The sound of rejoicing can be heard under the light of the moon clearing the deserted site. Jiaolong's legs give in as he falls toward the soaked ground. Orga catches him on time, holding him by the shoulder.

  "Hang in there, kid." Orga slowly rests him on the ground.

  The young man looks in the direction of the crater. "Is it over?" His voice reflects the state of his body.

  Over.

  "You did more than we expected from you." Orga giggles.

  "I wouldn't wish that to be me." Roger approaches from the back with an air of nonchalance.

  "Don't put it all on me. You helped me a lot." Jiaolong's gaze turns to the ground. "I hope after this I can take a bath and have a good sleep." His voice becomes a whisper.

  "Huh?" Orga leans closer to hear.

  Jiaolong nervously shifts his head. "Ahhh… I was just wondering if I could have a good sleep after this."

  Orga and Roger smile. "We couldn't have thought anything else," they say in unison.

  "Arghhh!!!"

  The sound comes from behind.

  "Are you alright?"

  Pirine gets close to Marcuse, who's holding his right arm. Blue fluorescent marks appear like veins, running along his whole arm.

  He grits his teeth, foam coming from the edge of his mouth. Veins contract on his head. The pain must be intense.

  Roger hurries to him. "His arm. Those blue needles did it to him."

  Marcuse's knees fall to the ground. "I can't hold it anymore. I think I'm dying."

  Roger tears the fabric of his right arm, bandaging Marcuse's arm at the level of the shoulder. The binding is tightened hard.

  "Why are you doing that?" Pirine asks.

  "We should treat it like poison." Roger's voice turns ashen, sweat dripping from his face, uneasy. "The thing is, we don't know the kind of poison used to produce an antidote."

  "Cut it!"

  The scream of Marcuse startles everyone.

  "Why? Melissa can heal you too, I'm sure." Pirine gets close, but she's pushed away.

  She falls on her rear. "I have just been trying to be helpful. You don't have to cut your arm. The pain can be attenuated." She nearly tears up.

  "I don't recall mermaids healing anything but external injuries." Orga's voice interrupts them. His face looks in the direction of Hirou on the ground. "And that guy, we know nothing about his spirit. Actually, it's surprising that he managed all of us while barely using it." His face turns ashen. "He was very scary." He releases Jiaolong from his support.

  He gets up, walking around. Everyone looks at him in confusion.

  "Hah." He stops in front of a rock. "This would do."

  Orga carries the rock to Marcuse. Pirine and Roger part ways to leave him space. Orga stands now in front of Marcuse, carrying a rock in his two hands. One edge of the rock is sharpened.

  "Are you sure you want to go through this?" Orga tries to confirm. "There are no appropriate tools. Your dream to be a soldier will vanish, if that was your dream."

  "Do it." Marcuse's voice carries buried pain.

  "It must really hurt, and it's spreading."

  The lines start to go beyond the binding made by Roger.

  "I can tell you, I prefer death to enduring such pain. My goal as a soldier comes to an end. I'd rather die or leave a hand behind. I prefer the first option." He looks up at Orga. "Won't you agree?" He gasps. "I can still be a mercenary, go on adventures. There's still hope for the bit of fighting spirit I have left, so please cut that arm already."

  "If you say so, I will comply." Orga raises the rock high, covering the moon. "This would be ugly."

  The rock smashes on the ground. The arm is not severed. Orga has to do multiple attempts before succeeding. The screams of Marcuse are loud after each attempt, but they must feel shallow compared to the actual pain caused by the arm itself.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The arm is severed. Roger rushes to stop the bleeding. Jiaolong and Pirine avert their gazes from the scene.

  "You didn't have to do that." Pirine sobs.

  "That's what a man decided for himself. We should respect his wish. We're not in his shoes to know how much he hurts."

  The pressure in the area increases. Jiaolong turns his head toward Hirou's body. Two blue needles are aimed at him.

  His body is too tired to react.

  A shock. Orga pushes him to the side.

  Crash!

  The two needles carry him in the air. An armor gradually forms around them. Something serpentine. No, a pair of legs under each layer of armor. A giant centipede, the hunter of the desert. Its transparent orange form shakes the body of Orga high in the air before letting it fall.

  His body splatters on the floor, his soul seeming to have left him. Everyone watches in horror at the body of Orga on the ground and Hirou standing up.

  His upper clothes are shattered, but he shows a big smile. Spreading his arms in embrace. "I'm surprised yet again. Someone survived long enough to the poison of my needles, or should I say the fangs of my centipede?"

  Everyone is just so scared to say something. Their faces look surprised, like they're seeing a ghost.

  "Oh…" Hirou looks at his stomach, around where Jiaolong touched him, then gives them back their looks. "I simply manifested my spirit in the last second. The armor protected me from taking the damage."

  As he says that, there's a crack on the armor of the centipede.

  "Now then, who should I kill first?"

  Jiaolong struggles to crawl on the ground. Hirou carries an evil grin before pursuing him in a steady walk, all while the centipede turns its attention toward Pirine, Marcuse, and Roger.

