Red looked down at the broken egg in front of him and then in the direction of the noises. An explanation for the centipedes' frenzied behavior quickly dawned on him, but the boy didn't have the time to think of a course of action. His hideout was compromised, and he needed to leave as quickly as possible.

 

Running up the sloping stone floor, Red had to abandon caution for speed. His left leg still hadn't completely recovered, but with the two acupoints he had opened, the youth felt he could push himself farther along every step. That being said, there was still an imbalance between his two legs; one was fairly stronger than the other. This made his pace feel a bit awkward, but it was nothing Red had the time to worry about for now.

 

As he made it to the end of the tunnel, the boy could hear the hissing horde was already gaining on him. His plan right now was to get as far away from this area and find another hiding spot before the centipedes caught up. Red had to keep an eye out for that smaller insect too, lest his position be revealed once more.

 

The sneaky beast was most likely the culprit for all of this. It had stolen one of the centipedes' eggs and had sent the monsters into a frenzy. Looking back, the little hideout the youth found before was most likely where it resided. It brought its prey there, including eggs, and lived unnoticed by the bigger predators of the cave. It would explain why Red had found all those cracked shells and why the insect had tried to excavate at that exact spot.

 

This conclusion brought the boy to believe that the creature was extremely sneaky. Even now when the centipedes had come out in mass to hunt it down, the insect had managed to stay unnoticed and arrive safely back at its nest. Of course, that was when it found out its home had been invaded by a human. Red wouldn't have reacted well in the monster's place either, but now all its troubles had fallen on his lap.

 

While the smaller beast was quite adept in sneaking around, though, the youth wasn't nearly as confident in his own abilities. Dashing through the tunnel, Red had already put quite a distance between himself and his hideout, but he didn't stop running. Behind him, the hissing noises of the centipedes intensified even further.

 

'They found it.'

 

It was the conclusion the boy came to when he heard their shrieking. They must have discovered the cracked egg, and now they were even angrier. This was evidence enough by the fact their roaring started to get closer to him very quickly. They might not even have been hunting for Red specifically, but in their rage, they would kill anything that came across their way.

 

Retracing his steps through the tunnel, the boy continued to move along the path he had memorized from the map. Soon enough, the youth came to an intersection in the passage and promptly took the side tunnel. He didn't know how well the centipedes could track him, but Red was going to do everything to throw their trail off.

 

A few moments later and the youth was still able to hear their noises approaching him. He wasn't capable of telling by their sounds if any of them had been thrown off and went to search the wrong passage. However, as long as the number of monsters on his trail was higher than one, then the risks of death for the boy remained the same.

 

The group of beasts started to get closer and closer, and the youth had to take a few more turns into unfamiliar paths to avoid getting caught. While some of the noise decreased, possibly thrown off by his maneuver, a substantial number of them remained in pursuit. By now his breathing was getting heavier from all the running.

 

It wouldn't take long before they caught up.

 

Turning around another corner, Red finally came upon a large damp chamber. The floor was very wet here and rock growths littered the room. The boy looked around and found a large gathering of stalagmites growing in the edges of the clearing. Without hesitation, he dove into their midst and tried to position himself out of view of the centipedes.

 

It took a few moments for the tide of monsters to arrive. They spread over the entire chamber, their hundreds of legs cluttering against the stone floor. Red didn't dare to stick his head out to get a good look at their numbers.

 

The boy heard something approaching his position. The long silhouette of a centipede suddenly rushed around the ceiling, climbing over stalactites while its antennae waved in the air, searching for the smell of its prey. Red laid on his belly close to the ground and held his breath. What felt like an eternity passed, as the boy watched the beast weave through the rock spikes.

 

Thankfully, though, the monster didn't stay still for long. Just as quickly as it had arrived, it ran off to join the rest of its siblings who were already leaving for the next tunnel.

 

Their frenzy had played once more to Red's advantage, as the creatures weren't too keen on doing a thorough search of everything in their way. Right as the boy was about to relax though, he felt something touch his foot.

 

He froze and his breath got caught in his throat. Looking over his shoulder, Red saw an antenna brushing against his feet from around a rock pillar. Promptly the rest of the centipede's head appeared into view and it also stood in place, processing the smell it had just caught. The boy watched the monster arch its body back, realization hitting both of them at the same time.

 

Red's cleaver swung around and slashed the side of the creature's face, cutting its eyes. From his awkward position, though, the boy wasn't able to get a strong hit in. The centipede arched back in pain and escaped outside of his reach. He tried to rush forward to finish it off, but it was too late.

 

HIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

A chain reaction immediately followed and soon all the centipedes were hissing as if there was no tomorrow. Red felt his blood run cold, but adrenaline guided his actions. Before the monster in front of him could even hit back, the boy had already taken off. Weaving through the stalagmites, he ran towards one of the chamber's exits.

 

However, something lunged at him from above before he could make it out. Red stumbled over his feet and managed to duck down just in time. The centipede's mandibles crashed into the stone, missing the boy by a meter.

