First serpent killed

It shot up suddenly at an inconceivable speed and aimed for Zoe.

"Zoe!" Aaron yelled but it was too late, the snake opened its mouth wide and clamped it down on her.

I looked at the others in shock and alarm, I knew the snake was strong but from the confidence Zoe exuded, I was very sure she was going to win.

Zoe was the most powerful mage of all of us here and her presence and composure gave me a little reassurance that we could kill the beast monsters, maybe with a lot of effort but at least the job would be done.

Now that she was crushed beneath the jaws of the serpent, I started to rethink our chance of success.

With beasts like this, it was easy to see why Garlme village had been decimated. Imagine waking up to see a hundred beasts of this level attacking your village, even if you managed to kill one, how much strength would you have left to kill one more and one more until you've killed twenty? At one point, all the mages would have been overwhelmed and given up to exhaustion.

That was what killed them, exhaustion not the beast monsters.

I thought about the war the emperor declared on the beast monsters, if we did survive this serpents attack and made it to the palace, these were the kinds of beast monsters we would far during the war, what were my chances of staying alive?

"Zoe!" Liam yelled and started to run to the snake, he knew it was dangerous to run up to a level 6 beast monster like that but he didn't care, saving Zoe was all that was on his mind.

Emily suddenly jumped in front of him and pushed him back, the force of the push was so great that Liam fell to the ground.

"Hey what was that for?" He complained and got to his feet hurriedly.

I was also confused because he was going to save Zoe who clearly needed help. Did Emily want Zoe gone?

"Look". Emily said to Liam and pointed at the snake's mouth.

I followed her gaze and saw the most astonishing thing I'd ever seen.

Zoe was lodged between the fangs of the snake but it couldn't bite down on her. The reason was simple, there was a blanket of air wrapped around Zoe, as a result even though she was trapped in the mouth of the snake, she wasn't hurt.

The snake couldn't believe what it's eyes saw, it had launched itself at Zoe in one last, desperate attack to get rid of her and it worked, it moved too fast for her to react and now she was clamped between its jaws but it couldn't bite down.

No matter how hard the snake tried, it's fangs couldn't pierce her skin, then the snake looked down and saw that Zoe had used her magic to surround herself in a thick blanket of air that prevented its fangs from sinking into her body.

No matter how hard it tried, it's fangs couldn't penetrate the blanket of air.

The snake was now at a conundrum, it wanted to kill Zoe and swallow her but it was proving impossible to bite her, it had two other options, one was to swallow her alive and the other was to spit her back out.

If the snake swallowed her alive, it knew she would just use her magic to slice it open from the inside and kill it.

Hisssss!

The snake hissed as it tried in vain to bite through the blanked of air surrounding Zoe, eventually it gave up and spat her out.

Zoe twisted in the air and floated down gently.

I looked at her in awe, I had been a little disappointed when I found out I had air as my element instead of fire because I believe fire was much cooler and would be more effective in battle. I saw now that that wasn't the case, air was just as effective and cool, if not cooler.

"Come let's end this now". Zoe said calmly. "I'm starting to get tired".

"Don't rush into it". Aaron called. "It's a level 6 beast".

"I know". Zoe snapped through gritted teeth.

She faced the snake again and raised her fingers at it in a 'come here' motion.

Zoe had decided the best way to get rid of the serpent was the deliver a blow to its head but she knew the snake would not let that happen easily, so she needed to make it disoriented first.

Hissss!

The snake hissed and launched itself at Zoe.

Zoe shouted. "Vortex!" and pointed her hands at the serpent.

A small vortex came out of her hands and headed for the snake, the snake tried to escape but the vortex sucked it in and twisted around violently.

Hissss!!

The serpent hissed as it was tumbled around inside the vortex. Zoe smiled and pushed the vortext back, it carried the snake and slammed it into a hill nearby.

The snake writhed on the ground in pain but Zoe wasn't done.

"Master vortex!" She shouted and vortex much smaller than the previous one came out of her hand, it left her hand and aimed at the serpent.

I wondered why a master vortex would be much smaller and less destructive than a normal vortex, the irony seemed glaring.

The master vortex headed for the serpent and when it reached it, it didn't lift it and spin it around like the first one did, instead it went right through its head and came out the other side, drilling a hole in it.

Oh.

It was then I realized why it was called a master vortext, it might be much smaller but it's destructive force was ten time greater.

The snake brayed and collapsed to the ground, heaving in jerky movements.

Zoe walked close to it. "Air slice!" She yelled and two slices of air slashed through the snake's neck, cutting it off.

Zoe walked back to us with a smug smile on her face.

"Alright my turn". Aaron said and stepped forward.