Alexander sidestepped gracefully, the serpent's milky-white jaws snapping shut just inches from where his head had lingered a heartbeat before.

Alexander did not waste the chance and swung his now red axe straight at its stretched neck. Just as the edge was about to touch it, the damn thing twisted back with incredible nimbleness.

And this was not the first time; this bastard was hellishly agile.

The small clearing in the forest was filled with various cut marks on the ground, some deep, some shallow. Even some trees had deep or shallow cuts on them.

In the middle, Alexander stood panting, though not bloodied, testament of extreme concentration up until now but bruised, and quite badly at that. Opposite him was a 21-foot milky white snake hissing directly at him.

It had two golden stripes on its forehead and its body was full of red cut marks, but almost all of them were not deep enough.

Though the thing was nimble, it could not perfectly avoid all of Alexander’s attacks, especially the wild wide swings, in the last 30 minutes.

With another hissing sound, it lunged at Alexander, this time from below. Alexander’s eyes gleamed as he jumped just as the snake was about to snap his legs and without delay brought his axe down on the creature, but it agilely twisted. The axe landed on the ground, kicking up a small dust cloud.

But there was no rest for him as a hard whooshing sound and in the next moment, the dust was parted by a thick white tail that came straight for him.

Alexander wanted to move away but in the next moment, he gritted his teeth, exerting pressure on his hand as he leaned on the ground and with all his strength yanked the axe right out and planted it into the approaching tail with all he got.

Alexander did not know what happened. He felt a huge force crashing into him and in the next moment, he was flying backwards.

Crash.

Cough.

Pain assaulted him from the impact, as he coughed out blood and crashed into a tree trunk. But there was a smile on his bloody mouth.

He achieved his goal; in front of him, the 21-foot python was convulsing uncontrollably, blood splattering out in all directions from the gaping wound on its tail.

It did not take long for the menacing eyes of the python to settle on him, and just by looking at those eyes, all the hair on his body stood up.

In the next moment, Alexander scrambled to the side as the snake dove at him with all it had, kicking up dust and small debris in its wake.

Crack

Alexander heard a cracking and clanging sound behind him as splinters flew, some even sticking into his back. Looking back, the fully open maw of the snake was biting down hard on the bark. The tree shook and swayed as the meneiisnng, now red eyes of the cratuere started right at Alexander’s soul.

Alexander just did not look back as he he streted running.

“Oh shit”

Alexander muttered, realizing he no longer had his axe. Most likely, he lost it when he was flung back.

He again rolled back as the snake's maw bit down hard on the ground where he was moments ago. Before he could stand up properly, a tail swipe came swinging right at his waist.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Alexander jumped up using his hands, hearing the air breaking sound beneath him, he had no doubt that if it connected, his waist would be a broken mess. It seemed the snake was giving its all.

But thinking of this, Alexander was not upset; on the contrary, there was a smile on his face. This is what he was aiming for. Though he had landed many blows up until now, none of them were fatal. Though this one was not eather, it was deep enough. Now all he needed to do was wait until the thing bled out to death. And all the flailing about it was hastening its demise.

now All he needed to do now was to successfully avoid its wrathful rampage until then. Which was easier said than done, no doubt.

30 minutes later, Alexander stood in front of the now almost lifeless snake, amidst a nearly ravaged clearing coated in crimson. He was panting, with new bruzes and cuts on his body as he looked straight at the hateful glare of the snake, who knew it had not much time in this world.

Alexander grinned and then placing one leg on its head he brought his axe down. He was quite existed so the axe drew blood but did not went deep enough. In the next moment he yak it out and planted it once again which also was not enough.

The fucking thing had truly resilient skin. But Alexander was not about to give up After almost sixteen consecutive swings, the snake finally breathed its last. But Alexander was not sure if it was from his beating, the pain, or just the blood loss, and frankly, he did not care.

kaaaa

Alexander was about to take a rest when he suddenly heard the cry of a hawk. Looking up, he saw a shadow of a hawk above.

