11_Titan Boa King

The system message had said that the hidden boss were Titan Boas, i.e. plural.

Then where were the others?

From the vibration of the ground, it seems that they were using the same tactic as the injured one before me.

I jumped away from where I was standing and continued running. I could here the earth breaking up behind me and I felt bits of dirt and pebbles falling on my back.

There were about 5 more boas other than the one I had injured. And they were attacking from underneath. Digging underground and bursting out from underneath the enemy.

It was a good tactic. They were sly, i will give them that. But this method was useless against me.

And I kept dodging and evading their attacks.

This way, the forest was constantly being destroyed, monsters were dying as if there was a forest fire.

They tried to escape but were always killed as collateral damage. If they tried fighting head on, they were either cut down by me or swallowed whole by the titan boas.

And all those kills went to me for some reason. Maybe because I cause all this. Exp and points were stacking up like crazy. Hearing all these messages was starting to get a bit annoying aswell.

Eventually, the titan boas stopped trying to attack from beneath me. They must've realized that it was pointless. So I stopped with them.

They first looked at eachother, hissed and then looked back at me. They started moving once more, but they didn't attack me immediately. Rather this time, they decided to circle around me. All of them.

That was some level of teamwork, to understand eachother by such simple gestures. They must've planned formations beforehand.

As for what they were doing, most likely trying to close off my escape routes.

Another useless tactic. I wasnt going to leave this place without tasting the meat of 6 giant snakes.

I could easily stop them from achieving their formation. ButI let them do what they wanted for now, it will only make things more fun.

Once they had encircled me, they began launching their attacks.

They attacked one-by-one, in order. As one was about to land, another lunged.

When I tried moving in a particular direction, they all followed while maintaining the attack formation and lunging rate.

They were much smarter than I had thought. Performing a barrage of attacks and blocking off all paths of escape, simultaneously. With both of these combined, the enemy was bound to get hit at some point.

But such tactics won't work much on a person that is strong enough to blow the formation to bits. Like me.

As I dodged, I gathered mana, miasma and fire in the palm of my hand. I converted it all into a ball of aura.

Creating aura without a weapon is much more difficult and complex. But after hundreds and hundreds of years of training, it's become as easy and simple as breathing for me.

And ofcourse its difficulty is a given (for regular cases), it's as powerful as it is complex, unstable and difficult.

And ofcourse knowing capacity of that power, I only made a ball the size of a marble.

And I tossed it towards the ground.

*boom*

A flash of light exploded forth, followed by a shockwave with flames and shadows spreading everywhere.

Everything became dark due to the spreading shadows. The crimson flames, the shockwave , the ground underneath, the sky above, the forest all around.

Everything was consumed in the raging shadows.

And when the darkness cleared a bit, all you could see was destruction. The whole forest was burning. The trees were corroding from the shadows and miasma.

Many of the trees were torn apart, others were cut into bits because of the sharp aura.

As for the Titan boas, except for one, they were all lying on the ground.

They were alive, breathing.

But their scales were shattered, bleeding out profusely, their bones and organs were exposed. And there was a faint scent of burnt flesh in the air.

'Good thing that the meat is still salvagable.' Thought Dante

All the snakes looked at me with eyes full of hatred.

Hey, you guys attacked me first, don't blame me cause you're weak.

As if they read my thoughts they all screeched at the same time.

Their eyes literally popped and blood spattered everywhere.

Suicide?

No, there must be a specific reason.

These titan boas were smart and cunning. They had created efficient battle tactics. They wouldnt just kill themselves without a reason.

And I doubt they did it for something like pride and honour either.

They were intelligent, but they were not sentient enough to have developed honour and the other knightly stuff.

So why?

My intuition was acting up too.

Immediately, the ground under me in a 10m radius caved in.

And as the ground quickly sunk, huge fangs pierced upwards all around me.

And the mouth quickly shut, as I slid down the giant's gullet.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, outside the dungeon.

"So you're not going to interfere right?"

Isabella (Ms.Fairy) was talking to a man.

|Yes, fairies do not interfere in such problems, we only watch and sometimes make them more fun.|

"Good, this makes things alot easier."

The man turned around as he carried the unconscious Jungkook and Su-jin in chains away with him.

He wasn't wven having trouble carrying them in the slightest.

After Dante had entered the dungeon, these two felt enormous killing intent from behind. They had turned around to find this man clad in black armor.

He wasn't here before. It was clear that he didn't come here to talk.

They fought intensely, but it was a one-sided battle. In the end the man in black armour won.

Isabella watched as he disappeared into the horizon. He was headed to the train.

After he was out of sight, Isabella turned towards the dungeon.

|Better be quick Dante, you'll miss all the fun!|

Isabella smiled.

This tutorial round was most intriguing yet.

* * * * *

A gigantic snake had emerged from the ground and swallowed up the white haired human. It was also a Titan boa, but Its size was incomparable to the other ones. They were like children infront of a giant.

This was the Titan boa king.

For every beast and monster, as long as they don't evolve to another species, the peak evolution of their species is always a king.

Goblin king.

Titan Boa king.

Even a Demon king.

They all far surpass the norm of their species.

Stronger, faster and have greater and even unheard abilities. A king is always stronger than the average peasant.

As for this Titan boa king, it had arrived at the sorrow filled screams of its children.

It had long fallen asleep deep underground while its children always stayed near the surface as they hunted for food. There had never been a problem.

