Chapter 8: Hunted

  “Human. You carry something I want. Give me the amulet, and I will let you live.”

  Alarmed, Raiden spun around trying to find his unseen enemy. He looked warily at all the windows of the buildings closest to him. They rose several stories into the air. He trained his rifle on them, looking for the threat.

  “Foolish human. Give me the amulet. I can crush your weak body as if it were nothing.”

  “What are you?” Raiden projected back in his mind.

  The voice answered, “What I am doesn’t matter. You have something that I want, and I will take it from you if I must.”

  Raiden put his hand over his breastplate where the amulet lay. The voice let out a cackling laugh.

  “Yes. That is what I seek. If you give me the amulet, I will let you live. And I will give you power. Access to power beyond your imagination. Power to crush your enemies. Power to take what you want.”

  As the voice spoke, Raiden could feel his mind begin to unravel as whatever it was tried to read his thoughts, to read his intentions, his desires. It felt his desire to prove himself, his desire to regain his family honor, his desire to get stronger. Raiden shut it out, and the mental probing stopped.

  “I can give you the power to get revenge on everyone who has put you down in the past, the power to become a king among men.”

  At this point, Raiden had had enough of whatever this creature was doing to him. He pushed the creature’s presence out of his mind and called out into the darkness.

  “You’ll never get this amulet, as you call it. It’s mine. Show yourself and fight me.”

  Raiden felt a wave of energy assault his mind once again. He struggled against it, but the voice managed to slip through just long enough for these words to resound in his mind.

  “You will pay for your insolence, human. You will pay for it with your life.”

  Then the voice went silent. Raiden continued scanning around, looking for whatever was projecting the voice. It was quiet, too quiet. He needed to draw the creature out somehow, and standing here in the middle of the street didn’t seem to be doing much, so he continued his journey onward into the city. He hoped that by staying in motion, whatever it was might slip up and reveal itself.

  Raiden continued on for a few more minutes until he finally came to a blockage in the road. One of the buildings had fallen over and was lying on its side. The mound of rubble was quite high. He chose to go around. Ducking into one of the alleys that led away from the main road, he stalked forward, listening intently in the stillness. The alley was fairly long. When he was about halfway through the alley, something seemed off to his senses, although he couldn’t tell what. He spun around, rifle raised at the ready to fire. The alley behind him was empty. He froze when a small stone hit the ground from above. In the deep silence of that deserted city, the sound echoed as if it were thunder in Raiden’s ears. He looked up. What he saw gave him chills.

  Poised to strike above him, between the walls of the alley, was a giant millipede far larger than any of the ones that he had previously fought. Its jaws were massive. It had no eyes, and hundreds of insectile legs stood stock still. The creature regarded him; it had to be dozens of feet long, and its torso was thick. Its eyeless head continued to stare at him, and they stood there as if it were a stalemate. When Raiden noticed the millipede coil up as if to strike, he unloaded the last dregs of his mana through the rifle, and a flurry of bullets flew at the creature. The bullets failed to penetrate the thick carapace of its body. A few of the legs that he struck fell off, but the millipede had hundreds more.

  Then the millipede took its turn to attack and struck down at Raiden. He dodged out of the way. The massive jaws slammed down onto the ground where Raiden had just been standing, causing stone shards to fly up into the air and a deluge of dust to billow out. Raiden took off running through the alleyway. The giant millipede shrieked in pure rage as it chased after him. As he made it out onto the next street, he kept running at a dead sprint, turning his head just long enough to see the monster exit the alleyway and come slithering after him. The millipede was not only massive but also fast. However, it wasn’t quite as fast as its smaller brethren. Raiden slowly pulled into the lead as more and more distance opened up between them.

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  Raiden wove in and out of the alleys between streets, trying to lose the giant millipede, but it was able to keep up. He was running as hard as he could. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep up this pace. For all he knew, the millipede had incredible endurance and could do this all day. He had to come up with a plan, and fast. As he was weaving through the streets, he saw a large boulevard. The street was much larger than any he had seen before, and ran up it. In the distance was a large building. It was a couple of hundred paces away, and he headed for it. The building was the biggest that he had seen down here so far. A series of stone columns rose up along the front of the building. He sped up a few dozen steps towards a large set of double doors that were held ajar.

