Agent of Seraphim-Chapter 37: Secret Mission

Brand had his hand implanted into the ground, so that he could get an early signal of when the hideous demon worm would appear.

His middle finger tried to break free from his hand, morphing into a beetle, and swam in the earth. The newly created beetle tried to check for the monster’s location.

Brand, more than anyone else, knew that they couldn’t afford a single open strike against their team. The level difference was too great, as the monster was too strong.

Seraphine also reaffirmed his thought.

"That demon was around B-rank." She informed.

"Karl also levelled a lot after the first wave," Brand thought. "But... "

There were a total of 10 level differences, and they were against a mutated monster.

"Mutated monster..." Eric muttered. He was shuddering since he saw the appearance of the demon, Raml-d’ah. The others didn’t blame him because it was truly horrific.

Karl noticed Brand somehow has a keen sense of demons’ location whenever he does this weird gesture of touching the ground, so he let it be.

Although he did have some suspicion, as from what he heard from the elders, ’Brand’ never displayed this sort of behaviour in the past.

’Keep an eye on Brand, and report if he shows any weird action in the rift.’

Karl remembered what Elder Camila had told him about separately before the raid began. However, he had to hold off on the secret mission she had given him. Now was not the time.

He might not be able to make it out alive, seeing the appearance of the mutated demon worms. Raml-d’ah was emitting an oppressive pressure simply by its presence.

It was tough to admit, but they had no chance of defeating the monster in front of them.

"Warriors of Emas!" Karl shouted with a commanding voice. "Focus on clearing the rift!"

"Find the Worm Statue, and break it!" His voice rang through the space with a sparkle of energy imbued, delivering his message to everyone in the close vicinity.

There were two methods to clear a Demon Rift. Defeat all the demons materialized, or break the object that holds the rift. Since the monster in question was unbeatable at their level, they had to go the conventional way.

Brand had been silent for a while, but suddenly snapped his eyes open and barked at the team.

"Leap back... now!"

Shortly after, Raml-d’ah burst out of the ground, unleashing a violent shockwave. Those who hesitated or lagged behind Brand’s warning were caught in the blast. Their armor buckled under the impact.

Karl was the first to follow Brand’s warning, so he was ahead of the others. He shot his spear art, Lightning Thrust, onto the giant worm demon in front of him.

—BAM!

The force behind Karl’s thrust was strong enough to stagger the giant worm. However, it was only to that extent of damage.

Karl’s attack had an added effect from his lightning attributes. However, Raml-d’ah seemed not to be affected by it.

In short, his attack was not effective at all.

Raml-d’ah opened its maw and splurged out energy in the form of lightning fractals in Karl’s direction.

He quickly covered himself with his cape, which was woven with Thundra Wolf’s Fur, a B-rank creature with lightning attribute.

His cape glowed in blue light after absorbing the lightning energy from the mutated demon worm’s attack. Normally, Karl would use his cape to absorb his own lightning charges, preventing an oversurge on himself.

Karl quickly turned around to shoot out another thrust on Raml-d’ah to release the charge stored in the cape.

—Thud

Again, there was no significant damage done to the giant demon worm. Worse than before, Raml-d’ah just shrugged it off and propelled itself into Karl’s direction.

"The wolf kid was completely neutralised..." Seraphine shared her observation with Brand.

Brand watched their battle with a grim look. Not only was the mutated worm strong, but its damage dealer was also incompatible in terms of attributes to fight against it.

’Shit’

The other warriors recovered from the initial shockwave and started to prepare for their attack on Raml-d’ah.

Eddy charged at the worm, trying to hold on to its tail, but the worm felt no resistance at all. A single whip was all it took to send him flying.

After watching Eddy, who had a massive build, get taken care of so easily, the other expedition member became wary and hesitant to move forward.

Brand shook his head at this sight. His body had almost recovered, thanks to his cyborg’s body’s natural regenerative ability.

However, he could not just dive in without planning. It would be suicidal.

He glanced at Eddy, who had foam in his mouth.

Beside Brand was Ruby, who was charging her flame spell, ready to launch her spells onto the mutated demon worm.

"Try starting with a smaller magnitude power... maybe one-third?" Brand requested Ruby. "Preserve your energy for a bigger attack later. We need to search for its weakness first."

Ruby nodded and released her spell without further adding mana to it. A massive fireball was sent toward the head of Raml-d’ah and exploded.

Raml-d’ah made a screeching sound and tried to put out the flame burning on its head.

Brand noticed something from the attack. Like his beetle, the Raml-d’ah had the same weakness, likely due to a similar living environment.

Raml-d’ah didn’t react to the fireball flying towards it, even though it clearly received damage.

’Maybe because of light...’

He initially thought that Raml-d’ah just tanked on Karl’s attack, solely because it had resistance to lightning attribute attacks. However, now he knew.

Raml-d’ah was blind in light, as it was adapted to the complete darkness of the underground.

"Karl! Preserve your energy!" Brand shouted to Karl, hoping he could hear him, in the midst of battle.

"The worm’s weakness was fire, and it was blind!"

Karl nodded, agreeing with Brand’s observation.

He also felt that something was off when he collided with the demon worm earlier, noticing the subtle difference between Raml-d’ah and the normal demon worms when they reacted to attacks.

Ruby held her pendant tighter, as if haunted by some troubling thought. Her expression had gone darker.

"It’s okay. You don’t need to worry." Brand consoled her, tapping on her pendant, and began to crack his knuckles.

Ruby was surprised by Brand’s action and thought that he knew something. Why did Brand linger his gaze on the pendant?

A voice rang in her head, its tone seemed pleased.

’I’m telling you. The boy was not normal.’

The red gemstone pendant in Ruby’s hand was glowing dimly as if the flame were as still as a shadow, the complete opposite of her flame’s usual properties.