Agent of Seraphim-Chapter 41: Fighting the Disgusting Worm

Brand stepped back to Ruby’s side, keeping well out of reach of the demon worm’s thrashing body, and watched Karl struggle against it.

Karl was clearly struggling. The worm left him no opening to strike, forcing him to focus entirely on dodging.

Though he seemed to be doing well, as he didn’t take any damage from the worm. Except for the one he did to himself. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Karl was biting his lips the whole time.

’He wouldn’t be holding a grudge, right? What if he found out it was me?’

Brand started to worry, as he had a gut feeling that he would eventually find out it was him.

’Let’s worry about that later. Although that was the first time I saw his expression of frustration.’

Brand glanced at Ruby, who was staring at the trim of the shield for a long time. She had been in that state since he lunged to Raml-d’ah.

Seraphine shrugged her shoulders, as if telling him to find out the reason himself.

Ruby still had her spell up, but it was long since she finished casting the spell. But she seemed to be in a trance, so she did not release the spell to the worm.

’Shouldn’t you be focusing on the fight? We were risking our lives to stall for your spell there.’

Brand went up to Ruby, cautiously waving his hand to her so as not to surprise her. It would be horrific if she released her spell prematurely on him.

However, he was stunned after realising what she had been staring at.

’Brand Smith.’

The engraving of his name in the shield, instead of Essen’s.

Ruby lifted her head to stare at Brand, with teary eyes, and her hand shaking. Brand could feel the heat in the air, almost like it was lashing out at him.

"She really might just drop the spell on you?" Seraphine teased, enjoying Brand’s distraught state.

***

Karl managed to take on Raml-d’ah for a while, but he soon also felt overwhelmed by its relentless assault.

"I feel demotivated for resisting my lightning attacks." Karl sighed while running, circling the giant worm.

"Ruby, not ready yet?" Karl shouted to Ruby, hoping she could respond at least. He had been shouting for half an hour now, but she was distracted by god-know-reasons.

"I’m dying here!" Karl shouted again.

Brand peeked and pointed in Karl’s direction.

He then talked to Ruby in a soft voice. "Ruby... Karl was dying."

"No! I want to know now!" Ruby was holding the massive flame spell in her hand.

"What’s your identity!" Ruby yelled. She had been interrogating him for some time. "Where was Brand Essen?!"

"We can continue with the talk later, I promise..." Brand tried to convince her once again.

Brand turned to the giant demon worm, Raml-d’ah. His leg wound had completely healed, thanks to the regenerative abilities of his cyborg body.

Earlier, he had also unleashed ’Consume’ on the nearby demon worms, feasting upon their remnant energies.

So, he felt his condition was good enough for a second round. However, Karl was not the same. He was clearly tired.

’Let’s swap him out.’

"Ruby, I will go and hold down the demon worm. When I gave the signal, release your spell, alright?" Brand handed her a beetle.

"The beetle’s disappearance would be the signal." Brand held her hand tight with the beetle.

Ruby blushed a little, but maintained her intense glare on Brand.

Finally, she nodded. Brand also felt that the temperature dropped a little, making it more bearable.

But she remained quiet.

"That’s understandable," Seraphine expressed her thought.

"Imagine your past unrequited lover had returned after disappearing for two years, returned with amnesia, then turned out to be a completely different person?"

"That’s messed up..." Brand whispered in a very low voice, while tucking his head.

’I had my circumstances... but that’s sad for her...’

"But she seemed to be interested in you," Searphine giggled. She expanded her little wing and made a shooting arrow action, like a cupid.

"Her looking at me like that was probably because I shared the same face as Essen, now." However, he admired Ruby, who had been waiting for such a long time.

Seraphine shoved her face in front of Brand while giggling. "Please don’t be annoying..." Brand waved her to go away.

"We had to first focus on surviving this damn worm." He looked at the giant worm with determination.

***

"Karl!" Brand shouted to the young man who was fighting the giant worm, alone, with diligence. His blue hair was like a mane of some mythical wolf...

"..." Karl did not answer him.

"He seemed to be sulky since being ditched by the humanoid creature earlier," One of the young warriors spoke.

"Well, he was also defending against such a behemoth worm demon alone." Seraphine giggled.

Brand felt pity for Karl, as he looked like he was trying to howl at the moon. But there was clearly no moon anywhere. They were deep in some worm’s den.

"I’m starting to feel depressed, Brand." Karl leapt to Brand’s side, slung his spear over his shoulder, and locked it into the harness on his back.

"Can you imagine? I need to look closely at this ugly worm, to follow every movement of it." Karl complained. "It was disgusting."

"I’ll take some rest and guard Ruby." Karl stayed in front of Ruby. He showed his readiness to defend her from any sort of attack.

She had to unleash her spell successfully after all.

Brand nodded and thought.

’Must be hard for someone like him to look at such a horrific creature for a long period of time.’

It seemed the challenging part for Karl was to stare at Raml-d’ah’s face.

Brand now stood in front of Raml-d’ah, facing its ugly maw, disgusting tongue, and dripping saliva.

"It was really ugly, hahaha." Brand reminisced about his conversation with Karl and laughed.

"You guys were so hard on him," Seraphine whispered. "It didn’t want to be ugly."

Brand checked his hand, more specifically, his fingers. This became a habit of his after prolonged usage of beetles in the battle.

Besides the two beetles stationed at the oasis and village, two more beetles were in the underground, to report on Raml-d’ah’s movement.

And lastly, the beetle in Ruby’s hand.