Chapter 27 Predation

Meat.

For someone who is immortal just like Aoi, it would be a huge disgrace for her to show in front of an ordinary human like me that she's scared of the huge worm in front of us that, she thought of the creature as something edible instead. Is she really serious about it?

"M-Meat...?" I asked her to check if I just misheard things from her.

"...Yes! Meat!" Aoi replied instantly.

No good, she's serious about it. She wants to eat that monster for dinner!

"I-Is that monster even edible?" I asked her again.

Aoi shrugged her shoulders as she answered my question. "...I'm not sure, but we might as well try eating its meat to determine whether that monster is edible or not!!!"

I want to slap myself so hard after hearing that from her. I also really want to tell her right now that what she's planning is risky and her efforts might be only put to waste, but hesitation in my mind tells me not to tell it, for I don't want her to feel disappointed over something that she's looking forward to. At least, she won't die if the worm's meat is inedible from the get-go. I may be the one who'll get poisoned if I eat it, but let's turn our focus on how to escape this dangerous situation we got ourselves into.

While letting out a deep sigh, I spoke. "T-Then? How do we kill that creature? All we have here are pieces of cloth and a rusty dagger, and just by looks alone its skin might be so tough that even if we have a sword it won't do anything against him. Do we even have something that could pierce through that monster?"

The monster in question, is currently circling around the oasis where we are, like cornering its potential prey. Being able to completely surround this oasis just shows that this monster is really long, about quarter of a kilometer in length (just an estimate), and a cross-section of about twenty meters. It doesn't have any eyes or any other features on its face, except for its mouth that has layers and layers of jagged teeth lining up the abyss that is the monster's insides. Its methods of finding food would be, burrowing deep down the desert as fast as possible, then gobble the unsuspecting prey as it attacks from below, and then burrow beneath the sand again while leaving no trace of its last victim. In our case, that worm will easily eat us whole, even Prick who's already pretty huge for his age is no match for a monster of that type.

Amidst all of the dangers , Aoi only raised a wicked laugh. "...You're worrying too much, big brother. Of course we have that!"

When she said that, I looked around to find that thing she's talking about. "We have? W-Where?"

"...Here."

With a smug grin on her face she raised her hand, then suddenly the air began to curdle into black smoke on her palms. The smoke swirled around us like a vortex, with Aoi in the center, until it condensed even more into a black fireball having a size a bit larger than a basketball.

"...Huge monsters like that are best served skewered...", Aoi declared before hurling the fireball towards the huge worm.

The black fireball, at that instant, flew at a terrifying speed as it turned into a huge javelin that pierces even the wind around it. Upon impact, the black javelin of death made two huge gaping holes on the monster as it penetrated and continued to fly in an almost straight path to some place far away, causing the worm's whole body to burst violently into a mixture of purple fluids and countless lumps of also purple-colored flesh.

"...Oh, as I thought that amount of divine power is still not enough", Aoi said in disappointment while hiding with me behind a huge boulder to protect ourselves from the rain of oozy liquid.

"W-What do you mean that's not enough?" I retorted. "Can't you see that you turned that huge worm into purple mush? Are you sure it's not an overkill?!"

"...It's not." She immediately replied. "Besides, big brother's been worried so much for our lives all this time, that's why I decided to land the first strike on that creature before anything could happen to us."

While Aoi rushed out of the oasis to look for any chunks of meat that we could carry, my body trembled in terror upon seeing what Aoi did to that monster with my eyes. I mean, she proved to me that she's a real death goddess for a countless times already and with her current condition having only about a tenth of her total divine power as well, but she haven't told me anything about up to how much destruction can she cause with that ten percent that she currently have. I could already imagine that amount is sufficient enough to destroy a country in an instant, but if there's a possibility that she could regain that lost ninety percent, what will she do next afterwards? As her brother, I'm a bit worried.

"...Big brother! I can't carry this huge chunk of meat over here, can you help me bring this to Prick?" Aoi called my attention while I got carried away staring at the remains of the monster.

"A-Ah?! Oh, okay, let's carry it together." I said as I rushed towards her.

The chunk of meat Aoi chose was indeed heavy, about ten kilograms I guess. It was so slimy and slippery but unbelievably firm to the touch, just like ham. With our hands always slipping whenever we try to carry it, we resorted on covering the meat with the blanket we found from the chest to reduce the slipperiness.

"I don't think that meat's enough for us, Aoi." I said to her after I placed the meat on Prick's back. "Let's get another piece before we leave the oasis."

"...Good idea, big brother! Though, as much as I want to try eating all of them, I'm worried that Prick couldn't carry that much meat on his back. Maybe two chunks of meat is enough for now." Aoi replied with a light smile on her face.

