Chapter 138 - 138: Snake Queen

The snake was low after a battle but another challenger had already approached to attack the beast.

Their clash was more aggressive than any he had seen so far with the highest progress snake using a shocking speed to strike the other snd latch on.

The other snake began to bite the latched foe over and over but it was having no noticeable impact as the leading challenger seemed to have a life draining skill that it used to defeat it's foes.

Unlike the normal greens and browns woth black markings that others had, this snake was black with purple and red marks along the side of it's head which pointed out like a strange cobra hood made of bone.

The snake used a tail with a sharp point almost like a blade or stinger to slash and stab the foe as it drained the hp of the beast to make up for the life the opponent damaged.

The marks seemed to be bleeding an excessive amount compared to the normal wounds until he saw that this strange snake seemed to have an affinity he had not encountered.

Blood Mana.

This strange black snake was using it's own blood to create armor along the areas of the bite marks that the opponent bit down on, the armor resembling a sharp dragon scale would point outward forcing the opponent to change the location of it's next strike.

It was running out if room to strike without harming itself however.

Ezekiel began to prepare a number of spells that would allow him to slay both snakes in a single volley.

Nova after nova crafted and left floating while he kept his casting speed slow enough to regenerate mana between casts.

Once he had enough to cast a star he used his mana control to bring every projectile close to him with a heavy strain on his mind because of the large number of complex spells he had to keep together.

When he launched the spells down he saw the blood snake glance at him before it did something unexpected.

The creature twisted violently and rolled underneath it's own opponent using the smaller size of it's body, the opponent would block most of the spells from harming it like this.

'Huh it's smart... that's dangerous.'

With ghe new position of the snakes he watched as the opponent was blown apart by his spells bringing him to ninety-five percent and making the blood snake take significant damage.

It was alive however and dashed away with rapid movements of it's slithering form to attack other small snakes nearby to heal.

When he saw what it planned he looked to the rest of the area to find out if any other snakes were close to completing the progress but kept chasing the blood snake anyway.

'More snakes will attack it and I can try to keep killing those while forcing it to get weaker.'

He was soon proven right as a massive snake attacked the other but unlike before he saw something that truly shocked him.

The blood snake coiled like a spring and launched itself into the maw of the large beast, it did not fit perfectly inside but when he watched the two fight for the ability to control that part of the body he noticed the large snake thrash violenty as the sharp tail of his target stabbed through the bottom jaw of the beast like an anchor.

He allowed the two to fight while he repeated the same effect as before with dozens of novas and a star to launch down on the two.

He thought about how he could make cute to pierce the head of the larger snake but then decided against it due to the skull being the strongest part of these beasts.

His spells fell upon the large snake which weakened it heavily, he only launched enough to take out the rest of the HP while he flew lower to try to get close enough to attack the blood snake as soon as it fled.

He had kept a few novas and the star just for this moment as the blood snake used a gaping hole in the larger snake to flee, with his own progress now at ninety-six percent with some getting past him he had to land this spell immediately.

The crash of the spells destroyed the ground near the blood snake which hissed in rage and pain as the blood armor was shredded away to expose it's wounds and now burning body.

The snake had a massive amount of HP shredded away from it's total as it used it's speed to get away from Ezekiel just like before.

The snake continued to eat hundreds of smaller challengers to regain while he chased it down.

It seemed to be heading straight for a pair of clashing monstrosities who smashed small snakes to death with each roll of their intertwined bodies.

The blood snake coiled in on itself and just like before lept towards the mass of clashing monsters.

Ezekiel decided then that one star and a large number of novas was just not enough so he planned to do something new just to do enough damage to get rid of all three.

The blood snake latched onto the larger snakes and created more armor around itself like before until it resembled a long pine cone that had released it's seeds.

As Ezekiel cast a star and tried to focus on regenerating his mana he noticed more snakes charging near them.

It seemed that their habit of sticking to one on one battles only applied to the early stage as these creatures all seemed very close to completing their progress and all seemed rather low to be attempting a desperate gamble.

He saw the area turn into a brutal and chaotic free for all with poison spells flying, venom splashing and fangs glinting.

He even noticed a few spells flying near him forcing him to maneuver around which made his concentration even harder.

Spells hit him a few times as he tried to get out of range of others, venom splashed across his body and even a strange needle hit him in the back as he realized that there were more unique snakes that were attacking the area.

When he finally had enough mana to cast another star he immediately cast it without caring about how much he got hit during his channeling of the spell.

When the spell was formed he grabbed the other in the claws of his wing while the other wing grabbed the newly formed star.

"Eat these you scaled bastards!"

He used the powerful limbs to launch both while the membranes of his wings caught enough air to throw him backwards with the momentum.

Both spells hit the group of snakes with a deafening explosion of raw magical might as he watched his progress bar reach one hundred percent.

With a satisfied smile he waited to see what would occur as he saw snakes crawling away from the explosion, survivors who must have taken advantage of the chaos to complete their own progress.

He even saw the blood snake slithering out with the blood armor shattered once again while looking to the lake.

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Congratulations! You have completed the event and gained the attention of the Snake Queen!

Rewards will now be distributed to participating snakes.

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He watched as a gargantuan snake almost as large as the serpent boss of the dungeon slithered out of the lake.

On her head was a bony mass that resembled a small crown of horns.

Her vision crossed over the gathered participants and before he knew it the snake had activated some skill or spell that made her own eyes glow in an eery light.

On the ground he watched as a few of the snakes began to slowly move closer while others twisted in place.

'Is this a mesmerizing skill? Is she forcing the snakes closer?'

As he considered the implications he saw that only a single snake was resisting the skill without a single sign of pain or stress.

The blood snake coiled up and watched the others with a predatory gleam in it's eyes.

The other snakes in the area had long since left, most likely caused by the fear of the queen as their progress bars vanished when they didn't succeed in reaching one hundred.

He knew it was risky but he began to slowly flutter to the ground while watching as snakes threw themselves into the gaping maw of the queen.

As her body slowly churned the water to stay afloat and forced the fog away with the erratic movement he noticed that the lake held a small island at the center with only a single flower on that island.

No grass, no stones, only bare dirt and a single purple flower that flowed with veins of energy inside it.

When he saw this he got curious and tried to inspect it.

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Kalakuta Oleander

A flower saturated by poison mana for so long it has refined and purified the mana into a new, toxic form.

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He watched as all of the snakes that completed the challenge fed themselves to the queen before she turned her gaze to the remainder.

First she stared at him with a lazy expression and he heard a chilling voice in his mind.

"You are not kin but you culled the weak... I will reward you but that is all."

Then she turned to the blood snake and moved closer until her flicking tongue touched upon him.

He did not know if any words were exchanged or what the snakes might but when the queen seemed satisfied she turned back to the poison lake with the blood snake following behind.

'Guess he gets to be the lucky male amongst the survivors.'

As their tails disappeared in the lake he saw another notification.

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Congratulations! You have completed the event but since you are not a snake the queen has given you a different reward.

- 1x snake egg

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