In another corner of the room, blood-curdling screams were also echoing. Taking a quick look, Red could see another one of those creatures by the pond with another slave grasped in its mandibles. He didn't have the time to worry for others though, since the first centipede-beast dropped from the ceiling just a few meters ahead of him, wrapping itself around its victim as the man's screams eventually died down. Under better illumination, Red could finally witness the full appearance of the monster.

From head to toe, he guessed it was about 5 meters long and had the width of a human torso. Its segmented legs wriggled around as it wrapped itself around the body of the slave, not releasing its mandibles' grip until it was finally certain the man had died. The boy was not certain, but he swore he could see a smaller set of mandibles covered by the bigger ones that had started biting through the slave's shoulder.

At that point, the people around the room started panicking, some of the braver ones around him lifting their weapons in the monsters' direction, while others already had thoughts of running away. It seemed that as much as they were used to hunting down these things, being instead hunted themselves came as quite a surprise.

"Stop fucking screaming!" Viran's voice drowned all the other panicked shouting, snapping the slaves out of their panic. "Tie the ropes around them and stab them where you can!" Red turned his head to stare at their leader, noticing the man himself was facing another two of the giant centipedes, which hissed menacingly in the man's direction as 6 other slaves, Gruff being one of them, stood behind him ready to help the man but not courageous enough to step forward.

It was quite clear that Viran was too occupied himself to come to the aid of the other slaves, as they separated into three groups, one by the bait near the center of the room facing the two centipedes, a larger one by the pond facing another one, and then another one by the side of the room facing yet another monster, composed of Red and one other slave that was nearby, not including the recently deceased one.

Perhaps it was only now that the boy truly realized the kind of situation he had found himself in as he sized up the horrendous creature in front of him. He hesitated for a few seconds, staring unblinkingly at the centipede. Red felt a sense of dread rise over his body, but he didn't let panic take over his mind, his face remaining as impassive as always. Ignoring the sounds of clashing weapons and screams coming from around them, the centipede seemed content on feasting upon its victim. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Red's feet slowly slid backward, trying not to draw the attention of the monster as he sought to regroup with the rest of the slaves.

Too bad the other slave behind him didn't think to do the same, running in a panic towards Viran's group. It was at that point the monster stopped its feeding, lifting its head towards Red's direction. He could almost swear that he saw its small pupilless eyes staring at his own, thinking him to be the source of the hurried steps. He froze, but the centipede had no such hesitation. With a loud hiss, the creature unwrapped itself from its food and slithered with an impressive speed in his direction.

Red could only run away, as he heard the rapidly approaching sound of the beast's multiple legs. It took him but a second to arrive at the conclusion that he wouldn't be able to outrun the nightmarishly fast creature and reunite with the rest of the slaves. As he looked back, he saw the monster arch its upper body as it lunged in his direction. In a desperate reaction, the boy threw his entire body to the side, feeling the wind blow against his back as he barely managed to avoid the mandibles of the beast. Rolling a few times on the floor, Red felt his body bruise against hard rock, but he didn't even have the time to register the pain.

Another hiss came from behind him. The centipede was apparently quite mad that its prey managed to escape it, but it didn't give up the pursuit. Red hurriedly got up to his feet and started running again, taking a split moment to localize himself in the cave's clearing. The monster had unintentionally put himself between the boy and the rest of the group, cutting off his only route towards a safe retreat. He thought he could perhaps hide, but he was quite a ways away from the connecting tunnels and the clearing itself didn't have any protruding rocks that he could use for cover.

Struggling for a decision, Red could already hear the centipede's feet quickly approaching, the possibility of death becoming clearer and clearer in his mind. As he looked for a way out though, his eyes quickly came upon the body of the slave the monster had previously been eating, and a plan formed in his mind. With a dive, Red managed to reach the body on the ground and pulled at its clothes with the kind of effort one could only muster in the face of death, putting the body over himself for cover. It was not a moment too soon that he did it either.

He felt a weight crash down on top of him, taking the air out of his body. Twisting his head under the tremendous weight, he could see the centipede's legs wriggling around, its pounce being thankfully stopped by his quick thinking. Gathering some much-needed courage, Red shifted his body up with some effort, looking over the shoulder of the corpse. The centipede had sunk its large mandibles deep into the man's torso again as it stood still, seemingly waiting for the life of its victim to disappear.

