"Run!" Vellin's command cut through the moment of frozen horror, and Team Seven exploded into motion.
They sprinted away from the library, away from Null'kwe's perpetual grin and lidless stare. Behind them, the creature moved—and the sound of its pursuit would haunt Misaki's nightmares for years to come.
Without skin to hold everything in place, Null'kwe's exposed muscles slapped wetly against bone with each stride. The sound was obscene—flesh striking flesh in rhythmic impacts that echoed through The Maw's chamber. Tendons stretched and contracted visibly with each movement, and fluids that should have been contained within skin sprayed outward in fine mists. The hooves struck the fleshy floor with meaty thumps that sent ripples through the organic surface.
Misaki's heat sense showed the creature's thermal signature growing closer despite their desperate speed. It wasn't just fast—it was impossibly fast, those four powerful legs eating up distance with mechanical efficiency.
Then he felt more than heard something whistle through the air.
Pain exploded through his right ear as something punched through it—not a clean pierce, but a tearing impact that ripped flesh and cartilage. Misaki screamed, his hand flying to the side of his head. Blood poured between his fingers, hot and slick, running down his neck and soaking into his armor.
[Health: 73/100]
[Status: Bleeding - Minor]
[Pain Threshold: 67%]
He stumbled but kept running, his vision blurring with tears. Looking back through the agony, he saw Null'kwe had raised one skeletal hand, and where fingers should have been, sharpened bone spurs protruded. The creature had literally shot part of its own skeleton at them.
"Keep moving!" Deylos shouted, grabbing Misaki's arm and pulling him forward. "Don't stop!"
They ran deeper into The Maw, their torches creating wild shadows that made navigation nightmarish. The victims in the walls reached out as they passed, their absorbed hands grasping at empty air, their voices rising in a chorus of pleading that mixed with Null'kwe's pursuing footsteps.
"Please don't leave us!"
"Take me with you!"
"Kill me, please, just kill me!"
The fleshy floor grew more unstable the deeper they went, soft spots that threatened to give way beneath their weight. Riyeak's massive frame created deep impressions with each step, and once his foot sank nearly to his ankle in flesh that tried to grip him like quicksand.
Then the walls ahead curved inward, narrowing, and with mounting horror Misaki realized they were running into a dead end. The Maw's chamber simply terminated in a wall of pulsing tissue, no exit, no passage, nothing but organic matter that contracted and expanded with breathing movements.
They whirled to face their pursuer, weapons raised, backs pressed against the dead end.
Null'kwe approached at a leisurely pace now, no longer needing to rush. The skinless centaur's muscles rippled with each step, visible organs working behind exposed ribs. Those lidless eyes stared with cold satisfaction.
"Did you truly think you could outrun me?" it asked, that cultured voice so wrong coming from a lipless mouth. "Here? In my domain? I am The Maw's beloved guardian. I am as much a part of this place as the flesh beneath your feet."
"Deylos, now!" Vellin commanded.
The archer had already nocked an arrow, but this one was different. As he drew the string back, his Anahata chakra—the air element—flared to life around him. The arrow began to glow with pale blue energy, wind swirling around the shaft in visible currents.
He released.
The arrow shot forward with a crack of displaced air, moving faster than any normal projectile could travel. The enhanced velocity should have driven it straight through Null'kwe's exposed ribcage and into the heart Misaki could see beating behind the bones.
Null'kwe's hand snapped up and caught the arrow mid-flight.
The creature held the projectile inches from its chest, examining it with apparent interest. The wind chakra still swirled around the shaft, but Null'kwe's grip was absolute. Slowly, deliberately, it crushed the arrow, the wood splintering with sharp cracks.
"Creative," Null'kwe said. "But insufficient."
"Misaki, with me!" Riyeak shouted, charging forward with his shield raised.
Misaki moved on instinct, his precision-striker training taking over. Riyeak's shield bash forced Null'kwe to shift its stance, exposing its left flank for a fraction of a second. Misaki's scout's blade flashed, and he felt the resistance of muscle and sinew parting as he severed the creature's left arm completely.
The limb fell to the fleshy floor with a wet slap, fingers still twitching.
Null'kwe looked at the stump where its arm had been, then at Misaki. The permanent grin somehow seemed to widen.
"Interesting," it said.
Then it turned and kicked the wall behind it.
The impact sent vibrations through the organic surface, and one of the victims merged there—a man whose arms were still exposed and functional—began to move. No, not move on his own. The Maw itself was pushing him forward, the flesh releasing its grip on his limbs. The man's screams were horrible as he was partially expelled, his torso still trapped but his arms free.
Null'kwe reached out with its remaining hand and simply tore the man's left arm off at the shoulder.
The victim's scream peaked, then cut off as shock took him. Null'kwe pressed the stolen arm against its own severed stump, and before Misaki's disbelieving eyes, the flesh began to merge. Tendons found tendons, muscle wove into muscle, and within seconds Null'kwe had a new arm—human-sized and proportioned wrong for its massive frame, but functional.
