So, the battle shifted into who would manage to succeed first, Arthur team or the pythons’ horns. The clock was ticking, and everyone of the team was exerting his or her utmost effort to kill what was left on the ground, Arthur and Don joined them as well.

The massacre continued for two long minutes, but they managed to slay all the defeated pythons, numbering around twenty snakes. Once finished, Arthur knew it wasn’t over yet, as that special python was still surrounding itself with thirty python at the least.

They didn’t need the special python to control them, so they activated their abilities successfully at the third minute.

“Retreat!”

Arthur yelled as he started to push everyone, helping them to retreat fast. He never moved his eyes from the pythons, wondering about the special ability they held. Pythons were either water based or fire based creatures, but from the fact water lined their control, he had a vague idea about their ability.

And he is absolutely right.

Each python formed a small ball of fire, which started to ignite in red flames first, then blue, then dark. Almost thirty balls of fire were formed, with another special ball that was white in color. This ball was unique, and Arthur knew for sure it was the ability formed by that special python.

‘Double ability wielder, huh?!’ Arthur muttered to himself, expressing his admiration to that snake. He decided, this one would be his at the end, as this one was unique, very unique.

It suited him, with the mental ability it had, controlling the others would help his control ability. As for the fire ability, it was just a bonus. Arthur kept pushing everyone to cross the river, until he was the last one on the ground, and Lily was the only one on the sky.

At this moment, a change occurred at the pythons’ side, as the balls of fire started to coalesce together, using the central ball as the main, for a huge white ball that seemed quite dangerous.

‘It’s a long range attack then, I have to interfere or else we all would die!’

He decided to act, and when he did that he changed his previous tactic.

“Listen to me, it’s do or die now. let’s dart towards them and defeat as many of them as possible.”

His words were brief, but everyone realized it was related to the new huge ball in the air. At once, they all crossed the river again, while Arthur was nowhere to be seen.

He moved, using his feet movement, to appear just beside one of the pythons. He was wielding a group of spears, as he threw them one by one to be inserted deeply into one python body after another.

Once the wooden spear was inserted into any python’s body, it hisses loudly of pain, interrupting the ability used, making the fireball lose some size gradually.

The tactic used by Arthur was copied without any delay by others, as they used the spears to attack these pythons. Arthur was the fastest, with Ouly, as they both acted as the main force of attack, while others used the distraction caused by Arthur to help in the attack from the side.

With each python poisoned, the ball lost part of its power, decreasing in size gradually, which seemed something unpleasant to see by the special python, which hissed louder than others, with his horns shining again.

Arthur knew the mental trick this python was about to use, but he couldn’t undo it, except by only killing the pythons. Killing them was easier said than done, as poisoning them was easily done by the spears, but to kill just one, they needed Tarry to interfere and all of them attack simultaneously, with some time to make one python dead.

“Tarry, target the special python, Don, protect him.”

Arthur had no other choice but to risk. It was risky from the start attacking all these high graded monsters, but it wasn’t time to resent now. Arthur didn’t let Tarry advance alone, as he moved as well to attack the special python for the first time.

Just like what happened with the horned bear, the python had its defensive aura, which was much stronger than the horned bear. Arthur didn’t want to break it, as he depended entirely over Tarry to do so, but he tried to distract the python, using all what he had from arrows, spears, and swords.

This barrage of attacks didn’t distract the special python, which looked towards Arthur in a human -like expression of mockery on its face. Arthur felt bad from this look, and rapidly what he feared happened, as this python controlled the ball of white fire to descend on the area around it, risking the lives of its snakes to stop Tarry.

It was a critical moment, Arthur had to do something, as Tarry couldn’t be stopped right now, especially when he was only a couple of meters away from the python. He gritted his teeth, as he disappeared from his place, grabbed Tarry’s neck, and then moved dragging him to hit the shield of the special python violently, smashing it into pieces.

“Now!”

He yelled, on his only trump card, Lily, who descended among chaos and grabbed some spears from the back. She was hovering above the python, waiting for a window to interfere, and once she heard the words of Arthur, she jumped from the back of Birdy, letting the gravity control her descent, to fall heavier and faster than the ball of fire, creating unstoppable momentum, holding two spears in her hands, to fall directly over the python’s head.

Just as she touched the python, Arthur threw Tarry to the side, grabbed her shoulder, and moved rapidly, carrying her away from the place. Once they landed on the ground, they rolled heavily for a couple of meters, creating a small crater there.

As for Don, Arthur had cancelled its summon from the start, as he didn’t know if he was killed here, could he be resurrected or not. Arthur didn’t want to take the risk, and now the special python suicidal attack failed, as the ball of fire fell over its head, burnt many of its associates, while it was already poisoned, feeling weak, lying motionless on the ground.

“It’s finally over,” Arthur muttered in a tired tone, while standing with some difficulty from the ground. The rest of the team was now subduing the rest of pythons, which surrendered to them once they noticed the defeat of their boss.

“Are you ok?” Arthur went to check on Lily, who coughed mouth full of blood, before weakly replying:

“I need to rest.”

“Don’t,” Arthur painfully said, as he resummoned Don again. “Go and grab the cart of meat here,” he ordered. Any injuries were easily healed by using energy, either absorbing it from the world, or gaining it from external sources like food.

At this moment, Arthur greatly missed the precious elixirs he usually used after battles. Lying on the ground beside Lily, while starting to eat the meat Don got to them in the cart, he felt a sudden relief.

This battle was hard, very hard, but they managed to emerge victorious without major losses. This battle was another step for them towards the path of greatness, as Arthur believed the gains from this battle were immense for their current weak levels.

But he just needed some rest before thinking about these gains.