The sand chose.
It surged toward the louder disturbance first, pressure compressing beneath the carcass Dusk had abandoned. The pull under his feet sharpened instantly, no longer probing, no longer circling. The lateral drag vanished. The flow beneath him straightened, compacting instead of dispersing.
The worm had finished listening.
It had committed.
Dusk felt it through the carcass beneath him.
Not sound.
Weight.
The bones vibrated wrong, resonance skewing as mass displaced sand beneath them, compression traveling upward in a clean, purposeful line. He didn't look back. Looking wasted time, and time was something he no longer possessed in any meaningful quantity.
He moved.
Not running.
Placing.
Micro-adjustments rippled through his remaining muscles as telekinetic force cinched tight around torn fibers and failing joints. He didn't push harder. He pushed cleaner, forcing alignment instead of strength, redirecting motion where flesh alone would have failed.
The carcass groaned as he shifted.
A rib cracked.
The vibration leapt outward like a thrown stone.
Behind him, the sand collapsed inward.
The worm surged beneath the surface, its movement no longer smooth. Its path corrected aggressively, bulk dragging through layers of sand that resisted just enough to throw off its angle. The ground ahead compacted instead of yielding, pressure rolling forward like a clenched fist.
Good.
Dusk stepped.
Another carcass. Another brittle platform. He landed with deliberate unevenness, letting his weight distribute incorrectly for a fraction of a second before correcting. The bones protested, snapping under stress, broadcasting his position loudly and clearly.
The worm followed.
Too fast.
Too close.
He adjusted again, telekinetic force biting into his calves as he twisted mid-step, redirecting momentum without adding speed. Pain flared hot and bright, vision dimming at the edges, but the carcass beneath him absorbed the worst of the vibration.
The sand thrashed.
The worm breached shallow, its massive body tearing through the surface at a poor angle, armored segments grinding against exposed remains instead of clean sand. The sound was wrong. Jagged. Delayed.
Slower.
Dusk didn't wait to confirm.
He moved again, limping across another carcass as the worm corrected, sand collapsing unevenly beneath its bulk. The ground ahead darkened, texture shifting.
Roots.
The trees stood farther apart here, their bases scarred where sand had tried and failed to claim them fully. Their roots clawed into compacted soil, dense enough to resist displacement, shallow enough to interfere.
He angled toward them.
Every step was calculated now, each placement a negotiation between failing flesh and external force. He didn't jump. He didn't sprint. He slid, letting telekinesis guide micro-movements that kept his balance just barely intact.
Behind him, the worm surged again.
Closer.
Dusk stomped harder than necessary.
Bone snapped.
The vibration tore outward, sharp and intimate.
The worm reacted instantly, trajectory locking onto the signal without correction. Sand compacted violently beneath it, pressure collapsing upward instead of spreading.
Dusk reached the edge of the tree cluster and stopped.
Not hesitation.
A decision.
The carcass beneath him creaked as the sand below it hollowed inward. The worm breached partially beneath the nearest tree, its bulk slamming into compacted soil instead of yielding sand.
Roots snapped taut.
The trunk shuddered violently, bark splitting as the impact traveled upward. The worm thrashed, armored segments grinding against resistance it wasn't built to move through.
The tree bent.
Held.
Dusk felt the hesitation through the ground, a fraction of resistance bleeding into the vibration.
Enough.
He moved sideways, dragging his failing leg across a second carcass, letting bones crack and splinter beneath him. The vibration flared outward, close and ugly.
The worm wrenched itself free, tearing roots apart in jagged bursts. The tree collapsed partially, trunk splitting as it fell sideways, but the worm escaped.
Slower.
Its next surge lagged.
Damage.
Dusk didn't look back.
He staggered forward, breath scraping shallow and fast as his vision tunneled. His right side burned, blood loss catching up now that adrenaline faltered. His muscles trembled uncontrollably, telekinetic force compensating just enough to keep him upright.
Another tree cluster loomed ahead.
