Chapter 33 – Scorpion has had Enough
Chapter 33 - Scorpion has had Enough
The conflict was officially the longest fight the scorpion had in its waking mind. The constant wounds tore her flesh from her body, sending visceral pain through her body. Each attack simultaneously brought exhaustion and a spark of energy that kept her fighting.
Still, she wasn’t sure how long it truly took to completely deal with the hoard. Her mind retreated away during combat to maintain some semblance of mental faculty when the violence was over.
The pain from the vast number of attacks the vermin inflicted upon her lingered, though she knew there was nothing there that could be done at the moment to relieve herself of this current physical torment.
After a brief reprieve, the scorpion pushed itself off the ground.
It’s over… I need to leave this place now.
Velasteros activated her skill to return back to her human form. Unlike previous attempts since gaining a human form, she hadn’t been able to store away her clothes before her rapid transformation. She pulled out a spare set of clothes. A bulk purchase since she had come to the city with barely anything.
Well… good news looks like no one saw my transformation…
She picked up the remains of her now shredded old clothes. It could be recycled to an extent, and leaving it here could potentially cause problems if her luck wanted to backfire even more.
Did the whole situation go well? No. Very much impossible for Valmyst to say that, but at least she made some improvements? Her level increased, and the intensity of combat felt like it pushed her skills to their limit.
My whole body aches… Argh… now I got to get back to… Well, I guess the base camp first? Or the city?
Valmys paused. Due to her situation, she lost track of the overarching situation, so she didn’t know if the expedition ended up being successful. Fear and worry became drawing pictures of all the horrible consequences. The Iron Army escaping, overwhelming Catcher, reaching Navivade and killing the few Valmyst had slowly been learning to care about.
No! Everything will be alright. Just… be positive, me… just be positive until I know for sure.
Her attempt at self-hypnosis was mildly effective. It helped her enough to keep pushing herself forward to try and reach… home…
Valmyst pulled herself out of a cave into a forest, following the path she had made by destroying the wall. Once she walked through the forest, she was slammed with a very similar feeling to her prior travels. Her time as merely a fresh scorpion out in the world, then her second journey away from that small settlement. This sudden feeling did more bad than good; as the emptiness brought some calm, the similarity made a small segment of her emotions fear that she was regressing.
I’m fine. Everything is fine.
Attempt two at self-hypnosis was a little worse.
“Ergh!” She tripped with a pained cry. Her fresh clothes immediately got dirty, and a few of the loose fabric got cut on the loose bramble. An unfortunate situation that had a minor benefit when she desperately tried to look at it positively.
I guess people will believe me about barely escaping…
Her outer appearance was slowly changing shape to what she was intentionally feeling. Speaking of which, Valmyst slowly noticed as her mind caught everything: the injuries that covered her scorpion form were nowhere to be seen on the human. However, she still could feel the effects of the injuries. Outside of the pain, it almost felt like there were holes within her body, where the flesh had been ripped away even though from the outside she still looked whole.
Eventually she had to sit down. The exhaustion in her body was simply too much to keep moving.
I need to eat…
She pulled out high energy rations that were mostly just dried meat covered in salt and a pouch of multiple cubes of sugar. She viciously tore the meat apart, swallowed the sugar, then drank water from a waterskin. The sudden sugar gave her a small jolt, which reminded her to put away these supplies.
So that was my sibling's spawn…
The Iron Army’s threat was calculated by what happened if it was in an active mode and spread, which meant it was quite high, but the individuals were weak, weak enough that she could survive first contact but if more than a squad of bugs had found her, then she knew that might not be having any of these thoughts right now.
Why would they make something like this…
Her mind began to wander to think of at least a reason before she made herself stop.
No… I’m done for the day.
For the umpteenth time today, the scorpion felt time slip. Waiting on nature’s stool for a while before finally getting up again to move back to somewhere. The primary goal was the base camp, but whatever civilisations came first would do.
Though, as luck would have it, she did make it to said goal.
Upon returning to the main camp, she found it mostly empty. There weren't supposed to be many people staying around, but there were certainly fewer than what she remembered. A few people were injured and sitting down, and one person ran about and seemingly headed back into the cave. The certain man she didn’t want to run into thankfully wasn’t around, and neither was his party.
Valmyst’s arrival in the camp was met with a few stares but nothing else. Perhaps they thought she’d run away or had only just escaped, either way, people had enough worries.
Then Valmyst froze upon seeing her mentor sitting on a rock. At peace in a way that made her heart bleed.
“Oh hey, good to see that you got out safe.” He said with only a hint of pain, but his words contained the genuine delight that she had made it out alive.
“Catcher…”
Valmyst saw that Catcher had a large hole in his lower abdomen, and a chunk of his upper left arm had been taken out.
“Are you…”
“I’ll be fine.” He said, but Valmyst hated those words. Her emotions, the ones that cared about him, were up in arms: how dare something like this happen, and why wasn’t he doing something more about his injuries?
“...” She held her tongue from saying the words her emotions were feeling. Her friend didn’t need that. So instead she just looked at him and asked. “Are you ready to go home?”
Valmyst had had enough of everything for today.