An Unexpected Variable

"Boom!"

Roland turned around and looked into the distance. A cloud of dust and smoke had suddenly appeared, rising into the air. A few other small explosions followed, covering a part of the sky. Soon after, the wind dispersed the dust, but Roland was still staring at where the explosion came from.

Twice as high as the trees, stood a large, scaly creature. Its scales were as red as the fire burning around it, and two long tongues slithered in and out of its two mouths.

'Is that... a snake?'

Indeed, for that was what it was. It was many times its normal size, not to mention the fact that it had two heads.

Roland looked at the giant fangs on the creature and shuddered in fear. Those things could tear him apart if he were still human.

Suddenly, both of the heads opened their jaws wide. Just as Roland wondered what they were trying to do, bright green acid started to come out from the tips of both fangs. It spread in mid-air, turning into a mist that landed on the trees nearby. The two heads tilted left and right, spraying acid over the whole forest.

Everything wilted, the leaves turned brown, the grass began to turn grey, and the bark on the trees started to rot.

[Unexpected Variable Detected]

[Updating Quest Parameters]

"Ding!"

[Quest Updated]

...

[Quest: Save The Forest]

[Completion Rate: 3/100%]

[Contribution: 1%]

[Minimum requirements for completion:]

[Contribution reaches at least 15%]

[Forest fire is put out]

[Flame Scaled Two-Headed Snake is Defeated]

[Rewards:]

[200 SP]

[Any choice of water element skill from the shop with a price below 1000 SP]

[Bonus: 300 SP+ a new skill]

Roland looked back and forth from the screen to the snake. The new rewards sounded nice, but he wasn't sure if it was worth it.

'The Flame Scaled Two-Headed Snake must mean the big guy over there,' he thought, looking into the distance at the creature. He doubted that he would be strong enough to defeat it. Still, would it notice him if he went over there? He was a rock, and although his body contained a lot of mana, the fire would probably make him hard to notice, right? He weighed the risks and the rewards and quickly decided to go over there. If he needed to run, it wouldn't be able to stop him anyway. He could tell it wasn't a creature built for speed, so if he ran, it shouldn't be able to catch up to him.

Without further ado, Roland flew in the direction of the Two-Headed Snake.

...

A few minutes later, Roland had almost arrived at the scene. Turning on his spirit sense, he looked at what was happening.

Three groups of people were now surrounding the giant snake. Most of them had water-related abilities, Roland could tell just by looking at what they did. Some shot out streams of water from their hands, others made giant orbs of them that looked similar to his skill, water orb. A few others had ice-related abilities. He assumed they were the people that came to put out the fire. However, not all of them used water magic. There were 20-30 of them in total, and ten of them used different spells from the others. While everyone else used a water-related spell, those ten used a different element. Amongst them, three used fire, two used some kind of earth element, three used ice, one used lightning, and the last person used something he couldn't tell from a distance.

From what he could see, Roland knew that they were prepared for the snake to appear. Well, as prepared as they could be when they didn't know what they were facing. There were mages of all types here, including some people that engaged in close combat with the beast. Roland was dazzled by the large array of spells they used. Fireballs, spears made of ice, lightning bolts, and many other spells rained down upon the snake, though most of them were of the water element.

Not to be outdone, the snake's two heads hissed loudly and started to form a spell.

Opening its mouth wide, one of the heads created a giant, blue mass of fire. The other head did the same but created a red fire instead. Then, the two heads moved towards each other, and the two fireballs in front of them combined, forming a small ball of golden fire. All of this happened before any of the spells could hit the snake. Then, both of the heads roared, and the fireball exploded.

"Booooommmm!"

Smaller balls of flame broke off of the original mess, creating smaller explosions nearby. Most of the spells made by the people dispersed, and the ones that made contact did not deal any damage.

'So that's what caused the explosion from earlier!' Roland thought in horrified fascination. If the snake did a few more of those, half the forest would be gone. After thinking that, his mind wandered off in different directions.

'Isn't blue plus red supposed to make purple?' he thought. He wasn't a child, and he knew what the color wheel was. That just didn't make any sense. But then he looked around him. Did any of this make sense? Magic wasn't supposed to exist anyways, so many things that used to be impossible were probably possible in this world.

He shook his head and turned to look at the battle.

After releasing the giant attack, the snake needed time to recharge. That one attack drained a lot of its energy, and both of its heads drooped a bit in exhaustion.

The rest of the dust cleared, and Roland saw the scattered members of the three teams. Many were badly injured, a missing arm or hand could be seen, and almost half of the group was out of commission, either due to serious burns, or a missing limb.

Roland adverted his eyes from the scene. He was starting to feel nauseous. It wasn't that he had never seen blood, it was just that the scene was beyond his level of tolerance.

[Are you going to help?]

Roland looked at the message blankly. He thought about his actions again. Why wasn't he helping? If they died, he wouldn't be able to complete the quest, he didn't have enough firepower. He would just stay in the back and use some spells, there was no risk to his safety right now.

He turned around. The members of the teams were regrouping, even those with a missing arm tried to stand up and help. Their teammates refused their help, telling them to lie on the ground and take a breather. The rest of the team turned to face the Two-Headed Snake. He looked at the people, standing up even in the face of danger. Why wasn't he helping? All he had done so far was just stand there, watching. What was he still waiting for? He stopped hesitating and quickly flew towards the snake.

After the attack, it had just stood there, watching. Now, it started to make its move. Raising its tail into the air, it viciously swung it towards the people standing on the ground.

...

"Eric! We need a barrier!" A person yelled.

"I know that!" he replied.

Eric was an earth mage, specialized in making defenses. He had been a C-rank for just a few months and was already a third circle magician. Many people said that he had great talent. Stopping himself from becoming distracted, he focused on the spell. He quickly muttered a chant and raised a wall of earth in front of them.

However, compared to the snake, the scale of the defenses was tiny.

"Smash!"

Without a hitch, the barrier was destroyed by the snake's tail, and it continued towards them.

Desperately, Eric tried to set up another barrier, but it was too late. A shadow was being cast over him as the snake blocked the light. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for his demise.

"Thud!"

Eric opened one eyelid.

'Huh?' The snake's tail was blocked by a bright pink barrier. No matter how much force the snake exerted, its efforts were blocked by the wall.

'Whew,' he thought in relief.

"Crack!" Suddenly, the barrier started to crack.

"Get out of the way!" he yelled, but everyone else was already moving to dodge.

"Shatter!"

The barrier broke, and the snake dug a giant hole right in the ground where its tail struck. Luckily, no one was hurt. There were no leg injuries, so even those that were injured could get out of the way.

"That was close," Eric muttered under his breath. He looked up at the snake that loomed over them. He then looked at the burning forest. Someone had come to help, but could they beat the Two-Headed Snake? They didn't have much time, since the forest would be gone soon if they didn't do anything.