The sandworm’s massive body charged toward the golem.
The golem, with its body of steel, charged toward the sandworm.
The first thing the two beings—neither of which should ever have appeared in a beginner dungeon—did after deciding to fight was as simple-minded as could be: they rushed at each other with all their might.
—Kwaaaang!!
A tremendous sound rang out, and the golem’s huge frame shook.
I felt Noel and Mina clutching their chairs so tightly they couldn’t even scream.
And even through the tremendous impact, I was able to check the situation through the view outside.
‘As expected, when it’s that big, you can’t underestimate it.’
The golem, made of metal frames and armor plates and confident in its weight, was pushed back.
On top of that, part of its armor had been ground away and crumpled.
The armor, made from an alloy of several metals, wasn’t easily shredded by the sandworm’s teeth, but it couldn’t block them completely either—and we were slightly lighter.
As I realized that trusting only in our defenses would get us done in quickly, I also grasped the most important fact.
‘If we just fight it head-on, the other side won’t come out unscathed either.’
Some of the sandworm’s teeth and carapace had been crushed.
Its body must have been hard enough to burrow through the earth, but it seemed it didn’t have the durability of alloy armor.
Although it had won the collision because it was a little heavier, the impact must have been like being struck full force by a gigantic mace.
Given the equipment and armaments we had left, the current golem didn’t have any firepower more stable and easy to produce than a charge. If this didn’t work, it would become an extremely difficult fight.
“But if we can break it, that means we have a chance…!”
Without hesitation, I accelerated the caterpillar treads and spun in place.
The sandworm couldn’t turn its body as nimbly as we could, and I charged at it again, sending it flying with a roar.
Its carapace shattered again, and the sandworm barely managed to turn, trying to grind us down with its teeth.
And I immediately activated the weapon on the right arm and raised it upward.
—Kadudududuk…!
The drill originally equipped to let the golem enter dungeons smoothly collided with the sandworm’s teeth.
The rotating teeth inside and the drill spinning in the opposite direction made a terrifying noise.
Soon, the sandworm bent its body backward and let out a soundless scream.
Its massive body slammed into the golem, but I had braced for it and adjusted our stance to endure, so we weren’t sent flying.
“Rotation against rotation, you bastard!”
“Looks like it was worth spending all that money.”
Mina smiled with her eyes as she looked at the drill equipped on the right arm.
“But it doesn’t have enough for a finishing blow. That blunt spear… thing got ground away too!”
“We can just pay to make another one.”
Mina answered Noel shamelessly.
And soon, Mina spoke again.
“A sandworm’s carapace is hard enough to be used as armor, and its small teeth are natural knives, but the big teeth rarely show up on the market. Aizen.”
It came out of nowhere, but I soon understood what she meant.
“You mean there aren’t that many teeth that can grind through rock itself…!”
At a glance, it seemed like a creature that could grind through rock, but more precisely, aside from the teeth that ground through rock, the rest were ordinary teeth.
Then the part to target was clear.
“The roots of the large teeth inside its mouth.”
If those were destroyed or extracted, its attack power would be greatly weakened.
And the weapon we had left just happened to be a drill.
“There’s nothing better than this for pulling teeth!”
I immediately raised the output and charged at it with all my might.
The already enormous body rushed forward at full speed, sending vibrations through my entire body.
The sandworm tried to charge right in with its teeth, but we reached it first.
“You see, an attack isn’t always powerful from the very start!”
In martial arts, with people, a punch was like that.
The instant the arm fully extended, its power was high, but while the arm was moving forward, its power was lower than one might think.
The sandworm’s charge was a threat even to the caterpillar golem, but the very moment it was just beginning to charge, its power was by no means high.
“With a body of steel like this, I can endure as much as I need to!”
There was a loud crash, but only for a moment.
The heavy body of the caterpillar golem and its increased output finally brought the sandworm’s charge to a complete stop.
I raised the left arm, forced open the mouth it kept trying to clamp shut, and drove the right arm’s drill straight in.
The tip of the drill was swallowed into its body for only a moment.
Soon, the sound of the drill rotating and tearing through its insides came.
—Udeudeuduk, kagagagak!
“This sound makes it feel like we’re getting ground down while grinding it!”
“Looks like it’s rotating its teeth inside its body!”
I thought we had attacked fairly quickly, but the sandworm seemed to be defending itself almost instinctively.
The sandworm’s teeth rotating inside and the industrial drill made to dig through the ground were colliding with each other.
Through the narrow gap in its slightly opened mouth, I could see that the drill had finally reached the root of one of its thick teeth, and in response, it was rotating its inner mouth to resist.
“So it’s a fight between whether we smash one of those teeth first or it breaks the drill!”
The fact that it could grind down our drill, which was also a lump of steel, made those teeth truly astonishing.
Vibrations began spreading through the entire golem.
And with a terrifying sound, the golem’s body was flung backward.
“You crazy—what the hell is that thing’s structure…!”
The teeth rotating inside its mouth finally snapped the drill and shoved the golem away.
If we were pushed back like this, we would lose even the brief opportunity we had.
I immediately twisted the body hard, struck the drill forcefully with the left arm.
Then I lifted it with all my strength, as if scooping up the drill still embedded inside.
—Kadudududuk!
I heard the sound of something catching and being ripped out.
The golem’s body was flung backward as if shoved away.
And a huge white object fell from the sandworm’s mouth.
A large fang, badly damaged in places and stripped of its sharpness.
We had finally succeeded in smashing one of the large teeth inside its body.
—“Kieeeeeek?!”
