Chapter 177: 7.15

"Blitz Slash!" 

XuanLake started attacking the Sandworm by slashing it many times with his swords. His attack was very fast, that ZeroCheat and Yunyu could see the afterimage of XuanLake's having two more pairs of hands that kept on attacking the Sandworm.

The Sandworm screeched as it was big and a bit slow. Thus it could only retreat slowly, "Raaaggrgh!" XuanLake was like a possessed beast. He kept on slashing the Sandworm and chipped its health fast. 

But the continuous attack also chipped XuanLake's mana. As the attack continued, XuanLake already lost half of his mana. In the end, he was able to chip down 40% of the Sandworm's health before the Sandworm finally decided to retreat back inside its burrow.

'Army-Eating Sandworm: HP 50%.'

'Secondary Passive has been triggered: Sand Master.'

XuanLake was breathing heavily as he kept his attention towards the Sandworm who jumped from one big hole to another. They didn't know what the effect of Sandworm's second passive was. Because, for now, the Sandworm was just making as many holes as possible. 

XuanLake watched warily, but he was more worried about Yunyu. He flew towards ZeroCheat and Yunyu. Again, he ignored ZeroCheat and wanted to touch Yunyu, "Are you alright?" 

ZeroCheat stepped back mid-air to avoid XuanLake, "Don't touch Yunyu!" 

XuanLake looked lost as he tried to approach Yunyu again, but ZeroCheat always prevented him from touching Yunyu. It was probably the mix of wariness and jealousy. 

ZeroCheat started suspecting Yunyu to know this person before Yunyu met him. Because he was reckless enough to save XuanLake without caring about himself. 

[Awww… Ah, what to do? This is not two male lead worlds. But both XuanLake and ZeroCheat are high-quality men~ Ah, I'm like a damsel in distress between two handsome warriors.]

[Pupa: Every time you did something stupid like this, it always ended up with you running into some serious trouble. But oh well, I got used to it anyway.]

XuanLake slowly lost his patience. Honestly, he was just worried about Yunyu. Although his heart was burning with jealousy, he knew when and where to place his emotion. 

"I just want to heal Yunyu! I have a high-grade potion for him!" 

"He is already 50% HP! He doesn't need your potion!" ZeroCheat stubbornly refused. Yunyu tried to recover, but the shock was intense. It would take a moment until he could move again. 

"You are just a random person that is lucky enough to take this mission faster than us! We can clear this without you, and Yunyu will not get hurt if he is not trying to save you!" ZeroCheat yelled.

XuanLake gritted his teeth. Obviously, he knew Yunyu earlier, but ZeroCheat dared to call him a random person for Yunyu. XuanLake was ready to fight this guy and take Yunyu back until the Sandworm loud screech diverted their tension. 

XuanLake and ZeroCheat looked at the Sandworm, and suddenly they were hit by the tail of a Sandworm. They spun around until their bodies hit the ground and hurt them both. The Sandworm finally released its secondary passive, its real passive, the Sand Master.

They saw the Sandworm created clones of itself with sand. There were two more giant Sandworms with the same stats and HP as the original Sandworm. They were screeching at XuanLake, ZeroCheat, and Yunyu and prepared to attack. 

"Fuck!" there was no way to evade this because continuously avoiding flight would deplete his mana fast. He decided to stand in front of Yunyu and XuanLake, and then chanted his skill, "Stone guardian!"

ZeroCheat hit the ground four times with his rock hammer, and four stone warriors with large shield each were summoned to surround them. The Sandworm attacked the stone guardians by lunging at them, but it was strong enough to survive two fatal blows from the Sandworm clones.

However, the attack from the real Sandworm proven to be too much. The last stone guardian was destroyed, and the attack blew them away, "Arghhh!" 

'XuanLake: HP 90%.'

'ZeroCheat: HP 85%.'

'Cutiepie69: HP 40%.'

ZeroCheat was worried that Yunyu might take even more damage and died in this battle. He might respawn somewhere and lost many things, including ten levels, all his gears, and some of his skills. 

This game was very punishing on that death and respawn mechanic. This was the reason why many people dared not to take the high leveled enemy, fearing that they might lose all their hard-earned progress.

