5 1 = 1000s + 1 (M)

Something shifted in the trees in the distance.

Hans suddenly stopped picking the herb in front of him. He had heard the movement and now all his senses were directed to the source of the disturbance.

'No movement. No smell. A low rumbling noise.' Hans thought to himself as he analyzed the disturbance.

He slowly reached out and tapped Sim on the back who was nearby. Then, he gestured with his finger to keep quiet and signaled to Sim that there was something nearby. Sim immediately understood and tensed up.

Slowly the rumbling noise got louder. Sim was now able to hear it, but he didn't know what it was or which direction it was coming from. 'It's probably big.' Sim thought as he felt the earth beneath him shake.

Then just as suddenly as it came, it was gone. The rumbling had stopped.

The pair tried to keep their breathing to a minimum and they stood as still as possible. Everything was precautionary as they knew that it wasn't safe yet.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

The ground beneath them broke as a giant worm-like creature broke the surface of the flower garden. Reacting instantly, Hans jumped away from where the worm had penetrated the surface.

The reflexes that he had honed through the years had saved him.

Sim who didn't have as much experience as Hans was not able to react in time. Instead, he was knocked into the air during the impact. Soil, dust and pieces of plant matter were blasted into the air with him.

The worm roared as it opened its mouth and its lips folded back and revealed lines of jagged and sharp teeth that soon began to rotate. With its mouth closed, the teeth became a wall of sharp spikes. Not only were the teeth were used to tunnel through the earth, they were also used to pierce and tear apart unsuspecting prey.

And that was its intention. Its long body powered its advance as the worm shot straight into the air after Sim who was falling through the air above it.

Feeling the wind and dirt blast across his body, Sim struggled to control his fall. Below him, he noticed the sharp wall of teeth that was moving upward to meet his body. As it approached, Sim kept his eyes open. His mind was buzzing as he looked below him and thought about ways to save himself.

Unfortunately, the only idea that he came to was to control his fall. He aimed his body so that the worm would hit his left arm instead of tearing his whole body to shreds. Even if his plan worked, he knew that a huge injury was eminent and he would lose at least one arm.

'Is this how it's going to end?' he thought to himself as he closed his eyes and braced for the impact.

Han's who was below them had great view of the situation. Quickly, he conjured up the same orb he had before to camouflage himself with. This time, he didn't go invisible. No, this time a wind was generated around the orb as he sent it straight at Sim.

Self-propelled and the size of a children's ball, the orb traveled quickly through the air and stopped in between the worm and Sim.

Whoosh.

The orb exploded and torrents of air blew in all directions away from the spot in which the orb had been.

The wind was strongest near the site of the explosion. Carried by the wind, Sim was knocked away from the worm and also laterally. On the way down, he hit his body into the crumbling stone wall that was surrounding the garden on the far side away from the plantless circle.

Chunks of brick fell with him as he landed on the soil below. Crack. An immense pain spread through his arm jolting his eyes open. His arm had broken. Looking across himself, Sim could barely see the outline of the worm through the knocked up soil and dust.

The worm hadn't been better off. Although the worm was ferocious and powerful, it was still a worm. It was soft and was easily injured in areas except its head which was hard and used for digging. The explosion had smashed its head against the wall of the building as well. But due to its shear size and weight, the broken wall in the ruins had cut into its body. A large gash had formed as a result.

Momentarily, the worm lost control of part of its body as it reflexively flailed about. Dark brown colored innards were thrown about in the process as putrid smell started to disperse through the ruins.

Hans still observed the whole situation. 'Good, Sim's still breathing and conscious. The creature...The creature is surprisingly weak in terms of its defense. We can kill this thing.'

Shifting his body, Hans summoned more orbs of wind from the ether. These orbs were similar in color, but smaller in size compared to his previous one. Slowly each of these orbs started to screech as they fired compressed waves of air at the warm.

Completely focused on the worm, Hans used these waves of air to attack the worm. Thuds could be heard as each wind blade hit the worm and entered its body causing more damage to it.

Roaring the worm turned it's head towards Hans. It was not able to hold up to the onslaught caused by the wind blades as its head tried to move in such a way to block them. Ultimately, it became injured so much that it was not able to raise its head anymore and dropped to the ruins floor with a thud.

Seeing this, Hans didn't stop. He had to make sure the worm was dead. He continued firing wind blades at the worm.

After exhausting almost all his stamina and energy, Hans had cut off the worm's head completely. Brown liquid and putrid innards dripped off its body and into the soil below. Hans panted with fatigue as he stopped firing and the orbs disappeared.

Hans turned and tried to look over at Sim through the dust cloud that he had created.

"You alright Sim?"

Coughing through the dust, Sim approached Hans while he tried to walk. He clutched his broken arm with his other and replied. "I'm... my arm's broken, but I'm alive..." Sim replied while he tried to ignore the pain.

Rumble.

As soon as Sim replied, the sound of rumbling filled the vicinity.

"Shit" Hans shouted as he could feel that the soil was moving below his body.

Hans had used up all his energy to slay the first worm. He could barely move now because of that and he was sure that he couldn't protect himself from another one.

Sim who was still a few meters away noticed as well, but he stood in his place. 'I should save him.' Sim thought. 'No, he can die here, just like planned. If I use Hans right now as a distraction, I'll survive... I can come retrieve parts of his corpse after and bring it back to the guild as proof.'

Internally, he was at war with himself as he gave himself more and more excuses to save or to let Hans die.

He was in dilemma.

Sim thought about the situation once more. 'But he saved me before, maybe he was always there to help me and its possible I have judged our situation wrongly...'