With the drill still lodged in its mouth, the shock of having a tooth that should never have been pulled out in its lifetime torn free made the sandworm’s massive body begin thrashing wildly.
I hurriedly moved the golem backward, then saw an attack flying toward the body and immediately raised the left arm.
Because its body was so huge and massive, in the end there was a crunching sound, followed by the sound of the left arm being destroyed and sent flying.
And at the same time, more than half of my vision began to go dark.
“Aizen, the crystal spheres connected to the outside are broken!”
At Mina’s voice, I narrowed my eyes.
Just as Noel had warned, the crystal spheres, weak against impact, had finally broken, cutting off most of our vision connected to the outside.
‘When it rains, it pours!’
One arm was broken, and our vision was blocked.
There was no longer any way to fight even remotely safely.
I quickly made my decision and immediately spoke.
“Open the hatch.”
“Aizen.”
“If we fight without vision, that’s when we really all die.”
Although we still had some functioning sight, it clearly wasn’t in a state where it could cover everything.
It was nice that we kept seeing areas for improvement, but whether we improved it or whatever else, we had to survive now.
The hatch opened, revealing the outside.
I saw the sandworm rampaging wildly.
‘What weapons do we have right now?’
I calmly recalled the armaments we had.
A rock shell loaded in the cannon that hadn’t been fired yet.
The right arm, still intact.
The drill lodged in its tooth.
The only methods left were all or nothing.
All that remained was to drive a shell into its body, not its hard exterior.
“We have to stop its body even once.”
How could we stop its movements?
I considered the biggest problem from several angles, then looked at Noel beside me.
And one method began to come to mind.
“Lady Noel.”
“Sir Aizen?”
Noel looked at me as if wondering why I was calling her in this situation, and I quietly asked her.
“The magic of House Nexia is lightning magic, correct?”
“It is, but… there’s no way for me to hit a sandworm with my magic….”
I didn’t know how strong Noel was, but judging by her lack of confidence, it was clearly impossible for her to hit the sandworm and stop its movements.
If there were no preparations, that was.
“We’re charging.”
“Sir Aizen, our chances…”
“They’re still there. If you help me, Lady Noel.”
It would be a short, tiny moment, but it existed.
I raised my hand and pointed to the sandworm’s mouth.
“Focus the strongest attack you can manage right there.”
I pointed out the target to Noel with my finger.
The drill, still lodged in the creature’s body and vibrating as if it might be pulled out at any moment.
Noel stared at it closely.
Then she looked at me with a little concern.
“Metal conducts electricity well, but I don’t know if it’ll work on that spear…”
“It’s a drill. But it’s fine.”
How well it would conduct was certainly unknown.
“If we fail anyway, we’ll all just be on our way to the afterlife together.”
If sitting still meant death, then this was merely the calculation that we would make one final charge and play our last card.
Noel seemed to steel herself and closed her eyes.
Magic power gathered, fitting for the young lady of the lightning House Nexia.
And Mina’s voice was heard.
“In the name of Saintess Mina Christa, I bestow the blessing of focus.”
For a moment, I felt golden divine power wrap around my body.
“That’s about all I can do.”
The instant I thought my head had become clearer, Mina’s voice came again.
“It’s on the house, Aizen. Floor it.”
Had she cast a blessing to increase my focus, even if only to raise the success rate a little?
“Here we go!!”
Answering her resolve, I advanced at full speed.
Because the cockpit hatch was open, tremendous wind and vibrations rushed in.
And the sandworm stopped struggling and looked straight at us.
It charged again, and in that instant when we couldn’t charge first this time—
I quickly swerved aside, avoiding the attack, and fired the shell from one cannon.
“Not like I can hit both of them anyway!!”
An enormous boulder struck the sandworm’s body.
The sandworm writhed in agony and collapsed.
Confirming the conclusion that even its hard carapace couldn’t come away unharmed after being hit by cannon fire,
I charged toward its head again and swung the right arm’s fist.
The fist swung by that huge, heavy frame snapped its head around.
It must have suffered at least a slight concussion.
And right there at close range, I could see the end of the broken drill…
“Gather, lightning. Under the name of lightning’s Nexia, pierce the enemy…!”
With the feeling that my head was rising upward, a flash of light shot toward the drill.
Lightning flew, strong enough to easily burn up a monster of ordinary size.
Compared to the sandworm’s size, it was far too small, but it was lightning with intense force.
That lightning struck the drill directly.
—Pajijijijik!!
Soon, with an unpleasant sound, the lightning flowed along the drill.
Since most of it was little more than impurities, I couldn’t know how much electricity would pass through.
And whether the electricity that did pass through could paralyze the sandworm was even more uncertain.
At the moment I thought this was the end,
“In the name of Saintess Mina Christa, I pray for fortune on this journey.”
I faintly heard a voice praying for one last bit of luck.
Soon, the sandworm’s body began to stiffen.
Noel’s lightning had finally paralyzed the sandworm’s body.
The speed of the teeth that should have been rotating fiercely slowed, then stopped.
The drill filled with lightning stopped the creature through its gums.
Of course, with a body that huge, the time it could be stopped wouldn’t amount to much.
But that much time was enough.
—Kwaang!
In that state, I succeeded in driving the cannon barrel containing the remaining shell into its mouth.
“You really were a formidable enemy.”
I sensed the end.
I grinned as I pulled the trigger.
“The final roll of the dice came up higher on our side, sandworm.”
At the same time as an enormous explosion erupted,
the inside of the sandworm’s body began to swell slightly.
—Puhaaaak!!
Soon, as the stone shell tore through, blood and brain matter began bursting out all around.