Disaster: Undesired Fate

The Queen of Naja Sputatrix, a colossal cobra with venom so potent it sears flesh and bone, a predator that chooses violence not out of necessity but nature. Her venom strikes swift, whether to protect herself or to end her prey's life.

"Wa-wait, how could that snake attack the village? I'm certain we escaped her wrath back then!" My voice wavered as I tried to piece together fragments of memory from a few months ago—the moment I witnessed that enormous serpent swallow royal soldiers whole as if they were nothing but twigs.

"Plenty of reasons!" Redan's voice cut through, fierce and sharp. His spear glowed with elemental wind, and the poison of the Naja Sputatrix swirled ominously around its tip, an eerie dance of death. Without hesitation, he downed a potion to restore his strength, then snarled through gritted teeth, "You're dying today!"

Damn it, I thought. Lenia's Rune Teleport saved us, didn't it? The Queen shouldn't have been able to pursue us… so how in hell is Tarnet under attack now?

A voice rang out, ethereal and commanding. "Transfer."

It was Stattlich. Suddenly, a flood of vivid memories surged into my mind, replaying the events of that fateful day in grotesque detail.

---

Months Ago

"Are you sure this is safe? It's just the two of us..." Lenia's worry was evident.

"It's fine," I assured her with far more confidence than I felt. "It's just a simple quest. We're dealing with a few bats infesting Tarnet's farmland. How hard could it be?"

Tarnet, a quaint village to the east, lay only a kilometer from Rutesh.

"But they're still monsters," Lenia argued, her brows furrowed. "And what if there's a boss monster?"

She had a point. We'd barely survived an encounter with a boss monster before—an elemental beast that nearly wiped us out.

"Boss bats? That's ridiculous. I've never even heard of such a thing. It's probably just a simple extermination job," I replied, waving her concerns away.

Lenia shot me a skeptical look. "You better be right."

By the time we arrived in Tarnet, the village was abuzz with activity. Soldiers were stationed everywhere, their armor gleaming under the afternoon sun. A strange tension hung in the air.

"Why are there royal soldiers here?" I asked one of them, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"There's a monster," he replied curtly. "The seal containing it has broken. It's weak now, but we're not taking any chances."

Seal? My mind raced. A sealed monster?

Before I could inquire further, horns blared, signaling the soldiers to take their positions around the village. The air grew heavier with anticipation as villagers gathered to watch.

---

We approached Enka, the quest giver, at his modest home on the village outskirts. Despite his irritation at only two Guardians arriving to handle his request, we convinced him to let us proceed. Tarnet's farmland turned out to be expansive—far more than I'd anticipated.

"It's bigger than I thought," I muttered, surveying the rolling fields dotted with fruit trees.

"Yeah, and we're stuck with this because of your great decision-making," Lenia grumbled, her tone sharp.

We spent the next hours strategizing how to protect the crops from the bats. But our plans were disrupted when, during our scouting, we stumbled upon something much larger—a cave teeming with ominous energy and a battalion of royal soldiers standing guard.

And then the Queen of Naja Sputatrix emerged.

---

The chaos was immediate. Soldiers were thrown like ragdolls as the massive serpent burst forth from the cave, her dark scales shimmering like obsidian in the light. Poison spewed from her fangs, sizzling as it hit the ground, carving grooves into the soil.

"Is that—" Lenia gasped, her voice trembling.

"Naja Sputatrix," I finished for her, the words heavy with dread.

The soldiers rallied, unleashing a barrage of elemental attacks, but her scales deflected most of them. The Queen retaliated with a sweep of her tail, toppling their defensive barriers as if they were paper.

"Ken," Lenia's voice was barely a whisper, "We're going to die if we don't run now."

But running wasn't an option. Not this time.

"Lenia," I said, gripping my weapon tightly. "Channel fire into me. We're ending this."