All these thoughts had occurred in a split second and before he knew it himself, Sim had already started to sprint towards Hans. "Fuck it, Hans I'm coming." Sim shouted.

The soil beneath Hans feet stopped shaking and the rumbling had stopped. Another worm was preparing to launch itself out of the ground. But before that, Sim had reached Hans.

Sim used his uninjured arm and pushed Hans out of the way with the momentum of his sprint. Just as Hans had been pushed, the worm had begun to burst from the soil beneath Sim.

This time, Sim was prepared for the impact. He stood his ground and began to drew out his dagger as the floor beneath them crumbled. Before he was thrown into the air, Sim stabbed the worm's hard head with all his might and managed to lodge his dagger within it. Screaming the worm stopped its upward motion in response.

Dazed from getting pushed away, Hans got up. The scene in front of him was quite a sight as Sim held onto the dagger with dear life as the worm shook its head in an attempt to shake off Sim.

"SIM, LET GO!" Hans shouted towards Sim. But Sim knew that with his position, if he let go, the worm would instantly attack him where he had fallen. He knew that the only chance he had to survive was to hang on and wait until the worm itself gave up, the worm became fatigued, or they got close enough to the ground where he could let go without injuring himself.

The situation became a war of attrition between the worm and Sim. The worm shook its head with large motions while Sim tried to hold on. Soon sweat began to build onto Sim's hand and he started to slip.

Seconds passed and Sim was still able to hold on. He knew he needed to.

Seeing that its attempt to shake off its prey, the worm decided to change tactics.

Sim felt the worm's momentum change. Instead of being thrown away, he felt his body being pushed into the worms head. 'No!' Sim thought, but it was too late the worm had changed directions and charged straight into the only intact wall left in the building ruins.

Boom! Sim felt his back slam through the only wall. Pain spread through his and head as the wall was broken though by his body and he blacked out.

Hans who was viewing the whole scene watched as Sim's body was crushed against the wall. He could hear the bones in Sim's back break and he could smell the sweet scent of Sim's blood wafted over to him with the breeze. "Sim no!" Hans shouted.

Just as suddenly, to dark shadows orbs had manifested above the worm and Sim's unconscious body. The black orbs emanated an aura of death within the ruins. Hans became petrified with terror. This was the first time that he had felt this afraid for his life. Shaking, he couldn't move, nor run away.

Two long scythe like appendages appeared from the orbs and slashed down puncturing straight through the worm torso. The worm screeched as it was pinned to the floor. Stuck, the worm flailed in response in a struggle to escape. However it didn't do anything as the scythes remained solidly pinned to the soil beneath the worm.

Slowly the worm lost it's ability to struggle as it bled out and died.

Hans who was still frozen in terror could not move as he watched the shadow creature turned its attention to Sim.

Although Sim's body was broken all over now and he was slowly bleeding out, Hans could still hear his ragged breathing. Sim was still alive!

The shadow creature raised one of its scythes.

"No!" Hans cried.

As if it understood Hans, the creature paused for a moment. But only a moment.

With its raised scythe, it stabbed down and pierced straight through Sims body. It was a quick end as Sim's body was cut in half through his torso.

Then the shadow creature's scythes turned towards Hans.

'It is my turn now... ' Hans thought as he closed his eyes and waited for his death to come.

But it didn't.

Just as fast as the shadow beast had arrived, it withdrew back into the two dark orbs and faded out of existence.

The red blood of Sim and the dark blood of the worms mixed below the location it had been: the plantless patch of soil.

After the entire ordeal, nothing was left except the sounds of the forest. Nothing else was different except that now there were now three corpses and the herb garden ruin had been completely destroyed.

After minutes had passed by, Hans opened his eyes.

'I survived?' Hans thought to himself. 'But why leave me alive?'

As the aura of death slowly dispersed, Hans regained control of his body. Instead of leaving immediately to inform his guild, he walked towards the garden. He didn't care about his safety now as his mind was full of emotions.

Sim had died.

'Sim saved me, I didn't save him.... I... I failed as his mentor.' Hans walked closer and closer to Sim's wrecked body. Apart from the blood, his face looked unseemly calm. It looked like he expected to die. His hand which he had held onto his dagger for dear life so tightly before had fallen into the pool of blood beneath him.

Hans took care as to not to pass into the plantless circle as he attempted to pull the dagger out of the worm's corpse. No matter how hard he tried to pull it out, it remained stuck. Using his own dagger he desperately stabbed it into the worm's head and was finally able to remove it minutes later.

Hans then removed his pack and took out an extra shirt that he had prepared for the trip. He wiped the dagger clean of blood and placed it back inside his pack, covering it in another shirt.

With regret, Hans dug a small hole in the soil nearby and buried Sim's body.

He could feel his hands shake in the process as he blamed himself for not reacting quick enough. He blamed himself for not expecting the unexpected: the second worm. He blamed himself that his student had passed away on this date. He also blamed himself for not dying in Sim's place.

Hans clenched his fist he began to talk to Sim as if he was there.

"Sim, you saved me and I'm grateful to you. Thank you for being my student. You did well for a rookie... I'm sorry... I'm sorry that I wasn't able to listen to you well enough... I'm sorry you didn't trust me... if only we trusted each other more, maybe the outcome would have been different today... if somehow you are reborn again, please find me... I'll be happy to take you in as a student once more..."

Sullen and with his shoulders hunched, Hans picked up his bag and packed Sim's dagger inside. Putting his pack back on he turned his back to the ruins to begin his long trip back to the guild. But before he reached the treeline, he turned around and shouted one last time.

"I'll come back and make you a proper grave. It'll be my promise to you. Please put your trust in me one last time..."

Turning around once more, Hans left on his long trip home.