Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 27: Frenetic Melee

This marked the beginning of a frenetic melee.

The crew blocked and struck and dodged like mad, forcing the scorpion to repeatedly use Harden to prevent it from taking damage. The hunters were draining the beast’s mana faster than they were spending their own, but a single mistake would result in a critical injury. For now, the scales were balanced, and the stalemate continued for another frantic minute.

The creature had no problem evading Edge’s attacks or parrying them with its claws. It did, however, dart back or Harden its exoskeleton every time that he sent a Double Slash its way. This led him to believe that his skill was strong enough to penetrate its thick chitin armor if the defensive power wasn’t in the picture.

He wasn’t nearly as quick as his opponent, but the hunters were fighting seven against two. There were plenty of openings to exploit as the crew assailed the scorpion from all sides with a variety of attacks and skills.

Its natural weapons were plenty dangerous. But unless he was stung, Edge didn’t think they were sufficient to kill him in a single blow. What he really had to watch out for were the beast’s offensive skills, along with webbing from the juvenile that was attacking from the tree line.

On that note, he noticed that Blue had pulled back and was circling around. She was planning to engage the smaller web-weaver and remove its threads from the picture, letting the rest of the team battle the big one with undivided attention.

The scorpion eventually broke through their guard, igniting its core while preparing to unleash a skill that would take someone out of the fight. Violet cried out a warning and rushed to the rescue. Everyone closed their eyes and clasped their hands over their ears, half a heartbeat before a pair of flashbangs detonated in front of the beast’s face. The first one spooked it, causing it to rear back, but the second detonation only made it flinch.

It was clear that the creature was adapting to their tactics. That the flashbangs would only have a limited effect going forward. Still, Violet’s assistance had been enough to keep everyone’s blood inside their bodies, at least for a while longer. However, the crew needed to finish the fight fast, before someone was seriously wounded or worse.

By now, Blue was squaring off against the juvenile scorpion, marking the beginning of a fierce beast-on-beast battle. Her horns didn’t have the reach of the arthropod’s claws and tail, but she was stronger, faster, and could hit harder. On the other side of the equation, the scorpion had tough natural armor, the ability to fire webbing, and a venomous sting.

They circled each other, probing their opponent for weakness while looking for an opening to land a critical blow. Edge thought that she was in trouble when the scorpion darted in low and ducked beneath her horns. But Blue spun in a tight circle, darted away to open some room, then came Charging back in.

The scorpion turned at the last possible moment, centering her horns on the thickest part of its armor. The tips bit in, but couldn’t penetrate deep, scoring a moderate wound that didn’t end the fight. “Don’t worry,” Violet said after noticing the look on his face. “She’s got this.”

Sure enough, while they were well-matched in physical attributes, the juvenile predator couldn’t compete with the combat-trained beast’s experience. Blue combined Charge with Thrust, followed by Gore, landing a series of powerful blows that split the creature’s thorax open.

He didn’t get a chance to see what happened next. Because at that point, the big beast turned on him in a flash of claws and tail. He Shadow Stepped out of the way in the nick of time. The instant that he rematerialized, Edge learned a critical detail. The juvenile scorpion wasn’t the only beast that could cast Manipulate Webbing—its mother was using it too.

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Something collided with his leg, followed by a second impact at his right elbow. He tried to pull back, only to realize that half his body was bound in webbing. He reached for his knife, but each movement caused the sticky threads to grip him tighter. When he tried Shadow Stepping to get away, he discovered that there was a field of Disruption running through the silk.

Shit. That’s not good. Edge would have been in some real trouble at that point if he were fighting on his own. He wasn’t strong enough to break the threads and couldn’t use any skills with the beast’s magic countering his own.

But since he was working with a team, he wasn’t worried at all. He just leaned back as far as he could while waiting for his friends to help him, and his faith paid dividends a few seconds later.

“Close your eyes,” Sasha yelled. He followed her orders, trusting her instincts implicitly. A heartbeat later, a cone of flame broke over him. She only activated Fire Breathing for a fraction of a second, costing Edge his eyelashes and a few strands of hair hanging down from his hat. It wasn’t enough to hurt him but it burned the webbing away, leaving him free to move once more. “Thanks, Sasha.” He flashed a thumbs up, and then raced to rejoin the battle.

The others had been hard-pressed during his absence. Jumo had been stung twice while Sasha and Edge were distracted. There was enough paralytic venom pumping through his bloodstream that he could barely move. Fortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop his lungs or heart, thanks to his impressive Durability.

Before the scorpion could follow up, Edge, Sasha, and Trapper ignited their cores, unleashing some heavy hits to drive it back. Meanwhile, Violet and Riller rushed in. They grabbed Jumo by the arms and dragged him away, opening a hundred feet within a matter of seconds.

The move wouldn’t have been possible before binding their cores. But with the Power and Speed of their new bodies, they were able to pull it off. Once Jumo was safe, Trapper disengaged and rushed over to his side. Edge repositioned to guard the crew’s leader while she went to work.

It was his first time witnessing her Cleanse skill in action, which could purge the body of poison, venom, and a range of other toxins, if she used it quickly enough. Mana went streaming out of her core, through her hands, and into Jumo’s body.

For a second, nothing happened. But then, to Edge’s astonishment, blood came running out of the puncture wounds, followed by a spray of greenish liquid. That must be the scorpion’s venom.

Less than a minute later, the foreign agent had been purged from Jumo’s body. He still couldn’t move, but he should recover quickly now that the substance was out of his system. Blue had won her fight, but the dino was exhausted after her battle with the juvenile scorpion. Trapper ordered the beast to guard Jumo while she and Edge rejoined the fight.

By now, the armored predator was slowing down, but the crew was exhausted too. Traveler’s Boon had supplemented their stamina, but the high-speed battle was still incredibly wearying. He sensed that the conflict had reached a critical juncture. That the next side to make a mistake was going to lose the fight.

Edge had to make sure that the beast faltered first.

That was when Riller and Violet came rushing over with a flashbang in each hand. They called out a warning, then flung all four devices at once. An incredible explosion ensued that left him momentarily deaf, accompanied by an intense flash that penetrated his closed eyelids.

While a single flashbang wasn’t sufficient to stun the beast, four in a row were able to do the trick, at least for a few seconds. But on this occasion, a few seconds was all that Trapper’s crew needed.

Edge activated Entangle, maximizing the rank-three skill’s output as he cast it over and over again. The heavy vines would never have caught the agile beast under ordinary circumstances. But in that moment of weakness, the vines were able to grab hold.

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Meanwhile, Trapper reached behind her back and detached a pair of bladewire nets from her pack—metal meshes with razored blades running along the inside, designed to bite deep when prey tried to break free.

The beast Hardened its body when the bladewire began to cut, but it couldn’t pull free from the vines. Edge sensed an incredible concentration of mana building within its core, as it prepared to unleash a powerful skill. But Trapper was already making her move and finished casting first.

It was time for her Rare skill, Quagmire, to shine.