So you're saying that you can eat that monster whole? What's with that godly appetite you have?!

"A-Anyway, let's get that meat...--"

One step.

If I made another step that time, I would be mush right now.

Just when I was about to land my foot on the ground, another worm appeared in front of me, so close that I almost touched it. The worm leaped in a huge arc towards the remains of the worm Aoi just killed, and quickly ate everything before diving back to the sand.

At that instant the best course of action would be...

"Aoi! Get on Prick's back! We're leaving!!!"

"...E-Eh? B-Big brother..."

"You think there's still time for that?! Let's go!!!"

After the two of us mounted on his back, Prick then started crawling out of the oasis as fast as he could. I also told him to prevent those spots with a lot of sand, as that worm could attack us from below, and we chose to go towards the part of the desert having only bare rock on its floor.

"...Big brother! Look!" Aoi said while pointing her finger to her front.

I checked to see what Aoi's looking at, and I saw with my eyes a much more terrifying sight from afar.

Appearing from the place where we saw the first worm, twelve other huge worms also burst from the sand and are chasing furiously after us. While most of them are smaller than the first one, one of them are much more larger, about twice as large. That worm also has sharp spines all around his body, and his color sported a mean tan under the blazing sun as compared to its brown companions.

"...So...large..." Aoi's eyes widened in awe upon seeing the largest one lead as it burrowed below the ground once more.

"Yeah, and if we don't hurry up we'll become appetizers for that one! Prick, hurry up!!!"

Prick, on the other hand, is having a hard time making his ten feet move faster, because of the added weight on his back, and also because of the pressure that the situation imposed on us. I'm sorry Prick, but you really need to run faster for the sake of our survival.

"Prick, you can do it!" I cheered Prick to boost his morale.

"...You can do it!" Aoi also cheered him from the side.

Prick however, still won't catch up more speed no matter how hard we motivate him. I could hear him grunting faintly from time to time as if he's desperately pushing his own limits, even though his body's already telling him that he can't go any further. His own desire to survive isn't enough to surpass the limitations imposed upon him by nature.

"No good, those guys are moving faster and faster!" I muttered to everyone in worry.

"..."

Aoi however, became silent as she judged the distance between us and the monsters.

The largest worm burrowed itself down the sand with speeds comparatively faster than Prick, as shown by the pillars of dust bursting from the surface that rapidly closes in on us.

"...Huge one! Incoming!" Aoi shouted at me.

"Prick!!!"

Just before the huge worm sprang up from directly below us, Prick made an incredible maneuver that enabled us to successfully get away from the worm's strike zone quickly.

Employing the same way how these worms sneakily attack their prey, Prick, while carrying us on our backs, also made a shallow burrow on the sand where we sneaked in, then tunnel forward before resurfacing on a spot away from the worm. His way of escaping predators, reminded me of a certain character's move from a computer game Rin and I played once before, where her Scorpion King character appeared right in front of my Holy Knight character I'm using then killing it in an instant. Since then, I had a huge disdain on insect-type characters because of that.

Going back, as a consequence of doing such evasive measure, the three of us emerged back to the

rocky surface, our bodies covered with warm sand.

"...*cough* *cough* I think I accidentally swallowed some sand...*cough* You shouldn't do that, Prick!" Aoi grumbled angrily while coughing.

"*cough* If Prick didn't do that, we might already be worm food now. Just be careful next time, Prick." I replied while brushing off loose sand that stuck on my body.

"...What happened to the meat? Was it lost when we dived down?"

"Still intact, don't worry."

Your body's covered with sand and yet, you're still worried about that?

"This meat might be the reason why those guys are chasing after us." I said to her.

"...No! No!" Aoi protested. "Even if that's the case, I still won't hand that meat over to them! Never!"

Aoi then pointed her finger at the other giant worms from afar. "...Whether we have the meat or not, they would still go fur us because compared to them, we're smaller and more vulnerable! It's natural for the weaker ones to be hunted down by the strong! Everyone knows that, right?", she said to me.

The worms' offensive, however, didn't stopped after that as they all picked up a faster pace while almost interlacing themselves up in midair. Albeit frightening and deadly, I admit that their way of maneuvering around the desert is quite breathtakingly graceful to the eyes.

"...Muuuuu, I can't stand it any longer!" Aoi yelled due to impatience. "Big brother, I'll remove those nuisances once and for all!"

"H-Huh?--Ah?!" I got startled by her words that I almost fell from Prick's back.

"...No matter how you look at it, big brother, Prick's gonna collapse soon from being overworked. Those guys are still going easy on us, but it won't be long until they get serious and deal the final blow on us. Before that happens, I shall deal that first strike once more!"

