Before Hamar could acknowledge what he said, he launched into the sky on instinct. While in the air, he solidified aura underneath his feet and watched below.
The ground ruptured and as a cloud of dust settled, the monster could be seen. It was as wide as a house or even two!
A massive gaping hole with sharp teeth. Hamar's eyes glistened as he recognised it, "I saw something about this before! It's not supposed be here thought, did somebody release it here!?"
The snake sensed him and it spun in the soul for a while. The snow had already melted around it and became replaced with mud.
After a moment of spinning it shot upwards to Hamar. He paused for a moment while creating a plan how to counteract.
"I can't use formations like Hou, but I can do this!" Hamar didn't dodge and instead he pulled out his sword and charged it with aura.
Just before the snake swallowed him while, the sword was fully coated in aura and he swung downwards.
A massive slash of pure aura energy shot forward and decimated the snakes body. It cut downwards and the aura blade cleanly cut the snake in two.
But Hamar didn't stop, he started to sweat as he took this chance. He looked inwards and focused on his connection to Hou's body.
From the outside he could feel rumbling but he continued to focus. "Where are they?!" Just as he was getting frustrated, he saw what he needed.
However. He was too late and while being busy, two slightly smaller snake launched in the sky and caused tunnels of earth to appear.
They collided with Hamar and his body was launched backwards. He fell to the ground and felt the earth below him melt.
It trapped his feets and hands. Hamar was focused again and as one of the two snakes bit as his side, he used aura to destroy the mud trapping him.
He rolled to the side and jumped back into the air. Spitting out blood he muttered, "They only split smaller and not die, unless you heat them while giving constant pressure!"
He looked to his side where one of the snakes had bitten of a chunk of his flesh. Before he sent aura to it though he felt his connection to Hou strengthen.
A light refreshing green glow came over him and healed his injury. Given the scenario he couldn't acknowledge it and just went straight into action.
"Come at me!" He shouted out while banging his chest.
The snakes heard this and began burrowing through the earth at high speed. They could move through the air but doing so cost then earth laws, while moving underground would heal them.
They jumped out and attacked Hamar and his eyes glistened. He released a wave of laws from his connection to Hou's body.
Suddenly the snakes froze and then despite trying to move forward they dropped to the ground. They then tried to burrow but before they could Hamar started to slash at them with aura blades.
"They pause after 'dying', if I kill them I should have time to really make sure they stay dead!"
He slashed at the snakes and they stopped burrowing for a moment. In that time he got out more laws from his connection to Hou and shot them forward.
The death dragon 'snake' in his robes flicked at his flippant use of laws. He stammered, "W-What?! Use techniques, resonance, intention! You're just using brute force, letting out laws and letting them do whatever!?"
Hamar flashed a smile as he continued to funnel laws straight into where the snakes were trapped, "I'm not like you, well the main you...I can't manipulate laws that well!"
He continued to slash his sword while pouring laws. Then suddenly as the snakes started to dissipate they mutated.
They bloated and then burst, creating a flurry of tiny snakes, some of which were fast enough to escape the contrast downwards pressure Hamar was applying with gravity laws.
The started to reach Hamar and he didn't become frantic. Instead he shook his shoulder and spoke to himself, to the deaths dragon snake inside his robes.
"You see? This is where I excel." He switched his grip on his sword and begun to move slowly.
His movements become slower yet they moved instantly. It started basic but then quickly the techniques became more creative and it was clear what he was doing.
The dragon in his robe shivered, "Y-You?! You're attacking every snake at the same time with blade slashed?!"
Hamar snickered and continued his technique, just then an illusory form appeared within his movements.
He spoke quietly, "Octopus Technique, Myriad Slashes!"
He continued to move, his movements inspired by the eight arms of an octopus and used to create this swordsmanship form.
As he continued slashing, the conditions were met and the snakes dissipated into smoke. Hou stopped slashing and sheathed his sword.
He closed his eyes and used his intuition while focusing on the area around him. He sensed the dense earth laws accumulated by the snake.
Then a change occurred and many of them went back into the ground, nourishing it. But many also transmuted and turned into death laws, along with which death laws appeared out of seemingly nowhere.
Hamar raised his eyebrows, "Laws can just...appear?"
He continued looking at those death laws were beginning to assimilate into the natural world and qi around it when the spirit stone in Hamar's robes began to shake.
He took it out and watched as his mental energy he had implanted, the one with his conception death started to resonate.
He saw a portion of the death laws migrate into the spirit stone, using up his mental energy in the process. At the same time the stone itself shifted and turned into an ethereal black wisp.
Hamar frowned looking those death laws which stayed out and were assimilated by the natural qi, "Why are they not affected, or at least as much?"
As Hamar was thinking to himself the death dragon within his robe jumped up, "Let a former cultivator inform you, this is an issue with yourself. You only have a limited view and conception on what 'Death' is...of course the intention to bring in death laws won't work fully if you don't even know what is 'Death'."
Hamar nodded and squinted at those remaining death laws, "What I think death is...." he bit his thumb, "To find Hou, you as a part of him is essential...death...death" He reminisced on the death he saw and the pain he felt.
He continued to try to conceptualise death, and all of its intricacies into one thought. As he did, he realised that he did not truly understand death and decided to put in on the backburner, to think about it later.
Squeezing his fists before letting go he said, "So...Is that enough death laws to feed you?"