“Uuu, what do we have here? A green cloud coming my way, yay!” Drunken Ren muttered as his sight was too blurry to see the gigantic head of a water serpent coming his way, intent on swallowing him whole.

But by some miracle, Ren ended up avoiding the jaws of the water serpent and instead ended up climbing on top of the head that now was at his level.

‘Must climb higher…’ Ren now ended up moving higher until he ended up holding some strange protrusions coming out of serpent’s head.

Holding on to them like he was holding on to a ram, Ren began his wild ride.

“Go Forward My Steed! Giddy up!”

In his vision he was seeing himself ride a horse or a bull, while in reality, it was anything but.

* * *

Within a territory that was once a battleground between the demons and humans led by gods, two different groups lived on two sides of the lake, each separated by a large body of water. The lands were not connected.

The group that prospered here were human beings, a group that despised demons and thought of them as the scum of the earth. On the other side were the demons called Oni.

Hatred human beings bore towards demon kind was unimaginable.

It is said that centuries ago, the first Demon King had stolen the land of the Kalkan Kingdom from the world of humans, teleporting it to the this world.

But by doing so, many humans who lived on that land were also transported to the world of Sulum, and their descendants still hated demons to this day.

Of course, even before the establishment of Kalkan kingdom, there were native humans and demons within this world, though after the Kalkan kingdom was formed, this world officially became known as the Demon world.

Human beings, unwilling to live in peace with demon-kind, refusing to even think of demons as their equals, have formed radical groups, aimed at exterminating demons.

One of such groups was Pishak Priests, who apparently have a base in this location.

And they have captured a couple of demons and some kind of a creature with stripes all over its body.

Soon, they would conduct their sacred ritual, where they shall consume the flesh of the demons in order to gain their powers. By eating their enemies, they believed they could gain their strengths, which was partially true.

Those who ate demons sometimes experienced a surge of strength and developed powers comparable to that of the demon’s natural abilities, but sometimes, the flesh of the demon was not compatible with the human, in worst case resulting in the human’s death.

But Pishak Priests did not care about such trivialities, nay, what they wanted was power, and risking their own lives for the sake of it was worth it if it meant the eventual extermination of all demons.

One of the warriors within the village, while off duty, saw a very strange sight.

The water serpent, the seven headed monster that lurks within the lake was thrashing around violently, with its middle head above the water.

Water serpent was danger to the both groups occupying the opposite side of the lake; it ate anyone who dared to come too close.

The serpent was gigantic, it is a common knowledge that the lake has many monsters within it, but even then, this water serpent was on a league of its own.

Its head was the size of a horse’s body, while its neck length was about twenty meters tall; just thinking how long it might be if it ended up completely above water was scary.

And the reason the water serpent was thrashing around so violently?

As the warrior focused his eyes, he saw something very strange.

On top of the serpent’s middle head was a human being, and he was hanging on to the serpent’s head by the horns.

The water serpent has curved horns on the top of its heads, and now this crazy person was using them to ride the serpent like a bull.

“YEAAAAAA!” the man did not seem to have any fear, even when the serpent was thrashing around violently, with its six other heads trying to eat the man clinging on to its middle head.

But the man skillfully, almost drunkenly avoided the heads pouncing on him, all the while riding the serpent like it was his steed.

“Good Horsy!”

Somehow, he was controlling where the middle head was turning as to avoid being eaten by the other heads.

“It’s horns! He is controlling it by its horns!”

Where the head goes the body goes, and it seems like the head is influenced by putting pressure on its horns.

But to think this man was brave enough to climb on top this monstrous lake serpent!

Only someone foolishly brave or suicidal would even think of this, not to mention actually do it!

The heads were swirling everywhere, but the middle head seems to be the most influential one, as the man kept pulling it everywhere by the horns, the serpent ended up crashing into the land, with the man now knocked off the serpent’s main head.

Now, he fell, rolled over the ground and stood up with a salute.

“That was fun!”

He just rode a multi-headed snake monster that even demons are afraid to face like it was some kind of an over-grown horse, is he crazy?

Now that the water serpent’s main head was not under his control, the seven of its heads now proceeded to head towards the man, intending to eat him whole.

But the man turned around with a smile, holding round rock-like objects in his hands.

“I hope you are hungry, my pet. Eat this!”

He threw those rocks at water serpent’s mouth, and just at the moment of impact, a gigantic explosion occurred.

Now there was man covered from head to toe in snake guts.

Pieces of the water serpent were scattered everywhere.

Warrior did not know what to think.

This man just defeated the monsters that plagues the lake, the one children are told bed time stories about, cautioning them to never to venture to the lake alone, lest they shall be taken by the water serpent.

And he did it like he wasn’t even serious.

“I win! Yeah! Horsy, where did you go to, horsy?” the man was looking around, almost as if he did not realize he just blew up a gigantic snake into pieces.

This water serpent was one of the reasons they could not safely cross the lake on a boat at certain times in order to fish or invade the tribe of demons that lived on the other side of the lake.

But now, this great man just killed the water serpent.

This was great news, now they could finally kill the demons without fear of being eaten by this monster!

No matter what, he needed to have this man join them as well!

As he approached the man, the warrior saw the man lying on the sand, making butterfly with his arms and legs.

‘No horns, and he does not seem to have any extra appendages…He is a human.’ Warrior was no longer on guard.

This human with a head full of black hair and brown eyes, he might be a useful asset to their cause…

Meanwhile, the drunken young man was simply thinking.

‘I should do this more often…’ after which he proceeded to drift into deep sleep.