5 A Formidable Plan!
Beneath an aged tree, the sound of a hungry grumbling stomach could be heard...
The little snake awoke in a deep, cold burrow. When he awoke, he quickly looked around activating his infrared vision to look for any possible enemies. Instead of enemies, he found more ants! Perfect timing! He was feeling quite hungry!
Though they were a bit out of his reach...
I mean... how would he even get inside the tree to eat some?
Hmm... enough time has passed that he could go out of the burrow, but he didn't want to risk running into that bird again. He opened his mouth to stretch. He felt that his fangs were longer, and a bit sharper as well. He was eager to try out his newly developed fangs.
He slithered back towards the entrance of the burrow. It was nighttime, if he were going to hunt, then now would be the best time. The bird definitely wouldn't be able to see him under the cover of night.
He slowly exited the burrow, as quietly as possible.
Perfect.
He activated his infrared vision again, this time observing the tree...
Yes... the bird was asleep in its nest, perhaps an ambush would be successful...
Wait... where did his family go?
They were right there when he entered the burrow, but now they were replaced by normal vines! It seems they may have migrated without him, he was underground all day after all. He couldn't blame them for leaving without him.
Now he had a goal! He would get stronger, much stronger! So that he would be able to keep up with his family, and next time, they wouldn't leave without him!
Alright... he steeled what resolve he had and made his way towards the tree. He began to slither vertically along the trunk slowly, as to not alert the bird. The rough bark jabbed into his scales due to his slow movement, but it was better to be a little uncomfortable than to alert his enemy.
Oh... temptation. As he slithered up the tree, he was met with the all-too-familiar scene of the delicious black ants crossing his path. His cold heart was beating with excitement, but his grumbling stomach snapped him out of his emotional state.
He needed to focus so he could usurp the bird's throne in the canopy of the tree! Once the bird was gone, he would be able to safely hunt any time of day, and wouldn't have to worry about the constant threat from above.
This bird was simply a stepping stone... his real enemy was... was it the green creatures? Now that he looked back, they didn't seem to do anything to him whatsoever. Even the case with the bird, it seems like he was just distracted in hindsight. He didn't really have an enemy... now that he thought about it...
He was the enemy...
Well, nature made him that way, so it was their fault that he was so good at eating things.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. Ambush.
He had never ambushed anyone before... but he had been the victim of two in his few days alive.
What were the similarities between the two? He needed to find the best course of action so that this bird wouldn't be able to fight back...
The few times he was ambushed, he had only escaped due to luck... or was it luck? He had a route of escape when the bird attacked him, albeit a dangerous one, so he would have to make sure that the bird couldn't escape...
He would have to attack from where the bird would normally run.
He would attack from above.
The spider almost killed him, but its threads were very weak, and it needed to restrain him better.... After the initial attack from above, he would have to wrap himself around the bird to prevent it from moving... Yes! That was perfect!
He had formulated the perfect plan:
While the bird was sleeping, he would drop onto it from above and bite it quickly to stun it and anchor himself to the bird. Second he would wrap himself around the bird as tight as possible, this would keep the bird from moving, and also protect his body from the bird's attacks.
This would be perfect.
Then, he reached the branch where the bird's nest lay. This was the hardest part. He would have to slowly slither above the bird without it waking up and noticing him...
He was in position. All that was left was to drop on the bird...
Suddenly he felt a small tickle on his body... it was an ant! Oh, it was so close! Just one bite couldn't hurt right?
[Creature consumed: Carpenter Ant x1]
[Assimilating stat points...]
[All stats below the threshold of "1"]
[Progress added to next stat point!]
Well he certainly wasn't expecting the green creatures to show up here! Who informed them of his plan to ambush the bird??
When the green creatures appeared, he flinched, causing the already thin branch he was resting on to shift.
CRACK
Then it broke.
Well! There was no time like the present! If anything, the branch hitting the bird on the head will just be some extra damage!
THUD
[-2 HP]
The branch hit the bird's head, and he landed in the nest! Now was the time! He bit the bird on the neck, and instinctually, injected as much of his new venom as he could.
Quickly, to protect his body from the bird's attacks, he wrapped himself around its body, covering the bird's wings!
The bird was fully awoken, and angry! It had been awoken from its dream just to be hit and pierced by something? It tried to spread its wings and fly to somewhere safer, but the young viper's body held the bird still firmly!
The bird began to panic. It couldn't fly? What else could it do?!
It flailed around as the viper bit it more and more, injecting more and more venom into its small body. Clearly the venom was working, as immediately after flailing, it slowed down immensely, and the muscles trying to outstretch its wings became noticeably weaker and weaker. Until...
THUD
The bird fell over!
[Skill: Paralytic Venom has leveled up!]
The viper was victorious! The green creatures were just as excited as he was!
That's what you get bird for attacking him earlier!
The snake slowly untangled itself from the bird's body, and the bird lay there, occasionally twitching, but unable to move due to the immense amounts of venom that the small viper injected. After all, baby snakes were more lethal than adults due to their inexperience with controlling their venom!
The cocky viper slithered up to look the bird directly in the eye. It was still alive.
'Well, no use just sitting here watching it die' thought the snake, before biting it again and again to speed along its death, after all, he didn't want to play too much with his food.
He unhinged his serpentine jaw, and got to work eating the bird quickly, before it could move again. It went down surprisingly easy! Most of its mass was probably just the fluff from the feathers anyway.
[Creature consumed: Robin]
[Analyzing Creature: Data added to Monster Log!]
[Assimilating highest stat...]
[+6 Agility]
[+75 EXP]
[Rank Up!]
[Distribute Stat Points! Any undistributed stat points will be automatically distributed after next Rank Up!]
[Name: N/A]
[Race: Small Lesser Green Viper]
[Titles: World's Vessel, Ovivorous]
[Rank: 4/10, 35/50 EXP]
[HP: 50/50]
[MP: 65/65]
[SP: 65/110]
[Affinities: Nature]
[Attributes:]
[Points to distribute: 5]
[STR: 5 ^]
[DEX: 5 ^]
[AGI: 11 ^]
[INT: 10 ^]
[WIS: 10 ^]
[PER: 5 ^]
[LUC: 5]
[CHA: 4 ^]
[VIT: 5 ^]
[Abilities:]
[Paralytic Venom Lvl. 2/5, Infrared Vision Lvl. 1/5, Assimilation Lvl. MAX]
The green boss showed up yet again! It seemed to have some sort of infatuation with him...
The viper activated his infrared vision, but the green creature did not produce heat... perhaps it was like him? Were the green creatures his true family?! No... he had already met his family, they had just migrated somewhere new.
Hm... maybe he didn't need to take revenge against these guys after all, they never really did anything to him anyway right?
He rose his serpentine head to meet face to face with the leader again. Last time the leader appeared he comforted him, and even woke up stronger than before! Well, smarter than before. This leader deserves his respect! He has been present for every important moment in his life!
For that, the viper thanked him, lowering his serpentine head.
Oh, it should be noted, that when he lowered his head he bumped into the arrow next to [CHA] without knowing. He slithered back down the tree, to dangle like his family had taught him.
[CHA: 9]
