Felan had made it half way across the clearing, Baxter a little further, when the thing burst out of the well. It came up with the sound of nails on a chalkboard as thousands of legs scrabbled for grip. Keira was yelling something at him - he could see her lips moving - but he couldn’t hear it over the clicking sounds that seemed to be the things war cry. The screeching was like a forest full of cicadas on a warm summers day, even drowning out his laboured breaths. The feeling of dread was omnipresent now, almost physically restraining. It felt like he was running through treacle, every step becoming a little bit slower than the last.

The creature screamed again, and Felan’s arms began to itch. The thing’s voice was irritating his skin, and no matter how much he scratched at it the itch wouldn’t abate.

He glanced back over his shoulder and instantly regretted it.

The thing was at least ten meters long. Serpentine, with countless little legs poking out from a thick carapace. The last two meters of its body stood upright, and was adorned with two bladed arms instead of legs. Long lethal appendages that reminded Felan of a praying mantis. Its face was reminiscent of a mantis as well - a long wedge shape with its eyes at the larger end, grey flesh tapering down to enormous mandibles.

The monster scraped it’s scythe-like arms together, producing the screeching scream again. Felan wanted nothing more than to run for the forest, but it looked like the creature would have no trouble cutting through the trees. It was several meters away from him still, the last of its legs finally slithering out from the well. The screeching noise stopped as it separated its bladed forearms, holding them in front of it like a poised samurai. Its head cocked sideways, like a puppy trying to read lips, training its black eyes on Felan.

It charged.

Felan felt like he was rooted in place. The ever-present press of dread dulled his reactions. The thing rushed at him on thousands of feet, each making a heavy thud as it hit the ground. Damn it was fast. Knowing he couldn’t outrun it, Felan raised his shield arm in front of himself. He didn’t really expect his little wooden buckler to block one of those scythe appendages, definitely not both of them, but he raised it on instinct.

Keira stepped in front of him a moment before the creature struck. He wasn’t even sure where she’d come from. He’d been so focused on his approaching demise that he’d lost track of where Baxter and Keira had gone. Her enormous shield caught the slashing blades, deflecting them to either side of her. Both drove themselves a few inches into the soft dirt, the creature’s torso bent down over them. Felan was almost face to face with its slathering jaws, his gaze transfixed on its dead eyes.

The beast straightened, pulling its claws out of the earth. As it rose it twisted backwards, its long form coiling on itself like a snake preparing to strike. Its torso was out of range now. Though he’d missed his chance to strike, Felan could at least think a little more clearly now that the immediate danger had passed. Keira looked unharmed by the attack, but Baxter was still nowhere to be seen.

Felan unlatched his club from his belt and gave it a gentle swing in each direction to limber up his shoulder. The creatures lower body was coiled around itself now, the thick shell of armour along its spine protecting its legs. As far as Felan could tell, that armour was as good as impenetrable, but its torso was unprotected. Well, if he were to ignore the scythe arms and twitching mandibles. Then again he didn’t think his club would be doing all that much damage. A sword would hopefully be able to open it up, there must be some important organs they could get at in there.

Keira was armed with a sword, but she was also their only line of defence. Damn, everything depended on her. Felan almost slapped his forehead when he realised what he was missing. Keira would defend them. Baxter, if he showed up again, would hopefully get a few attacks in. Felan's role was to keep Keira healthy and hinder the creature as much as he could.

He thought about his spell book, and the prompt appeared in front of him. His arms moved from muscle memory, without him needing to look at the book. He selected the Entangle spell and threw the coil of energy toward their foe. Vines leapt up from the grass to wrap around the creature, lassoing its legs in place. The monster struggled against its bonds for a moment and then began to rear up. Felan was pretty sure it couldn’t strike out at them from where it stood but he backed up nonetheless. Keira fell back beside him, her shield still raised in front of her.

“We need to hit it” She shouted out the corner of her mouth at him, her eyes still fixed on the creature in case it attacked.

“My clubs not going to do much. You’ll need to cut at its belly.” Felan replied.

That got her attention. Keira diverted her eyes from the beast to glare at Felan.

“You want me to block it’s attacks and cut it open? What the hell are you gonna do?”

