Chapter 132: Itty-bitty Little Snake

The next day, Will faced off against his former Party: June, Loth, Mason, Reggie, Alicia, and Travis. Will mentally counted them, moving his Phantom Snakes behind the ones with ranged Abilities as he spoke the rules they’d decided. “No shots to the head, no faking serious injury. If someone gets hurt bad we bring them back to camp immediately. If that happens, stops until that person is back on their feet. If a fight goes into the caravan or outside the arena, that fight is over.” The six of them nodded. “Alright then,” Will said, limbering up. “How unfair do you guys want this to be?” “Go nuts.” June said, nocking an arrow. Mason nodded, along with Reggie and Travis. Alicia looked…a bit nervous. Loth’s eyes were half-lidded. “BEGIN!” Saint Charnesa, the leader of the small group of priestesses shouted, bringing her hand down in a chopping motion. The ground opened up beneath Will, revealing a mass of flesh-eating insects that Loth had concealed overnight. Will stood on the air above the trap, one of his Phantom Snakes batting aside Mason’s Conflagration, causing a spout of flame to rise into the air. Lines of barbed wire hurtled up from the ground, attempting to surround him and drag him into the pit. Will tapped the air with his toe, solidifying another layer of air beneath himself to ward off the barbed wire while his Phantom Snake blocked Alicia’s curse that would’ve popped his heart, wrapping around her ankle and yanking her backwards, prompting a shout of surprise. With his right hand, Will grabbed the air, pulling June’s magical arrow aside and causing it to swerve around him. Will was forced to start moving as one of Loth’s projectile insects approached from an awkward angle, prompting him to duck and sprint off to the side, heading for the jungle. The ‘arena’ was a roughly one-square-mile area that they’d cleared of anything too dangerous. As exciting as battling each other and the unknown might be, it was pure foolishness getting ambushed by something totally preventable. Will almost made it to the treeline. “Is running away all you can do!?” Travis demanded, causing Will’s feet to slide against the air as he unconsciously strove to reverse his course and punch the annoying bastard…who happened to be everywhere. There were dozens of copies of Travis in various cocky stances, gesturing for Will to come and get them. Will pointed at the Travis hiding inside the bounds of the caravan, the only one giving off body heat. “Travis is disqualified. Good plan though.” If it’d worked, no one would’ve been the wiser that he was cheating. Which, in an actual fight, was a good tactic. Still cheating, though. “Tsk,” the surrounding illusions expressed their frustration and flickered out of existence while the rest of the Party recovered from the first exchange. Will batted away another curse attempt from Loth and Alicia, avoiding the connection before they could be formed. Which was good, because Will didn’t want his heart to stop, or a wasp bursting out of his chest. Alicia could curse him from any distance, but he couldn’t feel it coming form any distance. Part of it was simply being able to see the direction of her gaze and the flash of blue when she triggered the Ability. If he couldn’t respond to it, that would take him out right away. Will decided. An explosion detonated directly in front of Will as Mason got a Conflagration past the snake impeding his hands. Will tumbled into the jungle, crashing through a tree. Sure, he was far tougher than the tree itself, but cutting a tree in half with your lower back still hurt a bit. Will sent the Phantom Eye back along the path he’d taken, spotting the magical arrow hurtling towards him. Will rose to his feet, intending to dodge, when steel wire burst out of the innocuous tree beside him, looping around him and strapping him tight to the hardwood. Will thought, his mind desperately trying to come up with a solution to the arrow problem even as Mason wound up another Conflagration, intending to clear-cut the jungle until he got Will. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Alicia was rising to her feet, pointing directly at where Will had landed despite hundreds of feet of rough jungle between the two of them. Will grabbed the air with his hand and gave it a subtle twist, making slanted layers of hardened air. The magical arrow deflected to the side and buried itself in the tree behind him. Will used his Phantom Snake to kick dirt into Alicia’s eyes. She managed to block, but all he needed was a moment’s distraction. Will thought as The Feathered Serpent mask swallowed Will whole, causing his limbs to fuse into his sides, his body lengthening as he turned into…an itty-bitty little snake, less than two feet long. The steel wires ratcheted inward as he shrank, intent on preventing his escape, but Will simply slipped one of his phantom snakes in beside him to keep the tension up, slipping out of the trap. It was a strange sensation, the world around him seemingly expanding as he shrank, his depth vision turning blurry, and other senses rushing to take its place. His stomach wriggling of its own accord as he tried to move. He picked himself up with a Phantom Snake and tossed himself up and away as fast as he could without killing himself. Mason’s Conflagration erupted behind him, propelling him across the arena, along with hundreds of bits of the canopy, including a couple other itty-bitty-little snakes who happened to get dragged along for the ride. Will flicked his itty-bitty tongue in greeting as they tumbled through the air. ***Mason*** Mason’s heart was beating a frantic rhythm as he tried to calm it enough to feel the surrounding area for Will’s damned Phantoms. They made casting nearly impossible. Mason needed a sense for where he stood, and ideas for how he might continue to improve. And to get that, he needed to face something…monstrous. “Where is he?” June asked, a glowing arrow nocked and ready. Alicia