galaxy storm

5. desperate battle

After he took a battle stance the snake lunged at Gareth its mouth gaping wide hoping to bite him in two, but Gareth avoided the lunge and counterattacked with his spear easily cutting into the tough scales but he then realized that he could not go any further as he had hit something very hard. 

He felt that if he had more time he could probably pierce through the extremely tough membrane but the snake had felt the sting from his attack and had given him no time to do such a thing. 

The serpent becoming annoyed lunged at Gareth again but he simply dodged and every time he did he would retaliate leaving a cut on the snake annoying it some more.

Seeing that its prey was constantly able to dodge its lunges it varied its attack and now used its body as a whip intending to batter it into tender meat.

The new attack surprised Gareth a bit as it was intelligent enough to know tactics, seeing the new attack incoming Gareth decided to jump over it. This  became a game of jump rope, where any mistake would badly hurt Gareth. Even then Gareth was a little amused over the game that was being reenacted in this battle.

The beast varied its attacks in order to confuse Gareth, sometimes it would attack by slamming its body to the ground other times swing it side to side but he was not a simple creature so he easily dodged the attacks and he would leave a long scratch occasionally when the time was right.

It had been a little over an hour and the snake now had more than a dozen or so wounds while Gareth was feeling quite fatigued as he wasn't in his best state and had multiple infections and parasites in his body. 

Seeing that the prey didn't want to yield and it was getting more and more injured it decided to dive underground to attack. Seeing it burrow Gareth knew that it didn't intend to flee so he stood still while a warm wind blew across the battleground. Gareth was concentrating on the minute vibrations in the sand to pinpoint where the snake was heading, a few minutes past and he discerned the vibrations were at his right so he immediately dodged. 

The snake erupted on his right side a moment ago and was momentarily confused to why it didn't catch Gareth, seeing this opening Gareth struct the snake in the eye and despite it trying to block it with its multiple eyelids however the spear easily pierced the eyelids and went straight into the eyeball. The snake hissed in pain and anger thrashing about on the sand, Gareth could only puncture its eyeball but didn't reach any further before it reacted violently so he took his spear back and retreated catching his breath.

The half blind snake after thrashing about in the sand for 5 minutes had gradually regained clarity however its single eye glared at Gareth with maddening hatred. It soon revealed its entire body and Gareth knew what his bad feeling was.

The sand began to bulge and another snake head emerged from the sand identical to the snake he had just fought except it had both eyes. What was worse was in between the two snakes a huge crab emerged covered in reptilian scales. Where its arms used to be was the body of the two snakes and Gareth felt he would not be able to beat such a foe in his current state.

The creatures main body was the crab and through a mutual agreement with one or 2 desert snakes they would fuse together. The process would start by having the arms of the crab removed and the lower half of the snakes body removed. Then the snakes would attach their bodies to the crabs open arm sockets and go into hibernation for a few months. During this time they would be very vulnerable as they would not be able to move nor conscious so they would need to hide during this time. When they awaken the snakes would develop a hard carapace underneath their tough sharp scales while the crab would develop scales and the ability to burrow into the sand.

When Gareth tried to flee he was blocked by the snakes obviously not wanting to let him go, Gareth could only fight with his life on the line if he really wanted to live.

The snakes began their attack and having two enemies who knew what the other was thinking made it very difficult to dodge. The scales were very streamlined and sharp so even brushing against it would tear a chunk of flesh off, Gareth had a few occasions where this occur and currently had a chunk of flesh missing of his calf, thigh and waist. 

The injured snake would occasionally spit acid that corroded anything that touched it except themselves luckily Gareth noticed all those attempts and evaded them easily.

What Gareth found the most difficult was when one went underground to attack, the other snake seem to realise that he had to concentrate in order to dodge successfully and so it would constantly distract him from focusing. It was the main reason why Gareth constantly got injured.

2.5 hours had gone since Gareth had injured the snake, and currently he was just holding on by sheer willpower. His body was in a mess with lots of flesh missing and he was losing lots of blood. The snakes on the other hand had numerous scratches on them, some had crisscrossed and one or two had managed to pierce through the thick carapace underneath their scales.

Both parties were fatigued but Gareth was in worse condition, after fighting continuously for so long he was dizzy, weak and having blurred vision. His adrenaline had long since worn out and he could feel every single inch of pain his body was emitting. He had to finish this fight fast and he began to look at what seemed the main body of the creature, the crab. The crab acted as a energy generator that supplied energy to the snakes so they could fight for longer, it was also the dominant mind so if it was badly hurt the snakes wouldn't be able to control their bodies to well.

Gareth scanned the crab and finally his sights fell to the eye stalks, they were like two large joysticks and Gareth came up with a suicidal idea.

Gareth broke the short stalemate and charged towards the crab, the trio didn't know what was going on but still planned to tire him out making him dodge and jump. Gareth followed along with their ploy and soon reached the crab. He then jumped onto the crabs back by using its legs as a step. The crab didn't know what he had planned and wanted to shake him off but Gareth clung onto the shell. 

Seeing that it couldn't shake him off it let the snakes do it for it, and Gareth used the opportunity to grab the two eyestalks and pulled.

The crab was obviously unprepared and a screech came out of its mouth when it felt a horrible pain in its eyes, realising that its foe was pulling its eyes out it began a tug of war with him wanting to retract its eyes into its shell. The snakes which were lunging at Gareth became disoriented when the crab was being attacked, the snakes lost control of their body and were flailing around in the sky.

Gareth was slowly pulling the eyestalks out and he was less than a quarter away from pulling them out, taking another step back he lost his footing when the crab moved its body and the crab used the opportunity to wriggle one of its eyes free.

Gareth frowned when he accidentally let go of the eyeballs and redoubled his effort on the other eyestalk using both his hands. The snakes were able to gain control of their bodies and quickly bit at Gareth latching to his upper and lower body. Blood squirted out of the wounds and the snakes drank it as if it was enjoying that Gareth was losing blood.

The tug of war continued yet this time the snakes had joined in wanting to tear Gareth in two. As Gareth pulled the snakes would loosen their bite and grip on him thus allowing him to pull harder but not wanting to give in the snakes would reapply even more force into their bite causing Gareth to more of his strength. This was the ultimate tug of war with the life of Gareth on the line.

Gareth could feel his strength was fading fast and probably only had just over a minute before he caved in, so he put his all in one last heave. Taking in a deep breathe and feeling his muscles full of oxygen, he took a step back and roared pulling at the eyestalk with all the strength he could muster.

The crab felt something strange change on the foe on top of it and began to urge the snakes to hurry, then it suddenly felt an increase of strength from the other party and with it a large wave of pain rippled in its mind. The snakes noticed the change as well and before it could bite it felt pain coming from the crab and as it was too intense it had disoriented them. The eye stalk slowly came out centimeter by centimeter and at the final second Gareth felt a solid snap and the eyestalk gave way. Muscle, blood, veins and brain matter came flowing out of the eye socket of the crab and the crab let out a blood curdling screech as the pain overwhelmed its sanity causing it to rampage as part of its brain was torn out from the eye socket.

The snakes had let go of Gareth as they felt the madness and pain coming from the crab and couldn't manage it in time overwhelming them and losing control.

Gareth  upon victory fell off the back of the crab with eyestalk gripped firmly in hand watched as the crab began scuttling like mad into the distance waving the helpless snakes in the sky before he fell into unconsciousness.