When Aoi said that, I looked for a moment at Prick. Well, she's right, considering that Prick's been running away from the worms at an exaggerated pace for almost an hour now. His fatigued legs kept on working hard all this time, yet there's no way he would stop at this rate.

Other than that, I just noticed those worms aren't actually going in for us as aggressive as they should be, but it's as if they're being too complacent while thinking that our fates are already sealed if they start to go serious. I'm just irritated that even creatures like them also tend to be arrogant when among other inferior beings.

"It took you almost an hour before you decided on doing that. What happened?"

"...I just..." Aoi averted her gaze from me. "...want to provoke those guys to make them even more deadly. Hehe..."

You want what?!?

"...B-But I'll fix this, big brother! As long as I'm here, big brother won't be harmed by anyone!" Aoi declared with brimming confidence.

Well, you should.

If things will go on like this, the best option for us is to face them upfront rather than continue playing this dangerous game of tag in the desert.

"I understand. But if the situation comes to worse, I'll take you right away with Prick. Understood?"

"...Understood!"

We rushed to a place where there are so many rock pillars standing just like in some mazes. Although part of me tells that it's a really stupid idea to go here of all places here in the desert, I just believed that this place is better than in the sand where they could resurface anywhere and anytime they like.

This might be the best time for us to start preparing for a siege.

"Good thing Prick told me about this abandoned ruins, it's rare for us to find a place where there's no sand on our feet. Once they appeared on the border of this, feel free to attack them!"

"Okay, big brother! I'll just get myself ready for a bit!" She said as I helped her climb up a pillar.

I also asked Prick to rest for a while while they're still not here. Did we lost them?

I looked at the horizon, and I already saw a couple of them crawling towards our direction. These creatures might be the type where once they set upon a target they won't stop hunting it until either they finally caught the target or the target itself succumb to the realization of its own fate. In our case, I believe that it's not the time to raise the white flag...yet.

"They're coming!" I informed them.

"...On it!"

Aoi, while standing on top of a high rock pillar, readied herself to unleash another salvo of death to the worms.

"...This would take me a bit long to prepare, but it'll turn them to ashes for sure!"

The skies overhead us suddenly became darker and darker after she said that, her aura coming from her swirling as it rise up and mixed into the clouds. A second later, I saw a huge black circular object in the sky, a magic circle of destruction.

On the other side the giant worms, with the 'Big One' leading the charge, continued to press forward. Small dust storms form around the desert as a result of their movements, which made them hardly visible from our position.

To describe it simply, their formation is just like a tsunami--swallowing those who are unfortunate enough to get in their way. We, who dare defy their natural supremacy in this place, shall attempt to break that rule for the sake of our survival.

Aoi looked at me from over her shoulder. "...The attack from earlier took a reasonable portion of my already limited divine power, that's why I could only create ONE wave this time. Will that be enough, big brother?"

"T-That would be enough, I guess? If you can take down at least the Big One then I believe it's more than enough for us."

If Aoi could kill the most aggressive among those giant worms, maybe it would shatter their morale, and hopefully lead to them retreating and stopping them from bothering us. If these assumptions of mine were to bear fruit, then we could finally continue with our journey without worries.

"Prick and I will support you no matter what, that's why don't worry about not holding back this time. Big brother will take care of defense, okay?" I said to her while letting out a smile.

Aoi also smiled at me. "...Okay. I-I'll do my best!"

Afterwards Prick and I laid out quick preparations for our immediate evacuation. Using the remaining cloth that we had as a 'harness', I tied a portion of it around her waist and connected it to the longer side, which we'll pull once Aoi finally unleashes her attack against the monsters, also pulling her away from them.

With this, the only thing left is the offense.

Aoi, almost complete with the preparations of her attack, observed carefully the movements of the enemies. She has already returned to her serious attitude, with no sign of complacency coming out of her. I don't know, but I'm starting to get enthralled with Aoi whenever she starts acting like the goddess that she is.

The distance between both sides get smaller and smaller every second, and so is my heart as it beats faster and faster. Any unprecedented event would mean a great effect to the outcome of this resistance, that's why I don't have any right to remain calm at this point.

'If Aoi fails to kill the Big One...--No, she will kill that one, I believe she can do that!', I thought of myself while sitting on top of Prick's back and gripping tightly on the cloth rope in my hands.

I'm starting to believe that I could do my part too, that I won't become a burden to everyone this time.

I won't become a burden, I won't.

"...Big brother, I have finished preparing." Aoi notified me.

When she said that I gave her a short, but concise reply, something which suddenly came out of my mouth.

"Kill them."