"Shit!" I yelled. I turned and sprinted away.

The centipede was truly enormous. It was nearly the size of two parked together school buses. Hell, it even moved at the speed of one.

No, this shit was faster! When the centipede got close, it's head snapped forward like a rubber band being unleashed!

I let go of my bag and threw my body to the side. The ground behind me exploded in sand.

Curses, how was this creature so fast? Is this what life was for the poor ants inside a house when they see a centipede?

I rolled across the ground and summoned Light Oblivion. I flattened its crystal head against the ground and launched myself onto my feet.

My hair blew back. The air I just rolled through was divided in two by the jaws of centipede. Any slower, and I would have been part of the air that was cut in half!

Damn, where is Kazane's wind?

Sweat beaded my forehead as I ran right. My heart pumped heavily, adrenaline pulsing through my veins. In the corner of my eyes, I saw the centipede's head approaching me.

...That was a lie. It was impossible to see the speedy centipede move.

I spun and jammed the Light Oblivion into the ground, thrusting my body like a lever to the left to narrowly dodge the head.

Though this stupid beast strikes so fast I'm nearly dying every time, I'll be damned if dodging the head was the only problem!

Most people thought that centipede's venomous jaws were the dangerous part and think the legs are just for walking. No, the legs were just as sharp. It would be like throwing my arm on top a barbed fence.

This [Dark World] centipede was no different. It's body's legs were knives at the end of a stick. 

A terrible description. But are you going to blame a sorrowful man is about to get pierced by them!?

The centipede snapped its head around me, its body turning into a beautiful C to clamp onto my beloved body.

What is this horror version of jump rope!? How the hell do I jump over a bus swinging at 100+ MPH!?

The only way was to not.

I suddenly dived, covering the back of my head with a tough woodlouse exoskeleton pulled out of my pocket. The centipede's body whipped past me

-just over my hands. 

This was no jump rope trick! This only works when your enemy is a snake thicker than a car, and stupid enough to dive catch a mouse!

A sickening crack busted from woodlouse shell. Just as I thought, the centipede's legs were like knives! No, sharper! Even Light Oblivion couldn't scratch it!

Clenching my jaw, I gripped my arm as I rolled through the sand. My other arm twisted around and  launched a dark shard towards the centipede's abdomen. 

The centipede turned around, but the shard found itself deep between two of the legs. A stream of black tar poured out of the centipede's side, forming a small puddle in the sand. The centipede convulsed. Its legs folded, trying to hold its blood in. It angled its head and gave me a deathly glare. Then it's head bent back.

I ran right, desperately trying to catch my breath. I held my chest as I relaxed my pounding heart.

Shit! I'm not athletic enough to even come close to beating this thing!

But then, the centipede didn't lounge when I dashed right. No, it lounged slightly after. Immediately, a wall of darkness materialized in front of me. I hit the wall and bounced back.

But the rebound wasn't far enough to move my entire body out of the centipede's jaws.

"Ah!"

I yelled out as I felt flesh torn from my arm. When I clutched my wound, I felt the hollow bone and blood of a missing surface. This bastard avulsed nearly half of my upper arm!

I gnashed my lips as I hurled myself to the left. I inhaled sharply.

"Shit, shit, shit! Is this stupid beast adapting?"

How was I supposed to survive, let alone kill this damned thing?

My speed was outclassed, every tactic that I had would only work once or twice.

How many tricks did I even have left?

"I have to get this into him real quick," I muttered, brandishing [Light Oblivion].

I swallowed painfully, tightly holding my left arm together. I took out a blue mushroom out of my pocket and ran along its left side. The centipede arched its body, preparing to snap me in two again.

When the centipede dashed forward, I threw one of the blue mushrooms as I swung Light Oblivion down. 

The dull end caught onto the bottom of the centipede's jaws and my body flipped up into the air. The poor bone received physics and snapped in half, its remains being swallowed by the centipede.

My beautiful piece of art destroyed in just a second! I bit back the urge to cry.

I landed on my back in the sand on the side of the centipede, out of breath. Light Oblivion had been reduced to just short stick with crystal. Maybe I should rename it to Stick of Light Oblivion now...

The centipede immediately twisted its body away, turning its head to face me. It looked confused, as if processing something. It was distracted by the blue mushroom it ate.

I sprinted off the ground and ran towards the centipede. I could hear my heart roaring in my ears. What was my BPM by now? My breathing was sharp and shaky. My lungs felt like constricting, and I felt an urge to lay on the sand and die.

