Chapter 200: Trapped with the Serpent

The massive serpent watched him with eyes like wet blades, its body undulating across the forest floor in slow, deliberate coils. A grotesque smile twisted along its split mouth.

[Frankzaroth, the Great Serpent (Beast Lord) – Lvl 83]

“I let you believe you were in control. That you could strut through my territory like you owned the place. But now…” The creature slithered forward, muscles rippling beneath its dark scales. “Now, it’s time to act. Your days of peace are over.”

Luke was still processing—not the threat, but the fact that the thing was talking.

“So, you could speak this whole time?”

“No.” The serpent’s voice oozed through the trees, thick and slow like tar. “I marked you the moment I saw you near this place. That mark makes you my prey. It also makes you able to hear me.”

The beast slid around him, a river of flesh and scale. Its tail scraped across rocks and roots as it began to circle. Luke was now inside the coil.

“I waited. Patiently. I knew you’d come. You’re a pest. A damn parasite in my backyard.”

Luke kept his voice steady, though he was already calculating every possible escape route.

“If you understand me, then maybe we can negotiate. I’m not here to fight. I just want to activate the third mechanism and get the hell out of this world.”

The serpent paused. Those glowing yellow eyes fixed on him like searchlights. “Oh, but here’s the thing… I’m ‘trapped’ too.”

Luke blinked. “Well, that’s a fun coincidence.”

The serpent lowered its head until its snout hovered just above the earth, far too close for comfort.

“The place I came from… there was nothing left. I devoured it all. No prey. No scent. No sound.” The forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air. “But here? I feed. I hunt. I rest. If you humans ever escape this realm… they’ll send me back.”

It moved closer. That horrible grin widened until it looked like its face would split in two. “Do you understand what that means?”

Luke stayed silent for a breath, then nodded once. “Yeah. I get it now.”

“Good,” the serpent hissed, eyes gleaming with sick pleasure. “The regular hunt bores me now. But you… oh, you’ll be fun.”

It reared its head and unleashed a roar that shook the trees to their roots. Everything collapsed into chaos. The Beast Lord lunged, a living wall of scales and raw force, crushing trees like twigs as it closed in. Luke sprang into the air just in time, barely avoiding the death trap. But the serpent’s head came whipping out of the shadows, glowing slits of fire locked onto him.

Midair, Luke hurled an acid potion with all his strength.

“Ha… hahaha…” The serpent’s laughter boomed like thunder. “That? That’s water to me.”

The acid sizzled out on its hide without leaving so much as a mark. Luke hit the ground running, Dash already activated. Behind him, the forest shattered. The serpent tore through trees like paper, its jaws wide with primal hunger. Artemis said nothing, but he could feel it. She was panicking too.

He leapt again—and Charlie appeared beside him. Together, they landed on the serpent’s back, using the impact to gain a brief window of control. Charlie started charging a Power Punch.

Luke, moving in sync, channeled stamina through his kukris—Force Infusion at max output. He plunged both blades deep into the monster’s flesh. But it didn’t flinch. With speed that defied its size, the serpent whipped its head around, those ember eyes burning straight into his soul.

“Human… Do you really think that tiny blade can pierce me? And even if it does… do you think you can strike where it hurts?”

The serpent lunged forward like lightning.

“Now!” Luke shouted.

Charlie activated Steel Fist + Power Punch, slamming her fist straight into the creature’s face. Its massive head recoiled from the blow, eyes burning with fury as it stared them down. The forked tongue flicked out.

“My turn to play,” the monster growled, its voice even deeper now—darker, more menacing.

It struck like a thunderclap. Luke rolled to the side just as the serpent’s head snapped forward in a lethal strike. It missed him by inches. He bolted into the forest, weaving in a tight zigzag. Behind him, the Beast Lord thundered through the trees like a living avalanche.

“Think. Think. Think!”

He leapt over a coil of the serpent’s own body. Black mist erupted, swallowing the clearing. From within the darkness, dozens of shadowy figures darted, sprinted, leapt. The serpent lunged at one—Luke’s figure—but the instant its head struck, the mark vanished. And then reappeared… on all the others.

“Clever,” the Beast Lord growled.

Luke flickered through the fog, phasing in and out while feeding mana into the cloud, expanding it farther and farther. Then the serpent opened its jaws. And what came out made Luke’s stomach drop.

A torrent of corrosive acid spewed forth, dissolving trees like sugar in hot water. The ground hissed, steaming and blackened. Smoke billowed in thick clouds. It wasn’t done. With a single exhale, the serpent unleashed a gale-force wind, tearing through the forest and blasting the entire field. The mist was scattered like dust.

Luke was forced to rematerialize. And then he heard it.

“You’re not leaving this place alive.”

The serpent lunged, mouth wide, fangs gleaming like twin spears, devouring everything in its path. Luke dashed, shadow-step zigzagging through the debris. But there was no cover left. Nowhere to hide. And then—impact. Charlie came down from above like a meteor, Power Punch activated. Her strike smashed into the serpent’s side, knocking its head off course. She’d saved him. Barely.

