31 The Scritcher Nest

I watch Tyr swing her lance to the side smashing the blunt side into the head of a small scritcher with a crunch as its thin body flies to the side and knocks another one over. Several new scritchers replace the two downed ones as Banshee's silk captures several in a sticky mess of webbing while Slax continually casts healing spells mixed with nightmare magic. Sarah stands in the center with wide eyes as she frantically casts her buffs on Flippy and Tyr while the small fish summon continues to mow a bloody path through any of the weak creatures it finds.

'Scritchers don't seem very strong on their own and their kind of hard to look at. But theres so many of them, is this normal?' I can't help but ask as we watch a stream of the skinny hunched creatures continue to appear from the surroundings with no ends in sight.

"I don't actually know hun. Remember that I only have knowledge of dungeon stuff to teach you and answer your questions, I won't know anything about specific creatures until they enter the dungeon. Still these things could be perfect pack hunters and could be a good addition, especially if they have a boss with them to lead." Tilly answers before pointing at Slax as a silver glow coats his body before fading away.

"Sweet! Slax just learned a new skill! That means he's growing stronger I wonder what exactly it is." Tilly says excitedly as we watch the geckonian freeze for a second before a black cloud coats his hands and he points them at a fallen scritcher, its face caved in from a blow from Tyr. Suddenly the black cloud darts from his hands and rushes inside of the scritchers corpse making it convulse with larger cracks before its body begins to leans forward and stand while looking around dumbly before kneeling in front of Slax.

'Umm...Tilly....Did Slax just make a zombie?' I ask in shock as we watch the zombie scritcher begins glowing with buffs before it leaps towards its nearest past comrade and tears into its throat with its teeth.

"Well he is a dungeon monster now so it can happen. Sometimes our pacted creatures take on abilities that mesh with our environment and if you hadn't noticed....kind of depressing outside hun. Now shush lets see how they do." Tilly says in a "you should know this" voice before we keep watching the fight.

Iron swings her axe through a scritchers head, lobotomizing the poor creature as another falls under her shield and is stomped to death quickly afterwards. As another leaps above her and aims at her uncovered throat a lance slides over Iron's shoulder and pierces through the creatures face before flinging it off to the side before a bolt of poisonous green magic flies into the horde and splashing over several of the scritchers, the toxic magic dissolving the creatures as they're still living.

"Iron watch your damn back, you know better than to focus on just what's in front of you! Now like the old days bitch, lets crush'em!" Tyr screams with laughter in her voice as Iron smiles maliciously before she charges in front of Tyr and begins to use a spell, causing a golden glow to take over her body as she begins slashing wildly through the mob. Tyr follow close behind the powerful tank as her spear whistles back and forth through the air, each strike slamming into or through a vital point of an enemy as scritcher corpses begin piling up around the two.

As we focus back onto Slax we watch as he is now fighting close by to Sarah and his zombie, the child looks terrified but safe as the zombie is literally falling apart in an effort to protect her. Slax is bleeding from one arm that hangs limply from his side as he makes a downward stab with his dagger, thrusting the blade into the throat of a scritcher as another behind it bulldozes over the falling corpse and leaps toward the tiring geckonian. As Slax slams his eyes closed he hears a gurgling sound and opens one to the sight of Flippy standing in front of him as it rips the head off of the body of the attacking scritcher with its large mouth, the small summons body coated in blood and bone fragments as it howls a deathly gurgle and leaps towards its next victim.

"Mr. Slax are you ok? Flippy rushed over and will protect us now and I'll spread more poison so they can't get us while you heal." Sarah says as tears stain her cheeks and she smiles shakily before she begins producing a cloudy green ring around the two that expands outward. Slax nods as he throws another cloud of necromancy at a new corpse and it begins tearing into its old allies as he looks towards Banshee and smiles in relief.

Focusing in on the giant spider I'm shocked that it's actually causing casualties within the horde and has taken minimal damage due to its near immunity to physical damage. The large spider pounces towards a scritcher nearby and tears off its thin arm and part of its chest and shoulder with its mandibles as it chitters happily before swallowing the morsel and shooting a large mound of webbing from its mouth into the crowd and gluing several scritchers together into a large mound of webbing and struggling bodies. Surrounding the small party dozens upon dozens of corpses lay around as the blood is soaked in the fresh blood of the scritchers, the horde thinning considerably but still showing large numbers.

As the group work their way back together and pick off the few creatures that are alone or injured they finally meet back behind the poison mist that's finally thick enough to cause even these mad creatures to become wary.

"Shit I know you said there was a lot but this isn't a damn nest, its an infestation. Why hasn't the boss or the higher ups handled these things." Tyr demands as Iron just grunts before casting a quick spell that shoots a small bolt of light from her shield into a brave enemy that was forcing its way through the poison.

"Don't know. We're here now though and if their starting to slow down its only a matter of time before they run like a normal predator or the leader shows up. We just keep going plus you gather up these bodies and throw them in the dungeon as a snack and it can probably turn them into stuff or use them. Split this horde fifty fifty and everyone wins." Iron replies gruffly as she stares into the distance as the scritchers begin howling and screeching while facing the top of a nearby hill. Several of the lankt creatures begin kneeling on the ground with their heads resting on the bloodstained dirt, both arms laying flat with the hands facing upwards as a tall, thin shadowed creature appears on the hill and stares down at us.

"Weaklings....Bring weakness to pack. Weaklings become strength." Hisses the thin creature as it stalks into the ranks of kneeling scritchers and begins reaping their bodies apart with long blade like claws as several stronger and larger scritchers behind it follow its lead.