Chapter 126: A Prey gets Away

'Are you alright over there Josh?' Henry asked through the mental link as he continued to buff up different members of the group as they did everything they could to take the bobcats down and out of the sky. 'We've got one of the bobcats out for commission on our side of things, but I can tell whatever your fighting over there is more dangerous.'

'You guys can't even tell what it is?' Joshua asked with a bit of surprise as he noticed the snake was changing its positioning so that its injury was hidden away by the rest of its body. Joshua wanted to go on the attack some more, but the snake's tail kept getting in the way whenever he tried to go in for a strike and he didn't want anything to do with the snake's venomous fangs that it kept trying to bite him with.

'From our angle it looks like you're fighting something that's invisible. The only reason we know something is actually there is because of all of the crashing and dirt clouds that keep popping up.' Laura responded through the mental link. 'I think I might have seen some scales for a brief moment but that's it.'

Joshua just sighed at that as he quickly dodged another swipe by the snake's tail that quickly vanished soon after it passed overhead. He knew that he couldn't stay still or else he'd likely be in for another attack so he kept running to the side away from where the trail in the grass being made by the snake was going. 'It's a snake that can turn itself invisible. The only time I'm ever able to see it is when it is attacking.'

'Need help?' Adrian chimed in.

'It would be appreciated. I'll try to hold it off until you guys take down all of the bobcats, but if Isabella could try to lower the temperature in my area it would be helpful. Anything to slow down this monster.' Joshua said as he slashed across another random portion of the snake's body with his scale blade to create another injury. The beast was getting good at hiding any of the previous injuries that Joshua had made with the rest of its body and since it had decent regenerative capabilities the wounds Joshua was creating were healing up before he could find them once more.

'I'm on it. Just give me a moment to cast the spell.' Isabella replied. She stopped sending ice spears in the direction of the bobcats and focused on creating a dense haze that spread out in the direction of where Joshua was fighting. Normally Joshua wouldn't want to fight in an environment that somewhat hindered his vision, but since the snake could turn invisible anyways it wasn't such a problem. Joshua could hear the snake hiss in annoyance from the sudden cold, but it didn't try to rush away and instead lashed out at Joshua once more with its tail.

Joshua leaped out of the way before using blink the moment he landed as the snake's head lunged for the spot he was going to be at after leaping. Frowning a bit at the fact that he was forced to use his blink ability once again Joshua took advantage of the snake's head being visible to send a couple of energy slashes its way while running up to its side and leaving another deep cut. The energy slashes were easily shrugged off as nothing much more than an annoyance in the snake's eyes, but it did keep the creature visible long enough for Joshua to get in a few quick strikes on the snake's body. It hissed in pain when Joshua was able to release an aura blast inside one of the cuts that he had made on the snake causing the area of damage to widen and deepen.

Quickly backing off from the wound he created Joshua moved out of the way right on time as the snake's tail swiped down at his previous location before its body started turning invisible once more. Even so Joshua knew that the wound he had just created would last a lot longer than any of the previous ones and he needed to keep up the pressure unless he wanted the snake to just heal back to perfect condition. Although Joshua didn't expect to be able to easily take down the snake on his own he was hoping to damage it enough so that when the rest of his group was ready to come over and help him out there would already be some progress.

As the large snake's body turned invisible Joshua already noticed the fact that its movements were starting to stiffen up from the cold just based off of how rigid its muscles were moving. Its tail strike and ability to lunge were still exceptionally fast, but its regular movements were becoming slower which was a good thing in Joshua's mind. The slower it moved the easier it would be able to hit even if they had trouble trying to spot it out.

The other thing Joshua noticed was the fact that along with the haze that Isabella was creating some snow started falling in the area of their battlefield. Isabella was bringing out all the stops and even though the snow seemed like something that would just help cool down the temperature even more it had another benefit that brought a smile to Joshua's face. Even though the snake was able to turn invisible it wasn't able to turn things that were on its body invisible at the same time.

