The beginning of the end

An injured man drags his feet through a barren land to a concrete wall built on the side of a mountain, Shadow Dome (First mentioned in ch.27). Guards see him from over the wall and immediately get curious.

"Who is that?"

"Beats me, but he's not gonna make it here on foot." another guard says casually.

The other one grabs his fighting gear and leaps off the wall, "Come on, we should help him!"

His partner exhales sluggishly and jumps after him. Their gear consists of two long blades curved like sickles and a chain compartment connected to the blades and strapped on with a belt on the back around the waist.

As the man gets closer, the ground begins to shake and a massive thousand-toothed worm bursts out from beneath the ground and attempts to swallow him whole. Before it could though, one of the guards had decapitated it from above in a split second and it falls in the dirt behind him.