Ethan led Mia down the dorm's stairwell, the hammer a steady weight in his hand, its head still sticky with the komodo's blood. The air grew colder as they descended, the faint red glow from the fractured sky fading behind layers of brick and shadow. Mia stayed close, her backpack thudding softly against her back, her breathing quick but controlled. The gym was their target—half a mile west through the campus's heart, where she'd heard survivors earlier. Ethan hoped they were still alive. He hoped they'd stay alive getting there.
The lobby was a mess when they reached it—glass crunching underfoot, a toppled couch leaking stuffing onto the tiles. [Predator Sense] pulsed, picking up distant threats: a pack of claws skittering north, a heavy thud south, nothing close enough to pin down. Ethan paused at the broken doors, peering into the night. The campus sprawled ahead, its pathways choked with overturned benches and trampled shrubs, the air thick with a damp, earthy smell—like rain, but wrong, heavier.
"We cut through the quad," Ethan said, voice low. "Stay tight, keep quiet."
Mia nodded, her kitchen knife now sheathed in her belt loop, her eyes darting to the shadows. "The gym's past the library," she whispered. "There's a tunnel under it—maintenance access. Might be safer."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "You sure it's open?"
"Jess used it once," Mia said, her voice catching on the name. "Snuck in after curfew. It's locked, but…"
"But I've got this," Ethan finished, hefting the hammer. He didn't ask about Jess—didn't need to. The blanket over her body back in the room said enough.
They slipped outside, the chill biting through Ethan's torn jacket. The quad was a wide, open stretch, once a green space for frisbee games and late-night study breaks, now a scarred battlefield. A fountain in the center gurgled weakly, its basin cracked, water pooling black and still. [Perception] caught the glint of something metallic half-buried in the mud nearby—a fire axe, its handle snapped but blade intact. Ethan pried it free, handing it to Mia. "Better than that knife."
She took it, testing its weight, and gave a small, grim nod. "Thanks."
They moved west, skirting the quad's edge where trees offered cover, their branches snapped and bare. The ground trembled faintly, a low rumble Ethan felt through his boots. [Predator Sense] flared—something underground, massive, shifting beneath them. He grabbed Mia's arm, pulling her to a stop behind a gnarled oak. "Wait."
"What?" she hissed, but then she felt it too—a vibration rising, the earth groaning like it was about to split.
The quad erupted. Soil and grass exploded upward as a creature breached the surface, its body a nightmare of segmented plates and writhing limbs. It was no snake or lizard, but a centipede—ten feet long, thick as a barrel, its mandibles clicking like shears. Antennae whipped the air, and its legs, dozens of them, churned the dirt as it coiled, sensing them.
Ethan's gut clenched. "Tunnel's out," he muttered. "That thing's guarding it."
Mia's eyes widened, but she tightened her grip on the axe. "What do we do?"
"Draw it off," Ethan said, scanning the quad. Across the clearing, a lecture hall's doors hung open, its roof collapsed but walls intact. "Get to that building. I'll lead it away, circle back."
"Ethan, no—"
"Go!" he snapped, shoving her toward the hall. She hesitated, then ran, her footsteps muffled by the chaos.
Ethan stepped into the open, hammer raised, and banged it against the oak's trunk. The clang rang out, sharp and deliberate. The centipede's head swiveled, mandibles snapping, and it surged toward him, faster than its bulk suggested. [Predator Sense] tracked its rhythm—legs pumping, body weaving—and Ethan bolted south, away from Mia.
The ground shook as it chased, its legs tearing furrows in the earth. Ethan's [Agility] kept him ahead, weaving through debris—a toppled statue, a bike rack—his lungs burning with the damp, sour air. He aimed for the fountain, its cracked basin his only shot. The centipede closed in, a chittering roar behind him, and he leapt, landing on the fountain's rim.
It lunged, mandibles slashing, and Ethan jumped again, twisting mid-air. The creature smashed into the basin, stone crumbling under its weight, water gushing out. Ethan hit the ground, rolled, and swung the hammer at its exposed side, cracking a plate. Yellow ichor sprayed, and it thrashed, legs flailing.
He didn't stop—couldn't. He climbed its back, dodging snapping mandibles, and drove the hammer into its head, again and again, until the skull split and it collapsed, twitching in the mud.
[Monster slain: Abyssal Centipede]
[Attributes Gained: +2 Endurance]
[Skills Gained: None]
[Rewards Gained: Title Unlocked: Vermin Bane - +10% damage to insectoids]
Stamina flooded him, steadying his ragged breaths, the [Vermin Bane] title a faint pulse of confidence. He staggered off the corpse, hammer dripping ichor, and glanced back. Mia waved from the lecture hall's doorway, safe.
Ethan jogged to her, the quad quiet again, the centipede's tunnel a dark scar in the earth. "You okay?" he asked, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Yeah," Mia said, her voice shaky but firm. "You?"
"Still breathing," he said, managing a tired grin. "Gym's close. Let's keep moving."
She nodded, and they slipped into the hall.