Professor Gemstone in the snake pit. part 4 (45)

Ezera eventually found a pattern in the drakes' movements and positions.

They didn't cross path with each other all that often, but they remained close enough to signal to others in case they were tired or feeling threatened, even by one of their own. Often enough, one of them came close to the entrance of the dungeon, as though tasting or smelling the firelight, which as Ezera had understood was their primary source of food. They fed with energy.

He found out that he could sneak himself in the moving round of these creatures to make himself a part of their routine, after enough time had passed, once they didn't associate him with 'intruder' anymore.

Ezera couldn't see much, but he found that his eyes had become accustomed to the thick darkness, and he could discern forms and movements more easily than before.

At any rate, he observed that the snakes' pattern was in fact closely related to a spiralling circle, in the middle of which he divined was their main nest... And children. A faint scent of rust and copper emanated from there.

There remained two issues. Ezera had not yet caught sight of an exit to the depths of the dungeon. He was starting to doubt that there was anything other than this pit in there. But Ilya was adamant they could go deeper. Which led to the second issue: Ezera could not move on without Ilya. And Ilya couldn't leave the hideout.

For Ilya to be able to move as he pleased, Ezera had to kill the drakes. Preferably all at once. Wasn't that a feat to accomplish! But in the meantime, he focused on the youngs.

Sneaking inside the middle of the pit was risky. Ezera began to move in the same pattern as the drakes did. He let his boots scrape at the ground, gliding against the rocks, to imitate the silent but constant movement of these predators.

It spiralled. Very slowly. Ezera wasn't sure how long it took. Time passed strangely when one couldn't see sign of life except for a few hisses all around, and one's own movement when the rest was also moving.

At some point, when Ezera was almost certain to have done two full circles, he heard something new. The sound of babies, hissing at their parents.

Ezera was close.

That was when he felt something attack behind him.

He skipped out of the way, just getting away from the drake's jaw as it clacked a breath away from his hair.

He hurriedly took out his daggers. He was at a heavy disadvantage. He didn't have nearly enough space to move as he wanted, and he didn't want to alert the others... The others?

According to Ilya, all those giant snakes had a far better hearring than any human being could hope for. It was impossible that the rest of the pit didn't hear the commotion.

What was happening?

Ezera soon realized that a drake wasn't quite a snake, because it had two very clawed forearms, one of which flew in his direction. He caught his daggers in between the claws all around him, stucking them in a status-quo as he rackled his mind for a solution.

An obscure light flashed in the corner of his eye. His breath hitched.

In that small instant of surprise, he heard, as much as he felt, an ominous crack.

The metal broke. Ezera didn't have a second to react. He threw himself under the claws, nicking his temple as he went, not fast enough, but thankfully he managed to escape the deadly embrace of these natural weapons.

He threw the broken dagger at the thing's eye, but it didn't reach, its weight was off and the drake easily intercepted it with an irritated growl.

Once again, he saw a light, a small glint in the drake's eye before it closed its eyelid rapidly. He hadn't been dreaming! Something was actually lighting the place faintly. But what?

Ezera realized immediately that now wasn't the time to ponder on it. When the beast lunged again, Ezera ducked, going for the under of its serpentine body. The drake hissed violently distorting at lightning speed to cover itself and clutch at Ezera with its right arm. Ezera dodged, but now he had another certitude. The drake was protecting its stomach.

Ezera escaped and grasped at the scales of that arm, propulsing himself back toward the drake's weakness, which shook and rolled to get rid of his stubborn grip. Ezera went for the touch. There was a small, textual line in the middle of its lower part!

Ezera had retrieved another dagger and used it to lock the arm that held him by the scales, together with him. The drake tried to scratch him away violently with the left arm, but Ezera was too low under its body, it would definitely open himself up.

Ezera planted the dagger inside the thin line of thick skin that wasn't protected, at the jonction of the scales, and opened the drake. The giant snake stood on its tail, and it wailed. The sound resonated in the entire pit, and it shook himself so hard Ezera almost fell. A claw opened his upper arm during the panic. Ignoring the pain through the adrenaline rush, Ezera propulsed himself even lower down that body now standing up, with one deep, gruesome slash.

Blood was spit in his direction, showering on him as the beast breathed its last and fell, its organs falling out from under its leather.

Ezera remained ready to fight, waiting for the next one to come.

None came. The other drakes weren't coming close. They were... The best way to describe it was to say they were minding their own business.

Ezera looked down at his trembling hands, covered in sticky blood that he could feel but not see, and no doubt his daggers were, too. He would have to clean them.

His gaze, unseeing but contemplative, fell upon the corpse of the drake, oozing with blood and displaying the rests of his previous meal. Another, smaller drake, if Ezera could guess.

Ezera took a breath.

He knew the laws of the animal reign. The strongest won, the winner took it all. It wasn't difficult to understand what was, in fact, happening in the drake pit.

Ezera had become one of them, being around for so long. And he had just stolen the place of another member of the... Tribe.

Now... He didn't know the nocturnal drakes' codes if something like this happened, vut judging from the remains of the drake's stomach...

Ezera exhaled.

He tore the heart and the liver away.