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"Who are you, and why are you here?"

Asai froze in surprise as the fog suddenly dispersed, revealing a female humanoid that consisted of a body of a human with a head of a snake. Finding it weird that she didn't sound like how he imagined, as he had seen enough movies depicting snakes and their constant ssss sounds, Asai would've instantly pounced upon her, culling her life with his two golden karambits, if it wasn't for the large shackles that chained her neck and legs to the floor. Seeing as the iron used was as thick as a baseball bat, he honestly didn't feel threatened by her sudden appearance anymore.

As the system wasn't answering his call, the man had no choice but to do it the old fashioned way.

"Hi, I'm Asai, a human. I'm here to save a friend of mine who was kidnapped. Who are you, and why are you here?"

The naga joyfully observed the human as he inspected the surroundings in search of any further potential presences. As it was dressed in rags, chained and having no weapons to defend itself, it appeared the human didn't categorize it as a potential threat no longer.

"Hi human, I'm Hebi, a naga. I'm here because my species has the ability to control fog and mists. And before you ask, no, I won't deactivate it because then they won't deliver me my meals. So, if you want something from me, then it's only fair that I can expect something in return correct?"

Honestly, Hebi was quite thrilled to finally speak to someone other than a dogmatic dekan that viewed everything outside of their culture as false and unworthy of their time. As such, she actually desired to stall the human for as long as she could.

With the fog lessened to a great deal around Hebi and her assortments of pillows, evidently being her room. Whilst Asai was indeed curious as to her story, and also as to why she was situated in such a random position, chalking it to perhaps being only done due to her limited range of influence, being kept like a guard dog. The human decided against sating his curiosity and was quick to the point.

"What do you want, and how can I deliver?"

Dissatisfaction apparent, not due to her facial-expressions that were unreadable to him, but due to her deliberate and emphasized body-language, she instantly knew that he was rushing their interaction. Although, deep down, she understood as to why he was in a rush, after all, a friend had been kidnapped no?

"Get me out of here, give me freedom, and I'll help you." Pointing down one of many paths that connected to her nest like a cobweb, she lessened the fog in only that particular direction. "Down there, the dekans that bring me my feed dwell there, I can only assume the keys to my shackles will be found there."

"What's stopping me from either killing you, or just leaving you and going down one of the other paths, since you've so kindly told me where the security are?" Whilst Asai had no hope of reading her facial-expressions, and in extension, her thoughts. Hebi had an easy time understanding his, as she found it peculiar that he asked such a question not because he actually desired to abandon her, but only out of sheer curiosity. 

"If I die without willingly cancelling my ability, the poison that courses through my veins will infect everyone down here, sending them into rampaging madness as they either kill everyone around them, or even themselves. Oh, my blood doesn't effect the dekans, so don't even think about using me against them. I wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't be the last surviving member of my species if I could fight against them... 

As for your second question, there are many paths and branches that will surely lead you astray. It is in your best interest to save me human..."

"The ritual the dekans performed, why does it allow you to continue activating your abilities?"

"The deity that once watched over the nagas is cousin to theirs, so we share similarities, but are still different enough for them to conquer and consider as lesser... Are we done?"

Asai nodded as he failed to hold his curiosity back, seeing as she was so open to communicate, and willing to share information. He decided to trust her story, as his eyes fell upon the one single path that was clear than the others.

"Wait, come here. This will help you." Hebi's long snake tongue slathered saliva across his chin, lips, nose and eyelids. Before she backed off and returned to the pile of pillows, that was her bed. 

Whilst he felt mostly grossed out, with goose bumps all over, he found his vision clearing somewhat. Being able to see more than an arm's length with indeed helpful. Silently nodding without making eye contact, he marched down the one path, silently creeping through with bated breath as [Yomi & Yami] were both excited to see more action and usage, as [Ruin] [Decay] and [Solace] had mostly monopolized their master's attention and love.

..

Silently encroaching upon a dekan who stood almost like a statue, with its head almost touching the ceiling, whilst Asai would have to raise his entire arm to reach. The human held his breath as he tried his utmost to be as stealthy as a ninja, slowly but surely creeping towards it from the side, planting his feet down in timing with the heavy breathing that required greater amounts of oxygen to fill their larger organs.

"Damn, will the karambit even penetrate deep enough to matter!?"

Literally an arm away from touching the dekan that towered over him, hidden within his one blind-spot as its own large-horns that curved around concealed the smaller human from sight, akin to a car's own interior blind-spot.

"[Yomi] Don't fail me now!"

Rather than bet everything upon a single number, Asai bet upon as many numbers as he could before the dice was thrown.

Utilizing as much mass, torque from his obliques, speed and strength from every inch of muscle upon his body, like a heavy-weight boxer's haymaker would incorporate, Asai upper-cut the dekan's chin, sending its face flying to the ceiling and exposing its neck . His golden karambit dug deep and tore through the unprotected tissue before exiting, as the neck, chest and stomach sections had no scales to naturally protect his vitals, the flurry of karambits made quick work of the dekan's body.

Without a chance to retaliate, with the human slicing, gushing, severing and taking literal chunks from his neck, chest and soft underbelly. It quickly found itself entering the afterlife as it slumped over and fell. With such rapid and great exertion, as if he had just performed battle-ropes for a whole minute without pause, Asai barely managed to catch and gently lower the cold-corpse as to not alert the others.

Hearing the heavy footsteps and heavy breathing coming from further down the path, he estimated there to be another five at the very least, that he would have to assassinate with such fury.

"Bloody hell, I should've learnt how to lock pick..."

Now covered by both naga-saliva and dekan-blood, the human drudgingly made his way towards his next target. To rinse and repeat.

kophzi

I'm not making this up, their horns/fins/gills/claws? are really big and obscuring.

And yeah, they come in a lot of colours/evolutions, I'm leaving out their first two forms, as they're quite bland.