Man of Hollows

"How can you help?" Soleil asked in response, a short laugh escaping her throat. "You saw how dangerous those worms are, right?"

Soleil was right, and Hill knew it very well. The plague beast that Hill had defeated in the soul trial was simply just a walk in the park compared to the lava worm. Even if he was equipped with a sturdy sword, he wouldn't be able to do any damage. 

But why accept that? Was it right for him to simply allow his new comrade to charge into the gates of death and simply stay back? Was it right for him to wait patiently and hope that nothing goes wrong?

No. He wouldn't accept it. 

"I saw," Hill replied, his voice flat. "But so what? Are we not a team?"

Soleil looked to Lands and let out an exasperated sigh. "Can you explain it to him?"

Lands frowned, his cheery brown eyes dimming in unison with the rest of his face. "Hill, you're new to our little company, so I'll explain it simply. This company was created for the sole purpose of isolating her," he said, pointing to Soleil. He then pointed to himself. "Me and you? We were slotted into this company because we are useless. This company isn't the team you think it is."

"I understand that I'm useless," Hill mumbled. "But how are you useless? Don't you have a blessing? Surely there's some use to it, right?"

Lands let out an awkward chuckle. "Yeah, I have a blessing, if you could call it one anyway."

"What does it do?"

Lands glanced at Soleil, who shrugged in response as she was tugging Lands' shirt into her dusty brown pants. He groaned. 

"Is it bad?" Hill asked, his voice shaking due to his uncertainty. Based on Lands' reaction to the question, he may have struck a nerve he shouldn't have. 

But Lands didn't seem that hurt. He turned back to Hill and smiled. "My blessing, according to my runes, is called 'The Unseen Hand.' When I activate it, I can kind of... for example... feel where a rock is after I hold it for a minute. And maybe nudge it a tiny bit."

Hill was stunned. Mostly because he didn't expect Lands' ability to be so... useless. The way he described it made it seem like it was incredibly weak too. How would nudging a rock help in a combat scenario? 

He imagined the unseen hand being useful in some covert operation, where pin drop silence was required. Perhaps pushing a rock off a ledge from a far distance would be a useful application of that ability. Otherwise, he couldn't think of anything else that Lands' blessing could be useful for. 

Then again, Hill himself didn't have a blessing. He couldn't even summon his runes, which everyone else seemed capable of doing! 

He had no right to criticize his own comrade when his own shortcomings were even greater than Lands'. As a result, he simply remained silent.

"You see, Hill?" Soleil chimed in. "While you may have some complaints about how I fight, there's no reason for you to risk your life for this mission. I can regenerate all my wounds, and my soul essence will eventually replenish, even though it takes forever. All I have to do is avoid complete fatal injuries and I should be okay."

She had wandered off at some point during their brief conversation, probably after handing the reigns to Lands. Now that Hill's attention was drawn back to her, he saw that she had just started dismembering the lava worm by hacking at the exposed portions of the charred monster's head. Her exquisite sword was back in her hand as well.

"So please don't be concerned," Soleil continued, slowly closing and opening her eyes in a dramatic display of calmness. "I can do this."

Hill glanced at Lands, who shrugged in response. He was clearly disturbed with the idea of allowing Soleil to throw herself at lava worms, but he understood that only she could do something like this and get away with it.

Her blessing granted her that luxury, after all.

"I guess there's no use trying to convince you." He muttered.

"Convince me of what? Stopping? I may bear hatred towards the other pricks in the camp, but I recognize the importance of retrieving the inner skin layer. I won't stop." Soleil replied, her tone chirpy but biting at the same time.

She nodded towards the worm corpse. "Now, let's figure out how to handle that thing over there, shall we?"

----

Hill watched as Soleil's sword carved through the charred flesh of the lava worm's head. The acrid smell of the lava worm's melted flesh filled the cavern. It turns out, the burns it had suffered from chomping on Soleil's arm had taken a severe toll on the inside of the worm's head.

As Soleil wedged her sword between the tough outer skin layer and the fleshy insides, trying to pry them apart, Hill had an idea.

