Sand Worm

"You didn't buy it?!" Dug shouted, anxiousness clear in his voice.

"No, I told you, I thought you were joking!" Gustav shouted back. How the hell was he supposed to know he was being serious when he just mentioned it in passing?

But it seemed the situation was serious… for some reason. The rest of the warriors simply looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They had no idea what was going on, most of them were just paid to help hunt a fiery bird.

"We are screwed…" Dug fell to his knees, giving in to his fate. How could so many disasters fall on him all at once?

"Hey, what worms are we talking about here?" Gerald asked the man. He was now really curious what this was all about.

"Ask the others," came the reply, but the rest didn't seem all that talkative. Actually, they had no clue what was happening, judging by their confused looks.

"Err, what are we talking about?"

"I thought we were hunting a bird… Do we need worms as bait?"

"Maybe..."

That was pretty much the extent of what the rest knew. Nothing.

"Wait, are you serious?!" Dug exclaimed, realizing he might have made a mistake in his calculations. "Am I the only one that researched the Great Desert beforehand?!"

Not a single person replied, all of them feeling guilty about their ignorance. Who knew that drinking and flirting with girls instead of reading some dusty old books would come back to bite them in the rear?

"Relax," Gerald tried to smooth things over, "It's just worms, what's the big deal? Even if they are poisonous I can just burn them, no problem!"

Gustav agreed while Dug gave him a deadpan look. "You have no clue what I was talking about, do you?"

"Not a clue," Gerald confirmed with a nod and a smile. It was quite impressive how confident he looked admitting his lack of knowledge.

"Ahahaha!" Dug erupted into laughter, however, this seemed to be a facade, since he looked like he was going to burst into tears at any moment. Actually, they already started gathering at the corner of his eyes, and he was barely holding them back with sheer willpower.

"We are talking about Sand Worms here, do you even know what those are?!"

"Nope," Gerald replied, shaking his head. He never even heard of that name. "Aren't worms small? They can't be that strong?"

"Not strong?!" Dug chuckled again, this time with a dark undertone, "They are probably the largest and most dangerous monsters on land, swimming through sand like it's water. They are fast and deadly, capable of devouring an average house in a single bite!"

Gerald's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Wow, they sound pretty strong…"

"They are! Nobody survived an encounter with them, except if they had the worm repellant! It is made of special herbs that grow in the desert and has a strong odor. It also makes the beast have diarrhea for days!" Dug shouted.

"Can you imagine losing so much liquid while living in the Great Desert?! It's a death sentence! That's why they avoid it at all costs, and also why were are screwed without it!"

"What the fuck…" Gerald never imagined the repellant would work that way. And to think he had the option to buy it from that old guy…

'Honestly, screw that guy! Instead of telling stories and drooling over some unknown princess, couldn't he speak straight?! Ah, whatever…'

"Okay, so we don't have the worm repellant…" he shrugged. "Can't we just move to the bedrock over there and avoid the worms that way? Since they are swimming in the sand they probably can't move very fast on solid ground, right?" Gerald suggested, pointing at the scorpion nest.

His well-meaning suggestion didn't seem to achieve the desired effect though, since Dug grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him while shouting, "How do you think all this sand came to be?! Do you think it was forces of nature that made it?! Wind blowing over the rocks for thousands of years?!"

"… Yes?"

"No! It was the Sand Worms! They devour rocks like candy! Anything living gets digested while the crushed rock simply leaves the beasts on the other end!"

The trembling of the ground now became noticeable and much louder. On the horizon a cloud of dust was rising into the air, illuminated by moonlight, announcing the arrival of a Sand Worm. And it was going right at them!

"Aaah! Why am I even explaining this to you, we are all going to die anyway…"

Dug seemed to have reached the end of his mental strength and collapsed to the ground, waiting for his death with empty eyes.

No matter what anyone said, he didn't respond. He simply stared into the dust cloud in the distance that was getting bigger by the second.

How Gerald wished he had more time right now. Coming up with a plan on the fly was much more difficult when you didn't know your enemy. Luckily he was clever and got an idea quickly. If the worm was hungry, he just had to feed it, right?

He quickly ran over the sand and used Telekinesis to pull out the corpses of the fallen warriors.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

"He is desecrating the graves!"

Some people shouted, but he ignored them. Who had time to care about that right now? It was time for action!

Flying across the desert, he carried the corpses with him, his target clear.

He dropped the pile of corpses on the cold, dry sand, but looking at it, it didn't seem all that impressive.

"Hmm, I'll need more than this. At least a house's worth…" Corpses of Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, and Wargs materialized in front of him and dropped on the pile by the dozen. He previously wanted to save them for later and extract the Essence from them, but this was good too.

He could get more resources any time he wanted anyway. Might as well empty his Ring of these stinky beasts. He saved the Ogres though. Those ones were too precious.

He then flew back and landed on the ground where the group was waiting with bated breaths. He smirked and placed his hands on his hips, "What's with this depressing atmosphere? Stand tall and watch the show!"

He then turned to Dug and nudged him, "Don't you dare die now, I still need you to be my guide, and besides, you owe me!"

"Huh?" The man was confused.

The Sand Worm was nearly upon them.