We shot through the white light of the portal and entered a tunnel of streaking blue lights. I thought I had felt the briefest of scans when we hit the light, but shrugged it off. That didn’t matter too much, what mattered was that we made it through. I didn’t have much time for introspection, as soon enough another white light appeared and we rocketed through it.
Changing direction after hitting the end of the tunnel saved our lives, as a gigantic beam of red energy smashed down into our path, sending dust and small rocks our way. Elendria had surprised me, shooting upward and changing direction almost immediately, which allowed her to avoid any damage at all.
“Messsmer Eyes”
“Ungh.” I groaned as I banked as hard as I could to my left. The rocks normally wouldn’t do anything to my wings, but they were saturated with whatever that red energy beam was and had just enough magic energy to interact with my wings. As I corkscrewed higher, I saw the monstrosity that had attacked us.
Its body was coiled beneath it, but I could see at the part facing us was at least three stories high. Its head had two arms fused to the sides, and extending from the arms was what should have been wings. Instead they formed a snake’s hood. In the center of each hood was a gigantic representation of an angry eye, glaring at us as it leaked bits of the same strange energy.
“Excssselent.” It hissed as it tasted the air with its forked tongue. “My first visssitors in centuriesss.”
“Ice lance.” Elendria said calmly, sending a spear into the side of the things head. Unfortunately it merely swayed backwards and easily dodged the projectile.
“Rude.” It said as I kept looking at it. The bottom scales of what was increasingly looking like a dragon morphing into a snake were a sickly looking green. From what I could see of the back, there was a repeating pattern of brown and black scales, most likely a diamond shape. It shuddered a bit as its tongue flicked through the path of the magic. “Oooooh yesssss. Masster was right, your magic issss deliciousssss.”
“Too bad you won’t get to enjoy it.” I said, firing several mana bullets designed for piercing at its belly. To my shock, they shattered as they struck, not even scratching the scales.
“He he he.” The snake chuckled as it turned to stare at me. “That tickled.” Once its head locked on to me, I felt the strongest feeling of danger I had ever felt before. Using every trick of gravity and magic I had with my wings, I flung myself to the side just as the head snapped its jaws right where I had been seconds ago. Not wanting to waste the opportunity he so graciously gave me, I sent a few more mana bullets straight into where its eyes should have been. They too shattered against scales.
“Die. Miasmatic breath.” It hissed as the head turned towards me and sent a cloud of poison hurling in my direction.
“Blizzard.” Elendria shouted as she interposed herself between me and the cloud, trying to engulf it or at least slow it down with a wide blast of frigid air. I saw the cloud curling around the edges, and grabbed her with a gravity well and flung the both of us clear. Not wanting to give it another opportunity for a strike, we both gained enough altitude that we would have a bit longer than a second to react.
“Foolisssssh prey.” It hissed at us, and I could see it grinning. I shivered at the sight. Snake grins just seemed so very unnatural. “Massster took our sight to remove our greatest weaknesses. And gave us something so much more in return. It took the loss of our eyes to truly see.” I nodded at Elendria as it spoke, and we silently drifted apart. I frowned as it flicked its tongue a few more times, following me unerringly. “I can’t wait to taste demigod. It’s been so long sincccce I’ve had sssuch a good meal.”
“You might not want to make a meal of me. You might choke on it.” I said as I gathered my magic. Time to see just how much fire resistance a former dragon still had. “Rend the fields of magnetism and hurl a chunk of the stars at my enemies. Coronal Mass Ejection.” I made up a chant to help visualize the magic, and hurled a massive blast of plasma at the creature. To my horror, it simply washed over the scales and spread outward in a wave of destruction, glassing the ground and turning the distant trees to ash.
The snake shuddered in ecstasy, coiling and uncoiling its body to bath in the heat. “Yesssss.” It groaned. “You might get to live for a while as my slave, demigod. You can keep me warm in exchange for your life, how does that sound?”
“Not happening.” I said, frowning as I tried to think of a plan. “Well, I knew fire probably wouldn’t work.”
“My turn.” Elendria said.
The killing cold pales in comparison to my icy wrath.
Unflinching, unfeeling,
No amount of begging will spare you.
With knowledge born from another world,
My power reaches unimaginable heights.
Within my domain, all obeys my will.
And my will demands you to stop.
All motion, down to the tiniest particles of matter.
