Sunny had already concluded that he had lost this battle. Every possible playthrough that could happen did not, in any way whatsoever lean in his favor. He did not have the size advantage, skill nor the agent protection that SAGS had offered when he dealt with the Runner.
Gulp.
His eyes locked on the snake, his hand on a sword he was sure he wouldn't even get the chance to use before dying.
With a sigh, his grip loosened on the sword, accepting defeat.
At that very moment, the snake's head turned, facing a girl with rugged clothing and a tied back messy bun.
What was she of all people doing here? Sunny wondered, as Trinity hurled a stone at the snake, making it charge towards her, diving into the ground.
Immediately, Sunny realised that it was going to emerge right under her and swallow her whole.
Without thought, he swung the sword, blade piercing clean through the thick tail of the snake, easier than a hot blade through butter.
The part of the snake cut off remained lying by the deep hole the head had dived through.
Thinking that it was over, Sunny glanced to Trinity, his lips curling to something he couldn't afford– a smile.
His smile immediately faded as fangs erupted from the ground. Everything moved slow. Sunny tried to hurry forward but couldn't, he was too slow.
He had to watch as Trinity sank into the acidic pool that was the snake's venom, with its fangs caging her in until she disappeared.
The snake then dived back into the ground, the sliced part splashing its blood as it attempted to flee.
Sunny couldn't allow that.
It had the size and everything, but Sunny had the rage.
He now lacked the brain to decide to act logically.
With a burst of energy, Sunny rushed after the snake, gripping his sword so tight his fingers ached.
Following the direction the snake was headed, Sunny managed to dictate where it would be.
It dived into the ground and erupted back out like a tailors thread, but there was a region it was avoiding. As such, it was moving in a circle.
Noticing this, Sunny ran the radius and positioned himself right in the path of the snake.
In moments of fear, even beasts forget their senses, attempting to keep moving under the hope of outrunning death.
As such, the snake remained on its course, failing to notice Sunny get on it's path.
He raised his blade high, watching the snake dive a few feet in front of him. He had calculated that it would emerge right in front of him, right on position for him to slice through its head.
He was off by a foot; the snake emerged right behind him.
Still, Sunny reacted, turning to plunge his sword into the head of the serpent. The blade met the remnant of its tail, tearing through it like wet paper.
But that wasn't enough for Sunny, he didn't want to injure it, he didn't want to maim it, no– he wanted that thing dead.
As such, he ran after it, leaping forward to the next place he predicted it to emerge from.
He was right.
The blade swung through the air, smoke parting way as it came down. It met the snake right at the centre of the nostrils, using both the snake's and the sword's momentum to slice down it's head to the centre of where it's eyes would be.
The parted head of the snake landed on the ground with a this, blood soaking the ground together with a sizzling venom.
There was no applause, no system congratulations or anything of the sort, just two animals, one driven by its nature, one driven by rage. There was no right or wrong, there was only the stronger.
There was only the one left.
The one that was now tearing through a giant snake's carcass and pulling out a girl whose flesh had molten upon itself due to the snake's venom to an extent that she was unrecognizable.
She was still alive, there was still a fluttering green thread connected to her, but she was in an agony nobody should have experienced.
A short moment later, the thread faded, signalling something Sunny did not want to accept.
Sunny remained on his knees, holding onto a fleshburnt corpse, the remnant venom burning his hand.
He had killed the snake, he had proven to be the superior– he had won.
But it did not feel like a victory.
It felt as though he had lost a part of himself, not just in losing his sister, but also in what he had became a moment before.
It wasn't the real her, Sunny knew that. Still, he felt as though he had truly lost his sister.
And to think that she had probably followed him to protect him. To think that she acted the moment she saw the snake to direct it from him. That was definitely what the reas Trinity would have done.
And he hated that.
He hated that she was now dead because of him.
Had he been stronger or had been brave enough to fight the snake maybe it would have died before doing this.
It was all his fault.
His head was spinning, ears ringing and breaths deep and hastened.
"Sunny?" Moonlight's voice tore through the damp silence, pulling him back to his senses.
She stood still, assessing the great snake that now lay in pieces, it's tail cut off– a tail that spanned well over forty feet, it's head halved and it's carcass recklessly torn apart, with Sunny in the midst of it all, holding a disfigured humanoid thing in his hands.
For a moment, she didn't speak. She understood the scene well. But what was there to be said in such a situation? She wondered.
Eventually, she stepped forward, careful, as one would approach an injured wild animal.
"We uh...we should... we should find Luna," Sunny spoke through gritted teeth, breaking the dense silence as he lowered the corpse to the ground and taking the smoking sword and tracing the dark grey thread that connected to Moonlight.
"Yeah," she didn't want to dwell too much on the matter, partially because any moment lost in the smoking woods meant one step closer to death.