Warslave

Chapter 18: A Swarm of ScorpionsThe Scorpion

The Scorpion

If, before now, she had been asked if there was anything more annoying than the fact that Wolf, Viper and Spider never cleaned up after themselves when on a mission, she would have said no.

Listening to the twelfth lecture on how impressive the Guild's magical knowhow was, she had reevaluated and come to the conclusion that, yes, this was worse.

She'd been stuck with the vampire from the support team, and as soon as he'd opened his mouth to go on a tangent about whatever weapons or tricks their opponents were using, she had regretted that immediately.

"Couldn't have been anyone else, huh?"

Harkon looked up from the monster he had been observing.

"Excuse me?"

"Just that... Nothing, really."

As far as she had heard from Wolf, saying anything about it wouldn't exactly help. Maybe she could at least get him to spill something useful.

"Hey... how come that we seem to be able to somewhat navigate the place? I mean, everyone else keeps getting lost as far as I can tell from their trackers."

Well... she'd found a way to make the vampire shut up, at least. Her other companion started talking now though. Which was a change of pace, given that the doctor Wolf had picked up and kicked onto the support team had not exactly been talkative so far.

"That would be me. Labyrinth spells are... well, not simple, especially not on this scale, but with proper preparations, they can be... twisted."

"Which the enemy isn't doing because...?"

"It could damage the spell. They don't want that, whereas I just don't give a fuck."

"Fair... Okay, what's our vampire doing?"

She felt like a babysitter, even more than when she was trying to make sure her brothers behaved.

Harkon for his part started to move the beast's head. It was a manticore that Scorpion had killed, which was to a catlike predator with wings. Whatever else was mixed into that, was up to whoever had created it. This one had bat wings and a scorpion's tail, mounted on a tiger. The vampire was checking its fangs.

"Poisonous... That could be useful."

As he started harvesting the poison, Scorpion rolled her eyes and muttered to herself.

"I could've told you that..." Before raising her voice to make sure she could be heard. "Hurry it up, we're on a timer. Need to keep moving."

"It won't take long. I am a professional at this. Developed most of the techniques involved in harvesting poisons from monsters myself, in fact-"

"Cut the tangent, please."

"Right, yes. Not an alchemist then?"

"I will turn you into a mindless husk if I have to."

The vampire smiled for a moment, as if she'd made a mildly funny quip.

"That would defeat the purpose for which I was brought in, wouldn't it?"

"I don't care, get moving."

The surgeon was already doing... something. Scorpion had no idea how she navigated the maze exactly, but it worked, which was enough to make her useful. Meanwhile the vampire was just collecting samples of rocks.

She'd no idea why he did it, or why they slowed down to let him. All she did know was that he did it every so often, for no apparent reason beyond the fact that he found it interesting to study the samples.