[Desert Wasteland, Rocky Area]

Titan sized scorpions or Scorpioches for  short, are mansion sized scorpions that lived in the rocky area of the desert and hide within the sand or blend in the rocks in order to wait for their prey. Back on earth, Scorpioches, in Greek Mythology, are monsters of considerable size and strength.

While being a Titan in the size of a huge mansion, they also have very hard and shell that protects their whole body and sharp stingers in their tail that impales enemy in one strike. Their tails are so sharp that they can literally pierce through thick iron armor without much effort at all. What's more Scorpioches are creatures that can lift objects twice or thrice their size with their pincers due to the immense strength they have.

However despite having such huge figures and powerful strength, Scorpioches are also creatures with great ability that they can literally outrun a speeding car. They move fast in rocky areas, and they even move faster on sand. They are comparable to as the cheetah of the desert.

With such creatures appearing before them, all of them have grave expression as Ester quickly snaps out his whole brigade and begun giving his order.

"Snap out of your daze! Tekoa brigade, enter spearhead formation, I'll take the charge to initially break through the encirclement, long ranged units stay at the center, close quarters, surround and protect the long rangers"

As Ester gave this order, Rueben then quickly made his complaint as he asked.

"But Captain! What about our target?"

"Forget the target for now! Our lives and safety is more important" replied by Ester

"But Captain..."

"Rueben enough! I'm the captain so I make the decision here and my decision is to make sure that everyone lives"

Hearing Ester's words, Rueben couldn't help but feel bitter down his throat as he shifted his gaze between the target Asmaveth and his Captain Ester. The target for their mission was just right there, once the target is captures or killed, the fame and glory that comes with it would naturally fall unto anyone that managed to deal the last blow. In this case, Rueben was actually planning to land the last blow and take credit for this operation to rise his status in life, however due to his Captain's morale and cowardice to even use some of his men as sacrifice for the greater good, they are now forced to step back and escape which will let their target to get away from them.

In that moment Rueben's disgust and anger towards Ester grew even more as his selfishness and greediness got to him first before compassion to other people. In that moment as if putting on the last screw to force Rueben to listen, Ester shouted has name as he tried to catch his attention.

"Rueben! Focus! I'm counting on you to cover for everyone since your ranged bolts are much more powerful than the others, make sure everyone lives through this... understand?"

"....."

"Rueben! Do you understand?"

"Yes... Captain"

With Rueben forced reply, Ester sighed for a bit as he plans to scold Rueben later for his indecisiveness in this tensed situation. But before he could do any of that, he then still have too escape this encirclement and make everyone live past this situation.

"Charge!!!"

With Ester taking the lead, he then quickly transformed his whole body into a Titan sized bear and clashed against the very first Scorpioches in front of them.

Speaking of Ester's unique magic, his magic is called metamorphosis magic. Metamorphosis means to transforms into different creatures or beings like a shapeshift ability but with the use of mana in the mana circuits of the body, using this magic he could transform or  hange the structures of his body into another creature that he projects in his brain. By transforming into the said thought target, he then could also use their specific skillset in combat or patrol.

However despite being able yo transform into a being he thought off, his magic activation needs a practical creature to transform into and not some imaginative made up creature a person mind usually thought. Because of that Ester needed to see or encounter the creature first, before he could even transform into them in the next moment, like some sort of copy and paste.

Since before being the captain of the town's brigade, Ester is an explorer of the land in which he saw most of the creatures he transformed into in the wild during his journey. As for the gigantic bear that he is transforming into,he once saw such creature being auctioned in the country's capital city during one his visits in the capital.

Despite the bear being already dead and subjugated the moment it reached the capital city, his body parts cost a lot of money due to its uses in both military and fashion sense of the capital. What's more some of the bears organs can be used in some concoction in potions, because of its many uses of its different body parts, the bear actually cost a lot despite being sold piece by piece to its customers.

With the physique of the ferocious beast that once troubled the country, Ester then transformed into such beast in order to contend against the Scorpioches right in front of him.

After transforming into a Titan bear twice the size of the Scorpioches, he then smacked his paws unto one of them and flipped over one of the Scorpioches in the vicinity. Due to this the Scorpioches hostility quickly turned on and focused towards Ester as three of them rushed in and begun attacking Ester in all three sides, as for the other Scorpioches, some of them focused on the escaping group while some begun attacking Asmaveth in another area.

Upon seeing two Scorpioches quickly pincering them from both left and right, Rueben then quickly aimed his weapon at the closest Scorpioches, as he infused his bolt with mana and shoot it towards the target, before detonating it with remote explosion.

