36 Broken Bones

Darkscale didn't follow Godermo. He watched him slowly move away, keeping him in his sight at all times.

Even while moving, the wounded human kept studying the serpent: from his experience, he speculated that the damnable snake was way less strong than what he appeared. There was no other reason that could keep the serpent from attacking him continuously without giving time to rest or try to run away. Probably, the technique that he used consumed a great part of his energy and he was already at his limits.

Godermo didn't know much about cultivation techniques but he did know that they consumed energy and there was a limit of times that one could do so before completely depleting the cultivation base.

However, between betting with his life and living to fight another day, he chose the latter without any reservation. It was a shame for the technique, he might never have a chance to put his hands again on a similar treasure. Nonetheless, he would be able to become an Elder, reigning over an entire region of the Fire Earth Territory.

That was much better than being dead. But still... becoming a cultivator? That wasn't something that he could just forget without trying his best to have another chance at it.

"Mph! If you are so courageous, you should come to the Death Crab Grotto when the Deep Water Tribe opens it! Because I will..." started the man.

Although the serpent appeared to be somewhat different after his encounter with that weird flying blue monk, nobody could change that quickly.

During their first fight, he acted in fury and inexperience. Probably he was a youth. Godermo believed that he would have another shot at the technique if he could manage to insult his honor and make him turn up again. He just needed time to heal his wounds.

The last attack of the serpent was incredibly strong but the ax that he used was not his own but a common ax from a common warrior. Although he couldn't break a blade like that himself, he knew that a battle wasn't just about strength. It was about agility, speed and especially: strategy! This was something on which that a beast could never compete with him.

"That's funny. You act almost as you're thinking that you're going to survive to see the dawn." a calm voice suddenly echoed inside the raider's mind.

The man felt a devious killing intent locking into him. He paled, his mind reeling in shock: why would the snake continue this fight if he wasn't sure that he could take him down? Was he wrong? Was the serpent only toying with him and he had still plenty of energy to spend on the fight? If that was the truth, then he was done!

The chieftain watched as the serpent suddenly darted from his place, moving silently like a black thunder towards him. Using all the strength left in his body, the red armored Fire Earth warrior grabbed a large piece of wood as a bat to defend itself, hitting the incoming serpent with all he got.

The impact between the two warriors was unexpectedly less strong this time, and both were pushed back dozens of meters, crashing on the ground.

"Dammit, stupid beast..." Godermo exclaimed while trying to get up. His right arm broke on the impact, and he had no strength left in his body. However, he wasn't worried anymore: the last attack had demonstrated to him that the snake was indeed weaker than what he tried to show.

The strength that he attacked him with was way feebler than the one that he used before to break his defenses and wound him. Probably, it had been the last attack that the devil was capable of launching.

Indeed, Darkscale wasn't doing that well.

Although his body looked fine on the outside after he used the Pretorian's Breath, things were very different on the inside. He felt every single cell of his body crying in pain. This, coupled with his injured cultivation base and the fact that almost all his energy had already been consumed, made it a miracle that the serpent was even able to move. Let alone fight someone.

That last attack was truly all that he got.

However, contrary to every logic, he started to move again towards the man. A shining light was burning inside his eyes. He forced his crying body to follow his orders, ignoring the pain and exhaustion he was feeling.

"Master, you should reconsider! Your body is almost collapsing!" an anxious voice abruptly echoed in his head.

A shiver of rage went throughout the body of the snake. He didn't respond but his calm and expressionless countenance was unsettled by a wave of disappointment and fury. Now did she appear? Darkscale laughed, thinking at how in the past he had been reliant of her.

"Master, the energy radiation from that cultivator blocked the communication, that's wh– "

"Silence." ordered the snake.

"This will truly only put you in danger, master... you should…

"

If this had happened to him that morning, he would without a doubt stopped the fight and allowed Godermo to flee away. "I would get him the next time", he would have screamed towards the fleeing man, even feeling good about it.

However now, Dakscale felt very different. It was like someone had torn a veil that was impeding him to see clearly before. The affair with the blue monk helped him see that relying on other people's decision was a receipt for disaster.

And when the disaster came, none of those wise advisers could be found to share its burden.

Plus, he now understood that there was something completely wrong with how Carelia behaved. It didn't seem at all like it obeyed him. However, Spike told him clearly that Artificial Intelligence Matrixes couldn't disobey their masters. He really didn't understand what was going on with her.

In any case, the MAID wasn't reliable at all. If he couldn't trust her to help him in time of need, he shouldn't trust her at any other given time.

'No, I already made a decision. ' exclaimed the snake inside his head. 'I said that I will kill him. So I will kill him.'

He wanted to scream, but thinking of the calamity that he brought on himself the last time he roared loudly, he gobbled down the wave of sound letting out only a low growling.

Again, the snake suddenly dashed forward but his speed has greatly reduced compared to his previous movements. Moving as fast as he could, he appeared before the tired human warrior, starting to attack him with ferociously.

The raider's eyes widened in shock: that evil vermin was still able to move? How? Screaming, he summoned his remaining energy to defend himself as best as he could.

The two exchanged dozens of hits, loud snaps and muffled screams of pain echoing whenever they managed to land an attack. This savage combat between the two warriors was more of an endurance test than an actual fight, as no one actually even tried to avoid the strikes and instead they concentrated completely on attacking and defending.

However, it didn't matter that Godermo was actually a better and more skilled fighter than Dakrscale. Their dimension made the latter way more hard to hit, plus the snake was more resistant than the human.

Those little advantages, coupled with the fact that the man didn't recuperate from his previous wounds like the serpent had, made the end result evident to anyone who had some combat experience. Godermo included.

The man knew that his only chance was to take out the serpent in a surprise move. If he kept letting him grinding him down like that, he would never be able to win. On the contrary, he will accumulate wound on wound until he wouldn't be able to even defend himself!

Not seeing any other way of handling the crisis, he decided to make a move that put his entire life at risk: he stopped defending and focused on killing the snake as fast as he could.

This was something that his people called "Last Resort": forgoing all defensive measure and going for the kill or dying in the process. Once the warrior took that decision, he started to look for an opportunity that came when the serpent snapped towards his neck with a dreadful bite.

Darkscale couldn't almost believe his eyes when he saw that the human wasn't avoiding his strike. Had his energies completely depleted?

'I've got him'

Charged by the apparent weakness of his opponent, the serpent was almost closing his mouth on the human's neck when the latter abruptly enclosed his arms around him.

A flash of understanding passed through his mind: another trick! The human warrior was so full of tricks and strange strategies! The serpent tried to use all his strength to move away, using the chest of the human as a foothold to jump away.

Yet, Godermo had planned even for this and used his superior tactical experience to stop the fleeing best and finally block it between his arms and his torso. His plan was simple: he wanted to squeeze him to death before the sharp fangs of the serpent managed to cause him deadly damage.

"DIE!" screamed the Fire Earth chieftain, his mouth filling with blood as his internal injuries reacted to the sudden burst of strength.

Darkscale tried to struggle out from the human tight grip with all his strength. He realized the mortal danger he was in. He even summoned his cultivation base to help him with the last drops of energy that had left in storage. His eyes shined with a silver hue, but the power that was generated was only enough to defend against the attack and not to escape it.

Soon, his bones started creaking, filling his ears with countless snapping sounds like if someone was crumbling a piece of dry bread.