4th Day After The Collapse:
Getting up, Ran felt an inexplicable energy course through him. He felt like he was as light as a feather. The sheer amount of life force within the orb was enough to increase his lifespan by at least a hundred years! And the energy within the life force increased his abilities by several fold. While his rank did not improve in the slightest, he could probably fight a rank 8 squarely with some practice.
Looking around, he found he could see things as small as an ant from over 100ft away. However, he could not really celebrate for the moment because with his heightened sense of smell, his stench was enough to make him black out if he continued this way.
"Pillow… hold on. What's your name again?" The Cheetah looked pitifully at him. I don't know and I don't care! I'm hungry! Ran, however, was unperturbed. "Hmm. Fluffy is too cliche, hmm. Maybe… ah fuckit. Your Fluffy now." He simply couldn't think of anything else. He wasn't particularly good at names plus, the warmth of his pillow did allow him a good night's sleep; relatively speaking, what with all the seizure like shocks. "Either way, you stink so you gots to shower." Of course, he wasn't talking about himself here. Definitely not-not our mc. So, he started dragging her again. The Cheetah panicked again. No! She said. Please! Anything but that! However, she could no longer struggle in the face of Rans newfound power. A testament of his new capabilities.
Soon, they both dunked themselves in the pond and soaked in it for a good hour, just to make sure they truly got rid of that stink. But when they got out, oddly enough, some of the ponds shimmery lights stuck onto their bodies. Though, they dissipated soon enough. Finally ready to move on, they looked towards the paths in front of them. A total of 4 paths available to pass through. Three were originally a part of the temple while the last one was made of rocks and presumably the way out as well. As the inheritor, Ran would feel bad if he left right after the death of Olly so he chose to stay here for a bit.
"Meor." The feline was eager to eat the food in front of her eyes. "Huh?" Ran, however, did not speak cat. The Cheetah could no longer stand it and bit his leg. "Ouch! Okay I get it, you're hungry, geez." Suddenly, Rans stomach also let out a low growl. "Well, where are we supposed to find food then?" Ran pondered and looked around, but could not find a suitable place. The Cheetah, however, continued to stare into the pond. Following her eyes, Rans eyes fell upon a familiar sight. All along there were more Koi fish in the pond. "No! Absolutely not." He felt disgusted upon imagining eating his fellow koi fish. "Meor…" the feline let out one tear. Is this how I die?!
His heart softened a bit looking at Fluffy, so he looked towards the last tunnel. In his dreams, whenever a beast entered the periphery of the temple, it was always along the same way as this path. Thus, he started along the last tunnel. While walking, he realized this path forks a lot and could potentially have beasts residing in some of them. He marked the path so he wouldn't get lost and proceeded through one fork. As he kept going, he had eventually covered quite a distance. A mile at least. Sometimes he would come across some scales on the ground, presumably from a lizard of some kind. Upon reaching the end of this path, a clearing was in his sight. And within it was a nest. A particular nest as well. 3 huge eggs were in the center and around those eggs was an even larger snake. About 10 meters or over 30 feet in length, and over 6 feet or 2 meters in height, the snake completely wrapped itself around the eggs. Sensing a new heat signature, the snake immediately swiveled its head in Rans direction; sticking out it's long tongue in the process. It was a rank 7 Cavern Snake!
The Cavern Snake-a snake of extreme length for its rank; in reality is just a vulnerable worm. Evolving in a cave, its skin has no color, and it's blind. It has no venom and its defense is just average for its size.
It had to become big for this reason, but it could only help so much. Most animals would be scared away because of its size and truth be told, it could easily crush someone under its titanic weight. But because of it, it is slower and less agile than it otherwise would be if it was smaller.
Ran immediately regretted coming here as cold sweat dripped down his face-although he was running straight for it at the same time. Fighting anything else that was rank 7 would definitely be too strong for Ran, but the cavern-even with its size-is still one of the weakest in the same rank. Something like the likes of the Cheetah could wear this thing down. However, we're talking about Ran here. He cant even use his right arm, as even though the life force invigorated him, it didn't heal his arm.
Angered by his insistence, the snake lifted the front portion of its body before slamming it to the ground and dashing towards Ran. The sheer force of the snake parted the air, creating a visible wind around it as it closed in. When they were only 3 meters away from each other, Ran suddenly arced away from the snake-a dangerous move indeed. A second later and he would've been reduced into a meaty paste, not even worth being eaten by the snake. On the side of the snake, Ran viciously tried to chop the snake only for a light scar to form with no visible blood. Seeing as he couldn't even make it bleed, he was left with only one choice.
He jumped onto the snake! Immediately, his ribcage was broken and several pieces pierced his lungs. He cried in pain but only blood came out of his mouth-frothing. Gritting his teeth, he felt the most intense pain of his life, when suddenly, he felt over half of his energy disappear from his soul. He kept going though. Soon, he reached the top of the snake and finally he could enact his plan. He lifted his sword and thrusted it downward. Knowing its scales were too tough he aimed specifically between the scales; allowing him to successfully breach its defenses. While it didn't do much in terms of damage, it would drain the snakes energy soon enough.
The snake, on the other hand, wheezed at having its lung beaten black and blue and its ribs clattering like wind chimes. But the Snake wouldn't let him off just yet. It began thrashing about-similar to a bull-creating dust everywhere and destroying the surrounding terrain. It even accidentally broke one of its own eggs. Feeling a sticky sensation on its body, it sensed it's missing and crushed egg. It's rage burst forth as it thrashed even harder. It ran itself into walls over and over again in a feat to get rid of Ran once and for all. But Ran used all his strength to hold onto the snake and he even used his right arm as well because using only one hand would not be enough.
Waiting to absorb all the energy from this beast was proving to take too long. Groaning, his eyes turned cold and he suddenly infused his own energy into the sword. Abruptly, his sword started to slide around like it was in between mud. Seizing the opportunity, he used his remaining arm to drag his sword along the cracks in between the scales, causing blood to spurt from the wounds. His sword, at least with his control right now, was proving hard to use to slice the skin because of its chiseled edge. While this type of edge can cut and slice about as easily as the rest of the other kinds of edges, it requires more control as it would tend to cut unevenly and along its bevel.
Soon, he dragged the sword close to the head, leaving behind an uneven trail of blood spurting out like sprinklers. The snake who had kept thrashing about started to lose strength, both from the absorption of his sword and the incredible amount of blood loss. In a desperate act, it kept ramming its head over and over again against the walls, trying to get rid of this pest. However, his sword had latched itself pretty deep into the skin and the scales proved to be a good vice if he put pressure on them. It kept ramming itself until it couldn't take anymore and became stunned. It was confused and its senses were inhibited.
Ran took back his sword, ran all the way to its eyes and jumped off. Falling down, he summoned his sword again and jabbed it into one of the snakes pits. Suddenly, the snake felt an incredible pain the likes of which it had never felt. It couldn't see properly anymore and it was scared for its life now. Taking back his sword again, Ran hit the ground and ran back to the entrance. Once he was there, both Fluffy found an incredible sight.
The Cavern Snake was desperate to leave and kept looking for the entrance only to find a wall. It kept accidentally running its head full speed into the walls, which held up surprisingly well, and soon its head was bleeding profusely. It had lost too much blood at this point and died due it's own desperate feat to survive.
It was over the second it allowed Ran to get on top of it. Of course, Ran couldn't face head on at the moment, so this was actually the best case scenario.
And on that day, both Ran and Fluffy enjoyed their first meal in days and it was scrumptious.