Obey my command, and freeze.
Absolute Zero
The ground shattered from the extreme temperature changes as Elendria sent her strongest magic to blast the creature. Once again the magic washed over the creature doing no damage, but I noticed a faint blue barrier had formed over it. One that wasn’t there when I had attacked.
“Foolsssss.” It hissed, its head snapping in her direction.
“ELENDRIA MOVE!” I screamed, diving toward the creature as it flicked its tongue to the tip of its nose. With a quick flex, a stream of venom so powerful it resisted even the quick gravity well I threw in its way shot at her.
“Bastion.” She called out as she created a wall of ice in front of her to buy herself a few extra seconds to escape. I watched in horror, unable to do anything as whatever the creature had shot out rapidly carved a smoking hole through the ice, missing Elendria by inches.
“Bastard.” I growled, diving down so that it had less time to react to my spell. “Void slash!” I spent a bit more mana to create a wider blade that would be harder to escape. I could feel a cruel smile cross my lips as I watched the blade of shadows shoot across the gap between us.
“Sssssonic Ssseal.” The creature said, revealing a rattlesnake tail that was suddenly vibrating with a fury. The smile dropped from my lips as my blade disappeared and a searing pain shot through my chest. The final three sections of the creature’s tail turned the black of void magic, and it cocked its head in my direction. “Such a terrible spell. Using the void itself to cut through all defenses. Even my draconic resistance to magic wouldn’t have helped. This type of magic is far too dangerous for you mortals. Greater Ssssonic Ssseal!” With a much more vigorous rattle, the pain in my chest returned with a vengeance, and I could see another third of the tail change color.
“Void slaaaaaah!” I tried to cast another slash at the creature, but the burning in my chest increased to the point where I lost track of the spells.
“Comet strike!” As I was recovering from the pain, I saw a massive ice chunk slam into the side of the snake’s head, disrupting the lunge it was surely preparing for. “Sean! Get out of there!” I heard Elendria cry out, and I couldn’t agree with her more. Shooting skyward, I almost escaped the tail that cracked my ankle.
Flipping uncontrollably through the air, I slammed into the ground poorly and felt my left arm break under the impact. I struggled to my feet, fighting hard not to lose my lunch as my balance returned. This snake hit like a truck, and we were going to need some extra defense. I could use Gramash’s shield, but that constellation didn’t boost defense as well as the Colossus. Plus this thing spit poison or acid, I hadn’t gotten exposed and wasn’t willing to test it. Either way, it wasn’t shooting magic so the reflect magic bonus on Gramash’s shield wouldn’t help. So, Colosus with a 50% defense bonus, Southern eel to avoid a killing blow, or Ashen tree of life to boost healing? This thing was hitting too hard to make the healing worth it, so I went with the Colosus. Raising my hand, I summoned the constellation.
“AAAAAH!” I cried out in agony as what felt like bolts of lightning shot through my head. Falling to my knees, I blinked the tears out of my eyes. I had a bad feeling that I had gained something’s attention with my pained cry, and I launched myself skyward as fast as I could. By the time I got well outside of the hopeful attack range of the snake, I slowed down and looked at the blinking notification in the corner of my vision.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Warning!
We really shouldn’t have to point this out, but you are on a completely different planet. You aren’t in the same solar system, and we aren’t going to tell you if you are even in the same galaxy. The constellation you are trying to summon doesn’t exist here.
“Sean, you ok?” I heard Elendria ask as she eyed my broken wrist.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I groaned. “We need a plan. We’re getting our asses kicked.”
“Come back and play!” We ignored the taunting calls of the snake below us.
“Do we? Why don’t we just take off? It’s not like it can get us up here.”
I looked at her for a moment, debating. “I. I just feel like this is important. We’re gonna have to take this thing down sometime, it’s gotta be a champion of Apophis. If we can take down his greatest champion, we can start weakening his hold on this world.”
“Alright.” She nodded.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. You say it needs doing, we’ll do it.”
“Ok. What do we know about it?”
“Fire and magic are no good. If it can hurt him, he’ll just seal it away with his tail. Physical attacks aren’t too effective because of those scales. I saw your mana bullets shatter on them, so did just about everything I hit them with. He’s too agile to get close and pry them up, and if we do get too close he’ll blast us with that poison gas.”
