Duskbound

As far as defensive traits went, sheer size was a good one. Even with a vulnerability identified and in reach, Velik lacked the range to give the brood mother a deep, fatal wound. The champion elite was by far the largest monster he'd ever fought. The fake Velik was a close second, but it just didn't have the massive solidity this champion displayed.

His spear dug deep, the haft fully three feet inside the brood mother, but it was spinning about so wildly in an attempt to throw him off that if he'd dared pull the weapon back out, he'd go flying. None of the scorplings were still on the champion's back with him, though, so some good had come of this latest development.

Some of the other flesh sacs had been ripped free as well, leaving more exposures in need of stabbing. Unable to physically cross the distance to get to them, Velik quickly sent a few spears from [Phalanx] to stab into the brood mother. Unlike his actual weapon, none of them dug more than a foot in. One of them didn't even make it that far, having been dislodged by a new scorpling sac growing out of the opening just as it started to stab into the soft flesh on the champion's back.

At the same time, its tail stinger slashed across his back, this time scraping so low that Velik had no choice but to leap over it. Regaining his footing after he landed was a problem for the Velik that would exist five seconds in the future. Right now, avoiding being cut in half was his only priority.

He wrenched his spear free, tensed his legs, and leaped straight up, a standing jump that brought him close to fifteen feet in the air. The stinger flashed below him, scraping five or six new budding scorpling sacs off the monster's back and shattering the phantasmal spears stuck into it in the process.

Though he was more focused on nailing a successful landing, he heard the wet splat of those sacs striking the wall fifty feet away. Could I survive that? Even if I did, would I be in any shape to fight after?

Unlike most of the other champions he'd fought, this one hadn't sealed its domain off. He could probably make a run for it and get away; it wasn't like a monster that big could follow him into the tunnels. Its brood might have some weird skills, but he could handle that.

His only fear was that those invisible walls that blocked his route back to the surface were keeping him trapped in here, too. There was no convenient way to test that, not from his position about to land back on the massive scorpling's back, so he put the thought aside and focused on not getting thrown before he could establish his grip again.

Besides, he didn't want to run. He wanted to kill this thing. And that was what he was going to do.

His spear led his descent, not perfectly lined up to strike, but still his best shot. It drove hard against the brood mother's black armor, backed by [Kinetic Charge], and for a second, he thought the added momentum and weight of coming down on the monster was going to be what he needed to finally push through. The tip dug in all of an inch or two, then slid sideways, leaving a long scratch in its wake and costing Velik his balance.

Damn it! he screamed internally as his hip slammed into the monster and he started to roll. There was no purchase to be found, and in a fraction of a second, he'd be thrown out into the open air. Desperate, he did the only thing he could think of: he summoned [Phalanx] and planted the spears in his path the same way he'd used them on countless monsters to block their attacks.

[Phalanx has advanced to rank 4.]

That was an unexpected bonus, but Velik really didn't have time to consider the ramifications right then. His boot slammed into the bar of softly glowing light with enough force that it barely slowed him down before shattering. Two more behind it also broke, but the fourth one held long enough for him to scramble back to his feet just before he would have gone over the edge.

That did not make it easy to maintain his perch, not with the brood mother still turning like crazy in giant circles. Doesn't this thing get dizzy eventually? It's been spinning for at least a few minutes now! Then again, it didn't have eyes, so maybe whatever senses it used weren't affected by its crazy gyrations.

Moving with the spin to help him keep his balance, he stutter-stepped forward, hopping every few feet to try to reset his balance. The strategy didn't work very well, but he still managed to reach one of the sac spawning gaps in the brood mother's armor. With both hands, he slammed the tip of his spear down.

Flesh wound it might have been, but the brood mother still felt it. The chittering scream started up again and its flailing took on a new dimension. No longer content to just spin and flail in random directions, the monster went into a series of short hops that almost dislodged Velik's spear from her back.

"Come on, just die already!" he screamed back, driving the spear in deeper. The giant scorpling didn't oblige.

Velik pulled on [Phalanx] for all he could get and was surprised to see an extra spear materialize this time. With barely a thought, he directed them to slam into every sac vent he could find. Black blood streamed from the wounds, but it wasn't enough. The wounds were too shallow.

