Immersion World

by Max Jager

  As they entered the room they saw that it looked like a big chamber, it was a large open room with nothing but pillars every here and there in it. Pillars, and a giant snake that was almost as thick as a bus and about a hundred and thirty feet long. They all went wide-eyed as they stared at the giant snake, and the snake lifted its head high into the air and stared back at them, hissing loudly as it uncoiled and started slithering towards them.

  "Uh, guys." Kaden stated. "I can't move."

  "What the hell? Me neither!" Estellese said in a panicked tone.

  "Neither can I." Mendelen replied.

  "What is going on! Why can't we move!" Estellese frantically spoke as she struggled and tried everything she could to move away from the oncoming snake.

  The snake was getting closer and closer, staring them down as it moved. It could have moved much faster if it wasn't keeping its head up like that to stare them down.

  Zanath suddenly stumbled and took a few steps away from the snake, then he held up one free hand as if shielding his eyes from the sun, only there was no sun in here and he was shielding his eyes from the snake. "Close your eyes and move! Don't look at the snake, it's a basilisk!"

  - Chapter 10 : Dungeon boss: The end of the dungeon -

  Chapter 10: Dungeon Boss

  -Chapter 10: Dungeon boss: The end of the dungeon -

  The door behind them slammed shut and they could hear it lock them inside as the snake rushed at them. It was huge, at least a hundred and thirty feet long and as wide as a bus.

  "Close your eyes and move! Don't look at the snake, it's a basilisk!" Zanath shouted. While his eyes were closed he moved his hand up to block out the snake's eyes, like you would use your hand to cover the glaring sun when looking at clouds. Opening them again when he was sure his hand blocked the line of sight between his own eyes and the snake's. This broke the paralysis and he ran out of the snake's way.

  "What?" Estellese shouted back. Kaden and Mendelen both closed their eyes and suddenly they could move again, they immediately ran to the side to get out of the giant snake's path. Estellese hesitated, afraid to lose her vision when there was a giant snake coming at her, her breathing became heavier as she started to panic, and couldn't help but to stare back at the snake as it grew closer and closer.

  Then she finally closed her eyes and tried to move, but she was still frozen in place. "It doesn't work!" She shouted back.

  Zanath grabbed Estellese's arm and yanked her out of the way, to his side. He then moved his hand and looked at the snake for a moment, and tried moving. At first he could move but with every millisecond that passed the paralysis became stronger and stronger. He quickly closed his eyes before becoming paralyzed.

  "You stared at it too long" Zanath stated. "The longer you look at it, the stronger the paralysis gets! Do NOT stare at it for more than a second or two, or the paralysis may get so bad you can't close your eyes!" He shouted to the others.

  Now that everyone had moved the snake stopped and straightened it's back so that its head was so high up it almost hit the ceiling. It looked down at the others and let out a loud and long hiss, and moved more towards the center of the room where it was close to everyone.

  "How the hell do we fight it if we can't look at it?" Estellese questioned.

  "It is a giant snake," Zanath stated "it can't exactly move quietly nor is it smart enough to use stealth. Listen to where it is, and only open your eyes for brief moments to check on things you can't hear."

  "Split up, it can't look at all of us at the same time!" Mendelen added

  "It's got scales" Kaden pointed out as he ran to the north side of the room, leaving Mendelen on the west side. Zanath and Estell remained on the east side and the snake was on the south side.

  "Good point. Our swords won't be able to hurt it through the scales." Mendelen thought out loud. You could almost see the gears in his head turning as he tried to figure out what to do now. They were not prepared for this, nor were they equipped to fight this thing.

  "Well what is the plan?" Kaden asked, watching Mendelen and waiting for some sort of idea or plan from him specifically. You could almost see the gears in his own head turning as he too tried thinking of some way out of this.

  "I don't know, just hold out until I can think of something." Mendelen called out. He watched as the snake spun around and glared down at Estellese and Zanath again, as it turned to them the snake flicked its tail at Mendelen trying to slam him into the wall with its bus-sized tail. Keeping its eyes locked on Zanath and Estellese it charged at them.

  Mendelen dropped flat onto the ground to duck under the snake's tail. It was close, he could feel the gust of air rush over him as the tail just barely went over his head. And he could hear the pillars around him being smashed apart as dust and debris were thrown everywhere. He sprung onto his feet once the tail passed and got ready for the next attack.

  "Eyes! Closed! And move left!" Zanath shouted when the snake looked at them, shutting his eyes as he ran left towards the south side of the room. Memorizing the positions of the pillars so he would not run into them, and opening his eyes only when he was sure the snake was not in front of him.

  Estellese hesitated, again not comfortable with losing her vision in such a dangerous situation, but she closed her eyes and ran with Zanath to the south side of the room to kite around the snake.

  The giant snake lowered its head to get into position to bite them and hissed loudly, then turned to chase after the two as they ran. Zanath heard it turn and when it hissed he noticed that the sound came from a little lower then it had been before. In a flash he spun around to face the snake, keeping his eyes open as he flung one of his knives at the snake's eye. His body locked up and froze in place when he made direct eye contact with the beast, the paralysis was much stronger when he looked straight back into the snake's eyes. But the knife was deadly accurate and stabbed the snake in the eye, causing it to let out a loud and pained hiss. The snake recoiled its head back a little but kept moving forwards, crashing its body into Zanath before he could break free and move.

