50

The area around the lake was sparsely populated with a few people entering and exiting its premises once in a while to sail their lotus lantern and pray to the deity of river.

A bunch of drunk thugs happened to stumble upon this place as they were passing by.

"Oh yah oh yah, look what we have here," one of the drunk man in a tattered and battered clothes wiped his lips and looked at Nagina who was sitting by herself on the edge of a lake looking at the lotus lantern floating in the water.

Nagina had already sensed their presence but to her, they were just a bunch of mortals that were now equivalent to brainless pigs and dogs in heat.

These kinds of creatures were…

[Best being ignored!]

"Oho, are we being ignored?" the same man yelled as he stumbled upon the words he was speaking. The wine seemed to have gotten in to his system. He placed his arm around the shoulder of his seemingly good brother and hiccupped.

"A brat is ignoring us?" he gave a hysterical laughter.

"You might want to leave if you do not want to get hurt." Nagina turned around a little and glared at them, her eyes glowing in a bright red color as if sending out danger signals to them.

She stood up from where she was sitting and faced them fair and square.

"B-brother, it's not a little girl, look at her.." they pointed at her bottom half in horror.

"She seems to be a half beast…" they whispered in a low voice, making sure they were not heard by the half human and half snake girl.

But sad for them, everything they were saying, none of the things went unheard by Nagina.

'Are they rethinking their actions?'

"So, what?" The big brother among them shrugged uncannily. The sneer in his face got larger as the sign of lust in his face intensified by multiple folds.

"Hahaha, maybe not." Nagina had to rethink her own judgment. Humans were indeed such a fickle creature who had no fixed set of doing things.

Always so unpredictable!

"B-Brother, what are you saying? She is not normal." They were literally shaking in their knees looking at the glowing red eyes that seemed to be staring right at them.

"Why should we always settle with something normal." He pushed aside the hand that was grabbing his shoulder and licked his lips as he wetted them with his saliva making them appear glossy.

"We have wine and we have a beautiful half-beast to serve all of us!" his laughed echoed all around the lakeside.

His words seem to have an encouraging effect on the rest of the guys because they too stared to find some truth in his words.

"Heh, so you are not going to back down it seems!" Nagina too wanted to vent the frustration she was feeling on someone after all.

"You want to play? Then come here," Nagina curled up her lips in a smug smile. All the cuteness and innocence she had from before were nowhere to be found.

There was a little bit of madness and also a little bit of bloodlust in her eyes as she stared at them longingly with anticipation.

'Is it…' she thought she sensed something but since it was there in the air for only a fraction of second, she quickly removed the thought from her head.

"Why is it suddenly chilly?" the air around them which had been stagnant started to get into motion all of sudden.

"Brother, is it just me or did the air just got a bit.." he was about to say something when he felt as if needled were prickling his lungs when he tried to breathe in.

"Huh? I feel nothing at all." He scowled in anger looking at the terrified face of his brother.

"But, cough.." he started to cough violently when he felt the intensity of the pain increasing.

"It's nothing to worry about." The man did not even bother to listen to him and simply decided to cut him off.

"Are you a pussy? Getting afraid of a little girl, shame on you." he rolled his eyes at him as he hurled words of insults at him.

Although he did say that, he felt Goosebumps on his skin as the air started to get chillier with each moment. Even though he wanted to wave it off as an illusion, he could not do so upon feeling the piercing gaze of the snake girl on him.

But since he was under the influence of the alcohol, and high, he got extra energy and courage out of nowhere to not back away from his initial goal.

"Let's go." He pulled the man who was scrunching his nose in pain by his shoulder and started to walk towards Nagina.

Let alone the pain subsiding, without any warning, dark red blood started to trickled down from his nose.

He raised his hand to wipe the blood but it just continued to increase the more he wiped it.

"Arghh!!" He cried out in horror when the trickle changed to gush of blood. The shock was too much for him and despite being held on to by his big brother, he felt down flat on his butt when his leg gave away.

"This is sorcery, I am arghh…" He shouted out in pain and horror as he struggled to get back in his feet. Heck! Looking at the red eyes of the half beast there, his movement changed and he started to crawl backwards on his butt.

With his teeth clattering in fear and cold, he dragged his beer belly body in an attempt to escape from there. He was done with all this shit! They could have all the fun in the world for all he could care.

He was not messing with a beast of any sort!

"I am leav-ving.." he managed to get up on his feet and although his foot holding was not stable enough, it was enough for him to make a run for it.

Just when he was about run away, his face collided with something hard, making him recoil back by a few steps.

"Going somewhere?" A cold voice whispered in a low voice but it seemed to reverberate in the cold air, sending shivers down the spine of everyone present there.

Including Nagina.