  As soon as he entered the building, flickering amber lights came on. As he ran through the building along the main floor, he passed the entryway and was soon greeted by rows and rows of massive multilevel shelves that held numerous old books. At least they looked like books. Most of them had completely disintegrated. After making it a good way into the building, Raiden heard the giant millipede scuttling up the stairs out front, and he dove in between the rows of shelves to take cover. The lights in the space continued to flicker on and off. Raiden quickly put out the light on his shoulder so it wouldn’t give away his position. He slowed down his pace to a fast walk and tried to take slow, steady breaths.

  The millipede let out a deafening, angry shriek and began slithering through the chamber. The main area of this building was absolutely massive. Raiden soon found an alcove that must have been a receptionist’s desk. He ducked behind it and sat there waiting. From this position, he couldn’t see out, but that also meant that the millipede couldn’t see him tucked away behind the desk area either. The millipede approached. Its many feet clacked against the ground, and it snapped its jaws open and shut multiple times as it let out a series of hisses.

  A wave of energy assaulted Raiden’s mind once again, and he found the voice speaking words to his mind in broken phrases.

  “I will find you. Die, human.”

  Raiden pushed the voice out of his head once again. The millipede hissed angrily and started slithering in his direction along one of the rows. The millipede slowed down and slithered forward in a stalking, calculated manner. Its clacking feet came closer and closer to where he was hiding. He stopped breathing. His lungs burned from his earlier sprint; he desperately needed air, but he didn’t dare breathe. He heard the millipede passing the desk now. He expected those giant jaws to reach over and bite down on him viciously. The clacking feet continued on, however, and soon the millipede was past him.

  Raiden let out a slow, steady breath. He was about to head back the way that he had come, out the main doors at the front of the building, when the millipede turned and headed back towards the center of the building to the main walkway. If he went back that way, there was a good chance it would spot him as he tried to sneak out. Raiden looked around. There was a stairwell a few dozen steps back that went into the wall and further into the building. He carefully stepped out of the alcove and headed over to the stairs, where he quietly made his way up.

  Once he was on the second level, the lights of the building flickered off for a dozen seconds. He didn’t move. He didn’t dare turn on his light yet, so he just stood there waiting. When the lights came back on, he continued moving. His mana was completely spent at this point, and so he slung his rifle over his back. He drew his blade. There were lots of rooms in the library, and Raiden wandered his way through them. There were desks, chairs, and all manner of furniture strewn about the space, and it was a bit of a hazard to walk through. He carefully picked his way through the mess.

  As he was walking, he continued to cast his gaze about, looking for the millipede and listening for its clicking footsteps. Every time the lights flickered off, he had to stay stock still, not wanting to trip over something. He approached a hallway and followed it. Ahead was a large circular chamber. At the center of the circular chamber was a spiral staircase that led downwards. He was about to step forward and take it when the lights flickered out once again. He expected them to come back on in a few moments, like they normally did, but the lights stayed off.

  Raiden’s skin crawled as he stood there, imagining the millipede sneaking up on him in the dark, with him being completely unaware until the last moment when it clamped down on him. He stood still for a full thirty seconds in the darkness. The lights finally came back on, and he glanced around. The tension lifted from his shoulders when he saw the coast was clear. He continued picking his way through the debris when the lights went off again. He considered turning on his mana light again, as the millipede didn’t have any eyes, but discarded that idea as he remembered the smaller millipedes had been attracted to the light.

  He stood there for another dozen seconds until the lights flickered back on, and he continued picking his way towards the spiral staircase. When he was about a dozen paces away or so, the lights suddenly cut out again. He misstepped and ended up kicking a piece of furniture. Whatever he had kicked was so frail that it came apart. A cacophony of noise filled the chamber. He dashed forward towards where he thought the stairs were, continuing to kick the debris out of the way, and flipped on his light. The millipede screeched in the distance. It would be on him any moment.

  He got to the spiral staircase and began racing down it. Soon, he heard the millipede closing in on the staircase. Raiden had a little bit of a lead, and when he got to the floor below. There was a door that led out of the building. He ran towards the door and made it out. The longest shriek of rage that he had heard so far echoed out from the staircase. Raiden kept running.