It took a few seconds for Red to notice what had happened. The centipede must have been thinking that it managed to bite the victim it had just been chasing, clearly unable to differentiate between one human prey to the other. Still, the situation for the boy wasn't that much better. If he tried to move from under the body, he was quite certain the centipede would just chase him again, and from this close distance, it was unlikely it would miss again. Not to mention, Red wasn't entirely sure he could escape from this position with the heavy weight piled on top of him.

He heard the sounds of chewing from his position, as after a few seconds the centipede started munching into its prey again. With little other option, Red fumbled around with his right hand, reaching into the side of his waist. He felt around his trouser, until, with some difficulty, he managed to get his grip around a wooden handle. The iron knife. Of course, the boy himself was not sure that trying to attack the centipede was the best course of action, but he would rather take his chances than wait down here for the monster to notice that there was another delicious prey hidden below the one he had just been eating. It was best to take his chances and then try to run afterward.

From his position, there was not much Red could reach with his relatively small child arms, not to mention he wasn't quite sure with his strength he would be able to pierce the sturdy-looking carapace of the centipede. Examining his options, his gaze wandered over the centipede's head, holding his breath in hopes it hadn't noticed his movements. Still, the creature seemed too occupied with its food to notice his squirming movements, perhaps confusing them with the last death throes of its prey.

Red saw what he thought was a single set of eyes earlier in the centipede, were actually multiple small sets of circular eyes clustered really closely together in each side of its head. An idea formed in his head. Thankfully for him, the creature had to put its head quite close to its food so its smaller set of inner jaws could tear and gorge on the food. This proved itself to be a perfect opportunity for him.

With a deep breath, Red focused on the movement of his arm, freeing it from under the corpse of the slave as he made sure he had enough room and strength to perform his next move. Just as the centipede noticed the weird moving limb right in front of his eyes, the boy stabbed down with all the strength he could muster. His aim was true. With an even louder hiss than Red had thought the monster capable of, it freed its mandibles from the corpse of the slave, arching up its whole upper body in pain. The iron knife had managed to lodge itself up to the hilt of where the centipede's eyes were once located.

Pushing the corpse off of him, Red freed himself once he saw the centipede had twisted around quite a few meters away from him. As he got up, he felt a sharp pain in his torso that threatened to almost pull him down to the ground again. He was quite certain the impact from earlier may have broken his ribs. Struggling for air, he turned around to start to run back towards the group of slaves, before a shadow came at an impressive speed out of the corner of his eyes.

The boy had barely enough time to avoid a direct collision, as he felt the strong carapace of the centipede strike a glancing blow against the side of his body. Even still, the blow had enough force to send him tumbling. All Red could think of at the moment was that if he didn't have a broken rib before, then surely he would have one now.

His vision was blurry from the pain, but the boy still struggled to get himself up and look at the centipede. It didn't seem like it was targeting him as it continued to thrash around the cave in pain. Red was just unlucky to have been caught in the way of its rage. Still, he could see that some sort of sense was coming back to the monster, as it started to look around for the one that had wounded it so. He didn't have enough time to get up and run back to his allies, not to mention he wasn't quite sure he could be as quick as before when he was struggling to even gather enough breath as it was. Running even 10 meters would be a struggle, not to mention in the condition he now was.

He had nowhere to hide or to escape to.

Red, however, was no stranger to pain or the pure threat of death. He had been hurt in these caves multiple times, either by other slaves or by accidents while exploring by himself, and yet he had lived to tell the tale to this day. Under the most dangerous situations, the boy had still been able to maintain a calm and analytical mind. He was still afraid of dying, perhaps even more than most people would think under his emotionless visage, but he had always been able to push past these emotions to act with the utmost serenity and logic. Or at least, as much of that as he could muster at the moment.

Running over the possibilities in his mind, Red knew that if he tried to run the centipede would quickly detect his movement and attack him, so that was obviously not a very smart idea. The only thing left for him was to hide. However, where could he do it? The body he had been using for cover had been thrown far away during the monster's rage and there were no other hiding places in his sight that he could use.

As he struggled more and more thinking of a way out, the centipede gave its back to him as it started calming down, and a plan quickly came to him. Struggling to move ahead, Red stealthily took step after step forward, but not towards his allies, but towards the centipede instead. Just as the beast was calming down and could finally hear his approach, Red burst into as fast of a movement as he could muster in his state.

The boy gripped the black-carapaced back of the monster wrapping his arms around it for support. Another deafening shriek echoed in the cave.