  Zanath screamed out as his legs were crushed under the snake's body, the weight of the snake broke both of his legs. He would not be able to walk in this condition. He started using his arms to drag himself out from under the snake and away from the creature while the others moved in.

  Mendelen and Kaden grabbed Zanath's shoulders and helped drag him back, and when Estellese saw them she slammed her axe into the snake's side. Even with her strength the blow from the axe did nothing, although it caught the snake's attention and made it turn on her, which was exactly what she wanted.

  Once it turned on her she turned and ran away from it, trying not to look at it again but at the same time feeling panicked and tense with every second she couldn't see it and didn't know what it was doing.

  There was only so much space in that small room, it wasn't long before she reached the wall and the basilisk was right behind her. She was out of ideas, with no way to harm the beast and no place left to run she didn't know what to do now. She knew she couldn't turn around to face it or she'd be paralyzed, and she knew it would strike at her any moment, she could hear the hissing right behind her. She could feel her muscles tensing up, begging her to turn around even though she knew she couldn't look at it.

  "Dodge left!" Mendelen shouted out, and she knew he was talking to her. Who else would need to dodge? She immediately dove to her left just in time for the snake's fangs and the rest of its head to slam into the ground where she had been. She immediately spun around and slammed the blade of her axe into the snake's open mouth, striking at any non-scale covered flesh she could reach. After her quick swing she spun around and ran away from the snake, back to where she had come from. She didn't need to see to know that her attack worked, the snake recoiled and hissed loudly, and she could hear the blood pouring out of its mouth. But even so, to a creature as big as the basilisk a cleave from an axe was just a scratch, it was more pissed off then hurt by such a
blow.

  With Zanath safely placed in a corner of the room Mendelen and Kaden took advantage of the snake being distracted and threw everything they had into an attack on the back end of the snake's body. They hit it as hard as they could with their blades, kicked and slammed the hilts into the scales, Mendelen even tried slamming a small broken piece of a pillar into the scales, all to no effect. They had nothing they could use to pierce or break the scales. The snake whipped around and turned its attention to the guys attacking it from behind, lunging for Kaden and Mendelen. Kaden dove out of the way to dodge the snake's attempt to swallow them, but Mendelen stood his ground. He waited until the last second before he jumped to the side of the snake's wounded eye. Dodging the bite and grabbing Zanath's knife from the snake's eye mid-jump.

  Mendelen threw the knife to Zanath, and the knife landed on the ground just a few feet away from where Zanath was sitting. "Think you can hit the other eye if I distract it?" Mendelen called out.

  "I can try. No promises" Zanath replied. He crawled over to the knife and grabbed it then forced himself to stand on his broken legs, cringing and hissing in pain but toughing it out as best as he could.

  "Estell and Kaden once Zanath makes his move distract it and get it off me" Mendelen ordered as the snake turned to him again and lunged at him. And this time he didn't move.

  As the snake lunged at him, trying to swallow the tiny human, he jumped back just far enough to line himself up with the snake's teeth, so that it would bite him instead of swallowing him. Then Mendelen activated the barrier spell, it's teeth sunk into the barrier and got stuck in it, keeping him jammed in the snake's mouth until the barrier breaks.

  The snake bit down harder, trying to crush him in its jaw and the barrier started to crack. Mendelen only had a very brief moment before it would break. "Now!" He called out. He himself immediately began wildly slashing and stabbing his swords at everything he could reach in the snake's mouth. Tearing the inside of its mouth apart with his blades.

  Zanath took aim and flung his knife at the snake's other eye. With the deadly accuracy he was known for his knife struck the snake in the eye, blinding it in both eyes and taking away its ability to paralyze them. As Zanath did his part Kaden and Estellese rushed in and started hammering on the snake's back half as hard as they could to try and draw its attention.

  The snake threw its head back and screeched in pain. Estellese continued slamming her axe against the snake's tail end as hard as she could and eventually the scale cracked and broke off. Seeing her opening she took her axe and cleaved into the small exposed part of the snake's body again and again, hacking away at any piece of flesh she could strike. She couldn't hit anything vital this way, inflict a few more slashes and deep cuts into it's skin. It would be near impossible to kill the snake this way. It lashed out in pain, snapping its tail back then slammed it forwards into Estellese and Kaden. It hit them hard enough to throw them into the wall, snapping their ribs on impact, and giving them both a severe concussion as their heads hit the wall. Kaden's head was bleeding badly, his skull was cracked in the back. They were both in extreme pain and badly hurt, but Estellese was immediately back on her feet almost immediately, and Kaden got up aswell although he took a few moments longer, he was not as easily able to tough out severe pain and injury. Three of them were wounded now and rendered almost unable to fight in their condition, but the basilisk was only blinded and slightly injured in one small area on its massively long body. This barely hindered the beast.

