Better than nothing

I twirled the knife in my hand, all the while having my eyes fixed on the fight in which the crow was on the losing end.

—Spulch!

The crow bit down on the neck of the serpent, drawing blood, while the serpent's tail remained tightly clenched around her neck. One of her talons had been disabled by the serpent.

With my arm stretched to the limit, I threw the stone, aiming for the serpent's head.

—Khrrr!

Although the stone hit its back instead of its head, it still created the desired effect of stunning the creature. The shock was enough to loosen the serpent's tail and allow the crow to break free from the serpent's grip and fly back to the tree where her chick lay.

Just as the crow took flight, I made my move and sprinted in the serpent's direction. It quickly recovered from the effect because its natural instinct indicated that its prey was escaping. Seeing the crow escape, it turned its head in the direction where a stone lay, unmoving.

That was when its sense of danger flared up and, without turning around, it drifted to the side to avoid any danger.

I'd already taken this move into account, since it had done this to escape the crow's initial attack. So I was able to change my direction and soon reached a one-meter distance from its tail. Then I jumped onto it as I held the knife with both my hands, over my head, and thrust it down with all my might.

—Puchi!

My knife plunged deep into the tail of the serpent and blood spurted on my face. Without wasting a second, I took my knife out and stuck one of the branchlets I picked up in its place and jumped back in haste, leaving the serpent to flail in agony.

—Puchi! —Puchi!

While it turned around to find its assailant, I ran around and repeated the attack, this time on its back, which I also pinned with a stick just before I jumped back to avoid its counter-attack, despite the hindrances to its movement.

—Screech! —Puchi!

The serpent screeched in pain but I didn't relent and kept making holes in its body and filling them with sticks. Now I only had two sticks left and the serpent looked like a reptilian version of a porcupine. Its movements became lethargic due to all of the blood loss.

"Huff huff…"

Finally, after panting for a while, I punched the last nail in the coffin as I shoved my knife into its head. I ignored all the blood that was plastered to my face and clothes.

I removed my knife from the serpent's head and cut open its body to remove the pearl that had almost condensed completely.

Does this count as one?

[Barely.]

"Tch. Alright, Dia, come out."

Seeing that Codex wasn't in any mood to reply, I summoned Dia out, and a glowing ball of particles came out of my chest and landed on my head, as it materialized into the form of a cute, tiny little black snake.

[Finally some time with the Master!]

"But you are always with me, right?"

[…this is different, Master,] Dia replied in a meek, almost bashful, voice.

This time Instead of appearing as a palm-sized, cute, black snake, Dia appeared with a length of around half a meter but her width had only increased by a centimeter or so, and her scales had gained a bit more lustre.

Eating a more evolved beast than herself boosted her growth, I guess, I thought.

"So, Dia, can you eat that?" I asked Dia as I pointed toward the now deceased tri-color serpent with my eyes.

[Yep yep!] she said, eyeing the body, clearly hungry.

"Hang on, let me remove all the wood…," I said as I proceeded to remove all the sticks so that Dia wouldn't have any problem eating her fill.

I thought about retrieving the poison sac, but then didn't bother as I already had plenty of the potion made from more potent materials anyway.

While Dia had her fill, I glanced towards a branch where a bloodied crow stood, on guard against us. Then I turned around only to see a bloated Dia where the tri-colored serpent had just been.

"Can't you eat slowly…? You should enjoy your food, you know. You'll become ill if you continue to eat that fast," I reprimanded Dia as I scrutinised her now fat self.

[I eat slowly! And I enjoy my food! This just wasn't as tasty as the earlier one!]

"It wasn't tasty?"

As I was wondering why that would be the case, Codex answered with a very plausible reason.

[It might be because the serpent wasn't as evolved as the obsidian serpent.]

I nodded subconsciously before I glanced at all the bloodshed around me. I sighed.

"Huuu… It's been a tiring day, both mentally and physically. Let's go back Dia, Mom will be waiting."

[Yes, Master!] she agreed as she wobbled her small head up and down cutely, then she turned into a glowing ball of particles and floated into my chest.

Once Dia was back inside my soul space, I made my way back to the tree, where I hid my spare clothes. When I reached the spot, I sighed in relief when I saw that they had not been disturbed.

While I changed my clothes, I made sure to keep the pouch with the pearls close to me, since some insect-type beast could sense the pearls and would try to snatch them while I was not looking.

After changing clothes, I threw my bloody clothes back into the tree hole and threw some dirt and pebbles on top of them as well, so that no one would find them anytime soon. Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to trace them back to me.

Soon after I was finished, I sprinted back home as I hummed a song from Earth.

While on my way back, I thought back to the fight I had with the serpent and realised that I was being a bit too insensitive towards blood and gore. I mean I didn't even flinch when the blood splattered on my face.

This caused me to fear being a cold-blooded killer like those protagonists and antagonists in the novels I'd read in my previous life.