[Chapter 94. Slightly Bigger Than Expected]
Garu stretched his massive, four-ard fra to its full, intimidating height, his silhouette cast in jagged relief against the shimring walls of the chamber. Aruru moved in beside him with practiced silence, his hand white-knuckled on the hilt of his nodachi as they stepped deeper into the oppressive darkness. Searanox, Valdor, and Astera remained at the mouth of the tunnel entrance, their eyes probing the vast, echoing space for any sign of movent.
Searanox’s darkvision wasn't unique in this group; Narina’s head swiveled with bird-like twitchiness, her sharp, predatory gaze scanning every jagged corner and high-reaching wall of the enormous cavern.
"It's empty…" Searanox finally spoke, his voice sounding thin and hollow as it echoed back from the unnatural stillness of the room.
"No," Aruru’s deep, resonant voice rumbled from the center of the chamber. "It is not empty. I can feel its gaze on . It is heavy, like the weight of a mountain."
Tiny, crystalline flakes of dirt began to rain down on Garu’s wide, gray-green shoulders, but the Grak'thul didn't flinch. Narina suddenly tilted her head back, her pupils dilating as she fixed her gaze directly upward. Searanox followed her line of sight, and his blood ran cold. The ceiling wasn't just covered in pulsing purple veins. Those 'veins' were actually the articulated spaces between thick, armored body segnts.
This wasn't a huge centipede. It was colossal.
The creature’s nightmare-form sprawled across the entirety of the ceiling, easily twice the size of the variant Searanox was familiar with. Small, rhythmic plus of dust drifted down throughout the cavern like snow—the silent, dusty heralds of an approaching storm.
Searanox watched, paralyzed for a split second, as the creature slowly lowered its massive head from the ceiling deep inside the chamber. It touched down on the stone floor without a single vibration, landing with an impossible, oily grace for sothing of its gargantuan mass. He nudged Narina with his elbow, nodding deeper into the cavern where the shadows were thickest. Her yellow eyes widened in genuine shock. A mont later, the serene masks on Valdor’s and Astera’s faces shattered into identical expressions of alarm.
A sound like a thunderclap cracked through the cavern as Garu’s body was suddenly sent skidding backward, his large, three-toed feet digging deep trenches into the solid stone floor. He braced his four arms against a pair of massive, serrated pincers that had shot out from the darkness. Their sheer scale made the Grak'thul's hulking fra appear almost childlike in comparison.
"You said it was a huge centipede, Victor," Aruru’s voice cut through the air as he dashed to Garu’s side. "This… this is a god-killing monstrosity."
Searanox didn't hesitate. His tactical mind overrode his shock. "Fire support! Target the primary carapace cracks and the leg joints!"
As the command left his lips, two more drones materialized in a flurry of blue flashes, their drop-shaped forms hurtling into the chamber. Violet beams lanced out simultaneously, striking the creature's massive, obsidian body with a rhythmic hiss.
Narina’s beak opened to deliver a sharp retort, then snapped shut as she realized Searanox wasn't even looking at her. His commands were cold, precise, and ant for his chanical constructs alone.
The beams, elental arrows, and Valdor’s fireballs splashed against the centipede’s multi-layered carapace with seemingly negligible effect. Now fully exposed, the creature moved with terrifying, fluid speed. Its body descended from the ceiling in successive, rolling waves of armored chitin, its bulk consuming the cavern and filling nearly every available space with its nightmarish presence.
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The Depths Devourer filled the chamber now, a chitinous wall of countless, twitching legs that effectively blocked any view of Garu and Aruru. A sudden flash of brilliant golden light pierced the darkness between Searanox and the creature's shifting bulk. His gaze darted toward the source, catching sight of Astera kneeling on the stone floor, her pearlescent palms pressed flat against the cold ground.
