Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 11 - Do NOT go in there

“DON’T LOOK INTO ITS EYES.”

One of the men standing in front of him exploded, presumably because he looked into the Basilisk’s eyes.

Now splattered with blood and gore, Mason scowled, saying, “Dude, what did I just say!”

Mayry smacked his arm, chiding him. “Concentrate! What does the description say?”

He relayed the system’s message to her, and as he did, some of the hunters advanced toward the monster, avoiding eye contact.

Mayry paused and asked Mason, “Do you have any points left to spend?”

He quickly checked his menu and replied, “Yeah, just 1 I was saving.”

“Doubt it’ll do much, but put it in whatever stat will boost your Magic Bolt, and aim for its eyes.” She said confidently, as if this was the best plan ever.

Mason, however, disagreed. “How the heck do I aim for its eyes without looking at them?!”

“I don’t know!” She retorted. “Do you have a better plan?!”

As they argued, the fight had progressed. A Hunter wearing nothing but a loin cloth had transformed into a large wolf and was running back and forth incredibly quickly, using its claws to swipe at the snake’s body, but while it look like it could easily take down an elephant, its attacks seemed to of have little effect on the scales of the monster.

A second hunter got up as close as possible to the snake and punched it, creating loud booming noises as his fists impacted the snake. The snake opened its massive jaws and bit into the man, swallowing him from his head to his waist, leaving his legs to drop to the floor.

A loud SQUISH could be heard every so often as another of the town’s defenders looked into the snake’s eyes, exploding for their trouble.

Another hunter walked slowly forward. Black smoke that moved through the air like liquid darkness swirled around him as he advanced. As he approached the giant snake, he threw his hand forward, and the smoke flew towards its head, becoming more visceral as it landed, sticking to its eyes.

In reaction, the snake thrashed its body around, narrowly missing crushing the smoke manipulator who had managed to dodge out of the way at the last second.

Seeing this all play out in the space of a couple of seconds, Mason looked at Mayry, who was still ranting at him and said, “I think I might have a plan. Can you make the hunters do as you say?”

“Yeah, I think so…. Maybe? Most of them will know who I am, at least, but hunters can be difficult.” She replied, unsure.

Hesitating, Mason replied, “Okay, fine, see if you can get them to….”

Mason thought his plan was pretty good. Was it batshit insane? Yeah. Would it end up with most of the people involved dead? Yeah, probably. But it was currently the best plan they had, so fuck it.

Mayry had just been talking to the wolf man and had sent him back to town to find what they needed for the plan. She was now speaking to the smoke manipulator, trying to convince him to withdraw and wait until he was needed. The hunter seemed to be considering listening to her, which was a good sign.

While this was happening, Mason watched the snake being pelted by hundreds of arrows while other hunters attacked in other ways, none of which seemed to be working. Having convinced the smoke manipulator to go along with the plan, Mayry jumped into the fight, attacking the snake furiously.

She threw fireballs, shot ice spikes and tried to limit its movement by creating pillars of rock on either side of it. The fireballs seemed just to annoy it, the ice spikes shattered on impact, but the pillars seemed to slow it down a tad, as it took the time to throw its weight against them to knock them down.

Mason himself was shooting Magic Bolts, aiming at the underside of the snake where the scales seemed weaker. His bolts were far too weak to have much effect, but this prompted the other hunters to aim there too.

There was a hunter shooting lightning, one lobbing what looked like lava and another who was levitating huge boulders high up into the air and then dropping them on the Basilisk’s head. Out of all the hunters present, these three were the ones that seemed to be doing the most damage. Though even the damage they were managing wasn’t anywhere near enough to kill the thing.

While the snake couldn’t use its eye, its raw strength, size and speed were enough to kill another dozen hunters before the wolf man made it back. His part now done, he moved back into the fight, attempting to find a weak spot on the snake where its claws might be able to do damage.

Mason put the item the wolf had brought from the town into his inventory.

Looking over to the smoke manipulator, he beckoned him over. Asking, “How long does it take to dismiss your smoke?

“A couple seconds, more if it’s far away.” He replied, eager to get back to the fight.”

“Ok, dismiss the smoke around the snake’s eyes when I give the sign,” Mason said, trying to sound confident when he was scared shitless.

Mason turned to run towards the snake, wondering if he looked like an action hero running into danger, but before he got more than a few steps, the smoke manipulator shouted, “Wait, hold on, what’s the signal?”

Mason stopped and turned to face the man, giving him an annoyed look for ruining his cool exit. “What? I don’t know. I’ll probably just shout ’Now!’ or something.”

“Ah, right, got it!” the man replied sheepishly, seeing the look Mason gave him.

Mason turned once again and ran towards the creature.

