A Snake's Life

by Kenneth Arant

  "Thank you." Solon hopped off the man's shoulders and seemed content with letting him go. But I wasn't. I snapped my teeth together and bit the man completely in half, then I ate both sides while glaring at Solon.

  "Never. Leave. Witnesses." I hissed. “During a rescue mission, two things are the most important. Remaining unnoticed, and failing the first, eliminating the reason you failed the first.”

  Solon's face went white, then he quickly nodded his head.

  "Get on." He complied and I set out for the other side of the island.

  Chapter 20

  WITH SOLON RIDING ON my back, I moved over to a tall building and used it to raise my head above the rooftops, then I looked around for the tower the guard had mentioned. Since it was nighttime, I didn't have to worry too much about being seen, so I could focus on the task at hand: reaching the tower, freeing Lena, Hali, and Fenris... and eating a nice meal on the way. However, I was currently having a slight problem. A group of guards was circling overhead on giant half-bird, half-cat things. Each of these things was only a third the size of Fenris in his normal state. So, I was forced to hide between the buildings as they flew overhead, lest I be spotted, and put the family in danger. Solon, after following my eyes and noticing what I was seeing, slid off my back and filled me in.

  "Those are Griffins. They're often used by the beast kingdom as mounts and war-beasts." He pointed at them to make sure I understood what he was referring to. I nodded instead of answering him as I didn't want to lose focus on the Griffin that was about to pass overhead. I retracted my body until it was coiled like a giant spring and waited... as the bird flew directly over us. I shot my head out as fast as I could and snapped down on the bird's neck, then I tried to quickly retract my body so I could return to my hiding spot with my new meal. But the bird was larger than I'd previously thought, and it slammed into the building next to me as I was pulling it, kicking and screaming, into the dark alley.

  The rider had fallen off when I grabbed the bird, so dealing with him was most likely unnecessary. I could always find him after killing and eating the Griffin, so I could eat him as well. Speaking of the Griffin, I was actually disappointed in it. Here I was, expecting some grand fight within the confines of the alley... But the damn thing died after slamming into that building. It also wasn't quite as big as I'd thought. Though its wingspan was definitely over twenty feet, the rest of it was fairly small. It was probably about twelve feet long and six feet tall, so it wasn't tiny by any means. Unless you were comparing it to me; then it was little more than a snack.

  Solon had stayed back so he wouldn't disturb my meal... or become my next one; I wasn't quite sure which. After waiting for me to finish, he jumped onto my back. Then, he pointed towards a building to my right.

  "I think the tower is that way," he said with a slight quiver in his voice. I could tell he was trying to hide it, but I was scaring him. He'd always seen me arguing with his father, or talking with his mother, but he'd never seen this side of me... The monster was always just beneath the surface. The glutton. My hunger had been satiated during my time in the ocean, so he had never seen me truly hungry. But now that these people had given me an excuse... why shouldn't I eat my fill?

  I nodded my head to show my understanding. Then, I moved along the side of the building until I reached the end of the alley. As soon as I headed into an open street, I was spotted by a passing patrol of guards. Only one of them managed to avoid looking me in the eye long enough to open his mouth and scream. I bit into him and threw him against a building with such force I could hear his bones being crushed from the impact. He was stuck to the wall for several seconds before falling to the ground. He died only a few seconds later, as my venom saturated his body and melted him from the inside.

  "Damn it, I wasn't fast enough!" I quickly smashed the petrified guards. Then, I moved into another alley on the other side of the street. I hid inside for a few minutes before peeking my head out, so I could try finding the tower again. This time, I managed to see it. However, even from a distance, I could tell it was heavily guarded. I could see three guards on the roof of the tower, and I spotted a head peeking over the building and moving from side to side.

  "What's that?" I motioned with my head, causing Solon to look in the same direction.

