Blood and Cries(1)

The wind whistled, accompanied by soft earthquakes.

Keiran was in bare contact with the earth, so he could feel the soft quakes. Despite lacking in destructiveness, they sounded in unison as if bound by a common goal.

'Something is coming,' Keiran quickly figured out.

Not knowing what to do, he quietly sneaked away from the spot, hiding behind the nearest tree.

Immediately, the resonating quakes intensified. The earthen dust visibly rose up from the earth's surface. The ground tore apart to form a swirl that defied all notions of logic.

At the center of the swirl appeared rows of jagged teeth that continuously chased the depth of the hole.

Keiran spied at the scene from behind the tree.

While it was hard for him to express his emotion, inwardly, he was truly terrified.

He saw the features of an enormous creature gradually rise up from the ground.

The creature was in the form of a worm with the heads of snakes all over its body.

A certain liquid gooey substance covered wherever the worm left. It was green and slimy, while the worm assumed a fleshy yellow hue. It pulsed disgustingly like the insides of a regular human.

Keiran bit his lip, in a bid to keep quiet.

'What in Heaven's name is that?'

The worm stopped in its tracks.

It seemed to have sensed something. Quickly, it slimed its way to an unknown location, allowing Keiran to breathe fresh air once more.

However, how could he be that lucky?

In under two minutes, a helpless scream awakened the sleeping forest.

"Help me!"

The scream belonged to a man who approached Keiran's location.

The sound of something lurking behind him reached Keiran's ear. However, he didn't move an inch but simply stayed put.

He was too scared to move.

Soon, the creature pursuing the man came into view.

It was the worm that had left a few minutes ago. It turns out it went searching for prey.

As soon as it caught up to the man, it sprayed green liquid from its mouth on the man.

The moment the liquid touched the man, it released simmering sounds. Displaying its acidity, the green liquid burnt through the man's clothes.

He screamed in pain as the green liquid infiltrated his body.

Keiran could see the whiteness of his bones. Some blobs of green liquid created a hole in his chest, while some of them attacked his face, ridding him of all his facial features.

The eyeballs of the man caught his stare.

The man screamed, "Help me!"

Suddenly, the worm dived at the man. Its mouth widened, revealing its rows of jagged teeth.

In less than two seconds, the worm bit the leg of the man, spurting blood on its body and the brown ground.

The man kept screaming at Keiran to do something, but the latter had no plans of moving.

He had figured by now that the worm was sensitive to the presence of the earth.

'It is able to locate the earth's presence through some sort of geo-sense. That is how it finds its prey. I would be wise to not move an inch.'

The worm gobbled up the body of the man until only the face showed at its tips. The man should be dead, but he still continues crying for help. His voice softened every second.

"Help me... please..help...me."

The wind rustled beside Keiran, attracting the attention of the worm.

It spat out the head of the dead man and focused on the strange sound it heard a while ago.

Keiran stopped spying on it, in fear that it might catch his attention.

Hiding his full body behind the tree, his heartbeats intensified as he did not know what to expect.

The fact he could not check on the worm added to his worries.

'Hmmm… it's that feeling again.'

Keiran's dress was a normal brown tunic and pants.

He wore no shoes, which made it easier to feel the soft quakes!

His mind went rampant.

'The soft quakes are normally associated with…!'

Instantly, Keiran abandoned his thoughts of hiding and dashed through the array of trees.

As he ran, he turned his head backward and saw the worm bolting towards him. Its immense body broke down the trees in its path.

Seeing this, Keiran ran like there was no tomorrow.

The worm inched closer and closer to him.

This was to be expected.

Keiran always knew that he didn't have the best of physiques. His body was weak. It could barely perform above average.

This was something his parents informed him about. In essence, he was quite sickly.

'No point in thinking about that now. Since it will get to me eventually, I need to think outside the box. Wait… I see something!'

Ahead of his path was a lake. It caught the light from the sky and directed it around its surroundings, attracting any onlookers.

The waves of the lake made a melodious sound that Keiran would like to listen to if he wasn't being hunted by a giant worm!

Without thinking, his speed increased. When he was a few feet away from the lake, he channeled the last embers of energy into his feet and performed an excellent jump.

With a plop, he landed inside the lake. He wasted no time closing his mouth and staying still as the shadow of the worm covered the lake, casting a veil of darkness on it.

The worm moved around the lake, searching for its prey.

*Quelch!*

One of the snakes on its body softly ejected from it. It entered the lake quietly.

As the snake approached Keiran, the latter got the scare of his life, but something about the snake made him keep calm.

The snake swam past Keiran, barely missing him. It went towards the opposite side.

In that direction, Keiran found a black humanoid figure with no defined features hiding there.

'What is that?'

The snake also missed this figure. It acted ignorantly, which solidified Keiran's guess.

Sighing mentally, Keiran thought, 'My guess was right. The worm has no eyes. Even the snakes on its body are eyeless. It moves with its geo-sense. In water, geo-sense is helpless.'

Keiran had seen no eyes on the worm, which prompted this guess.

The snake later ran back to its host.

The worm moved around for a few seconds before leaving the scene.

After one extra minute, Keiran came out, gasping for breath.

He thought to himself, 'Five minutes. If it had been anymore, I would have drowned.'

Hearing a strange sound beside him, Keiran looked to see a humanoid figure jump out of the lake.

The head of the figure nudged towards him. It was unknown what it was thinking.

Keiran brought his hands forward as he went into a cautious stance.

Then, the figure lunged at him!