Chapter Seven: D'dera, The Snake Demon

The snake demon known as D'dera finds and attempts to kill Neil. Neil shortly transforms and a demon battle ensues.

Neil shouted to Sentesyl, “I found one!... I think!” He was standing by a tree, surrounded by oddly shaped nuts on the mossy ground. The sisters came running over, Sentesyl being the first to reach the tree.

“Let me have a look.” She knelt down on the ground. Neil watched as she took out her dagger, cut the stem and got back up all in one swift, graceful motion.

“One more oughta do it,” he said smiling at her.

Having caught up, Tentesyl arrived just in time to ruin the privacy Neil was starting to enjoy. He went to say something to Sentesyl, but instead of his voice, Tentesyl’s was heard saying, “Hey, Neil found some rattlenuts!”

“Really? Let me see!”

Sentesyl then left Neil with a puzzled look on his face. Slowly, hands in pockets; he turns around. “Now what’s so special about these nuts?”

Sentesyl picked one up by the stem and brought it over to Neil. It looked just like a rattlesnake’s rattle, except much bigger, about the size of a bunch of grapes. “Well, besides their taste…” She shook her hand, causing it to make a rattling sound. “They use these in many traditional ceremonies as instruments.”

“Wow! Look at the size of these!”

Tentesyl picked up an oversized nut with both hands, only to drop it suddenly. She had realized that it was attached to something, and was now rattling by itself. The little girl ran over to the other two, hugging her sister. All three watched silently as the shadowy form slithered around the tree and rose up high above them.

The giant snake loomed over the three travelers with wickedness in its eyes; and hunger as well. It was as tall as the tree, and its body was twice as thick. Hardened, spiky scales jutted from its slithery frame. Horns on its head and its seemingly infinite row of razor-sharp teeth (not to mention the fangs) made it seem that much more menacing. As it rattled its huge tail and hissed in ferocity, saliva dripped from its mouth splashing in droplets as big as Neil's head. A horrid smell flowed like fierce wind from the creature's mouth when it hissed.

“Don't breathe it in!” Sentesyl shouted to Neil, covering her face. “His venom is so toxic, even the fumes will kill you!” That was certain, as Neil had taken a small whiff, and he was already very lightheaded.

The beast scanned from person to person, hissing and flicking its tongue. In horror, Tentesyl started sobbing quietly as she gripped her sister’s shorts. Not quietly enough, as the snake whipped its head in her direction and gave a loud hiss. Sentesyl covered her sister's mouth with her hand as the smell passed. The creature did not strike, but instead rose up higher, arching back.

“It's okay,” Sentesyl told her sister. “Maybe he can't see us.”

Neil knew the snake could at least smell or hear her well enough to kill her with one strike, and that’s exactly what it was about to do. “Plan...plan...I need a plan. C'mon Neil, you gotta come up with something...” His mind raced to solve the dilemma. His friends’ lives were at stake again; it was up to him to save them…again!

The snake leaned back and gave a blood-curdling hiss. Just when it was about to strike, to the sisters' surprise Neil started running away, stomping his feet loudly against the forest floor.

“Hope this works,” Neil thought to himself as he ran frantically (and even more blindly) through the dark forest. He feared for his life, telling himself not to even look back. He knew it was racing behind him, craving to dig its fangs into its potential meal that Neil called his body. He was zigzagging through the rows of trees, hoping the giant beast would hit into one, or get caught in some vines. The smell of sour sulfur and an ear-piercing hiss blowing wind past him now gave him no doubt that he was being pursued. As he was running, he realized he had only figured this far into the plan. As they were darting through the various trees and shrubbery, Neil's legs felt as though they were about to give. Just when he couldn’t stand it, he fell...down. Not onto the ground, but off a small cliff. As he plummeted down into the unknown, Neil feared for his life. In fact, he felt his life...slip away.

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He was falling; it felt like forever. His eyes were glowing red. His face was wider, sprouting horns. He grew three times his size and his arms became massive as he grew long razor sharp claws. There was no longer Neil; The Demon had taken over. The two beasts slammed to the bottom of the small ravine, the snake bouncing off the stone wall and the demon landing on his feet, causing a small tremor. The gigantic hulk demon grabbed the snake by the throat, roaring like an untamed lion. The snake demon flailed around in anger and pain, lashing at him, snapping its jaws. He then whipped the snake sideways with both hands, slamming it into the wall. Stones crumbled and the area shook. The demon stepped back a few paces and waited, watching for movement. The snake shook the off the pain and hissed, showing its massive fangs seconds before lunging forward. Flicking his wrist, a wave of blue light sent the snake flying back against the wall. It immediately got up, and writhed around quickly, avoiding its opponent. Snaps of jaws and strikes of claws exchanged as they circled each other.

“What you are doing is wrong,” The serpent stated to the massive beast.

In turn, he roared, “No! Judgment must be passed, so it has been for millennia!”

The snake hissed his reply, “Hundreds of thousands of worlds have been destroyed by you! Trillions upon trillions of lives reduced to useless nothingness; a waste of the gods' time and meticulous creativity!”

