Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 1: Arrival

ELEVEN

I dove aside as the guard scorpion's arm cannons spat out a stream of bullets in my direction. While Barret responded with a volley of his own, I used the distraction he'd provided to rush in and slice again and again at the thing's midsection. Sparks crackled and flew with each hit, but the scorpion held. This junk heap was tougher than I'd thought. No doubt a product of Shinra's infamous Weapons Development Division, the guard scorpion was the big bully of this place and was going to take more than a few hits to bring down.

Jessie had mentioned it briefly in the intel reports Barret had given everyone earlier in the week, but she hadn't been sure if it had actually been deployed. Looked like we had the answer now, though. Still, there had to be a way to beat it. And striking it with our weapons didn't look like it would be enough. Barret glanced over at me as we backed up, his gun-arm pouring bullets into the scorpion.

"How the hell we s'posed to fight this thing?" he growled.

Didn't seem like he'd read Jessie's report. "This thing's basically just a big machine, Barret. Hitting it's not gonna do much, but the internals can be overloaded. That'll give us an opening."

He grunted. "So what do we do?"

"Lightning magic! Keep it distracted while I short it out. May take a few blasts, but it should work."

"Sounds like a plan, SOLDIER boy," Barret nodded.

I spun around and hit the scorpion with a backhand slash. "Just try not to get yourself killed."

He snorted. "I ain't dyin' today, merc! So quit worryin'!"

"Who's worried?" I shot back. "I'm just making sure I get paid. I've got a fee to collect, that's all."

"Hmph! Jus' shu'up an' fight, will ya!?"

I ignored him, concentrating on my materia instead. Seconds later, a bright, sizzling blue fork of electricity shot into the scorpion, blowing panels off the sides and sending puffs of smoke floating up into the air. That walking pile of scrap metal didn't go down, though. Still had a lot of fight left in it. I circled around to the back and sliced at it again with Buster, hoping to cut through and expose its insides. A few slashes and some of the wiring came apart, but that was all.

In the meantime, Barret was still shooting, leaving behind a trail of black, smoking holes along the scorpion's dark red armor plating while swearing at it with every shot. He hadn't hit anything vital yet, either. I kept slashing, going low this time. If I could sever a few of the legs, the whole thing would collapse.

But before I could do that, the scorpion abruptly jumped high into the air and latched onto one of the walls, then let loose with a volley of missiles. I dropped into a sideways roll, dodging the impact as they hit the platform only a few feet away and exploded. Thunder filled my ears as I got back to my feet and spotted Barret firing off a blast of his own, a blazing orange fireball that shot from the end of his gun-arm and hit the scorpion squarely in the middle of its body.

I quickly followed up with another streak of lightning, and when it hit, the scorpion shuddered. Then it sprang right off the wall, spun as it fell through the air, and slammed down in front of us again. Its tail rose up above it, glowing brightly, and Jessie's intel suddenly sprang to mind as I remembered one other thing she'd mentioned.

"Barret!" I shouted. "Back off! You don't wanna get hit by that tail! Wait 'till it's down to attack it again!"

"I hear ya!" he called, doing as I'd said.

Once it went down a few moments later, I charged back in, leading with a third blast of lightning before cutting at the thing's legs. Barret's gun-arm sang bullets as we circled the scorpion and dodged its attacks the best we could. Another slash, and one of the legs clattered onto the floor. Now we were getting somewhere.