11 – More Than We Bargained For

“What was that?” Kaylin asked, casting around the clearing at the new sound, her staff held out in front of her.

“It came from all around us,” Jax said. “Be ready.”

As he said it, a dozen insects ranging in size from a cat to a large pig skittered out of the undergrowth. They had shiny brown carapaces, with wicked-looking pincers that could snap a thick bone in half. Behind each of them a tail curved upwards ending in a menacing, dripping stinger. “Freaking giant scorpions, of course.” Ren whispered.

The scorpion pack–is it even called a pack? What do you call a group of scorpions?– closed in on the small band of adventurers, their claws clicking.

“Ice fog, Kaylin. Now!” Jax yelled.

She thrust her staff forward, its tip glowing turquoise as a white light erupted out, streaking towards a group of five of the scorpions. It hit the middle one before exploding in a fifteen-foot area as a dense translucent fog. Immediately, ice crystals formed on the shells of the insects caught within.

“We aren’t ready for this many!” Jax continued. “We need a path out.” The large man dashed to the side, away from the fog and the group of ice-slowed monsters and towards a group of two, each the size of a medium dog. His four-foot long battle axe started to glow as he activated his Warrior’s Cleave skill. With incredible speed, Jax arced the large weapon across the body of one of the scorpions, slicing it into two.

Ren took in the scene, tightening his grip on the hilt of the wooden sparring sword as he evaluated his options. Focusing on the second monster near the one Jax had just eviscerated, he used Duelist’s Eye.

As before with the musttels, time slowed. His companions and the attacking monsters halting to a crawl, the clicking sounds of carapace and claws going quiet. As the skill fully activated, the details of the giant scorpion shifted into sharp focus, like he had a mental magnifying glass hovering over it. Its body began glowing a faint yellow with three concentrated deep red areas focused on the connection joints on the stinger and the claws. Got you. Ren thought as time resumed.

“Hit them below the stinger and claws! Right where they connect!” Ren yelled. “That’s their weak area!”

“What?” Jax said. “How would you kno–”

“Trust me here, ok?!” Without waiting for a response Ren shifted his stance focusing on the scorpion in front of him. He moved his bokken to its ready position before activating dashing strike as a follow up. He blinked to the monster already in mid swing, the wooden sword arcing towards the exposed joint on the tail.

The bokken slammed into the scorpion with terrifying force, easily three times the speed and impact that Ren was expecting, the stinger shattering into an explosion of green ichor where the blade made contact.

“What the…” he began, shocked by the force he was able to bring to bear on the creature, before a sharp burning sensation ran up his leg. “Ahh!” The, now-stingerless, monster was holding onto his calf with its wicked-looking pincers. He tried to kick it away but the scorpion hung on and flopped to the side like some kind of sadistic rag doll. The claws continued to dig into him. “Jax, help, please!”

“A little busy here!” The sound of metal on hard insect shell rang out from the side as Jax attacked two more oncoming scorpions.

“Hold still, Ren!” Kaylin cried out.

“Kind of hard to do with my–-ah! New friend.” Ren raised the sparring sword, taking aim at the joint right below where the claw connected to the foreleg. Maybe if I– Piercing cold joined the pain as the entire front half of the creature turned white with frost. Ren swung down at the joint, shattering it into frozen shards.

“Let’s go!” Kaylin was already moving past him, slamming the end of her staff into the frozen head of the scorpion, killing it.

Ren stood still, shock and pain holding him in place.

“Ren! Jax! We have to retreat!” Kaylin was at the edge of the clearing, having found an opening in the circle of monsters past the two that they had killed. The frost was already beginning to thaw on the five that had been caught in the fog.

“AHH!” From beside him Jax screamed, jarring Ren out of his momentary stupor. Two scorpions stood close to the large man, both missing a claw. Their long stingers retracted from where they had stabbed him in one of his unarmored legs.

With another shout, Jax swung his large battle axe in a sweeping motion, cutting off both tails with a single sweep.

“Come on, come on!” Ren dashed up beside the large man, grabbing hold of the back of his chainmail to drag him away from the remaining creatures.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Coming!”

Together, Ren and Jax limped over to join Kaylin by the edge of the clearing. She fired one more frost bolt towards the last group of three insects before leading them back into the forest, momentarily leaving the mayhem behind.

“Can you do another ice fog?” Ren asked, breathless, as they moved.

“Not yet, it takes time between casts. I can feel it building, but it will be at least another tick.”

“Ok. Ok, ok. Let’s keep going. We can create some space and then use another fog to get away.” Ren was already able to almost move normally, the claw wound on his leg having faded to a dull ache as the minor regeneration boon worked to heal the injury. They ran on for several more moments, creating distance from their scuttling pursuers.

“Leave me, ah!” Behind them, Jax had fallen to a knee, one hand braced against a tree.

Ren and Kaylin turned, the mage moving back to her cousin. “Jax, come on! What’s wrong?”

“Ughh, the leg, it’s my leg.” He tried to move, to take a step, but when he put pressure on his left leg, it gave out under his weight. He chuckled, “That was a little more than we bargained for.”

Ren knelt to examine it. Two deep punctures stared back, one on each side of Jax’s right thigh.

“It will heal, we have the healing boon.” Kaylin supported the large man.

Ren glanced down at his own leg injury. Though blood stained his torn jeans, running down to his shoes, the pain had completely subsided. Moving aside the torn fabric revealed a thin scab continuing to close over.

“I don’t think it will work on his injury,” he muttered.

“What? Why not?!” Kaylin said.

“It’s venom.” Ren pointed at where a faint green ooze was flowing from the wound, mixing with the blood. “I’m guessing that the regeneration is only able to heal non-infected wounds and injuries, look.” He showed the now almost-fully-healed cut on his own leg.

From the forest behind them, faint rustling whispered from the underbrush in the direction of the clearing.

“Well we can’t just leave him! Did you see the wolves? He’ll die!”

“Kaylin,” Jax began. “It burns, I can feel it creeping up my leg. I–”

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“You will be quiet and we will figure a way out of this. That is what we will do.”

Ren sighed. Wondering for a moment if he should leave them behind. I just met them, I don’t owe them anything. I need to find a way home. He hated himself for even thinking it. “Ok, we don’t have much time.” The rustling grew louder, coming towards them. “Jax, can you defend yourself if one comes towards you?”

“I… Yes, I can fight one.” He worked his way back up to standing, balancing on his good leg, his back braced against the nearby trunk. He clung to the battle axe with both hands.

Focus man, it’s not that different from a dinner rush. An awful, scorpion, deadly dinner rush. Plan, then execute. “Perfect. Ok, Kaylin, we can make noise and draw them away. There’s a lot of them, and they’re dangerous, but only their stingers; they don’t seem intelligent so this might work.” Ren paused for a moment. “You think around a min– about a tick between ice fog casts?”

“That feels about right. What are you thinking?”

The rustling had reached them. “No time! Follow me and cast it when I say!” Without waiting for a response, he retightened his grip on the bokken and dashed to the side. “Cut any who get close to you, Jax.”

He jogged to the left past several trees before yelling out, “Over here you oversized stingers! Your mother never loved you and wished you had died as eggs, probably!” As he moved, he smacked several of the large trees with the bokken, the cracking sound resounding through the brush.

“What are you doing?!” Kaylin snapped coming up behind him. “They’ll hear you.”

“Exactly! Here scorpion, scorpion scorpion.” He hit another tree as he kept moving. ”We have to draw them away. Ideally strung out to somewhere where there is high ground.