Synexus immediately pushed his sensors to the floor to understand what they were dealing with while Kumo ran to the mouth to try and force it open. The information came rushing in and the system displayed it.

  Shattered-Mountain Worm: An Ullashtt known to burrow through mountains. This mythical creature can stay dormant for centuries and digest anything foolish enough to walk into its mouth.

  “Any chance you’ve heard of a Shattered-Mountain Worm?” Synexus yelled toward the mouth.

  Kumo was shooting cloud blades towards where the mouth was, but it wasn’t opening. She turned around and with a frantic voice she said, “Yes, but it was a scary story. I didn’t think they were real!”

  “Well surprise! They are real and we were the fools that walked in.” His heart started beating faster as the fear rose. The dampness of the cave was making it slick, and he realized it wasn’t water. It was mucus.

  He was going to yell out at Kumo again; however, the floor slipped from beneath his feet the second he opened his mouth. Their whole world felt like it was moving. The walls were contracting and there was a strange suction pulling them back into the beast. Synexus tried to grip the wall or find some type of handhold with no luck. They were being swallowed.

  He could hear Kumo scream and found that she was right next to him again. Without another thought he reached out and grabbed her hand. They held each other tightly to not get separated as they slid down the throat of the worm. Panic and fear were practically dripping from them. That’s when Synexus pulled his katana out of its scabbard and stabbed as hard as he could at the side of the throat.

  The blade went smoothly and deeply into the flesh of the beast. Their descent into the worm slowed and then stopped all together. They heard another roar as the long gash started producing thick blood that smelled of death.

  Kumo held onto Synexus with all the strength she had. The suction was powerful, and she could tell that he was struggling to keep hold of the katana. She couldn’t blame him since they were both covered head to toe in the slippery mucus. To make matters worse it had some sort of health draining effect. Her health points were slipping by a point every minute or so. They were running out of time and had no plans. “This couldn’t be any worse, Synexus!”

  He was about to make a strained comment when the transmutation on his arm wore off and they were once again thrown into complete darkness. The searing pain of the change to his DNA almost made his grip fail, but he held on. This was not how he imagined his adventure going. He finally responded to Kumo, “You were saying?”

  They both held on. Synexus to the katana, Kumo to Synexus. The floor of the monster’s throat had thoroughly covered them in mucus and the contractions were getting worse. That meant the suction was going to get even more powerful. All they had to do was hang on or at least that’s what they thought. Suddenly they heard loud crashing noses and felt a shift in gravity. Their backs left the floor, and they were now dangling from his katana.

  The worm had shaken itself out of the mountain and was now holding its head straight up to try and dislodge them from its throat. It wasn’t expecting them to be so hard to swallow.

  The panic and fear returned and multiplied within them both. It was even more difficult to hang on than it was before and Synexus knew his fingers were going to slip. That’s when he got an idea.

  He used all his strength to pull Kumo up and hang on as she climbed to take hold of the katana. When his right arm was free of holding her, he reached in his bag to pull out some of the moonlight fungus so they could see and handed it to her free hand. Then he transmuted his arm to take on the genes of the paralysis thorn. His arm ignited with pain before turning green and sprouting thick spikes. He had to be careful not to stick himself, but the worm was a different story. His arm swung out and stuck its thorns into the side of the throat.

  Repeatedly he stabbed at the worm and then he decided to leave it in a particularly nasty wound. The description said paralysis would be worse the most of a dose the creature got, and he could tell it was taking effect. The suction lessened and they were both lying on the floor of the throat again. This brought them a reprieve, but it wouldn’t save them.

  Finally, the suction and contractions died completely. They were able to let go of the katana and rest for a moment. Lying on their backs covered in mucus and foul blood of the worm trying to eat them they breathed heavily. That was almost worse than almost being swallowed. The smell was foul. The stamina for both was almost completely depleted and their health points were slowly ticking down. Their situation was dire; however, this bought them time to think.

  His thorned arm was still deep within a wound, injecting the worm with the paralytic. The transmutation would wear off in another fifteen minutes, and he wasn’t sure how long the paralysis would last. Kumo created a breeze to clear the stench permeating the air around them which helped a little. Then she started shooting off cloud blades to try and damage the worm enough that maybe it would spit them out. More blood came flowing out of numerous cuts all over the inside of the throat. Her mana wouldn’t last forever though.

  Synexus noticed that one cut was bleeding more than the others right on the roof of the throat. He figured she hit a blood vessel of some sort. That’s when he got another idea. He pulled out four seeds. They were the only seeds he had for the Death Song Herb.

