The Nexus Games [Chapter 36] The Kuji

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I'm not as sick anymore. Hurray! Happiness is the absence of pain!

—Chapter 36—

—The Kuji—

Kellan hit the floor of the tunnel shoulder-first. Something about damage flashed across his vision, but he didn’t care. His shoulder throbbed in agony as he rolled over the thousands of insects swarming in the tunnel. Beetles the size of quarters squirmed over, under, and through his clothing.

In that moment, Kellan almost regretted picking up the ability to see in the dark. Now he could see the mass of maggots, worms, beetles, and millipedes that surrounded them. He would’ve preferred if it had stayed a mystery.

With a groan, Kellan quickly pushed himself to his feet. His body ached, but the writhing of the Tyranny Worms told him they would soon repair the damage.

The yami centipedes headed for the surface. Pillars of light broke into the tunnel at various points, but the quaking caused the ground to shift, closing most of the small holes and caving in the tunnel.

I need to get out of here before we’re buried alive.

Kellan knocked some of the bugs away with shaky hands. When he glanced around, he found Sen lying on his back, the swarms covering most of his small body. Kellan waded through the insects and scooped up the kid, carrying him like a parent would a child.

“Let’s go,” Kellan said, his vision perfect, even though there was no light.

The sewer tunnel extended to a four-way intersection. The grit and grime—and the foul odor of feces—told Kellan this had once been an operation sewer. Thankfully, it wasn’t any longer. Determined to free himself from the stench, he hurried down the tunnel, his boots crunching the bodies of the insects as he went.

It sounded like he was running across corn flakes.

“Wait!” Sen commanded.

Kellan’s body locked up. The grip of the Tyranny Worms hindered his movement. His muscles became stiff, and it pained him to even lift his legs.

“What’re you doing?” Kellan demanded.

Sen rubbed at his head. Blood dribbled down from his hairline. “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“I can see! Stop ordering me to do things. I’m trying to get us out of here.”

The ground shook with earthquake intensity. Dust and debris rained down throughout the tunnel.

“Take me to the surface,” Sen commanded.

Once again, the worms in Kellan’s system flared to comply. With his irritation building, Kellan stomped forward. He had already intended to get them out of the sewers, but now he almost wanted to do an incompetent job, just to spite Sen and his need to control everything.

Kellan crunched his way to the underground four-way intersection. To his surprise, two individuals stumbled their way toward him. They obviously couldn’t see a thing—they dragged their hands along the tunnel wall, their eyes unfocused, and their feet unsteady.

One was a man, and the other a woman—both humans in their early twenties. They wore jeans, jackets, and hiking boots. When their information flashed across Kellan’s eyes, he realized they were both E rank magma mages, though everything else was concealed. The boy, Hank Gardener, and the girl, Fern Garcia, had numbers on the backs of their left hands.

Team 80.

But the girl also had a skull on the back of her hand.

She was the team’s Straggler.

“Hurry,” Hank said. He lifted his hand and flames burst to life, providing him a limited amount of illumination. “Before the yami catch us.” He coughed into his elbow, and his fire flicked.

Fern rubbed at her curly hair. Dirt was caught in her tiny curls. “Which way?” She, too, coughed and wheezed, the dirt and dust obviously bothering them.

Kellan stepped forward. “Not this way.” With only two choices left, Kellan motioned to the southern tunnel. “Follow me. I think I know how to get us out of here.”

He was fairly certain—though not entirely—that the Net was to the north of them. If they wanted to avoid the wall of death, they would need to maintain their trek in the opposite direction.

“Who are you?” Hank asked, holding up his fire.

Sen squirmed in Kellan’s arms. “Don’t help them! They’re an enemy team!”

Without bothering to answer anyone, Kellan stormed down the southern tunnel. If Team 80 followed, great. If not, that was their problem. Kellan didn’t want to get bogged down in monster-infested territory, and Sen was basically correct. Hank and Fern werecompetitors.

The two from Team 80 decided to follow along, however. They matched Kellan’s pace, trekking along behind him, stepping in the dead bugs he had created.

