Chapter 103: That Obsession Is a Craving
It's not as if I have an instruction manual for the Golden Scorpion, nor have I read some wiki containing its flavor text. But still, there are things you can understand just by looking. For example, the fact that the Golden Scorpion is in a hostile relationship—or something akin to it—with the normal Crystal Scorpions. I don't know how the Crystal Scorpion side feels about it, but at the very least, the Golden Scorpion is capable of killing its own kind.
Sunraku: "Ahahahahaha! Your extremely noisy alarm clock is here to announce the sunrise!"
Taking care not to get run over by the Golden Scorpion closing in from behind, I bellow at the top of my lungs as I tear across Crystal Nest Cliff. These guys react even to tiptoeing—if I sprint around screaming as if I want players down in the canyon below to hear me, naturally the Crystal Scorpions will shift into an active state. And the instant I confirm three Crystal Scorpions have activated, I reverse my direction one hundred and eighty degrees. I close the distance on the approaching Golden Scorpion from my side, too.
Sunraku: "It’s like dodging a car by jumping... The timing should be a little earlier than it feels right... NOW!"
I leap just before the collision. Sky Walker—enabling aerial maneuvering—lets me vault over the massive bulk of the Golden Scorpion. But even having lost its stinger, the Golden Scorpion's tail hasn't fully lost its function as an attack. It whips my right arm as I pass, and with the sensation in my right arm shut down entirely, I lose my grip on Waxing.
Sunraku: "Ngh... but... are you sure you can afford to focus just on me?"
What I was doing right before this. My current position. The Golden Scorpion's position... Combine it all, and the answer naturally emerges. I put Waning into my inventory. Leaving my numb, strengthless right arm to dangle by inertia, I retrieve the knocked-away Waxing with my left hand. And beyond the horizon, at the sight of the glittering crystal wave beginning to reveal itself, I'm certain the plan has succeeded. With the fading moonlight at my back, I thrust my index finger at the Golden Scorpion and declare:
Sunraku: "The calamity that's going to crush you has come, lured by the beacon that is ME. So... what are you gonna do?"
The Crystal Scorpions' target is me alone. But will their crushing charge—so absolute they spare no thought even for themselves—take the Golden Scorpion into consideration? It seems the Golden Scorpion has enough intelligence to grasp the situation; after a brief moment of hesitation, it apparently reaches a conclusion. Raising its blade-pincers, clad in brilliant golden crystal, it turns its back to me—meaning the answer it chose was not flight, but interception. If it faces me, it'll be swallowed by the crystal tsunami from behind. Even if it chose flight, I'd stick to it relentlessly no matter where it went. No matter which option it picks, conflict with the Crystal Scorpions is unavoidable. It's blundered right into the bug cage I set up at the last second.
Sunraku: "Whew. Nice, you look real cool. Well then, I'll just graciously let you protect me."
The approaching wave. Opposing it, gold and half-naked. Crystal fragments, kicked up into the sky of the fading night—where the balance between dawn's light and moonlight has crumbled, the darkness being driven out—stand in for vanishing stars. The sight is truly a morning starry sky... I sidle up close to the Golden Scorpion and give its tail a pat.
Sunraku: "Do your best out there. Good luck."
Who the hell’s going to die with you, dumbass!
Sunraku: "Come to think of it... even if the Golden Scorpion goes down, I'm just swapping to fighting Crystal Scorpions instead... no, wait. If that happens, I can just knock them off the cliff again."
I'd been lying down in the storage space, taking a break. But I get up to go check on the situation.
Sunraku: "[Transfer: Real Space (Exit Travel)]"
A momentary whiteout. The hard planar surface becomes the jagged crystal-tatami floor. The bizarre space becomes the ordinary dawn sky. Returning to Crystal Nest Cliff, I shift my gaze to search for the Golden Scorpion—and then words fail me.
Sunraku: "...You've got to be kidding."
Battered and broken—exactly as the phrase describes, the Golden Scorpion is a truly wretched sight. Repeated collisions. The pitiful victims' desperate resistance, however small, adds up to grievous wounds once piled high enough. Lethal cracks run through the crystals across its entire body. As for its blade-pincers, the right one has been torn off at the base. Its tail, already severed from the stinger at the root, now has half of what remained torn nearly off, dangling limply—a stark display of just how dire a situation the Golden Scorpion had been in. Several of its other legs are also lost. The Crystal Scorpions' lethal game of crush-and-shove clearly didn't pull any punches.
