Chapter 31: A Snake's Fate

(POV: Snake Leader)

As Sonri looked around with his eyes, he couldn't help but sigh in exasperation at the fruit of his crew's efforts.

They had been 'hunting', for a few hours now, but they still hadn't found nearly any prey which would even so much as glance at them with a thought of fighting back.

Instead everything that spotted them would run away immediately, or those who weren't quick enough were caught and consumed on the spot.

The 4 meter long python opened his mouth wide as be yawned in boredom.

'I wish we would just attack those pathetic crabs already.' Sonri thought to himself as he watched one of his members consume a small trout whole.

Of course, Sonri was talking about the Carak tribe and his own Synok tribe.

Sonri personally felt that it was insulting that such a conglomeration of weak creatures were allowed to even be considered on the same level as his own community, and his pride refused to admit such a thing, leading to his severe animosity.

He especially didn't like how crabs were literally food sources for the snakes, yet they still were technically equal.

As Sonri's mood continued to sour, he flicked out his tongue, tasting the water in front of him.

'Is that... crab?' Sonri glanced around before calling his goons back to him.

"Do any of you also smell crab?" Sonri asked.

Each of the snakes paused for a second, flicking out their tongues as a scene of all the snakes smelling the water around them occurred.

"I do boss!" One of the snakes shouted out with glee, before getting smacked by the much larger tail of Sonri.

"Are you trying to scare them away?" Sonri admonished the snake as it curled up in distraught.

"No no of course not!" The snake said looking down at the ground.

Sonri harumphed, as he smelled the water yet again.

Turning his head, he located the path of the smell before he began swimming in it's direction telling his lackey's to hurry up.

He couldn't wait to find a decent meal.

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After swimming for a few minutes, Sonri and his group finally found the source of the smell.

Upon sighting the massive 1.5 meter tall crab, Sonri's heart nearly leapt out of him from joy.

'Not only a meal, but also a fight?' Sonri thought happily.

He truly had been bored from the trip so far and upon seeing his first enemy who could potentially fight back brought him great joy.

However, at the same time Sonri didn't strike immediately. He and his group were all orange ranked creatures, and it would appear that this crab was also a orange ranked creature.

However it should be noted that crabs are typically weaker and smaller than snakes, meaning that the crab in front of them must either be a unusually strong creature, or it may even be a yellow ranked crab.

Unfortunately for Sonri, he didn't have anymore time to make a plan of attack before the crab turned in their direction, it's eyes opening wide upon seeing them.

'It must not have confidence in fighting us!' Sonri thought, as he immediately dashed after it leaving his slower colleagues behind him, determined to kill the crab.

The python was much faster than the crab, however the crab itself was quite a distance away when it spotted the group of snakes giving it a head start to run away.

Sonri, swam after it, weaving left and right through small patches of seaweed, coral, and clouds of sand which were kicked up from the crab as it fled.

However, 'Ultimately this is the fate of a weaker creature!' Sonri thought as the crab ducked underneath a piece of low hanging coral and kicked the sand beneath it causing a particularly large cloud of sand brought up from the seafloor.

'That won't save you!' Sonri thought before dashing into the cloud in the direction of the crab as it was last seen underneath the coral.

"Oliver NOW!" Sonri heard a voice yell out.

He paused for a second in confusion before he felt a tearing pain on the side of his body.

Sonri began to turn his head towards the pain on the side of his body, ready to inject his venom into the damned crab which attacking him, but as his head began to tilt, the gradually dispersing sand cloud around him was flushed out with force, as two large pincers swung through it getting rid of the, cover.

Shocked at the appearance of the original crab in front of him, Sonri thought to himself, 'Who the hell is attacking me?'

'Was there another crab?' Sonri thought before his mind was filled with more confusion.

'But how did I not see it? There's no way that a crab swam over here faster than my group did, so was it hiding here?'

Sonri felt as if there was no other explanation for the sudden sneak attack. Unfortunately Sonri was unable to look at the sneak attacker as the massive crab in front of him spotted him, and it's pincers were thrusted straight towards him.

'Dodge!' Sonri curled his body, throwing it to the left as the pincer's grazed him, while still feeling whatever was further down his body hold on tight.

Looking at the crab Sonri kept on paying attention to it, until it felt even more of it's flesh being torn from its back, 'I'll kill your friend first then!' Sonri decided, as he was unable to ignore the enemy latched onto him any longer.

Turning around he opened his jaws looking on his back for where the damnable crab was supposed to be only to see... an octopus!

'An octopus!' Sonri immediately felt frightened. He had had killed some younger wild octopi before, but he had never fought a grown octopi.

It also occurred to Sonri that this octopus probably isn't wild either! 'It's probably working together with the crab!' Sonri recalled as he had heard a voice yell out the name Oliver before getting ambushed.

Originally Sonri had felt confident to battle the crab not only because he thought he had a chance against it, but also because he felt like he could run away if things got to bad for him.

Now however, Sonri cried as his flesh was torn by vicious barbs located on the octopus's tentacles as more and more of them latched onto his skin and pulled themselves in random directions tearing and ripping him apart.

'Dammit!' Sonri thought as he lunged towards the octopus mouth wide open.

Upon reaching the disgusting creature, Sonri bit down upon one of the tentacles and injected his venom into the limb, causing the octopus to move it even more ferociously causing Sonri to despair even more.

What he really needed was to get this octopus off his back, however his hopes were quickly dashed as he saw the crab in the corner of his vision scuttle forward and swing it's pincer and Sonri's head yet again.

Whooosh!

The pincer again barely missed Sonri's skull as he leaned down just in time.

"Shelton! Snip it off!" Sonri heard a voice behind him say as he determined that must've been the octopus on him.

'Snip what off?' Sonri thought in confusion before he a smelled a faint trace of blood in the air.

Reorienting his head to that he could see what was happening Sonri was greeted by the sight of a floating tentacle in the water, with blood clouding the surroundings of it.

'Is that one of the tentacles?' Sonri thought in hope that maybe the octopus and crab weren't together before horror hit him even harder than before.

'That's the arm I bit! He purposefully had it removed so that he won't be poisoned?!' Sonri thought before calming himself down again.

What he really needed to do in this moment was stall for time so that his group could arrive here.

Rage engulfed him as he was still unable to spot them, and unwillingness began to take ahold of his thoughts.

'If the octopus wanted the bitten tentacle gone that must only mean that it's scared of venom!' Sonri thought to himself as he dodged yet another slow blow from the crab heading in the direction of the octopus wanting to bite it again.

This time however, instead of aiming for an arm, it was going for the head!

"As if I'd let you!" The octopus shouted as the python approached it before suddenly it's vision was engulfed in darkness and an absolutely horrid taste assaulted it's senses.

Sonri originally wasn't too worried about the ink because he had lesser thermal vision, but never did he think that vision wouldn't be the most affected sense!

'Eeeeugh!' Sonri immediately removed his head from the inky cloud tasting the nasty smell, before he was once again reminded about his situation.

RIPPP!

Sonri felt a searing pain go through his body again as the smell of blood was once again more predominant.

Looking back at the octopus, he could feel his movements growing slower and weaker from the blood loss.

"I refuse to die like this!" Shouted Sonri in defiance, "I will not be killed by some random octopus and a pathetic cr-"

SMACK!

Sonri's words faded, as his consciousness disappeared leaving his last sight to be that of a large jagged pincer.