<~> Chapter 123

My body felt a bit sluggish as the snake monster's venom numbed my body, but it wasn't completely debilitating. The bigger problem I was having was the total lack of leverage I had over the monster clutching me. Four arms were quite effective at holding someone still enough to bite them in the neck.

My claws couldn't find purchase on its scales with the hard shell it had created for itself. Rather than continuing to try to pry the shell open, I decided to change my tactics. I curled my nails in and started hammering the monster's hard shell with the base of my palm. The sharp claws were too long to ball into a fist, but this was good enough. I hammered it over and over with my right hand, and I began to hear cracking. Every moment the snake continued to bite me would mean more poison that would dull my senses. I had to escape this grapple.

Finally, with a sharp snap, my palm broke through the outer shell and reached the softer scales underneath. I flicked my claws forward and dug them into the monster's side. Rather than let go, the snake monster only clamped down on my neck harder. I was starting to get worried, but then the world suddenly exploded into heat around me. The two of us were thrown away from each other and knocked to the ground after someone had lobbed a ball of fire at us.

I shook my head and scrabbled to my feet just in time to dodge the fast as fuck monster before it could grapple me again. It was too dangerous to let it get that close. I wasn't sure who shot the fireball at us, but it had helped reset the fight. I was going to need the reach of my axe, even if it wasn't as fast as my claws were. It would probably be better at hacking through the hard shell it had formed around itself too.

The snake monster hadn't seemed phased much at all by the fireball. The concussive force of the explosion had thrown the two of us off of each other, but it hadn't hurt the snake much. The outer shell it had formed around itself had taken the hit without any trace of damage. Even the place I had broken through had reformed. The only evidence that had happened at all was the bloody smear of red where I had broken through its shell.

I ran toward where my axe had landed when I had initially dropped it. My shield was somewhere else, but this was good enough for now. Everyone around me was yelling, but I couldn't focus on any of them. The snake monster was taking my full attention. It was too fast, and I was becoming too sluggish to spare any attention for them. I hoped my friends were keeping safe, but the best way I could protect them right now was by keeping this thing's attention.

For better or worse, I had it. The snake slithered through the sand at breakneck speed, and I only barely managed to get my hand around the grip of my axe before it was in striking range. I spun the moment I held it, and my axe made an awful sound as it grazed against the monster's armor. I would need a more direct hit to get through it, but at least my axe didn't seem any worse for wear either.

The snake darted to my left to take advantage of my overswing, but I managed to lift my left arm in time to deflect its slash. The thick metal of my armor held against its claws, and sparks flew between us. The attack didn't break my stance. I followed that with another swing of my axe and grazed it again. The monster was so fast, and its long body twisted and contorted to evade the worst of my attacks.

A wave of vertigo made me stumble as I spun away from the snake monster. Whatever it had injected into me was still having an effect. I had no idea how well my umber hound body dealt with poisons, but its venom was making this fight a lot harder than it would ordinarily be. I lifted the handle of my axe in time to block one of the monster's attacks, and despite my misstep, I managed to shove the beast back and follow through with a strong swing.

The snake monster screamed out a violent hiss as I broke through its hard shell and cut deep into one of its arms. It hadn't been enough to completely sever it, but the arm was now hanging loosely from where it connected below the other one on its left side. The hard shell formed back before my eyes while I tried to follow up with another attack.

The monster backed up and began to circle me. Some of its confidence had been damaged after I had managed to break through its shell a second time. I tried to get a swing in, but it dodged out of the way at the last moment and received another grazing scratch along its outer shell. I was getting frustrated, and I was starting to feel lightheaded as the venom's effects seemed to increase in intensity over time. That was bad. That meant the poison was getting worse, not better. I had to hope that its venom wouldn't do something like stop my heart while I was trying to fight it. I didn't know the full extent of my regeneration. I didn't know if a stopped heart or a suffocated brain was enough to kill me, but I didn't want to find out the hard way.

It lifted its top two arms, and some of the nearby sand shot out of the growing pool of water we were standing in now. As I thought, the tide had come in and this entire place was covered in water. Spikes of its sand shot out from the surroundings as it tried to impale me with its magic. I dodged out of the way just in time to see a line of ice shoot from Milana toward the snake monster. When the ice hit the snake, it splashed off of it like water, and the hard shell visibly melted. Whatever Milana had done, it had caught the snake's attention.

It shot toward the mage, and for a second, I thought I wouldn't be able to intercept it in time to save her. Then, a lightning arrow exploded to life and slammed into the snake monster. The monster seized up, and what had initially been a desperate attempt to save Milana quickly turned into a mile-wide opening for me. I slammed my axe into the side of the monster where the armor had weakened and hoped that would be a killing blow. Unfortunately, my axe stopped hard at something inside the beast and threw it to the side instead.

