Boss Snake

With his attack strategy thought-out he starts to change his movement. Instead of hoping from platform to platform, he instead takes to the ground using the raised platforms to limit lines of sight on him. Although the snakes have the advantage due to their nimbleness, but their view of him was at least limited to only a few snakes at a time.

Unfortunately, that also meant his view of the snakes was limited. While he was running around a snake suddenly sprang out from behind a pillar to his left. Its mouth open, large enough to swallow him whole and its vicious blade like fangs dripping with poison as it lunged.

He was barely able to react in time and just narrowly avoid it, but the snakes body whipped into his own, causing some damage and some minor stunning. The snake he was running from before the sneak attack quickly followed up with its own attack.

Since he already knew about this snake, it was much easier for him to react and since there is limited space around him, he didn't need to worry much about another snake attacking right now.

In an instant he gathered a ball of wind into his hand. The ball of wind quickly became the size of a beach volley ball and inside the middle of it was a cold blue colour swirling around.

With the snake's mouth opened as it attacked, it didn't require much for him to dodge and stuff the wind ball into its mouth. Immediately after the wind ball exploded and raging blue flame's burst out the snakes mouth like it was breathing fire.

Instantly the snake started to screech in pain as its insides were ravaged by the wind boosted flames. Very quickly a burst smell wafted through the air as the snake crashed into a pillar, its eyes became lifeless and smoke started to seep out of its mouth and orifices.

Since the snake was dead, Art cut the mana supply of the flames, so as to preserve as much of the possible value the snake could offer. Since a spot in the pillars now opened another snake rushed in to take its place.

Doing a similar strategy to the last time he managed to kill off a further two snakes before they learnt of his attack pattern. This time they kept their mouth shut and instead tried to use its tail and body to cause damage.

Although Art's flames are hot, with the speed of snakes, the hardness of their scales and their overall strength it would be hard for him to instantly break past its defence using pure flames.

He would need the snake to be in the flames for at least half a minute, but since the snakes move a lot, flame attacks done to their outside have minimal effects.

Since his normal route to their insides was cut off, he had to use the plan he originally thought. After waiting a few more attacks for an opportunity, he gathers wind once again in his hand.

Instead of a ball, the wind is shaped more like a thick arrow. In the middle was once again some light blue glowing flames that where enhanced by the wind surrounding and containing it.

He condensed the wind arrow spear in his hand as much as he could and was at the point where he could physically hold it using his hand. Getting a tight grip, he stabs it at the neck of the next snake that came.

The sharp piercing wind arrow was accurately speared into the weakest point of a snakes scales he could find. He quickly let go as the arrow had already pierced into the flesh.

The wind arrow suddenly vortexed, pulling the fire out from the middle and towards the arrow tip, before directly ravaging the flesh on the inside. The remains of the wind arrow, kept the fire contained under the scales for as long as it could hold.

Eventually it dissipated but by that time, the snake was already basically dead and could do nothing but lie on the floor weakly screeching as its flesh was roasted and smoke flooded its insides.

Repeating the same process, he managed to eventually kill all of the 10 snakes that accompanied the boss. After killing them he leaped up and stood himself back on one of the raised platforms looking at the large snake boss.

The large snake boss hadn't actually moved. Even when Art was killing all of its subordinates, it just stood their watching like a statue. The large black snake, with a raised ring around its neck looking like a collar stood motionlessly looking directly back into Art's eyes.

Art could see a sense of aloofness and arrogance, like the big snake didn't care about the others nor think Art was worthy enough to worry over or be annoyed with.

Art thought for a moment but decided to back off and retreated to the tree's escaping away from the large snake. The snake didn't give chase and instead slithered over towards the dead snake's bodies.

Art stood at the top of a tree watching the snakes' movements from a distance, wondering about the snake's weird behaviour. 'Why didn't the snake attack me? It didn't even give chance after I killed its subordinates. Did master do something? I don't think so, it would be unlike master to interfere. Then why is it acting like this?

Either way, I have to kill this thing. My sword will defiantly not penetrate its scales and it would be a stretch to harm it even if I enhanced the sword with magic.

Guess its time to put to use that archery practice I've been doing. Since archery is more focused on penetration and single powerful shots, I stand a much better chance of at least weakening its defences considerably.

Killing those snakes took around 10 minutes, so I have roughly 15 minutes to kill it. Since it seems to be doing something to those corpses, I will gather power and wait for the best chance.'

