Twigs and dried leaves snapped and crumbled underneath Yuna’s feet as she raced back to where her squad was waiting. Shouts and call outs crackled out from her communicator as her squadmates fought against something. Yuna didn’t know what it was, all she could hear were unnatural screeches that clawed at her skin.

When she broke into the small clearing her squad had stayed in, her feet grinded to a halt. The monster was nowhere to be seen. But the signs of its presence were everywhere. Her squadmates scattered around, their weapons drawn, and their eyes in various states of panic and worry. The ground had been disturbed as well. And from the scrapes and gouges, it wasn’t by a person.

Her eyes met with Carol who had her hand raised in a stop signal. Her other hand was at her lips. Yuna blinked and gave her a small nod. She had thought that it was oddly quiet, but it must have been at Carol’s instruction.

‘Trying to find where that monster is,’ Yuna thought. ‘It must be near. But why can’t I feel it?’

Not seeing the monster could be explained by some sort of camouflage. Yuna had fought a few herself and found them quite annoying. But being able to detect that malicious mana that monsters radiated always made them simple to detect. It was what Yuna relied on. 

And now that was gone.

She closed her eyes. They would do nothing to help her. Instead, she focused on the sounds around her. The heavy breaths of her squadmates. The rustle of the tree leaves. The distant chirping of songbirds. Her own pounding heart.

Then she found it. A soft scraping sound, like sandpaper against wood. It was faint, but it was there. It stopped, and Yuna held her breath, waiting for it to come again. The next sound was a crunch. The crunch a dried leaf would make when crushed. Then another scrape. 

Behind her.

Yuna stifled a gasp and willed herself to not move. Whatever that monster was, she did not want to attract its attention. Her eyes crept towards where Carol was. She too was stock-still, her eyes barely blinking. Their gazes met, and Yuna gently tilted her head behind her. Carol gave her a slow blink.

The sound again. This time just the tiny bit louder. The monster was approaching, slowly, as it stalked its prey. Yuna could only hope that she was the one in its sights. 

Right now, there was nothing anyone could do. Until that monster revealed itself, there was no way of finding it before it would notice that its position was discovered. There was no way of fighting it unless its position had been found. And this thing was only going to give its position once it had set its gazes on a target.

‘Maybe it’ll just go away,’ Yuna thought. ‘That would be nice.’

Seconds slowly drained away as the monster remained hidden. Every now and then, she could hear it again, its position changing every time. The sounds could only be heard for a split second before the thing disappeared again.

Then there was no sound. The forest fell completely silent. The birds quieted their chirps, the wind died, and the leaves stopped. All that remained was Yuna’s heart, beating and beating. 

Her neck tingled. It felt as if someone’s gaze had just passed over her. Her back tensed up and felt the urge to fly away, as if she could grow wings and disappear into the air to safety. 

Danger.

A hiss rang out from behind Yuna, and she threw herself to the ground on instinct. Something flew over her and crashed into a squadmate that stood a few feet away who let out a muffled scream.

Yuna’s head went up and saw the monster. She didn’t know what it was. It was like a giant centipede, stretching a yard wide and many yards long. A hundred razor sharp feet twitched underneath the monster, stabbing the ground and the person it held in its grasp. The carapace of the creature was shiny yet rough, coming to sharp edges at the end of each section. 

Then the monster turned, showing its face for the first time. Black beady eyes met her own, black mandibles stained crimson by fresh blood closed and opened. It let its target go, the body of the soldier falling to the ground, his head gone. The way the head had been severed reminded Yuna of that wild boar.

The centipede hissed, snapping Yuna out of her daze. This wasn’t the time to simply watch. She needed to fight. To defeat whatever this thing was.

She gripped her sword harder. Her eyes continued to stare at the shiny, black ovals of the monster. To strike first would put her at a disadvantage. She needed to wait until it moved before trying anything. 

A fireball flew in from the corner of her eye and smashed against the centipede. The centipede’s attention swiveled toward the source of the attack, its eyes leaving Yuna. 

“Go!” Carol roared, charging the monster.

The squad converged onto the giant centipede, weapons drawn. Yuna joined them, imbuing mana into her blade as she brought it down. It struck the carapace of the monster, before bouncing right off. Barely a scratch was made.

‘That’s bad,’ she thought, backing away.

That carapace was harder than anything Yuna had fought before. Simply wailing away at it with her blade was only going to damage her blade. 

‘Magic then?’ 

Another fireball flew towards the monster, striking its shell. It left it a tad shiny, but seemed to do nothing in terms of damage. Yuna looked at the monster’s face, the place where the first fireball had struck. There were small burns that could be seen. But as Yuna watched, they slowly disappeared.

‘Oh. That’s not good either.’

