Chapter 21

Sunlight streamed down towards the lone dead tree in the center of the wide, circular cavern. Surrounding the tree was pale loose sand, the kind that the party had already learned to be wary of. More than one pit of sand had led to an ambush by dungeon monsters. Looking across, they could see what appeared to be ruins on the other end of the chamber, a stone doorway shrouded in shadow was the only other opening in the room.

“I don’t like the look of this. Gives boss room vibes.” Ethan pointed towards the exit on the far side of the cavern. “Unless we can scale the walls, we’re going to have to cross the sand to make it through here.”

“I can Shadow Bolt the sand?” Penny suggested, eyes scanning the room. “The vibrations might draw out whatever is waiting for us.”

“Good idea. Do it”

Penny cast the spell, the array of Shadow Bolts forming before her, hovering for a moment in front of her before they shot off in different directions. The bolts threw up sprays of sand, and they waited ... and waited.

“If this is a boss room, it may be intelligent enough to not fall for it.” Grace was standing ready to react, eyes forward as she spoke. “I could go in. I’ll keep Momentum Breaker primed, if the boss does jump me, I’ll be able to tank the first hit.”

“I think maybe we let Alice take this one, Grace” Ethan replied, the unspoken implication being her lack of a bond and subsequent lack of healing. He turned to Alice “I’ll keep the Boost channeled, and you can Surge out of the way if you get attacked.”

Alice nodded in understanding. “I’ll head for the tree in the middle. It looks rocky there, which should give me some cover if something ambushes me from the sand.”

They got into positions, ready to react as Alice stepped out into the loose sand. She froze after the first step, testing to see if something would strike immediately. Her eyes scanning side to side, she began to move forward, her steps steady despite the loose footing. She was at the halfway point between the cavern entrance and the island in the middle when the creature struck.

A large scorpion’s tail lifted up, over 15 feet in length, sand streaming off of it as it moved to strike at Alice. It came at her with a blur, the stinger tip glowing a sickly green. Alice reacted immediately, Surging forward to the dead tree. A second tail lifted up, similar to the first, striking at Alice as she moved towards the island.

Alice leapt and spun as the second tail lashed out at her. Her blade made contact with the stinger as she moved, the crack of her Shock reverberated around the cavern, leaving a scorched mark on the tail where she had struck it.

Grace moved forward, her Leap Thrust letting her close the distance. Jabbing forward, she drove the tip of her halberd into the first tail, the spike penetrating and cracking the chitin shell. A screech rang out in response and the sand beneath Grace began to vibrate. The body of the creature began to rise up, forcing Grace to back off, avoiding the sharp legs that stabbed at where she had been a moment before.

The creature continued lifting itself up, revealing its body to be nearly as long as its tail. When it fully moved above the sand, they all saw what looked to be the naked torso of a woman from the waist up where its head should have been. The woman’s skin was a pale sickly gray, with long strings of dark ratty hair tied up to fall down her back. The creature turned to look at Ethan, Mei, and Penny, large eyes solid black, with what appeared to be extra sets of smaller eyes wrapping around the sides of it’s head.

“Aqrabuamelu!” Ethan shouted, recognizing the creature from their bestiary classes. A hybrid between man and scorpion, straight from Mesopotamian mythology. There were dozens of theories around how dungeons were creating creatures from human mythos. Whatever the answer was, it mattered little as the creature attacked.

A Boosted Earth Wall rose just as the creature lunged forward. The two large front claws of the beast slammed into the wall, sending cracks through it,, but the long spiraled spear the women’s human arms held pierced straight through the wall to slam against Ethan’s shield. His feet slid backwards from the force of the blow, prompting them all to move, with Mei responding with Boosted Rock Shards as she ran. Sand streamed up and condensed into hard slivers before her and she fired them into the face of the creature, aiming for the eyes.

It reared up and blindly slammed its claws down on the other side of the wall while it screeched again, the creature’s human looking jaw opening sideways to reveal pincer-like appendages. Unlike the first time, they were feet away and the sound deafened them, blood running from their ears. Alice and the Shadow Minion were there together the next moment, each attacking from different directions. Alice Surged forward and leapt up to the top of the scorpion’s body, thrusting her blade into the shoulder of the human torso while the minion’s claws ripped into the stomach of the creature’s human body. The minion’s claws were torn downwards through flesh by the force of the scorpion creature leaping backwards. The minion was thrown loose as soft flesh turned to hard chitin, but the creature wasn’t so lucky with Alice. Grabbing a handful of hair to steady herself, Alice remained on the creature, beginning to channel her Shocks as quickly as she could.

Penny’s shroud came down around the creature as it landed, covering Grace’s charge. Her halberd swung, the blade shearing a leg from the beast cleanly before getting caught tight halfway through the next leg, the blade pinched as the leg flexed.