Chapter 5
The tree was loosing it's strength to stand upright by the second and the snake continued to feverishly smash it's head against the core. Areon began to think.
"This monster is much stronger than I am, I can't just rush at him or else he'll swallow me whole, and if I just throw my blade at him, I'm certain he'll dodge. I need to target a weak spot…"
As the boy watched the snake continuously attacked the tree, the monster got annoyed.
"What are you staring at you brat! At least scream or cry. You're not making this any type of fun for me, did you know that?"
But Areon remained silent and continued to watch him. The snake boiled with rage before continuing his assault, then the boy realized something; it was only hitting the tree with the front part of his head. Whereas when he first hit him in the eye, that made him lose control of his body for a while.
"I could aim for the other eye but that may not work. I don't have infinite tries for that. But maybe I could increase my chances if I just wait for when he's not looking…"
The tree was beginning to creak and shake, the snake was preparing for what he was sure, would be one of his last strikes, growing tired of this pursuit. Until a soft, wet piece of cloth suddenly dropped itself in front of his nose, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
"Ke ke ke, Oh what now? You're trying to attack my nose out of spite! It still smells horrible, I'll make your death miserable for that!"
The snake was thoroughly sick of the taunts from the child, the rancid smell of his shirt torturing him. But before he could make any sudden movements, the cloth was followed by something much sharper.
"Arghhhhh!"
Since he knew that there was no way to win in a direct confrontation, and the snake was attentive in periodically taking glances to keep watch of him, Areon needed an avenue to prepare a surprise attack.
So the plan was simple: take advantage of his sensitive nose and land his shirt over the snake's head, in order to distract him long enough for Areon to land a precise blow to the snake's other eye, once he had lost focus.
Just before the snake could react, Areon jumped on the snake and landed on the blade, using his foot to push it further down.
"Cyaahhh! What are you insane!?"
The snake began to wriggle again, quickly removing the cloth and with his remaining eye still glowing white with earnest passion to destroy Areon, albeit drenched in blood. But it was too late for him. As Areon had grabbed a hold, hugging his head with one arm and gripped his blade with the other, never loosening his grip to push the pressure into the snake's penetrated skull.
"From here on out this is basically all or nothing! There's nowhere that I'll be able to run to in time and he's already memorized my smell. I have to win here…!"
"What do you think you're doing!? Stop! Let go of me you damn brat!"
The snake pleaded as it wiggled in agony, and proceeded to swing it's body manically into any surface that he could find in an effort to knock off Areon.
The snake erected its body in the air before crashing it down to the ground, causing Areon to hit his head so hard his tooth flew out of his mouth.
"Ack!"
This was undeniably the most amount of pain he felt in his entire life, but this battle wasn't over yet. There was still a very real chance that he could die.
The snake slammed Areon against the trees, into bushes and rolled on the ground but Areon never let go of his grip.
The brutal onslaught was far from over. And the seconds stretched out to what felt like hours, but Areon refused to let go.
"He's almost there I can feel it!"
"Do you really think you can beat me!"
The snake continued to wrestle with the child down the hill, as there were puddles of blood that began to form from the both of them, sweat and mud everywhere. Eventually the snake got tired and Areon got tired, but they still continued to brawl.
"Let me go! Let me go! Let...me...gah…"
Then, with a loud thud from the air, the snake finally fell to the ground and their glowing eye lost the rest of it's life. The blood continued to run from his head, he was no longer talking and soon stopped moving altogether.
Areon was the victor.
"You should have known, that the only hunter around here... is me. You foolish serpent."
Then Areon too collapsed to the ground as he attempted again to catch his breath, all alone, beaten and bruised. The boy possessed no more control over his body as he laid there like a useless log. He used the last of his remaining energy to utter one last sentence.
"It's totally past sundown isn't it?... Still, I wish...pops were here."
As he closed his eyes and began to let his mind wander time drifted for a while, allowing him to get some much desired sleep. Soon, he was promptly called back to his senses.
"Areon!"
"Areon!"
"Areon, what happened here!"
The boy's eyelids barely peered open to see his father rushing to the scene. Krieus had arrived with mister Puff Puff, who was barking full of worry. The dark dragon was completely appalled at the scene. He observed the defeated giant snake with his scale pierced into it's skull and Areon laid out on the ground.
"Did you do this...Areon?"
"Yeah… sorry…"
Areon softly said as he turned his head to face Krieus with a weak smile.
