Well, I’m not dead. That was a bad idea. Juni’s face lit up as she saw Neska sluggishly respond with a tongue flick.
“Oh, thank goodness! I was so worried you were…Well, I’m glad you're in one piece.” Juni grabbed Neska’s upper body and gave her a hug, which felt slightly strange to her.
It wasn’t Risha cuddling. But it was something.
You should have run, Juni. She only wished the mouse girl could hear her. A cracked aether crystal flickered with light in the recess they were in. Juni must have dug a tunnel underneath them to escape the destruction.
“Neska, are you hurt?” Juni asked, after looking over her body anxiously. “I see some cuts, but the Interface doesn’t report out how ‘healthy’ you are.”
Neska gave a flick of her tail up to indicate she’d live. There was a barrage of notifications on her Interface that she’d shunted to the side in the chaos, and right now, she didn’t dare to take a look at it. There was also one large, glaring green and yellow one that kept flashing, as if it were urgent.
That one was definitely new. The interface had always appeared in a cool blue tone, so this one must be special. She dared a peek after sliding it to the forefront of her vision.
Warning: approaching Level Cap for your current form. Major Evolution pending. Upon reaching the level cap, the evolution will begin automatically in 24 hours, unless manually triggered. Ensure you are in a safe location, as the process may take time.
Vivi…how many levels did I gain from all that?
Two levels gained. Almost three. Those creatures were a Tier above you.
I…I didn’t think you would survive that.
I had at least a plan to end that foe. Survival...was a bonus.
Neska tried to curl her body gently around Juni, but the mouse squeaked loudly. “Oh, my. You uh…you really like the hugs, huh? Do be careful.”
I will, Juni. Neska felt her tiny heart beating faster, which she found strange. Something was already changing within her at a low level. She parted her coils for Juni to slide out, who let out a soft cough, and winced as she felt her cut ear.
“Ow. Gonna have a scar from that one,” she muttered. “Neska, I was able to dig a little way from the collapsed tunnel. I think our foe is buried down there. May he rot in the hells,” she added with a defiant squeak. She glanced at the tunnel and motioned to the light source in her hands. “Can you illuminate the way while I dig? I don’t think it’s far, and the earth is still for now.”
Neska took the crystal in her mouth gently, so she could keep her tail ready. She looked back and saw scorched scales. The pain was very real, and her muscles hurt down there. No more holding rocks in my tail and heating them to dangerous temperatures. That was too reckless.
Juni scratched and scraped past the rocks, enlarging the tunnel and shunting the material to the side. It didn’t seem possible for the void to grow larger without the material going anywhere, but that was what it looked like, the tunnel stretching and sloping upward. Juni had to take a few breaks and was letting out panting sounds.
Neska would help, but she was poorly equipped for digging. Though, as that serpent that was currently rotting in the earth proved, it had the abilities and biology to make tunnels effortlessly, judging by the size of this elaborate trap. It worried her about how long the monsters had been building this, or if they had ambushed more people on the road.
She hadn’t seen any bones, at least. It was a small comfort.
“Neska, little tip next time. If we can combine our abilities,” Juni trailed off, tapping her nose gently with one claw, “I think we can do that more safely. Use your hex on the stones I can conjure. I think that was a pretty clever idea.”
Neska nodded firmly at that. Yes. Less self-damage would be ideal.
With more scraping and scratching, they slowly made their way to the surface. It seemed to be a far lengthier trip upward than she remembered. Juni panted as her claws made oversized trenches into the earth and small stones, her tail twitching agitatedly. “I hope Jurik and the others are okay. I can’t believe those serpents were this far south! I swear the Seekers are useless, on top of hunting the wrong monsters!”
Neska heard the sound of shifting earth nearby and what sounded like a low mumble. Juni’s ears went straight up, and she pointed forward. “I think that’s Jurik. They’re alive!”
Juni scratched with all her might, the dirt shifting and the muffled sounds growing louder. Neska could faintly make out a voice. It definitely sounded like Jurik, though she couldn’t make out the words. “We’re down here! We’re alive!” Juni shouted out, but her mouse voice was as small as her body.
