Instinct took over.
The heightened speed of [Quickstep] coursed through Mel’s limbs, pulling on her reserves of stamina.
Mel rolled to the side, her shoulder receiving a gash from the snake’s serrated fangs. Blood sprayed into the cold morning air. When Mel got her feet beneath her, the wound on her shoulder steamed.
She summoned her twinblade and rushed the creature, unwilling to give it even a moment to attack her again. It had been a stroke of luck that she heard its movement.
Stupid! I let my guard down, and now I’m too far away from the others. Even if they wanted to help me, they couldn’t.
Mel slashed up in an arcing slice, but the snake slithered out of reach, wary of the flash of fire coming from her blades. She twisted on the balls of her feet, her shoulder burning with every movement as she pulled her twinblade up and braced for the snake’s follow-up attack.
It crashed into her braced blades, sending waves of nauseating agony up her twice-wounded shoulder.
As she was reeling from the blow, the snake shifted its large bulk to get at her from another angle.
[Quickstep] was a short-lived combat art. She tapped it again, receiving another burst of speed, narrowly dodging a strike aimed at her middle. It helped bolster her sluggish reactions. She was utterly exhausted and badly needed sleep.
Fortunately, it didn’t draw much stamina.
She had been up for more than a full day, hardly eaten more than a few mushrooms, fought more monsters than she wanted to think about, and now was entirely on her own. Mel was running on fumes.
She was about ready to collapse. That was one of the reasons why she left the others. She wanted–no; she needed –to find somewhere safe, away from monsters, so she could rest.
That warm campfire by the cliff edge overlooking those magical plateaus was starting to seem like a fever dream.
[Quickstep] and the flame affinity for her twinblade were the only reasons she wasn’t already being digested in the python’s belly. It kept striking at her while lining up its thick, muscular tail to ensnare her.
No way this snake monster isn’t at least Copper rank, Mel thought miserably. It’s faster and stronger than just about anything else I’ve fought.
Its fear of her twinblade’s fire kept it from getting too close. She was sure it could trade hits better than she could, but the fire gave it pause.
Unfortunately, the snake was quickly getting used to the flames.
She could tell from its eyes that it was no ordinary animal. It was smart, and it was learning.
The battle ebbed and flowed, settling into a rhythm that wore away Mel’s defenses bit by bit. If she had been at full strength, she didn’t doubt that she could have killed the snake, but she wasn’t even at half.
“Come swallow me then, you overgrown pair of boots!” Mel screamed at it. “I’ll make snake steaks from the inside and cut my way out!”
For a moment, Mel thought the snake had understood her threats and was backing off, but it was just coiling up for another strike.
This time, Mel was ready for it. She used [Quickstep] to move laterally behind a thick tree. The snake curved at nearly a 90-degree angle after her. Mel countered with another [Quickstep], curving around the tree more, then another, and another.
Though [Quickstep] used only a small amount of stamina, using them in quick succession was more draining than she would have thought. The snake continued to come at her, but when Mel tried to use [Quickstep] again, she couldn’t muster the strength.
Stumbling backwards, Mel fell flat on her back with the snake’s snapping jaws less than a foot away from her face. Its hot, reeking breath filled her nostrils.
Rolling to the side, Mel got to her feet and slipped around the tree the snake had encircled. With all of her strength, she drove her twinblade with both arms into the muscular bulk of the snake. She felt the blade impale the snake and thunk heavily into the bark beneath.
Mel took a few shaky steps back, admiring her handiwork. “I Bugs Bunny’d that bitch,” she said with a throaty laugh.
The snake, however, did not find her trap amusing. It bled freely from its singular wound, which only increased as the creature struggled against the impaling strike.
Mel might not have another viable weapon, but at least the snake wasn’t bearing down on her anymore.
She summoned [Hidden Mist], unsure how she was going to get herself out of this situation. If she took back her weapon, she would free the snake. She did have a quiver and a short bow from the Bloodtide Archer, but she wasn’t trained in it.
The [Simple Dagger] she had wasn’t going to do a damn thing to its thick scales. One of the snake’s fangs was longer than it was. Probably sharper too.
Before Mel could completely conceal herself or figure out her next step, the snake made its move.
Rather than try to free itself, the snake wrapped its entire 10-foot length around the tree and squeezed with all of its might. Mel watched in horrified amazement as it shattered the thick tree trunk with supernatural force.
With great ease, it slithered free of its prison with Mel’s twinblade still impaled in its emerald green hide.
Mel lunged forward, then back out again with [Quickstep]. She tapped the twinblade with a finger. It disappeared in a swirl of ash and reappeared in her hand, several feet away, a heartbeat later. “I’m not being taken out by a snake,” she snarled as she waded back into the fray.
The snake’s newfound respect for Mel was evident in the way it kept out of her reach as much as possible, only attacking when it had a clear opening.
An opening that Mel was determined not to reveal. She could spin her twinblade faster than the snake could strike, but she was slowing. It was only a matter of time before she was too slow to stop the snake.
Arrows whistled through the woods, sinking into the snake’s scaly hide. Hissing, it whipped its head around to seek out the newest threat.
A man bellowed, charging behind his round metal shield and trampling everything in his way.
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Combat Art: [Bull Rush]
Shane, the heavily armored Defender, crashed into the middle of the snake’s long body.
With the force of his combat art behind him, Shane pinned the snake against another tree until its roots began to pull free from the dirt. While these trees were huge, they were nothing compared to the power behind combat arts and monsters.
