The expedition in the fleshy terrain would be both grueling and cruel, and it would be a pattern. This should have come as no surprise to anyone considering what the group first saw upon climbing their first hill.

To describe it succinctly, it was nothing short of a nightmare. Expanding endlessly horizontally were the cliff walls from which they climbed down and in front of the group stood increasingly larger hills and mountains. These cliffs and mountains all shared one trait, they were dangerous and bloody.

The trees found atop them had eyes that peered into their souls and leaves that swayed with a strange vivacity. The rocks that one could see with the naked eye were bone white, a hint to their true nature

As if the horrible sight wasn’t enough, the moment the team was exposed to view from these many peaks, high-pressure jets of blood shot out toward them. Ed did not miss a beat to try and defend the group as he promptly reacted to the attack.

Out of thin air, a large body appeared and took the brunt of the shot. The elves who were behind this mighty beast recognized it as the worm-like creature Ed had ridden into their original settlement.

“Aaaaauuuurrrghhhh….” It let out some sort of pained grunt betraying its dead appearance. Nevertheless, the elves weren’t in any position to be shocked about that right now. Similarly, Ed did not expect it to let out a grunt of pain but paid it no mind.

“There isn’t any earth here but…” Ed could summon more than just undead beings.

Ed jumped up onto his summoned creature and from atop it rained piles upon piles of dirt. The dirt immediately started to shift into stalwart walls reinforced by magic power through his ingenious control of magic power.

“Amazing” An elf commented as they ran closer to the wall. This was the elf Ed had handed a bow..

“What are you doing?” Ed raised an eyebrow and asked seeing how they looked eager for a fight.

“Ummm… I’m going to shoot back” The moment the elf replied, a series of shocks ran through the earthen walls. Cracks from which some blood seeped had formed on the wall.

Ed didn’t know if he should praise this elf’s bravery or he should admonish his stupidity. With so many jets of high pressure raining down upon them it was impossible to… It was impossible to shoot back…

‘Let’s go’ Ed transmitted a command to his undead ride, the wormllipede.

When Ed first summoned the wormllipede he had thought to ambush them from the ground. After witnessing the Elf’s courage and eagerness, however, Ed thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let them make some contributions.

After all, if the elves were to wander this place alongside him they needed to learn how to deal with all sorts of situations. Ed couldn’t only allow them to fight in hand-to-hand combat as long-range fights, by the looks of things, would be a common occurrence that they would need to prepare and account for.

The wormllipede listened to Ed’s transmission and dug straight into the fleshy ground. Using the skills Ed had bestowed upon it, it was easy to locate the targets atop hills and mountains but… For now, Ed only made underground tunnels with the Wormllipede’s help.

Not even half a minute later, when the walls Ed built looked as though they would crumble down, Ed called for the elves.

“Get in here, quickly!” Ed’s voice rang out and the elves immediately acted on it. They were reluctant to throw themselves into an ominous and dark hole but with the crumbling wall and Ed’s words, there was no room to hesitate.

After the earthen walls crumbled, the sniping tendons lost all hopes of hitting their targets and began to wither away into the ground.

In the tunnel the Wormllipede was digging through the meaty soil, the elves were sitting down idling away. They couldn’t do anything else, so they couldn’t be blamed for idling. Per Ed’s own words, they needed to create some vantage points for themselves before jumping into action.

“By the way, I am starting to feel kind of thirsty” An elf commented silently.

The others offered no comment to this random tidbit. With the toxic blood that invaded the area, it was very hard to find anything to drink. The very thought of drinking anything in the area made them nauseous and as a matter of fact, them sitting on the bloody flesh was already a substantial risk.

But at the same time, it was impossible to traverse a land of flesh and blood without getting one’s body dirty so they didn’t mind the risk.

After a few more minutes of pointless chatter the fleshy tunneled rumbled and the wormllipede showed itself anew.

“The tunnels are done, you guys can head to the surface now and attack the location of the snipers” Ed said as he alighted the beast.

