Kiefer instantly leapt back and instinctively deployed his mana armour, barely avoiding the huge wave that came crashing onto where he stood just moments ago. Now floating above the lake surface was the giant beast known as Shearwood.

Looking back down at the lake, as a testament to the size of the beast, the lake’s water level had dropped by almost 3 metres, and water from the out-going river was starting to flow back towards the lake.

Dripping wet from the splash of water, Kiefer stared hard at the floating coiled serpent, easily reaching 100m in length if fully stretched. Its whole body covered in palm sized scales, it had a slender head adorned with jagged spikes protruding above its slit nostrils and void black eyes. The rest of the body was smooth and streamline, with a soft turquoise coloured belly and obsidian grey back. 2 wings that were small compared to the body sprouted from the back.

“Well now I know physics is weird in this world. There are no way wings that small can actually generate enough lift to carry a body that massive, and her body is not even aerodynamic.” Kiefer thought, as he dispelled his armour and concealed his mana, hoping to show the serpent that he had no hostile intent.

Slowly, the serpent’s gaze landed on him, with water still dripping off her body into the lake.

“What did she just say? Undead? There are zombies in this world?” Kiefer thought to himself silently as he could feel the elation from having a chance to study and research on zombies.

“Oh majestic and graceful Shearwood, my name is Kiefer and I did not mean to disturb you. I hope you would overlook my transgression and show me mercy.” Kiefer flattered her, hoping to avoid conflict.

Having said that, Shearwood uncoiled to her full length and dove straight for Kiefer, her jaws wide open and ready to devour the helpless human in one gulp.

Kiefer reacted fast, setting up half a dome shield in front of him while digging his heels into the ground to brace for impact. Now that Shearwood was out, he had to be careful how he used his mana and it was near impossible to divert his attention to converting his mana from his surroundings.

*DDOOOONNNN*

It sounded like someone had hit the face of a metal bell really hard.

Shearwood slammed straight into the dome shield and ricocheted right off it, not before sending Kiefer flying into the woods. While being thrown back, Kiefer deployed his armour to protect himself as he smashed into 5 trees in a straight line, plowing them down, while receiving almost no damage.

“Dayum.. That hurts.. Luckily I had my armour on. Well the good news it, I know it works in actual combat” (Kiefer)

As Kiefer got on his feet and was about to run deeper into the woods, a huge red beam of light tore through the forest next to him. It had been so close, if he had been 2 steps to the left, Kiefer would have become a matchstick.

Feeling the residual heat from the attack and looking at its aftermath of a path of hot molten lava on the forest floor, Kiefer can’t help but yell out, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!! That’s not a flame breath attack! It’s basically a fucking laser beam.. My shield only protects me from physical impact, I have no idea how to negate magical attacks.”

As Kiefer saw Shearwood open its jaws again, He could see the glow of red light shimmer between the turquoise scales around her throat. “She’s gonna use that attack again.. gotta run”.

Kiefer bolted through the forest floor extending his whip to pick up the large tree that he had snapped and brought back earlier that morning. He then flung the tree towards Shearwood, making impact just before she managed to release the attack.

*BAM!*

The impact from the flying tree hit Shearwood right below the chin, diverting the attack up into the sky and cut short the duration by causing her to close her jaws. Naturally, Kiefer with his close observation skills did not miss that.

“The most dangerous place is often the safest place.” And with that thought Kiefer came up with a near suicidal plan. He broke the Whip that started and ended in his hands into 2 individual whips, frayed at the ends as one could see the countless mana threads used to make the whip..

With his right whip, he grabbed and pulled himself onto the serpent and anchored himself firmly on the back. With his left whip, he made it thinner and much longer, wrapping it in countless loops around Shearwood’s snout, forcing her to shut her jaws and giving himself another support hold on the beast.

Shearwood thrashed about violently, trying to undo the unfamiliar bindings that were placed on her by this peculiar magus. Kiefer on the other hand seemed like having an exhilarating time playing a game of “try to stay on the bull”.

10 minutes of struggling later, Kiefer grew bored and started worrying about his mana. He began to loosen the grip on the whip in his right hand. Sensing this, Shearwood seemed to wriggle around even harder, thinking this would be the only chance to escape his grip. She was getting tired as well.

“Dammit Woman! You started the fight and now you are seriously pissing me off.” Kiefer yelled at Shearwood, making sure she knew she deserved what was coming.

