Hunting the Mongolian Death Wyrm (Success!)

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght grinned, taking a handful of gummy worms from the bag Jack offered her. She began chewing on them one at a time as she grabbed out something new for her. Something Aela had helped her get. It was perfectly legal, a toy Aela had brought home for her to try out. It was a Ruger 762, a magnificent rifle chambered in a fairly high caliber that was quite damaging and would easily punch through the skin of these wyrms. She would have used her new sword, crafted from the feather of the Stymphalian bird they had hunted and killed but that would damage her weapon from the acid of their skin and she did not want to damage such a thing. So she had decided to stick with a firearm instead of her sword. It had a nice scope on it with which she could plink away at a fairly decent distance, but could also fire at a pretty damn good rate of fire as well. Aela had acquired her several magazines as well, ones she called "high capacity magazines". She had a lot of magazines already filled up. Two of them where only just normal magazines that held ten shots each, then there where four larger ones that held twenty five shots each. Finally she had two huge drum magazines that held fifty rounds each. She figured that was going to be enough ammo to hopefully take care of these blasted wyrms.

     When Jack offered for her to start the electrical show she actually laughed and nodded, popping the last gummy worm in her mouth and chewing on it. She concentrated, pulling electricity mostly from the sand around them so as not to tire herself out to much by making it. There was plenty of static electricity in the sand anyways, so she figured she might as well use it to her advantage. She added small amounts of energy from her own pools of energy as well to make it stronger and more powerful. Finally she unleashed the energy, directing it to the six metal poles before the truck. The lightning streak across the desert, finally forking at the last second and striking each of the poles as she had caused it to sending the pure energy deep in to the ground (and amusingly flash melting the sand around the poles and turning it to glass).

     She stood there, leaning against the cab of the truck, her rifle loaded with a ten round magazine at first so she would not accidentally waste any ammo, her left eye looking through the scope and her right eye looking at all six poles. It was a little disorientating at first when she had practiced this at home with Aela guiding her, but now she was able to be ready to shoot and keep an eye on the general area as they waited to see if this had attracted anything to their little party.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    When he saw a handful of the sugary goodness disappearing into Nyght's beautiful, smiling mouth, Jack felt the sudden urge to kiss her. Luckily, this time he managed to stop himself, but his face still flushed deeply, knowing what he'd almost done. The last time he'd acted on the impulse to do something like that, it hadn't ended too well. In fact, it had lead to the awkward conversation they'd just had a minute ago.

    Nyght got out her gun while the young man produced his shotgun and drew his sword. Since he couldn't wield both weapons and throw spears with his full strength at the same time, Jack jammed the sword into the truck, close at hand so he could get to it if they got close enough for him to need it. The shotgun he held in his offhand, on a sling so he could drop it for his sword if he had to.

    Jack whistled slightly. It was an impressive display, after all. Damn, Nyght is sexy when she's working magic, the young man thought to himself.

    "Notice anything?" The young man asked, managing to pull his eyes away from her long enough to sweep the surrounding area. What would the approach of a Mongolian Death worm even look like? Would they even know it was there before they were under attack? Hopefully his danger sense would let him know, but it wasn't super reliable all the time when it came to others.

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght continued scanning ahead of the truck, watching for any signs. She was not sure what exactly she was looking for either, as a matter of fact. Would the wyrms surface directly around the rods she had shoved in to the ground? Or would they surface nearby? Would they come up right from underneath or from a distance and travel along just under the surface and create those cartoonish tunnels along the surface? She did not know, but she knew they would find out soon enough. At least...she was hoping they would find out soon enough.

     Nyght watched, and suddenly noticed a small puff of dust in the distance. She moved her rifle in that directing, trying to see what it was. There was nothing there at all...except wait there was another puff of dust about five feet from where the last had been, closer towards the rods. She grunted at Jack, pointing with one finger towards where a third puff of dust rose in the air. She then changed the setting on her scope, zooming it out and slowly trailing it along the where the dust trail was leading towards the metal rods. She suddenly gasped, seeing something. It was like in those stupid movies about sea snakes, where a hump rises out of the ocean for just a brief second then disappears under the waves only these 'waves' where totally sand and the hump was a funny peach colored scaly form.

     "Jack.." She whispered urgently, "I think it worked! I see one of them!"

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack began to get that familiar feeling in his gut. Well, chest and throat, too. His stomach acids began to churn, he felt a strange tightness in his chest. His head starting screaming and he could just, Jack could just feel the danger. They were coming. The worms were close. It wasn't long before Nyght shouted out that she'd spotted something.

    "There? I see it!" The young man lifted the spear he'd readied earlier in the direction of the hump in the sand. Jack threw, throwing all his physical strength behind it, amplified with a little magic. The javelin soared through the air to pierce the ground and, from the way it jerked, Jack could tell that it had connected with something. "I think I hit something!"

