"Alright everyone!
Prepare to set off!" Ren's voice echoed through the early morning's atmosphere.
Leo opened his eyes slowly at Ren's words, he had slept with his back rested on the door of a random building's porch.
Where he slept was two houses away from the group, his staff was on his chest, and his arms wrapped around it.
"Just let me sleep a little more" Leo muttered, about to rollover.
[Hiss]
A hissing sound emerged from beside him.
"What the?!" Leo opened his eyes immediately — a blue snake was beside him, coiled up and ready to attack him.
It hissed louder, opening its mouth to reveal its fangs.
It attacked Leo unprovoked.
[Kuhh]
Leo guarded with himself with his staff, holding it horizontally as it bit against the middle part of the staff while he knelt.
They were now in a contest of strength, he pushed it back but couldn't break free from its inward facing teeth.
It began wrapping its tail region to mid body around Leo, getting up to his chest.
"What can it do with such a thin body.
Actually…better not let it pull anything." Leo thought as he wrapped himself in fiery aura.
"Don't spare anytime, come on!" Ren's voice was as loud as before.
-
The snake began to loosen it's grip as it burnt from the heat.
"Let's see…can this work?" Leo poured his aether into his weapon.
Especially the part the snake bit on to, it's mouth began smoking as it caught fire, releasing its teeth from the staff.
It flailed its body as it burnt.
Leo stood down and looked down at it, still shaken.
"Have to be sure" Leo split its head in half, and within a short while its body burnt to a crisp.
He took his staff and got out of there immediately, walking to the wagons.
"Blue, just like yesterday.
Similar diameter and length as well, could it be the same one?" He questioned himself as he got to the group.
"Leo, come on, we are running low on schedule." Ren said to him as he got on his horse and put his helmet on.
"Sorry, was held up by a snake." Leo said.
"You wouldn't say." Caesar responded.
"I'm not making an excu-" Leo tried to explain himself.
Ren placed an arm on Leo's shoulder.
"Look around you." Ren said to Leo.
"Why won't he lis…
…ten." Leo had hesitated at first but he followed through, the sight left him speechless;
The bodies of multiple snakes littered all around, they would be about fifteen or so.
"What the…" Leo muttered his words.
"Heimer, Gustev and I dealed with most of them, the rest were killed by others.
Our fears of infestation have been proved, we have to leave here immediately." Ren said with urgency in his voice.
Heimlich came along, to climb the horse beside Ren's own, whilst Leo ran past him.
"Come on! Come on!..." Ren's voice echoed.
Leo climbed into the wagon behind, he split apart the tarpaulin cloth of the canopy aside and got inside.
"Got any rest?" Caesar who sat beside him asked with his right fist raised towards Leo.
"Most I've had in a while." Leo bumped fists with Caesar as he sat down.
They were the only ones in the wagon at that moment.
[Yaaawn] Paul yawned from the front of the wagon.
"Morning Paul!" Leo's voice resounded through the wagon.
"Mor…ning I'm already tired, and I'm just waking up." Paul said as he stretched his hands.
Clarence entered the wagon next.
"Morning" Leo said to her.
"Ah, morning Leo, same as you Caesar." She reciprocated in kind as she sat down.
"What are you two boys doing, move!" Ren's voice echoed once more.
Caesar whipped out a book, also the same one he had been drawing on previously; it was his journal.
"Done with everything?" Leo asked Caesar.
He nodded his head as he flipped through the pages slowly.
"The journal is coming up nicely, just need to name the beasts and we'll be alright." Said Caesar with a smirk on his face.
"We can't keep hanging on to the hopes of the messenger's incomplete information.
It's even reinforced even more by the fact that it has a hand in the fall of the fourth sector.
This journal will come in handy" Leo thought as he looked through the journal.
"You even drew this one pretty well too, it's nearly accurate." Leo said to Caeser as he touched the drawing in question;
It was that of the spawn and the sprouts, with their description beneath it.
