The Noxious Viper stared at Zac, with its bright red eyes, a black slit in the center, moving its head from side to side as it slithered along the branch toward him.
It was covered from head to tail in bright-green scales, with black bands along its body at regular intervals, it was half a meter thick and about thirty meters in length.
The snake hissed and opened its mouth, revealing a pair of enormous fangs that dripped with yellow venom.
Drops of the venom fell onto the branch as the snake advanced, a gentle sizzling sound coming from the branch as the venom started to eat away at it.
Zac looked all around, his mind working in overdrive, looking for any opportunity to escape, surely he wouldn't die like this.
There! Zac realized he could escape, and began to angle his steps toward one side of the branch.
He took a deep breath, knowing that this moment would decide if he escaped or ended up in the Noxious Viper's belly.
Zac looked at the snake, then grabbing the base of one of the leaves, jumped off of the side of the branch.
The Noxious Viper hissed loudly and struck, its fangs sinking into the branch, where Zac had stood mere moments ago, as for Zac, the leaf had torn away from the branch when he had jumped.
Zac held the stem of the leaf like it were some kind of umbrella, and slowly floated down through the air, the massive leaf acting like a makeshift parachute.
He stared down at the ground wide-eyed, surprised that his gamble had worked, if the leaf hadn't broken off when he had jumped, he would be dissolving in the belly of Noxious Viper right now.
But as he floated down, Zac felt the stiff breeze blowing through the many trees, and found himself being blown through the forest made of the many enormous trees.
"What the heck!"
"Look at that!"
"What an idiot!"
Zac heard other survivors, stranded within other trees, call out as he drifted uncontrollably past them, being blown further and further into the forest, and remained silent, even as he spun about, making eye contact for mere moments with other survivors.
He could have warned them about the Vipers within the trees, but after the mocking yells, he decided against it.
They would probably end up attacking the other survivors anyway, Zac thought, trying to justify his decision not to warn the others.
The area Zac lived in only had a few apartment buildings, it had once been the hub of his home city of Tridna, but once the Transition had begun, had quickly become abandoned.
Now, most of the apartments were in the process of being demolished, making way for the two-story complexes that had become popular around the world.
Slowly drifting through the air, Zac took in the rest of the forest, apart from the towering trees, there were dense bushes and ferns growing along the ground.
Zac looked on nervously as the leaves below rustled and shifted, concealing the Magical Beasts below.
With a Transition Zone this large, the beasts that were transported over might even be as strong as Tier Three, which would require a rescue team of a similar strength to be dispatched.
This was a recent development, only a few years ago, a Tier 2 Magical Beast was the most powerful beats that could appear within a Transition Zone, but as the years went by, and the zones grew larger, so did the power of the transported beasts.
This increase in the power of the Magical Beasts appearing on Earth had led to the worldwide arms race that had prompted the kind of experimental Augmentation that Zac had participated in.
Unfortunately for Zac, failures like his were quickly covered up, the parents of the child paid off, and coerced into signing non-disclosure agreements.
And so the experiments continued, and more and more powerful Augmentations were produced, being sold to the wealthy families of the first Augmented, who would purchase the most powerful Augmentations for their children.
Most of those who participated in experimental Augmentations were either poor, or had bought into the propaganda from the ITC about 'participating in research for humanity.'
But in Zac's case, his parents had been neither, rather they had been scientists in their own rights, participating in the design of the experiment, which had only added to their guilt when the Augmentation had failed.
And as much as they had wanted to set things right by purchasing Zac another Augmentation, once an individual underwent a G-Type Augmentation, even an unsuccessful one, they were blacklisted from any new Augmentations, their genetic code considered far too unstable that any procedure would be too risky.
Caught in his thoughts about his parents, Zac almost didn't notice the rapidly approaching ground, he shook himself awake and braced for impact.
Zac closed his eyes as he and the leaf crashed through the bushes and fronds that covered the forest floor, protecting his eyes.
He bent his knees, in anticipation of hitting the forest floor, but then suddenly came to a halt.
Confused, Zac slowly opened his eyes, and realized that the leaf was caught in the branches of the bushes around him, and he was hanging a few meters above the ground.
"Here goes nothing." Zac took a deep breath and let go of the leaf's stalk, dropping into a crouch as he landed to cushion the impact.
The forest floor was dense, and Zac couldn't see in any direction for more than a few meters without his sight being blocked with dense plant growth.
'Guess I'll just pick a direction and start walking.' Zac thought, but before he could, he heard the undergrowth rustling behind him.
'Oh s***.' He thought, 'Not again, why can't I catch a f****** break!'
Zac slowly turned, holding his breath and crouching down to make as small a target as possible.
He watched as a enormous dog like wet nose emerged from the leaves behind him, sniffing the air.