Snake? Snake!? Snaaaake!

"Percute scintilla!" Harry shouts as he thrusts his palm forth, causing a ball of electricity to rocket out and strike his opponent in the chest...

The enemies he was currently facing were something the common adventurer would almost always encounter... Kobolds. Short humanoid creatures with faces resembling dogs, and menacing-looking claws.

They weren't all the strong, but in large numbers they were certainly deadly. This was yet another challenge Kali had set before him, she'd dropped him in the Amazon forest somewhere with nothing but the clothes of his back and told him to survive for three days.

Of course, if he wished he could just teleport away, but that would defeat the point of this training session, wouldn't it? Though, perhaps it was another one of those 'tricks' Kali would like to pull. She once challenged him to land a hit on her for a prize, and he'd spent two months exchanging spells, clashing blades, and throwing punches... Only to find that he'd accidentally completed it by falling over and smashing his forehead into her sleeping form...

He considered whether or not she just wanted to be 'attacked' in her sleep, but shook those thoughts from his head as another claw almost skims his cheek. In retaliation, he forms his hand into a claw and sweeps it from right to left, a flame exploding from his hand as he does so, creating four red blades of fire that cut deeply into the attacking Kobold before igniting it.

It'd been six months since his 'disastrous' birthday, in which Kali had gotten him blackout drunk and had him running around Africa randomly throwing out spells as if he were one of those stereotypical mad wizards you'd read about in fantasy novels.

It was fortunate he hadn't hit puberty yet, otherwise he had no doubt she would have taken far more than just his 'first' at drinking. The only reason he knew what'd actually happened was because he'd been able to recover the memories via Occlumency. Even if you're blackout drunk the memories would still be compartmentalized, allowing you to revisit them, despite how embarrassing they may be.

In the six months since his birthday, his training had picked up significantly, going from mostly theory to practical spell work. His enemies had changed from regular animals to magical entities like the Kobolds he was currently facing, and any other Nine-year-old, magical or not would have been torn to shreds already, so it was fortunate he had received that powerup years ago.

He'd been learning a lot about his worlds magic, most of it was in Latin and required a wand, but he was able to bypass the latter obstacle due to his magical prowess. He was hoping to be able to use them without verbal cues, but that'd take a good amount of practise before he was proficient enough to achieve that.

Harry backs away to avoid the club rapidly approaching his head, he gives the Kobold a kick to get some distance before striking the ground with his palm, causing two swords made of rock to burst out and begin floating around him.

The Kobold attempt another attack but is skewered by one of the blades as it attempts to protect its master, Harry grabs the other and beheads the rapidly bleeding out creature, using the swordsmanship Kali had been teaching him.

He'd like to say he was fairly powerful at this point, but every time he began to get a big head, Kali would pop it with a beatdown bards would sing about for millennia... That was not to say he didn't appreciate it however, he knew what arrogance could lead to and was more than happy to avoid such a mindset.

Though, another thing that held back his ego was the fact he had no idea how powerful the magical people of this world were... Kali based her knowledge of them mostly on Merlin, who was purported to be the most powerful magical user this world had ever seen. Not a great measuring stick for Harry's progress if he were perfectly honest...

*Smack!*

Harry groans as he holds his nose, a Kobold had thrown a rock that'd smashed his glasses and most likely broken his nose... Yeah, that's another thing he noticed as his training picked up, his glasses were a serious disadvantage.

In almost every tough fight he'd end up losing them and having to fumble around like some knock-off Velma from Scooby-Doo. As someone with the power to literally warp reality at his fingertips, such a flaw was absolutely unacceptable... Though, every time he broached the topic with Kali her expression soured and she changed the subject.

*Puchi!*

He stabs his stone blade into the offending Kobold's heart, getting some payback for the rock the bastard had just thrown. Harry glances around the clearing but doesn't spot any more enemies, nodding to himself as he lowers his guard and begins taking heavy breaths.

"Are you going to eat that?" a quiet voice asks from the shadows, Harry rapidly turns towards it but can't spot the culprit... Though, judging by the question, it was probably asking whether it could take a Kobold.

"Er, sure?" he says, still warily looking around.

"Sssspeaker?!" the voice suddenly exclaims, sounding incredibly surprised.

"Speaker?" he asks, thoroughly confused at this point.

*Crunch*

The sound of foliage being moved draws his attention, and from his cracked glasses he spots an absolutely huge Python slithering towards him. He raises his hand and is about to fry the thing with fire, but is interrupted when it looks up at him and begins... Speaking?

"Sssspeaker! It is an honour to be in your presssence." the sneak states, bowing its head slightly as if Harry were royalty.

...

"Right... Okay... Magical is real, monsters exist, snakes can talk..." he quickly mutters to himself, wondering if he had finally lost his mind. Perhaps he was sitting in an Asylum right now babbling about magic being real?

"Ssspeaker?"

Harry's drawn from his rapidly spiralling thoughts and looks back at the snake, "Er, you wanted to eat the Kobolds right? Go ahead." he offers and the snake nods its head, slithering over to a Kobold before dislocating its jaw and slowly pulling the humanoid into its mouth.

"So... Do all snakes talk?" he asks.

The python tries to speak but finds that its mouth is currently full, Harry just smirks and shakes his head, "Eat first, then we can talk." he says, taking a seat on a nearby stump, watching with morbid fascination as the snake devours the body whole.

Once done, the Python slithers towards him, Harry's slightly put off as it curls up near his feet with a visible bulge now in its body, but holds his tongue for now. "As I was saying... Do all snakes speak?"

The Python nods, "The ssspeaker can ssspeak to all of usss."

Harry continues conversing with the snake, asking a whole manner of questions, with the Python being unable to answer most. It seems as if its intelligence hadn't really be raised at all, only Harry's ability to actually communicate with it. It was quite stupid, but seemed to know a bit about 'Speakers'.

Apparently, they were humans with inborn abilities to speak their language, and they were almost legendary figures among snakes. Speakers were supposedly massive advocates for snakes, saving many, many of them in their lifetimes.

It made sense to Harry, you wouldn't slaughter and eat a pig if it could beg you for mercy... The same applied to snakes. Not that he'd be willing to eat before he discovered his new talent, he imagined their meat would be rather terrible tasting.

Though, this ability raised more questions than it answers... Did it apply to all reptiles? Would it apply to dragons? What about snakes belonging to other realms? Indeed, he'd have to ask Kali about it later... Once his training in the Amazon was finished of course.