Despite the threat of a giant centi-mantis, Felan could feel a blush creeping up his neck. She had a point, it wasn’t fair for him to expect her to do everything. But what could he do?

“Throw me your sword then”

Before Keira could respond, the creature broke free of the vines that had been holding it. It barrelled towards them on its countless feet, covering the distance between them frighteningly fast. The monsters torso began to rise up.

Felan grabbed the icon for Entangle again and threw it at the creatures forward-most legs. Vines lashed out, tripping it. For a moment, it looked like the thing would recover - somehow turning its fall into an attack. But then it tumbled forward, only one of its scythe-like arms reaching toward them. Keira blocked the clumsy attack with her shield, again driving the appendage into the ground.

The monster was stretched out now. Its vulnerable belly pressed to the ground, its mandibles clacking together close to them. More vines had sprung up from the grass and jumped over its carapace, holding it to the ground. Its back legs were scrabbling at the ground, causing its hind section to sway back and forth.

Felan took his opportunity.

He charged forward, swinging his club with all of his might. He aimed for the joint between the start of the scythe-like blade and the rest of the creature’s arm. His club struck true, breaking the joint with a satisfying crunch. The creature screamed. It was the sound of a wounded animal, high and terrified. Felan showed it no mercy, smashing his club down again as hard as he could. The creature screamed again. It thrashed against its bonds, trying to free its wounded arm from the ground. Felan got one more strike in before his spell withered away, and the monster rushed forward again.

As it charged, it tried to pull it’s damaged arm from the ground. Instead, it’s momentum carried it forward faster than it’s damaged ligaments could raise it. There was a popping sound that made Felan shudder, and then the flesh around the joint tore free. The creature’s torso knocked Felan to the ground, leaving him lying next to the bladed, amputated, forearm. Keira yelled something as the beast reached her. Felan could do nothing but curl into a ball as he was trampled by hundreds of feet. At one edge of his vision, a red bar appeared and started flashing. It was falling fast.

80%

70%

60%

50%

The monsters legs were coming in an endless stream.

40%

30%

The monster finally passed over him. For a few moments, all Felan could do was take in gasping breaths of air. He’d felt like he was going to suffocate as it had been trampling him, it was good to breath again. He rose to his feet as quickly as his bruised muscles would allow. The creature was at the far side of the clearing, curling up on itself again so that it’s armoured spine protected its legs. Its torso was low in the coil, ready to strike if they came close.

Keira was on the ground between them, still curled in a ball. As he was watching her, a little health bar appeared above her head. She had no more health than him!

Felan pulled his spell book into view again. This time he selected Goodberry instead. A little berry appeared in his palm. It was the size and shape of a strawberry and cast a faint red glow on his skin. As he held it the knowledge of how to use it flooded through his mind. If he threw it at Keira it would heal her, crushing it in his fist would restore his own health. In the distance he could see the creature’s torso rising up into the air as it prepared to charge. Cursing under his breath, he threw the spell at Keira. It hit her in the center of her back as she was rising to her feet, and splashed like a blood filled water balloon. The little bar above her head rapidly filled. Once the heal-over-time component was finished, she should be pretty close to full health. Assuming the creatures charge didn’t wipe her out again.

Before Felan could cast the spell on himself, the creature barrelled towards them. Keira planted her feet, holding the shield in front of her. The creatures wild swing with its bladed arm glanced off her shield, and then it dropped its shoulder to collide with her steel barrier. The impact knocked her back a few feet, but she quickly regained her footing. The creature chattered in an alien language, it’s mandible scratching at the top of her shield. With all of it’s legs pushing in unison, it was driving Keira backwards. Her boots were sliding along the grass, failing to grip the slick surface.

Baxter finally returned to the fray.

The wolf came from left field, sprinting at the beast and taking a flying leap. His jaws snagged the creatures wounded forearm, tearing shreds of flesh away. The monster howled in pain again, shaking the wolf loose. Baxter fell to the ground, landing on his side, but recovered in an instant. He retreated again, looking for another opening.

Felan turned his attention back to his spell book. He checked his Mana, only 11 points remaining. Enough for one Goodberry or two casts of Entangle. His health was low enough that a strong breeze would probably knock him out of the game. But was it worth spending his last healing spell on himself?

