The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

After what she’d said earlier in the evening, Neska felt this was too conveniently timed. She wasn’t the only one as she read the wary glances Hadley and Jurik gave each other.

If she went to Serkin’s office, she would not be doing it alone.

She tapped the lapel again. “When did you want to meet, exactly?”

"Can you come to my office in ten minutes or so? Or, whenever you can get here."

"I’ll be there.” After the chime signaled the end of the relay transmission, she cast a glance at Juni, now worried. “I think something’s wrong. Would he really call me to talk about Risha over the arcrays, which I don’t entirely trust to begin with?”

"This stinks worse than good cheese." Juni’s whiskers stood on end. “Maybe he’s subtly trying to say something, like he knows people are listening?”

Hadley grabbed her bow and a quiver of arrows. “Then I guess we’d better go confirm if there’s a danger or not.”

Five minutes later, they arrived in front of the building housing Serkin's office. Neska noted it sounded unnaturally quiet. "Anyone else getting strange vibes?"

"Yes. Very." Juni put her ear to the ground, as if listening for something. She frowned. "Can't hear what's going on inside. My hearing's pretty good, but I think the buildings have layers of privacy warding. Physical access and sound, too."

Neska reached for the double door and found it firmly latched and locked. "Either of you have a key?"

"Ward stone access," Jurik pointed to a small runic plate mounted to the side. "Try your lapel first."

She did, and it flashed green. Yet, the door remained stuck. "Uh...it's locked or something."

She hit her lapel again. "Professor, the door is locked. Can you come down here to unlock it?"

Silence followed. Too long a silence. "Professor Serkin, respond, please," she sighed. Jurik tried a small metal plate with a silver rune lit on the surface, but the lock refused to disengage.

"Odd. Did someone change the lock?" Jurik proposed. Something clearly wasn’t right. She noticed that there wasn’t anyone around. It wasn't a surprise, given that it was evening and all the classes were done for the day, and many people had either gone back to the dorms for the weekend or, for some students, retreated to their homes within the city of Rivilat.

But the silence felt unnatural.

Hadley pointed toward the brick walking path. "There's another doorway on the other side. Let's try going in there."

But, much like the first door, the second was locked tightly. Nesk frowned. He wasn’t answering; all she was getting was silence.

She glanced upward toward the second floor, a cold tingle running down her serpentine body.

She remembered from the previous day where his office was, located above her current position. She could make out the large windows where his office would be. She let out a hissing sigh. “Note to self, if any evolution offers wings, I should consider it."

Juni frowned at that suggestion. “But then I'd lose my vertical assistance snake. And then I would have a…what exactly would you be then?”

Jurik chimed in. “A syren, which is itself another derivative of lamias and snake-based species. We should probably call the garrison and report this. Maybe somebody else can open the door, or this is security protection that they didn't notify us about."

But Neska could hear something faintly distant, something coming from inside. It sounded like a muffled thump, just inside the building. She narrowed her eyes, sizing up the distance. The second floor wasn't that far. She likely had enough force from her [Spring Scales] to take a quick look; however, there was no ledge to hold onto. "I'm going to take a look, I need to make like a spring."

She coiled her body and then leaped up into the air to get a brief view into the window of Serkin’s office. She only got a brief glimpse, but she saw Serkin, sitting in his chair, silhouetted by his desk lamp. He looked like he might have been sitting slumped.

"Well?" Juni asked

“He’s in there. I think he might have…nodded off?”

She leaped again. Serkin, still there, his back to her, in his office chair. A brief weak motion–then a glimpse of a second silhouette.

Another person in the room? They stood near the desk, their back also to her. No one noticed the giant danger noodle peeping inside, and she landed with all the silence of an owl swooping down in prey.

“He’s not alone; someone else is in there!”

Jurik unbuckled the strap holding his weapon secure on his hip. “Hadley, call it in. Call it in right now." Neska attempted another mighty leap with her [Spring Scales], and she got a brief glimpse of somebody pouring something into a wine bottle on the desk, from a small bottle. They apparently made no indication that they were aware of her presence.

