We were trapped.

The giant snake became unmoving after finishing the circle around the capsule, and luckily, only the tip of the tail rested in front of the room's balcony.

I whispered "Initiate silent protocol"

The room blinked blue, signaling the silent mode had been activated.

I activated my armor, covering myself in black, told Karah and Diana to do the same, and went to check on the supplies in the kitchen.

By my calculations, we had fifty days' worth of food before needing to get more in the storage- but we had one more preoccupation: Scarlet.

We knew that Markus's state was stable, but hers wasn't- the seed gave her thirty-five percent chance of living, in case no antidote was found, so we had to find an antidote.

Because of that need, I called Karah and begun devising a plan to kill that thing outside.

I asked Diana what were the weak points of the beast, as she seemed to know and fear it more than anything else. She sent me images of its belly, eyes and mouth, and then "panic", recalling those memories.

I'm gonna show this little wolf we shouldn't be trifled with. I sent her "calm".

Karah then came closer to my ear and whispered

"Maybe the thing out there is still around because of the food we have... we could try throwing some out as bait. If the serpent eats it, we can load some grenades and C4 with meat, give her and explode it from inside"

The air she blew on my ears while talking made me shiver.

I gave her a thumbs up, saying it was a good plan, and told her to grab a fifth of the meat we had, while I took a look at the explosives we had.

Karah had brough us thirty-one hand grenades, ten land mines, six kilograms of C4 and ten of... gunpowder?.

The hand grenades were separated in four types: there were five fragmentation grenades, six chemical, five highly explosive, ten incendiary, eight smoke, and two flashbang.

This was a lot of grenades... people back on got us really prepared, huh?

But it still wasn't enough to make me feel safe.

I made thirty molotov cocktails, but fully closed, with the alcohol laying around, then got some used up cans and made pipe bombs with the gunpowder.

I'd try all the explosion and incendiary bombs and grenades and three chemical, on the bait.

I'd use the hydrocianic acid grenades along with the bait to poison the serpent.

And if everything went wrong, we'd have to leave and fight the snake ourserlves.

I organized all the bombs by use, and went to see what Karah was doing. Sun had already begun to rise, and the light rays passed through the open balcony- wait. Open balcony.

Karah opened the balcony, and was throwing out the test bait.

Panicking, I said "close" just as she threw the meat, jumped towards her, and fell down on the floor, over her.

I felt her breathing speed up as I brought my finger over her lips, in a "silence" motion.

The blinds had closed a little after my command, but surely the snake had seen it, and my fear was of it seeing us.

Slowly I moved my left wrist, so the glass panel on my watch would reflect what was behind me.

As soon as it did I saw big, slit, yellow eyes. I slowly turned my hand back to normal position, and looked at Karah again. And saw her with her cheeks red, hair sprawled on the floor and her eyes closed. I was very close to her so I could whisper low enough that the snake wouldn't hear

"It'll be alright"

But somehow that got her even redder.

She opened her eyes slowly, and stared me

And we stood there staring at each other for an hour.

I think even I began to become red some time- it was hard to keep looking at that beautiful face right in front of me and feel nothing, even though there was imminent danger right behind us.

For another hour we stood unmoving and looking for each other's eyes.

I wanted to kiss her, I really wanted to kiss her, but I couldn't move due to the enormous snake that looked inside- and Karah looked the same as me, she constantly changed her eyeline to my mouth, then back to my eyes.

Until the snake finally left. Almost three hours, when I heard the breathing moving away.

When that happened, I got distracted, and tried to get up, but something- someone didn't let me.

Karah had held my arm, and began mumblimg some things I couldn't understand.

Trying to hear what she said, I came close, only to hear

"You idiot."

As she pulled herself closer and kissed me.

I was stunned at first, but soon enough I gave myself in to the sensation on my lips.

After those second that felt like an eternity, Karah pushed me away slightly, smiled a bit and punched me on the chest, saying

"You really are an idiot."

In a soft voice.

"Maybe I am"

I answered, smiling

Then I looked outside, and saw the meat she threw was gone and confirmed that she ate it, because my nose told me the meat scent travelled all the way to the other side of the seed.

After knowing that, I told Karah about plan A and B, and how night was best for executing them.

Then proceeded to wash my wolf, as she had pissed herself, seeing the giant snake- Dia needs to deal with this fear...

After doing what I had to, I told Karah it was best for us to rest, got some biscuits, and sat on my bed, to wait for time to pass- but Karah crept her way to my bed with an innocent face, sat in front of me, let her back rest on my chest, and called Diana.

I was about to say

"What?"

But she said

"Shhh, no noise until snake-roasting time"

And kept petting Dia for hours

After night fell, I realized Karah had slept, and lightly moved the hair that had fallen over her face, waking her up.

"It's time"

I told her

She got focused pretty fast, and begun gearing up for the mission.

I got all my weapons ready and strapped over me, divided the grenades, leaving for me four smoke, one fluorantimonic acid and one flashbang, and the same for her.

We were all set.

Before starting the mission, I took a glance over the unawake party members, made sure they were fine, and told Karah.

"As soon as the serpent eats it, you detonate the C4. There will be a chain reaction with the other bombs, causing internal bleeding and cyanide poisoning. After the explosion, we leave immediately, and engage fight if needed, alright?"

She nodded, and got the enourmous slab of meat, filled with explosives, held together by a net, and put in front of the balcony.

I whispered "open", and, along with her, kicked the slab outside, before hiding behind the wall and whispering "close".

The blind closed and we both looked subtly at the outside.

Soon enough the snake came, took all of the meat in its mouth, and swallowed everything in one go.

I counted in my hands, in front of Karah

5...

4...

3...

2...

1.

And she pressed the detonator.

A big shockwave came from the outside, making Diana fall from the bed I told her to stay on, and almost knocking me and Karah down.

Fast, I whispered "open" and left along with her, to find the snake still alive, but on fire, shaking itself and coughing.

We both stopped, stunned by the size of the serpent- but not for long.

The beast begun to recover itself, and got ready to strike us.

Our luck was that the hydrocianic acid worked, and the thing was unable to breathe fine, thus reducing its physical capacity.

It tried to slap us with its tail, but both of us dodged it, and separated.

I warned Karah, threw a flashbang to stun the snake, and then threw the fluorantimonic acid grenade I had been cooking at the thing's face.

It worked.

The serpent stopped, half a second, afraid of the flash of light, allowing the chemical grenade to detonate right before the beast's eye.

It began cortorting itself out of pain, and hissed, with a disfigured yellow eye on its face.

Looks like acid still works on things here.

The enormous, scaly beast coiled itself, ready for an attack, and jumped towards us.

Karah had been spinning her spear, charging electricity in the meanwhile, and when the snake jumped, she threw the spear against it, and jumped to the side opposite to me, dodging its jaw.

It seemed like lightning had been thrown from her hand, and pierced the serpent's snout.

Smell of burned flesh went up in the air, as the shock burned the thing's skin.

Me and Karah ran in a circle, and met far away from it.

Seeing it was still alive, I got an idea, and told Karah, while the serpent shook itself, trying to take the spear out of its face.

She looked angrily at me, then agreed.

Running out of time, I threw all my smoke bombs, along with Karah's in front of us, blocking the view, and threw a flashbang upwards.

As soon as I did this, Karah ran in front of me, and stretched her arm in my direction.

I took out my katana, activated the vibroblade mode, ran towards Karah and took her hand.

Then she threw me with all her strength, speeding in the air, towards the flashbang-stunned snake.

The angle was just right, and I landed with my sword on the thing's eye, piercing it along with its brain.