The pincers squeezed down on his belly from either side, failing to penetrate Pike’s nanoscale armor but crushing the breathe out of him nonetheless. Its belly shoved him into the dirt, pinning him.

Throwing all his weight to one side, Pike rolled, twisting the centipede onto its back. He saw the pale yellow-brown underbelly and grimaced, trying not to feel the dozens of tiny legs scrabbling at his back as he took aim between his legs, and fired.

The scorching shot scalded its underbelly into a rush of vaporized steam, leaving the ruptured ends to spurt out bile-thick blood as the pincers clamped around his belly squeezed down with a last, spasming burst of strength, then let go.

Pike rolled away feeling ten years older, holding back the urge to scream.

“Fuck!” Well, trying to hold it back. “Fuck fuck fuck.”

He charged out of that goddamn cursed field, feet barely touching the ground as he ran for the nearest outcropping of stone. Scrambling up, he felt so relieved to have hard, solid earth underfoot, to have no risk of slithy crawling things coming up from beneath, he nearly could have kissed that rock.

In the distance, Kadra was bent over laughing. Oh she’d gotten her revenge alright. But he was keeping the pistol. As long as there were big, horrifying bugs on this cursed-ass planet, the pistol stayed with him. Picking up a pebble, he threw it overhand at the little goblin, hitting the dirt a few feet wide.

“Fuuuuck…” He was going to have to walk back, too. He’d rather try dancing across a field of landmines, but that was how it was. There had to be a way to sense these kinds of things, somewhere in this world of magic and Talents, but he didn’t have access to any Essences at the moment.

Pike combed a hand through his hair.

With his jump-jets, he could maybe make it in three long bounds.

Or…

Orrrrr...

He had nothing. No ors, no ifs, not buts. He was going to have to nut up and face his fears, or he was going to have to become the lonely hermit of Shit-Out-Of-Luck Rock, living up here on a diet of rainwater and his own shoes.

And Kadra knew it. She was sitting back, her arms folded, a smug grin on her face.

That’s when the idea hit.

He couldn’t make this less awful for himself, but boy oh boy, could he share the misery around. Standing up, he leaped down from the rock and began to thump his foot against the dirt, making slow, steady stomps until the earth all around begin to heave with the movement of underground bodies.

Kadra was staring, ears twitching in confusion.

He shot her a cocky grin with a thumbs up, and funneling all the power he could into his boots, took a running start and jumped. Jump-jets flared and turned the clumsy, high-gravity leap into a long, skimming arc that sent him soaring just above the ground, his shadow blurring above the cracked white earth and scrubby yellow grasses.

He slammed down, both feet skidding, and jumped again before the momentum was gone. Again, a moonwalk-leap that would put athletes to shame carried him high as the centipedes burst up from the ground, searching for the source of the disturbances above, coming rushing after him-

Rushing right towards Kadra.

And who was running faster right now?

The girl with the short legs, or the seven-nine marine with the rockets strapped to his shoes?

Yeah. She got it. Her ears flattened down and she took her headstart running, going full tilt towards the ladder to her den.

She wasn’t going to make it. With a wild laugh, Pike bounced past, landing next to the ladder and nearly ending up on his ass as he tried screeching to a halt. He went down in a puff of kicked-up dirt and dust, scrambling to his feet in time to seize the ladder and begin to climb.

Kadra was flagging. Her ears bounced with every step, barely keeping ahead of the swarm of slithering, scuttling horrors. Their jaws were snapping open and shut, ready for some fresh goblin-meat.

He scowled, drew his pistol, and shot the heads of the front two. That bought her enough time to make the ladder, shoving up on his butt to hurry Pike along as he climbed, the two of them getting higher, and higher-

But the centipedes could climb too. One, bigger and thicker around then the rest, fought its way to the top and began to wrap its hundred-legged body around and around the ladder, surging higher behind them. Pike emptied two shots into its head and the decapitated body crashed backwards, dragging the swarm down with it.

Kadra was shouting for him to hurry up. With the bottom of the ladder completely buried under squirming, black-armored bodies, he hurried plenty. They both scrambled through into Kadra’s den, and he fired once more down the hatch, lighting up the swarm and putting a crater in the earth beneath them.

He was down to his last shot.

As the first centipede shoved its head through the hole in the floor, he slammed his boot directly between its jaws and gave the jump-jet full throttle. The burst of force splattered its head into a burst of thick, oozy blood, and flung him backwards into the far wall. Its body fell back through the gap.

The goblin rushed to the wall, lifting a crossbow dangling from a hook. She planted it against the ground and more-or-less elbow dropped the loading level, cranking back the string until the wings were bent and making a creaking music. Notching a bolt to the groove, she settled down on the floor, aiming for the top of the ladder.

Long seconds passed.

Nothing else came up.

Pike looked at Kadra. Kadra glared at Pike.

And after a few seconds, they were both laughing wildly, barely able to keep upright as they giggled. It had been all of horrifying and awful and fun.