Seeds of Discordia

“What the fuck is a Scorpdread?!” Liam shouted, not realizing he spoke out loud.

Mercer turned his head to Liam as he shouted this and asked, “A Scorpdread? That’s what this thing is?”

Mercer looked back at the creature that was staring at them through its beady red ethereal smoked eyes.

“A Scorpdread is a giant scorpion usually found in desert areas. Its shell has high resistance to slashing and piercing attacks, but no resistance to blunt attacks,” Mercer shouted. “If you can get under it the resistance it has is null since the shell doesn’t cover underneath it.”

“If it hits you with its stinger it will pump a very potent toxin within you. Its pincers are strong enough to crush small boulders, but from looking at this one it will be a lot stronger. I’m not sure if it has any magic resistances, but they can be pretty dangerous either way. We need to be careful.”

“Got it!” the others shouted.

“What’s the plan Liam?” Avery questioned as she eyed the creature before them.

“We need to distract it and attack from afar,” Liam stated. “We need to avoid the pincers and the stinger at all costs. Artem and Blair, for now do not approach it until we can figure out how to counter that stinger.”

“Got it!” Artem and Blair responded as they slowly took a step back.

“Mercer, we’re going to need you to play all your buff songs when you can,” Liam stated. “Since we need it to be fast limit yourself to your flute in case you need to move your arms for anything.”

“I’ll try my best,” Mercer stated as he put his bow away and pulled out his flute.

“Ariyana, if you see an opening then try using your Entangling Roots to bind down its pincers or stinger,” Liam instructed.

“Should I use Gravitational Force Increase to slow it down?” Blair questioned before Liam continued.

Liam thought it over. The spell had the benefit of slowing down its target and would be great on that, but there was a negative to using it as well.

Liam shook his head as he declined, “No, the added power the Scorpdread would get when striking with its tail could possibly outweigh the advantage of slowing it down.”

Blair nodded as she agreed with the decision.

“Artem try to taunt it and see if you can kite it to the middle of the room,” Liam shouted as a plan started forming. He then turned to Ariyana and added, “Once when it gets there then trap it with your spell.

Ariyana and Artem nodded.

“Avery and Roman, once when it is trapped use your spells to attack it,” Liam continued. He then added as he looked at Avery, “No fire spells. We don’t want the Entangled Roots to burn off while we’re attacking it.”

“Got it,” Avery replied with a frown.

“Alright let’s do it!” Liam shouted as Artem slammed his right foot down into the ground and let out a taunting roar.

The Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread turned its beady ethereal smoky red eyes at Artem and let out a loud screech from its mouth.

Liam could see two sharp fangs and behind it a row of sharp teeth.

Mercer jumped back and started playing his songs to buff Artem up first.

“Over here you ugly piece of crap!” Artem shouted as he ran around a pillar and towards the middle of the room, inside all four pillars.

The Scorpdread skittered its way towards Artem, clamping its two meaty pincers loudly.

As the giant insect turned its massive body around the pillar, it saw Artem was already standing in the middle of the room.

He took a defensive stance as he watched the creature race towards him.

Artem raised his shield up as the creature was within its stinger’s striking distance.

With quick speed and accurate precision, the Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread’s stinger struck directly in the middle of Artem’s Wither Tree Kite Shield. The force of the creature’s strike and the strength put into it splintered the shield into pieces, making Artem exposed to the attack.

The Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread, retracted its stinger, scooped Artem up, and attacked once more with its tail. The barbed end of the stinger struck directly on Artem’s forehead.

Artem’s face let out a look of horror as the stinger dug into his skin.

Feeling gleeful that it had killed the creature that had dared taunt its existence, the Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread went to let out a victorious screech, but stopped. It grew confused as the dead creature’s body in its pincer suddenly disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Before it could react, roots shot out from the tiled floor and wrapped around the front end of its body. Its pincers were forcefully brought down to the ground as the roots that entangled them pulled down hard after wrapping themselves several times.

It went to strike with its stinger, but suddenly felt something cold and otherworldly wrap around it and stop it from moving.

“Great job!” Liam shouted as he watched Ariyana’s Entangled Roots spell bind the front half of the creature while his Grasp of the Shadows trapped the back half. He looked back at Ariyana and added, “Nice thinking on using your Mirage spell.”