    After hitting the button to have the winch retract the spear, the young man raised his shotgun and heaved with his magic. "It's really fucking heavy!" Jack gritted through his teeth as he dragged the worm, flailing, out of the sand. The creature was some hideous thing straight out of a nightmare and, even with the winch helping to compensate, it took him some effort.

    "Hit it!" The young man pointed his gun and fired.

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght watched as the harpoon flew past her, sinking in to the sank with enough force behind it to seem like it was fired from a harpoon gun. She knew that he had used his powers to help enhance the power of the through, controlling the metal of the spear tip to make it go faster and hard and probably more accurate to ensure he struck the wyrm. The spear slammed in to the sand, and then suddenly jerked and began to move erratically, and Nyght was excited. Jack had obviously struck the wyrm, which was now moving erratically beneath the sand. Jack started the winch, and using his powers began to haul the wyrm towards themselves and out of the sand. Nyght was ready, and when Jack shouted, she was already on it.

     Nyght sighted up on the Wyrm, and began to gently squeeze the trigger over and over. She was sending bullets in to the wyrm, hitting it quite a few times and missing a few shots but hitting for the most part. Yet despite all the rounds she was hitting, the wyrm did not seem to be slowing down and suddenly a second wyrm flung itself out of the ground in front of the first, landing upon the rope that the harpoon was attached to the winch with. It slithered or whatever these damn things where doing over the rope with it's entire body length and disappeared in to the sand again, and several seconds later the rope snapped off having been eaten by acid and the sand and wyrm's body.


     Nyght shouted at Jack, but kept firing until the rifle clicked empty. She quickly dropped the magazine by pressing the release, and grabbed her next magazine, one of the twenty five round ones and slapped it in to her weapon. She then slapped the reciever, closing it to chamber her next round and sighted again, but both wyrms seemingly had dived under the sand again.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The young man gritted his teeth, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead as he attempted to pull the worm toward the truck while maintaining some accuracy with his fire. He held down the trigger until the automatic shotgun had unleashed all of the slugs it held in its thirty round drum. Not all of his shots hit, naturally, but he accuracy hovered somewhere around the fifty percent mark, tearing up the sand around the first worm and blasting it full of holes. As the fight had worn on, Jack's shots had grown steadily more accurate and he had less trouble dragging the worm toward him, getting the hang of things.

    And then the second worm showed up, throwing itself onto the winch's line. Jack hadn't been prepared to suddenly be pulling the entire load himself so he quickly lost control, allowing the worm to escape when the line snapped. In their attempts to flee, the two worms discharged blasts of electricity that might've been powerful enough to kill one of them if Jack hadn't been waiting for just such an attack. As the electricity built up in the beasts, he'd taken control of it so that when the worms released it, the young man forced the electricity to dissipate harmlessly in the air.

    Once both worms had dived under the sand, Jack withdrew the winch's line, using his abilities to sever the metal from the parts that were acid damaged. Then he quickly placed a new head on the end of the line, having prepared for just such an occasion, and used their brief moment of rest to attach the cable to a new javelin. That done, Jack set about reloading his shotgun.

    "The first one is pretty heavily injured, so it should go down without too much more of a fight. But I think they'll come at us smarter this time, maybe burrow under the truck."

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght slowly looked around, scanning around both in front of them and to the left and right trying to find some sign of the wyrms. Suddenly one came up outta the ground, and slammed on to the hood of the vehicle. Nyght lifted her rifle, not even really sighting on the wyrm and squeezed the trigger sending off two shots before the entire truck lurched to the right, a second and third wyrm slamming in to the side. This cause her next shot to miss, but she whirled and squeezed off a round at one of the wyrms, but only managed to clip it before it dove back beneath the sands. She jerked to the front, managing to blast one more round in to that wyrm before it died from the onslaught of bullets that she had struck it with and Jack had probably slammed in to it.

     There was one problem though. Her bullets where pretty damn powerful, and had easily penetrated the body of the wyrm, coming out the other side and punching through the hood of the vehicle. Several of Jack's probably had as well, considering the close range. The truck beneath them lurched several times, softer then when the wyrms had struck it and the engine died. Nyght sided, throwing a look at Jack and groaned.

     "Well, there goes my ride home." She commented, then screamed as the entire truck lurched straight up in to the air. She lost her balance and tumbled out of the back striking the ground hard flat on her own back and her gun went sliding through the sand. She jumped to her feet, only to find herself face to face with a wyrm that had emerge between herself and the truck.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    When worms began slamming their bodies into the sides of the truck, Jack began scrambling to maintain his balance and keep from falling out of the bed and onto the churning sand where things would get very unfortunate, very fast. The young man gritted his teeth, Rock the Boat playing through his head for some reason. The young man thrust with the javelin he held, impaling one of the worms before it could manage to dive back underground. With how close the worms were, Jack didn't want to risk having the line tangle up the truck so he cut it.