“Now I know what it’s like to be in an ant hill,” Fern muttered.

Hank nervously chuckled. “I’m smashing every ant hill I see from here on out.”

“Stay quiet,” Kellan said. “We don’t know what’s down here.”

The crunch of their footsteps wasn’t helping, but Kellan didn’t know what to do about that. He tried to ignore the hundreds of bugs, but there were so many, they got into his boots, his socks, and pants—some clawing up his pants and onto his shirt.

It took most of his willpower to just press forward.

I can swat them away later.

They made it a good 200 feet when a fourth set of sounds echoed in the tunnel, causing the hair on Kellan’s neck to stand on-end. What was following them?

When he turned around, Kellan caught his breath, all the blood draining from his face.

A giant spider walked behind Hank and Fern, just in the darkness beyond Hank’s flame.

Not a normal spider, but a freakish monster straight from the land of nightmares. It had a human face with the needle-sharp teeth and eyes that bulged and jiggled like a dead fish.

The monster’s eight legs ended in human hands, and the fingers curved in fish-hook claws. The monster had to be the size of a bus, but because of his spindly nature, it easily fit in the tunnel, its legs on the ground, wall, and ceiling. The monster’s mouth was large enough to fit a human head inside, and its tongue had the length and dexterity to twist itself around.

Kellan couldn’t move.

Something was preventing him from stepping away, or dropping Sen, or even lifting his rifle. And when he tried to struggle against it, something flashed over his eyes.

[Alex   Kellan] has been paralyzed by [The Kuji of Team 80]’s Haunting Sight.

Hank and Fern—completely unaware of the demon behind them—almost ran into Kellan. Hank stopped an inch before, his expression twisted in confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

Sen shook in Kellan’s arms. “Now isn’t the time for resting!”

No one else saw it. The freakish hell spider crawled forward, lifted one of its hook-clawed hands, and as silent as the night, stabbed Fern in the shoulder and neck.

Fern gasped and tried to scream, but the monster’s fingers curled around her throat and proceeded to puncture terrible holes into her flesh. The gurgle of Fern’s shriek echoed in the tunnels as the Kuji dragged her back to its needle-fanged mouth.

“Fern?” Hank asked as he whipped around, his eyes wide.

But he couldn’t see through the darkness.

The Kuji bit down on Fern’s head, its strength enough to sever it straight off her body. A clean decapitation.

“What’s going on?” Hank demanded.

The moment the Kuji tilted its head to gobble down the rest of Fern’s body, Kellan felt himself regain control of his body. It was the eyes. If he met the Kuji’s gaze, he would become paralyzed all over again.

“Run!” Kellan shouted.

He grabbed Hank, yanked him away from the nightmare spider, and then dashed down the tunnel as fast as he could. Carrying a child and pulling a full-grown man limited Kellan’s speed, but he didn’t care. The Kuji was clearly strong enough to end any of them in a single strike, and Kellan wasn’t going to sit around to fight it, not when the creature had the ability to render him helpless.

“What’s going on?” Hank asked again. He tried to free himself from Kellan’s grip. “Where’s Fern?”

“She’s dead! We have to go!”

The Kuji…

Kellan heard it chasing them.

The beast wasn’t even hiding its movements anymore. It was crunching the bugs along with them, moving with eight legs when Kellan only had the two.

Sen twisted his fingers into Kellan’s shirt, his whole body trembling. Did he know what was chasing them? Or was he just afraid because of the circumstances? Kellan couldn’t tell.

When they came to another intersection, Kellan saw one tunnel was smaller than the others. The roof had partially collapsed, making it a narrow passageway that would require them to snake their way into. Which was perfect.

Kellan dashed straight for it.

“Watch yourself!” he called out, his voice echoing.

He dove for the tunnel and jammed his way into the crack-like passage, Sen crushed up against his chest as he went. Hank followed close behind—so close, Kellan swore he heard the man’s heart beating in his chest.

