Page 1583

Hector sensed another lightning bolt coming. That was expected, of course. But the worm’s mouth wasn’t pointed at him. It was pointed ahead of him, where he was about to be and where his most recent lightning rod wasn’t.

He barely changed course in time and raised a simple iron wall to mitigate the impact. The wall exploded toward him, and he had to annihilate its sundered pieces before they pummeled him. He still ended up blocking a few lumps of ardor-infused rock with his shield, however.

And yet again, the worm was closing in, and Hector was forced to run.

‘Did you see that?!’ said Hector.

‘Yeah,’ said Garovel slowly.

‘It just changed tactics on me! It’s not just “maturing” or whatever! This fuckin’ thing is problem solving!’

‘But. Um. Hmm. Really, though, isn’t learning just another aspect of maturing? I mean, when you think about it--’

‘I thought it was just a mindless monster!’

‘Aha... Mm, so did I, honestly.’

He needed to calm down, Hector knew. Panicking wasn’t going to do him any favors. And Garovel wasn’t quite sounding as calm as usual, either.

He had to get a hold of himself. He had to protect Garovel. No matter what.

And he had to think of something.

That thing from before. Whatever he was forgetting. What the hell was it?!

Then it finally hit him.

The Shard. His line to Emiliana. Maybe she could tell him something about worms, something that could help him kill this damn thing. Or at least not get eaten by it.

He couldn’t stop, though. As he kept on running and jumping and materializing, he made an opening in his armor and found the Shard there. He let the Moon’s Wrath take its place and gripped it with his bare hand. The mace was much larger and stuck out of his breastplate, giving the appearance of a small spear through his chest, but Hector wasn’t concerned with fashion, at the moment. He reached out with his mind.

‘Emiliana,’ he thought.

There was no immediate response, but that was not surprising. He kept at it, figuring that she would answer eventually.

Thankfully, it only took a couple minutes instead of hours.

‘Hector?’ came her soundless voice. ‘What is the matter?’

‘Giant worm,’ he said, trying not to sound like he was freaking out. ‘Fighting one. Right now. Information, please.’

‘Oh! Right! O-okay, o-one second! I made some notes! Allow me to find them!’

‘Please hurry.’

Silence returned as she was presumably searching, and in the meantime, the Scarf of Amordiin was informing him that the worm was about to puke up more lightning.

This time, though, he could sense the beast’s mouth swaying back and forth as the electricity built up and was held there for longer than previously.

It was trying to juke him, the wormy bastard.

Hector decided to just materialize a whole fleet of lighting rods around him. Wherever it wanted to shoot, the area would be covered.