    Nyght managed to kill the engine with her weapon, much to the young man's dismay. Fortunately, they didn't really need the winch anymore, not that it couldn't be operated without the vehicle being active. "Fuck it," Jack muttered to himself before firing away. By the time they were done with it, the worm that had crawled onto the hood of the truck was very much dead.

    It wasn't exactly ideal, but the fight seemed to be going pretty good. Until Nyght lost her balance and went tumbling into the sand. Almost immediately, she'd come face to face with one of their foes.

    "Nyght!" Jack took aim from the truck, firing at the worm. With his magic, the young man summoned up a powerful wave of water, hoping to force it away from her and at least by Nyght time to climb to her feet and get back to safety.

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght was not sure entirely what to do. Her first instinct was to raise her rifle and blast the wyrm, but Jack and the truck was standing on the other side and the powerful ammo would easily penetrate the wyrm and possibly hit them. Not to mention the fact that her rifle was not even in her hands. So Nyght flung herself backwards towards her gun, sliding in the sand and wrapping her fingers around her weapon. She scrambled back to her feet, turning and seeing the wyrm collapsing and water washing the blood and potential acid away from her form. Jack had her back apparently and obviously, and that was a good thing.

     Nyght moved towards the truck, only to freeze as not one but three wyrms erupted beneath the bed of the truck, slamming in to it and sending the truck flipping over itself. She yelled Jack's name, but she doubted he heard her. She She could not fire at the truck, not wanting to cause it to erupt violently. She had only one choice left. Using her innate ability, she summoned two shadow creatures. The shadows swirled around, coalescing in to two large feline creatures beside her about the size of tigers. The creature's bounded forward and proceeded to attack the two of the wyrms, distracting them and unaffected by their acidic hide.

     Nyght moved quickly around the side, shooting at the last wyrm pounding rounds in to the creature's head. Suddenly she was out of ammo though and she had to look around near the truck for one of her other magazines. Spotting it she tried to head towards it but was stopped as she was flung in to the air again, the fourth and last wyrm erupting directing beneath her and hurtling her in to the air. Crashing to the ground, Nyght had one last option, and she summoned her third shadow creature, this one forming in to the massive form of a bear. The huge shadow bear slammed in to the wyrm, thrashing around and wrestling it to the ground.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack was relieved to see his friend climb to her feet, unharmed for now. Unfortunately, he soon had his own problems to worry about. His senses were going haywire, like an air raid siren screaming in his ear, telling the young man that he was in immediate danger from something. Jack teleported just as the worms flipped the truck and he reappeared instantly just a dozen yards or so away, the truck between him and Nyght. He hit the ground with a roll and came up spitting sand, eyes darting about in search for any worms that might be bearing down on him.

    "I'm ok!" He shouted, letting Nyght know he was ok. At least, he was ok for now. The battle wasn't over yet. Jack ran toward one of the worms that happened to presently be engaged with a feline creature he assumed Nyght had summoned. The young man unloaded the remainder of the ammo left in his weapon as he closed the distance, his mind racing as he decided how to attack without getting himself killed or horribly disfigured by the creature's acidic hide.

    Lifting his sword, Jack struck at the worms body, trusting in the magic of his blade to preserve its edge. The worm thrashed at him and a blast of superheated steam scalded the creature, a small wave of boiling water following it to push it back and wash away any acid that might find him. Coating himself in water, Jack dropped his gun to take up his sword in both hands and began hacking away at the worm, trusting in the feeble barrier and his own clothing to keep him relatively safe.

    There was no grace in his lightning quick attacks, but Jack struck brutally and surely with his sword until the worm was no more than a twitching corpse at his feet. Teleporting again, the young man appeared several feet away but closer to the second worm occupied by one of Nyght's shadow creatures. He called one of his discarded spears to himself and threw it at the worm.

[Nyghtingale]

     While the wyrm was engaged with her shadow bear, Nyght dodging around both and used her ability to summon metal to call a large drum magazine to herself that she could see about fifteen feet away in the sand. She pulled it to her hand, and grabbing it she shoved it in to her gun and chambered a round. She turned to start blasting the wyrm that was struggling with her shadow bear, but saw Jack approaching the second to last one a little ways away. Her shadow creature was no where to be seen, so perhaps the wyrms had successfully managed to dispel them using their electrical attacks? She would have to look in to that later but for right now she had to help Jack.

