There must be a reason why they wear those exoskeletons. Some vulnerability that they’re compensating for. They don’t eat everything that they touch, or it would have sunk through the ground when it came out. Since they don’t seem to need the armor, maybe they need their shells to move quickly… and to dig.

As the black fluid retracted into its carapace, a revelation washed over him, and a plan sprang to life within his mind. A means that might allow him to turn the tables on his otherworldly opponent without risking his life with every exchange of blows.

He would have to go all in for his plan to have a shot of succeeding. But since Nick was dead if it didn’t, he proceeded without hesitation. I have to draw it out of its shell again before I can try to finish this. First things first, I need to turn that hole into a pit trap. It might escape and come back if I don’t block its retreat.

Over the next breathless minute, the grub chased Nick around the room, coming within inches of ending his life on three separate occasions. He only had drops of stamina remaining in the tank. Black motes of exhaustion swirled in front of his eyes, as his blood dripped down to paint the tiles below.

He shut out the pain, pushed past his fear and exhaustion, putting everything he had left into making the next few seconds count. Almost… there! One last dodge and I think it should work.

In the end, he was able to lure the grub into position, the features of the room lining up just as he imagined. Everything should pan out… if the creature decided to leap instead of rushing him again.

To help it come to that decision, Nick stepped out into the open with his sword held before him. The tip hovered just a little too low to form an effective guard. A gap in his defenses that left his throat exposed. Just as he was certain that it wasn’t going to work, that the grub would run him down and overcome him, it happened.

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Its body compressed and took aim, then sailed into the air in an explosive release of force, even faster than before.

Dodging would have been impossible if he hadn’t seen the attack coming. As matters stood, instead of that strike being the end of him, it offered him his only chance of living through the night.

Nick was already moving to one side, throwing his body out of the way with the aid of his final dregs of stamina. Even still, it was a near thing. He moved out of the grub’s flightpath a bare heartbeat before it went streaking past the space where his throat had been half an instant before… then slammed straight into the statue with incredible force, releasing a crunch that he could feel in his bones.

The exoskeleton collided with the marble figure, shattering the top half in an explosive spray of rubble. The statue rocked back, then remained balanced on one edge for half a heartbeat… before tipping over and falling into the hole, just as Nick had planned.

The marble sculpture tumbled into the burrow that the hellgrub had emerged from, rolling down a good ten feet before sticking where the tunnel began to bend, completely blocking the hole.

The grub had fractured its armor in the process, exacerbating the damage that Nick had inflicted, deep cracks marring the pale surface. Better still, part of its body was trapped beneath a fragment of the shattered statue, leaving it momentarily unable to reach him with its jaws.

However, this had only deprived the creature of its auxiliary weapons, leaving the worst threat unmitigated.

Before Nick could rise to his feet and scamper out of the way, the swarmling’s true form began seeping through the cracks, pseudopods of foul black filth reaching for his face with disheartening speed.

Since he was sitting on the ground, only a few feet away and unable to dodge, the hellgrub decided to gamble, coming all the way out of its shell to finish him off before he could recover. After all, a single touch of its body would kill him, providing the swarmling with the food it needed to complete its spawning cycle.

Committing to the attack, the foul creature shoved itself through the cracks in its shell, releasing a sickly squishing sound and an acrid stench that singed Nick’s throat. It came for him half a heartbeat later.