“Nothing at all.”
Satin mumbled and turned his gaze away again.
The snake descending from the ceiling was massive—easily more than ten meters long. No, Satin immediately corrected himself.
‘No, what am I saying? It’s gotta be at least twenty meters.’
Every time it opened its mouth, it revealed teeth the size of fists. It looked capable of biting a person clean in half. There was only one of it, yet it was far more terrifying than an entire troop of monkeys.
‘So this is what they meant by ‘the test isn’t over yet’?’
For now, the group gathered back together.
“Cain, hurry up and do your thing.”
At Satin’s urging, Cain frowned but still conjured a blazing wall of fire to block the creature’s path. Rita let out a soft gasp of amazement. She must not have seen it properly earlier because of the chaos with the monkeys.
“It feels hotter than mine.”
“It could incinerate a person in seconds.”
Cain replied without a hint of pride. Satin asked, half-joking.
“You ever actually burned someone?”
“……I haven’t.”
The answer sounded oddly vague.
What does that even mean—‘I haven’t’? Either you have or you haven’t. What kind of answer is that?
Satin furrowed his brow but didn’t press him further. He had no desire to hear some terrifying confession. This was exactly the kind of situation people meant when they said “don’t poke a hornet’s nest.”
In any case, it wasn’t the time to sit around chit-chatting. The snake had finally reached the ground. Its long tail wrapped around the brazier, and its blood-red eyes gleamed in the firelight. Drool dripped from its open jaws, hissing and sizzling as it hit the floor.
“The monkeys were better…”
Rita shuddered.
Then, without any warning or wind-up, the snake lunged. Ssshrkk! Every time it opened its mouth, it made a chilling, wind-like noise. Unlike the monkeys, it didn’t fear the wall of fire at all. Rita screamed as the snake’s massive head pierced through the flames.
“Aaaack! That’s disgusting!”
She hastily summoned a fire arrow and hurled it, but it did little more than irritate the creature.
“I think it just made it angrier!”
Edward shouted as he dodged to the side, barely avoiding the lunging snake. Rita chased after him, wailing.
“Ugh! So it’s my fault now?!”
“Stop whining and focus on figuring out how to kill it!”
The two of them were too busy running for their lives to notice something strange—something swelling beneath the snake’s jaw. It was clearly building up to unleash something. Hopefully not holy water, considering its saliva was acidic.
Satin shouted on instinct.
“Dodge!”
Thankfully, his warning reached Edward and Rita. As if synchronized, they both veered to opposite sides—and just in time. A jet of something burst out where they had been standing.
It looked like steam or smoke, and though no one could tell what it was exactly, one thing was clear: it was dangerous. When it cleared, a dark scorch mark had been left on the floor.
“Holy shit! Is it insane?!”
Rita shrieked, pale-faced as the near-death experience hit her.
The snake didn’t seem capable of firing that smoke in rapid succession. Instead, it let out a wet, rattling hiss—Ssshrkk, ssshrkk—repeatedly, oozing menace. It still moved just fine, flicking its tongue as it locked onto Rita and Edward once more.
While the two of them continued dodging its strikes, Cain and Satin weren’t just standing around. Out of the snake’s line of sight, they moved swiftly and carefully.
Cain had already withdrawn his ineffective wall of fire and was now focused on finding a safer position. Judging by the way the snake moved, he seemed to be getting a sense of where its attacks would land. Satin stuck close beside him, panting as he ran.
‘I need to figure out something before I collapse from exhaustion.’
Satin couldn’t just keep running behind Cain like some deadweight. Sure, dignity wouldn’t matter much if he died—but still, he had to contribute.
As he racked his brain, something odd caught his attention.
‘It’s thrashing around like that, but…’
There was no time to fully process the thought, so Satin just blurted it out.
“Isn’t that weird?”
“What is?”
Cain replied immediately, not even winded despite all the running. Satin, still catching his breath, answered.
“The tail. Doesn’t it look off?”
Cain’s gaze shifted to the snake’s tail, having focused solely on its movements until now. Realizing what Satin meant, his eyes narrowed.
“You’re right.”
This was the first time Satin had seen a live snake of this size. Calling it a snake felt almost inappropriate, given its grotesque scale. But even so, it was obvious that this one didn’t move like a normal snake.
The tail didn’t move freely like the rest of the body. It was stuck to the floor beneath the brazier, almost as if it had been nailed down. If that part was immobilized, then the whole creature was basically just a grotesque inflatable tube man from a gas station.
“Let’s get closer and check it out.”
The moment Satin suggested it, he broke into a run toward the tail.
“I told you not to pull crazy stunts!”
Cain yelled after him—but still chased right behind. He was so fast that he ended up passing him.
