The ground rumbled and cracked.

The churned mud, blood, and spilled guts all drained into the holes as the ground broke apart and centipedes and scorpions poured out in waves.

The insects milled around and suddenly it looked as if somebody flipped a switch and they all stopped for a second.

Then they rushed the wall.

It looked like a living carpet of cetin, it reminded Louie of a scene out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

It looked like oil that oozed out of the ground as wave upon wave of insects poured from the forest and the holes in the earth.

Everybody started firing as arrows, bolts, and elemental spells tore into the living carpet of armor.

'Hooyah, motherfuckers!"

Louie looked around for the source of the shouting and saw a man dancing around, shouting, and firing lightning bolts into the swarm, using two wands like a cowboy in a wild west show.

He shook his head as he turned back to look at the wave of insects.

The scorpions and centipedes were the sizes of chihuahuas, not huge in monster scale, but there were alot of them.

"Louie! We found it."

He struggled to tear his eyes from the insects as they wove mesmerizing patterns while moving over, under, and around each other.

He turned his head to search for who had called and noticed Micheal coming towards him.

"You found who?"

"The mastermind, right at the back is some kind of creature that is controlling the insects, it looks to have some kind of hive mind ability. Here, see for yourself."

He shared a BB with Louie.

Name: Vermog

Race: Human/hybrid Level 8

Class: Warlock

Sub-classes: Entomancer

Titles: Hive Master

"Shit, Human/hybrid? What's that?"

"I have no idea, we couldn't get near it, it seems to have a very high perception, it sensed us every time we looked at it for too long."

"Entomancer? Isn't somebody that studied insects before the pulse known as an Entomologist?"

"Yip, I bet that's when he unlocked his class and hive mind ability."

"Shit, ok see if you can find out more, it is a target of opportunity. If you get the chance to take it out then take it, otherwise, we go find it after the waves are done."

Micheal looks slightly uncomfortable. "About that, you know how we all got pets? Well, that thing also got a pet, and it's a giant scorpion, he rides around on its back."

"Damn, be careful, don't get killed."

Micheal nodded before him and another scout ran down the wall in the direction of Paarl rock.

Louie shook his head as he turned back to the swarm of insects just as a flame blast was used by a militia member with a fire wand.

He stomped on the hand-sized mosquito after it fell to the ground.

"Fucking bloodsuckers, it was too much to hope that the system would change them into something nice."

"Ha, you wish." His friend replied as he blasted another group of mosquitoes with fire.

Louie looked at the swarm of flying monsters and cast cauterize but with a bit of concentration he changed the shape to that of a tennis racket and smashed the first mosquito into pieces, it might look like a racket but it still cut like a knife.

He saw Christian standing on the wall using his spell to cover the mass of insects before cutting the spell and then firing into the wet swarm with his lightning wand, the lightning ran over the wet bodies killing dozens at a time; some of the other defenders saw what he was doing and tried to copy his success.

He joined in with a couple of and his spells, even without the water spell, the battlefield was covered in enough mud and body fluids, not to mention the ice blocks that had melted by now, and the lightning was very effective in killing hordes of insects because they crawled all over each other.

This went on for nearly half an hour, and their confidence in repelling the waves rose as the bodies started piling up.

It looked like their strategy of keeping the insects away from the wall was working when suddenly the ground started to shake.

Louie imagined he could actually feel the wall move a couple of centimeters as two hundred meters in front of them the ground bulged up like a balloon that had too much pressure before it suddenly collapsed and out of the hole crawled the biggest scorpion that Louie had ever imagined.

He took a step back to stand next to Arnold.

"That is one big fucker, must be the leader's pet. It's the size of an fucking olifant tank."

Louie felt the attention of the monster as it settled on the group around Arnold where he directed the battle, as if it knew who the leaders were.

It took a step in their direction and Louie realized that the scorpion wasn't going to be heading for the militia square but will come straight for the wall, the wall where he and Arnold were standing.

"That thing is big enough to break through the wall if it wants to."

The scorpion curled up its tail and laid it flat on its back while bringing its big claws up horizontally in front of its face. Then it started to glow red.

"What the fuck is it doing?" Christean shouted as he came towards them.

"Shit! Move, move, it's using a skill, it's going to try and breach the wall!" Arnold shouted as he started running.

Louie grabbed Christian and another militia member and threw them to the side as everybody rushed to clear the section of the wall. There was a sonic boom as the monster suddenly streaked towards them before leaping the moat and impacting the wall, the wall that exploded as it smashed a hole big enough for a truck, or in this case a scorpion the size of a tank, to move through.

