SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 89: Going Underground

The clearing exploded into a sea of pale, writhing flesh. The distraction was over, and the thousands of offspring that had been fighting the soldiers were now flooding back to protect their Mother. The sound was like a million dry leaves skittering over stone, mixed with the wet, heavy thuds of the giant protectors.

"They’re here!" Skall shouted over the noise.

He didn’t look back. He was already a blur. He moved toward the wall of six giant protector worms that stood between them and the Mother.

Behind them, the first wave of the returning swarm hit. Thousands of smaller worms poured into the clearing like a flash flood. Lena felt the ground shake. She knew that if they stayed in one place, they would be buried in seconds.

"Vane! Ollen! Give me everything!" Lena’s voice echoed, amplified by her demonic power.

At the edge of the growth, the demon soldiers stopped holding the line. They didn’t need to—the worms were no longer attacking them. Captain Vane looked toward the center of the clearing, her eyes glowing like coals.

"Unit! Full release!" Vane roared.

The hundred demon soldiers slammed their spears into the ground at once.

A shockwave of dark, red energy rippled out from the formation. The black iron of their armor began to smoke. This was their true strength, The Iron Phalanx. They didn’t just stand; they became a literal wall of burning mana. Anyone or anything that touched them was instantly vaporized.

They began to march toward the clearing, carving a path through the swarm like a hot knife through wax.

On the eastern side, the mercenaries stopped holding back.

Dren, the massive blue demon, threw his heavy blade into the air. He caught it with both hands as it fell, his muscles bulging until his skin turned a deep, bruised purple. He slammed the sword into the earth.

Shatter Earth.

The ground for fifty feet in front of him split open. A massive fissure swallowed hundreds of worms, and the force of the strike sent a spray of dirt and crushed chitin into the air.

Beside him, Tok moved so fast he seemed to vibrate. His solid amber eyes were fixed on the swarm. He didn’t just punch anymore. Every strike he landed sent a visible ripple of golden force through the air.

Hundred Palms.

Each of his hits didn’t just kill one worm; it sent a chain reaction through the pile. Worms ten feet away exploded from the inside out, their fluids spraying the gray moss.

But despite their power, the numbers were too high. For every thousand they killed, two thousand more crawled out of the deep holes in the ground. The earth was turning into a honeycomb. The forest was literally hollowing itself out to produce more killers.

In the center of the clearing, Lena and Skall reached the protectors.

The six giant worms lunged at once. They were coordinated, moving like the fingers of a hand to crush the two intruders.

Skall stopped. He sheathed one of his short swords and held the other with both hands. He stood perfectly still for a half-second. The air around him seemed to pull inward, as if he were sucking the very wind into his blade.

He moved. It wasn’t a run or a jump. It was a single, clean motion.

Flash Strike: Seven Snake.

There was no sound. There was only a thin, silver line that traced a circle around him.

The six giant protectors froze. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, all six of their heads slid off their bodies at the exact same time. The cuts were perfectly smooth, glowing with a faint silver light.

Skall didn’t even look at them. He exhaled a cloud of white mist and stepped aside. "The path is open, Lena! Go!"

Lena didn’t waste a heartbeat. She used the mana she had drained earlier, channeling it into her legs. She blurred past Skall, her black claws extended.

The Worm Mother saw her coming. The massive creature realized its protectors were dead. It let out a final, deafening psychic scream that made Lena’s ears bleed.

The Mother didn’t fight.

As Lena leaped into the air to bring her claws down on the Mother’s head, the massive worm did something unexpected. It didn’t strike back. It arched its back and slammed its head downward, straight into the churned-up earth.

The ground beneath the Mother collapsed.

She was a burrowing creature, and she had spent months hollowing out the earth. With a massive crunch, the center of the clearing fell inward. A giant hole, twenty feet wide and pitch black, opened up.

The Worm Mother slid into the darkness with terrifying speed. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Lena landed at the edge of the new pit, her claws digging into the dirt to stop herself from falling. She looked down. She could see the massive, pale body of the Mother disappearing into the deep tunnels, moving deeper into the earth where the soldiers couldn’t follow.

"She’s running!" Skall shouted, jumping back as the ground continued to crumble.

Around them, the situation went from bad to worse.

With the Mother gone underground, the swarm became frantic. Thousands of offspring began to boil out of the pit, climbing over each other in a desperate rage. They weren’t just attacking anymore; they were a carpet of teeth, trying to drown the clearing.

Captain Vane and her soldiers reached the edge of the pit, their armor glowing red-hot. Dren and Tok followed, back-to-back, fighting off a wave of worms that was now ten feet high.

"We can’t hold the surface if she stays down there!" Ollen yelled, his voice cracking. "They’ll just keep coming!"

Lena looked at the hole. She looked at the red glow in her own hands. She could feel the Mother’s energy through her Life Sense.

The creature was heading for a central chamber deep below the forest. If it reached there, it would be untouchable.

Lena stood up. Her red eyes were fixed on the darkness.

"Hold the surface," Lena commanded. Her voice was cold and left no room for argument.

"What are you doing?" Skall asked.

"I’m finishing this," Lena said.

Without another word, she stepped off the ledge.

She dove. Her black claws tucked against her sides, her dark mist trailing behind her like a cloak. She vanished into the black pit, chasing the pale light of the Mother’s retreating body.

Above her, the clearing was a nightmare of fire, silver sword-light, and golden shockwaves. The soldiers and mercenaries fought with everything they had, surrounded by an ocean of monsters.

But as Lena descended into the cold, silent dark of the tunnels, all the noise vanished.

There was only her, the Mother, and the deep, damp smell of the earth. The final hunt had moved beneath the world, and only one of them was coming back up.