Neska heard hurried footsteps and then the sound of digging nearby. The earth shifted, and Neska could see moonlight as the soil parted, just ahead of them. A weathered, waxy-textured hand reached down to scoop more of the soil.
“Hadley, Ragnir, they’re over here!” Jurik shouted out, widening the opening as Neska and Juni pushed through, straining past the narrow opening. Jurik reached down to help Juni out, then, a moment later, helped scoop Neska out. She coiled her body gently on his arm to grip on; he hoisted her out, with clumps of dirt and pebbles falling away from her body, to reveal the astonished face of Jurik.
“By the gods,” he breathed, drawing in Juni for a hug. Hadley and Ragnir, both bloodied but alive, limped over to them from nearby, also drawing in close. “I…I don’t know how. We thought you were done for!”
Juni’s voice choked up, burrowing her muzzle into his shoulder. “Neska had the plan. And seriously hurt herself in the process.”
She’d been ignoring the aching pain for a while, and Jurik’s face scrunched in concern when he examined her tail. “That burn is bad. What happened?”
“She used an [Ember Hex] to turn a rock into a molten missile,” Juni explained, earning shocked faces from them. “Are you guys alright?”
“We’ll live,” Jurik murmured. “I’ll take great pride in knowing that monster is dead.”
A sudden jolt of realization hit Neska. Something that shouldn’t have worried her.
All the prior notifications. She hadn’t read through them.
She scanned through them, noting that there was a split gain for serpents, along with a title update, several ability improvements, and two levels gained. She skipped those and checked the notifications for foes defeated.
No.
There were only two notifications for monsters slain.
Not three.
Her body felt like she’d been plunged into ice, and her muscles constricted out of fear. Oh no. No, it couldn’t have survived that! Neska unwound from Jurik’s arm, trying to use her tail to scratch out letters in the dirt. The burn made her movements slower, less precise; even this effort was agony.
“Neska, what’s wrong?!” Juni asked, looking worried, and her tail went on end. Neska frantically tried to form the letters.
{HE IS ALI–}
The ground trembled as the earth burst apart, and the serpent shot out of the ground like a javelin. Dirt and rocks pelted downward, and Neska saw to her horror that his scales were lighter, less armored, and he almost appeared slightly smaller. Worse, his ochre eyes were intact, radiating hatred, and he let out a shrill hiss.
“I’ll devour you all, one by one!” he bellowed while in motion, mouth flexed open. Juni screamed as the creature lashed out with an abnormally long tongue, grabbing her by her torso. No one was able to react in time as the serpent reeled in his tongue and swallowed her, even as she hardened her body to a stonelike texture.
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Jurik screamed in horror, slicing his hand to ignite his sword again. Hadley grabbed her bow and fired her magical bolts. Her arrows didn’t bounce off this time–they pierced through the scales, driving into its body, dealing damage but not nearly enough to stop it. Ragnir swung his axe to try to cut at the body, but the serpent swerved away, trying to slither away with his prize.
GIVE HER BACK! Neska screamed with all the fervor in her mind, feeling that boiling sensation creep back into her serpentine body. The serpent took that opportunity to dart back to the hole it had made.
She wouldn’t allow this monster to escape. Not this time.
She fired off the biggest [Rooting Hex] she’d ever used, feeling her body draining in strength as she did. Roots the size of small tree trunks sprouted up to block his path, keeping him from diving underground again. She slithered after him, trying to slap him with the roots.
YOU CAN’T HAVE HER! I’LL RIP YOU APART! She mentally directed the roots to drive forward, cutting him off again as he tried to turn toward the giant collapse by the roadside. He swerved again, back toward them.
“Don’t chop through the body, cut at the head or bleed him out!” Jurik bellowed, dodging past a lashing tail. He managed to strike the creature along the body length with a long but shallow wound. His bloodfire blade did lasting damage this time, and the creature screamed in pain. It side-wound in an unexpected shift of direction, sending Jurik tumbling.
The serpent used the opening to move laterally from his original path, his body undulating like the waves of the lake. He was fast, by any measure.