Louie heaved the slab of stone from him and shook his head as he struggled up through the rubble.

He spits a glob of blood onto the broken rubble and the first person he saw was a dazed Christian on top of what's left of the section of the wall

He shouted to get his attention. "Christian! Fill the breach with ice, close the gap!"

To his relief, he saw Christian wave at him as he stumbled towards the breach in the wall.

The scale of the massive monster compared to the others swarming outside brought terror to his mind as he thought of what it could do if it reach the marketplace where the families were.

'Got to finish this thing here, can't let it get away.'

The monster shook its body to try and dispel the stun effect caused by smashing through the wall, and Louie grabbed the opportunity that presented itself.

Equipping Drake, he leaped into the air and aimed for its back where he thought the brain should be. While he was in the air he triggered both barrels of the gunblade, he noticed that one was ice and the other was an earth shot.

Coming down on the creature he stabbed the vibrating blade of his gunsword into the spot where his elemental shots impacted, only to lose his balance as the blade slid along the carapace, not even scratching the thick armor.

'Shit!'

He turned his stumble into a forwards roll and smashing his foot into one of the multiple eyes he launched himself over the claws and onto the ground, right in front of the suddenly lucid, and angry tank-like scorpion.

Louie spun around as he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and rolled to the right as it thrust its spiked tail past his ribs and into the ground. The long stinger impaled the ground, squirting a liquid that immediately started to bubble and smoke.

"Fuck, of course, it's got acid in its stinger. Watch the tail!"

There was a roar as Dan grabbed the attention of the monster by smashing his sledgehammer into one of its right rear legs and rolled out of its reach as it spun around.

Over the scorpions' back, on the wall, Louie saw Christian collapse from Mana Depletion, but the breach was now blocked by a wall of ice.

Louie quickly concluded that this fight won't be won easily with their common weapons, its armor was just too tough.

Not letting that fact deter him, he rushed in, and still feeling the vibration through Drake he slashed at the joint where the right claw connected to the body, only for the sword to be pulled out of his hands as the creature spun away from him with the blade jammed halfway through the flexible armor at the shoulder joint.

'Fuck! How can something this big move so fast?'

As it raised its stinger in the air Louie saw it was bloody two stories tall, at least seven meters in the air. Luckily it made an easy target for somebody on top of the wall as it was struck by a lightning bolt.

He fired a quick as he sprinted out of the tail's reach.

Bureika, (Elemental Scorpion) Arachnid (Elite) level 12

First, summon of Vermog,

HP: 1205

MP: 336

SP: 1188

This Elemental Scorpion was the first to be summoned by the Entomancer Vermog, it boasts a stinger with acidic venom that causes matter to dissolve as well as some minor elemental abilities.

'Fuck, this thing has a lot of health and stamina.'

The monster's armor covered its form so tightly, he realized that it was only luck that he hit the joint at the right angle for Drake to penetrate, not that it would do him much good with his blade now stuck in the monster's joint and out of reach.

Quickly scanning through his inventory, not for the first time he silently cursed his huge inventory space, wishing for an auto sorting ability to sort his inventory into categories, he looked for something to use in cracking the scorpion's armor.

His eyes fell on his first weapon, the bone mace that he made.

He dodged a sharply pointed leg that tore up the already broken asphalt as the scorpion spun around trying to impale the militia members that were rushing to engage it.

It gave up trying to impale them as they dodged around just out of reach and rushed the closest.

Louie saw the man's eyes go big as he realized he was the target, he started to glow yellow as he triggered a skill and put his shoulder against his door shield, stupidly he stood ready to face its charge.

Even with the game-like rules that this reality now employs, the mass of the scorpion was just too great.

It slammed into his shield, hurling him ten meters backward. It could have been worse as the shield-bearer was blasted through the rubble but then was back on his feet, his skill negating most of the damage dealt by the charge.

Executing a Charge of his own he closed the gap and actually made the scorpion stumble backward on impact.

The fighter threw his destroyed shield to one side, equipping a spare that Louie recognized as coming from his Dungeon loot.

There was a roar from Dan as he sprinted for the creature, gripping his sledge with both hands over his head.

He slid like a runner doing a baseball slide for a homerun as the right-hand pincer closed on the spot where he’d been a moment before, then regained his feet in one smooth turning motion, right behind the claw.

With a rage-filled shout, he completed the turn, and using the momentum, he brought his sledge down, and missed the claw.

The scorpion moved, but too late it realized that he wasn't aiming for the claw, but at the sword stuck in the shoulder joint.

