Sudden attack

The two men in the sewers knew nothing of the commotion aboveground and continued their hunt for the Idr Giant Centipede.

After walking for a long time, they entered a concealed cave bearing signs of excavation, gradually left Ard Carraigh's sewer network behind, and arrived somewhere clean and ancient.

The elven ruins here were relatively well preserved. Plant roots covered exquisite reliefs, and fallen rubble buried the entrances to some of the elven buildings, sealing away the secrets within.

The darkness inside the buildings seemed to have swallowed this place's past, telling intruders that everything here had long since passed away, leaving only a deathly silence echoing through the void.

Without the scouring flow of groundwater, drag marks reappeared on the ground.

Witt crouched to examine them. Dust had mixed with dripping blood to form hardened, bloody mud, and a faint scent of blood still lingered on it, not yet completely dispersed.

"These tracks are all fresh. The monster's very close, Geralt."

Geralt nodded, watching their surroundings warily with both hands on his sword. "No need to worry too much yet. The stone slabs in these elven buildings are hard. The Idr Giant Centipede can't burrow through them."

"That's why it left tracks like these on the ground," Witt replied thoughtfully.

"Exactly."

They continued following the marks on the ground until they reached a collapsed elven building. The enormous structure had cracked the floor beneath it, exposing the soft earth below.

Ahead lay not more elven ruins, but a vast, naturally formed cavern.

"Careful! It might be just ahead!" Geralt warned in a low voice.

Geralt took out his insectoid oil and applied it to his silver sword before passing it to Witt.

Witt nodded, took the oil, and coated his own sword, then cast a Quen Sign on himself.

As they stepped onto the soft earth, no sound other than their footsteps could be heard in the hollow underground space, making Witt feel a little nervous.

Especially since this might be the Idr Giant Centipede's nest. A giant centipede-like monster like this could launch a sudden attack from somewhere no one would imagine.

Before long, they passed through a natural tunnel and entered an underground cave twice a man's height, with earth on every side.

Suddenly, a faint rustling like rolling stones came from the distance. Witt saw mounds rising one after another in the ground ahead, as though something were burrowing toward them at tremendous speed.

"Watch your feet!"

Geralt had barely spoken when the rising mound reached his feet.

Thwump!

A giant centipede with a body roughly as thick as a human waist burst out of the earth.

Geralt dove aside, evading the surprise attack, and rolled along the ground. Bracing his left hand against the earth, he twisted around and slashed.

But unexpectedly, such an enormous creature also possessed an unbelievable reaction speed. When its first strike failed, the Idr Giant Centipede swiftly withdrew underground, avoiding Geralt's counterattack.

Rumble, rumble, rumble... The ground nearby shook, and the rising mound traveled toward Witt. This time, it seemed to be targeting him.

"Careful!" Geralt warned.

Witt did not panic. He swiftly drained a vial of Tawny Owl, holding his sword in his right hand while forming a Sign with his left, ready to release it.

Thwump!

Another sudden attack!

Witt's eyes widened as he saw the two enormous mandibles at the Idr Giant Centipede's mouth, dripping yellow-green venom, and the human face on its head carapace.

In that instant, Witt's heart raced and his blood boiled.

He pushed off with both feet and leaped backward, deftly avoiding the lunge. Gathering the air's elemental power in his left hand, he blasted it toward the Idr Giant Centipede.

With another attack thwarted, the Idr Giant Centipede tried to repeat its trick and retreat underground.

But Witt, who understood its intentions, did not aim directly at its body this time. He aimed at the ground!

Aard Sign!

A telekinetic blast slammed into the ground, blasting the giant centipede's upper body into the air before it could retreat completely underground and briefly throwing it off balance.

"Well done!" Geralt immediately scrambled up and charged toward the airborne monster.

Witt needed no prompting. This was the very moment he had anticipated.

He swung his right hand, his sword whipping through the air in a horizontal slash.

