An Age of Mysterious Memories

“Thank you, thanks, not that you can hear me, but thank you.” I express my gratitude as they seem to be squaring off against a reptilian creature that’s like some serpent from myth and legend, one that’s petty and cruel, and plagues others with suffering. The one that has just risen from its stealthy slithering amidst the muck. Staff Ninja seems to be saying things that pop up in text boxes that face away from me or otherwise are illegible to me.

“They want us to get around behind it while they distract it, they’ll try to keep the heads busy while we take it out.” Lil’s font, or tone sounds weary, tired as they interpret Staff Ninja’s text, paraphrasing so that I can understand what’s being planned. Feeling like that’s a wise option, I begin skirting around this gargantuan serpent, and its five or six heads. Staff Ninja appears to be faring somewhat alright, but can only fend off two or three heads at a time with ease.

I gulp as I leap over a head that thrashes wide. I nearly beg, “Lil this isn’t good, are you ready to fly again?”

“Sorry partner, I’m feeling kinda, kinda sleepy.” Lil says as they snuggle in against my back, in the leaf-hood pocket that serves as a sort of hammock. I’m a bit worried, but I know they didn’t go into energy debt, so maybe they’re just a little worn out from transforming back and forth between their Agnewt form and this form. This really isn’t ideal, even Staff Ninja looks worried, or perturbed, that we’re not finishing this serpent quickly. Staff Ninja fends off two heads with their staff, another with their tail, two heads with their footpaws, and tries to just keep dodging the sixth head. I wouldn’t be able to handle that many simultaneously.

It’s around now that I realize it’s not a six headed serpent, it’s an eight headed serpent, two of said heads happen to reside on the creature’s tail. They catch me completely off guard. They’re a bit smaller than the other heads, which is good, because I don’t have any weapons drawn. I just use my forearms to brace against their faces as they snap and slam at me. Even the front edges of this creature’s fangs are sharp as they gash into my forearms.

I hear thunder, a loud crash from the front of the beast. Apparently so do the two smaller heads, they look away for a second, towards the now crackling-with-energy Staff Ninja. Staff Ninja apparently summoned lightning to strike themselves or their bo, and are now fighting with what I’d call untold ferocity, trying to stave off each of the heads. I’m somewhat in awe, until I realize that they’re still fighting a losing battle, mostly only distracting and surviving.

“Focus, Focus!” I reprimand myself, whilst drawing a weapon, and two energy versions of that weapon. I try launching all three simultaneously into the hide of this great serpent. I once again feel like berating myself for being small and weak, in a world that definitely seems to be survival of the fittest or strongest. Even my energy constructs do nothing, or rather, while they seem to sink in slightly marking the hide of this serpent, the marks close up immediately.

Like some kind of cockroach, it feels like this creature could survive anything, an eight headed cockroach, some sort of octoroach. Octorochi. Orochi? Where have I heard that before? Something about a multi headed creature. When its heads are cut off, they grow back unless the stumps are burned. Cauterization? Is that just like a medical myth or something? Despite my rambling brain, apparently the systems of our world dub the terrifying, godly-horrific beast Octorochi now, as its health bars gain the title I’d accidentally chosen for it.

Staff Ninja is busy batting away each head that tries to strike it, and now two more heads are deciding I’m not a threat, heading around to join the fray. This is bad, if I don’t get their attention quickly, my new ally might end up as snake chow.

“Lil, Lil hey, now would be a good time to wake up for a little bit buddy, just any little bit at all right now. Lil, buddy?” There’s no response from Lil except a tired murmur like a cartoonish snore. They’re definitely okay, but also probably not waking up until this is over.

How much energy can I risk using to get something’s attention? What if it’s stronger than Vampguppy? How much stronger is it? If only I had Lil’s analysis skill, or if there were like, damage numbers and health point values that I could see. That would be a little too convenient though wouldn’t it? The health and energy bars are somewhat helpful, but rather discouraging. This thing has a multitude of health bars, and every time the first one even ticks down slightly, it pops back to full in moments.

What’s the most efficient I can use my energy at? What about a few volleys of two energy-duplicates of weapons each? Wait, it ignored one of those and just healed back up. Okay, maybe a massive blow, everything except a little bit of energy so that I don’t pass out and can still act if it survives. It’s probably literally the only shot we have right now, before the three of us end up snake-chow.

The serpent has Staff Ninja in several jaws right now, but the electricity crackling around Staff Ninja seems to be the only thing keeping the serpent from eating them immediately. It’s now or never, and if I’m lucky, the electricity will be hot enough to stop any regeneration. I imagine the largest conjuration that I can within my remaining energy limit. I jettison spears as numerous, fast, massive and forceful as possible. Rearing back, I slam forward, throwing my whole body and mind into it, producing radiant objects of varying size and sharpness. I mostly focus on an especially giant bolt nearly as thick as the main body of the serpent. I send all of this energy and force straight into the serpent, hoping to at least distract the beast in order to save Staff Ninja. It would be nice if it also either ends, or scares away the serpent.