Its children had always only attacked lone prey, just like it had instructed them. They followed its instructions wholeheartedly, so they were always safe.

So he had long gone into deep hibernation of sorts as it prepared for its long awaited evolution.

It had slept gently, till it just now felt its young ones' pain through the blessing it had shared with them. Its children had sacrificed their own eyes to call it from the depths of the land.

What could've caused its young ones to sacrifice their eyes?

What order of creature dared to defy its age old rule upon this land!

What creature drove its children into such desperation that they sacrificed their eyes to call their father!

It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul.

The eyes are the closest organs to the brain such that they aredirectly connected to it.

Its children could've died in the act of exploding their eyes! They knew this too.

This meant that they had no other choice if they wished to live.

Who dared to lay hands upon its children.

They shall face its wrath.

And so, using the Blessing of Nature that it had for centuries, it peered above on to the surface.

And what he saw was only destruction and death.

The corpses of its children, and in front of them a creature that wore a skull and metal armor.

From the creatures posture and aura¹, it could tell that it was a human.

How dare he drive its children to such a state.

Filled with anger and hatred, it literally swam through the ground to surface. The ground bent to shape a path for it and it silently yet swiftly reached below the area below the man. Then it opened its maw wide, and swallowed the man whole.

*

Now that he had been swallowed, the man would melt inside of him.

It didnt care for that man anymore, he was as good as dead.

But its anger hadn't decreased one bit.

It wanted to destroy everything in sight.

It then remembered....

Its children.

It looked in their direction. It observed the bodies of its children.

They were near dead when it had heard their call.

Even now they laid motionless.

It came closer to them. It used mana to observe them.

They were breathing.

It became relieved that they were alive, but their pitiful states made filled it with sorrow, pain and remorse.

Long ago, it had made a deal with the gods that the area under its rule would be saved from the Great Ruination. For that it had payed a huge cost.

It could've transcended ages ago but it had sacrificed that option for its children's safety.

Since then it lived peacefully, slumbering within the ground, slowly regathering its lost strength.

But the greed for strength made it careless of its children's safety.

And now that they were at death's door. Because of its carelessness.

Because of its greed.

It needed to heal them before it was too late.

It felt deep pain inside in its heart as it tried to gather mana to activate its blessing.

But somehow it felt pain in its stomach too. Why?

But before it could find an answer, the pain in its stomach grew significantly. It even felt something claw through its guts, through its stomach, climbing up its throat, burning it as it moved.

The Titan boa king felt explosions inside of itself. It began to thrash around in pain.

Immense pain spread through its body.

It was burning from the inside.

The thing its stomach had pierced out of its throat. And now it was running amok inside the rest of its body.

The parts of its body bulged and settled, blood seeped through the skin. Its scales fell off. It was vomiting blood continuously.

The force carried by the thing inside it was immense. Blood was bursting out of its mouth. And with it the food it had long stored for hibernation came too.

In constant pain, the snake thrashed everywhere, it breathed out flames and roared constantly.

The ground was torn, the already burning forest was destroyed even more. More creatures died.

Anarchy everywhere.

*

Among the destruction, was one gigantic snake suffering from pain it never imagined.

Slowly and steadily, its body stopped listening to it. It couldn't feel the tip of its tail anymore, its movements started becoming uneven and sluggish to.

A lot of its scales had fallen off, its bare skin had been exposed. It had long burned it's own flesh at numerous places. It had even bitten the numb parts just so it could feel something.

Its vision was blurring, its ears ringing. This sense of numbness was maddening.

And deep inside that great beast, behind all the screechs and thrashing, among the pain and numbness— fear was rising.

It was afraid of the increasing pain.

It was afraid of the numbness and the madness that came along with it.

It was afraid of death, of being dead without even realizing.

It was afraid of the thing inside it.

The thing that brought it to that state.

It had long forgotten its children.

How could they survive in all this anarchy?

They couldn't. They've long died.

*

And now it was tired.

Weak.

Crippled.

Powerless.

Afraid.

And soon the giant fell.

Limp, without strength.

Its eyes wide open.

It didnt tire out completely.

It still had energy.

It could still think.

Its eyes moved quickly.

Its body had stopped listening to it abruptly.

No muscle moved.

It could only see and blink.

It could barely utter a sound.

It was breathing.

Its heart was still pumping.

Its rising fear had shot up.

It had been paralysed completely.

It couldnt move anymore.

It was a sitting duck.

Why was this happening? How?

Despair clogged its mind.

The despair of never moving again.

Its mind suddenly started getting foggy.

Why was this happening?

What next?....

Its consciousness had started to fade.

The world was turning black.

Its emotions started to calm down somehow.

Was this the end?

It thought those words as it looked upon the destroyed world.

A world it once ruled.

Now in complete ruins.

Was this its fate?

Is where its life ended?

Its life flashed before it eyes.

From the time it was born as a tiny snake.

As it grew stronger over the ages.

As it evolved numerous times.

As its world started to be consumed.

As it gave up its chance at transcendence to protect its children.

There corpses.

All those emotions flashed through its heart once more.

And at the end, only emptiness remained.

It felt tired.

It felt sleepy.

It wanted to finally close its eyes and rest.

Something made him think that it was all just a nightmare.

That it would wake up and everything would be like it was before.

It heavy eyelids slowly lowered.

But as its eyes were about to close, they shot open once more.

Glossary:_

Aura¹— Aura here is not aura of aura blade but aura as in the distinctive atmosphere of an object or person. Like 'his menacing aura', etc.