  Death Song Herb(rare): An herb that carries a potent poison. Ingesting can be fatal. Injection into the bloodstream is certain death. Once in contact with blood, this potent poison will duplicate itself until its dead or the victim has perished. Can be used to make an antidote if cleansed by a skillful alchemist.

  He didn’t like the idea of using poison on any creature which is why he had left the seeds in his bag. Eventually he would sell them to an alchemist to make antidotes, but this was life or death, and he chose life.

  Continually sticking his thorns into the worm to stay stable, he was able to get right under the bad gash in the roof of its throat. Reaching his hand as high as it could go, he was able to touch the inside of the wound. He had all four seeds inside and started pouring mana into them. Slowly they started taking root inside the blood vessel. Synexus could feel them getting bigger and bigger until they stopped growing and started replicating.

  Now, he wasn’t sure how long the poison would take or if it would even kill such a large beast. This was simply the only chance they had. To raise their chances of success, Kumo kept up her onslaught of cloud blades to deal as much damage as possible. Soon enough she ran out of mana. Synexus also used the rest of his by taking out some of his hybrid leech moss and using Accelerated Growth as much as he could. This resulted in a large patch of moss that was slowly draining the health and mana of the worm. After that he kept stabbing it with his katana worsening the wounds already made. Blood was pouring down the throat of this worm by now and they were amazed by its vitality. How was it still alive?

  Synexus was in mid-swing for another strike with his katana when without warning the worm shot its head up again and they both were sliding down with the mixture of blood and mucus. The paralysis only lasted about five minutes after his transmutation ended. He thought it would last longer than it did, or he would have immediately transmuted again and kept it paralyzed. Thorns grew from his arm once more, but he could only get small stabs in here and there as they fell. They couldn’t see anymore because Kumo had dropped the fungus with the surprise of the movement. It felt like they were falling through nothingness. The only thing he knew was that his katana was in his left hand and his right hand was occasionally hitting the side of the throat with thorns. He could hear Kumo a little above him. She was screaming, which was understandable since they were currently being eaten by a giant worm that apparently had its vitality maxed out. That’s when he realized that he was also screaming. Then he hit something hard.

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  Pain shot up through his body and he knew his leg was broken. Luckily, he hadn’t fell on his katana or his thorned arm. It was like he hit the side of the throat, but it felt bumpier. He could tell it was at a slant of some kind and he was slowly being pulled down it. He heard Kumo still screaming much farther down than he was. This must be the entrance of the creature’s equivalence of an esophagus. When he finally slipped off the slant he fell again, but it was through a much narrower space. This one was contracting more frequently to push anything through it without any problems. If he struggled, he knew it would break more than his leg.

  Synexus took advantage of the narrow space and continually jabbed it with his thorns hoping to slow the worm down even if it was just for a little bit. He had to find Kumo again and they had to find a way out of this. The worm must have built up a resistance to the paralysis secretions. That was the only explanation of why it wasn’t working anymore. The smaller doses were less effective, but he had stabbed the worm hundreds of times. The blood felt like a warm tide over his skin by this point. Massive internal bleeding couldn’t even stop this beast, what could?

  Kumo found herself falling through a narrower passage than before. She didn’t hear Synexus screaming anymore and feared the worst. She didn’t want to die alone. Of course she didn’t want to die at all, but definitely not alone. Her mana was depleted, and she felt weak from stamina and health point loss. She didn’t have any options left. She wouldn’t give up, however. Constantly, she was reaching out to find something to grip onto, but eventually the walls disappeared, and she plopped down into a deep pool of blood and mucus. It filled her open mouth and nostrils like a slug squeezing through a tight space. She swam up and gasped for air. It all came back up as she threw up and spit the nasty mixture from her mouth.

  This is how she dies. Floating in the gross mixture inside a giant worm in pure darkness. She doesn’t even get fresh air or a beautiful night sky. A million thoughts filled her head and all of them were grim. What about her father? The rest of her family? They would never have closure. She only survived two days on her adventure. Hot tears started coming down her face, but then she heard a scream and finally a loud plop. The mixture splashed into her face.

  Synexus found himself engulfed in the warm, vile pooling of blood and mucus. There was no up or down. Suddenly, a hand reached down and grabbed him. After surfacing, he reached into his bag and got another fungus to light the space. He saw the foul blood orange mixture that he was stewing in and then he saw Kumo. Her beautiful eyes were filled with despair and her normally perfect hair was matted down with insides of this damned worm.

  “You’re alive!”

  “Me?! I thought you were dead!” Tears were running down her face and she could barely make out the words. It reminded Synexus of his mother and that made him tear up, but no. This was not the time to cry. They needed to live.

