Mia sat against the rubble wall, the echoes of the recent battle still reverberating in her ears

Mia sat against the rubble wall, the echoes of the recent battle still reverberating in her ears. The taste of dust lingered in the air, and the smell of blood was overwhelming. Frank and Hector approached, both covered in ichor.

Frank dropped beside Mia, glancing at the scattered remnants of the defeated foes. "Well, that got messy," he said, without his usual grin.

.

"Yeah," Mia replied, her eyes on the cavern floor. “It’s just a lot to take in.” She finished after a while.

“I know what you mean,” Frank quietly said. They sat together in silence for a moment.

Diana approached them, with Hector in tow. “We need to get a move on, we lured everything from the nest, time to go in.” She said.

Mia rose with a grunt, checked her bow and arrows and followed the rest of her group towards the nest. She had to breathe through her mouth to control her revulsion at the sights. The only sound of the dripping and the rustle of small streams of blood that ran on the ground.

However as they got closer to the nest the smells didn't grow any better. The white fleshy growths covered the whole building and emanated a mixture of muskand acrid stench. Mia realized the whole city smelled of them, but it was way more intense here.

The entrance to the nest loomed ahead, a dark maw that seemed to swallow the feeble light outside. The sound of Mia's squelching footsteps got absorbed by the living walls creating a disquieting effect.

As they ventured deeper, lighting the way with Diana’s runes, the place was starting to get to Mia. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the faint drip of … something in the distance. Mia couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, the same she had on their first day in the city.

Hector led the way, his chitin armor clinking softly, his battered shield raised and his weapon poised to strike.

The walls of the nest closed in around them, the passage becoming narrower as they delved deeper into the heart of the unknown. Maybe it was not the walls getting closer but the growth getting thicker?

A sudden gust of stale air signaled a widening of the tunnel, and they saw a vast side-chamber.. The ground was littered with centipede corpses, strewn about haphazardly.

“Why would they collect their own dead like this?” Mias asked.

"They utilize every resource available," she murmured, a mix of repulsion and acknowledgment in her voice.

“What do you mean?” Hector said, visibly confused.

Diana just pointed to some of the corpses that were half sunk in the floor. “It looks like it digests them back.”

Frank grimaced, eyeing the morose scene. "Well, at least we know where they went. Not the most appetizing form of recycling."

Mia's gaze swept across the gruesome sight, at least the mystery of the disappearing bodies had been solved. The centipedes gather their fallen, using the corpses as sustenance, a morbid cycle of life and death.

The group pressed on, the flesh growth becoming increasingly prevalent. As they descended deeper, the sinewy strands of flesh began to reach from one wall of the corridor to the other. At first it was fleshy veins but in time they formed intricate webs of tissue. The air thickened with the pungent scent of organic decay, and the walls seemed to pulse with life. Mia cautiously traced her hand along the slick, whitish surface of the flesh webbing, feeling the warmth that emanated from it. She withdrew her hand quickly.

Frank cut through another web with his daggers, the whole thing deflating and bleeding onto the ground. “If I ever want to redecorate, remind me not to hire the interior designer who had a hand in this. Good ambience but bad for mental health” he said, disgust clear on his face.

“What the hell is even all this?” Hector asked.

“It eats the corpses so it has to do something with it” Mia suggested.

“Probably spawn more monsters.” Frank said, thinking out loud

“But if that's true, then why haven't we seen a room full of eggs” Hector countered.

“Because this isn’t the tenth alien movie Hector” Frank quipped.

“The question remains.” Diana interjected “We’ve been killing them continuously for weeks and they always come back. They need to breed somehow”

“Jesus now i have that image in my head” Frank said.

“Can you be serious for five minutes” Diana sounded annoyed.

“Burned there forever, ugh the sounds! The smells!” He said in a dramatic tone. Frank obviously didn’t know when to stop.

Mia saw Diana roll her eyes and turn forward. “Maybe we will find something at the center of this whole mess. Lets go”

As they explored, Mia voiced the concern that lingered in her mind. "Did we really lure out everything?"

Hector who was still leading their party said “No, there is still that large guy we saw on the first day” Mia noticed he was sweating and that his knuckles were white on his weapon.

“How do you know it's here?” Diana asked.

“I just do.” Hector didn’t elaborate further but he had a slight tremble in his voice.

