard a few shouts and curses from the others but could spare them no attention as the ground under her shifted and started to slide. She lunged for a metal rod sticking out of a large chunk of stable Otherstone as she felt her perch disappear under her.

When the dust cleared, she was hanging onto the rod with her arms, her legs dangling over a drop of a good two metres.

She glanced around to check on the kids. Samual must have thrown Bob clear of the rubble slide. The idiot was off to the side, clinging to some more solid looking structural components with a death grip. Samual himself had slid down all the way to the bottom, though it appeared his armor had protected him from any serious injuries. He was already picking himself up out of the dust.

Ava had likewise tumbled down, but she’d absorbed the worst of it by weaving a brief, shining, dome shaped barrier that she’d first slid down the side on and was now holding above her like an umbrella while the last few tumbling rocks bounced off it.

As the only four-legged individual among them, Zaxier was naturally fine and still sat on the top of the now rather thinner pile of rubble like he owned it.

“Do you think it’s dead?” he asked while casually flicking his tail while Gora pulled herself up.

She winced and looked over at the pile of twitching worm. “Not a chance. Those things are ridiculously tough. We’re gonna have to fight.” She turned and shouted back down. “Ava! Get your Anima out and moving! Keep it distracted while we regroup!”

Ava nodded and began digging around her bag.

Zaxier scoffed. “You really think it could have survived that fall?”

“Giant Headworms have only one gimmick” Gora explained. “They have no real vital organs, and a helluva lot of mass. A fall like that will break a couple of bones which will make our job easier. But trust me, it’s nowhere near dead.”

She leaned out with a long, muscular arm and plucked Bob off of his precarious perch by the scruff of his shirt, rather like a mother cat lifting a kitten, before depositing him safely on top of the pile next to Zaxier.

“Now grab your human and start doing your magic. Samual and I will go see what we can do to keep that thing’s attention. If you have to dip into Essence reserves, do it.”

The cat nodded in a very human expression of confirmation. She turned and, in a surprising show of agility for someone her size, bounced from perch to perch all the way down the side of the now precarious mound of rubble until she stopped next to Samual.

“Plan?” he asked flatly as he dusted himself off. Already they could hear the thing stirring.

“Same as usual. Zaxier is heavy firepower, Ava is support and distraction, and you and I get to go up close and personal to keep it off them.”

Samual nodded as he set off alongside Gora. “Yep. The usual.”

As they approached, the worm shakily raised itself up. They could see its jaw had been partially broken and was hanging loose on one side. Judging from its jerky and awkward movements, that wasn’t all that it had broken. Hopefully it would help tip the scales in their favour.

The creature let out a rattling hiss before brokenly lunging forward. Gora dived to the side to get out of its way, but Samual just stood his ground and raised his heavy shield. An itch began to build in the back of her head as he tapped into his deity or wherever it was he drew his power from. She just had time to notice a yellow spark running across his shield before the Giant Headworm struck it head on.

To both her and the worm’s great surprise, the young man didn’t budge in the slightest. Gora watched a twenty-metre worm crash into itself like a train accident as its sudden stop propagated through its entire body.

Samual followed up by swinging his dinky little mace and with a loud crash, the creature’s head and front part of its body was smashed sideways. It impacted the ground heavily in front of where Gora was rolling to her feet. His mace had caved in the thing’s cheek, by the looks of it.

Gora wasn’t one to let an opportunity like this pass her by. She raised her arm and landed a powerful slash on the thing’s already broken jaw, shattering it completely, before it could pull back out of her reach. It was a ragged and bloody mess hanging below its face when it reared up to look down on them with hate-filled eyes.

Gora glanced over at Samual. He was leaning on his shield, breathing heavily. While she didn’t know the exact detail of how his connection to his patron worked, she knew it taxed him severely. He would be fine in a few moments, but in the heat of battle things could move extremely quickly. If he got hit too soon it could do him serious injury.

To keep it occupied, she lunged forward, aiming for its large body. It recoiled briefly, forcing her to adjust her swing, before surging forward and ramming her right after her blade took a chunk out of its body. The impact sent her flying backwards, but she flipped over once before sticking a perfect three-point landing. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, but her regeneration was already taking care of the bruise.

The Giant Headworm swung its tail around, aiming for Samual, who grunted and lifted his shield again. The blow from the worm was nowhere near as strong as the first, full body charge, but neither was his defence as solid. The impact sent him skidding across the ground until he struck a piece of masonry with enough force to cause an audible clang.

Gora had no attention to spare to check if he was okay. The worm raised its upper body high before falling right towards her, simply trying to crush her beneath its mass. Gora’s powerful legs kicked out and she leapt to the side as the worm crashed down with all the grace of a falling tree.

As it tried to pull itself out of reach, she struck another powerful blow, again cutting deeply into its flesh.

