Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 20: The serpent's lair raid (7)

'BAM!'

The serpent's tail met Jeanne's sword. In a split second, she managed to summon a sword and used it to hold against the tail.

"Jeanne! Thank god, hold on, I'm coming!" I shouted at her. I almost forgot that she was an experienced general, and she wouldn't die so easily. Still, I had a mini heart attack.

"Little cub, I'll get her out. You go get the other heart." General Zhang casually said to me.

"What?"

"I can't get over there. I'd get burned by the acid, y'know? I can't use my water body against acid, too~" He pouted.

Before I could retaliate, he already dashed forward to help Jeanne, leaving me behind.

"Ugh, that bastard... He's sending me to my death." I cursed, but he's right. I have to find a way to somehow not die while getting its heart...

I ripped my left sleeve at the shoulder and tied it over my wound to apply pressure on it.

...Wait. My sleeve didn't melt from the acid earlier. Now that I thought about it carefully, the acid only worked for things with mana. That was also why my glove was safe.

I immediately got an idea. I tucked my hair inside my helmet and ripped my other sleeve to use it to cover my face under my mask. I need double-layer protection for my head.

And then I scraped some mud from the damp ground, and applied it all over my exposed areas, including the parts that weren't covered by my gauntlet, and the areas where my clothes were torn. I looked like a caveman, but hey, as long as it worked.

I made sure the mud on my skin was properly sticking and thick, and then I ran towards its tail.

"General Zhang, prop me up!" I shouted.

"Okie~" He came over and offered his hands for me. I stepped on his hand, and he launched me upwards.

"Take care of Jeanne!" I told him while I grabbed the serpent's rocky body to not fall again.

"Don't worry about us, little cub~" He said.

"I can still fight, don't worry." Jeanne stood up even though her left leg was bent the wrong way. She then summoned a spear and used it as some kind of crutch to help her walk.

"Come, you damn serpent." She picked up a sword and prepared to attack the serpent. Damn, she was badass. This was one of the reasons why I admire her.

While general Zhang and Jeanne were busy distracting the serpent's head, I crawled over carefully towards the gaping hole on its tail.

I carefully touched the acid that was pouring from the shattered crystal, and...

"Shit." The mud wasn't able to coat me well-enough. A tiny bit of the liquid seeped through and burned my skin.

"Oh well. I'd probably die from infection anyway. This place is nasty." I braced myself and endured the burn, and plunged my arm into the hole just like general Zhang did.

Except, the translucent jelly inside wasn't actually jelly-like. It was hard, kind of like thick leather. How did that bastard manage to puncture this thing with his bare hand?

I pulled out my dagger, my only choice of weapon because my rifle went missing when I fell down earlier. I coated my dagger with my mana as much as possible, and stabbed through the fake jelly.

'KIIIEK!'

The serpent shrieked, and tried to turn its head around towards its tail, but was stopped by general Zhang and Jeanne.

Unfortunately, even though it couldn't turn around and bite me, it could still move its tail. It flicked its tail swiftly and crashed it against the cave walls.

'BOOM!'

"Kkh--!" My body felt like it was crushed by a huge force. During times like these, I really felt grateful for the system. Thankfully I've raised my physique a bit, so at least I didn't die instantly.

I gripped my dagger tighter and ripped its body open. I plunged my arm all the way to my shoulder to try and reach the heart, but it was deeper than I thought.

"Ugh, just die, you damn snake!" I shouted and concentrated my mana, igniting flames from my hand to burn its body all the way to its heart.

'KIIIEK!'

The serpent shrieked loudly and thrashed around, crashing his body against everything he could find. In the middle of the chaos, it flicked its tail upwards, launching me into the air.

"UWAHH! I'm gonna dieeee!" I screamed as I was thrown 20 meter-ish into the air without any sort of protection.

"Chaerin! Be careful!" I was almost slapped by the serpent's tail midair, when Jeanne used her wind to maneuver me out of harm's way.

"Don't be scared, little cub, just land~!" General Zhang shouted at me.

"Do you think I'm a cat? I'll die if I land!"

Hey, wasn't this a good time for some miracle to happen? If I were miraculously brought into this world, surely I won't die miserably this fast, right? Please, system! Do something!

"Sheesh, fine, I'll get you." Out of nowhere, general Zhang started stretching.

After he finished stretching his legs, he stepped on the serpent's long, twisty body to jump upwards and caught me midair. He held me closer to his chest, and grinned at me mockingly.

"I suppose this cub is still needy, huh?" He teased me.

This bastard. I swear one day I'll kick his ass.

