NOVEL NEXT Chapter 91 – Surviving
I dodged as the massive tail slammed into the sand once more. I then dived underneath it, as it swept over me again. It felt like forever, but it had been less than a minute since my father and I had talked. The elder snake was completely focused in on both of us.
My body was reaching the point of exhaustion. The old aches and pains from my time fleeing and rowing hadn't been completely healed. Those hidden injuries were starting to come back up again. I could tell my father was getting tired as well. The elder snake didn't seem to be exhausted int the slightest.
It had taken numerous claw marks across its massive body during this fight. But it still kept going strong. I didn't bother looking out over the water to see when the ship would be in position to assist us. The only thing we could do was keep fighting.
The near misses got closer, and it was tough just to keep up. While I had the moves of the elder snake figured out, it was just so big and powerful that even with the knowledge I had gained in combat, I had to keep guessing what it would do, in order to have a chance of survival. Thankfully my father had shown up, so these life-or-death moments were spread out a bit more.
After another minute of intense dodging, the elder snake swiped its tail, sending a wave of sand at both of us while it retreated back. I was about to rush forward but my father held up his paw. A glance in the distance showed the battleship moving into position.
"You fight well catssss," the elder snake hissed out. I could hear it breathing heavily as well. While letting it recover seemed like a bad idea, we needed to stall, and I was struggling heavily.
"You will make a nice rug," my father responded and held up his claws. I nodded and held up mine as well.
"You will make a niceee meal," the snake hissed out. It seemed like it was going to lunge and start the battle up once more and then paused. It turned its head to look at the ocean and froze for a long moment as I saw a flash of light in the distance.
I dove towards the ground as my father tried to pull me down. We both opened our mouths and closed our eyes. There was a loud roar and a blast of hot air. I could hear the sound of the explosion mixing togeather with the elder snake's scream. Each impact by one of the massive shells shook the very air itself.
The air in my lungs was pushed in and out by the shockwaves from the massive explosions, not my breathing. Even with my paws over my ears, I felt like my brain would shake apart. The ground itself shook with explosion and the trashing of the elder snake. The light from the explosions from the explosions could be seen despite keeping my face pointed into the ground.
A massive wave of heat washed over us. I didn't dare look up or do anything. This was the strongest amount of technological firepower the Covenant Church could bring to bear using one of their battleships. It was meant as a snake killer. I didn't know how it would do against an elder snake, but if this didn't kill the creature, I wasn't sure what would be able to kill the elder snake.
After two full minutes of explosions and shockwaves, I lifted my head out of the sand and shook off the sand that had been blown on top of me. My father did the same as we both took a look at the level of destruction that had been unleashed.
The entire beach in front of us had turned into patches of molten glass, letting up smoke. The jungle behind the beach was wiped out and on fire. There were fallen tree everywhere and a plume of smoke was rising up into the air.
"We did it," I said but couldn't hear myself speak. My ears were still ringing and my brain vibrating from the massive bombardment. I could see a couple pieces of burnt scale scattered about, but the more I looked, I couldn't spot the elder snake. The haze of dust and smoke made it hard to make out everything, but the elder snake was massive. It should have left behind a huge corpse.
My father was looking around as well as he brushed the sand off his fur. I let out a couple of coughs and then spat out a mouthful of sand and grit. I also took a moment to shake the sand off of my body. The battleship in the distance had smoke coming up from its guns. They had probably gone all out to take out the elder snake.
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This would be a massive victory for us and the Covenant Church. Killing an elder snake like this, was a huge feat. A legendary feat, enough that it had a chance of changing cats to being listed as good creatures.
I felt hope and accomplishment surge in me. "You see it?" my father asked loudly. My hearing was coming back at a least.
"No, you think it ran into the jungle?" I asked back and he shrugged while looking around. The smell from the explosive shells made it hard to pick up on any kind of scent. The smoke from the jungle fire was obscuring any path the elder snake might have taken in that direction.
"Probably. I thought I lost you Mittens," my father said with a heavy sigh.
