Rhonas vs. Scorpion God

Rhonas touched his staff, uttering the final words of his incantation. A sickly green glow pulsed, seeming to come from within the metal. It shimmered across the length of the staff, then coalesced in the bladed end of the weapon, settling into a soft viridian light.

***

He parried a strike from the scorpion tail, then spun close and landed a blow with his elbow, catching the scorpion god in the ribs. His staff left streaking trails of green light as he swung, striking fast instead of hard, testing the strength of the scorpion god's carapace, leaving slashing cuts and scratches on the impossibly hard shell, deflecting and dodging the scorpion god's strikes.

As the two brawled, the scorpion god's movements seemed to slow. The strikes from its claws and tail became sluggish. Too late, it looked at Rhonas's staff with dawning recognition. Rhonas grinned and bared his fangs as he drove the blade end of his staff into the immortal's shoulder, cracking the carapace just enough, the scorpion god now too slow to stop or dodge the assault. The biting glow of magical poison, venom powerful enough to slay most living things, pulsed as it seeped in through the wound, numbing and eating away at the scorpion god from the inside.

***

HOUR OF GLORY