TA Chapter 15 Interlude; Challenge(2)
My heart jumped powerfully, pumping blood to all the essentials in my body. My jadeite scales stood on end and more jade liquid was excreted from my pores, piling against each other in layers before elongating into sharp spikes.
Something welled up within me, and a menacing hiss echoed within the surroundings as I gazed seriously at my challenger.
I lunged with a speed far surpassing my previous one, yet the two-leg evaded, continuously. Many types of weapons continuously materialized within its hands, attacking my hardened scales, yet failed to surpass my defense.
A tree's stem splintered as I burrowed through it. The wood creaked as it tilted on its side, only avoiding a complete fall because the nearby canopies shared it's weight.
Just as my mouth was about to close on the shiny two-leg, it's body blurred, appearing a few paces away. I bared my fangs in frustration before I prepared something within my poison glands even as I continued to close the distance.
I closed my mouth before spitting out a glob of my poison, which hardened instantly, turning into a large grey rock as it traveled through the air. This time, two-leg didn't opt to dodge, instead materializing a large solidified glowing wall between itself and my attack.
It's shield held, but the force of my blow catapulted the two-leg far into the distance, leaving a long furrow and toppling multiple trees.
I flicked out my tongue, and rattled my spines in triumph. The two-leg had been too flighty, with this being my first attack to truly connect.
I slowly slithered my way over, traversing the trail it had left behind with my senses fully alert for any traps. I had learned since long ago to never underestimate the two-legs. They were luckier than us, born intelligent enough to plot.
I flicked out my tongue, feeling the prevalent sharpened needles, a result of two-leg's energy. It was still shocking to me how this one had managed to reach my level. I had thought they hadn't been born with our particular gifts.
When I finally managed to lay my eyes on the end of the trail, my rock was collapsing, dispersing into a thick Grey mist, exposing the intact glowing wall behind it, embedded deep within the tree stem.
I flicked out my tongue twice, then moved it around to the roof of my mouth. The energies that had been impeding the closing of the wound were slowly losing the battle against my own, which was a piece of good news, yet joy was far from me. My attack hadn't even cracked the glowing wall, or put a dent in it.
I hissed at the glowing two-leg, who jumped from the depression, his glowing wall dispersing to form a weapon in his hand, one longer than he was tall. And edged too.
Every weapon he had ever made had set off my instincts even when it failed to breach my defenses.
Close combat wasn't working, a conclusion I had now reached after my latest failure. But the most pressing question was how I could surpass its absurd defense! This two-leg had a durable body, a conclusion I had come to after my latest attack. Then there was that unnatural burst of speed coupled with the myriad types of weapons it's glowing energy could conjure. So far, there hadn't been any dimming in the glow, a sign that the two-leg had almost as equal reserves of energy as me, a puzzling realization considering it's small body.
I slithered to the side, circling it slowly as I mulled over what I could do to bypass it's defense. The vertical dark lines in my eyes narrowed even further as a certain detail caught my attention, a grey smudge on the two-leg's shoulder.
I had thought it to be small rock unintentionally stuck, but when I attempted to sense it, my spinal spurs rattled in joy. My energy had also somehow found it's way into the two-leg! That observation alone gave me an insight into a feasible plan.
With a thought, I concentrated energy beneath my scales, the ones facing the two-leg. Then, with a hiss, the jade spurs on those scales shot out, blurring within my gaze even as they made impact upon a sphere of glowing energy summoned by the two-leg in reaction to the attack.
The spurs shattered harmlessly upon the glowing sphere, but my heart was filled with anticipation for what came next.
Jade colored dust floated around the sphere from my attack, and I spewed out more grey energy, saturating the space with a foggy grey and jade mixture that turned every living thing around into stone.
My heart clenched in anticipation as I waited for it to taint two-leg's energy.
A glow appeared within the grey mist, with my eye membrane starting to fail in blocking its light. My heart hammered within my chest, with my instincts screaming at me. My body trembled, rattling my spinal spurs and scales. Was I actually feeling fear?!
I tasted the air with my tongue, eyes widening and vertical lines narrowing as something different from the needle-like energy was transmitted back into my brain. I had actually felt a rise in temperature, so minute that I would have dismissed it as an illusion if I didn't know better.
I shrunk back in caution, creating some considerable distance between us even as the light intensified to the point that I became blinded.
Then it vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. My jaw hang loose as I gazed at the scene before me. All the fog had been cleared away as if it had never existed, and what stood before my eyes was a being glowing far more intensely than before. I tasted the air, finding that the sharp energy had disappeared completely, as if it had never existed. And in it's place was a warm scotching energy that raised alarm within me.
Where had the sharp energy vanished to? How could it possess this other energy?
As those and many other questions swarm within my mind, challenging my long held beliefs, the two-leg raised it's hand abruptly, with my spinal spurs rattling loudly as a result.
I froze. I had actually frozen! The indecisiveness and the unknown had birthed terror within my heart, paralyzing my body and mind. But I broke through it with sheer will, slithering to the side instantly.
I breathed out a poison mist in relief only for weakness to smother me. I trembled, with my head almost falling to the ground, but steadied myself and searched for the problem only to catch the massive puddle of crimson forming beneath me.
Something massive and unknown had tunneled through my neck, leaving behind a circular gaping hole!
I had lost. It was as simple as that, yet I was unwilling.
Actually, I had already come to terms with the fact that I could lose one day and end up dead, yet all my fantasies had never considered my end at a two-leg.
The weakness persisted, and I felt something dripping down my lips, yet my gaze remained fixed upon the two-leg in the distance, wondering why he had toyed with me if he could have ended it instantly.
A flicker of rage crossed my mind as I felt the dulled sensation of my head hitting the muddied forest floor.
Why hadn't the two-leg been honorable? Why? Why had he hidden his overwhelming power instead of giving me the respect I deserved? I had been the champion, the king of these lands! Yet here I was, dying because of the treacherous sapience of a two-leg?! This was unfair!
Sensation left me slowly until I was no more, with the rage vanishing to leave behind a single question...
Had I been so weak to that two-leg that my honor hadn't even been considered?