Sullivan managed to dodge at the last minute as a spear-like stinger thrusted forward and pierced the wall behind him.
A sizeable dent formed in the stone wall as the stinger retracted, a foul smelling scent filling the air as green liquid dripped from the edges of the recently formed hole and melted the floor below.
'Fucking hell, it just had to be a Caustic Death Scorpion.'
The Caustic Death Scorpion was a second grade scorpion type aether beast infamous for it's namesake venom. The potency behind the venom is strong enough to melt stone, bone, metal and flesh with relative ease.
The scorpion aether beast let out a horrible hissing sound as it began to bob and weave it's horrid stinger in a strange, hypnotic manner. The scorpion was attempting to mesmerize the lone Digger, long enough to give him a lethal injection.
'Uhhh...getting dizzy...'
Sullivan began to stagger in place as he fell under the spell of the swaying stinger.
With it's target now under it's spell, the Caustic Death Scorpion lashed out!
But before the Caustic Death Scorpion could deliver it's deadly payload, a shield of stone in the shape of ram's head appeared out of nowhere and blocked the incoming stinger. Surprisingly, the scorpion's venom didn't melt through the ram-head shield.
Sullivan was still a bit woozy and confused on what had just transpired, but quickly shook his head about in an attempt to regain his wits. He soon realized that one that had saved him was none other than Zhen Liu's puppet.
As Sullivan looked on in shock, he swore he saw the puppet look back at him with a judgemental gaze.
The sound of footsteps coming from the direction he walked in from grabbed his attention before he could think upon the puppet's gaze sooner.
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[Enemy has been engaged. Shall I dispose of it milord?]
[Hold it, Nepherage. We gotta play the part of "support" this time around.]
"Is that a Caustic Death Scorpion?!"
"Yup! Looks like it's an adult too."
From the smallest rodents to the biggest sea monsters, the Zhen Clan made it a point to make sure their members were knowledgeable in all sorts of aether beasts, especially when it came to their scions. Which is why they immediately knew how to take down the Caustic Death Scorpion the moment they saw it.
"Caustic Death Scorpion's weak points are it's claws and base of the tail. Zhen Liu already got it locked in place, Zhen Yue!"
Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue rapidly circulated their aether as they rushed towards the scorpion aether beast. Once the two warriors were in range to launch their attacks, Nepherage forcefully shoved the stinger upward by using her shield.
[Moon Rabbit Spin Kick!]
Zhen Hai slammed a pair of fists into the Caustic Death Scorpion's Claws, the afterimage of a killer whale surrounding him. At the same time, Zhen Yue landed a spinning kick onto the base of the scorpion's tail. As her heel made contact with the scorpion, wisps of moon aether began to flow from her to it, causing strange archaic fire to manifest on the scorpion's body.
Not that it was able to actually feel the burning sensation occurring.
Due to both of it's weak points being slammed with great force at the same time, the Caustic Death Scorpion was rendered effectively paralyzed.
"Zhen Liu! Finish it off!"
Nepherage took her shield and slammed straight into the Caustic Death Scorpion's face, breaking the shell and piercing it directly into the beast's brain.
The scorpion let out a whining death cry as it collapsed to the ground and the last vestiges of life left it's eyes. With the aether beast now dead, Nepherage pulled out her shield, ichor and organs dripping from it's edge.
With his assailant now dead, Sullivan let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Phew. Thanks for saving me guys."
"Don't mention it," Zhen Liu answered, "we kinda need you alive if we want to win this competition."
"Ah, right. The competition...what are those two doing?"
As Zhen Liu and Sullivan were conversing, Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai had begun to comb over the Caustic Death Scorpion's corpse. Zhen Hai had shoved his arm into the cavity that Nepherage had made, while Zhen Yue had pulled out a large knife out of nowhere and begun to chop at the scorpion's tail. It took a few strikes, but Zhen Yue managed to chop off a large chunk of the tail.
"Caustic venom values at around thirty gold pieces a vial and I think there's about five vials worth in this gland...any luck on a core?"
Zhen Hai made a few grunting noises as he shimmied and rooted his arm through the scorpion's internals. He eventually stopped rooting about and shouted out an expletive that made Zhen Yue blush.
"We got jack shit. This thing might've been an adult, but it must've matured recently. No time to condense a proper core." Zhen Hai pulled his arm out of the scorpion, the smell of guts and ichor covering it overpowering everyone's ability to smell.
'Well that's disgusting.'
"Well now that we rescued our Digger and took care of this problem, let's head back to the main room and-why is the door gone?!"
The rest of the team looked back the way they came, expecting to see an open passage leading back to the central room, only to see a solid stone dead end.
"That's not good," Sullivan muttered.
"Did the ruins change shape?," Zhen Yue asked aloud. Zhen Hai and Sullivan just shrugged in response.
"Hold up, let me check something."
Zhen Liu walked to the dead end, using a hand to gesture for Nepherage to walk with him while using his mind to give his actual commands.
[Nepherage, can you see if this wall is solid barrier or just a sealed up doorway?]
[Of course milord, just give me some room.]