Chapter 5: The Monster-Pede

The was no mistaking it – the monstrous centipede had seen them. Now, it began to move towards them again.

“It’s coming,” Miguel called out, as they moved.

“We are going to be dead if we can’t hide soon,” said Chloe.

As they approached the cave mouth, Miguel felt himself hit his stride. Running at full speed, he sprinted past Chloe even though she was also running well. He was faster, for sure. So what was her speed stat, he wondered?

Less than his – that was all he knew.

And so, he arrived at the cave first and stopped, calling out ‘equip sword’, and seeing the new weapon respond by appearing in his hand.

The beast was now just a dozen yards behind them. Chloe ran into the cave just after Miguel reached it, and he followed, backing through its entrance which was no wider than a double door.

He wondered if the monstrous centipede would be able to get inside, or if it would indeed be too small. However, inside the space was disappointingly shallow – no more than six feet in depth.

The pair of contestants looked at each other, huddling against the back wall of the cave with their weapons in hand.

“Perhaps we should have climbed...” began Miguel.

“We’d better just hope that somebody else attracts that thing’s attention,” said Chloe, interrupting. “And we better be quiet,” she added in a lower voice, glaring at him.

Trying to keep quiet in his movements, Miguel uttered the commands necessary to switch weapons. The katana reappeared at his belt, and the crossbow in his hand. He lifted it, bracing himself and readying the weapon against his chest.

When the beast came, all he could do was take a shot.

For now, though, there was silence outside.

The pair stood watching, expecting to see the giant centipede’s horrific face squeezing into the cave in front of them at any moment. But so far, nothing.

One of the little drones was now hovering near the mouth of the cave, however. They were being watched – and somebody was expecting action.

What kind of action?

Miguel glanced around at Chloe, who was covered in sweat and whose wavy hair was now partially plastered across her face. She looked as breathless, fearful and stressed as he felt. All the same, she would look pretty damn good on camera.

Better than him, that’s for sure.

Miguel glanced down. He was still holding the dead woman’s backpack across one forearm, with the katana now in place at his belt. He released the crossbow for a moment, and lifted the katana hilt-first toward Chloe. “Here – do you want these?” he said, speaking as quietly as he could.

Chloe looked down, and then with a curt nod, took the backpack, and put it over her shoulders. She then took the curved sword and pressed it onto her own belt, where it attached itself automatically once again. “You can take the helmet, then,” she said, handing it over. “It’ll cover up your dumb-looking hair.”

He took the leather helmet with a wry smile. It was bloodstained, but otherwise looked undamaged, and he took a moment to strap it onto his own head. It fit perfectly again – strange.

But perhaps items in Demon Hunters were designed to fit every avatar universally.

“You think that beast has moved on?” he whispered, taking a step forward.

“Maybe. But you’re right – we need to get higher. We can’t stay in here.”

“Yeah... yeah, okay then. First chance we get, we climb up. There’s a sheer cliff to the left, so we should go right.”

She nodded.

But at that moment, they both heard a hiss – or was it a monstrous sniff, smelling them out?

It sounded like it came from no more than a yard away.

“Get ready,” growled Chloe.

Miguel’s finger was already squeezing the trigger of the crossbow when the giant centipede’s monstrous mandibles appeared in front of the cave. He could see right inside it, back to the purple-colored blubber that formed the inner surface of the creature’s mouth and throat.

He shot.

The bolt streaked out, almost too fast to see, and embedded itself into the monster. As the creature was over four feet high and its face nearly filled the entrance to the cave, he really couldn’t miss.

It screeched and writhed, and blood and gore sprayed out over the green ground beyond.

“Idiot – it hadn’t seen us,” said Chloe, and then in a moment she was on the move, spear held high.

Miguel followed, moving to just before the entrance of the cave and peeking around. The monster-pede had now reared up and was writhing around, the many legs of the front third of its body scrabbling in thin air.

However as the two contenders exited, it began to lower its head once again – and again, Miguel heard a blood-chilling sniff, as if it was smelling them more than seeing them.

It knew very well where its prey was.

All the same – the contenders were faster. Before the monster’s head had quite reached the ground, Chloe dashed forward and got ready with her spear, setting the weapon underneath the creature’s body and crouching low and compact such that her body weight was behind the hilt.

As the beast lowered itself, its underside slid down onto the spear point, and began to cover the blade and then the handle. There was one popping sound and then another as its flesh was punctured, deeper and deeper... but it continued to descend.

Realizing that it wasn’t stopping, Chloe flung herself to the side, rolled, and rose quickly. But she was now trapped between the beast’s slug-like body and the cliff wall.