The hawk was three feet in size and had a wingspan of almost twelve feet.

Alexander did not think much before he threw his axe with all his strength behind it at the bird, which was most likely eyeing his hunt. After all, hawks are known to be natural enemies of snakes. He was not particularly worried about one hawk, but what if this bastard brought out more of his brethren?

He lay beside the bloodied head of the snake, his own self coated in the same bloody red. He looked at the snake's big ass head, which was almost as big as half of his body.

Alexander opened his status screen to see the result of his hard work.

This time it was really dangerous. Up until now, he was just fighting small creatures, which was a bit challenging but nothing too dangerous. It might actually be that which landed him in this condition. After seeing the snake coiled up, he thought it to be just 13 feet and wanted to end it with one strike. But boy was he wrong. Not only was the thing 21 feet long, it was incredibly nimble. His first strike missed miserably, and he was subjected to its counterattack which sent him flinging and crashing into the clearing in the first place. It was fortunate he blocked with his axe at the right moment; otherwise, that would have been his end.

Name: Alexander

Race: Human

Level: 8

Exp: 272/1000

Strength: 21

*Perception: ___

*Dexterity: ___

*Agility: ___

*Constitution: 3

*Intelligence: ___

*Vitality: ___

[free points :3]

Alexander's eyes widened in shock at the sight of his level. He almost stood up, but the pain in his body reminded him why he was not allowed to do so.

The previous day, the pigs he had slain gave him 180 XP each, which was an unexpected windfall, but he wasn’t about to complain. This propelled him to level 7. The three points, of course went into strength.

Since then, up until now, he had killed almost everything he found in sight, but it didn't give him much XP. Even the harvest from this morning was the same. Unknowingly, in search of XP, he had gone a bit deeper than he planned.

Even after killing for almost two days, he had only acquired around 400 XP out of the 772 he needed to reach level 8. But killing just this one snake landed him almost 500 XP or so. Which was crazy; it even gave him more than the cow.

If he could just kill two of these snakes, but in the next moment, he shook his head. He almost died not once, not twice, but almost every time fighting this thing, and he was sure there were far bigger snakes compared to this one in the forest. Compared to them, this might be a child or a low-ranked beast; otherwise, what would it be doing this far out?

To be honest, Alexander was kind of confused. He had ventured deeper than he planned, for sure, but it was still the absolute outer layer of the forest. These kinds of beasts, or this big who could shake a tree with its full strength, should not be in this area. Well, there was no point in thinking about it.

He wanted to use the three points as soon as possible, but just as he tried, the protest of pain reminded him of the banged-up condition of his body.

“Sigh,” Alexander sighed. He wanted to rest a little. Suddenly he woke up startled, and seeing the bloodied snake head beside him, he almost vomited his heart out, but then remembered he was the one who killed it.

He soon took out his phone and saw he had been out for almost 45 minutes. It seemed he was too damn tired, but that was to be expected. He was lucky that no beast came at this time to make him their dinner. Maybe they thought he was dead with all the blood and all.

“Never sleep like this in the wilderness,” the voice in his head stated.

Judging by the bracing tone, Alexander understood he had something to do with it. Well, in any case, Alexander calmed down and tried to move the lump of energy to his strength meridian. The pain was still there but it was manageable.

And Alexander did not want to waste any time adding to his strength, especially now when he was in the wild.

Two hours later, Alexander stood up. Though his body was quite functional, the soreness was still there. Alexander looked at where he had shot down the hawk. After all, his axe was embedded in the beast.

As he looked in that direction, something clicked in him. It was the same direction where he had seen the elk. Should he go to where he saw the elk?

Alexander shook his head, what the heck. After all the things he did, exercising and running in public, beating three people to the hospital, cutting someone's finger off in the market, even illegally crossing the wall, and now killing a 20-foot python, was he allowed to even be afraid at this point?

Alexander resolutely decided to go, if not hunt, at least to watch. And besides, he doubted the elk was still there. He needed to do this for himself to get rid of his fear at the least.