A small flying shadow was approaching me and it was really fast. I slowly focused on it and its shape became clear. It was a medium-sized snake, close to one meter in length.
The snake flew at me with its mouth open, getting closer and closer. I panicked and with full force hit it on the face with my fist, in that hand a yellow flower could be seen.
With a *Thud* sound the snake flew back but at the same time, the flower was ripped to shreds. It was as if everything became suddenly slow as I looked at the broken stem that was still in my hand and shouted.
“No! My healing item!” Without a second thought, I looked at the snake and angrily said. “Inspect *stupid snake*.”
***
-Kerpelo Snake Lv3-
Health: 9/10
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 4/6
***
I just glanced at its status and continued to inspect its name. “Inspect *stupid Kerpelo Snake*”
***
*Kerpelo Snake* - Low-tier monster, the monster is venomous, most weak-tier monsters keep their distance from it because of its venom.
***
“So it's venomous, I should be careful… Wait, I am a bush, can a snake even poison me?” The snake didn’t wait for me to regain my focus and attacked me again.
It bit me or at least it tried to, all the damage it could do to me was just tear a few leaves out of my body. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t pleasant but it wasn’t death treating at all, maybe only when it would attack me for five minutes straight it could do some real damage.
I weird smirk appeared on my imaginary face, as I didn’t even hesitate and hit the snake once more with my fist.
Another *Thud* sounded as my hand hit the snake on the head. It flew back and hit the wall that was behind it.
“If there are only snakes in this cave I can make it, even if they all attacked me together. Inspect *snake*.”
***
-Kerpelo Snake Lv3-
Health: 7/10
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 4/6
***
“Nice hit, it did two damage I guess its defense really not that strong.” This time I was the one that didn’t wait for it to regain its balance and attacked it.
Hit after hit rained on its head, as both of my hands were flying at it one after another. One hit with the hand that didn’t have any leaves and then another with the one that had, sounds of the rustle of leaves and branches hitting something could be heard inside the cave.
And after less than a minute of a one-sided battle, the stupid snake died. “*Self Awareness*.” I wanted to be sure that I didn’t get poisoned by the snake.
***
-Ontopary Bush Lv3-
Experience: 28/30
Rarity: Common
Health: 3/6
Mana: 6/12
Stamina: 2/4
Race: Berry Bush
Status: Intelligent(Unique)
***
“*Sigh* Looks like I am not poisoned and not even damaged.” I sighed in relief and then said with a serious tone.
”But my mana and stamina are pretty low, I should go and finish this up and kill the other snakes as fast as possible. I will take revenge for my flower!” I gave another glance at the dead snake that was lying on the ground while petals of yellow were scattered around it and continued to go deeper into the cave.
All that battle was barely a meter away from the cave entrance, just as I moved deeper I could see another four snakes, two of them closed on me and the other two stayed behind watching.
“The snakes behind look bigger, they are most likely the leaders or parents of this small colony, I should inspect them all.” And without further ado, I inspected all of the four snakes.
The two snakes that approached me were the same as the last one, but the two snakes that were still waiting behind were a little different. Not only that they were bigger in size, one of the snakes was gray in color and not green as the others.
***
-Kerpelo Snake Lv4-
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Health: 12/12
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 6/6
***
-Kerpelo Snake Lv6-
Health: 15/15
Mana: 3/3
Stamina: 8/8
***
“Level six that will be a tough nut to crack and why is it gray? Never mind, I should just concentrate on those two snakes that are closer to me for now.” Knowing that I can’t attack both of them so I chose only one target, the snake on the left. I didn’t want the snakes to jump at me together so I was the first to attack.
I rushed to the left snake and started to hit its head with my fists like the last time. The snake wasn’t surprised at all and tried to counterattack me with a bite, but all it got from that attack were branches and leaves stuck inside its mouth. I didn’t stop attacking even for a moment as my hits rained at it from above.
“Nothing personal but for my survival, all of you need to die!” I didn’t really care for those snakes, they didn’t do me any harm, but I needed their cave to survive the night, so it was them or me.
The second snake was startled and didn’t expect me to engage first, so it was a little late to the party. Even though it bit my back I didn’t care at all and continued pouncing on the poor snake that was under me.
I knew that I would level up after killing this snake, so I didn't even bother to inspect the poor bastard and waited for the mighty voice to inform me of my level-up. I didn’t need to wait for long, after another three hits on the snake's head my level went up.
*Experience reached the desired quantity “Ontopary Bush” leveled up to Lv4*
“Ha ha, it came.” I said happily and turned to face the other snake. The snake hissed at me and attacked again and again, but it still could not do any substantial damage to me. So I dealt with it as with the others, slowly beating it to death with my meeten fists. As I finished killing the second snake I looked at the other two that were still observing from behind.
