The skidding sound stopped altogether after he performed the move, making it harder to spot the enemy. His eyes zigzagged on the ground and then up the rocky, silvery wall, and there it was, a snake of his size wrapping around a jutting piece of rock. Its color was almost the same as the wall, and if not for the slit-shaped, glowing red eyes, he would miss that sneaky bastard for sure.

  As their eyes met, the snake shot its head downward, its neatly placed scales scraped along the translucent barrier on his hand and deflected away, pulling its massive body down into the ground. Zalanir smirked even though his hand was numbing and jerking from the ultra-quick attack. You think I’m a soft persimmon?

  Sound bolts ventured out, five out of six projectiles hit the snake’s upper body and held it there for a snapped second, but that was enough. Even though he could tank somewhat, the golden battering ram charging from behind him was no doubt more suited for the job. Her shield slammed into the beast’s head, knocking it into the wall where crumbs of rocks were raining down for some extra environmental damage.

  A loud, goosebump-provoking hiss signaled the beast wasn’t done, and a second later, the massive head poked out again, its forked tongue swaying from side to side while its gleaming red eyes fixed onto Wanyi’s position.

  “I’m not sure how, but good job locating the bastard. Now, let’s do our usual—”

  Seseguri’s voice from afar was cut off mid-sentence and replaced by an agonizing scream. Zalanir wheezed around, and in his vision, the washing machine carrier was inside the grip of another silvery serpent. His hands pushing up and bracing to keep the second snake from completely constricting him.

  Suddenly, the sneaky snake’s face exploded, and with its loss of momentum, Seseguri slipped by and rolled to the side, in the process unleashing two spinning saw blades and flaying some scales from the snake’s tail.

  That second snake had been lying in wait since the beginning, Zalanir squinted his eyes. Not only did it evoke no sound, it also ignored his dash and Wanyi’s charge at first, and only intercepted Seseguri midway. So they had been planning a double ambush? Clever bastards.

  Unfortunately for them, he had ruined their little plan, and the battle now had turned into two 2-versus-1. They had the number advantage, but these snakes were no slouch either.

  [Partition Racer — Level 72]

  [Partition Racer — Level 70]

  “Do they have any weaknesses?” He called out to Wanyi. His groupmate had been to this place a couple of times already, so this encounter shouldn’t be the first of its own.

  “Look for flecked scales with some kind of red pattern. Those are not as tough as the rest. But we can also just buy time, as Shinnya fries them with her magic.” She traced the snake’s movement with care, one step at a time, while keeping her shield ready at front.

  Buying time, huh? What’s fun about that?

  He broke the boring standstill with some air bolts and a devious mark. Let’s see if their scales or his attacks were stronger. All the projectiles cut through the air in a semi-transparent way, and two-thirds of them smashed onto the still unaware monster. It let loose a grating hiss and, like an arrow leaving the bowstring, shot its massive body toward his spot.

  As expected. Zalanir was already on the retreat, lengthening the distance between him and the reptile. Right at the moment its wedged-shape head collided with the energy shield on his hand, three things happened at the same time.

  First, Energy Barrier shattered, releasing its storing energy wave onto the dumb aggressor. This unexpected burst once again did its job of surprising the attacker, as the explosion temporarily offset the charging attack.

  Without waiting to see the result, Zalanir relied on the lifting power of Wind Rush and dashed to the side, eliminating any chance for the snake to find him.

  And finally, he knew a certain woman wouldn’t let the perfect opportunity to flank a stretching racer go to waste, and he was right. In the corner of his eye, Wanyi jumped up and crashed down; her golden shield, a beacon of light brimming with holy energy, banged into and pinned down the enemy’s middle portion. Like a gravestone, it locked the serpent down to that single spot, regardless of the outcry and wrestling from its target.

  Wanyi really shined in close combat. She left her shield there, and with a blade of similar color in hand, she stabbed, slashed, dodged, and blocked the enemy’s assault in a mesmerizing choreography. One moment, she dunked with just enough movement to avoid a snap, then right after, she performed three quick slashes before kicking onto the silvery scales to propel herself out of a nasty bite from the flank. If he hadn’t known that she was a paladin, he would’ve mistaken her for a bladedancer mastery, because she was just that good.

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  “It’s so assuring having a tank to distract the enemy,” Zalanir muttered.

  He also didn’t just stand there. After constantly moving around and firing off Adaptability Bolts on cooldown, at long last he spotted a patch of red specks on the snake’s rear when it thrashed its tail onto Wanyi’s golden shield. It did well hiding that weakness by coiling up and angling that inward, but looked like the shield was too much of an annoyance for it to care.

  “Keep it down if you can.” Without waiting for confirmation, as he trusted the paladin would find a way, he started channeling Sonic Lance while visualizing the throwing arch that he would draw.