But he’d slowed enough that Neska was able to finally face him head-on, using her [Baleful Eye], stopping his movement. He couldn’t look away, and she stared at him, feeling pinpricks in her eyes as the hex went to work. He tried shifting his body to the side and away, which seemed to be more limited, but his forward movement was halted.
“She’s mine,” he hissed. “I can still kill all of you!”
“Ragnir, boost me!” Hadley called out, her ankle no longer hindering her. The big man hefted her upward by her boots, and she went skyward. She drew a blackened arrow with a glowing crimson aura seeping from the arrowhead and pulled the bow to full draw, her entire body straining to contain the power.
She fired at the apex of her jump with an audible snap that echoed through the air. The projectile pierced the snake’s tail, pinning it in place in the ground, and red particles wept from the wound. It flailed and tried to free itself, tearing the wound further. It bought Neska enough time to summon her roots again, lashing out and forcing them under his jaw.
GIVE. HER. BACK!
This new surge of energy was one she couldn’t explain; it made her body feel electric, like bolts of lightning were crackling across her mind. She pushed every bit of effort to pry the serpent’s jaws open, despite his efforts, and she felt the roots tense. She wasn’t sure what would break first: her roots or his jawbones.
The serpent finally tore free of the pinning arrow, rearing its head back. It spat out a wave of clear green fluid. The roots smoked and dissolved as he flooded his mouth with the corrosive elements. One gob narrowly missed her.
The roots snapped under the strain of the substance and the force. She lashed out another set of roots, her power of control over the hex growing with each time she used it. He thrashed his body, trying to crush her with his tail and missing widely. He was making mistakes due to the cumulative effect of his wounds.
Hadley leaped over the swinging body while Neska used her [Spring Scales] to evade. She came down positioned to fire a [Mana bolt] at his head, pelting him with hits. Open up, you bastard, you’re not eating her!
After two more hits and a mighty axe blow from Ragnir, the creature opened his mouth to let out a hiss of pain. Neska used the opening to keep it pried open with roots, drawing them tight to widen his jaw open. She couldn’t hold him long; his Vitality must be greatly higher than her ability to pin him with the roots.
But she didn’t need it to last long. She summoned her strength and used her [Spring Scales] while also launching [Coiled Strike]. She sailed through the air at incredible speed, right into his open maw.
She sank her fangs into the base of his mouth on impact. She pumped as much toxin as she could from the attack, and he shrilled. But she didn’t let go as his tongue flailed. A root reached in and held it in place, while the others attacked him or held him in place.
She bit down again and again, his movements finally slowing after taking such immense damage. You’re not taking her from me, monster!
If his retort was in that spasming feeling shaking her around in the cavern of his maw, she didn’t pick up on it.
Juni, I’m coming! She slid deeper into his mouth, seeking out the back of his throat, where she saw something lodged just beyond the entryway. His mouth was oppressively hot and smelled of death, pulsing and trying to crush her. She pressed in with her tail, fishing around. C’mon, please, don’t be gone!
You will not have her! She is mine!
The overwhelming presence of the vile creature flooded her mind, clamping down on her like a vice. She could feel the creature trying to swallow the thing that was lodged down there, and she latched in using her fangs to keep anchored.
That’s where you’re wrong! She fished her tail around, in about the most disgusting and desperate thing she’d ever done in her short Awakened life. All to find a desperate sign of life.
Her heart leaped when she finally found something solid, short, and with a tail attached. Juni, I’ve got you! She felt a spark of hope jolt through her as she wrapped her tail around the rocky textured mouse, slowly pulling her free of the sticky textured flesh and muscles.
She couldn’t feel her moving, and the mouse lay limp. Neska used her [Constricting Coils] to keep her grip. Meanwhile, the saliva and stomach acid slowly dissolved the rock barrier. Neska felt the sting on her own scales, the vile liquid slowly burning away at her.
She finally pulled Juni out and wrapped her tightly with the coils of her tail, scooting sideways with her body to try to make her way out. The creature tried to tilt his head back in an attempt to get them to slide back, but she dug her fangs in again, and he hissed in protest, the sound deafening within his maw.
