I wait with trembling fern leaves as I watch the centipedes. It only takes four seconds to detonate a magic crystal grenade, but with the nervousness and anticipation, it feels like an eternity. Maybe I should "Bake" the grenade a little, like people did in call of duty? Ah, I forgot about call of duty until now! Are more of my memories returning?

KABLAMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smoke and fire blasts out of... both ends of the giant steel centipede. As I watch it writhe, I can only think one thing.

Is this the fabled "Taco Bell Syndrome"?

Wait, it's still flailing around. It's making a horrible screeching too... Don't tell me it's going to live!

It rolled back on its legs... and it's running around. That doesn't look like something that's just eaten a grenade.

It's obviously horrifically wounded, there's some kind of fluid drooling out of it, and the mouthparts appear to be damaged, and who knows how much internal damage has been inflicted, and its still running around.

Oh crud, it's coming right for me! Run!

I begin chucking flaming death wheels at the creature as I run away. Aside from seeing the metallic plating on the creature heat up and start boiling off the splatters of its own bodily fluids, it also starts screeching even louder. I think I made it even madder. Is this where I die?

It gains on me rapidly. Think! Think! What do I do?

Maybe if I put down my wheels again and start spewing fire, I can gain some thrust? The floor is flat enough here, and I did fix the busted bearing...

As an added bonus I'll be spraying fire in the centipedes eyes, and although it's not yet close enough to burn, I won't have to worry about that for long.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Changing from a flat out run to dropping my wheels and getting my speed back up costs me almost my whole lead, and I've got a giant monster right on my heels. A magic stick in each hand and my flamethrower limb extended, I light all of them off at the same time. It's glorious! I speed up significantly and the centipede slows a little as the fluids dripping from its mouth down its body burst into steam!

I barely manage to keep a lead on the creature as I fly ahead on my sweet robo-heelies, flames blasting into the creature's face the whole while.

The centipede slows more, and my flamethrower sticks begin to run out of charge. I frantically pump more power int my flamethrower limb with the mana crystal in it. My reserves begin to drain faster, but the flame coming out of my limb gets larger, just as my magic wands run out of charge and I toss them, still smoking, at the centipede in a desperate attempt to slow it down a little more.

My mana drains rapidly. My power dwindles by the moment. I'm afraid I'm going to run out, when suddenly the centipede crashes to the floor, plowing up a massive trench in the rock.

It takes me several minutes to stop at the speed I've built up, but I trudge back, retracting my wheels on the slight uphill grade.

I direct a quick thought to the delinquents, who've been hanging on for dear life the whole time. "Wow, that was close! You guys were watching the whole time, got any suggestions as to how we can do that better? I'd rather not do that again!"

Bob chimes in "I think you should leave the giant centipedes alone. But you could have used your other grenade I guess."

Oh, I forgot about it in my panic.

"Feel free to add a few suggestions like that next time we're about to die, I forgot I had it.... And yes, we're definitely leaving them alone for now."

"Ah, sure."

Not very talkative, is he.

I reach the giant centipede corpse, and I can't fit through the hallway around it. It probably has a nice crystal but I wasn't planning on spending a few hours digging through the thing to get it. I guess it's dissection time though.

*squelch*

*pop*

*crunch*

I'm not making it very far, so I pry off one of its damaged metal mandibles and use that to dig under the plates and peel them off. I mostly find more plates. Where's all the gooey bits?

After a bit more digging I come to a conclusion. This thing is made of lots of metallic plates and some kind of metallic muscle/tendon hybrid.

I have no idea how this could possibly work. It's kind of intriguing!

Finally I find it. The thing has a meaty-centered spine leading to a big heavily armored pocket at the top of its head, and apparently that's where it keeps all of its organs besides the digestive ones, which were mostly destroyed by the grenade. It appears I killed it by boiling its brain, and whatever else these weird chunky organs are. After a little digging, I find a mana crystal by its heart and boy is it massive. Way bigger than mine, I'm ready to celebrate, when I dig out a big soul core. It's larger than mine, and it swirls in a violent green tornado. I stare into it's depths as I realize I've been underutilizing my life force. I need to figure out how to shape metal magically, otherwise I'll never achieve this kind of metallic perfection.

Most of this centipede is intact.... What if....

Gathering my thoughts and will, I realize a way forward.

It won't be ideal, but I desperately need to increase my combat power without getting myself stuck somewhere.

I gather my focus and begin pulling out the metallic tendons and replacing them with vines.