The centipede announced itself by breaching the ground.
Kai felt it first—an off-beat vibration in the rock, wrong against his pressure sense. Not a quake. A body. Something huge that made earth behave like water.
Scout felt it three seconds later. Her pheromone markers went razor-sharp.
"Multiple limbs. Following the main water channel. It's not hunting randomly."
Silence fell in that way reality does right before it breaks.
Kai's genetic memory spiked into static. The ancestral voice that had been rising since the carved warnings now screamed until his thoughts scattered.
Predator. The kind the stones drew with too much detail. The kind you only draw that well if you watched it hunt and lived long enough to regret it.
Twenty-three reached Rally Point Alpha in minutes. Kai counted without choosing to.
Twitchy. Bitey. Whisper. Dig. Current. Guardian. New fighters. Builders from three weeks ago. Young kits who'd never faced anything bigger than a shove.
Not enough.
