TBATE - To Right My Wrongs

Chapter 3: Changes (Part 1)

Chapter 4 - Changes

Arthur Leywin

I stared at the creature in bewilderment. Giant green serpents were commonly found creatures in the beast glades, but despite their large size they weren't particularly hostile and tended to stray away from human settlements. Good thing too, as their heads alone were as big as my family's home. However, the oddest thing was how it had actually arrived here. We were separated from the beast glades by a giant cliff.

"Arthur, take your mother and leave here quickly." My father said, brandishing his gauntlets and standing in between us and the serpent. "We'll buy some time and meet up with you down the road."

I knew he was lying. Although a C rank mana beast would have been an easy fight for the twin horns in my previous life, they were currently only a D rank party consisting of light red core mages. Several D rank parties would be needed to fight a C rank monster. Even with the additional training I had given my father over the last year and the few days worth I had given the twin horns, those techniques were mostly useful against human sized enemies with the future war in mind.

Before I could respond, my father and the other twin horns rushed in. Durden, using his earth magic created three rings of earth around the body of the serpent in an attempt to lock it to the ground. Meanwhile, my father, Adam and Jasmine all began trying to strike at the creature. At the same time, Helen and Angela released arrows and spells at the creature's vulnerable areas like it's face and eyes.

The end result... was a resounding failure. The creature was left without a scratch, and easily broke out of it's restraints. Although it hadn't been injured, it rampaged and thrashed about. Durden and Angela quickly cast barriers around the party members near the base of the creature, but they were smashed through. Luckily, they had slowed the creature's attack down just enough to avoid hitting them.

After watching this interaction that couldn't have lasted more than a minute, I felt my mother's trembling hand grab mine. "Come on Art. W-we need to go." My mother looked scared, but tried to speak calmly. She tried to drag me with her down the path we had just come from, but I couldn't let that happen. Looking around, I spotted the rock formation where the bandits had fired at us in my previous life.

Grabbing my mother's hand tight, I pulled her in that direction. Here, we were up high enough that the beast wouldn't be able to reach us, but we would be placed right above the battle. I hoped this would give me a good enough vantage point to come up with a plan. 

My mother tried to reject, saying we should go back down the road we had come from but I begged her to let us stay. Eventually, she relented. I could tell she didn't want to leave them behind either.

Looking down, I analyzed the serpent. There had to be something, some kind of weakness... there! At the top of the serpent right where it's neck met it's head was the bandit leader's axe. Although it was just barely lodged there, I could see that it had damaged the protective layer of scales. If I could just get on top of it, I could likely slide my knife between the damaged scales. The problem was getting on the snake. Despite being above it, I would still have to jump down a terrifyingly long distance to land on the serpent's head, not to mention the fact that it was thrashing around and wasn't likely to stay still for too long.

Looking at my dad and the twin horns, I saw the sorry state they were already in. Adam's lance was in a poor state, missing the head and looking more like a wooden spear than a lance. His left arm fell limply to his side and appeared to have a grizzly wound right at his shoulder from the serpent's acid. Jasmine's knives were chipped and dull from all the slashing she had done, and she seemed to be covered in dirt and mud from having avoided so many attacks. My father seemed to be in the best state out of all the front-liners, but I could see the fatigue on his face growing. Those in the back all looked tired, but didn't seem to be injured.