Chapter 115: The Spider and the Snake
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 115: The Spider and the Snake
The Rakshasa Bird was anxious.
Her plan had gone awry from the very beginning.
Still, she had somehow managed to control the situation and succeed in her primary objective: isolating the lizard.
All that remained was for the Jian Bird to take care of it.
They would present the dead lizard's corpse to the Snake Queen.
That was the purpose of this attack.
But for some reason, the lizard's body hadn't been produced yet.
"That half-wit..."
The Rakshasa Bird cursed, narrowly dodging the Gaze of Petrification and countless other attacks.
She had told him time and again how important it was to subdue it quickly.
The fact that it was taking this long could only mean one thing: the Jian Bird was slacking off.
Otherwise, there was no way it would take this long to deal with a lizard that was, at best, at the First-Rate level.
At this rate, she would be the one to fall first.
The gourd bottle was heavily guarded by rock statues created by the Snake Queen's power.
The option to snatch it and flee was off the table.
But if they retreated and left the gourd here, the Snake Queen would find a way to get the lizard out.
In other words, she and the Bifang had to keep the Snake Queen occupied until the Jian Bird finished its job.
Facing her with brute force was impossible.
Perhaps if the Jian Bird joined them and they all attacked at once, it might be different, but the two of them could do nothing against the Snake Queen and her Gaze of Petrification.
Even with their resistance, the moment they stopped moving, even for an instant, their bodies would be shattered.
If there was any weakness to exploit, it would have to be her mind.
If the lizard hadn't launched a surprise attack, the Rakshasa Bird might have had some fun with her transformation ability.
So, the Rakshasa Bird changed her tactic.
She decided to run her mouth, so to speak. To shake her opponent's psyche.
"You're calmer than I expected. Do you have any idea what's happening to your companion?"
Fwoosh!
Craaaack!
The Basilisk's massive tail whipped through the air like a lash.
Sweat poured down the Rakshasa Bird's body like rain.
A single graze would mean death.
"That trap just now. Do you know who's in there? The Jian Bird. It's a trap prepared by that freak. Hundreds of beasts are probably tearing your companion to shreds right now," the Rakshasa Bird said hurriedly after barely dodging the attack.
"Uoooooh!"
Fwoooosh.
The Bifang continuously shot fireballs to block the Gaze of Petrification.
The Rakshasa Bird swallowed hard.
She had to observe the Snake Queen's reaction before deciding her next move.
With her companion on the verge of death, her emotions were bound to waver.
"How sad."
Did she take the bait?
The Rakshasa Bird's face brightened.
"To hate myself so much for being able to do nothing but watch."
She wondered if it was an act, but the voice of that giant snake could not be a lie.
The Rakshasa Bird was skilled at discerning others' emotions.
"Ahaha. That's right, isn't it? That lizard will keep calling for you."
It was a voice mixed with anger, resentment, guilt, and sorrow.
"'Oh, my companion, the Snake Queen. Please save me.' He'll be looking for you until the very moment he dies."
She replied in an exaggerated tone and watched the Snake Queen's reaction.
The Snake Queen covered one eye, as if she could bear to watch no longer.
Covering her Gaze of Petrification. Was she planning to surrender?
No, the Snake Queen wouldn't be that easy.
"He's looking for me?"
But it was true her psyche had been shaken to some extent.
She had to push harder.
"As blood streams down his body, as all his beautiful black scales fall out, as his neck dangles loosely. As he's chewed alive by the Jian Bird. That's how he'll be looking for you."
She used raw vocabulary to provoke the Snake Queen.
Once shaken, it was bound to have some effect.
"My companion is looking for me..."
The Snake Queen lowered her head.
The Rakshasa Bird cheered inwardly. Things were progressing far too easily.
Shwaaaaa!
The Rakshasa Bird's black feathers flew toward the Snake Queen.
Not to be outdone, the Bifang's massive fireball also soared toward her, aiming to burn her body.
Pababak!
Fwooooosh.
A surprise attack on a broken-hearted enemy.
It was bound to be effective.
Or so the Rakshasa Bird thought.
"Unfortunately, it seems my companion is quite the philanderer."
The Basilisk's massive body moved.
Kududududuk!
Cha-cha-cha-chaeng!
The steel feathers were deflected with ease. The same went for the Bifang's flames.
No, it didn't end there.
The Snake Queen's body had definitely moved in a big way. Enough to extinguish all the flames the Bifang had spread across the ground.
The Rakshasa Bird realized this the moment her eyes met the Snake Queen's.
Crack.
The fate of one who looked into the Basilisk's eyes was all too obvious.
"Taking in not one, but three spiders. Doesn't he have any shame?"
