Sorry this chapter took so long to come out. It turns out that it's difficult to balance college preparation, work, and writing a story at the same time. Writing combat is also one of the harder things for me, for some reason. Also. Halloween happened, and I am all about that. Anyway, I don't see myself writing chapters of this length any quicker than one ever two or three days, but I want to hear your opinion. Should I start releasing a chapter every day, but of a shorter length (or in parts, as the story calls for), or should I write a chapter of about the same length as before, but only release every two or three days? Either way, we're coming up near the end of this arc of Hain's story. Chapter Five will be the end of the Prologue of A Serpentine Tale, and the beginning of Hain's true journey.
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In what was quickly becoming an annoying habit, I was woken up by an uncomfortable pressure on my body. Looking around with barely opened eyes, I made a startling revelation: I was now, by far, the smallest of my siblings. It was fairly clear that the majority of the former hatchlings had evolved into Viper Serpents, with only two out of eight evolving into Python Serpents: one being the only large survivor of the hunt yesterday, and the other, surprisingly, being the smallest of the two that I had taken with me. Coincidentally, she had also been the only one to speak with my before we had been forced to hunt by Mother. I decided to call her Smol, as even an evolution to the larger species of the two had only allowed her to grow to 18 inches long, a far cry from the Vipers at an average of 2 feet. All of us, however, were dwarfed by our Python brother, who was an impressive 4 feet long, almost as long as our Mother. Speaking of, I should probably go see if she’s died. Slightly irritated, I worked my way out of the pile that I had purposefully fallen asleep away from and began to look for my Queen.
When I finally found her, I was surprised for the second time in a few minutes, as Mother had evolved, and greatly at that. She had grown from 5 feet long to a full 9, and her scales had changed from a dull green to a stony emerald, but the most dramatic change was the large hood that now covered her head. The inside was dark, with patterns that drew attention to her eyes. She had not yet woken up, so I waited near her until she opened her eyes. Eventually, she began to stir, and gave me an order before she even opened her eyes, her voice smoother and higher pitched, but somehow even more powerful than when she had been a Queen.
“Hain, if that’s you, get your fucking siblings to the Chilid den. It’s about a half mile down the tunnel, and there’s no other den between us. If my shit brother was going to attack me, it means. that all the other dens have already made an alliance. So, you fuckers are going to destabilize their weakest link. If you can, scout them and come back. If not, kill every single fucking serpent in the den, then come back here. I need to see why exactly I evolved, and what I can do now. Get fucking going.”
“Yes, Mother. We’ll have killed our uncle and his children before you even wake up fully.”
Nervously, I began rounding up my siblings, preparing them for their first battle, rather than hunt. After a few minutes discussing Mother’s evolution and our plans for battle, we began filing out of our den, some for the last time. I had the vipers form into two groups of three, with a python each. I took the two fastest vipers with me, since our plan was for my team to scout the den, with the other two teams behind us both to prevent any possible ambush and so that, if the scouting mission became an attack, we would be able to lure our attackers into a circle of fangs.
Like always, traversing the tunnel was an exercise in patience. However, with our increased size, the time taken to travel was much shorter than before, with the total time between us leaving our den and seeing the entrance to the Chilid den being only 10 minutes. Slowing, I motioned to the other teams to wait where they were, and my team began slithering softly towards the den.
Before we could even get to the entrance, the worst possible event to our mission happened: two vipers came slithering out of the den, and saw us. Fortunately, they froze rather than sound an alarm, and my vipers were able to strike at their necks before dragging them away, effectively erasing them from existence for the purpose of the mission. One of the other teams took the bodies further away, allowing my team to get closer to the entrance, careful to not be surprised again.
Our first look into the Chilid den showed that we were outnumbered, if not overpowered. After a few moments of careful scrutiny, I counted 12 Hatchlings, 4 pythons, 3 vipers, and a python who was obviously our uncle. Anom was at least 6 feet long, with bright blue scales and similarly colored eyes. He was also heavily scarred, and it seemed he only had vision in his left eye, as none of the serpents near him went near his right side. Before we could so a more in-depth analysis, however, we heard a loud hiss, and every serpent in the den whipped their head around to see us. Anom roared, and the serpents were upon us.
My vipers and I began scrambling towards the other two teams, only to find them already rushing towards us. Turning quickly, I ripped the throat of an unsuspecting hatchling with a lucky strike, spitting out flesh as I coiled around myself, making sure to defend as many vital areas as possible. my vipers and I were surrounded by the 11 hatchlings, while the pythons and vipers had decided to attack the other two teams, and Anom was lurking behind the scenes, waiting to assist his children.
My vipers immediately began using Poison Bite on any hatchling they could reach, going to injury rather than lethal strikes. I, on the other hand, went for the throat, head, and spine of every single hatchling I saw, often attacking at the same time as one of my vipers, forcing the hatchlings to go on the defensive. After almost a minute of rapid strikes, the last hatchling finally died, letting me see the other battles taking place.
