"What the f*ck could that have been though?"
I can hear voices from atop my mossy rock as one of them speaks out loudly in the distance.
'Did I doze off?' I wonder to myself as I can clearly feel myself a little groggy. I still don't move though because if my element of surprise goes to waste after however many hours of sitting here, I'm gonna get angry.
"Stop asking me! I already said I have no idea!" I hear another more disgruntled voice reply to the first one.
Assuming that these are snakes, I wonder what they're arguing about? They don't sound particularly tired from what I've heard much to my disappointment but I have no intention of abandoning the attack just because they're not fatigued.
Plus, there's like a 99% chance that I'm stronger than both of those snakes and wouldn't need to ambush them in the first place to kill them.
"Yeah but you could still guess can't you? I've never seen any tracks like that!" The first voice replies sounding like it came a little closer.
I also basically know that these voice HAVE to be the voices of Synok tribe snakes because we're in their territory. I explicitly remember Shelton, Jayce, Carn and basically every crab tell me that we're defending, not attacking.
So since these voices are obviously intelligent, seeing as they can talk, and we're in the Synok tribe territory, whoever they are, sure as hell aren't Carak members.
'Wait didn't they just say tracks? Maybe their not actually Synok tribe members?' I think to myself a little confused now.
But how the hell can you not recognize those tracks? Have these voices never seen a snake in their life? It's obvious just from the shape of the body what creature they came from!
"Stop it dammit! Whatever creature it came from is probably long gone at this point!" The second voice shouts louder at the first voice.
Yikes, maybe they actually are tired! That second voice sounds pretty damn grumpy if I do say so myself.
"I know, but that doesn't change the mystery! It looked a clan member plopped themselves in the sand and just wiggled a bunch! Oh! Or maybe a patch of seaweed came to life and started walking!"
The first voice is seriously relentless. It's good that they're getting closer, but the fact that I still can't see them makes me feel a little bad for the second voice who no doubt is probably right next to the first one meaning they can get the full volume of the excited one.
"I don't know for sure, but maybe it could have been an octopus?" A third voice chips in.
I can feel myself almost lose control over my camouflage for a moment as the third voice speaks that line.
Yeah there's another creature which means that this fight is going to be harder than just a 2 v 1, but the actual content's of their argument is finally clear to me.
IT'S ME! Oh my god! I totally left tracks when walking down their path didn't I!
I didn't even think about that as I was focused on looking for a good hiding spot!
"An octopus? I've never seen one before, but are you saying that's what they're tracks look like?" The loud one speaks again.
"None of us have, but that doesn't mean it's not possible for it to be one. It was probably just a little wild octopus who strayed a little too far from it's hole and ran back it's parent." The second voice who I'm going to assume is the eldest speaks up again. As the creatures talking finally appear in my view.
My guess wasn't that far off the mark, it looks like it's a group of 4 snakes slithering along their little trail as they head back in the direction of the yellow spires. All of them appear to be orange ranked with the exception of one snake who is much smaller than the others, animatedly swimming around the other three as it blabbers on.
"Ooooooooo! Does that mean we can go hunt it please! Please! I want to see what an Octopus looks like! Plus everyone says they're super ugly!" The small snake says happily.
O.K. First of all, rude! I know that I may not be the most visually appealing creature in the world, but there is much worse out there! Trust me!
Second of all, little? LITTLE?! This wasn't going to be a personal ambush, I just wanted to help in the fight against the Synok tribe and test out my strength, but that is where the line is drawn!
This is now COMPLETELY personal!
I can see the snakes gradually approaching closer and closer as they trudge along their path, the largest one, and presumably the grumpy one, leading with the two other relatively normal sized ones flanking it a little ways behind on both sides and the small one excitedly swimming above them.
As the leader slither's past my rock, I remain as still as possible. It's not that I don't want to attack him first, but based on look's I'm not confident that I could take him out quick enough for the other's to not help him.
The small and probably red ranked snake is obviously a no-go. That little guy won't make any serious contribution to the fight despite the fact that he was the one who made me a little angrier than I would like to admit.
That just leaves the two normal snakes slithering slightly behind them. I don't know which one of them was the third voice who I heard in the conversation, but frankly it won't matter. With them being in a V formation, one of them also happens to be a little closer to the rock than their leader, unknowingly placing them in even more danger than before.
"Maybe later, but for now we need to go back and report to the elder's. I already know that elder Nour isn't going to be happy with how little we di-" The leader spoke back to the red snake and other's before it flicked it's tongue out as it smelled blood in the water.
[You have killed a level 16 Venomous Sand Python!]
"Are you all smelling this too?"
The leader froze before it heard a voice scream out behind it.
"Santo!"
Turning around the snake witnessed one of his fellow orange ranked snakes looking scared at a tendril of moss ejected from a nearby rock, which just so happened to be piercing the head of one of his members with blood gradually clouding the surroundings.
"OCTOPUS!" The leading snake screamed loudly before giving out more orders.
"Rango! Get out of here now!" The snake shouted as the smaller snake above him opened it's mouth in protest.
"Bu-"
"NOW RANGO!" The big snake screamed out again as it dashed towards the rock with it's maw bared wide.
'Hehehehe!' I chuckled inwardly.
1 down, 3 to go.
I removed my camouflage, not wanting to distract unnecessary brain power towards it's use, and extended 4 of my arms into the water revealing my barbs and beak threateningly.
"I don't know why you want him to run, but whatever! He wasn't much of a meal anyway!" I spoke relishing the anxiety which sprung up in the leading snake's face.
"It's intelligent!" It screamed out.
Much to my surprise however, the leader snake didn't run away though. Surely it should already be able to tell that this isn't an advantageous fight for it, right?
The small red snake dashed off in the opposite direction of their home leaving the two remaining snake's to deal with me.
Removing my barbed tentacle from the head of the snake I already killed I dashed towards the other snake who was still looking at me in fear.
*Whoosh!*
Launching myself towards the snake as I flung off the rock, it quickly swam backwards in a weird looking motion, narrowly avoiding my tentacle as I smashed it down on the sand beneath it.
"Bastard!" I heard a voice from behind me yell out as I saw in my peripheral vision as the leading snake caught up to me with it's mouth opened wide, fangs bright in the light.
[You have activated Improved Ink Cloud!]
Making sure that my beak was absolutely sealed as tightly shut as I could make it, I activated my ink.
The effect on the larger snake was immediate as it reeled it's head back and thrashed itself left and right having just gotten a face full of the stuff.
Now that I was encased in the ink, the leading snake was now momentarily distracted and the other snake was now more concerned about its leader rather than the octopus whom it no longer had sight of.
'Wrong move!' I thought gleefully as I tried doing something that I hadn't before.
I know that my biggest advantage was originally my crushing strength, and now I can also use my barbs to rip into and pierce enemies, but what if I followed Shelton's approach?
Like, I mean, what if I just hit stuff really really hard yeah?
[You have activated Density Manipulation!]
Turning one of my arms much heavier at the end, I whipped it out towards the head of the smaller snake excited what would happen.
*BAM!*