  "I... I'm not sure. It looks like a member of the giant race mom used to tell us about... but the color is different. Mom always said they appeared as humans, just a lot bigger. But that one is blue, so it can't be the same race as the one Mom told us about."

  I nodded my head, then proceeded to move through the alley on my way to the tower. Staying hidden wasn't as difficult as it could have been, since the guards only seemed to be searching for Solon and were looking in places a young boy might hide. This left me to mostly do as I liked, which I took advantage of at every opportunity. Anytime a group of guards passed in front of me, I would petrify, then eat them. I had eventually eaten several tens of guards and cleared out a good sized chunk of the city. I continued to do this even after eating my fill because I wanted to cut down on the number of possible enemies on our way out. If I succeeded, anyway.

  By the time I arrived at the tower several hours had passed, and it was well into the night. The tower was standing in a paved square. The surrounding buildings were positioned about forty feet away from it, in every direction. Most likely, this arrangement was to provide the guards up top ample opportunity to defend the place, should the need arise. The light of a full moon was casting an ominous shadow on the tower and its giant guard. The man was wearing a full suite of leather armor, and he stood about twenty-five feet tall. He was wielding a long pole with an axe and blade at one end. The entire thing was approximately twenty feet long and must have weighed at least two hundred pounds, but he had it resting on his shoulder as if it weighed nothing. His face was covered up by a leather helmet with a metal face shield. His size and stature reminded me of the giant that held up the island. Well, if he was a thousand times larger, he would.

  "We'll try going around him... I'd rather not get involved with this giant unless absolutely necessary." I turned and went back through the alley. Then I used the alleyways to circle around to the back of the tower, so I could attempt to find another way in. However, after spotting the iron portcullis being used as an entrance, I quickly realized that I was far too large to fit inside. So, I sat Solon on the ground and thought for a few minutes.

  "Alright, brat. Listen up." I looked him in the eyes.

  "Yes?" he replied. The quivering in his voice had ceased, for the moment.

  "You're going to have to do this yourself." I told him.

  His eyes widened, and his face turned pale. " B... but, how?"

  "I'll lift you up to the roof, you can start searching from there."

  "Wh... what'll you be doing?"

  A phantom smile grew on my face. "Eating."

  He climbed on my head, and I lifted him up to the roof. He jumped off and ran to hide behind one of the spires. I knocked my head against the roof, causing the three guards to turn and look right into my eyes. Their bodies quickly turned to stone and I smashed them into powder.

  The shaking of the tower caused some of the guards inside to come out in order to investigate. It also brought the giant around to the back of the tower. I took the opportunity to move away from the tower and circled to the giant's back, where I waited for the right moment to strike. After a few minutes of walking around the tower without seeing anything, the giant appeared to lower its guard slightly... So, I struck.

  Using my size and weight advantage, I bit into its shoulder, my fangs piercing deep into the creature's chest and back. However, unlike my previous victims, the giant didn’t seem to be bothered by my venom. Instead, it grabbed hold of my mouth and ripped my fangs out of its flesh. Then it threw me away as if I weighed nothing. I flew through the air for about five seconds before I crashed into a building, destroying it with my massive weight. The building collapsed, burying me under abou
t three tons of stone and wood.

  I quickly threw it off of me and turned to face the giant. It had taken the opportunity to rip its chest and helmet pieces off. Presumably, because it realized they would be of no use as my fangs would tear through them. I stared at the creature and realized that it only had one glowing red eye and long soot black hair that draped down to its shoulders. It then picked up its weapon and charged me. A multitude of guards also charged out of the tower and others ran through the surrounding streets in order to surround me.

  "Fenris... You better get your ass out here as soon as possible." I bared my teeth and opened my "eyes.” Ten guards made the mistake of looking into them, and more would have followed had a man in shiny metal armor not ordered them to look at the ground.

  "It's an Earth Basilisk! Don't look it in the eyes, men!" the metal man shouted... But the giant didn't heed his warning and looked me in the eyes... and to my surprise, nothing happened.