Art took out the bow which was attached to his back and started to watch the snake like a hawk stalking its prey. He drew the bow and started to gather wind and fire elements to form an arrow, similar to the one he used against the last snakes. This time however, the large arrow started to shrink and become more compact.

Since he was talking his time, he opted to spend time compressing the arrow to allow for as much penetration as possible, while also doing his best to both enhance the flames but also keep it contained.

Art watched and waited as he saw the large snake boss mow down the stone platforms he created. It them picked up each of the snake body's and dragged then to the pile where he stacked up the others.

Since the snake was being almost lazy about it, Art had plenty of time to create his arrow. After 8 minutes, his arrow was finally done and the wind casing was as compressed as he could make it.

Still unsure if it was enough, Art opted to add some water to the tip of the arrow hoping that would further increase the penetration potential. He only had one shot and he is aiming for a kill.

A further few minutes later, the arrow was fully complete. Composed of 3 dense elements, the arrow had a water tip fully focused on just penetration. The main body was made of wind which will propel the arrow at insane speeds. While the core was made of fire, which while enhanced by the wind turned into a self-contained furnace, capable of producing heat high enough to melt metal.

The wind was moving in such a way to create a vacuum and after contact, the fire will burst forwards while the wind pushes it and block's it inside the opponent. It took a lot of concentration to keep such dense elements contained, but since this was something, he practiced a lot over the past year, it was within his capabilities.

By now the snake was gathering the last of the body's and just finished placing it on the pile of dead snakes. With a pile of over 20 snake body's, quite a large mound was created.

The large snake after placing all the body's on the pile then unhinged its jaw to extreme degrees and inched itself forward, looking to swallow the pile of snakes whole.

Just as the snake started to take in the first part of the mound, Art released his arrow. He had to make sure he hit the right spot so as to try get an instant kill. At first, he wanted to aim directly for the skull, but decided against that since the bones of such a creatures would likely be extremely hard.

He then thought of maybe just below the skull, at the neck since bones isn't present there and would only have scales as defence. But in the end decided to choose the place that although was the hardest to hit, was the place he could cause the most damage.

One would normally think of the open mouth or the eyes but since the snake could shut its mouth, or the eye lids possibly being strong enough to stop the arrow he instead went for the nostrils while lead directly to its airways and was very near its brain.

His arrow flew through the air and within seconds arrived in front of the snake. A loud slam sounded as the snake snapped its jaw shut and its eyelids covered its eyes with what's seems like 3 layers.

Unfortunately for it, Art predicted that a creature that seems as powerful as this would be able to react and close its mouth. So, he purposefully aimed a bit lower to account for that. It was a gamble but, it paid off as his arrow slid right inside the snake's nose.

This was only possible due to Virion's teachings. He always said that the biggest part of being an archer is patience and controlling the opponent. Since the target was a beast, it was easier to predict its survival instincts of how it would defend. He can also do things like make his arrow more purposefully more noticeable, so as to guarantee it would defend the vulnerable area's while neglecting the area he wants to hit.

Propelling itself forwards the arrow smashed against the bone at the back of its nose directly cracking it, causing the snake large amount of pain. A hissing sound came rumbling out of the snake, but not from the snake hissing but from the water tip being boiled and turned to steam in an instant as the blue flames burst forth.

The blue flames spilled out from the nostrils looking like a dragon snake. The flames spread through its airways and make its way right though its gullet, scorching and boiling its blood from the inside.

The previous crack on the bone at the back of the nostrils eventually gave way amongst the snakes continuous bashing around and the flames eroding it. The flames seeped through the cracks and directly reached the snake's brain.

The snake's extreme pain of feeling its blood boil, flesh roast away ended in an instant as its brain was fried in milliseconds. With just a single well placed and timed arrow, a powerful snake with extreme defences and power was taken down.

Art cancelled the mana of the flames, causing them to dissipate in seconds but the residual head kept the snake's meat still cooking on the inside. Instead of jumping down from the tree, instead he had another arrow already in the making keeping a watchful eye on the cave entrance, not even celebrating the boss snake's death.

He was just being careful in case there was yet another snake, but after Virion appeared behind him, he knew that the snakes where all dead and his mission complete. He could finally take a breath, but he knew it wouldn't be for long since this was only 1 of 3 targets for the day complete.