Chapter 416: Courage

The notification ignored him. More text appeared beneath the Patron’s message, laying out the revised conditions with the same calm indifference the Tower applied to everything else.

[Special Trial Condition]

[Defeat Akrab, the Last Sting.]

[Rewards have been significantly increased.]

[Divine Observation Active.]

[Good luck, Challenger.]

Kael exhaled slowly, looking from Akrab to the twelve young men behind him. The fifth round had originally been a duel against an Imperial commander. Instead, some divine embodiment of courage had watched him survive everything the Floor threw at him and apparently decided a giant poisonous scorpion would make a better conclusion.

"Right, now I’m your little toy, to do with whatever you want. All I need to hear is, dance for me boy! Right?"

Kael cursed under his breath and could only sigh at the absurdity of the situation.

Yes the reward had increased.

But that thought did considerably less for his mood than it normally would have, especially when Akrab’s left claw snapped shut again. The sound struck the air hard enough that Kael felt it inside his chest, making him flinch before the right claw followed with an equally violent crack.

"Fucking A..." He muttered as the creature hissed more. "You know, they make really good discounts for toothpaste... after all the corpses you ate, it’ll do you great service. Stench, teeth and all..."

Several of the young gladiators stumbled backward. Kael flexed his hands inside the Malachor gauntlets while the creature’s tails shifted above its back, one moving toward his left and the other toward his right. They moved independently, each adjusting while the other remained poised.

Venom swelled along both stingers until fat drops fell from their tips. One struck the arena floor and hissed, turning the red dirt black. The ground beneath it began sinking, bubbling as a small depression formed around the liquid and released thin fumes into the air.

"Yep, had to be like this to be a challenge." Kael looked up, "It wasn’t enough for you that I’d ONLY get poisoned, no, you wanted me to melt in it. Quite the patron, many thanks... really."

To Kael that clearly didn’t look like simple venom, maybe it was... but it had enough corrosive power to make the distinction meaningless. Kael watched the soil continue to break down before returning his attention to the stingers.

With the damage it did to the ground, he really did not want to discover what that liquid would do after entering his body.

His Basilisk equipment was durable, and the Nine Yang Destruction Body had made him tougher than any normal human had a right to be. Neither offered much reassurance against something capable of injecting poison that dissolved tissue from the inside. A single clean hit could leave him with a problem his usual endurance would do very little to solve.

He had Shadow Step, which could save him from one lethal blow once per day. That was useful, but relying on an emergency ability to survive one mistake against something with two stingers was hardly a strategy. He needed to understand how the creature fought before it forced him to find out whether the passive worked.

Kael studied the claws, legs, and eyes, beginning to build the fight in his head. He would avoid clashing directly with the pincers until he understood their strength, and getting beneath the main body would be dangerous unless he already had somewhere to escape. Above all, he needed to keep both tails visible whenever possible.

The exoskeleton would probably resist ordinary strikes. Its joints might be weaker, and the eyes almost certainly offered better targets, but he knew nothing about the underside yet. There were possibilities. He simply needed enough information to judge which ones would get him killed.

"GLADIATOR!"

Kael lowered his stance. The twelve young men behind him stepped farther away without needing instruction, giving him room to move while putting more distance between themselves and the creature. For once, everyone seemed to understand that crowding together would help nobody.

"PROVE THAT YOU DESERVE YOUR FREEDOM!"

Akrab lowered its body. Kael immediately noticed its legs bending, the claws opening, and the two tails tightening above its back. His eyes widened as the creature’s weight shifted forward.

"That thing is going to charge."

"BEGIN!"

Kael had expected it to be fast. He had not expected the violent burst of speed that carried the enormous scorpion across the arena, closing the distance before its size seemed capable of allowing it. One claw swept toward him, and he barely managed to move.

He dropped, realized he had not gone low enough, and threw himself sideways into a roll. The claw passed above his helmet, its displaced air hitting him hard enough to twist his body as he struck the dirt. Kael rolled through the impact and came up just as Akrab planted the legs along one side of its body.

The rest of the creature slid around them. Kael stared as the enormous scorpion performed a half-turn, its rear body carving through the dirt without slowing enough to give him room. Both tails came down while it was still turning.

He saw their shadows first. Two narrow shapes stretched across the ground, moving toward him from different angles as the stingers descended.

"Move!"

Kael threw himself backward. The first stinger punched into the ground where his chest had been, burying itself with a heavy thud. He rolled again as the second followed, striking close enough that he felt the impact through the dirt beneath him.

Both points sank deep into the arena floor, leaving roughly half their length buried. Green venom flooded into the punctures, and the ground began hissing as Kael scrambled away. The earth around the first impact collapsed into a bubbling black depression. The second followed before he had reached his feet.

The smell caught him as he rose onto one knee. Acid, rot, and something sweet beneath both made his body recoil before he could help it. His heartbeat had accelerated enough that he noticed it immediately, and he kept his eyes on the holes while drawing his next breath.

Either strike could have ended the fight. The stingers had driven through the ground without resistance, and the spreading venom was destroying everything around them. His armor and reinforced body suddenly felt much less reassuring than they had a few moments earlier.

Akrab ripped both tails free. Drops scattered across the arena floor, making the dirt smoke wherever they landed. Kael stood while the creature rotated toward him again, opening its claws before snapping them shut in quick succession.

The cracks echoed through the arena. Akrab’s body began rattling, followed by a long hiss directed at the man still standing in front of it. Kael understood the challenge without needing a translation.

Thousands of spectators screamed Akrab’s name while others shouted for Kael. The announcer was still talking somewhere above them, but Kael stopped following his words. His attention narrowed to the creature’s movements and the weapons it had already proven capable of using together.

Two claws, eight legs, and two tails, all protected by a heavy exoskeleton and moving far faster than anything that large should. Its venom ate through the ground, and it had enough intelligence to turn a missed charge into a second attack before its opponent could recover. Kael flexed his fingers inside the Malachor gauntlets, watching both stingers.

He had underestimated its speed, and the first exchange had almost killed him because of it. He would not make that mistake twice. When Akrab hissed again, he lowered himself into stance and made certain he had room to move.

The fear remained. He could feel it while looking at the claws and the green liquid gathering along the stingers, but it had not stopped him from thinking. The creature could kill him very easily if he made one bad decision. Acknowledging that seemed considerably more useful than pretending otherwise.

Kael found himself smiling beneath the Spartan helmet. His chances had not improved, but he thought he understood what the Patron actually wanted now. The One Who Stands Where Others Flee had not come to watch someone incapable of fear. Fearless people were idiots, and courage meant very little when a person had never considered retreat reasonable.

He looked from the twin stingers to the claws capable of snapping him in half, then tightened his fists. Every part of the creature offered a sensible reason to get farther away from it. Apparently, that was the point.

"All right. I understand what you’re asking now. You want to know whether I’ll still stand here after realizing exactly how badly this thing can kill me."

Akrab lowered itself again, its legs bending beneath the armored body. Kael shifted one foot backward as the familiar rattle began, watching the claws spread and the tails draw tight. His smile disappeared.

"Fine."

The scorpion surged forward with the same violent burst of speed. This time, Kael was ready for it, his attention fixed on the approaching claws and the two stingers waiting above them.

"Let’s find out."