“He’s scared of my void magic.” I added, thinking. “Think if we removed his tail that it’ll break the seal on my magic?”
“Probably.” Elendria nodded. “But how? We can’t get through his scales.”
“Ah, but there’s where some rattlesnake knowledge comes in.” I said with a smile. “His tail isn’t scales, its dried out skin basically. You should be able to pry it apart if you can get some ice to spread through the gaps. Just leave one rattle segment attached so he doesn’t feel you doing anything.”
“And what’ll you be doing?”
“Distracting him.” I said as I started conjuring part of my distraction. “I think I have a way to blind him too.”
“Blind the eyeless snake?” She quipped, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Guess I walked into that one.” I conceded. “But some snakes have a special organ that can detect heat. I’m betting Apophis modified it, and I’m gonna destroy it. Just gotta get close enough.”
“Yeah, but what about that GOOD GOD WHAT’S THAT SMELL?!” She shrieked, darting back and covering her nose.
“This?” I said with a smile. “Why, this is a sulfur compound cocktail. The kind of compounds that give rotten eggs their smell. Liquid stench, and a lot of them will evaporate at normal temperatures, so they’re gonna stick around his nose.”
“You are a very bad man.” She grinned. “Remind me not to get into a prank war with you.”
“Noted. Ready for round two?” I grinned back. At her nod, I dove back down, creating a shield of mana over the stink bomb as we weaved back and forth between blasts of energy from those annoying eyes on his hood and sprays of venom. As we got closer to striking range, I couldn’t stop the smile as I saw the snake drop down into a coil, tensing as it prepared to launch itself at us.
“Split!” I shouted as I saw the muscles tensing just before it sprang. Elendria and I shot off into different directions as I let the bomb drop, bursting the mana bubble and letting its contents spread out as the poor snake shot forward to chomp on us. I know it sensed something, but it must have been instinct to open its mouth as it tried to latch onto us, and I couldn’t help but laugh as it crashed back down, thrashing around and hissing in rage.
“I WILL CRUSH YOUR BONES TO DUST FOR THIS!” It hissed, sounding almost like a pissed off cat rather than a snake. Proud of how well the plan worked, I made several tactical errors. I didn’t press the attack, underestimated my foe, and forgot how quickly plans fall apart when you are in battle.
“Mesmer eyes!” It cried out, and I didn’t expect the variant of the skill. Instead of blasting me with energy, the eyes flashed before flowing through a series of colors that started in the center before traveling outward in rings. I could swear I felt the presence of an angry snake god behind the enemy, but couldn’t help but sway my body in time with the undulations of the dragon snake’s body. Those eyes. So beautiful. There was some commotion in the background, but I didn’t care. The eyes.
“Gah!” I cried out in pain as a block of ice slammed into my already broken arm, shooting me backwards and out of range of the gas cloud that was now swirling around where I used to be.
“DON’T LOOK INTO THE EYES!” Elendria screamed at me as I recovered, shaking my head to get rid of the lingering obsession with the eyes. I took a few moments on my knees to collect myself.
“Meddling pesssst! You can die first!” With a flick of its tail, it started attacking Elendria with a vengeance.
“Oh hell no.” I growled, pressing my magic through the ground. As Elendria evaded another tail slam, I saw the head rear back to strike. “Stone fist.” Before the snake could strike, a gigantic hand made of stone erupted from the earth and gripped it just behind the head. Before I could celebrate, or lock it down even more, the body whipped around and coiled around the stone arm, crushing it in less than a second.
“I can see why the massster wishessss you dead.” Glaring at me, I couldn’t help but give the snake a mocking bow.
“We do what we can.” I knew baiting a strike was going to be dangerous, but it had to be done. Behind my back, I modified a mana bullet, stuffing the central part with as much electrical and flame mana as I could. I needed it to burst with maximum damage, so I made the exterior as thin as I could. “Let’s give him a preview of what’s coming, yeah?” I launched myself forward, hoping to get a bit of surprise.
“Lightning bolt.” Before the snake could open his mouth, I sent a shocking blast towards the tip of his nose. As it reared back in instinct from the attack, I fired the true attack at the relatively small pit just behind his nose. The lightning basically shorted itself out on his scales, doing zero damage, but that wasn’t its point. Instead it made him use his evasive move, and he wasn’t ready to sway away as the bullet smashed into his very sensitive pit organ and unleashed havoc on the sensitive tissue.
