Conducting through the stone beneath his knees, Nick felt it when the wand shifted the sand below. While the force of the blast was nothing compared to the weight of the countless tons of sand, it was sufficient to compress the swath directly in front of him.

The wand packed the grains tightly together, like they were caught in the grip of a playful giant, momentarily trapping the beast, and stopping it from digging any deeper.

It hissed and began to writhe, trying to submerge itself. But the surrounding sand was significantly more solid than it had been mere moments ago, and the beast could only move at a fraction of its prior speed, buying him a few more seconds to pull off his next move.

With no time left to entertain doubts, he hopped back onto his feet and charged, running out onto the sandpit while summoning a mana dart. Being able to cast on the move was a product of all the practice he’d put in since learning the spell. While he continued closing the distance, Nick visualized his trajectory and gathered his will.

A heartbeat after the metallic missile popped into existence, he fired. He lined up his shot so the dart would strike the render’s head before it was swallowed by the sands, since the beast was already submerging itself once more.

Fortunately for Nick, his aim was true. Instead of being deflected to one side, like when it had struck the spear-tongue’s armor, the mana dart sank into the centipede’s chitin and discharged into the brain below.

He wasn’t sure if headshots magnified the pain inflicted by his spell, or if the beast was particularly sensitive to this manner of magic. Either way, the attack wound up being more effective than he anticipated. Because half a heartbeat later, the flesh-render went completely fucking berserk.

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The beast undulated in fury-saturated agony, its array of blade-arms striking out at random. The thrashing motion pulled its submerged half out of the sand. The centipede curled in on itself until it was a tightly wound, armor-plated ball.

Sensing an opportunity to end the fight here and now, Nick focused his will and started casting piercing ray. Before he could finish the spell, the maddened flesh-render recovered from its shock. Its head whipped around to face him, cold murder gleaming in its beady black eyes.

The way that the beast’s body was poised sent alarm bells ringing inside his head. Acting on instinct, he canceled the spell and dove to one side… just as the twelve-foot centipede launched itself like a coiled spring. He barely avoided taking a pair of razored mandibles to his face, hopping back to create more room to maneuver.

It didn’t just try to cut me with its blades, it was planning to land right on top of me. If it manages to clamp onto me with all those legs, I’m dead. Not that getting bitten sounds like a ton of fun either.

Nick skidded to a stop, kicking up a shower of grains, gaze locked onto his opponent to anticipate its next move. At least it’s off the sand and isn’t trying to run anymore. It doesn’t seem afraid of me, despite taking several blows. Maybe it can sense that my darts aren’t powerful enough to finish it off, and that the wand won’t hit nearly as hard without a medium to conduct the force.

That was all the time for analysis he was given. As he slipped his wand back into its holster, the centipede lifted half of its body into the air and brought its head whipping around low, trying to cut his legs off at the knee.

Nick resisted the impulse to block with his sword. With its superior mass, the beast could easily knock the blade aside or send him tumbling to the ground, then start stabbing with hundreds of spike-tipped limbs.

Instead of blocking, he leapt straight up while bending his knees, lifting his feet out of the line of fire. He felt the air stir as the centipede passed below his boots, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. The beast resumed its assault half a heartbeat after its attack failed to connect, the clatter of its mandibles clacking shut as sharp as a rifle shot.

Still only halfway through his leap, Nick nearly had his legs swept out from under him as the centipede brought its body back around for a second pass.