"Wait," He said. "If we're going to do this, we should do it properly."

Soleil paused mid-pry, her blade wedged in the worm's flesh. "What do you mean?"

"We can work as a team on this." Hill gestured toward the worm carcass. "This thing is an unknown species that we don't really understand. If you're going to harvest whatever's inside, we need to be smart about it."

Lands nodded slowly. "He's right. We can't just let you hack away at it randomly."

Soleil considered this, then let go of her sword. "Fine. What do you suggest?"

Hill examined the worm's body, noting how the obsidian-like outer shell had cracked and split in several places from the earlier battle. An idea formed.

"The outer layer is like armor, right? If you can cut from the inside out, we might be able to peel away sections of it intact."

"I was literally doing just that," Soleil mumbled. "What do we do after that?"

"Use the shell pieces as... I don't know, like a makeshift sled or something. Load whatever we need onto it."

Lands' eyes lit up. "That's actually brilliant. The shell would be sturdy enough to carry a lot of weight, and smooth enough to drag across the ground."

Soleil shrugged, but Hill caught the hint of approval in her expression. "Alright. But I'm the only one who can safely cut into this thing. The blood is still inside, and it's cryogenic. If you touch it for more than thirty seconds, you'll get frostbite. Thankfully, there isn't too much left so... "

She plunged her sword deep into the worm's side, and immediately a strange, blue-white fluid began to seep from the wound. The liquid seemed to steam in the cooler air, and where it touched the ground, frost began to form.

"Cryogenic blood," Soleil explained, working carefully to avoid the spreading puddle. "They're just like the lava ants. I think all the lava-oriented beasts have this strange blood."

She continued her methodical work, cutting from within and shaking the blood out before it could pool too heavily. The obsidian shell cracked and split as she carved, revealing the gooey, translucent substance that lay beneath the outer armor.

"What is that stuff?" Hill asked, keeping his distance from the spreading patches of frost.

"I don't know," Soleil replied, not looking up from her work. "But it's plenty sticky."

When she reached the creature's intestines, she worked even more carefully, squeezing them dry of the dangerous blood before cutting them free. The organs didn't come away cleanly, and she had to put great effort into getting rid of as much blood as possible.

"Here," she said, tossing the emptied intestines to Lands. "These should work as rope."

Lands grimaced but caught them. "Right. And for separating the shell from the tissue?"

Soleil pulled the simple knife from her belt and held it out to him. "Use this."

Lands took the knife and, after a moment's concentration, summoned a small mallet that appeared in his other hand. The tool looked old but well-maintained, with intricate engravings along its handle.

"You have a relic?" Hill asked.

"Yea," Lands replied, already setting to work. "Sol gave it to me a while back."

Together, they began the process of separating the tissue from the shell pieces. Lands used the mallet and knife to chip away chunks of the outer armor, while Hill and Soleil maneuvered the largest intact piece into position as their makeshift sled.

The work was slow, but they eventually filled the curved shell with the sticky luminescent tissue. Soleil had finished her work and was wiping her blade clean on a rock when the ground beneath their feet shook.

Hill felt it first as a small vibration, like a far away earthquake. Then the tremor intensified, causing rocks to start falling from the cavern ceiling.

"Another one," Soleil breathed.

Lands dropped the makeshift rope and looked around in a frantic manner. "Where? Where is it?"

The rumbling grew stronger and focused. Hill could feel it in his bones now. It was a thrumming that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"It's coming from below," Soleil said, her voice tight. 

Hill grabbed the rope that Lands had dropped, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the crude handle. They couldn't abandon their harvest now, especially after everything they'd been through. But as the tremors intensified, he began to wonder if they'd have any choice.

The ground exploded.

Rock and debris flew in all directions as another lava worm burst from the cavern floor, its massive form easily twice the size of the one they'd just killed.

Soleil threw herself to the side, rolling across the rough stone as the creature's head smashed into the spot where she'd been standing. 

But the worm didn't stop. Its momentum carried it forward. 

Hill watched with widening eyes as it barreled across the cave floor...

Right towards him.