After he had refreshed the Mark on Miguel Ryan headed back to the discarded skin of the truly massive reptile. Fury agreed to scout the area around Miguel so the Scout could make progress along the escarpment so that those two were still on track completing their initial objectives.
The snakes spoor was ridiculously easy to follow. The winding trail of flattened earth and fallen vegetation stayed on mostly flat ground and his quarry had taken meticulous care in choosing a path that allowed it to pass through the thick vegetation with minimal disturbance. The edges of the spoor were sharp and defined and the absence of any crumbling told Ryan that it was fresh, very fresh. Ryan couldn’t judge the speed of the reptile because the lack of such indicators as stride, depth of track and spatter. Nonetheless, he judged, the massive snake could not have been moving at too fast a pace and was close by.
Following the spoor through the tranquil bush could have been fairly idyllic if he hadn’t been tense in anticipation. The dappled shade under the thick bush, the lack of struggle moving through the thick vegetation and the slightly damp smells could have been soothing. So to were the sounds of birdlife, insects and the wind rustling the bush that accompanied him on his track relaxing companions on this adventure.
Ryan’s first indication that the situation had changed was the sudden absence of just those sounds of wildlife. From one moment to the next it appeared that the bush had collectively decided to hold its breath. The sudden cessation of ambient noise clued Ryan in to the impending encounter quicker than any boss fight soundtrack ever could and he immediately stopped moving, straining his senses and hoping he hadn’t been detected. The clatter and crash of boulders tumbling down somewhere ahead and a dull thud he could feel through the soles of his feet followed by a bassily thrumming hiss of overwhelming volume reassured him that, for the moment at least, his presence went unremarked.
Ryan stealthily resumed his approach, taking utmost care to softly and precisely place his feet with the aim to minimise any vibrations caused by his steps. What slight wind stirred the undergrowth was also in his favour, brushing his scent away to his left. He stepped around another thick bush and froze once more. The scene that burned itself into his memory forever was as hilarious as it was frightening. The grotesquely bloated python must have tried to scale the small ridge ahead and thanks to his immense weight collapsed part of the precariously balanced rock tower that was now pinning down the tip of its tail. Its head was caught higher up the slope, the broad triangle jammed backwards into a narrow slit between two massive boulders. The body, which Ryan judged to be a good 30 metres long, was fully stretched between the two immobile points, lifting of the ground at places. The massive reptile was well and truly stuck, unable to bring to bear its probably insane strength to free itself from the position it was caught in.
Identify told him about his unbelievable fortune. Ryan was facing a Level 27 Fat Constrictor and on parsing that bit of new knowledge Ryan couldn’t suppress the chuckle that inadvertently escaped him. Vicious hissing resumed immediately and the snake’s surface started undulating and shivering, making another attempt to escape the situation it had gotten caught in. None of the three boulders that pinned it down showed the slightest inclination to release their prey and Ryan, presented with this golden opportunity, had to decide whether he was willing to share the experience with Miguel.
It didn’t take long to make the selfish decision not to, because ultimately, Ryan argued with himself, he was a couple Levels behind the Guild’s main combat group and needed to catch up again. So, with only a slight sense of guilt he made a wide detour around the trapped python and started to climb the slope to get a good angle on the head of his quarry. Fatty, as Ryan had quietly dubbed it, started fading its pattern to a indistinct grey matching the sandstone it was caught by when it detected his approach.
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It took Ryan about five minutes carefully moving from boulder to precariously balanced boulder to find a suitable perch. Slightly below level with Fatty’s head and facing it at an oblique angle from about ten metres away Ryan, in awe, figured that the head was nearly as long as he was tall.
Before he attempted a shot Ryan reconsidered whether his chosen approach was correct. He had no doubt that the scales would prove to be a formidable armour and even if his broad-heads or bodkin arrows penetrated the massive body it would take forever to bleed out. Hitting a vital organ on the humongous snake on purpose was also out as Ryan wasn’t particularly familiar with snake anatomy, having no clue where he would find the heart and lungs. His only option then, if he didn’t want to pincushion the snake with dozens of arrows, was scrambling its brain.
So, resolved that his approach was reasonable, Ryan materialised his bow and a bodkin arrow and with deliberate care, taking all the time he needed, drew back and aimed for Fatty’s left eye. At this angle the soft point of ingress should allow the arrow to perforate the snakes head-space and hit it’s comparatively small brain. ‘Like aiming for an elephant’s brain’ Ryan thought to himself before he released the string. The sharp twang of the string and the near immediately following squish of the arrow impacting ocular matter were nearly inseparable as the arrow travelled the short intervening distance near instantly.
Ryan had clearly lobotomised his quarry because it started shivering and twitching violently, unable to convulse because it was stretched out between the rocks. Still, the lack of an Experience ding told him it wasn’t dead. Yet! So, choosing a broadhead, Ryan drew again, slightly adjusting his point of aim to create a different trajectory, and released. The twitching and shivering continued unabated, but his Experience ding still failed to alert him of the reptile’s death. So another arrow was released, and then another. ‘Like shooting fish in a barrel’ Ryan contemplated as he released his fifth arrow.
That still failed to produce the expected result so Ryan seriously contemplated relocating so that he could take Fatty’s headspace under fire through the right eye before, finally, the Experience ding interrupted his thoughts, shortly followed by the double ding of his level going up by two.
“You killed the snake!?!” came Fury’s mental message, filled with doubt, seconds later. “Yes. Easily.” Ryan replied smugly. The 780 Experience, Ryan had checked immediately, he had received as his half-share, had moved both soulbonds a significant step closer to Level 25. It re-affirmed his decision to not share the Experience with others but, Ryan knew, it would be a criminal waste to not have the mountain of meat and scales harvested by the Guild so he gave his brother a call after Fury had sent him a “This I have to see.”
“You have a problem?” William immediately started the conversation once he picked up the call.
“Depends on your definition of problem. And why do you always assume I call with a problem?” Ryan’s smug sense of self-satisfaction hadn’t handled William’s assumption well and so his reply was a bit snippier than intended.
“Because, brother dear, you’ve been sent out to scout for threats. You’re literal job-description is finding problems and informing the Guild if you can’t handle it on your own.” William snipped back. Ryan could hear his brother was stressed and, mollified by that knowledge and the response, replied in a more measured tone. “I’ve dealt with the threat, but my problem is that I have a massive snake.” Ryan paused to let that sink in. “I need help to harvest a literal mountain of meat and materials.”
“Sure, we can send a team through a Portal. How much work are we looking at?” William clearly wasn’t impressed by Ryan’s crude attempt at humour.
“Uhmm, I don’t know? Can the guild find a use for approximately” Ryan had to pause to make a rough calculation, “fifty plus cubic metres of fat python?”
“Come again?” William sounded floored. “What on earth did you kill?”
“As I said. A massive snake. To be precise, a Level 27 Fat Python, about 30 metres long and diameter of a bit over a metre and a half. You can see why I might need a lot of help harvesting.” the last sentence came out a bit whiny because Ryan hadn’t planned on spending his day butchering or guarding the butchers.
“Wow. Fine, give me 15 minutes and then open the Portal.” William had clearly decided to not question his brother further and get the team ready instead.
“Sure, will do.” Ryan sent before he signed off and decided to scout the immediate vicinity of his kill in the intervening time.