"I was wondering why we hadn't met any obstacles along the way. So you had all these pythons under your control, Orochimaru."
Jiraiya turned his head, looking at the huge pythons that had suddenly emerged from the ground, and spoke in realization.
At some point, Orochimaru had appeared atop the head of an enormous yellowish-brown python. Although he stood quite high up, his hoarse voice drifted down on the wind, clearly audible.
"Mount Myōboku is the toads' nest, after all. This is as big as they get. Even the largest one here is less than half Manda's size."
Orochimaru seemed very dissatisfied with these enormous pythons.
Was this a joke? Undisguised fear and horror showed on Mineko Yuki's pretty face.
Just the raised upper halves of these pythons were over ten meters tall. Their full lengths might have reached forty or fifty meters. They were even more terrifying than Anaconda, capable of swallowing even an African elephant whole.
Just how long was that monster called "Manda"?!
"Hiss. Attack!"
At Orochimaru's command, all the enormous pythons surrounding Jiraiya and the others swayed their heads and tails, poised to lunge down and bite.
The shadows cast by the descending python heads covered them all.
Apart from Jiraiya, whose expression remained unchanged, everyone was so terrified that their faces went blank.
Only now did they truly understand how apt that comparison about stepping on ants in a courtyard had been.
Looking at those enormous pythons, with heads larger than dump trucks and bodies like pedestrian overpasses, never mind being bitten-even a brush from their rolling bodies would leave them dead or injured!
"Tch."
Jiraiya glanced at Mineko Yuki and the others behind him. Seemingly constrained by their presence, he abandoned the idea of dodging. His hands rapidly joined and separated several times before