I don't need five small spears. I need one huge one. Come on, work with me, you piece of shit skill.

Growling, he summoned a new spear and stabbed it into the scorpling's back. Then he made another one and slammed it down on top of the first one. It split the spear down the middle, tearing through it and banishing it, only to take its place. Combine! Do it!

Another spear formed and shot down. It might have been his imagination, or he could have lost track of it for a moment as the scorpling abruptly changed the direction it was turning, but for a split second, he thought he saw the spear grow bigger before it broke. Again!

[Phalanx] hammered that spot, as fast as he could make new spears. They broke, reformed, merged, and split back apart. The skill resisted him, but then, it always had. What he needed from it wasn't what it wanted to do. But he was sick of it. It was time for the skill to merge or break.

The light from [Phalanx] intensified as the spear stuck in the scorpling grew bigger. It drove deeper and deeper, but it still wasn't enough. The monster was too big. He needed to drive it at least ten feet down, and the spears weren't even that long. Even with the partial size boost he'd managed to drag out of the spears, they didn't have the penetrating power.

"No," he growled, his knuckles white from gripping his own spear just to hold his place. "Work! Work, damn you!"

The next spear got empowered with [Kinetic Charge], and when it slammed home, there was an explosion of light. The brood mother screamed loud enough to deafen Velik, and a geyser of black blood shot up high enough to paint the ceiling.

[Kinetic Charge has been folded into Phalanx.]

[Phalanx has become Dread Lance.]

[Dread Lance set to rank 1.]

It wasn't what Velik had wanted from the skill when he'd picked it, but it was exactly what he needed right now. Knowledge of its function was instantly at the forefront of his mind. With barely a thought, he ripped his spear out and activated the skill. Light bloomed around the length of the shaft as it was imbued with energy, all of it coursing down to build up at the tip.

That was an element of [Kinetic Charge] there, he knew. It felt the exact same. But when he went to strike, his spear hit with explosive force. The head buried itself deep, far deeper than any of his previous strikes. The spear went in five feet, then six, to the point where there was barely any of the shaft left for him to hold onto.

Then the mystical energy surged downward and exploded outward. Chunks of exoskeleton, meat, and blood bounced off the ceiling to rain down on the floor of the cave, and Velik himself was thrown clear of the brood mother. Its underbelly slammed into the ground, cracking apart two legs and splaying the rest in the process.

A cascade of notifications hit him, dozens of kills all at once. Must have crushed a bunch of scorplings underneath it when it collapsed, he thought somewhat woozily.

It took him a moment to realize that, despite the massive wound in its back, somehow the brood mother was still alive. It was definitely down for the moment, but it kept twitching and none of his kill notifications included a champion elite. Of more immediate concern was the fact that his spear was nowhere in sight and there were still a few dozen scorplings on the ground, all of them heading his way.

Velik climbed to his feet and tried to clear his vision with a few rapid blinks, but things still swam across his eyes. With no time to waste, he did his best to circle the incoming swarm and reach the brood mother, but they didn't go out of their way to make it easy. At one point, he ended up jumping up to a wall and kicking off it just to get around a trio that were blocking his progress.

The brood mother twitched feebly as he approached. Velik had a brief thought that it was trying to attack him, but then he realized the truth. It was eating the corpse of one of its scorplings. It's still trying to make more of them? Why?

But that wasn't it. Even as he watched, the massive wound on its back started to heal. It twitched its mouth, dragging another nearby corpse in, and consumed that too. "Hell no," he said. "We're not doing this all again."

He quickly located his spear, somehow still stuck in the scorpling's back, and climbed up to jerk it free. Then he started charging up [Dread Lance] again. When it was ready a minute later, he leaped down directly in front of the scorpling's mouth, thrust the spear in, and unleashed the built-up power.

There was still a lot of collateral damage, and he got absolutely coated with scorpling chum, but he was still smiling when he saw the next set of notifications.

[You have slain Scalithex the Brood Mother (champion elite, level 40.]

[You have advanced to level 35. +2 Physical, +1 Mental, +2 free points.]