The Terrible Terra Terror!

As the morning sun slowly wiped away the night, the team and I were up and ready to tackle the hunt ahead of us. We traversed through the streets and alleys and arrived before a wide and expansive farm, with a humble farmhouse placed before it.

We knocked on the door a few times and a low and hoarse voice rang out from behind.

"Coming." Not long after the door was opened to reveal a small man, seemingly in his fifties, wearing clothes stained with dirt and thinning grey hair.

"Ah, you must be the hunters. Come in, come in! Would you like a cup of tea?" He said politely, ushering us inside.

"Who is it, Harold?" An light voice called out from behind him.

"It's the hunters! They're here for the worm!" He responded.

We entered the hut and exchanged pleasantries before we got down to the details. We learned that the Terra Terror was on the smaller side, roughly 3 meters long. It was last seen towards the south end of the farm, where it had grown accustomed to tearing up the fertile soil. We thanked the farmer and his wife for their hospitality, and traveled to the end of the farm.

"Remember, stay vigilant for any vibrations or movement underground." Mark reminded us, before moving forward slowly. It definitely felt strange, sneaking in a field where we were completely visible with no one around to possibly hide from. But we continued anyway.

This carried on for what felt like an eternity, before I had a hazy premonition of a worm erupting from the floor beneath us.

"Move!" I shouted, diving out of the way. The rest of the team followed suit, before the ground tumbled and erupted into a three meter long worm. The worm looked over us and began to charge wildly towards us.

Mark immediately sprang up to greet it in a speed unfitting of his plate mail. He lifted his great hammer and swing with all of his might to greet the worm and end its charge.

WHAM!

Worm teeth and greenish blood splattered as the worm was knocked to the side, recoiling in pain. Christopher let loose a few arrows that sunk into its flesh, but only deep enough to cause superficial wounds.

The worm began to try to tunnel beneath the earth, but Lewis had already finished a magical incantation to intercept its retreat.

"Knocking Thunder!" He yelled, clapping his hands gloved together. The sound from his clap was amplified many times over, sounding much like thunder in a lightning storm. The shockwave spread out and collided with the worm and the ground around it. While this wasn't enough to damage it, the vibrations it caused made the worm stop its retreat as it began thrashing around wildly, disoriented by the spell.

Seeing my opportunity, I ran to the side of the creature, carving at its flesh with my dagger while dodging its mad flailing. Mark let out a bloodcurdling war-cry and dashed to the creature, smashing at it with increased strength and speed. A holy light engulfed Mark, further increasing this effect.

A heavy weapon warrior's skill - Warriors Cry!

Priest skill - Strengthening prayer!

Under the heavy fire of our combined attacks, the worm was pushed into dire straits. It rammed itself hard into Marks body, launching him backwards by a good few meters. It rose into the air, before slamming itself into the ground with incredible strength. Using my skill, I just barely leapt out of the way, not realising the ground itself collapse under me!

The worm and I fell down into a crevasse before smashing into the cold floor below. My arm was very much broken on impact and the Terra Terror's head has exploded onto the ground, sending greenish blood and worm brain matter everywhere.

"AAARGH!" I called out in pain, looking at my mangled arm

Ding!

~Milestone progress increased~

-Put on some performances (3/5)

'Wonderful. I'm sure I'd be dancing around right now if it weren't for the fact that my arm bones are SHATTERED!' I complained inwardly, trying to swallow screams of pain.

"Are you alright?" Christopher called out from above.

"You know, I've been better!" I called out with gritted teeth, looking at my broken and bloody arm.

"Well get help, just sit tight!" He said before running off somewhere.

'Jesus Christ.... I'm stuck in a hole with a broken arm and a worm carcass. I'll be honest, it's not where I thought I would die.' I lampooned inwardly, trying to ignore the horrible pain ravaging my arm.

From the distant edges of the cave, I heard a light tapping sound, slowly getting closer. I immediately tensed up, with my unbroken hand holding a throwing card, ready to let it loose.

