World of Light and Darkness

Intermittent clouds gave us a slight break from the unbearable heat as we plodded on well past noon. Suddenly I heard a rumbling noise. “What’s that?” Pandaro asked. “I don’t know,” I said. “Could it be another sandstorm?” Artesia asked. “No, it’s coming from the ground,” Korus said. “I’ve never heard of an earthquake out in this part of the desert,” Beris added. “This sure doesn’t sound good,” Andréos said. We waited for about a minute, listening to the sound, until BOOM! A gigantic creature jumped out of the sand, sending rock chunks and dust everywhere! The giant, brown scorpion stood as tall as a man, and looked to be at least eight feet in length. Its scale-like exoskeleton ended in a tail that coiled above its body, punctuated by a foot-long stinger. It stared at us with opaque, black eyes, sensing the right moment to attack. “Uh, Andréos?” I asked. “W-w-what is that?” “That’s a Daiadorus, but they only exist in legends!” he responded, astounded. “Didn’t Xenos only exist in a legend too?” Hytro asked. “Yeah . . .” The beast stared at us with its four glowing eyes and charged. We all dove out of its way. “Attack!” Andréos shouted. We all charged, leaving Artesia and Beris behind to shoot at it with their arrows and to defend Hytro and Solon. We attacked the creature, and all the Doranti soldiers hurled their javelins. The steel tips sunk into the creature’s flesh, and it gave off a demented, bloodcurdling scream. Then they drew their diamond tipped spears and charged. 72 Austin Nachbur The beast swung at me with its massive pincer, and I blocked with my shield, but the force of the blow knocked me over. When I got up, I hacked at it with my sword, and sliced off half of the claw. It gave another scream, and jabbed its tail at me. Nimbly, I dove out of the way, and it missed me by an inch. Then, to our horror, three more dove out of the sand, and surrounded us. Then the first Daiadorus, suffering from its wounds, slipped back into the depths from where it came. “Split up and attack them all!” Andreos urged. I joined Andréos and Hageal as they battled one of them. First Hageal distracted it as Andréos charged and stabbed it. The creature got incredibly angry and attacked Andréos as he charged. Andréos did not see the stinger tail coiled to strike at him, so I dove into Andréos and knocked him away from the stinger. He opened his mouth to thank me, but the Daiadorus struck with its claw and knocked us both off our feet. Andréos scrambled to his feet and hurled his second javelin at the beast, and got it right in the eye! The beast screamed, and blindly charged us, but we rolled out of the way. Taking advantage of the creature’s lack of vision, I got behind it and forced all my strength into a powerful slice at its tail. The exoskeleton shattered, and my blade cleaved off the entire tail! As it turned around to get me, Andréos stabbed it in the head. Hageal joined him and together they killed the beast. One down, two to go. We then spread out to help the others. I joined Zores and Korus who were battling one of the beasts. As Zores and Korus had it distracted, I came in and sliced at its claw. I hit, but my sword barely broke the shell, and only got a few inches into the flesh before it became stuck. The beast then used one of its eight legs to kick me away. But my weapon was still lodged inside the beast’s claw! Then the scorpion knocked back Korus with its other claw, sending his weapons flying in all directions. Zores rushed to help Korus, but the Daiadorus lashed out, knocking him to the ground. It then advanced upon him. It was going to get him with its stinger! Zores was done for. Then I heard a shout, “Xenos, throw the spear!” It was Andréos’ voice. I looked around and saw Korus’ spear lying just a foot away from me. I scrambled up and grabbed it, then looked at my target, the Daiadorus. I saw it advancing on Zores, stinger coiled for the final blow. Andréos and Beris charged at the beast, but I knew they couldn’t make it in time. I could not miss. Zores needed me. I was his only hope. So I balanced the spear in my hand, started running, and when I had aimed, hurled it.