NOVEL NEXT Book 10 Chapter 29
Joan's eyes opened and she went entirely still. She looked left, then right, then up, then down. Nothing.
Bauteut was sleeping, her head resting on her lap. She was resting against Qakog, who had all but collapsed against the stone wall behind them.
Joan started to close her eyes, only to open them again. She was awake. Worse, she was alert. She didn't know why, but her instincts were telling her something was wrong. She reached out and lightly shook Bauteut. "Wake up," she whispered.
"Mmmm?" Bauteut asked, looking up and then giving a little squeak. "I-I was awake, I just—"
"Shhhh," Joan whispered. She then reached over and shook Qakog's leg. "Qakog, wake up. Something's here."
"What?" Qakog asked, opening his eyes and shaking his head. "Where?"
"I don't know," Joan said.
Bauteut got to her feet first before offering her hands to help the others up. "How do you know something's there?"
"I'm… not sure," Joan said, her eyes scanning the darkness. "I can just feel it, I guess. It woke me up. How long were we out?"
"A while," Qakog said before motioning to the teleportation circle. "It's all… glowy now."
Joan looked at it and frowned. All of the lines were glowing, at least. But some of the arcane symbols were still missing, slowly reforming. The fact Korgron could fix that from where ever she was truly was a sign of how incredibly powerful she was. She wondered if that was what woke her up. Maybe she was getting paranoid.
Then she heard a stone falling in the distance and whipped around.
"Joan?" Bauteut asked.
"Please don't ask if I'm just being paranoid," Joan said.
"I'm not," Bauteut said. "You should grab your staff, just in case."
Joan blinked before nodding, walking back to where she had left it. Just standing there on its own, as if she had still been holding it. She twirled it in hand for a moment before glancing back towards the others.
"If you say there's something there, I'm not going to question it," Bauteut said before she walked into the teleportation circle, looking out. "Come here. If there is something out there, it'll at least have to come into the light to get near us."
For a moment Joan wondered if maybe her paranoia was rubbing off on everyone else. There didn't seem to be any--
Then she heard something from the left and a few stones falling. Light clicking. Something was out there. She quickly moved into the circle, Qakog following behind her.
"Maybe it's friendly," Qakog said before drawing his rapier.
"I doubt it," Joan said. "Things are almost never friendly around me the first time. It's not until the third or fourth time they stop trying to kill me."
"Some never stop," Bauteut said while she scanned the area. "Do you see anything?"
"No," Joan said. "The glow makes it hard, though. But I'd rather not step out of the light and over near it to—"
"MOVE!" Qakog yelled.
Joan and Qakog ran to the left while Bauteut ran to the right. There was a loud clicking sound before the monster raced out from the darkness, large pincers rushing forward, only to grab empty air.
It was massive. Like a massive scorpion the size of a wagon, except it had dozens of legs that seemed to allow it to easily climb over the debris. Its chitinous hide glimmered in the light of the teleportation circle. It turned slightly to its left, towards Bauteut, before turning towards the right and charging towards Joan.
Of course it did. Joan wondered if she was just monster bait at this point. They kept coming right at her since she came to this terrible place. She activated her boots and dashed to the left, forcing the monster to keep turning to keep up.
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Joan barely saw the stinger pull back in time. For a moment she considered trying to dash through it, only to remember she still had one very important piece of equipment. Even though it had been destroyed once, that had been undone thanks to Saga's power. She activated her bracer, forming a burning shield around herself.
The stinger pierced it. Joan froze in place, unable to even breathe, as she stared at the stinger within centimeters of her face. The stinger had a very narrow point with a bulbous base and, fortunately, while the point had pierced the barrier, the bulbous part had not.
But it had pierced the barrier in one powerful blow. She could see cracks forming around the hole and, worse, it wasn't pulling its stinger back. Instead it crashed a powerful pincer against the shield, causing more cracks to appear around it.
Then there was a flash and Qakog was there, wrapped in shadows. His blade pierced through the bulbous tip of the stinger and the scorpion let out a high pitched clicking sound before pulling back, the stinger cleaved from its tail. Her barrier collapsed, causing the stinger to drop to the ground in front of her. She dashed forward, leaping up to avoid the pincers that tried to grab her and jumping onto the scorpion's back. She drove the tip of the staff down as hard as she could onto the monster's body, but it didn't even dent the carapace.
