The Serpent King

It was a clear day but yet the minds of the people were not clear yet. They were worried for their turn to come. Right now, Rucas was taking the dagger given to him by a knight on a red coloured cushion. This dagger was the only weapon given to fight with the serpent king. Rucas entered the room and with a loud bang the shutter of the room's opening closed.

On the projected screen, he was visible but not very clearly. Rucas was looking at the big serpent king who twisted in itself and was sleeping. His legs were shaking making him look petrified. Within a few minutes, in the projection people could see that Rucas had started moving as he was looking for something. He tried to sneak behind the serpent king, and he aimed to get behind the serpent to find the lever that he had to pull. It was not visible in the screen but suddenly chilling screams started coming out from behind the room. Everyone tried to focus on the screen as to find out what was happening that he started screaming. They saw that Rucas had awoken the Serpent King and was not being attacked by it. He was jumping left and right but the serpent despite being large in size was much faster them him. Rucas was screaming with his mouth open and was trying to slash the skin of the serpent, but it seemed as if he was only attacking the air as there was not even a scratch.

*SCREECHH*

Followed by the sound, everyone saw that the serpent had sprayed poison from its fang. Rucas was covered in the purple coloured semi-fluid liquid, he had a terrified look on him like he wanted to scream to diminish his pain but he could scream as the poison had already filled up his throat. His skin started melting with the drip flowing down onto the ground. It was really gruesome to even watch on the projection. Damark turned his head towards Woer the king. As he has heard the word "entertainment" a lot of times, just what kind of person would enjoy watching someone die so miserably. Woer had a smile on his face and not just a normal smile but rather a vicious smile. He looked as if he was enjoying the melting of the skin drop by drop.

Damark shook his head and understood that this was going to be hard. He might have to suffer a lot. But this time at least he was prepared for the upcoming.

The projection screen was absorbed back into the glass sphere, as the participant was already dead. All the criminal participants were trembling in fear, they had they widely opened eyes turned down. They didn't want to see their mate dying but now they didn't know whose turn was next, and whose death warrant was coming. They didn't want to face it but they were forced to face it.

The man on the earthen pillar shouted again, "Next participants come up, Trevor Fundel!!"

Trevor was a man with an average build, he was involved in a four-man robbery but was caught by the patrolling guard. He didn't expect things to turn out this way. But there was no escape. He stepped front trembling and took the dagger. He didn't want to enter the room and was looking into the darkness with grief and fear. Rufendel kicked him on his back and shouted, "Enter the room, don't waste the time." The shutter closed and the screen was again projected. The events carried on just like last time but this time Trevor walked to the corner and just sat down in fear. He didn't want to fight a monster much less a serpent king. But with passing time, it was like the size of the serpent was growing no one knew why? But it grew so large that the room's ceiling was getting impacted by his size. It opened its eye and swallowed Trevor as a whole like he was a candy for him. After swallowing Trevor, the serpent grew back to its original size by radiating a light. It was really unknown to most of the people but the knight maybe knew this that's why they didn't say anything about time limit.

Participant after participant died, now there were less than 200 criminals left. Damark thought, "Maybe the whole reason for entertainment was to kill everyone but by giving them a chance." It was then that the man on the pillar again gathered everyone's attention and said, "Next participant Arvin, come forward!!"

So his turn had finally come. He stepped forward and walked toward the room. Rufendel was holding the plate in which the dagger was given. He smirked and Damark and said, "Go enjoy your death you brat!"

Damark wanted to grab him and beat him right now but it was not possible. He snorted and took the dagger.

He had a much greater problem right now. From the beginning of the trials, he had been wondering how he could survive the Serpent King. It seemed like he had come to some conclusions after watching so many deaths and tries, "I would have to avoid provoking the Serpent King before it gets to late. And I have to make sure that I avoid any wastage of energy in fighting the serpent." He walked inside the room.

*BANG*

The shutter closed but as soon as the room was closed, a few lights had blown up which were present on the wall. It was not very well lit but at least you could see the serpent. It was approximately 35-40 feet in height and it was so wide that it had almost covered the whole big room. Currently, it's eyes were shut but he had a big green coloured crystal present on his forehead. It was constantly getting lit up and down. Damark knew he had very little time, so he quickly started looking for the levers in the room.

