The dreadful scratching sound assaulted their ears and, very quickly, the two of them were in danger of being assaulted as well, when a chitinous, clawed limb appeared from behind a corner,

Scurrying around the bend, Thomel laid eyes on the rest of the scorpion. Its hooked stringer in particular caught his attention. He could actually see a droplet of venom forming on its tip.

As it clawed its way towards him he opened fire, pulverising its internal organs and killing it with ease.

But already another two had swarmed out to take its place, their claws raised and stringers poised as they scrambled towards him with their many legs.

The one on the ground was an easy shot, but Thomel missed the one crawling on the ceiling twice, as it halted suddenly and then began moving again just as quickly.

But it wasn’t so lucky the third time he shot at it. “Third time’s the charm.” he muttered as it fell, tracking its descent was actually what saved him as he saw yet another sudden, onrushing scorpion.

Unlike the others, this one had some sort of camouflage boon, his eyes slid off it like water off a duck's back.

Blindly firing, he got lucky and scored one of those glancing hits that Green had talked about, killing it just as it reached him.

But momentum wasn’t so easy to kill off and Its corpse skidded into him, knocking him and Green over.

There wasn’t any cussing, just a fantastic few seconds spent trying to untangle themselves and shove the downed creature off.

With one leg trapped under the scorpion, Green gave up on freeing himself and blindly grasped for his gun.

Finding it, or perhaps grabbing Thomel’s in the chaos, he twisted himself sideways and began to open fire desperately at the scorpions again.

All the while Thomel pushed at the scorpion, straining at it he managed to slowly lift the creature off of both himself and Green but then his snail-like pace doubled and he found a reservoir of strength to put into throwing off the carcass.

His boon had activated.

Grabbing at nearby Hawken-Five, he picked it up and, after a glance to make sure their rear was secure, he moved over to the side and then joined Green in blasting away at the oncoming tide of giant scorpions.

Slowly a barricade of bodies began to form, yet the scorpions merely started crawling on the ceiling.

Thomel wanted to back up but he was concerned there might be a scorpion hiding behind the corner to get them.

Dropping down from the hardened roof, one of the insects slammed onto the floor and began rushing low and fast at Green.

Firing his gun Thomel hit it directly on the side, killing it instantly, just like before its corpse still was driven onwards by momentum but unlike last time Green avoided its skidding corpse by diving to the side.

Thomel’s foresight had also meant he was in no risk of getting knocked over, so he could focus completely back on the ceiling.

After another two shots and three misses, the final three scorpions fell down and slammed onto the ground.

“Normally doesn’t go like this.” Green said aloud, breathing hard as he rose back up slowly.

“We need to go now!” Thomel said just as another scratching sound began to ring out.

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“We can handle this, the two of us must have killed at least half the nest. Just stay calm and relax, oka-”

“No! Listen my boons activated. Okay?! its activated! We need to use the discs and get out of here now.” Thome cut him off, struggling to remain calm and convey just how serious the situation was.

“What? that make’s no sense, sandworms don’t go for scorpion mounds.”

“I never said it was a sandworm.” Thomel snarled out. Grabbing at his pouches for one of the discs.

But he stopped as he saw Green’s reaction, the helmet covered his face securely but the way he stumbled backwards and looked upwards without saying a word was all Thomel needed to know to realise it was too late.

Turning around he gazed upwards and saw what had rendered Green speechless.

He wasn’t looking up because the scorpion was on the ceiling, he was looking up because that’s just how massive it was.

It was a golden scorpion the size of an adolescent elephant. With giant pincers which gleamed from the light cast by their flashlights.

Thomel could see tiny red droplets on the thin hairs of its left pincer and, as he looked over to its stinger, he could see who it belonged to.

The corpse of blue was impaled upon its golden tail, like some demented ring on a horrifically deformed finger.

Eyes filled with pure, animalistic hunger were laid out upon the front of its carapace and they stared down at Thomel.

Its mandibles dripped drool onto one of the many dead bodies of its fallen relatives.

He would gulp but his mouth was completely dry.

His bones rattled as Green blindly fired but, just like he dreaded, nothing happened. The scorpion didn’t collapse, it just stood there and took Green's sonic shot with nonchalance.

Thinking quickly, Thomel grabbed into his coat and took out one of his two gas grenades, ripping the pin out he threw it on the ground and grabbed for the next one, as the scorpion began to stalk towards them.

Pulling the pin, Thomel stuffed the gas grenade back into his pocket as the grenade began to spew out the toxic fumes.

Then he started to stumble back as he tried keeping a careful eye on the monstrous insect while the gas obscured his vision.

Green, for his part, continued to relentlessly fire at it, making Thomel’s teeth chatter and bones vibrate. Yet the scorpion didn’t so much as shudder.

All it did was slowly advance on them, stretching out to cover nearly the entirety of its side of the tunnel, leaving them with only one possible way to escape.

Thomel was endlessly grateful for the unknown reason that was causing the scorpion to take its sweet time with them.

That all stopped the moment it stepped into the poisonous fog.

It stopped moving slowly and instead lunged towards Thomel, shooting out its stinger with lightning fast rexflexs.

He only just barely managed to dodge to the side of its strike thanks to his boon, and immediately he turned and ran. He felt his bones rattle two more times and then Green joined him as well.

They couldn’t outrun it, Blue had tried and now he was dead.

But they didn’t have to, they only had to buy time for the gas to work, that is if it would work.

He was so stupid, he should have held onto the first grenade and handed it to Green but regret was something he could focus on if he survived.

Grabbing onto the rounded corner, Thomel rushed around it followed by Green just as the monster’s pincer smashed into the wall where they just were.

He was focusing on running so hard that he couldn’t look up and figure out where to go, so he kept his hand firmly on the right side wall.

A small rain of blood splattered onto him and Blue's corpse smashed onto the floor, organs spewing out onto the floor and making Thomel slip.

Hitting his head hard, he stared up at the illuminated ceiling in shocked pain, His vision was blocked by a sudden hand that grabbed him by the collar and yanked him roughly to his feet.

“RUN!” Green yelled at him. Snapping him out of his temporary daze.

The few seconds they’d been delayed were a few seconds closer the scorpion had gotten, they could hear it right behind them now.

Pincers snipped the air in primal delight as it got closer and closer to running down its prey.

But then it began to slow and they started to pull ahead, adrenaline and system-gifted power was what fueled Thomel and, when they at last burst out into the light, He saw that transparent wings were what had gifted Green his speed.

Gasping for breath, Thomel made sure to angle himself so he could look into the darkness of the opening while he regained his lost stamina.

After half a minute spent drowning himself in the stale air of the oxygen tank. Thomel looked over to Green and said;. “My boon is gone. Now what?”

“Now we go back in.”