Chapter 72: Kaya Bloodmoor

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Kaya Bloodmoor

The basilisk’s eyes scanned the crowd and then locked onto Xavier and Kaya. Its long, forked tongue flickered out. Venomous fangs gleamed at the sides of its closed jaw.

HSSSSSSSSK... SSSSSKREEE...

"How are we going to deal with that?" Xavier asked, glancing at Kaya.

"You see that scale just below its jaw?" she said.

Xavier looked. One scale stood out clearly—lighter in color than the rest.

"Yes, I see it."

"That’s the basilisk’s weak point," Kaya replied. "Do whatever you want—just don’t attack it."

"Why?"

"It’s disgraceful to defeat a beast by striking its weak point in a coming-of-age ceremony. I’d become the joke of the whole village if you even tried."

HSSSSSSSAAAAHHH—!! SSSSKREEEEECH!!

The basilisk hissed, then opened its jaws and shrieked, revealing its long venomous fangs in full. Thick venom coated the front pair, slid to the tips, and dripped onto the ground. The black soil began to vaporize on contact.

HSSSSSSS!!

"That doesn’t look safe at all. Do you have a plan?" Xavier asked.

"Look out!"

Before Kaya could answer, the basilisk charged. They dodged in opposite directions as its head slammed into the spot where they had stood a moment earlier. The serpent turned at once and lunged at Kaya.

SSSSKREEE—!! HSSSSAAARGH!!

She was nimble, light on her feet, moving through the arena like a shadow while the basilisk pursued her.

HSSSSKREE... SSSSS...

"First we cut off its tongue!" she shouted to Xavier.

The basilisk’s tongue served as both hearing and direction-finder; it kept flickering even while it lunged. Xavier called on Zuzu’s power, blue lightning crackled over his entire body as he vanished in a leap. His fists crashed down onto the basilisk’s head, pinning it to the ground at once. Kaya did not waste the opening. Her fang sword flashed across the thrashing tongue and sliced it clean through.

SSSSKREEEEEAAAAARGH—!!!!

Pain sent the basilisk into a frenzy. It thrashed its long body and knocked Xavier off its head. Blood poured from the severed tongue, coating its fangs, thick red drops dripped from its jaws onto the soil. The serpent swung toward the cheering crowd and launched itself forward trying to escape.

HSSSSAAARGH!! SSSSKREECH!! GRAAAHSSSK!!

"Oh no, you don’t," Kaya dropped to one knee and pressed both hands to the ground. A thick stone wall erupted just in front of the spectators. The basilisk slammed into it, but the wall did not budge.

SSSSKREEE—!! HSSSS...

The beast understood one thing: to escape the arena it first had to deal with Kaya and Xavier. Without its sense of direction, it could rely only on its eyes and its venomous fangs.

It pulled back from the wall and turned, this time lunging at Xavier.

HSSSSSSAAAHHH!!

Freya stood at the edge of the arena, hands clenched, ready to intervene the moment she judged Xavier’s life in danger.

The basilisk opened its jaws and struck where Xavier stood—only to close on empty air. Its head smashed into the ground again. Xavier had already moved, only his afterimage remained. He was back on its head in an instant and drove another punch straight between its eyes. The serpent whipped its tail, sharp scales cutting through the air in a vicious arc. Xavier leapt sideways and landed beside Kaya.

SSSSKREECH!! HSSSSAAARGH!!

He looked at her, eyes already asking what came next.

If he had been fighting alone, he would have finished the beast himself. This was Kaya’s ceremony, however, and he had no intention of stealing her moment.

After she explained her plan, she asked, "Can you handle it?"

"Of course."

"Then let’s go."

Kaya knelt once more and pressed her hands into the soil. A massive stone spike burst upward and struck the basilisk mid-lunge, throwing off its aim. Xavier rose at the same instant and punched the distracted serpent’s head hard enough to drive it backward. Kaya kept calling spikes from the earth, prodding the huge body from different angles and constantly forcing it to change direction.

HSSSSKREE!! SSSSAAARGH!!

"It’s been dragging on for quite a while. Do you think they have any chance?" Allen asked, standing beside Henry.

"They will win, I’m sure of it," Henry replied.

"But the snake isn’t damaged at all except for the bleeding tongue. They haven’t even scratched its scales."

"That’s because they don’t need to. If you look closely at what they’re doing, you’ll understand."

Xavier continued to hammer the basilisk’s head and vanish into its blind spots while Kaya kept the spikes coming. Slowly the serpent was driven back toward the edge of the arena—toward the bonfire.

SSSSKREEE... HSSSSAAAH...

Xavier gathered himself for one final blow, careful to stay clear of the venom dripping fangs. He punched harder than before. The basilisk’s head snapped backward and plunged into the roaring flames of the bonfire.

SSSSKREEEEEAAAAARGH—!!!!

At that exact moment stone pillars tore up through the earth around the serpent’s neck, locking its head in place. At first the basilisk barely reacted. It simply tried to pull free of the thick stone cuffs while its hard scales protected it from the heat. That protection did not last. The flames heated the scales until the flesh beneath began to cook. The moment the pain registered, its entire body writhed. It coiled and uncoiled violently, twisting and thrashing in a desperate attempt to free its head.

HSSSSAAARGH!! SSSSKREECH!! GRAAAHSSSK—!!

The snake hissed and shrieked while Kaya poured more and more mana into the stone restraints, keeping them hard and immovable. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead; her reserves were nearly gone.

SSSSSS... HSSSKREE... SSSSAAAHHH...

"If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to hold the beast until I recover," she told Xavier.

"I don’t think that will be necessary," he answered, eyes fixed on the basilisk.

Its body still twisted in agony, but its head had gone completely still, it’s eyes burned black. The scales around its skull glowed incandescent from the heat.

HSSSSK... SSSS...

Xavier placed a hand on her shoulder. "You can stop now. It’s dead. You’ve done it."

Kaya lifted her hands from the ground. The stone cuffs crumbled back into the earth. The basilisk’s body gave one final convulsion, pulling its ruined head free of the fire, and then lay still.

Cheers erupted from every side of the plaza. The chief rose from his seat.

"That is your next chief, my daughter—Kaya Bloodmoor!" he shouted with joy.

"Now that the ceremony has ended, bring out the booze" he announced, and the tribe’s women carried huge barrels of mead into the plaza.

The celebrations quickly turned into a drinking feast. Tribesmen drained horn after horn of mead. When the chief invited Freya and the students to join, almost everyone accepted. Soon every hand held a horn, and most went back for seconds and thirds.

While the chief, the tribesmen, the students, and even the professor drowned themselves in booze, Kaya pulled Xavier out of the crowd.