Five dead. Five remain.
Ethan dropped to one knee beside Velina. Her face was pale, but she nodded. "Ribs are bruised. Maybe cracked."
"You move?"
"Not fast."
He helped her up, slinging her arm over his shoulder. They hobbled behind a boulder, one of the few in this section of the dunes. Ethan peered out. The five remaining beasts had stopped advancing. They circled, not attacking.
"Why aren't they pressing us?" Velina asked.
Ethan's eyes narrowed. "They're cautious now. We took down half their number."
She coughed. "You mean you did."
"No. You landed the tail cut on number four. And the dagger to the face of number three. We're a team."
Velina smiled weakly. "Don't get soft now."
He didn't answer. His hand clenched the hilt of his blade tighter.
[WRATH: 35/35]
[ABYSSAL LUNGE – READY]
[WRATH COST: 8]
"We end this," Ethan muttered. "Five more. We find a way."
"We'll need a plan," Velina whispered. "We can't just brute force anymore."
Ethan's eyes burned. "Then we use the terrain."
He looked toward the shifting dune line behind them. The way the slope dipped, the sand slick and unstable.
A trap.
A setup.
His mind began to piece it together.
The next kill wouldn't be a brawl. It would be a hunt. The remaining scorpions hissed in the dark. Moonlight glinted off their armor. But for the first time since the ambush…
They hesitated.
They could feel it now.
The shift.
The prey they had once cornered had turned. The WRATH had awakened. The abyss was watching. And it's avatar had chosen war
------
The desert had gone still again. But it was the stillness before a storm. Ethan crouched behind the jagged rock with Velina beside him, both of them coated in blood, sand, and raw fatigue. The corpses of five scorpion-like Tartarus Beasts sprawled behind them in a trail of black ichor and crushed carapace.
But five more remained.
They stalked slowly in the open, circling, observing. Their pincers clicked against the sand with a sinister rhythm, like death knocking. Ethan's fingers trembled slightly from blood loss. His WRATH simmered just at the threshold.
[WRATH: 35/35]
[ABYSSAL LUNGE: READY - COST: 8WRATH]
[ABYSSAL CLAWS: READY - COST: 20WRATH]
He gripped his blade tighter. "We need to bait them."
Velina coughed beside him, her breaths shallow. "You said something about terrain."
He nodded. "The dune slope behind us it's loose. If we draw them across and break their footing, we'll have a chance."
She forced herself up with a grunt. "Then let's make it count."
They emerged from cover, slowly backing toward the unstable slope. The beasts clicked louder, moving as a coordinated pack. Each of their tails arched high, gleaming in the light of the twin suns.
Ethan pointed his blade at the center one. "Take that one first. I'll distract the two on the flanks."
Velina didn't argue. She simply whispered, "Try not to die."
The bait worked.
As Ethan stepped into the loose sand, kicking up dust and staggering deliberately, two of the beasts lunged, thinking he'd lost balance. But Ethan had timed it perfectly. He slid down the dune, angled his body just right, and the first scorpion's claw punched straight into the shifting slope. Its footing collapsed, and it tumbled onto its side.
Ethan moved like a shadow, charging in.
"ABYSSAL LUNGE"
[WRATH EXPENDED: 8| REMAINING: 27/35]
He blinked forward in a burst of black smoke and steel. His blade plunged directly into the beast's exposed underbelly, twisting violently. The creature screamed, legs kicking, as ichor sprayed across Ethan's chest.
It died twitching.
Six down.
[DESERT SCORDANA DEFEATED]
[+20EXP GAINED]
[+6WRATH EARNED]
[CURRENT EXP: 108/500]
[WRATH: 33/35]
Behind him, Velina met her target with unmatched fury. She darted to the right, ducked a tail swipe, and leapt onto the scorpion's back. Her blade struck once, twice, before she jammed her dagger under the left pincer joint and ripped upward.
The limb detached, and the beast screamed.
Ethan arrived just in time to shove his blade through the eye socket.
Seven down.
[DESERT SCORDANA DEFEATED]
[+20EXP GAINED]
[+2WRATH EARNED]
[CURRENT EXP: 128/500]
[WRATH: 35/35]
They stumbled backward, gasping, bloodied, drenched in sweat. The remaining three scorpions hissed with a new intensity. The deaths had awakened their rage.
The final trio came at once.
"Split!" Ethan shouted, voice hoarse.
He dove left, narrowly dodging a tail that cracked stone. Velina rolled right, barely avoiding a pincer that cleaved into the sand like a guillotine. Ethan clashed with one head-on.
Each strike of his blade sent shocks through his shoulders. His arms screamed. His chest heaved. And still, the beast pushed forward. He feinted left, then drove his blade into its mouth as it lunged.
But the weapon snapped.
His sword broke.
The blade split in two, caught between the beast's jaws. He barely leapt back in time to avoid getting torn apart.
Velina, bleeding from a gash on her side, screamed his name. "ETHAN!"
The second scorpion charged her. She parried once, twice, but a tail struck her leg and sent her sprawling.
"VELINA!"
Ethan reached into his Inventory and summoned one of the twin daggers he'd stolen earlier in the hangar, a sleek, curved fang-like blade. He lunged forward, slid beneath the beast that had struck Velina, and stabbed upward into the mouth.
It bucked wildly, flailing, He held on, digging the dagger deeper, and it finally collapsed.
Eight down.
[DESERT SCORDANA DEFEATED]
[+20EXP GAINED
[CURRENT EXP: 148/500]
Two remained.
Velina, coughing blood, stood again.
Ethan turned to her. "You can't keep going."
"I can."
She stumbled toward the scorpion that had wounded her, gritting her teeth.
"No, I'll draw one. You flank."
She nodded, barely able to lift her sword. Ethan roared and charged the ninth scorpion, slashing wildly, drawing its attention. Velina circled around behind it, using the rocks for cover. When Ethan feigned a strike to the eye, the beast raised its pincers to defend.
That's when Velina leapt from the stone ridge, bringing her sword down in a brutal, two-handed arc. The blade cleaved through the beast's eye and straight into the brain.
It collapsed instantly.
Nine down.
Only one remained.
It hesitated. It had seen what happened to the rest.
But then it hissed and charged Ethan, enraged. Ethan was done. Exhausted. His limbs were dead weight. His breathing was ragged. His armor hung in strips. But still, he raised his dagger.
The scorpion lunged. He dodged the first pincer, ducked the second, but the tail caught him across the ribs.
[HOST HARMED]
[HP: 13/20]