"Huh? Strange... why does it feel like I'm lying on the ground?" muttered someone with a voice that still sounded confused.
Feeling that something was wrong, the young man slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a clear blue sky stretching wide above his head.
"Sky? Eh? Ground?" The young man blinked several times. "Wait... don't tell me I'm now in a forest?"
With movements that were still slightly stiff, he rose from his lying position and began to observe his surroundings. The scenery that greeted him was rows of tall, lush trees, with sunlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves.
"What actually happened? Why am I here?" The young man scratched his head, which still felt dizzy. "Wasn't I just sleeping in class?"
While still busy trying to understand the situation he was experiencing, suddenly from behind the bushes in front of him appeared the figure of a girl. The girl was also wearing a school uniform.
"Ah, you..." The girl stopped walking and looked at the young man in front of her with a questioning gaze. "Are you also from the same school as me?"
The young man observed more carefully. The girl in front of him had long black hair and blue eyes.
"Oh yes, it seems we are indeed from the same school," the young man replied while nodding. "But... why are you also in this forest?"
"I want to ask you the same thing!" The girl asked back with a slightly frustrated tone. "Why are you also here?"
Both stared at each other in silence for several moments, each lost in their own thoughts.
However, the silence that occurred did not last long. Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently. Strangely, instead of panicking or being startled, the two teenagers looked calm and alert.
And sure enough, from within the cracked ground, emerged a giant snake with a very large and long body. The snake had earth-brown scales with glowing red eyes that stared at them with fury.
"What is this... a snake?" The girl asked with a tone that sounded more curious than afraid.
"Yes, as you can see, it is indeed a snake," the young man replied with a flat face that didn't seem disturbed at all. "But... the snake's face is very ugly."
"Eh, that's true," the girl nodded in agreement while observing the giant snake with the same flat expression. "Really ugly, in fact."
As if the snake could understand their language, the giant creature roared angrily with a thunderous voice that shook the entire forest. In an instant, the ground around them began to rise into the air and transform into projectiles ready to be launched.
The hardened lumps of earth began to shoot toward both of them at high speed. However, with very agile and coordinated movements, both managed to dodge every incoming attack. What was surprising was that they looked very calm and controlled in this dangerous situation.
*"That guy... it seems he's not an ordinary person,"* the girl thought while continuing to move and dodge.
*"That girl... it seems she's not an ordinary person,"* the young man thought to himself while jumping to the side to avoid the next attack.
They both briefly looked at each other in the middle of their dodging actions. However, their concentration was diverted again when a new attack came toward them.
"It seems this snake looks angry because of something?" The young man said while performing a backflip to avoid a lump of earth that almost hit his head.
"Is it angry because we said it was ugly?" The girl asked while rolling to the side.
"Not really, I think it's something else," the young man replied.
"Something else?" The girl looked curious while continuing to move and dodge the increasingly intense attacks.
"Yes, it seems it's angry because we're in its territory." The young man explained with the same flat face that showed no tension at all. "Or more precisely, we've disturbed it and now it considers us its enemies."
"Oh, I understand now." The girl nodded while performing dodging movements that were almost like a dance. "What I don't understand is, how do you know all that?"
"I'm just guessing because it emerged from underground," the young man replied casually. "Usually creatures like that are very territorial."
*"Usually?"*
"Oh, so what are we going to do now?" The girl asked while jumping onto a tree branch to avoid a larger attack. "Are we just going to let it keep attacking us like this?"
"Yes, of course we have to kill it." The young man answered. "Even if this snake could talk or understand our language, it definitely wouldn't want to listen to the words of humans like us. So there's no other way to solve this problem except to kill it!"
"Oh, but wait," the girl came down from the tree branch and landed smoothly on the ground. "How are we going to kill it when it doesn't seem to want to give us a chance to get close?"
"Use your light power," the young man said. "You have that kind of power, right!"
"Ohh~, I understand. Eh...?!" The girl suddenly stopped moving and stared at the young man with wide eyes. "Wait, how do you know I have light power?"
"I think now isn't the right time to discuss that," the young man replied while avoiding another attack that almost hit his leg. "We better kill this snake first, then we can talk about it!"
"Hm..." The girl stared at the young man with a suspicious look for several seconds. There was something wrong with this young man, but the current situation indeed didn't allow for further questions. "Alright then. It seems there's no reason for me to hide it anymore."
The girl raised her right hand toward the giant snake that was still continuously launching attacks. Golden-white light began to gather in her palm, spinning and growing brighter.
"Light shot!" the girl shouted.
A very bright beam of light shot out from her hand at incredible speed. The light cut the giant snake's head perfectly, and the severed head fell to the ground with a loud thud. Not only that, several trees behind the snake were also cut due to the power of that light.
"Did I succeed?" The girl asked while looking at the result of her attack with a slightly proud face.
"You succeeded in cutting off its head, but unfortunately that didn't kill it." The young man walked toward her and stood beside her with an expression that remained calm.
"Eh? What do you mean?" The girl looked confused.
"Look at that," the young man pointed toward the snake whose head had just been cut off. "It seems to be healing its head back."
"What?!" The girl looked toward the snake with disbelieving eyes. And sure enough, the snake appeared to be regenerating its head using the earth beneath it. The healing process proceeded very quickly, and within seconds, the snake's head was back to its original state.
"This can't be allowed!" The girl prepared to launch another attack.
"I suggest you don't do that," the young man said. "You want to attack it with that light again, right? I think you better save your energy. No matter what you do, in the end that snake will be able to heal its head back!"
"Then what should we do?" The girl asked with a tone that began to sound frustrated. "Should we run?!"
"Not really," the young man replied with a slight smile. "I'll do something. Just wait here."
After saying that, the young man began walking toward the giant snake that had successfully healed its head and was now staring at them with increasingly burning anger. The snake released something from its mouth – acidic liquid and threw it toward the approaching young man.
"Bring it out!" the young man commanded something in his hand.
Suddenly, the black bracelet wrapped around his right hand began to glow and make a sound. Strangely, the sound sounded like a woman's voice.
[Okay!]
From the black bracelet, something jet black emerged. The object was a black sword. The young man took the sword floating in the air and immediately used it to cut through all the acid attacks coming toward him.
"Alright, let's finish this!"
With very fast movements, the young man was already in the air in an instant. He spun his body with a very graceful movement and swung his sword in one perfect slash. The giant snake's head was cut off again and fell to the ground with the same loud sound as before.
However, this time something was different. The snake no longer tried to heal its head. Instead, the snake's body and head began to turn into black dust that slowly disappeared on the ground.
"What... what happened?" The girl asked with eyes still wide with disbelief. "Why couldn't the snake heal its head back this time?"
What had just been killed by the young man was an Earth Snake, a creature that had the ability to regenerate using the earth element around it. That's why the girl's light power was useless when facing this snake in a place that still had plenty of earth. However, the black sword used by the young man seemed to have special power that could stop the creature's regeneration ability.
The young man landed elegantly on the ground and his black sword slowly disappeared back into the bracelet. He turned to face the girl with an expression that remained calm.
"Now," the young man said while walking closer to the girl, "it seems we have many things to discuss."