"You want to keep shaving scales for the next hour, or you want to buy yourself a spine-cracker and make the grading team write 'effective' in the margins?"
He exhaled through his nose, slow and sharp. The air burned a little on the way out. His grip tightened, then adjusted; the knife balanced in his hand like something alive.
The serpent's hiss rolled over him, vibrating through the stone as if the whole ruin was lending its breath to the beast.
The courtyard pump thrummed louder, a heartbeat for the arena itself. Around them, insects circled tighter, their faint glow sketching every scar, every hairline fracture in the serpent's armor.
Old wounds, old repairs, proof that this monster had been summoned repeatedly and had survived each test until now.
He thought about the cracked plate near the skull, the seam along the belly, the weight of coins waiting in his invisible pocket, and the system grinning in his ear like a street vendor who knew the rain was about to fall.