Muttering these incomprehensible words, the Snake Queen lunged at the Rakshasa Bird.
*
Nephila Jurassica, despite her fearsome appearance, had a lot on her mind.
The whining spider sisters. The human female who cried day in and day out.
Now that she was far from the lizard, she had to lead his followers.
She was a little sad that the lizard she had only just reunited with had left so soon, and she already missed him.
But she couldn't stand in his way.
He was doing his best where he was, and she had to do her best with what she could. That was the duty of a wife.
Thus, she couldn't help but have a lot on her mind.
But having a lot on her mind didn't mean she was full of worries.
Because the lizard she adored was not a creature that would die so easily.
If there was anything to worry about, it was the matter of him keeping it in his pants.
Even on that point, she wasn't too concerned.
Her so-called rival, the female from the Tang Clan, was someone two small spiders could handle.
The ever-growing spider sisters were a bit concerning, but they were no match for her, who had a history of evolving into a human-like form.
There was one beautiful woman with black hair. But she was less of a rival and more of a master, or perhaps a parent, to the lizard.
Since she could be her future mother-in-law, Nephila acted amiably.
As Nephila Jurassica had yet to regain a complete human body, all she could do was weave his likeness with her silk, but her mother-in-law was very fond of the pictures.
And so, Nephila Jurassica passed the time with her hobby, receiving treatment from the lowest-ranked member, and waited for the day she would meet him again.
But a worry had appeared for her, who seemed to have none.
It was because of the two female snakes that had suddenly appeared.
Being away from him, there was nothing she could do.
She tried desperately to convey her thoughts to him, but lately, even that hadn't been working well.
Nephila suspected the mother snake had pulled some strings.
It wasn't completely impossible, but it had become very difficult to send her thoughts to the lizard.
She couldn't initiate contact, but she could still see exactly what the lizard was up to.
And it was quite a spectacle.
With her gone, he was fooling around with snakes, dancing wildly with little lizards, and now even putting a bird he'd never seen before in his mouth.
Nephila was left wondering how to manage the lizard's promiscuity.
What she disliked most of all was the being called the Snake Queen.
For a snake, why was she carrying around such useless lumps of fat on her chest?
Nephila recalled her own human form. She felt a little gloomy, as if she was being compared.
Although that lizard had a suspicious fondness for those strange lumps of fat, it probably didn't mean much.
Nephila recalled an adage she had picked up somewhere.
The childhood friend always wins.
She couldn't tell if it was a phrase that had slipped out of the lizard's subconscious or something the person from the Tang Clan had said.
It was hard to understand its exact meaning, but Nephila liked the saying.
She was going to win anyway.
So, no matter what audacious things the snakes did, she could just laugh it off.
Though her smile did vanish for a moment when that Snake Queen declared him her companion.
Of course, it was a one-sided claim, made without his consent.
But it still left a bitter taste in Nephila's mouth.
Still, she could understand it up to this point. It seemed the queen was treating her lizard well, in her own way.
It was a little frustrating, but it seemed she was even feeding him elixirs far better than the inner core Nephila had given him.
But washing his body with her tongue? Wasn't that going too far?
That was Nephila Jurassica's thought.
The Snake Queen had crossed the line.
She had taken him—whom Nephila herself had not yet tasted—into her mouth and rolled him around.
And a much smaller version of him, similar to the one she'd seen when they first met!
The childhood friend wins.
Nephila had believed those words, but as the days passed, she couldn't help but feel anxious.
At this rate, would he really be eaten? Would they grow distant again? Would he never return?
As time went on, she grew more depressed.
Could the childhood friend really win? With their bodies apart, wouldn't their hearts grow apart as well?
Time continued to pass like that, leading to the current situation.
He was in danger. An unprecedented crisis.
The great Snake Queen was in a position where she couldn't save him.
The only one who could save him was her, his childhood friend.
The internal energy she had saved instead of squandering. Her power as a priestess. And the followers who always believed in him.
She sent her accumulated experience points to him.
She had seen the lizard's body recover during battle multiple times, as if he were being reborn.
So that he could recover his body this time, too.
She didn't stop there.
The lizard had countless enemies.
As the priestess of the Gaegaek Cult, was it not her duty to protect him by his side?
And besides.
The childhood friend always wins.
Though her body was intangible, she resolved to be with him.
Of course, she didn't possess such an ability. To be precise, it was more like she didn't know how to use it.
Nevertheless, the reason she could do so was because the Snake Queen had lent her strength.
They were rivals who had never met face-to-face, never even exchanged words.
She held more ill feelings for her than good ones.
But their goal was the same.
The priestess of one religion and the divine beast of another faith joining forces—an unprecedented situation.
And at the center of it all was a gek-geking, philandering lizard.