Unfortunately things went the way Nick expected and YunYun’s patience and tenacity paid off. She was able to easily complete Nick’s test and even increase the duration to three minutes.

After YunYun proved her abilities they went back to the camp and had a rest. As usual, Nick prepared dinner for everyone and under the tense atmosphere they all went to sleep. Clayton refused Nick’s offer for his usual first shift and ordered him to rest for the whole night.

“You can’t sleep?” YunYun whispered while lying next to him.

Nick sighed and turned around to look at her. There was nothing he could say to persuade this stubborn girl.

“Honestly, I’m a little disappointed in you.” She said while smiling.

“Because I want to be responsible?”

“No, because you want to act against yourself. You really want to hunt that snake, but are chickening out.”

“Sigh, how can you not understand.” Nick looked her deeply in YunYun’s eyes, “I am confident in running away in case something goes awry, but you … I don’t want anything bad happen to you.”

“Did you even ask me? If you are so worried about me, then why don’t you ask me what I want?” She pouted.

“This … you know it very well how dangerous our plan is.”

“So what? The next few months will be dangerous and you don’t know what we will encounter during that time and even what will come after we get home. Didn’t you say that you want to live a life of exploration and adventure? But as soon as adventure came knocking, you are acting like a crybaby. That is why I’m saying I’m a disappointed in you.” She explained.

Nick stared at her in shock. She was right! For some reason in the face of a danger he started to chicken out. He even braved into the emperor’s quarters and killed him without thinking much, but suddenly a voice of reason came from who knows were. Was it even a voice of reason or fear?

“Thank you, YunYun.” He finally smiled, “I’ll get back to my old self as soon as possible. Let’s just be careful tomorrow and enjoy the show. In worst case – we’ll just run. Sigh, how come you know me better than I do myself?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m your fiancee!” She smiled back and Nick’s face changed again – these were dangerous waters.

“Let’s rest well. Good night.” He awkwardly whispered and turned away to get some sleep. Despite that, for the next few hours, he was still playing the tomorrow’s event over and over in his mind thinking of possible scenarios and it was already past midnight when he finally fell asleep.

YunYun wasn’t better, in fact she was very nervous, but excited as well. This will be their first big adventure together with thousands of spectators watching!

Right after the sunrise Nick and YunYun settled on the best spectator spot they decided on previously – the roof of one of the buildings not too far from the river. Local hunters and the town guards were already in positions and other people were slowly gathering on the nearby cliffs at a safe distance. The tales from real and fake eyewitnesses scared everyone to the point where many expected a huge dragon rise from the depths and swallow half of the town in one go. Despite that, hundreds of curios onlookers were impatiently waiting to see how their experienced Qi masters will hunt down the monster and woke up earlier only to not miss the event.

Today Nick was in a much better mood. He sat at YunYun’s side and both of them munched on dried fruits. There was no set time when the beast will appear, thus they just enjoyed their day telling various stories and laughing.

The crowd of the curios spectators increased and with time many of them got braver and moved closer, standing only tens of meters behind the guards. The town was small and people knew each other well, therefore bored guards leisurely chatted with their civilian friends and the Qi masters next to them not only didn’t mind, they joined in as well. The common sense dictated that the bloodthirsty beast will soon attack anyway and there was no reason to hide or watch out for it in any special way.

Soon after the noon a huge commotion was heard on the cliffs. These spectators were standing high above the ground and had a better look on the river as well and someone claimed to notice snake moving under the water. The waters were murky and dark, but if the beast came too close to the surface it obviously couldn’t hide. In addition it wasn’t a fish, it had to breath the air from time to time. Soon Nick heard a familiar whistle. Clayton signaled him and to the other Qi masters he had spotted the snake. The old hunters instantly got serious and commanded the crowd to take a step back.

“It’s here.” Nick put away the snacks and looked at YunYun, “Remember – safety first! We will inflict as much damage as we can and fall back every time we are in danger, aright?”

“Stop nagging!” She pretended to pout.

“That is called ‘the last briefing before the battle’ and has nothing to do with nagging. I’m not saying those things only to you, but to myself as well.” Nick smiled, “Alright, get ready!”

Both of them started to warm up stretching like a couple of cats. Luckily no one payed any attention to this hilarious sight.