The sound got louder, before whatever it was hopped out of the shadows!

It was a large grasshopper, roughly the size of a puppy. It was a deep azure colour with large, bright emerald eyes, looking at me with curiosity.

"What in the world...?" I mumbled involuntarily as I looked at the grasshopper. From the looks of it, it was recently hatched as its chitin hadn't fully developed and had been left here for whatever reason.

"Hey there, little fella." I said, immediately relaxing.It slowly hopped towards me looking up with curiosity. I extended a hand out to it, and it jumped towards me, nuzzling against it.

"What a strange little thing." I said aloud, picking it up in my hands. It looked up at me and wiggled its antennae happily. I sat down atop the Terra Terror's corpse and put the grasshopper down next to me. It danced about in glee before nibbling at its flesh.

"So you were just hungry, huh?"

About half an hour passed before Mark and the others returned with some rope in order to help me out of the hole.

"Do you want to come with?" I asked to the grasshopper. As if understanding the question it hopped up onto my shoulder as I held on to the rope. From there I was pulled out by the team and officially saved from the tyranny of the appropriately named Worm hole.

After five minutes of struggle, I was finally back to the surface.

"Henry... What is that on your shoulder?" Mark asked, looking at the grasshopper with caution.

"It's a grasshopper." I responded bluntly.

"Yeah I can see that. But I can also see that it isn't a normal grasshopper." He retorted, looking mildly concerned.

I shrugged my shoulders, wincing in pain at my still broken arm. Luckily for me, we had a resident priest named Sharron, who was more than happy to fix up my ruined arm.

"Well, Henry, your arm is broken pretty bad" Sharron said after casting heal on my arm.

"Thank you for clarifying."

"U-uh, it's gonna take a bit of extra healing. I-I will put it in a superficial cast for now, b-but it will take a few weeks to be in full working order." She said nervously, bandaging up my now fractured arm.

"Darn. I suppose that means I can't maste- I mean, go on hunts for a while. Hahaha."

And so, with another hunt under our belt, we cashed in some worm teeth and flesh and i spent a day or two being tended to in the hospital. The celebration was very much delayed, and by the time it rolled around they had already completed a hunt without me.

At long last alcohol was to enter my system instead of horrible hospital food!

We sat around that dark, slightly sticky, bar table and ordered a round of drinks for the table with the little grasshopper sat in the middle.

"What do we do with it?" Christopher asked with curiosity while petting the grasshopper, who wiggled happily.

"I-I hope we can keep it..." Sharon said with a smile.

"I'm quite sure that, um..... other hunting parties have tamed animals..... so, maybe?" Lewis said while rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, but those were tamed by professionals. Professionally." Mark rebutted, still a little cautious towards the grasshopper, but he had still warmed up to its presence enough to not kill it the moment he could.

"Well, no one has taken him away yet so I'll keep him." I said picking up. He then proceeded to hop onto my head and wiggle around in content. "I'll name him grass. If it is a he, that is."

"Grass!?" The team called out in unison.

"Hehe. That has to be the worst name I've ever heard." Christopher giggled

"Isn't there a better name you can think of?"

"What? It's a good name! Better than grasshopper at least." I grumbled before sipping my beer and avoiding eye contact due to the obvious displeasure Grass's name has brought.

"What do you think, Grass?" I asked up to Grass. Grass then responded by wiggling his antennae in, what I assumed to be, agreement.

"See? He likes it."

"Fine."

"Come on team! Another successful hunt done and dusted!" Mark called out, raising his tankard.

"Cheers!" We all called out, clinking tankards before taking big swigs of beer (and orange juice).

We then continued to drink through the evening, chatting together joyfully and with the other patrons.

I would have drank more that night, but Sharron would not allow me to, saying that I needed good rest. I might have argued, but as it turns out her strength is more than enough to wrangle a tankard out of my hands, so I calmly followed her requests out of the fear of what she was capable of.

Overall, we had a great night, and gained one new member into our party.

With Grass around, what could possibly go wrong?