Chapter 75: Aquga Snake

Without further thought, Jay quickly backed away, stopping just enough distance away for his radar to work.

Now analyzing better all the signs of life coming from the lake, he couldn't help but think of fish, but decided to rule out that option because they were too close together, it was as if they were stacked side by side and sometimes it even seemed as if they were part of the same body.

Worst of all, even though he was carefully observing the lake, he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"...No, the parasites wouldn't go wrong with something like this..." He said as he climbed back up a tree to get a better view of the lake.

Again, he couldn't discover anything else except that the lake looked pretty good from above.

*Shh*

Just then, just as Jay was about to climb down from the tree, the sound of bushes being moved reached his ears, causing him to stop.

"Argh, finally!" Shouted a young caucasian man that suddenly appeared from deep in the forest.

It was a young man with brown hair who had a slender build and while he wasn't very tall, he wasn't short either, his appearance was rather scruffy, as if he had passed through several bushes on his way.

Like Jay, he had also been following a small stream of water that he found shortly after being teleported to the island.

Upon seeing the lake, the young man inmediately pulled a small wand from his pocket before he began to quickly draw a blue-colored magic circle in the air near the edge of the lake.

Although the magic circle had quite a few inscriptions inside it, the process was simple and natural, as if the young man had done it countless times.

After a few seconds, the magic circle was completed, releasing a large amount of cold air that began to slowly freeze the lake, starting from the shore.

Seeing this, Jay was able to get an idea of what the young man was trying to do.

'So he's planning to set up an elemental zone...' He thought as he grabbed his chin.

Out of the 3 main classes of supers, mages had the most methods of preparation.

For both espers and pugilists, both were incredibly dependent on the terrain they were on in order to use their abilities, which many times was even a deciding factor for the outcome of a battle, especially for the latter.

And while there might be exceptions where both classes could choose a terrain or even change the terrain to their advantage, mages took it to another level entirely.

The elemental branch of magic was especially good for these feats, being able to change the terrain in an area where a certain element reigned, granting the mage responsible for the area more ease when using spells while affecting people outside of the mage.

"Hmm, I guess it will take me an hour or two to freeze everything..." Said the young man as he began to walk over the now frozen lake shore, "I'd better hurry before someone else arrives..."

Although the freezing process was fast, due to the sheer size of the lake, it would still take a good while.

*Crack*

"!"

Suddenly, both the young man and Jay could hear the distinct sound of ice fracturing, causing the young man to immediately cast another spell to strengthen the ice.

Unfortunately, at that very moment, the entire surface of the lake that had been turned to ice began to fracture at an extremely fast rate.

"What the hell?!" the young man shouted as he began to run towards the shore, even though he didn't know what was causing this, that didn't stop him from wanting to avoid unnecessary dangers.

*CRACK!*

A much louder noise echoed in the surroundings, product of all the ice finally breaking, even though the young man had run as fast as he could, his right foot had still been on the ice, so as it broke, his foot inevitably touched the lake.

Or rather, what appeared to be the lake.

Without more than a second having passed, the young man felt a gelatinous mass tangle around his leg, holding him firmly in the same place.

"DAMN IT!" 

Immediately, the young man's expression changed to one of anger as his eyes began to glow and he started to move his wand in the air, the mana in the surroundings also stirred, almost as if it sensed the young man's anger.

As a result of the young man's wand movement, several more circles appeared in the lake, creating large chunks of ice all around, especially on the part near his foot.

But as if the ice didn't matter at all, the gelatinous mass not only continued to cling to his foot, but even began to pull on it, breaking the ice in the surrounding area easily, as if wanting to sink him into the lake.

Although the dominant expression on the young man's face was still one of anger, some concern could now be seen mixed in.

Not wanting to waste any more time, he stopped casting random spells and concentrated on drawing a large magic circle in front of him.

Because it was no longer being obstructed by anything, the gelatinous and transparent mass that was pretending to be the lake began to sink him rapidly towards the lake, something that made the young man hurry even more.

Finally, with half of his body in the lake, the circle was completed.

*BOOM!*

A large explosion that turned everything around into ice took place at the edge of the lake, creating a small iceberg about 8 meters high that served as a separation between the young man and the lake.

"And to think I would have to use this so early!" Said the young man as he broke free of the now frozen gelatinous mass that had been engulfing him.