The dark dragon was completely baffled. How could this eight-year-old defeat a Sea Snake monster, by himself? Most grown humans couldn't pull off a feat like that. This was a D - Rank monster it was no trifling matter to be had. The fact that he was apologizing for it only further confused the dragon. How could someone apologize for protecting their own life. He couldn't help but have conflicting thoughts clouding his head.
"Clearly I was wrong about him. I underestimated his amount of will. This boy's spirit... is truly unique!"
Krieus was well aware based on this situation that Areon broke every last one of the rules at this point but that was far beyond irrelevant, especially in the face of the most important truth.
The truth that Krieus failed to be Areon's protector that day, and by a huge margin. The one plea his son gave him over and over, to not be alone, was ignored and resulted in this tumultuous mess of him laying in a pool of blood. He began to shake his head as he felt his eyes begin to water.
"If I had been there… none of this would have happened!"
A tear began to roll past Krieus' eye as he looked at the battered state of Areon. He placed his tail on his forehead, gently caressing it as he cried.
"No Areon...I'm...sorry!"
The dark dragon picked up Areon and placed him on his back.
"Where are we going... pops?"
"To fix you up."
The details of what happened could be explained later, but for now the child's body needed to be taken care of. The dark dragon took Areon down to the orc's village where he was then accounted for by the local nurses. They had to fix any issues with his body before they possibly became irreversible.
Soon after the incident deep in the forest, late into the night there was a man wearing a pearl colored cloak and white mask that covered his entire face. The man nonchalantly observed the defeated monster as he sat on a large, towering boulder nearby the scene.
Accompanying him was a man of shorter stature that was gripping a rolled up paper with a picture of the exact snake they were currently looking at. He stood over the snake's lifeless body as his anger surfaced to be very visible on his face. His fist was clenched so hard that it was practically shaking.
"Just what the hell happened here?" The younger colleague furiously asked.
"The situation is indeed unordinary." The masked man responded.
"Unordinary is the least of our problems, the Sea Snake that we came for has already been killed!"
The man huffed with an exasperated look on his face.
"What kind of a person would do this, we were so discreet in coming here that nobody could have possibly known! We even picked a place that's in the middle of nowhere just to ensure that something like this wouldn't happen. So who could have possibly stolen my kill from me! I was supposed to be known as the hero who killed the Sea Snake, what am I going to brag about when I go home now! What kind of a jerk goes to the lengths to do something like this?"
The masked man rolled his eyes, taking the time to reply. Then he began answering to his overly sensitive comrade.
"Whoever did this is clearly someone with more guts than you. Look, you see the amount of blood and craters there are on the ground. You'd be a fool to assume that this was anything but a knockdown drag out fight. They probably fought for their life, just quit your whining and let whichever adventurer it is have this one."
The younger colleague was only more enraged.
"What did you just say? I'll have you know I could have done something like this too if I wanted! I'm reporting this to the guild. And when they find out who did this, I will personally rip them limb from limb!"
"Yeah, yeah."
"I'm serious!"
As the days went by Areon had a quick and fast recovery. He told Krieus about everything that had happened that day and soon after the orcs had finished nursing him and gifted the boy with new clothes. Krieus' first order of business was to take Areon to the mountains.
The wind was cold and Areon enjoyed the clear blue skies that were laid out in front of him. Yet he dreaded to hear how he did with the challenge that Krieus had given him.
"First things first, a congratulations is due to you Areon for passing the trial."
"...Huh?"
Areon was surprised, his face red with shock.
"How? I couldn't bring back the three pheasants and even ended up breaking all of the rules? I thought I failed."
The dark dragon knowingly nodded his head before replying.
"In that sense you absolutely have failed, but, the entire challenge was an effort to see how ready you were to be able to handle yourself in the wilderness and you managed to kill a Sea Snake, something way more dangerous than any mere bird you would have encountered. In the true essence as to why the test existed, you passed with flying colors."
"Oh… thanks." He scratched his head unsure of how to handle the praise.
"Also, after hearing about everything that had happened to you. It's become necessary to train you now, we don't have a choice. Since you may encounter bigger and larger threats than that in the future. But don't worry, unlike before, I'll be with you every step of the way."
"Awesome!"
Areon began to pump his fist in the air, as him and mister Puff Puff celebrated the news.
"Now that that's out of the way. You mentioned that the Sea Snake used an attack that involved him spitting out enough water from his mouth to flood an entire area, is that correct?"
"Yeah, it was real crazy, what about it?"
Krieus smirked and began to pat Areon on the head with his tail.
"Because, that Areon is part of our first lesson. I'm going to show you how to fight with the elements."