This is one meal you’re not getting! Open wide! Neska shouted mentally. She used the roots to keep the monster’s jaw pried open, forcing it open like a lever. He gurgled and tried to snap down, muscles and bone straining. She launched one last [Spring Scales] and surged out of his mouth, just before her roots broke.
His teeth snapped down on nothing but air. She landed in a tumble along with Juni, who groaned, her movements feeble.
Juni, Juni, are you okay?! Neska examined the mouse while trying to rub dirt over themselves to try and clear the stinging liquid away.
“Neska…you…” Juni’s eyes flickered open. “You…how…”
A shrilling scream got both their attention, and they weakly turned their heads to see Jurik and Ragnir slice into the creature’s neck and head, dealing significant damage, again and again.
“You are nothing but food! You will all be devoured!” In between screams of pain, it still believed it could win.
Neska raised her head, pushing her body to the breaking point as her roots manifested again, lashing out and pinning the creature, keeping him from getting away again.
Vitality meant nothing to her. She’d never have the sheer strength to overpower him. But with desperation, a revelation precipitated, and she poured every drop of mana in her body into her hex, feeling the numbing chill of the abyss spread across her.
Most of her abilities scaled from two attributes. The one she was currently overlevelled on, Intelligence, gave her insights, little mental nudges for her to know where to crush down, where to grab, where he couldn’t fight. He could snap the individual vines and roots with ease.
But with a weave of vines binding together like cord fibers, their strength and durability increased dramatically. A weave of nature’s wrath.
Scales cracked, and bones snapped. He screamed.
She knew how to stop this monster. She knew how to make him hurt.
WARNING! EXCEEDING INTERFACE GUIDANCE!
Rooting Hex 10 > LIMIT BREAK
There were too many notifications and glaring warnings on her Interface; she mentally shoved them away. Ragnir and Jurik dove in, weapons slicing, and dealt critical blows; the axe made sickening wet thwacks, and Jurik's fiery blade sizzled. They leaped away as the creature flailed weakly, letting out small hissing sounds. Its face was scrunched in pain.
Then, it drooped, out of any ability to fight back.
“Why…” the serpent let out a low moan. “Who are you…”
Neska wrapped herself protectively around Juni, her [Constricting Coils] hardening her scales to form a living armor. I am Neska, the last survivor of the witch who has fought your efforts countless times. The little ‘vermin’ you thought would be another meal.
“No…why…save a mouse,” he mumbled weakly, past bleeding wounds and the venom coursing through him. “Why go so far…to save them. They are nothing more than food. You, and the humanoids.”
She paused in her answer. But only for a second. Because someone important to me told me to grow strong. To stop the monsters. She paused on the reason why. Was this what Risha wanted?
Or what she wanted? The Neska, whose life had ended too soon, and was reborn into the body of a monster?
Because she and the others…made me feel not alone. That I was more than just a snake.
That I was a person.
The serpent’s head sagged, and his body shuddered, wounds weeping blood. His eyes grew sullen, losing their intensity. They no longer resembled a predator. Only a monster who knew their end was upon them.
“So it’s true, then. The prophecy of the Awakened is beginning to unfold. One of our own, who will lead the revolution that shall destroy us. One with the powers of both monsters and men.”
Blood trickled from his snout, and he let out a hissing exhale, his eyes half lidded. “I know who you are now…”
“Daughter of Ouroboros.”
His body went slack, and his eyes closed.
Tanileth, Tunnel Viper, Scout of Ouroboros, defeated
Level Increased: Witch 7 → Witch 10
Level Cap reached. Major Evolution Available.
Ability proficiencies increased, expand for further details.
New Minor Evolutions available, expand for further details.
New Witch Hexes available, expand for further details.
Title gained: Shatter the Ceiling - Break a limit on an ability or evolution. + 2 Intelligence, + 2 Perception.
Title gained: Kinslayer - Kill one of your own kind, regardless of circumstances.
Title gained: Enduring Bravery - Be the victor in a battle you had a low chance of winning. +2 Endurance, +2 Agility.
Major Title gained: Unbreakable Bond - Save a friend in dire need, at great risk to yourself. +4 Vitality, +4 Endurance, + 4 Soul.
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