Free Web NovelChapter 459: Chapter-459
Thirty.
It felt like her soul quietly packed its bags, waved goodbye, and walked out of her body.
"...I’m sorry," she said slowly. "Did you just say *thirty*?"
"At least," Veer replied. "Their scent is thick. Old blood, rot, poison. They’re not passing by." His gaze hardened. "They’re hunting."
Cutie’s ears stood bolt upright, trembling slightly as they angled toward the distant sound only he could pick up.
"I can hear something too," he whispered. "Slithering. Many of them. They’re spreading out... surrounding, maybe."
Kaya swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.
Of course.
Of course the one tribe she’d been mentally blacklisting since day one had decided *now* was the perfect time to show up. Right when her brain was already fried from gods, reincarnations, and emotionally constipated vultures.
Fantastic.
She forced herself to breathe, slow and deep.
The snake coming here was not a good thing. Kaya looked at Veer and asked, "Are they here for the tribe or us?"
Hearing that, Veer’s expression turned grave because his intuition told him they were definitely here not for the tribe—and that left only them. Veer looked at Kaya and said, "We need to leave right now."
Hearing that, Kaya paused. She did not have a compassionate heart to begin with, yet she was still slightly worried because no matter what, she was not an ungrateful person. The thought of leaving the tribe to face potential danger didn’t sit entirely well with her, even if she wouldn’t admit it aloud.
But Veer’s next words made her pause.
"Don’t worry. They wouldn’t attack the tribe. This tribe is one of the most calm and peaceful tribes, but when challenged, they are not something one should trample with. Many tribes respect them, and this tribe also has enough strength to deal with those snakes. But first, we need to leave this place—I don’t think I can handle all of them together."
His words carried weight and certainty. Kaya studied his face for a moment, seeing the seriousness etched into every line. If Veer, who had proven himself capable time and again, admitted he couldn’t handle what was coming, then the threat was real and immediate.
She nodded curtly. "Let’s go."
Without wasting another second, Veer stepped back from her, his eyes already beginning to glow with that familiar golden light. The air around him seemed to shimmer and ripple, as if reality itself was bending to accommodate the change that was about to occur.
Kaya had seen his transformation before, but it never ceased to amaze her. His human form began to blur at the edges, his silhouette expanding and reshaping. Bones cracked and reformed with sounds that would make any ordinary person wince, but the process appeared painless for him. His skin gave way to dark, glossy feathers that erupted across his body like a wave of midnight spreading across the sky.
Within moments, where Veer had stood, there was now a massive vulture—far larger than any natural bird had the right to be. His wingspan was enormous, easily spanning fifteen feet or more, each feather thick and strong. His eyes, still retaining that intelligent golden glow, fixed on Kaya with an intensity that conveyed urgency without words. His talons, curved and razor-sharp, dug slightly into the earth beneath him.
"Get on!" The command came through their bond, his voice resonating in her mind even though his beak didn’t move. The urgency in his tone left no room for hesitation.
Kaya didn’t waste time. She scooped up Cutie, who had been chittering nervously at her feet, sensing the danger that approached. The small creature squeaked and immediately clung to her shoulder, tiny claws gripping her clothing as if his life depended on it—which, Kaya realized grimly, it very well might.
She approached Veer’s lowered form and, with practiced ease born of their previous flights together, grabbed hold of the thick feathers at the base of his neck and swung herself onto his broad back. The moment she settled into position, her legs gripping his sides and her hands twisted securely into his plumage, Veer didn’t wait for confirmation.
He launched.
The power in Veer’s legs as he pushed off from the ground was tremendous. Kaya felt the explosive force of it travel through her entire body as they shot upward like an arrow released from a bow. The wind immediately became a roaring presence in her ears, whipping her hair back and stinging her eyes until she had to squint against it.
