Ten minutes had past since they first noticed the worms that were blocking their path. Serena had no intention of making any moves so Dante followed suit. Looking at the worms once again, he believed he could do nothing as well since his sword actually followed some strange rules. Not too long ago he had discovered that his blade actually devoured Fractures, it would be no surprise if it had no effect on these creatures as well. If it even did it was most likely that they would be unable to take them on as they were clearly out numbered. The worms were about five in number and one of them already looked like too much trouble.
Serena turned around sitting on the floor with a strange look. Was it possible that she didn't know what to do?
"Is anything wrong?", Dante asked with a hint of worry in his eyes.
"These creatures, we have to take all of them out", Serena said catching him off guard.
"What!? One of those things looks like enough trouble already. Why would we risk it all to fight them?"
"Dante, I am sure you are an intelligent person but you let your fear cloud your thoughts way too much", she said with a disappointed look. "Look closer and you would know why."
On hearing this he couldn't help but be disappointed in himself. He looked at the scene once again but this time tried to keep his mind as open as possible. He looked at the worms to the trees and then finally to the environment as a whole. On doing this he finally realized why Serena wanted to take such a risk.
"We would lose our only protection if we let them be", Dante said with his eyes wide open.
"Glad you realized this."
If the worms ate all the trees they would be open to an attack from Fractures if the place was ever to be discovered. This plants were so dangerous that they were capable of taking on Fractures, it would be best not to lose such an important asset. These plants also helped clean the air which was something that Dante appreciated as well. This was the only place he knew of that reminded him of the way Earth use to be originally.
Now that they knew this, the problem was how were they going to kill them all in the first place?
"If we are lucky they don't eat humans", Serena said with a slight smile.
"I doubt that. With teeth like that they would most likely eat anything", Dante said causing Serena to give him an awkward stare. It was clear she preferred his scared self now.
"I will drag their attention while you run to the diamond shaped rock over there", she said pointing at a rock in a distance.
"What about you? I can't just leave you alone", Dante said protesting.
"You should know better than anyone that you can't fight them even if you wanted to."
On hearing that, Dante grit his teeth feeling useless. He decided it was best to tell her about his abilities as of this moment so that she wouldn't risk her life for him, however before he could the worms did something which was absolutely weird. They rose the top part of their body high before opening what looked like gills on the side of their bodies and screaming at a high pitch that caused Dante and Serena to cover their ears.
"What the hell is that!?", Dante shouted.
Enduring the pain they gritted their teeth until the creatures stopped screaming. Dante immediately knelt on the floor removing his hands from his ears in order to inspect them. Blood seemed to have come out from his ears because of the loud scream.
"Get up we have a problem!", Serena said in a very serious tone. That was enough to let him know they were in trouble.
He quickly stood up to look at the worms only to see that they were currently approaching them. It would seem that they had been discovered. Dante was confused by this because of the way it had happened. Worms usually found their food by following a chemical trail or infotaxis, however these creatures found them through some form of echolocation. Dante was currently freaked out, however he was also fascinated at the same time.
"We got to move now!", Serena said before picking him up and putting him on her shoulders.
She began to run keeping up a reasonable distance between them and the worms. The worms were awfully slow, however because of their size they covered large distances in one move. Turning back, Serena shot at them only for her bullets to bounce off their crystal bodies. After her failed attempt she turned around running at incredible speed once again. Dante who was on her shoulder could now see the worms slowly catching up to them.
"Damn it", Serena muttered.
Dante knew that as long as she had him on her shoulders, the creatures would catch up to her eventually so he decided to do the wisest thing.
"Drop me off somewhere! None of us will survive like this!", Dante said ready for the consequences that may follow.
"I can't. I promised to protect you remember."
"I know but how can you do that if we are dead", Dante said causing Serena to curse in return. She knew that he was telling the truth but she also knew that dropping him off was way too risky. "Handle the rest of them then come and save me. I will wait till then."
After hearing this, Serena thought about this very well. After about ten seconds she changed direction dropping off Dante under a tree with a hole which was surrounded with crystals.
"I will come back, I promise", Serena said before sprinting off.
Dante went deeper into the hole noticing that the first worm was trying to come after him. The other four worms on noticing that their chances on eating Dante was slim continued to chase after Serena who had already covered some distance.
Dante who was currently in the hole couldn't help but hope that Serena would be okay, though he knew what he had to do now. He had to take care of the worm that was after him by himself. Though he didn't know if his fear would allow him to do such a thing.