Striking its unarmoured belly still seemed like the only way that they might be able to kill it, and Keira’s sword would be needed for that. The sensible thing would be to keep the spell in reserve, and hold onto his Mana, in case Keira got wounded again. Felan checked on Baxters health. Down to about 80% - enough that Felan didn’t need to worry about him for a while.

The creature broke off, realising it couldn’t topple Keira, and circled back on itself. Something about that pattern was nagging Felan. The creature would attack, then retreat and coil up, giving itself a breather before it attacked again. Maybe there was something about that action that he was missing?

“You got any ideas?” Keira shouted, backing up without turning her back on the monster. Baxter was circling around behind it, but Felan couldn’t imagine the wolf would be able to do much against that armoured hide.

Keira didn’t seem interested in surrendering her sword, and Felan’s club wasn’t going to have the desired effect. Even if they baited the monster into losing another arm to the same trick again, it would still be able to trample them to death.

“Yeah, I’ve got something. You’re gonna need to distract it for a bit.” And I’m going to have to time it well Felan added silently.

It took a minute to prepare his trap. Keira and Baxter worked in unison to distract the creature. Baxter would leap at its armoured spine, scrambling up to attack the back of its torso. When the creature turned to face the wolf, Keira would do the same thing from the other side. It was a dangerous game. If one of them withdrew too soon, the other wouldn’t last long against the creature’s wildly slashing blade arm.

While his companions held the monsters attention, Felan set to work on its amputated forearm. He hefted it up out of the ground and flipped it upside down. The joint end was now buried in the hole that the blade had made when it was first stuck into the earth. With the sharpest end pointed toward the sky, Felan pushed his club into the earth behind it to act as a brace.

He held it from the back and wiggled it a little. The makeshift trap seemed sturdy enough, at least for one use. They’d have to make sure it counted.

Felan stepped between his makeshift trap and the creature, using his body to hide the makeshift weapon from the monster’s view. He pulled up his spellbook and threw another Entangle at the monster. Vines leapt up to hold it in place, granting his team enough time to retreat away from it.

“To me!” Felan yelled.

Keira turned her back on the monster and ran toward him, trusting his spell to hold it for a few moments longer. Baxter retreated in the other direction, heading for the edge of the clearing before slowly circling around. The monster kept its gaze fixed on the two human targets.

As the magical vines blackened and died, the monster burst into motion. As with last time, it kept its torso low to the ground as it rushed forward with its bladed arm extended in front of it. Keira turned around just in time to throw her shield up and block its slash as the creature reached passed her. The blow knocked Keira out of its path, and its momentum pushed it onward.

As soon as it had struck at her, its eyes fixed on Felan. He could almost read glee in its beady little eyes as it rushed toward him. It seemed to know that he was low on health, and it could trample him to score a kill.

At the last moment, Felan dove to his right. The monster was too close, and moving much too fast, to swerve with him. By the time Felan clambered back onto his feet and turned to watch, the creature had passed completely over his trap. It took a few steps on its path to turn back toward Felan and his team and then staggered sideways. Its front legs sagged first, dropping its torso close to the grass. It stabbed its remaining arm into the dirt, supporting itself for a moment as it twisted to look at them.

Felan could see that his trap had worked. The monster was carved open from the top of its torso - where a humans ribs would be - to where its first sets of legs met. The rest of its long body was flat against the ground now, so Felan couldn’t see how far the wound continued. Loops of intestines had piled out of the cut, dripping onto the grass.

The creatures dead eyes bore into Felan with an accusatory glare. Its mandibles waved violently for a moment longer before a still settled over the creature. Even though he was still standing several meters away, Felan could tell that it was dead. He saw the gory trap, bent over backwards now that it had been used. His club had splintered on impact and now lay in several pieces behind the bladed limb.

A wave of euphoria washed over Felan. It was accompanied by a bright flash of light, and a warm tingle across his entire body. Every moment of worry during the fight suddenly rewarded him. His eyes cleared, and the level-up indicator appeared in the corner of his vision.

“Holy shit.”

Keira had come up beside Felan, and her words startled him. Baxter padded over a moment later to sit by their feet.

“What the hell was that thing?” Felan asked

“That, my friend, was your first group boss.” Keira slapped him on the back with a big smile.