Ariyana gave him a happy smile as she shouted back, “Thanks, I figured it was worth a try.”

The Mirage spell Ariyana used was from her Field of Illusions Focus Point Illusion Manipulation. At a low level it creates a copy of a target the caster uses the spell on. That copy can not cause harm to anyone or anything and is not solid. If it gets struck then it would disappear.

Since she was able to get it to level ten the spell effects changed. It was now solid and was able to take hits. However, it would only be able to take a certain amount of damage before it disappeared. Not only that, but since it could be felt, if the copy tried attacking an enemy, the target would think it was getting attack, but in reality it wasn’t taking any damage.

“Also, great job adapting to the improvised plan Artem,” Liam said as he looked at him.

He was standing on the side of the pillar he ran around.

“Thanks,” Artem said. “I was confused at first when I saw a copy of myself run towards the middle, so I took a gamble on the creature chasing it instead of me.” A grimace formed over his face as he added, “I am really glad it did. That attack looked painful.”

 “Speaking of which,” Liam started as he turned back towards the creature who was struggling to break free. “Everyone attack!”

At Liam’s words, Avery, Ariyana, and Roman unleashed a wave of magical attacks.

Artem and Blair raced forward and struck as hard as they could with their weapons.

Since Artem used a Mace he didn’t have to worry about his attacks being resisted. Blair, channeled her mana into the blade of her Battle Axe covering it with the hardened scales so she could do blunt damage instead of slicing.

After Mercer had finished playing all of his buff songs with his flute he too started throwing ice spells at the creature.

Liam threw out a couple of his Shadow orb spells at the creature and watched as its health slowly dropped down.

They were able to bring its health down to one thousand eight hundred and sixty two after all the damage they had done. However, it still felt too slow to Liam.

Our attacks are hardly doing anything. Liam thought as he watched the others continued to pelt it with their attacks.

As Liam finished his thought, he heard a snapping sound coming from the giant scorpion’s direction and grew wide eyed.

The roots that wrapped around its pincers were starting to tear. The shadows that grasped its tail were starting to snap as well as it tried to extend its tail as far as it could.

“Shit!” Liam cursed. “Everyone get back!”

Artem and Blair swiftly spun around and started running away.

As soon as they started running away, the Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread broke free its front half. It spun around and used its pincers to break the tendrils that held its back end down.

As soon as it was completely free of its entrapment, the creature turned to the group and was about to chase after them, until a small figure with a fluffy tail raced towards it.

“What are you doing Roman!?” Liam shouted as the others watched Roman run.

Before anyone could chase after him, the massive insect struck as fast as it could with its tail, stinger extended out.

However, as the stinger went to penetrate his body, Liam saw a figure move to the left and run back towards their direction.

This confused Liam because Roman stood right where the Scorpdread had struck, but there was also another Roman meeting up with them.

Hold on, was that After Image? Liam thought as he stared at Roman.

After Image was a Magical ability from the Focus Point Illusory Combat from the Field of Illusions. He knew Ariyana had the Field and the Focus Point so she would have the ability to use it, but what didn’t make sense was it was a self-target spell.

So how was Roman able to use it?

He never mentioned having picked that Field so what was going on here? Liam thought.

He was taken out of his thoughts as he noticed something else. After the giant scorpion creature struck with its stinger, it went through the after image and dove right into the stone tile. The amount of force used to strike caused the stinger to plunge far enough into the tile that it got stuck.

“All yours Blair!” Roman shouted as he stopped by Ariyana who was staring at him with as much confusion as Liam had.

Blair, who was watching everything and didn’t miss a beat, changed the hard rocky scales on her weapon to smooth sharp ones as she ran towards the creature’s tail.

As soon as she got within striking distance, Blair swung her Battle axe as hard as she could right above where the Stinger was.

The blade of her weapon sliced right through the soft skin like butter and severed the stinger off the tail.

The Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread let out a painful screech as its tail flung back, spraying blood out from the wound.

The creature’s tail twitched as the blood that pooled out from it started to cover its back and rolled to the ground.

Liam watched as its health started falling as it continued to bleed. He then turned to Avery as he heard her say something that caught him off guard.

“That should be enough blood and since it has poison mixed in because of the stinger it should work,” Avery muttered as she sheathed her rapier and put her hands out in front of her.