Shit! With how much pain I am in, maybe it would be better off dying!

No. You'll die for ruining Light Oblivion!

The centipede hissed- or at least it imitated so and snapped its head towards me. But it was confused and slow. This time, I jumped to the left and dodged what felt like a train.

Insane! This creature was lethal as hell!

"LI Shatter!"

I jumped and launched Light Oblivion into the centipede's side. Then I crashed into the ground and barrel-rolled across the sand, narrowly avoiding a strike of the centipede's clawing legs.

I dashed as far as I could before I turned back around. I squeezed my injured arm whilst clutching my chest, trying to relax my heart and flushing out feelings of wanting to die.

Deep breaths! Deep breaths! Steady breathing!

Indeed, my attempts to regulate myself failed. With each breath, my body shuddered. It was as if my lungs had been pierced and I was breathing blood.

My arm hurt like a 170F pan was pressing against it! I even thought about amputating it to save the pain! Though I quickly realized that doing so was only going to cause more...

The centipede had completely stopped moving. Instead, it was looking at the transient shard that was stabbed into it. Then, one of its legs pulled the light shard stuck to its abdomen and threw it into a pool of acid.

"Impossible..."

I clenched my teeth and hurled towards the monster. A long blade formed in my hand.

"Damn you, why can't you stay put! How smart is this stupid thing?"

It was at that moment, I suddenly realized.

Monsters in the [Dark World] were no ordinary monsters. They were hyperintelligent. Even that asshole weak creature had launched a trick surprise attack that nearly decimated me; a much faster and powerful enemy.

This centipede was intelligent enough to assess and observe its environment. It wasn't relying on solely natural selection; it was utilizing experiences and a vetted thought process to fight all sort of tricky enemies.

Why had I thrusted the light shard into its body when the light shard couldn't even penetrate the exoskeleton? The answer was obvious. To make the light shard explode in light so it would get killed by monsters above.

Realizing that, it discarded the shard, even though it was just a meaningless piece of dust on its back.

Just what in the hell was this monster?

I clenched my teeth, dashing forward.

Be reaaally careful with your movements, Ayato! This stupid centipede is staring at you!

Aha! Is that why the centipede had eyes? Normal centipede had no eyes, relying on senses and smells to detect and attack enemies.

But with these enormous eyes, it was for sure no less capable than an owl's eyes.

The centipede was analyzing my movements, my attributes. What I could do, what tricks I had.

A truly terrifying abomination. It felt like fighting Khosrow.

Well, except if it was Khosrow, this fight would've been over already.

At the end of the day, no matter how smart the centipede was, it wasn't fast enough to make me vanish in a few seconds.

Intelligence was bound by strength, just like how strength was bound by intelligence. Albert Einstein can't beat a sumo wrestler in a ring.

Actually, that would imply that I'm at disadvantage, since I'm so slow...

I glanced at Light Oblivion. It was fallen on the ground near the centipede's legs, near a puddle of yellow looking muck.

A small smile escaped my lips. "Humans aren't called the most intelligent beings for no reason."

Because this wasn't a sumo wrestler VS a weak smart man in a caged ring. It was still at its core, a lion vs a human.

Even though the centipede could analyze obvious things such as my movement and abilities, it was at the end of the day, a stupid bug. It had no true anticipation-after all, this creature only fought other creatures.

Any human tricks such as what I could do with my LI abilities was still fair game. It won't realize them until it was too late!

"Come over here, stupid bug!" I snapped.

The centipede glared at my mouth. Instead of responding, its antennas twitched. Of course, the centipede couldn't understand me, nor could it reply with any form of language.

If it could, maybe we could've negotiated. Too late for the centipede! The penalty for vandalizing Light Oblivion was death!

I dashed towards the centipede. The centipede's body and the head snapped towards me. Of course, it didn't need anything to kill me after all!

Observe its body language, observe its body language, damn it!

I dived towards the ground, just barely dodging the centipede's body that swiped at a random interval. My face hit the sand face first. Pushing my head up, I coughed.

"Got it back."

I spat out sand from my mouth. I gripped the Light Oblivion tightly as I pushed myself up. The shard felt warm in my hand, providing a illumination just barely enough to see the ground again.

Though still coated in the centipede's acid, my hand felt a burning sensation.

The centipede twisted its body and backed away while staring at the shard.

I grinned and pointed Light Oblivion at the centipede.

"You think you can win? I've fought bastards stronger and smarter than you, stupid! I'm not scared of a stupid red bug!"