Nick was right, the snake was extremely intelligent and it might have even been the case of it watching the hunters setting up the bait from under the water. A huge head slowly surfaced some twenty meters away from the already panicked horses. It slowly turned from side to side observing panicked little humans not too far away and the forked tongue few times shot in and out from its moth. Almost as if tasting the fear in its surroundings, it slowly started to crawl out of the river while the crowd and the guards took few steps back gasping in panic. Some people straight up turned around and ran. The two pairs of horses that were put as a bait almost lost their minds trying to break free, but the ropes were strong enough to keep them in place.

At this moment already more than ten meters of the snake’s body had crawled out and the Qi masters on the riverbank grew increasingly nervous. The snake hasn’t paid much attention to the helpless horses yet, but kept glaring at the crowd and each one of those Qi masters felt as if the snake was staring right through their soul. The situation with the guards was much worse as they had a lower mental resistance and, while few simply fainted, some others peed their pants without even noticing it themselves.

The snake continued to slowly crawl out of the river and kept hissing from time to time. Well, it was hissing, but to the poor townsfolk and the regular people from caravan it sounded like breathing of an angry dragon.

Suddenly snake, seemingly bored, turned to the closest bait and moved over, leaving only half a meter between it and the horses.

When it’s tongue once again shot out, the closest horse neighed for the last time and fell – apparently it’s heart simply stopped and it was released from the mental torture. The other one got even more frightened and managed to free itself a bit, but from these panicked movements it somehow got injured on one of the hooks and, from the pain, while trying to break free, got stabbed by three more just to die in ugly convulsions bloodied all over few seconds later.

The beast was not in a hurry at all. It watched the two horses die and then slowly turned back to the terrified ‘defense line’. It was so confident, that the rest of its long body continued to slowly climb out of the river while creating a small hill. The few loops already made it over two storeys high mound and when the snake raised its head, it looked down on everyone from height of at least four storey building.

At this moment even the bravest local Qi masters started to curse their own idiocy and regretted not running away two days ago while letting the imperial army deal with this monster. It was simply too big and there was no way to fight it!

The snake stared at everyone for a while and then apparently lost its interest in these ants. Snake’s attention caught the other two panicked horses hundred meters away. From the onlookers point of view it looked like the snake barely moved, but in fact it was so fast it almost instantly appeared besides the second bait.

May be these horses were better tied up and their hearts were stronger as well, but the snake’s head approached and stopped few centimeters from their position, and then continued to stare at poor horses with amusement in its eyes. For some reason both horses suddenly calmed down, even their loud breathing people could earlier hear from far away quieted down.

Snake was obviously playing with everyone. It didn’t consider anyone around a threat and most likely this judgment was was based on a prolonged experience. Such animal could easily be over hundred or may be even two hundred years old. And if one added intelligence and arrogance that didn’t loose out to any Qi master, it could really start feeling like the ruler of the world.

Suddenly, probably exactly because of that arrogance, snake gulped down the two hypnotized horses in a lightning speed and the supposedly sturdy ropes that tied them to the trees broke with a loud ‘plop’ sound as if they were made out of cotton.

The Qi masters watched with panicked eyes how the lump that once were the horse pair slid down the snake’s body while the beast started to coil up again and gaze at the surrounding humans from high up. For a minute or two everything was calm, but then, all of the sudden, it was almost like the beasts eyes bulged out and it opened its mouth wide trying to cough while hissing loudly.

“The hooks have injured it! Attack!” One of the hunters shouted and the surrounding Qi masters dashed towards the beast just to realize their swords barely could scratch its scales. The orders for the town guards were to stab it with the pikes as soon as it has taken the bait, but only a couple charged at the monster roaring loudly, out of fear, of course. The rest threw their pikes at the snake and ran in the opposite direction while their weapons were still flying through the air. One could hardly blame them for it because the snake looked really monstrous, especially at such close distance.

The snake felt it was attacked and swung its tale in annoyance scattering around the surrounding people and trees while still trying to cough up the piece of food that injured it. Cries of agony resounded around the town when tens of people were instantly smashed dead and many others thrown at the building walls, trees or even cliffs tens of meters away and died or lost their consciousness.

The spectators on the cliffs were shocked stiff as their faces lost all color. It wasn’t because of the brutality or the many casualties, but because they finally understood that just because they were on a bit higher ground it didn’t guarantee their safety at all, especially when the most hunters were already dead, crippled or unconscious. Of course, the Qi masters didn’t die just from this sole tail swing, but still suffered internal injuries and those who were not unconscious were running for their lives.

“Remember, try to severe its spine in as many places as possible to cripple it!” Nick glanced at YunYun and smiled, “Let’s go!”