SSS Ranked Shadow Monarch: Summoning Infinite Shadows-Chapter 278: Swallowed

Aren was hurled through the air, his insides were a jumbled up mess, he clenched his teeth hard as he flew through the air, slamming hard into the ground and rolling for a few meters, leaving a heavy trail.

He finally stopped, laying there while facing the sky,

"Urghhhh I feel like a train ran over me." Aren muttered, he struggled back to his feet, looking up.

The snake was already charging at Aren, he gripped the hammer in his hands, tossed it up and caught it. "Tch, let’s go again" He said and charged ahead, and then leaped into the air, he reached high into the sky, looking the snake eye to eye.

The snake opened its mouth and immediately delivered a poison attack through the air.

"Tch, that’s an issue." Aren said, but he wasn’t backing down, he summoned a regular wyvern, and it immediately flew high, managing to evade the poison, and from there he leaped off its back, swinging down with all the strength that he could muster.

With the hammer in hand, he was a hundred times stronger, but even then, this snake was a hard nut to crack.

BOOM!

The collision sent the snake’s head down again, this time it scattered a ton of scales in different directions, blood gushed out instantly.

Aren landed beside it, this time the snake wasn’t able to attack at all, it seemed the attacks were getting to it. Aren wanted to get close and attack again, but the snake suddenly released a purple gas that spread out instantly, melting the grass that it touched instantly.

’If that touches me, I’m in shit.’ Aren thought while retreating very fast.

The gas rose high, covering the entire snake, making it impossible for Aren to even see the snake.

He stood far from the gas, trying to use his shadow sense to find where the snake was, but no matter how hard he tried, he was incapable of detecting it.

Then from the fog the snake burst out, its teeth wide and ready to bite, it was so fast that Aren wasn’t able to react at all.

BOOM

A shot ripped through the air before the snake could get to him, it slammed into the snake, knocking its head to the side. Aren was about to heave a sigh of relief, but before he could even do any of that, the snake turned to face Aren again, attacking instantly again.

"Shit" Aren cursed and swung, but for some reason, the snake managed to dodge extremely fast, evading the attack cleanly by lifting its head, and then attacked from above.

Aren tried to run as the snake slammed into the ground, a massive crater followed and debris flew in every direction, Aren only barely managed to dodge the attack, he rolled through the ground and got to his feet fast, before hurling the hammer right at the snake.

BANG!

It slammed into the head hard, knocking the snake back, he called for the hammer back and then charged again, but the snake had already recovered, it shot out its poison, it came out like a small flood that melted even the ground, rushing towards Aren.

Aren swung down as hard as he could, the ground cracked, and pillars of earth were forced out of the ground as the force terraformed everything, Aren leaped onto one of these platforms, and began leaping from one to another, then he leaped into the air, pulling his hand back and swinging at the head.

BANG

The hammer hit again, and threw the head to the side. He immediately summoned his wyvern to ensure that he didn’t fall into the fog, he flew up into the air and then leaped off from there, wanting to use the hammer and finish this.

"I need one good hit, I can’t handle the hammer much longer." Aren said, he looked at his arm, it was trembling, his entire body was subtly shaking.

"I can’t hold this for much longer, I’ll break myself if I keep this up, one more, one more." Aren muttered to himself as he leaped off and flew downward.

He figured he would be able to land the perfect hit, but the snake didn’t seem to share that idea, as its neck snapped upwards, and it locked eyes with Aren, it shot upward to attack.

’It’s now or never, if I pull back, there is no way I take this freaking thing down, but if I attack, I might get hit with the poison.’

The thoughts tumbled around in his mind, Aren knew that he had to do something, or this fight that had been going so well till now would suddenly take a dark turn. Well in the next moment it did.

The snake suddenly sped up, the burst of speed was so unusual that it would leave anyone there shocked and confused as to how.

And before Aren could do or say anything, the snake was already under him, and its mouth snapped close with Aren still there, it swallowed instantly.

[.... ]

At that same time, the group was running up the mountain when Elena and Athena suddenly stopped, they both looked back, eyes heavy with worry, as if they felt something had gone bad.

"What’s wrong?" Aiden asked.

"Aren is out there fighting, and as much as I hate to say it, we have to trust him and get to the top." Kira said.

"I understand." Athena replied and faced forward.

Elena found herself staring for a second longer, she couldn’t get rid of that feeling that something was wrong, she gritted her teeth and finally looked forward, following the group to run up the mountain.

They were not far from the top, and soon they would be able to reach the angel and take her down, that was the hardest part of everything and the most crucial part.

They needed Flo there to use an illusion to ensure that the angel didn’t know they were there, would this work? They had no idea.