Chapter 80: Horned Snake

Grey looked around and found himself on a hillside halfway up the mountain. The ground was carpeted in green, and a purple bamboo tree patch dotted the hillside. A faint mist wreathed around the purple bamboo forest, giving it the ethereal feeling of a unique realm. Grey's senses penetrated into the somewhat loose dirt beneath his feet as he breathed in the incomparably fresh air. The first thing he noticed was the high density and concentration of elemental essence that exceeded that of the Qilin empire in the place.

"A single day of cultivation here is almost equal to fifteen days outside, it's amazing"

Klaus said. Given the high density of the place, it wasn't hard for everyone to realize this fact.

"We should head forward, staying here won't be any good given the enmity between us and the Starlight Academy, added with the Azure empire, we could be attacked at anytime"

Alice said while the boys were still in a state of reverie due to the feeling of the high elemental essence in the air.

Her words quickly snapped them off their somewhat almost intoxicated state.

"You're right"

Grey and the others nodded.

They actually failed to realize that there wasn't anyone here when they arrived, it seems like the other groups all headed inside in fear of being attacked by their enemies.

The group walked forward with extreme caution. Looking at the sky, one could see it was covered with grayish lights, it was somewhat dark and gloomy, but they could clearly see their surroundings. The flora here was different from the outside, they were long and tall, ancient trees at the height of several hundred meters but everything felt like it was covered in dust.

Looking afar, one could see mountains, rivers, and jungles.

One hour later...

Boom!

"What the hell! That's the sixth one already"

Klaus said in frustration. They had only headed around one kilometer, yet they had been attacked by six different beasts. The only upside was the fact that the beasts were alone and not moving in groups.

"They did say it was going to be dangerous. And besides, they are only in the Mid-stages of the Arcane Plane"

Reynolds said with a laugh.

"That's why I'm complaining, we haven't even gone deep into this place and the beasts we are encountering are already in the Mid-stages, this last was one step away from breaking through into the Late stages. What would happen when we head further?"

Klaus said gloomily.

"Stop complaining, it's not like you couldn't defeat them even if you were alone"

Grey reproached Klaus.

The group continued their journey, and they soon started seeing some buildings, the buildings all had an ancient feel to them, like they had existed for a long time now. It was just like they were told, this place used to be inhabited by people. But it seems like it was a long time ago.

"What happened here anyway?"

Reynolds looked at the shape the buildings were and asked.

Most of the buildings had holes in them, and they didn't seem to be made due to the passage of time, rather, they were made from some kind of attack.

"A war maybe? Well, from what they said, this place has been existing for so long, and there weren't even any records of it"

Alice said while also surveying the place.

They entered into one of the buildings but found nothing relevant inside. The group continued on their way when they suddenly heard a scream, on looking ahead of them, they saw a boy being eaten by a giant snake, well, swallowed is the right word. More than half of the body was already inside the mouth of the snake.

The boy struggled as hard as he could, but he was eventually gobbled up by the snake. At first, the group wanted to help out, but before they could make any movements, they heard sounds of something rubbing against the ground. Looking at the direction the sound was coming from, they saw another snake which was just as big as the other one, only the aura radiating off it was much stronger, and it had what looked like a horn at the top of its head.

"A Horned Snake"

Grey said as he looked at the snake that was moving in their direction. This snake seemed to already be at the Late stages of the Arcane Plane, and the chances of it being in the Eighth stage is very high, it could most likely be in the Ninth stage even.

The snake immediately opened its mouth and spat out a greenish gooey liquid which shot at a very fast speed towards the group.

Grey acted fast and quickly set up an earth wall. But as soon as the liquid came in contact with the wall, it immediately started corroding it at a fast pace.

"Venom!"

Klaus yelled.

"We can see that!"

Reynolds retorted

"Why would we meet such a troublesome beast this early?"

Klaus complained as he sent an ice spear towards the eye of the snake.

The snake swung its tail agilely and was able to easily destroy the spear. Alice and Reynolds also sent out attacks that landed on the body of the snake, but the snake seemed to be oblivious to the attacks.

"Its scales are too hard, there's no way our attacks can penetrate through"

Alice said while dodging the venom the snake spat out towards them again.

Grey brought out his short blades, given the current circumstance, there's a chance he might be able to inflict damage to the snake due to its sharpness. But that was not going to be an easy task since it will be incredibly difficult to get close to the snake.

He infused both the lightning and wind element in his body to maximize his speed. As he dashed towards the snake, Alice, Klaus, and Reynolds immediately sent out attacks towards the head of the snake to distract it so Grey could get the chance to get close to it.

Just like they expected, the snake immediately protected its head with the other parts of its body thereby leaving a large target for Grey. Although Grey initially planned to go for the head, but the current defensive stance the snake took made sure he didn't get the chance. Held in a reverse grip, lightning started dancing around his blade as he slashed it at the body of the snake with terrifying force.

Slash!

Shriek!

The snake shrieked in pain as a deep gash opened up at the side of its body. It looked at Grey with hatred before swinging its tail quickly towards him, wanting to smash him to minced meat. He already knew the snake would counter-attack, so he immediately retreated after leaving behind a wound.

The snake wanted to give chase but was once again faced with attacks from the other three, it shifted its attention towards the group and they exchanged moves, with the group dodging most of the time. With the group bombarding it with attacks, there was no way it could focus on any other thing, the moment it put all his attention on the group,

Slash!

Grey who had been on the sidelines waiting for an opportunity immediately struck again. This time, leaving a bigger wound. The snake shrieked again and wanted to attack Grey, who had already wisely escaped from its attack range. They had already left the area the previous snake was during the battle. The group continued with the same tactic, and they slowly started tearing down the scales of the snake. Grey was literally just descaling the snake so it could be dealt strong attacks from the rest of the group.

Alice was very effective since she was now able to inflict damage on the snake. The wounds increased and the snake was barely able to counterattack. It suddenly let out a strange sound. And they once again heard the sound of something rubbing against the ground.

"It's calling for backup"

Grey yelled as he once again delivered another slash close to the head of the snake. The snake had managed to protect its head almost all through the battle, but Klaus had been able to get a good strike which almost hit its eye if not for it closing it quickly. The attack struck the eyelids of the snake, but the strong scale ensured it didn't leave any wounds.

The first snake crawled out of the building where it swallowed the boy. On seeing the wretched state of its partner, it charged towards the group.

"The same tactic?"

Alice asked in excitement.

"Yes"

The others all nodded and once again started slowly wearing out both snakes. The new one was much easier since it wasn't as strong as the one they were fighting previously.

The snake seemed to have realized it made the wrong decision in rushing into the group and wanted to escape, but the realization was a little too late.

Ten minutes later...

The two huge corpses of the snakes laid on the floor with the group breathing heavily, especially Grey since he had to get close and attack, before retreating as quickly as he came.

"Did anyone notice the beasts here are much stronger compared to their stages?"

Grey couldn't help but ask.

Given the stages of the snakes, it shouldn't have taken them this long to deal with both of them. Grey even felt the chances of him defeating the first one they battled personally were very low.

"Yeah"

The others all nodded.

"This truly is a mysterious place"