The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving novel Chapter 147

Chapter 147: "You’d Better Be Alive, Zeke!"

All three snapped their attention forward. Ahead of them, cracks were spreading rapidly across the icy floor, spiderwebbing outward from a central point and revealing glimpses of an endless, hollow darkness beneath the ground.

"Move!" Ares barked.

They scattered instantly. Torrin and Feyd threw themselves in one direction while Ares pivoted toward the source of the disturbance, his blade already drawn to face it. The cracks in the ground intensified as something massive forced its way toward the surface.

Ares struck first, driving his sword down into the widening fissure with all the force he could summon. For a single suspended moment, whatever was coming up through the ground went still.

But the second they thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, Ares’ expression turned grim.

"Stay back!" he shouted at Torrin and Feyd, who were starting to step forward to help him.

A heartbeat later, he was flung backward through the air, landing hard on his feet several paces from where the ground finally split open completely. A massive armor-plated worm erupted from the earth, its faceless head splitting open into a tooth-lined radial maw.

A Churrworm had appeared!

Fortunately, Ares had warned them in time. If they hadn’t stopped when they heard him, they would’ve been in serious danger. This type of monster was classified as a mid-level threat, with annoyingly corrosive acid that it spat out, and it lunged at any human it sighted.

The three of them tensed up, raising their weapons and bracing themselves against the Churrworm’s attack.

But the attack they expected to come never did.

Instead, the Churrworm recoiled and thrashed violently before diving back beneath the floor. Its massive body slithered away from them quickly. The instant it disappeared, they thought it would come back up to attack one of them.

However, it didn’t.

It continued to dig through the ground and went past them, as though it was running away from something!

Ares, Torrin, and Feyd exchanged looks.

They didn’t need to voice what they were thinking aloud. Whatever had frightened a Churrworm badly enough to make it run was not something they wanted to meet head-on.

They turned and sprinted after it as one, following the path of destruction it carved through the tunnel.

Their suspicion was confirmed within seconds.

Behind them, the same chittering and scraping cry rose again.

Cruuk, cruuk, cruuuk.

The sound was accompanied by the same vibration that had shaken the ground moments before.

They ran faster until the mouth of the tunnel they had entered through came into view.

The shaking of the ground intensified so much that some loose rocks from the ceiling and walls fell in their way. Fortunately, they were able to sense the danger ahead and avoided being crushed alive. Staying inside the tunnel and continuing forward would only become a suicidal act because no one knew if the tunnel would end up giving out under the circumstances.

When they reached the mouth of the tunnel, the three expected their Admiral’s group to be there, waiting for them after having sensed the same dangerous situation they had.

But no one was there.

They skidded to a halt once they got out of the tunnel and glanced toward the other opening where the other group had entered.

"Did they already leave?" Feyd asked.

Torrin shook his head. "The Admiral would wait for us to come out. He won’t leave us here to die."

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