Chapter 34: Where Am I?
"Hahahahaha..." Standing behind, Jake collapsed on the ground, laughing heartily.
His chin slammed against the ground, dislocating his lower jaw instantly. His body was at its wits’ end, yet he refused to go down without seeing it till the end.
The move he had given up his life for, at least once, he wanted to see for himself.
His laughs pierced through the serpent’s soul like barbed spears, wounding its pride. It hurriedly switched its gaze back and forth between the dark clouds and Jake.
"There has to be a weakness!" Using its eyes, the serpent fervently scanned the energies coiling around the environment.
However, to its horror, every inch of the battlefield had been enveloped in a miasma of light blue threads. From the finest speck of dust on the ground to the seemingly endless sky, everything was drowned in the silken threads.
’N-No...’ Its heart sank in desperation.
"I gave my all for so many years, just to reach a new level of strength... I refuse to die like this!" It roared, letting its resolve to survive reverberate throughout the world.
A wave of crimson energy emerged from within its body, crackling around violently as though reflecting its emotions.
It hadn’t been long since it had reached a bottleneck in its strength. Originally, the serpent was a named monster.
Unlike Eris—a named boss—its class was considerably weaker. However, having been born with a crafty intelligence, the serpent understood it better than anyone else.
Every day, it struggled to defend itself as countless monsters tried to devour it.
The serpent strived to survive, with only a single resolve of getting stronger in its mind.
Then, one day, it felt as though the heavens had heard its silent prayers. It unknowingly stumbled upon a city full of weak and powerless humans.
Slithering through their defecation in the sewage systems, the serpent patiently hunted them one by one.
Slowly, it built its strength, and upon reaching the D-rank, it received a chance to become a ’Territory Lord.’
’Finally...!’ It rejoiced, moving its tail left and right innocently under the blood moon’s light.
Being a territory lord came with its own perks—controlling certain monsters, awakening new powers, and much more.
But what enticed the serpent was that it could raise its class’s rank by a tier! This way, its potential would increase, and surely, its own strength would too!
As sweet were the rewards, the requirements to become one were equally gruesome.
The white serpent spent years preparing; however, on the day of its ascension, a group of seven humans appeared.
Calling themselves "Radiant Stars," they attacked the serpent furiously. To ensure its future, it fought with all its might while presuming its ascension.
At a crucial moment, the serpent luckily became a territory lord, turning the tide of the battle and defeating the group.
Due to its exhaustion, the serpent couldn’t kill them immediately. Before it could recover any strength, the group had run away from its grasp.
Vowing to take revenge, the Serpent continued its attack on the neighboring cities for nearly a decade. In the meantime, it evolved several times, reaching D+ rank in strength.
Now, at another important juncture in its life, it faced a perilous situation.
’I can’t escape this trap...’ it concluded.
With the amount of energy that had spread throughout the region, Jake could unleash his attack anywhere at his will.
’The clouds are continuously charging at each other, creating unbelievably intense lightning.’ The crimson energy around its body began to bend across it, covering its pristine white scales in a bloody hue.
’He is not connected to the clouds either; otherwise, I could attempt to kill him and stop this attack...’ Slightly lowering its head in frustration, it made up its mind with much difficulty.
It had no other choice but to tackle it head-on!
’Could I really persevere through such an attack?’
’Why was my life filled with such difficulty?’
He paid no attention to such useless thoughts. At last, what mattered was victory. Let it be Jake or the serpent; they looked at each other with a similar resolve.
"I’ll win for sure!"
At this moment, the snake had covered every scale of its body in its own energy, solidifying it into a near-crystal state to form a special armor.
Rumble...
The dark clouds roared, colliding against one another as they became unusually active. At once, the serpent understood that the human was about to attack.
It coiled its body around its head, forming a ball as the crimson energy intensified.
Using the last bit of his mental strength, Jake flared the blue lightning inside his broken body one last time.
Instantly, a blinding light flashed across the entire region, and stormy winds blew down the clouds. Several large tornadoes formed all across the region, destroying forests and human cities.
*SKRAAAK!*
With a mind-shaking thunder, all the accumulated lightning fell from the sky at once, forming a giant cerulean pillar that pierced through the clouds.
Aiming for the serpent, the lightning struck down near the entire ravine, blowing everything to smithereens.
A large crater formed on the ground, spreading in all directions as the monsters were evaporated in an instant.
Jake, on the other hand, lost consciousness immediately and was sent flying through the impact.
As for the white serpent, it was taking the entire force of the endless lightning all on its own, struggling greatly to survive.
"I will survive... no matter what!" The thought resounded through its mind, standing dominant above all other thoughts.
Would he survive or not? That question remained unanswered.
***
Far away from the crater and the southern border of Valeria City, Jake weakly opened his eyes.
His mind was blurred, projecting his vision into several images at the same time.
"Where..." As he started regaining his senses, his voice barely escaped his throat.
"Huh?" Feeling constant bumps from beneath, he tried to move his head but couldn’t.
It was then that he realized his limbs had been tied tightly by tree vines. From the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of a familiar monster.
With two long antennae drifting left and right, they moved their big insect bodies forward.
Their two mandibles were covered in thick crimson crystals, while their bright red exoskeleton looked otherworldly in the lush greenery of this forest.
"Blood ants!" He remembered.