Nick pulled the trigger and a pulse of force erupted from the end of the wand, picking up the mound of stones and flinging them forward in a spreading arc. The rocks flew forth with a vengeance, like the pile had been kicked by an irate ogre, colliding into the charging creatures shotgun style.
Only the render leading the pack took any real damage, and only enough to break a handful of its seemingly endless limbs. But the beast’s pain-filled hiss, combined with the unexpected barrage, unnerved the swarm.
The centipedes swerved to one side and stopped, evaluating the evolving situation before resuming their assault, buying Nick a handful of seconds in the process.
He slid his trusty wand back into its holster and took up his sword in a two-handed grip, certain that the beasts’ confusion wouldn’t last much longer. Sure enough, the big bugs regained their confidence half a heartbeat later, splitting into two groups before surging forward once more.
They came at Nick from two sides at once, their injured member trailing behind the rest. Without taking his eyes off his opponents, he bent down and picked up a rock, flinging it at the closest centipede before firing his spell.
As he’d hoped, the beast flinched when it caught sight of the stone, not realizing that it was powered only by the strength of his arm rather than the force of the wand. Its dodge carried it three feet to the left… straight into the path of his dart.
He shuddered in relief as the silver missile sank into the chitin of the creature’s flank. The stricken flesh-render came crashing to the ground and began to convulse, although the body blow seemed less effective than hitting it in the head, judging by what had happened during his previous battle.
Fortunately, Nick wasn’t trying to dish out any lasting damage. His goal was to make the beasts hesitate. To make them overestimate his combat potential, holding back long enough to reassess the threat that he posed.
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Two minutes, his internal timer informed him. Now comes the tricky part.
A distant part of his awareness registered that Sophia’s chanting had reached a fevered pitch, but he suppressed the urge to dwell on it. He hoped that whatever she was planning would be enough to save them and refused to consider the consequences if it wasn’t.
Nick was certain that the matriarch was still somewhere nearby, tending to her wounds while biding her time to strike. Even if he managed to defeat the quartet of centipedes skittering in front of him, the mistress of the lair would never let them walk away unchallenged.
But none of that changed what he had to do. Nick would deal with the enemies in front of him and trust his partner to handle the rest. He had chosen to believe in Sophia, and he wasn’t going to doubt her now just because she’d been keeping one of her powers to herself.
Despite the seriousness of his situation, he was intensely curious to find out what she was up to. But he couldn’t afford to lose focus, so he returned his attention to the problem at hand.
They’re off balance but will recover any second. You need to follow up before they do. Encourage their caution by unleashing an unexpected show of force. Hurry, before they regroup. Letting loose the fiercest battle cry that he could muster, Nick picked out his path and charged.
He sprinted past the double row of carts, heading straight for the pair of uninjured beasts on his left, who had begun to advance once more. When they saw what he was doing, the bugs came to a stop and hunkered down, bracing themselves to meet his charge.
By this point, he was fully committed to his gamble. If the next part didn’t go how he hoped, Nick would find himself surrounded by four furious beasts within a matter of seconds. A death sentence under these conditions.
Knowing that his life hung in the balance, he called upon his arctic clarity to enhance his focus, letting the state of frigid focus wash over him like a breath of winter air.
Ninety seconds, he visualized his trajectory and fired both darts back-to back. In the blink of an eye, the pair of chrome-colored missiles went streaking for the centipede closest to his position. It seemed that the beast had learned from watching its littermates’ struggles, because it clearly recognized the threat that his spell posed, turning its head to track their progress.
Just before the spells landed on target, the centipede twisted to one side and threw its body out of the way, streaking like a bolt of chitin-plated lightning to evade not one, but both of Nick’s darts.