"I don't know what I expected, but this certainly wasn't what I would expect from a fantasy world." After a long time of walking without finding any prey, Teseu began to turn over some rocks in the hope of finding at least some insects. He managed to find some, actually quite a few, but only a few gave enough Qi to justify their deaths, which was very little, to be honest. Perhaps it was only a tenth of what was in the crystal, and that came from a particularly large centipede. It didn't take him long to stop this indiscriminate killing and focus on following the river.
The sky began to take on shades of yellow and orange, and Teseu decided to make his way back. As he didn't want to walk in the dark, he made sure to alternate between light running and walking to get back faster but not too tired. When he arrived at his campsite with only a few traces of sunlight left, he arranged his "bed," a pile of leaves, and focused on the task of preparing dinner. He noticed that even though he didn't feel thirsty, he could still drink water, so there was no harm in roasting a "chicken" to see what it tasted like. He just didn't expect that as night fell, hell would descend upon this land.
***
It all started when some insect flew toward the fire. Teseu smiled at the familiar saying, but then another insect came, and another, and another. Quickly, an infernal swarm of insects and beetles began to emerge around the campfire, and Teseu feared the fire would go out. He added more wood and tried to widen the circle of stones to make it taller, but it didn't seem to help much.
*Thud*
He felt a sudden pain in his arm and soon saw what had hit him. A 20 cm beetle was wriggling on the ground beside him. Without wasting time, Teseu grabbed his wooden club and struck the beetle, which shattered. He barely had time to absorb the Qi when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, a spider the size of a small dog coming toward him. It leaped to bite him, but Teseu was prepared and dodged to the side while swinging his club. The spider fell clumsily with two of its lateral legs twisted at odd angles, then tried to flee but couldn't escape the club coming down on it.
Teseu was terrified but also exhilarated. The spider represented a great risk, but it gave twice as much Qi as the parrot, and since Teseu had no injuries, he could clearly feel the Qi flowing through his veins. He felt invigorated, as if he hadn't done anything all day and was now full of energy. However, what excited him the most was the sensation of strength that the Qi brought. The faster the Qi flowed through his body, the stronger he felt, and the faster his body absorbed it. So he began to force the Qi to move slowly most of the time and only accelerated it when he needed strength to strike a blow or dodge.
After killing two more spiders, slightly smaller than the previous one, a scorpion with an obsidian carapace and small yellow lines at the joints between its segments all over its body appeared. Its stinger was sharp and as long as a dagger, and its pincers were thick and robust, certainly capable of withstanding several blows from a wooden club.
Teseu was by the campfire when he saw this monster. The pile of scorched beetles and insects looked like a good meal of free Qi, so he would go and collect some whenever there was a break in the fights. Now he was somewhat worried. Even with his strength enhanced by Qi, he had no confidence in taking down an eight-legged tank. Trying to figure out how to deal with such an enemy, Teseu forced himself to act with an unfinished plan since the creature was getting too close.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
First, Teseu grabbed some burning branches and threw them toward the riverbank. When the scorpion was preparing to attack, he ran toward the river and jumped, landing on the opposite bank. With no time to admire his own strength, he turned to see the scorpion reaching the riverbank with the burning twigs around it providing good visibility. The light of the four moons didn't seem to be enough to see such a dark creature, although the light appeared redder than usual, probably from a red moon he hadn't seen, but he didn't have time to think about that now.
The scorpion seemed indecisive. It didn't want to lose its prey, but it also didn't want to risk being swept away by the current since it didn't know its depth, and Teseu hadn't bothered to provide that information, remaining fixed on the opposite bank.
===
Seeming to lose interest, the scorpion turned to leave, but a throbbing pain in its tail made it turn around. It saw the blue monkey project, which should have been its dinner, waving at it with a stone while a broad smile was on its face. The monkey tossed another stone, but this time the scorpion blocked it with its powerful pincers,
not even leaving a scratch on its carapace. The pain from the blow, on the other hand, seemed to surprise it. The blow it received in the tail wasn't as strong as this one, and it didn't cause much damage even though the tail area was less robust.
The scorpion raised its pincers in the air and snapped them in an attempt to intimidate its opponent and relieve the frustration it was feeling. It was rewarded with a much larger stone than the previous ones, heading straight for its face. *Thud*
The scorpion became completely disoriented. It tried to wipe its face with its huge pincers, but it didn't help much. The blue monkey didn't seem to be on the opposite bank anymore, and the scorpion was getting a little frustrated with that. To think that the little pest would just humiliate it like this and then walk away was making it furious. It turned around to finally leave and was attacked again by surprise. A piece of burning wood was jammed into one of its two main eyes, with some secondary eyes already weakened due to the stone and dust, its vision was seriously reduced.
In a fit of pure rage, the scorpion unleashed several random attacks in all directions it could, but it couldn't hit anything. When its frenzy ended, it felt another cutting blow to its tail, this time, and it quickly turned to see the blue monkey holding a darker blue object that emitted a faint glow.
For the first time in that battle, the scorpion felt fear. Sure, the stones the monkey threw hurt a bit, and it had to lose an eye to learn not to leave its face unprotected for a second, so it believed it was just a matter of time until it hit one of its claws to hold it in place and finally impale the pest a dozen times with its stinger. But things had changed; its armor was no longer impenetrable, and its enemy didn't seem as tired as it was. Running away was no longer an option; it had already learned too much from this battle to know that the monkey would surely take this opportunity to deliver even more devastating blows.
The blue monkey, apparently noticing the scorpion's indecision, decided to attack once more. Aiming for the same spot as the previous wound, it approached from behind and struck, but the tail moved quickly, dodging and striking back. The monkey didn't seem surprised and simply retreated. The scorpion was focused; it knew it was tired and that it couldn't land a good blow before the monkey was exhausted as well. So it decided to wait, attacking only when it saw an opportunity and making the enemy waste as much energy as possible until the moment of its decisive attack arrived.