Chương 56: (B2 Chapter 7)

Two large mounds of sand were rapidly closing in on Omar and Sam, who were completely oblivious to the peril. I called out again, but I was too high up for them to hear. If only one of them had more perception, perhaps they would be able to hear me. I thought briefly of jumping off the roof and somehow landing safely, but dismissed it immediately as being one of the most idiotic thoughts I had had in a while.

Instead, I turned around and ran towards the stairs, jumping down to each landing, then turning around and doing the same thing as quickly as I could. The stairs blurred together, and I soon found myself on the ground floor. I rushed out to the entrance and almost crashed into Omar, who was running at his top speed towards the stairs. He saw me and simply continued past me to the stairs, yelling out "Run!" loudly.

Sam also rushed into the building, backing away as quickly as possible while two massive scorpions followed him closely. Pure black and with claws larger than a tall person, the scorpions were almost the size of a small city bus, with two pincers that were moving about constantly. I remember that I had read somewhere that scorpions could only drink liquids as their mouths were too small, but these ones didn't look like they would have any problem with eating us.

Their glowing red eyes that were locked onto us promised the same thing. Sam had almost reached me by now, and the scorpions were having trouble getting inside the building. Their large claws weren't able to get past the entrance, and I was thankful that this building's entrance was made of bricks with a small doorway instead of an all-glass entry-way like many modern buildings had. The next moment, I came to know that sometimes, bricks or glass really make no difference to monsters.

The scorpions backed away and then started smashing their claws into the side of the entrance, ripping through the building like it was made of cardboard and spraying dust and bricks into the entrance. Sam had his shield to duck behind, but I had to use quick step to run back to the stairs to avoid the spray of bricks. As soon as my skill ended, I turned around to see that the scorpions were still ripping away at the entrance and they looked determined to get in at all costs.

"Sam, let's go upstairs," I called out. He turned and nodded at me, before sprinting for the stairs. We both turned and headed for the stairs, where Omar had been standing with a mana bolt in his hand ready to release. He released it as we crossed him, and I looked back to see the mana bolt bounce off the claw of a scorpion and hit the wall, bursting it apart and bringing even more damage to the building's lobby. Omar's spells never bounced off anything back at the tutorial!

The three of us shared a look and collectively decided that climbing the stairs as soon as possible was the best idea. We rushed up the stairs, going past the first floor and continuing on to the second, where we paused and looked back down. Omar voiced the question that was probably on all of our minds.

"Can scorpions climb stairs…?"

"They're still there," I announced as I undid concealed presence. It had easily been more than an hour, and I had just returned from scouting the entrance once again. The scorpions had moved back out of the building as the entrance was too cramped for them, but they were hovering near the entrance. In fact, they were waiting on either side of the destroyed entrance, so someone coming from inside the building wouldn't be able to see them till they stepped out, by which point it would be too late.

I had also finally gotten a glance at their tails, which were topped by large, dark-red stingers. The stinger's point looked quite thin for its size, but it was about as thick as half my torso. I had gone out under concealed presence thrice since we ran upstairs, and each time I found them patiently waiting at the entrance, seemingly not moving an inch since they had settled down.

I had thought of different ways to strike them, and each time tactical insight had been clear that attacking them was an extremely bad idea. It didn't matter what kind of attack I thought of, tactical insight was absolutely certain that it would be my death. And after seeing Omar's spell bounce off that scorpion, I was inclined to agree.

"Are we even sure they're scorpions? They came from that weird alien desert, and I don't think I've ever heard of scorpions moving through sand! These things launched out from underneath and were almost on top of us in their opening attack! It's lucky we saw the mounds moving towards us and ran away," animatedly spoke Sam. It was the most I had heard from him since we met yesterday.

He had seemed pretty shaken by the whole scorpion ordeal, and had spent a good while with shaking hands while staying absolutely silent and staring off into the distance. I remembered how he had been blamed for backing out and saving himself back at the tutorial as he was too scared; it looked like he was still scared, but at least he didn't back out and save himself this time. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Doesn't matter if they are from Earth or from one of the other ones, the point is we're stuck here. I'm using mana sense and my ability together to try and make up a new spell; those bastards won't know what hit them when I'm done!" exclaimed Omar. Using Mana Sense and his ability together, very nice idea.

"I have an idea, but I don't think you'll like it," I said, staring straight at Omar who looked at me with confusion.