The tail lashed out and while it no longer had a stinger, the bulk of it smashed into her and sent her toppling back. She flew through the air before hitting a wall and then dropping to the ground with a groan. The scorpion let out a furious clicking sound before charging at her.
Only to almost topple over entirely when a sudden gust of wind knocked almost all of its left legs out from under it, causing it to instead veer off and crash into a pile of rubble. Qakog was in front of her a moment later, holding out his hand. She took it and let him help her up as the monster reoriented itself, turning around again.
"It's fast," Joan said. "Thanks for the save, Bauteut."
"Just be careful," Bauteut called out.
"Qakog, can you go left, I'll go right?" Joan asked. "I've got an idea." She drove her staff into the ground and cast a quick spell. Gathering the water on the tip of her staff, it formed a sharp, icy tip. She didn't know if it would be strong enough, but she hoped it could pierce through. "I'll try and distract it, see if you can cut through it." She then held out her left hand and cast a quick spell, forming an orb of light and directing it up to illuminate the monster.
"Of course, be careful," Qakog said.
"I'll be fine, just show me what the Piercer of Bark can do," Joan said before she dashed at the scorpion. She stopped just before she'd come within reach of the pincers, dashing back and around the right side. The scorpion's pincers hit empty air, but it quickly turned after her, charging. She glanced back, careful to not go too far from the light so she could avoid tripping over invisible rubble, but she was quickly running out of space. Another pile of rubble lay behind her and she only had a few steps back before she hit the edge of it.
The scorpion rose up slightly, its now-stingerless tail poised over its head as if it was going to try and sting her, the severed tip dripping dark liquid down the monster's carapace.
It lunged forward and Joan dashed to the right, turning to shadows and flowing through the pincers before they could snag her. An agonized shriek came from the monster and rather than turning to face her, it turned around fully to face Qakog. Turned as it was, she could see that he had managed to pierce it, right below where the tail grew out from the body.
Now, however, it was furious. It lunged at him and he turned and ran, not that she blamed him.
But she had access to the monster's backside. She dashed forward, activating her boots to allow her to catch up to the beast. She rammed the icy tip of her staff into the hole that Qakog had made, driving it as deep as she could before gripping the staff in both hands. She said the incantation, gathering her power and sending it through the staff before it erupted out, tearing the monster apart from the inside out.
The scorpion let out a hissing, clicking, gurgling sound before it started to turn. Joan let the staff go and, a moment later, wished she hadn't. She watched with horror as the rapidly turning scorpion was unable to stop, but the staff did, making the monster nearly tear itself in half on the staff. She stumbled back a few feet, her hands moving over her mouth as she let out a low gasp of disgust.
"Joan? Are you okay?" Bauteut called out.
"F-fine," Joan said, unable to take her eyes off the staff. Still there, suspended in the air. The scorpions body thrashing under it. Holding it open like it was some kind of monstrous clam she'd viciously cracked open. Joan watched as the scorpion gurgled and shrieked, its cries getting quieter until, finally, it went entirely limp.
"D-don't come over here," Joan said. "Just… don't…" She waited for a while before, very slowly, she inched forward. Despite the monster's inability to dislodge the staff, all it took was a single tug from her and it came out as easily as if it had just been laying on the ground. She then inched around the monster.
The staff didn't even have a drop of blood on it. But there had been so, so much spilling from that monster. Slowly, she walked into the center of the teleportation circle and just sat down, leaning against Bauteut.
"Joan? Are you okay?" Bauteut asked.
"I don't… know," Joan said. "I've seen some terrible things. I've done some thing. But I have… never… ever done anything like that. I am not entirely sure how I feel about it now that I have."
"What did you do?" Bauteut asked.
"Oh gods!" Qakog called from too far away.
"That," Joan said before closing her eyes. "I think… we should setup a watch. Just until Penthe and Chase get back."
"Agreed," Bauteut said.
Joan really wished she could figure out how she felt about that. She just… didn't know. She felt she should feel bad about it. But it was trying to kill her.
She mostly just felt gross. So very, very gross.