Rhen wasn't given time to understand where this ability came from, his danger senses screaming.
To his left, he saw the other head opening wide, a gag of poison hiding within its throat – the opponents of the head now exhausted to distract it.
'Oh, fuck!' Rhen exclaimed, his mind racing on what to do.
Even with his new resistance, he didn't think he'd be able to handle a direct hit.
Right when he thought of letting go of the gradually freezing head, he heard Zena tell him to continue telepathically.
Because of this, he hesitated and in that moment, the head spit out the poison liquid.
Rhen's heart pumped hard, placing all his trust on Zena at this moment.
The green liquid neared him at the same time a bright golden light appeared.
The light came up like a sun obstructing the liquid.
A sizzling sound was heard too.
Zena was floating mid-air, in a semi-corporeal state, in her hands was a small and flat circular shield that was blocking the poison.
'Is that one of her three forms?' he instantly wondered.
"I'll handle this head," Zena said, her eyes fixed on her target. "Be quick."
Understanding her words, Rhen shifted his concentration back to the freezing head.
With his mana split between Gravity Control and Cold Touch, it drained fast.
But the Snake was already weakened and damaged before he got here, so things would be easier.
Rhen willed the ice to spread faster on the snake's head. He would have loved for it to sink beneath its scales, but his proficiency was still poor.
It took about 2 minutes of staying in place to completely encase the head in ice, freezing it completely.
As soon as he finished, he jumped down, retreating a short distance away and stared at Zena.
She flew around the other head with a sort of miniature sun that changed form between a staff and a shield in her hand while also blocking tail attacks.
Aside from the damage dealt by the unfamiliar group and the frozen head, one could see the signs of burns caused by Zena.
In the few seconds, Rhen observed, he noted, "It looks like it's hard for her to use mana when she's not corporeal. Using incorporeality to fly looks cool. Ah, it also seems like they can still see her in this form."
While he was wondering and seeing Zena still holding her own, Rhen took the opportunity to open the Enma system and attempted using the shop.
He found something called a Greater Mana Potion, glossed over its description and bought it for 180 En Coins.
He dipped his hand into his inventory and pulled out the potion, drank it.
Feeling all his mana recovered, Rhen made his way to the part of the snake where its body split into two heads.
The instant he reached, he put all his mana to increasing gravity around him, fixing himself in an open state.
The range and concentration were in shambles as he only focused on increasing.
The snake's movement instantly stiffened, its lower body sinking deeper into the ground.
Zena, free from the snake's assault for an instant, was less affected by the gravity because of her current state.
In her semi-corporeal state, she was intangible to most physical attacks but limited in how much strength she could use.
Remaining indifferent, she closed her eyes and pictured a long one-sided blade.
The 'sun' in her hand bent under her will, reaching a length of almost 1 meter while the width was like 5 cm.
Opening her eyes and heaving a breath, she swung her sword diagonally.
The two heads, which were barely able to move, were beheaded, with residual golden flames on their necks.
"It's not over! Run!" standing in the distance, the purple-haired man yelled.
Upon those words, Rhen didn't think twice and ran away from the clearing.
The surrounding people had also retreated quite a distance earlier, under the purple-haired man's assistance.
Zena floated upward and gazed down at the corpse of the snake.
The heads fell with a large thud and the lingering flames on the neck died down.
The next moment, there was a rain of poison as it spewed out of the neck.
Even in death, the creature's venom pulsed through its body, spilling out from its severed neck like a last act of vengeance.
Meanwhile, Rhen, who was still running as he was initially the closest, had a lot of droplets of poison flying toward him.
His mind was still racing on how to escape it when a shadow appeared behind him, carried him and instantly appeared further away.
"Safe!" the purple-haired young man said, cleaning his forehead.
Landing on the floor, Rhen calmed his raging breath, his instincts calming as he turned over.
Obstructing his vision of the tree crowns and sky was Zena, who looked at him with worry.
She was now corporeal, wearing her white gown.
"Low mana?"
"Pretty much..." Rhen tried to shrug it off, but his mind ached as a result of low mana.
Before Zena could suggest buying a potion, the purple-haired young man said, "I can help with that."
As a small sun floating by her, Zena gave him a wary look while giving him space to move closer.
The man brought out a skin parchment and placed it over Rhen and muttered in a language Rhen didn't understand.
'Isn't this the rune item? Who are these people?'
With a soft glow, Rhen felt his mana recovery rate increase and said to the man, "I feel better now."
"That's good to know. Thank you for saving us," the man said with a bow.
"No need to. I just hate snakes," Rhen shrugged.
The look of worry eased on Zena as she assisted Rhen in standing.
[You have killed a B-rank Twin-headed Viper]
[You have obtained a 4★ Loot Crate]
'Nice. But before this…'
Rhen composed himself, his face turning serious because he had questions for these people.
"If I may ask, who are you and where are you from?"
"I am Jiro. We are from deep into this land."
Rhen raised a brow as he confirmed what he heard, "Deep into this monster infested land?"
Jiro smiled nervously and said, "Yes. You might not know us as we have been isolated for centuries now."
At that moment, Rhen thought, 'The lost civilization really... exists?'