The sandworm's lure snarled as a flurry of lights streaked towards the human's back to become the man's clothing and a long stick. "What is this?!" she shouted.
Kal ignored her as a speck of light floated into view then dove for the sand to deposit its contents. Holding his staff like a club, his strength rune lit up as he swung above it. Bozun's body appeared, and the staff went sailing over the assassin's head. As he regained his balance from the wild swing, the mage realized he didn't consider the corpse's position when Ria stored it. For some foolish reason, Kal expected Bozun to appear standing up, ready to be knocked into the worm's mouth. Instead, the assassin's body arrived sitting on the desert sand, where it promptly fell over.
The mage kicked Bozun's legs to the side in an attempt to align him toward the sandworm. Lifting the corpse on the end of his staff by the gut, he tried to fling the dead man into the worm's mouth. Unfortunately, corpses aren't incredibly good at balancing on the end of a stick, and the desert's giving surface is a poor foundation for throwing something heavy. Despite Kal's enhanced strength, the assassin's body landed only a few paces in front of him.
Magic tendrils sprung out from Bozun's stomach, and Kal activated his rune for curing poisons. As he ran over to the corpse, he realized they weren't the expected toxin. From the worm-woman's lack of reaction, he guessed he was the only one who could see them. Kal hesitated for a moment as one reached out for his chest, locking onto him then straightening out. Spinning his staff through the tendril disrupted the connection, but it reformed a fraction of a second later. Other than magically connecting him to somewhere in Bozun's corpse, which was extremely worrying, it didn't seem to actually do anything. Another affixed itself to the pouch containing his mana crystals while others latched onto his staff and each boot. More of the magic tendrils sprung from the body. Some reached out for Kashka and Ria, while others quickly spanned the distance to Turam and his men.
Kal jammed his staff into the sand and grabbed Bozun's foot when he felt the drain on his magic. It was barely perceptible, but it was there.
The worm-woman sped past him, retracting into the sandworm's mouth as he glanced down and saw energy flowing down the tendrils and into Bozun's gut. The mage's eyes widened when he noticed the familiar glow of a charging mana crystal buried within the assassin's body. Beside the crystal were some runes he couldn't make out. Kal filled himself with magic so quickly it made his eyes hurt, and the runes came into sharper focus. One sent out the tendrils to draw in the magic around it and push it into the crystal. The runes next to it were charged but waiting.
On the first, he made out the symbol for "Full" but stopped upon seeing the glyph for "Shatter." He didn't even look at the other two.
"Kashka! It's not poison! He's going to explode!" yelled Kal as he yanked the assassin up by the leg. Spinning around, he sent Bozun flying into the sandworm's closing maw.
The worm froze for a moment as the lure shrieked in fear. Her mouth opened up again but only long enough to launch the assassin's corpse out in a blast of foul-smelling air. Activating his speed and strength runes, Kal darted over and grabbed the man's legs before he hit the ground, using the body's momentum to toss it back in while yelling for Kashka.
As Bozun once again sailed into the sandworm's mouth, just above the corpse flew a black dagger that found purchase at the base of the lure-woman's tether.
The larger sandworm looked on with annoyance, wishing her smaller counterpart would just rip the mask off the man's face and get to collecting his seed instead of letting him play around with the limp, and possibly dead, human that appeared out of nowhere. She didn't take notice until the black dot appeared inside the other worm's mouth, and the creature's lure went limp.
"No!" the sandworm howled in rage as she watched her hopes of having a brood dangle lifelessly from its tether. Her fury was cut off by a tiny knife piercing her head right between her eyes, with another larger one sinking into where a human heart would be a fraction of a second later.
The blades in the lure were merely an inconvenience, but the two stings near the top of her tether were far more worrisome. It took her a moment to find the cat-girl holding up another of the smaller knives, ready to be thrown. Shooting upward to protect the small lump of flesh, the sandworm began closing its mouth. A pained cry from below informed her the old woman had crawled onto one of her mouth's lower lobes and was being lifted inside. The old hag helped the human male ruin her chance to have a brood. She would enjoy slowly eating her later.
The sandworm pulled the knives free of her head and chest before letting them drop, paying no attention to the tiny speck of light that slipped between the closing lobes and dove toward the human. Marking where the cat-girl with the throwing knives stood as her mouth closed, she lifted her body up and tried to crush the odd-looking female. She didn't feel the satisfying squish of the weird-looking human getting flattened but did get to enjoy the pained shrieks of the old lady bouncing around as she dove into the sand.
