Kai blinked against the burning sting in his eyes. The air, if it could be called air, was thick, humid, and suffocating, reeking of rotting meat and a bitterness that seared the back of his throat. It was worse than Vepice's medicinal sludge back in the forest, a nauseating mix of bile, blood, and half-digested horrors.
He didn't waste time gagging. Already, the walls of the worm's gullet rippled and squeezed, pushing him deeper toward its stomach.
Flames burst from his palms, flooding the tunnel of flesh with blistering heat. He carved deep black streaks into the glistening walls, cooking strips of meat to charred husks. But against something this massive, the damage was little more than a rash on a titan. The worm shrieked, a sound that echoed through the creature's whole body, but the burning didn't slow its convulsions.
A flood of thick, stinging fluid surged toward him, foaming and hissing as it ate into his boots. The acid was coming for him fast, hungry and relentless.