Miguel fired off another crossbow bolt into the creature’s body, and then a third. And slowly the beast responded. It writhed sideways towards him, pulling away from Chloe, with the spear still hanging from its flesh.

Now, Miguel noticed that it was moving slower... it was struggling, he thought, and ichor was gushing from its multiple wounds.

Was it close to death?

Chloe, no longer trapped between the monster and the cliff, sprinted over to Miguel’s side, now pulling out the katana. “Time to move,” she said, passing behind his back.

Miguel turned and began to run towards the cliffs. But as he did, he realized that Chloe had gone in the other direction, and was sprinting around in an arc so that she could approach the horrific beast from the other side, with more open space behind her. He hesitated, looking on as she leapt up and slashed at its face with the sword, and then hurriedly backed off.

The giant centipede screeched and writhed upwards again. The spear could now be seen, still embedded into its underside.

“Hit it again – the eyes this time,” Chloe called out, panting from her exertion, and as she did so she sheathed the sword and reached up and clutched at the spear handle, trying to pull it clear from the beast’s blubbery form.

Miguel hesitated.

He had lost count – how many bolts did he have left?

He could see three green glowing eyes, but they were towards the top of the beast and he was too close to get a good line of sight.

Cursing, he began to step backwards from the beast, knowing that doing so put himself squarely in its line of sight, and directly in front of it in the direction that it had shown itself to move most easily and quickly.

Chloe, he saw, had now successfully pulled her spear clear from the centipede’s body. She stood back with it at the ready, just a few paces away from the monster’s flank. If it veered to its left or tried to twist and roll over then she could be crushed underneath it, spear or no spear.

He had to act quickly.

Miguel turned and sped away, then slid to a halt and turned towards the monster again, raising the crossbow to aim at its hideous face, heart thumping. He pulled the trigger before he’d really stopped moving, and the bolt arced towards the giant centipede’s yawning purple mouth... and disappeared inside it. It writhed again, but did not appear to have been seriously wounded by his shot.

Damn.

He prepared to fire again. This time he set himself properly, right foot back, crossbow clutched closely in both hands, arm muscles firmly tensed. Steady. His own eyes focused on its.

The monster began to move towards him once again, slow at first but speeding up. Its green glowing eyes seemed to stare right back at him.

Thud, thud, thud.

Three more bolts flew out, and two of them hit their target, impacting deeply into the glowing green eyes; these immediately dulled, transforming to grey, lifeless wounds.

Ichor started flowing from each of the wounds, and the beast stiffened for a moment, slowing, stopping, and then flopped down entirely. It began to partially collapse in on itself, losing its structure, all energy and life force gone.

It was dead.

Notification: You have gained 350 XP

In the heat of the moment, Miguel hadn’t stopped to reflect on the fact that he hadn’t received any XP for his hits on the creature.

Now it appeared this could be because they had still been mid-combat. So, three hundred and fifty. That certainly sounded good, especially compared to the small number that he had gained so far – even if he still didn’t yet know what the points were actually worth.

Miguel gazed at the dead creature for a moment before straightening up, turning and beginning to hurry back over towards the main open area where Chloe was still standing, now holding her spear once again.

“Fine shooting, ally,” she said. “Miguel.”

“Now, let's go to the cliffs, now, then, shall we?” he asked, not acknowledging the compliment.

As he spoke he glanced over towards the pit at the center of the arena. He could see another of the centipede-like beasts moving in the distance, quite far off from where they were, and a third was lying limp not far from the pit itself, apparently also killed. “Wrong again, my friend,” said Chloe. “What’s up with you, man? You want to stand when we’re losing, and run away when everything’s going well.

He swallowed. “I dunno, it’s just... That all felt really close. We could easily have been killed.”

She shrugged, beginning to walk towards the center of the area. “Naturally,” she said, without looking back. “I’ll say it again – did you think this was going to be easy?”

Miguel glanced at Chloe as they walked in silence for a moment. There was something appealing about her despite her rude and cutting comments, and he found himself enjoying the sparring that they had engaged in so far.

Then again, he reminded himself, part of the reason he was even in a position to do this contest at all was thanks to the generosity of his old friend Bratislav.

He was here for one reason – to repay that debt– and he couldn't be seen to be enjoying himself. Certainly not forming bonds...

On the other hand, would Dana Kampion care? Was she even watching?

Probably not.

But he had to bear in mind that Bratislav had stuck his neck out to keep Miguel alive. This was his one chance to get back the money that he had given away, and pay off Kampion's mob. His actions had already put his old friend in a difficult position... and the death threat to himself seemed all too serious.

He needed to focus. He tried to steel himself, ready for the battle ahead, and knowing that worse was likely still to come – whether from further monsters, or the other contenders themselves.