--- Strigor ---

"HAHAHAHA!" Strigor had found the greatest reason to exist in the desert. It was hot during the day, but if you slept through that and instead walked around at night? It was a festival of fun! Monsters everywhere, constantly drawn in by the blood and noise. They came for the food, the disruption, or just to get a jump on some idiot that had wandered into their territory.

Strigor ripped the stinger from the scorpion that charged and him and then hurled the pointy, venom filled projectile towards a bat-thing that was descending towards him, impaling it through the chest with a grin. Strigor laughed as he jumped over a swipe of a second scorpion and then activated his boots to crush down on them with the power of gravity, liquifying its insides and destroying the carapace.

See, he’d managed to find this mound of monsters a few days ago just FILLED with scorpions and had since gone on to find even more! This one seemed to suffer from regular attacks of other monsters so he had extras to contend with. It was brilliant! They were even fairly close to the ocean so he could go fishing afterwards once this was exhausted.

His crossbow was fired at another approaching bat-thing ripping through its torso as he turned and slammed his sword through one of the gaps in the scorpion’s armour. He had to dash to the side to avoid some acid spit, which, was it still ’acid spit’ if it was launched from the tail? Strigor did not know and he did not care as he fired off another bolt, this time from his smaller crossbow. It wouldn’t kill the thing but that was fine.

The scorpions continued to swarm, probably trying to protect a queen or something... but why would he go down to kill her when more enemies kept finding their way to him? Strigor whipped his head around and punched the bat-thing that had thought he was distracted. The spikes on his gauntlets brutalising the monster as he flung it away. Probably not enough to kill it, but enough for it to wish it was dead.

Strigor grabbed a bomb from his pouch and threw it towards a set of two approaching scorpions. They were currently digging themselves out of the sand. Wel, they were, now they were on fire and not having a good time of it. The bright burst of light also showed quite a LOT of those bat things circling around the battlefield. Perhaps some sort of controlling intelligence? They flinched back from the light, clearly weren’t doing well in combat with him... but not fleeing. Not unusual for a monster, but the fact they were waiting for something was. Especially when they were in a group.

The blood soaked sand beneath his feet started to rise up as the larger scorpion he’d seen yet tried to emerge from the ground and skewer him with one of its three stingers it apparently had. Strigor got an AMAZING idea. As the stingers came down he dodged around them. One clipped his armour but he considered that an acceptable trade as he wove between them and then slammed two feet into the stingers on the edge. They slammed into the scorpions body and cracked the plates enough that when he leant forward and punched the last one, it went clean through.

The beast roared in pain as Strigor laughed. That wasn’t enough to kill it... but perhaps it was enough to show off some real tricks? Strigor had to land on the beast’s back, but he could aim a kick for the cracks in its armour to keep it in pain for a little longer before sliding off and onto another scorpions face. Its skull gave way beneath his boot. Blood and chitin fragments flying everywhere.

Apparently this was what set the bigger scorpion off, and not the whole self-impalement thing. It started to glow, and some magical effect was likely to come of that... so Strigor grinned and lashed out at the bats about him. His crossbows had finished their automatic reloads and he was happy to shoot some more down if they weren’t going to get close. Though Strigor did have to click his teeth at the end result. The smaller crossbow didn’t have the reach. Though his larger one managed to impale two of them, so perhaps that was an acceptable trade.

Moving around to slice at a few of the other scorpions, killing or crippling them as he continued to wait for the big one. Apparently it was happy to keep charging up as long as he was willing to allow it. So he did. He massacred the other monsters by the dozens, though most of those were of the smaller variety. The tiny scorpions that could hardly be considered monsters, closer to normal size but with fairly deadly venom. Still, simply crushing them underfoot wasn’t too hard.

Finally though, the scorpion monster had finished charging. Strigor was expecting some sort of sand blast, perhaps poison mist... but no. Instead, ghostly images of its fallen brethren started to populate the field in huge numbers, all moving to protect the dying scorpion that had summoned them.

Strigor beamed, "Really? For me? YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE HAHAHAHAHAHA" Strigor laughed madly as he charged into the mass. They were fragile things, this ghostly existence. Likely not a soul but some sort of semi-solid illusion that relied on the corpses nearby to give them definition. Perhaps some time magic as well for keeping the image stable. Whatever the case, they were fragile. One good hit and they popped like a soap bubble...

But based on the fact they could disturb the sand and the stinger strikes that he managed to dodge with style and panache, they were somewhat real. Getting smacked by one of them would hurt... and even better it seemed they still came back. Every time he popped one, another would return, usually somewhere closer to the scorpion he’d bullied earlier. Strigor wondered how long this joyous fight could last! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Strigor turned into a whirlwind as he moved through the ’ghost’ scorpions. With them being so fragile... EVERYTHING was a weapon. Scraps of chitin, rocks, crossbow bolts of course... but even grains of sand. Strigor howled with laughter when simply kicking up a cloud of sand shattered several scorpion ghosts all at once. It might have been lacking in blood, but these things were fun to kill. If Strigor knew what bubble wrap was, he’d probably compare the experience quite directly.

Strigor was having so much fun. The bats were even diving in occasionally when it seemed like he was about to be overwhelmed, but a good stomp on the ground sent sand flying and the scorpions just had no defence. It was enough to clear out a small area and give him plenty of time to destroy those flying rats. A punch, a kick, a stab, or some crossbow bolts. The bats weren’t much sturdier. They were fodder but still, even fodder was fun to kill in large enough numbers.

Which was why Strigor couldn’t help but frown as the fancy three tailed scorpion collapsed onto the ground. The scorpion ghosts surrounding it all shattered as well and he was simply left along amongst the corpses. Most of the bats were too high for him to easily fight, and it seemed that while he’d been enjoying himself with the ghosts, the real scorpions had all run away.

Strigor spat out a glob of spit onto the ground and lifted his helmet up to take in the sweet scent of destruction. That was apparently a signal to one of the bats that had been hiding closer to the ground... but Strigor was well used to those sorts of attacks once his guard was ’down’. A simple flick of the wrist and a small crossbow bolt was suddenly sticking out of its eye.

"Ah, what a glorious night. If I can find more scorpions like that... well I’ll be having a great time. Shame I tried that fancy shit getting it to stab itself. Might have been able to cast longer if I hadn’t left it bleeding out on the sands," Strigor sighed as he made his way over to the scorpion in question, poking around until he managed to find the orb it had hidden away. It was just... there when he cracked open the middle stinger. Strigor raised an eyebrow at that, because the orb was far too large to comfortable rest inside... must have been added later.

*Suppose I can’t complain. Then again... if this thing was even further riled up from the pain it might have given me a better fight. Though it was easily baited... so perhaps not?* "Timmy! Clean the corpses. Leave the venom sacks and anything shiny!" The little guy popped his head out from under one of the dunes and got to work.

Strigor gave one more glance up at the bats, trying his best to see them in the dark but struggling, and he was pretty sure his enchantments didn’t have the range to check on them either. Strigor shrugged and started to clean up his weapons, the sword especially just in case some of the venom from the stingers had damaged the blade.