A sinister wind arose, and the rustling sounds suddenly became endless, surrounding the small, trapped Hare in the forest.
Lu Yuan's eyebrow arched as he activated thermal detection on his helmet. Within seconds, his visor lit up with an orange-red glow!
Enemies? No—he was surrounded by an uncountable number of those tree egg sacs!
"Damn it," Lu Yuan thought, realizing he had walked straight into a den of horrors. He emptied his gasoline can around the malfunctioning treads and fired a few shots into the ground.
A single spark ignited a roaring flame. Every extra second spent in this place was another step into danger. Lu Yuan didn't care if the flames were licking his suit; he'd rather risk burning himself alive. One eye kept track of the temperature gauge on his visor while he fiercely yanked out clumps of mud, grass, and broken branches lodged between the treads.
Handfuls of sticky, blackened, reddish sludge were yanked out, and Lu Yuan quickly grabbed a burning branch, ready to torch anything stubbornly tangled behind the load-bearing wheels. But as he reached forward, a thin, dark shape suddenly leaped up, lunging straight at his helmet!
"Thud!" Caught off guard, his helmet took a direct hit, leaving a white mark. He instinctively swung his arm to bat it away, but the snake-like creature, even while engulfed in flames, wriggled persistently toward his ankle, biting and scraping.
Lu Yuan stomped hard, trying to shake it off, but it refused to let go. He was forced to bend down and grab it, gripping the slippery creature—a hatchling of some kind, likely just emerged from an egg sac. With a sharp tug, he tore it in half amid an ear-piercing screech.
"Damn it," Lu Yuan cursed, feeling unlucky. Now, flames spread all over his suit. The infantry-grade exoskeleton was flame-resistant but far from fireproof. It wouldn't burn out, but he'd be roasted alive.
Ignoring the now ubiquitous rustling noises, he worked as fast as he could to clear the treads, knowing full well the ominous sounds didn't bode well. But once back in the Hare, he could forget about whatever ghosts or monsters lurked outside.
Sparks exploded, and fire shot up around him, blocking his view completely. His regular detection methods—thermal, infrared—were now all useless.
The gasoline soaked around the Hare's sides burned quickly, and Lu Yuan felt countless malevolent gazes watching him. An overwhelming feeling of dread drove him to tear away every last vine and branch jamming the treads, practically wrenching off metal plates. But the viscous fluid inside seemed inexhaustible, impossible to fully clear out.
Sensing something amiss, he turned to the hood and felt a chill down his spine at what he saw.
The egg sacs pierced by his ram had all burst, releasing countless tiny black snakes. They swarmed onto the Hare, transforming its snowy, gray camouflage into an inky mass.
Grabbing the gasoline can, he threw it toward the hood and shot it mid-air, raining fire down. The searing screams pounded against his skull, nearly dizzying him.
With a final glance to check the flames, he stumbled back, clinging to the treads, barely making it to the rear of the vehicle.
The instant he gripped the rear handle, a sudden explosive gust of wind crashed toward him from behind!
The visceral threat triggered Lu Yuan's instincts a split-second too late. In that half-second delay, a massive black shadow slammed into the Hare's back door with such force that the vehicle's ten-ton bulk lifted off the ground!
A blood-red vertical pupil, as large as a human head, appeared inches from his face. Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. He roared, raising his rifle, and fired, unleashing a starburst of white-hot bullets, aimed directly at this… not a snake—this colossal black serpent!
His shot missed. Instead, the recoil threw him backward as his shell-less bullets struck the serpent's eye. Enraged, the massive serpent that had ruled the forest for ages lunged with furious precision, and Lu Yuan couldn't dodge it in time!
*Clang!* The impact was like clashing steel. Even with his exoskeleton, Lu Yuan couldn't withstand the serpent's force and was sent hurtling backward, crashing into a pine tree several meters away.
Ignoring the snapping sounds of more egg sacs breaking and the agony radiating through his body, Lu Yuan clawed at the tree's bark, turning to lean against its roots, a single primitive thought in his mind.
Open fire.
Lu Yuan's finger tightened on the trigger, but a cascade of bullets merely sparked off the scales on the black serpent's head. The creature slithered rapidly, closing the distance between them in only a few quick undulations. The bullet-ravaged slit of its eye oozed black-red blood, glistening under the harsh daylight. A chilling, tightly-knit network of scales covered half of the massive serpent's body.
