The racing worm flew at Eodum and Kali. Acid and acidic fumes spilled from the invertebrate's tooth-lined maw. Eodum dove out of the way of the worm's path of flight, making extra sure to hold Kali close, so she wouldn't be hurt by the beast like before. At the moment, she was still whimpering from the pain in her left arm's stump. The acid was still eating its way through her. Most of her forearm was gone, barely any substance separated the acid from her elbow.
Most of the meat was gone, the slightly sturdier bone stuck out a ways from the arm's stump. It was sharpened and spike-like, but it was still dissolving and shortening. Still though, the way the spike looked, it was spine-chilling. Not only was the wound grotesque and gorey, but the way the bone somehow formed into that natural weapon was oddly unsettling. The acid seemed to have weakened, most of it being used up to remove her hand and forearm, and now, the wound was closing up as the skin fused over the muscle and flesh. The skin around the wound and the bone was malformed into a bubbled and warped mess of a distorted version of healing.
More acid also flicked onto her body however, her face was scarred and burned along with ripped apart pieces of her clothing and body. Red and white dotted splashes from the liquid were spread across her body with a higher concentration being located on her arm. This only made sense as the acid was centralized around her left arm, disintegrating it.
More flicks of acid splashed onto the two as the speeding worm bullet barrelled by, crashing into a nearby tree. The seven meter long worm crashed through a nearby tree, shattering and smashing the trunk of the tall tree. The bark was a dull shade of brown, but the insides were gray and almost stone-like. The top part of the tree toppled over, collapsing into the canopy of the verdant leaves.
The snapping of branches, twigs, and sticks cracked out over the sound of the anger-filled and fueled roars of the worm. It tunneled through the ground once more, shooting back out of the ground. Like a fish in water, it swam through the dirt going in and out of it, leaping through the air and at Eodum. Eodum darted through the trees, swinging with its tentacles as the previous chase seemed to repeat itself.
This time, however, Eodum knew that continuing this course of actions was simply going to result in the same series of events. The worm's stamina was higher than the rat's, so it needed another way to escape. Lashing a tendril further up, farther than it had before, it wrapped around the near-top of the canopy and ripped Eodum off of its course. It shot up beyond the tree tops and into the air before plummeting back into the forest.
With a spread of its mass, it caught itself in a tarp made of its body. The fleshy construct was pierced but held by the surprisingly sharp and sturdy branches of the trees. The worm roared out and as Eodum started retracting itself, a flash of pain screeched out from its side. Looking at the wound, a large hole was opened in Eodum's spread out skin. Fumes spilled out of the new wound as it grew ever larger.
The worm below had blasted out an orb of acid, and although most of the acid was caught by the trees and foliage, plenty of the orb made it up and into contact with Eodum. Kali, at the moment, was resting atop the central part of Eodum, so she was safe from the acid. Eodum however, felt the full force of the acid, only somewhat dulled by the [Acid Resistance] skill Eodum picked up in its early days. Speaking of which:
[Skill: Acid Resistance has leveled up!]
[Skill: Acid Resistance has leveled up!]
[Skill: Acid Resistance has leveled up!]
The sweet ease of skills and resistances muted the agonizing torture from before. Now, it was just normal torture, the completely normalkind of misery. That was still misery and torture. Still bad. Still nerve destroying. Still awful. Fortunately though, the acid seemed to be dripping off of Eodum, not being able to fulfill its purpose as well. Unfortunately, many other orbs of acid were being lobbed high into the air. Fortunately once more however, the acid missed because of the branches, trees, leaves, and pisspoor accuracy.
The flung glob of clearish liquid flew past Eodum's body as it pulled itself back together. The liquid reached high up, and at its summit, it fell back to the canopy. A few more globs came up, and they too, fell through the winding branches and twigs. The blobs were broken up into droplets, raining back down on the worm. It screeched in pain as its own acid made its leathery hide melt and dissolve.
The unintelligent worm thought the rain was its enemy's attack, and foolishly, it kept up its firing. Through some strange mixture of luck and idiocy, the acid kept missing and raining down on the worm. Eventually, a shriek of pain rang out, and the worm was forced to run away out of fear of further attacks from itself. The crushing and cracking of trees got further and further away until it was but a distant echo far away.
Eodum however, didn't want to test fate, and staying up here, at least for now, was significantly safer than being down below. It was here that a whimpering Kali was resting on Eodum's main body. While her fear of Eodum was overwhelming, the pain was even worse, and she could only hold her mangled arm to her chest in her delirious state. Tears flowed down her cheeks and onto Eodum's slightly matted fur. She held herself close to Eodum, not letting go as she was too lost in her own suffering to notice what she was gripping. Now… What now?