Chapter 183 Interlude: The Mole King PTIII

Shin…" Lily asked from beside me on the mole. "Where are we going?"

"To find a cavern, the moles thrive in those types of environments, it was how I survived."

"Then what are you doing here if you've thrived…"

"I-" I began to explain before the ground beneath us exploded, worms popping up into our vision.

From my side I could feel as Lily shivered into my side, her arms tightening against my body.

"Stay here," I whisper to her.

"No!" She yelled uncharacteristically of her from what I had seen.

"Don't worry," I smile at her, "I'll make it back alive."

I pulled the gun from my waist, startling Lily as I leaped from the mole and into the fray of worms.

They were giant, at least as tall as a two story building but the weren't going to be a problem.

I pulled the trigger of the gun and the bullet flew from the barrel. Though before it was able to make its way towards the worm I yelled out a command.

"Expand"

The bullet obeyed and expanded to the size of a person yet it carried its same velocity.

Within a moment of the bullet firing one of the worms was killed, its head exploding in an explosion of flesh.

I smirked at seeing that, it seemed that they weren't as strong as I thought them to be. Though that size would be a problem. The amount of energy that I used to expand that bullet to its size wasn't much but it wasn't minuscule either.

Even then I didn't have much bullets in the clip. Only about 9 left. I checked my pockets and found another 9 clips but that only left me with 99 bullets and judging by the size of this horde, a good 40 worms, if we encountered more I would be out of ammo before I knew it.

I would have to conserve my ammonia for more serious fights. That was why I holstered the gun at my waist, pulling out a dagger as I did so.

It would be much more inefficient but it would be better than running out of my most powerful weapon.

I took a deep breath, the situation flowing into me. My eyes took in all the information that it could, the position of the worms relative to me, their presence and everything else that I could think of watching.

Once I had taken in all the information I dashed.

"Slow" I commanded, my voice echoing through the worms sensory organs and slowing them down to a crawl.

"Grow" I again ordered but this time it was aimed at the dagger in my hand. Within seconds it grew to triple the size of a zweihander or about 20 feet or so. The weight pulled me down from where I was in the air and down into the head of the closest worm.

With a squelch of blood and acid the worm was dead. A flow of energy flowing into my body from the unheeded command.

'Weird' I thought to myself at the sudden increase in my reserves but ignored it in favor of commanding my dagger again.

"Return" with that the dagger returned to its original size and place in my hand.

Though when I looked up again I saw that my command had worn off of the worms. Their inherent resistance shaking off my own power.

"Tch" I clicked my tongue seeing them grow closer. A step to the right and the acid that had been spit at me was dropped next to me.

The ground sizzled before something akin to black tar appeared from the smoking pile of sand.

"Shit!" I yelled, the sound echoing through the empty desert towards Lily's ears. I jumped back, my feet carrying me as fast as I could.

"Shield" I harshly commanded, my body covering the moles that had huddled to protect Lily. I couldn't help but laugh at that. Maybe it was the adrenaline or maybe it was just funny but the moles had taken to this Lily enough to protect her without thought.

I looked back up and saw the globs of acid that had bounced off of my shield hit the sand.

Again smoke rose as the sand turned into this black tar like substance.

This time I had enough time of at least take more than a cursory glance at the black tar. It looked like a liquid and the spit that had first appeared seems to be giving the worms enhanced agility.

"Cover your ears" I said to the moles and Lily behind me as I dashed from the cover I had created and into the fray of worms.

By this point their bodies had started to curl together, enough that I couldn't distinguish one from another. A head or a tail I couldn't tell but that didn't matter. As long as they could hear me, see me, feel me. My commands would work.

"Die" I commanded after confirming that I had protected the people behind me. I had only had them hold their ears because it would be easier for me to hold the power back from affecting them. If all of their senses were able to perceive my commas then they may just die or be seriously injured by that command.

However with my protection they would be able to weather the command without any injury, not that they knew that.

Back to the worms though, screeches reached me, the dying screams of the worms echoing through the sand. However they weren't dead yet just seriously injured enough that they would die soon but that was all I needed.

"Multiply"

"Explode"

I threw my dagger at them, the first command multiplying them into hundreds of copies and the next coming into effect once the daggers had reached them.

BOOOOM

An explosion of flesh was seen as all of the worms were killed. Their bodies flying everywhere.

I finally took a sigh of relief, my body falling to the ground as the adrenaline fell.

I saw Lily from the side approach me and place her hand in my head. A warm flow of something reaching my body as it soothes me to sleep.