NOVEL NEXT [Arc I] Chapter 41 – Underground ambush
Mother was looking at the water of the lake, laying still, quite a distance from her family's usual spot. Sunbathing.. Or maybe napping? Hard to tell in species that have no eyelids.
STAB!
A gigantic spike came out of the ground! What fool dares to be careless in the middle of a jungle? Place of constant strife and death?
Not her. As the spike was piercing the ground, she moved, constantly but a centimeter away from the tip, making the assailant hope they would eventually catch up and succeed in their ambush. They didn’t know mother was waiting.
It was going to be the last mistake of their lives. As more and mory was out of the ground, her tail started coiling around the mysterious creature. But before she could completely constrain them, it turned, and using its spiked arms, stabbed her body.
“Sssssss!” - mother slithered, even through her thick scales, she felt that.. But it was but a scratch. She didn’t want to risk being stabbed again, but she knew, she can’t let them go back underground, as she won’t be able to catch them there, so she prevailed, and put as much strength as she could on her foe. And it was a lot of strength…
First there was a cracking noise.
Then there was a bang.
The sudden release of pressure, from the skull giving in, and the snake's body that due to inertia didn’t immediately stop its squeeze, caused the gore to fly everywhere. Barely a second passed from the start of the fight, surrounding birds only now flying away scared by the danger-signifying noise… except for the few that got closer, already preparing for the aftermath, and the second battle that will happen among carrion eaters, trying to get their share of the spoils.
But mother didn’t have time to enjoy the sight, or the taste, of her victim, now a half-buried bloodied greenish stump.
The situation seemed calm again… Unless you looked very closely, you wouldn’t notice the small vibrations of the smallest grains of sand. Or unless you were a vibration sensitive snake. She energetically jumped on the nearby rock, a seemingly impossible feat taking into consideration her size.
As she did it, another two spikes came out, stabbing the spot she was on a moment ago.. But the herd of.. Those things seem to have guessed she would dodge. Some of them were waiting in ambush, planning on piercing her as she was landing!
THUMP!
THUMP!
What they didn’t seem to pay enough attention to, is that mother purposefully chose the battlefield to be next to a hard monolith, rich with different mana crystals, and so, strongly resistant to magic. Including earth-piercing magic. She expected them to get a nice concussion.
But that wasn’t going to stop them, at most giving her a minute or two of rest.
Two smaller spikes could be seen going out of the ground, dirt seemingly changing properties depending on their will, sometimes movable like water, and sometimes firmer than it should be. Like right now, when it was used as a support for the crawling out creature.
It was cypers in color [blue-green], with a slightly lighter belly, standing on two legs, but still in a crouched posture. It had two legs, ending with something akin to flippers. Flippers made of hard crystals, with sharp edges, like a good shovel. The arms (or flippers, as they seemed to be a mix of the two), ended with a sharp spike. Fully extended, they would take about third of its length, but now they were half bent in front of the beast, preparing to attack. It’s sharp.. Horn? Beak? Was chiseled with a mouth twisted in a permanent mocking self assured grin.
And then there was this evil glint in it’s eyes. Oh yes, this creature obviously didn’t just live by the law of the jungle, it lived for it!
“CRUNCH CRUNCH!” A bizarre sound came out of it’s throat, as if it’s vocal chords were replaced by two grinding rocks.
The ground rumbled. A grove of beaks and needles suddenly grew around the snake, and suddenly she was half-surrounded by 10 Undercones. Most of them half the size of the one that showed up first, but their numbers by themselves danger enough. Only her back safe, due to the protection of the lake, water being a natural enemy of the creatures from the depths.
She stood up, from the lower position, she was now just in front of the sun, making it more difficult to see her.. Which is what she wanted. Her scales moved, rotated becoming like spikes.. She had two layers of scales! Now biting into her became a far more dangerous proposition. But she wasn't finished. The same scales became more reflective, possibly even glowing slightly.. Patterns appeared on them… and suddenly the snake form became but a blur, near invisible to most!
The carnage began. An unexpecting young undercone got immediately bitten in half. The rest of its flock tried counterattacking, but they were too slow above the ground. While they could still sense her, when she was moving on the ground, it became even harder due to her jumping around instead.
Not that their attempts mattered even if they managed to, this attack was but a ruse, trying to enrage the leader- the only real threat. She pretended to be occupied, waiting for him to attack, using its kin as a cover. Those barbaric earthworms didn’t know the meaning of real kinship, grouping up just a tool towards personal victory, she thought, and she was right. It wasn’t the snake's first time meeting denizens of the underworld.
Just as she was crushing the body of a third weakling with her lower body, at the same time opening mouth to bite another one, a sneak attack came from below.
“Fool” she thought, twisting her body, not caring what will happen with the half-crushed one, and letting the other one scuttle away in fright. Yeah, attacking the unguarded back might be a good move if your attack lands.. But against a snake, you must be prepared to be caught if you fail to do enough damage.
It quickly realised its mistake, and tried to get out. “Too slow!”. It started to bite.. But it hurt it’s mouth on the sharp spikes instead. As mother was about to finish it off, the enemy showed it wasn’t a leader of its group for no reason. Instinctively it used it’s racial special skill, Stone shredder- a powerful bite that, unfortunately, also strongly damages its beak, and takes a few days to heal- and now there was a fist sized wound in mothers body.
“Ssssss!” she slithered in pain, but her long battle experience told her NOT. TO. LET. GO. Even as the creature tried to stab the wound again, she kept it constrained… and, in a show of anger, activated her own special skill. The result? There was only half of the undercone remaining. A bit of its arm swinging from mothers mouth.
Other undercones, their high hopes from seeing mother bleed crashing, quickly lost their composure. The double hit of disappointment and their leader's death causing them to run away, buck into the darkness of the earth.
“Finally” thought the mother. She was trying to bait them into attacking her since 2 days ago… and she had to do it while away from her young. But now that the leader is dead, they should go and search for a new herd to join instead.. Hopefully far away from here. She moved towards the corpses, hoping it would give her the energy she needs to heal, fortunately the bleeding stopped already thanks to her advanced skills.
But at the same moment as the fresh catch passed through her throat… she got stabbed. Only one quick stab. She could see the different, this time gray coloration of the assailant.. And as suddenly as it appeared, it dove back underground, as undetectable as before.
But she could feel something wrong. She was poisoned.
