What the hell..?
These were the only words that Damien had in his mind as he watched the Impert Snake sniff him.
He continued looking at the monstrous snake sniffing him while tilting its head from one side to another and suddenly felt terrified.
What was this? Was this snake sniffing him because it wanted to see which part of him would taste the best?
"I don't taste good," Damien told the snake that was snaring down at him. "Bad stomach and all that, you know? I..I think you will have a much better dinner if you just go look for a bird or a rat."
"Are you talking to a giant snake, host?" Dan asked while looking at Damien with a frown.
"What do you mean by talking to a giant snake? You heard him as well right? It can think and talk —most probably it can understand what I am saying as well," Damien said to Dan while hoping the Impert Snake Beast would understand him just as he understood this beast.
Dan stayed quiet for a while before furrowing his brows even more. He tugged on his little doctor coat and replied, "Host, have —have you lost your mind due to fear? I didn't hear anything or anyone speak."
"What—" Damien turned his head to the side but he didn't get a chance to say anything as the Impert Beast Snake straightened up and looked straight at Damien.
All the words that Damien wanted to say went right back into his voice box.
"Nice snaky, good snaky," Damien stammered as he raised his hand while scrambling back. However, the snake continued to slither forward. It hissed and growled in the snake language, but Damien was too scared to register the translation of how this thing was going to kill him.
His eyes flickered to the dagger which was lying just a few feet away from him.
'If only I can roll to one side then I can stab this beast in the eye with the dagger,' Damien thought while his back pressed against the boulder behind him. He couldn't fight with the Impert Snake Beast; this was something that Damien knew already.
Since he couldn't fight then he might as well handicap it and after that deal with Xavier's wounds. Once Xavier wakes up and this beast goes blind, surely it could be killed?
The more Damien thought, the more he believed that his little plan was going to work.
With that he rolled to one side, his hand reaching forward to get hold of the hilt of the dagger but just as he turned one time, to his horror Damien realised that he couldn't move.
Someone or rather something was pulling him back. Horrified, he looked behind him and saw the tail of the Impert Snake Beast curled around his torso. That thing could retract its spikes.
Dang it.
"This damned thing," Damien cursed as he kicked the scaly tail of the Impert Snake Beast but that thing didn't budge. Instead, it started to drag him back, Damien turned and his fingertips brushed against the hilt of the dagger just in time for the Impert Snake Beast to raise him in the air.
And without giving him a warning or an announcement like 'Tighten your security belt the Snake Beast Express is about to take off,' it started to slither away and for a snake that big, it moved quite fast.
"Let go of me, I told you I taste like pickles and ice cream!" Damien yelled at the beast while kicking and punching the back of its tail which was coiled around his waist.
Damien turned to look at Xavier who was feebly steering on the ground and yelled, "Wake up Xavier! Xavier! XAVIERRR!"
Xavier however was too injured to move, his eyes opened just a fraction for him to see the Impert Snake Beast dragging Damien along with him. His hands twitched and he tried to push himself off the ground but he couldn't.
A bit more. He just needed a bit more sleep.
Thud.
He fell back on the ground, his eyes closing back again.
"Damn, where did they go?" Maui muttered as he flew past the forest covered in dense grey smoke. He looked around the forest with his eyes squinted as he tried to look for Damien and Xavier.
He had been following them ever since the two of them left him but Maui soon lost them.
Now he was stuck looking for the two men.
"This is why my mother often asked me to pay attention to my navigation classes, but I just had to bunk them. Free spirit my ass," the stead muttered as he turned left while flying in the sky.
Just as he started to believe that Damien might have left the forest with Xavier, his eyes fell on a large snake slithering. He paused in place as Maui knew what that thing was—
It was an Impert Snake Beast!
One of the deadliest enemies of the steads, that could lunge and catch them even if they were flying in the sky. However, just as Maui was about to turn on his paws and fly far from that thing, his gaze fell on the rear end of the beast.
What was that weird thing? A pole? A lopsided creature?
No, No—there was the head and then shoulders...
With a gasp, Maui realised that the strangely lopsided creature was actually Damien! What the hell was he doing there?
Maui wanted to fly over and save Damien but he couldn't. The fear of Impert Snake Beast was instilled in his heart since he was a child and now even if he had to save his friend, Maui found it difficult to overcome this fear.
What was he even supposed to do? Could he even fight with that thing and save Damien?
A part—the heroic part buried deep in his heart roared at him. Like hell yeah, we can do it. But the sensible part? That clicked its tongue.
There was no way he was going to defeat that thing, his rationality told him.
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