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((Triple Saturday -- Page 3 of 3))
Garovel must have taken notice of Hector releasing the Shard, because he said, ‘Done talking to Emiliana?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Learn anything useful?’

‘I learned that the only way to kill this thing is to destroy ninety percent of its body mass.’

‘So... no, then.’

‘Pretty much,’ said Hector. ‘I can’t even destroy one percent of it, let alone ninety.’

‘Mmhmm. Even after poking holes in it with the Moon’s Wrath, the worm doesn’t seem to have gotten any smaller.’

‘Yeah, I think it’s growing, actually, by absorbing the broken rocks around here.’

‘Oh. Lovely. Back to plan A, then?’

Hector exhaled a growl and tried to think of something else.

And he did.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ he told Garovel.

‘Oh? What’re the odds it’ll get us eaten?’

‘Uh. Pretty low, I guess.’

‘Tell me more, then.’

Hector sensed more lightning on the way and knew that he shouldn’t let the opportunity pass while he explained. ‘I’ll just show you.’

‘Alright. Dazzle me.’

The worm was trying to fake him out again with its head movement, but that was fine. Hector materialized an army of conducting rods, just as he had done before, but this time, he kept making them taller and taller; and then at the last instant, right when he felt like the worm was finally going to let the lightning rip, Hector added a second growth out of the side of every rod simultaneously, making each one rush straight toward the worm, which Hector had allowed to get quite close.

The lightning hit just as the wall of angled conductors completed the circuit with the worm’s body. Iron exploded all around him, as expected, but it didn’t result in an electrical storm this time. The vast majority of the lightning went straight back into the monster, zapping it with its own ridiculous power.

It was enough to make the worm seize up and stop in place. Sludge rippled visibly across its body, distorting its shape somewhat in apparent displeasure.

But that was it. After a couple seconds, the beast recovered and let out a roar, perhaps wanting Hector to know that he’d pissed it off.

Hector didn’t waste the opening, though. He leapt up, Moon’s Wrath held tight, and smashed in its left eyespot. The hit was hard enough to send sludge splattering all the way out the back of its head.

He landed on its contorted back, materializing a falling iron plate for himself so that he didn’t immediately sink into the worm’s body, and then launched himself off of it before the beast could turn around and devour him.

He hit the ground rolling and scraping on rock, but he quickly found his footing and started running again.

‘Okay,’ said Garovel. ‘I’ll admit. I’m reasonably dazzled.’

Hector wasn’t. ‘That still didn’t do anything, though! Agh!’ He could already sense that the “damage” he had done to the worm’s head was entirely recovered.