The elves all nodded and readied themselves. Alolvi then immediately approached Ed with a few doubts on his mind.

“Are you sure we can take handle this?” Despite Alolvi’s impressive performance against the first onslaught of undead creatures they faced, he had doubts about this battle.

“Don’t worry, their attack patterns are simple and take a bit to shoot out” The only reason it felt like an endless barraged was due to the even spacing between shots.

“Plus, since if we aren’t bundled together you can also be attacked by much fewer” Ed added to further ease Alolvi’s worries. These were realizations that Alolvi had dawned upon himself but hearing it from Ed left him far more relieved.

Alolvi did not know the reason for this but he decided to put additional effort into enacting this ambush plan.

“Oh right, also don’t forget these shields” Ed said as he started throwing some shields around. Shield and spear made for the best combo in a situation where they needed to fight an uphill battle, or at least, that was what Ed thought.

Alolvi grabbed one of the shields inspecting it closely before nodding and rallying the other elves.

“Come on! The quicker we eliminate those things the faster our progress in this hellhole is. The faster our progress the faster we get out of here!” Alolvi shouted as Ed mounted his undead beast.

“Well then, split yourselves at each fork and then handle the enemies” Ed said before transmitting a message to the Wormllipede. The Wormllipede wasted no time in crawling away through an existing tunnel and disappearing from sight with Ed.

As for where Ed told it to depart… It was to the top of one of these fleshy mountains. Upon his emergence, a field of red grass seemingly came alive and tangled around the wormllipede.

Vein Grass (Blood Creature)

A grass formed by blades resembling or full of veins

The grass which resembled wriggling crimson noodles was relentless in its assault despite its ordinary name and appearance. If it weren’t for the Wormllipede being an undead creature, it would have long since been strangled to death.

Ed who rested inside of the wormllipede could only crease his brows.

‘Let’s hope they don’t into any of these things’ Ed knew there was no Vein Grass at the exits of the tunnels the Wormllipede created but… What if some appeared in the elves’ paths… would they be able to handle it comfortably?

***

Alolvi trudged through the dark tunnel alone, he was by himself as they had split at every fork per Ed’s instruction. The fleshy ground under his feet was disturbing but Alolvi distracted his mind from such sensations and focused solely on the battle ahead.

Soon enough, light peered through an opening on the ceiling. This was obviously the end of the tunnel and the start of his battle.

Not wanting to delay any further, Alolvi ran towards this opening and jumped out in one swift motion. An ambush had to be swift and merciless and hidden, and by the looks of things, one of those conditions was not met.

Alolvi’s position was immediately sprayed with red blood. Being an experienced warrior, he didn’t waste a second in protecting himself. The blood hit Alolvi’s shield causing him to tumble back into the hole he jumped out of.

‘How did they know…? No, wait… How did they move?’ Per his understanding, they shouldn’t have been in a position to retaliate. Without the ambush being a success, this was an invariably risky mission. Alolvi now feared for his subordinates who might not be as quick to react as himself.

As the leader of the elves, he was overcome with a desire to turn back and quickly stop the others from attempting their attacks. How could he bear the guilt of having led these elven warriors with whom he often mingled to their deaths?

Yes, Ed had technically been the one to lead but Alolvi was a responsible Elf and he took his role seriously. An excuse like that would only work on his conscious for a while.

Nonetheless, Alolvi did not turn tail and run. He eyed the opening again and quickly climbed out.

Without missing a beat, he scanned the area for the bloody tendon that had sprayed him and found the target. Last time he was pushed back into the hole due to his unsteady footing. By climbing out, Alolvi was much more stable than last time and managed to block the tendon’s attack without issue-

Or so he thought, Alovli felt his leg being grappled by something. Not a second later, he felt a pulling force and Alolvi fell on his back only to then be dragged across the bloody ground.

Still uncertain of what took hold of him, Alolvi feared for his life all the while questioning his own sanity. Regret came much too late.