The old skin was slippery to touch, its texture felt hard to touch and the places it had peeled off showed the beautiful scales below the skin. The giant snake took his time soaking inside the water, his head the only part which was above the water at any given point.
Mark checked his system screen in between a few minutes, just to make sure that their target was alright and still alive here. They had been lucky this far in that regard at least.
The divine beast exited the water near his face and he felt his body tense and then forced himself to relax.
Mark closed the system and extended his hands to gently rub off a little bit of skin that already seemed to be peeling off. The translucent skin separated from the scales below, the low glow shining through the gap that formed.
"Is it comfortable?" Mark asked the divine beast that seemed to be enjoying its time in the water. The hiss that he got in return sounded happy enough that he decided not to check the system for a translation.
He pulled with a gentle force, stopping when he felt the skin get stuck and detached the place it was stuck at with gentle force.
It took a few minutes to help a normal snake shed but this was a ginormous snake with weird scales which had a tendency to get stuck in the skin and It was annoyingly time-consuming.
He heard the walking sound from behind him and he knew that it was Alan and Karo who had finally arrived back down.
"Do you need help?" Alan asked, his expression twisted in worry at seeing him struggle. It was a dangerous situation and one mishap could cause the huge snake to bury Mark under its body and crush him.
But Mark knew his way around reptiles and he could take the cue from the giant snake. Alan and Kuro however, did not. As soon as he heard the teen's words he knew he had to discourage them as much as he could before they made the situation worse.
"Alan, hold Kuro. I don't think you are ready for such work just yet" the teen shrugged at his words and accepted them at face value. The kitten, however, did not look happy at all and it was only the teen's grip that stopped her from advancing at the huge snake.
It took time to get most of the skin off the snake. The warm water helped speed up the process and really made the snake much more comfortable, but after an hour they had a huge translucent pile of shed skin and a huge divine beast with shining scales who looked at them with eyes full of interest.
His system beeped once and he knew it was the notification of the mission's success.
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Warning: Side mission conditions met - help the carp jump over the waterfall
Special reward: message keys (currently containing 1/3 for part 1), gratitude of a divine beast, beast language guide - starter pack
Status: Complete
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The best stood still in front of them and Mark waited for it to be gone.
It did not happen at all. The best clearly was not interested in leaving them alone for now which made Mark worried. Had they offended him after all?
"Is there something wrong? Do you want to die after all?" Alan called out and Mark left horror creeping over him. Just what was the teen trying to do by egging such an advanced beast?
Did he have no concept of fear? Or was he underestimating the power of a divine beast?
The most they had faced were the mini-bosses and even that had caused them to barely escape with their lives intact. Facing an enemy this powerful so early in the game setting would be akin to suicide.
Had the PTSD led Alan to become suicidal? Was that even possible?
The snake hovered over them, his shadow falling onto the party and Mark knew that they had no chance of survival should the beast attack. Alan had the gun ready but it would not really affect the best at all.
The power creep was just too much and they had no way to overcome it at the current time.
But then the beast retreated, his eyes shifting toward one side and it seemed to be listening for something, his tongue making rapid movements to be able to catch the vibrations better.
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Warning: DANGER DETECTED - USER IS ADVISED TO ESCAPE BEFORE THE SHOCKWAVE
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The next second, the very ground seemed to shake. He lost his balance as did Alan and Kuro.
Something seemed to be building up in here and he was sure it was not good at all if it was even causing the divine beast to get worked up. The snake looked really restless, its giant body hissing and vibrating toward the random way.
He saw Kuro turn that way also and then there was a faint buzz inside his ears, not unlike a whistle.
Before he could register anything else, a huge translucent pile of something fell on top of him and then there was a flash with a shadow that seemed really far away to actually be clear.
Whatever was on top of him did a great job of obstructing his vision and when he dropped it once the flash was over, the clearing only held him, Kuro and Alan - all tangled up in the shed skin of the snake.
"That beast escaped in that flash. Think it killed him?" Mark was sure the snake was alive and from the feeling, he got from it - faced this regularly.
"I'm sure he's still alive. It's a divine beast, not a random monster that could just be killed randomly. Next time, don't egg someone like that" he scolded the other who looked down in shame at getting scolded.
But not at his actions at all.
"What even was that?" Alan asked but Mark did not have any answer.
He quickly opened the page on Emerald forest inside his system archive but it was all the standard information, nothing about the shockwave at all.
But based on the reaction of the snake and lack of monster life, he had an idea about what could have happened here to cause that.
Just for the record, he checked the mission file on his system and there it was what he feared.
_______________________
Rika Jones health bar: 75/100 (status: alive) (T1: dead)
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Rika was the only one who was left. He had no idea why it was happening that only one of them was dying at a single time but there would be no last chance after this since Rika was the only one left.
"Something wrong?" Alan asked, Kuro settling down in his arms now that there was no visible danger present in their vicinity. Mark had mixed feelings about telling the truth to Alan but he decided to in the end.
"Rika is the only one left alive. We really need to pick up the pace. Thankfully, her location is not too far away" Mark once again checked the map. She had not moved at all, her dot still blinking in the same place a few.
They could get there in a few seconds if they hurried up.
"What should we do with this?" Alan pointed toward the translucent skin that was still draped over them and Mark scanned it to preserve it.
"Let's take it with us. It's from a divine beast after all" Mark knew at least one person who would be interested in this. Also, it could be used by the research department to make more life saving devices.
He was sure that this skin had been what had saved their lives from that light.
"Let's hurry up. We don't know when the light will be back" he was sure about one thing, the light was only flashing in a limited area or otherwise, they would have encountered it before.
But that just made the whole thing much more dangerous all of a sudden. Since this was not a part of the normal features, it had to be an intervention by the virus. It could very well be a blessing as well as a curse.
The HMMWV seemed unaffected by the light wave and when he started it, its engine purred with regular vigour.
The car was not as fast a mode as he would have liked it to be, the trees obstructing its movement but somehow he made it through in record time still, the cave where Rika was supposed to be right in front of them.
Parking the car outside, they decided to make their way inside by foot. Mark took out a flashlight and flashed it inside which caused the cave to lighten up considerably.
However, it was not strong enough to highlight a lot of the area ahead. They would need to physically enter to know what the condition of the inside was.
With an inaudible gulp, Mark stepped inside and instantly felt something fall on his exposed arm.
And then it was wetness he felt on his arm, but the wetness of a different kind than water or the thing that fell on his arm.