Chương 15: Chapter 133: Youthful Competition

And THAT is why we are not monsters, or demons, or anything but a proud race of warriors descended from the divine world-snake in ages long lost to the sands of time, waiting for the final battle, when Ouroboros will call his erstwhile molts back to him. Unfortunately for Will, tongue-flicks didn't require pauses for breathing, so this old man hadn't stopped lecturing him in nearly an hour. All the while his Party was creeping closer and closer. Shouldn't they see the giant snake?

Alicia at least should see the skeleton the size of a forest. Maybe it's too big to make sense to her eyes. Like a gnat looking up at a bathtub… I should just warn them directly. None of this subtlety bullshit. Phantom eye 113->112 Charge remaining. Will sent the eye and three of his Phantom Snakes back towards them. The Immortal serpent's carriage-sized emerald eyes flicked to follow Will's Phantoms, then back to him. You have strange magics for one of us… who were your parents again? Will mentally flipped a coin.

Thomas Oh, Will replied. Thomas Oh… that doesn't ring a – Oh HIM! – you call your father by his human disguise? The tone Will read from the tongue flicks was 'scandalized'. Will tongue-flicked the equivalent of a shrug. It's the only name of his I've ever heard. Oh… you must be the result of those attempts to create new souls by interbreeding with those skinsacks. It warms my heart to see something come of that, because so few of them survive childhood. They're such sickly offspring, albeit proliferous. …

you do realize they're being hunted by the church of Granesh? Will asked. Of course they are. They're our sworn enemies. Every baby serpent starts its journey as both predator and prey, a natural weeding out of the weak is healthy for the population. No, you don't understand, Will tongue-refuted. It's not 'natural' weeding at all. It's organized slaughter.

They set up – there was no snake word for 'orphanage' – kill boxes where all young must pass through, test all of them and eliminate the ones they deem to be of your blood. The conditions aren't harsh: they're unwinnable. And yet, here you are. The Immortal serpent said, his tongue-flicks radiating a certain smugness. Will wasn't sure if he was more pissed at the Immortal Serpents for knowingly creating thousands of doomed innocents, or the Church for actually killing them. Both could use a good punching.

While he spoke with the Immortal serpent, he directed his Phantom Snakes to snap a fallen log on half and carve a message on the flat surface with their teeth. Raid Boss ahead. Hang back eksept Loth. Piecefull diskushin possible. He watched the party discuss whether or not it was a trick, when Alicia finally snapped her head up, her gaze following the towering rib-bones the size of… towers.

With a whisper from her, the party changed their stance, becoming more alert as Loth broke out ahead of them, trudging through the jungle into the clearing formed by the shifting coils of the enormous snake. What's this? A tiny devolved dragonkin cousin? The Immortal Serpent tongue-flicked lifting it's head and peering over its own bulk at the ant beneath it. Greetings, cousin, it tongue-flicked. Loth cocked her head to the side.

"I'm afraid I don't understand!" she shouted up at the looming head. Oh, the poor thing, not knowing tongue-speech. I came out here intending to find glorious death in battle and a temporary release from the march of ages, and instead I find two curiosities, back to back. I haven't done this in an epoch. Let's see… arms… legs, hair… penis…

The enormous snake stiffened a bit, and tongue flicked a groan of discomfort as it began to shrink, reducing from a natural calamity down to a withered, naked old man with a beard that seemed to trail down to his ankles.

"There we go. Forgot how awful human skin is," He muttered, pushing himself to his feet and brushing leaves and sticks off his skin and out of his beard.

"Good afternoon, cousin," he said, regarding Loth as he glanced past her into the jungle.

"Do you wish for me to kill the humans chasing you?"

"Greetings, cousin," Loth said, performing a rather graceful bow.

"They are not 'chasing' me, they are my Party. I would request that you refrain from killing them."

"Oh my! How progressive. You're so well-spoken for one of the devolved, too. Lovely."

"Loth the Luminary. Kobold Paragon." Loth said, offering a pitch-black pebbled hand.

