It was enormous. The size was the first thing that registered with any clarity.
Its body blocked the exit entirely, segments disappearing into the dark above.
The head alone was wider than my shoulders. Its mandibles made a grinding sound as it watched me with the kind of attention that does not welcome anything entering its territory.
I had fallen into their trap.
The moment they threw the liquid across my back, whatever dissolved remains it contained had already marked me.
To anything living in this nest, I was now the intruder that had slaughtered its brood.
Smaller shelled centipedes reached my legs and climbed up my robe
More dropped from the ceiling.
They landed across my shoulders, my covered head. And the moment they touched down they began to spread, slipping across fabric and skin, searching for space like my body was simply another surface in the nest.
A bite registered on my right forearm. Then another near the elbow. The centipedes latched onto exposed flesh, mandibles grinding as venom spread through the wounds.
Even then, my eyes stayed on the Dark Centipede.
The ones on my head found the gap at the back and forced their way in. I felt them moving in my hair, the small deliberate weight of their bodies crossing my scalp.
But even after this, I did not move an inch.
The Dark Centipede lingered there. Then it crept forward, upper body hanging lower than before.
My eyes widened and a chill ran down my spine.
"How weak I have become."
Coming back to reality, I instantly shifted my weight and dropped into a fighting stance. The motion tightened my entire frame, and several centipedes clinging to my body were crushed.
Spiritual essence gathered in my right hand. Compressing and becoming dense.
SCREEE.
It shrieked and lunged at me.
"Second Form." I stepped in and struck its head with my mountain-crushing fist. The strike met the front of its head.
BANG.
The impact rippled through the ground in a widening ring. The small centipedes within that radius were lifted and thrown aside, leaving a circle of bare stone around me.
A faint crack ran across the Dark Centipede's shell, but it gave almost no response. Its head jerked once from the impact, then steadied again.
The mandibles opened fully and the head snapped back toward me.
I ducked beneath the nearest sweep and shifted right as the massive body twisted after me. Armored segments scraped violently against the stone.
"What the!" (Even the direct strike only left a small crack on its shell.)
I understood at once. This was not something I could fight.
The dark centipede corrected its position and attacked again.
With my heart beating so fast, I jumped back, but it was already there.
A massive segment slammed across my side and hurled me into the wall of the passage.
"Ugh." I caught myself against the wall with both hands and shoved away before the full weight of the centipede crashed over me.
Then I forced myself forward and barely took two steps before the long body behind the head twisted sharply.
One segment hooked around my side while another trapped my feet.
The centipede's body was already wrapping around me.
I tried to break free but the massive segments kept folding over each other, tightening like a constrictor around its prey.
I struggled against the coils, but they did not loosen.
The pressure around my chest deepened suddenly. Air left my lungs in a rough burst.
Right then, the Dark Centipede lowered its head in front of my face. Its mandibles spread to their full width, exposing the dark interior between them.
"Think..you can kill me here?"
I strained against the coils with both arms, trying to force even a little space between the overlapping segments while the centipede's head continued lowering toward me.
It was going to bite me to death.
In that instant, I spread my fingers. All ten threads emerged simultaneously.
The Spectral Threads were invisible, and deploying all ten at once hit the back of my mind like a blade drawn across it.
Gritting my teeth, I directed the threads upward from my fingertips. They crossed the narrow space between us and fastened themselves around the centipede's head.
Then I pulled.
My fingers curled tighter and the threads pulled taut. The head of the Dark Centipede jerked to a halt only inches from my face.
For a moment neither of us moved.
My eyes burned red from the strain, and my body was already at its limit
Still, I did not stop. How could I? I refused to die in this shit pit.
Using both arms and legs, I slowly forced a small gap between the coils.
The threads snapped apart the next second, but I had already torn myself free and turned toward the exit.
The slope leading out of the depression was ahead. I took it at full speed and burst out into the open field beyond.
"Huff… Huff…"My breath came out rough.
I was only a few meters away when the wall beside the opening exploded.
BLASSSH.
Stone fragments blasted across the ground as the Dark Centipede tore through the wall instead of using the entrance.
But I kept running without turning around.
The greenery appeared suddenly.
One moment there was bare stone. The next, the terrain dipped and the air changed, carrying the smell of damp soil and living things.
The ground softened beneath my feet. Trees rose around, their overlapping canopies blocking much of the dim underground light.
The Dark Centipede entered the forest behind me, its scraping crawl growing louder.
The trees were no obstacle for something like that. I heard its legs climbing the trunks, crossing the roots. The sound spread through the forest from every direction, closing around me.
My senses screamed. In response, my fingers reacted first, threads emerging at once.
Six shot behind me and anchored into the ground. I drove against the threads with each stride, forcing more speed from my body.
I moved in irregular patterns, veering left and right through the dense forest. Not to confuse the centipede but to slow it down a little.
Just then, the mandibles came from my left.
SCREEE.
"Hek." I dropped, as the strike passed overhead.
One of the mandibles caught the trunk beside me and sliced straight through it. The tree tilted hard before crashing down, roots tearing from the soil as it fell.
Except, I was already moving before it hit the ground.
(Shit. It's gaining on me.)
Threads shot into the canopy and locked onto a thick branch. I used the tension to launch myself off the ground.
My boots struck the bark. I kicked off it and grabbed another branch higher above just as the first snapped beneath my weight.
I reached the nearest tree and climbed quickly, moving from branch to branch, breaking into the upper canopy. The dense leaves parted as the branches thickened enough to support me.
Only then did I press myself flat against the forked junction and stayed still.
Below, the centipede swept through the space where I had been.
It moved through the trees like water through cracked stone, filling every available path, sweeping the grove without pause…