  The spirit moves.

  The centipede's segmented body ripples. Each armored plate shifts independently, creating a wave of motion that flows from head to tail. Its many legs, dozens of them, tap against the ground in synchronized rhythm. The sound is like rainfall on stone. The creature's head swivels toward the three of them.

  Pirine's breath catches in her throat. Her legs refuse to move.

  The centipede lunges.

  Roger grabs Marcuse by his remaining arm, dragging him backward. The centipede's mandibles snap at the space where Marcuse's head was a moment before. The sound is sharp, like breaking wood. Pirine finally breaks from her paralysis and turns to run.

  Her feet slip on the wet ground. She catches herself, stumbling forward, arms wind milling for balance. Behind her, the centipede's legs scrape across the stone. The sound gets closer. Faster. She can hear it.

  She runs.

  The rubble makes it difficult. Broken stones and collapsed walls force her to jump and weave. Her ankle twists on a loose rock. Pain shoots up her leg, but she doesn't stop.

  Can't stop.

  The clicking is right behind her.

  A leg strikes past her head, slamming into the wall beside her. The impact creates a hole in the stone. Dust explodes outward. She screams and changes direction, cutting left between two ruined buildings.

  The centipede follows. It doesn't need to go around obstacles. It flows over them, under them, through them. The armor plates scrape against stone as it pursues.

  Pirine's vision blurs at the edges. She can't keep running. Her body won't allow it. The exhaustion from earlier, the fear, the pain in her ankle. Her pace slows.

  The centipede closes the distance.

  A leg sweeps low, catching her ankle. She crashes face-first into the ground. Her chin splits open on impact. Blood fills her mouth. She tries to crawl, fingers clawing at the rocky ground, but another leg pins her back, pressing down between her shoulder blades.

  The weight is immense. Her ribs creak under the pressure. She can't breathe properly. Can't scream. Her mouth opens but only a wheeze comes out.

  More legs descend. They pin her arms. Her legs. Each one finds a different part of her body to immobilize. The sharp points of the legs dig into her flesh, not deep enough to pierce through but enough to hurt.

  The centipede's head appears in her peripheral vision. It moves slowly now. Its mandibles open and close, open and close, making that clicking sound right next to her ear.

  She closes her eyes shakenly….

  Roger has dragged Marcuse behind a collapsed wall. The one-armed man is pale, consciousness fading in and out. Blood still seeps from where his arm used to be despite Roger's attempts to staunch it.

  "Stay with me." Roger whispers, but he's not sure if Marcuse can hear him anymore.

  The clicking sound approaches their position.

  Roger's hand trembles. His aura charges awaiting the danger.

  The clicking stops.

  Silence.

  Roger freezes, barely breathing. The wall explodes inward.

  Stone and debris shower over them. Roger throws himself over Marcuse's body, shielding him from the worst of it. Something heavy lands on his back. Pain flares. He looks up.

  The centipede looms above them, its body coiled, ready to strike.

  Roger tries to move, but his body won't respond. The weight on his back pins him down. He realizes it's not debris. It's one of the centipede's legs, pressing down on his spine.

  The creature's mandibles spread wide. Behind them, Roger can see rows of smaller mouth parts, all moving independently.

  "No… I took too much time." The words barely escape before the centipede strikes.

  Its head darts forward. The mandibles close around Roger's torso, just below the ribs.

  Then the centipede lifts him.

  Roger's scream finally comes. The mandibles tighten. He can feel them sinking deeper, piercing through his clothes. The blue lines appear at the level of his torso

  Something tears. Roger looks down.

  His abdomen is open. The mandibles have torn through. He can see inside himself. The pink coils of his intestines are visible, glistening in the moonlight. They start to slide out, pulled by gravity and the centipede's movements.

  “Is this how I look?” His eyes fades.

  The creature drops him.

  Roger hits the ground on his side. His hands instinctively go to his stomach, trying to hold everything in, but there's too much blood. His fingers slip in the wetness. Everything is wet.

  Red.

  “I yon wan t die…” He tries to speak, but blood comes out instead of words. It bubbles from his mouth, warm and metallic. His vision darkens at the edges. The last thing he sees is the centipede moving away.

  Marcuse stares at Roger's body with unfocused eyes.

  The centipede returns to where Pirine lies pinned. Something in the crack shine, its body falls apart. A figure walks by the fading spirit ignoring Pirine on the ground.

  “You… weren’t you…” her forces leave her as she lays on the ground.

  As Hirou's hand is about to touch Jiaolong, it is kicked away.

  "I think you've done enough now."

  Jiaolong and Hirou are shocked.

  "You. Weren't you down? You came to me by yourself instead of running away."

  "Everest." Jiaolong says in a shy voice.

  "From here, leave it to me." Everest says as he marches toward Hirou.

  Now they're facing each other, Everest staring up and Hirou looking down at him.

  “I finished playing with your toy… now I will get rid of you.”