Luckily, the snake was too focused on Rita and Edward to pay any attention to its rear. Satin and Cain reached the tail without much difficulty.
Up close, the tail looked even stranger. It didn’t budge, like the central pin of a compass. It only spun in place, following the upper body’s motions.
‘If that part’s the weak spot, and we hit it from this side—’
Before Satin could fully form a plan, Cain spoke first.
“Let’s cut it off.”
“What?”
“It’s flush against the wall.”
The same Cain who just scolded Satin for being reckless suddenly charged the tail alone. He even shoved Satin aside in the process.
“Cain!”
Satin called out in alarm but couldn’t follow. The wall of fire that had protected him earlier was now following him instead, chasing him away. Terrified, he fled—the only way to avoid being burned alive was to stick close to the wall.
“You crazy bastard…”
The flames obscured his vision, leaving him blind to what was happening. All he could hear were occasional shouts from Rita.
“Aaaack! Save the princess! Somebody save the princess!”
“Cut the crap and run!”
“Whose dumb idea was it to come here?!”
“Yours! Stop talking and run!”
Judging by their back-and-forth, it didn’t sound like either of them had been hurt yet.
At some point, the wall of fire Cain had created started to flicker. Because of that, Satin could see Cain’s movements like watching a flipbook. He almost swore aloud without thinking.
“Wow, he’s seriously lost it.”
Before he knew it, Cain had climbed onto the snake’s back. He looked surprisingly impressive holding that cheap sword he’d bought from a street vendor, raising it high overhead. His robe flared dramatically at just the right moment—like something straight out of a movie.
‘That’s a protagonist pose if I’ve ever seen one.’
Satin found himself unintentionally admiring the sight—until he snapped out of it. The snake, which had been focused on Rita and Edward, suddenly turned its head toward Cain. Off-balance, Cain wobbled on his feet.
“Watch out!”
Satin shouted and tried to run toward him, but the flickering wall of fire flared up again, blocking the way. Cain seemed to be shouting at him to stay put, which only made Satin more frustrated.
‘Seriously, is all of this really necessary?’
As the fire rose and fell, Cain’s figure appeared and disappeared within it. Balancing like an acrobat atop the snake’s glowing red body, he raised his sword—and brought it crashing down.
SHREEEEEEE!
The snake let out a furious, high-pitched shriek and twisted violently. Cain fell to the ground, and the fire wall that had separated him from Satin vanished.
Satin immediately rushed over to him.
“Are you okay?”
“I told you to stay put!”
Cain snapped as he pulled himself upright. That was the last straw for Satin, who yelled right back.
“Then you stay put, damn it!”
At that moment, the snake convulsed violently. Satin yanked Cain out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding a strike from its flailing side. The two of them tumbled to the ground together.
Apparently thinking it had dealt with them, the snake turned back and charged toward Rita and Edward. Not even giving himself a chance to catch his breath, Satin screamed again.
“Move!”
The snake’s jaw was swelling again. Having seen that deadly smoke once already, Rita and Edward dodged with sharp reflexes. Another dark scorch mark was left where they’d just been standing.
Seeing that the two were unharmed, Satin exhaled in relief—only for Cain to suddenly grab him by the collar.
“I told you not to do anything reckless!”
“Hey! The one who just did something reckless was you, not me! Check if you’re hurt!”
You could break a bone just tripping on the street—Cain had fallen from a height of at least two or three meters. Of course Satin was worried.
But when he reached out to check for injuries, Cain abruptly stood up. He braced himself against the ground, so at least it didn’t seem like anything was broken—but it clearly had to hurt. The back of his left hand was scraped raw.
Ignoring the wound entirely, Cain grabbed Satin by the arm and yanked him up, barking like some street thug.
“Give me your sword.”
“What?”
“Mine’s busted, so hand yours over.”
Without waiting for a response, Cain snatched Satin’s sword right out of his hands.
Just then, Rita came running over, screaming.
“Aaaah! My sword!”
She must’ve dropped it while dodging the thrashing snake’s head. Despite never having actually swung it once, she looked ridiculously distressed. Edward quickly jumped in with some advice.
“Magic! Use your magic! You’re a mage, aren’t you?!”
“It doesn’t work! Nothing’s working!”
“Then try something else!”
“Something else?!”
Rita was so panicked from all the running that she couldn’t even think straight. Seeing her like that, Satin shouted out in a rush.
“Hail! Try hail!”
If fire wasn’t working, maybe ice would.
“Ah! ×Gyubi, ××, ×Set!”
Whether or not she heard him clearly, Rita suddenly chanted something at lightning speed. It was too fast to catch the full incantation, but the spell fired off successfully regardless. A fierce barrage of hailstones rained down.
“Whoa! It’s working!”
