When fighting an enemy you know little about other than what you can see, it’s best to take things reactively. As the scorpion rushes me at a speed two times faster than a human's sprint, I don’t try to take the enemy head on. Instead, I hop to the right. To my delight, the scorpion shares the same weakness that earth's scorpions possess; which is the ability to drift. The scorpion is forced to slow down and then turn in my direction.

Perfect. It can't turn fast. I should be able to dodge to the side and give it a good lovetap when it slows to turn. I should be able to do it fast enough and get out before the pincers can grab me.

With a plan settled, I take my stance. The monster stares at me with just as many eyes as I do. As we stare at one another, the realization hits me that the monster can probably see me from its sides. If it can do that, then it can react in some way.

Can it kick me? Jump away? Can it actually turn rapidly in some way? No to the last one. It would have already. Which leaves its other weapons; the three poisonous stingers.

Staring at the length and external structure of the tails, I conclude that the left and right tails can strike at their side.

Gotta keep an eye on the stingers.

Once again, the Scorpion rushes me. I dodge to the right at the last moment. The moment my feet touch the ground, I rush at the scorpion's left side while it is slowing down. My cautions bares fruit as the scorpion's left stinger rushes down to intercept me.

I pivot rapidly and intercept the tail with my left gauntlet. Metal and bone make contact, followed by spark as the stinger glides down my forearm.

Using the moment of the block, I twist my body to the left while extending my right fist. Fist meets carapace, and carapace loses. I feel only a bit of resistance before the shell cracks, breaks, and my fist leaves a bloody trail through its innards.

After my punch, I quickly hop back to avoid retaliation. But retaliation doesn't come. The scorpion's leftmost legs cease to function. The monster crashes on its side, followed by a loud and rapid clicking sound from its mandibles.

It attempts to stand up, but the leftmost legs consistently give way. During this entire struggle, blue blood leaks from its damaged side as though I’d struck a major artery. Eventually, the Scorpion uses its pincer to shift its body so that it is facing me. All three stingers turn and point in my direction. The clicking sound increases in tempo.

Something isn’t right.

I take my usual stance and prepare for whatever is to happen.

Then it happens. The right tail pulses, then the needle exits the tip like a crossbow. I react by sidestepping the first projectile. The central tail projectile I am forced to riposte, while the leftmost tail projectile completely misses its mark.

Holy shit, it can shoot poisonous needles.

After the third projectile, I stand wary and ready in case more projectile come my way. But they don’t. Me and the scorpion stare at each other for a long minute until the monster eyes close and there is a large pool of blue blood on the ground.

Only after another thirty seconds do I approach close enough to be able to hear a heartbeat.

There is none.

After several more minutes of warily tapping the monstrosity, do I allow myself to relax.

Well, it’s dead. Now I just need to know if it is edible. I don’t know how big this desert is, but I should make sure I have sustenance.

I reach into its wound and retrieve a handful of soft meat. I raise it up to my face and take a whiff.

Smells like flesh. Probably not poisonous either. Generally, evolution very rarely makes a species both venomous and poisonous. These scorpions are most likely just venomous- maybe even immune to their venom too. The meat should be fine to eat raw.

I take a bite of the flesh and find it rather soft. It has a nice, liquidy texture.

These scorpions are probably very good at retaining water.

After eating my fill, I head outside to the sight of a setting sun.

There’s a sun, which means I’m on a different planet. Good to know.

Looking about, I listen and look for additional threats, but there are none. Next, I focus on the distant structures. There are rock formations as well as spires reaching upwards. As I stare at the spires, I get a general feeling of wrongness.

What is up with those spires?

I look around me for a bit. Then I look up to find that the tower I’m outside of is actually completely identical to the spires.

That still doesn't explain why I feel like something is wrong.

I continue staring in the distance even as the sun lowers and lowers. Just as the sun almost disappears, I finally realize the problem.

The spires are moving. Slowly, but they are moving.

Indeed. Based on the stone formations and my memory, the spires have moved slightly. With far too much curiosity and right before the sun is gone, I look at my surroundings and gauge my current location.

With the sun gone, the desert loses its heat and is replaced by cold. Not that the cold bothers me anyway. Fenrimorph fur is pretty effective against low temperatures.

Alright, time to sleep. Hopefully the scorpion carcass doesn’t attract unwanted attention. Taking a corner and facing the entrance, I lean with my back to the wall. My eyes close and I allow dreamland to take me.

___________________________________________________

The moment I enter dreamland, I awaken to the world of light. I see white everywhere except for a floating replica of the Timbergrove and a floating green eyeball.

“So that scorpion leveled me up. Nice. How many levels, Green?”

“You have gained a single level. You have one attribute available.”

Damn. I was kinda hoping for more than a single level.

“Anything else?”

“Negative.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Damn. Alright, fine. Put the attribute point into strength and that should be it.

“Acknowledged.”

_________________________________________________

Opening my eyes, I’m met with the onset of sunrise. I stand and stretch from where I slept before taking a deep breath. I glance at the corpse to find it completely untouched and not at all decomposed.

With sunlight available and the temperature rising rapidly. I head outside to the sight of distant spires and rock formations. Looking at the rock formations and my position, I can say that my current spire does not move, nor do the rocks.

So my current spire is stationary and all of the rocks are also stationary. Which means that my destination is going to be somewhere similar.

I stare into the distance and count all the spires and calculate the changes in distance traveled. I do this for every viewable spire until I find a single spire that has not moved.

Why can't it be one of the closer spires? God dammit that spire is hundreds of miles away!

Growling unhappily, I start walking to my destination. As I trudge on, I start panting. My body is rapidly heating up as the sun rises directly into the sky..

