With curiosity shinning in her pretty green eyes, the little wyrm slid towards Vivian and climbed up all he way until her face was only a few centiters away from Vivian’s hand.
"Hisss?", after Espi’s nose twitched a couple of tis, she turned to see Vivian as she hissed at her, now Vivian of course couldn’t understand the little wyrm, but it wasn’t hard to guess what she was asking so she didn’t need neither Aster nor Kana to translate for her.
"Mm, I applied so of the king cobra venom that a few of them gladly donated as thanks for treating that little cobra, onto an open wound in my finger", said the white-haired girl.
The scene of Vivian playing with the baby cobras was caused because after taking samples of king cobra venom, she imdiately started experinting with them, starting of course with young king cobra venom which she mixed with a liquid base which had so of her diluted blood in it.
Surprisingly an interesting effect took place, the baby cobras that were though curiously, still warily looking from the distance, imdiately approached Vivian who was holding the tube which contained the experintal mix of young king cobra venom and her diluted blood.
It was only interest at first though, but then when Vivian applied the mix to her hand the baby cobras started actively playing with her, apparently, they saw Vivian as one of them now that her skin was in contact with the blood/venom mix.
So, Aster got the idea to use that in order to make the black mamba willingly confess, of course since the desired result was different this ti Vivian not only used adult king cobra venom, obtained from the remaining five-ter royal guard king cobra which stayed behind but also applied it onto an open wound while she allowed her threatening aura to leak only from that spot in specific.
The result was that for a mont, everyone in the cave thought that one of kings of reptiles from the past which belonged to the king cobra race, had co back to life, for those with strong minds or those from the sa race it was but a temporary "illusion" of so sort, but for the black mamba which was already traumatized by the little wyrm, a giant "king cobra" was now standing not too far from him.
"Woah, for a second I thought big sister Vivian was a king cobra, that’s amazing~", said Kana as she also approached Vivian who found herself surrounded by two curious little girls.
"Ahem, I know it’s quite an interesting phenonon, but let’s leave that for later", said Aster as he returned those two to the real world, truth to be told he was also interested in the subject, because Vivian couldn’t do this before, but right now they had another matter in hands.
With slightly ashad expressions on their pretty faces Espi and Kana let go of Vivian, the little wyrm then slid towards the black mamba who was pressing his head against the ground to lead the interrogation, since that’s what was preventing her from playing with the big sister whose hair is of the sa color as her scales.
"Hisss", with Vivian applying ntal pressure on the black mamba, the thing answered to the questions of the little wyrm, while Kana translated for everyone.
"Mmm, he says that they were sent by the king of water beasts, after the fight that broke out between them and the black horses, which resulted in loses for both sides, the king reached the conclusion to pin the bla of the claims made by the forr king of herbivores on the king cobra race, so they were told to co and obtain a few corpses of young cobras and one of the three five-ter grandpa cobras".
"As to why a royal guard from the black mamba race ca here personally, it’s because if they couldn’t put the bla on the king cobra race, they were the next obvious choice since the black mamba race is the sole other venomous race within the four major snake races, so he was told to make sure the plan succeeded", said the little girl, to which Aster chuckled.
’Would you like at that, that anaconda tried to shift the bla to soone else just like I did with her’, he amusingly thought to then say.
"Why go through all the trouble to give an explanation to the forr king of herbivores, is the anaconda afraid of him?", he asked which the little wyrm proceeded to ask to the black mamba so that Kana could translate for others.
"Apparently, the anaconda and that black horse were in the midst of discussing an alliance when this conflict started, so the anaconda thought of putting things back in track while also getting rid of a thorn in her side, naly the king cobra race", said Kana.
Obviously, the black mamba didn’t answer with those words exactly, but the little girl conveyed the ssage perfectly.
Needless to say, but the king cobras were livid, the anaconda wanted to use one of the sole three five-ter adults in their whole race and more importantly their younglings as scape goats, just to solve a conflict faster when the role of a king is to protect their subordinated races.
"I suppose a pawn like him doesn’t know why is the anaconda trying to establish an alliance with the black horse, right?", asked Aster to which Kana nodded, while the seconds in command knew about the alliance in question, only the leaders of the involved major races had more information than this.
"Oh well that’s enough for now I guess, put that guy in a container alongside a tube containing the mix of your blood and the king cobra’s poison so that he can’t escape", said Aster to Vivian who nodded to then say.
"Can I take so of his venom in the anti?", more venoms ant different new dicines so of course the more the rrier for Vivian.
"Sure", getting the greenlight from Aster, the white-haired girl brought a container with small holes on its lid and placed the black mamba who didn’t dare to resist in Vivian’s presence to then harvest his poison before she closed the container and with that out of the way it was ti to return to the official matter that brought them to the territory of the king cobra race.
"I trust you are convinced that your race and that anaconda can’t live under the sa sky at this point, if not now she will find a way to kill you all later, so how about supporting our cute Espi’s claim to a duel, we won’t interfere in the food chain of the forest, and just like you all, we don’t kill unless it’s for sustainnt so our interests don’t clash at all", said Aster which was translated by the little wyrm.