The snake monster hissed in pain before frantically waving its remaining left arm and summoning a wall of hard sand between Milana and the two of us. I tried to follow up with another attack before it finished using its magic, but like it had many times now, it slipped just out of the way of my swing. This slippery meal wouldn't stay still! I pressed my attack now that the snake was on the back foot, so to speak, and kept constant pressure on it. I hit grazing blow after grazing blow and worked into a rhythm, but then I suddenly stumbled. My heart felt like it had been punched and the pain had been momentarily crippling. The poison had reached my heart.

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I crawled back onto my hands and knees just in time to catch two of the snake's claws with my own, turning this into a test of strength between us. I didn't even remember falling to the ground. The momentary pain in my heart had made me black out for long enough to fall but not long enough to completely lose sense of what was happening. My heart was beating rapidly, and my breathing had become labored. Something that had only happened when I was on that god-awful lava floor in the Fallow dungeon.

My muscles felt tired as I continued to grapple with the snake. It's extra free hand clawed and scratched at my chest. I didn't think its short claws could get through my chest armor, so I ignored it. No, the real worry was letting that monster get its fangs into me again, which meant locking my arms with its head far enough away from me that it couldn't reach.

It felt like only a matter of time before I lost this fight.

The pain in my chest returned for a moment, but this time, the pain wasn't as debilitating or as acute. I managed to weather it, but my arms were buckling. Normally, I wouldn't lose in a test of strength to anything, but its venom was slowly weakening me. I didn't know what to do. I tried to reach for my mana, but my head was foggy. The knots of mana in my chest felt far away and slipped through my fingers as I tried to reach for them. I was struggling.

Suddenly, there was a blossom of pain in my gut, and I looked down to see long spears of ice had pierced right through my armor. It took me a second to realize that the noise I was hearing was the hissing screams of pain from the snake monster in front of me. It was flailing now. It had been impaled with me. The hard shell around it was dissolving wherever the ice spikes had pierced, and it was almost as if I could taste its blood in the air.

The snake monster was struggling. Its attempts to overpower me had turned half-hearted. Rather than trying to get closer to me to sink its fangs in again, it was trying to use my hands to leverage itself off of the ice spears that connected us. I licked my chops and drooled. I wonder what snake tastes like.

I dug my claws into the back of the snake's hand and lifted myself from the ground. The snake hissed again and flailed as I angled the ice spear that had pierced through it into the ground. Rather than pull away, I pushed myself in closer to it and pinned it to the ground with the weight of my body. It screamed at me as its body writhed in panic. My saliva dripped across its bare chest. Its hard shell had almost entirely dissolved now.

Another wave of ice magic flowed over the two of us, and the ice pinned the snake monster's arms in the ankle-deep water while leaving me free. I couldn't even feel the cold. The frost salamanders had given me an immunity to that. I wonder what this will give me?

I dug my claws into the snake monster's shoulders and bit through the last of its shell. It tasted like salt. I couldn't help but laugh in manic amusement. The monster had seasoned itself for me! I dug into the snake's chest with my teeth. My claws pinned it down even as the icicle broke into shards between us. I didn't care. It hurt, but the sweet blood and flesh on my tongue overpowered any pain I was feeling.

I feasted on the snake. It tasted so good. I took the time to spit the bones of its ribcage and sternum away before digging back in and looking for my prize. When I found it, my body thrummed in pleasure at the taste. My fangs pierced the heart, and I felt a rush as my body lit up in ecstasy. It had been so long since I feasted.

My muzzle was dripping with blood, and my armor was painted in it, but I ate my fill. I didn't know what was happening around me other than the saltwater that was spilling into the corpse under me and ruining my meal. A little bit of salt was good, but the snake was getting drowned in it. I still tore into my meal. I couldn't stop. This fight had pushed me to my limit, and I may have died twice over had no one stepped in to help... or perhaps hinder me. I wasn't even sure.

I swallowed the last of what I could fit in my belly right now and licked the blood from my muzzle. When I stood up, I stumbled again. The poison had abated slightly, but it was still affecting me, running rampant in my body. I felt woozy and lightheaded... but I was alive.

I looked around... what had happened to everyone else?

There was a mountain of dead crabs all around us, and many of the soldiers and delvers were still fighting them off. Luna was there watching me, panting and soaked with sweat and saltwater. A few other delvers were watching me too. Milana. Talia. Iris. Others were arguing with each other... Valkin... Norrik... and some of the ones from the draco team.

I stumbled as I took a step toward Luna. "P-poison." It was all I could utter before falling forward and blacking out.

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