As soon as she landed, she grabbed Juni with one hand. “Break the glass when I jump! I'm going in.” The mouse took her cue and held on to Neska's body, while Jurik held onto her shoulder. “He’s by the desk, get ready for anything!”

She sprang upwards and toward the glass, bracing herself to grab the ledge if she fell short. Even with the extra load of Junie and Jurik, she launched with incredible velocity right towards the glass. Juni shot a stony spine right through the glass a second before impact, shattering it. Neska's body weight easily pushed through, and the tiny shards bounced off her scales, leaving her unharmed.

Alarms began blaring throughout the building, but Neska stared in horror as the figure startled, a dagger drawn and directed at Serkin, panting and slumped in his chair. The figure looked right at Neska, a gleam of green eyes under a black cowl. Then, they looked at Serkin, a few feet away

The figure tried to swing laterally, but Neska was already in motion, using the potted tree by Serkin’s desk to trigger her [Rooting Hex]. The animated branches deflected the blow and knocked the dagger aside, and she had summoned a [mana bolt] in hand, flinging it at the foe dead-center.

The figure exploded into boiling clouds of shadow, filling the room and obscuring her vision. Neska coughed on the noxious fumes, with Juni hacking beside her. A bright flame ignited, and Neska saw Jurik draw his finger across his sword and set it ablaze.

“Serkin, are you alright?!” Neska called out. She let her vision sink into the thermal range and saw Serkin coughing weakly. He looked pale and twitchy. She scanned the room for threats and saw no sign of their foe, just motes of warmer particles floating in the air.

And among the noxious fumes, she tasted something familiar.

Too familiar. Venom. “Jurik, Juni, cover me! I think he’s poisoned!”

The shadows coalesced into the form of a charging figure, shoving Neska with force across the room. She swept with the rooting hex, trying to pin the figure down, but he leaped to the side. Before she could get her bearings, the figure drew a pair of daggers, advancing. The blades dripped with toxins, deadly with even a glancing blow.

Neska swerved backward, dodging the wild swing. Her tail snapped forward, knocking one dagger away. The second came straight for her face as the figure lunged, and she intercepted the blow, catching their wrist.

Juni shot a stone spine in their direction, aiming with deadly intent. The figure blurred their body, and the spine just missed. The figure then drew and flicked another dagger at her, their motion barely visible. Juni snapped her arm up [Stone shield], activating and forming a protective slab, deflecting the blow. The dagger clanged to the floor, and two more followed.

Where were all these daggers coming from? This jackass must have a finite amount, right?

Neska grabbed the wrist of the assailant to keep them from stabbing down into her. She saw green pebbly scales where skin should have been. She bit down, but her fangs glanced off either armor or his armored scales, jarring her and driving deep pain into her jaw.

The figure took the small window and shoved with incredible force, grappling with Neska before she had a chance to move. They both fell toward the shattered windows, the figure intent on knocking her to the ground below.

But not before she wrapped her tail around them, dragging them down with her. They let out a shout as they tumbled out the broken window. She triggered her [Spring Scales] to cushion the blow, but her assailant, still wrapped in her coils, smacked into a stone paver hard. They let out an audible groan.

She didn’t waste the opportunity, summoning roots to lock the foe down. Before the sprouting tendrils could lock the figure down, they melted into shadows, fleeing Neska’s grasp; it was like trying to catch smoke.

An arrow shot by, leaving a trail of disrupted shadowy particles. Hadley had drawn her bow, another arrow already set on the string. “The hell is this guy?” She shouted.

“Not friendly!” Neska shouted. Indeed, the figure had rematerialized further away, leering at Neska with malicious intent. “Who are you?”

They didn’t answer, and instead leaped skyward, looking like a shadowy bird for a split second. The blob of shadows materialized on the roof, and Neska wasted no time, springing up to an overhang, the metal and wood creaking under her landing. She then leaped upward toward the roof, the figure already beelining for the next rooftop.

