(Yaya’s POV)
The other snake beastman was green, with black stripes running down his tail. I counted his rank. Two green crystal protrusions under his eyes and one on his forehead. He could be hiding more, but this was what I could see.
"Food," Noodle said before handing me the machetes and my backpack. "I will cook him for you."
I threw the backpack into the bush and crossed the machetes in my hands. That snake beastman could be carrying a miracle core if his rank was high enough. No way I was going to let Noodle take it away.
"Sure, go on. I’ll be your backup." I gave an empty promise and wondered if Noodle caught it. I just wanted to test the green beastman’s strength.
I followed behind, my steps muffled by the rustling of leaves. The green snake had noticed me as well. Kurus looked like a middle-ranked beastmen, with the two cores in his feet hidden by his tail.
The green snake took off, slithering into the bushes, and Kurus followed without hesitation.
I sprinted, keeping pace behind them. I jumped over logs and vines, and dodged the branches that tried to slap me in the face.
More green snake beastmen appeared from the forest, circling us from all sides.
"A female," a hiss came from my left, and another from my right. "The travel was worth it."
"The Beast Kingdom has the most females. How did they let one wander off alone like this?"
"The red one must have kidnapped her."
I moved, my back touching Kurus’s body, asking, "I thought you were solitude lovers. Where did they all come from?"
"Forced to gather," the green one hissed instead. His tongue flickered out. "The Beast Kingdom is hunting us down and taking females from our lands."
"Finally, a female to breed," another one joined in. "My nest is empty."
"I will be the first to breed her," Green One declared. "She is mine."
"The first to defeat the red one takes her," the others agreed.
I spun around to look at the nine green snakes surrounding us. Some were half-human, and some were full snakes.
Kurus hissed back at them, "She is my mate. Anyone who tries to take her will die."
Rather than threatening, he sounded like he was stating a fact.
"He is right." I pulled out my tongue to show off the red snake mark. "I’m taken."
They wasted no time with taunting or discussing the rights and wrongs of mate stealing.
They were close to the enemy territory, so they attacked right away. All shifted to full snake forms.
The biggest one lunged at Kurus, his mouth open wide, ready to swallow him whole. Kurus ducked under the attack, his tail whipping up and hitting the snake’s jaw, making him recoil in pain.
I ran towards the nearest snake, swinging my machetes and cutting off his head. The body writhed on the ground, blood spurting from the neck.
Another snake came at me from behind, his fangs aiming for my back. I turned and stabbed him in the eye, the blade sinking deep into his skull. He let out a shrill sound and fell limp.
I pulled the blade out and looked for the next one.
Kurus was fighting three at once, his tail striking one, his claws slashing another, and his teeth tearing into the third’s throat.
I joined the fray, slashing at the snake that tried to bite me. I leaped on one’s back, holding on to his scales with my legs as I drove my machete into his head
The snake thrashed, throwing me off. I rolled on the ground, quickly getting back on my feet.
Another snake coiled around my ankle, pulling me towards his mouth. I stabbed his snout, making him let go.
Kurus finished off the rest, leaving only the Green One alive. He was the biggest, and the fastest. He had managed to avoid our attacks and dashed away.
Kurus shifted into his full snake form and chased after him, while I searched the heads for the cores. All of them had beast cores. Useless for me, but useful for beastmen who wanted to rank up.
I noticed other small items scattered around the snake carcasses, hidden in their skin flaps. It could store items, its size depending on the beastman’s rank, and the only way to get them out was to kill the beastman.
One could also increase the pocket dimension’s size with Moon cores, from moon beasts that appeared on a full moon.
I gathered the items and followed Kurus. The green one had led him on a wild chase through the forest. Leaving Noodle alone might get him in trouble; the only protection he had against the warm-blooded was the mate mark inside my mouth.
I had yet to find out how to activate it. Nivi retold me everything she remembered about the mate marks, and the heroine could only activate it when her life was in danger. It was an emergency button, in other words.
A shadow passed over my head, and I hid in a tree’s hollow. They were already here, tracking down the cold-blooded.
I had to find Noodle, fast. The owl and eagle beastmen had no mercy on the cold-blooded. They killed them on sight, without any trial or justification.
"The red cold-blooded is my mate," I called out to the owls and eagles above. "If you kill him, I’ll die too."
They didn’t recognize me, probably another batch of scouts on patrol. They tried to get me to safety, thinking I was kidnapped or something, so I ran away from them too, making them to lose track of me.
I found Kurus fighting the Green One on a cliff, surrounded by a group of eagle beastmen. They were trying to push them over the edge. The Green One had his tail coiled around Kurus’ body, choking him, while Kurus had his jaw clamped on the other’s body, trying to tear his flesh.
"Help!" I screamed at the top of my lungs from behind a tree, causing all the eagles to turn in the forest in search of the source.
I hid my presence, blending in with the environment as they flew past me, leaving the two snakes on their own.
Once they were gone, I rushed to the edge. I raised my machetes in the air and brought them down on the Green One’s tail, cutting it off. Kurus broke free, gasping for air.
The green beastman hissed. I swung at him again and again, turning him into mincemeat. He was too weak to defend himself after his battle with Kurus. He fell right away.
Before I could claim my prize, Kurus struck like lightning. His jaws closed around the green snake’s head, and with a sickening crunch, he tore it clean off. The blood splattered all over me.
"That’s it," I snarled, wiping blood from my eyes with the back of my hand. "You’re going down with me."
Noodle shifted back into his hybrid form and slithered away so fast that his long body disappeared behind the trees and bushes.
"Come here, mate." I chased after him, slashing at his tail as he dodged.
Noodle kept hissing, refusing to get near me. The coward.
My gaze snapped upward in alert, muscles coiling before I processed the threat. I leaped toward Noodle, tackling him behind a massive oak tree. My hand clamped over his mouth, muffling his startled hiss.
The rough bark scraped against my back as we melted into the tree’s shadow, becoming part of the forest floor.
I felt them before I saw them, an oppressive presence of the Beast kingdom’s guards. These reeked more of power than the others. An elite force, possibly.