Another streaking line flashed through the trees, leaving behind a trail of ruby-red energy.
Combat Art: [Powershot]
Despite getting a face full of arrows, the snake still lunged for Shane’s throat. If he had been able to slam his shield closer to its neck, it might not have been able to move so freely.
It was a rookie mistake.
Mel recovered enough to slice upward through its hardened scales now that it was distracted. A gout of flame softened the emerald hide, and her blade opened it up in a four-foot-long gash.
Before the snake could switch targets again, a small bolt of blue light struck its hide, leaving a faint scorch mark. A second, larger bolt of blue light slammed after the first, sending the snake onto its side.
“I won’t lose another!” Maddie screamed, wielding her large staff overhead and summoning another bolt of blue energy from its crooked tip.
Sabrina was right beside her, firing off a smaller blue bolt from the tip of a wand.
A sword flashed through the air as Nathan brought his broadsword down onto the creature’s scaly hide.
In just a few short seconds, the battle had turned completely against the snake. With the aid of the others, the snake didn’t stand a chance. It tried to flee, but Nathan used [Exploit] to deal a savage blow that ended its flight before it began.
The snake shuddered and hissed, then fell very still.
You defeat the [Juvenile Verdigrand Python (Copper Rank)].
You gain extra runes of Mist aspect experience for slaying an Elite monster.
You gain extra Battle Points for slaying an Elite monster.
Your [Agility (Mist)] advances to [Copper Rank (Grade 2)].
Silvery streams of runic energy flowed into Mel’s bone-weary body. The invigorating power pushed back some of the aching pain.
Similar streams diverged towards everyone else, though the motes didn’t shine as brightly.
Mel leaned against a nearby tree to catch her breath. Maddie stepped up beside her and raised her staff in both hands, chanting softly.
When she slammed the butt of her staff onto the ground, a flash of golden energy erupted from her and spread out in a small circle.
Combat Art: [Sacred Path]
Mel expected her health to jump up, or some sort of healing magic to fill her red bar with ease.
This wasn’t a game. Things weren’t so easy.
The gash on Mel’s shoulder did heal, however. It closed up before her eyes. In seconds, the wound was gone, as if it never existed. The large wound marker vanished from her health. Her natural health recovery remained unchanged, but the wound had been practically erased.
Mel rolled the shoulder experimentally. It was as good as new. No soreness, no pain, nothing. Her lower health was the only indication she had been hurt. Well, that and the bloodstains.
Not what I was hoping for, but I’ll take it.
She looked at the assembled faces before her. It wasn’t often that she was at a loss for words.
The way she stormed off, the way things had been left…she had thought she was back on her own again.
“Friends don’t leave friends behind,” Sabrina said, smiling at her. She looked over at the snake and shivered. “I always hated snakes.”
“Shouldn’t have gotten that job in Houston then,” Nathan said, pulling his sword out of the snake’s body and immediately sliding it into the makeshift holster on his belt.
Now that Mel knew what to look for, each of them had some piece of string or rope that they used to holster their weapons.
She frowned, which Nathan took to be aimed at him. “Listen, Mel…I’m sorry for the way I acted. Travis was like a brother to me and…well, I’m sorry. You did everything you could to help. I know that. We all do. Besides that, we owe you our lives.”
“Those rat bastards would have gotten each of us,” Shane agreed. “I’m just glad we could repay the favor.”
Bernard slipped his bow over his shoulder. “I’ve got more than one debt to work off.” He kicked at the dirt and avoided looking Mel in the eyes. “If you’ll let me. Let us.”
Mel could hardly believe what she was hearing. “You want me to join you?”
“More like we want to follow you,” Sabrina clarified. “You clearly are much more skilled at this than us.” She motioned to the snake. “You were fighting this thing when we got to you. Any one of us would have been dead if they were alone against it. We…want to learn from you.”
“Is that why nobody is looting the python?” Mel asked.
“What, like skinning it alive?” Bernard said, looking a bit queasy. “I don’t do well around guts and stuff.”
Mel shook her head. “Like this.” She reached forward and touched the serpent’s body, looting it.
(1) [Serpent Aspect Gem] has been stored in your inventory.
You find (1) [Pair of Scalebane Trousers].
You find (1) [Pair of Scalebane Gloves].
You find (3) [Vials of Weak Verdigrand Poison].
As floored as Mel was by finding another aspect, her reaction was nothing compared to the others. The scalebane trousers and gloves rolled onto the ground, unable to fit inside Mel’s crowded inventory.
The vials of poison rolled to a stop in front of her boots.
“What the hell?!” Shane cried.
“How did you do that? What did you just do?” Bernard asked.
“Is that looting?” Sabrina said.
“Are you telling me we could have been looting all the dead creatures this entire time?”
“What dead creatures?” Sabrina pointed out. “We ran from everything that had teeth, and one monster that looked at us cutely!”
“Hey, that little brown nugget looked and talked like a pokemon. It probably had some sort of deadly poison attack with its tail!”
“It was so cute though…”
So that’s what happens when I don’t have the space in my inventory for loot, Mel thought, ignoring the commotion and the items on the floor.
She took out the aspect gem from her inventory, its emerald green glow lighting up her smiling face.
“Holy shit, what is that?” Nathan asked.
“This,” Mel said, lifting it up higher for all to see, “is an aspect.”