Minervina Barda 16: Four Scorpions Stand outside Yong'An Part 2
The chase was well into its third day and I was just now starting to regret my decision to ambush the Lightning Tyrant.
"Well for once I can't blame anyone else for getting me into this shit, I did this one all by myself" I muttered while looking over my shoulder at my three ardent pursuers.
All three of the local Core Formation Scorpions were now involved in the pursuit. The fiercely territorial arachnids would not miss any opportunity to strike out at a wounded peer, I suspected nothing could benefit their own advancement more than devouring each other. So each temple-sized monster was just as focused on battling each other as they were chasing down the Foundation Building gnat that had started this little farce.
Their animosity was the only reason I was still alive. Even with the speed and power of Late Foundation Establishment and the space-warping properties of my movement technique I was barely keeping ahead. I had maintained my narrow lead only by burning through a small fortune of alchemical weapons.
"Eat this!" I shouted as I hurled the last of my Ash-Born Viper Pearls at my latest admirer, calling on the power of my Fire Pillar as I did so. The 'Mangrove Lord' was a Wood aligned Scorpion that moved with lithe grace despite the small grove of trees that clung to its exoskeleton. My dull reddish pearls landed on the sand before the beast and exploded in a flash of fire and fury. A dozen horned vipers, each big enough to swallow a horse and around 20 metres long, engulfed the Scorpion in a tide of fangs. The vipers were made entirely from flame, sticky oil, venom and spite. They would be enough to keep the Core Formation Beast pinned for a moment. So in a moment of reckless abandon I doubled down on my earlier plan. The Lightning Tyrant's venom still sang in my veins, and I could feel a longing in my channels. I was close to some kind of breakthrough, but I needed more.
With a final sigh at my own recklessness, I reversed my course and charged the stricken Spirit Beast.
Panicked by the fiery onslaught of vipers, the Scorpion had spewed a thick torrent of venom from its stinger already. I strained the Shimmermist Steps to their absolute limit, dancing between serpent fang, scorpion talon and burning tree to collect it in my open hands. The viscous green liquid promptly oozed through my skin, tearing through my meridians like a plant in fertile soil. I backed away and resumed running, trying not to feel the torrent of excruciating little pops under my skin as the Wood and Lightning aligned poisons met in my veins, mixed, and exploded. I couldn't help but smile at the irony, if I hadn't already gone through my tribulation with the Shatterdao Poison I would definitely be crippled and thrashing in pain right now. As it was, I could keep moving, fighting and refining all at the same time, though I could feel my reserves of mental focus and Qi start to flag.
I didn't look back as the Mangrove Lord finished tearing apart my spell constructs, I didn't need to. Its low hiss of victory was so loud I could feel the earth tremble under my feet. Or perhaps that was the steps of my third and slowest pursuer. The TitanSteel Scorpion was a thing of Earth and Metal. My closest scrape with death so far had come when I sprinted directly over where it was burrowed under the sands, thinking it to be simply a slightly overlarge dune. I might have shrieked in an entirely undignified manner when its silver tipped pincers lunged out at me from the sand.
It seemed the least interested in catching me, but was ardent about whatever grudge it had with the other two mighty beasts. Just as the Mangrove Lord banished my serpents, the behemoth of glittering carapace scuttled up next to it and clobbered it around the head with one giant claw. Shrieking with indignation, the Mangrove Lord responded with a technique that conjured a host of vines from the vegetation on its back to bind its foe.
For the first time in days, I had a clear chance to break away from the Scorpions as they engaged one another in their duel. Yong'An and its Boundary Formation were not far away. While no match for the Defense Arrays of a true Golden Devil fortress, they should have been enough to discourage my most determined pursuer, the wounded Lightning Tyrant, from following me. If I had disengaged at this point, I would probably have made a clean break of it, having made fantastic gains.
But I couldn't take my eyes off the TitanSteel scorpion's stinger. It gleamed in the desert sunlight, built like those of Fat-Tailed Scorpions, a buttressed tower of metal with a tip that radiated a dolorous power that tasted of mercury and death. I wanted the power it represented, damn the consequences.
"Emilia!" I cried out, conjuring the faithful serpent that had been hiding in my veins. She oozed forth from my skin and looked at me, eyes full of concern and courage. She would fight those titans to the death if I asked, the silly girl. "Go ahead to the town, as fast as you can, tell the guards the passphrase 'Resplendent Decree Falls On Shadows Ears' and that they are to use the same evacuation drill as for an attack by Blood Path Artists." I could feel my friend tense, wanting to refuse, she always hates it when I have to send her away. "Now, quickly, we have no time."