With the explosion abruptly disrupting the Scorpioches approaching on the right, the Scorpioches on the left then crashed through the rocks on the side and slammed its head unto the shielders formation. However with the shielders effectively using their mana to strengthen their muscles on their legs, they then planted their foot unto the ground as they wrestled with the Scorpioches momentum and tried their best not to break in formation.

Using this chance, Rueben then aimed for one of the Scorpioches eyes, as he pulled the trigger and let the bolt fly towards the Scorpioches face. In one explosion which was triggered by a detonated mana bomb installed at the tip of the bolt, the Scorpioches then backed away for a slight second, before its screeched in anger and slammed down its left pincers towards the men of the Tekoa brigade.

In one slam, it then blew away one of shielders, as it then stretched out its pincers in order to grab one of the long ranged units of the brigade. However before the pincer could even get close towards the ranged units, two of the shielders up front slammed their shield unto the pincers witha shield bash, as three close ranged combatants begun hacking away at its armor.

Unfortunately none of their attempts managed to even scratch the armor of the Scorpioches, so with it the Scorpioches screeched once more as they raised their tail and begun assaulting the group with its tail stingers.

In that moment casualty within the group was inevitable as the rampaging tail luckily pierced through the chest of one of the ranged units of the Tekoa brigade and finally killing one if its prey. With one of its members dead, the formation finally had a hole as the Scorpioches threw the dead body to the side and focus entirely towards the remaining prey in its view

In that moment Rueben then begun to feel the tension in the air, as he quickly pulled up his weapon and rapidly fired off his bolts one after another. But despite all of its best effort, the bolts were proved useless as the Scorpioches seemed unfazed and begun its spree once more.

With such situation where they got their back unto the wall, Ester then quickly dealt with his own opponents as he rushed towards Rueben's side and made its huge body slam against the Scorpioches bothering the formation which will lead the brigade to escape.

"Captain!"

"Leave now! I got your back" said by Ester as he looked at his brigade

Hearing such an order, Rueben then ran away with the rest of the towns brigade and moved somewhere far from the seemingly gathering place of the Scorpioches. With the men out of the area, Ester then begun his rampage as he heavily injured the Scorpioches, before he picked up its tail and used the huge scorpion as a wrecking club he hit towards its other kind.

With that Ester made a run for it as his primary objective was to stall for time and not defeat the enemy. But leaving the site alone also indicates that he will leave the target, but since the risk outweighs the benefits, Ester then let go of the target and focused on his own side.

With the town brigade finally making their escape, Asmaveth was then left in its own fending for his life as he dodged the attacks and ran non-stop to save his life. as this continued on for awhile, the Scorpioches then decided to use its tail which caused Asmaveth to panic a lot and begun running faster.

For the first 13 strikes, Asmaveth surprisingly dodged all of the attacks with just its speed alone. In thag moment while he was running away from the enemy, he accidentally stumbled on his feet, as he rolled in the ground and  completely in display for the titan sized creatures.

But as Asmaveth rolled on the ground, he then noticed the tail of the Scorpioches surprisingly stuck on the side, as he quickly reached out and touched the surface of the tails armor. In that moment unbeknownst to anyone present, Asmaveth mana of death then slightly chipped itself apart and let some of it pass towards the Scorpioches itself. Due to that in manner of seconds, the Scorpioches chasing after him suddenly started bleeding from the inside as it rampaged all over the place due to the pain its feeling and soon died inside as its stopped on its tracks and crash down on the ground with a slam

At first Asmaveth was surprised and startled from the sudden death of the Scorpioches that is chasing him. But after examining how it died, it then realized how his power killed the monster and made it die from the inside. However while Asmaveth was showing signs of curiosity how the Scorpioches died from the inside, the other Scorpioches suddenly rushed towards him as they screeched in high pitch and tried to intimidate him.

Of course Asmaveth was slightly intimidated by those screech, but with a corpse beside him, he then placed his hand on the dead Scorpioches and chant in reviving the dead. After a long chant just enough for the other Scorpioches to get close, Asmaveth then successfully revived the dead monster, as the living corpse of the Scorpioches towers above the other Scorpioches and begun killing its own kind mindlessly. With that the battle between Scorpioches grew intense as both side tried to kill one another.

Using this monster corpse as a distraction, Asmaveth ran away as he puts a distance between him and the monsters and soon disappear from sight. With the escape of Asmaveth, the first contact of the target in the given mission ended up in a failure due to some foreign interference.

But despite the sudden interference of monster in the field, Asmaveth was somewhat thankful that he managed to escape to safety from those that were chasing them.

Soon after when the night came, Asmaveth would then realize that the dead corpse of the Scorpioches would come back to him bringing along some if the Scorpioches it had killed along its frenzy.

***ReadAtWebnovel***