After she did this she started chanting, “Blood, pure and essential to our lives, mix with the poison that is vital to our deaths. Skip the alchemic process and transform with the power of my words. Melt that which you touch, corrode the armor which protects, and boil away any defense which tries to stop you. Acidic Blood.”

Liam watched as the blood that pooled over the Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread turn a dark greenish red. As the blood touched the shell of the scorpion, smoke started to waft off of it as the sound of something sizzling began to be heard.

Liam watched as the shell around the abdomen began to dissolve. Small areas were starting to be exposed as the blood ran towards the middle of the creatures back to its face. As soon as the blood touched one of its eyes, the painful screech it let out earlier grew louder.

The Possessed Askith Battle Scorpdread started thrashing around. It tried wiping away the blood that had seeped onto its face, but realized it was futile as the blood smeared across and began dissolving the flesh around the eyes. The pincer started to sizzle and bubble as the blood it tried wiping latched onto it.

The giant creature slammed its pincer violently, trying to get the blood off of it, but it was too late.

Liam watched as the massive scorpion’s health pool dropped rapidly as its body sizzled, dissolved, and smoked.

The stench that came off of the creature filled the room, making those closest to it gag and move away.

As soon as the creature’s health dropped into the nine hundreds, it disappeared and caused the creature to stop moving. However, this did not stop the blood from continuing to dissolve the entire creature.

“How…,” the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer started. His tone almost sounded like he was panting.

Liam stared at his health bar as he turned to face the possessed man.

 

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“Possessed Askith Beast Tamer. 736/1,000 HP. 311/500 MP.”

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“How dare you do that to my precious collected item! I will kill you with this next beast! There is no way you will be able to survive this creature!” The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer shouted. He let out a maniacal cackle as he pulled the final lever before collapsing again.

Liam turned their heads to the final iron caged doors that started to ascend.

Liam could feel his heart beat loud as it thumped against his chest as he waited for the massive creature that was trapped within this cage.

After the doors were raised all the way up, the group felt their bodies tense.

However, as they stared into the darkness that filled the cage, nothing came out.

 After a few seconds passed, Liam felt his heart sink towards his stomach as Eri started laughing loudly into Liam’s mind.

Jesus fucking Christ Eri! Liam mentally projected to her as his heart beat harder than it was before. What the hell are you laughing at?

You’re about to find out. Eri said between her laughing fit. You’re going to love this.

“Where did it go!?” a loud gurgling shout echoed within the room.

Liam and the others turned their heads to face the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer.

“How and when did that massive creature escape without me noticing?!” the man shouted again.

Liam could tell it was agitated and confused.

At this point Liam and the others were confused about what this EFM was talking about.

Is he saying that his final monster escaped? Liam thought to himself. What creature is so massive that it could escape from inside the cage while it was underwater?

Liam turned his head and focused as hard as he could into the darkness of the cage from where he stood.

As the darkness from within started to lighten up he noticed how thrashed the room was.

Claw marks could be seen across the left and right side of the wall. The back wall was fully destroyed as a massive hole was dug out.

What kind of creature could be powerful enough to dig through the stoned wall? Liam thought as his brows scrunched. Not only that, but how could it do that while under wat…

Before Liam could finish his thought he saw something familiar mixed in with the destroyed rocks that scattered around the open hole.

Liam’s eyes widened as realization dawned on him what the final creature was supposed to be.

Just like Eri, Liam started laughing out loud.

This action drew confused looks from the others.

“What is so funny pathetic human?” The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer scowled as he looked at Liam.

Liam tried to control his laughter but failed.

“It’s just…,” Liam tried, but couldn’t help continuing to laugh.

Eri was still laughing in Liam’s mind. Her laughter is what kept Liam laughing as he too found the situation hilarious.

“It’s just what?” The man demanded, feeling heated.

“Hold on,” Liam said as he put a finger up.

Mercer watched an eye twitch on the EFM’s face.

Liam took a breath in as he calmed himself. He let out a couple more chuckles before finally said, “It’s just that you’re oh so powerful pet you were going to sic on us…We already killed it.”

“What?!” The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer roared. “There’s no way you could have. She was my most powerful asset. A creature of that size and strength would have ripped you to shreds! There’s no way you could have killed Binky!”