unshielded her eyes, blinking to make sure there was no dirt in them before scanning the surrounding jungle, her eyes gradually widening. “He’s gone.” She whispered Searᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. “What do you mean, gone?” June asked. “His stealth Relics don’t stop you from seeing him.” Mason nodded. They had asked Alicia to track him while he was out scouting for a few days now. At no point had Alicia had any trouble following him, even when he was sneaking around the outskirts of the caravan. He couldn’t hide from her. Not with anything he’d revealed before, anyway. Alicia gave a helpless shrug. “I don’t know,” She whispered, eyes wide and flickering desperately across the jungle, like someone who’d lost their grandmother’s ring. “he’s just….” Alicia let out yelp of surprise as an invisible force wrapped around her ankle and dragged her into the darkness of the jungle. “Evidence to the contrary,” Loth said, pointing. “Don’t let it take her!” June shouted over her, drawing her bow and shooting at the invisible force in a single heartbeat. Her arrow veered off to the side, thrown off course by invisible force, and Alicia’s squeals of distress faded into the darkness of the jungle. Reggie charged into the jungle after Alicia, bellowing in rage. “Well…You said you wanted to hunt something dangerous.” Loth said, gesturing to the jungle. Mason and June exchanged glances. “I’m game if you are.” June said, nodding to the looming jungle. “This was your idea.” “I’ll come with you,” a whited-haired priestess of Holdna said, approaching from the caravan. “Holdna tells me that healing may be required.” The four of them forged a path into the jungle, stopping where Reggie was crying over Alicia’s…’corpse’. The girl was holding a trembling wooden sign made of green wood, carved out in rough print with a tomahawk, and it said ‘Disembowled.’ “Dis-em-?” Mason asked, frowning. Loth clicked her tongue. “So close,” the kobold’s raspy voice said. “Honestly this is so much better than six months ago.” “Is she still alive?” June asked the priestess. “Disem isn’t instant death, especially against a Climber, so as long as you have a Greater Health potion, she can rejoin the hunt.” Saint Charnesa said. “Oh! Umm..” Reggie fumbled through his pockets and grabbed a wool ball with a red cross stitched onto it and tossed it to the Saint before helping Alicia to her feet. The white-haired priestess of the hunt pocketed the ‘greater health potion’ with a quietly amused expression. “Over here,” Loth said, motioning for them to come to her. She stood beside a tree with steel wires embedded in the bark. “This trap caught him, at least for a moment…” Loth said, running a claw along the steel, her eyes widening. “Then he got smaller.” “He did ” June demanded. “He got smaller,” Loth said, a small swarm of insects emerging from her sleeve and alighting on the trap. Tasting it. “I can still track him though. Every trap I planted has a unique scent.” In a matter of seconds, the insects began flying to the northeast. Mason thought to himself. The swarm of trackers froze in midair and veered to the side, splattering against a tree trunk. Loth clicked her tongue again. “Foo. He’s still watching us.” “” June demanded, trying to look everywhere at once. “Phantom Eye. He got it when he hit level thirty.” Loth glanced up at the rest of them. “Lasts a bit over two minutes, no range limit. Allows him to see and direct his Phantom Hand from miles away?” “…Does no one else take detailed notes on everyone’s Build?” Loth asked, glancing between them. “…It’s kind of rude.” Alicia whispered. “That’s stupid.” Loth said. “That’s fair.” June said. “What else do you know about our prey?” Loth tapped her chin. “The berserker we were fighting outside the tower transformed into a quetzalcoatl. It was unlikely her Ability, rather it was likely from the Set that Will is now wearing. He might be using it to transform into something significantly smaller to go unnoticed and buy time while his Phantom Hand picks us off one at a time.” Loth glanced up at the canopy, then at Alicia. “How many snakes are in this jungle?” she asked. “…So many,” Alicia responded, her blue-flame eyes wide. Mason thought, scanning the canopy, spotting a snake lazing on a branch in a matter of seconds with his advanced Acuity. “Well then,” June said, hefting her bow. “Don’t aim at any snakes.” Loth said, holding up a hand. “It would be a waste of time and arrows. He can’t read lips as far as I know, so he doesn’t know we know. Let’s keep it that way.” “The tracker bugs gave us a heading, let’s narrow in on his position before we spring the trap. Reggie. Keep us alive until then.” ‘Smy job,” Reggie said, hefting his massive tower shield. “Gods I wish Travis wasn’t such an idiot,” June sighed, creeping forward into the jungle. Mason noticed the Saint’s eye twitch at that comment. ***Will*** Will thought as the gargantuan snake uncoiled itself to peer at him. It could’ve easily crushed the entire arena of the city of Akul and every spectator in it. Will thought, glancing past it at the massive path of crushed underbrush behind it, stretching for miles into the distance. Will turned his gaze back to the Immortal serpent. He would’ve been sweating profusely if this form could do that. The Immortal Serpent’s eyes were a brilliant green that seemed far too human, and far too intelligent, as it focused solely on him with the intensity not of a predator, but of an old man who’d found a curious distraction. That was even scarier. It flicked its tongue at him. Will blinked as the tongue flicks seemed to simply form into language in his mind. Will tongue-flicked back. The Immortal Serpent tongue-flicked at him. Will replied, not really sure of what to say that wouldn’t reveal his identity. Best to just go with the flow for now. The immortal serpent asked. Will asked. Will asked. Will mused to himself. The Immortal Serpent reared up, peering down at him with suspicion. Will thought.