2.4 Stinger
4 – Stinger
“What do you think about Jace?” Lucy asked as Andy brushed his hands off and watched the Jeep roll off the road and into the ditch. He looked at her, surprised by the question, only to find her staring down the road at the trailer and the people around it. Following her gaze, he could see that Robert and Lydia were struggling to guide the horses around an overturned flatbed, but they were making progress.
Lucy tucked some of her loose, wavy brown hair behind an ear, and Andy watched, fascinated to think those thin, delicate-looking fingers could be so deadly with a bow and arrow. He started to answer her, then paused, turning to look for the other member of their vehicle-clearing crew. Dave was further up the road, working on moving a small, white bus with a church logo.
“Did you hear me?” Lucy asked, nudging his arm.
“Um, how do you mean?”
“Well, I mean, he’s got a quick temper, but he also listens to you.” She shrugged. “I just think it’s interesting what he went through. I mean, his family turning into…” She trailed off, then quickly added, “I was surprised his sister didn’t come. They seem inseparable.”
“Do they?” Andy hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah. I mean…” She shrugged. “It felt that way to me, but maybe that was just my impression. Anyway, do you think he’s okay?”
Andy was still trying to figure out how the topic had come up, but he nodded. “Yeah, he seems fine.”
“Yo! Push this sucker!” Dave shouted.
“Come on.” Andy jogged ahead, got behind the little bus, and shoved. It took several seconds of straining before it began to roll, and by then Lucy joined in, putting her weight—such as it was—into the effort. As they finally got the vehicle shoved into the next lane, Andy looked down the road to the east and smiled. “Clear sailing ahead!”
Lucy unslung her bow, nodding. “Yep. We’re more than halfway now, too.”
They’d been making steady progress away from the town, and Andy figured she was right; they’d be turning off to the north, veering toward the mesa soon. “Hey, we ought to name the settlement something to do with ‘mesa,’ don’t you think?”
“I guess that’s not a bad idea,” Lucy replied. “It’s certainly a standout feature.”
“We can open the topic up to the community for ideas.”
“What’s that?” Dave asked, clambering out of the bus.
“Nothing, just talking about renaming our settlement.”
“Ah, yeah. Folks were pretty quick to do that back at the store.” He shrugged, reaching into his back pocket for a canister of nicotine pouches.
Andy chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re gonna be hurting when those things run out.”
He shrugged. “Imagine you’re right, but I’ve got a couple of cases stashed back at the store, and I’m trying to wean myself off.”
Suddenly, Lucy stiffened, lifting her bow. “Something…” she muttered.
Andy jogged back to where they’d been pushing the Jeep and picked up his spear, scanning the nearby desert and trying to pick up any sounds that felt out of place. It was a difficult task, though; his Reaper’s Senses allowed him to hear a lot. When he strained his ears, he could hear the horses huffing and snorting. He could hear Robert coaxing them along and a dozen conversations among the people escorting the wagon. He even picked up the sound of Bella barking out a laugh, and she and Jace were way back down the road. He could hear smaller animals moving around through the brush, and he could hear… an awful, spine-tingling chittering sound.
“The hell is that?” he whispered, glancing at Lucy to confirm she was looking toward the source of the sound.
“I don’t know, but my Hunter’s Instincts are going crazy. I almost feel like we should run, but that would be stupid with the trailer back there.”
Andy nodded, readying himself, stalking toward the sound. He could pick up other noises now—the thud-crunch of feet pounding into the sunbaked soil, the grinding scratch of dried brush rubbing on something hard, and a strange, hard-to-identify clack that made him think of two boards being slammed together. He found himself wishing it were dark, and he got ready to cast his Shadow Burst spell, just in case.
He was aware of Lucy moving along the road with him, keeping back, but following his steps as he tracked whatever was approaching. It seemed to be moving at an angle, heading toward the trailer and the larger group of people. Why would it do that? Didn’t predators usually seek out stragglers?
