I let out a sigh as I glanced around the jungle surrounding me. I clenched my dagger in one hand, and the jungle was silent. The insects I'd been able to hear earlier were silent, the small animals as well. It was almost like the whole area was holding it's breath. This did not engender a desire for me to stand around any longer; I suddenly felt very exposed standing relatively in the open right by where I'd killed the giant root snake. I backed slowly away from where the body had lain until I was up against the trunk of another tree. Unfamiliar instincts growled in the back of my mind, warning that whatever this sensation was, it wasn't over yet.

  I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched. Following my gut, I crept away from the tree, back towards the tunnel I came from, head on a swivel, trying to watch every direction. I wasn't very successful, but there wasn't much else I could do at the moment. I flinched hard when I felt something land on my shoulder. On instinct, I swiped at it, and my hand made contact with what felt like rough bark. Then I got a look at what had landed on me. On the ground a few feet away was another snake, much smaller than the giant root snake; it was a few inches wide and three, maybe four feet long. Another snake, but like no snake I'd ever seen or heard of before, it had the same coloration as the giant root snake, but this snake seemed to be physically made of the strange vines that covered the jungle rather than just sharing their colours. The smaller serpent let out a grating hiss, its blue maw opening up to reveal an electric blue mouth filled with rows of small black teeth that reminded me more of a lamprey than a snake, as it lifted its body into the air, posturing at me. It didn't seem like this snake was going to leave me alone or scurry away. There was something in the icy blue orbs that I guessed were the creature's eyes; this creature had no intention of fleeing or allowing me to do so.

  I raised my dagger, preparing to strike at the strange vine-snake-thing. As I did, the snake creature coiled itself tightly, preparing to strike. I waited, dagger held high, staring down at the creature; the tension was palpable, neither of us wanted to be the one to make the first move. I stared down at the creature for what felt like a single moment stretched beyond its breaking point into an eternity, then it snapped like a rubber band pulled too far. The creature struck without warning. It snapped into the air, launching itself towards my abdomen much the way the giant root snake had earlier. In a feat of dexterity brought about far more by luck than any sort of skill, I managed to bring my dagger down, interposing the tip between my body and the lunging vine creature at the perfect moment. The creature's open maw slammed into the wickedly sharp point of my dagger. The creature didn't even have a moment to struggle as the dagger penetrated through its upper palate and out the top of its skull.

  Without thought, I grabbed the body of the creature and tugged it off my blade. The moment my hand touched the corpse, another screen appeared. Seeing what the newest screen had to say, I made a mental note that loot seemed to be touch-activated.

  Shaking my head almost in mild disbelief, I accepted the prompt, stepping to the side as I did and heard the sound of a small item striking the grass. I tossed the body away, figuring it'd fade away on its own in a few minutes. I bent down to retrieve the item I'd looted from the serpent root. It was a small bundle of material that looked very similar to the roots that made up the creature's body.

  I skimmed over the screen; it wasn't anything immediately useful to me, though I stuffed it into one of my pants pockets. There was no reason not to hang on to it for the moment, at least. That was when the jungle exploded with noise, from above me in particular. I looked up to find dozens of icy blue eyes staring down at me with unadulterated hatred.

  Of course, the small one has friends; the small ones always have friends.

  That was the only thought that managed to make it through my mind before the snake creatures above me began to drop from the branches of the tree. I bolted without thinking twice, heading straight for where the tunnel entrance was. I didn't doubt those snakes would give chase, and I wanted to be somewhere it would be harder for them to surround me. Out in the open, surrounded by enemies, did not seem like a scenario with a high life expectancy for me.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I poured on the speed, sprinting like my life depended on it, because it just might. Which was becoming an unfortunately familiar feeling by this point. I focused on pumping my legs faster and faster as I tore through the jungle, whipping past trees, vines and brush, demanding that my body give me everything it had, and then a little more still.

  I willed the screen away; I didn't have time to read it in detail. I felt my speed increase, though, as if my body had suddenly found another gear to go up where there hadn't been one before. I began rocketing away from the snakes like someone had slammed the nitrous button on my internal engine. I could hear their angry hisses growing more distant with every footfall now. A moment later, I broke through the edge of the jungle, skidding as the soil of the jungle gave way to the smooth stone of the outer cavern, face to face with the cavern wall. Somehow, I managed to skid to a stop just before I would have slammed into the wall, hands scraping across the ground as I fell back from the skidding slide. I'd never admit to anyone how close I'd come to looking like a certain coyote chasing a bird there. Breathing heavily, I scrambled to my feet and made my way into the tunnel to wait for my pursuers. The run had been draining, but I'd made it to my destination, despite the unfamiliar heaviness in my gut.