      Hustling through the sliding sand, she ran towards Jack and the second wyrm. As Jack lifted his spear, she brought her rifle up to her shoulder and began squeezing the trigger repeatedly trying to send as much ammo in to the beast as possible and hopefully injure it and not miss every shot. She was not entirely sure how well she was doing, but luckily the drum had a fifty rounds which was quite a bit of ammo, and so she kept pounding away at the monster hoping to distract it and give Jack a chance to get in to it and spear it or kill it with his sword.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The spear impaled itself in the worm's side, its barbed head catching fast and likely causing the creature a lot of pain. Jack heard the gun shots and saw them impacting the worm he was facing. The young man turned his head to look at Nyght and give her a grim nod of acknowledgement before he used his abilities to reshape the spear while it was still inside the worm.

    The spear head, Jack left intact. But he hollowed out the shaft, using the excess metal to make several smaller spikes jut out of the shaft and pierce the worm's body. The young man created up a large amount of boiling water and began forcing it through the tube and the worm's mouth, causing it to bloat up horrendously and thrash around in pain, boiling from the inside. A bead of perspiration ran down his forehead as he did so but a small smile formed on his face. They could've dispatched this one like the others, but Jack wanted to kill at least one of the worms with a little style.

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght saw that Jack had that wyrm taken care of, especially as the bullet holes she had riddled it with began to fountain out small jets of boiling water mixed with the innards of the wyrm. She turned away from the grisly sight to look around. They had killed five wyrms now, and she had lost two of her shadow creatures but there was her large shadow bear left finishing off the last wyrm. Luckily it seemed the shadow creatures where not affected by the acid upon the Death Wyrms' hides but unfortunately where affected by their blasted of electricity.

     Nyght looked around, trying to find the last wyrm which was no where to be seen. Her eyebrows furrowed, creasing the flesh of her forehead as she attempted to look for the beast and/or for signs of the creature. She could not immediately spot either, so she moved over to the over turned truck and began to fish around. She picked up a few magazines she found running around, tucking them here and there wherever she could in her outfit, even down her shirt between her breasts.

     She noticed something nearby, and went over to investigate. It looked like a strange indentation upon the sand, possibly where something had disappeared beneath the sand. She knelt down, reaching out to prod at the sand. It was not slimy, so it was not wyrm mucus that might be acidic. It was just...a random pit like sand had disappeared beneath it and made a perfect circular indentation. Suddenly a wyrm exploded from directly under Nyght, flinging her backwards as it shot in to the air. She fell back, pulling the trigger on her gun but only managed to land a few hits before the wyrm disappeared underground completely, leaving no marks as to where it was or was going. Nyght scrambled to her feet swearing.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack panted, crouching in the sand as he glanced over his handiwork. He'd only used that particular move on people who'd gotten on his nerves quite a bit before, never on something quite so mindless as a Mongolian Death Worm. Some might say it was a waste of effort, being as incredibly inefficient as it was. But Jack figured the monsters, being legendary creatures as they were, deserved to die with at least a little style, incredibly painful though it was. It might make for a good story, how the young man had once boiled a Mongolian Death worm alive from the inside out. If he ever bothered to tell anyone.

    Finished, he glanced at Nyght to see what she was doing. The young woman seemed to be staring at an indentation in the sand so Jack started to jog over. They'd killed several worms, about roughly the size one would expect to encounter when fighting a pack of the beasts, from what he'd learned in his research, so Jack figured they were about done and the worst of the danger had passed.

    "Nyght!" He shouted, breaking into a sprint when he saw a worm burst from the sand, knocking her backwards. The loose sand was making the going annoying, slowing him down. Jack dropped his sword, abandoning it in favor of increased speed. When he made it to her, the young man looked her over with panicked eyes.

    "Are you alright!?"

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght grimaced, looking between where the wyrm had disappeared in to the sand and where Jack was before looking back again. Then she turned to look herself over cursory to see if she was indeed alright. She had a slight amount of pain in her hands, but there was no blood. Just roughed up from the sand she guess, cause they did not appear injured. She was sure she had a few small cuts and scraps upon her here and there along with a collection of about a dozen bruises so far, but nothing overly serious or live threatening as far as she was aware.

     "I...I am fine. Thanks Jack. Did you see that though? That wyrm...what it did? It definitely set a trap. There is no doubt about it but that was a trap to lure somebody close and try and get them. I thought these things where not intelligent? Apparently they are smart enough to set traps for people when they realize they are not just dumb animals to be over come by brute force."

     She rubbed her palms on her pants, grimacing at the feel of the sand grinding against the tender flesh. She sighed and stopped that, before looking around at the sand surrounding them littered with the carcasses of dead Death Wyrms and bits of metal from the truck.

     "Where did it go Jack? I do not see it anywhere....is it hiding or running away?"