Mia felt a pang of fear, Hector wasn’t this stressed even before the battle they just finished.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

They kept going down, the building having a lot more ramps that allowed easy access below ground. Mia lost the count of how many floors underground they were. They found a lot more rooms full of Abomination and Duskshieker bodies, but little else. Hector's fear was getting to Mia.

“Maybe we should head back?” She suggested meekly.

Hector turned towards her, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Diana interjected “No. Not before we find something, otherwise it would be all for nothing.” Her voice bore no discussion. And so they descended, ever deeper.

Until they found the main chamber.

It was just another overgrown doorway but the chamber behind was on a different level to anything they found before. Mia's gaze shifted to the towering pillars of chitin that disappeared in the darkness above. In the dim light, the sheer scale of the structure was disorienting, and it sent chills down her spine. The pillars were also covered in weird growths.

Diana gestured for silence and they went inside the chamber.

Mia really hoped nothing would bar the door behind them right after they entered. She didn’t have time to breathe easy after they entered though. As they closed in on the columns it became clear that each one is a small flesh cave, just big enough to house an Abomination. Mia jumped up and drew her bow as she noticed movement in one of the caves.

Diana however put a hand on her bow, gesturing for her to lower it.

“They look asleep, don't wake them up” She whispered to Mia, then moved to Frank and Hector presumably saying the same thing.

“A fucking monster creche with each one having its own cute meaty home” Frank said disbelief in his voice.

Mia looked up again, if each column had around twenty ‘homes’ around its circumference and she could count at least forty levels, multiplied by the number of pillars, multiplied by the number of nests. Her head spun with the result. She gestured to the others to gather.

“Looks like most of them are asleep, we didn’t even put a dent in their numbers” She whispered to the others.

“That big battle right outside? We’d have to do that daily to put a fucking dent in their numbers” Hector responded with agitation. They all shushed him.

“The columns look too sturdy to collapse with any magic I have” Diana provided.

“Not mentioning we would probably drop the ceiling on our own heads” Hector added “Anyone has any other bright ideas?” Mia looked at him in surprise; it wasn't often that he rebuked Diana in this way.

“Follow me” Mia said, not even sure what she wanted to accomplish, she was just feeling that something important could be gleaned from the houses. Taking care to be as silent as possible they all started sneaking closer to the closest bug.

The sight was both unsettling and fascinating. Each cage contained a centipede, seemingly healthy, their elongated bodies entwined within the fleshy confines. The creatures appeared unconscious, their breathing subdued and red eyes closed.

Diana's brow furrowed as she examined the peculiar sight. "What in the hell is this?" she muttered, her gaze moving from one centipede to the next.

Then Mia saw what Diana meant, each bug was connected to the walls by the fleshy tubes they saw growing around before. “Feeding maybe? Like a larval state or something?”

Frank cautiously approached one of the caves, his eyes narrowing. "Like they're being nurtured by the fucking building."

Hector prodded the fleshy surface of one of the cages, the material yielding slightly to his touch. "Thats fucking disgusting. But why keep them unconscious?"

Mia's thoughts mirrored the confusion. "Maybe they're being used for something. Controlled or harvested or something. There's more to this than just mindless aggression."

The group exchanged uneasy glances, the pulsating walls and the captive centipedes creating a surreal tableau of horror. The deeper they delved, the more questions arose, and the answers remained elusive, hidden within the labyrinth of flesh that surrounded them.

Hector felt the fleshy ground tremble under his feet. Before he could figure out what it was the shaking changed into a distant drumming.

“What is that? War drums?” Mia asked incredulously.

“Those are not drums… “ Frank said.“Those are footsteps” Hector finished looking for the source of the sound. The memories of the nightmare he had some time ago flashing before his eyes. Diana’s broken spine, unconscious Frank being torn apart by bugs.

The distant echoes of footsteps created an unsettling cadence, each step resonating like a distant thunder signaling an approaching storm.

Diana shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her eyes scanning the shadows. "Get ready," she murmured, the words barely audible over the sound of Hector’s own breathing.

Frank cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing. "Remember when the scariest thing we faced was Monday mornings? Good times."

A distant, guttural growl rumbled through the cavern, sending a shiver down his spine. He didn’t know if it was the floor or his knees trembling.

Diana raised her hand, signaling the group to prepare. The tension in the main chamber reached its zenith, a coiled anticipation waiting to be unleashed. As the first glimpses of the approaching monster manifested in the shadows.

“Ah shit” Hector heard himself say.

It was the same monster from his nightmares. It was the same upright form with a weird mix of insectile features and muscle. It was the same four arms that threw Mia across the room. It was the same giant red eyes that haunted both his dreams and his waking hours.