  I had no doubt they were coming, though I wasn't sure how much distance I'd made thanks to that burst of speed. My mind wanted to run away with the new skill and theories of how exactly I'd obtained it; was it because of intent? Circumstance? Some combination of the two? Or was it that I'd done more running in the last few hours than I had in years?

  My musing was interrupted by the return of the hissing noise the weird vine snakes made as I began to see the first of them emerging from the treeline.

  The snake-shaped roots came slithering out of the forest in groups, first in ones and twos, then groups of four and five, until I could see a small horde of them. I backed deeper into the tunnel, my dagger felt heavy in my grip, and I knew I should feel afraid. My life was hanging in the balance right now, yet I felt nothing of the sort; it was like someone had opened up my head and poured ice into my mind, the fear was frozen long before it could affect me. My mind was clear as I raised my dagger, settling in to face the enemies that came for me. My breathing slowed, and my heartbeat felt steady in my chest, far from the erratic pounding it had been only moments ago during my flight through the jungle. For a moment, I couldn't help but feel like there was something else staring through my eyes. I stuffed those thoughts and concerns away, burying them deep. Alongside the other things, I didn't want to look at too closely right now. They were an impediment to my survival. Then the first root snake entered the tunnel.

  I lunged forward, leading with the tip of my dagger. It was an awkward angle with how low to the ground the creature was, but somehow I made it work. The tip of the blade bit deeply into the head of the creature. Without thought, I whipped to the side, swinging the limp body of the root serpent into its fellows, batting them aside. The sounds of furious hissing echoed in the tunnel, and I fell back, rolling over my right shoulder to avoid the fanged lunges of several more serpents. Blood rushed through my veins, and my own heartbeat thundered in my ears. Dozens of blue eyes glared at me from the darkness of the tunnel as more and more of the snakes entered in pursuit of me. I grunted as I laid into any of the creatures that came near with my dagger, but I was losing ground, being pushed deeper and deeper into the tunnel to keep them from getting behind me. Thoughts of being pushed back into the water at the rear of the cave, being helpless in the water as the snakes came for me, began to float up from the depths of my mind. The thought of being helpless, of being able to do nothing but wait for death to come for me in a thousand little bites, cracked the ice that had filled my mind in the last several minutes.

  Underneath that frozen layer of calm was not what I had expected. Instead of fear, fear of loss, of death, of being eaten and forgotten in a hole in the middle of nowhere. Instead of that, there was a deep pool of rage, boiling just beneath the surface. The calm that had filled me burned away, and something in my mind howled as the rage tore through my mind, as if my soul itself were screaming. I'd never experienced anything like it before. I'd been angry before, even to the point of shaking with rage, but those memories paled next to this singular moment. The rage needed an outlet; it couldn't be contained. If I didn't let it out, it felt as if I might actually explode.

  A scream matching the one in my mind tore itself from my throat. I felt fangs puncture my arms and legs as I dove into the horde of serpents, and soon everything burned, I was burning, covered in flames inside and out as the venom coursed through my veins. Yet it was nothing compared to the agony I'd experienced as the venom of the Spider had burned its way through my body before my bloodline had unlocked. That pain had been mind-shattering, soul-crushing; this was barely a candle by comparison to that inferno.

  My arms burned with exhaustion as I swung my dagger over and over again. In my free hand, I wielded the corpse of one of the root serpents, using it to bludgeon its fellows. I whirled back and forth in the confines of the tunnel, lashing out viciously at anything that moved nearby, running on pure, undiluted instinct. If it moved, it died. I lost myself in the struggle for survival. It became almost mechanical.

  Move, Strike, Repeat.

  I lost all track of time as I battled the horde of creatures. I was covered in puncture wounds from the fangs of the snakes, and blood ran down my body in rivulets. In the end, I stood alone, the only living thing in the tunnel. It was silent save for the panting sounds that accompanied each breath expelled and dragged back into my lungs.

  I lost all feeling in my limbs as the adrenaline fled my body, and I tumbled to the ground, lying flat on my back. There wasn't a care in me for the gore and plant-like viscera that covered the ground; I was already covered in it, what was a little more? Screens appeared before me, stacking one over another in a long procession. I waved them away with a thought, just looking at the last few.