  But if only the fight was that simple. When the lance hadn’t even taken its full shape yet, the snake pried the shield away by a twisting motion. It was like a drill, except it didn’t dig into anything but spinning on the spot.

  With its newfound freedom, it whipped the rear toward his direction, and because of the channeling effect, he could only stand there watching a massive tail close the distance and slap him on the chest. Without any protective measurement, his body got flung into the air and a second later slammed onto the hard wall right behind. Looked like the arch that he had drawn in his mind did come true after all, just with a different target on the receiving end.

  Now he knew the feeling of a tennis ball getting pound into the wall when he was practicing alone with no hitting partner. Zero control. Just a merciless hit from the player marveling at the trajectory that they just created. Damn could that snake be an excellent tennis player with that slap just now.

  A warm aura washed over when he raised up on his feet again, offsetting the searing pain currently running wild on his back somewhat. His abdomen cramped, pulling and twisting all of his muscles toward a single spot god knows where. He wasn’t in the right condition to look at that, only knew that it was fricking hurt and annoying.

  With no time to fix his belly, he activated Wind Rush and rolled away in the nick of time to avoid another tail slam. Damn did these attacks hit hard, as the wall behind him trembled with dropping stones.

  Mark of the Black Mist had already gone on cooldown, as he had failed to kill that bastard within the time limit. Around ten minutes seemed to be the case, and perhaps that cramp just now was that small backlash for this failure.

  Luckily, Wanyi was already on top of the snake again, so no more tail came his way for the time being.

  Zalanir stretched his hands up toward the ceiling for five seconds, portraying like a dumbass in the middle of the battle all the while enduring that searing pain from the yet closing wounds on the back, and finally, his abdomen softened up and stopped bothering him with these rioting muscles.

  This calm five seconds also allowed him to look at the other fight, where the increasing moan-hissing suggested that his groupmates were dominating. Wanyi had mentioned that these racers were weak against fire, and Shinnya was probably enjoying the fight too much. There existed a chain of fire roped the snake’s collar to Shinnya’s hand, constantly incinerating the monster’s skin and restricting its action. A mottle of vibrant red had taken over the scales’ silvery color near the lower half of its face.

  In the meantime, Seseguri played the role of the defender, where the man just kept flying four of his saw blades toward the enemy, controlling and directing its movement. Whenever it lurched forward, at least two spinning blades would intercept, aiming at some of its exposed spots where the scales had been flayed off, forcing it to coil up or twist away.

  Returning to his own fight, Zalanir erected a panel guarding the front, and channeled Sonic Lance again. If a full power charge drew too much attention, then he just needed to act faster. Five orange-ish threads ventured out, pulling sound wisps nearby into the radiating lance, and right when the big snake turned to his spot, he released the attack right away with an overhead smash. This time, it arched beautifully before finding purchase on the enemy’s trunk, knocking the snake off balance and preventing the charge altogether.

  Without wasting any second, he prepared another lance, and timed it better when the racer was just about to push Wanyi out of the way. The glimmering projectile once again burst through the air and landed squarely on the snake’s front body.

  In his own imaginative competition, he had lost track of how much mana he had expended, or how he even launched all the lances forward. His vision had also changed from the silvery vibe of the mine to a queer, dark-misty mix of crooked trees and condensed-splashing water. They swirled, latched onto his skin and crawled up his feet, but he paid them no heed. All he thought of at this moment was drawing more power to keep raining down bombardment of Sonic Lance on the enemy before Shinnya and Seseguri came over. He would hate it if he needed their help to finish the fight, and a part of him wanted to win the race. No need to preserve any resources.

  “You can stop now. It was already dead.”

  A warm aura, a metallic clank, and the calming voice of his groupmate brought clarity back to his mind, stopping him from channeling yet another Sonic Lance. Ahead, the silvery snake lay down, body cut into three pieces, together with scattering scales bathing in some dark-red liquid. A tangent, tantalizing smell of mixed flesh and blood wafting in the air, tempted him to come over.

  Wanyi stood on the side, eyes on him, hands leaning on the dull rainbow shield — the original golden color was only visible on the lower edge where the shield met the ground.

  Afar, Shinnya and Seseguri were still in their fight, though more than necessary he could tell that their attention was on him. No words being said, but if the eyes could speak, then no doubt these phrases like “are you okay?” or “what is happening?” would be flocking into his ear canals already.

  He shifted his gaze down onto his shaking hand, palm skin warped and mangled like clothes forgotten in the washing machine. Black veins rooted and populated underneath those shredded skins, bulging and drumming on their own in a rushed pattern: pup, pup, puppup … It was the same haunting, mist-black color to what popped out of his body at the cultist lair. The same black smoke he used to attack and inflict curses on all the “rabbits”. And the same mindless aggression that killing the enemy was his sole purpose in life.