Although the young man was still maintaining a normal facade, he had actually spent a good amount of mana on this last spell, which one might even say it was one of his trump cards.

*CRACK*

However, just as he stepped out, all the ice again began to crack, only this time at a somewhat slower rate than before, the only reason the ice hadn't been shattered yet was only due to its sheer size and hardness.

Accompanying the cracking of the ice, a slight tremor began to shake the surroundings, it was as if something of a large size was beginning to move.

The young man was already fleeing into the forest, so as he felt the tremor, an uneasy feeling began to form within him, causing his speed to immediately increase considerably.

On the other hand, Jay, although he could also feel the tremors, was at this moment much more concerned about what his little ones were telling him.

Because he had moved even further away while the young man was casting his spells against the lake, now his personal radar was not working, so he had to rely on his parasites' detection.

Of all the ideas being relayed to him, this was the one that kept repeating itself the most.

'Large snake.'

And of course, Jay immediately began to flee, no longer caring if the young mage discovered him, after all, the threat his little ones were describing was far greater than that of even a rank (C) super.

Although there were a large number of snake monsters, after seeing the gelatinous mass that tried to trap the young mage, Jay could already get an idea about which monster this one specifically was.

*BOOOM!*

Suddenly, all the water in the lake rose up, creating a small temporary rain that fell on the surrounding trees at the same time that it broke up the large chunk of ice that had formed on the shore.

Quickly, a large amount of gelatinous mass began to pour out of the lake, shooting in the direction in which the young wizard had fled, catching up with him in a matter of seconds despite the fact that the latter had been running with all his might.

"Argh, sh*t!" He shouted as he was caught, desperately trying to free himself either with spells or physical force.

Unfortunately for him, nothing was having any effect on this weird gelatinous mass.

Then, moving as fast as it did to catch the young wizard, the gelatinous mass started to return to the lake, of which now almost no water could be seen anymore, only a huge amount of transparent gelatinous mass.

However, in the middle of the lake, it could be seen that from the deepest part of the lake, a huge snake skull began to rise, along with many other bones of different animals that accompanied this skull.

From these bones, Jay could recognize some monsters, such as deers, bears and even large cougars, all of these had undoubtedly been ferocious monsters in life.

At the same time as the young wizard was being led towards the center of the lake, this snake made of bones and coated with that gelatinous substance began to take shape, reaching a height of more than 20 meters.

Although the gelatinous mass that had trapped the wizard was transparent, the closer he got to the snake, the more it turned a faint dark green color.

'It had to be a damn Aqugas snake!' Jay thought after seeing the full form of the snake, which had greatly lowered the water level of the lake.

Remembering how close he had come to coming in contact with the lake, he couldn't help but let a shiver run through his body.

Of all the types of snake monsters there were in the world, the Aqugas snake was not only strange but also incredibly dangerous.

Not only did they have a large size, but their bodies also consisted of a gelatinous mass which was incredibly resistant to physical attacks.

Of course, this didn't mean that it was weak to magic or esper abilities either, it also had resistance to these, only that its defense was not as effective against those types of supers.

As for it's method of hunting, it was quite simple.

It would look for bodies of water large enough for its size and then blend in with that body of water to camouflage itself, waiting until other monsters came to drink water to pull them and drown them inside it's slimy body. 

The more monsters it absorbed, the more stronger and bigger it would become. As for the specimen in front of Jay, it was quite clear that it had absorbed a large amount of monsters, making it much stronger than a normal Aqugas snake.

'That mage seems to be a rank (C-) mage, but he couldn't do hardly anything to it anyway...'

Jay had also seen from start to finish how this mage's spells, while managing to slow it down momentarily, really did almost no damage to it and only managed to make the snake more angry.

'Still... it should be around rank (C) or (C+), it's impossible for it to be rank (B-)'

Even though it didn't change the current situation at all, Jay found some relief in thinking this way, which was quite understandable. After all, a rank (B-) monster was in a completely different league, something only supers of the same rank would be able to deal with.

"!"

Just then, Jay suddenly turned and activated his wind control, creating a short wind blade and cutting directly toward his right ankle.

*Chack!*

The sound of cutting something slimy reached his ears, however, his expression was only one of surprise, the small slimy tentacle holding his ankle was still clinging tightly, with only a slight scratch on its surface.

'I still couldn't cut it!?' He thought.

Unfortunately, before he could do anything else, just like the young wizard, his body flew off in the direction of the lake.