The little snake only heard a hacking sound and instinctively flinched, only the feel a terrible burning spread along its body as it received the Zin Frog’s attack. What hit the little snake was the Zin Frog's spit, containing extremely strong toxins and a burning acid. The spit splashed along it’s back and right side, the little snake would have received it straight in the face if it had not flinched back in that moment. The little snake had made little noise during it's life, now, the little snake let loose something chillingly close to a shriek. The little snake did not know how to react, the enemy was evidently a distance away, yet it could still harm the little snake.
Instinct suppressed the confusion in the little snake's mind, directing the little snake to begin closing in on the Zin Frog, which was no more than a meter away. The sight, if viewed from afar, was quite pitiful, the little snake, with its weak physique, couldn’t match the Zin Frog as it easily moved around the ground, striking the little snake with it’s toxic, acid spit. Every time the Zin Frog spat, a hacking sound could be heard, giving the little snake a split moment to try to avoid the noxious projectiles. Every time the little snake tried to dodge the projectiles it would only partially succeed, protecting its head while taking the projectiles with parts of its body.
The little snake squirmed on the ground as a variety of toxins surged through its body, the damage being only marginally mitigated by the chill circulating within the little snake's body. The rampaging toxins on the inside were joined by the acids eating away at the little snake’s scales, causing it to screech as its skin bubbled, scabbed and burst. The acid leached down into the tissues beneath the skin, the power within battling the chill that had risen up to suppress it. The toxins of the frog were different from any the little snake had encountered before, being particularly vicious and seemingly driven by an abnormal power that worked against the suppression of the chill. The confusion in the little snake’s mind intensified as it could not find out how it was being attacked, mobilizing the chill within it’s body to protect itself.
As the situation grew increasingly dire, the little snake attempted to release the chill from it’s body to try countering the incoming attacks. The intent that filled the little snake’s mind affected the chill within it’s body, causing it to roil and churn violently as it circulated within the little snake, soon becoming surging waves that helped suppress the acid and toxins ravaging it’s body. The little snake opened it’s mouth as, from deep within it’s body, a wave of chill passed up it's throat, and spilled from the gaping mouth.
This entire process happened almost instantly from the Zin Frog’s prospective. The frog could only see the dull white eyes of the little snake, which had been writhing in pain, suddenly come to life with an ethereal grey light as it opened it’s mouth. From the little snake’s mouth and nose poured a fine, pale blue mist that seemed to devour all warmth from the surroundings. The mist began pooling around the little snake as it was spewed, quickly rising to obscure it’s battered body, and creating a small, billowing cloud that enshrouded an area three times the little snake’s length. The pale blue cloud rested only a meter from the Zin Frog, causing it to sense danger for the first time, in response it could only begin spewing more and more projectiles into the mist. The spit that entered the mist was suppressed by the chill that pervaded it, becoming weaker and slower, as if the mist was denser than it had any right to be, causing the projectiles to miss the little snake enshrouded within.
The most bizarre sensation filled the little snake’s mind, within the confines of the cloud, it could vaguely sense the area around it. There were no defined details, only the sense of the detritus ridden solid ground stretching out around it, and open space above. What caught the little snake’s attention were the projectiles entering it’s field of perception, appearing as flying points of brighness as the power within conflicted with the chill of the mist. The little snake’s rage took over as it perceived the direction the spit came from, its will propelling the mist in the direction of the Zin Frog.
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The mist seemed to suddenly lunge toward the Zin Frog, revealing the little snake and quickly traversing the one meter distance and catching it by surprise, though startled, with it’s quick reflexes, the frog escaped the enveloping mist while counter attacking with a spit projectile. The Zin Frog did not escape unscathed, a small gust of the pale blue mist attacked the rear leg of the frog, easily seeping through the porous skin. The chill that seeped into the Zin Frog began to attack viciously, it did little actual damage as a power suffused into the frog’s body rose to combat it. The pain of the chill was enough to make the frog miss it's landing, causing it to stumble. The little snake could sense the small amount of chill battling within the frog, with this strange sense it mobilized the rest of the cloud that had missed to attack again.
The frog was only momentarily stunned, but it was far to late to dodge, and it could only use its life saving move, regurgitating the contents of it’s stomach, that appeared as a black bile filled with grisly toxins and vicious acids, into the pale blue mist that had almost devoured it. When the two forces met, they seemed to both mix and repel as they fell to the ground in a hissing, bubbling grey goop. The goop quickly evaporated, leaving a patched of dead grey ground, emanating a toxic haze, however, the end result of the exchange just barely favoured the little snake. When the mist and bile had clashed, a great majority of the mist imploded on th point of contact to kill the momentum of the noxious projectile, however, because of the mists physical nature, tendrils of fine, pale blue mist wound around the frog’s body and entered it. The two creatures faced off as their bodies were ravaged by their opponents’ vicious attacks.
The pressure on the frog increased as more chill wormed its way into it’s body, causing the battle within to grow in ferocity. The Zin Frog was paralyzed from the pain, it’s once vibrant colours had become dull, obscured by patches of grey here and there. The chill had wormed into the frog’s muscles, where an opposing force kept it at bay, stopping it from invading the blood and circulating through it’s vulnerable innards. The little snake was in a similar situation, is body horribly scarred by the acids in the frog’s saliva, the chill within it’s body was also battling the toxins seeping into the muscle layers.
Unlike the frog, the little snake was not paralyzed, and despite the pain two coherent impulses vied within it. The instinct to flee from such a confrontation urged the little snake to escape while it could, the impulse resisting it was the indescribable urge to kill the thing that had driven the little snake to this point. The impulses lasted for no longer than a breath’s time before they were overwhelmed by an all to familiar instinct, the little snake had driven itself to it’s limit, expending great amounts of energy, now, it was hungry.
The little snake ignored the damage to it’s body and slithered toward the struggling frog, though it would eat it, the little snake dared not attempt to eat the frog while it still lived, for it wold be unimaginably vulnerable, and even extensive movements on the part of the frog could damage the physically weak snake. When the little snake sensed the frog directly in front of it, it reached out and bit into the frog, however, like with the rat, it could only break a small layer of skin, it’s small and underdeveloped fangs only barely gaining purchase. The little snake mobilised it’s will and the toxins and chill within it’s body wormed its way into the fist sized Zin Frog, just as the toxins coating the fog’s skin began seeping into the little less than a foot-long snake, beginning their last life and death struggle.
The struggle lasted for long moments only ending when the Zin Frog’s defences fell to the ever-encroaching chill. By the time it won, the little snake was already half dead, it was covered in burn scar tissue and it’s scales had turned purple from the poison, damaged to the point that they ripped, oozing green tinged blood from only rubbing against the ground. The little snake felt an alternating hot and cold burning sensation spreading through it’s body and had already lost all sensation in it’s tail, mouth and throat unable to taste anything.
The little snake’s mind was drowned in an exhausted, pain induced haze, it’s breaths coming in haggard and strained. The little snake nearly choking itself to swallow the unsatisfying meal, by the time the frog died it had already turned cold and it did not become any better as the snake paused to recover. The little snake painted a wretched sight as it’s battered body slithered toward the hole in an absent-minded haze, completely unaware of the ominous silence that suffused the putrid marsh.