ZeroCheat certainly didn't want to let XuanLake died here. Because he genuinely cared for this sunny boy who had followed him for the whole month tirelessly, accompanying him to many missions and also accepting his confession. 

Like a good boyfriend, ZeroCheat felt obliged to sacrifice himself. 

He glanced at Xuanlake and said, "You, take Yunyu away and run now. I will hold them until you are far away."

Both XuanLake and Yunyu were astonished at ZeroCheat's words, especially Yunyu. He didn't expect that ZeroCheat was sincere enough to sacrifice himself to save him.

[Brother Zero… is so kind… I think I'm in love.]

[Pupa: What a pity, he will sacrifice himself for a spicy chicken player like you.]

[Hmph! Obviously, I'm worth dying for!]

[Pupa: XuanLake doesn't think so before.]

Pupa poked Yunyu's sore spot about XuanLake's betrayal in that cave again. He wanted to argue with Pupa even more, but that was not the priority right now. The priority was to save all of them from this monster. 

"I—I will not let Brother Zero sacrifice yourself…" Yunyu said. He struggled to get up and then told XuanLake, "Brother Xuan, you are pretty strong… if I can create an opening, can you one-shot that Sandworm?"

"… yes," XuanLake nodded. 

"Then, Brother Zero, can you provoke those sandworms for a moment? I need to prepare myself for this spell…" Yunyu asked. 

"Are you sure? Your condition…" ZeroCheat said anxiously. 

Yunyu shook his head and was determined as he summoned his magic wand, "I will not let you die! I will also fight and protect you!" 

"Yunyu…" ZeroCheat saw the fire in Yunyu's eyes, and he finally nodded, "I will spawn a giant Stone Guardian. Please be prepared!" 

"Rarrgghh!" ZeroCheat charged towards the Sandworm and hit the ground hard with his rock hammer. He spent all his remaining mana and summoned one of his ultimate skills, "Giant Stone Guardian!" 

The ground shook as a giant stone guardian with a massive shield started rising from the earth. It towered above the sky, as tall as those giant Sandworms. ZeroCheat jumped on its head and commanded, "Attack!" 

The giant stone guardian started charging towards the Sandworms with its shield, and the Sandworms were naturally provoked by this. 

"Alright, prepare your attack, Brother Xuan!" Yunyu ordered XuanLake. He took a deep breath and waved his magic wand, "I summon upon the power of Sailor Mercury, give me the gentle strength of deep water!"

The magic wand shone bright, and Yunyu's nails were painted blue. The magic wand turned into a harp made out of ice, "I hope you like being wet because I do! Come, Yunyu's Aquaaaa Rhapsodyyyy!"

Yunyu started strumming the harp, and after each strum, dozens of water jets came out of the harp. The water jets directly attacked the unsuspecting Sandworm clones since they were too busy attacking the giant stone guardian. 

The water jets quickly destroyed the clones and prevented them from respawning due to the sand being wet. The water jets also attacked the real Sandworm, providing enough distraction. 

"Brother Xuan, now!" 

XuanLake watched Yunyu in awe, but after Yunyu ordered him to attack, XuanLake spent all his remaining mana to change his dual swords into a big sword and power up his attack. He flew up high and saw the distracted Sandworm.

XuanLake took a deep breath, and the big sword was dense with blue energy. He raised the sword and slashed the air, "Final attack: Getsuga Tenshou!" 

Blue energy slashed the air, directly hit the Sandworm, and cut it in half. 

The Sandworm's painful screech ended the hunt as the Army-Eating Sandworm had its HP reduced to 0%. 

The Army-Eating Sandworm had been defeated. 

There were three sandworm shields dropped on the ground as the prize, alongside a notification.

*Army-Eating Sandworm has been Slain.*

XuanLake, ZeroCheat, and Yunyu were all in shock because they thought it was already hopeless.

"Yunyu, we—" XuanLake turned his head. He wanted to celebrate with Yunyu. But what he saw was ZeroCheat, who already took a headstart and kissed Yunyu on the lips for the first time;

"Yunyu! It is all because of you! You are truly amazing. You've saved me!" ZeroCheat said sincerely. 

…

[Pupa: Ding! Fatemeter increases to 73%.]