  "It must be a Tier 5 or higher creature..." The giant spun the weapon over its right hand, then caught it and stood in an attack position. Its weapon took on a glowing red hue as the creature glared at me. I glanced around at the surrounding humanoids, but none of them seemed interested in attacking me. In fact, some of them looked excited at the opportunity to see me fight the giant.

  "Well... This should be interesting." It charged at me, then stabbed its weapon at my face. I ducked my head to one side and the blade passed by, then I heard a sizzling noise coming from behind me. I took a quick glance and saw the blade had pierced a standing piece of rubble and caused it to slightly melt.

  "Great, the beast can use magic." I slammed my head into its leg, knocking it off balance. Then, I bit into the other leg and lifted the creature off the ground before I threw it into the air, and into a building on the opposite side of the tower. The creature slammed into the side of the building, then continued through it until it landed on the other side. It left a massive hole in the building, but that was soon fixed, as the rest of the building came down, as well.

  I quickly followed after the giant and arrived just after it climbed to its feet. I shot my head out, in an attempt to bite the creature, but it used its massive strength to grab my upper and lower jaws. My strike was instantly halted and the creature smiled at me, revealing its sharp, jagged teeth.

  "Me no like, Snake." The smile vanished from its face. "So, me crush you!" It twisted its arms and threw me to the side. My head bounced off of the paved road, destroying some of it in the process. Then, I bounced into another building, bringing it down on top of me. I was buried under a massive stone and wood building for the second time during this fight, and it was beginning to annoy me.

  It appeared to also annoy the giant since it threw the rubble off of me, then stood above me with its weapon pointed at my body. Though the heat from the weapon was causing me severe discomfort, it was actually the giant stepping on my body that seriously pissed me off.

  "Ha ha. Stupid Snake gonna make a good soup."

  "I'm sorry... We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot." The giant looked surprised. His one eye widened, and some of his weight was shifted from my body to the ground beside me.

  "Snake can talk?"

  I nodded my head, then rotated around to look at him. "Oh, indeed I can. And, may I suggest something?"

  "Hmm?" The creature nodded its head.

  "Thank you. Now, my suggestion is for you to... Get. The. Fuck. OFF OF ME!" I wrapped my tail around his midsection, then launched him away. He flew over forty feet and slammed into the tower. While flying through the air, he lost his hold on the weapon. After which, I picked it up in my mouth and threw it as hard as I could towards the center of town. Then, I turned to face the giant again.

  "Stupid Snake! That was mine!" it yelled, before running at me. Then it wrapped its arms around my body and began squeezing. I took that as a challenge.

  "Alright... you want to play this game, do you?" I coiled the free parts of my body around it, then began to squeeze back, while being extra careful not to put more pressure on the part it was holding. And if I'm being honest, the giant was incredibly strong. Under normal circumstances, it could probably beat just about anything in a contest of strength... But you don't challenge a snake to a contest of strength, because we don't play fair in such contests. While squeezing it, I was also biting and injecting copious amounts of venom into any exposed area I could reach.

  "Hey... Stop that!" it yelled as it stopped squeezing, so it could focus on escaping. But, of course, I wasn't going to let that happen. Every time the giant tried to escape, I squeezed harder until I heard its bones breaking. Even then, I didn't stop... until. *Pop!* The creature’s guts exploded out of its mouth and covered both myself and the ground around me. Afterward, I simply released it, so it could collapse to the ground.

  The giant’s impact with the ground caused it to shake for a few seconds, then nothing. Everything had gone completely silent in the face of the creature’s defeat, and the guards were staring at my gore covered form.

  "Hmm? What, do I have something on my face?" I asked as my tongue reached out and pulled a piece of the giant's intestine into my mouth. The action was enough for them to retreat as far from me as they could without leaving the tower grounds... or so I thought until I noticed an orange light coming from my left. I turned to see what it was and saw the giant's eye was glowing.

