The Snake King

"Uh... Holy crap. No wonder so many of them suddenly showed up over there." Jiu Ming's eye twitched as he stared at the enormous pit before him, dozens of meters across. At a depth of ten meters, pale purple High-Energy Crystals glimmered along its edges.

That alone was bad enough, but what was even more unsettling was the densely packed mass of snakes coiled in the center of the pit!

After surveying the area around the pit, Jiu Ming quickly realized that it must have been made when some unlucky fellow had passed through and somehow triggered a collapse. It had clearly caved in only recently.

There were still a few upright columns of mud inside the pit. Otherwise, it would have collapsed completely.

Huh!?

Jiu Ming, who had been planning to retreat slowly, stiffened. He looked down and met a pair of enormous snake eyes. Arcs of electricity flickered faintly in them, but what drew his attention even more was the deep purple orb atop the serpent's head, roughly the size of a fist.

Half of it was embedded in the serpent's head. Hmm... a Dragon Pearl?

All right, it was obviously a snake. This giant serpent was definitely the leader of the pack. Its body looked nearly a hundred meters long, and Jiu Ming hadn't seen any others that could compare. Even the longest was only about half its size.

There was no doubt about it: if there really was a rare treasure here, that purple orb on its head was it!

"Looking down on me?" Jiu Ming, already in a foul mood, noticed the disdainful mockery in the serpent's eyes and forced a smile. He immediately shifted position. The next moment, more than a dozen bolts of lightning struck where he'd been standing. So what if it was the Snake King?

No matter what, it was still a snake, not a dragon. As long as the Snake King dared to leave the Snake Den beneath the pit, Jiu Ming dared to face it head-on!

The lingering regret over what had happened to Misaka Sister had left him in the worst of moods. Now he had a chance to vent, and the Snake King had even 'provoked' him first. He had every reason to go after it! Looking down on me?

Once they started fighting, it would learn the price of looking down on someone.

Hmm... that was a ghost.

"That was close. Thank goodness the snake pack retreated for some reason." A student beside Yang Zhi Yu wiped the cold sweat from his brow and spoke with lingering fear.

Yang Zhi Yu glanced at him. Retreated? You're being too naive. The snakes had clearly abandoned them temporarily for a reason. Most likely, someone had lured them away. The Hidden Support agents had probably done it.

They weren't far from the snake pit now. After hurrying along for a while, they finally reached it. When they saw what was inside, even with their superior numbers, they couldn't help sucking in a breath. Superior numbers meant jack shit!

If all the Thunder Snakes in the pit charged out, they'd be like unlucky fools struck by a massive wave. Not one of them would get away!

At that moment, quite a few students began having second thoughts... Damn it! That feeling of dread, of knowing they could die at any moment if they stayed here, was unbearable!

What chilled them was that when they turned around, they discovered their way back had already been cut off...

The Hidden Support agents hadn't failed to notice. They'd simply been powerless to stop it. Why had the students, despite being right in the Thunder Snakes' territory, faced such weak attacks all along?

Because most of the snakes had been lying in wait outside, ready to surround them at the last moment. Many of the Hidden Support agents had noticed this. They could only call it bad luck: this pack had a Snake King with unusually high intelligence.

But Exotic Beasts were still Exotic Beasts. The Snake King might have been clever enough to use some dirty tricks, but the Hidden Support agents weren't completely without hope. They all knew that with such a huge disturbance here, someone was bound to come.

And even if no one came, a few of them could escape and spread the news. Everyone with status in the camp would be in deep trouble! They'd all be held accountable!

"Don't panic. Just hold out a little longer and help will arrive." There was no point staying hidden now, so the Hidden Support agents emerged from around them. There were only a little over twenty, but even so, the panicked students felt much more at ease.

So the things they'd heard before the internship were true. Hidden Support agents really did exist.

The Hidden Support agents weren't as calm inside as they appeared. Looking at the rather languid Snake King in the pit, not one of them felt confident. What if it suddenly decided to attack...

Anyone could see that the Snake King wasn't something one or two people could handle. Even the Hidden Support agents felt uneasy at the sight of it. If a fight broke out, the students wouldn't be the only ones in danger. They'd be hard-pressed to protect themselves, too!

Still, a few of them discreetly glanced at the orb atop the Snake King's head. The Purple Bead's value needed no explanation. Anyone who saw it would be tempted!

For the Thunder Snake King to wear it, it had to be one of the finest treasures of the lightning element.

