The scorpion raises its large fiery claw and hurtles it directly towards both the exterminators.
"EVADE!" Archie shouts.
Zane dodges the massive plunge by the skin of his teeth and before he stands up, he sees the scorpion rip off the roof of the building's porch with its tail like hot knife scooping butter. Archie swoops in to attack, jumping high up and burying his claws deep between the openings the scorpion's upper armor.
"holy shit!" he says, as his attack has absolutely no damage and his claws are red hot, enough to melt steel.
The creature soon turns toward them and shoots a hyper-jet stream of lava from its stinger. Both of the boys run to take cover as the lava burns and craters the ground and buildings around it erupt in flames.
"SHOOT ZANE!" Archie yells.
Zane, with his charged spear faces the scorpion and shoots a brilliant light of ray which strikes the scorpion head on. As the dust settles however he sees it has evaded his attack as well by parry it with its massive claws. It then charges at full speed towards Zane with its claws gaping wide open to grasp him.
Archie pushes both of them to the alleyway in between 2 houses with the scorpion just grazing Archie's feet.
"you idiot, don't just stand there frozen, do you wanna die?!" Archie tells Zane.
Both of them hide themselves for a while in one of the homes under a table while the scorpion runs wild outside burning down everything.
"what do we do now?" Zane asks.
"yeah well I was gonna ask you that" Archie says.
"the hell you mean I got no damn idea its hard as rock and its as hot as an oven" Zane says with anxiousness.
Archie looks out of the window to see the scorpion still running around, if they don't make a sound it probably won't sense them.
"ok what if we blow it from below, it has a hard exoskeleton above but maybe its got a soft underbelly" Archie asks.
"well for starters its too low to the ground I don't know how I could get under it and we don't even know where its core might be and if it has regenerative abilities then we are screwed." Zane says.
"Dammit that is not a category 3 at all it's a 4 or maybe a 5 at max with its size and its attacks" Archie says with a frustrated look.
"can't we call for back up?" Zane asks.
"no radio with me and my phone doesn't have service since we are in this town." Archie says.
There is a momentary silence between the two, contemplation with tense faces of both the boys while the wild creature outside blows flames above them.
"ok how about this, your faster then me and you can reach outside the town on the road to get backup and meanwhile I'll keep it distracted" Zane suggested with a determined face.
"no way that's reckless your still new and I'm not gonna let you die" Archie says.
"it's the only way, you can cover the distance fast enough while I keep it busy, I've got a good grasp of this town and I can-" Zane is interrupted.
"and how the hell do you think you can move around quickly? huh? if it spots you, your dead and I can't risk it!" Archie says.
"you're the one who said fear keeps people alive right?" Zane says.
Archie looks at him with pincer eyes, contemplating what he just said in awe.
"This is diff-"
"I DON'T CARE! JUST GO AND CALL SOMEONE!" Zane yells in a whisper.
Just at the right moment the roof from above them is ripped open with violence and flames revealing the creature just above them.
"GO!" Zane yells to archie as he charges up his spear.
Archie looks at him with worry but gets on to it quickly and dashes out to call for reinforcements.
Zane looks at the giant burning scorpion above him and closes, remembering the faces of his family.
The scorpion lunges at him.
He opens his eyes and presses the button on his spear.
It was as if the power of sun shot out of his spear, blasting at the scorpion and lifting it into the sky, piercing it and throwing it way, crashing and falling on houses and being covered in rubble.
Zane ran to get cover all the while keeping his eyes on the scorpion. The scorpion, laying on its back, sprang up like a spring and turned itself in midair and came down back on its feet. It was quite furious as Zane noted because it went on a fiery rampage, burning down and destroying everything in its path. It looked like the town had been hit by a volcanic eruption. Had there been residents here, the death toll would be traumatic.
Zane ran around looking for cover all the while trying to charge up his spear. He got on an embankment and fired a shot at it prompting the scorpion to run towards where the shot came from. Zane ran around the town distracting the scorpion. He just nearly dodged the barrage of attacks destroying everything, giving less and less cover to Zane.
After what seemed like an eternity, Zane came to rest between behind two houses. He could see the scorpion running around from in between the two houses.
What he saw seemed like as if the scorpion had enough of the nuisance that Zane had become. It extended its giant tail, split opened its stinger at the end of it in four ways and blasted a tsunami of fire that stormed out all the houses around it. Zane was disoriented from the flying debris that hit his head. As he regained sense he heard a loud bang. He turned around to see the scorpion in front of him. Before he can do anything the large, iron-hard claw hit him with the speed of a bullet sending him hurtling towards a large monument at the center of the town square and embedding him in the concrete.
Zane wiped off the blood and dust from his eyes, he couldn't move anything, not his hand, or his legs. He saw his armor plate cracked open. He had probably broken a few ribs and bones and was leaking blood from everywhere. Had he not worn his armor suite he most definitely would've died.
He looked up. The scorpion was in front of him. Its body was so hot, Zane's skin was melting. He couldn't move.
He saw the scorpion arching its back and its stinger elongating from its tail.
Zane closed his eyes in exhaustion. He opened them and found himself standing on a beach, with its white sands crusting his feet, cozy warm wet air hitting his bare chest and the clear blue sky above him and a dark navy ocean with its waves crashing the shore in front of him. In the distance he could see near three people, a family, spending their time and enjoying themselves. One of them looked back.
"ZANE!" she yelled as she was waving at him.
Zane smiled. A true, warm smile and closed his eyes.
He then felt a long, white-hot, arrow piercing his chest, his heart and then through his back, Melting away his insides. The hot searing pain, set the beach and the people in front of him ablaze.
"I'm sorry."