39 Partnership

Darkscale was genuinely shocked by the words of the green haired human. She completely changed her attitude from before!

'And it's not the first time...' thought the reptile, narrowing his eyes.

The snake still recalled the moment when the woman first saw him fight against the red armored people: she was on the ground screaming and shaking terrorized. Then, not even a dozens of minutes later, she was like a completely different person, confident enough and charismatic that she was able to rally up her people to help him fight against the powerful warrior.

From a scared girl shaking on the ground to someone that had enough courage to come directly to him and ask him to help the Forest Will Tribe. The change had been enormous. He didn't think much of it back then, thinking that it was because she hated the people that attacked her and wanted to do anything in her power to see them punished. However, now that she did it again he couldn't help but see the strange link with her previous behavior.

That green haired human was incredible at adapting. She did it again, and this time it affected him.

Even the things that were happening right there were a testament to this: at first, she tried to convince him to listen to her while shaking and avoiding his gaze in fear. However, the moment that she realized that he couldn't hurt her, in just a couple of moments her attitude changed completely. She became more and more daring. Now she was revealing a confident smile while she looked at him right in the eyes and refused the same exact deal that she begged him to strike not even an hour ago.

'Master, you should hear her out! She seems like an intelligent person, we need her.' Echoed Carelia in the serpent's head.

Darkscale didn't respond. He already decided that he would never again follow the advice of the Artificial Intelligence. He decided to offer the human to kneel as his servant, only because he wanted to get his hands on the herbs necessary to cultivate the poisonous technique left behind by Spike. Not because Carelia told him so.

"When I make a decision, I won't go back on it" the snake hissed slowly while looking menacingly over her shoulder, directly aiming for her people. Star Leaf's gaze wavered for a second, but then she once again steeled her heart and acted as if it didn't regard her at all.

"Are you insane, Star Leaf?" screamed the brown-haired woman, pointing a trembling finger towards the beauty that was standing alone, away from the rest of the Forest Will Tribe members.

"Do you want us to di-" before she could continue in her historical screams, a shadow rapidly appeared before her.

Her head flew in the sky, accompanied by a fountain of hot blood. The serpent didn't stop, moving from a human to the other, cutting their heads like if they were fragile twigs.

After his first kill, the remaining humans, those who decided to not leave when had the chance, began to panic. Nobody even thought of fighting him. How could they? The idea of fighting that they had before was met with the reality: they could barely see him when he moved, let alone being able to fight him.

Screaming in terror, they all began to run crazily towards the forest. All except one, a green-haired girl stood there, immobile. Her green eyes looked at the massacre that was happening, shaking at each new death. Yet, she didn't yield.

[Far from the Dirt Path, Blood Wood]

Winter Leaf, which had long fled into the forest, stopped for a moment hearing the screams coming from the place she just abandoned. Her skin crawled and her breath became ragged.

'It's him' she thought, without any doubt about the nature of the cause that was provoking such chilling sounds that echoed all over to her current location. It was the damnable serpent! She knew it that he would win the fight against the Fire Earth warrior and then continue his slaughter.

Although she didn't spend lots of time with Darkscale, she knew how much devious he was. He didn't care about beauties, he didn't care about treasures, he only cared about power and inflicting pain on orders. The only reason he left her alive was to randomly torture her and because she could help him obtain some resources that he needed.

Giving a last look towards the direction from which she came, she turned and started to run deep in the Blood Woods.

After she departed, a group composed by dozens of others Forest Will Hunters led by a youth with a wound on his cheek, appeared in the same place.

The leader also stopped for a moment when he heard the screams. He looked back, conflicted. But in the end, he pointed to the forest before him and started running again, guiding the people towards east.

[Back to the Dirt Path]

A huge vortex was absorbing great quantities of silver and red threads of light. Those were mixed together and moved like an unstoppable stream inside the mouth of a little black creature covered in blood. Numerous of cadavers were strewn around his body, their heads severed from their necks and still dripping with hot blood. Those were the Forest Will people, drowning in a large pool of their own blood.

Darkscale didn't spare anyone. He killed all the humans who remained in the battleground, even their souls had been absorbed and destroyed inside his Prethorian's Breath powered by the Heavenly Battleground technique. This was a fate way worse than a simple death.

Immediately after having delivered the last blow, the serpent started to operate his cultivation technique to recuperate the lost energy and try to fix his damaged Natural Heart. Plus, he also used the time operating the Breath to think. The technique didn't require that much of concentration once the internal flow required had been completely memorized.

So he could reflect on the things that happened to him in this battleground. And try to understand why that green haired human wasn't responsive to the things that he did to broke her will and put her completely under his control? He killed her tribe one by one and she did not do much more than watching while being a little sad for the massacre.

How was it possible? He found no explanation other than that she didn't care or that there was something else that she wanted more than the safety of her people. However, he had no idea of what was this thing if it even existed.

Finally, after almost half an hour, the technique managed to fill his energy container and even started healing it a bit. The scar left by the pressure of the blue monk was still there, but he could feel that it was possible to fix it. He just needed time to work on mending it and restore his Natural Heart to his pristine status.

The vortex finally disappeared and the snake shook slightly, working on readjusting the lingering energy circulating inside his body by sealing it in his Natural Heart.

"Now, can we talk seriously?" Staf Leaf said suddenly, standing before the serpent. Even if she tried to not show it, Dakrscale immediately sensed that she was upset. Probably it was because of his recent killings. They were her people after all. It wasn't possible that she couldn't feel anything seeing them being massacred before her eyes.

"I won't work with you" warned the serpent, pointing his eyes at her little figure.

"Why?" she simply asked.

"I don't trust your disgusting kind" Darkscale commented immediately.

He wanted to say more, but his sight touched the headless body of Godermo and the words about how humans were cowards and weak died in his throat. Maybe it wasn't the majority of them, but some had some nice quality and were actually good warriors.

"That's not a very wise way of seeing the world... why you won't listen to my offer before taking a decision?" Star Leaf responded after thinking a while.

Darkscale was fuming with rage, but he could tell that her proposition was indeed the most intelligent thing to do. He swore to himself to never trust Carelia again, but he used her help to defeat the human raider. He could use this human even without believing in her, like if she was the MAID controlling his Blue Cave.

"Speak"

Star Leaf smiled. "I want to offer you a partnership" she said with confidence. Her face blushed slightly, but she nonetheless continued, "we should become dao companions".

"No" immediately, Darkscale answered with disgust appearing on his little triangular face.

"This is the most disgusting and stupid thing I ever heard. Me in couple with a naked ape? disgusting! This is not a partnership. You, moron!"

"It is a partnership." insisted the woman, " I will help you get the Silver Leaf Tulip and whatever another thing you need, but in exchange, you will become my daoist partner. "

"Mph, I know that I'm handsome, but I already said that no..." laughed the serpent.

"Handsome? Do you think I want to be paired with a snake? Are you really that stupid?" Star Leaf coldly stated as her face changed to contain the same disgust for the snake that he had for her.

"I want to become a couple to enter the Harmony faction of the Heavenly Reptile Sect. After that, each one can go on his separate way" she added, finally explaining what she was aiming for.