Mayry watched the awkward exchange between the two men, internally cringing.

As Mason started to run towards the rampaging Basilisk, she followed him. Her job was to keep it distracted right up until the last moment.

She shot fireball after fireball at the thing’s face until it turned to face her, its tongue flicking out, trying to find its attacker.

As she was distracting the giant snake, Mason got into position. He was standing directly in front of where the snake’s head had been before she had distracted it. She saw a glint of light as he withdrew the full-body mirror the wolf had gotten from the town, probably taken from an Inn or tailor’s shop.

The snake moved incredibly quickly for something of its size; it snapped its jaws down inches from Mayrys face missing only as Mayry had stumbled back, tripping over a body. Laying there, she thought she was done for as the snake positioned itself for another attack until she heard Mason start shouting at the snake, making it pause.

“Oi you, you overgrown worm, looks like someone skipped leg day! You're nothing but an overgrown garden hose with a bad attitude!”

Maybe the basilisk had more sapience than she had thought because, for some inexplicable reason, the snake started to turn from her toward Mason’s voice.

As it turned, Mason shouted, “Now!”

As the snake was now facing away from her, she couldn’t see it happen, but presumably, the smoke around the snake’s eyes disappeared. Finally having its greatest weapon unhindered, the snake opened its eyes and stared right at the spot it thought the person shouting nonsense at it would be.

She heard Mason shout something along the lines of, “UNO REVERSE CARD, BITCH.”

He really was insane.

“Shit shit shit shit.” These were the words Mason managed to get out as he ran away from the thrashing snake whose eyes were now free to explode people again.

SQUISH

SQUISH

People were getting desperate, not being as cautious as they attacked the snake. Mason had a sneaking suspicion that it was toying with them. It wasn’t actively trying to kill them all, more using its eyes to kill them one by one, enjoying flaunting how much stronger and better it was than all of them.

His plan hadn’t worked. The giant bastard had looked into the mirror, stared at itself for a moment, and then smashed the mirror by using its head to smack it and Mason, behind it, sent them flying through the air.

Seeing his plan had failed, the remaining hunters resumed their attack, allowing Mason to escape the snake’s wrath.

Making it back to Mayry. She hugged him, which he found very surprising given that he was covered in blood and that he thought she didn’t like him much.

He hugged her back for a second before gently pushing her away. He looked into her eyes and said, “I have another plan. But it’s a really, really bad one.”

“It can’t be worse than the last one.” she hesitated, then added, “Can it?“

Mason smiled and said, “It’s probably better I don’t tell you.”

With that, Mason ran once again towards the snake. This time it saw him coming and moved to slam its body into him. He dodged and waited for its next attack.

Trying again, this time, it opened its jaws wide and went to bite him. As it had done with an earlier victim, it tried to bite down on Mason’s body, attempting to bite him in half. With timing that surprised even him, as the snake closed its jaws around him, he jumped, forcing the snake to swallow him whole.

Usually, swallowing someone Mason’s size would be no problem for the monster. It had no doubt consumed foes far larger than a mere man. What did concern the monster was the sharp stab of pain it felt as it forced the human into its body.

Mason had wiggled his way into the snake’s throat, allowing himself to be pulled further in. He could feel himself being squeezed tightly on all sides, entirely encompassed by the snake’s intestines. While he couldn’t move, what he could do was access his inventory. He summoned his Drake's tooth dagger into his hand and allowed the snake’s body to do all the work, forcing the extraordinarily sharp blade now piercing its flesh deeper and deeper.

He felt the snake start thrashing around, fighting against a foe it couldn’t see nor defend against. The snake moving so erratically ended up being its downfall as it allowed the dagger to pierce more flesh than it would have if the snake had stayed still.

It was slow work, but after a long while of being squeezed continuously, the thrashing stopped, and the pressure eased. He found, bit by bit, he could move. Taking advantage of this newfound freedom, he slashed with the dagger attempting to reach the mouth and, hopefully, his exit.

As the snake stopped moving entirely heard the *DING* of a notification.

Notification 1/3

You have slain – Monster - Level 43 Kethulhu Basilisk

You have received a share of 430 XP.

For your contribution, you have received 330 XP

Level up!

Level up!

Seeing the Monster was dead and that he had levelled up, he closed the notifications to look at it later. The first thing he did was loot the corpse. He didn’t bother checking what he had gotten just yet as he was beginning to get quite claustrophobic.

Now that the snake was dead, the scales on its body were no longer as tough, so he slashed through them, emerging from the Basilisk’s innards and plopping down to the floor. As he emerged, he saw several people gathered around him.

He managed to choke out, “Do NOT go in there.” Waving his hand passed his face as if something smelled bad. Seeing no one had gotten the joke, he sighed and passed out.