Chapter Nine

Carson's feet skidded to a halt, but before his feet even came to a stop, he pivoted around and bolted towards the oncoming Carnage Worms.

"If your seeking death, then comes at me, you ugly bastards," he snarled towards the oncoming worms as he summoned his sword.

If anyone was watching the spectacle that was unfolding right now, they would all believe the man had lost his mind, for one man was charging towards a gargantuan number of Carnage Worms, that seemed to go on for as far as the eye could see, looking like a massive wave of worms going in and out of the earth like it was water.

Carson barreled through the Carnage Worms' frontline; his sword flashed and cut through three worms in one swing.

His eyes scanned the area looking for any footing problems he may come across, only what his eyes found was a terrain covered in holes from the Carnage Worms as they jumped in and out of the earth. He decided if the worms weren't going to give him the necessary means to fight them on the ground. He would just turn this into aerial combat instead.

Carson launched himself off the ground with a powerful leg thrust.

His body blurred as he shot through the air like a rocket towards the oncoming Carnage Worms.

His sword flashed and whistled through the air as he passed by the worms, reaping death unto his foes with every swing.

Everywhere he went, death followed, as dozens of Carnage Worms lost their lives with every breath he took.

Carson's foot slammed into a Carnage Worms body; he launched himself off the worm's body towards another group, but not before cutting the worm, he launched himself off of in half.

His body blurred as he cut down group after group of worms, his feet always managing to find the body's to spring off of to dodge and weave through enemy attacks.

There was a mad smile on Carson's face as he slaughtered mercilessly, his blood boiled, and his heart thumped against his chest in a rush of excitement.

"Yes, this is what I've been missing all these years...come at me and let me bathe in your blood!" his mad grin widened as he said that, revealing jagged, sharp white teeth.

He hadn't felt this invigorated for nearly 18 years now; of course, back then, it wasn't monsters he was reaping. It was villains.

No matter how big or small the crimes were, he would cut them down without mercy, and that was why he was given the name 'Reaper' by the press and the villains alike.

Carson put on a burst of speed; as adrenaline pumped through his veins, the rustiness he had accumulated over the years of not fighting was slowly being shaken off.

Now every one of his sword strikes was far more lethal and precise that the Carnage Worms were dropping by the hundreds, as he tore through their numbers, like a god of death.

Carson stood panting; green blood covered him from head to toe, his sword was dripping blood onto the ground as he finally cut down the last Carnage Worm.

He was standing in a field of carnage. Thousands of Carnage Worms corpses littered the area for as far as the eye could see.

"What a fitting name," he muttered under his breath as he took in all the corpses around him.

He looked at his watch and realized he had wasted 30 minutes on these stupid worms.

He debated whether he should give up on the girl and head back home but decided against it. The girl had put him through too much trouble for him to give up now.

Carson was just about to head off when he felt the ground underneath him rumble. His body reacted faster than his brain could keep up. His foot kicked off the ground sending him launching through the air, right before a massive Carnage Worm could swallow him whole.

"So I missed one of you, huh," he said as his foot struck a Carnage Worms corpse, stopping his forward momentum.

He swung around facing the worm that tried to sneak attack him and was about to launch himself towards it to finish it off when his body froze at the sight of the Carnage Worm.

"Damn, it's a Queen class Carnage Worm,"

he observed the purple-colored monster of a Carnage Worm before him and mentally cursed his luck.

Instead of like the regular Carnage Worms that were the size of 4 dump trucks lined up together and were a light brown color, the Queen class Carnage Worm was a bright purple, while also being 4 times the size of the regular ones.

He gritted his teeth; if I ever find you, Sarah, I'll make you pay me back for this.

Carson darted towards the oncoming Queen class Carnage Worm, having no alternative. The Queen was far faster than the regular worms, and he could not outrun one of them, so his only option was to fight.

His sword met the Queen's body as it dove underground; his sword cut a deep gash across its body as he ran the length of its body.

There was a deep guttural roar coming from the ground as Carson sliced open the Queen's body.

Instead of doing the norm and poking its head out of the ground, the Queen did something much worse. Its whole body burst out of the ground all at once, sending Carson stumbling backward as the ground seemed to explode from underneath.

The Queen's enormous mouth filled with thousands of teeth faced towards him and roared, sending spittle all over him. The roar was so loud he was certain his eardrums burst.

"Pee-yew! Your breath stinks." He grabbed his sword with both hands, deciding he should take this fight more seriously, or he may lose his life this time.

They both charged each other at the same time.

Carson's body swerved to the side at the last second, cutting a deep gash into the side of the Queen's body with a well-aimed sword strike. The Queen swung her tail at him in retaliation; his right foot launched him off the ground straight up, at the last second.

His sword swung down, slicing a huge gash in the tail as it went by.