 

Climbing to his feet, the youth continued to run without looking back. At this point, he could see the shapes of the centipedes rushing in his direction. There were at least five of them, but Red noticed more joining into the fray.

 

Death was quickly approaching him.

 

As he tried to make it to the exit, another centipede lunged at him. Red gathered strength into his left leg's acupoints and pushed off his foot.

 

The monster bit empty air and before it could even react the boy was already past it.

 

The benefits of having opened his upper leg vein were evident, but Red had no time to be pleased with himself. Managing to get ahead of his pursuers, the boy entered another tunnel and pushed his left leg even further to immediately put some distance.

 

The centipedes kept on chasing him but the youth had bought himself some precious moments. Now he had time to think.

 

'How do I escape this alive?'

 

Red discarded the idea of fighting against the centipedes immediately - he simply couldn't kill all of them. Eliminating that only left him with one option, which was to lose the monsters. It was, however, more easily said than done. Pushing his left leg was a provisory solution. It would buy him time but he doubted the creatures were going to tire before him. Not to mention, his leg was still wounded and Red was afraid of it giving out under him if he pushed the limb too far.

 

Hiding? It was the best solution, but it wasn't simple either. The centipedes probably had his smell by now and finding a good hiding spot on the run wasn't easy. Viran had been very detailed with drawing the map up until this section, but he couldn't depict every nook and cranny of this massive cave system on a piece of paper. The man had only marked the major tunnels and chambers he could find, as well as some landmarks to locate himself in this maze.

 

'Landmarks... That chamber!'

 

Red had an idea.

 

However, at that moment the boy heard something approaching him from the side. Without hesitation, he rolled forward, avoiding the mandibles of a centipede which had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

 

He looked back and saw that even more of the creatures were pouring out from another passage. It seemed the calls of their siblings had attracted the rest of them directly to the boy. Red didn't have the time to count how many were now on his trail.

 

Gathering strength in his left leg again, Red shot off awkwardly while mostly relying on one foot. The distance between them increased once more, yet the boy felt something wet pouring over his left thigh. He didn't need to look down to know that his wound had opened up again.

 

It was a minor risk to take when his life was on the line.

 

Ahead of him, Red saw that the tunnel split off into two paths. There was some hesitation in his eyes, but it lasted for only a second. The boy rushed into the left passage as fast as he could, the group of centipedes furiously chasing in pursuit.

 

By this point, their shrieking must have alerted the whole monster population of the area, which was exactly what Red wanted. The boy started to feel tired, and the incessant tide of centipedes continued to gain ground on him.

 

Right as the youth was considering whether or not he had made a wise choice, he heard something ahead of him. It emitted almost no noise compared to the centipedes, but Red could sense its heavy steps quickly approaching his position.

 

An enormous scorpion suddenly appeared on the other end of the tunnel occupying most of the passage, and it was charging with impressive speed in the slave's direction.

 

They were on a collision course.

 

Instead of slowing down, though, the boy once more gathered strength in his wounded leg. His eyes narrowed, his heartbeat quickened, and his whole body tensed ready to explode in movement.

 

Right now, the next move would decide between his life or death, and Red couldn't afford to make a mistake.

 

When the boy entered within the monster's range, the scorpion's tail shot towards him like lightning. At the same time, Red dove forward with all of his strength gathered in his upper leg vein, ducking under the blow.

 

RIP

 

Something seemed to tear as the scorpion's tail scraped against his back. Red didn't know what the creature had hit, but all he could think about at that moment was the fact that he still wasn't dead. His strong momentum carried him crashing into the ground and sliding right beneath the monster's abdomen.

 

The giant insect seemed confused for a second, but it didn't have the time to search for where its prey had disappeared.

 

The many-legged group of beasts didn't stop upon the sight of the new arrival. In their frenzy, they had no fear about the danger in front of them. Intent on killing anything they came across, the monsters' rage was all focused on the huge scorpion that seemingly tried to block their path.

 

The eight-legged beast didn't seem afraid either. It charged ahead, having found much more worthwhile prey to care about than the small boy that had slipped by.

 

With the opportunity presenting itself, Red got up and continued running. The boy started to hear the familiar sound of shattering exoskeleton and splattering insect blood from behind him, but he didn't look back.

 

He kept running.

 

...

 

The youth continued moving to the point of exhaustion. Only a few minutes later, when he couldn't hear the sounds of combat and hissing, did Red decide to stop.

 

Collapsing in a heap against the cave wall, the boy tried to catch his breath. His bare feet burned and bled from scraping against the rock floor. Checking over his left leg, Red also noticed that the cut had started to ooze again.

 

It wasn't as intense as before, but it needed to be addressed or else the youth could pass out from blood loss. Pulling the sack around his back, Red suddenly felt the object seemed way lighter than before.

 

He paused.

 

Looking over the piece of cloth, a huge hole had been torn into the bag.

 

Food, medicine, bandages - all gone.

 

It was completely empty.