Clutching my arm, I dashed forward. My left arm was now starting to feel numb from the centipede's venom.

How much longer did I have left?

My heart roared. My lungs burned. My entire body was slowly feeling like a rock, my movements perhaps becoming sluggish. Of course, I couldn't show any of this to the intelligent centipede though. To the centipede, perhaps I looked like an unkillable tank that could survive anything it threw at me when in reality I had at most 20 seconds left to kill the centipede.

Still, a weak smile appeared on my face.

Just as the centipede analyzed me, I also analyzed the centipede. Neither of us knew anything about each other, neither of us knew anything about the terrain. Both of us had the ability to process thought and analysis abilities. In the end, we were two peas of the same pod.

Who was going to win?

The answer was simple. The one who figured out the other's weakness first.

Six of the centipede's legs were slower than the others. However, six of the legs were perfectly fine. But why would there be a literal pool of acid there? And while its expression never changed, it did occasionally steal glances at its legs.

Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak.

At the end of the day, we were both weaklings pretending to be strong.

I ducked. The centipede struck the mountain side, its jaws slamming against the rocks. I could feel sand falling onto my back from the sheer impact. 

Not wasting any time, I rolled to the side and started dashing towards the centipede's weak legs. One strike with Light Oblivion, and it'll be over for the centipede. I threw out some things in my fur coat pocket to lessen my weight.

Something felt off. Why was the centipede so quiet? Did its head get too stuck in the sandy hills? Why had its body felt so still?

I dashed through the acid. As I expected, it wasn't directly harmful. I could feel numbness, like my shoes being harder to pull, but it wasn't enough to stop me.

As I reached the leg, I brandished my arm to throw Light Oblivion.

-Then, a screeching sound had emerged from the right. The centipede's head was charging towards me with alarming speed. Far too fast for me to dodge.

I then realized.

It was a trap. The legs, the acid. The centipede had intended for me to try to run through the acid and try to get the shard there. While I was too slow from the numbness, its head would charge and tear me in two.

I had played perfectly into the centipede's plan. In a snap, my body would be struck by a bus and the world would be over. No amount of ability could save this.

But instead of shaking in fear, I laughed.

The centipede was truly formidable! How many creatures would this have killed if it spawned on earth! But unfortunately, it was going to lose to a weakling.

Because we weren't two weaklings pretending to be strong. No, we were both strong pretending to be weak.

My body was thrown a few meters into the air, narrowing avoiding the centipede's striking head. I could feel its jaws tearing through my fur coat, ripping the bottom of it clean off.

As I launched into the air, the centipede whirled around, letting out a hiss before trying to turn its body. But it was too late.

It could strike me or try to dodge Light Oblivion. If it truly was smart, it would know both options lead to its death.

Seeming to realize that, the centipede's jaws twisted. It seemed, perhaps, a bit anguished.

All roads lead to death. I knew that feeling too well. 

"LI Exhauire!"

I grinned as I threw Light Oblivion behind a launching shard. The shard slammed into the back of Light Oblivion, and Light Oblivion flew at supersonic speeds before impaling into the other side of the centipede.

I was right. The other side was where the centipede was truly injured. It howled, trying to reach the shard with its jaws and feet. But it couldn't spin its head around. No, it was nearly paralyzed.

Those mushrooms are in that fur coat that you ate! Is that what you are thinking right now Mr.Smart Centipede? What a shame you realized too late!

The centipede's body contorted and twisted, but it was no use. It couldn't reach the shard, as it was too weak.

As I fell, I twisted my body and landed in the dunes far away from the centipede. I fell face first into sand. Lifting my head, I spat out a mouthful of sand.

"Gross. Thank god that spring prototype actually worked when I needed it..."

I tried to push myself up, but my body refused to move. The venom from the centipede had likely spread to my entire body by now.

"Ah, shit."

I held my groan as I watched the centipede. The shard had sparked and became an infinitely large light in the distance while the centipede thrashed. It had almost reached the shard to rip it out, but it was too late.

An enormous wasp had started to descend on the centipede. It was no small bee, it was nearly the size of a small building. It's buzz sound was so large I almost thought I was deaf.

"So that's what it was?" I whispered.

The body was entirely black, covered in a rocky, shiny exoskeleton. It spread its large tinted yellow wings that were the sizes of an exploding firework as it cautiously hovered over the centipede. Then, it lounged.

The centipede was a formidable creature indeed. However, at the end of the day, it didn't stand a chance against the abominations above. Not while injured and semi-paralyzed, at least.