The team with the giant python had been attacked by all three vipers and their smallest python, who I could see in half on the ground. While the large python’s team, with 2 vipers and the python left, had the upper hand, Anom’s vipers had focused on the python, who didn’t have any resistance to their poison. I sent one of my vipers to assist them as I evaluated the situation with the Smol’s team.
What I saw was a complete massacre of Anom’s pythons. Of the 3 that had attacked her team, only the largest was left, and as I watched, Smol tore his vertebrae out of the back of his neck. Deciding to let my other viper help the large python’s team, I motioned toward Smol’s team, and we turned to face Anom. Smol had her vipers start circling Anom, Biting at him whenever he focused too long on one. Unfortunately, our advantage was lost as soon as he struck one of the vipers, killing it almost instantly. At this moment, I finally saw my chance and struck Anom’s neck, shaking myself vigorously, prying his very throat out of his skin.
Anom, surprisingly enough, didn’t put up much of a fight after I locked my jaw, only injuring the two remaining vipers from Smol’s team before she was able to Bite the other side of his neck and swung herself opposite to me. After an agonizingly slow few minutes passed, we had swung enough that Anom’s very flesh was torn from his body. Picking myself up, I gazed at the survivors of our extermination of the Chilid den. Out of nine serpents, we had merely lost 3, all of them vipers. Gathering together, we began our last job in the den: feeding, sating our hunger, and heading back to Mother.
Returning, we found that Mother had somehow killed a Queen Viper, and was devouring her with gusto while waiting for us. Turning to stare at us, she demanded a situation report.
“Mother, the Chilid den is no more. When we were unable to scout undetected, we led a three-pronged assault, succeeding with only three casualties.”
“Three? That’s three too fucking many, Hain. What the fuck did you think you were doing out there? You weren’t allowed to lose any of my serpents, you piece of shit. I need all of you if we’re gonna have any chance of killing those fucks. You fucked up, so I’m going to punish you. Take these fuckers and go kill Cylin. He’s in the Phid den; it’s just a little further away than the Chilid den. Hell, they probably heard you kill Anom. Cylin has a special poison, and if you get bit, you’ll probably die. So don’t get fucking bit. While you’re doing that, I’ll go pay baby brother Acroc a visit in the Chordid den. When you finish off Cyclin, head further away from here. We’ll meet up a few hundred feet before the Lopid den. Get the fuck out.”
Slithering out with our heads down, we began the journey towards the Phid den, organizing our plan as we did so. Instead of scouting, we had been ordered to directly eliminate the den, and so we decided upon two teams. The first team, lead by me, would have two vipers and the large python. Our mission was to kill Cylin at the expense of anything and everything else. The other team, composed of Smol and the other four vipers, would ensure that we got to Cylin, and would kill any serpents they could.
Seeing the entrance, my team didn’t hesitate, rushing into the den, and immediately found Cylin coiled near the entrance. He was tiny by the standards of his brothers and sisters, barely 3 feet long, but his presence alone made him feel much larger. His scales were a pure red that didn’t reflect any light, and his eyes were a sickly yellow, constantly emitting tears of a similar color.
Seeing us rush in, Cylin smiled and began uncoiling, hissing slowly. The large python began the attack, striking at the King Viper’s neck. Cylin easily avoided, landing his own bite near the tip of the large python’s tail. Immediately, the python began roaring and thrashing. Panicking, I bit at him, managing to cut off the part of his tail Cylin had struck. After it was off, I was able to clearly see why Cylin’s poison was so special: the tail was slowly being eaten by the poison, scales burning away and meat rotting before my eyes. I looked away from the gruesome sight to find Cylin had already struck one of the vipers in the neck, killing him before he even realized it.
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Acting on instinct, I struck at Cylin, getting a lucky strike on the back of his head. It wasn’t a serious injury, but he wouldn’t be able to just shrug it off, either. I hurried to move away from him as fast as possible, dodging just in time to avoid a corrosive bite. The next few minutes involved a lot of dodging, and a lot of getting bit and being forced to tear of our own flesh to avoid being rotted alive. After a few minutes, however, the blood loss finally began to catch up to Cylin, and his reactions suffered enough for the remaining viper on my team to inject his own poison into Cylin, forcing him into an even worse situation.
Eventually we wore Cylin down enough to end his life, but it wasn’t without sacrifices of our own: the large python had his spine bitten through, and the viper and I had both lost chunks of flesh all over our bodies. Looking around, we found that the battle between Smol’s team and the Phid den was nearing its own end. The Phid den, despite having such a formidable king, only had twenty serpents, all pythons, ostensibly to protect Cylin from his much larger brethren as living shields. That said, the gathering of pythons had still managed to kill four vipers, often crushing them to death in their own death throes, and had injured Smol to almost the same extent that Cylin had injured the viper and I.
