Being a Summoner on our Evolved Earth

Sealing a worm (21)

"Monsters are meant to be hunted, I'm doing a public service!" Lucia spoke out loud to herself. She then heard the shuffling of feet behind her so she spun around to stare down the woman and her child. "Don't you agree?" She asked with an evil grin.

When Lucia looked at the woman and her child staring back at her with fear while trembling; her mind cleared away the fog for a moment, 'Why are they afraid of me?'

Then the child pointed at Lucia's head and said "Smoke!"

Instantly Lucia coated her free hand in mana and reached over her head to grasp something soft and small. Once she brought it into sight she saw a weird worm made of dark grey fog with a large eyeball surrounded by tentacles for eye lashes. It didn't take long for Lucia to form a hypothesis in her head for where it came from and its purpose.

"So that's it!" She smiled wryly then started laughing almost hysterically.

"What's it?" The worm started hissing to other people's ears, but Lucia heard it speaking.

"You wanted to make me the first cannon fodder villain of this New Earth to expedite the growth of man kind! Making me paranoid of living amongst humans, thinking that killing degenerates as cleaning up monsters in a game, and that I can only trust those I have contracts with! You've been messing with my mind since the dungeon. You were expecting Xantos to betray my trust during the team trial, but he lacks the evil thoughts to make him do something like that, which kept me from falling under your control sooner. " Lucia explained her hypothesis after she finished laughing and then she grinned wickedly at the fog worm.

"How... How did you?" The worm was perplexed at how she came to that conclusion.

"Because I'm paranoid." Lucia said as she put away her staff and started to draw a magic rune in the air. A silver circle with four connecting circles in the middle formed. The top circle held a picture of a brain to represent element type. The right circle held a worm picture to represent creature type. The bottom circle held another brain picture for specialization, and the left circle had the fog worm's eye with tentacles to indicate weapon type.

"Wha- wait no don't! The dungeon will find out if you hurt or kill me! Then it will send raider's to hunt you down for rewards!" The Fog worm threatened.

"I figured as much, [Seal]." Lucia shrugged as she finished the spell. The silver circles turned into chains that wrapped up the fog worm as Lucia let go of it. The worm used that brief freedom to flee; the chains tracked it down swiftly, and turned into a silver marble filled with moving fog. Lucia looked it over before putting it into her storage space, then she looked apologetically at the two girls.

"I'm sorry if that scared you, it seems I was under the manipulation of a parasite. I'm all better now. My name is Lucia, what's yours?" Lucia spoke softly and calmly to help them relax. Vicki and Aegis had already finished dealing with the bandits and were waiting to return till Lucia told them too.

"I, my name is Hailey, and this is my daughter Emma. My thanks to you all for protecting us." Hailey still seemed shaken.

"Thank you." The little girl said with a shy smile while hugging her mother's leg.

"Your welcome. Do you live around here? Do you want an escort back?"

"Uh, my Father and Husband were killed by those men while we were traveling to a new village. Our last one was taken over by a tyrant with fire magic ability. If you could lead us to a village we'd be most grateful." Hailey bowed slightly with her request.

"So how will you compensate me for saving you and guiding you to a village?" Lucia didn't really want compensation, but she had to hold herself back from being a person who does good deeds for free.

'I'd only get taken advantage of again.' Lucia thought to herself.

Hailey was at a loss for how to repay her... After a while of patting herself down and looking around nervously under Lucia's 'I'm waiting' stare, Hailey pushed her daughter forward.

"My little Emma is only seven years old, but she's really obedient and learns quickly." Hailey started selling her daughter's perks.

"But I don't want to leave momma! Momma no!" Emma tugged on her mom's arms. Hailey pinched Emma's ear and whispered "Be quiet or else." Lucia pretended to be interested as she gently grabbed Emma's hand and rolled up her sleeves to reveal bruises and scratches. Lucia glared up at Hailey with such intensity that Hailey let go of Emma and tumbled backwards. 

"I, I didn't do it. It was her Father that did! Didn't you see how I kept her safe with me while running from the bandits?" Hailey tried to push the blame while defending herself.

"Emma," Lucia knelt down to eye level with Emma and gently patted her head, "Does your family hurt you often?"

Emma looked at Lucia's gentle face for a moment before she started trembling for some reason. She hung her head and hid her hands behind her back.

"It's okay Emma, I will protect you if you don't like your mom." Lucia tried to soothe the child only to feel a stabbing pain in her abdomen. Emma had brought a stone dagger out and pierced it into Lucia's stomach. Lucia was shocked, angered, panicked, but most importantly she felt betrayed. All her paranoid thoughts about never letting anyone near her were solidified then and there. Lucia cast [Healing Spring] on herself as she grabbed Emma by the hand holding the dagger. Lucia pulled out the dagger from her stomach. She lifted Emma into the air and tossed her at Hailey.

"Like Mother like Daughter huh..." Lucia started laughing for a bit only for it to turn into sobs. Hailey and Emma watched as the bloody wound in Lucia's stomach healed swiftly.

"Mo-mo-monster! You're a monster!" Hailey shouted and scrambled to get up and run with Emma. Lucia while sobbing pointed at them, but in the end she couldn't bring herself to kill them personally. She just crouched down and sobbed. Aegis had no such hesitation as he charged forward to personally cut them down. No matter how fast they ran, they were not able to out run Aegis. He raised his sword and slashed down at Hailey and then again at the frightened Emma. They were left with large bloody wounds on their backs as they breathed their last breaths while bleeding to death.

"Momma, it hurts..."

"I'm sorry honey..." Hailey crawled over to hug her daughter. Aegis ended them with one last stab that pierced them both before returning to Lucia. Vicki was wrapped around Lucia unsure of how to comfort her, she gazed up worriedly at Aegis. Aegis sheathed his sword and hung his shield on his back, then picked up the crying Lucia in a princess carry.

"We should leave first. Let's go to the river." Aegis said and then started moving. Vicki nodded and followed along silently.