Chereads / I'm a Snake? / Chapter 8 - The verge

Chapter 8 - The verge

"Brace yourself men!" Hakoon shouted from the top of his lungs.

Yet his command didn't even reach every platoon member's ear, as the screeches from the enemy's side only grew louder and more plentiful.

With that equal pace, the whole group was overwhelmed by this massive tide of bugs!

To the men, it seemed as if a red cloud spread all over the place. The natural skin colour these bugs had, definitely was not so appealing in this situation.

These wretched enemies just swiftly charged forward, and then they swallowed the small team of snakes whole!

"Now how the hell am I going to get out of this mess?" The younger spoke to himself.

William could hear a lot of the other men through the chaos, their struggle was clearly noticeable by their tone.

They shouted every noble phrase one could use! Perhaps it gave them strength, or maybe it helped them hide a portion of their fear?

Regardless, those men suffered in more ways than one could count on one palm!

"By the name of king Kantemos!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"You will die by my hands, insect!" Another one hollered.

The boy could hear them, but yet he could not see any portion of the battle of which the rest endured; he could only see insects, which flew wild in all possible directions.

Surely this aspect made the scene quite frightening, but what freaked William out the most, were the continuous thuds against metal. 

"No, no!" He shouted and covered his ears to ignore that constant sound.

This entire battle was stressful enough, but those sounds topped it off, he could not tolerate them!

He could hear that these bugs constantly crashed against the armour of the platoon men. Clearly, these large insects wanted to bash their heads right against any bit of skin they could find!

This reminder was specifically alarming, as the younger one did not possess any pieces of body armour.

Which forced him to admit, "I'll die out here, this is the end... how is it even possible to die twice in one day?"

He was right to be freaked out. The platoon had simply dragged him out here on the mountainside, right after they handled the situation with those blue-spined snakes.

In other words, they did not stop by at any camp to suit the boy with bits of armour, no. They just let him keep a sword, and brought him along to this hunt.

So indefinitely, he was almost naked in a storm of bugs which craved any type of skin! 

This situation became deeper once a soldier shouted from a distance, "Please take care of my children for me!"

That shout almost turned the boy into a nervous mess, he wanted to breakdown for good and just wait for death to come. But at a final attempt to survive, the boy refused to let go of his senses.

The boy forced himself up and finally let out a holler, "I'll fight my way out of here, I have to!"

Afterwards he raised that one rusty sword of his, and tried to slice one of the many bugs that crossed his vision!

But that plan was quick to fall flat. More than a few bugs had crashed against his sword once he raised it up, and such force had slapped the weaponry right off his hands!

"Ouch!" William hollered as his wrists ached horribly.

These bugs were a foot long each, so such a forceful result was understandable, these beasts simply were strong!

However, since that one bit of metal he had was just taken away, the boy met with a devastating anxiety spike.

"No no, no!" He repeated as he covered his head to protect himself.

In one way he boiled in anger, as it took a lot of effort to stand up against these bugs, yet his work had been tossed against the ground!

In another way he sunk in fear as he felt sure that death was close by. This definitely was not a way he wanted to go down, and the emotional impact behind these thoughts was too much to handle.

Eventually, all of this stress blew up on one side. He straightened up again and flung his fists around in all directions; for once, there was no thought behind the boy's actions!

Through that stressful mess, William eventually witnessed a layer of light-shaded blood. It poured all over his face and upper body, before another similar layer enveloped him!

A moment later, he heard the system recite. [Two dragon saplings killed, eighty system points have been given to you as a reward]

[Total system points = Three-hundred and seventy]

As he was bathed in this wet confusion, William could only mumble. "What's this now...?"

Through all of this stress, the snakezoid figured out a couple of patterns regarding what happened, and therefore he pulled his fists closer to himself.

In an instant, he noticed that the iron-coated sides of his hands were painted with blood! The young one's pointy knuckles almost seemed like brushes, these enemies were the canvas.

[You managed to kill a few enemies,] The system specified.

"Oh," He mumbled.

Right after, a shout from a platoon member broke out in the close distance. He could not see who it came out of, but the call surely seemed desperate!

"How am I going to get out of this," He pondered, as he recalled how his plan had been shattered.

Just a blink later, William saw sprinkles of blood which erupted across the air! They swiftly flew and landed across his face, but it was difficult to figure out if this blood belonged to a man or a beast!

Regardless, he did not want to figure it out. This situation was obviously dire, and that shout was somehow enough to bring the younger one back to his senses!