"Arkesh the Mind-Conquerer. Molt of Ouroboros, twice removed." Arkesh replied, giving it a dainty shake. Will would've broke into a cold sweat if he could.

'Mind-conqueror' was concerning, to say the least.

"Arkesh, we were in the middle of a mock-battle with one William Oh, who has likely disguised as a snake. Would you happen to know where he went?" Loth asked sweetly. Eyes on the prize, that one. Will thought.

"Ah, to be young again," Arkesh said.

"Is this true?" he asked without looking directly at Will. Will knew if he said 'no', the Immortal Serpent would immediately attempt to kill the others. Which was unacceptable. Loth understood this and had put Will in the position of being forced to admit it, preventing him from trying any tricks…by betting her life. …yeah, it's true. Will tongue-flicked.

"Then by all means, continue your wargames. If you don't mind, I will merely observe. I'm not so uncouth as to attack youth enjoying a lovely afternoon." Loth cocked her head and waited.

"… He's right there." Arkesh pointed at the branch where Will rested. Progenitor's disguise Cancelled"Shit!" Will shouted, leaping to his feet and sprinting across the clearing as Loth's projectile insects began hissing through the air after him.

Arkesh the Mind-Conqueror laughed, clapping his hands together as Will began dodging and weaving through the air, slapping Loth's bugs aside and sending a shortsword hissing towards the others, trying to catch them off-guard as they emerged into the brightness of the clearing. Reggie stepped in front and tanked the hit, the phantom Shortsword clanging aside, leaving a furrow in the tank's greatshield, which was functionally a portable wall to hide behind.

Will had to dedicate a whole Phantom Snake each to keeping Alicia, Mason and Loth under control, or else he'd be finished by their Abilities, leaving only two left to maneuver and adapt to the situation. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the Saint watching their battle impassively, keeping one eye on the Immortal Serpent. I really hope she doesn't do anything stupid… I hope continuing the fight isn't stupid.

With a name like 'The Mind-Conquerer' Will had been running his Memory Key on and off from the moment he'd said it, which was eating into his ability to concentrate on the fight. The fight was also eating into their ability to resist if Arkesh decided he wanted to kill them after all. Yeah, it's stupid. I need to end this.

"I surrender!" Will shouted, holding his hand up, causing everything to come to a screeching halt.

"No, child, you had so much more fight in you!" Arkesh whined.

"I could feel it in my guts that you could've won against these bony fleshbags." Arkesh gestured to the rest of Will's Party, some of whom seemed a bit miffed at being called 'Bony fleshbags'. Will gave the bony old man a sideways glance, carefully weighing his response.

"I mean no disrespect, but we can't possibly know your intentions, and weakening ourselves in front of a stranger would be foolish." Will said, hedging his tone as best he could.

"Accusing me of the underhandedness of human savages. ME! Pssh! The nerve!" Arkesh said, waving the idea away like an annoying insect.

"Fine! Come here, all of you!" he said, motioning for the rest of Will's party to approach. They hesitantly approached, their weapons held tight.

"I give you my word as one of the divine Molts twice removed, that I will not attack anyone here under any circumstances, even unto my death. To sweeten the pot, I will give the winning group a prize." He pointed at Loth.

"What do you want, cousin?"

"A Sacrifice of a true dragon ancestor." Loth replied immediately.

"I know where one is." Arkesh said, then pointed at Will.

"Scion, what do you want?"

"I want a Sacrifice to reinforce my Phantoms, prevent them from being destroyed by other's Abilities, and recover their slotted Relics if they are destroyed." Will responded.

"I know of a Raid Boss that can do that first part." He pointed at the rest of the Party.

"I'll give you bony skinsacks some treasure if you win. I know how much you like shiny treasure." Arkesh made a strange gulping noise and tapped his chest with his fist. A moment later, his neck and mouth stretched unnaturally as he disgorged a bangle formed from gold and mother-of-pearl into his palm, tossing it to Mason. Mason's eyes widened.

