As the opening on the archway opened again, the snake recovered its ability to move freely once again. But instead of going directly towards the tunnel, the beast stood still for a few seconds before raising its head and hissing.

The action wasn't meaningless.

In that hiss, the snake expressed gratitude towards Heaven as it felt its body had reached the peak of the ninth stage. After moving around for a few seconds, the snake slithered toward the tunnel.

Crossing it, it found itself in a new environment.

Instead of flying islands, this time, the battlefield looked like a swamp filled with mangrove trees. If someone looked from afar, they would think that it was a regular swamp, but by getting closer, one would realize that the size of the trees was not the regular one.

Trees hundreds of meters high rose toward the sky while their roots formed passages that one could use if one could navigate the water under the trees.

In the upper area of the trees, their branches intertwined themselves, so one would be able to use them as breaches to travel from one tree to another.

When the snake left the tunnel, it appeared on the trunk of one of those trees. While it could go toward the top by following one of the branches, it decided to go downwards instead. Being an aquatic-magical-beast, it couldn't help but go toward any body of water it saw, even if it wasn't the ocean.

Without losing much time, the snake slithered down the tree until it reached the water. Once there, it began to swim across the swamp while trying to find any prey.

Going from one side to another of the swamp, it didn't take long to find the first two creatures standing on one branch connecting two trees.

The first one was a man with metallic armor, but unlike the one in the previous round, this one was silver instead of black, and it had golden symbols all around it, besides on his sword and shield.

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The other creature at first looked like a regular woman, but after close inspection, anyone would see that she had her body covered with burns. Her eyes were completely black, and for some reason, her feet weren't touching the ground.

But the appearance of the two creatures didn't surprise the snake. What surprised it was that they were not fighting each other.

The beast stalked them from the water while changing its scales' color to better hide. It had no reason to leave it. After all, it would be an advantage if it stayed there. The two creatures continued exploring side by side, making sure to scout their surroundings while trying to find anyone.

After a few minutes, the two creatures stopped before the man's helmet symbols began to shine with intensity.

Suddenly, the helmet shot rays of light in various directions, with one end touching the snake. The moment the light touched its body, the beast realized it had been detected and tried to hide.

The two creatures jumped down from the tree after seeing the snake's intention to escape, and while the woman slowly descended toward the water, the armored man's boots began to shine, and under them appeared platforms made of golden light that he used as stairs.

Realizing that its enemies were trying to chase it in the water, the snake released large amounts of water-energy before controlling the water around it.

The water began to condense in front of the beast's mouth before becoming a pressurized water cannon. The snake aimed at the woman at first, but she became intangible before the water could hurt her, so it changed its target and began to attack the armored man.

The man reacted by putting his shield in front of him, which began to release golden light from its symbols before a coating of the same light appeared on it, completely deflecting the attack upwards.

At that moment, the snake realized it couldn't simply fight those two creatures. If it wanted to kill them, it would need to get rid of at least one of them.

But suddenly, a fireball hit the man from behind, causing him to stop the coating of light on his shield.

From above a tree, a young man with white hair and a black robe jumped toward the water. While holding a short sword in his right hand, he made appear with the left one a light panel with tens of rows of runes.

By tapping on one of the rows, a pair of green winds appeared on his back, just enough time to slow its fall so it wouldn't get hurt.

"Two versus one? I don't think that's fair." the young man said with a smile.