"Thank you for the donation," Null'kwe said to the now one-armed victim still trapped in the wall. The man's response was an endless, breathless wailing.
"What the fuck," Riyeak breathed, his voice cracking with horror.
Misaki attacked again, this time going for the legs. His blade bit deep into the creature's right foreleg, severing it at the hock. Then, before Null'kwe could react, he spun and took the left hind leg with a return stroke.
The Skinless Centaur toppled, its damaged legs unable to support its weight. It crashed to the floor with a sound like a side of beef hitting pavement.
"Move!" Vellin screamed, already sprinting past the fallen creature.
They ran, leaving Null'kwe struggling with its severed limbs. But even as they fled, Misaki's heat sense showed him the horrifying truth—the creature was moving again. It had simply reattached its own severed legs, pressing them back into place and forcing the tissue to reconnect through sheer force of will or perhaps some property of The Maw itself.
The pursuit resumed.
Null'kwe's hoofbeats echoed behind them, steady and relentless. A bone projectile whistled past Misaki's head, so close it parted his hair. Another struck the fleshy wall beside Deylos, embedding itself deep in the organic material, which pulsed and bled around the impact.
The creature was herding them, Misaki realized. Forcing them to run in specific directions, cutting off paths with precisely aimed projectiles. It was playing with them.
"There!" Deylos pointed ahead. "An opening!"
They dove through a gap in the chamber wall, emerging into a new section of The Maw. This area was different—less organized, more chaotic. The organic architecture here had grown wild, creating twisted passages and bizarre formations.
Null'kwe followed, its body contorting in ways that defied normal skeletal limitations to fit through the opening. Muscles stretched, bones shifted, and the creature's anatomy seemed almost fluid as it pursued.
It lunged forward, one skeletal hand slashing at Misaki. He tried to dodge, but the confined space worked against him. Claws raked across his thigh, tearing through his leather armor and into the flesh beneath. The pain was immediate and intense, hot blood soaking his leg.
[Health: 58/100]
[Status: Bleeding - Moderate]
[Warning: Multiple injuries detected]
Misaki stumbled, his leg threatening to give out. Riyeak caught him, half-carrying him forward as they ran.
"Now!" Vellin shouted.
Deylos spun, nocked another chakra-enhanced arrow, and this time aimed for the head. The shot was perfect—the arrow entered through Null'kwe's right eye socket and punched out the back of its skull, carrying brain matter and bone fragments with it.
The Skinless Centaur crashed to the ground, that permanent grin finally facing downward instead of toward them. Its limbs twitched, muscles spasming as neural connections fired randomly.
Team Seven didn't wait to see if it would get back up. They ran.
Behind them, they heard wet, dragging sounds. Misaki's heat sense showed Null'kwe's thermal signature flickering but still present. The creature was damaged but not dead—perhaps couldn't die in any conventional sense while it remained part of The Maw.
They burst into a new section of the chamber, and Misaki's heat sense suddenly showed him something that made his breath catch. Five thermal signatures, familiar in their intensity and configuration. The mages. They were still in The Maw, still searching, and they were less than fifty meters away.
An idea formed in Misaki's mind—desperate, ruthless, but perhaps their only chance.
"This way!" he shouted, changing direction and leading the team toward the mages' position. "Trust me!"
"Misaki, what are you—" Vellin started.
"The mages! If we lead Null'kwe to them, maybe they'll kill each other! Or at least distract the creature long enough for us to escape!"
The moral implications hit him even as he said it—he was leading people to their deaths, condemning the five mages to face a horror they couldn't possibly understand. But the alternative was Team Seven dying here, their bodies absorbed into The Maw's walls to beg for mercy for centuries.
"Do it," Vellin said, her voice hard. "They chose to hunt us. Let them face the consequences."
They ran toward the mages, and as they did, the environment changed again. The floor became wet, then soaked, and finally they emerged at the edge of a river.
But it wasn't water.
Blood. A river of blood, at least twenty meters wide, flowing through The Maw's chamber with sluggish currents. The surface was dark and thick, and things moved beneath it—shapes that might have been organs or body parts being transported to some unknown destination within The Maw's vast anatomy.
The smell was overwhelming, metallic and rotten, making Misaki's eyes water and his gorge rise.
"Riyeak!" Misaki shouted.
The young warrior understood immediately. He slammed his hands down, and his Muladhara chakra blazed. Stone and earth erupted from beneath the blood river, creating a bridge of solid material that rose above the crimson flow.
They sprinted across, their boots slipping on stone slick with blood spray. Behind them, Null'kwe emerged from the passage, saw the bridge, and charged forward without hesitation.
On the far side of the blood river, five figures stood frozen in shock. The Vel'koda'mir mages had found Team Seven, but they weren't prepared for what came with them.
"Now!" Misaki shouted.
