In the morning, we woke up feeling weak because no one had slept the night before after seeing all those creatures. With barely any energy left, we went about our usual tasks: gathering wood, cutting down trees with the swords we had brought with us, or meditating.
Everyone said we had to do it because if we had internal Qi without meridians to direct it, it could kill us, as if it were poison. And I especially don't want to die after everything we've been through, so I don't skip this part of the day. We usually do this near a river where we get water because it's a quiet place, even though it's a place where more creatures tend to gather.
On Anna's orders, I went to a nearby river with two other boys. When we went to the river, we expected to find the usual animals such as fish or bears, which are always nearby. We were all surprised when we arrived and saw the whole river stained with blood, as well as dozens of corpses nearby. We realized that there was no noise of any kind nearby.
"What the hell happened...?" asked Arthur, a boy whose most notable feature was his blond hair.
Fearfully, we began to approach the bodies of the dead animals. From a closer distance, we could see that most of the bodies were open or cut in half.
"Did that snake from earlier do this?" asked Della, who had come with us to heal us if we got hurt.
"It looks like it, but it didn't devour any of these animals," I said, moving closer and crouching down to touch the dead bodies.
Most of them were covered in flies that were already eating them, which was disgusting, but I touched them anyway. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that part of its body seemed to have been erased, and when I touched it, I burned myself, which made me let out a small cry of pain.
"That burns. Is it poison?" I asked, holding my hand, the skin of which had been burned.
"Hey, why aren't you answering?" I asked, puzzled.
Holding my hand, I looked back and saw that they both had serious looks on their faces as they looked behind them. Curious, I decided to look where they were looking and saw, through the trees, large golden eyes staring at us.
Everything froze at that moment. There had been no noise from the beginning, but now it was even worse. Except for the sound of our breathing, nothing could be heard. Our breathing began to get heavier due to fear. When I saw the snake, I could see its black scales and what appeared to be a horn coming out of its head.
"Move!" Arthur shouted, pushing Della and me away.
At that very moment, I saw the snake's head shoot toward us.
I fell to the ground next to Della, turning around to see the snake crash into a rock, which shattered on impact. I could hear Della gasp, and when I looked at her, I could see Arthur leaning against a tree, more than half of his body missing.
My breath caught instantly when I saw his body, and I could feel vomit rising in my throat. But I couldn't even vomit because Della grabbed my hand and pushed me.
"Conan, run!" Della shouted, forcing me to run after her while the snake shook its head and looked behind it, searching for us.
I didn't hesitate and started running alongside Della, heading towards the cave with all our strength. From behind us, I could hear several trees breaking and the snake coming out of them, staring at us.
When we emerged from among the trees and saw the cave, we started screaming and waving our arms, trying to get the attention of those outside.
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"What's wrong with those two?" Anna asked. She looked ahead, her gaze fixed on the figures of the boy and the green-haired girl, who were waving and seemed to be screaming.
"No idea, stop looking at them and start helping me with this," replied Oswin, who, along with other kids, was pulling up grass from around them and throwing it aside.
Just as Anna began to do what Oswin told her, there was a loud rumbling, followed by a tremor. She looked back toward where Conan and Della were and saw a giant black snake emerging from among the trees.
"Get into the cave!" Della shouted, turning around and creating a stone projectile that she fired straight at the creature's eye. "That'll buy us some time!" With a strength that surprised me, Della lifted me up, running faster until we reached the cave, where everyone was already waiting.
"What the hell is that thing doing here?" asked Anna, who was already leading the children toward the cave tunnels to use them as a hiding place.
"It set a trap for us!" replied Della, who was already creating a large hole in the ground with Oswin and Thomas, who was the last wizard of the trio.
In a few seconds, the projectile was created and fired at the snake's face. The impact sounded so loud that we were almost deafened. As for the snake, it let out a scream of pain, shaking violently.
"Quick, that won't kill it!" shouted Jumyeong, who grabbed Oswin and Della by the collars of their clothes before pushing them back to get them into the tunnels with the others.
Thomas was the last to enter as he began to create a thin stone so we could hide from the snake's view. After the entrance was sealed, Ghislaine lit torches with Oswin's help and began to distribute them for light.
"Let's get as far away from the cave entrance as possible," Ghislaine ordered, leading the way and guiding us into the tunnels.
As we ran, we could feel the tunnel shaking due to the snake's movements.
Running to the deepest part of the tunnels, we reached the stone that had been created to cover the place we saw the night before. As we were thinking about where to go, we could feel the tunnel widening and hear the creature's screams again.
"Hey, destroy that rock," said Ghislaine, looking seriously at Della, Oswin, and Thomas.