* Roar*
Reacting with an insanity of its own, the scorpion roared as it's tail whipped through the air. Its claws snapping widely as it lunged at her. With a maniac expression, Alexia had forgone defense against those massive razor sharp pinchers. Instead, she put her attention into damaging it's tail.
*Roar*
Feeling a stab in its tail, the scorpion's eye widened as it bashed her with a claw. She rolled to the side as she avoided becoming a human pancake. Tensing the muscles in her legs, she jumped landing on the arm of the scorpion. At each opportunity, she stabbed a weak point on it's carapace. While attacking, her peripheral vision was always focused on that glowing stinger.
Hands to the ground, she performed a summersault, landing on its broad back with a thud. The smooth thing under her foot felt like the ground around the frozen wolf. She gasped, her chest heaving as a dull ache spread through it. Sensing she was on its back the scorpion tried to shake her off.
" How could I be so stupid." She chuckled, trying to hold on to the smooth back. With swift precision, she took out a dagger from her storage bracelet. " Doesn't matter. Sometimes being stupid in just fine!" On the last word, she heavily brought down the dagger wrapped in flames onto the scorpion's back.
Releasing her grip on the dagger's handle, she was flung to the side. In mid air, the scorpion's claw slammed into her throwing her across like a rag doll.
*Crack*
More bones cracked, but it wasn't time to check which one. The scorpion noticed her flying away, it shrieked chasing her frenzied.
Spitting out blood midair she was still grinning. Her body crashed to the ground, moving like a pebble skipping across water. Coming to a stop next to the hole the scorpion emerged from, she coughed out a mouthful of blood and some teeth.
" Evan is going to be so surprised to see me like this." She tried to laugh but she ended up hissing instead. Hearing the sound of the scorpion closing in, Alexia bit her tongue until it bled to stop herself from making a sound. Using all her remaining strength, she held her sword by the blade, embedding it in the ground.
Once, twice, she continued to do this until she finally reached the edge. Rolling her heavy body, she plunged herself into the hole.
Feeling weightlessness and the caress of darkness, Alexia closed her eyes, enjoying this feeling. But the scorpion had arrived at the hole. With a hiss and a jerk, Alexia came onam abrupt stop. Weakly looking up, she saw that it had caught her by her hair using its tail. Suspended halfway, Alexia's arm twitched as she held her sword up with a grunt.
She swung it weakly. The sword arced through the air, It's trajectory shifting from the scorpion's tail to hair. Now freed, she landed on the damp earthen floor with a dull thud.
Panting, she used her sword as a crutch moving to the nearest burrow as fast as she could." I swear. You're going to die a horrible death for hurting my hair, Thrakos." Gritting her teeth, she swore.
Failing to catch it's prey, the beast let out an enraged screech. It jumped into the hole, burrowing its way through trying to find her.
***
Underground, Alexia was lying on the floor, panting. In her hand was a bottle was a bottle of strange green glowing liquid. Looking at it, a memory came to her mind.
A young boy stuffed a bottle in a girl's hand." Please have it. It's a gift." He said softly. His cute smiling face carried a tinge of red. The girl holding the gift, blinked her dull golden eyes. " What's this for?" She asked deadpan but her eyes were staring at it curiously.
" It's a healing potion, I only have one left. I want you to have it." His smile was infectious, her dull eyes, brightened a bit. " Why would you give me anything? You've only known you for a week. You don't even know who I am." She asked, her grip on the bottle tightening .
The young boy laughed. " Of course I know who you are." His words made her tense. " You're Alexia, my friend. We are friends, right?" At the end of his sentence, he fidgeted nervously.
Alexia looked at him in surprise before hugging the bottle close to her. Warmth seeped into her heart as she broke out into her first smile of the day. " Yeah Evan, we're friends."
