The Melody Of Moonlight Castle

Chapter 8: Condemnation

After seeing a...manifestation of myself, I wasn't going to stand around questioning what was that that passed me.

"Kenji! Kenji!! Wake up!!" I frantically shook him back and forth in hope that he'll wake up, and possibly see what may or may not kill me and warn the others if he can escape.

"Muhhh...ghguh...w-what?" He woke up! I manage to snap him out of his unconscious state.

"I need a light! Right now! And possibly your fighting skills!" I had no time to let him wake up fully, I knew something was right next to us...

In a slightly dizzy state, Kenji casted a light from his horn.

"By Luna's power...what the hell is that thing?!!" Seeing Kenji's light illuminate the space around us, I saw what went past us. It was a snake, no a type of...large Boa Constrictor of some sort. It was almost as big as the tunnels size. "Oh no..."

"Rrrg...h-h-he..." It was Hope, she was being held in the snakes grasp...the thing was cutting off her air flow by crushing her lungs and limbs. It wouldn't take long for a snake of this size to crush her bone and break it. Jack was somehow nowhere to be seen, probably behind the snake...or worse.

"HOPE!! Let go of her! You beast!!" Without a second thought, I pushed Kenji to the side and he landed on a wooden post. I drew my axe and held it in my hoof as I got up on my hind legs and charged towards the snake, I was trying to  distract the snake and make it let go of Hope, I had at most a few seconds before Hope would either be killed or go into unconsciousness.

I swung my axe at the creature as the blade simply got lodged in the thing's thick skin, I looked up at its head as it was looking at me and hissed, it quickly charged it's sword-like fangs towards me trying to kill me, I let go of my axe as I jumped back in reflex but it was too late...its head bashed into my body as I flew back by the sheer toughness and force of its blow. I landed next to Kenji on the smooth rock floor, he wasn't doing any better as he was trying to prop himself up on the wooden post.

It...it definitely broke a rib or two...I coughed up a large amount of blood as Hope stopped gargling, she was unconscious from lack of oxygen.

I picked myself up and stood before the snake as it hissed at me once more, like it was looking down on me. Using all my strength, I started sprinting towards the thing as I managed to pull out my axe from the snake. It sprang its head towards me again, this time I jumped away to my right as it missed me completely, losing no time...I lunged for the snakes head as I plunged my axe right into the damned things eye. Blood started spraying everywhere, even on me and the roof of the tunnel. That worked...

The thing quickly let go of Hope as it started violently bashing his head against the rock walls trying to shake me off, luckily it couldn't smash me into one and it soon started going for it, it ran like hell down the tunnel and turning a right down the middle path, it was so fast I couldn't even see because Kenji's light was gone, I only knew that this snake was bolting in pain, with me riding blind rodeo on its back.

Soon it was getting brighter for some reason, and in the span of a few seconds the snake emerged out into some sort of cave, I lost my grip at this point and flew off the back of the snake, and landed on hard wood planks. After landing I could see that I landed on a form of wooden walkway, the snake was still smashing into everything it could hit, soon it smashed through a pile of wooden crates on the walkway and went straight off it. I could hear the loud "THUD" when it hit the floor after, I couldn't hear it moving anymore after that...so I assumed it had been incapacitated from the floor, and I couldn't see a way up to the walkway from here so I was safe for the time being.