A once dormant rage surged through every fiber of Thornes’ existence! His energy seethed in rage along with him. Red energy flowed jaggedly throughout his legs and propelled him upwards at rocketing speeds!

Swords held in front of him, ready to strike, Thorne smiled! “Today is the day!” He shouted as he frothed from the mouth. The snake’s planet-like eyes did not appear to be shocked. Instead, they calmly floated upward to track Thorne’s movements.

Thorne’s smile faltered upon seeing this, but it was too late to turn back! “I'LL KILL YOU!”

Screaming, Thorne released his attack! He knew that this would have to be it. One attack. One swing of the swords. One head rolling on the damp forest floor.

Red energy skyrocketed into his swords in a familiar pattern. Despite this cursed forest's unyielding mind attacks, he remembered one thing: the attack! Red lines of death extended past the twin blade’s edges. They continued for meters—only the longest blade could kill such a mighty, enormous beast.

Finally reaching his crescendo, Thorne released his attack! Floating dozens of meters in the air, parallel to the snake’s head, he swung his swords in a horizontal strike, looking to decapitate the beast completely!

The blades surged through the dark, frigid air with menacing speed. Time slowed as they approached their target, and Torne waited patiently with reserved glee.

‘Is this it?’ his mind raced, uncertain, ‘Will the beat finally die?’

He took a closer look at his own attack: crackling oceans of pure destruction and chaos, all intended to end the life of one being!

‘This has to be it!’ He smiled slowly in victory, ‘No attack of mine has ever been this powerful.’

The blade extended for dozens of meters, an endless attack. Inch by inch, they grew closer and closer to the mighty snake’s exposed neck. Surprisingly, the towering beast did not even dodge. Thorne knew that it was capable of moving with an agility that transcended anything he had seen before. Thus, as Throrn observed the snake's relatively calm disposition, he became puzzled.

‘Did I catch it off guard?’ He questioned the possibility inwardly, which caused his smile to grow even more expansive.

Confident of his victory, Thorne watched his mighty strike connect! The world stopped as the two unyielding red blades reached the neck of the once indomitable snake!

BOOOM!

Dust rose, and the forest’s energy exploded in outrage. Its Master had been attacked. Thorne waited patiently with an even more comprehensive smile ready to form as he watched the dust settle.

“N-No.” He stuttered out, his lip quivering. “It can’t be.”

Thorne’s face morphed entirely from glee and excitement to morbid realization. The snake was alive and unharmed at that.

Standing tall, the snake looked at him with imperious annoyance. Its neck was unharmed except for a fragile red mark, which contrasted uglily against its light green skin.

Knees trembling, Thorne held up his swords and slowly stumbled backward away from the snake, but it was too late. The beast surged forward with lightning-quick speed and flung its tree-sized tail at Thorne’s escaping figure.

Too enraptured in fear and disbelief, Thorne did not react and allowed the attack to strike without defending himself!

CRACK!

The thick tail connected with his exposed ribs, and all those bones subsequently shattered under the pure brute force of the strike.

His body flung out in the air and rag-dolled against trees and branches! His skin was cut, and even more, his bones were destroyed!

Thorne was broken.

One of his eyes had been forced shut due to colliding with a heavy tree branch. Thus, only through one eye could Thorne view the slowly advancing beast. It slithered menacingly across the forest floor, looking down at Thorne’s capitulated body with disgust.

“How?” He croaked out, his voice barely working.

‘I can’t do anything.” Thorne realized this as he was forced to accept the snake's punishment for him.

‘I lost.’

His broken bones, scraped and bloodied skin, and bruised exterior caused pain, but the damage was incomparable to the damage of that thought.

Stolen story; please report.

He had lost.

Only ten meters away from Thorne’s crippled figure, the apex serpent stopped and cast one final disdainful look down at him before spitting. Like before, the white blob of spit fell through the air slowly, but Thorne could do nothing this time.

A single tear escaped his unbroken eye as he watched in slow motion his impending death come closer. The fatal factor being spit. Unable to take it, Thorne closed his eyes and simply waited.

‘Was it worth it?’ Thorne questioned once again, ‘All the killing and training.’ Picturing the looming spit and towering snake, Thorn only had one thought. One broken, sad thought, ‘Was it worth it?’

He waited patiently, obediently awaiting his death, but it never came.

‘Wait, somethings wrong.’ Thorne realized, 'I'm not dead!

Struggling, Thorne forced his working eye open, and it subsequently widened in unadulterated shock at what he saw.

The spit was gone, or rather, it was being destroyed. Red energy seeped throughout the spitball, and it imploded in on itself after only a moment.

