Neither of them moved.
The creature's dark eyes held them from across the clearing with the patience of something that had never once needed to rush.
Up close, the scale of it was difficult to process. The spine running the length of its back was taller than Damon standing upright, the six legs planted wide in the sediment, leaving small craters where they stood.
It looked at them the way humans look at ants.
Then it moved.
It traversed with an eerie silence, crossing the distance faster than it had any right to. The ground trembled slightly with each stride, but the soft earth beneath made each of its stomps silent.
Damon didn't linger.
He stepped into the shadows and came out of the creature's flank, just as Nyla's hammer came crushing at its side.
The monster lunged at her just as Damon drove his sword into the joint between two carapace plates along its side.
The creature turned toward her.