  "I'm just going to assume, that's not good." I scooped up as much of the giant's intestines as I could fit in my mouth, then I retreated from the corpse. I made it about twenty feet when an explosion went off behind me, searing my tail and destroying some of my scales. I looked back to see just how large it actually was and saw a pillar of fire reaching into the sky. Then, it collapsed in on itself and rocketed towards the ground, where it spread out in every direction, cooking several unlucky guards that were in the blast radius and destroying part of the tower.

  A few moments after the explosion, a small shadow jumped from a hole in the wrecked tower, then rapidly grew until it was over twenty feet tall and thirty feet long. After it landed on the ground, I realized what it was...

  "About time, you damn mutt!" Fenris was glaring at the remaining guards. Meanwhile, three people were sitting on his back and holding onto his fur. It was Lena and the kids. But something was wrong... Lena's clothes had been ripped apart, as had Hali's. Lena's face was set in stone, with a look of fury on her face. Hali was crying, while she clutched onto her brother's shirt. I moved over and "stood” beside Fenris.

  "What happened?" I asked while looking from Lena and Hali to Fenris.

  He turned his head to look at me, then returned to glaring at the guards. "What usually happens when a man with too much power desires something he can't have..."

  It took me a few seconds to understand what he meant, but when I did... "Is the bastard dead?" Fenris nodded and looked up at the top of the tower. I followed his line of sight and saw a humanoid shape impaled on a large stone spike that was sticking out of the roof. I nodded my head and looked back to the guards.

  "It's your call. I've eaten my fill already, so whenever you're ready, we can leave." Fenris nodded his head and started walking back towards the harbor. However, he glared one final time at the guards and said, "If I see anyone following us... they're dead. Understand?" The metal man nodded his head and returned Fenris' glare.

  I followed behind Fenris and the family as we made our way back to the harbor, where I sunk myself into the water, and the family prepared their ship. It only took them fifteen minutes to get it ready, then we left the island city behind. We sailed for about three or four hours, before dropping anchor and going to sleep.

  However, I got this pop-up just as I was going to sleep.

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  You have eaten the following race for the first time.

  Griffin: Tier 4

  You have eaten the following race for the first time.

  Flame Cyclops: Tier 6

  You have un
locked the following evolutionary path: Wind Basilisk

  Would you like to evolve?

  You have unlocked the following evolutionary path: Fire Basilisk

  Would you like to evolve?

  You have unlocked the following evolutionary path: Elemental Basilisk

  Would you like to evolve?

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  "No... No..." I paused and yelled to get Fenris’ and Lena's attention.

  "What is it, snake?" The two of them looked over the edge.

  "I'm about to evolve... Would you mind waiting for me?"

  Lena shook her head. "Of course, we don't mind.... Though it would be nice to know how long we need to wait." I nodded my head and decided to ask.

  "How long will it take for me to complete the Elemental Basilisk evolution?" A pop-up answered my question.

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  15 days

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  I passed that along to Lena... then said, “Yes, I'm ready to evolve." The white shield quickly formed around me, and I sunk to the ocean floor. Once I was there, another pop-up appeared, and I was forced into a deep sleep.

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  Your evolution is underway, and a shield has formed around you until it is complete. Time remaining until completion is 14d 23h 59m 52s.

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  Chapter 21

  THE FIFTEEN DAYS PASSED by and I awoke to a few new pop-ups.

  ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏ

  Energy Store/Release: Absorb and store solar energy inside the red jewel on your forehead, then release the stored energy in an explosion of fire.

  *Note: Due to the Gluttonous trait, you can use energy gained from eating as a substitute for solar energy, at reduced efficiency and damage.

  Resist Elements: As an Elemental Basilisk, you have a minor resistance to all elements.

  *Note: This will not protect you from elemental attacks, but will protect you from environmental changes.