The creature charged directly at Daniel, its bladed legs clicking against the stone floor like a nightmare metronome.
Daniel froze.
His entire body locked up. The kitchen knife trembled in his hand as his brain screamed at him to move, do something, RUN—but his legs wouldn't listen. The monster was a blur of black chitin and snapping mandibles, closing the distance in seconds, and all Daniel could do was stand there like an idiot.
I'm going to die. This is it. I'm going to—
CRACK!
Dante's baseball bat connected with the creature's side mid-lunge, the impact echoing through the chamber like a gunshot. The monster went flying, crashing into the ground and skidding several feet before tumbling to a stop.
"DANIEL!" Dante grabbed him by the front of his overalls, shaking him hard. His eyes were wild—terrified but burning with desperate intensity. "LOCK IN OR WE DIE, OKAY?!"
The words hit Daniel like a bucket of ice water.
Right. Shit. I can't freeze. If I freeze, we're all dead.
He nodded shakily, his grip tightening on the knife.
The creature was already getting back up.
It shook itself like a dog, apparently completely fine despite the massive hit it had just taken. Its eyeless head swiveled toward them, that circular maw opening and closing with a wet click-click-click sound.
"Are you KIDDING me?!" Kevin yelled, his voice cracking.
The creature charged again—but this time it went for Dante.
It slammed into him like a battering ram, tackling him to the ground. Dante hit the stone floor hard with a pained grunt, his baseball bat clattering away. The creature's legs scrambled for purchase on his chest, its maw lunging for his throat.
"GET OFF HIM!" Kevin screamed.
He swung his tire iron down with everything he had, slamming it into the creature's back. The chitin cracked with a satisfying crunch. He swung again. And again. Smashing the same spot over and over, the shell splintering under the assault.
But the thing wouldn't die.
It thrashed violently, one of its bladed legs slashing across Dante's forearm. Blood sprayed.
"FUCK!" Dante screamed, his face twisted in pain.
[PARTY MEMBER: DANTE MORRIS - HP: 84/100]
The notification flashed in the corner of Daniel's vision, snapping him out of his paralysis.
Dante's hurt. Kevin can't kill it alone. Move. MOVE!
Daniel rushed forward, his heart hammering so hard he thought it might explode. He raised the kitchen knife with both hands and drove it down into the creature's cracked back—right where Kevin had been hitting it.
The blade punched through.
The creature shrieked—a horrible, metallic screech that made Daniel's teeth ache.
He yanked the knife out. Black ichor dripped from the blade.
And then he stabbed it again.
And again.
And again.
Over and over, his movements frantic and desperate, the knife rising and falling in a brutal rhythm. Blood—his or the creature's, he didn't know—splattered across his hands, his overalls, his face. The creature thrashed beneath him, its legs flailing, but Daniel didn't stop.
He couldn't stop.
All the fear, all the panic, all the frustration of his boring, dead-end life—it all poured out through the blade.
STAB.
For every day wasted in that warehouse.
STAB.
For every time I felt powerless.
STAB.
For almost letting my friend die because I was too scared to move.
The creature's movements slowed. Then stopped.
Its legs curled inward, twitching once, twice, and then going still.
[CREATURE DEFEATED: SCUTTLER]
[+200 EXP]
The notification appeared in front of all three of them simultaneously, glowing softly in the chaos of the chamber.
Daniel collapsed backward onto the floor, his chest heaving, hands still gripping the blood-soaked knife. His entire body was shaking.
"Holy... shit..." he gasped.
Dante sat up slowly, clutching his bleeding arm. He looked at the dead creature, then at Daniel, and then—impossibly—he laughed.
It was a breathless, slightly hysterical sound, but genuine.
"Well," Dante said, his voice shaky but grinning through the pain, "that was gruesome."
Kevin was bent over, hands on his knees, looking like he was about to throw up. "I hate this. I hate this so much."
"We're still alive, though," Dante said, getting to his feet with a wince. He glanced around the chamber—at the screaming people, the swarming creatures, the blood already staining the stone floor. "And we need to move. There's—"
"BEHIND YOU!" Daniel shouted.
Another Scuttler had emerged from the crowd, skittering toward Kevin's unguarded back.
Dante spun and swung his bat in one fluid motion—CRACK—connecting with the creature's head and sending it flying into a nearby wall. It hit with a sickening crunch and crumpled.
[CREATURE DEFEATED: SCUTTLER]
[+200 EXP]
Dante looked at his bat, then at the others. "Okay. We can do this. We just need to—"
[WARNING: ELITE ENEMY APPROACHING]
The notification appeared in blood-red text, larger than the others, pulsing ominously.
The three of them froze.
"...Elite?" Kevin whispered.
The ground shook.
From the largest passage on the far side of the chamber, something emerged. Something big.
It was at least twelve feet tall, built like the smaller Scuttlers but scaled up horrifically. Its chitin was darker, thicker, covered in jagged spikes. It had six bladed legs instead of four, and its maw was large enough to swallow a person whole.
[ELITE SCUTTLER - LEVEL 5]
It turned its eyeless head toward the crowd of panicking people and screeched—a sound so loud and piercing that several people collapsed, clutching their ears.
And then it charged into the crowd like a truck through cardboard.
People screamed. Blood sprayed. Bodies went flying.
"Oh god," Kevin breathed. "Oh god, we can't fight that thing—"
"We're not going to," Daniel said, forcing himself to his feet. His legs felt like jelly, but he stayed upright. "We're going to survive. That's the objective. Survive."
[TIME REMAINING: 53 MINUTES]
Dante nodded, his expression grim. "He's right. We need to find defensible positions. Stay away from that thing. Pick off the smaller ones when we can."
"Stick together," Daniel added. "No matter what."
[PARTY CHAT - DANTE: If we get separated, rally point is the entrance we came through.]
[PARTY CHAT - KEVIN: Please don't let us get separated.]
[PARTY CHAT - DANIEL: We won't. Move!]
The three of them broke into a run, weaving through the chaos as more Scuttlers poured from the walls and that massive Elite tore through the crowd like a force of nature.
Floor 1 had begun.
And they were going to survive it.
No matter what it took.