The cavern shuddered as the centipede slamd its midsection down in a violent thrash. Through the thunderous impact, Aruru’s roar of pure, focused rage reached Searanox. The massive pincers opened again, and Garu was hurled across the chamber like a ragdoll, his towering form crashing into the far wall with a sickening crunch that made Searanox's own bones ache in phantom sympathy.
Steel rang against steel from sowhere deep within that ocean of shifting chitin. Aruru’s blades struck the beast again and again, their impacts swallowed by the creature’s imnse, void-buffed health pool. Fire erupted from Valdor’s staff, blooming into a miniature sun that filled half the cavern. Narina’s arrows flew true, their shafts disappearing into the narrow gaps between the armored segnts.
Suddenly, a roar of fury erupted from a fresh hole in the dirt wall. Garu launched himself from the debris, landing heavily on the centipede’s broad back. He ran along the arching body, his four arms finding purchase in the cracks of the armor, his shields acting as blunt-force hamrs.
Searanox's drones continued to pepper the creature’s exterior. Blackened spots began to appear on the carapace, and occasional spiderweb cracks began to spread across the segnts. After a grueling minute of attrition, the first massive wave of Astera's golden light washed over the entire chamber. It acted like a high-intensity flare, illuminating the centipede from the inside out and revealing the true, horrific scale of the Depths Devourer to them all.
A faint, nagging pressure began to build in the back of Searanox’s mind—the familiar, irritating sensation of damage reports trickling through his neural link. His drones were degrading. The loss of structural integrity was slow, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, but his HUD didn't lie. He focused his link on one of his offensive drones, then switched the feed to a defensive construct floating right before him.
Moving closer, he saw it: a faint, sickly-green sheen was beginning to coat the polished tallic surfaces, spreading across the alloy like a fast-acting biological disease.
"Aruru! Garu! Check your gear imdiately!" Searanox’s voice bood across the chamber, cutting through the chaotic cacophony of the boss fight. "Corrosion! Look for a green sheen! The air itself is eating your armor!"
His words seed to vanish into the din. No verbal answer ca—only the relentless sound of steel eting chitin and the ear-piercing shriek of the Devourer. It was a long shot; who had the luxury to inspect their gear while wrestling a mountain of legs?
The battle raged on. Violet beams from his drones stitched intricate patterns across the centipede’s flank. Astera’s golden light continued to wash over the room, its healing touch a stark, divine contrast to the surrounding destruction. Through the gaps in the creature’s massive body, Searanox caught frantic glimpses of the frontline—Aruru’s blades dancing against armored joints, the steady, rhythmic ping of steel against chitin.
Minutes crawled by before Narina’s voice finally cut through the noise, sounding uncharacteristically tight with strain. "Yes! There’s corrosion! It's eating through the enchantnts!"
There was no other logical explanation. He checked his drones again. It had worsened significantly; the drone directly in front of him now showed clear pits in its casing. The green spots were no longer inconspicuous; they were eating through the primary chassis.
"Astera," Searanox said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous register. "How effective is your team’s fighting capability once their gear—their tal, their catalysts—dissolves into dust?"
Astera’s rhythmic chanting paused for a heartbeat, her gaze fixed on the swirling, violet-and-gold lee. "Our core skills are inherent, Victor," she said, her voice remaining eerily calm despite the turmoil. "But our gear amplifies our output by an order of magnitude. Without it… the tactical odds shift. Dramatically."
He watched as another wave of golden light washed over the battle, briefly revealing the centipede’s underbelly. A sudden cloud of blue sparks drifted before his eyes as his two remaining defensive drones were dismissed.
"Then I strongly advise you to stop holding back..."
Searanox’s tone shifted. The friendly, helpful "Victor" persona he had adopted for the Order vanished. His voice returned to its natural state—cold, uncaring, and calculated.
The Magitech Rifle materialized in his grip with a heavy, tallic clatter. Six more Offensive Drones shimred into existence beside him, their fresh tallic bodies gleaming with a lethal, pristine light in the chamber’s eerie gloom.
"I’m ending this now," he muttered, his finger tightening on the trigger.
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