"If it's okay with you both, can I join in naming it as well?" Clarence said whilst she took a look at it.
"Can she?" Caesar shifted his gaze to Leo.
"Why not?" Leo replied with a shrug attached to it.
"Which name would fit this on-" Clarence was interrupted.
Karius stormed into the wagon, with Dan following him.
Karius had a frown on his face and sat in his usual position.
"He looks angry, are you fighting again?" Clarence asked Dan.
[The horses began galloping] The journey had begun.
"Let the kid be, he's just angry over something trivial…" Dan revealed as he sat beside Leo this time.
Leo and Caesar appeared to not care about whatever was going on between the two boys.
"I'd prefer we name it Felix…" Caesar said.
"What?!
Of all names, Felix?!
It's a species dude." Leo palmed his face.
"Then what would you suppose we name it smartass?" Caesar asked Leo.
"I would take anything else to be honest." Leo turned to look at Clarence.
"Any ideas?" He asked.
She stared into empty space of a short while.
"Igor" She replied after much thought.
"That isn't any better though." Leo said with a disappointing look.
" I don't understand the appeal of naming them, what is it supposed to achieve.
Even if at all, I'd rather leave it to the supreme" Dan commented.
"Tch.
Fair enough." Caesar noised as he closed the book, and Clarence returned to her seating position.
"Either way, there's already an issue at hand..." Dan said with a serious tone.
"Snakes?" Leo asked.
[Hmm] Dan noised out in affirmation.
"Just before coming joining up, me and that dimwit over there killed about four." Dan said to Leo.
"Who are you calling a dimwit!" Karius said furiously.
Clarence held him to stop him from getting up.
His eyes held much anger, like an undying flame.
"No, let him be.
I want to see what he will do." Dan glared at Karius.
"Because you've grown up a little...
You've been acting up a bit too much recently." Dan's eyes were unflinching.
Karius glared back at him, but not for long.
"Tch" He couldn't withstand Dan's imposing gaze, and averted his eyes.
He calmed down and looked towards the front of the wagon, at Paul's back.
"That's what I thought." Dan looked away from him and continued speaking.
"I wonder what transpired between them" Caesar wondered.
"...So the snakes are going to be a big issue." Dan said.
"Shouldn't be a problem, they are really weak." Leo said to Dan.
"True, but we don't know how many they may be.
It may be upwards of hundreds or-" Dan had a troubled look on her face.
–
"What did you just say?!" Herra asked with a scared look on her face.
"Thousands!
There are more than a thousand." Laura's eyes shook along with her voice.
"No…no…no…no.
Fuck!
Why me." Herra looked dejected as she opened the canopy.
"Stop whining and start getting prepared at least.." Cera said to Herra.
Fiona was at the front of the wagon gearing up.
"What's the distance between us?" Zefroth asked.
"Barely two hundred metres, coming in from both sides, and they're a bit faster than the wagon." Laura responded as she closed her eyes.
She could see the form of the snakes slithering towards them.
Zefroth frowned.
"What exactly are in the thousands?" Saul queried.
"You might want to grab a weapon as well" Cera responded whilst she climbed over the supplies and sat beside Paul in the front.
"For what exactly?" He asked her.
She slicked her hair backwards and tied it up in a ponytail.
"Bloodshed." She said with a depraved smile.
–
The group moved at a commendable pace, leaving the settlement in no time.
But the grass around them gradually compressed from behind as they moved, the ones at the back of the group - Heimlich and Ren - noticed this.
"What do we do about this, they are gaining on us." Heimlich asked Ren.
"You go forward and report to Heimer, I'll keep a lookout for them." Ren said as he looked at both sides of the gradually widening path.
"Will do." Heimlich said in affirmation, then kicked his horse's hind region, making it speed up.
Ren grit his teeth then looked behind again, some of them had left the grass and started moving on the main path.
"To think there would be a day I would run from snakes.
But just look at the size of those." Ren thought to himself.
Their journey had once again become troublesome.