I realized this was a losing battle and started to consider how far I could run with Louie in my arms before the snake sunk its teeth into my back. In the end, it didn’t matter. I had no other choice.
6
Fee Ra Huri
Before I managed to turn my back and grab Louie, a yellow light enveloped me from above as if someone had thrown a bucket of it over me. The familiar warmth of Leo’s healing spell completely replenished my HP bar, and it changed my mind. With renewed vigor, I attacked the king cobra. Again, I tried to dodge its bite, but it was simply too fast for me to avoid. This time, it bit me on my shoulder but instead of just hacking at it with my sword, I reached out my hand to where I imagined its neck was and grabbed it.
Once I was sure I had a good grip on it, I slashed it with my sword, driving another deep wound into its scaly body. The large snake released my shoulder and tried to launch itself backward, but I held its head tightly. I continued hacking its torso with my sword, each hit sounding even more disgusting as metal cut into flesh and hit bone.
The snake quickly changed its tactics and, instead of pushing on the ground to try and pull its head free, it put all of its weight on my hand, swing its body to try to whip and trip me. I was about to land my last hit on it when its tail, having wrapped around my feet, tugged me and brought me down.
Instinctively, I unclenched my fist to break my fall. This was enough for it to escape my hold. The soft grass of the field meant that hitting the ground wasn’t painful at all, but it also meant I wasn’t able to see the snake once I was down. It didn’t turn out to matter much, since I could tell it was moving toward the forest by the fact that it was dragging me along behind it.
I tried to deliver one final blow on its body as it pulled me but this only made things worse things. One of my failed strikes resulted in my sword hitting a large rock. The impact sent a reverberating wave of agony back to my elbow, forcing me to open my palm and drop my weapon as I was dragged further away.
Behind me, I heard Louie bark as he chased us and Leo was shouting my name, but the sounds were becoming more distant by the second. Without a moment of warning, I felt the snake’s body disentangle itself from my legs and I quickly picked myself up. We hadn’t yet entered the forest, but rather had traveled around its edge—enough for me to be hidden from my companions by a thick fence of trees. I thought about shouting out to them but swiftly reconsidered.
The snake hadn’t just decided to leave me. It had brought me here to finish me off. And if this was actually an intelligent predator, I could only hope that it didn’t hunt in packs. I bent my knees slightly, ready to lunge into action at the slightest movement of the grass around me, and waited. I knew it was watching me. I could almost feel its blood lust.
The attack came from below, and the snake’s thick body yanked my feet out from underneath me again. In the brief instant my face turned toward the forever-orange sky above, as I fell on my back, I saw the gaping mouth of the cobra coming at my face. My HP was just high enough to last another hit. That was, if the poison didn’t knock me out first.
I brought my hands up in front of my nose, palms facing outward. The predator bit the top of my hands, pushing them further together.
My HP bar was almost completely depleted and my whole vision took on a reddish hue. I wasn’t sure if this was a sign from the Apocosmos that I was in mortal danger, but with this red filter on my sight, I suddenly wasn’t afraid anymore. I clenched my fists, enveloping the snake’s head in my hands, and tried to pull them open. The cobra, realizing the danger it was in, attempted to draw its fangs back but was unable to do so since they were still lodged deep inside my palms and I was holding on tightly.
I screamed in pain— no, not pain. I wasn’t feeling any pain. I roared in anger and opened my hands, a sickening crack sounding the end of my aggressor as I broke its jaw and split its head open. I shook my hand until the snake’s carcass fell to the ground. But my HP bar was nearing its end and I had no way of healing myself. I had to find Leo.
I only managed two steps forward before I saw the familiar rustling of the high grass a dozen feet in front of me. And another one next to it. No, another two of them.
“Leo!” I shouted. Staying silent wouldn’t help me anymore.
As if responding to my call, the three predators perked their heads up and looked at me, their glistening black and yellow bodies writhing menacingly. I took a step back and almost tripped on the body of their dead kin. The cobra closest to me saw this as a chance to score an easy hit and darted toward me.
As it did, a circular hurricane flashed into existence on the snake and blasted it into smithereens in midair. Chunks of flesh, bone, and a whole lot of blood were blown away while the hurricane still had some force left in it. By the time I realized what had happened, another spell—this time a bolt of ice—flew from the trees and impaled another cobra, leaving it dead on the spot. Leo was now emerging from between the trees, his hands already forming another
