Leyan still kept blinking his eyes many times while staring at the scene in front of his eyes. His mind was still screaming disbelief at what Clyde had just done.
But then he turned to see Clyde fighting another worm. He jumped and rolled to avoid the worm attacks he fought. His speed was so incredible that it seemed as if he could dodge the worm effortlessly.
And when Clyde saw an opportunity, he immediately slashed his sword. The slash was so powerful that it penetrated through the hard skin of the worm.
In three slashes Clyde had managed to kill the worm in the same way. Separate the head from its body.
"What are you looking at?!" Clyde shouted to wake up Leyan who was still dazed. "Get moving!"
Leyan immediately cursed himself for his foolishness. He immediately ran towards Samuel who was protecting Kei.
They fought for a few more minutes. During that time they could see how Clyde handled most of the worms.
Samuel was the second person in the party to kill the most worms. But the difference with Clyde is quite large. Samuel killed five worms while Clyde killed fifteen.
Clyde glanced around. After realizing that no more worms were slithering on the sand, or if there was sand moving indicating the presence of worms underneath, Clyde heaved a sigh of relief.
However, he realized that there was still a large possibility of worms or other monsters under the sand. So he can't loosen his guard.
Clyde turned towards Samuel's party members. When he turned around, he saw that they were all looking at him with the same expression. Everyone couldn't believe what they saw.
Clyde had expected that he would get such a reaction. So he immediately walked up to them and said. "What's next?"
"Wait!" said Kei. "How did you do it?"
Kei said as if representing questions from her friends. They all immediately turned to Clyde and demanded an answer.
Unfortunately, Clyde still didn't think of an answer to that question.
"I don't know. My body went through a sudden change like the one that happened when I recovered quickly after coming out of the Selection Stage."
So Clyde gave the answer he had told Lahn and Wayne before. He knew that didn't sound very convincing but they wouldn't be able to prove he was lying.
"You can cut through the hard skin of the worms. Which we can't do," said Kiara with a thoughtful expression. "Even I've expended a lot of Mana with my ice magic but it still can't penetrate the skin. Was it because of your sword?"
They knew that the sword Clyde was using was a sword that Hammer had just made with better material than their weapons. So they thought that Clyde could be that strong because of his sword.
"Uhh... maybe," said Clyde. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now, is it? We should continue our journey towards that town."
Without waiting for their reply, Clyde walked towards the ruined city. The five of them eventually also started walking.
"What do you think?" Haru asked while looking at her friends.
Haru and Kei had told them about how Clyde had killed Lesser Cerberus in their previous rescue expedition.
That alone was enough to make them feel shocked and confused about how Clyde could get such power. Now, they saw for themselves how strong Clyde was before their very eyes.
"At that time he also already had that sword, right?" Kiara asked.
"It's not because of the sword," Kei answered while shaking his head. "I saw how he used the power of lightning to make his body move extremely fast. In the next moment, we saw the head of the Lesser Cerberus fall."
They were all silent upon hearing Kei's explanation. Leyan looked at Clyde's back who was walking some distance in front of him. He felt higher respect for the boy after seeing him show his strength.
He felt a gaze and heard a whispering voice from behind him. It made him uncomfortable being the center of attention. Clyde grimaced, annoyed. But he chose to act as if he didn't notice anything.
After they arrived at the ruins of the sand-covered city, they immediately took on a more alert attitude than before.
The window frames on the buildings looked like dark eyes staring at them. And they felt that something might suddenly come out of the darkness and ambush them with a murderous intent like those worms earlier.
Because they had encountered danger enough times, they were able to recover quickly from previous situations. And, without them realizing it, they also became calmer because of Clyde's presence.
"We can use these buildings to hide and deliver sneak attacks on that party," Clyde said. "What do you think?"
"I think so too," Samuel replied. "Now we have to start clearing those buildings of monsters. So when the time comes for an ambush we don't have to bother anymore."
"But wouldn't it be suspicious if we wiped out all the monsters here?" Kei said.
"Kiara is right. They will know when someone comes here," Leyan added.
"I can create illusions," Kiara said. "But I don't know if that's enough to trick them or not. They're the party that Uriel sent after all."
"I think that's enough," said Samuel. "They must be much more focused on finding the artifact and will pay little attention to anything else."
They pondered over Samuel's words for a few seconds. Based on their experience, the parties sent by the Celestials to carry out their errands always acted hurriedly.
They seemed eager to quickly complete whatever orders their master gave them and return to report good results.
So, what Samuel said makes sense. The party Uriel had sent out likely wouldn't pay too much attention to the reduced number of monsters around them.
"Alright. Based on what we have seen, they will indeed be more focused on their mission," Leyan said. "So now, let's start setting some traps and killing monsters."
They started moving in unison. This time Samuel also decided that they could split up because of Clyde's presence.
~~~