Maybe whoever got their hands on it could wield the power of a high-level lightning ability user, even without having a lightning ability. And just imagine the price those top lightning ability users would pay to get it. Hmm, assuming you could get your hands on it in the first place.

If they could goad the students into attacking and then make their move amid the chaos... they might just get it.

But those ideas had to remain just ideas. No one there was stupid. Whoever suggested it would be seen as having ulterior motives and shut out.

Better to wait for now. Once reinforcements arrived from the camp, this place would surely be cleared out. Scattered High-Energy Crystal deposits were already visible along the pit's edge, and since so many Thunder Snakes had appeared, the ore deposits below had to be rich.

That would be the end of the Thunder Snake King.

"Ah, they're about to fight."

Watching the snake pack start to move, Jiu Ming saw the Thunder Snakes inside the pit begin to crawl out. He paused and quickly checked his collection. The only things he could use were the armor-piercing steel pipe and the one-use Imagine Breaker.

He wasn't too confident in the latter. It only worked against supernatural powers. Energy counted as one, sure, but the Snake King clearly had more than just lightning. With that enormous body, one swipe of its tail would probably leave Jiu Ming on his knees if it hit him.

And what would it matter if he nullified the Thunder Snake King's lightning attacks then? It could just kill him with brute force!

The force field around the Thunder Snake King had a lightning attribute. That alone let its physical attacks bypass the physical immunity of Jiu Ming's Soul Body.

That steel pipe was still the better choice. If he timed it right, Jiu Ming could crack the Thunder Snake King's skull and dig out the purple orb!

Who wouldn't want a treasure like that?

The battle began. The Hidden Support agents had far more combat experience than the students. With the students lacking confidence, they listened closely to the agents and avoided making too many mistakes. Now, one mistake could cost them their lives. If they were dragged into the snake pack, no one could save them.

Some of the talented students needed no advice from the Hidden Support agents. They handled everything around them perfectly and were a lot less trouble.

Jiu Ming was in another location. It wouldn't be good if his identity was exposed. The students and Hidden Support agents here knew there was another battle going on elsewhere, too. That was good; it took some pressure off them. Better than having the entire snake pack gathered in one place.

"About time, right?" Jiu Ming fought as he retreated. When he couldn't retreat any farther, he simply cheated and dove straight into a tree. The Thunder Snakes could do nothing to him. If they ganged up on him, he could use the convenience of his Soul Body to cheat... Was that not allowed?

He glanced at the situation in the snake pit. Most of the Thunder Snakes had already crawled out. The remaining few dozen, the biggest ones, were still sitting there without moving. The big shots had to be more important than their underlings. Making a late entrance was only natural, though not showing up at all would be even better.

Given the situation, the battle on the other side was already hanging by a thread. No matter how well the students and Hidden Support agents fought, they had limited stamina. The Thunder Snakes were finite in number, but they could still wear them down. Unlike Jiu Ming, who could simply hide inside a tree whenever he faced something he couldn't fight back against.

For them, being unable to fight back meant death. Their teammates couldn't always help in time, and their stamina had already fallen to a dangerously low level.

The battle had been going on for quite some time. Jiu Ming heard faint gunshots...

The seemingly languid Snake King noticed, too. Anger flashed in its electric eyes, as if the 'show' had been interrupted. It let out several low hisses, and the dozens of largest Thunder Snakes beside it began to move.

"Everyone, keep it up! Help is here!" Hearing the gunshots, several Hidden Support agents shouted. The students' flagging morale immediately rose. New hope gave them new strength.

"Phew... Finally... Help me!!!" Just as Yang Zhi Yu was letting out a breath of relief, a gigantic snake head sank its fangs into his shoulder. He was dragged straight into the snake pack. The students beside him didn't have time to react, and even the Hidden Support agents couldn't get there in time.

A shrill peal of thunder drowned out his screams from inside the snake pack. His fate went without saying. Everyone who'd been dragged into the snakes earlier had met the same end. Not one had survived. They'd been burned to a crisp, then crushed beneath the densely packed snakes. It was a horrific end...

"Damn it! The big ones are moving, too! Everyone, watch out!" The thing the Hidden Support agents had feared most since the fighting began had finally happened. There weren't many of the larger Thunder Snakes, but they posed the greatest threat. They could handle one at a time, but when two or three teamed up against one of them, things got difficult.

At that moment, Jiu Ming moved, too. He stopped tangling with the snakes around him and charged straight into the now-empty snake pit. The Thunder Snake King spotted the gray shadow coming straight for it at once. A lightning bolt as thick as an arm swept toward him.

"Come on, let's see who's looking down on whom now...!"