Chapter 54: 'Logged' on!
Soon enough, after much trial and error, Luca had finally gotten the log to the top of the rocky-plateau. Honestly, there were many things he could appreciate while up there, one of the many being the view it gave over the nearby forest. Another would be the gentle breeze blowing through the area, making the rather warm weather a little less bothersome, which was appreciated considering he'd sweated his bollocks off pushing that damn log up here.
The top of the plateau itself looked like a regular mountainous area, with small rocky inclines and an overall rough surface. It did have some differences though, the main one being the small cracks in it allowing sunlight to peek through and reach the cavern where the giant scorpion had been.
He'd taken a cursory glance around the place to find a hole big enough to allow him to potentially drop the log through, but all of them were either too small, or too unstable to properly hitch the log through without collapsing a large portion of the rock around it. Since he wanted to make use of the salt contained within the cavern, opening the place up and rendering it vulnerable to potential rain was the last thing he wanted to do.
So, he'd have to resort to good old fashion, hard labour. Luca walked to the middle of the plateau and found a hole that was directly atop the middle of the salt bed, once there he began using the stone sword to chip away at it, slowly making it larger.
This would be significantly easier had he brought a pickaxe or something similar, but he was unfortunately stuck with the stone sword. Sure, it was sharp enough to cut into rock, but it lacked the weight and leverage to truly be effective at anything resembling mining.
After an hour or two of this Luca was sure the hole was around big enough to allow the log through. He'd been forced to make the hole itself smooth on its sides to prevent the plant fibre rope he'd eventually thread through it from cutting against it.
With that done he turned his attention to the log he intended to use as a weapon. It'd been sitting in the sun for a while, so it was much easier to manipulate as opposed to when it'd been freshly cut. The first thing he did was cut a couple of inches into the circumference of the log, this'd be used to help secure the rope tightly, and prevent any mishaps that may render all his work useless.
Next on the list, he stepped to the end of the log and began sharpening it. There were a few options he could take with this, making it taper up to a fragile top, or simply have it blunter, but a lot more reinforced.
Luca chose the latter option as it wasn't supposed to cut or pierce. No, it was intended to crush the scorpion's exoskeleton, killing it at best, or weakening it enough for him to personally deal with it at worst.
With that done, he began to make the final preparations, creating proper places on the rocky plateau to secure the log to, bundling the plant fibre to created rope, and planning out the defeat of the beast below.
A day later, everything was complete. He'd just finished tying the last knot of the rather intricately designed rope system, designed to grant the rope enough leverage and reinforcement to hold the weight of the log.
With a huff of effort, he raised the log slightly and tipped it towards the hole in the floor, slowly sliding it inside once it was threaded through. Once it was far enough in, gravity handled the rest, Luca was wary of the rope suddenly snapping due to the impact the slacked rope suddenly going taut. So, he did his best and used all of his strength to slow the momentum as much as possible.
*Crreeeeeeeeeeeeee*
Luca held his breath as the log hung from the plant fibre ropes... Looking through the hole, he could see it swaying from side to side over the salt bed. It was a good thing he'd remembered to smooth the hole, otherwise it'd definitely have been cut by sheer force.
He got to his feet and checked the ropes, making sure none were at risk of slipping... He'd done it, everything hadn't collapsed yet, but that didn't mean it wouldn't eventually. So he quickly prepared himself and started the next step.
He crouched over the hole and began dropping small pebbles into the salt bed below, an action that mimicked what he'd done previously before getting stabbed by the scorpion. He continued this for a couple minutes until the scorpion tail pierced one of the pebbles he'd dropped... It was almost time.
Luca watched with rapt attention as he kept dropping pebbles in, waiting for the scorpion to unearth itself so he could cut the rope and drop the log on it...
Come on...
Just a little longer...
*THUK!* *THUK!THUK!*
Luca's eyes widen to an almost comical degree when he spotted arrows being fired at the tail, presumably from the cave's entrance. He couldn't see it from his vantage point, but knew whoever was attacking it could put his plan in jeopardy!... Not only that, he had a very bad feeling about the situation.
Deciding to not risk whoever was stupid enough to fire at the scorpion, he carefully slid down the rope leading to the log, grimacing at the creaking sound the rope was giving. He landed on the log and looked to the cave entrance, his face contorting into a look of horror at who was there...
Sarr'ina, Gil'ga, and Sar'bal were at the entrance, the former two firing arrows at the scorpion with determined looks. The large white wolf barking at it, and unintentionally alerting the scorpion to the group's location.
"Fuck!" Luca growls as he rapidly thinks through what he should do. Adrenaline was already pumping through his veins at the fact he was likely about to do something stupidly reckless to save his friends.
His plan was already in ruins, as the scorpion had begun moving towards them, the tail showing its location while looking poised to strike at any moment.
Not wasting anymore time, Luca began swinging the log back and forth in the direction of the scorpion, pushing off of the wall to gather momentum faster. The rope sounded like it was going to give up at any moment, but he couldn't stop now, not while his friends were at risk.
He continued this for a couple seconds, the scorpion looked as if it was about to stab at someone with its tail, and he couldn't wait any longer. He had no idea if he'd gathered enough momentum yet, but he didn't have a choice... Though, this statement was made even more true due to the fact that the rope snapped just as the apex of one swing.
"HEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIII!!!"
The log swung through the air towards the still submerged scorpion, Luca giving out a girly squeal at the sudden change in the situation. Halfway through the arc he'd lost his grip of the log and fallen off, plunging towards the salt bed below.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Niggross
Niggross Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone