The thing was massive.
Black leathery skin that shone like scales against the moonlight, hung on its massive thick flesh. Sharp and deadly spines protruded on the length of its back with an even deadlier set of fangs fixed on its upper jaw on the front of its mouth.
There were seriously no words to explain how grave and overpowering the creature was. Truth to be told, just the size was enough to let Leila know the thing was a mythical creature.
And a hungry one, that is.
Now, envision a black-skinned cobra. Quite nice, right? Beautiful, deadly, and absolutely not suitable for humans to deal with, unless they're wearing long-sleeved protective clothes that cannot be pierced through and a protective face shield, like the ones you see in apocalypse movies.
Now imagine it as tall as an electric pole, the same width as your house, and as long as the seven-car train. With fangs as thick as the largest ivory tusks of a mammal and as sharp as a surgeon's scalpel with ends as a pointy as a needle.
That was the crisis Leila was currently facing at the moment.
It slithered towards her, towering her with its majestic crown that looked armored. Its ruby eyes pierced her with a predatory glare.
Leila's hands instinctively lowered to her blades. She did it as slowly and as cautious, as to not attract the creature's attention of what she was planning on doing.
But somehow, something feels off. It was a feeling Leila couldn't quite put her finger on. Amidst its overpowering presence, she thought she felt nervousness. Almost as if the creature was afraid of her.
It could be just her imagination, or the little tricks people's mind makes as a result of how they react to fear, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure, right?
If it was a creepy, hairy insect, Leila would've burst out running on full speed. It was almost funny because normal people would rather risk insects than snakes. However, to Leila, a giant hungry-looking snake is much, much better than seeing a small flying cockroach.
When her fingers reached the handles of her blades, she pulled her right leg backward, positioning her body in a crouching fighting stance. Like a runner's starting position.
Of course, such an obvious movement would grab the serpent's attention, as it immediately showed hints of striking.
However, she who strikes first wins the battle, and that was exactly the advantage Leila needed.
With the speed that rivals the Flash, Leila shot up to the sky, jumping unto the serpent's body to boost herself upwards.
It would've been better if she lightnings crawling on her body as a power effect, but as she flew mid-air, Leila took the opportunity and spoke the words she has always been wanting to say.
"Kaminari no kokyu," Leila whispered, her hand preparing to unsheathe her blade. "Ichi no kata: Hekireki Issen!"
In a flash, she drew her blades and sliced off a huge part of the serpent's body into pieces.
With nothing to propel its head upward, the serpent hissed in pain as its giant head dropped and rolled on the ground.
Seeing what she had done, Leila took efforts to suppress her surging emotions and kept herself from jumping up and down in excitement.
Even with her artificially enhanced body from her past life, Leila wasn't able to achieve the movements she always witnessed whenever she watched anime series.
The feeling of staying in midair for more than fifteen seconds, accompanied by her super-duper improved body that was much more flexible and stronger than what she was used to, Leila finally achieved one of the things hardcore otakus desperately dreamed of: Imitating an anime character's infamous attack moves.
Though he was a very annoying and coward male character, Leila couldn't help but amaze Zenitsu's first form when he had first shown it in the anime, Kimetsu no Yaiba. It was such a phenomenal scene that just by thinking about it gave her goosebumps.
Thus, when the perfect opportunity arrived, she was able to easily envision the giant black serpent as one of Kibutsuji Muzan's demons and imitated Zenitsu's attack.
To a lifetime hardcore otaku like Leila, the move she just did was more awesome and pure bliss than achieving sexual orgasm. Not that she had the experience anyway.
Leila may be foul-mouthed and a honeypot assassin in her last life, but she never went past the line other than kissing. Hence, just another one of the things Liese would always wonder and nagged her about things like finding a boyfriend or getting married.
It was a ridiculous thing to argue about as Leila had always been contented living with just her sister her whole life. She had never imagined herself in the arms of a man or falling in love because what she had experienced is more than enough to scare them away.
But seriously, who on earth would want to be in a relationship with someone who is no different than a monster? A man marrying a woman much stronger than him is definitely a huge turn-off, for the guy.
Leila was in the middle of losing herself in a joyful, idiotic grin with her otaku self fully satisfied when she heard it.
Leila immediately dodged at the sudden attack. It was a close call, but thankfully she was faster.
She frowned and narrowed her eyes. Though it looked pretty smooth and smaller than it usually was, the serpent had regenerated most flesh it had lost.
"Right," Leila sighed. "It's a fantasy world, of course, it would have regenerative skills. Who am I kidding, thinking this guy would be so easily defeated?"
The giant serpent struck again, this time, it blew searing black colored flame towards her.
"Shit!" She cursed, quickly moving out of the way. Leila glanced at the part of the forest roaring in inferno and blinked. "Now that's impressive."
It seemed to be annoyed by her excellent agility and nimble steps that were more silent and slippery than the serpent itself, so it changed its attacks into ice.
Hundreds of sharp icicles started raining from above her. Leila dodged, jumped, and ran as she calmly slashed the ones hindering her way while engaging a full-frontal assault, charging head on to the creature.
For a moment, the serpent's ruby eyes widen with surprise. Though Leila was oblivious to its reaction, she didn't fail to notice the serpent's attack patterns waver. Almost as if the creature was panicking.
Glancing at a particular huge icicle coming her way, an idea popped on her mind and she grinned.
When it comes to fantasy worlds, there is this one thing that would always be present as its existence is considered vital to the world itself.
And that is magic.
One of the things Leila found out about herself the past few days was that she had the power to manipulate things.
In other words, telekinesis. Not to mention a very powerful one.
Her bejeweled crimson eyes glowed red as she activated her power. A crimson-colored aura with a smoke-like effect began to envelop every icicle, big or small, which were stopped, floating midair.
With a thought, rather than attacking Leila as the serpent thought would happen, it let out shrieks and hiss of pain as it felt the icicles raining down on the creature and piercing through its newly formed skin.
It was a momentary thought, so Leila would naturally accept if her idea failed. But as she expected, the serpent wasn't immune if attacked by its own powers, and thus, its usual ultra-speed regeneration was greatly affected.
Now, the creature was dissolved into nothing more than an ordinary large snake. Basically, kebabbed by its own icicles.
Leila took one look at the state of the serpent and her stomach grumbled hungrily. She blinked, glancing once again at the large snake and grinned.
At her approach, the creature began to snap its jaws and attempted to strike at her, only to be hindered by the large icicle that stabbed its neck and pinned the creature unto the ground.
The serpent's display of feral aggression and fierceness was enough to scare anyone out of its way, even in its current pitiful state. However, in Leila's eyes, the creature was nothing but pathetic. Rather than scaring her away, the way the serpent tries to fight back and flails its body made her hungrier.
To Leila, this large mythical creature was nothing but an impressive prey waiting to be prepped and cooked into a lavish feast.
Just to give the creature hints of whatever's going on inside her abnormal mind. Leila used her magic to press its head firmly to the ground. She raised her right foot, stepped unto the creature's head, and grinned.
"Cornmeal crusted snake," Leila whispered to the creature. Her mind immediately began to envision how she would prep the large serpent. "Grilled snake, stir-fried, sweet, and sour snake soup..."
The serpent's tail flailed wildly as she continued, "Roasted, snake Takoyaki, fried snake innards marinated in soy sauce and lemon, snake meat skewers, full snake curry..."
"Indian snake gourd, Chinese snake hotpot, mapo tofu with ground snake meat..." Underneath the mercy of her hungry gaze and ridiculous strength, the creature started groaning and whimpering, almost as if it's crying.
There were a couple of strange hissing sounds followed by a sobbing voice. "Uwaaahh! Spare meee!"
Leila's head snapped in all directions, trying to locate the source. But no matter how much she searched, there was nothing or no one in the area who could've emitted such sobs. "What in the world?"
"I---hick! promise not to do it again! Please stoop! Have meeerccyy!" Someone wailed so loudly that Leila's brows shot up higher and higher by the minute.
She heard a loud sniff, "I knew I should've--hick! just avoided her. What the-hick! hell is this girl made of anyway? She's so ridiculously strong!"
With those words, Leila's head snapped back to the creature suffering underneath her foot. "You-Don't tell me---!"
She might've thought she was going crazy and hearing voices from the hunger, till she saw a crazy huge blob of tears flowing from the creature's ruby eyes.
Leila blinked in disbelief, those eyes which stared at her as if she was a hungry meal ten minutes ago, was trembling and gushing out tears. "Argh! Ouch! Ouch! Fuck! Gerroff me!"
Leila removed her foot from its head and crouched in front of it, "You...you can talk."
"Well, of course, I can talk." The black serpent sniffed. "It's you who's weird. People aren't supposed to understand superior creatures like me, yet you can. Who the hell are you? You ruthless barbarian."
"Wow, you talk as if you're not the one who attacked in the first place." She pinned the creature with an odd look. "So, what do we do? I'm hungry as fuck and there is a lavish feast waiting to be cooked in front of me."
"Y-you monster!" The creature screamed. The words made Leila's eyebrow twitch upwards. "Muttering those things while sending me images of what you were talking about...you're an even more of a monster than I am!"
"Sending you images? What are you talking about?"
"Huh?! You didn't even know?! Just how clueless are you?"
"Got a death wish, kid?"
"Alright, alright!" The serpent muttered. "There is only one logical explanation of how you can send those gruesome things and understand me. Girl, you may have telepathic abilities."
"Hmm...telepathy and telekinesis." Leila pondered. "Throw in the fiery red hair and a badass costume and I'm a fucking Wanda."
"...You, what the heck are you talking about? Who's Wanda? Is that your name?"
Leila sighed, "No, my name is Leila, not Wanda. I don't do crappy names even though she was an awesome Avenger. Wait a minute, isn't rude to ask for other's name when you haven't even introduced yourself? Who's the barbarian now?"
"...I don't have one."
"Why not make one?"
Its large head, freed from Leila's power, slumped back to the ground. "I'm a superior being, and names are only given by masters I've chosen. For that, I have spent centuries trying to find myself one. But the people here are so weak, they disintegrate just by being in my presence, it's really annoying."
"Heh, sucks to be you."
The serpent blinked, "You really are a weird one, are you? You're the first one able to stay alive in my presence longer than a minute. Let me see...the last one to hold the record was a guy. I think he died after 46 seconds."
"That's awfully specific. So, what are you planning to do now?"
The serpent's ruby eyes stared at the ground. After moments of peaceful silence, its gaze returned back to Leila. "Girl, won't you form a contract with me?"
"Ha? I don't wanna."
If the creature was human, his jaw would've dropped in shock and disbelief. "Eh? Why not?"
"I don't really like troublesome things." She placed her hands on her chin. "I worked my ass off in my past life, so I'm trying to do things I haven't done before...like being lazy. Even if I did name you, what's in it for me?"
"Well, I am a very powerful superior being that mastered all elements."
"And?"
"...I can fight off your enemies, be your personal bodyguard, stuff like that."
"And?"
"I can do household chores, budget management, first aid, and uh...I can cook like Gordon Ramsay."
"And?"
The serpent's tail began to furiously beat the ground in desperation to think of other things that were more effective. When it found the answer it was looking for, the creature's eyes lit up. "I can do maths. Statistics, Algebra, Geometry...you name it!"
"Senpai." Leila snapped her fingers in approval, "You're hired!"
Author's Corner:
- 'Senpai' or 'Sempai', is a japanese word that means 'a schoolmate that is one/two/three year/s older or a senior student' (I used only three because Japan's school system are composed of only three years in high school, unlike some countries.)
- "Kaminari no kokyu, Ichi no kata: Hekireki Issen!" is a breathing technique from the anime Kimetsu no Yaiba. Our dear FL here is an otaku, so to you, my readers, be prepared for some japanese words. Mind the word 'some'
- Gordon Ramsay is a well-known British chef granted with Michelin star medals. He's well-known from television series 'Kitchen Nightmares', 'Hotel Hell', 'Hell's Kitchen' and etc. (Watch his series, they're very addicting!)
That's all, see you soon my darlings!
Lady Cappucino