As per his vision he had located three of the levers, one was present on the right of the room, one on the left and the third one was on the very top of the room. He didn't know how he was supposed to pull the lever on the ceiling without waking up the serpent. But he wasn't able to locate the fourth lever, as it was nowhere to be seen. He started sneaking towards the right most lever, maintaining a steady movement with minimal sound. It seemed like this serpent didn't have the perception of the environment like snakes do. Otherwise it should have already detected Damark's presence. It was a lever made up of metal, a thought flashed in his mind, "when I will pull this lever… will it make a sound??? If yes then wouldn't it wake up the serpent?"

He had thought that the lever must be made up of wood to minimise the sound but he was right that they had made it with metal so that everyone makes a sound and then they are killed by the serpent.

"I should be prepared for what is about to come."

But then he felted inside his body that he was more familiar with a sword than a dagger. "Oh no, Arvin had trained with a sword for so many years and now I don't even know how to use a dagger.. huh?"

"Good thing, I practiced with Sir Robin a lot to improve my skills. Now I am at least somewhat familiar with each and every weapon."

During the training period, Robin had guessed that a moment would come when he will not use a familiar weapon as per the story character and the chances of death will increase a lot. Thus, he was trained in all sought of weaponry.

"The essence of dagger is to use in an outward fashion, and the essence of sword is to use in an inward fashion."

He gripped the dagger in the opposite position with the handle in his hand and the blade backwards facing out.

"By using the mastery of sword that Arvin had earned I can apply that in dagger just by inverting the skills."

This was pretty hard for any normal person, but Damark was trained by the second strongest person in their camp.

Damark sneaked onto the lever and pulled it down.

*CRACK*

The pulling sound along with the surface hitting the metal sound vibrated in the room. The serpent king opened his eyes and looked at Damark with a murderous intent, it fixated the position of Damark and attacked him.

But before the serpent could do anything, Damark had already sneaked close to the skin of the serpent and due to its large size it couldn't see Damark but it knew where he was. Damark's speed had already increased and he jumped on the lever on the left corner.

*CRACK*

He was able to successfully pull the second lever. But the Serpent had already figured out his location. A purple coloured boiling liquid was enclosing its distance towards Damark, but Damark had seen the serpent fight for over 30 times, he had understood it's pattern. Maybe the comprehension ability of Arvin was also passed down to Damark or maybe this was his ability he didn't know, but it had helped him. He rolled over to the right and jumped on the body of the Serpent. He tried to slash it's skin but it only left a scratch. He jumped over to the back of the serpent's head as it was a blind spot. The serpent was continuously struggling to attack him because Damark knew its size would increase and with increasing size it's movement would get hindered. By understanding this, he was able to evade most of the attacks. When he was behind the serpent's back he saw a golden lever present on the ground.

'....Who designed this?'

He wanted to beat the person who had designed this because how was someone supposed to enter between the coils of the serpent and then pull the lever?

He tried to lure the Serpent here and there but it had already became big. He jumped on its body again and ran over to its head and pulled the lever which was present on the ceiling. The serpent shook his head and Damark was thrown away. He had some scratches and blood was leaking out, but he didn't weave. He looked at the fangs of the Serpent and had a plan. He started running off in the other direction and jumped on the wall. With the opposite push of the wall he landed on serpent's body and threw his dagger at the chin of the serpent. It was a common problem with snakes with this type of body structure. They couldn't see more just below their chin, because their eyes were present on the left and right of the face. The serpent got a little hurt but didn't get affected. But this little time when it was distracted, Damark had already reached the Serpent's head, he pulled the dagger which he had tied to his cloth earlier. And stabbed it into the serpent's eyes. He jumped down and then pulled the golden lever.

*BOOM*

The shutter started opening, he saw this and started running but the Serpent had healed from its injury and tried to attack Damark. But Damark was no fool, by now the size of the Serpent had increased a lot and it was again touching the ceiling. Thus slowing it down, Damark was running in a zigzag pattern to avoid the poison. He slide down and came out of the room in a heroic style. The crowd was already in uproar.

As soon as he stepped out the room was closed but the sound of screaming of the Serpent and its head hitting the room was still audible.

*BOOM*

The serpent broke the room and looked at Damark with a evil intent.