The muzzle fire extinguished, leaving only the heavy sounds of Lu Yuan's own labored breathing and the sweat pouring into his visor. Through a thin mist of condensation, he glimpsed the flickering, bloodthirsty glint in the serpent's remaining diamond-shaped pupil.
His magazine ran dry, the faint clicks of the firing mechanism drowned out by the sound of the black serpent gnawing on a tree trunk. Lu Yuan scrambled to his feet, but after only two steps, he tripped on a root, stumbling backward with hands desperately pushing him away.
He pulled a handgun from his thigh holster, leveling it at the looming forest beast.
*Bang!* The gunshot was sharp and singular, a burst of flame flashing against the serpent's red tongue flickering over its fangs.
*Bang!* Another round fell into the colorless, black snow, its temperature cooling as it sank, while Lu Yuan retreated one inch, and the black serpent advanced a foot.
*Bang, bang, bang!* The muzzle rose with each shot, and so did the serpent's head, towering over him like a moving monolith. By the light of his still-burning suit, he realized the raised serpent head was as tall as the transport vehicle's treads.
Damn. Lu Yuan swallowed, feeling his throat tighten. Though he held his gun steady, both he and the serpent knew the 8-gram hollow-point bullets posed no threat.
Drool poured from the serpent's jaw like a fountain, dripping onto the forest floor. His eyes met its vertical slit pupils in a gaze that felt as cold and malevolent as death itself.
Neither of them hesitated.
Lu Yuan threw himself to the side, but before he could take a step, the whistling sound of air preceded the serpent's tail swipe, sending him sprawling. It quickly coiled around him, squeezing him tightly, and no amount of struggle could stop him from being suspended before the serpent's head.
The hydraulic mechanisms strained under the serpent's overwhelming constriction. Lu Yuan could hear the creak and groan of gears nearing their breaking point.
The serpent's forked tongue flicked over his chest armor. Its remaining eye, encased in an oily, whitish membrane, blinked slowly as it lifted its prey, raising him toward the smoldering branches near the Hare.
It was as if answering some silent call, the tree's egg sacs bulged and burst, releasing a flood of tiny black serpents that crawled up the nearly dead tree. They pecked, squabbled, and fought, black rain falling as the weaker ones plummeted to the ground.
The black serpent seemed to savor its victory, letting its young sniff, taste, and nibble. Just millimeters beyond the thin visor separating him from these ravenous souls, they vied to devour his flesh and entrap him in this infernal forest forever.
The flames dimmed, and the serpent's scales scraped over Lu Yuan's exoskeleton. His unyielding gaze didn't register the expected fear in its eye; instead, it drew closer, hissing loudly, causing the defeated younglings to cower in submission.
Its jaws opened wide, ready to swallow him whole.
With a triumphant hiss, the black serpent raised its head high, then lowered it, coiling around a pine tree that had long been overtaken by the snake's nest. Its ochre-colored vertical pupil glowed like twisted lightning. It had never seen fire before; its head tilted in curiosity at the crackling flames a few meters away. The smaller black serpents, equally ignorant of the danger, instinctively slithered toward the warmth, only to become fuel for the fire.
The serpent also tried to approach the flames, but its massive breath blew them out instantly. Disappointed, it rubbed against the Hare's rough, bark-like surface, using it to dislodge the small serpents biting at its own scales.
Suddenly, a sharp pain tore through its belly. Alarmed, the serpent raised its head, hissing fiercely, and the younglings around it scattered instantly.
The pain intensified. Enraged, the black serpent twisted, biting at its own body, ripping out patches of hard-won scales, trying to crush the offspring daring enough to devour its flesh from the inside.
Chunks of blood-streaked scales, the size of a human hand, fell to the ground, stirring the hungry younglings. Some of the scales flew far enough away to create a frenzy among the small serpents, each one fighting tooth and claw for even a taste. Any snake smeared in blood was immediately swarmed and torn apart by its kin.
The sharp pain turned into excruciating agony. The black serpent howled, biting itself in furious self-mutilation. Its powerful tail battered against the Hare; if it hadn't been anchored to a tree, it would have been knocked over.
The younglings devoured the scales and fought over the blood, while others, left without a single drop, watched the maddened adult with hungry red eyes, their bodies coiling in slow preparation.
With a sudden *thud*, a sword tip pierced through the serpent's flesh without scraping a single scale. The jagged blade sliced open its belly, pouring out black-red blood. The sword was then yanked forward, followed by a hand and then an entire figure emerging from within.
He met the serpent's single, now terror-stricken vertical pupil.