Shhk! The silver sword, coated with insectoid oil, easily sliced through the Idr Giant Centipede's hard carapace.

Witt cut the airborne Idr Giant Centipede clean in two, and the rear half of its body, now severed from its brain, fell limply to the ground.

Orange-yellow blood splashed onto the earth, and Witt was sprayed with it as well. Fortunately, the Idr Giant Centipede's blood contained no toxins, or the School of the Wolf light armor Vesemir had made for him would probably have been ruined.

"Aaaargh..." A cry of pain came from the mouth of the human face on the monster's carapace.

Witt froze briefly. He had not expected the human face on the Idr Giant Centipede's carapace to be more than mere camouflage. It seemed to be part of the monster's bodily tissue.

Although Witt had cut the monster in two, the fight was not over. Insectoids like this could still move as long as their brains remained intact.

Without hesitation, Witt rushed forward to press his advantage.

He raised his sword and thrust down, but he was too late. Despite losing half its body, the Idr Giant Centipede still moved swiftly. It burrowed underground in an instant, leaving Witt's blade to stab empty air.

"These monsters don't flee because they're wounded. Even that humanlike cry of pain was meant to make you lower your guard." Geralt came to Witt's side, taking the opportunity to drink Tawny Owl and boost his endurance.

Geralt had extensive experience hunting Idr Giant Centipedes. He knew that the human faces on their carapaces did more than simply let them disguise themselves as people lying on the ground to lure prey.

They also possessed considerable hunting skill, using the human faces on their carapaces to make sounds resembling cries for help, exploiting human kindness to attract unsuspecting innocents.

Earth shook loose from the cave ceiling, where a mound abruptly appeared.

Rumble, rumble... The sound of the Idr Giant Centipede burrowing rang out once more.

The Idr Giant Centipede was no longer burrowing only through the earth beneath their feet. It had tunneled into the soil above the cave ceiling.

Controlling his chaos magic, Witt pressed his left hand flat against the ground. A simple magic circle composed of the four elemental powers appeared beneath his feet, shimmering with a faint purple light.

This was the magical trap known as the Yrden Sign. To cast it on a surface, a witcher had to keep his hand pressed firmly against that surface.

The Idr Giant Centipede's earlier attacks had been so sudden that neither man could do anything but dodge. If they had had a chance to lay down a Yrden Sign beforehand, the fight would already have been over.

After Witt cast the Yrden Sign, he and Geralt stood back-to-back in perfect coordination, guarding against attacks that could come from any direction, including overhead.

Thwump!

The Idr Giant Centipede suddenly burst through the earth above their heads and plunged down, its enormous mandibles aimed at the witchers' skulls, ready to kill both men it regarded as food in a single strike.

"Look out!"

At Witt's shout, both men, already on edge, reacted instantly. They dove forward simultaneously, letting the Idr Giant Centipede fall through the gap behind them.

With its third attack thwarted, the monster tried to burrow underground again, but the Yrden Sign gave it no chance.

A faint purple glow lit up, and the four elemental powers formed chains like arcs of electricity, trapping the monster firmly in the center of the Sign.

Witt and Geralt would not let such an opportunity slip away. They turned and swung, their two blades whistling through the air as they cut the monster's head into three sections.

Orange-yellow blood burst out, splattering everywhere, including over both men.

"Aaargh..." The Idr Giant Centipede's imitation of a human cry of pain cut off abruptly.

"Not bad, kid. That Sign blast aimed at the ground was brilliant." Geralt grabbed a clump of earth, squeezed it tight, and haphazardly scrubbed at the monster blood on his body.

"It just came to me," Witt replied with a smile.

Geralt walked over to the Idr Giant Centipede's corpse and drew the dagger at his waist. Pointing to the second body segment behind its head, he said, "The only valuable part of this creature is the venom gland in here. It can be used to prepare all sorts of alchemical potions, and even used directly, it makes a fairly effective poison."