Molting the Mortal Coil

The giant had already leapt over the perimeter trench and barreled into the ‘forest’. It flinched slightly when it first brushed up against the canopy of the banyan trees emitting pink gas. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be paralyzed and even if it was suffering from numbness, it didn’t seem to slow it’s advance. The silvery spike roll and the junk armored giant charged towards each other while ignoring everything else. Attacks came from the crowd of Flares, falling upon the snake as it slithered forward, but without seeming to cause much damage. The giant swatted aside the trees in its path, completely ignoring the cloud of poisonous chunks that exploded out from the destroyed trees.

Given their strength and speed, the hundred yards was covered in only a few seconds and the two huge combatants finally met. The giant pulled back its hand and then launched a fist forward, aiming for the black inky surface of the serpent’s head. Despite moving so fast to close the distance, the snake didn’t seem to be aiming for a head-on confrontation of might. It was already swaying and bobbing when the punch was released, avoiding the strike to the head and only receiving a glancing strike against the neck. The thick steel digger bucket skidded across the icy blue spikes, breaking off dozens of them from the force of the blow. The metal on the giant’s fists protected the spikes from penetrating, but the punch had caused the surface of the metal to be covered in gouges and scrapes.

That snake, Sage, ducked underneath the first swing of the giant’s fist. The spikes deflected the majority of the force, but then it skidded across the layer of Black Enhydros padding underneath. Only a small portion of the hit struck his body, but it was enough to make him cough up some blood. A trickle of red dribbled down the corner of his mouth as the huge snake darted between the giant’s legs.

He may not have battled as an actual snake very often, but he still had a lifetime of memories from the original Twin Ringed Soul Serpent he merged with initially. The snake had climbed up plenty of trees and right now the limbs of the giant were no different from small trees. The Twin Ringed Soul Serpent was not a constrictor, but it still coiled around animals to hold them still before a meal. Also, even if it wasn’t instinct, Sage didn’t think it was all that different from coiling around a tree. His snake form may not have the most optimized muscle structure for the maneuver, but with the Blacksilver King, he was sure to cause plenty of damage. The only problem was that in the process he was going to have to take a few hits.

Sage circled the giant’s calf and then came around to the thigh. As he did, the huge spikes were making loud creaking and scratching sounds on the giant’s armor while also drawing blood from the parts of exposed flesh. Big as the man was, Sage figured it was already pretty impressive that the Flares had found as much armor for him as they had. If this world before the Starfall was anything like Earth, then it wouldn’t even be easy to find armor for normal sized people, let alone a thirty foot tall giant.

After the first loop, the giant had pulled back its fist and struck again. This time, with his head twining around the giant’s leg, he couldn’t quite see it coming. Of course, Sage was using Foresight ever since he emerged from the ground, but it wasn’t foolproof. It gave him a glimpse a few seconds into the future, but it was only a single sense and it wasn’t guaranteed. He could see many branching paths and the one most likely to happen at any given time, but that was far from being a sure thing. In this case, he couldn’t keep his eyes on every part of the giant and by the time he saw the fist coming it was already right in front of his face. The slight warning allowed him to twist his head, but all that did was move the punch from his exposed face to his armored skull. Under the circumstances adding that extra layer of spiked armor was the best he could do.

Boom!

It sounded somewhat similar to a dozen icicles being snapped off at the same time, combined with a loud boom, and a boot stomping into mud. The problem being that the ‘ground’ beneath the mud was Sage’s body. Not expecting the blow, he was caught off guard and more blood spewed from his mouth. The power of the strike transferred through the two layers of the Blacksilver King, the thick snake scales, and then traveled into his internal organs. If I’m hit like that a few more times, something is going to rupture!

Undeterred, the snake head wove back between the giant’s legs and curled around the other leg. The giant swung again, but Sage saw the punch’s trajectory this time and avoided it, wrapping around the back of the Giant’s leg so the punch missed. Curling around the giant’s back, it flailed its arms a few times trying to grab Sage’s head, but he skillfully wove through the attacks. Unable to catch hold of the head, the giant focused on the spiked coils around its legs and started pummeling them.

Using the giant’s body as a tree meant he couldn’t just wave his tail to avoid the giant’s body blows. While his head could still bob and weave his body was a very easy target. He was hit a few more times as he circled the giant’s waist and opened his mouth to go for a bite. The giant noticed and fearfully tried to slap him away before the curved fangs could sink in. The huge cobra head had reared back and bared its fangs, but it was a ruse. When the giant was flustered trying to stop the bite and slapping from the side, Sage never intended to strike. Instead he moved his head to the side in time with the slap, narrowly avoiding the main force of the blow and using the move to wrap his body around the giant’s side, capturing one of its arms.

The giant started to panic, not going for a direct head strike anymore and instead just started to pummel the serpent that was wrapped around him three times now. In the struggle the giant freed its arm, but that also pulled its attention from its lower half and the continual motion tightened the hold. The giant’s legs were pulled together and its balance started to be compromised. At the same time, its rapid strikes had smashed off hundreds of icy spikes from the serpent's back, leaving many blank areas where it looked like the black tar had been smashed in, forming a small crater or depression on its surface.

Sage was squeezing the giant’s body, but also getting pummeled relentlessly. The many spikes on his body had already torn up most of the giant’s armor. They dug in and rented huge furroughs in the materials that were strongly secured, but most of the armor pieces were torn off by the inadequate materials used to fasten them to the giant’s body. At this point, the Giant had only one arm free, which it was using to punch a portion of Sage’s body that already had the spikes smashed off. Each hit caused him to spew blood, but he’d also limited the giant’s mobility and reared back his head for a bite. Those sword sized fangs swung out and shot down towards the giant’s shoulder.

Sage suddenly felt a burning heat bathing his whole body. It was like he’d just leapt into a fire and to his horror he saw that not only him, but the whole giant’s body was on fire. With his head charging towards the giant’s body for the strike he had no way to see the danger coming, only noticing the world turning red just before his fangs sunk in. It was too sudden for him to avoid and before he could deliver much venom into the giant the pain had grown so intense that Sage felt that room in his Spiritual Sea threatening to explode. The demon was bashing in the door to his room and only a few strikes away from success. Sage had to abandon his attack, throwing himself away from the giant’s body and diving between a few of the Sacred Banyans. Even if the poison they emitted didn’t stop the giant, they could at least slow him down.

His whole body had been on fire, and the strange flames had burned away all of the Black Enhydros, along with the Blue Icesilver spikes it was holding. The heat had penetrated into his body, and after reducing the Blacksilver King to mere scraps it caused him severe damage. Only after slithering away and aggressively rolling his body across the ground a dozen times was it finally extinguished. If I couldn’t regenerate, I’d be dead in a few minutes without even needing any further intervention.

Only when the flames were put out did he finally have time to look back and try to ascertain the source of the attack. Certainly the giant didn’t just have some sort of suicide attack, right? At that point he saw a huge flame floating in the air above the body of the giant. The giant was still alive, but it looked to be in just as sorry of a state as Sage was. Loud low pitched crying and sobbing sounds were coming from the giant while it rolled on the ground. It had already put out the flames, but it was still repeating the action again and again.

Then Sage heard the ominous voice from before, the omnidirectional one, “You useless behemoth! It’s just a little burn, get up and finish smashing that snake!”