“Damn!” Bordan jerked backwards. “Help me, we need to get him out of there!”

With some difficulty, the other three unwound the large snake from around Edwin. His head was still spinning, but as soon as he could move again, he shrugged off his backpack, crawled into the stream on all fours and rolled onto his back. The water didn’t cover him completely, but the cold felt heavenly on his overheated skin.

“Are you okay?” Leodin asked, puzzled. “You look…weird.”

“Been better.” Edwin panted. His drowsiness was already starting to lift, but he only just realized that his lungs were working like bellows. It was the first time he was out of breath. “I think you got it before it could break anything.”

“Thank the gods.” Bordan sighed. “It felt like you were in there forever, I was sure you were dead. I guess it all went down a lot faster than I thought.”

“You could’ve hurried it up a little.” Edwin chuckled. “It’s not an experience I’d want to repeat.”

He sat up and splashed some water on his face and chest, then poured more over his head.

“Your arm!” Bordan said, alarmed. “Your wound must’ve reopened.”

Edwin inspected himself and saw that the bandages on his right arm were indeed dyed red from the elbow down. He didn’t feel pain there, so it took him a moment to understand the situation.

“It’s fine.” He waved Bordan off with his left. “That’s not my blood. I’ll rebandage it in a minute.”

He laid back down, letting the cool water wash around his ears and waiting for his breathing to normalize. Bordan finally moved off and joined the other two at the monster’s corpse. A few minutes later Edwin had cooled down to where his skin was only slightly flushed, and his head felt clear again, but his muscles were starting to hurt, which was strange and unwelcome. He struggled to his feet and walked over to inspect his backpack. He was mostly carrying clothes, so the pressure hadn’t done much harm, but his waterskin had burst open, making this the second one he’d ruined in short succession. He threw a quick look over at his teammates who were still inspecting the carcass, then unwrapped his bloody and wet bandages to quickly exchange them for fresh ones. When he was almost done, Bordan called to him.

“You stabbed it with your dagger from the inside?”

“Didn’t have anything else to do.” Edwin mumbled around the end of the bandage he was holding between his teeth. He tied it off and joined the rest of his party at the corpse. It was the first time he saw the diresnake in its entirety, and he was shocked at how massive it was. It was almost as thick as a man’s torso and seemed to go on forever, loops stacked in a big, confusing pile around where he’d been trussed up.

“Damn.” Edwin said. “That’s one big snake. How’d you kill it?”

“While it was busy with you, it wasn’t moving its body, so we went for the head.” Bordan replied. “It still took us a while because it was really fast, but I eventually got it with my spear and got it to hold still long enough for the others to put arrows into it.”

Bordan gestured towards the large, flat head of the snake. It sported several wounds as well as an arrow that stuck halfway through. “It cracked my spear, though.” Bordan added dejectedly, picking up his weapon from where it had lain on the ground and running his hand along the wooden shaft. It seemed alright at first glance, but when he looked closer Edwin could make out thin fracture lines running along its length.

“It’ll be fine, it only needs to hold until we’re back in Pel Darni.” Edwin said and slapped him on the shoulder. He gave the snake another look, then turned to Salissa. “No fire?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t know if you were protected in there and I didn’t want to burn you.”

Edwin scratched his chin, then shrugged. “You’re probably right, it might’ve cooked me before it killed the snake. So, arrows then?” Salissa nodded and pointed, and when Edwin knelt down and lifted one of the loops on top, he spotted almost a dozen arrows sticking out of the snake’s skin.

“Not bad.” Edwin nodded appreciatively. “You’re getting faster.” He turned to Bordan. “What now?”

“That depends. Are you really alright? Nothing broken, no injuries?”

Edwin twisted his torso and tested his arm and legs. “No, all good.” He replied. “Well, all my muscles are sore and my body feels like I got crushed under a rock slide, but I can walk just fine.”

Bordan shook his head. “You must be the luckiest man alive. I’ve heard these things are incredibly strong, cracking bones like twigs, though I guess the guy who told me that was exaggerating. Anyway, the good news is that diresnakes are among the rarer direbeasts, and if we sell the skin in the city, we can make a pretty penny. We still have plenty of sunlight left, so let’s try to skin it and load up as much as we can carry.”

Penetrating the monster’s thick and durable skin was hard work. In the end, Edwin instructed Salissa how to use telekinesis and Bordan’s sword to place a cut along the entire length of the body, after which Leodin and Bordan used their knives to part skin from meat. A few hours later, each of them had a roll of strange smelling snakeskin strapped to their backpack and they resumed their march. By that point Edwin’s muscles were aching badly. He hadn’t thought that he could get sore muscles, as nothing he’d done before in his short but eventful life had really taxed him. Overcharging himself with mana apparently damaged his body, and repairs and pain reduction would have to wait until he was recharged by the trickle from his core. So, he walked and suffered, every step a chore, until they reached the next ghost town.

It was much like the last, but the eerie atmosphere didn’t really faze them after the day they’d had. They found a mostly intact building to hunker down, made sure that it was safe, and soon there was a crackling fire in the hearth, with diresnake meat cooking in Bordan’s traveling pan. They had a nice meal and went to sleep shortly afterwards.

Edwin awoke, taking a moment to remember where he was. It was still pitch black, which meant that it was the middle of the night. Around him, he heard the slow breathing of his teammates. He was about to roll over and go back to sleep when he heard a scratching coming from the door. He stilled, listening intently. The scratching returned, and he sat up and grabbed his dagger. The door was old, but it was thick wood, and they’d barricaded it. Edwin considered waking his comrades but decided to wait. The scratching continued for a few minutes, as something was clearly looking for a way inside, either smelling the remains of their lunch or the humans themselves, but after a while it stopped. Edwin stayed awake for a little longer, listening out for more visitors, but eventually he laid back down.

--- ----- ---

“You should’ve woken us.” Bordan said sternly. It was morning and they were packing up their bedrolls, preparing to leave. Edwin shrugged.

“I thought about it, but I figured it was unnecessary. It was probably just some small animal trying to get to our rations, and I waited until it was gone. There was no reason for you guys to lose sleep over it.”

Bordan clearly wasn’t happy with his answer, but he didn’t push the issue. They disassembled their barricade, a pile of old furniture and wood, and carefully opened the door. The tall grass around the house was flattened in many places, as something large and heavy had trampled it while stalking around the building. Bordan gave Edwin a flat look, then started walking towards the gate. Edwin followed him, scratching his chin in embarrassment.

We’re fine, so I wasn’t wrong. Technically.

Thankfully, a good night’s sleep had restored his body’s small mana supply, which meant that his muscles had stopped aching. That was good, as the following days brought more of the same. They marched all day, sometimes having to backtrack when they had trouble telling where the road had once been. The abandoned villages provided good shelter for the night, and only once did they fail to find a building that was sturdy enough to keep out predators.

The improvised map they’d gotten from Gerron’s Vale turned out to be a real lifesaver, as they wouldn’t have been able to find their way in the uninhabited wilderness without it. Even with it, they almost missed their turnoff where they turned east, but thankfully one of the geezers had given them a good description of where it had been. A few days and a night cozied up to a small cliff later, they finally made it back to an inhabited village. They ate well, slept well, and another day of marching delivered them to the final stop of their journey before they could turn for home: The town of New Barstig.