Of course, Espi raised her head proudly when Aster called her "cute", the old king cobra leader gazed at Guardian from the corner of his eyes, only to see her nodding at him.
The king cobras are a proud race, they didn’t want any special treatnt despite how harsh things have been on them for the last few decades, especially because they wanted to honor the wishes of their late kings who followed a similar way of life as the lynx, with the difference that they limited themselves to the matters of the reptile races only, since they weren’t strong nor longevous enough to oversee the whole forest unlike Guardian, still they contributed to the prosperity of the forest in their own way.
For a change the three royal guards actually supported the idea of having a champion dethrone the anaconda, if her plan had succeeded it was fine if one of them died but their young generation would have also been diminished and they were barely keeping up with protecting their territory, so they had reached the conclusion that for their race to live, the current king of water beasts has to die.
"Hisss", the old cobra leader nodded towards Aster as he hissed in response, sothing that made Kana smile.
"Cobra grandpa says that we have more than proven our "worth" so he will support our claim to a duel without the need to go through the traditional test~", she said which made Aster nod, until he saw the little wyrm... shake her head.
"Hisss!", apparently Espi wanted to take the test anyway, for her, helping the king cobras was sothing she did out of her own will, she didn’t want any reward for that.
Seeing the determined gaze in the little wyrm’s eyes, Aster chuckled as he patted her head.
"Fine, have it your way, you stubborn little girl", he said, this whole "champion" thing is not only the most efficient way to get rid of the anaconda and secure the safety of the girls from the sect in the forest, but it’s also beneficial for Espi’s growth so Aster had decided to play along with her wishes.
"Hisss~" while the little wyrm cutely rubbed her head against Aster’s hand, the old king cobra looked visibly worried.
There is a reason as to why there has never been a case of them supporting the claim for a duel to anyone outside of their race, the position of king is not hereditary, when the ti for the current king to retire due to age or whatever other reason cos, the new one has to defeat the previous one even if it’s from their sa race.
However, the kings from the king cobra race obviously didn’t wish to kill their own race mbers if they failed to defeat them, because who knows the defeated candidate might grow stronger and co out victorious the next ti and at least in their cases they didn’t make it a fight to the death.
So, by tradition they made it so that the one who wanted their race’s support to claim a duel, had to prove their venom immunity to be strong enough to survive the venom of the king.
Therefore, the little wyrm was basically asking to have the old king cobra leader administrate his venom to her, there was also the matter of him not being sure whether his fangs could pierce through Espi’s scales which he saw destroyed the ones of a gaboon viper, though he was sure they won’t outright break it would be quite embarrassing if they didn’t go through at the ti of the trial.
"Hisss", with a worried voice, the old king cobra explained the previous to Espi who nodded in response to then bite herself, opening a small wound on her back, only big enough to open one of her pretty white scales.
"Here, please bite through this film, to prevent any accidents I’ll put the venom in Espi’s bloodstream myself", said Vivian as she placed a container in front of the old king cobra, that was better than asking the old king cobra to bite the little wyrm.
The old king cobra didn’t hesitate anymore, that would be an insult to the young white "snake" in front of him, he actually felt quite nostalgic as he was reminded of the tales his parents told him about the tis when the different champions participated in this trial, so he did as he was told and allowed Vivian to harvest his venom which the white-haired girl then took and injected into Espi’s body.
"While we wait, Kana, Ember, Cayden, Eris and Tiana, can bring back the corpses of all those snakes, I bet there quite a few hungry among you", said Aster to the three royal guards, which was translated by Kana as she nodded at Aster.
"Mm, we’ll be back in a few minutes big brother~", she said as she left the underground shelter, the trial required to wait for twenty minutes after the venom was injected to see if the other party could endure it, and though Aster was sure nothing was going to happen to Espi whose wound had already closed in a minute, they still had to see things through.
...
A couple of dozens of minutes later, Kana alongside Ember and the others ca back with bags full of snake corpses.
"Mom, can’t we cook sothing delicious for the little cobras?", innocently asked the little girl to Sarina who patted her daughter’s head while shaking hers.
"That might not be possible, their stomachs are adapted to eat raw at, if we cook their food, it could be dangerous and they won’t receive the nutrients they need, with miss Guardian was different since she had already proven to have developed a certain "disgust" towards bloody taste", said the blond roc motherly woman.
Though Guardian hadn’t changed her diet so she ate nothing but at, her habit of washing off her prey and eating strictly fresh at, gave Sarina certainty that she would fine eating cooked als, after all a normal mortal lynx won’t live three hundred years.
The horses didn’t eat at so Sarina could make them so simple salads and give them fruit without any problem, but the cobras couldn’t change the way they ate, also it’s not like they chew their food, like all mortal rank snakes they swallow their prey whole, which is another indicator that the little wyrm is not a snake as one can see her happily biting on fruits and pieces of boar at or firsh, it’s just that besides Aster, no one else in the group is knowledgeable enough in what mortal animals regard, to notice the previous.
