Eric was not someone who was at the storage buildings or vaults.
As the second in command of Bergan's Band, he was afforded the opportunity to relax at night and let his underlings take care of the matter with the vault security.
It was something that concerned the higher-ups and the whole organization of Bergan's Band, but it was natural to delegate the tasks to your lower classed members.
However, when the earthquake started and the Lost Plow Worm emerged out of the ground, Eric was finally forced to react to the situation.
"There's a large-scale rune beast attack at the vaults, Eric!" Someone shouted.
"Our men are dying out there—!"
"Gather our elites and get into formation!" Eric gritted his teeth and made the remaining strong members of Bergan's Band to join him and rushed for the vaults.
Once they arrived, they saw the Lost Plow Worm rampaging and destroying its surroundings mercilessly while also devouring every unlucky mercenary that came close and attempted to stop it, or was just in its way.
Many of them were just crushed in the rubble and died, not even escaping with their life intact.
Eric and the stronger members kept their distance as the other members fled.
Normally, the arrival of the strong members of Bergan's Band was enough to calm down the fears of the less stronger ones, but in the chaos, nobody saw them arrive.
Or even if they saw Eric, it didn't matter to them.
"What the heck is that thing?!" one of them shouted in confusion.
"It kinda looks like a Plow Worm, but no kind of Plow Worm actually has all that spikes or that kind of carapace. Is it one of its somewhat close species?"
"I've never seen anything like it before."
"Does anyone know what we're dealing? I haven't encountered anything like it before."
"Enough speculation. Ranged gift users—fire based ones, attack!" Eric shouted.
It was clear that there was a lot of people dying and it annoyed Eric, but the Bergan's Band was not an incompetent group that panicked in the midst of chaos.
They were still professional, and the stronger ones, the elites knew what to do when faced in such a dangerous situation.
"Let's cook this thing alive, now shall we?"
"Heating things up! Get a taste of fire, beast!"
"BURN! BURN!"
"…."
Four different fire-based gift users stepped closer and directed four various fire attacks on the Lost Plow Worm.
One of them created a huge tornado of fire that swirled towards the rune beast rapidly.
The second one's fire based attack was akin to more of a concentrated heat ray that tried to pierce a portion of the Plow Worm's head.
The third one threw consecutive fireballs at the hostile creature angrily and violently.
The fourth one was silent, but his fire bordered into the color of blue and shaped into little fire bird like creatures that dove for the Plow Worm.
All of their attacks hit the Lost Plow Worm creature all at the same time and it created a huge explosion, but when the smoke cleared up, the Lost Plow Worm only looked mildly charred.
"What the…?" Eric was in utter disbelief alongside every member that saw the intense fire power that hit it.
But somehow, their attacks only made the Plow Worm even angrier and soon it crashed its body against the nearby buildings and toppled them.
More members of the Bergan's Band and even citizens fled the scene.
"Forget the formations, every ranged user attack!" Eric shouted and this time it wasn't just a blast of fire that tormented the Lost Plow Worm but lightning, wind and even water as well.
They tried to to destroy it, but the creature was extremely sturdy and even resistant to the attacks that the Bergan's Band found themselves in the toughest fight of their lives.
"Hey! One of the attacks went through!"
Somebody shouted and pointed at the Plow Worm's head.
The Plow Worm opened its mouth angrily and let out a shriek, but it was visible that there was a charred area in its mouth which had inflicted it pain.
This time, the strong members of Bergan's Band were forced to separate as the Plow Worm blitzed through them angrily, realizing its enemies.
"Target the mouth!"
"It's hard! It's now keeping its mouth shut and just crashing against things."
"Maybe let's break one of the areas, just focus on one part of the body and not all of it!"
"We should have gone for the head!"
"Don't you think it's slowing down?"
"Eric? What do we do?"
"Alright, I'll create the opening." Eric declared with narrowed eyes. He had seen that the carapace of the Plow Worm was near indestructible, but it was clear that its internal parts were vulnerable and that was what they were going to target.
"Take its eyes off me, everyone!" Eric shouted as he dodged across multiple debris that covered the ground and aimed for the stationary part of the Lost Plow Worm.
It might have been attacking everywhere, but a portion of its body was still underground and it was there at the hole's opening that Eric went to target the rune beast.
"Watch out!"
"Eric!"
Out of nowhere, one of the buildings that the Plow Worm crashed into somehow let out a massive chunk of stone and hurtled towards Eric.
It was an impossibly large size and it was something that he couldn't outrun or dodge.
Eric's eyes widened momentarily, but he gritted his teeth and then touched the chunk of stone before it could crush him with its entire weight.
A good amount of Aether flowed out of Eric and the massive chunk of stone immediately grew half its size and allowed Eric to dodge to the right and avoided being crushed by its size.
It was a brush with death, but Eric kept moving towards the Plow Worm while aided by his team members.
"Just a couple of touches, just enough to break its carapace down." Eric muttered as he reached the Plow Worm at last.