Hera held Mr. Beetle in one of her hands while sprinting at full speed. Anything labeled as 'King' of any place should be a strong monster, and just by the looks of it, that leopard was no slouch. During the quick moment that the Empress saw it, she noticed how muscular the creature was and how the tail would make it as if she was fighting against two monsters at the same time. The main body and the tail seemed to be able to move independently from each other. Not to mention, if the entire jungle was scared of it to the point of going silent, she would be a fool not to take it seriously.
A part of her wondered why her snakes didn't show her the leopard approaching, but she wouldn't be able to stop now to check if they were still around. Still, she could do something with them. Hera told all of the snakes that were behind her to come to her as fast as possible. Without looking back, she could tell that the leopard was getting closer. After she set up her traps, she made a wider sensory net, spanning a 10 meters radius, and to her dismay, the King of the jungle was already appearing at the edge of that range. At least he was running behind her, which meant the monster shouldn't be so fast that it would just appear in front of her out of the blue.
Taking its location from the spell, Hera tossed a couple of poison needles at the creature, but the King was too smart for it. With his tail, he swatted the needles away like they were some flies trying to get close. The Empress' next move was to make more spore and slow fields behind her, but another unexpected thing happened. The King of the jungle roared when her spells became active, and although it wasn't a particularly loud roar, the magic she created was dissipated by that sound. She tried to make some stone walls from the ground, but that took some time. Without stopping or slowing down, she could, at most, make something about the size of a tree root on the floor. Expecting the King of the jungle to trip on something like that was like expecting a fish to emerge from the water to catch its breath.
Another problem was quickly becoming apparent, the leopard was faster than her. Even with all the attempts to slow it down, it was little by little gaining more ground. While at the start, the King was just on the edge of her sensory net, now Hera could sense the entirety of his body. Worried about their eventual fight, the Empress started looking for a better spot, a clearing, a stream, anything that would give her more space and allow the fight to be on more even grounds. There was a part of her that knew she had no other option.
Eventually, they would clash, and she wanted every single advantage possible. Right now, Hera didn't have her court, she didn't have her weapons, and she didn't have her items. The gloves she was wearing, which should be doing additional fire damage, were not working. Her fear was that not even the bonus attributes of her armor would work, meaning that a single strike would be felt by her entire body. Even if she got hit by other creatures in this place, she had no way of knowing if the impact she felt was taking into account her armor or not. Before, worrying about that was useless since the blows were not too dangerous, but now, with a thing like the Blue Spotted Leopard chasing her, that changed.
She heard the King's roars growing louder as she was thinking about her options. It seemed that he was starting to get annoyed with this chase. The distance between them was shrinking, and she couldn't help but notice the difference in their abilities. The leopard had no problems moving around the jungle; the only thing it did was remove any of the traps she was creating. To make things worse, when he used one of her walls as a step, he broke it apart with just the strength used to run. He wasn't like the rabbits who could break wood by attacking it. The King's sheer mass was enough to destroy the stone she created.
She was running out of options. She needed a safe zone, but nothing was in sight except the trees. As much as she liked being surrounded by nature, she really didn't want to be surrounded by the King of the jungle. Luckily, she noticed that the next couple of snakes she had to get to follow a path upwards. Almost as if they were walking alongside a road by a mountain. Not just that, but she was getting close to the last one. Maybe just reaching that snake would end this dream, vision, or whatever this was.
With renewed strength, she triggered her [All in] with the intention of running. It could be a bad idea, but it could also work wonders. This burst of speed made the leopard stay behind while Hera continued to run. Soon, she found the next snake, and just like she imagined, they were following a road up a mountain. It was a place wide enough so that fighting here wouldn't be a problem, which was already good news. But if she managed to reach her destination, maybe she could avoid fighting altogether. Not wasting any time, the Empress continued moving as fast as she could, passing by the three snakes that were on the road until she reached the top, where that last snake was located. The leopard was nowhere to be seen, and even her 10-meter-wide sensory net couldn't see it. Hera wanted to keep the spell up, but having it be so large for so long was starting to take a toll on her mana. If there was a fight coming, she might need to save every drop of magic she had left. Dropping the spell to the 1-meter range she had before, the Empress looked around, trying to find a doorway or a way to exit this place, but there was nothing. Only more mountain to the side and the lush jungle beneath it.