"Rushing out here? I can take care of myself," I said while trying not to wilt under his glare.
"Hmm, well you weren't doing half bad, if you hadn't gotten thrown into the air. Maybe some remedial training is necessary," he joked with a small smile. I rolled my eyes.
"Maybe. I think just surviving for as long as I did against an elder snake should count for something," I replied with fake pout. We were teasing each other, since we had almost died. Looking at how close the explosive shells had impacted, any closer and we would have had to be cleaned up off the beach. The battle had been way too close. I needed a stronger attack and a way to maneuver in mid-air.
A shame that I wasn't able to kill the elder snake. That would have been a lot of EXP. But surviving was good enough for now. In the future I would come back for round two.
"You have a boat to get back?" I asked my father.
"I was dropped off. The hope was that you would try to reach Highwater Bastion along the coast. It was a good thing we thought alike," he said.
"I considered other options, but they seemed foolish," I replied. A shame that Shortnose was nothing but snake food now. But I didn't think anyone would care since an elder snake had taken a full bombardment.
"Well, the battleship will pick us up and we can leave this place. The heat is brutal," my father said, and I nodded at this.
"Wet too. Way too much rain," I replied, and he chuckled.
"At least Paladin Amberheart will be in a good mood after getting to bombard a snake," he said, changing the subject.
"I am guessing he was annoyed at you tagging along and insisting on a rescue mission?" I asked.
"A bit, but it isn't a big deal. We have both contributed more than enough to the Covenant Church. Plus, all of this should smooth everything out." My father was about to say something more but he paused. I followed his gaze out towards the approaching battleship.
"No way," I muttered. The elder snake had burst out of the water. It open its mouth and a stream of poison shot out across the deck of the battleship.
"Impossible," my father muttered. I felt the same way. We could only watch as Paladin Amberheat and the creatures on board the battleship began to fight the elder snake in what could only be called round two. The elder snake's scales were heavily damaged, but there was very little blood or exposed flesh.
It had tanked the bombardment. "I thought a full bombardment should kill any snake," I said.
"It should, in theory. But…elder snakes are another story. They aren't easy to bring down. The one that was brought down before, required multiple battleships and it kept attacking, exhausting itself to death," my father said as we both washed the ensuing disaster.
"Now what?" I asked hesitantly as the main guns tried to swivel around to target the elder snake. Unfortunately, they were meant for long range bombardment, not close in support. As for the smaller weapons being fired, the elder snake didn't care about them.
"We will probably have to run. Run very, very fast. The elder snake will hopefully be too tried to chase us," my father replied. Despite saying this, we didn't start running away. We were both hoping that Paladin Amberheart would reverse the situation. His roar could be heard in the distance and he was swinging a massive axe the elder snake. It was doing a bit of damage, but not enough, he wasn't cutting through its scales.
"I think I might in a bit more trouble," I replied heavily.
"What is the Covenant Church going to do? Send you on more missions?" he joked. They could do a lot more than that, but I knew my father was just trying to lighten the mood. We had no way to cross the water easily and were too exhausted to try swimming.
We might be good at fighting, but swimming through the ocean waves to attack an elder snake was suicide. If anything, it was Paladin Amberheart's fault for moving the battleship in too close to the shore and getting ambushed.
The elder snake's massive head darted downwards and the massive axe went flying off the side of the ship, while the badger paladin became snake food. With the only real threat killed, the elder snake began to devour the other creatures and slowly crush the battleship.
"Time to go," my father said with a heavy sigh. I nodded at this. He started running along the coast and I followed after him. We went past the melted sand and ruined jungle, leaving the battle site behind us as we tried to put as much distance as possible between us and the elder snake.
It was a shame we couldn't have tried to kill it, but the fact it could keep going for so long and take so many attacks, with so little damage, showed that we were no match for it. No wonder why the Covenant Church was looking into global cooling to take out the snakes. Fighting something like that was next to impossible. Also it was no surprise that the snakes had held on so long against the Covenant Church with that much power.