The Fiends got out of The Tourist in a hurry. They had been driving through some abandoned ruins on the way to their next destination when they spotted droves of injured looking civilians from the windows. That was when they realized that this place wasn’t ruins at all. It was a newly formed nameless town that didn’t even appear on the map, or that’s how the inhabitants explained it.

By the look of it, this town was nearly rubble. However, they all had to admit that the buildings, despite being almost entirely destroyed, did appear to be in good condition. Before the Fiends could get down into asking what had caused this devastating situation, the question answered itself. The ground began to shake beneath their feet, and a loud set of repetitive thumps was rapidly approaching.

Then they saw it, towering over the only building left standing; a scobrian. They are a combination of a cobra and a scorpion, one of the most dangerous monsters in the world, and should be feared by everyone. Its head and body are that of a cobra, with the pincers, legs, and stinger of a scorpion. Drim had managed to kill one before, just barely scraping by. He had been a lot younger and more inexperienced, but that scobrian had also been a lot smaller.

Scobrian’s are extremely territorial, and absolutely hate any change to their habitat as proven by all the destruction around them. They’re rather clever as well, tending to use hit-and-run tactics, which is why the entire village hadn’t been destroyed at once. Now though, it was here to finish the job. Drim couldn’t help but feel the villagers were foolish for having settled here without properly investigating the monster habitats.

Within seconds, the scobrian’s body was wrapped around the last building, a church with a tall spire. The building was gone a second later, reduced to nothing. The scobrian let out a proud hiss, spewing venom all over the area, re-marking its territory. Phon managed to get everyone away in time before any of them were hurt. “Why’s it fleeing now?” Xard questioned as the scobrian now slowly wandered away, its movement a combination of a slither with its body, and a trot with its legs.

“I’m guessing no one tried attacking it,” Drim answered. “That’s smart. Scobrians don’t usually attack something unless it feels threatened by it. Since we’re so small in comparison, and haven’t made any advances on it, it most likely sees us as harmless bugs.”

“Can’t we just let it go then?” Kada asked. “It’s done destroying the town and won’t come after the people. As long as they’re not dumb enough to try and rebuild here, everything should be fine.

“Unfortunately, we can’t,” Drim replied. “Scobrian’s are very greedy, and are always trying to expand their territory. If nothing challenges it, it will keep trying to take more land for its own. Even if these people built somewhere else, even years down the line, it may eventually become part of the scobrian’s territory. Though it wouldn’t destroy anything that was already there, I doubt anyone would want to live under that fear.”

“Alright, how do we beat it then?” Phon popped out of nowhere, having finished escorting the villagers to safety.

“Well, it’s already pretty far, so we’ll have to track it, but that shouldn’t be hard for you,” Drim mentioned. “Once we do, we’ll have to get its attention. I can manage that, the same way I did for the last one. I’ll explain the rest as we go.”

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The scobrian was happily scampering through the woods, completely satisfied. It had maintained the order in its territory, and felt like celebrating. As it slithered along, the top of its body began to sway back and forth, almost as if it were dancing. Riding the momentum from its newest accomplishment, it would do a patrol to see if any other nuisances had appeared during its time asleep.

Unlike regular snakes, scobrians do in fact hibernate. They sleep all through winter, and sometimes late into spring. This scobrian had only woken up recently, and thus had to do a full exploration of its territory to make sure everything was just as it left it. That human home had been the worst offender so far, daring to build so much and defiling the land.

There were also a lot more of the large shiny beasts zooming around. Their shell was rather hard and they were so quick despite their size. The scobrian didn’t mind them too much, since they would only pass through its territory then be on their way. On occasion, the scobrian would see humans burst out of the beast from inside. Perhaps the beasts have bad digestion, but they were stupid to not properly kill the humans before eating them.

The scobrian also didn’t see why anything would eat humans to begin with, they were not very satisfying. Though it had eaten a rather large human once, and had to admit, that one was quite tasty. Once the patrols for its existing territory were complete, the scobrian would make plans to expand. Conquering more was its one aim in life, wanting to have the whole continent under its domain.

As the scobrian strolled along, continuing its inspection, a human suddenly appeared in front of it. The scobrian instantly recognized the human back from the human territory it had just destroyed. This human was a male, and was very dark compared to most other humans. The dark male had been the reason the scobrian had left that human place in such a rush. It had wanted to destroy even more, perhaps even writhe its whole body in the wreckage to celebrate its victory. There was something off about that human, though. It had no fear of the scobrian, and its instincts told it to not mess with him and leave.

“What do you want, human?” The scobrian hissed, lowering its head, and getting right in the human’s face. The dark male just continued to stare at the scobrian, unphased. Hmm no luck, humans are lesser creatures so it’s to be expected. Some of the higher ranking monsters were intelligent enough to be able to communicate with each other. It was rather rare, but it was interesting when it did happen. The scobrian had a rather delightful conversation with a skuffalo a while back, up until they started fighting over territory anyways. The scobrian won of course, but it was unable to get that disgusting stench off its tongue for a long time.

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The dark male continued to stare at the scobrian with unwavering eyes. For some reason, its instincts were flaring up again, telling it to flee, so the scobrian did just that. Though it didn’t want to give off the impression of being afraid, so it casually glanced away from the dark male and started walking around him. From its peripherals, the scobrian caught a strange sight. The back of the dark male started to glow.

