The snake twisted and trashed as it tried to get ahold of the lighting clad man. It let loose a plethora of varied hisses as its frustration welled.
The man, Silva, shot arrows at it continuously, sometimes managing to embed the arrow in its scales. They had traveled to and fro in the snake's territory for a few times now. As persistent as Silva was in unleashing hell on the snake, he hadn't made much progress, his arrows although can be considered good, it wasn't powerful enough to pierce its scales deep enough.
His archery skills were, to put it nicely, just enough. Curtis watched as the snake tried to catch Silva, and watched as Silva tried to get a good hit in. His only good shot was at the beginning when the snake had first appeared. He had managed to hit its eye, but that was it.
What he was watching reminded him of how a cat would try to catch a mouse, the mouse would run, avoiding its claws at all costs, while the cat would jump around looking for an opportunity to grab its prey.
As the chase went on, Curtis left Silva by himself and went to find Dean and his assistants. They were tasked with blocking the other burrows the snake might have made. Curtis didn't have to search for long as the other group had found him themselves.
"How'd it go?" Dean opened up. The man had rather warmed up to him during their hike up the mountain. The man was just a worrywart, a very big, bearlike worrywart.
"Good, Silva is tiring it out," Curtis explained. It wasn't every day that you could say that your friend is being chased by a 4000-pound snake.
"How are things on your end?"
"We closed 2 burrows. Brick is doing one last lap to see if we missed anything. Other than that, we should be good." Dean reported. "How's Silva?"
"Let's get up on that rock formation and see." Curtis laughed. It had been 20 mins since they had woken up the monster. They still had a bit more time, until the monster starts to feel tired.
As they climbed up onto the rock, sounds of fighting were heard over yonder. The snake was still thrashing about, Silva flew from one side of the forest to the other. He kept himself within its attack range as to not lots its attention, he fired arrows once or twice to keep it agitated.
"Dean, go take Brick and meet up with Carter and Royce, I'll need you to prepare a path for Silva and the snake."
~~~
As Curtis watched Silva dodging the snake, he couldn't help but remember the training sessions he had with Sally. She had been gifted with the ability to manipulate wind. Now, most people with wind powers had resigned themselves with scouting related positions. As the wind enhance their movements and given them the ability to fly, they had neglected their training, opting to work as scouts.
Sally, on the other hand, used her ability to bolster her fighting skills, the wind guided her movements and enhanced her fighting skills. She had become the wind itself, sharp like its gales, and quick like its hurricanes. When she attacked, she became like a monsoon, she hit fast and she hits hard.
When Curtis trained with her, he had still not been able to manifest his abilities. The training he had undergone under her was to help utilize his powers. He had not known how to use it, only through stupid luck had he been able to display it. Sally had the most textbook grasp in using her power, she was also more suited to teach it compared to Hjilmar, and Edna.
She had explained it as "Your heart is like a port, ships travel to come and go to the port. Delivering supplies, and taking supplies to other parts of the body. Using your power works just like that. Within yourself, Imagine taking supplies from all parts of your body, and then delivering those supplies to your arms or legs. And then you use those supplies, you unleash them onto the enemy."
During their training they would spar, Curtis had become a literal sandbag during that time. Sally would beat him day and night until he couldn't handle it anymore. All the while lecturing him on how to gather his power from within himself.
Until one day. He was being beaten pretty badly, cuts and bruises had decorated his unarmored body, he had been pissed, maybe it was because he commented about her still not having a husband, or was it because he secretly tried to set her up with one of his friends?
As he hit the ground, his world had stopped, it just clicked. He felt like a lightbulb, an electrifying current surged throughout his body it converged to his heart before it moved to his shoulders, then his arms, and then onto his hands. His hands lit ablaze, he gathered the fire and shot it towards his trainer. With one hand he formed ice, with the other a flame.
He had felt so powerful at that one moment, but it was only for a second, as he found himself down on his ass again.
"Don't let your guard down!" She laughed as she barraged him with air punches.
His teacher wasn't a conventional person. Once an opportunity presented itself, she would go for it.
He had been like the snake, always chasing after the target, never landing a hit.
~~~
As Curtis was observing Silva's dodging of the snake, he felt someone creep up behind him, drawing his ax, he adjusted his position so that he could swing his ax behind him, once the person revealed itself.
With a quick step, the man climbed the rock formation, and within a second, Curtis' ax had been placed against the man's neck.
"WOAH!" the man screamed. It was Brick, Dean's partner.
"Don't sneak up on me like that. I was ready to chop off your neck." Curtis warned, lowering his weapon. It was a good thing he held himself back. He had been observing his surroundings for some time but he didn't notice the man approaching. He had thought it was an agent of Chaos moving to launch a sneak attack on him.
He could never be too careful.
"I just wanted to say, we're ready. Dean should have finished the path by now." Brick responded as he cleared his throat. There might have even been a small slit caused by the sharpness of his ax. The group had only worn basic leather armor so that they could travel quickly and quietly through the area. There wasn't any protection on the neck.
"Ok, I'll go assist Silva, where's the path?"
"It's a bit north of here, it's just above the lake."
The snake was getting a bit tired. It wasn't as fast as it used to be. But it wasn't only the beast that was tired, Silva as well, was beginning to show signs of fatigue. His bad aim with the bow got worse, now he wasn't even aiming properly. And his transition to and from his lightning form was getting slower as well.
Curtis prepared himself, he was going to let Silva lead the snake towards the bear's territory, but he was already exhausted. So he decided to go ahead and help him.
"Silva, I'll support you, let's move this north." As he dashed towards the man battling the snake, he called out.
"Is it time?" he called out tiredly.
"It's time, Let's go."
Curtis dashed towards the snake, it was still focused on Silva barely noticing Curtis approaching. As he got near, he unleashed a torrent of flames towards the snake.
As it felt the approaching heat it dodged, in its eyes, another more annoying enemy had appeared. Its previous assailant had only shot annoying arrows, now it was an enemy that shot flames.
Curtis unleashed a barrage of attacks. He had launched ice spears and flames simultaneously, aiming to gain the snake's attention.
And it worked!
Hissing as it slithered towards him was an angry 4000-pound snake.