She tried to flick another rooting hex on him, but there was a problem: there was no soil, and no nearby roots or trees. Foo. Did he get lucky, or did he plan this? The figure cast a look behind him as he fled, green eyes leering at her.

Mana bolts, however, still worked, and she kept one primed in her hand…and one on her tail, crackling with energy and sparkling like a child’s firework. She flung them both, arcing their trajectory, and the figure slid under exposed piping.

The shots pierced the pipes, emitting a shrill of escaping steam. She shot forward, trying to close the distance, and felt an uncomfortable warmth as she passed through the billowing gas.

She dashed after the figure, conjuring another [Mana Bolt] in one hand, and her roots in the other. She tried casting out roots, but because the ground was so far away, there was no surface for them to generate from. She let out a hiss of frustration. This was not one complication she expected to encounter.

That was, unless she planned to carry around a giant jar of dirt or magical sand on her back all the time, which would be rather impractical.

She pursued the adversary, even as they began flinging shadowy daggers over their shoulder. She didn't know how they were able to coordinate throwing and running, but those shadowy daggers certainly were difficult to avoid, as she slithered forward, slowly closing the distance. Their bootsteps thundered as they made their way across the campus, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

Neska saw lights flicker as the garrison slowly came to alert, shouts of surprise echoing across the quad. She pursued the figure across another rooftop, across a greenhouse roof. The glass and steel creaked uneasily beneath their feet.

Perfect. She utilized the trees within to launch a [Rooting Hex] in front of him, branches punching through the glass, and they diverted to the side. Another vine thrashed at them, snagging them and sending them sliding to the roof, glass creaking with strain.

But, with one swing of their dagger, they sheared through the roots without any effort, the roots flopping uselessly.

It was enough. She's gotten within range of using her [Sudden Molt] to try and catch up with them. With the cooldown active, she'd only give one shot at it to try and grab them. She needed to be as close as possible, and she heard them panting audibly. They must be exhausted and low on mana.

The figure jumped up to a peak on the roof and spun around, a dagger materializing in hand. They glared at her with angry eyes from behind the cowl.

That was her opportunity. She used her [Piercing Gaze] to try to freeze them in their tracks. Their body shuddered, and they were unable to move, but they were able to fling the dagger, which grazed her shoulder. A tearing sensation followed, and her shoulder seared with pain. But her target was pinned down, regardless. They flung another dagger, and this time, she was ready for it.

She triggered her [Sudden Molt] and appeared just behind the figure. The dagger passed harmlessly through the air–no, it tore straight through her uniform.

Feh. She needed a more durable one after this.

Her foe let it out of gasp when he realized what had happened. And before he knew it, she wrapped her lower body around his torso, pinning him down. He drew another dagger and tried to stab down. She caught his wrist with one hand and bit down on his arm.

Clink. Her teeth were jarred by the sudden hard surface beneath the clothing, and her fangs protested at this. He cocked back his wrist and punched viciously, trying to stab her. They lost her footing, and they both tumbled along the slick glass, gaining speed as they did.

Neska was having difficulty determining up from down as they barreled down the roof, and the figure tried to form into the boiling shadows, but failed to dematerialize fully. They hit the lip of the roof in their roll, unable to stop.

She felt her stomach lurch as they tumbled off the roof. She activated her [Spring Scales], softening the blow.

She was getting really tired of falling off buildings now. They landed in a pile on a lower section of the roof, and the forceful impact left her winded. The figure was temporarily dazed by the fall, and she took her opportunity to bite down on his arm, sinking fangs in.

This time, she felt her venom piercing through, and they let out a gasp of pain. By this point, she heard Hadley shouting and sprinting along the glass.

She loomed over the prone figure, her body wrapped around them. “Who are you?” she demanded. She reached to rip the cowl off their face.

But the venom had a limited effect. The assailant somehow managed to get one arm free of her coils for just a brief second, grabbed another dagger, stabbing at her. She had no idea how many daggers he had stored away, but it was getting rather annoying. She wrapped her tail around his hand tight enough that they let out a cry of pain, the dagger clattering to the ground. Then she tried to smash them in the face.

