WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 4: FLY HIGH!
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It was an inferno.
Could the hell people went to after death really be this horrible?
That captain was a truly horrible bastard. Reading the wind before setting the place ablaze, just who did the captain think they were, Zhuge Liang?
A southeast wind hadn't been blowing, but there really must have been air vents inside the cave.
The flames didn't just ripple along the ground. They surged skyward in a blazing updraft.
The soldiers covered their faces and slowly began to retreat.
"Fall back to the cave entrance and hold it!"
The captain barked orders and took command of the soldiers.
The captain's determination not to let even one snake escape was obvious.
My siblings who caught fire shriveled up and died in an instant.
They looked like hagfish tossed onto a grill.
So was I fine because I was outside the flames?
No. Not at all.
*「Heat Resistance proficiency is rising sharply. You have obtained Heat Resistance lv1.」
The heat alone began to scorch my scales white.
My survival instinct warned me to flee this blaze. My scales trembled, urging me to hide in a damp crack between the rocks.
*「You have obtained Survival Instinct lv1.」
This was no joke. It was real.
Still, I didn't follow my survival instinct's warning.
The fire was spreading through the oil. Even if I hid in a crack in the rocks, I would only become a nicely roasted snake.
Instead, I glared at the retreating captain.
I remembered your face.
I won't forget this grudge.
That was all the time I had to spare.
At this rate, I really was going to die.
The reason I had waited until now was because the petrification on the monsters had to wear off to some extent first.
Their complexions were slowly returning. They still couldn't move, but they twitched now and then.
My teeth would sink into their flesh now.
What I was about to do was clearly insane.
But unless I did something insane, there was no way out of this fiery hell.
I crawled straight into the wide-open mouth of the Horn Jaguar.
The Horn Jaguar was bigger than a bull.
It had roared in terror at the sight of Mother, then petrified in that position.
That meant the vast throat of a carnivore was wide open.
As I slipped between its sharp teeth, I saw its tongue, and beyond that, its dangling uvula.
Nom.
I bit the uvula.
The petrification had weakened enough that my teeth sank deeply in.
As long as the uvula didn't tear free, I could hide inside the Horn Jaguar's mouth.
Now go, Horn Jaguar!
At last, the petrification wore off.
And naturally, the first thing the monster with a bitten uvula did was gag.
"Kek! Kegegek! Kweeeck!"
If something were dangling from my uvula, I would vomit my guts out too.
But I was small enough to be called a thread snake.
If I had been an ordinary animal, I would have either been crushed by the tightening muscles of its throat or gone flying out with a "Kek!"
But this enormous throat swallowed down barely chewed meat whole. It couldn't vomit me out.
I held on stubbornly.
Think of it as an unsedated gastroscopy, Jaguar.
Stop! Stop gagging!
"Gweeeck!"
Aagh!
It vomited up the contents of its stomach.
The Horn Jaguar's vomit washed over my skin, which was already stinging from the flames.
It smelled awful, and it hurt.
If I had suffered a little longer, I might have gained Pain Resistance.
Either way, I kept hanging on.
Only then did the Horn Jaguar realize that it was in a sea of fire.
Monsters and humans were alike in fearing fire.
The Geiger Hog that had been petrified beside it let out a booming cry and began to run.
"Kweeeek!"
"Kheong!"
The two monsters ran wildly.
They instinctively fled the flames, toward the soldiers escaping outside.
They were unbelievably fast.
The ride felt fantastic, like I had climbed onto a racing tank.
Neither monster paid any attention to the snakes wriggling beneath their feet.
They ran on, crushing thread snakes with heavy thuds.
The Horn Jaguar ran with its mouth open in agony, so I saw every bit of it.
My siblings really had fighting spirit.
They instinctively bit the legs of the passing Geiger Hog and Horn Jaguar.
Neither monster could shake them off, and they kept running.
Several dozen snakes clung to the monsters' bodies and escaped with them.
Still, the difference between my ride and my siblings' was about the difference between first class and economy.
Many were singed by the flames, or had their teeth break from the running momentum and were flung away.
Goodbye, everyone.
At last, the Horn Jaguar escaped through the cave entrance.
The soldiers waiting there stared in shock.
"Aaaagh!"
"W-What is that?!"
They must have only expected to catch snakes scrambling out in a panic.
Even their armor, including gambesons, was only enough to handle snakes. Some had even brought shovels and hoes instead of spears to catch snakes crawling along the ground.
Then two house-sized monsters suddenly burst out.
Of course they were terrified.
"A monster!"
The soldiers seemed a little fainthearted.
The captain smacked the back of the head of the soldier who shouted that.
"You idiot. Look closely. That's just a magical beast."
"Ah, snakes... I see."
I didn't know how different a magical beast was from a monster, but their reactions made it clear.
The Horn Jaguar was covered in flames and had dozens of snakes clinging to it.
Of course it looked horrifying.
Part of me wanted to pop my face out from inside its mouth and say peekaboo too.
Of course, then the angry Horn Jaguar would probably chomp down on me.
Come to think of it, getting out of the Horn Jaguar's mouth would be a problem too.
It wasn't like I could say, "Thanks a damn lot for your hospitality!" before leaving.
Anyway.
"Hold the formation!"
All I could do was hope the Horn Jaguar put up a good fight here.
"Raise your spears!"
My nemesis, the captain, carried out his duty to the end.
At his command, the soldiers quickly raised their spears.
Several soldiers with spears could take down most wild beasts.
The same applied to monsters.
"Kweeeek!"
The brave Geiger Hog charged into the soldiers first.
A boar larger than the gigantic wild boars said to live near Korea's Military Demarcation Line was skewered by spears.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Two unlucky soldiers were sent flying as if hit by a car, but no less than five spears embedded themselves in the Geiger Hog's body.
