Dark Mist Valley (3)

Archis couldn't help but be stunned as he looked at the scene in front of him.

"This... Hundred Poison Flower!!!" Archis gasped as he looked at the precious flower and the green serpent apparition around it.

"Be careful. This apparition is strange. I have never seen anything like it before." Orion said in a solemn voice.

"What should we do? Do we need to fight with it?" Archis asked with worry evident in his tone. But, the excitement and anticipation in his eyes couldn't be hidden.

"I don't know. You stay behind me. I will probe this thing first." Orion said as he pulled out the long spear strapped behind his back.

He took a deep breath, flexed his muscles a bit, and then stomped his right foot on the ground and rushed towards the apparition, setting off a trail of rubble flying in his wake.

Noticing the figure that is fast approaching it in such an aggressive fashion, the twenty-foot-long serpent apparition did not try to dodge or defend. With almost half of its body suddenly raised straight like a pole, it bared its fangs and spewed out thick violet-colored fog towards its enemy.

Orion, who was almost about to pierce the head of the huge serpent apparition, widened his eyes and changed the direction of his spear, pushing it to the rocky ground. Using the rebound force between the long spear and ground, Orion, barely managed to dodge the violet smoke coming on his face.

Landing on his feet, Orion's expression turned grave as he looked at how the rock boulders hit by the violet smoke cracked and turned into violet-colored dust.

Missing its target, the serpent apparition hissed in anger and thrashed its thick, long tail towards a nearby ten feet large boulder, smashing it and sending the pieces flying in the air. At this moment, the green serpent apparition is already two meters away from the Hundred-poison-plant.

The serpent eyes looked deadly as it coldly watched Orion while it slithered and coiled its body on the rocky ground. Whenever it moved on the rocky ground, the scales on its semitransparent body would make a strange, unpleasant metal rubbing noise.

At this moment, Archis stood nearly ten meters away from the Hundred-poison plant. If he moves any further back, he wouldn't be able to observe the situation anymore as his vision would be covered by the surrounding fog.

Suddenly, Archis saw his uncle Orion wink at him stealthily.

Archis became startled when he saw that. But, it didn't take him long to realize what his uncle is trying to convey to him.

Due to his nervousness, he failed to realize that the serpent apparition is already drawn away from the Hundred-poison-plant. Right now, its focus is solely on his Uncle Orion.

Though, this apparition is considerably powerful, with how deadly the poisonous fog it emitted is; it doesn't seem to be much clever.

From the beginning, it seems to be ignoring Archis and focusing only on Orion. This explains that it is only considering Orion as the enemy because he attacked it!

Though this thought process makes it seem too naive, the fact that it might not have encountered any living being until now would explain its inexperience.

Understanding the cue, Archis began to stealthily move his feet as he began to circle towards the Hundred-poison-plant from behind the back of the serpent apparition.

Seeing that, Orion's eyes lit up immediately. He gripped his spear tight and sprinted toward the serpent's apparition.

At this moment, the best thing for him to do is distract the serpent apparition and give Archis the chance to complete the task.

Seeing the human approaching towards it, the serpent apparition, which wound itself on the ground, raised its head and spewed the violet-colored fog, again.

This time, Orion didn't try to dodge. Instead, he raised his spear horizontally above his head with both his hands and began to rotate it fiercely. As he put all his strength into his hands, the spear began to rotate at terrifying speed generating numerous afterimages.

Soon, violent winds began to generate and the spear almost looked like a gray disk sweeping the air around.

Due to the raging winds, the violet fog couldn't reach more than two meters from Orion and dispersed into the surroundings' grey fog.

Seeing this, Orion became overjoyed and he immediately began to approach the serpent apparition while still rotating the spear at the same speed.

Seeing that its attack has failed, the reptilian eyes of the serpent's apparition dilated and it swept its tail, hitting a nearby boulder, sending it flying towards Orion.

Seeing that Orion didn't panic and kept rotating his spear. The five-foot boulder came flying and crashed into his spear images, almost making Orion tumble and fall. However, Orion is quick to regain his balance as he once again continued rotating his spear, steadily approaching the serpent apparition.

By this time, Orion already reached half a meter from the serpent, and in a moment his spear would crash towards the serpent's head.

At this moment, a green blur flashed and the spear in Orion's hands got knocked off from his hands as it flew away into the surrounding grey fog. Only a dull metallic crashing sound was heard.

Orion immediately halted his legs and his pupils constricted. He identified what the green blur is. It's the tail of the serpent apparition. Right now the serpent is only a three-foot distance away from Orion, with its body coiled on the ground and its head raised as it looked at him with its chill-inducing reptilian eyes.

"Such speed!" Orion couldn't help but be shocked.

At this moment, the serpent apparition moved. Its long body sprang into the air like rubbed at lightning speed. Alarmed, Orion immediately backstepped as he tried to distance himself from the Serpent apparition. But, his attempt turned futile in front of its terrifying speed.

Once the serpent apparition reached five centimeters from Orion's face, it opened its mouth nearly one foot wide. As it was about to spray the violet fog again from such close distance, suddenly, its body halted in the air.

Archis, who had been stealthily moving behind the serpent apparitions back, finally reached the Hundred-Poison plant. Without wasting any time he violently plucked its flower.

SREEEEECHH!!!

The green serpent apparition let out an ear-perching screech as it turned its head towards Archis. However, before it could move, its body cracked and shattered, dispersing into green spots of light which gather together and entered into the Hundred-Poison-Flower Archis is holding in his hand.

At this moment a line of blood flowed out from both Archis's and Orion's ears. Both of their faces looked pale with exhaustion. But the next moment, both of them began to laugh loudly without a care in the world.

...