Infinite Mana - Chapter 166: Feeding It (Patreon)

The sand beneath Sieghart suddenly erupted again, rising like a wave as the giant earthworm forced its enormous body toward the surface. This time, Sieghart did not immediately retreat or search for another passage.

He planted his feet instead and used his focus, forcing his attention onto the approaching monster while Magic Vision tracked the enormous disturbance surrounding its body beneath the sand.

Glacial Fist appeared beside him. Then another. And another.

Sieghart continued forming the floating ice constructs until a loose formation surrounded him, each closed fist hovering independently while cold mist rolled from their frozen surfaces.

“Let’s see how many you can take.”

He launched them all.

The first Glacial Fist slammed directly into the earthworm’s exposed head, producing a heavy impact that scattered ice fragments across its pale segmented flesh.

A second struck immediately afterward, followed by a third and fourth. Sieghart guided the barrage toward the creature’s front, trying to break its momentum through repeated blunt impacts instead of relying upon one powerful spell.

Small depressions appeared across the worm’s body whenever the fists landed. Thin layers of frost spread around each impact point, briefly turning portions of its wet flesh white beneath the accumulating cold. The creature barely slowed.

Sieghart summoned more Glacial Fists as quickly as his concentration allowed, launching them continuously while the worm rose higher from the sand and pushed forward through the barrage.

Ice shattered against its body. Frost accumulated. The creature kept coming. Sieghart frowned as the enormous circular mouth expanded above him, revealing rings of hooked teeth surrounding a dark interior wide enough to swallow his entire body without difficulty.

“So that’s not enough.”

The worm descended.

Sieghart activated Impulse.

A compressed burst of Wind Magic launched him backward just before the creature struck, throwing his body several meters across the cavern while its mouth crashed into the place he had been standing.

Sand exploded outward. Sieghart landed awkwardly, slid several steps, and raised one arm as a wave of loose sand and broken stone poured over him from the impact. He spat grit from his mouth.

“This is getting old fast.”

The Glacial Fist barrage had damaged the monster, but nowhere near enough to stop something possessing that much mass and momentum. Worse, summoning enough fists simultaneously to overwhelm it exceeded what Sieghart could currently control efficiently.

Unlimited mana did not produce unlimited hands. That was becoming annoyingly relevant.

The earthworm disappeared beneath the sand again, leaving only a rapidly moving ridge across the cavern floor while Sieghart kept Magic Vision active and tracked the displaced mana below him.

The disturbance curved. Then accelerated. Sieghart jumped sideways before the ground erupted. The worm emerged horizontally this time, twisting its huge segmented body through the air before bringing several meters of its length down toward Sieghart like a gigantic fleshy club.

He used Impulse again.

Wind exploded behind him, throwing Sieghart clear as the creature slammed into the ground hard enough to send cracks racing through the hardened dungeon floor. The impact produced another wave of sand and dust, but Sieghart remained upright this time, already turning toward the monster before its body finished dragging through the crater.

Impulse worked extremely well for avoidance. Unfortunately, avoiding attacks indefinitely accomplished nothing. The worm twisted again and buried its front half beneath the sand while the rest of its enormous body followed with unsettling speed. Sieghart watched the mana disturbance circle beneath him.

“Come on.”

The creature responded almost immediately. Its mouth burst upward directly in front of him. Sieghart did not retreat. A large sphere of water formed between both hands, swelling rapidly until it became wider than his torso before he pushed it directly toward the approaching mouth.

The worm swallowed it. Sieghart smiled.

“Got you.”

He activated Ice Magic.

The entire sphere froze instantly inside the creature’s mouth. A mass of solid ice expanded between the rings of teeth, locking the opening partially apart while frost spread across the surrounding flesh.

Sieghart raised another hand. His next idea was simple. If the worm could not close its mouth properly, he could create more water inside, freeze it repeatedly, and force pressure deeper until something ruptured internally.

The worm bit down. The frozen sphere shattered.

Sieghart expected broken ice to remain trapped inside the mouth, perhaps melting into water he could manipulate again once the monster attempted swallowing.

Instead, the fragments vanished.

Not melted. Dissolved. Sieghart’s expression changed. Magic Vision revealed the broken pieces losing structure almost immediately after touching the deeper tissue inside the creature’s mouth.

The mana forming the magical ice was pulled apart, absorbed into the surrounding flesh, and dispersed through channels running along the worm’s enormous body. The remaining fragments disappeared before they could become liquid water. Sieghart stepped backward.

“Oh.”

The worm lunged again. Sieghart used Impulse without hesitation, flying away from the closing jaws before landing near a rocky section of the cavern.

