Thane snuck through the bushes, carefully watching the serpent's body as he etched closer, It didn't move and so did the body of his friend, we got close enough to him and began dragging him backward.
"Hey Kayden, if you can hear me then stand the hell up, what the hell was that last move you just did?" Thane asked as he struggled to pull the body of his friend, but Kayden was still blacked out.
With no other alternative, Thane dropped him on the floor and searched Kayden's belongings, he knew that the fool always carried at least one extra bottle of elixir, he found three in a pouch of his, hanging by the side.
He immediately uncorked it, pouring its content's into Kayden open mouth, Thane adjusted his jaw so he was able to drink it all completely, he waited impatiently, and the elixir began to heal him, slowly but surely.
Kayden coughed out some blood as he finally gained consciousness, he immediately grabbed his broken ribs in pain, he felt at them gently, hopefully, his bones hadn't punctured his lungs.
"You okay?" Thane asked him, Kayden nodded even though his chest was riddled with pain, the elixir had made him stop bleeding and he didn't have much left, he would have to leave those two for emergencies and cultivate till he was back in shape again.
"Monster?" Kayden asked, Thane pointed at the lump of black scales rolled over itself close to the sentinel tree, "What kind of tree do you think that is?" Kayden asked his friend.
"Uhm, the tall kind?"
"No, idiot" he slapped his forehead amidst his pain, "Throughout the entire battle, the serpent kept avoiding the tree for some reason," he said.
Thane thought about it for a moment, "Are you sure about that? Because that would mean that tree has the blessings of heaven itself" he replied.
Kayden looked at him like he was mad, "You really think the gods go about giving heavenly blessings to a tree?" He asked Thane, completely dumbfounded.
"But that's the only way it makes sense" he continued, "Unless the tree isn't a tree, but once a person," he said.
Kayden looked at his friend and indeed thought, 'Thane has lost his shit' Kayden thought to himself.
"Nope, I'm not ready for all this, I just want to get my sword back, and get the hell out of here" Kayden spoke, he could see his breath quickly turning to mist.
His heart froze in his chest as he looked at Thane, but Thane shook his head, "It's not the same mist, trust me" but they both stood up and walked towards the monster all the same.
"So how do we know it's not dead?" Kayden asked quietly, Thane looked at him a bit surprised.
"I thought you killed the damned creature?" He asked Kayden, Kayden looked at Thane like he had indeed lost his mind.
"Me?"
"A mere second-rate Martial stage warrior killed a monster of this caliber?" Kayden asked him, "Do you need some breast milk Thane, to set you right I hope".
Thane smiled it off and looked back at the monster, "Well how do we know it's not dead?".
Kayden thought for a bit then stood up, slowly crawling around the serpent to the sentinel tree, he stood behind its trunk, with Thane following right behind him.
"Plan, what's the plan?" He asked in a whisper.
Kayden shrugged, "There is no plan" he whispered back, "What?".
Before Kayden had time to doubt what he had in mind, he took up a piece of rock and threw it all as hard as he could toward the Serpent.
The serpent that had been coiled up, immediately the stone hit its scale, it uncoiled itself, shooting towards the direction the stone had come from, its maw open as wide as possible.
Kayden watched in horror, he hadn't expected the monster to be so, smart. And yet here he was, mere moments away from death, Instinctively he backed away, and Thane stumbled behind him, sending the two of them rolling backward, it was too late, and they couldn't gain enough distance to dodge the attack.
The Serpent's maw slammed shut on impact, immediately it felt contact with something else, unfortunately, it was the sentinel tree, Kayden watched in relief as the fangs of the Serpent sunk deep into the trunk of the tree.
Something he hadn't expected began to happen, a clear blue liquid flowed down from the holes where the tree had been bitten, and that same clear liquid gradually began to burn away at the serpent.
It tried pulling away against all odds but the blue liquid just spread itself around the body of the serpent, its scales slowly burning away, and the smell of burnt meat filled the air, slowly but steadily the snake was getting completely covered in the substance.
Kayden and Thane stood, unwilling to move, simply watching as the snake thrashed about, trying its best to kill away but to no avail, it couldn't get its teeth out of the trunk, neither could it shake off the blue liquid that burned at it.
Before long Kayden was staring at the remaining bones of the Serpent, not a single lick of its flesh remained, everything was completely devoured
The thought scared Kayden as he approached, the blue liquid wasn't there anymore, lying in the skull of the Serpent was his blade, he took it out of the right eye as Thane took his.
They both distanced themselves immediately from the tree and began walking toward the edge of the forest, he looked back at the monstrosity once more, and shivers ran down his spine as he remembered himself climbing up and down the tree.
"Heavenly blessed my foot, that tree is just another monster of an entirely different caliber," Kayden said as he finally walked off, never looking back.
After a few hours of waking and coming across no monsters, they felt they were almost out of the forest, Kayden pointed at a valley "We just have to make it past there and we'll be free of this damned place, right Thane?" He asked
Thane nodded his head mindlessly, he looked lost in thought about something, Kayden had observed he had been doing more and more of that these days, and not wanting to pry into his matters he walked ahead.
Dawn broke as they continued walking, tirelessly they moved in unison, never stopping, never letting their guard down, their bodies both riddled with wounds and scars, Kayden felt his ribs, they were still broken but the Elixir had healed more of the pain, now all he had to do was to not puncture his lungs again.
When the sun was high up, they had finally crossed the Valley, on the other side was a view they were much familiar with, icy mountains, frozen trees, human settlements far off into the horizon, and of course, wild animals roaming around without a care in the world.