But... it's alive. From the cracks all over its body, magical energy—resembling both flames and lightning—erupts like splattering blood. Yet its fighting spirit is boundless, showing not the slightest hint of decline. Its battle-worn body brims with the will to fight. Unbelievably, trampling the corpses of dozens of Crystal Scorpions, the Golden Scorpion has weathered that storm of overwhelming mass and numbers by the most muscle-brained means imaginable. In the corner of my eye, I glimpse several Crystal Scorpions retreating into the distance. Don't tell me—they're fleeing? THOSE Crystal Scorpions? Having failed to finish off the intruder that is me, forgetting even their newly learned spawn-camping, running for their lives?
Sunraku: "Just how... just how combat-specialized ARE you...?"
It's converted every resource it has into offense. Its fighting spirit, rendered visible as the magic erupting from its body, shimmers like a heat haze warping the air. Though its original form remains, the Golden Scorpion thrusts its left blade-pincer—cracked all over—toward me in threat. This is fundamentally different from a monster, a Mob, systematically programmed to attack players. This is born of a far more emotional impulse.
Sunraku: "Just how much AI did they pack into a single rare enemy in this game...?"
The shiver running down my spine is by no means a negative one. The passion poured into the game called Shangri-La Frontier is being conveyed to me through this battered, broken Golden Scorpion.
Sunraku: "Fine by me... If that's how you want it, I'll finish this. Using EVERYTHING I've got. No complaints about dirty tricks, got it?!"
I lift the seal on Overheat—the skill I'd held in reserve until now... or rather, the skill I couldn't use in this situation precisely because of its fatal drawback. Layering on top of that, I activate every skill that's come off cooldown. Beyond peak condition, I ready the Marsh Dagger Refined in my left hand alone. The numbness in my right arm still hasn't faded. If that's the case, rather than forcing a sword into my right hand, I'll focus entirely on my left and hold out until the numbness subsides.
Sunraku: "BRING IT!"
Crushing the head of a Crystal Scorpion corpse underfoot, dragging its nearly severed tail behind it, the Golden Scorpion commits to a charge. I evade sideways with three steps and move to slash—but the magical energy erupting randomly from its crystals keeps me at bay. Working its now gap-toothed legs furiously, the Golden Scorpion spins on the spot. Its half-torn tail traces an irregular arc as it scythes through. The tail passes just past the tip of my nose as I bend my knees, leaning back into a stance as parallel to the ground as possible. Immediately after extending my bent legs in a falling leap, the cracked blade-pincer slams down where I was just standing. I shake off the sensation of crystal shards biting into my back, retreating with no brakes via back handsprings and backflips. The Golden Scorpion gives chase, hammering its blade-pincer down again and again as if screaming "just shatter already." With each impact, explosions further pulverize the crystal cobblestones.
Overwhelming disadvantage. And yet, I buy time. Pressed by time, I search for a path to survival—bundling scattered, frayed threads into rope, aiming for a tightrope sprint, probing for a starting point. And then, at last, that moment comes.
Sunraku: "MY CHANCE!!!"
The crystals on its back reach the limit of their durability, bursting apart as if detonating. The magical energy that served as blood-spatter ruptures, and the Golden Scorpion's body lurches. Everyone I fight these days damages themselves in battle. Is that in vogue right now? No, come to think of it, I do that too... With those thoughts, I close the distance. My target: the other eye. My stance: the thrusting stance I used as my main back in Unite Rounds. Using Seven-Fold Jump as a movement skill substitute, I close in, then smoothly thrust my dagger toward its remaining eye—located in a spot that makes you want to ask, "Can you even see what's in front of you?" A sensation unlike carapace transmits through the advancing dagger with a squelch. And just as the blade buries itself almost entirely in the Golden Scorpion's eyeball, the now-blinded creature begins thrashing wildly, indiscriminately.
Sunraku: "Now let's finish this!"
Seriously, I want to go to sleep already, damn it!