Agent of Seraphim-Chapter 40: The Masked Knight

Brand stayed low to the ground, muscles coiled like a predator ready to strike. His movements snapped forward in sharp, jagged bursts, like a beetle lunging for its prey. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He struck the forehead of the giant worm, clean and neat. And twirl his body while hanging on it, exerting strong pressure on the worm.

Writhing in pain, Raml-d’ah dug into the ground as a preparation for its next lunging attack. The ground was akin to a sea to the giant worm, over which it lorded. It could utilize the Earth’s pressure to propel itself with greater momentum.

Brand knew that one hit was all it took for the demon worm to end the fight, so he tried his best to dodge every attack. However, this put a strain on his mind, as the constant shift in perspective between himself and the beetles was daunting.

Brand felt a stinging pain in his needle-like arm, which suggested that the two beetles underground had been eliminated. He quickly ordered two of the beetles in the air to dig into the ground, continuing to provide signals on Raml-d’ah’s position.

***

’Eddy’s team.’

Meanwhile, the other two teams were still searching for the completion of the raid on the Worm Statue. After going through the first wave, the number of demon worms decreased significantly.

"Eric, clang your buckler." Eddy took charge of a squad under Karl’s orders.

—CLANG

—CLANG

Eric struck his buckler a few times to lure some demon worms out of the ground.

Fighting against the demon worms in the open space was better than constantly worrying about the ambushes of the worms.

The path they traveled was very dark and arid. They had brought some torches with them, looking ahead to the road.

Some of the foreign warriors carried glowing metals with them, which would light up when activated by switches.

"Hey, let me see!" Edd tried to grab the metal from the foreign warrior, but the foreign warrior slapped away his hand.

"Hey... Hey! Don’t grab my stuff!" The foreign warrior jerked backwards, looking at Edd with disgusted eyes.

"Damn, you think you’re great just because you’re from the kingdom?" Edd scoffed back at him.

"You’re lucky we were on the same team." Edd vented his anger.

Edd continued to ramble for some time, while the foreign warrior did not give any response to him and just stayed silent.

"Edd, cut it off already, okay?" Eddy patted his brother’s shoulder to calm him down. "We have to prioritize our mission."

Eddy took the lead to de-escalate the fight, but his eyes remained glaring at the two foreign warriors.

The two foreign warriors coughed awkwardly and avoided eye contact with him. They then distance themselves from the brothers.

"Great job there, Edd." Eddy then whispered to Edd.

"They were hiding something, Eddy..." Edd told Eddy. "We know the foreign warriors always carried some weird device with them."

"Some would have music played out from it, or had images shown on a black glass." He continued.

"But the guy there, he had been directing a piece of metal towards Karl for some time," Edd shared his observation. "And the timing was peculiar... only when Karl was fighting."

Eddy nodded and whispered. "That’s why Karl asked us to check on the two outsiders."

He remembered that right before Karl sent them off to search for the Worm Statue, he had asked them to be vigilant around the two foreign warriors and find out what they were hiding.

"I hope Ed was doing well." Ed was in another team, which consisted only of their fellow tribe members.

That team was the primary search team for the Worm Statue, and Eddy’s current team had an additional task: to conduct surveillance on the outsiders.

***

’Ed’s team.’

Ed, leading the primary searching team of six people, had now reached a weird cave. They had one problem, though. It was unclear if there would be demons burrowing themselves while guarding the entrance.

They had seen how the demon worms travel and emerge abruptly from the ground before.

"It looked like how our predecessors recorded..." One of the young warriors spoke out in a low voice. "In the record, there were a few demon worms standing guard, but now..."

"There was none of it..." Ed said. The cave entrance was open, as if welcoming them.

"Let’s go! We had to hurry to break the statue. The captain was fighting against the mutated demon!" The warriors in the expedition were excited and eager to go in.

—Thud!

Ed slammed his breastplate to silence the warriors.

"Stay put." He ordered his fellow teammates, and they listened, respecting the authority given to Ed by their leader, Karl.

"Let’s calm down first." He decided to wait for a moment before rashly going in.

***

’Back to the battlefield with Raml-d’ah.’

Raml-d’ah spread a net of lightning fractals on Brand, but he avoided them cleanly. With the four beetles hovering in the air providing vision for him, avoiding such attacks was easy.

"You’re okay?" Seraphine worried as Brand started to stagger even while standing.

"I feel dizzy..." Brand replied in a low voice.

"Urggh!" Alas, the lightning attack had hit him.

The lightning fractals struck his leg, rooting them to the ground below. His legs were in pain and bleeding. As the lightning energy dissipated, there was a detached fang of the giant worms.

[You were in a state of paralysis and bleeding.]

The GHOST System notified him.

He tried to lift his legs, but the numbness got him. He couldn’t even feel his legs now. The fangs of the demon had venom in them.

The only advantage he had over the demon was now taken away.

’The green herb for poison... could it work?’

He had the herbs with him, but he couldn’t just apply them in the open. That would reveal his identity to the warriors.

While he was contemplating his choices, the demon lunged at him, as if it knew this was the moment to strike for the kill.

’I could use Ghost Mode’s stealth, but...’

That would only prolong the chase for a while.

—WHAM!

A spear had struck in between the charging demon and Brand, with a trace of lightning cracking in the air.

"Wolf Thrust!" Karl held his spear with both hands, thrusting forward to strike the maw.

His attack was shallow, but the worm diverted its attention to him.

Brand had just narrowly escaped death.

Karl winked at him while jumping away from the direct charging attack of the mutated worm.

’He shouldn’t know it was me, right? I’m fully covered from head to toe...’

Brand questioned if his identity had been blown.

Fortunately, the next line from Karl dismissed his worry.

"Masked knight, let’s fight together. Shall we?" Karl offered his hand to Brand, still in disguise.

’Thank you, bud.’ Brand expressed his gratitude. There it was, the perfect moment to utilise his Ghost Mode.

He activated it and used the ten seconds of stealth to return to Ruby’s side.

Now, Raml-d’ah’s attention was solely on Karl.