I gulped. Saliva rolled down the sides on the man's face and a bit of it plopped onto my arm. It burned.
"Aishhhh!"
I clutched my arm. Damn, why do I get so shaken up in these situations all the time? I thought furiously as I tried to control myself. I hated the fact that I couldn't last more than five minutes in a damn fire and protect myself.
"Pathetic," I snorted bitterly, "so damn pathetic."
"You're not wrong about that," the serpent snarled.
I glared up at it. It's red eyes looked down on me and I kept my mouth shut from retorting a snarky remark.
Control, Nailah.
I grabbed the remaining palm branches and fisted them behind my back. I gathered more mana in my palms and let it gather. If I can bind the serpent for even a moment, then it would help. The serpent looked occupied for a bit.
"Food," it licked it's long tongue hungrily as it stared at something in the distance.
With the use of its tail, it snatched the flaming bundle of men from before and ate them in one go. The sound of crunching bones and blood squelching sounded in the area. Goosebumps protruded onto my skin. The serpent glanced at me and laughed.
Yup, warning received Mr. Snake, you can stop with the laughing.
It created a circle around me and I glimpsed a look at the other head. It was looking outside the dome as if tracking something's movements.
In a few moments, the dome started to harden and turn dark. It was being enclosed!
The space around me started to reduce, and I panicked. The snake's thick body encircling me was a major obstacle right now. The only way I could escape is if I distract the other head and set it on fire.
I hopped onto the body and run up the length of its neck. But, why was it getting longer? I increased my speed and the neck then turned into a long black road.
The dome was now fully hardened. The flames from before were gone and in its place was just a long black road.
A smoky figured loomed in front of me. The grey smoke had two faces and four red eyes blinked at me.
"Welcome guest!" it shouted, "you're now on the road to hell!"
One largemouth shot out a tongue and I jumped before it landed on me. The snake laughed and it grew bigger. It advanced towards me and I ran in the opposite direction. I needed the whip. NOW!
I held my sticks and the mana that was bursting to erupt spilled out of my palms.
"LAVANTHOS YI LASHOS!" I screamed and a burning red flame shout of the branches.
I was using too much of my mana, I felt my head spin and I spun towards the approaching snake. In the middle of the long black road, I faced four red eyes peering down at me as a red whip in my hand hummed with fervent energy.
I swung my arm and with as much momentum as I could gather in that bleary space, I shot it out at the snake. The smoke started to escape but the snake was materializing. It was an illusion to distract me. I hovered in the air for a second.
"WAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed as I pummeled down.
Nothing was beneath me but the fire I had started. When had the dome become so big? I kept falling. My mana needed time to regenerate. The snake was struggling with the fire binds that I had created, and howled in pain. As I fell to the burning fire below, some part of me accepted that I had to die.
Another part of me was raging. I made it this far to frickin' fall into hell?! I finally had a home and now this?! What the fu-
WHOOOSH.
A gust of cool air cut through the fire and it cradled my falling body. I felt the gentle magic and felt like fainting. It was so soft against my skin. My rumpled cloak was extinguished of any fire. I was suspended in the air.
What the-
My eyes widened. Another person was in the dome as well. Enrobed with torn and dirty robes, the figure stood tall in the middle of the fire. He held his hands up and the flames roared down almost immediately. The snake in front of him struggled to let go of his binds and it bulged.
The person gathered energy. It was so strong that I felt it from where I was up in the air. They took the gust of magic in their palms and attacked the Jinn. In moments the Jinn burst and black goo rained down everywhere. The black dome collapsed like shattering glass and I covered my head.
The magic escorted me down to rocks safely. I wrapped my cloak around me tighter as the person walked out from causing all that carnage. I stood up quickly. They probably saved my life, but they can also take me into questioning at the same time.
I quietly got up on shaky and numb legs. I better get out of here. Cleaning up the mess, the person stood and gathered all of the pieces of the dome and into a bubble, before transporting it elsewhere. How the hell did he break through that dome so effortlessly?
They swerved their head in my direction. Yup, my cue to leave. If mages started to swarm the area, then I was in for some deep shit. They would be able to deal with this by themselves. Their face was fully hooded so it was hard to see who it was, but the aura was intimidating enough to scare my ass into running away from the dude.
"Thanks."
I turned my head and zipped the frick outta there. I grabbed Leela by some rocks and continued running without looking back. Hero or not, I was not that much of a doofus that I would just let myself be caught like that.
I took a detour and sprinted home, flung the door open and hurried the hell inside. I dropped my damaged cloak into the hamper and flopped onto the floor. Leela licked my face and I couldn't even bring myself to pet her head before I let conked out and entered the world of darkness once more.