Limitless Evolution As a Snake

I try cutting off blood flow at the knee. He grunts, actual annoyance this time. Good, that’s something, that’s a reaction.

maybe im getting somewhere with this.

"Cute." The Minotaur’s lip curls as he brings the hammer down on my coils anyway.

Pain doesn’t even feel like pain anymore. It’s a full-body flashbang of nope, a white-hot static that fries every nerve ending at once. My grip loosens on reflex, and I feel something tear deep inside my coils as he shakes me off like a bug.

I fly backwards. Not in a cool anime way. More like a sack of groceries hit by a dump truck.

I smash through the first wall, then a second. I don’t stop until my spine meets a steel girder. It rings like a church bell and my vision dissolves into static.

I hit the ground. Hard.

I try to breathe, but my lungs are full of cement and broken glass.

[System: Reckon he got you good, mate. You all right? Nah, didn’t think so. That was a good one.]

I skid across the concrete, scales screaming like nails on glass, and my vision swims in a soup of orange light and black spots. A hot, coppery taste floods my mouth, and for a second all I can hear is the wet crunching sound my own body made when it hit the ground.

[System: mate. mate, the bubbles!]

Fine. Fuck it.

I open my mouth wide and blow out everything I’ve got left, and a wave of little soap bubbles floats up around us, catching the orange light, looking almost pretty for something about to ruin someone’s whole day.

The captain swats at them, confused for half a second, and that’s when they start popping.

Flash. Flash. Bang. Flash. One goes off right next to my own face, and the world goes pure white, then nothing.

My scales did nothing. I mean, the outside of me is fine no cuts, no blood, not even a bruise. But inside? Inside is soup.

I am soup, good soup.

I can’t even move. My tail’s twitching, but nothing else is responding.

The Captain strolls in through the hole he made in the wall with my body. He’s not even breathing hard.

He kneels down, gets eye-level with me.

"You’re tough." His voice is flat steel. "But you’re not the first monster I’ve put down."

I try to say "fuck you," but it comes out as a wet gurgle.

He stands, lifts the hammer, and lines it up with my head.

"You got anything smart to say now?"

Of course i do, spit a fang.

It catches him in the cheek, barely breaks the skin, but the surprise is enough to knock the smile off his face.

He laughs, wipes the blood, and swings the hammer down.

Everything goes black.

I don’t remember hitting the ground. I just remember floating somewhere just under consciousness, ears ringing, hearing voices swim in and out through the fog.

Captain nudges me with his boot. "You alive in there?"

I try to answer, but all that comes out is a wet hiss.

He grins. "Tough little bastard."

Captain looks at me for a long second. "Nah, just leave him. Let the city do it. No one survives down here for long if they’re broken."

"...keep him breathing, his dad will skin us alive..."

"...sewer’ll finish him off eventually, save us the paperwork..."

"...toss him in with the rest of the trash, nobody’s gonna go digging through dumpsters for a snake..."

All I hear is laughter, boots on concrete and the distant clang of the iron door.

I try to move. Nothing works. My body’s just gone, shut off, out of order.

The black swallows me whole. My last sensation is the cold, wet slap of garbage bags under my ribs. Far away, Old Mate’s voice goes quiet, quieter than I’ve ever heard it.

[System: ...don’t die on me, yeah mate? nah i think you’re fine i think this won’t kill ya, a good learning experience!]

If this is dying, it’s not as bad as the first time.

Just a floaty blackness. Like getting knocked out playing cricket—that weird, upside-down peace.

This is like that, but stickier. No light at the end of the tunnel. Just my heartbeat, a dying fish flopping in my chest.

Then a noise begins—a deep, grinding hum that vibrates through the concrete.

A metal clatter, someone talking, maybe? The voice is low, animal. It’s not a word, just a grunt, like a bear clearing its throat.

I try to move, nah no dice.

I try to open my eyes. Nope. Something wet is running down my face, into my mouth. It tastes like old coins and meat.

My body is a broken heap, and I’m lying in the middle of it.

There’s a thought here, drifting just above the pain.

Am I dead, or just very, very stupid?

[System: Oi. You still in there, champ?]

If I could speak, I’d tell him to fuck off.

[System: That’s the spirit. Hate to break it to you, but you’re in a bad way. Three ribs are powder. Lungs are full of blood, you might be pissing internal organs for the next week.]

I make a noise, somewhere between a cough and a groan. Something bubbles in my throat. I think I’m drowning in myself.

My eyelids flutter open. The world comes in blurry, smudged around the edges, everything tinted red.

They leave me there, in the wreckage, leaking from a dozen places.

I lie still for a while, trying to get my body to do anything. Tail is a dead weight. The only thing moving is my mouth, which is still dripping blood.

[System: Not your finest hour, mate. But at least you didn’t die in your sleep this time.]

I want to laugh, but it hurts too much. I think about Lyra. Damn she’s going to be so pissed. I think about the Captain’s face, the smug, satisfied look of a man who thinks he’s won.

I think about my own goddamn arrogance, the way I strutted in here like a boss fight and got turned into a fancy drinking straw with a side of snake salad by a mallet.