Yuna sighed. This monster was everything that one didn’t want to face. A monster that was resilient to both physical and magical attacks as well as had an increased healing ability. 

‘We’re going to need to nuke it with magic in order to bring it down,’ she thought, her lips a thin line. ‘I wish there was a river here. I could drown it. Other than that, I have nothing.’

“Mama!” a soldier called out. “This thing ain’t budging.”

“Keep at it,” Carol replied. “It’ll give. Just keep going. Stopping isn’t an option.”

“We have to nuke it,” Yuna said, rushing to stop a stray leg from stabbing a squad member. “This thing is just going to resist our attacks with its shell.”

“Nuke it?” Carol grunted as she tried to stab her blade between the pieces of the centipedes carapace. “Bomber? You hear that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” a man replied. “Give me a few seconds, so distract that fucker. When I say the word, everyone get the fuck back.”

“You got it,” a various amount of voices replied back. 

Yuna went around, defending her fellow squadmates from the monster as best as she could. But she was just one person. Soldiers were flung everywhere, slamming against trees or just flying through the air. Others were slashed or stabbed by the monster. 

“Ah fuck, the bug got Bard!” a woman shouted out. Yuna’s eyes flicked to the woman’s location and found the centipede with its jaws clasped around the body of a man. 

The man screamed, but Yuna could only watch as the centipede tightened its hold, snapping the man’s spine until he screamed no more. Then the centipede proceeded to eat the man, the sight so horrifying, yet Yuna couldn’t rip her eyes away.

What was left of the man fell to the ground and the centipede shuddered. Its shell glowed, and every blemish on it disappeared. It hissed again, snapping its jaws in delight as it turned back to the little insect that were attacking it without any avail. 

‘It replenished,’ Yuna realised. ‘Oh my god.’

“Get the fuck back!” Bomber yelled out, piercing through Yuna’s thoughts. 

She threw herself to the side at those words, rocks and twigs scraping at her skin. Around her, people did the same as a large mass of heat fell down from the sky. An explosion rocked the area, blowing Yuna back as she slammed into a tree trunk, her eyes blinded and her ears ringing.

When the dust and light in her eyes cleared, she stared at the center of the explosion where the centipede was. She watched it carefully, hope cautiously bubbling up within her. But that soon curdled into despair. A groan escaped her as the shadow of the monster came into view. It still lived.

The wind blew away the dust kicked up by the explosion, revealing the monster in all of its horrible glory. Its carapace was burned, its movements were slower, but it was still alive.

Yuna struggled to her feet, pushing herself up with her sword. The fight wasn’t over. She needed to push the advantage while they had it.

‘Come on,’ she thought, willing herself to step forward. ‘You can do this.’

But her body protested. A single step pained her, hot waves pulsating out from her ribs. She must have cracked a few when she hit the tree. 

The centipede whirled its attention to her. Its burns were slowly disappearing. Yuna straightened her back, gritting her teeth, as she raised her sword. The longer she waited, the smaller her advantage grew. 

She stepped forward, pushing down the urge to collapse. The monster’s eyes met with hers, and, for the first time, she felt its hideous mana. It was leaking out from its damaged carapace. She needed to remove this monster from the world. Or it would kill more and more, getting stronger and stronger.

“Come at me,” she growled, tightening the grip on her blade. The monster hissed back, winding up. “That’s right. Come get me.”

Around her, her teammates were gathering themselves, pushing themselves up. But they wouldn’t be able to help her if the monster attacked. 

Yuna glared at the monster. She had to defeat it. Right now, she was the only one that could. 

The monster screamed, and Yuna raised her blade to stop its inevitable attack. It rushed forward, jaws open, and Yuna glared back, clenching her arms to brace against its attack.

But it never reached her. 

A person flashed in front of her, black hair flowing behind her. A spear was clenched in the woman’s hands as she intercepted the attack. Yuna stepped back.

“Mind if we take this bug off your hands?” Erica asked, turning back with a glitter in her eyes that made Yuna’s heart speed up just a little.

“Erica?” Yuna gasped. Then that meant that the others were here as well. 

And as if to answer her thoughts, a shadow dropped down from the sky, striking the monster on its head. Another erupted from the ground, hitting under the monster’s head and sandwiching. It reared back, glaring at its new assailants. 

“We’ll take care of this,” Akira said, smiling at Yuna gently, the smile melting Yuna’s panic. “Stay right there. You look hurt.”

“Sorry for being late,” another voice said. That voice washed over her, clearing her mind, sharpening her senses. Yuna looked towards the source and found a woman standing there with silver hair and grey eyes. “You wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“Yuki,” Yuna breathed, falling to her knees. 

“I’m here,” she replied softly. “We’ll talk later. But first.”

The silver hair woman turned her attention to the bug, anger flickering across her brow. 

“Let’s take care of this bug.”