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⚠️ Content Warning ⚠️
This chapter contains scenes of violence and graphic imagery that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
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The heat hit them first. It rolled off the dunes in suffocating waves, pressing down on lungs and burning through what little strength they had left.
Even before the giant sand scorpion crested the dune, its presence could be felt, an oppressive furnace shimmering in the haze, each twitch of its segmented tail slicing the sky like a whip poised to kill.
The creature's shadow stretched across the group, long and jagged, swallowing the sun-bleached sand beneath them. In that moment, the training exercise was gone. This wasn't a lesson. This was survival.
Temari's fan snapped open with a sharp whump. Her knuckles whitened around the handle, her lips thin and pale.
"Spread out! Don't bunch up!", she barked, voice trembling but sharp. "Watch the tail! It's faster than you think!"
The warning came too late.
The tail blurred downward, smashing into the sand where one of the boys had been standing. He dove aside, a spray of grit marking his escape. Venom splashed the ground, burning deep holes into the dunes. The boy's scream rose when droplets landed on his arm, eating flesh in seconds. The smell hit them all, burnt meat, acrid and inescapable.
The boy stumbled, cradling the ruined limb, flesh blackened and curling. He wouldn't be able to fight again, any time soon.
The scorpion loomed above them, larger than any training manual had warned, its armored carapace glinting bronze in the sun, each leg stabbing the sand with a crunch. Its claws clacked together, hungry. The desert heat, already punishing, became suffocating under its presence.
"Move!", Temari yelled, wind chakra slamming out from her fan, stirring up a wall of sand. The gale struck the scorpion broadside, but it barely staggered. The creature's armor split the gust apart, grains pattering harmlessly against its carapace.
Temari's eyes widened. She swung again, harder, desperate. Another blast cut the air, sharper, aimed at the joints. Still nothing. The scorpion plowed forward, claws digging furrows into the sand.
Her jaw clenched, panic creeping in.
"No… no, this isn't working."
Kunai and shuriken flew from the trainees, glittering in the sunlight before clattering uselessly against the chitin. Some bounced while some shattered immediately upon contact. One lodged briefly between plates, only to be shrugged off as the scorpion flexed.
It turned and charged.
Sand erupted in its wake as the ground shook beneath its weight. The trainees scattered, shouts mixing with panicked breaths.
The scorpion lunged, snapping its claw down. A boy's scream cut short as his body crumpled between pincers. The claw twisted, and the boy split in half, blood spraying across the sand in a steaming arc. His friends shrieked, some stumbling back, others freezing where they stood.
Daiana snapped out of it first. She rushed toward the injured instead of the fight.
"Get them back! Drag them back here!", she screamed, her voice ragged. Her hands pressed against the burn victim's arm, chakra flickering green as she tried to stem the necrosis. His flesh sizzled, the damage racing faster than her healing could counter.
Two other trainees obeyed her, dragging bloodied bodies through the sand. One collapsed, intestines spilling from a deep gash in his side. Daiana's breath caught, but she forced herself forward, sealing what she could with bandages and salve, her face streaked with grit and tears. She was no fighter, just hands against the tide of death.
"HA!", Shira bellowed, intercepting another swipe with a desperate kick. His heel slammed against the claw, jarring up his leg. The scorpion barely registered it, backhanding him with its other limb. Shira rolled three times before planting himself in the sand, coughing grit, muscles screaming from exhaustion already gnawing at his bones.
Isan's chakra threads flashed silver in the sunlight as he tried to snare the creature's tail, guiding kunai in arcs meant to pin it. For a moment, he caught the stinger mid-swing, diverting its strike away from another trainee. But the scorpion wrenched free with raw strength, sending the kunai clattering away.
The heat pressed harder.
Each breath burned.
Sweat stung eyes.
The battle was only minutes old, but already it felt like hours.
The scorpion reared, shadow blotting out the sun, and struck with both claws. One trainee didn't move fast enough. The claw closed with a wet crunch, and when it opened, the boy's limp form tumbled into the sand, crimson soaking into gold.
A scream tore from the group.
"Fall back! Regroup!", Temari shouted, though her own voice shook now. Her fan lashed out again, driving the scorpion a half-step back. Her arms trembled.
The trainees obeyed, but the beast gave no respite. Its stinger lashed like lightning. A girl shrieked as the barb tore across her thigh, venom burning through flesh. Quickly two trainees appeared and got her out and brought her to Daiana, that was treating the wounded a few paces away from the bloody battlefield.
"Hold still, damn it, hold still!", Daiana hissed, sweat beading on her brow as she slowed the poison's spread. Her breaths came quick and sharp, her focus split between the battlefield and the patient.
Meanwhile, Shira moved. Even exhausted from the desert and the sand bandit fight, his body darted between claws and tail strikes, a blur of sweat and grit. His fists cracked against armor, leaving white scratches but no real damage. Each hit jarred his bones, but he kept moving.
"Shira! Keep it off the wounded!", Isan's voice cut through, steady but tight. His hands glimmered with thin chakra threads that lashed out, anchoring kunai into the sand, pulling at the scorpion's legs, buying moments.
He was straining, his chakra reserves shallow, but he was doing his utmost to keep his mind calm and calculating, panicking right now would just worsen their crumbling situation even further.
Right then, Isan darted to his side, threads lashing to yank another trainee free from a strike.
The scorpion shrieked, tail lashing down again. This time it caught a boy in the leg. Venom hissed into the wound, and he dropped instantly, convulsing, foam spilling from his mouth. His leg blistered, skin melting like wax.
Two more trainees stumbled over, eyes wide with terror, dragging the boy by the shoulders. Blood streaked the sand behind them.
Placing him by Daiana' side, who immediately acted and lunged, with green chakra sparking in her hands. Chakra fighting poison and necrosis, her lips trembling as she whispered frantic instructions:
"Salve... give me the salve! .... tear cloth, wrap tight .... don't let him thrash!"
Temari swung again. Another gust. Another failure.
The scorpion's claw ripped past her fan, nearly taking her head. She stumbled back, sand sticking to her sweat-drenched skin. She froze, fan limp, staring at Shira's relentless struggle and Daiana's frantic work. Her chest tightened.
The scorpion pressed harder. Shira's punches grew slower and heavier. Sweat dripped into his eyes, blinding him. His legs wobbled, muscles burning from exhaustion. He'd fought bandits, marched under the sun, and now, now this. His breaths came ragged, teeth gritted against despair.
Another tail strike. Another scream. Another body dragged away in despair.
Temari dropped her fan, shoulders sagging, eyes wide with tears.
"It's not… it's not enough," she whispered.
Shira staggered, narrowly avoiding claws. His strength was fading. The support was fading. Daiana was buried in blood and burns. Temari was gone, hollow-eyed. The others were wounded or dead.
Only Isan still moved with purpose. He glanced at Shira, saw the trembling legs, the shallow breaths, the hopeless eyes. His own chest burned from chakra strain, but his face didn't falter.
"Stay sharp!", he snapped, but his tone wasn't harsh anymore, but rather it was steady, grounding.
"I can't… keep this pace.", Shira muttered through clenched teeth, sweat dripping into the sand.
"You're not done yet.", Isan said simply, eyes locked on the beast.