She looked up at the ruined mess of its jaw as well as the two large, bleeding wounds in its body and sighed. She’d landed three solid hits that would have utterly eviscerated something her own size and it didn’t appear as if she’d even really slowed it down. Yep, this is pretty much how she remembered fighting these things to be. Big sacs of meat that just kept coming no matter how you carved them up.

A haggard looking Masked with glowing red eyes came rushing past her from behind, charging straight at the creature. For a moment, Gora almost panicked before she realized it was one of Ava’s Anima. She’d picked this one up at their last battle against the Masked, obviously, though the glowing eyes were new.

The worm simply raised its bulk and squashed the Anima flat beneath its wide, muscular girth. Gora glanced back at Ava, who was standing next to Samual’s prone but moving form, a pitch black orb in one hand. The other moved in a complicated pattern and Gora looked back to see a cloud of black, gooey darkness puff out from where the Anima had been crushed. When the worm lifted itself back up, a large chunk of its flesh simply stayed behind, decayed and sloughing off its body.

“I’m turning them into necrotic bombs!” Ava shouted at Gora. Her Croca-Boa appeared out of the orb, obediently coiled by her side, and her hands began to rapidly weave magic into it. Gora could just make out the little vial of Essence in her hands. She was dipping into her reserves, but at least it appeared as if she could hurt the thing.

Gora traded a few more blows with the worm, neither one of them getting a clean hit as she did her best just to keep its attention. It wasn’t long before the Croca-Boa also came slithering forward, eyes similarly glowing.

Unfortunately, the creature appeared to be capable of learning. It whipped its tail around – slower now than it was before at least – and clobbered the poor beastie, sending it flying in an arc until it struck a building and collapsed in a broken heap.

Looks like that trick won’t be working again.

The worm appeared somewhat pleased with itself despite the mangled jaw, until a rising pitch and a bright red glow marked the arrival of Zaxier and Bob’s contribution to the battle. The fireball struck the side of its body and blew a crater nearly halfway through its thick mass, sending the entire worm toppling over onto its side.

This was the gap Samual had been waiting for to re-enter the fight, apparently. The itch in Gora’s ear went crazy, making her entire neck twitch, and she just barely spotted him at the height of his leap, several metres up in the air.

He’d dropped his shield and had his mace held above his head in both hands with yellow sparks running all over his body.

What really stuck in her memory afterwards, however, was the look on his face. Part bloodlust, part hatred, part unimaginable joy. Far from his usual faint scowl, it would have made the craziest berserker proud.

When he came down, it was like a bolt of lightning. The ground itself fountained up where he struck the worm and the shockwave ran along its entire body. Gora could almost visibly see every bone in it shatter.

She couldn’t help but shiver as the force of whatever it was that powered him briefly passed through her, kicking up dust in its wake. It felt like someone ran a hand through her soul. Yuck.

As the dust settled, she found Samual limping away from the now shattered corpse of the Giant Headworm. On seeing her, he collapsed into a sitting position, breathing heavily and covered with sweat.

“Looks like you got it, Champ” Gora commented.

Samual winced as he looked back over his shoulder at the mountain of limp meat slowly decaying behind him before nodding back at her.

“Looks like it” he replied between deep breaths. “Figured it was best to finish things fast. You know, spider thing.”

Shit. She’d completely forgotten it.

Which just made it all the worse when she heard a very Bob-like scream back from where she’d left Zaxier.

“Ava! Stay with Samual!” she shouted at the approaching girl before sprinting back to the pile of rubble where she’d left the cat and his pet, a sinking feeling in her gut.

Shit, shit, shit, shit of course it had looped around and gone after their back line! That had probably been its plan from the start! Lure the Giant Headworm to keep their meatshields busy, then sneak around the back and pick off a squishy!

If she was fast and very lucky, she might still be able to save one of them. As callous as it was, Gora hoped it had gone after Bob first. The boy dying would be unfortunate, but the loss of Zaxier’s skill and knowledge would be a catastrophe.

Inwardly, she grimaced at the unintended pun. Now was not the time, dammit!

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, Gora reached the bottom of the broken building and practically flung herself up the side. Every instinct she had was screaming at her that she was being stupid. She was putting herself in a vulnerable position, scaling the rubble like this. If it was waiting for her, she could easily be ambushed or knocked off the moment she reached the top.

But if she wanted even the slightest chance of saving their lives, she had no other choice.

She threw herself over the edge, sword held ready and prepared for the worst… only to find Zaxier sitting calmly and looking over the opposite edge. There was no sign of Bob, nor the spider-thing.

“Ah, you’ve arrived. Could you perhaps give me a spot of assistance?” the cat asked nonchalantly. “It appears my apprentice burnt his fingers again and fell over the side. He is currently clinging to a metal rod as if his life depended on it.”

He peeked a bit further over the edge.

“Judging from the various pointy sections of rubble below him, it very well might.”