“Something’s coming!” he shouted, starting to jog, eyes scanning the desert. When the sounds felt like they were close—maybe twenty yards or less—he caught his first glimpse, and his heart began to hammer. It was a chitin-clad tail and stinger that glistened like glass in the sunlight. It moved above the nearby creosote bushes as its owner hurried toward the trailer and horses.
“Is that what I think it is?” Lucy called, breathless.
“Some kind of magical, giant scorpion,” Andy said, gritting his teeth. He wasn’t as surprised as some people might have been. He’d known it was a possibility ever since he, Lucy, and her brother had faced off with the giant tarantula. Even more, he’d gotten a clue when James gave him the spear “recipe” from the System. One of the items was a “vitreous scorpion stinger.” He hadn’t known what “vitreous” even meant, but Violet had cleared it up for him: glasslike.
The horses were balking, eyes wide, neighing as they pounded their hooves and pulled against their harnesses. Robert was trying to control them, and Lydia and several others were piling on, grabbing straps and leads. Meanwhile, a few of their escorts were hurrying toward Andy, weapons ready. “Stay back!” he shouted. “Let me try to get its attention.”
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All Andy could think of was how Lucy’s brother, Steve, had died, how he’d gotten the spider’s attention early on and been dissolved from the inside out for his trouble. Andy was faster, though, and he had a spear. He could try to distract the monstrous arachnid and, hopefully, everyone could do enough damage to bring it down. He’d just completed the thought when the scorpion burst through the brush and clambered over the barbed-wire fence like it wasn’t there.
Half the people hurrying toward him stopped, some of them stumbling in their haste to avoid approaching the monster. Andy’s mind struggled for a comparison when he saw it. It was as big as an ATV. Its chitin glistened like black-tinted glass. Its pincers were wide enough to clamp around a person’s arm or leg, and its eight legs thudded against the road like pistons as it drove toward the group of people between it and the wagon—the horses.
Andy didn’t hesitate. Two people were scrambling, trying to get to their feet, panicked and shaking, and none of the others looked ready to face a monster like that scorpion as it clicked and hissed, driving toward them. He sprinted, eyes scanning the creature, searching for a weakness. Almost like it was highlighted, he saw a gap in the scorpion’s armor where its thick tail rose from the body. Andy lunged, grunting with the effort, driving the tip of his razor-sharp, smoke-clad spear blade into the gap.
Watery, blue-green fluid spurted from the impact, the scorpion shrieked, and its legs pounded the pavement as it rotated to face him. The movement threatened to pull Andy’s spear from his hands, but he yanked it back, and more of that ichor sprayed onto the pavement as he jumped back, avoiding a snapping pincer. Even as he retreated, Andy saw the smoke drifting up from behind the scorpion; his corrosive enchantment had taken root, and it was burning away at the flesh beneath the monster’s armor.
The creature had clusters of eyes on either side of its broad head, and an arrow pounded into one of the two larger ones, splattering much brighter green fluid all over the arachnid’s carapace. Again, it shrieked, a high, ear-piercing sound that nearly drowned out Lucy’s grunt of satisfaction at a shot well-placed.
Andy started to lunge, aiming to put his spear through another eye, but then the scorpion convulsed and its tail snapped out, driving its gleaming stinger forward. Andy slid to a stop, barely avoiding the strike as the glass-like stinger pounded into the pavement, punching six or eight inches into the hard surface. It used the momentum of the tail’s recoil to lunge, snapping its pincers at him again.
Andy was fast and ready. He used his spear to good effect, warding off the strikes and menacing the monster’s eyes to keep it from bowling him over. Meanwhile, Lucy launched another arrow that slammed right into the scorpion’s mouth. She’d used one of the arrows he’d enchanted for her, too, and he howled with satisfaction as he saw the corrosive smoke take hold and spread through the dark chitin.
The scorpion reared up, snapping its pincers at the air in front of its face, as though it could attack the smoke that was burning the soft flesh beneath its hard shell. Andy took the opportunity to trust his killer instincts and drove his spear at another gap in the chitin covering the monster’s underbelly. He found the gap, and his Smoke Lance enchantment made the spear impossibly sharp—it slid through the monster’s boneless flesh like it was water.