Without any more doubt, the violet spirit threw herself in the direction of Yong'An her speed rivalling my own in her eagerness.
With the warning sent, I redirected my attention to the fight, looking for my chance to strike. I also eyed my original nemesis, the Lightning Tyrant, which was cautiously trying to circle around the scuffling between its peers so it could get back to chasing me. It had picked up a number of injuries and lost a leg in the various melee's between the scorpions over the last few days. Paired with the self-inflicted injuries from when it broke free of my Breath Stealing Powder, it was definitely in bad shape. The hateful thing refused to back down though, I looked into its eyes and saw nothing but vengeful fury and determination. The beast had reached a point where it would gladly exchange its life for mine.
"Can I use that?" I pondered, and started circling around the dueling arachnids myself, always keeping the battle between me and the Lightning Tyrant, like we were opposing points on a compass.
This stalemate continued for an hour and I could visibly see the Tyrant's rage build greater and greater. The Mangrove Lord and old Titansteel seemed focused entirely on their own fight, they had brought their full power to bear on each other and started to tear apart the immediate landscape with flurries of conjured swords, radiant waves of emerald energy and physical blows strong enough to rend the earth.
"Lets hope your mad enough to take the bait" I twisted on my heels as if to dart away to freedom. The thought of my escape was clearly too much for the wounded Tyrant and it leapt forward. Into the middle of the titanic duel between its rivals.
The ensuing madness was hard to follow as the three beasts clawed, grappled and spat Qi arts at each other in wild abandon. I turned back and stalked in closer, looking for my chance.
It came so fast I almost missed it. The TitanSteel Scorpion was sent reeling by a powerful arc of lightning, and then shoulder barged by the offended Mangrove Lord. Off balance, the monstrosity tumbled with a thud loud enough to split stone. Its tail swung backwards and forwards wildly as it tried to regain its footing. On one swing it came close to my position.
With no time to hesitate, I leapt up into the air, and kicked its stinger with my left foot. The steely point went straight through the leather of my boot and flooded me with a Metal based venom that tried to paint my veins and meridians a startling bright silver before it killed me. The stuff must turn its victims into very pretty statues. I decided to look into that later.
I landed heavily on my unwounded foot and took off, with my Dantian pounding as it tried to keep me moving and refine the three competing venoms at the same time. You might wonder why I deliberately wounded my foot right before a sprint, but I swear my logic was sound. While I had mostly refined and gained control over the Lightning venom during the chase, the Wood Venom was still fresh and unruly. I had taken it into my arms, and I needed the new venom to be as far away from it as possible if I was to have any hope of refining them both successfully.
I started to dash in the direction of the city, but my thoughts were a million miles away from the titanic battle occurring behind me. All I could see in my mind's eye was my Dantian and Meridians, the bricks and mortar of my Cultivation, as they burst asunder and regrew anew over and over under the immense pressure of the terrible poisons.
It was as if the three spirits beasts were continuing their duel inside my chest. Lightning, berserk and unrelenting, threatened to burst my channels and cook my flesh. Wood wanted control, to grasp hold of my muscles and bones and make them thrive, to grow and mutate in a random and certainly fatal outburst of evolution. Ponderous and inevitable, the Metal Qi wanted to assimilate, to remake my body and soul in steel.
It was that thought that made things slide into place, like the final tile in a puzzle with 100,000 pieces. With the skill granted by over a century of diligent poison cultivation, empowered by the supernal energies of the Malignant Nirvana Pill, I grasped the essence of these three divine venoms. Refining each of these Core Formation entities with my Foundation Building powers would be the work of years, like trying to shape diamond with sandpaper. Instead, I would refine them all simultaneously, by using them against each other. After all, the easiest way to split a diamond was to use a second diamond! (Or at least I heard someone say that once, I'm not a jeweler)
My feet never stopped moving as I started to deliberately open and close various Meridians in my body in a rhythmic fashion. This meant the venoms that had infested various parts of my body were allowed to penetrate the rest of my system, but only in tiny, controlled doses. With an understanding of my channels that only an Alchemist or Poison Mistress could manifest I directed these doses strategically. Eventually one minuscule dose of each venom would meet simultaneously and I theorized the resulting reaction would present the effect I was looking for.
The first such meeting took place in the veins leading to my left kidney. The amount of venom used wouldn't have been visible to the naked eye. The resultant explosion of heat, Qi energy and kinetic force made me lose my footing and I tumbled to the dirt. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the battered forms of the three scorpions now stood a distance apart from each other, once more at a stand-off. The Lightning Tyrant was moving its head left and right, undoubtedly looking for its erstwhile prey. I picked myself up and kept running.