She also saw the city, the Naga city, carved on the walls. Something told her that this was just the entrance; if she got there, she would see the sprawling cave networks inside, where people lived. Another thing she noticed was that the place was heavily fortified. There were enormous slabs of rock sitting above the entrances, held by chains and metal, a massive crystal embedded in the center of the stone with something engraved around it and several ballistae around it. From here, she could also hear laughter and people talking. She couldn't understand any of it. Maybe it was a different language, or maybe the echo was just making everything too scrambled, but it all sounded joyful and happy. The type of thing that one would hear when passing by a children's party where everyone was having a good time.
Distracted by that, Hera failed to notice when the Blue Spotted Leopard landed on the road in front of her. The King didn't even have to worry about moving along the path she took. Instead, it chose to climb the mountainside to cut her off. After all, he knew this jungle like the back of his claws. With a low snarl, he announced his presence, making the Empress snap into a fighting stance.
"Shit…" she said as the leopard started its very slow walk towards her, "Mr. Beetle. I think it's better for you to get away. I can't protect you right now," Hera put the Golden Rhinoceros Beetle on her shoulder before reaching for the spear.
As a surprise to everyone, including the King, the beetle refused to leave. Instead, it turned to the leopard and opened its wings while still staying on Hera's shoulder, clearly showing that it was challenging the ruler of this place.
"Are you sure about that?" Hera asked with a surprised expression. As a reply, Mr. Beetle dragged his front leg twice against her feathered shoulder pad as if it was getting ready for a charge, "Ok then. Let's do this," Hera smiled and looked the leopard dead in the eye. But some of her bravery quickly started to leave when she saw the King's expression.
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With its pride hurt, the leopard gave up on toying with this new prey. Instead, it would make sure that this snake-like creature and the beetle riding on its shoulder would pay the price for offending it. Then, it would turn his attention to the city. There were more of those bad attempts of snakes down there. If killing this one wasn't enough to appease his anger, getting rid of thoses pests would surely calm him down.
The leopard jumped forward, and Hera was ready for the attack. But she didn't expect his next move. With a crack of a whip, the monster was flung to the side, going all the way outside of the road and into a free fall. She couldn't understand what just happened, but then, she saw the tail moving, and like a whip, it cracked behind the leopard who was now facing her. Just as the noise reached her ears, she felt a pair of claws piercing her stomach, and she was slammed against the mountain wall. The King had just pushed her about three meters, and he still had enough strength to create large cracks in the stone behind her with the impact. Without even having to check, Hera could feel that some of her ribs were shattered, and the taste of blood started to fill her mouth.
While the monster was still pinning the Empress to the wall, Mr. Beetle pointed its horn at the leopard, and a jet of brown liquid went right to its eyes. The King roared and took a few steps back, allowing Hera to get her bearings for a moment. She quickly pulled her spear and went for a strike. The tip of the weapon grazed the leopard's skin, but it wasn't enough to do any significant damage. Maybe if it wasn't for the debuff of her [All In], she could've actually wounded the king, but it was hard to be sure. She threw a few poison needles while triggering her earth elemental armor to increase her defenses. The attacks hit the King, but it wasn't enough to even slow it down. He lunged forward again, even with his vision impaired. To Hera's luck, he could not gauge the distance correctly and struck a bit in front of her. But to offset that karma, she tried to block the attack with her spear, which was broken in half under the strength of its mighty claw. Using the two pieces of the weapon as swords, the Empress tried to attack again, slamming the side of the leopard's head with one of her sticks, but the other, the one with the pointed tip, was stopped by the tail that wrapped around it and pulled out of Hera's grasp.
The Blue Spotted Leopard pushed her forward and roared. This time, the sound of his voice was so strong that it launched Hera back into the mountain wall, creating more cracks as she slammed against the rock. Her eardrums ruptured, and blood started to drip from the sides of her head. The Empress struggled to keep herself standing, and it looked like Mr. Beetle was still alive even if he was no longer on her shoulder. Instead, the small bug was now to the left, atop a rock. It was gesturing to the side while looking at Hera. She followed that direction and saw a cave behind it. That could have helped a lot if she had found it before the leopard arrived but now, it wouldn't change a thing. The Empress's legs were giving, her ribs seemed nonexistent, one of her arms was completely out of its socket, and the other could be broken, if it was even there, she wasn't sure which. But her eyes had to stay on the King. Turning around now would be asking to be killed. She struggled to raise one arm, the one that was still holding part of the spear in front of her. Her idea was to be in a defensive stance, but this was just a pitiful attempt at that. The Blue Spotted Leopard could just sneeze and finish the job.