Kellan went a few feet before the tunnel opened up. That was when he saw it—far down the tunnel, hidden in the dark, was a ladder. Thank God for my dark sight. He immediately ran for it, wanting to get to the surface as desperately as a stranded fish headed back for the water.

Hank followed close, his breathing becoming more and more frantic.

The insects weren’t in this tunnel. Their footfalls were quieter.

Kellan couldn’t hear the Kuji anymore.

When Kellan reached the ladder, he stopped and set Sen on the ground. Hank slammed into his back and they both almost toppled over. Kellan maintained his footing and whirled around.

“Get a hold of yourself,” Kellan said. “There’s a ladder here.”

Hank’s fire went out, leaving them all drowning in darkness. It didn’t bother Kellan, but Sen and Hank both glanced around, their eyes wide.

“I can’t focus on my magic,” Hank said, gulping down air. His brown hair, chestnut in color, was drenched in sweat and clinging to his face. “My hand… The skull… It appeared there… Fern is dead.”

And now Hank was the Straggler.

Kellan cursed under his breath. “The Kuji is after us.”

“Us?” Sen balked. “No, no, no! Was that why you were running? What’s wrong with you! That Kuji isn’t after us. It’ll only hunt the Straggler of a specific team. Ditch this simpleton and we’ll be perfectly safe!”

Hank grabbed Kellan by the front of his shirt and clung for dear life. “Don’t leave me! P-Please. Someone in our team already died. They just vanished! Fern became the Straggler… I don’t know what to do!”

Kellan placed a firm hand on Hank’s shoulder. For a long moment, he didn’t say anything. He just squeezed his grip on the man, trying to reassure him through physical means.

“Take a deep breath,” Kellan said. “Slowly.”

Hank did as he was instructed. He inhaled, then exhaled, all at a slow rate. After a moment, he was calm. He released Kellan’s shirt, his hands shaky. “I’m sorry. Just please don’t leave. I don’t want to be alone. Please.”

“It’s fine. Just stay close to me, all right? We’ll get out of this.”

Sen scoffed. “Are you listening to me? We should leave this man!”

With his teeth gritted, Kellan turned and then knelt in front of Sen. The kid couldn’t see him, but he knew Sen would be able to hear better if he were down at his level.

“You want me to ask for that Langarren Clay in the next prize room, right?” Kellan asked.

Sen hesitated. After a short moment, he finally responded, “Yes.”

“Then shut up and let me do my job, all right?” Kellan grabbed his arm and pulled him close. “I’m going to get you, and this rando, out of the tunnels, and then we’re going to get ourselves and a bunny, and we’re going to get out of the game. Understood?”

Sen’s eyebrows knitted. “Why the rando? What’s wrong with you? He’s not one of us!”

Hank nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He couldn’t see, but that didn’t mean he was deaf.

“You said the Kuji isn’t going to kill us, right?”

Sen nodded once.

“Then what does it matter if I try?”

“The Kuji will stop anything that gets between it and its kill,” Sen stated matter-of-factly. “If we just leave this man to his grave, we have nothing to worry about.”

Kellan shook his head. “Fine. Let me take him with us, and if the Kuji is about to get him, I won’t stop it. Deal?”

“This is insanity.”

Hank offered a snort and a laugh. “This is my life, man.”

“Deal?” Kellan insisted.

Sen rolled his eyes. “Your backwards strategies will get us killed…” Then he just shook his head. “Get us out of here! I don’t care what you do. No more waiting.”

Satisfied, Kellan wrapped his arm around Sen and lifted him off the ground. Then he turned for the ladder. It was difficult carrying someone and hoisting himself upward, but Kellan could manage. Fortunately, Hank didn’t need any assistance.

When Kellan reached the top, he had to push open a manhole cover. Light spilled in from the surface. He crawled onto the street, pushing Sen onto the asphalt first. Once Kellan hefted himself out of the underground, he turned and cursed under his breath a second time.

A gargantuan centipede scuttled across the street, hundreds of legs a thing of legend.

Clutched between its pincers was a dead bunny.