Saying so, he unravelled the whip in his right hand starting from the lose end, revealing thousands upon thousands to long silvery mana threads. Strength in numbers. That’s the concept Kiefer was going for. He starting guiding the threads to dig under the scales of the giant serpent and wrap around its body for the entirety of its length. Kiefer now had control over the entire serpent, lowering himself onto the ground while lifting the serpent towards him.

Leisurely, using his mana threads as a sort of siphon, he began converting Shearwood’s beastly mana straight from her body into his own. As much as Shearwood wanted to struggle, she could not move a single muscle in her giant serpentine body.

With his mana replenished, Kiefer brought Shearwood’s face right in front of his. Staring deep into her eyes, his lips parted and asked a question, “What do you say to someone you attacked without rhyme or reason?”

Feeling the binding around her mouth loosen, Shearwood bellowed a single word, . She immediately began to prepare her breath attack again, opening her jaws with Kiefer set in her sights.

“Wrong answer bitch.” Kiefer smiled as he saw the red glow from deep inside her throat. He instantly shut her jaws again and started slamming her face into the rock wall behind the waterfall. Her scales were tough, with almost no damage from the beating, but she had suffered from multiple concussions due to her internals being knocked around in her impregnable exoskeleton.

(AN : Please do not do this to snakes. The characters are completely fictional and I do not support animal abuse)

Kiefer brought Shearwood back in front of him just before she passed out. “Let me help you out with the answer I’m looking for. I want you to apologise to me for attacking without provocation.” Saying that, he undid the binding on the serpent’s snout, ready to shut it again if she tried to attack him.

Shearwood remained silent and stubborn, refusing to lower herself to a human. She did not attack him, hoping he would eventually release her, but she absolutely refused to apologise. In her opinion, she did nothing wrong trying to eat food when she was hungry. In fact, it would have been an honour to be eaten by her, one of the 9 titans that existed since the beginning of the planet.

“Still stubborn I see. How about this then?” (Kiefer)

Shearwood screamed and howled, as Kiefer started peeling several of her scales off using his mana threads.

(AN : Again, boys and girls, torturing animals is bad)

“Will you submit to me now SHEARWOOD?” Kiefer asked in a menacing tone, specially emphasizing her name. He had originally intended to let her go, but after the drawn out battle, he found another use for her – to be his mana tank.

Shearwood lowered her head, dejectedly.

“Such a disgrace for a titan such as me to be forced into submission by a mere human, even if I am the weakest of the 9. He uses some unknown magic without any incantation, ones I have never seen before..” Shearwood thought in her head.

“Good, for now you will return to the lake and not disturb me.” Kiefer ordered, satisfied with the outcome. He released his mana whip and replenished his mana, at the same time concealing his own mana.

Shearwood returned into the lake, but left her head hanging from the bank, carefully observing her new master while trying to recuperate the mana he had leeched from her.

Kiefer now had a new pet, and a convenient mana tank.

[ 1 Hour ago]

Somewhere deep inside the Agrean forest, there was a convoy moving hastily through the dense undergrown. There were 4 knights cutting a path through the forest floor several metres ahead of a carriage pulled by 2 crystal horses. Several orbs of light floated around the convoy, constantly keeping the surrounding bright and a breeze could be felt sweeping through the forest, searching for any possible threats.

Within the carriage was 2 holy magus controlling the orbs of light, a wind magus and a young boy, around 7 years of age. The boy was dressed extravagantly in a pure white robe lined with gold rims and a large jewel studded into each side of his robe’s collars.

“I hope Shearwood decides to only take the sacrifice this time. I heard she wiped out the entire convoy 10 years ago.” One of the mage said to the others.

“Yes this is ridiculous, we lose our best mages and knights protecting the sacrifice every ten years, and it really does not help with the ongoing war.”

“There is nothing we can do but pray that she be merciful. Just our luck we ended up in the province she is guarding. I hear the other 8 provinces only need sacrifice every century.”

“Enough chatter back there! We best make haste. Shearwood will be awakening in 2 days and we do not want to be late for the presentation ceremony!” yelled the guard captain as he lashed the whips to make the horses move faster.

Just at that moment, the convoy heard a blood curdling roar in the direction they were heading, and could smell burning forest wafting through the undergrowth. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks.

“We might be too late already..” (entire convoy)

This one took longer than expected. im sorry for the delay.