---
Kashka's dagger kept the worm from spitting Bozun back out but left Kal with another problem. The crystal in the assassin's corpse looked significantly larger than the one in the old lady's collar. If it cracked while above ground, it would definitely kill him and Kashka, but could also kill or severely injure Turam and many in the caravan as well.
The sandworm sat there shivering as it dealt with the loss of its primary mind, and he had no idea when the dead man would explode.
Kal pulled his staff from the sand and yelled, "Ria! Stick!" as he activated his strength and speed runes. When next to the worm's side, the mage used his boots' ability to create a solid foothold before jumping onto its back. As he sailed upward, Kal saw Kashka dart to the side as the larger sandworm lifted up and tried to crush her. Kal figured the best way to get it to burrow into the sand was to attack it from above and jammed his staff in between the smaller one's segments. After almost a full second of waiting, the mote of light with the decoy stick finally touched his outstretched hand. His strength rune flared, smoking slightly as he pulled up on his staff to pry the rock-like layers of the worm's segments apart. Charging and activating the stick, he tossed it into the gap. Knowing he didn't want to be this close when the improved decoy went off, he jerked on his staff to free it and make his escape, but the weapon didn't move.
Pushing more power into his strength rune, he tugged on the staff again, but it remained stubbornly stuck. Looking where he tossed the decoy stick moments ago, he quietly said, "This is going to hurt," before powering both strength and healing runes. At the last moment, he added the haste rune as well for its added protection. The glowing copy of the haste rune hovering over his vambrace was still spinning up when the stick's activation delay ran out.
The pulse knocked him backwards, overcoming his magically strengthened grip on the staff to send him tumbling along the sandworm's back. Above the stick, the worm's stone-like shell shattered, revealing a patch of thick, leathery skin while the segments in front and behind cracked. Pain drove the worm out of its stupor as the shockwave damaged soft tissues before reflecting around inside the creature. Before Kal could get to his feet, the worm shook and dove into the sand.
"Ria! Store my staff!" The mage yelled as the fleeing sandworm dragged his weapon toward the desert surface. At least he thought he yelled. His haste rune didn't spin up and activate until after the wave of sound sent him sprawling, leaving Kal with only the protection from the strength rune. The spell saved him from significant injury but did little to protect things like his ears. He could only hear a high-pitched ringing as he jumped from the burrowing sandworm to the desert below. Kal threw himself into a forward roll as his feet hit the sand and came up running toward Kashka. The cat-girl still had her feline arms and legs from dodging the other worm's attempt to crush her. Seeing Kal's face, she turned and bolted ahead of him on all fours.
Behind the mage and cat, the very end of the fleeing sandworm's tail flipped up in the air from the steep angle of its dive. As it sank into the Sulerin sands, the crystal in Bozun's gut collected enough magic to activate the trap. Though it meant nothing to the worm, maniacal laughter emanated from the assassin's corpse for a second before the mana crystal shattered.
Those on the surface felt as much as heard a deafening crack from below just before the desert beneath their feet heaved upward. Mage and cat were tossed into the air along with the sand around them. Kashka windmilled her tail and twisted in the air, landing on all fours only to be bowled over by Kal as he hit the ground and skidded into her. While they untangled themselves from one another, the wet splats of sandworm guts raining onto the desert informed Kal his ears were working again. The settling dust revealed the back portion of the worm protruding from the sand and looking like a giant ax severed its tail. A moment later, the missing tail landed wetly on the sand further back. Only a line of yellow-tinted gore and viscera connected it to the rest of its body.
Every person or animal standing in the caravan's front section, and even a few at the head of the merchant section, were knocked off their feet by the blast. The air filled with shouts from frightened customers whose litters toppled as the camel pulling it fell over, as well as grunts and bleats from the camels as they tried to stand. Adding to the cacophony were Turam and his guards' calls as they tried to restore order and assess damage.
---
Beneath the desert surface, the eyes of the larger sandworm's lure widened as she felt and heard the explosion. Sandworms made a significant amount of noise when traveling through the sands, and after the shockwave passed, her breeding companion went silent. The worm-woman's face contorted in rage at the lost opportunity to have a brood. Even if the smaller worm's lure were severed, it would regrow over time, and they could try the process again. But if the other worm was dead, her search for a breeding companion started anew. She would rest here for a little while and let them think they scared her off then surface in the middle of the humans and their beasts, eating any she could catch and crushing what she couldn't.