Time slowed down for Hector. A voice in his head whispered about pain and doubt. It felt like a piece of his soul got frozen. His left hand felt like it was made out of ice. However another part of him burned brightly, an angry flame that sought release. The two sides clashed within, each trying to claim dominance. As fear tightened its grip, anger surged in response. Hector felt like a spectator, and the thought stoked the fires of his anger even higher.

His jaw set, his muscles tensed, and with a scream that contained every emotion that he struggled with since he came to this god forsaken place, he charged.

As Hector closed the distance, the cacophony of his pounding heart drowned out all other sound. The creature uncoiled its sinewy limbs, the red eyes narrowed with predatory intent, preparing to shred Hector to pieces.

A pair of giant hands came at him from the left, a blow that every instinct he had told him he should block. Hector knew it would break what was left of his arm, just as it would break his spirit. So he did something else.

Hector dodged the incoming arm by sliding forward.

He could feel the claws pass inches above him, he finished the slide and with a Battle Cry he spun around with Swipe. His war picks blunt side struck both of the monster's knees, bending them in ways knees are not supposed to bend.

With a pained roar the monster collapsed but managed to kick Hector with its broken legs. The blow stunned the warrior and threw him on his back. As he tried to get his bearings he thought something was wrong with his vision. He saw the monster on its back, legs unnaturally twisted. With sharp, abrupt movements, it employed all four clawed hands to reset its broken knees. Each adjustment echoed with a series of disturbing crunches. The sound itself was enough for bile to rise in his throat, but the view was truly macabre. The bones being pushed into their places with pure strength and sinew being torn and regrown to accommodate the changes, were enough to make anyone queasy.

Within seconds the monster’s legs were whole again. That's when Hector noticed Frank rushing towards the enemy, the rogue jumped up aiming towards the monster's head. The horror countered the move by kicking up and sending Frank flying even higher, right into the shadows beyond. The monster used his own kick to roll back and then push itself back onto its legs with its hands.

“Get up, stop lying about” Diana shouted and he saw the flickers of light as she cast her spells.

As Hector got to his feet he could see arrow after arrow flying at the creature. However it was fast enough to block the ones going for its eyes and it just ignored the rest.

Purple light shone under the monster and its movements visibly slowed as Diana’s spells took hold. Explosions rocked the whole room, and sent a wave through the fleshy floor. Diana tried to blow the creature's legs off, but the hard chitin armor didn’t yield to her powers as easily as the soft underbellies of the centipedes.

The monster turned its attention back to Hector, as he was now the closest, and charged. The warrior sidestepped the creature and tried to use Power Strike. However instead of a satisfying thud Hector felt that his weapon got smacked off course. His world flashed for a second as he felt searing pain when claws raked across his side tearing both armor and flesh.

The monster pressed its advantage and rushed towards Diana and Mia. The Ranger darted to the side and the monster focused on Diana. Hector ran as fast as he could to help the woman but he knew he would be too late.

He needn't have worried, Diana calmly erected an ice wall in front of her, which the monster crushed with ease. The true trap however was right behind the wall.

“Close your eyes” Diana shouted half a second before the Dazzle rune she threw exploded with light and noise right into the horrors face.

Just as before, it was extremely effective, the monster's large eyes susceptible to the attack. The beast started thrashing about, still dangerous to approach even when temporarily blinded.

Hector dodged one of the arms and pushed another aside with Shield Bash to get into range of his war pick. He tried a different approach this time and used Power Strike to pin the creature's armored foot into the ground with the stinger. Hector felt his fingers go numb from the force of the strike as his weapon penetrated the foot then the fleshy ground and got stuck in the stone beneath.

It was just a minor inconvenience for the monstrosity they faced. Without effort the monster tore his foot almost in half to get free. However it stumbled when it tried to put his weight back on it, which gave Hector enough time to pull out his weapon from the ground and rejoin the others.

To Hector's relief Frank was there and looked unharmed if a bit roughened up. The monster roared defiantly.

“Well fuck me.” Frank said with a fire in his voice.

“What?” Hector asked, confused.

“Look at its foot,” Frank pointed.

The warrior watched in terror as the wound he left on the monsters foot knit back together before his eyes

“The fucker can regenerate” Hector said incredulous.

“Yeah and now that the opening pleasantries are over we can get to round two of this boss fight.” Frank said, the corner of his mouth rising.