Threads of rain, fine as silk, shrouded the small island in a hazy vapor.
The stench of blood they had sensed earlier grew denser, now mixed with the heart-palpitating fluctuations of a berserk aura.
The two of them concealed their auras and crept closer.
After passing through a dense grove of reeds, the sight before them took their breath away.
In a clearing at the island's center, a colossal snake was writhing in agony.
It was over a hundred feet long, its body as thick as a barrel, and covered entirely in cyan-black scales. Each scale glinted with a cold, metallic luster, and faint, arcane patterns were visible upon them.
Even more terrifying, its body was entwined with tendrils of lightning that writhed like silver serpents, CRACKLING as they ionized the surrounding air and filled it with a scorched odor.
The low-hanging dark clouds seemed to be drawn in as well. Muffled thunder rolled across the sky, as if in response to the lightning on the snake's body.
