'There is more to this monster besides its strength and its huge size, I can feel it in my bones.' Nile thought looking at the warrior-6 ranked snake monster as it slowly uncurled itself from the stone showing its humongous size. The monster was 20 meters in length, 1.5 meters thick with deep green scales on its body and large yellow eyes, its eyes were as big as Nile's skull. The monster then stood facing both of them and stretched its hood wide like a crown as if challenging the intruders.
Darren took out his battle axe that was as long as a human and dashed towards the monster. Seeing Darren close in the snake monster whipped its long tail at Darren with great speed. Darren stopped in his path and as he stomped his foot on the ground a wall emerged that stood on the path of the snake's attack.
'BOOOOMMMMMM' a loud noise rang inside the cavern and dust from the broken wall spread throughout the battleground.
"NILE WATCHOUTTTT" Darren shouted his lungs out, as he sensed the snake had ignored him and had already advanced towards Nile. Darren knew he was a little late and could not catch up with the advancing snake. Panic could be clearly heard in his voice as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
Nile threw his dagger at the dashing Snake.
'CLANNKKKK' the dagger hit the metallic scales of the monster and fell to the ground without even leaving a scratch on the monster's gigantic body.
Nile then hastily bent down, placing his right hand on the ground while lifting the other. Tens of ice shards formed in front of its raised hand and he swiftly directed the floating shards towards the charging monster.
Seeing the shards the snake did not even try dodging them and on the contrary, it increased its dashing speed trying to end Nile as soon as possible. On hitting the snake's scales the shards shattered without even hindering it for a moment.
Nile calmly stayed in the crouched position, his eyes fixated a few meters ahead of him on the ground rather than on the advancing monster, who had its mouth wide open as if flaunting its long and deadly fangs. As soon as the snake was just a few meters away Nile jumped towards his right. Both his expression and breathing were calm as if doing an everyday chore.
Seeing Nile move the snake tried following its target, but its attempt failed and its huge body slid over the thin icy sheet with which Nile has covered the ground a few seconds back.
Everything had happened within seconds.
Watching Nile wittingly dodge the snake monster Darren sighed in relief. Without even looking behind at the monster, Nile ran straight towards Darren. The last thing Nile wanted to was getting injured by being careless or underestimating his enemy, he knew the monster had yet to reveal his full capabilities.
"Good Job, you had me worried there." Darren spoke with relieved expressions.
"Darren I think the monster has some intelligence, otherwise it would not have ignored you and targeted me." Nile said, standing beside Darren, both of them looking at the monster who was trying to get up.
Darren nodded in agreement. He then slowly and cautiously started moving towards the monster.
Seeing his opponent close in, the monster opened its mouth wide, his fangs as large as Nile's arm. Darren stopped in his position and tightened his grip on the battle axe, getting ready for the attack. He was expecting the snake to advance, but soon his eyes widened as he saw the snake spit a ball of slimy purple liquid. Darren jumped away evading the attack, he did not even try blocking it. As soon as the slimy purple liquid hit the ground a hisss sound could be heard followed by vapors.
'How can a warrior-6 snake spit venom," Darren thought with a worried expression, even Nile who was standing away was amazed watching the snake spit venom. It was well known that only peak warrior or above-ranked snake monsters could use this skill.
The snake attacked Darren by spitting dozens of balls of venoms at him, but Darren successfully dodged all of them. Even a single drop of the venom was enough to harm a warrior-ranked cultivator. The monster tried attacking Nile with its venom a couple of times but his attack failed to reach Nile. Nile had made sure to maintain a safe distance from the monster and the battlefield.
The monster and Darren traded many blows with each other but neither of them was able to injure its opponent. The snake's venom did not let Darren close in too much and on the other hand Darren's speed and battle experiences helped him dodge everything the monster threw at him.
At a distance, Nile was observing the whole battle keenly, his eyes observing the snake's each and every movement. Nile's face had a deep thoughtful look-' Why does it keep using his venom so recklessly, he must be depleting its energy at a fast rate. How does it plan on continuing the battle without energy, does it have reserves in its body... or outside its body.' Nile's eyes widened when he saw the snake monster crawling in the opposite direction towards the energy stone "-DARREN STOP IT BEFORE REACHING THE STONE." Nile shouted out.
Darren dropped his axe to a side and dashed towards the snake as fast as he could. As Nile had guessed the snake had depleted most of its energy reserves and due to this, it was not as quick as it was initially. The snake was just a few meters away from the energy stone when it was forcefully stopped, it turned its head and found Darren grabbing its tail. The snake then started rapidly moving its tail like a whip trying to throw Darren off but Darren did not let go of the tail and clung to it using every bit of his energy which made the snake agitated. Using all of its strength and speed the snake furiously struck Darren with its head which sent him flying.
'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM' Darren crashed into one of the walls and fell to the ground meters away from the monster.
After successfully freeing himself from Darren, the giant snake turned around so it could continue moving towards the energy stone. The snake had not even turned when hundreds of ice shards took shape above the monster, covering the whole ceiling. In the very next moment, all the ice shards rained down simultaneously at the monster's body.
After some seconds when all the ice shards had dropped down a smile appeared on Nile's face and he spoke- "I would have been disappointed if you would have got injured, cause I am just getting started."
At a distance, the snake monster stood there unharmed, gazing at Nile with its yellow eyes, who was standing beside the energy stone.
Earlier while Darren was holding off the monster, Nile had quietly sprinted around the battlefield and had reached the energy stone. When Nile touched the stone it instantly replenished his energy pool. The energy stone was basically a huge reserve of energy through which the monster had planned to refill his energy pool.