For a moment I breathe a sigh of relief, as everything seems to pause in that familiar fashion when something large derezzes. My various spears jut out from the serpent’s hide, before they vanish. There’s that crashing crackling tinkling sound, and I imagine it starts from the serpent’s heads. However, only the serpent remains, and the simple-garbed primate, who wielded thunder and lightning via a quarterstaff, is nowhere to be found.

The Orochi, or Octorochi, whatever it is, unlike Vampguppy, has taken a small chunk of damage to several health bars at once. And each bar is regenerating by the passing moment, almost full again already. That was everything I had. Even if I had started the fight with full energy, and the exponential nature of my skills kicked in slightly higher, I wouldn’t have even come close to defeating this beast. I stare dumbfounded, watching in horror, as the serpent begins to turn ‘round in slow motion to face me. I’m fairly certain it views me as a threat now, or at least its next meal.

Taking stock of my surroundings, there’s a swamp that I’d have a hard time traversing. I’d plod slowly whilst the serpent would catch me easily since it’s used to navigating the murk and mire with its swishy slidy swimming type movement. There’s the rock upon which Staff Ninja had been standing, before the bully frogs started antagonizing them. Just beyond the rock is the short falls as the river picks up speed yet again. I hope they’re a short falls anyway. Stupid murk coating everything in green.

How many times am I going to end up in the drink, hoping the water spares my life? I close my eyes and sigh, trying to exhale to make myself as small as possible. I feel the air rushing towards me as eight serpentine fanged faces close in, and then I dive forward, thrusting myself in the middle of all of them and out between two of their necks. The serpent tangles amidst itself for only a moment. I can’t even spare that moment to check for any sign of the Staff Ninja, someone that might have been friendly.

SN could have been an ally, or actual friend, and they’re gone, just as I was going to meet them. I’m doing my best to leap and bound from root and vine to root and vine, sandbar and stone. Whatever bit of solidity my feet can find, I do my best to dash between them, or leap and throw myself bodily from one to another.

With unbelievable luck, I make it to the angled rock. It’s like something out of a movie where a lion views its lands across a savannah, and I realize the falls are far, far deeper than I had thought. The swampy greenness disguised a cliff as a flat horizon line from as far away as I was. I don’t know how to dive safely, I don’t even know what sort of heights are survivable to dive from, but I’m pretty certain this is not one of those heights. I begin to feel my jaw tremble and breathing become shaky, as I’m a mere instant away from the next snap of the serpent. A serpent that won’t fall for me dodging between its necks again. I hope an earlier theory was correct. I call an item from my inventory, something I’m glad I’d saved enough energy to do.

Uncorking and putting a small potion bottle to my lips, I throw myself off the side of the cliff towards the pool of water below. I’m in an uncontrollable spin at first as I fall, terrified. The river lands some several hundred feet below the edge of this swampy cliff surface. I drink the potion as I fall through the air, trying not to flail my legs, remembering that I only get a single step. I hear the snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, of eight jaws clamping down where I’d just been standing as my heart skips a beat. I can’t resist turning my head and glancing at how close I’d come to death. I seem to freeze midair, still within reach of the serpent as all sixteen of its eyes hone in on mine.

Just then, I notice the beautiful spiraling color patterns in all sixteen serpentine eyes. The patterns make me want to reach back and hold Octorochi’s faces to stare into its eyes. I’m not exactly hypnotized or charmed, but they’re just so full of ethereal beauty, I could see spending my last moments alive staring into them. Gravity seems to finally catch up to us, the cliff’s edge breaks my line of sight to the serpent as Lil and I plummet downwards. Octorochi snaps again just an instant too late.

Landing on the water, I’m certain I’m going to break every last bone in my body, tear every fiber of my being, and splatter all of my organs internally. And yet, instead, it’s like all motion and force is sucked from me so that a bomb goes off in the water around me. Everything but the tiny surface area of water I’m on seems to rocket back upwards, nearly reversing the waterfall. My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as I wait, waiting for inertia to catch up with me, to tell me I’ve actually been dashed across the surface of the water and am now just paste mixing with its roiling depths. Instead, I stand there, and I stand there, and nothing happens.

The magic worked like it said it would, every last bit. Terrified that the inertia will transfer back to me as soon as I take my first step, I stay standing still for quite some time yet. I freeze while letting the entirety of the falls return to their normal speed and the pool beneath the falls seems to calm down. The serpent probably assumed what I assumed, that I had just leapt to a splattery death.

I realize I’ve been holding my breath for a bit, probably from pure terror, so I finally heave a sigh of relief. I then take a deep breath as I step forward. I step forward, forgetting about the limits of the minor water walking potion. It provides only a single impact worth of unbroken water surface tension with its magical kinetic dispersal. I immediately plummet beneath the surface of the pool. There’s startled text boxes popping up as Lil awakens to a cold, wet surprise.