The First Legendary Beast Master-Chapter 982: Sand Worm

Rae brought out a rope to attach Thor to the front of the caravan, which was already hooked to the goats, with two thirds of the harnesses empty and stacked in the bed of the front wagon.

Everything was empty, so once they were out of the sand, it would be easy enough for them to simply roll their way back to the city. But sending a group like this with no proper guards seemed like a highly questionable choice to him.

"Where is your escort?" Karl asked as Rae got Thor set up with a tow-rope.

The young man gestured vaguely. "Inside a Sand Worm somewhere. They sent us with a five-man squad of Overlords, but the worm caught them by surprise, and they were gone before we knew what was happening."

Eating worms seemed like a bit of a step down from mice to Hawk, but technically worms were bird food. He would reserve judgment until he had tasted sand worm.

Rae whistled to get everyone's attention, and the wagon master brought the beasts to readiness, taut against their harnesses.

Then Thor simply stepped forward, and the entire row of wagons bounced out of the ruts they were in.

It was laughable how easy it was for the behemoth, even at his reduced for transit sizing. His paws barely slid as they sunk in the sand as he pulled, and the wagon team struggled to keep up with his walking pace.

The ground rumbled beneath them, and Rae smirked.

The sand worm was back.

But it didn't go for Thor and the wagons, it went straight for Karl. The sand vanished beneath his feet, falling into a giant maw filled with rings of razor sharp teeth as he activated [Swims Through Air] to keep himself from falling.

Then the Giant Sandworm burst up out of the dune, an Overlord Ranked monstrosity that made even Thor look svelte and slender.

Karl quickly equipped his weapons to attack, but Rae was already on it, tearing at the outside of the creature's thick hide. The wounds leaked yellowish blood that smelled heavily of sulphur, and made the sand bubble where the droplets landed.

[That's definitely not edible. It smells terrible.] Hawk complained.

He had gotten his hopes up, only to have them crushed by this disgusting thing. It would pay for that.

In order to express his frustration with the inedible nature of the Sandworm, Hawk began to bombard it with rapid fire [Fireballs], but they mostly just fizzled against the hide of the beast.

[It's resistant to fire magic. Fire and Earth Elements combined.] Rae noted.

That was why the blood sizzled on the sand. It wasn't acidic, it was boiling hot, like molten sulphur.

So, Hawk switched to [Rend] which cut through the beast easily enough, now that it was most of the way out of the hole, and Karl's retreat had drawn it out onto the sand.

The ladies began to unleash attacks on the gigantic monster, and Thor lamented that he had to move the wagons out of the way before he could join the fight. Especially when Tessa's new [Holy Slash] was so effective.

Karl launched a full output [Void Blast] down the beast's gullet, and the Sandworm began to turn black from the inside. A second and third attack in rapid succession turned its whole skin black, and the creature slumped to the ground.

But the Blade of Champions said that it wasn't dead yet.

The whole team continued to hack and blast away at the creature, but from the outside its damage reduction was truly impressive, and the blackness from the [Void Blasts] was beginning to fade by the time that Rae managed to cut through to a vital spot and the Blade of Champions pulsed with the absorbed life force of the defeated monster.

The young Dwarf who had been standing near Karl stood up out of the sand and dusted himself off with a reverent look on his face.

"I can't believe that your team took that thing out so easily. An Overlord Ranked Sandworm is a menace, and it usually causes at least a few casualties before even a full army unit can take it out." He gushed.

Karl laughed. "Most Dwarves can't fly, so when it bursts up from under them, I can see how they would end up swallowed into that nasty maw. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to fight with those rows of teeth, and I could fight from the outside."

The Dwarf shook off his fear and straightened his uniform. "Thank you. That thing's trap would have gotten us for sure if a less powerful rescue team had come for us. But now I need to get to the wagons before they run away without me."

Karl laughed as he realized that was actually incredibly likely.

The moment that Thor was unhooked from their wagon train, they were going to take off as fast as the remaining beasts could take them, and most of the supply team were strapping up their boots for a long run, intending to make the load as light as possible, or even help them pull.

Rae untied Thor, and sure enough, as soon as the round of thankful praise was over, the wagons were moving, leaving some of the slower preparing Dwarves to chase after them.

Fortunately, the convoy moved slower than a Dwarf's running speed, so it wasn't impossible to catch up, just tiring.

The incident did give Karl and the others one important bit of information, though. They were now aware of the route that the army had used to acquire supplies, so they could follow something close to it and most likely find the problem areas with little difficulty.

Driving over the sand was not only smoother but faster, as Thor didn't have any problem walking on soft ground and Lotus had modified their wagon wheels for them. Plus, driving near the ridgeline of the dunes also gave them much more visibility, and might help pull hidden monsters out of the sand for Rae to play with.