There was another roar behind him; he glanced towards the head that was coming directly at him, and he was still in the air with no way to dodge, or so the Queen thought.

At the last second, before he would have been swallowed, he twisted himself in the air like a gymnast, sending his body slightly to the side. His foot landed on one of the Queen's teeth. He used it to vault himself out of the mouth, but not before slicing every part of the mouth he could reach with his sword, giving it hundreds of cuts with in moments of him being inside.

Before Carson could land securely on the ground, he didn't consider the Queen's tail, and that slip-up cost him dearly. The Queen's tail came at Carson like a whip, almost too fast for his body to react in time. His left foot shot out and connected with the Queen's tail as it came at him like a freight train.

He sprang off the tail shooting himself backward, but he could hear an audible cracking noise from the impact as pain shot through his entire leg.

He landed on the ground a couple of hundred yards away from the Queen, thankfully he was well trained, and he managed to land successfully on his good leg while keeping balance.

He put weight on his other leg, testing the severity of the damage; he winced when his injured leg barely touched the ground.

He mentally cursed at himself for his rookie mistake, which caused his leg to break or crack under the immense pressure he put on it.

He grimaced when he mentally calculated the time it would take for his body to heal from a broken leg. If his calculations were correct, it would take his body around two hours to naturally heal his leg without any aid from a healer.

Something told Carson the Queen class worm was not going to give him the time he needed to heal.

He watched as the Queen writhed on the ground with purplish-red blood flowing from its mouth in waves.

Well, at least I managed to hurt you as well, you ugly bastard.

Carson took out a white pill from his pocket and debated whether to swallow it or not. He only had two more of these pills and felt it to be a waste to use one now.

He put the pill back in its pocket and took a circular object out of a different pocket.

The object he pulled out was a black metallic object that fit snuggly on his palm and had enough explosive power it could wipe out an entire city, a relatively small city, but a city nonetheless.

He's been holding onto this object for 19 years now, not ever coming to a point in his life where he needed to use such a device.

The heroes called this deadly object 'Last Resort'cause that's exactly what it was, the last resort against the evils that would disrupt the people's lives.

But that wasn't its true name; it was named after a famous hero 'Bang Snap,' whose ability allowed him to cause explosions with a simple snap of his fingers.

Giving it the name Bang Snap 3000, the hero may have been poor at coming up with a hero name. Still, it didn't stop his name from being spread far and wide, until one day he met his end by a villain, who's name was shortly removed from the records when he too had met his end.

"Well, friend, it seems today will be our last day together," he said while throwing the object in his hands up and down.

He watched the Queen worm burrow into the ground and disappear. He knew better than to think it was running away.

Carson closed his eyes, letting his senses take over. He was completely still, not even breathing as he concentrated so hard he could hear the sweat slide down his face, waiting for any sign of the Queen approaching.

After what felt like hours but was only a few seconds, he felt the slightest tremors under his feet.

He waited for the most opportune moment before he acted. When it felt like the Queen worm was only mere feet away, he clicked the button in the center of the Bang Snap 3000.

There was bright white light coming out of the object in his hand, he tilted his hand dropping the grenade, even before the grenade managed to hit the ground, his right leg sprang off the ground in a mad dash to flee, he looked behind him just in time to see the Queen Carnage Worm swallow the grenade, as it rose out of the ground.

He put on another burst of speed in an attempt to flee the blast radius. His left leg screamed at him in pure agony with every step he made, but he ignored the pain, knowing that if he did not hurry, he would perish with the Queen worm.

He heard an ear-piercing scream and couldn't help himself from staring behind himself.

The Queen's worm belly was expanding rapidly, looking like a balloon, and just like a balloon, the Queen's body exploded, fire ripping its way out of the belly, rising rapidly into the air.

Soon there was a massive mushroom cloud right where the Queen's body used to be, reaching up towards the sky and spreading out in a wave of pure flames and debris, heading straight for him.

Carson cursed when he realized he wasn't even close to being far enough away from the blast radius.

"DAMN YOU SARAH," he roared as he put on another burst of speed.

So much pain was shooting through his left leg that Carson could barely keep himself from just giving up and letting the flames take his life.

The wave from the blast finally caught up to him, slamming into his back like it was a solid wall.

Carson's body was lying prone in a field of scorched and blackened ground. His outfit was still in pristine condition, aside from the filth and gore that covered it.

Heroes were given outfits that were flame-resistant, damage-resistant, tear-resistant, and stab-resistant. A tank could shoot a hero, and the shell would just bounce off the very durable material they used.

That's not to say the tank shell wouldn't damage the hero. If the hero couldn't handle the impact, then his bones would be crushed by the impact.

About half a mile away, there was a giant crater and no Queen-class Carnage Worm site to be found, the explosion completely incinerating every last piece of its body.