He adjusted his path deliberately, stepping heavier on one side, lighter on the other, broadcasting an uneven signal that pulled the worm into an awkward angle. The ground beneath him resisted now, compacted soil disrupting alignment.
The sand surged again.
The worm breached too shallow, slamming headlong into roots instead of tearing free. The tree shook violently, branches shuddering as the trunk tilted under strain.
Roots held.
Barely.
The worm thrashed, movements uneven now, corrections slower. Each attempt to burrow free tore more roots loose, dragging debris along its body and grinding against already damaged armor.
Dusk felt it stumble.
He moved.
Another carcass. Another deliberate snap of bone. The vibration echoed outward, close enough to confuse, far enough to lure.
The worm tore free again, but its path wavered. Sand collapsed unevenly beneath it, momentum bleeding away with each correction.
By the third tree, its breaches were no longer violent.
They were desperate.
The ground split as the worm surfaced at a poor angle, its massive body grinding against roots and compacted soil instead of bursting free. Armor plates scraped audibly now, sound irregular and broken.
Dusk nearly fell.
His knee buckled as telekinetic force faltered, pain spiking white-hot through his spine. He caught himself against a carcass, fingers digging into exposed bone as breath tore loose in a ragged gasp.
He landed on the next carcass and nearly pitched forward.
Pain flared white-hot through his leg. Vision swam. For a heartbeat, instinct screamed at him to move again, to keep the rhythm, to stay alive through motion.
He didn't.
His heel came down harder.
Ribs snapped.
The sound was sharp. Intimate. Final.
Then he stopped.
Not a breath deeper.
Not a tremor.
Not even the reflex pain demanded.
Telekinesis locked his muscles in place, not moving them, not correcting them. Holding. Suspending. Treating his body like an object that could not afford error.
The carcass settled beneath him, broken ribs grinding softly as they took his full weight. The vibration spread outward in a clean, unmistakable line.
Silence followed.
A wrong silence.
The sand beneath him pulled inward.
Not rushed.
Not reactive.
Focused.
Something massive reoriented below, motion narrowing, alignment perfecting.
The worm had chosen.
Dusk felt the pressure before the sound. A hollowing of space. A vertical gathering force.
He stayed still.
The sand erupted.
The worm breached directly in front of him, its colossal maw yawning open as it surged upward, plates flaring, throat exposed in a wet, lightless void meant to swallow him whole.
Then the world broke sideways.
Sand detonated to its left as another shape burst forth, larger, fresher, unscarred. It didn't hesitate. Jaws clamped down on the exposed flank of the weakened worm, teeth sinking deep between cracked plates.
The scream wasn't sound.
It was vibration.
The sand convulsed as the wounded worm thrashed, smashing against the surface, carving trenches, spraying debris as it tried to turn, to bite back, to escape.
The stronger worm didn't let go.
They rolled, collided, vanished and re-emerged in violent bursts, two colossal bodies locked in instinctual slaughter.
Dusk moved.
Not fast.
Not loud.
Silent.
He eased his weight off the shattered ribs, slid sideways, low to another carcass , every motion measured against the fading tremors beneath him. Vision tunneled. Breaths came shallow and rationed. Consciousness flickered, but he held it with stubborn refusal.
He stopped only when the vibrations dulled, when the violence dragged deeper, turning inward beneath the sand.
Then—
Chime.
The sound cut through the world with obscene clarity.
Congratulations, Challenger.
You have slain a [Bone Devourer].
You have obtained: Nascent-ranked Core.
Dusk exhaled.
His body buckled.
Behind him, the sand remained still.
===============
Yo, this is your author, OmniumX.
This chapter… yeah, it drained me. That's why it's a little late. I hope you like it. If not? Just drop some feedback and we're good. No hard feelings.
Also, heads up—I won't be dropping new chapters for a while. 5 to 6 months, maybe. Why? National exams. If I fail, I'm cooked. I need to focus.
But here's the promise: when I come back, the chapters will be sharper, tighter, and even more intense than before. And i will be releasing 3 to 6 chapters a week.
Catch you on the other side. Stay sharp.
Like Dusk.