Before it could even react, the wasp dived the centipede, driving its stinger in between the centipede's side. The centipede's body arched back, trying to entangle the wasp.

Alas, the wasp was too fast. It blinked away, turning into a smear hovering the centipede. It appeared again above the centipede's head, using its mandibles to pin the head to the ground and tearing apart the skull while driving its stinger into the centipede's back. The centipede thrashed and twisted its body, but it was no use against the giant behemoth three times its size.

After a few minutes, the screeching and tearing had came to a stop, and the world had came silent again. It wasn't pitch dark, so I could still see a idle, dead centipede in the background.

I shuddered.

"Thank god those flying creatures need provocation by light..."

It would be horrendous if I got eaten by the scavenger beetles, so I contorted my body, grinding my teeth heavily to reach inside my fur jacket and pulled out the 2 blue mushrooms that remained.

"Curses, just simply as pulling out some things from my pocket feels like walking up 20 flights of stairs. When will this stupid venom wear off... I can't even collect my spoils from the centipede..." I muttered bitterly.

I bit back a groan and silently grumbled to myself. Then, the my adrenaline wore off and the terrible state of my body washed over me.

"Fuck! My arm!"

"I'm getting really sleepy..."

I murmured, enjoying the texture of the cold sand on my face. When I first fell, I thought the sand was rough and uncomfortable. But after lying on it for a few hours, even I had started to think it was comfy. Or maybe I just twisted my mind to thinking it was.

On the bright side, my lungs and heart had settled by now. It no longer felt like breathing through a thick and dense pillow, nor did my chest feel like it was about to explode.

Also, no beetle had visited me yet. I was still alive and the mushrooms were working. Strangely though, even the centipede didn't have any visitors.

"Maybe I just can't notice with how sleepy I am..."

Then, I noticed that the sounds from above and below never returned back. The centipede's arrival had made the sound stop. But for god knows how long I've been lying here? I still can't move.

Ah was the day ending? That's a shame. I'm still stuck and paralyzed!

I bit back a bitter laugh.

All that work, just for me to die in the end. Why did I even try so hard this life?

[You have killed a bastard centipede! The reward for this will be 10 million dollars and a brand new car!]

A deep voice played in my head. This time, it wasn't some strange noise but rather clouds of my own delusion! I'm really going crazy this time!

I bitterly thought at the idea of being proud of myself for killing such a fearsome creature. Normally, people would be quite happy! But would you be very happy to be stuck on the ground, waiting for a fellow monster to come tear you apart?

A small groan escaped my lips.

"Surely Ayaka, you oughta be doing better than this, if you're still alive..." I muttered.

The sand was even tasting a bit sweet now. Was I delirious? Dehydration? I might die before the red scare even happens! I was tired too...

In the distance, I heard footsteps.

Is this another monster? I'm finally done for!

Wait, footsteps? Why did I think of that word? The sound in the distance... It's too quiet to be a large creature, and its large enough for me to hear.

Is it a human!?

My heart almost jumped out of my chest. Then, it fell.

No a footstep here likely meant a tiger or some kind of monster!

I'm going to die before dehydration or the red scare! Talk about a pathetic death!

My curiosity overwhelming my fear, I summoned a black box under my arm and glanced up.

In the distance, I saw a bipedal figure walking towards me. A piece of fabric draped over the figure's frame, going down to their knees.

It really was a human! But it wasn't Ayaka. Ayaka didn't dress like that.

Then who is it? What human could exist and survive here?

Was it walking towards the centipede who had a light glow, or was it walking towards the two blue mushrooms?

So much thoughts and emotions overwhelmed my mind. It was the first time since what felt like forever seeing another human! Is this a true Krystaline, someone who lives beneath the Earth!? What language do they speak!? What cultures do they have!?

It truly was a wonder. I didn't know anything, and there was a lot to be learned.

Well actually, there was one thing that I knew the answer to. If this world was so brutal, there is no such a thing as free lunch. I needed to pray to a deity that they would save me.

If they chose not to, I would certainly die.

Oh, what a turnout of the world? Ayato Hinode is now akin to a homeless beggar! What a change of life turns!

Even though I was never homeless in my life, at least up till now, the true principle of life operated on one rule: you will live as long as you are useful.

In spite of weariness washing over me, I almost laughed. Shaking my head, I let out a weak grin before  summoning a black shard in my hand. As I stabbed it in the sand, I wrote in the dunes.

[Saria and I killed the centipede].

And just like that, I fell asleep.