The mana imbued sledge made contact with the back of Drake and in an explosion of energy drove the blade through the joint and cut the appendage from the beast leaving a gushing wound.

Bureika screamed in pain as its massive claw hit the ground, and stabbed down with its tail, only for Dan to twist around and kick off against the scorpion, executing a backflip that dodged the strike, but he screamed in pain as some of the acid splashed on his side and ate through his armor.

The scorpion was spinning around and slashing out with its remaining claw, trying to grab ahold of Dan.

Louie, cast a on its face causing it to stumble over some rubble and miss Dan as he ran out of reach while trying to pour water over the acid burns.

The scorpion backed up till it was against the wall, and first Louie thought he was seeing the sun reflecting off the carapace but the same militia member that slammed charged the scorpion shouted.

"Watch out, it's going to use an ability."

He realized that it wasn't the sun reflecting off it, but the tail that was giving off a soft brown glow before it snapped forwards and slammed into the ground.

There was a loud boom and the earth around the sting cracked as a wave of stone spikes erupted away from the point of impact. Two militia members were not fast enough to escape the AOE and one was skewered through his leg while the other tripped over a rock and fell forwards where she was blasted in the face with a spike and died instantly.

Louie saw the scorpion stumble as its legs were tangled in spilk thrown from two spider golems that moved around the combatants, just staying outside the range of the massive monster.

As the scorpion spun around to target the new enemies, he charged in and aimed for the base of the tail. With a cast on his bone mace, he smashed his mace into the armor, only for him to be blasted away from the scorpion by the explosion caused by overcharging the spell on the weapon, destroying it in the process.

He struggled back to his feet as the scorpion rushed at him and he prepared himself to take the damage from a charged assault. Too late he realized that it was a ruse.

He was sent flying backward, through another heap of rubble, as the scorpion spun and used its tail like a whip.

'Shit, its tail isn't supposed to move like that.' He thought as he laid on his back, looking up at a cloudless sky.

'Nice day for the beach.'

He crawled out from the rubble again and saw that he wasn't the only one who was caught unaware by the tail swipe.

'Fuck this.'

Levering himself up with the shaft of his naginata, he cast at the base of the upright tail and hoped that he had not imagined what he saw.

Louie stumbled out of the shadow onto the armored back of the moving scorpion and was relieved at what he found, he jammed the blade of his naginata into the crack in the armor section at the base of its tail and triggered again.

The explosion hurled him through the air right through a still-standing wall of one of the destroyed houses and into what was left, from the pink unicorns painted on the wall, of a little girls' room, only for the wall to collapse on top of him.

His breath exited his mouth in a grunt as the wall slammed into his diaphragm with a crunch. The world tilted for a few seconds as he fought to force air into his lungs.

Louie struggled out of the rubble, his armor now hanging in tatters from his bleeding body.

He stopped as he saw the now tailless scorpion standing there just looking in his direction.

He could swear that it was just focused on him and he could feel the hate and killing intent pour from it in waves.

Slowly so slowly its right claw started moving forwards and from the blue glow, he could guess it was preparing to use a skill. It looked as if the scorpion was straining to move the claw through the air. It reminded him of something he had seen on tv once but at the moment he couldn't remember what or where, then the claw clicked, like somebody cocking a revolver, and it came back to him.

Looking around for his missing naginata.

He screamed for the men to scatter as he used to appear in the shadow between the claw and its face, he drew Ryu and in one move cut through one eye and stabbed the flaming ninjato in another to try and reach its brain or disrupt the ability.

He destroyed the eye but failed to penetrate too deep before there was a huge explosion next to him that threw him away from the scorpion across the clearing and through another wall.

Louie coughed and wiped the blood from his eyes as he struggled out of the ruin.

He saw the devastation and carnage that the bubble bullet had caused, there were body parts and bleeding bodies, from those that were too slow, scattered all over the place.

He realized how lucky he was not to have been in the blast zone.

Rage tried to cloud his mind but he suppressed it as he activated

'Morn later, kill this fucking thing first.'

He shook his head and downed a health potion to heal his burst eardrums as well as numerous wounds while he looked around to try and find his missing ninjato.

It was nowhere to be seen but what he did see was his naginata, or what looked like his naginata sticking out of a heap of rubble.

He stumbled over the rubble and grabbed his now nearly totally destroyed naginata and cast he fed all his mana and using his skill he kept on drawing mana through his bonds and cast the spell on the point of his blade.

