The giant snake hurdled towards the woods as the hunting squad desperately tries to continuously stab the snake's flesh, with each blood flowing, the snake let out a deafening hiss that shook the ground with its soundwave. Yulia who heard the loud hissing sound felt as if an earthquake just happened beneath her feets, it was a terrifying sight.
"WATCH OUT!" Said one of the man in the hunting squad, he noticed the giant snake rotating, trying to bury all of them to the ground and crush their body.
Upon realizing that its scales had been pierced through, the snake frantically shook its body as it slithered towards Yulia who was about to enter the woods, hiding behind the trees.
At the last moment, the swamp king snake lunged its head forward, opening its grotesque jaw infront of Yulia and a couple of other people that was unfortunately on the scene.
BOOM!
The snake's head shattered the tree that was standing in its path, while injuring itself by doing so as its nose began to bleed. The tree's impact slowed the snake's lunge velocity, it barely missed Yulia by a few meters, she and the others kept running deep into the forest, never turning back and eventually met with the village chief again.
HIISS!!
The snake, knowing that its prey had escaped, became even more enrage, its head turned towards the hunting squad who's been continously stabbing it, marking them as the reason for losing its food.
When the snake's eyes met with one of the hunting squad men, the hunting squad leader instantly pulled his sword from the snake's scales.
"GET OFF!" He screamed in panic.
Hearing their leader's order, the other member quickly pulled their swords aswell and dashed backwards.
The snake swayed its tail and created a massive wind that destroyed the rest of the houses that was still standing in the village, the hunting squad resisted the wind as they held firm to the ground, covering their eyes so that the dusts won't disrupt their vision.
The scene lasted for less than a second, they all moved their hand down to see what's infront of them, the leader froze in his place as he saw the snake's tail coming from the dusts, hitting him right in his chest.
The impact made him flew, his back destroyed numerous trees behind him before stopping at another tree due to his speed being significantly reduced by the previous trees.
"CAPTAIN!" The other hunting squad called their leader, they didn't have time to see his condition as they still have the giant snake infront of them, but when they were about to fight it again, the snake suddenly turned back and ran away.
It slithered through the woods, moving between the trees in a zig-zag pattern that made the hunting squad confused as to where it was going, before they knew it, the snake was already out of their vision.
"Where did it go!?" One of them asked.
"It must be because of its injuries, that bastard knew he'll keep getting stabbed if it tries to fight all of us, so it ran away insted of dying slowly." Another one replied as he wiped the saliva in his mouth.
"Ah! CHECK ON CAPTAIN!" Another one said, prompting all of the hunting squad to turn around and run towards their leader.
.
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Meanwhile, inside the woods—
Yulia and the other villagers was hiding inside of a small cave, they found it after a few minutes of searching and constant running, just in time since many of the villagers had run out of stamina to move any further at that point.
"We should be safe here, if the hunting squad wins, they'll be able to find us by our smell." Said a man that looks to be in his 50's.
"Chief, what if that monster can also smell us?" One of the people inside asked the chief.
"You don't need to worry– That monster doesn't have enough energy to chase us down, not after being injured by our hunting squad, if we're lucky, they might even kill it." The chief responded, calming everyone in the cave, but they couldn't help but still have some lingering fear of the worst.
The villagers waited for an hour, helping each other to keep quiet, especially for the babies inside the cave who keeps crying, they take turns calming them down, giving them comfort and warmth. When suddenly, a footstep sound was heard from the outside, everyone quickly assumed it was the hunting squad and was relieved.
As the footsteps grow louder, it became clearer that there wasn't just one person outside but rather multiple, the village chief went out to check and his face couldn't be any more happier when he saw the hunting squad approaching. They smelled the scent of their people and was able to spot this cave.
"Everyone.. You're safe.." Said the chief, he noticed the leader's critical condition and immediately told all of them to go inside.
Yulia on the other hand, was being quiet throughout the waiting time, she sat down and leaned behind the cave walls, thinking about the encounter with the snake, she was almost eaten so it's normal to not be able to act properly after such incident.
'What was that.. I wonder..' She thought, remembering the moment where the snake lunged its head towards her. 'At that time, i feel energized– As if all of my fatigue just disappeared for a few seconds..'
Yulia couldn't exactly tell what she felt that time, but she was sure that it had affected her body in one way or another. For now, all she want is to go back to her home and sleep.
In the end, 21 people in the village died due to the snake's rampage, most of which are childrens and the olds that were inside their houses at the time of the incident. Out of everyone that survived, 4 of them managed to awaken their mana, all of them was the one that barely avoids death, the one that accepted their death was coming but managed to avoid it through either luck or perseverance. One of them was Yulia.
.
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After that incident, Yulia finally had a taste of the outside world, she realized from that day that the world was way more dangerous than she thinks. At first she thought she can get stronger by learning magic, but she almost had zero knowledge in it, and there are no one in the village that knows how to wield it as they've never had any mages in their village before.
The chief suggested Yulia to go to a human town, but she was scared that she might encounter with another monsters similar to that giant snake, so she stayed in the village until on the fateful day where she met with Hargal.
.
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"Haha, sure. You can explore the world, however that is if you can prove to your mom that you are ready." She said to Syla before leaving the room.
Syla thought about her mother's response for a few seconds, wondering what she meant by being ready.
'Hmm.. Is there something bothering her with me wanting to explore the world? Well, i guess it's normal? Any parents wouldn't want their child to get caught in a bad situation while they're alone.. She must be saying that i need to get stronger first, atleast to the point where i can defend myself incase something happened.' Syla thought, her eyes can barely open after the long day, and she fell asleep soon after.