Akrab charged again, its legs moving with the speed and precision of a scorpion despite the enormous body they carried. Calling it a skitter felt almost insulting. The creature crossed the arena like a freight train, and Kael barely had time to lower his stance before the first claw snapped shut.
He ducked beneath it, then rolled as the second pincer swept toward him. It closed where his torso had been with a deafening crack. Kael came out of the roll already moving, only to catch the shadow of a tail stretching across the ground ahead.
One stinger had been waiting above him. It descended toward his forehead, forcing him to kick backward against the dirt and throw his body clear. The needle missed his face, but the second tail followed before he could recover his footing.
