Fay and the rest of the tower raiding party advanced by inches, careful not to spook the Five Segment Chimeric Centipede before the trap was ready.
One of the cultivators, a man skilled in trapping and hunting, began weaving hand seals. A fowl flew out soon after, its body packed with sleeping agents, paralyzing neurotoxins, and qi numbing poisons meant to slow the flow of power through flesh.
The tactic had worked on the first four floors. The centipede had been unable to use movement techniques under the poisons' weight.
Unfortunately, its natural speed as a chimeric centipede was still monstrous enough to let it dart wherever it pleased.
The fowl was caught. At once, the cultivators moved into place. Then the creature sniffed.
Its eyes turned toward one hiding place after another, almost lazily, and it gave the captured fowl a slow, mocking lick.
It had smelled the toxins. Worse, it knew exactly where their hunters crouched.