  As the blind snake whipped its tail around trying to strike at someone, it smashed several more pillars as it flailed. It eventually swung at Mendelen whom upon seeing it coming stabbed his sword into the vulnerable spot Estellese had struck and used the sword as a step to jump over the snake's tail. Losing one of his swords but leaving another, deeper wound on the beast. Mendelen planned to wear it down, one blow at a time keep chipping away at it until blood loss set in. But with everyone injured... They had just lost all hope of surviving a prolonged battle like that.

  Estellese and Kaden moved over to Zanath as the snake was distracted by Mendelen. "I need a healing potion." Estellese said.

  "We can't use them in combat, remember?" Zanath replied.

  "Shit, that's right. What do we do?" Estellese replied.

  Kaden stared at the snake, with a thoughtful expression on his face. He watched as Mendelen tried to fend off the snake by himself.

  The blindness of the snake only hindered it for a very short time, it had adjusted to the loss of sight and now knew exactly where Mendelen was. It would stick out its tongue every few seconds, using its other senses specifically its sense of smell, to track the human. It lunged at Mendelen who dove out of the way, barely dodging the snake's head. But as Mendelen dodged the snake whipped its tail at him, forcing him to hastily try and jump over it again, using the remains of a broken pillar as a stepping stone. Jumping over something that big was no easy task and this time he wasn't lucky enough to make it. The tail slammed into his legs as he jumped causing him to flip and crash into the ground and seriously injuring his legs. Thankfully they were not broken, but they were badly fractured in several places. He pushed down the pain as he forced himself back into his feet, determined to keep the snake distracted so the others would be safe.

  The snake again lunged at him and he dove to the side to evade it, throwing his sword at its eye in an attempt to hit any flesh he could. But his skill in knife throwing was not as good as Zanath's, and throwing a sword was harder than it looked. His sword hit the snake's eye but the side of the blade hit the eye instead of the point, effectively doing nothing to the snake and leaving him weaponless as the snake turned on him again.

  "Estell, give me your bag" Kaden stated firmly.

  "Why?" Estellese asked as she handed Kaden the bag of potions. She watched as Kaden took all four of the potions they had found in the dungeon out of the bag.

  "I'ma gonna heal the snake" Kaden stated in a dead serious tone.

  "What the hell Kaden! Don't-" Estellese started to shout before being cut off by a cough and the need to puke again. This time she held it back, but she was rapidly getting sicker.

  "The poor snakey is hurt! If I heal him he will become my best friend and we will ride into battle together and he will love me and I will call him fluffy and we shall take over the world together." Kaden replied.

  "Are you an idiot? It will kill us if you heal it! We just damaged the damn thing we will lose all the ground we gained in this fight! Give me that!" Estellese went to grab the potions but before she could Kaden sprinted off after the snake.

  Estellese was going to try and stop Kaden, but as she started moving towards them Zanath told her to stop. "Estell. Stay here and let him do his thing." Zanath stated. "There is no way we are surviving this doing things the way we were. If we don't do something new, we can't win this. It's just impossible. Better to try something than to do nothing and die." He stated.

  Kaden uncorked a potion bottle and waited for the snake to attack Mendelen, once it lunged at Mendelen and opened its mouth to swallow him again Kaden made his move. He threw the bottle down the snake's throat. Mendelen dodged out of the way and Kaden retreated to keep the snake's attention on Mendelen, the only one in good enough health to dodge the snake. Even if he was just barely able to dodge.

  Mendelen noticed what Kaden was doing, he did not know what Kaden was throwing since he missed that conversation but he assumed Kaden had a reason for feeding the snake whatever it was he was throwing. So Mendelen worked with Kaden to repeat the maneuver three more times, setting the snake up for Kaden to throw the potions in.

  As the snake ate the next two potions its wounds slowly started to scab over and heal. It was regaining its eyesight, the bleeding was stopping, it was healing. Slowly, the potions took five minutes to fully heal their target, but it was working. "Uh… Kaden...?" Mendelen questioned him unsurely and cautiously. He took a glance back at his ally to see Kaden throwing the last healing potio
n at the snake. Then he looked back at the snake and thought about it for a moment. Observing the snake's slow and heavy movements. "Genius." He murmured.

  Estellese had noticed the snake slowing down and had come to rejoin the fight, thinking it was getting worn out she felt like she could safely dodge these slower attacks with her injuries. "You mean that sarcastically, right?" She questioned.

  "No. Well, Kaden definitely is not a genius but the idea is." Mendelen answered. They watched as the giant snake slowly started backing off.

  "Did you hit your head too?" Estellese questioned. "It's healing, if we couldn't kill it while we were unharmed how will we kill it now? Kaden thinks it'll be friendly now."

  "Did you forget the side effects of the potions?" Mendelen asked. "They paralyze the drinker. The snake may be healing but he basically tranquilized it, even the snake can tell something is wrong and is backing off. Once the paralysis sets in we need to move in quick and make a killing blow. It may be healing, but if we kill it while it's healing the potion shouldn't bring it back from the dead. Hopefully." He stated. "Whether or not Kaden did this on purpose or for his own reasons is up for question though." He added. He watched as the snake backed away into the corner, it looked scared. Its movements were rapidly slowing down until eventually it collapsed to the ground.