  They swam over to the edge of whatever they were in, and he continued to stick his thorns into the side while Kumo stabbed it with his katana. This was probably doing no damage or very minimal. It was all they had. They really need to invest in some mana potions if they get to Gale.

  Mana slowly regenerated, but since they were still at the beginning of their classes it was close to one point every three minutes or so. The worm for whatever reason was keeping them in this space for an extended period, so every point of mana they regained, they immediately spent. Kumo would slash the side with a cloud blade causing more blood and Synexus would use his to grow more leech moss or even some paralysis thorn that he would stick into the wounds of the beast hoping it would eventually take hold. When his transmutation ran out, he changed tactics and transmuted his arm with the potent poison genes of the death song herb. Then he would punch his arm into an open cut to deliver more poison. That was their only hope. He had put four full grown herbs into the blood stream earlier. They would continue to deliver the poison and replicate until they died. If they could deliver enough even the worm’s vitality would fail.

  They lost track of time with that small space barely lit up with the soft blue glow of the fungus. The health drain on them stopped or slowed significantly. Neither of them could say why. They were just thankful it had happened. With the bit of hope they resumed doing whatever they could to survive. Constantly hacking at the walls of their prison, hoping for a miracle. Finally, something happened except it wasn’t a miracle.

  It was like a drain opened and the blood-mucus soup was starting to form a whirlpool. Both Kumo and Synexus were sucked under in a violent spinning vortex of filth. It was a fast process, and they both came spilling into a new chamber. The fall into the hard chitin covered surface was not pleasant. Synexus avoided landing on his broken leg but that resulted in a broken or badly damaged left arm. It didn’t help that Kumo landed straight on top of him. She had some bad scrapes, but no broken bones.

  The blood and mucus were slowly gathering at the bottom of the space. They sat there for a moment in the faint blue glow of the fungus. The chitin was rough and there was a collection of various rocks and dust along the sides of the oval like chamber. They were probably from the worm ingesting them while burrowing through the mountain.

  After only a few minutes of silence, they noticed the chitin started to contract and close in on them. It was a slow movement, but the space was getting smaller. The muscles were pushing the walls together. The rough chitin, the rocks and dust, and the power of the contracting muscles were meant to grind down any food that fell in here. This was the end of their journey. They would be ground down into mush to pass through the intestines.

  They both panicked and threw everything they had against the chitin. It wasn’t enough. It was too hard. Even his katana was skidding off the surface. The blood and mucus soup was getting higher at an alarming rate as the space closed in. It was soon up to their necks and the walls of death were closing in. They had done their best to avoid the rocks and other tools that would grind them down, however, they couldn’t dodge them all. Their blood was mixing with the worms deepening the red. The filth was entering their body through the cuts. All they could do was stare at each other in silence. This was their end. Tears were running down their faces. She held his hand, and even though it was painful due to his fall, he wasn’t going to stop her. He turned to her and opened his mouth, “I’m sor…” the syrupy mixture engulfed them both before he could finish.

  Blackness became a faint blue glow as he opened his eyes. His working arm felt the rough chitin and he sat up. What happened? He thought before turning to find Kumo. She was lying several feet away. She was bloody, but he couldn’t tell if it was the worms or hers. He stumbled over to her even though everything was in pain. Turning her over, he realized she wasn’t breathing. He panicked and started shaking her. “Please wake up Kumo! I can’t be alone anymore. Please!”

  She started coughing up the blood and mucus before looking back up at him. He sighed in relief. She was cut up badly, but nothing permanent. Maybe a scar or too, but a good healer could get rid of even the worst scar. She asked in a weak voice, “How are we alive?” That’s when they both got the same notification.

  You have slain the Shattered-Mountain worm!

  Bonus experience for slaying an Ullashtt!

  Ullashtt Ender Achievement unlocked!

  Ullashtt Ender: You bested one of these massive, fabled beasts taking some of their vast power for yourself. +10% to all stats.

  They both laughed. That wasn’t an appropriate response, but they were just so happy to be alive. The poison must have finally built up enough to overcome the vitality of the worm. Taking a quick look at their health points, they had both been single digits. It was that close. Of course, now with this achievement boost they both receive some of their health, mana, and stamina back. The 10% boost seemed to round up on the stats that weren’t at 10 yet, which was a good thing because they needed any help they could get. They still had to crawl out of this worm. That’s what they thought at least until sunlight pierced through the roof of the chitin organ. All around them the worm started dissolving. They had never been so happy to see the sun and the forest. Apparently, they had been in the worm the entire night. Besides a couple of knocked over trees and puddles, you couldn’t even tell there was a storm.

  The worm dissolved completely leaving only two items behind.