From the sand erupted a massive twenty-foot-long vampiric worm that was roughly the same size as a school bus.

"Get ready to fight!" the princess ordered.

The orcs carried battleaxes, warhammers, and clubs, while a few fought with their bare hands.

The demons, on the other hand, mostly carried swords, spears, and staffs.

Guthrum held a massive club, as large as a tree trunk, against his broad shoulders. A broad smile spread across his face as he saw the monster that emerged from the sand.

"Be ready, men."

"We’re with you, Guthrum."

The orcs began to bang their weapons together, creating a loud ruckus.

"For our guild master!"

"For Blood!"

The orcs roared as they charged toward the towering monster. The worm opened its mouth wide in response, revealing rows of pointed teeth that formed a spiral inside its mouth.

Guthrum launched himself into the air and raised his massive club into the air before bashing it into the boss monster’s head.

The worm took the full force of the attack, but with the worm’s thick and durable skin, the attack felt like nothing to it.

Instead, Guthrum was the one repelled from the attack. The boss monster capitalized on this, and before the orc’s body could hit the ground, the worm fired a powerful wind-based spell from its mouth that sent the orc crashing into the sand, creating a hide crater from the impact.

But just a second later, the orc was already climbing to his feet.

Watching the entire event, the princess was left speechless. She knew that orcs had incredible physical stats, but she never expected him to launch himself twenty feet into the air and tank a hit from a D-ranked monster without any protection.

At the same time, the other orcs were charging madly at the worm, even as they were knocked away and sliced by its magic.

The orcs slammed their weapons into the worm’s body, but it had no effect as their weapons would just bounce right off.

Realizing this, Princess Cassandra quickly snapped herself out of her daze and rushed forward, weapon in hand.

She flanked the worm, hoping to catch it off guard, and as she moved, a deep violet aura began to cover her blade until the weapon was fully enveloped.

She took full advantage of the orcs and demons distracting the monster to swing her sword against the demon’s skin.

The violet aura from her sword seemed to disappear into the monster’s skin, causing it to screech in pain.

The monster was clearly hurt, but yet no damage was visible on the worm’s skin, even though she slashed it with her sword.

’One of the things that makes heretic magic so effective is that it’s almost impossible to defend against. I mean how could you defend against a magic that directly attacks the soul?’

The worm writhed and thrashed in pain as it experienced a severe burning sensation that it couldn’t even comprehend.

Mana poured out of its body in droves, creating a powerful twister of sand and wind that threatened to swallow her whole.

Moving swiftly through the sandy terrain, she quickly retreated while the orc, Guthrum, was advancing toward the monster at breakneck speed.

’What is he, an idiot? He’s gonna get himself killed!’

The orc launched himself into the air once again and planted his club against the worm’s reddish-brown skin.

"Die!"

The worm’s body acted like jelly and absorbed most of the impact.

Guthrum was left helpless in the air once again, which allowed the worm to sink its teeth into the orc’s massive shoulder.

Guthrum hurled in pain as he smashed into the ground before the worm proceeded to launch him across the sand before he smashed nto a massive sand dome.

Seizing the moment once more, the princess rushed forward to attack. Seeing this, the demons that came with her also surged toward the worm.

"Use your magic. It’s the only thing that can get past its defenses," she yelled.

The mages supporting from behind immediately began firing spells, which caused the worm to thrash around in annoyance.

The monster swung its tail forward, and like a blade sweeping over grass, most of the charging demons were mowed down.

The princess and a few others used their high agility to leap into the air to evade the attack. As they landed, they didn’t stop running and continued to charge forward at breakneck speed.

"You fucking monster, I’ll kill you!" At the same time, Guthrum finally climbed to his feet and roared at the monster before charging with his massive club once again.

"Stay back! You’re only getting in the way. Your attacks can’t harm him."

The princess tried to warn him, but her words were blown away by the winds of his speed.

In just a matter of seconds, he was past her, in front of the monster, ready to strike once again.

"Die, you ugly bastard!"

The orc’s muscles bulged to the point where it seemed as if his veins were going to explode.

Wind parted around his club as he slammed it into the worm’s head, sending the monster crashing to the ground.

"He knocked it down?"

Immediately, as the worm’s upper body fell to the ground, the demons and the orcs began surrounding it.

The orcs used brute force, bashing their weapons against the worm, while the demons used their magic, which caused the monster excruciating pain.

The princess’s blade danced against the worm, causing it to twist in agony. Reflexively, the worm twisted in pain as they all attacked it.

Guthrum used his club to continuously beat the worm, while Princess Cassandra used her swordsmanship talent combined with her demonic magic.

Yet still, something was wrong. She couldn’t sense the monster’s health going down; instead, they were just causing it pain.

After a moment if though, a shocking realization dawned on her, and she quickly shouted to the others.

"We have to stop!"

Hearing her shout, the demons were the first to comply but the orcs didn’t let up.

Guthrum continued to pound at the worm with his club.

"Guthrum, you have to stop!"

The orc shot her a cold look.

"Maybe I was wrong about you. If you’re feeling sorry for this thing, then you’re not even fit to be a princess."

"Fool, you don’t understand."

"Enough!"

Guthrum shoved her aside as he climbed on top of the beast and raised his club above the monster’s head.

Guthrum was ready to deliver the final blow, but just then, he felt a coldness that seemed to wrap around his entire body, freezing his bones.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Guthrum had felt this feeling only once before. It was when he was defeated in combat and lost his tribe of orcs to his now guild leader.

He felt the same feeling emanating from Blood back then.

It was bloodlust...

Though gripped by fear, Guthrum summoned all the strength he had to swing his club, but just then...

Boom!

A loud explosion occurred, as if something was moving so fast that it broke the sound barrier.

Guthrum looked down to see a slit across his stomach, and in the next second, the top half of his body slid off the lower half.

The princess felt her blood run cold from watching the sight.

This was exactly what she had feared. The D-ranked boss monster had gone berserk. When a monster goes berserk, they enter survival mode and their cores begin to pump mana throughout their body at an extremely fast rate making then 3 times more powerful as a result.

The worm slowly rose, causing both the orcs and the demons to back away fearfully.

They could all sense the dreadful power emanating from the beast, along with its skin, which moved from reddish-brown to fully red.

At that moment, they all wanted to bury themselves in the ground, but before that could happen, another loud explosion occurred, creating a powerful sandstorm around them.

In the middle of the sandstorm, a barrage of wind slashes shot out, cutting the orcs and demons into pieces as they screamed for help.

"Protect the princess."

The princess watched in horror as her men used their final moments to protect her, and as a result, they were all cut to pieces.

Their remains lay at her feet. Her sword then fell from her hand, not because she was injured, but because she could no longer handle the weight of it.

She stood waiting, ready to be slain by the beast, but just then, through the sand and wind, at the eye of the storm, she spotted another monster. Its silhouette was barely visible, but even then, she could still tell that it was roughly the same size as the worm before her.

Except this new monster was a...