Sezel froze, sweat beading on his temples as he confronted the behemoth looming above him. The Leviathan's head was so massive it could have devoured a small skyscraper in a single, leisurely bite. Its mouth, lined with fangs that glistened like polished daggers, yawned wide enough to swallow his hopes, his dreams, and his very insignificant existence.
Its enormous eyes, ancient and intelligent, locked onto Sezel, pinning him in place. He felt like an ant that had wandered into the middle of a god's chess game.
This is completely and utterly screwed, Sezel thought, his mind fragmenting under the raw, suffocating pressure of pure terror. He realized, with a grim, hysterical twitch of his lips, It could swallow me whole and wouldn't even notice. I'd be a piece of spinach in its teeth.
His instincts, the same ones that had kept him alive in the slums, screamed at him to run. But his body, in a spectacular act of betrayal, refused to move. He was paralyzed, a statue carved from fear, under the deadly gaze of the Leviathan.
He gulped, his throat as dry as sandpaper, the sunlight fracturing into frenzied, mocking beams through the canopy above.
The silence shattered. With a speed that defied its colossal size, the Leviathan lunged.
Its jaws opened wide, its tongue snapping out like a dripping, venomous whip. Sezel's heart seized. The serpent was too fast.
There was no time to think, no time to formulate a plan. The surface beneath his feet was a hazard in itself, slick as oil and alive with the shifting motion of the serpent's body.
Here goes nothing.
He didn't decide to act; his body simply reacted. He let his foot slip, faking a fall just as the monstrous head swept over him. The fangs, each the size of a small car, tore through the space where his body had been a nanosecond before.
Pain lanced through his legs as he landed hard, but panic was a highly effective fuel, transformed the agony into pure speed. He sprinted as if there was no tomorrow, which, if he stopped, there wouldn't be.
He plunged into the forest, the world here was grotesque—trees soared hundreds of feet into the sky, their trunks so thick they could hide monsters the size of multistorey buildings. Grass that soared high above his head, each blade bending in the wind, casting shadows big enough to hide a car.
What kind of place is this? The question hammered through his skull. Do giants live here? Or just really, really big snakes?
Behind him, the serpent coiled, its massive body a mountain of muscle and scales, preparing for another assault. When it came, it was terrifyingly swift.
The ground trembled as the enormous mass undulated at an impossible speed. The next moment, its maw was wide open, ready to devour him whole.
Shit, just go away. Haven't you ever heard of a low-carb diet? I am not healthy to eat anyways.
Sezel accelerated, ignoring the screaming protest of his muscles. He just had to reach the denser part of the forest, to find a hole to crawl into, a place to hide like the cockroach he was. But the distance loomed like forever.
The monster lunged again. Sezel, in a stroke of desperate genius, hurled himself behind the trunk of one of the behemoth trees, rolling just as the Leviathan struck. Sand and splinters rained down as the snake, in its frustration, devoured the tree whole, leaving a gaping pit in the ground.
Sezel didn't dare move, heart hammering, fear making his whole body vibrate, but he jarred himself to senses, there was no time to stop. He forced himself upright and sprinted again, unseen and silent before the serpent could find his trail.
But his luck was poison.
The snake lunged again, its massive shadow blanketing him, the sunlight vanishing under the scale-armored ceiling of its head. The cave-like maw gaped just above him.
There was no escape. Best case scenario, he'd lose a leg or two. Not an ideal outcome.
Think something good, something useful, dammit. He had a katana, which would be about as effective as a toothpick, and a gun, which would probably just annoy it. Both were useless.
He gambled it all. He rolled towards one of the a tree, still under the monster's shadow, and caught the nearest branch, hurling all his weight onto it.
As the monster lunged, the wind from its attack roared through the forest, catching Sezel and flinging him through the air.
A ragged grin split his face—he'd made it! Not bad. Not bad at all. I have a mind, you beast. A very terrified, but occasionally clever, mind.
But his smile vanished as something pierced the canopy with the force of a natural disaster. An arrow, the size of a small tree, blurred into view, whistling through the air with impossible power. It struck the snake with deadly precision, taking the ginormous beast with it, out of sight and below the mountain-like plain.
The dreadful scene sent ice-cold shivers down Sezel's body, despair falling like a tidal wave.
What… what sort of hell have I walked into? His mind spun, his thoughts racing to darker, more terrifying depths. He gasped, frozen to the spot. What was that? Something killed that thing. Seriously.
What kind of monster could kill a leviathan? And, more importantly, what kind of monster used a bow and arrow?
A giant creature rivaling the Statue of Unity and the scariest part was not even that, it had intelligence.
Sezel's mind churned into chaos, just thinking about such a thing made his blood turn to ice.
Sezel let his body rest against the bark of a tree, his breath coming in shallow, terrified gasps. He glanced skyward, his eyes stinging. "This place... truly is hell."
But he knew he couldn't rest. The larger predator was out there, and the smaller ones, the scavengers, would be on the hunt now.
And as he anticipated, muffled footsteps approached from all directions. A new welcoming committee, no doubt, hoping to get a piece of what the fallen king had left.
Great, he thought, a hysterical laugh bubbling in his chest. Just my luck. I survive falling from the sky, then a ginormous snake only to be eaten by a pack of smaller, probably less impressive, monsters. At least it's a step down.