All of a sudden, the King was no longer there. There was just a black spot in front of her. Maybe her eyes were finally giving out. Maybe this is what was supposed to happen, and she was going back. Maybe everything that happened inside the MAZE was just a dream, and she would wake up in bed and return to the bookstore soon. Her body was swaying, and Hera was about to fall forward, but she managed to catch herself and stand up, opening her eyes wide. In front of her was a gigantic rock where the leopard should be. That rock was connected to an even more gigantic body. Something that could rival the size of the mountain, and it was still moving. Little by little, she managed to grasp what was in her view. It was a giant scorpion mixed with a centaur, but it still was a bug through and through, with the torso and head of a praying mantis. The thing didn't stop and continued moving. Eventually, it removed the leg in front of Hera, one of the many dozen it had. The hole that the massive limb created on the ground wasn't just empty space. Inside it, there was the upper half of the Blue Spotted Leopard. With the rest of the monster motionless behind it. A creature that was able to overpower Hera so much was killed like a bug by being merely stepped on.
Whatever the creature was, it didn't seem to notice or care about Hera. It kept moving forward, heading toward the city.
"I guess we can just get out of here," Hera turned to Mr. Beetle, but the bug was still staring toward the city. She glanced down and realized that no one seemed to notice the massive mountain-sized creature approaching. Everyone was still acting like it was business as usual. She glanced at the centaur-scorpion thing and realized it wasn't casting any shadows ahead of it. It was like that creature was hidden. That's when Hera noticed the sun was behind the mountain, and she also didn't see the shadow of the creature approaching. Maybe this monster could become invisible when it was being seen from the front. If that were the case, the people in the city might not be able to notice the incoming creature. If Hera was to consider that the monster was invisible, the only thing that would warn them is the trees moving when he steps forward. Especially since, right now, everything was silent. Even when the legs came down, there was barely a thump.
Hera could just walk away. This wasn't her problem, and she could just ignore all of this. The monster was too big for her to do anything. Yet… Leaving those people to die felt wrong. They were Naga, and even if they weren't, she could try something. Her bracelet was still working, and she had a skill that would warn them. But it would also warn the monster of her location. Or… She turned to the cave and walked inside. Mr. Beetle flew towards her shoulder again. When she was far enough away but still could see outside, she shook her bracelet, activating the Warning Rattle ability that should create a noise that anyone in a 1 km radius could hear. Hera instantly started running deeper into the cave, but not before having her curiosity get the better of her. With one last glance back to the monster, she triggered her [Observe]
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Scryotra - Emperor of the Jungle - Naga's Bane
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Seeing the second title sent a shiver down her spine. Having the classification of the bane of a species would require a lot. Hera just continued running away, getting deeper into the cave and hoping that her idea worked.
Down in the city, everyone instantly triggered the defenses when they heard the Warning Rattle. People rushed inside, and the rock slabs blocked all entrances as the crystal created a barrier to protect everything. At the same time, a group of guards rushed to the ballista and used a scope to locate the threat before opening fire. Almost everything happened without a sound since Scryotra had a skill that reduced all the ambient noise so it could move without causing too much of a stir. However, the attacks were too much for it, and it knew that the barrier would withstand many of its blows before breaking. In the end, the Naga's Bane already knew that this attack was a bust. It snarled and turned around, moving past the mountain, but it smelled something near the top, the scent of a weak naga heading inside the cave. This should be the one that ruined its plans and warned the others. As Scryotra passed, its tail went directly to the shelter, and the venomous tip blocked the exit before spraying a large amount of acid poison inside. It couldn't stay there since the ballistae were still proving to be a problem, but it could sense that the cave was deep enough that the Naga wouldn't be able to leave. Satisfied with this small victory, Scryotra unplugged the cave and continued its path over the mountain, allowing this Naga, who was actually Hera, to the gruesome fate of being burned by acid from the inside.