Social Sharing

We're connected. There is no you, and no me. We are all sides of the same polyhedron, caring is sharing. You will now share your statistics with that of your bonded and vice versa. Every Tier in this skill will grant your bonded a 1% chance to learn one of your skills every time you use this skill.

Beware, if your bonded die then you will die, and vice versa, but the fact that you now share a combined health and Mana pool will make you very hard to kill.

He targeted the leaking hole where the right-hand claw was cut from the body and as soon as the creature spun to the left to attack Dan, he rushed, well more of a stumble, in and with all his strength jammed the naginata into the weeping flesh of the creature, and activate the spell.

Immediately he felt the mana rush from his body.

He tried to stumble away as the scorpion screamed and spun around. The last thing he saw was the huge claw, the size of a small minivan, rushing towards him as the darkness of mana starvation claimed him.

Paarl Leaders

Leon Koen: (STC 2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow) Gerard van Schalkwyk: Class: Scavenger/Tinker Mike Dekker: Class: Warrior Carla Coetzee: Class: Ranger Kirt Dempers: Class: Builder Jak de Beer: Class: Farmer/Animal husbandry Samuel De Jager: Class: None (Mayor) Arnold Brand: Class: Centurion/Armourer King ????????

Status:

Name:

Lewis (Louie) Poren

Race:

Human (Male) Lvl 12 " 465,870/819,200" = Lvl 13

Class:

Seeker (5) (27%)

Sub-classes:

(exterminator) (3%)

Titles:

Jack Black Brodifacoum, Trailblazer, Liberator. OFS (One Finger Salute) Dungeon pioneer David Selfish ?????

Affinity:

Darkness 0.002%

Affiliation:

Gaea

Statistics:

Health points (HP):

540

strength + constitution times level

Mana Points (MP):

528

Intelligence + willpower times level

Stamina (SP):

660

agility + constitution + willpower times level

Critical Hit Chance:

4%

Attributes:

Strength:

23

Agility:

18

Constitution:

22

Perception:

21

Intelligence:

29

Willpower:

15

Charisma:

7

Luck:

5

Free attribute points:

0

Skills:

Skill

Level

Progression

Wu shu:

Passive

7

05/100

Improvised weaponry:

Passive

T1: 2

55/100

Glacial Rage:

P/A

6

35/100

Meditation:

Active

6

75/100

Regeneration:

Passive

T1: 2

65/100

Mana Manipulation:

Active

9

95/100

Survival:

Passive

9

85/100

Cooking:

Passive

0

25/100

Restoration:

Passive

T1: 1

95/100

Social Sharing

Passive

1

75/100

Harvesting:

Passive

9

75/100

Herb Lore:

Passive

2

55/100

Whittling:

Passive

0

00/100

Pain resistance:

Passive

T1: 0

00/100

Poison resistance:

Passive

3

42/100

Cat`s eye:

Active

T1: 0

75/100

Senses:

Passive

6

35/100

Armourer:

Passive

5

95/100

System Minimap:

Active

7

10/100

Cartography:

Active

4

25/100

Public speaking:

Active

5

95/100

Spell Transformation: *

Active

2

10/100

Conglomerate:

Active

0

00/100

Backstab:

Active

0

00/100

Skewer:

Active

0

00/100

Scholer:

Passive

0

20/100

Learning:

Passive

#

#

Quick study:

Passive

#

#

Know-how:

Passive

#

#

This star * indicates a hidden skill

Class Skill Proficiencies:

Skill

Level

Progression

Investigation:

Active

6

65/100

Tracking:

Active

5

25/100

Intuition:

Passive

T1: 2

95/100

Analyse:

Active

T1: 9

95/100

Lore:

Passive

2

75/100

Monster Expert:

Passive

4

85/100

?????

0

00/100

Spells:

Spell

Level

Progression

Activation

Improvise:

T1: 1

35/100

Touch

Mana Construction:

T3: 7

85/100

Cast

Mana Blueprint:

2

15/100

Touch

Liquefaction:

T1: 7

65/100

Cast

Earth Sense:

T1: 5

95/100

Touch

Item Schematics:

T1: 2

80/100

Touch

Vampiric:

0

10/100

Cast

Darkorb:

2

10/100

Cast

Transfusion:

0

10/100

Touch

Electrocute:

1

20/100

Cast

Suffocate:

0

15/100

Cast

Waterboard:

1

85/100

Cast

Cauterise:

6

05/100

Touch

Shadow Step:

0

35/100

Cast

Fear:

0

30/100

Cast

Concussion Blast:

2

95/100

Cast

Down the Rabbit Hole:

0

20/100

Cast

????

0

00/100