"Mm, I see...", mumbled Kana obviously she didn’t want to harm the young cobras, on the other hand the old king cobra who understood Kana’s words ca out of the underground shelter accompanied by Aster and the others, among them Espi who had a proud expression on her pretty face.
She obviously passed the test, in fact there were no traces left of the wound she self-inflicted on her back at all, in part because she has a high vitality and in part thanks to the increase in natural recovery, which by the way took the king cobras by surprise.
"Hisss", with a soft hiss, Kana smiled as she looked into her backpack to then take out a piece of dried fish, which the old king cobra ate as he was offered it by the little girl.
"Cobra grandpa says that due to the change that their race went through in the last years, they have gotten used to eat other things like fish, since even if isolated there is a creek that runs through their territory, also they can eat fish that has shriveled up due to being outside of water for long periods of ti~", said Kana.
So dried fish could be given even to young cobras, which is actually a good thing, if there is sothing the sect has in abundance besides fruit is dried fish, this also reminded the group that while still not being spirit beasts they weren’t dealing with normal mortal rank animals.
"We’ll invite our new friends to a banquet later, for now, we have to leave to get the second supporter for our claim, Dahlia, Agnes and Cayden will stay behind to wait for the second group that will help guard the king cobras until the duel thing is over, you can join us once they get here, their leader is going with us but the three royal guards already know about it so there shouldn’t be any problem", said Aster.
Since the old king cobra leader had to go with them as the witness of the claim, Aster offered to left behind "help" to guard their race’s ho, the three royal guards wanted Vivian to be the one to stay behind, but she is their poison and venom specialist so that wasn’t possible.
In which case they asked another one of the "dangerous" mbers of the group to help guard their race and the options were Alice or Agnes, so the only realistic option was Agnes since leaving Alice in charge of such a boring task was for sure a bad idea, that didn’t an Agnes didn’t pout at the ntion of her na of course.
"I wanted to fight too", mumbled the sportsy sun diamond princess to which Aster chuckled as he said.
"Ideally only Espi is going to fight where we are going anyway, our second target will be free for anyone that wishes to participate though you’ll have to compete with miss Valentina and ", and that was enough to brighten Agnes’s mood.
’Fey princesses are really competitive’, thought Aster as he departed alongside the rest of the group with the addition of the old king cobra who was leaving their base for the first ti in dozens of years.
With the old king cobra leader guiding them they soon left the king cobra race’s territory and took the shortest route towards their next target.
One would think that since they are going to ask for support to claim a duel, Aster and the others would go for the major snake race that has no direct ties with the current king, and that would be the reticulated boa race.
Two venomous and two non-venomous, the king cobra race, the black mamba race, the green anaconda race from which the current king ca and lastly the reticulated boa race, those are the four major races that rule over other reptile races in the forest.
Each of them has their own respective specialty, the king cobra is the largest venomous race, the black mamba race is the fastest race, the green anaconda race is the heaviest of the races and the reticulated boa are the largest of all the races.
But then, the territory to which they were going wasn’t the one of the reticulated boa race, but the one of... the green anaconda race, for a good reason.
If you rember, the old king cobra leader told Aster that they discovered the plot of the anaconda going around killing other snakes and pinning the bla on them, well, that information ca to them from soone they honestly didn’t expect, the current leader of the green anaconda race, who is also the younger brother of the king of water beasts.
The reason for this "betrayal" is also quite interesting, he sought a chance to secretly communicate with the old king cobra because of that ti when the elder king cobra revolted and went on a killing spree on the territory of the green anaconda race.
The anaconda race suffered a lot of deaths in that fight and the current leader didn’t want to deal with a king cobra race which had resolved to take them down even if ant dying themselves, especially because the current king was not "fond" of them.
"Hisss", before they arrived the old king cobra leader told Aster about what he knew regarding the situation in the green anaconda race.
"So, they are also mostly male populated like you, but for a different reason and that’s not all, the main mate of the current king of water beasts is a reticulated boa, how interesting", said Aster.
In both anaconda and boa races, the females are bigger than the males, it wasn’t a problem for the boas apparently, but the king of water beasts... killed any females from her own race that grew past the five-ter mark.
The reason being that she didn’t want to keep anyone with the potential to beco a threat to her reign and that’s how the current leader of the green anaconda race lost his mate which is the other reason as to why he told the secret behind the fall from grace of the king cobra race to the old cobra leader.
"Hisss".
That ant sothing along the lines of "That being said, unlike , the current leader of the anaconda race holds little to no power over his race, the royal guards who are all mates of the king of water beasts as well, are the ones who control the green anaconda race".
"I see, so we can’t expect a warm welco", said Aster, just in ti for their way to be blocked by three four ter "logs" resting on a wet muddy area ahead of them which started moving as soon as they approached.
"Hissss!", three snake heads with eyes that looked forward unlike most other snake races, glared the group’s way as the anacondas in question opened their large mouths and hissed their way, which made Aster frown.
’What are these fools doing’, he thought to himself.
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