"I'm in," Mason said, handing it to June. June studied the Relic for a second, her expression matching Masons.

"We accept," June said, passing it along.

"We humans do love our shinies."

"Of course you do," Arkesh said, his gaze lingering on the Saint standing off to the side.

"Is everyone in agreement?" Will glanced at Loth, their gazes exchanging unspoken words. What are the odds he's just going to kill us? And is the possible reward worth the risk? He was still treating Will like the child of a familiar acquaintance. From the beginning there had been no hostility, and he seemed to be honor-driven before he'd even been aware of the rest of Will's party. If it was a ruse, it was a damn good one. There was a good chance this was a legitimate offer.

Will ran through his Memory Key one more time, then nodded. Loth nodded back. The one thing that all Climbers shared was a burning greed for good Sacrifices, and a willingness to stupidly risk their lives to acquire them.

"I'm in," Will said.

"Excellent," Arkesh said, grabbing Will's arm and dragging him aside.

"You stand here."

"You guys back to the edge of the clearing." Arkesh said, gesturing for the others to back up with a 'shooing' motion. He's really getting into this, Will thought, bemused by the Raid Boss's investment in their mock-battle.

"And… Begin!" Will hit all five of them at once with a barrage of cannonballs. After each one hit, Will dismissed it and made a new one, creating an unending stream of heavy iron flying at lethal speeds across the battlefield. It was… doing less damage than it should. Reggie let out a shout as he buffed himself, his Resistance and armor allowing him to soak the damage from all five streams of iron without being torn apart like the other four would've been.

In a fraction of a second, Will had to drop three streams to stop Alicia, Mason and Loth's kill-shots. June's arrows, while they had extreme penetrative power and a bit of tracking, weren't flying fast enough to cause Will serious trouble, so he left her as an afterthought. Will directed his two free Phantom Snakes to grab Reggie by the ankles and toss him a mile or so away, effectively removing him from the fight.

Meanwhile, he wrapped the Phantom Snake under Alicia's chin, strangling her and directing her gaze straight up into the sky. The invisible snake was forced to release her when she went to stab it with a sidearm, unwinding from her neck in a fraction of a second before wrapping around her weapon-hand, drawing it up in front of her eyes while twisting it in an attempt to break her wrist.

Will charged straight towards June while Loth contended with another Phantom Snake, and Mason screamed with frustration as a snake tail kept swatting his hands mid-cast. June's eyes widened as Will arrived in front of her, dodging past a wild swipe from her shortsword and grazing his tomahawk across her shoulder before kicking her away. Will had been hesitant to use the Psychic Venom debuff on his teammates, given how dangerous it was… which was why he had avoided it up until now.

Will gave himself a firm reminder to cure their psychic venom as soon as possible, then proceeded to have each of his serpents bite the target they were currently harrying. There was a gasp of pain from Alicia before an explosion rocked the clearing. BOOM! A beam of pure fire swept past Will, forcing him to flatten himself to the ground. The snake that had bit Mason was missing its head, as rivulets of pure molten fire dripped from the fang-holes in the back of Mason's hand. Interesting.

Will retired that snake before it could lose the Ring of Accuracy imprint. The head was more aesthetic than anything, so it could grow back as long as it didn't get completely erased.

"I don't feel so good," Alicia whispered. June's knees were trembling as she tried to lift her bow.

"Mason light the pipe, please!" Will said, stuffing some dried leaf in the pipe in the back of the Tomahawk of the Underworld Guide before throwing it at the Nuker, who dodged, lit the pipe with a flick of a finger before firing back with a full-fledged Conflagration towards Will. Will dove aside and sent the tomahawk to Alicia, who gratefully inhaled through the pipe, curing the psychic venom, then passing it to June.

"Alicia and June are out." The bony priestess of Holdna said, nodding.

