Chapter 1560: Savage

The giant worm’s mouth slammed into the black sand, blasting sand into the air and scattering it in every direction.

Erend had already leaped away from the impact point. His instincts had been honed through countless battles and had become deeply ingrained in his body, allowing him to move on their own even before his mind had time to process the danger.

Erend was now consumed by intense anger. He gritted his teeth into a snarl as he landed several meters away on the black sand.

His eyes had turned red with rage. This was no longer normal anger. The Trial had amplified his emotions and pushed him toward his limit much faster than he would have reached it under normal circumstances.

He was already drawing dangerously close to the threshold of the Black Rage, although he did not realize it yet.

The worm continued to give him one problem after another. It created new bodies to counter all the damage Erend had inflicted on it, and now almost everything he had accomplished was reduced to nearly nothing.

The wounds across the giant worm’s body had already begun to close. With his emotions amplified by the Trial, Erend no longer cared whether the people he had seen were only illusions. He simply followed his deepest desire, which was to save his family and friends. He would do whatever it took to reach them.

Erend ran toward the giant worm. The creature turned its enormous body toward him and released a low, rumbling groan before charging forward as well.

Erend gathered what remained of his Magic and decided to focus entirely on his Fire Magic. He decided to stop using his lightning right now because it consumed too much of his remaining Magic energy, and he could no longer afford to waste even a fraction of his reserves.

The giant worm slithered rapidly across the black sand toward him, but Erend kept moving forward without hesitation.

The two collided head-on. Erend drove his fist into the worm’s open mouth and released a powerful burst of fire at the moment of impact. Flames exploded across its mouth and immediately poured through the opening into its body.

Erend then jumped to the side as the worm snapped its jaws shut, narrowly avoiding the massive bite.

The worm slid across the sand and twisted its body as it tried to bite him again, but Erend had already started running toward its main body.

He gathered a tremendous amount of fire Magic around his fist and struck the worm with all the force he could muster.

The blow tore open its dark brown hide and burned the surrounding flesh until it turned black. The force of the attack drove the Fire Magic deep into the creature’s body and created another large wound beneath its thick skin.

The worm released another shriek of pain. Erend had created almost the same wound as before, opening another deep hole across its body.

The creature then produced a low groaning sound that reached Erend’s ears and sounded almost like a mocking laugh, mocking his effort.

Erend immediately understood what it intended to do. It would create another group of smaller worms to fight him while its main body regenerated. If it succeeded, all of Erend’s effort would once again be reduced to nothing.

But Erend made an unexpected move. He rushed toward the newly opened wound and used his hands to tear apart the dark brown skin and flesh surrounding it. Once he saw that there was enough space, he immediately jumped inside the worm’s body.

The worm released another high-pitched shriek the moment it realized what had happened. The creature writhed violently as it felt the pain of Erend forcing his way inside its body.

But that pain had only just begun.

From inside the worm, Erend wasted no time. He released his fire Magic and spread the flames throughout the surrounding flesh.

Fire erupted inside the creature’s body and began burning everything around him from within.

The giant worm writhed in agony and rage. Its enormous body twisted violently as it dragged itself across the black sand.

It moved frantically in every direction while Erend remained inside it, continuing to burn its flesh from within.

Erend laughed. His face and body were covered in blood and gore from the giant worm’s flesh but he did not care. Instead, he seemed to enjoy bathing in the violence he had unleashed.

He kept tearing through the creature’s flesh and burning everything around him, creating more wounds and inflicting more pain with every passing moment. The more the worm struggled, the more savage Erend became.

He no longer fought with the desperation of someone trying to survive. He attacked with a cruel delight that seemed to grow stronger with every scream the creature released.

Outside, the giant worm continued writhing in agony. The pain eventually became too much for it to endure and it began moving frantically across the black sand.

It jumped wildly, rolled its enormous body across the ground, and repeatedly slammed its face into the black sand as if it could somehow crush the pain out of itself. Each impact sent clouds of black sand into the air, but none of its desperate movements could reach the source of its torment.

Inside its body, Erend remained firmly in place. The worm’s violent movements threw him from one side to another, but his instincts allowed him to react before the motion could send him flying completely.

He grabbed onto thick pieces of flesh and held himself in place while continuing to tear them apart with his hands and burn them with fire Magic.

The violent shaking barely slowed him down. A savage expression remained on his face as he continued his assault from within the creature.

Suddenly, the flesh in front of Erend began to move. The damaged tissue twisted and pulled itself together before several masses of flesh started coalescing into new shapes.

Erend watched as the flesh gradually formed the bodies of smaller worms. They emerged directly from the giant worm’s interior, created as a defensive response to the intruder tearing through its body.

They were the creature’s equivalent of an antivirus, born to find Erend and drive him out.

Erend stared at the newly formed creatures for a moment. Then his expression twisted into a savage grin. He did not wait for them to attack first. He immediately lunged toward the smaller worms and launched his own attack before they could fully organize themselves.

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