Chapter 156 – Giant Scorpion.

“Keep it busy! We just need more time.”

“It’s breaking through… nooo… my Orc!”

A young man shouted as he watched his summoned creature dissolve into particles of light, snapped in half by a massive pincer. The pincer belonged to a towering black creature that looked like a monstrous scorpion. Its oversized tail dripped with a corrosive fluid that hissed each time it touched the ground, burning into the earth and releasing faint tendrils of smoke that curled upward and disappeared into the mist.

The creature loomed at twice the height of an average human. Its glossy carapace shimmered like polished obsidian. Every step it took sent tremors through the ground, and its tail swung behind it in a deadly rhythm.

Three students were locked in combat with the beast. Two scrambled to keep their distance, while the third, the one who had lost his orc, collapsed to his knees, stunned and unarmed. His summoned beast was already fading into mana, leaving him completely exposed.

“Watch out!”

“Ahh…”

The monster struck, hurling its stinger toward the kneeling student. The others screamed, but they were too late. The stinger connected with his chest. Yet, instead of piercing through, something unexpected happened. The boy’s body began to glow with a soft blue light, then vanished in a beam that shot away into the distance. His life seemingly was spared by some kind of emergency escape magic but it didn’t make the experience any more horrific.

“Damn, it got Joffrey. What are we going to do now? We don’t have a Vanguard summon anymore!”

The two students backed away. One of them was clearly panicking. He had fallen to the ground and was trying to crawl away from the approaching black scorpion. The monster raised its pincers and fixed its gaze on the young man wearing a black robe marked with a bluish C-class emblem.

“What are you doing? Get out of there!”

The one shouting was a young girl wearing a circlet that held her greenish hair in place. Her long ears extended from both sides of her head, shorter than those of a full-blooded elf but still distinct. A shiny fairy glowing with green light hovered beside her, hands outstretched toward the advancing creature. A stream of greenish energy shot from the fairy and struck the ground, spreading into small glowing veins that formed a binding spell. The spell halted the monster’s advance for a moment.

From the side, an arrow flew through the air, fired by another summoned creature. It resembled a goblin, though it was larger than one yet smaller than a hobgoblin. The creature wielded a shortbow and aimed for one of the scorpion’s many eyes, but the monster managed to block the shot with its massive pincers. It was not alone. Standing beside it was an identical creature, this one armed with two daggers.

The scorpion quickly tore through the binding spell and charged at the young man who had collapsed on the ground. Although the girl with the circlet kept shouting at him to move, his legs trembled too much to obey. He couldn’t get up.

The monster pounced, snapping its pincers at him. In an instant, he too vanished into a streak of blue light and shot off into the distance. With their summoner gone, the two smaller creatures began to fade, unable to maintain their form without him.

“Not him too…”

The black scorpion turned its attention to the girl wearing the circlet, who stood beside a hovering fairy. Its many legs scraped loudly against the earth as its acidic stinger lashed from side to side, hissing with every flick. The fairy darted in front of her summoner, wings beating furiously, and raised her small hands. A dome of pale green energy expanded around them just before the monster struck.

Its tail slammed into the shield with a thunderous smack, splashing acidic droplets across the surface. The barrier shimmered and pulsed, veins of light appearing as the spell buckled under the force of the blow. The girl winced, sweat beading at her temples as she held both hands toward the fairy. Her mana was draining rapidly, far too fast for her to keep up.

“No, I was so close. I just needed a bit more to reach B class.”

She cried out in frustration as the monster struck again. The tail bounced off the shield but left behind a web of cracks.

“I need to hold on. If I can just get away…”

She whispered through clenched teeth, but another hit landed before she could think of an escape. The shield groaned under the pressure. Acid sizzled where it splattered across the ground, burning into bark and stone. There seemed to be no way out and no one nearby to help her. The fairy she had summoned was meant for support and healing, not for fighting. She had no offense to rely on.

However, unbeknownst to her, someone was watching from behind a nearby tree. When the moment was right, he made his move. The sound of metal footsteps followed, surprisingly light despite the form of the creature being rather tall and made out of metal.

*****

Rusty burst from the fog, his halberd gripped tight and raised high. The monster turned at the last second, but it was too late. With a clean, brutal motion, Rusty brought the blade of the halberd down in a wide arc, cleaving through the scorpion’s tail just as it reared up to strike again. A screeching metallic howl echoed through the clearing as the tail was severed, splattering acidic liquids across the grass.

The shield around the girl flickered violently, then collapsed altogether, shattering like glass into fading fragments of light. She stumbled backward, her mana nearly spent, eyes wide with disbelief.

“You… w-who?”

She wanted to speak but couldn’t catch her breath. The rapid loss of mana had overwhelmed her, leaving her momentarily paralyzed.

Rusty didn’t respond. Instead, he stepped between her and the monster, sweeping his halberd outward in a protective arc. He gripped the weapon with both hands at first, but then, to everyone’s surprise, he turned his left hand to the side. It shot out in the direction he had come from and returned almost instantly, bringing back the kite shield he had originally been equipped with.

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Just in time, he raised it to block a pincer strike from the creature. The impact sent him sliding back nearly a meter but after increasing his weight, he instantly stopped in his tracks.

“Are you all right?”

Gwen emerged from behind the tree and bushes, slightly out of breath, sweat trickling down her forehead. The girl with the elongated ears looked up in surprise, then quickly realized that help had arrived. Without hesitation, she retreated a few steps, calling her fairy to her side. Using the brief moment of relief, she reached into the spatial bag attached to her robe and pulled out a mana potion.

She drank it quickly. As the magic took effect, the pounding in her head began to ease. Once her energy was restored and she felt revitalized, she prepared to assist her rescuers but quickly realized she didn’t need to.

The living armor that had come to her aid was far more formidable than anything she had ever seen from this kind of construct. It moved with fluid precision, circling the obsidian monster and forcing it back with relentless pressure. Each strike found its mark, poking more holes into the creature’s carapace than her entire party had managed during their fight.

“Are you from A-class?”

The girl turned to Gwen as she asked, but Gwen averted her gaze. A quick glance at the baggy dark robe and the D-class emblem pinned to it gave away her true status. The revelation made the situation even more unbelievable. The elvish girl stared in disbelief, then a sudden realization struck her.

“You’re the one who beat Katherine! But wait… let us talk later!”

Gwen gave a timid nod and turned her focus forward. The other girl glanced at her fairy and pointed toward the fight.