Luke didn’t hesitate. He charged forward, kukris flashing. Steel bit into scaled flesh, strike after strike, his movement a deadly dance. The serpent roared and spat upward. And the sky began to rain acid. Where it landed, the world burned.

Luke sprinted through the haze, slipping on hissing mud, his muscles screaming in pain, lungs burning. “It’s healing”

He saw it.

The damn thing had accelerated regeneration.

The serpent lunged again, fangs wide. Charlie burst into flames, activating Berserker Mode, and hurled herself directly into its open jaws. She disappeared inside. Luke ran harder than ever before. But the Beast Lord still had him. The magic mark. It tracked his mana like a beacon. He flooded the forest with more fog, spreading it in every direction, trying to break the trail.

“You thought… that would work?” The serpent exhaled again. The mist scattered. Then saw something.

A plant, dozens of them. Glowing marks spread across the forest floor, pulsing softly. The Beast Lord hesitated. Looked around. More marks. Everywhere. The forest shimmered with false targets.

“Clever,” it hissed. “But not enough.”

It opened its mouth wide and swallowed. Trees. Stones. Whole chunks of earth disappeared into its maw. If it had to devour the entire forest to find him… so be it.

***

Luke was far off, both in body and mind. His muscles ached, his skin burned where droplets of acid had landed during the downpour. He drank a healing potion to dull the pain and recover some HP, but the sensation of being eaten alive lingered beneath the skin.

Worst of all, there were no more escape routes. Masking his scent wouldn’t help. Staying still wouldn’t help. Hiding wouldn’t help. He’d been marked. The creature knew. Even if it didn’t see him, even if he lay in perfect silence, the moment it got close, it would feel him.

In the distance, he could see the cave—his former shelter. Now guarded. The serpent was there. Silent. Waiting. It knew. He’d managed to escape before only because he’d reacted fast enough. The Beast Lord had been tracking his mana signature, and Luke had used his Plant Growth skill to scatter decoy flora he’d been nurturing for days, all imbued with his mana. It worked. Once. That trick wouldn’t work again. The Beast Lord had caught on.

“The damn thing spits acid,” he whispered.

And then, like a dagger slicing through flesh, the memory came back. Princess Charlie was dead.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“So now what?” Artemis asked. “How are you supposed to fight that thing?”

Luke didn’t answer. His gaze was locked, distant, thoughts spinning like blades in a hurricane. He was trapped in this hell. And now being hunted.

“The stomach of any living being contains acid… to digest what it eats,” he began quietly. “The stomach acid of snakes is much stronger than that of humans. They don’t chew. They swallow whole. Then their acid dissolves everything, flesh, bone, everything.”

“And…?” Artemis pressed.

“Charlie’s made of metal. And even she didn’t survive. That thing’s acid is beyond anything natural.” He was pacing, the tension in his body sharp and constant. “If I get swallowed… I won’t last three seconds.”

One of his backup plans for killing the Beast Lord had been to get swallowed intentionally and attack from the inside. That idea was now completely off the table. He stopped. Leaned against the crumbling wall of a ruined structure. Slid down into a crouch. He was exhausted. And out of options.

The monster had marked him the moment he got too close to the exit of the zone. It hadn’t waited in the cave. No, it waited at the gate. Made sure Luke saw it. Made sure he knew he couldn’t leave. It wanted him to understand. It wanted to crush him from the inside out.

“It acted like a predator…” Luke muttered, voice hollow. “And I… I’m the prey.”

He was locked in. Caged. Bound to the serpent’s territory by invisible chains.

“In my world, some people keep snakes as pets,” he said quietly. “They feed them rats. But the snake… it prefers the rat to be alive. They like it that way. They enjoy the fear. The panic. They savor it before the meal.”

He looked up. “And that’s exactly what I am right now. A rat, locked in a snake’s cage. And the monster knows there’s no way out.”

His eyes shifted in the direction of the creature.

“Even if I hole up inside some building, the moment I fall asleep, it could swallow the whole place with me in it.”

And melt him alive. He sat down, fingers pressed to his temples, trying to think. Trying to breathe. Trying to keep the surge of adrenaline from turning into poison in his chest. His heart was racing. Not from the immediate threat, but from what came after. The inevitability of it.

At some point… the monster would get him. And when it did, there’d be no more tricks. No more time. No more hope. The Beast Lord was faster. Stronger. Tougher. Luke clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms. His mind had already reached the conclusion his heart was still trying to deny.

“I have to kill it… or I die.”

Silence hung heavy for a moment.

“Do you… have any idea how?” Artemis asked.

“Not a damn one,” he muttered, his voice dry, fatigue beginning to settle like a weight in his chest.

Luke opened his interface. He still had a lot of unassigned points.