"Right, there must be a way out of this." He told himself, and was willing to believe that idea.

A stream of focus ran across his mind, it managed to tame one flake of all the panic that spread across his consciousness.

This one desperate rope of concentration, hoped to tangle its fate with progress.

"Take this!" He shouted.

And in an instant, the young man swung a right punch across the air. He did not worry about the accuracy of that punch, as his fist was destined to land against a target.

Bugs flew in all directions, their naturally red body-colour made this place seem like a bloody mist. Similarly shaded lines which swiftly beamed in each direction, was a constant view as well!

William's fist crashed against a solid surface a moment later, and he could feel how the enemy's skin broke open, as if he just crushed an apple!

[Dragon sapling killed, forty-system points have been given to you as a reward]

[Total system points = Four-hundred and ten]

"Damn that hurt," He complained under a mumble, and almost ignored the reward.

At first it felt weird how the enemy's skin caved in, but then he remembered that even large bugs like these, likely had a simplistic shell; it should be easily breakable!

Regardless, that odd feeling was swiftly forgotten, as the boy faced what seemed like a new dilemma!

"Oh no, how could I make a dumb mistake like this?" The snakezoid panicked as he noticed how the ground got closer.

That one successful punch led him towards another problem, he put too much thrust behind it!

Out of nervousness, he shouted. "No, no! This will ruin everything!"

Inevitably, he crashed against this tunnel's muddy ground, and then he felt how streams of blood creeped around his face; it was easy to figure out that all of this disgusting, drenched liquid came from the gruesome battle that advanced all over the place!

As he tried to peek up, what blessed the good-ish man's view was a familiar object, it was his rusty sword.

His heart skipped a beat once more, but this time it was for the better. William swiftly reached out for the sword and grabbed a hold of it too.

"Now I have a chance," He celebrated.

The snakezoid felt sure that any swing he took in this mayhem was effective, it could put an indefinite end to a few bugs at a time! One look at this messy situation helped to confirm so, bugs beamed in all directions, non stop!

So with that blunt confidence, he raised that piece of metal higher, just so he could buy himself some space ~ the boy wanted to stand up as soon as possible.

Yet what he did not expect was a strong yank from the enemy's side!

As he let out a couple of farts in response to all of this stress, he shouted. "What's going on now?"

Before he knew it, the younger found himself surfing across the red waves of enemies. And within a few seconds, he arose on top of them and flew higher towards this tunnel's ceiling.

It was beyond difficult to comprehend this situation, for a second he felt as if his soul had left the scene and headed towards heaven.

But no, that was not the case. Instead, he simply flew away from the battlegrounds; but that itself was even harder to ponder!

"Huh? I did not sign up for any of this bullshit." He complained once more.

It was difficult to understand this dilemma, at least until he peeked up to catch a glimpse of his wrists. Along with his sword, they were being held by what seemed like a smaller swarm of dragon saplings!

A small group of these bugs, which counted up to fifteen, have carried him far away from the battle scene, and up towards the ceiling.

Once he fully picked up what this situation had become, he sighed. "Ah great, they want to save me for later... This is my life now ha? Bug food."

Once they got skin-close to that same ceiling, they encouraged the younger to grab a hold of the numerous brown roots that spread across here.

One would think this was a noble act, but they encouraged him to hold on by letting William go. So he actually had no other option but to hang on here.

"Maybe If I just slowly climb down... yes, that would make things better." He plotted.

But just then the boy decided to look down, and was swiftly overwhelmed by the scene.

The great battle that echoed beneath him seemed insignificant, that massive wave of bugs just seemed so small from up here.

And the bugs that brought the snakezoid all the way up to these roots, returned towards that horrendous battle now.

For that same matter, the young one shouted. "Hey, come back here you buzzy freaks!"

He cussed them, but also had to admit that they were beautiful in one way or the other.

Although dangerous, these bugs had the most astonishing wings. The edges of these wings curled a couple of times, and were coated with a transparent, red shade.

Paired with the fact that these wings were very thin, the scene they created once they spread their two-feet long wing-span was truly breathtaking.

Yet their beauty was a topic for another time. Right now, William focused more on the fact that he had to figure out a quick solution.

His grip on these roots was good, but it could not last forever. It was impossible to climb down as he was over three-hundred meters above the ground.

Any solution seemed like a far shot, so all he could say was. "Will this damned day ever end? I just want to breathe for one second without having to handle all of this bullshit!"