Infinite Realm

*Whoosh*

The hole formed by the white worm's digging had a diameter of 3 metres at the very least. With so much available space, one could fit in 2 or 3 humans in there and there would still be space for them to slide down, much less a single Sato.

Sato slid down for almost 7 seconds before he finally landed on the ground, though he did so in a not so pretty fashion. Not bothering to survey his surroundings, Sato hurriedly took out a light stick and lit it, before running in the first available direction he spotted. He didn't bother to check for other tunnels because that could delay him and lead to the white worms catching up to him. Every second counted and Sato wasn't looking to waste any.

*Thud*

Just 5 seconds after Sato had departed, a dull thud resounded at his original landing spot as a dull white and squishy figure crashed down. But that wasn't all as a few other landed on the other one. 

In the end, about 4 or more of such creatures had entered the tunnel and even more dived in. Due to their massive sizes, the tunnel couldn't fit them and so movement was extremely difficult for these creatures. An average intelligent creature wouldn't force itself into the tunnel after seeing one of its kind do so but this worms didn't seem to be that smart. But that wasn't an issue for them. 

The worms at the top drilled through the ground and created a new tunnel. The soil was very hard and so it could barely support the weight from the worms that drilled their tunnels above. Subsequently, the tunnel below, which was also the first one, would not collapse.

The worms who dived into the tunnel weren't the only ones chasing after Sato though. A majority of them had burrowed into the ground from above, and relying on their senses, which was catered for underground movement and exploration, they chased after Sato.

"Hmm?" Sato perked his ears up as he kept on running.

'They caught on quickly…'

Even though he knew that the monsters weren't so far away from him at the time and also that they excelled at underground movement, Sato was hoping that he could at least widen the distance between himself and the monsters and also maintain that distance till he could find a safe spot and go back up. He never had any plans of throwing them off underground as that was impossible especially since he used the light-stick to find his way around here. That alone was an identifier that would enable the monsters spot him. There was also the fact that the very tunnel he was using now was literally dug by one of those monsters; there was no way he would know the ins and outs of it better than the creature itself.

'Which?'

Up ahead was another fork that had 3 different tunnels; one each at the right, left and centre. Having barely any time to think, Sato went with his guts and moved to the left one.

Running within the left tunnel, Sato noticed that the ever-present pressure that was steadily increasing before, had suddenly surged up even more. While the increase wasn't so absurd as to force Sato to his knees, it was still enough to force his running speed to reduce.

*Boom*

"Kkrrrh"

"Krrrkk"

Coursing through the air were the high pitch shrill of the worms as they traversed the tunnels. On a flat ground, the worms were undoubtedly faster than Sato but since they had to bore a new tunnels during their chase, their speed dropped. However, they were just slightly slower than Sato, well, most of them.

"Krrhhh"

As he heard that shrill, Sato felt it was familiar despite the worms all having a similar sound. He glanced around and spotted a huge figure recklessly forcing itself through the tunnel, and in the process colliding with the tunnel's walls. That was the first worm that had gone down the hole and also the one that had confronted Sato. As it was making its way through a preexisting tunnel, it moved at a much faster pace than the others and was able to close in on Sato.

Glancing at the monster which seemed as if it was making its way towards him with great difficulty, Sato didn't dare presume that he could out run it. Since it was able to gain on him, there was no doubting that it would catch up to him in a while.

'[Sprint]'

With a fierce stomp, Sato's speed increased as he slowly began to maintain the gap between himself and the worm. But with the increase in speed, an increase in consumption of Sato's stamina followed. Usually, the amount of stamina consumed while using [Sprint] wasn't so much but with the extant pressure here, the consumption was at the very least double of what it used to be. At this rate, forget outrunning the worm, Sato might even die of exhaustion before that could happen.

'If there's no other choice, I will have to use it.' Sato's eyes glistened with fighting intent. 

There were a few emergency supplies and trump cards he had prepared for the trials. Despite sounding unethical for a trial that is supposed to select a successor to the Caventry based on their traits and strength, this wasn't prohibited by Saimon. Sato had saved them up for extreme emergencies where his chances of success where exactly zero. He hoped to conquer the trials with his own strength and didn't want to rely on external help but with his current situation seeming to be at an impasse, he needed a table-turner.

Sato didn't plan on staying and fighting the entire horde as that was more than dumb. Instead what he wanted to do was to force this one back or better yet, severely damage it within a limited amount of time. That way, he would be free of any pursuer that could catch up to him anytime soon.

Just as Sato had resolved to attack, he spotted a ray of light from the wall up ahead. If not for the tunnel being very dark and his light-stick having a short range, Sato wouldn't have noticed the light. The only problem was at the point the light came from, the road ahead bent to the right, perpendicular to it. In other words, where the road ended was where the light came from. Sato would have to turn to the right if he wanted to remain on the road.

'Why would there be light? Unless…'

With hope in his eyes, Sato unsheathed his sword and tightened his grip on it. He turned off the light-stick and tossed it back into his space-bag. Wielding the sword with both hands, Sato swung at that light point on the wall in front of him.

"[Astral Blade]!"

A light glow formed on the edges of Sato's blade and as he swung it down, the glow separated itself from his sword and darted towards the wall. 

The glow had an otherworldly feeling to it, as if one was staring at the lights from the stars in the sky. No matter ho one looked at it, the starry light didn't look dangerous or anything but instead exhibited a gentle and calming feeling from just staring at it. But Sato knew that this feeling was nothing more than an attribute possessed by the energy within the slash. This energy was termed by the system as Astral points and could only be gathered under the canopy of the stars, in other words at night time. Also, the skill was limited to storing just 3 slashes worth of Astral Points each time, so every slash was precious. Because of this, Sato tried to avoid using it unless when necessary but with the worm chasing after him and his only hope of escaping enclosed in front of him, Sato decided to take the risk. This was do or die so there was no way Sato would shy away from the risk.

*Siiieew*[1]

'Break!'