Chereads / A Serpent's Rise / Chapter 17 - Ch-17

Chapter 17 - Ch-17

Bells were ringing, men were shouting and the clouds covered the sun casting a blanket of darkness over the river where a giant serpent with glowing eyes stood with its hood on full display casting a paralyzing gaze on the puny humans that stared at it for too long and became immobile.

"Archers in position", a stocky looking man with a short beard shouted across the battlefield. Although the men heard his command they didn't followed his order as the main command ship has been destroyed meaning that the noble scum that they hate so much won't be punishing them and they were not paid enough to risk there life against a monstrous creature such as I.

" What is that thing?"

"I have never seen a snake so big and hairy, this thing shouldn't be allowed to exist", various shouts rang across the battlefield field majority of which were of disbelief.

I could feel their fear and it was delightful, I felt like lord talking a stroll and these humans were like pesky peasants scramming in my presence. It was an intoxicating feeling but I couldn't allow these humans to regain there footing, immediately with a roar I be again slithering towards the man who tried to command the soldiers.

The men scattered like ants seemingly shocked by my speed and those that couldn't were crushed. Strangely that man didn't flinched and without any fear took a spear and charged towards me head on. The moment I was about to collide with him I immediately stoped and with a swift tail strike I made turned his body into scrambled mess. I am curious about how my gaze didn't effected him but there is no time to spare as immediately I opened my mouth and ejected clouds of venom which engulfed atleast 100 feet of the nearby area.

Men started dropping like flies and those surviving rushed towards the boats, few brave or rather foolish soldiers did try to attack my body but my scales delfected it although I did stuffed some cuts but they weren't serious.

I used my body to crush all the nearby humans and rampaged across the field spewing chaos across the human encampment.

Many fled towards the forest destined to die at the claws or fangs of the local fauna rest managed to get only 2 ships operational and started fleeing. After killling like 70-80 people (most died due to inhaling toxic fumes created through my venom), I rushed back into the river trying to intercept the fleeing vessels. I didn't care about the ones left on land as they had no means of escape so I left them to the mercy of the forest.

Even with all my effort I couldn't catch up as I had already tired myself fighting on the land and my venom reserves had fully depleted and would take a few days to fully recover. If that wasn't enough, my body is not overheating from excessive exertion and since I lack the ability to regulate my own body temperature i'm putting my self in danger causing me to slow down.

"Captain, The beast isn't following us anymore." Spoke a malnourished looking man in ragged clothes.

"Cadia's blessing be upon us, the legends were true these lands are plagued with monsters, We wer-."

Just as The captain was about the complete his sentenced a large boulder crashed into him completely splattering his skull like a water melon, the surrounding men had no time to comphend what had happened as more boulders came crashing down upon the remaining fleet.

On a nearby small hill just adjacent to the river bank stood a two dozen goliaths who threw boulders on the fleeting vessels.

"The holy naga has blessed us with a feast, cometh thine brother let none escape alive." A 5 meter tall goliath spoke in a booming voice and threw a large spear which impaled 2 men.

The humans fell into dispair as now they had no chance of escape as their ships were badly damaged and were about to sink.

My work was done here and I headed back towards my lair. On my way back my gaze fell Upon the remnants of the human's camp and saw a few goliaths carrying the dead bodies like a sack of potatoes. Then my gaze fell on Giaia, She was chewing on a half eaten corpse with blood flowing down her mouth which she was licking as if there was no better nectar in the world. I can't blame them as human blood is a good source of iron which is hard to come by. This is my first time seeing Giaia eat a human as if one is eating a chiken wing. I didn't knew what to feel about this particular scenario but one this was certain that I couldn't let these bodies go to waste.

I slithered on the land and raised my hood towards the goliaths collecting the corpses. Immediately they knew why I was there and started removing the bits of armor from the human corpses and threw them towards me making it easier for me to swallow. After being completely bloated I made my way back to my lair. Giaia stared at me from distance but didn't approached me as I was Drenched in blood and was particular tired at the moment.

Somehow I felt that she knew about my fatigue and didn't wanted to disturb me as if she could read my feelings. I did saw that she wore my previously shedded nag mani (serpent jewel) like an amulet, She smiled when she noticed me looking at her with blood covering her mouth and a few bits of flesh fell down from her mouth.

I left for my lair and headed to sleep knowing that the humans from cadian empire wouldn't be planning to come back any time soon.