When Andy yanked it back and retreated, avoiding the snapping pincers, he knew his corrosive smoke was deep. He knew it would be doing terrible damage, but it didn’t matter—Lucy’s arrow to the mouth bearing the same enchantment was enough to kill it, given time. So, he backed off and watched as the other fighters near the wagon warily approached or fired their arrows and bolts.
Few of them scored any hits that penetrated the chitin, but the scorpion was already dying. It crumpled on legs that weren’t working properly, folding in on itself as it sank to the pavement, and black smoke drifted from its wounds. As it shuddered and shook, Dave came running forward, hammer held high, but he stopped beside Andy and Lucy.
“Holy shit, man! You’re fast as hell! How’d you dodge those pincers? I could barely follow ’em with my eyes!”
Andy looked at him sideways. Was that true? He’d seen the attacks coming without any problem and, yeah, he’d dodged them, but it hadn’t seemed like any kind of superhuman feat. His speed was eight, which was arguably faster than most humans before the System came to Earth, but not impossibly so. Was it his perception? Could he simply see the attacks coming sooner and, thereby, react better? He figured it was a combination of factors, including his fighting abilities.
“Is everyone okay?” Bella called, charging around the horses and trailer.
Before he could answer, the System distracted everyone with a message:
***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve defeated an elite roving enemy! Your teamwork and bravery were crucial elements in the victory, and your magical damage over time effects made all the difference. You’ve gained enough experience to advance to level 10 in your Umbral Reaper class, granting you an Improvement Point and the bound ability Shadowblind.
Shadowblind – bound: You release a bolt of shadow that strikes your foe’s eyes. Their vision clouds as their memory unravels. They are momentarily blinded and confused, forgetting what they saw mere seconds ago. In the gaps of memory, an assassin may walk unseen. Mana cost: 30.***
Before he could really think about the new ability, people were hurrying over, ogling the giant scorpion’s corpse, and exclaiming about the System’s messages they’d received.
“Damn! I almost got a level and I didn’t do squat!” Dave said with a laugh.
“I leveled!” Lucy announced.
Andy glanced at her and nodded. “Me too.” He turned back to the scorpion and reached for the knife the System had given him, drawing it from the sheath on his belt. “I need that stinger,” he announced, making his intention known.
“Careful, Andy,” Bea said, hurrying forward. “I can see the poison dripping out of it!”
Andy nodded; she wasn’t wrong. The stinger extending from the curled-up tail was about ten inches long, and a thin, faintly green, but mostly clear liquid was dripping from it, creating a small pool on the chitin covering the giant arachnid’s back. Andy leaned close, peering at the stinger, which was just about eye level. The tip was sharp and, on close inspection, he could see that it flattened out to a blade near the hole where the liquid was dripping out. “Damn thing looks sharp,” he muttered.
“Yeah, seriously,” Bella said, standing on the other side of the monster. “Be careful.”
“Where should I cut?” Andy wondered aloud.
One of the women from Grace Haven stepped forward, clearing her throat. “If you really want that stinger, cut a couple of segments away from it. The venom sac’s right at the base, and you don’t want that stuff spraying in your face.”
Andy looked at her—a young woman, maybe his age, wearing glasses and carrying a compact crossbow. “Thanks. Good to know.”
“Ellie worked at the desert museum,” Lydia said.
“Oh yeah?” Andy raised an eyebrow. The young woman nodded, pushing her dark-framed glasses up her nose. “Cool.”
He turned back to the scorpion and, conscious of the eyes on him, slid his dagger’s sharp edge into the gap in the tail’s segments. He gripped the joint just above the stinger, glad for his gloves—though he doubted they’d stop that sharp barb if he slipped. Holding tight, he sawed with the blade, pushing hard. Whether the dagger was simply that sharp, or the flesh softer than he imagined, he didn’t know. Either way, the tail gave way in just three strokes.
He held his prize aloft, and the glass-like black stinger glinted in the sunlight. As several people cheered and clapped, he laughed, turning to look at Lucy. “Hell yeah! Think we ought to cut anything else off this bad boy?”