Even a sturdy monster couldn't ignore that.
It couldn't go any farther and slammed its head into the ground.
"Don't let your guard down! Another one is coming!"
At the captain's cry, the Horn Jaguar began to run.
All I could do was grip its uvula tightly.
I was starting to feel uneasy. The soldiers' encirclement was denser than I had expected.
"Kheooong!"
Hearing a predator's roar from inside its throat was an astonishing experience.
The inner ear attached to my skull vibrated, sending a thrill through my whole body.
Then my body floated.
Weightlessness.
The Horn Jaguar had leaped high into the air.
Below, I saw soldiers staring up with their mouths agape.
The Horn Jaguar's leg strength was beyond anything they had imagined.
For a moment, I thought my eyes met the captain's.
Boom!
It had leaped far enough to clear an entire building, but landed lightly.
The Horn Jaguar began running as if its tail were on fire.
Toward the eastern forest.
Toward the ancient woodland, so thick that humans dared not pursue it.
...So how was I supposed to get out of here now?
Breathing in the Jaguar's damp, hot breath, I thought it over.
* * *
Countless animals lived in the Sija Forest.
Some were monsters imbued with demonic power, while others were ordinary beasts.
All sorts of strange things happened here, but something particularly unusual was happening today.
Even wild animals like monkeys and rabbits couldn't resist watching.
"Kuweng, kweeeeng!"
A Horn Jaguar.
A dangerous monster that could only be found after entering the Great Forest, not in the Sija Forest.
There was nothing in the Sija Forest that could threaten a Horn Jaguar.
Yet that Horn Jaguar was currently thrashing about in a frenzy.
"Kwek! Kek!"
It leaped high enough to clear a decent-sized tree, then rolled around on the ground.
Thud!
Then it smashed its head into a tree.
Startled birds took flight, and monkeys fled with shrill cries.
"Kheooong!"
The monster roared fiercely and swung a forepaw.
The tree snapped with a crack and fell over.
The Horn Jaguar was already covered in blood.
It had clearly not been attacked by anything. It had broken its claws and wounded its face while going wild on its own.
It was now at the boundary between the Sija Forest and the Great Forest.
Not that a forest had an actual border. It was simply where dangerous monsters became more common and Sija trees grew scarce.
It was also in front of a basin hollowed out between cliffs.
Then, suddenly, the Horn Jaguar began to cough as if its breath had been cut off.
"Kek, keeng!"
It coughed violently, then eventually couldn't even do that.
Had something inside it finally blocked its airway?
As expected of a predator that roamed the forest, the Horn Jaguar didn't stop fighting even on the verge of death.
It suddenly took off running, then threw itself from the cliff.
The mad Jaguar had been thrashing around, and now it put on a suicide-diving show.
The wild animals watching cautiously peered down where the Horn Jaguar had fallen.
The cliff was high enough.
The Horn Jaguar wouldn't suffer any longer.
* * *
Aaaaaagh!
I screamed internally.
Burning to death versus getting eaten by a Horn Jaguar.
If I had to choose which was worse, it was the latter now.
Die! Die!
That was what I screamed in my heart.
Naturally, it was probably thinking the same thing.
Getting through the flames and soldiers was great.
But escaping peacefully from this Horn Jaguar's mouth was completely impossible.
All I could do was desperately bite its uvula.
If I let go, only one of two fates awaited me.
I would either be chewed to pieces or swallowed whole without even being chewed.
*「Pain Resistance lv2 has become Pain Resistance lv3.」
*「Breath Holding lv2 has become Breath Holding lv3.」
*「Tear Apart lv2 has become Tear Apart lv3.」
Because I held on with every ounce of strength I had, my skill proficiency rose insanely fast.
It was a battle to see who got tired first.
Putting all twenty of my stat points into Mental Strength had been an excellent choice.
I endured through sheer stubbornness and grit.
It wasn't the life of a snake I had chosen... but still, that was how it was.
But there was a limit to how long I could endure its desperate thrashing, shaking its head and gagging.
At last, my mind grew hazy and my jaws weakened.
It inhaled deeply, and I, small enough to be called a thread snake, was sucked straight into its airway.
"Keeng!"
The advantage had completely shifted to me.
It could no longer hurt me.
And I had infiltrated its most vulnerable place.
Its lungs.
Whenever I ate blood sausage, I was the kind of guy who asked the vendor for lots of lung.
I unleashed Tear Apart without restraint.
Hot blood began pooling around me.
Aaaaaah!
*「Tear Apart proficiency is rising sharply.」
In the end, a hole opened in its lung.
That was when it happened.
My body floated.
Oh, this.
That familiar sensation.
The dizzying feeling like a shark was about to bite my ass off.
It was what I felt riding the Gyro Drop at Lotte World.
The sensation of falling.
That crazy Jaguar had thrown itself off somewhere.
Was this the spirit of Nongae, who embraced her enemy and threw herself from a cliff?
It must have been high up, because the fall lasted quite a while.
Long enough that even a sturdy monster couldn't avoid death.
But I weighed less than one serving of pork belly, and I was surrounded by soft flesh.
Boom!
The impact was still strong enough to make me see shooting stars, though.
I survived.
The Jaguar, of course, didn't seem to have survived.
*「Your level has increased.」
*「Your level has increased.」
*「Your level has increased.」
*「Your level has increased.」
*「Your level has increased.」
*「Your level has increased.」
*「Your level has increased.」
It was thanks to the feast of level-ups.
What was this, some Kim XX-ho novel?
Footnotes:
Nongae was a Korean historical figure said to have embraced an enemy official and leaped into a river from a cliff.
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