His eyes remained fixed upon the monster. That changed things considerably. The creature had not simply shattered his ice through physical strength. It had destroyed the magical structure itself and absorbed the mana before the spell could return to ordinary matter.

Sieghart remembered Morran describing the worms as creatures shaped by an established dungeon filled with unusually dense mana. Apparently, some of them had developed a much more troublesome relationship with that environment than simple magical reinforcement.

“It eats magic.”

The statement sounded ridiculous even after Sieghart said it aloud. Then he remembered the Firian commander who consumed fire, the corrupted Orc King who resisted poison, and Chimerians who deliberately rebuilt themselves around enemy abilities.

Maybe ridiculous had stopped being a useful category. The giant earthworm surfaced again several dozen meters away, its body covered in small frozen patches and shallow marks left by the earlier Glacial Fists.

None looked serious. Worse, Magic Vision showed the mana absorbed from his shattered ice circulating through the monster instead of disappearing harmlessly. Sieghart narrowed his eyes. If the worm could consume active magic through its mouth, throwing stronger elemental spells directly inside might accomplish the exact opposite of what he wanted.

A Giant Fireball could become dinner. Water could become dinner. Ice had already become dinner. Sieghart glanced toward the rocks surrounding the cavern. That did not necessarily mean everything magical was useless. The creature had eaten the spell itself. It had not eaten the stone loosened by its own body. A slow smile appeared across Sieghart’s face.

“...”

The worm turned toward him again.

“You don’t want magic?”

Sieghart activated Telekinesis while looking toward several enormous rocks scattered around the cavern.

“Then I’ll find something less digestible.”

The giant earthworm surged beneath the sand again, leaving a moving ridge across the chamber while Sieghart remained still long enough to study its path through Magic Vision instead of immediately throwing another spell.

The creature disturbed mana everywhere it moved, but the most interesting currents remained concentrated around its mouth and upper body. Whatever allowed it to consume magic seemed strongest there, spreading absorbed mana through thick internal channels afterward.

Sieghart narrowed his eyes. If he killed it and absorbed the core, would the System interpret that ability somehow? Mana Absorption sounded completely useless when his own mana already refused to end, but immunity to hostile magic was another matter entirely.

“Invulnerability to magic would be nice.”

The sand beneath his feet exploded. Sieghart activated Impulse before the worm completely surfaced, launching himself backward as its circular mouth tore through the place where he had been standing.

He landed nearly ten meters away, heels cutting through loose sand while the monster twisted toward him without returning underground, dragging several meters of its enormous body across the chamber.

Sieghart raised one hand. A Poison Sphere formed. Then another. He fired both directly into the creature’s exposed side. The spheres burst against its pale flesh, spreading dark-green magical poison across several body segments before soaking into the wet surface.

The worm reacted by violently twisting. For a moment, Sieghart thought the poison had worked. Then its enormous tail smashed through a stone formation nearby, reducing several boulders into fragments before the creature charged directly toward him again.

“Or not.”

Sieghart fired another Poison Sphere. It struck the monster’s head. Nothing. Another burst against its side. Still nothing. The worm lowered itself and swept its body sideways with enough force to send a wall of sand rushing across the chamber toward Sieghart.

He activated Impulse again. Wind detonated beneath his feet and threw him diagonally upward, carrying him over the approaching wave before he twisted in midair and launched three more Poison Spheres downward.

They exploded across the worm’s back. Green vapor spread. The creature continued moving. Sieghart landed, immediately kicked backward with another Impulse, and narrowly avoided the creature’s tail as it smashed into the ground hard enough to shake the entire chamber.

He was beginning to recognize the attack pattern.

The mouth always accelerated first whenever the worm intended to swallow something, while attacks using its body created a different distortion through the mana surrounding its muscles. Magic Vision provided just enough warning.

Not much.

Enough.

Sieghart ducked beneath another sweeping section of the creature, then used Impulse sideways before the descending body could crush him against the sand.

A Poison Sphere formed before he even finished sliding. He fired it directly toward one of the worm’s narrow breathing slits near its head. The magical poison burst across the opening. The worm jerked once.

Then continued. Sieghart frowned.

“Poison resistance?”

That would be irritating. He remembered learning Poison Sphere from Vessa and Orin and briefly regretted never developing the branch further while he still had the opportunity. One basic poison spell was useful against ordinary enemies.

This thing was not ordinary. He could not change that now. So he kept casting.

Poison Sphere.

Impulse.

Poison Sphere.

Impulse.

The rhythm gradually became almost mechanical as the monster attacked repeatedly and Sieghart responded with short bursts of movement while throwing poison whenever an opening appeared.