To my surprise, the two snakes didn’t move from their original spot and just watched their brothers get killed. For this entire battle, I didn’t let my guard down from those two, even if they couldn't damage me. If they had jumped at me together it would have been still troublesome, but it didn’t happen.
“I should check my status for now, *Self Awareness*.“
***
-Ontopary bush Lv4-
Experience: 15/40
Rarity: Common
Health: 3/6
Mana: 4/14
Stamina: ¼
***
“This is bad. I should finish this fast or I will find myself in a world of trouble.” Before I could react the two last snakes approached me, the normal-looking snake rushed at me first and with hissing sounds attacked me. I wasn’t scared because there was not much difference between it and the others, so I just started to punch it as I did before.
But to my surprise I fell into a trap, as I moved a little to the side to hit the snake, the gray snake rushed to my back and entered inside me while twisting around my branches.
I was shocked I didn’t even know how to react, or more correctly I didn’t have the time to react. In just a few moments the snake's body was inside me and it started to tear me from the inside out.
I would never have thought that the gray snake was this intelligent and found a defect in my defense. It most likely taught that: “If the bites didn't work on him I should just find the best spot from where I can tear him to shreds.”, and that spot was from the inside.
“Get out!! Get out!!” I screamed as I tried to pull the snake out of my body, but all my tries were to no avail.
The other snake was backing off and was just staring at me as I struggled. I could feel my body slowly being torn from inside out and I couldn't do anything to stop it. The pain was intense, from it I even rolled onto the ground with the hope of easing it, but it didn’t do any good.
I knew that this time I was getting damaged, so I checked my status and saw my health slowly go down from three to two.
“NO!” I stood up and again inserted my hands into my body as I tried to get the gray snake out.
As I tried again and again my time slowly started to run out, I felt a strong pinch inside my body as if my heart skipped a beat, at that moment I checked my status again as fast as I could. When I saw my status my imaginary face started to become pale.
Because I was already at my death's door, with only one health left. I started to panic, I started to curse.
“What was I thinking, I was playing superman and thought that I can’t be hurt, but now I am going to die!” I was overconfident and now I had to pay the price.
But how could I just give up like that without doing anything at all, a strong killing intent started to gush out of my body with a pinch of red aura, the snake that was standing not that far away from me flinched, and the snake inside me flinched for a moment too before it started to tear my body even faster.
I released almost all of my mana that gathered inside my body and focused all my mind on the wood element inside me. I could feel every cell of my body moving as if they acquired intellect of its own.
*”Wood Element Control” leveled up to Lv2*
When my wood element control skill leveled up, a light of hope could be seen for me, and at that moment I screamed, “Die!!!” As every branch of my body took the shape of a spike and started to pierce the gray snake that was trapped inside me as if my body turned into an Iron Maiden.
The gray snake struggled and struggled, but each time it tried to set itself free another spike would pierce its flesh and red blood would gush from its new wound. Slowly the snake's struggles were getting weaker and weaker and after a little while, they stopped completely.
As the gray snake's struggles stopped, I inspected it just to be sure that it was dead. After I inspected it I sighed a breath of relief because its health was at zero. After confirming the snake's death, I moved my body to face the other snake with my killing intents still gushing like crazy.
I could swear that the snake turned pale, as it booked off in the direction of the cave exit as it rushed out of the cave. Personally, I didn’t notice, but the sight of a bloody corpse of a snake sticking out of a bloody bush was really a gruesome sight and would shake any weak heart.
I was a little confused but at the same time relieved, because I knew that most likely I will pass out any second now. I didn’t check my status or bothered with the dead snake inside my body, because if I passed out in my current state most likely my stamina would diminish and I would die, so I needed to root myself to the ground as fast as possible.
“*Dig*!” I shouted but nothing happened.
“What? Why doesn’t it work?” I tried to activate the *Dig* skill but it didn’t work, it meant that I didn’t have mana inside me at all, but I was still a little shaken so I couldn't understand the reason. Slowly the surroundings started to get darker and darker while everything started to twist and turn as I started to panic.
“No no no... I need to get inside the ground, inside the ground...” I said as I started to dig the ground with my hands, each time my hands touched the dirt I felt weaker and weaker. But I didn’t give up, slowly a small hole formed.
As it formed I inserted my roots inside it with haste, the soft dirt didn’t give me much resistance, and half of my roots were embedded into the ground. And at that moment everything just turned pitch black, as I slowly lost my consciousness.
The cave has fallen into silence, all that could be seen in it is a glowing red bush with a dead snake inside it standing near one of the cave walls. Half of its roots were sticking out of the ground and blood was slowly dripping from its leaves onto its roots.
*Skill learned “Lifesteal”*