As soon as he saw Yoichi charging towards it on horseback, the fierce snake demon roared in his direction, emitting a loud hiss and pulling its huge tongue out of its mouth.

Unlike a normal snake, that dark demon's tongue was equipped with a second mouth, smaller and full of sharp teeth. The inside of the palate and the long teeth were soaked with the blood of its victims. ​​

With a simple glance, Yoichi was able to see what had happened behind the village attacker: dozens of massacred bodies were scattered in the middle of the street. Women, men, and children, that being had killed whoever was on its way.

"Yoichi, get out of there!" Shioko yelled again. This time, his partner's screams caused the young tamer to wake up from his trance. When he realized that the demon was about to launch a frontal attack, he immediately dismounted from Ichiro, jumping on the sand.

The snake stretched its neck backward and then lashed violently forward. With a quick whiplash, very fast for a demon of that size, it tried to devour Yoichi.

"Azron!" he yelled, recalling Ichiro. In a yellow air stream, Yoichi's steed dematerialized, disappearing from the trajectory of the attack.

The young tamer fell to the ground and rolled to one side, grabbing the Inoshuma Demon Tooth.

*boom* - The noise caused by the snake demon's muzzle against the ground echoed along the beach. The sand raised by the impact clouded the view of Enatsu and Shioko, about ten meters away.

"Yoichiii!" the merchant called, unable to see his companion through the sand.

When the snake raised its head, it shook off the sand wedged between the scales of its face and mouth. Turning its head to one side and the other, it tried to spot its prey.

"Ildriss!" – another scream came from the cloud of sand, followed by a fire-red glow. After dodging the enemy's fast but predictable attack, Yoichi summoned Kenji, preparing for battle.

"He decided to fight that huge beast without even thinking about it! but... what the hell is that thing? I've never seen anything like it," Shioko mumbled. As she clutched Taya's reins, the experienced tamer looked unexpectedly worried.

Enatsu looked up, framing the giant snake's face. "That... that should be a..." shortly before he could complete the sentence, the giant demon roared with its jaws wide open and quickly turned on itself.

With the characteristics of its snake body, it managed to spin nimbly on the sand: using its tail as a whip, it used the rotation to hit all the targets in front of it.

Enatsu and Shioko were wiped out along with their horses. The steed neighing was suffocated by the sand wave that hit the two adventurers, thrown into the air by the demon's tail.

*boom* - every movement of that giant body, a few tons heavy, caused an incredible bustle. Beginning to cough, Shioko was the first to get up from the ground, looking through the sand for her horse.

"Taya! Where are you?!" the red-haired tamer screamed. She could not see anything because of the sand cloud that surrounded her, made even denser by the lack of light of the night.

Shioko lost track of her horse and her friends, failing to see the village or the observation tower. Looking around frantically, with her heart pounding in her chest, the red-haired girl sensed a hidden presence nearby.

In that whirlwind of sand, two huge black nostrils snorted hot air, making their way into that ethereal wall and getting closer and closer. The snake demon's purple eyes popped up in that chaos, pointing towards Shioko.

"Oh, fuck! Aaargh!" she screamed, venting the tension and falling backward. Not expecting such a situation, she tried to pull her bow, stuck behind her shoulders.

The snake opened its mouth, letting its inward-curved teeth slide into the dedicated vertical sacs of the jaw. Its tongue slowly turned to Shioko, immobilized by terror.

The tip of that rough, purple tongue burst opened, showing two rows of circular teeth, similar to those of a large carnivorous bloodsucker.

Shioko crawled backward, using her hands to cling to the sand. Just when she was convinced to be doomed, she heard a loud banging.

The red-haired tamer, trapped in that sand whirlwind, reopened her eyes. In front of her, something as fast as lightning had struck the snake's head, throwing it beyond the sand wall.

As if time had slowed down for a few moments, she was able to distinguish the perpetrator of that gesture. Yoichi, activating Kenji's upgrade, had enhanced his arms and punched the enemy demon's temple, saving her life.

When her comrade and the snake disappeared from her sight, Shioko shook her head and jumped back on her feet, running in the opposite direction. "Nobu, this way!" she called, urging her butterfly demon to help.

A small white light sprang into the sandy vortex. Suddenly, an abrupt gust of wind dispersed the material floating in the air, finally restoring the normal visibility.

By forcefully flapping its wings, Nobu had zeroed the effect of the snake's tail attack, following the voice of its tamer as a focal point.

Drawing his head off the ground and spitting damp sand, Enatsu coughed compulsively, getting up and staggering. Beside him, Taya was immobilized with fear and his brown horse was gone.

Glad the merchant and Taya were safe, Shioko turned to the enemy. An expression of anger appeared on her face, as her right hand slipped behind her back to pull out the bow.

In front of her, Yoichi was standing before the dark snake. With his arms in combat position, he was trying to figure out his next move.

"Groaargh... rreeeak!" – roaring a harrowing verse, the giant demon expelled the dark aura from its scales, exuding wickedness. On the left side of its jaw, its exoskeleton had been partially damaged by the fist of the young blond-haired tamer.

Having its toothed tongue twirl, it opened its jaws towards its opponent, looking at him carefully with its shimmering purple eyes.