Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 26: Brutal Brawl

The furious beasts charged straight for the hunters, seeking revenge for the fallen member of their family. In a fleeting handful of heartbeats, they would arrive, and a life-and-death struggle would ensue. The crew had no choice other than to engage the scorpions in a head-to-head brawl, instead of preparing the field and ambushing them from a position of strength.

This was a bad situation by any reckoning, but there was one entity present who was thrilled by this turn of events. Skill-Eater awoke with a gluttonous roar, as the need to feed flooded through every cell of Edge’s body.

He had to admit that he was pleased too, despite the danger. While he was starving now, it seemed that he wasn’t going to end this hunt hungry after all. It was time to take the big bad down and find out what powers were on the menu.

The scorpions split apart as they approached the crew. The juvenile darted for the cover of the trees, while the big beast came streaking toward his team. It would hit them in another few seconds—just enough time for Edge to take his stance and fall into formation beside his friends.

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They had come up with contingencies for what they would do if they found more than one predator living in the lair. But the hunters hadn’t expected one beast to be home while the others were away, much less the death of one creature to enrage its kin and precipitate an impromptu pincer attack. Regardless of the details, they couldn’t simply turn tail and run. Not with the furious arthropod arriving from one side, and the web-strewn grove barring their path in the other.

Even if the crew had been standing on open ground, this beast was fast. It was the quickest creature that Edge had ever seen, with enough Speed and Control to make him feel sluggish by comparison. The good news was that it hadn’t had time to prepare either, making this a straight-up exchange of blows where neither side began with an advantage.

Like they had drilled, Violet and Riller moved behind the other hunters, ready to support them with skills and ranged attacks. They were growing stronger at a rapid rate now that they were cored, but they didn’t have the attributes or skillsets to fight on the frontline just yet.

While Edge and Jumo braced themselves to meet the scorpion’s charge, Violet activated Travelers’ Boon. A field of mana enveloped the team, which would help everyone fight longer and harder without running out of steam. Then she got ready to start flinging consumables and firing paint rounds, since it was clear that ordinary crossbow bolts weren’t going to cut it.

Sasha raised her shield in front of Violet’s position and lowered the point of her spear. She was ready to attack with Fire Breathing to support the front line, while guarding the ranged attackers if the beast broke through. Edge used the final heartbeats before the battle was joined to take aim and fling his chakram.

He wasn’t targeting the big beast, which was far too quick to hit. Instead, he chucked the bladed ring at the juvenile, which was circling around to come at them from behind. From this distance, it had plenty of time to move out of the way. But the attack forced the scorpion out of position for a few vital seconds. It went skittering into the trees, where it couldn’t assist its parent.

That was when something unexpected occurred. When Edge grounded the butt of his naginata into the soil and lowered the blade, the oversized arthropod made a minute adjustment to its course. It had been coming straight at him, but it switched to Jumo the instant that his polearm entered the picture.

He realized that although it was furious, it wasn’t mindless with rage like some of the monsters they had faced. The beast had correctly identified Edge as the softer target, but had upgraded his threat level in real time, deciding that facing Jumo’s spear was less dangerous than hitting his naginata straight on.

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Damn. That thing is fast, responsive, and smart. Edge got ready to attack from the side the moment that the scorpion engaged Jumo. It was a solid plan, but that wasn’t how the next few seconds played out.

The charging creature hit the athletic warrior while running at full speed, slamming into the man with the force of a battering ram with an engine strapped to the back. The point of his spear caught the shoulder of its forelimb, which was angled to deflect the weapon rather than impact it straight on.

Jumo was a durable dude, and his new armor increased the punishment he could take. As a result, he wasn’t seriously injured, since the beast hadn’t used any weapon beyond its considerable mass and ridiculous momentum. The hit did, however, send the hunter flying. He landed a good twenty feet away, rolling in the grass before coming to a stop.

Edge didn’t have time to check on his friend. He blinked. By the time that his eyes opened once more, the beast had turned to attack him, using a claw to push the shaft of the naginata to one side now that it wasn’t running. The move was so graceful that it appeared effortless, taking his respect and corresponding fear of his opponent up another notch.

He could hear Sasha sprinting to back him up, while Violet went to check on Jumo. Before Sasha arrived, the scorpion pressed its attack. It used its other claw to force Edge’s buckler down, which he had raised the second that the beast was inside the reach of his weapon. Acting on instinct, he let his arm fall, intuiting that the claw swipe was just a feint—a distraction to keep him from noticing the real attack that was coming a fraction of a second later.

The beast had made all three moves in half as many heartbeats, weaving together attacks in a seamless combination that would make any martial-arts enthusiast nod in appreciation. The final strike was a Lunge with its tail, which was streaking straight for his heart like a bolt of barbed lightning.

It pierced the tough leather of his new armor and would have triggered his Heart-Guard a bare second later if it wasn’t for one small fact. Edge had Hardened his chest the instant that he saw the tail move.

The venomous stinger hit his diamond scales with enough force to bruise the adjacent tissue. The barb didn’t break, but it didn’t hurt him either. Taken by surprise, the beast skittered back, reassessing its options before resuming the offensive. The little scorpion joined the fray in the meantime. Instead of rushing in to engage in hand-to-claw combat, it turned around and fired a strand of sticky webbing.

Edge stepped out of the way of its initial volley, but the flying webbing corrected its course to hit him in the legs. It reminded him of the behavior of the black chains, which let him understand what was happening. “Watch out! It has some kind of skill that lets it manipulate its webbing and adjust its course midflight.”

Sasha arrived at his side as he issued his warning, freeing him with a flick of her Flame-Imbued spear. Trapper and Riller took advantage of the opening to launch ranged attacks, using the powers that had been remarkably effective in taking down the other beast. However, the results left something to be desired this time around.

Both shots hit the creature broadside. But instead of penetrating its chitin armor, the missiles shattered against its body. Riller’s skill-bolstered arrow was completely ineffective, and Trapper’s bolt only transferred a tiny jolt of electricity before breaking contact.

As Jumo and Sasha fell into position beside him, Edge took a closer look at his opponent. In that moment, he knew what had happened. The scorpion’s exoskeleton was covered in a thin layer of diamond. He could tell at a glance that it was using Harden, even if the manifestation didn’t look exactly like his scales.

He let the other hunters know what was going on, as he traded a series of blows with the beast’s claws. He wouldn’t have had a chance in a one-on-one duel. But with his friends fighting at his side, they divided the scorpion’s attention enough that he didn’t receive any serious wounds.

The scorpion took a volley of paint rounds in the process, which worked just as well against its Hardened exoskeleton. It was surprised by the sticky substance running down its body, which bought the crew a few more seconds. Unfortunately, it had raised a claw in time to block the shots headed for its eyes, which prevented the paint round from blinding it.

Since their strategy wasn’t working, Trapper advanced to join the melee. Violet switched to attacking the juvenile beast, stopping it from slinging more webbing their way during this crucial juncture.

Edge’s adrenaline flowed as the battle entered a deadly new stage. The hunters were holding their own for now, but the fight was far from over.