Fortunately for Sophia, the damage was already done. The bug’s black eye turned a milky grey, as its fluids were frozen beneath a spreading tide of venom, mist billowing up from the afflicted tissue. The stricken centipede pulled itself out from under the cart, letting loose an ear-piercing screech as its fluids began to congeal, ichor turning to slush within a handful of heartbeats.

It whipped its head from side-to-side in increasingly erratic arcs, hissing like two snakes tied together before its brain finished freezing and it fell lifeless to the ground, encased in a creeping coat of rime like the other dead bugs.

My god… that was incredible. I don’t blame her for being scared. But I don’t think she needed my help to begin with. I’m glad that she called me though. Now we can finish off the last render and leave this place together.

It was at this point that Sophia noticed his imminent arrival. His joy turned to confusion when he realized that she didn’t seem happy to see him. Instead of the relief that Nick expected to find on her face, he saw a fierce frustration instead.

She called out to him in a voice ragged with exhaustion, while her remaining wasps held the final centipede at bay. “Nick… no. I told you to run away from here, not toward me. You need to get out of the cavern before…”

It was at this point that he felt the ground shaking beneath his boots, growing more intense with every beat of his heart. “Fuck, it’s too late. She’s back. Come here and run faster! Get away from the sand and take cover behind the carts. The big one is hiding below…”

The rest of her warning was cut off by the same event that rendered it unnecessary. Because at that very moment, a great glossy figure emerged from the depths of the pit, shrouded in a veil of falling sand.

A long, sinuous body as thick as a tree rose fifteen feet into the air before turning to face him. Nick didn’t have time to stop and take a closer look, not with every scrap of his attention focused on putting one foot in front of the other as fast as he could. But he already knew what had happened. The flesh-render matriarch had just joined the battle.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He didn’t hesitate, although he was shocked by the enormous beast’s abrupt arrival. Nick was already in the middle of darting to Sophia’s side. Before he closed half of the distance, a sinking feeling pulled at his guts, his instincts telling him that he was in imminent danger.

This is bad. I’m still inside her strike-zone. Only the momentary sand shower had prevented the immense beast from spotting Nick and attacking him already, but it wouldn’t delay the beast much longer.

If that wasn’t a big enough problem, the juvenile centipede had turned away from Sophia, rushing Nick’s way to attack him instead. The creature must have identified him as the weaker opponent, especially since he was trapped between two hostile forces.

He turned his head to track the matriarch’s movements without slowing his step, desperate to get behind cover and away from the edge of the sandpit. Away from the towering beast that was dozens of times more massive than himself.

But he couldn’t afford to ignore the bug in front of him either. Within a handful of heartbeats, his path would take him within range of the juvenile flesh-render.

Certain that he was dead if he mistimed his dodge, he ran his gaze across the smaller centipede, trying to anticipate its reaction. Not that the word small was a good fit for a creature over twice his size. It’s not coiled to spring or embedded to lash. That means it’s going to…

Nick leapt high as the centipede brought its blade-like mandibles slashing down low, trying to cut his legs off at the knee. The move was easy to predict since he’d seen it before. Before the beast could reverse its momentum to come at him again, he dove forward while rounding his shoulder.

His leap carried him over the bug’s body, turning his dive into a roll before landing back on his feet. Just before he rose to his full height, he felt the air stir as something immense and lightning quick flashed through the space above his head. Right where Nick would have landed if he hadn’t lowered his profile.

A great, bladed shadow loomed over him for the blink of an eye, before whipping its glossy girth back toward the roof of the cavern. Swordlike mandibles clacked shut then spread wide, eager to end his life.