<~> Chapter 142

All of us stood at the edge of the snake monster's territory. This would be the first time I fought with Jol'ket's group since they tried to kill me. After the whole changeling situation, their behavior toward me has improved a lot, but I still don't trust them much after everything. I heard from Talia that Norrik had pushed for their group to be removed from exploring the dungeon with us entirely, but that just wasn't realistic. Celeste had her back against the wall, and she needed all of us to get along. There was too much riding on this for her, and we had mostly resolved things between us. Assuming nothing else happened.

Rell'kor got our attention before we got any closer. "Before we start, everyone take these. They're potions that will slow the effects of the snake's venom for a while, less than half a day. If any of you get bitten, this should give me plenty of time to provide an anti-venom if nothing else goes wrong."

Jol'ket nodded and drank it immediately, followed by the rest of his team. Everyone else was slow to take Rell'kor's potion though. The black and white drakken was the only one of them that I trusted, so I shrugged and was the first to take it from him.

"There aren't any side effects, right?" I asked.

He shook his head. "There shouldn't be. I've given this potion to others before, including humans. I'm not entirely sure how it would affect you, but you're the least at risk in the first place. It should be fine though."

I nodded and decided to drink it. I swallowed down the contents of the vial and scrunched my face a little at the taste. It tasted like grass and bark.

Rell'kor laughed at my reaction. "It does not taste the best, no." Following my lead, everyone else chose to take a vial of the potion, but Rell'kor stopped Iris before she could take it. "Only half a dose for you, your body is similar in stature to a drakken, better for you to take less."

Iris nodded and only drank half the vial before returning it to him. Rell'kor nodded and drank the other half before slipping the empty vial back in his bag.

I rolled my shoulders. "Is everyone ready then?"

When everyone nodded, I shifted into my new giant snake form. As soon as I was up to my new full stature, I slung my shield on my back and lifted my axe. Rather than the hostile reactions I half expected, I got a look of interest from the mages while the others politely focused on their own equipment.

I stretched up a little and tasted the air. The snake hadn't moved, it was still in the lagoon it had taken up as its lair. I could taste the flavor of heated saltwater on the air. It used some kind of magic to warm its lagoon into a hot bath.

"Come," I said with a hiss as I slithered forward.

I adjusted my two-handed grip on the handle of my axe. It felt a bit alien to these hands, but I should be able to make better use of it this time. This form wasn't strong enough to wield it one-handed, but these muscles built for powerful bursts of speed should make the other snake easier to hit, despite the slight change in my fighting style. My other two hands in this form would be free to grapple with it or use the shield as necessary. It was a bit easier to use the salt powers in this form, but I still wasn't able to replicate its fine control and make barriers with it. I would more than make up for that weakness with my robust regeneration, though. It was a bit weaker than in my umber hound form, but it remained plenty strong regardless of the form I took.

I sank low to the ground as the snake angrily came out to meet me, ready to attack for entering its territory. I instinctively hissed a warning at it without intending to and received one in return. The both of us knew this would be the only warning I would get. If I didn't want to fight, I should leave. Strangely, its body language suggested it would be fine with me leaving, which was odd since dungeon monsters were usually incredibly hostile.

Regardless, that wasn't going to happen. A loud crack of thunder sounded as Luna and Talia simultaneously took the initiative. The monster seized from the after effects of the lightning coursing through its body and I took advantage of its stunned state to chop down at an angle. Despite its convulsing, it managed to create an imperfect barrier of salt, slowing the blow enough that it was able to sluggishly drag its body out of the path of my axe just in time.

I sprang forward and bashed my shield against its chest, which flung it backward as my other set of arms prepared another swing. Dozens of small spikes of ice began to crash into it from Milana. Her attacks weren't meant to do too much damage, just wear down its salt defenses enough to give me another opening. It was early into the fight and the monster was already on the back foot... so to speak.

Just as that thought went through my head, the snake slipped under the next swing of my axe and started grappling with me. I used the edge of my shield to bash into its side, but rather than make any headway, it was building more and more salt to block. Its jaws opened wide and it tried to bite me. The venom dripping from its fangs glistened in the moonlight in the split second I could see them.

I dropped my axe and used my free hands to grab the monster's head and push it far enough away to snap shut before it could reach my neck. The potion I drank and the anti-venom would probably make it not such a bad thing to get bitten, but I really didn't want to go through that again. The pain in my chest from the venom had been one of the most excruciating things I had experienced in this world, which was really saying something considering how often I've been impaled.

One of my hands clamped the snake's mouth shut, and my claws dug into the scales of its nose while it thrashed and clawed at me. I couldn't wear my armor in this form so I could feel its claws slicing gashes into me, but my regeneration would take care of it. Feeling frustrated, I tossed my shield away as well and used all four of my free hands to wrestle with the beast. The lightning magic was too dangerous to use against it like this, but as long as I could get it into position...

A spear of ice pierced its salt shell and dug into its side, quickly followed up by two firebolts as planned. Luna and Tor'jek were both working to take advantage of the openings Milana was making with her magic. The snake monster's struggling intensified as arrows came from two different directions and dug into the snake's unprotected tail, confirming that the shell of salt that it creates doesn't cover its entire body.