He channeled his Manipura chakra, drawing on the ring's enhancement to make the technique more precise, more powerful. Fire erupted from his hands—not a weapon, but pure light. He compressed the flames into their brightest, most intense form and released them in a single blinding flash.
The explosion of light filled The Maw's chamber like a miniature sun. Null'kwe's lidless eyes had no way to close, no protection against the sudden brilliance. The creature reared back, its exposed optic nerves overloaded. The mages, equally unprepared, threw up their hands to shield their faces, their concentration shattered and their spell-casting interrupted.
"Barrier!" Riyeak roared.
Earth erupted around Team Seven, forming a protective dome even thicker and more solid than the one he'd created before. This time he wasn't trying to trap anyone—just protect his team from what was about to happen.
Through gaps in the earth, they could see and hear everything.
Null'kwe, still blind from the flash, crashed into the mages' position. The old mage shouted incantations, trying to cast defensive spells, but The Maw's flesh-walls interfered with the mana flows. His formulas fractured, energy dispersing uselessly.
The Skinless Centaur's clawed hand caught the first young mage across the chest, those bone-tipped fingers punching through his magical shields like they were paper. Ribs cracked with sounds like breaking branches, and the mage's scream was wet and bubbling as bone fragments punctured his lungs.
"What is that thing?" another mage shrieked, backing away. "What—"
Null'kwe's hoof came down on his leg, shattering it at the knee. The mage fell, and the creature was on him instantly, those too-many teeth finding his throat. The sounds of feeding were obscene—wet tearing, bone crunching, fluids spraying.
The old mage managed to cast something—a lance of pure mana that struck Null'kwe in the side. The creature staggered, a hole blown through its exposed ribcage, but it didn't fall. It couldn't fall. It was part of The Maw, sustained by the living dungeon itself.
"Run!" the old mage screamed to his two remaining students. "Back to the upper levels! Run!"
But The Maw itself betrayed them. The fleshy floor beneath one fleeing mage suddenly gave way, and he plunged into it as if falling through quicksand. His screams became muffled as organic material flowed over him, pulling him into the walls to join the other victims in their eternal absorption.
The last young mage made it furthest, nearly reaching the passage they'd entered through. But Null'kwe was faster. The creature's bone projectiles struck him in both legs, shattering his knees. He collapsed, and as Null'kwe approached, his pleas for mercy mixed with the screams of all the others trapped in the walls.
The old mage fought to the end, casting spell after spell even as Null'kwe tore him apart. Lightning, fire, ice—all of it struck the creature, damaged it, burned and froze its exposed tissues. But none of it was enough.
The final sound was the old mage's spine snapping as Null'kwe lifted him overhead and brought him down across one massive knee.
Then silence.
Through the gaps in Riyeak's earth barrier, they could see Null'kwe standing among the carnage, surrounded by broken bodies and pools of blood that flowed toward the river. The creature turned its skinless face toward Team Seven's position, and though its eyes had been damaged by the flash, Misaki could feel its awareness, its intelligence focusing on them.
"Go," Vellin whispered. "Go now while it's distracted with the bodies."
Riyeak released the barrier, and they moved. Not running—that would draw attention—but quickly, efficiently, heading back toward the passage they'd seen earlier. Behind them, they heard wet sounds as Null'kwe began harvesting parts from the dead mages, adding their limbs and organs to its collection.
They found a shaft leading upward—ancient Predecessor construction that The Maw's flesh had grown around but not consumed. The climb was brutal with Misaki's injuries, but fear and desperation gave him strength.
They emerged onto Level Five, the Crystal Labyrinth. The ambient mana here felt clean after The Maw's organic horror, and the crystalline walls were beautiful in their geometric precision.
"Keep moving," Vellin commanded, though her voice shook with exhaustion and trauma. "We're not safe until we reach the surface."
They navigated through the labyrinth, then up through Level Four's heat, Level Three's fungal gardens, Level Two's flooded passages, and finally Level One's simple stone corridors. Every step took them further from that nightmare, but Misaki knew they'd never truly leave it behind.
When they finally emerged into the safe zone, the blue-white light of the dungeon crystals felt like salvation.
They collapsed against the walls, breathing hard, covered in blood and worse. No one spoke for several minutes. What could they say? They'd survived by sacrificing five people to a monster, and even if those people had been hunting them, the weight of that decision would follow them forever.
Misaki's hand moved to his pack, checking that the chalice was still there. Twenty gold. Freedom from debt. The price paid in blood and horror and five lives spent as currency for their escape.
"We need to leave," Vellin finally said. "Now. Before anything else finds us."
They gathered what supplies they could salvage and headed for the entrance. The journey back to M'lod would be long, and the memories of The Maw would be longer still.
But they were alive.
For better or worse, they were alive.
[Quest Complete: Dungeon Delving - Survived]
[Warning: Severe Trauma Detected]
[Recommended: Seek Healing and Counseling]