Chapter 46: Will Of A Coward
HISS.
\'You are dead, little wolf.\'
And to his surprise, Damien realised that he could understand what the beast was saying. What the? Beastmen he could understand, but why in the world could he understand what that snake beast was saying?
However, there was no time for Damien to worry about why he could hear the Impert Snake Beast because, at that moment, the Impert Snake Beast went very still.
It eyed Xavier who was still running in circles around him. Damien found himself buckling as well as if he was waiting for the ball to drop.
And it did. Shockingly so.
Xavier paused and jumped at the Impert Snake Beast and this was what the thing had been waiting for.
"Watch out!" Damien shouted. He had no idea how he knew it but he just knew that the Impert Snake Beast was planning its big move.
However, he was still two seconds late. Xavier couldn\'t dodge the Impert Snake Beast that wrapped its tail around his giant wolf form.
Its many spikes were embedded in Xavier\'s back.
"HOWL!"
Even if Xavier had not screamed in pain, Damien could see that his dear bodyguard was in pain and how could he not? There were more than twenty spikes pushed into his flesh.
"You need to do something!" Dan shouted in Damien\'s ears and it was the mark of his cowardice that an AI system was telling him that he needed to do something.
\'He came here because I made that rash promise, I —I need to do something,\' Damien thought as he touched Waterblade. The dagger hummed with a warm and cold current but other than that nothing happened.
"It is just you and me huh?" Damien spoke to the dagger as if it could hear him. Then without thinking, without stopping to worry about the consequences of his actions, he charged forward because he was worried that if he stayed still for another second —all the courage that he had summoned would be washed down.
His fingers gripped the hilt of his dagger as he got closer and closer to the Impert Snake Beast.
"Activate Eye of Observation,"
[Eye of Observation has been activated.]
A screen appeared in front of his eyes with the entire structure of the Impert Snake Beast. Damien\'s eyes skimmed through the entire thing.
Weakness. He needed to find a weakness.
HOWL.
Xavier\'s scream filled with pain and agony echoed in his ear once again and Damien grabbed his dagger so hard that his knuckles turned white. Hurry, he needed to hurry.
And that was when he found it.
A weak spot right under the centre of the coil, right between his stomach and spleen. Damien\'s eyes flashed with determination and he raised his hand before stabbing the blade of the dagger right into the stomach of the Impert Snake Beast.
HISSSSS!!!
That hurts.
The Impert Snake Beast let out an agonising scream, its coil unfurled itself and Xavier fell limply on the ground. He seemed to have lost consciousness because of the constant suffocation.
Damien wanted to rush forward and help Xavier but he couldn\'t as the Impert Snake Beast was now eyeing him with great distaste. His mean eyes with black slits looked at the dagger that was dripping with cobalt blue blood.
Noticing his gaze, Damien hid the dagger behind him but he was too late. The Impert Snake Beast let out another hiss which basically translated to —eat snake shit or maybe he was making a mistake in translation.
Anyways, that thing was furious, not just furious, enraged.
Damien turned on his feet and ran but he knew that there was no point. This thing could outrun him at a leisurely evening slither.
Hissss.
Food. Food, delicious food.
Let me rip. Let me kill.
Damien would have loved to tell the Impert Snake Beast that it was not correct to rip kill or play with his food. But as the food in question was him, he decided to keep his mouth shut and pay more attention to running.
However, he didn\'t even get past the boulder which was just five steps away from where he was standing just now when–
"Duck!"
And these are the times you start appreciating a 3D hologram following you at all times.
Damien didn\'t question Dan as—as much as he hated to admit it, Dan was the smarter one among the two of them.
He followed his advice and ducked. A good thing. A second later, the thorny tail of the snake came flying behind him and smashed into the boulder. Bits and pieces of the stone flew all over.
Damien covered his head with his hands and lay low on the ground.
"Are you alright, host?" Dan asked.
"Yeah, yeah...I am…" Damien answered as he shook his head trying to get rid of the loud boom of the boulder that was smashed into bits.
"Oh don\'t thank me so soon," remarked Dan while looking over at Damien\'s shoulders.
Damien turned to look behind him and turned stiff. The Impert Snake Beast was standing right behind him. Its large face was right in front of him, while its two eyes despite being on the side of its head were looking at him.
\'Damn,\' Damien cursed. He reached for his dagger that flew from his hands when he fell just now.
However, just as he made a move, the snake swooped closer causing Damien to pause and stretch his head back.
It opened his gigantic mouth and Damien gagged. If there was someone who needed an overly large toothbrush, it was this Impert Snake Beast.
The smell was simply awful.
And just as Damien thought that this thing was going to eat him. It suddenly paused and started sniffing him like a dog.
….?