About a third of the way there, I get close enough to see one of the nearer spires. The spire is identical to the stationary spire in both looks and color. But, at my current distance, I can tell that the spire I’m looking at is not a spire at all but a massive shell. Below the shell is a mostly submerged crab.

Staring at it, the crab moves extremely slowly, maybe a single foot a minute. Slow enough that you couldn’t tell if it was moving from far away.

Man, if that crab wasn't larger than a whale, I’d try to kill and eat it.

I continue my traversal over sand unabated except for the constant wind and extreme heat. The wind, though violent and kicks up sand, is a welcome reprieve to the heat. Sure, the sand gets into the fur and makes me uncomfortable, but I’d rather be uncomfortable than dead.

As the sun is starting to set, the realization hits me that the Scorpions are actually nocturnal. The realization also hits me that they are ambush predators.

The sand near me violently explodes to reveal a scorpion as large as the last one.

Well, this will be annoying.

I turn towards the scorpion and take a stand.

Then I hear a second explosion of sand.

Then a third.

Without breaking stance, I glance around to find three more scorpions, all of which are staring at me.

I better work fast.

Instead of waiting for them to engage, I rush at the first scorpion to reveal itself. The monster, seeing me rushing it, rushes back towards me.

I pivot out of the way, slide several feet, and then blast forward before it can turn. Unlike the one before, my fist impacts its side before the scorpion can even use its tail. I shatter its carapace and leave a lethal wound. Then I hop back to avoid the stinger.

Like before, I hear the sound of loud clicking, that seems to echo louder across the desert.

As I turn towards the next two scorpions, I can’t help but notice several distant scorpions crawling out of the sand and rushing towards my location.

Oh, this is very bad.

The other two scorpions start rushing me, at which point I am forced to dodge while keeping an eye on the clicking one. With speed and positioning, I create an opportunity to lethally strike another. The sound of clicking grows louder and somehow even in sync.

In the distance, more scorpions rise out of the ground.

Shit. I’m going to be swarmed. Where the hell were all these scorpions when I killed the first one?

From one of my eyes, I notice that the first scorpion has just realized it’s going to die. All three stingers point in my direction. I roll just in time to avoid the first two and block the third. Then I’m forced to jump directly upwards and over the third charging scorpion.

Taking the opportunity on landing. Rush behind the third scorpion with enough force to shatter its backside and send it careening into sand.

When I turn, my arm automatically blocks a stinger, riposes another, and I matrix dodge a third.

Damn, that was close. Two down and one more to… Shit.

Five scorpions arrive with arguably several dozen more incoming.

Come on! Why are they swarming now and not at the spire? Was there only one present in that area? What do they have to be afraid… oh.

I blink as I remember that nearly every spire has a weird crab under it.

Of course. Those crabs must be predators to the scorpions! The reason none swarmed my first kill was because they avoid the spires.

I glance around and find the nearest spire. This one is a good forty miles away.

With a growl, I bend my knees and rush towards the spire.

As I start running, so too do the scorpion. They rush after me with pincers spread and mouths clicking.

As I run, the scorpions rush after me with pincers ready and stingers armed. To my surprise, I’m actually slightly faster than them. To my detriment, the clicking of several dozen scorpions is loud enough to awaken scorpions on my path. Weaving, dodging, jumping, blocking. My run towards the spire is met with immense danger. For nearly an hour, I am pushed to my absolute limit up until the crab comes into view. Then, all at once, the clicking sound ceases to exist.

Without stopping, I glance back to several hundred scorpions running after me. A small army of venomous carapaced monstrosities.

Then, as I near the spire, the scorpions begin slowing down.

As they slow down, the crab rises up from the sand on eight massive legs. It’s mouth opens in my direction.

Instinct takes over as I hop to the side.

From its mouth, a gelatinous tongue breaks the sound barrier and narrowly misses me. The tongue passes my location and impacts a scorpion.

Then the tongue retracts with the scorpion stuck to the tongue. The scorpion enters the crabs mouth, and then the mouth begins chewing.

At this moment, every scorpion has stopped moving.

Taking the opportunity, I rush close to the crab and then hop on top of its spiral shell where it is big enough to allow me to stand.

Under me, I can feel the vibrations of powerful jaws crunching down on the scorpion. When I glance back at the hundreds of scorpions, I am met with an alarming amount of intelligence.

Every scorpion stinger points in my direction.

OH SHIT!

Like a line of crossbowmen, hundreds of needles fly in my direction. Limited in my mobility, I raise my arms and block what I can. Three storms of needles impact my location, and only my head and chest are unpunctured.

When I finally lower my arms, the scorpion are out of ammo and have started retreating.

I look at my body to find that I’ve become a pincushion.

Remembering that the needles are venomous, I quickly remove them from my body. As I remove the needles, my natural ability to rapidly coagulate blood stops any bleeding.

With the last of the needles removed, I quickly find my energy completely spent. I fall on my but and lay my back to the spire.

I survived!

I glance at all my wounds.

Barely Survived. This is going to take awhile to regenerate. I’m going to be very hungry later.

The crab, finishing its meal and finding no more prey, rests back down into the sand.

Looks like the plan is changed. During the night I need to sleep on a spire, and during the day I need to travel to my destination. Considering how much distance I can cover, I should be able to reach my destination in two da-

“Gruaaahhhhhh.” I growl loudly. Pain thrashes through me as every nerve become inflamed.

I look at my puncture wounds to find that they are all swelling a glowing purple.

I can feel mana shuffling into my body, massive amounts of it. Rivers of mana.

Panicking, I attempt to activate [Shift], but my mana is no longer under my control. My ears pop and adrenaline once again fuels my body. My heartbeat increases further and further as my growls become louder and louder.

Then I hear it.

A single word.

A single demand.

SUBMIT!