L-Little... Little Poison Bug?

The underground ravine was, in truth, a winding network of caves concealed beneath the valley floor — above it lay a lake half-choked with murky water, separated by a layer of rock, and below it ran an underground river.

Ah Li Man had strapped on her gear and was moving alone through the jagged caves. The illumination from her watch only reached so far, but fortunately she and Mo Fan had spent the past few days planting markers to make sure she could track her position relative to the surface above.

The task wasn't especially difficult — Ah Li Man and Zhang Xiaohou were both Military Mages, and beyond the bare essentials, they naturally carried positioning instruments.

"Ah Li Man, have you reached the designated position yet?" Mo Fan's voice crackled in her ear, partially muffled by static.

Ah Li Man adjusted her earpiece. "I'm underground now, but the signal's terrible — I can barely make out what you're saying."

"We're running short on time. The Lizard-Skull Giant Demons are almost done with their evening square dance." Mo Fan said.

Their plan had to be executed during the window when the Lizard-Skull Giant Demons went out en masse to bask in the setting sun. There wasn't time to go step by step — all three of them had to move simultaneously.

"Start the diversion. I should be there soon," Ah Li Man said. She had already spotted the second-to-last marker she and Mo Fan had placed, so another short stretch forward and she'd be in position.

"That's the only option. Remember — hit it with everything you've got!" Mo Fan reminded her.

"Sure," Ah Li Man said evenly. "Though I might end up blasting those two monsters down through the hole along with it."

"Didn't know you had a sense of humor."

The corners of Ah Li Man's pale-rose lips curved ever so slightly. In truth, if she used a high-tier spell, she really could blow open a hole in the lakebed large enough to swallow both monsters whole.

Up on the surface, Zhang Xiaohou had eaten who-knew-how-many foul-tasting fruits and was now holding position in the poisonous swamp, waiting for the signal.

He glanced at the sun, now nearly swallowed by the horizon, and fought down the anxiety rising in his chest, telling himself over and over: *Wake the poison bug, lead it to the designated spot, wait for Ah Li Man to blow open the rock layer, then escape through the vortex... This isn't complicated. It's not even dangerous.*

"Monkey, we're good to go... Hey, this military comm unit of yours is pretty impressive — works even out here in the wilderness." Mo Fan's voice drifted in through his earpiece.

"It runs on the Mage's own Magical Energy," Zhang Xiaohou explained. "We can suppress our magic's fluctuations, so it doesn't broadcast like ordinary comm devices do — no way for Demon-Beasts to lock onto it."

"Right, right. Time's up — go wake the little poison bug. I'll go rouse the Giant Lizard."

"Got it!"

Zhang Xiaohou gave a firm nod, resolve hardening in his eyes as he scanned the swamp for the murky pool where the water had turned a distinctly wrong color.

This pool was separated from the larger mud lake — the poison bug's personal Domain, where neither side encroached on the other's territory.

Having eaten the antidote fruit, Zhang Xiaohou had no reason to fear the toxins. He strolled over with casual confidence along the dry ground and unleashed Earth Wave, churning the muddy swamp until it heaved and rolled like breakers on the sea.

"Come on, come on — don't make me break out Intermediate-Level magic on you!" Zhang Xiaohou kept working the pool.

Where there was mud in the water — and with mud, Zhang Xiaohou could make it churn violently — the previously still pool erupted like a boiling pot, flinging muddy water in all directions.

Mo Fan had told him the creature had a vicious temper: disturb its rest and it would chase the intruder to the ends of the earth. Zhang Xiaohou still didn't understand how Mo Fan knew that, but he took it on faith.

Still...

**Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!!!!**

Finally, a reaction. Zhang Xiaohou watched — excitement and alarm warring on his face — as the mud ahead began churning on its own, waves of sludge surging forty or fifty meters into the air. It was, he had to admit, a spectacular sight.

The pool heaved and roiled like a vat of boiling black water, muck splattering outward before crashing down like a heavy rainstorm on the flat ground where Zhang Xiaohou stood.

From the churning depths, a long, elongated body burst into view. At first glance it gave the impression of a massive python launching itself from the water — but along the sides of that enormous body were pairs upon pairs of enormous legs.

One pair of those legs came crashing down onto flat ground nearby. A dead tree stood there, over thirty meters tall — and that leg reached exactly as high as the tree's crown.

One pair, two pairs, three pairs... seven pairs...

Half its body was still submerged in the pool, yet the legs already visible numbered fourteen.

**"SCREEEEEEEE——!!!!!!"**

From the depths emerged a grotesque head — soft, chitinous, bearing massive mandibles. It threw open its cavernous maw and unleashed a furious, earth-shaking shriek at the tiny figure standing on the bank.

The shriek came riding a surge of black wind from the abyss. A gust of mud-laden air slammed into Zhang Xiaohou's face. He stood rooted to the spot, staring at the sight before him in absolute stupefaction.

"L-little... little poison bug??"

In that moment, an entire stampede of unprintable things thundered through Zhang Xiaohou's mind.

*Where the hell was anything "little" about this thing?! At his size, he probably wasn't even as long as one of its leg hairs!!*

A centipede. A giant swamp centipede.

The centipedes you saw in everyday life — one finger's length was practically an achievement for them. But this one? A human being wouldn't even make a satisfying snack stuck between its teeth.

"Bro... Brother Fan... I w-woke it up... I woke it up." Zhang Xiaohou's mind had gone blank. His voice trembled as he radioed Mo Fan.

"Then run, you idiot!"

Zhang Xiaohou had been on the verge of abandoning the whole plan, but he reminded himself that Brother Fan would never send him to his death — and with that thought, he forced the terror back down.

Wind Track!

Earth Wave!

He activated both speed skills simultaneously and became a blur — a frantic little mouse sprinting along the swamp's edge.

Thank god he'd kept a decent distance from the "little" centipede — ah, scratch that, from this ancient thousand-year centipede — because just the sheer concussive force of its emergence could have flattened him outright.

Cursing the entire animal kingdom, Zhang Xiaohou ran — and he ran fast, faster than most Intermediate-Level Mages. He knew how to chain Wind Track steps in overlapping sequence, and how to use Earth Wave in the gaps between tracks to keep his momentum from dropping, maintaining a constant acceleration that bordered on lightning speed.

The problem was — two legs, however fast, couldn't outrun a swamp centipede whose *lower half* alone had fourteen enormous legs.

Zhang Xiaohou was certain he was dead. He didn't dare look back. He just ran, tears streaming freely down his face.

The mud alongside him churned without end, waves crashing onto the bank with enough force to crack stone. The giant centipede tore along the edge of the pool in furious pursuit — it clearly had no ranged attacks, or it would have spat Zhang Xiaohou into oblivion long ago.