Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 138: Dune Maw Battle

Flames exploded outward, making the horrible heat of the desert skyrocket for a moment. The beast screeched in great pain, its armored hide was red-hot from the damage it had sustained.

Aria saw the moment and took it. She aimed her staff at the injured monster and closed her eyes for a brief second, focusing her entire existence on gathering mana. It coalesced around her, building up in a concentrated form of destructive lunar energy.

But just as she could release [Lunar Overload], the worm suddenly froze.

Then, in an instant, it burrowed into the sandy ground. A loud rumble sounded as the Dune Maw vanished beneath the sand with great speed. Nothing but a large hole remained in its wake.

For a moment, silence fell over the battlefield. Then, a man who was already mid-attack before the monster made its move tumbled into the hole.

Kaiden’s eyes snapped toward him. The warrior’s fall was not graceful in the slightest—he crashed hard, and his body twisted at an awkward angle. The man struggled to push himself up. He took a great deal of damage from the fall itself.

Their eyes met for a split second. The man reached out toward him. His expression was a desperate plea. “Help… me…”

Kaiden took a step forward.

A blur of movement. That was all he saw before the dune maw exploded forth in a flash, and its massive maw snapped shut around the man in a single, gruesome chomp. Blood splattered across the sand—the man was gone. Only a single boot with his amputated feet still in it was left behind.

The worm’s massive body disappeared back into the dunes in mere seconds. Panic set in, making the remaining fighters scramble, looking around frantically. “Where is it?! Where is it?!”

Kaiden closed his eyes, blocking out the noise, trying to sense the vibrations beneath using his feet. But before he could even begin to focus, the sand erupted once again. It surfaced right next to Sasha.

Her eyes widened in shock. “Aah!” She stumbled back, and her fingers instinctively reached for another arrow, but there was no time.

“RAAAH!”

With a thunderous roar, Jack threw himself at the monster.

A golden glow surrounded him as he shouted, “[Guardian’s Bulwark]!” A defensive barrier manifested around Sasha; the tanker’s spell redirected the worm’s attack toward him instead.

*Boom!*

The worm’s massive jaws crashed into Jack’s barrier, protecting the redheaded archer. The muscled man immediately grunted from the exertion as soon as the resulting damage assaulted him, but Jack held firm, living up to his role as the group’s most talented tanker. He stood in one place, unmoving, with blood seeping through his gritted teeth and nose.

“Leon!” he shouted, and the swordsman immediately jumped into action. A single moment later, the shield vanished from around Sasha, and Leon was already at her location. Lifting the woman into his arms, he bolted away, escaping danger.

“T-thanks…” Sasha muttered with a ghostly pale face that told everyone her life had just flashed in front of her eyes.

Despite the massive amount of damage the dune maw had sustained, its hide still held strong, and its movements, though slightly sluggish now, still carried immense power.

Kaiden’s gaze sharpened, observing each of his Valkyries for a single moment. Then, after ascertaining they were all right, both in mind and body, he turned toward the monster.

“Let’s roll.”

He began rushing toward the monster, with Jack and Leon falling into step beside him, and the remaining Legion soldiers charged in as well under Vaelira’s direction. Their shields slammed into the worm’s body, keeping it off balance as Kaiden and Leon unleashed a flurry of attacks.

Kaiden hacked at its flesh, his war axe carving gashes wherever he struck. Leon slashed with the precision one would expect of a trained swordsman, aiming for the wounds Kaiden, in his attacks made with wild abandon, had already inflicted to deepen the damage further. The summoned warriors drove their spears into its hide, adding to the assault.

The dune maw shrieked and thrashed wildly with its massive bulk whipping around in retaliation. Each movement sent shockwaves through the sand, forcing everyone to dodge at a moment’s notice or lose their lives.

Nyx’s eyes narrowed.

One inner look at her body’s condition told the Space Valkyrie she couldn’t summon another massive lance of the proportions she did before. That kind of exertion took too much mana and mental strength. Instead, she adjusted her approach.

With a flick of her wrist, [Astral Summon: Fire] activated once more. This time, a thin, needle-like spear materialized in the air. Less mass. More penetration.

She launched it forward, aiming for its presumed weak spot.

The spear stabbed straight through the worm’s exterior, sinking deep into its body before stopping somewhere within.

The result was not an explosion this time due to the lack of mana investment, but its effects were still resounding.

The Dune Maw convulsed violently, and a deep, guttural screech tore free from its throat. Its movements became erratic, desperate. Flames burned from within as its insides suffered from a fire that refused to die out due to Nyx doing her utmost to keep the flames alive even when her weapon was inside the creature. This, too, required immense focus on her part.

But the monster was finally on its last legs, and Aria was ready. Her staff glowed with a silver shine once again, and this time, [Lunar Overload] had been fully charged.

Since Kaiden, Jack, Leon, and the remaining Legion were all at the front of the beast, attacking its head and midsection, Aria had to adjust her aim toward its tail.

She unleashed the charged attack. A crescent beam of pure lunar energy shot through the air, slamming directly into the Dune Maw’s tail.

*Shing!*

The lower half of the worm was reduced to chunks of flesh and burning meat. The once-massive tail was no longer usable. The beast was crippled. It shrieked as its movements grew even more frantic than before.

A sudden crackling sound filled the air.

“[Lightning Step].”

With lightning surging around her form, Luna moved in an instant, covering the distance in a few moments. She landed on top of the Dune Maw’s head. The Storm Valkyrie knelt and raised her [Stormblade] high.

And then, she plunged it down.

The electrified blade sank straight through the monster’s skull. A burst of lightning erupted from the impact, frying its brain from within.

The dune maw gave one final, deafening cry before it stopped moving. Its massive body lurched forward after the last remnants of life drained from its massive form.

A dust cloud rose from the impact of its collapse; the sheer weight of the beast was more than enough to send tremors through the sand.

[You’ve slain Dune Maw (Level 13). You’ve gained 2200 XP.]

It was a great deal of XP to receive, considering how many of them shared the kill, but instead of rejoicing, Luna stood atop the monster’s unmoving corpse with a troubled expression.

Although she’d made a great move, her mind was still struggling to comprehend what had just transpired before her eyes. Her gaze turned in the direction of Rebecca’s body, with only her upper half remaining. The rest of her was inside the monster’s stomach. The awakened human was no longer emitting any signs of life, not even weak whispers.

A loud wail sounded from a woman who looked just like Rebecca, her twin sister.

“Sister!!!”

She rushed to the body and knelt, clutching her and letting tears paint her sister’s face.

Luna returned to Kaiden and her two friends with a grim expression. None celebrated their victory.

“Let’s check on them…” Nyx said with a sorrowful expression. Seeing such scenes through one’s awakened media platform didn’t do the real thing justice, especially if filmed on the mana cameras and not Kaiden’s [First-Person Camera]. She thought she was ready, but her stomach was churning just as badly as Aria’s and Luna’s.

Kaiden had seen dead people already during his brothel escapade, and he also seemed to have Vespera’s cold blood coursing through his veins, but this loss still saddened him. Killing scum was vastly different from losing one’s allies.

But before they could take more than a few steps, Vaelira called them out with an accusatory tone. “I saw you four cowards! You watched the ongoing scene from a safe distance for many valuable seconds instead of helping your allies!”

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