"Shut up." I smeared mud on his smooth face. That was for sending me to death and mocking me.

He landed perfectly on the ground, without any cracking sound. The human body sure was amazing in this world, to be able to withstand such a landing.

"Jeanne! Let's take cover!" I immediately hopped off from his arms and ran towards Jeanne.

"Hey, where's my thanks?" General Zhang said.

"Here, I'll help you!" I put her arm over my shoulder and helped her walk behind a huge rock near the wall. Hopefully, the serpent's violent thrashing won't hit us here.

"I got ignored..." General Zhang pouted, as he kicked an incoming rock that was flying towards us because of the serpent's movements.

"Thank you, Chaerin..." Jeanne said with a frown on her face, trying to endure her pain.

We hid behind a huge rock, while we tried our best to deflect any incoming rocks or acid that came flying towards us. The serpent itself hadn't died yet, and was writhing in pain. I guess my flames need a bit of time to thoroughly burn its heart.

"Jeanne, let me look at your leg." I crouched down beside her, who was sitting against the wall.

"I'll be okay. I'll hold on until the healers come." Jeanne said. Her breathing was rough, and she was sweating a lot. Even though her physique stat was high, but I guess getting crushed by a huge serpent was still very damaging.

I looked at her left leg, and it was horrible. I saw it bent the wrong way, sure, but upon closer inspection, it was bleeding heavily and was already swollen.

"Do we still have the first-aid kit?" I asked her.

"No, it was lost during our fight..." She replied grimly.

Damn it. We didn't know when the healers would arrive. And we had no spare cloth to use too, since coverage was really important against acid...

"I'm sorry, Jeanne. I'll have to rip this off." I took my dirty gloves off to work as cleanly as possible with my bare hands, tore her sleeve, and turned it inside-out. This wasn't exactly clean, but I guess the inside was cleaner than the outside. I then applied pressure on her leg, in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding as much as I could.

"Ugh!" She winced as I pressed on her wound.

"Please hold on. I'm sorry." I took her spear that she used as a crutch, and tied it to her leg to keep it from moving too much.

"Thank you... Chaerin..." Her breathing was heavy, but she tried her best to withstand the pain.

"I'm sorry for tearing your sleeve off. Please use your wind magic to be extra careful of the acid, okay?" It was actually not ideal to remove any clothing, because the acid couldn't pierce them. But hey, we didn't have much choice.

"Hey, you guys. Mind helping me for a bit?" General Zhang called us. He had been protecting us from any incoming debris all this time.

"Geez, you're strong, it's fine," I poked his back, "it should almost be dead by now, right?"

"I guess so~" General Zhang hummed, "too bad I couldn't play with it for too long."

"You have a weird taste, you know?" I sighed, "let me have a look at your arm."

I took his arm that was injured from the acid, and tried to put pressure on it to lessen the bleeding.

"Is there any cloth I can use..." I looked around while pressing the wound with my palm.

"Chaerin, you're surprisingly well-versed in first aid." Jeanne suddenly said.

"Ah, well... I'm sure most people can do first-aid. Anyway, could you help me rip the hem of my shirt?" I quickly shifted the topic.

I knew that I should act like I'm a dunce to not raise any suspicions, but if they die here, I would also die here... And I was kind of fond of her, to be honest...

Well, this maniac could die for all I care, though. But only after he paid me.

I used the inner side of my shirt's hem to wrap general Zhang's wound. His arm sure was very muscular and sturdy. I wonder if my arm could become like that someday if I raise my physique stat?

"All done," I slapped his wrapped-up wound, "that'll be 1000 chromas." I grinned at him.

"Ow, little cub, where did you learn to extort people?" He grinned back at me, mockingly.

"I'm not extorting. I'm just asking for compensation for my services." I slapped his wound once again.

"Ow, ow, don't be so rough!" He pouted.

'KIIIEK!'

The serpent let out a long, high-pitched wail. It squirmed for a while, and was leaking more and more acid.

Suddenly, it slithered towards the lake with tremendous speed.

'Splash!'

It threw itself into the lake, splashing water everywhere... Except that wasn't water, but acid.

"Take cover!" Jeanne shouted and she made a wall of wind around us, so we were saved from the splashing acid.

"What is it doing!?" I exclaimed.

"I don't know either. Be on your guard." General Zhang's tone suddenly got serious and he brought out his daggers.

We tried to see past the gust of wind around us, but it was blurry, so we waited in suspense.

'Crunch.'

What?

'Crunch. Crunch.'

"Is that... A crunching sound?" Jeanne said.

"Is it... Eating? But, the only thing sitting inside the lake is..." I gulped.

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