Chapter 10

The giant worm lunged at Solvr. She jumped to the side and drew her beam sword, but the worm veered toward Fites before she could take a swipe at it. Fites stood his ground, letting the worm lunge before stepping to the side and slashing at its mouth. The electric blade rattled on the worm’s teeth but didn’t seem to do it any harm. Solvr saw up close that the giant worm was made of the little ones, wound up and mashed together. Their skin had become hard as metal. Her blade didn’t do any damage.

We’re not gonna get rid of this guy with a riddle, she guessed.

The giant worm lunged again. She dove to the padded floor and rolled away, expecting to feel its monstrous teeth on her foot but now it was chasing Fites.

“I can’t seem to hurt it!” Fites shouted, dancing past her as the worm wriggled around to face them.

“Strike the tail!” she hollered and jumped out of the way as the worm’s head came at her. She let it chase her, hoping to distract it long enough for Fites to get a stab at the tail. She didn’t know if it would work, but she’d played other games where the tail was the weak spot on a monster. She finally saw the tail emerge from the ground, and Fites was there, swatting at the tip of it again and again.

“Yeah!” she shouted. But the worm wasn’t fazed.

She was so busy looking at the tail that she forgot about the front end of the worm. It coiled around, wrapped its many teeth around her, and picked her up.

She felt a band of pain around her middle as the worm swung her around. The room lurched and reeled in front of her. The worm flung her, and she sailed across the pit, landing on the soft ground.

Probably lost a lot of health there, she thought. But she didn’t have a chance to check her wristband because the worm was already coming in for the kill. She rolled and kicked at its head. The worm drew back, then came at her again. She rolled under a loop of the worm itself. The worm lunged, bit down on its own body, and wailed in pain.

That’s it! We have to get the worm to attack itself!

“Find its tail and hold on tight!” she shouted to Fites.

She ran along the edges of the pit while the worm slithered after her, hissing and gnashing its teeth. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Fites grab the tail and pull it up.

She rolled toward him, scrambled under the tail, and heard another bellow as the worm bit into its own flesh.

She got to her feet and scrambled to the wall, faked left, then raced back at the tail and leaped just as the worm made another grab at her. She pivoted and saw it strike itself a third time, screeching furiously before lunging again. She was a step too slow getting away, but the worm fell short, its head slamming the floor.

Fites let go of the tail and ran over to grab her, pulling her out of the way.

“Let’s go,” he urged.

“What happened?”

“Climb!”

She went up the ladder, trying to look back over her shoulder to see but couldn’t while hanging on to the rungs. The worm was screeching furiously. She finally saw when she reached the top and peered down into the pit: the worm had tied itself into a knot. It was now thrashing helplessly and crashing against the walls as it tried to untie itself.

“Didn’t want us to get smashed between the worm and the wall,” Fites said.

“Good call.”

The worm finally flickered and vanished.

“Did you ever hear the one about the string?” Fites asked.

“The guy asks him if he’s a string and he says, ‘I’m a frayed knot,’” she answered.

“That’s the one.”