The snow was already starting to land on the giant snake and it looked as if it was stuck in the air, but Joshua could tell that it was piling up on top of the snake's body rather quickly which made it much easier to keep track of the snake's movements. Relying on looking at the grass only gave Joshua a sense of where it was moving to and the direction it was going. It didn't give Joshua a since of how it was moving like the snow piling up on its body was able to do. Being able to see snow float up into the air told Joshua that either the head of the snake was moving up or its tail. It was easy to figure out which by the amount of snow that was piled up on top.

While Joshua dodged another tail swipe and blocked one of the fangs of the snake as it tried press him into the ground and swallow him whole, he felt another surge of experience which told him another one of the bobcats had been put down. The group was working fast at taking down the bobcats and since they were used to taking on such creatures at this point it became easier for them to handle the bobcats especially when they seemed desperate for food. Joshua turned his attention back to the giant snake head in front of him that he was holding off as he knocked it to the side with a sword smash. He followed that up by slashing across the bottom of its head causing the snake to back away as it shook its head trying the knock of the snow that was piling up.

Joshua frowned at the fact that the snake had already realized that the snow was the reason he was able to spot it out so easily, but he wasn't simply frowning because it had figured his strategy out. He was annoyed because the snake was no longer madly diving in to attack him anymore and seemed more standoffish as it turned invisible and started relying mostly on its tail to attack him. It wouldn't lower its head down anymore to Joshua's level so it was impossible for Joshua to go for a blow that would actually do fatal damage to the creature. It didn't matter how much Joshua cut into the rest of the creature's body, if he didn't cut its head off then it could always just heal from all of the injuries he was giving it.

The next problem Joshua figured out about the situation was the fact that the snake seemed to be on the verge of escaping. It was a smart beast, much smarter than any of the other ones Joshua had fought in the prairie thus far. Its sudden urgency on planning out a way to escape from its current situation told Joshua a lot about its method of thinking before starting this fight. It likely wanted to take his group by surprise while they were busy fighting the bobcats and it was hoping to gain a few snacks that it could take away while the rest of the group was stuck trying to fend of the desperate cats.

Going in with that kind of mentality made it even more likely that the snake was now thinking of how best to get away from Joshua rather than how to fight him. The only plan Joshua could think of to take down the snake would be to go for an attack that could kill it in one strike. That's how the owl was able to take it down so easily in the first place. Its talons were sharp enough to pierce through its scales and long enough to go deep enough to do fatal damage. Joshua's scale blade coated in aura could pierce and slash through the snake's scales but it wasn't long enough to do fatal damage to it.

The snake seemed to realize this fact as well since it allowed Joshua to hit it on several occasions, but it didn't seem to panic at all. Instead the moment it looked like the rest of the group was going to be able to join the fight it started to get nervous. All of Lilly's beast companions that were out and fighting the last remaining bobcat had the capability of killing the snake if given the opportunity. Tank could simply go the route of either smashing its head in with his size and weight or ripping its head off with his powerful jaws. Cider could freeze the snake's body to the point where it would have trouble moving giving her the opportunity to spear its head with her powerful legs. Titus could go the rampaging gorilla route and pulverize its head or use his vines to hold it down and give the others an opportunity to end it.

Joshua frowned as the snake stopped attacking him and seemed to be looking over to the rest of his group. He felt another surge of experience which told him that the final bobcat had been taken down and the snake had noticed that fact. Before the rest of the group could come over and help Joshua out the snake let out a loud hiss causing its head to turn visible. It tilted its head up for a moment as its mouth opened wide then it turned downwards as a large amount of dark green mist poured out of its mouth. The way the grass died on contact was more than enough for Joshua to know to get out of the way as he blinked away.

The rest of the group made their way over as Henry created a gust of wind to blow away the cloud of poison that the snake had created. When the poison was gone there was no snake left there visibly or otherwise. Instead there was just a large hole that burrowed into the ground.