Turning my gaze inwards again I inspected the spot where the reaction had happened and was overjoyed. A rough circle of flesh, roughly as wide as the tip of my pinky finger, around that point, had been measurably improved. Metal Qi had sunk into the muscle, giving tendons the strength of steel cords. Wood had rejuvenated and invigorated, instantly healing the damage from the reaction, and moreover it had impressed itself into my body. Its urge to control and manipulate was now mine to command, giving me even greater influence over my body's internal workings. The lightning Qi was strangest, it seemed to be locked now within my own cells, latent and waiting. When unlocked with more venom it would grant explosive physical force the likes of which I had never had before.
Of course at the moment these wondrous effects were limited to a space of slightly less than a cubic inch in my torso. I would need to undergo a complete transformation if I was to truly experience the benefits of my good fortune. That would mean pain, and a lot of it.
"Just once, I would like to come across a revolutionary cultivation technique that involves only pleasant things. Why couldn't I bathe in chocolate from millennia old beans or something"
Grousing done, I gritted my teeth and got on with it. I could handle this, no one knows deep muscle pain like an arthritic old woman and I had been one for the better part of two decades. As the walls of Yong'An came into view I did have to make one painful admission though.
I wasn't going to be able to keep running.
Even with my Inspiration Pillar, I didn't have the mental fortitude to control the refinement process, deal with the potent backlash from the reaction and keep moving at the same time. If I tried I would most likely just mess up all three things at once and doom myself.
"I will just have to be quick." I sighed as I saw the Lightning Tyrant in the distance breaking away from the three way standoff with its peers to dash at me, clearly not willing to let me escape into the city. Titansteel and the Mangrove Lord lumbered after him, equally unwilling to allow their badly wounded rival to slink away. I had mere minutes before they caught up.
Pushing away extraneous thoughts, I shut out my fear of the stampeding behemoths before me and my worry for the startled town behind me. I felt, heard and saw nothing but the inner workings of my own flesh and blood. What I was attempting was inherently an act of Transformation and when I called on the Pillars of my nascent Dao I could feel them respond with unprecedented strength and clarity. With the gentle firmness of Water I wrangled the bucking Lightning Qi and brought it to heel. The roar of Fire ushered the Wood venom along the channels I needed it to travel, burning away harmful growth and leaving only rejuvenated strength behind. Even Metal bows before the forces of entropy in the end, it rusts, weakens and finally shatters into tiny fragments before a Pillar of Death. Those fragments are then maneuvered into place, foundation stones for the change that is to occur.
Foolishly I entertain a potentially fatal moment of doubt as I move the three venoms into alignment around my body. Tiny triplets are clustered everywhere, held apart by the barest thread of my will. When I let go that same reaction that threw me to my feet a moment ago will take place everywhere at once. I grit my teeth, I don't have time to do this any other way!
I let go.
The pain was transcendent.
The pain was a living thing, like a demon from some dark hell had clawed inside my body and started devouring me from the inside out.
Except it was happening everywhere at once.
Unconsciousness was a blessing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I awoke to the sounds of screaming mortals and breaking masonry.
I learned later that I was only out for a few minutes before the psychic rebound of the poor town's boundary formation shattering stirred me from my stupor. In that time the three mighty beasts had caught up to me.It seems TitanSteel and the Mangrove Lord had set aside their grudges for a while to enjoy tearing apart the local architecture.
The Lightning Tyrant however, was predictably single minded. The first thing I saw on waking was the acidic drool dripping from its maw. If you aren't familiar with scorpion physiology, let me just say I was far too close for comfort.
In a just world, I would have died in that moment. I had gambled with not only my life, but the lives of countless innocents, in a wild, reckless grab for power. I might contend I had done it out of some high minded ideal, pointed towards the dire straits of the Clan or the amount of good I could do in the future with all that strength, but it would be a lie. I had acted out of naked avarice and a desire to never feel so weak again. If I had been a character in a story, being devoured here would certainly be my gate, humbled by my own pride and greed.
But this is not a just world, it's one with a cruel, blind heaven and countless self absorbed little gods who rig the rules to favour the strong, the ruthless and occasionally the dangerously reckless. From the moment I opened my eyes I knew that this time, my gamble had paid off.
As natural as breathing I burnt away the remnants of the various venoms in my system. Seamlessly, my new Constitution took in all that toxic potential and converted it into raw physical force.
I slammed a petite palm into the carapace of the beasts underbelly. The natural armour splintered and my arm ended up buried in the things innards up to the elbow.