Now in the present, Alexia fondly looked at the bottle in her hand. " Ah! This is his first gift to me. And now I'm wasting it on saving myself from the pursuit of a scorpion beast. " Something tells me that the only reason he thought of this kind of gift was because of your bad habits." Her intuition scolded her.
Ignoring it, she chugged down the liquid. The taste brought tears to her eyes. ' This is like liquid agony.' Gagging, she sat up. She felt warmth spreading through her body just like Evan's magic. But unlike his magic, the potion did not heal her wounds completely.
But still the results was satisfactory. At least she didn't need to lie helpless on the ground.
Feeling the tremors on the burrow, she smirked. " And just in time for the main show."
A cloud of darkness appeared before her. Springing to her feet, she gripped her bloodied sword. In the next second,the scorpion was upon her. It rushed towards her without pause. " Make this quick. This place isn't stable."
Listening to her intuition, Alexia formulated a plan in her head to defeat the already battered scorpion. " So eager. Don't worry I'll make quick work of you." Saying that, she dodged an incoming claw and launched herself towards the scorpion. Raising one of it's legs to impale her, it shrieked causing the burrow to tremble again. " Idiot" she mumbled, her body gliding across the dusty ground.
Once underneath the scorpion's elevated underbelly, she set her sword aflame. Raising it up, she sliced through its soft underbelly as she slid past it.
Moving out from under it, she braked. Lifting herself up, she sprinted. Only after she was a considerable distance away did she stop. Smiling, she enjoyed her masterpiece.
The darkness swirled erratically like a whirlwind. The demon arched it's back in pain and agony, it's legs thrashing wildly as it let out screech after screech of anguish and anger. It's tail flailing about in reckless abandon, spewing it's deadly venom in all directions as if still wanting to cause harm to the one who had injured it.
It's claws snapped blindly in a vicious move to bury everything around it under the scorching earth. It's wound continued burning with unrelenting flames prolonging it's agony. After the flames receded, it slumpled on the ground, still breathing but sufficiently weakened for what she was about to do next. It was true that it would die eventually but she didn't have much time left before the burrow collapsed on their heads due to it's erratic movements.
She had to swiftly kill it, get the luxstone and get out of here. No matter how reluctant she was. " Come on. It's just hair. You can always grow it back." " It's not JUST hair." Heaving, Alexia climbed unto the scorpion, ignoring its futile attempts to jab at her with it's stinger. Standing by its neck, she decisively brought down her sword.
Jumping down, she picked up the already formed luxstone and stored it in her storage bracelet. She ran, the walls around her were beginning to crumble.
She frantically retraced her steps as the burrows collapsed behind her. Forever burying the body of Thrakos. She wasn't sure why it was being hunted but she was sure no one would ever find it again.
Finally seeing the entrance to the surface, she dashed ahead, avoiding the pieces of rocks and debris that fell from the ceiling. With few minutes to spare, she increased her pace but just before she could climb out, the entrance collapsed sealing her only means of escape.
Her heart thudded in her chest as the burrows began crumbling soon it wouldn't be long before she was buried underground like the demonic scorpion with no way out.
Taking a deep breath, she began to walk back and forth. ' Maybe I can dig a way out?'
Then she shook her head. " I can't even dig a proper tunnel to save myself. How I wish I was a dwarf right now."
Placing her hands on her head, she turned to her intuition. "What am I supposed to do now, don't you have any ideas?" 'Nope, my only advice would be to conserve your energy and delay the inevitable.' Its cold tone sent a shiver down her spine.
" Aren't you meant to be my advisor. What do you mean?" Dropping to her knees, she dug through the dirt but that didn't make much of a difference. Grunting, she smashed her fists on the soil. " How can be so unreliable? I'm about to die!"
' You should really learn to never solely rely on others no matter how dependable they seem.' It sounded so nonchalant that those who were unaware would think that they were discussing the weather.
" You have to help....." Her voice was cut off when a boulder sized rock fell on her head. Panting, with her head throbbing, she fell to the ground unconscious.