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My right arm was becoming a little bloody as the snake monster desperately clawed at it to dislodge it from its head, but I had too firm a grip on it despite the pain. I had been so focused on clamping down through its struggling, that I didn't expect the sudden suckerpunch to the side of my head from the other side. The blow to my head left me dazed and confused for a split second, long enough for the monster to finally pull itself free. It spun around and tried to dash away, but plowed right into Sek'fet, the orange-scaled draco.

Sek'fet used a tall tower shield and a sword that looked a little too big to be using one-handed, but who was I to judge? He bashed the tower shield hard against the fleeing snake monster and redirected it right into the ground. Norrik and Valkin leapt forward and staked the snake to the ground using their swords. The snake monster hissed and struggled, which only drew more blood from its bloody tail.

Wind began to swirl around the monster, moving faster and faster in the short time that it had been pinned. Norrik and Valkin jumped back and the wind suddenly exploded into a blizzard of ice. Luna and Milana worked together with Iris to strip it of all of its defenses. I used some of my mana to pull away all the salt I could from it at the same time, weakening its hard shell. When the tornado of ice ceased, Jol'ket dashed forward and swung his large hammer. The split second before it hit, the hammer's head flashed a brilliant gold and slammed so hard that we could hear the sickening crack of the snake's spine breaking just below its torso. The dark-gold colored drakken had done something to empower Jol'ket's strike. He was shining in a similar brilliant gold light that faded after the draco's attack.

The snake monster fell backward after its spine was broken, and Valkin was quick to plant a blade through the snake's skull while it was still twitching from the devastating blow. The moment it was clear the danger had passed, I shifted back into my beastkin form and leaned against a tree. The actual shifting part was easy now, but holding a different form for such a long time was still exhausting. It didn't feel as natural as holding my umber hound form, which still felt like me, for lack of a better explanation.

"That was a lot easier than last time," I said with a laugh.

"Speak for yourself, this was a lot more work than letting you handle it," Valkin replied with a smile.

Piper and the gold drakken quickly went to patch up everyone's wounds. It was all minor scrapes and bruises. No one really got close enough to take much damage except for me, and my regeneration had already taken care of all of it, especially since it all happened in a different form.

"Okay, I admit it. I'm jealous of Talia's glove thing. I want some kind of magic too. That first attack was cool," Aria said.

"Jealous of me? I don't have that hunk of a boyfriend over there," Talia joked back.

Maxwell cleared his throat, but I caught an uncharacteristic blush on his face as he turned to look at the dead snake monster. "This one is a lot more... intact than the last one we fought. I wonder what can be made from these." His ears were still a bit red from blushing. The man was trying his best to change the subject away from their relationship. It was kind of cute to see him get flustered so easily.

("I hope future floors don't require you to grapple the monsters directly. My lightning magic doesn't feel very useful right now,") Luna said to our group.

Aria shrugged. "Things will probably work out better when there's less water around. Half the time it's not the grappling that's the issue, it's the standing in the water, right?"

("True... this floor isn't the best match for my new magic,") Luna admitted.

Jol'ket kneeled down next to the corpse close to Maxwell. "Killing this monster did not seem as difficult as the last one had been. It was slower."

Maxwell nodded. "I noticed that too. I'm unsure why, though. The strength of monsters in the wilds can vary a lot, but monsters that respawn in dungeons are usually the same strength each time."

I cupped my chin. "Could it just be the environment? It was raining and flooding last time we fought it."

Jol'ket hesitated, but nodded. "Perhaps that is all it is. There have been so many strange rumors coming out of dungeons recently. Maybe I'm just drawing conclusions that are not there."

Luna frowned. ("Ask him which dungeons he's talking about. I only heard rumors of Fallow's dungeon being strange.")

I relayed the question to him and he tilted his head curiously. "The dungeon in Fallow is acting oddly as well? I hadn't heard the rumors of that one yet. We came from the south, where there are several dungeons that are creating monsters much faster than usual. It's very lucrative there right now, but people are worried there might be a dungeon break. Our group only came to Ironcastle because the chance to work with royalty was too good an offer to pass up."

I nodded. "It sounds like strange things are happening everywhere. We also ran into a goblin nest and wild umber hounds on the way to Ironcastle from Fallow, too."

"That is a bad omen," the dark-gold Drakken said. Their voice sounded vaguely feminine, which made me wonder if my assumption of their gender had been wrong this entire time. I considered asking Luna about it, but they continued speaking before I could ask. "We should be careful in this dungeon. It already seems strange, but if things are changing everywhere, we shouldn't count on patterns to repeat in the way they usually would." She punctuated the thought by looking down at the dead snake monster. There was an expectation that it wouldn't respawn for another week, but maybe we should be careful about making assumptions.

Jol'ket nodded. "We will speak to Celeste about this. To make certain she is aware of our worries, if nothing else."

The guys started working on carrying the corpse to the stairs while I picked up my shield and axe from the ground where I dropped them. As we walked back, I thought about the fight and how much easier it had been. Was it actually easier, or were we just more prepared for it this time? Was the monster less experienced? I wasn't sure.

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