"It's a—"
Before Kurai could finish... before Arkhan's chariot could begin moving... it was too late.
Some thing erupted from the gory sands of the red desert. Some giant, armored thing.
The first thing they might have all felt was surprise, as an inescapable maw shot out from below and eclipsed their surroundings. The farmhouse, the truck, the chariot, them... all consumed faster than they could blink. The second thing they felt, or rather, the second thing they saw... was darkness. It was as if they had been thrust into a cave. The idea that that was the case was swiftly stomped out as the sounds of cascades of saliva surrounded them, the thick, gelatinous substance dripping all around them in miniature waterfalls.
There was some light that they could see for a few moments before the dark consumed them, light from the false sun that shone through the thing's teeth before it closed its massive, gaping maw. But it was quick to close its carapaced jaw, its many rows of mountainous teeth slamming shut and blotting out all light.
And then, they were falling in the dark. They could hear the thing burrowing its way back into the sand from within it. Kurai finished her sentence too late.
"....daemon sand centipede."