Veer’s massive wings beat down with thunderous force, each stroke propelling them higher and faster. The ground fell away beneath them at a dizzying speed. The tribal huts shrank to the size of toys, and the people—barely visible now—looked like ants scattering in their daily routines, blissfully unaware of the danger that slithered at the forest’s edge.
The forest canopy rushed past below them, a sea of green that rippled and swayed in the wind. Kaya could feel every powerful muscle in Veer’s body working beneath her, the coordinated effort of a predator built for the skies. His wings created currents of air that she could actually feel lifting and supporting them, making each beat more efficient than the last.
Higher and higher they climbed, until the air grew cooler and thinner. Kaya’s heart pounded in her chest—not from fear of the height, but from the exhilaration of the flight and the knowledge that they were being hunted.
Cutie pressed himself flat against her neck, his small body trembling but trusting. She kept one hand firmly in Veer’s feathers while the other came up to steady the small creature, offering what little comfort she could in their desperate flight.
"They’re coming," Veer’s voice echoed in her mind, and Kaya felt his body tense beneath her.
She couldn’t see them at first, but she could sense them. Even though Kaya did not turn to look directly behind them, she could tell by the way the forest below suddenly came alive with violent movement. Trees swayed and bent unnaturally, their branches cracking and snapping as something massive—or many massive somethings—tore through them.
Then came the sound.
The slithering was unlike anything she had heard before. It wasn’t the quiet, subtle movement of a single snake sliding through grass. This was a chorus of scales against bark, against leaves, against earth—a horrifying symphony of hundreds, maybe thousands, of serpentine bodies moving in coordinated pursuit.
The sound rose from the forest like a wave, growing louder and more intense with each passing second. It was the sound of pure, focused predation.
Kaya’s jaw clenched, her teeth grinding together as she forced herself to look back.
What she saw made her blood run cold. freewebnovel.cσ๓
The snakes weren’t just following on the ground. Some of them were impossibly large, their bodies as thick as ancient tree trunks, and they were moving through the canopy itself. They coiled around branches and launched themselves from tree to tree in a way that defied their anatomy, moving with a speed and agility that no natural serpent should possess.
But worse—far worse—some of them were beginning to rise.
The larger serpents were lifting the front portions of their bodies high into the air, swaying like grotesque towers of muscle and scale, their heads tracking Veer’s flight path with unsettling accuracy. Their eyes glowed with an eerie, malevolent light—purple and sickly green, colors that spoke of venom and dark power.
"They’re not normal snakes," Kaya said through gritted teeth, her observation shared through their connection.
"No," Veer confirmed, his mental voice strained as he beat his wings harder, pushing for more speed. "They’re beast cultivators. And they’re coordinated. This is an organized hunt." frёeωebɳovel.com
As if to confirm his words, the snakes suddenly moved with frightening synchronization. The largest ones positioned themselves at intervals, creating what looked like a living relay system. As Veer flew over one section of forest, the snakes in that area would rise up, tracking his movement, while simultaneously communicating to the serpents ahead, directing them to optimal positions.
They were being herded.
"Veer!" Kaya warned as she noticed the pattern.
"I see it," he responded, and suddenly his flight path changed. Instead of continuing in a straight line, he banked sharply to the left, his wing dipping at an angle that made Kaya’s stomach lurch. She tightened her grip, pressing her legs harder against his sides as the world tilted dizzyingly.
The maneuver worked. The serpents that had been positioning themselves ahead were suddenly off-course, their coordination broken for a precious few seconds.
But they adapted quickly.
The slithering sound intensified, and Kaya could actually see the massive bodies changing direction below, flowing like rivers of scale and muscle through the forest. They moved with a fluidity that was both beautiful and terrifying, their forms weaving between trees, over rocks, through streams—nothing slowed them down.
One of the largest serpents—a monster easily sixty feet long with scales that shimmered like oil in the dappled sunlight—suddenly coiled its body and launched itself upward. It rose like a striking cobra, its massive head reaching an impossible height, jaws opening to reveal fangs as long as daggers.
