Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... Unbeknownst to the trio who were still making their way to the gate, multiple people were arriving to either stop them or rescue them.

"Boss! Look! Those beasts are taking an offensive posture, it looks like they're about to attack! I wonder how they'll taste?"

Odrunn said, l.i.c.k.i.n.g his lips while staring down the beasts in front of them.

A group of scorpion-like beasts appeared menacingly waving their tails while they started to surround the group.

"Don't get your hopes up Odrunn, these beasts are mostly made of their exoskeleton, there's not much edible flesh on them, you can't eat them! Besides, they're full of poison."

Soli replied as she steadied her hands preparing for the imminent attack, Soli immediately used her pin-point freezing abilities to freeze the scorpion's tails, preventing any venom that might harm her friends.

Odrunn had jumped into the battle, as usual, tackling a few scorpions away to the side while landing heavy kicks and blows to the rest. The scorpions, although huge in size fell swiftly to the assault of the 2m tall Odrunn, his attacks full of ferocity, no longer the meek naive boy he was back then. The stinger flew past his c.h.e.s.t ripping the clothing he had right off his c.h.e.s.t, revealing the shredded muscle underneath.

Odrunn grabbed hold of the tail of the scorpion and started to spin in a circle taking the scorpion for a ride, finally releasing it and allowing it to land amongst the crowd of other scorpions getting crushed.

"Hahahaha! This is so much fun!"

Odrunn laughed as he jumped an landed on the scorpion that was on the floor crushing its exoskeleton as well as its insides.

Soli was dealing with the scorpions as well using perfectly timed hits she uses her icicles to pierce through the eyes of the beasts dealing damage to the brain without hitting the hard exoskeleton of theirs. Her eyes, still focused on one person, in particular, one that after she blinked vanished entirely shocking her.

Z vanished from his spot, using his superior speed he appeared at the back of a scorpion that looked significantly smaller than the rest, on the back of that scorpion, it looked like it had a red arrow pointing downwards to the tail.

There was no doubt about it, Z had approached the boss of the scorpions, it was hiding in plain sight while commanding its minions to launch the attack while it waited for profit.

The boss scorpion realised that Z had appeared on its back and viciously tried to hit Z with its stinger only to have Z avoid it and using his psychic manifest viciously pull the stinger straight into its shell, dealing a vicious blow to itself.

The boss scorpion writhed in pain as it tried its best to get the stinger out from its back. As it was struggling however it was too late, Z plunged the dagger straight into its eye sockets and into its brain, using his psychic manifest to push it deeper in, before twisting it and entirely pulverising the brain of the boss scorpion.

The attack had finally ceased, the scorpions at the loss of their leader had started to lose all notions on what they had to do and finally retreated.

Odrunn and Soli sat down where they were catching their breaths while looking at Z who was hunched over the bodies of the scorpions.

"Boss, what are you up to?"

"I'm taking out the venom sacs from the scorpions, we might have a need for them in the future."

Z replied, his hands and the dagger floating in mid-air working non-stop pulling out sac after sac. For such a huge scorpion, they truly had really tiny venom sacs, however, the truly frightening thing was the potential of their venom. With a single drop, it could prove fatal to a human being.

Odrunn and Soli walked towards Z as they watched him work.

"Soli, you did amazing, if you didn't freeze their tails, we'd probably have to be more cautious," Odrunn said, looking at Soli in the eyes.

Soli turned around wanting to reply, but immediately turned back after finding herself not being able to look away from Odrunn's b.a.r.e c.h.e.s.t and abs.

"Here's some of the bear fur, you can wrap it around you."

"Thanks! It feels warm! I was actually starting to feel cold because of the weather."

Z quickly finished up clearing up and the trio once again went on their way, through the forest to the gate.

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"We spotted them, surround them now! I'll go deal with them personally."

Addison shouted through their communications system. In the basin, where they couldn't use their commswatch they had no choice but to use a personalised communication system.

"Boss is going to handle it personally? I'm gonna watch, maybe boss can liquify another person again, it's always amazing to see a person turn into goop. Team! let's go! Block those kids! If we do a good job I'll ask the boss to leave us the girl!"

__________________

The trio soon found themselves being surrounded. Odrunn, Soli and Z soon found themselves in a disadvantaged situation with a large group of hunters surrounding them.

"Tch, Odrunn are they after you again?"

Z asked in a hushed tone, only to be answered with a shoulder shrug by Odrunn.

Addison appeared, coming out of the crowd,

"Hello boy, you've given me a lot of trouble, you've killed some of my best men you see, and you need to compensate me with your life, your life that would potentially give me a lot of money."

"Who sent you! What do you want!"

Z asked in an attempt to get more answers out of Addison.

"Did you think I'd be stupid enough to reveal the name of the employer just like that? Am I such a naive child?"

While talking to Addison, Z gave a signal with his hands behind his back, signalling for Odrunn and Soli to go on the offensive and break a path out behind them.

Just as they were going to make a move, they all fell to the ground with a thud.

"Shit... Poison!"