Heavenly Kingdom: The Kingdom among the clouds

Chapter 159: Rejected Truth II

[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.