Shadow step. Damn it. She hit nothing but smoky particles.

They rematerialized on the roof peak, dagger again in hand. She heard them panting, utterly winded

“Are you one of the corrupted?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes. She heard Hadley sprinting, then landing gracefully on her feet beside the lamia, short sword drawn.

The figure let out a mocking laugh. “Do you think every foe begins and ends with the Varadur?” Their voice was muffled behind the ceramic mask that she could only make out just now, with their cowl slipped back.

“Cassia, he poisoned Serkin. Prioritize him, I’ll get this guy,” Hadley said, a growl to her words.

The figure pointed at her with a dagger in hand, flourishing it lazily through the air. “Still listening to your inferiors, Cassia? I expected more.”

“Get bent. Why are you doing this?”

“To deliver a message. This academy is doomed. Save yourself and join the winning side,” the figure warned. He sidestepped closer to the roof; nearby, there was a considerable leap to the next building's roof in the quad of offices and classrooms.

Neska glanced at Hadley, then back to their foe. “Nah. I don’t think so. Here’s my counteroffer: surrender yourself, and undo whatever you did to Serkin. You walk away breathing if you do.”

“Saving him? The devils aren’t outside the walls, snake. You’re locked inside with them,” the figure said with a distinct sneer to their words. “All it takes is time to wear you down, when you’ll beg to see the truth. You’ll see it our way, when the urge to see what’s on the other side grows too strong, and–”

She got tired of monologues three fights ago and flung a mana bolt at him. His body separated into mist, and he reappeared two feet to the side. He wagged his finger and let out a tsk. How frustrating. She realized, based on how he was unable to dodge some of her attacks, this must be his version of [Shadow Step], which must have a cooldown, independent of his mana reserves. Not a long one, but long enough.

“Not very nice of you. And futile. Your professor is dead where he stands. Save yourself, snake. You’ve got talent and unfathomable power. Why die for a lost cause?”

"Because even lost causes can still be won," she stated defiantly.

The figure let out a soft laugh. “Keep telling yourself that. Well, gotta go, gonna be noisy around here in a few minutes. How troublesome.”

Neska shot another [Mana Bolt], but the figure had already dematerialized, and the shadowy blur leaped to the next building.

“Neska, take care of the professor, I got this guy!” Hadley sprinted in pursuit, leaping to the next roof in pursuit of her quarry.

She hesitated for a split second, while calculus played out in her head. She owed Serkin nothing, and he had likely been withholding information, to the academy’s and her own detriment. Here in front of her was someone who likely had answers of their own. They represented an underground threat to the school, given how easily they had evaded them.

A threat that had to be neutralized, if not for her own safety, then for others.

But Serkin's death would be on her if she chose to pursue this foe, and he succumbed to the toxins. Depending on the toxin, he could be dead in minutes or even seconds.

She trusted Hadley’s judgment and prowess. No one else was dying because of her.

She leaped off the roof onto the ground in a coil, slithering across the grounds at an inhuman speed, breath ragged in her lungs. Within seconds, she was within range of the broken window.

She made a springing leap, landing in a coil next to Jurik, currently attending to the professor. Juni frantically searched through a cabinet nearby, flinging bottles aside as if not finding what she needed.

“Neska, he’s not got long! I think it’s reptiloid venom!” Jurik emphasized. The poor professor had a sickly pallor to his face, and she saw veins of hemorrhage under his skin, and he trembled lightly.

She could smell it. Venom. Strong venom, too, just like her own, and had similar effects.

“S-sorry…Neska,” he chattered, his eyes rolling around as she rushed over to him. “Risha’s death is on me…I’m so sorry…”

There was no time. Sorry, professor, but I don’t have time to ask permission. No one else is dying on my behalf.

She brought him close and sank her fangs into his neck, drawing a gasp from Jurik, and Juni put a restraining paw on him.

Serkin's body continued to spasm, then slowed.

Then stopped.