The Tyrant's wails seemed confused as much as pained as it leapt away from me. My newly enhanced arm was almost ripped off by the sudden motion as the beast put some distance between us.
I pulled myself to my feet and wrenched my dress back into place, trying to ignore the blue ichor that now covered me from head to toe. "Will you just piss off already?"
I dipped my hand into my spatial pouch and scooped out a trio of black pills. Made for use against human cultivators, they were some of the few alchemical weapons I still had left in my arsenal. Not taking my eyes off my suddenly wary foe, I put the first pill between my teeth and crushed. Venomous power soared through my channels and in a blink I was next to it, driving my first into it repeatedly. Each strike blew straight through the thick carapace with a sickly thud.
It wailed again and this time conjured a storm of lightning to burn everything around it.
However I was already gone, having dashed out of its range before the blow fell. I could already feel my toxin given strength failing, so as the Lightning Qi grounded itself I bit into the second pill.
I couldn't really match this thing for more than moments, even with the insane strength of my new Poison Body. The gap between Foundation Building and Core Formation is not so easily bridged. But I had already startled it twice and it was sorely wounded. If I could startle it a third time it might rethink its mad pursuit and retreat.
So I pulled together every ounce of Qi I had left and went for its fucking eyes.
Combining a venom enhanced leap with the Shimmermist Steps blurred the line between rapid movement and teleportation. Fast as thought I was standing on top of the creatures head.
Calling out the last embers of power from my Fire and Death Pillars I shrouded my fist in an oily black flame that seemed to devour the desert light.
Just as the Tyrant realised the monkey-thing had the impudence to actually clamber on its back, I drove my fist directly into its right eye.
The resulting pop and sizzling sound was deeply satisfying. The blackflame necrotised the burnt flesh surrounding the injury with incredible speed. Healing this wound would be far from simple.
I cartwheeled off the beast just as it counterattacked. In its pain and partial blindness it just threw lightning bolts left and right and I managed to evade it.
The light show did do a good job of attracting the attention of its rivals though. With most of Yong'an in ruins, the other scorpions had nothing left to distract them from the Tyrants dire straits. They ignored each other for the first time and just charged directly at the half blind arachnid.
I choked down the last of my pills and got the hell out of the way. Something I probably should have done much sooner.
‐----‐----------------------------------------
I slumped on the roof of one of the few somewhat intact buildings left in town, watching the dust plumes as the scorpions took their duel back out into the wilderness.
Down an eye, a leg and facing both its old rivals, the Tyrant had finally elected to retreat. From the ardour with which the other scorpions chased after it, I was now certain the vile beasts were in some kind of bottleneck where killing and devouring each other was their only hope for advancement.
Emilia's return brought me back to the present. She looked ragged and weary from her sprint across the desert, but she was the true hero of the story, having convinced the town to evacuate in time. I offered her my hand to nuzzle while I praised her.
While the populace had been saved the town itself was a right off. I had already spoken with the local dignitaries and they had decided to split the population up between other nearby settlements.
I looked down at the mass of huddled refugees in the streets as they sifted through the rubble looking for any belongings they could salvage.
I committed then to spending the next few years making sure they were taken care of. While the Clan tried its best to care for mortals, things could get overlooked in these chaotic times. It was the least I could do considering the role I played in this disaster.
I looked down at my hands, thinking of the power that now lay within them. I thought of the oncoming war with the Cannibals, my experiences holding back the tide of Abyssal Bees and the looming threat of the next set of trials. I had ruined 50,000 lifes for this power, and risked giving them an even worse fate. I didn't have the luxury of weeping over that, I would just have to try and be worthy of it.
----------------------------------------------------------
Yikes, this one took a while even if you account for the fact that its one of the longest I have written so far and I am still unhappy with large sections of it. I will probably edit it a bunch in the next week, but I wanted this part of the story done before the Good Seed reports wrapped up.
Keen eyed folks will note the title change, no mountain ended up appearing in the story. Minervina, our favourite venomous bastard, is the eponymous 4th scorpion.
@Humbaba &
@ReaderOfFate Threadmark please! This is my 3rd Omake this turn, but if someone could update the spreadsheet so it shows I want an LST for my Omake reward would be very grateful.
) "You now need 60 years to go from the equivalent of 1st Pillar to 3rd Pillar, and then another 60 years to go to 5th Pillar... and then 120 to get to 7th Pillar. And a whopping 248 years if you want to go from 7th Pillar to 8th Pillar.)
Cool. So, pardon a new player - can we start posting omake for next turn already, or what?