Nathan wiped water from his face for the umpteenth time, watching the battle through the pouring rain.
"Tell me," he said suddenly to his colleagues, "who was mocking Cassian's sword skills?"
He gestured toward the scene before them, where Cassian and the serpent fought with incredible ferocity.
"Because this is nothing like what he was showing before."
Leon, the bald colleague, snickered.
"You were the one mocking him the most, Nathan."
"Me? No, that was—"
"Yeah, it was you," another member confirmed. "You said, and I quote, 'This kid fights like a one-eyed chicken.'"
Nathan scowled.
"…Fine, okay. But look at him now!"
They watched in silence for a few seconds.
"Good thing we put a barrier around the Wing of Honor to block sound from getting out," Léon muttered. "Otherwise, this racket would've set the whole palace talking."
The battle raged on.
The Ancient Serpent whipped its tail violently, massive enough to crush an entire tree.
CRACK.
A century-old oak snapped in two.
Cassian dodged with a roll to the side, then countered instantly with a horizontal slash.
His blade traced a searing line of electricity along the serpent's scales, leaving a smoking "guide scar."
The serpent hissed in pain and retaliated by coiling around a nearby tree. Its massive muscles contracted, uprooting the tree entirely.
Then it hurled it like a giant club.
Cassian leaped, activating his electric boots to gain height. The tree crashed beneath him, slamming into the ground.
He landed on the serpent's back.
And began striking repeatedly, generating electric arcs that spread across the creature's body.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
The serpent writhed violently, trying to dislodge its rider.
Cassian held on, plunging his sword between the scales to anchor himself, then continued his rapid strikes.
A series of blows to one segment, paralyzing the muscles with electric buildup.
The serpent roared and slammed itself against multiple trees at once, trying to crush Cassian between its body and the wood.
Cassian jumped just in time, diving toward the serpent's neck with a charged vertical strike.
BOOM.
The electricity exploded at the point of impact, targeting the vital area behind the head.
The serpent collapsed momentarily, stunned.
But it rose almost immediately, its resilience astonishing.
It threw its full weight to the ground in a lateral motion, crushing everything beneath its mass.
Cassian dodged with a roll, then counterattacked with a longitudinal slash along the serpent's length.
The electricity spread from scale to scale like a luminous chain.
The serpent, frustrated, began spinning rapidly on itself.
Branches, stones, and debris were flung in all directions like a storm of deadly shards.
Cassian shielded himself with his arm, the armor absorbing the impacts, then lunged forward.
He executed a backward circular slash, perfect for countering the sweeping tail.
CLANG.
The sword met the scales with a metallic ring.
The serpent suddenly vanished behind several thick trunks, using its size and the forest's density to surprise Cassian.
But Cassian was now attuned to the serpent's movements.
At first, they were hard to predict. But now, they were much simpler.
He could sense the danger before it was too late.
When the serpent lunged from between the trees, jaws wide open, Cassian was already moving.
He performed two simultaneous reverse slashes, repelling the jaws trying to swallow him.
The serpent recoiled, shook its head, then tried another tactic.
It plunged its head into the ground, sending up a shower of dirt and rocks like an explosion.
Cassian shielded himself with his arm, then channeled electricity into his blade and unleashed a horizontal slash.
The electric arc detached from the blade and shot toward the serpent in a blazing streak.
CRACK.
The serpent was hit in the flank, burning deeply.
Then, from the sky, a lightning bolt struck.
BOOM.
It hit the serpent directly, drawn by the electricity already on its body.
The serpent roared, its body convulsing.
Cassian hadn't even summoned that bolt. It was just the equipment naturally attracting lightning.
The battle continued.
Around them, the garden was wrecked in places. Broken trees, craters in the ground, shattered rocks.
But something strange was happening.
The fallen trees began to fade slowly into the ground. The craters gradually filled. The debris vanished as if erased by an invisible eraser.
This was due to modifications Cassian had made to this part of the palace. He liked the landscape to be beautiful and pristine. Having debris in the garden wasn't pleasant to look at.
The serpent, seeing it was losing ground, tried one last desperate tactic.
It exhaled a dense cloud of toxic mist.
The mist burned the skin and irritated the eyes, making breathing difficult. It clung to the ground like a living swamp.
Cassian coughed, instinctively retreating.
But when he tried to move the fight elsewhere, the serpent didn't pursue.
It's staying in the mist to protect itself.
Cassian gritted his teeth and returned to the dangerous zone, careful of his movements.
I could've gone to save Ingrid now, he thought vaguely. *But… I want to finish the fight first!*
He'd completely forgotten the original goal was to save the princess.
The serpent used every sneaky trick it could muster. Hiding, feinting, trapping.
But in the end, it was brute force that brought it down.
Cassian performed a series of rapid leaps around the serpent, each strike drawing concentrated lightning to the monster.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
The bolts fell in rapid succession.
Then Cassian lunged forward and struck with a final thrust.
At the moment of impact, the blade unleashed a concentrated beam of lightning that pierced everything in its path.
BOOM.
The serpent collapsed.
Its massive body crashed heavily to the ground, smoking, motionless.
Cassian stood atop the serpent's body, panting.
He removed his helmet.
Steam poured out immediately. He'd sweated a lot under it.
He looked at his work with satisfaction.
"I won!"
The rain slowly lessened, shifting from a deluge to a light drizzle.
Cassian climbed down from the serpent's body and headed toward the small house.
He pushed open the door.
"Ingrid! I saved you from—oh."
Ingrid was lying on the bed, eyes closed, breathing peacefully.
Asleep.
Cassian blinked, surprised.
"She's… sleeping?"
He didn't complain. After all, it was the most boring role in the game. Just waiting to be saved.
He yawned suddenly, shivering.
It's cold from the rain.
Ingrid, however, wasn't asleep at all.
She was pretending.
As soon as she'd seen Cassian approaching through the window, she'd rushed to fake sleep.
Please, leave me alone now. The game's over. I just want to go back to my room and take a hot bath.
Outside, the Silent Circle members emerged from their hiding spots, soaked to the bone.
Nathan wrung out his hair with dismay.
"I'm never playing babysitter for a magical kid again."
"You say that every time," Leon replied, grinning.
In the garden, the serpent's body began to fade slowly, absorbed into the ground.
The broken trees reconstituted. The craters filled. The shattered rocks repaired.
In a few hours, everything would be back to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Nathan watched the process with fascination.
"You know," he said to Léon, "in the original tale, the hero defeated the serpent differently. He tricked it into biting its own tail, trapping it in an endless cycle."
Leon shrugged.
"But Cassian… he's got his own way of doing things."
Nathan glanced at the small house where Cassian was probably trying to wake his "princess."
"Yeah. I guess so."