The demon's eyes started glowing a fiery blood red. “I feel no remorse for the lost lives of impure worlds.”

With that, he lunged at D'dera the snake demon and grabbed him by a horn and a fang. Twisting his hand, he removed the fang from the snakes face with a crraack, spraying toxic venom throughout the area. He then stabbed the snake demon with his own fang under his stomach, beneath the scales. Crimson tinted blackness flowed from the wounded beast as he pushed the fang deep inside. Writhing around, The Snake let out squeals of pain. Suddenly, its spikes fanned up and jutted out, making a sound like scraping metal. A blade grew from the end of its tail and curved over the rattle; the fang that was embedded in the beast simply fell out during the transformation. As a new fang grew to replace the missing one, it loomed over the demon. D'dera had grown twice its size. As the giant snake leered down (now way down) at what he thought was his next meal, a smile grew on the prophetic demon’s face.

He looked up into the glowing eyes of the enemy, surrounded only by darkness and roared, “Ha! So now you provide a challenge!” Pounding his fist against his massive chest, he added, “Make no mistake, D’dera, your first strike!”

The snake hissed at the jeering comment (though at this height, it was sounding much like the demon’s own roar) and flew its gigantic fanged head downward at the demon. Leaping not even a second before D’dera struck the ground engulfing massive amounts of rock, the demon latched onto one of the cavern walls with his clawed hands and feet. After retching boulders, the giant snake caught the demon from the corner of his eye and lunged at him. The demon leapt from the wall aiming for the beasts back, but missed. He stumbled as he hit the ground. At the same time, the snake’s head smashed violently into the wall, causing the cavern to tremor and the walls to crack. Giant chunks of rock rained down from the chasm walls around the battling demons.

The giant snake snapped his jaws at the prophetic demon who deflected each attack with a blue fireball shot from his fist. With each growing fireball, D’dera grew that much more irritated. His mighty spiked scales were too tough to be penetrated at this size. Fed up with tooth and jaw injury, D’dera now came after the demon with his blade-endowed tail, swiping it with surprising accuracy. The tail blade (which was larger than the demon) would just barely miss him. He continually jumped backwards to avoid it, his fists glowing deeper and deeper blue. On the next swipe, the demon jumped onto the blade, and shot a deep blue ray from his hands into the belly of the beast. The ray ricocheted and made a clean hole right through the cavern wall. The demon was hurled across the floor and knocked against the opposite wall. Before even granted time to recover, the blade came right for his head, about to slice him into two identical halves. Just barely catching it between his hands glowing the deepest blue, it took every bit of strength in him to keep enough pressure on the blade to keep it from moving and simultaneously build up energy for his next attack.

“I will digest you slowly, Destroyer! I will make sure that you suffer exquisitely until you pass through me completely,” hissed the serpentine monstrosity from above.

During the struggle, the energy radiating from the demon’s hands started spreading out, flaring bright white. The blade in between his hands cracked, and ultimately exploded with a bright flash, sending razor sharp shards everywhere. The shockwave was so massive that it actually knocked the giant snake against the wall. The wall the demon had been pinned up against was torn apart and giant boulders hurtled down upon him. The snake laid writhing in pain and screaming, his tail spurting blood in all directions. No movement came from the pile of rocks, which covered the demon.

D’dera calmed down as he became more cautious; he stared at the pile of boulders flicking his tongue. He hoped very much that his prey had died. Gradually, an aura glowed from the pile, increasing in intensity. The boulders now rose up forced by a white glow, which surrounded the demon. There were several shards of D'dera's tail blade buried beneath the demon’s skin. Seeing that he had risen, the snake wasted no time planning his next attack and lunged at him. With a roar, the demon made throwing movements with his arms, and surely enough the boulders flew at the giant snake, smashing into him with fantastic force. His midsection, head and tail, respectively, jolted backwards toward the wall, the last of which was pinned with the largest of the three boulders.

The demon repositioned so that he was further away and waited for the snake to lunge one more time, stretching his body across the chasm area, just missing his enemy. During the split second in which the snake was stretched perfectly straight, the demon leapt and swung onto the snakes back, using a horn. The giant serpent upon recoil realized that it was pinned, and hadn't even noticed where its meal had gone. The scales were sharp as iron blades, and dug into the demon's feet and hands as he stood on D'dera's neck. He pried back two scales atop his head, exposing scaly (yet relatively bare) skin. His hand emitted a ruby red light, and as he touched the skin, the glow left his hand and remained underneath the beasts massive scales.

Knowing how much time he had, the demon quickly leapt from D'dera's head, launching himself towards the top of the cavern. Spotting his escape attempt, the snake struck straight up, latching his foot in a trap of razor sharp teeth and swung the demon back down to the ground; he ricocheted from the wall in an instant. Not even allowing himself time to shake off injury, the demon jumped from wall to wall as fast as he could in a zigzag motion. He evaded D'dera's attacks until he was finally out of range. As the snake snapped back down to the bottom of the cavern, the demon launched himself over the edge with his powerful arms. As the cavern glowed with a loud red explosion, Neil fell to the soft ground face first.