"Take a rest, dears." Now it's just Loth and Mason. Loth had sunk into the ground to break line of sight while Will had been blinded by Mason's counter. She had likely offloaded damage onto her insects rather than get hit by the Psychic Venom. Will glanced at Mason's wounded hand. There was no actual blood. Did he resist Psychic Venom, cure it somehow, or did he simply take so little damage that the debuff couldn't take effect? I suppose we'll see.

A deep rumbling filled the arena as two enormous hemispheres of solid stone emerged from the edge of the clearing, raising up into the sky before combining together above him, sealing off the blue sky above and plunging them into pure darkness.

"Fantastic." Arkesh mused. On closer inspection, the stone itself seemed to shift and shimmer ominously, and Will realized it was crawling with deadly insects who would swarm him if he got too close. When did she even have time!? Will demanded internally as a ball of fire began to hover above Mason, acting like a torch and casting the Nuker in a bright orange glow. Naturally, Loth wasn't planning on coming out from underground, fully intending to stay in safety while he exhausted himself against Mason.

To that I say… Phantom Eye. Will began scanning the underground with Phantom Eye while skirmishing with Mason. If Loth still had any glowbugs in her clothes, Will would be able to locate her. I've got four Phantom Snakes left, Will thought, what's my best option? Mason's got his shield up again. Even if I don't let him hit me, he can recharge his shield by killing some of Loth's bugs. The solution was instant, overwhelming aggression.

Will unleashed his cannonball trick on Mason, creating four streams of lethal iron. The first few stopped dead against Mason's shield, causing a flare of blue, before the shield shattered, and the rest blasted through, blowing several holes through Mason's body. Will immediately shut off the stream of cannonballs.

"Healing!" Will shouted to Saint Charnesa, an instant before a Conflagration caught him in the side and sent him tumbling across the clearing, his clothes and hair smoking.

"Come on, don't write me off like that," Mason said, still standing in the same spot, the gaping cannonball holes in his body cracked and revealing a thin layer of pearlescent material framing a vast empty blackness inside him.

"Are you hollow!?" Will demanded, lifting his head as he struggled to right himself quickly. Mason shrugged, waggling his hand, looking like a piece of living pottery someone had taken a hammer to.

"It's a bit complicated to go into right this moment." From the vast emptiness inside Mason, Will spotted a point of light rapidly approaching, flinging himself aside just in time to avoid being caught by the attack as it blasted out of Mason's empty shell. The ground under him snapped upwards, barbed spikes trying to sink into his flesh and drag him under. This might be a bit more difficult than I anticipated, Will thought as he flung himself into the air. How can I damage that?

Will thought, eyeballing Mason's cracked empty form. He's got a near-impossible to damage Build… … Oh right. Will nearly slapped his forehead. The original reason I'm so hard to fight. Will sent his Phantom Snakes out and snatched away Mason's Relics, causing the Nuker's eyes to widen as the vast majority of his Build crumbled. In a matter of seconds, the tide turned.

Mason was still hollow, but he lost the ability to launch Conflagrations from inside himself, and his internal organs became visible, the red squishy bits floating in midair only about twenty feet deep inside him. Will ran Mason around until the Nuker ran out of Charge, then he choked him out and threatened his hidden internal organs with a cannonball. Mason tapped out.

Will drove Loth out from underground by spending the next few minutes using Aspect of the Serpent to collapse the little caves she made for herself, making hiding underground untenable. Once she emerged, Will stole her Relics, prompting Loth to raise her hand and concede.

"I declare William Oh the winner! Excellent showing, young man," Saint Charnesa said, placing a hand on Will's shoulder.

"Holdna blesses you with-" Will grabbed her other hand and twisted it with a Phantom Snake, causing the invisible dagger to drop out of it, flickering to visibility as it hit the ground, along with a crack as a bone gave way.

"Son of a bitch!" Travis shouted, clutching his broken hand as the illusion faded away.

"How!?"

"You breathe different. You feel different through the ground. You're warmer than she is." Will replied.

"And you smell different."

"Foo." Loth groused.