Chapter 2: Chapter 2.

CP2.Towards a slithering path.

As the sun started rising in the village, behind the inn a young man clothed in a regular white shirt, brown pants and boots could be seen going through his morning streches.

'Heh heh, so far so good, form has been filled, Alice checked it and approved, since it will be our first job all thats left is to go over the details with Chief Dan one last time and we can get going. Though before that id like to check the pen in case there actually are clues as to whats happened to the animals, one thing i can already tell , its likely not bandits so it should at least be entertaining.' Thought to himself Darius while smiling.

After a few minutes of streches he was approached by the Head of the village guards coming back from the night patrol.He was dressed in his light iron armor and carrying a spear.

"OOH, if it isnt the Grit kid, quite the early bird you are , aren't you"

"Good morning, Sir Head guard its nice meeting you today" Darius responded politely

"Heh, you can drop the polite talk kid... well, guess i didnt give you my name yesterday, the name's Marcus , nice to meet ya"

Upon hearing this, an annoyed grimace appeared on his face. Not because Marcus behaved rudely or anything, Darius just didnt want all his business talk lessons to go to waste.

"well , whatever, perfect timing. I want you to take me to the farm from which the animals are disappearing if you aren't busy with anything."

" I just came back from a full night of patrol you know ... but sure , you ARE our guests for the time being at least."

And so the two men made their way towards the farm.

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While the inn was situated right next to the main entrance, the farm was on the opposite side of the village and right behind it, separated by a wooden fence about a meter tall from the village was a large forest of very tall trees. As soon as they arrived Darius started his investigation.

'hmm, there are 2 separate pens for pigs and cows , it seems its the cows that are going missing for now. There is about 3 to 4 meters distance between the forest and the pens, no tracks in that space either... well doesn't look like bandits at least guess all thats left is to check behind the fence'

And so together with Marcus they quickly jumped over it to continue the search. The forest was not too dense , there was easily enough space between the trees to freely move and run through it, crowns of the trees were really dense making the forest very dimly lit. After a moment of searching the two men found a trench rougly two meters wide and one meter deep leading deep into the forest.

"Thats... New how did we not see that before? What do you think Kid?"

Darius didn't respond , instead he looked at the path for a few second , stepped inside and took a deep breath. 'Reeks of a snake' he thought to himself, turned to Marcus and said.

"Hmm, I understand. OK! You can go back and tell Alice that its gonna be a "B" rank this time. I am off then." He said and started following the trench deeper into the woods.

"HEY WAIT! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU UNDERSTAND?" Marcus shouted angrily.

"... Taking care of the taks your village requested, that was the deal no???"

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET SOMEONE FROM YOUR ORGANISATION TO DO IT! WHO WOULD AGREE TO SEND A KID ON SUCH A MISSION?!"

"... OH! NOO!, no, no, no, no. From the beggining it was supposed to be just me, we just started this organisation its just me and Alice right now, besides it will be faster to do it myself right now."

When Darius finished replying Marcus quickly rushed towards him and grabbed his arm.

"LIKE HELL IT IS! YOU AREN'T EVEN WEARING ANY ARMOR! We are going back to break the contract off. I am NOT letting a kid get killed protecting MY village" He said with a serious expression on his face and tried to drag darius off by the hand yet the soldier couldn't move him even an inch.

"... I see , I think you have the wrong idea her , first of all, i am not a kid, second of all , I. am the stronger one here. Look I get it you are frustrated you can't do anything even though its your job to protect the settlement, but look this is MY job this is MY dream and I decide wheter I will be putting my life on the line or not, if you understand then LET GO!" Slightly irritated darius said and snapped his hand away from Marcus.

Marcus could tell from the look in his eyes that he was neither joking nor would he let this go

"... OK FINE... BUT! I am coming with you, wheter you like it or not!"

"Heh heh , thats what I like to hear, maybe you will learn a thing or two about this world while we are at it."

Said Darius now with a happy smirk on his face. And so the two men ventured deeper into the woods towards the culprit of this case.

 

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"Hey , so. What did you mean by saying you understand? You mean you know who took our cows?"

Marcus asked during their walk inside the forest.

"mhmm, Pretty sure at least, We should be dealing with a naga if I am not mistaken."

"Naga?that some bandit group?

"Far from it. A giant snake largest spotted one was about 6 meters long. Though this one seems to be bigger."

"WAIT SO ITS A MONSTER?! Thats bad , we need to alarm the village and-"

"ITS FINE! Nagas only go out of their nest to feed and only during night, besides it seems to have found an easy feeding ground  without the need to fight, otherwise your whole village would have been destroyed by now." Darius reassured Marcus who was getting increasingly more panicked

"mhm, ok I understand , I am calm now... but how ... the cows aren't some small animals how did it do it?"

"Thats why i said this one is probably bigger, it needed to carry it's own body over the fence, stretch it over the gap between the pen and the fence, swiftly pick up the cow  and withdraw it back behind the fence, judging by that and the depth and width of the trench it left behind id say it's at least fifteen meters long and four meters in diameter." This statement though seemed to only increase Marcuses worries instead.

"ITS MASSIVE THEN!"

Their conversation continued untill finally the two reached the destination , a big deep hole in the ground to with the trench led, the nagas nest, Inside it was complete darkness. The men stood next to eachother in front of the entrance and readied for combat, Darius again took a deep breath and became alerted instantly.

"FUCK , its out-"

Before he could finish a tail slam came from behind targetting Marcus, fortunately Darius managed ot push Marcus to the side.

'Damn it's fast, didn't expect that, couldn't retract my arm in time.' Darius thought to himself after taking a quick glance at his now missing arm.

"KID!-"

"STAY FOCUSED! KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE MONSTER!"

Naga was swiftly coiling inbetween trees waiting for the right moment to strike. Both of them now standing back to back watching its movements.

'Normally they are't that fast nor that strong , guess i underestimated the power that comes from its size, nevertheless this is fine still, the next attack should be enough to finish it. Snakes swallow their pray whole , same applies to nagas its next attack should be with its mouth, i'll kill it when it gets close'

Then moments later it lashed towards Marcus but he couldn't react, his eyes closed out of fear as he braced himself waiting for the impact , and waited , and waited , and waited ... nothing so the man opened eyes and before him laid the giant snakes caved in head and atop it stood Darius smirking "heh heh , told you 's going to be fine"

"LIKE HELL IT IS! HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR ARM?!" Shouted Marcus angry at his saviours dismissive behaviour

"It's fine arms regrow, we should take this corpse back to the village and tell them we cleared the request." 

"LIKE HELL THEY DO! ..." Marcus lowered his head and clenched his fists.

"I'll take this corpse to the village. For now grab my arm and lets head back"

Marcus was confused 'why would he want me to grab his arm NOW? Does he want me to feel his muscles?' he thought to himself.

"... I meant the one that giant bastard lopped off , i can't leave it here"  

And so Darius grabbed the nagas corpse , Marcus grabbed his missing arm and both of them headed back to the village.

 

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