"This is a terrible idea!" shouted Omar as he looked down at the gap between the two buildings. We were on the roof, as I had proposed jumping the gap between the buildings to move to the building beside ours. The wind was whistling loudly up here, and the building next to the one we were on was luckily the same height as ours, meaning the roofs matched with just a small gap that we could easily cross.

Well, me and Sam could easily cross it, but Omar hadn't really invested much in physical stats so he was much more wary of the long fall down.

"Don't worry, you know I'll be carrying you," I repeated.

"That's even scarier! Are you sure you can make the gap while carrying me? Can't we try fighting the scorpions? We could win!" insisted Omar.

"Stop worrying! Now, you want to get on my back or would you like me to princess-carry you?" I asked with a smirk. Omar didn't say anything but just stared at me in a deadpan manner. He motioned at me to turn around, and got on my back in a piggy-back style. Once he was on, I climbed up to the ledge and felt Omar's grip on me tighten.

"We'll jump on three, okay?" I felt him nod. So, I started the count, "One…" I activated quick step and launched, clearing the gap before Omar even knew what had happened. He let out a short scream as I landed and took a few steps forward before jumping up to the opposite ledge.

"What are you doing?" shouted Omar. Ignoring him, I used quick step again and jumped across to the next building, which had a roof one story down from this one so the landing was much rougher than the one earlier. Still, we made it, and Omar jumped off my back, afraid I'll do another jump.

"You said you'd jump on three! And you told me we were only doing one jump!" he accused me, looking genuinely hurt.

"Yeah well, I figured since you were already on my back, why not get farther away from the scorpions," I shrugged. Sam jumped from the roof, landed on the building we were on, and rolled to a stop right beside us.

"That was awesome!" he exclaimed.

"Are we doing one more?" Thankful for the subject change, I tore my eyes away from Omar's accusatory glare and looked across. The next building was taller than ours by three stories, and there was no way any of us were making that jump.

"No," I shook my head, "We'll have to go down now. I have a small plan" We made our way down the stairs while I explained my rough idea to them. Omar was still grumbling in what he believed was a low enough voice, but with my perception I could hear every single colourful insult he was throwing my way. Instead of being offended though, I just thought it was funny. We fell silent as we neared the bottom of the building.

Once we reached the ground floor, I turned and looked at them both, giving them a nod and turning around to go out the doors from the stairs first. Once I was out of their sight, I went under concealed presence and stepped out the mercifully open door of the building. Immediately, the huge back of the scorpion came to my sight. It was completely still, with its scary stinger raised high and ready to strike the moment someone came close. I gulped, and against my instincts, started moving towards the scorpion.

I crept past it from the opposite side of the road, and slipped past the other one that was also lying in wait. Once I was past them both, I crept closer to the building and turned around the corner, being careful not to step on the sand. I wasn't sure if concealed presence would work on keeping me hidden from the scorpions on the sand, and I wasn't willing to test and find out.

I then hefted the pebble I had found on the road towards the sand, while also activating my ability to make the sand shift further away from where the pebble landed, and then pushed myself to activate it once again to make the sand shift even further away. It immediately worked, as I saw the horrifying sight of the two scorpions barreling towards the place the sand had shifted at such speed that I was unsure I would be able to get away from them even while using quick step.

The scorpions touched the sand and somehow sped up even more, reaching the point where the sand had shifted within seconds. They circled around the spot, and I realized something instantly. They are too fast. We need more time! The plan had been for me to create a distraction, and using that Omar and Sam would be able to run away. But the scorpions had just been too quick, and I was afraid that they would soon make their way back to the building's entrance and see Omar and Sam's retreating backs.

Thus, I activated my ability again, and started repeatedly shifting the sand, making them move further away from the building. The further away they went though, the further I had to move the sand, meaning I had to constantly push my ability to make it work. My head soon started pounding, and I knew I had to stop now. Praying that it was enough, I turned and sped away. As I turned the corner, I saw Omar and Sam reach the other end of the intersection and turn around.

Feeling relief that they had made it, I turned around to see the scorpions making their way back over. Alarmed, I sped up, eager to put as much distance as possible between them and me. As I ran, I thought about how much more powerful these things were compared to what we had faced till now. They felt much stronger than that large snake or the ogres, perhaps even on the level of the alpha buffalo or the boss ogre. Even the two centipedes earlier had felt quite strong.

A sudden memory came to my mind, making me pause as the realization hit me. I had just remembered a sentence from the system's assessment of my tutorial, which I had forgotten about.

'Your rushed decision meant you and your peers are under-levelled'.