Slowly regaining our strength from the flesh of the dead, the vipers, Smol, and I worked our way towards the Lopid den, running into Mother just before we saw the entrance. Mother took a look at how far our forces had fallen, and stared at me, rage clear in her eyes. However, Mother did not attack me, instead just jerking her head towards the entrance to the final obstacle in our domination of the tunnel.
The Lopid den was filled to the brim with what was apparently the strongest of the united serpents’ forces. There was at least one of every serpent species, with 40 hatchlings, 10 vipers, 15 pythons, 3 king vipers, 2 king pythons, and our final aunt, Typh the Queen Python. She was the largest of her siblings, easily 15 feet long, with pitch black scales and pale green eyes, staring at the entrance to her den. Taking a moment to prepare ourselves for the upcoming bloodbath, I analyzed the enemy forces.
Serpent HatchlingA freshly hatched serpent; preferred hunting method influences future evolutionExperience100Attack4Defense3Agility5Intelligence3Wisdom2
Viper SerpentA poisonous serpent, focusing on speed rather than strengthExperience500Attack40Defense37Agility63Intelligence20Wisdom19
Python SerpentA serpent that prefers brute strength and crushing power over speedExperience500Attack82Defense45Agility26Intelligence12Wisdom9
Ruler Python SerpentA ruler of the Python Serpents; much smarter than the common snakeExperience2500Attack100Defense67Agility34Intelligence40Wisdom39
Ruler Viper SerpentA ruler of the Viper Serpents; much smarter than the common snakeExperience2500Attack62Defense50Agility102Intelligence59Wisdom46
My analysis complete, Mother, Smol, and the four vipers began our assault on the Lopid den. As we rushed in, Mother let out a low hiss, and looked directly into my eyes.
Rage filling me, rushing headfirst into the throng of serpents with the vipers
Biting through a hatchling’s head, throwing what's in my mouth at another before biting all I can
Most of the hatchlings dead, the vipers and I splitting up to kill the rest
One of the vipers dying, constricted by five pythons
Coiling my tail around one python’s face, biting another’s spine, smacking a third with the first
Smol taking over the attack on the pythons, the other viper crying out as she is bitten by Typh
Mother attacking Typh, them flying off in a tangle of green and black
Feeling the fog in my head, trying to fight it, blowing it away as hard as I could
Notice: New Stat!By killing your own family in cold blood, you have gained the stat: Ruthlessness! This stat determines how much you are affected by any outside influence to your actions, positive or negative.
Notice: Gained Stats, unlike Basic Stats, are unaffected by any direct statistic manipulation, even by the gods.Current Ruthlessness: 50 (5% influence reduction)
More aware of my surroundings, I found that Mother, Smol, and I were the only survivors of our den. Typh’s forces, while outnumbering us two to one, were much more seriously injured than us, the most injured undoubtedly being Typh, with multiple chunks of flesh torn off her body and bone clearly visible. The battle lulled for a moment as we all gathered ourselves for the conclusion of our genocidal assault.
Finally, only Typh was left, bloody and torn. She choked on a laugh and spit out vermillion blood before croaking out, “You bitch, Teno. You finally won a fucking round. Don’t get used to it, though. How’s that scrawny, psycho fuck going to help you make a stronger den next time? You’re going to choke on your own piss and blood, big sister. I promise you that.”
Done with her diatribe, Typh did something incredible: she bit into the wall of the den, and began shaking, putting enough stress on her injured neck that it snapped, depriving us of complete victory.
Smol, Mother, and I slithered back to our den to nurse our wounds and reflect on what we’d done. After coiling up into a comfortable position (unsurprisingly difficult to do with multiple missing chunks of flesh), Smol and I looked at Mother, and I asked the question that I was sure was on both our minds.
“Mother, what did Typh mean by this round? She sounded like she thought she’d come back to life. More importantly, what the fuck did you do to me before that last battle? I couldn’t even think about anything but killing my cousins and eating their flesh. After what we’ve done for you, I think you owe us an explanation.”
“Fuck no I don’t. You owe me your entire fucking existence. I could eat you alive right now, and you’d only have your shitty attitude to blame. But I will tell you. Tomorrow. Now get the fuck to sleep. It’s gonna be a long day.”
Finished, Mother closed her eyes and began to lightly snore. I called up my Status so that I could see the spoils of war.
NameHain (of Anens Den)SpeciesSoul Serpent (Unique)Level71 (100 Experience to next level) (Curse Effect: 200 Experience per level)Attack126.7Defense83.9Agility85.7Intelligence44.5Wisdom40.1Ruthlessness50 (5% influence reduction)AbilitiesSerpent's Tongue, Bite, Soul Devour (Passive)
More than satisfied with my gains, I slowly drifted into the last peaceful sleep of my life in the Anens den.