The scobrian spun its head around to get a better glimpse, and was actually astonished for the first time in its life. There was another scobrian, coming out of the dark male’s back. The new one seemed a bit different to how the scobrian saw itself. It was dark, just like the human, and its body seemed more stringy. Maybe the scobrian was like that too, having never seen itself properly, but it still felt off. It definitely was a scobrian though, that couldn't be denied.

“Why are you with that human? Is it your pet?” The scobrian asked the other, but disappointingly, it got no response. In another attempt to communicate, the scobrian started swaying its head back and forth. It felt delighted when the other matched its movements, since it was progress. “Why do you not speak…? Could it be… has that human bound you? Nod once for yes.” The scobrian bowed its head as it asked this, and the other matched it once more.

“Very well, I shall free you from that dark male… then we shall mate!” With a last hiss, the scobrian lunged forward one of its pincers, but surprisingly, the dark male dodged it, skirting back a few steps. The other scobrian was pulled along with him, confirming the scobrian’s theory that it was in forced servitude to the human. “You are impressive, human, but you must perish. I will make your death swift and then set my mate free! Eh… Where are you going?!”

The dark male had turned around and started running, dragging the other scobrian away with it. “How dare you, get back here at once!” The scobrian began its chase, quickly catching up to the human. It continuously swiped at him with its pincers, but this human was surprisingly agile, able to dodge each time. Try and dodge this! All this time the swipes had just been a distraction, and the scobrian had been lining up a shot. It lunged its tail at the human's back, just below the other protruding scobrian. The stinger was right on target, certain to impact. Even if it didn’t land a fatal blow, a single drop of its poison would finish him off.

Just mere inches away from being struck, the dark male leapt into the air, narrowly dodging his body being impaled. “Impossible!” The scobrian cried out. “How could you have known…? Unless you can somehow see out of your back! Don’t tell me, are you helping him?” It interrogated the other scobrian but still got no response.

The chase continued into a clearing, where another human was waiting. The scobrian recognized this one as well; a dark female, not as dark as the male, with hair like water. Hmm, they must be of the same pack, but she is of no concern to me! The scobrian ignored her and continued to chase the dark male. Then, there was a splash. The ground had suddenly turned slick, and the scobrian sunk into it, as if it had fallen into a lake.

“This must be the water female’s doing!” the scobrian hissed. “You think you can stop me with this?! How tiresome.” But the scobrian was stopped, now unable to move any of its legs. The ground had become solid again, its legs buried into it. It tried its best to wriggle them free, but if it managed to get any of its legs loose, the ground would liquify and turn solid again, trapping it once more.

This was definitely inconvenient, but only its legs were out of commission. Snakes were known for their strikes, and its head was still completely free. The dark male ended his run, and turned around to face the scobrian, leering at it. The scobrian didn’t like that look in his eye, almost as if they were on fire. The dark scobrian coming out of his back started flying over. “What are you doing?! Stay back!” the scobrian screeched.

The dark scobrian enveloped it completely, wrapping its stringy body all around the scobrian. The first place targeted was its mouth, clamping it shut so it could no longer spit venom. Then, the dark strings wrestled its head to the ground and dug into the dirt, securing its head completely in place.

For a moment, the scobrian was starting to panic, but noticed how the two humans were acting. Both of them were struggling. It seemed that restraining it was taking all of their power. They were vulnerable, and the scobrian was going to take advantage. It moved its stinger a little closer so it could see it properly, and began lining up another shot. All of a sudden, its stinger felt heavier. Another of the dark male’s pack, a bright female, had appeared on it.

The scobrian began flailing its tail around, trying to shake off the bright female, but she held on tight. The bright female pulled out a shiny object. She threw it, and it began to spin. Somehow, the scobrian felt captivated by the spinning shiny. Then she threw it again, and the shiny object grew bigger, and the edges turned to teeth as it spun. The bright female threw the shiny thing at the top of its stinger, and the scobrian felt a surge of pain.

A second later, the scobrian’s stringer started falling off, but before it hit the ground, it vanished. Then the scobrian’s head felt really heavy, and there was a piercing pain. It could just make out what was resting on it. The bright female was now standing on him, holding his stinger in place on his head. She yelled something the scobrian couldn’t comprehend, and a new human appeared. This human was male, and looked like he was covered in blood.

The blood male’s body was shaking, and then he burst up into the sky. The scobrian was confused, what could he possibly do from up there. Then, the blood male flipped around in the air, facing the ground. He suddenly started falling with extreme speed, aiming right for the stringer. With a crunch, the blood male hit the stinger, crushing it down into the scobrian’s skull. It hurt worse than any pain the scobrian had felt, but it wasn’t fatal. Then there was another blast, and all went dark.

◆◆◆

After checking on the villagers, the Fiends loaded back up into The Tourist. There was no bank to rob here, so there was no reason for them to stay. Once they were well into the drive, and the conversation had died down, Drim spoke to his heart. It pains me to do this, but if I don’t, it’ll bother me. If you hadn’t warned me about the scobrian’s stinger, there’s a good chance I would have been in a lot of trouble. So… thank you…