Flipping his head skyward, the snake gave a roaring hiss that was somewhere between agony and rage. “Mesmer EYES!” Thinking I was prepared for what he was going to throw my way, I had a fraction of a second to react and accept the pain coming my way as thousands of smaller eyes opened up on the hood of the snake. Avoiding all the energy beams would be impossible, especially if it went with a spray and pray style of attack. Knowing I couldn’t withdraw my wings fast enough, I wrapped them in front of myself as I crossed my arms and used as much mana as I could to reinforce everything.
Then my world went white, red, and painful as energy beams lanced out from the hood in every direction, swirling around like mad. Dust erupted from around me as I was bounced around in agony, feeling my wings shredding as the energy destroyed them.
Minutes? Probably just a few seconds later but it felt much longer, I groaned as I tried to take inventory. My body was feeling like a gigantic bruise. Left arm was definitely still broken, as were both wings. The energy strands that usually hung off them were in tatters, and none were longer than a few inches. Both arms and thighs were covered in burns, the worrying kind that didn’t actually hurt. I was also down to less than a quarter of my spirit, and all I had managed to do was leave him half blinded.
“I do ssssso hope you survived little demigod.” I heard as I struggled to my feet. “When master’s priests finally arrive with the sacrifices for me, I’m going to have them remove your limbs and force you to watch as I sssslowly devour them. They’ll keep you alive for as long as possible as they slowly take more and more of you to feed me, and I’ll revel in your agony.”
“For a being that nobly stayed behind to ensure his descendants could escape, you truly have fallen far.” I taunted as I stepped out of the dust cloud. I gave a roguish grin as I saw the results of my attack. The left side of his face was bleeding badly from the pit organ, and the surrounding scales had either popped off from the force beneath, or looked scorched.
“Nobly? Please, don’t make me laugh. Sacrificing oneself isn’t noble. Master helped me realized this truth, and as thanks I now guard this for him, accepting payment in the form of mortals to consume. Mortals that displeased him. I am his guardian, his executioner, his symbol given flesh in this world!”
“And you’ll be the first sign of his rule that will be obliterated. You stand as a symbol of his tyranny, a symbol I’m going to enjoy tearing down.” As I slowly limped forward, I started conjuring several different spheres of compressed fire. Far more than a simple fireball, these were going to explode, and even if the pressure wave didn’t penetrate his scales and cause issues with his organs, I was planning on the explosions rocking his head about rather violently. “Your master will stop at nothing to get his way. There must be lines that can’t be crossed. And if he is too powerful to be brought before justice, I will bring justice to him.” I sent three orbs rocketing forward as a test, staggering them around and slightly below the snake’s head.
“More fire?”
“Explode.” I simply said, letting the first explosion rock his head upward, while the second sent it careening to the side before the final explosion sent it flipping down while the neck kept moving backward. I watched with indifference as the head staggered drunkenly for a second before a second volley of explosions rocked it around again.
“Explode.”
“Explode.”
“EXPLODE!” I used all but the last fifty of my spirit as I sent a continuous volley of explosions to keep the head rocking around. As the last one died down, the snake flopped to the ground, unable to move. Walking forward, I suddenly felt like a weight in my chest was lifted. Looking to the side, I saw Elendria had ripped off the tail and the colors that represented my sealed magics were rapidly fading.
“Did it work?” She asked as she rushed to my side. “What happened to you?”
“He had a few extra eyes on that hood. Can you give me a lift? Can’t really fly right now.”
“Sure.” Gently gabbing me by the armpits, she asked, “Where to? Neck or base of the skull?”
“Skull.” I answered. As we swiftly flew over the distance that would have taken me quite a bit to cross, I kept a close eye to see how quickly the snake was recovering. I must have rattled his brain pretty good, as the only indication that he was recovering was the occasional twitch of a muscle along his body.
As Elendria set me down, she asked, “You got enough left to finish this?”
“If I don’t, you’ll have to. I can at least open up the scales.” Saying that, I took a deep breath before concentrating almost all of my remaining spirit into one last strike, directed just below the base of his skull. “Void slash.” The largest arc of void I had ever called forth shot outward, slashing through the neck as easily as the tip of it carved a groove in the ground at my feet. As the neck parted with a squelch, a final crash as the nose hit the ground marked the end of the portal guardian.