Mouth agape, Thorne lay there, unable to move while his mind raced, ‘How is this possible? Who did this? Did I do this?’ So many questions formed in his mind, only to be answered momentarily.

‘Master Khal.’ Thorne realized solemnly. A dark grey figure descended from a tree and approached Thorne’s decrepit body. He tried to move, to signal the Master’s attention, but it did not work. The looming red cultivator strode past him confidently, ignoring him. Well, ignoring him apart from one look.

Out of the corner of the Master’s eye, he cast Thorne one look. One devasting look. It contained nothing but pure disappointment.

Thorne opened his mouth to rebut his Master’s unspoken words, but it was too late as he walked well past Thorne’s corpse-like body. He could only swallow his words and watch on like a puppet, wondering what Master Khal would do.

The snake, slithering away from Thorne, swiveled its massive head in frantic surprise. Upon seeing the slow-walking Master Khal, the massive being froze in place, and its eyes shot downwards to look at the leafy forest floor.

‘It's scared.’ Thorne gasped, ‘No, it's not scared, it's terrified.’

Master Khal withdrew two weapons from thin air, two very familiar weapons.

‘He has the same blades!’ Squinting with his good eye, Thorne attempted to better survey the two black sabers in Master Khal's massive hands, ‘No, the runes are different.’ Sure enough, Master Khal’s blades only possessed red runic markings on the blades, while Thornes had both red and amber.

Shaking his head, Thorne continued watching in fascination. ‘What's he going to do?’

That question was answered in a singular, swift motion. There was a flash, a slight rumble, then silence.

‘H-h-how’ His jaw trembled upon viewing the sight before him. Repeaditly blinking his eyes, Thorne watched the scene in disbelief, ‘Is this real?’

It was, that was the only conclusion that Thorne could come to. No matter how often he closed and reopened his eyes, the scene would not change.

The snake's head would not miraculously reattach itself to its body.

‘How?’ Thorne asked again, ‘I couldn’t see anything!' Remembering what happened, Thorne still couldn’t understand how the snake was killed. In one moment, Master Khal was walking toward the beast with the twin blades at his side. The next, there was a massive snake head littering the forest floor. It seemed like something straight out of a fantasy!

Soon, Master Khal reached where Thorne lay. He stopped and looked disdainfully down at Thorne, “Heal yourself.” He ordered in a flat tone.

Unable to respond due to the pure authority Master Khal’s words commanded, he simply nodded and began to circulate his amber energy throughout his body.

As Thorne began the arduous healing process, Master Khal stood over him, doing nothing. He just stood there and waited. After about an hour, Thorne realized something, ‘I don’t have enough energy to heal myself.’ Never before had he had this problem; thus, it came as a great shock to him.

“Master Khal.” He croaked out tentatively. The massive red cultivator looked down at him, “I don’t have enough energy to heal myself.” He spoke as he looked down at the ground in shame. Each word was difficult to force out, not just because of the shame but also because he hadn’t drunk in what seemed to be days. His throat ached and begged for water, but Thorne could do nothing.

“Can you walk?” the Master asked while looking at his mangled legs with disinterest.

Thinking briefly, Thorne nodded.

Bobbing his head in understanding, Master Khal started to walk away from Thorne at a snail's pace, “Follow me.”

Struggling, Thorne forced his injured and fatigued legs to push himself up and slowly shuffle forward. His knees trembled and bucked, and a couple of times, Thorne almost toppled over. Only his balance and determination kept him upright.

“Officially, you and the other students were supposed to return tomorrow.” Master Khal said, not bothering to turn around and look at Thorne, “But you will return today.”

Nodding, Thorne did not ask any questions despite his deep curiosity and lack of answers. Rather, he put all his focus on not falling over. ‘I've already failed Master Khal and myself. I will not make a further fool of myself by being unable to walk.’ Thorne thought in determination.

Trudging through the forest, the rest of the journey was full of silence. Master Khal maintained a steady pace, which Thorne was forced to follow.

Finally, after what seemed to be forever, the pair reached a clearing in the dark forest. A sleek, grey, and blue hovercar was situated in the center of the cleaning. The hovercar was massive. It was more like a spaceship than a car. It was at least five times the size of the vehicle Thorne had traveled in to come here all those months ago.

Master Khal held out a small pendant and clicked a button on it.

‘It’s a key.’ Thorne surmised.

Sure enough, a slow rumble resounded through the clearing as a massive ramp slid out of the ship, beckoning for Thorne and Master Khal to enter.

For the first time, Master Khal turned around to look at Thorne. “Let's go,” He spoke in a mysterious tone, “Inside, I’ll explain everything.”

His head down and with dead, glazed eyes, Thorne nodded and followed his Master into the massive ship.