Chapter 317: Blood and Fire

The old man straightened as much as he could.

"I am the shaman of the forest serpent tribe."

"I am not interested in your name," said Kellar. "I demand absolute submission. Throw down your weapons and submit. From this moment you are vassals of the Overlord tribe."

A chaos of curses and screams and people weeping went up. A woman spat on the ground. Another covered a child’s eyes.

Then they looked up.

Little Green was still in the air, wings spread, and behind the rocks the shell of Karkadann rose, covering half the sky. The cannons were already turned toward the village.

The noise dropped. They all understood they were lost.

"You can kill us," said the old man. "But we will not surrender."

Kellar laughed. He walked toward them without hurry, the mace resting on his shoulder.

"You have a lot of courage, old man. I suppose you are the shaman of this tribe."

"That is right. I am the shaman of the forest serpent tribe." The old man spat to one side. "If you attack us, you will unleash the fury of the serpent god."

"Show me what you have."

A hunter moved among the low branches. He fired without warning.

The wooden arrow with its stone head veered off on its own a hand’s width from Kellar’s face. The air where it struck rippled for an instant and closed again.

[Wind Shield.]

Kellar extended his hand.

[Lightning Spear.]

The bolt went through the hunter’s chest and threw him off the branch. He fell without letting go of the bow.

"Insignificant tricks," said Kellar, and looked back at the old man. "Come on. Summon your defenders. I want to meet them."

"You are an idiot." The old man was shaking all over, but not his voice. "Offending the serpent god is paid in blood."

He put his hand in the pouch and threw a pink dust into the air. He whispered over it.

[Call of the Serpent God.]

The wind carried the dust away. It smelled sweet, like spun sugar. For a few seconds nothing happened, and then the ground began to shake.

"Well." Kellar lowered the mace from his shoulder. "Seems you were not lying."

"It is too late to beg for mercy." Tears had jumped from the old man’s eyes and his mouth was shining. "You will die! Everyone will die! No one will survive!"

Kellar threw the [Fire Ball] with his open hand.

The blast tore off his clothes and charred his flesh before he finished screaming. He stayed on his knees, black, smoking.

"We may die someday," said Kellar. "But you will not see it."

He turned to the clearing and shouted.

"Let the army come down! Prepare for combat!"

The earth opened in four places at once and the first serpents came out of the holes.

They were three meters long, as thick as a man’s torso, their backs covered in gray plates and their heads flattened against the ground.

The line held the first surge. A boy pissed himself and did not notice.

"Fifty paces!" howled a captain. "Not before fifty!"

The serpents crossed the mark and the volley cut them in half.

The wind-stone bullets went through the plates and out the other side, and the explosives burst their jaws and tore the earth out from under them. One twisted so hard it bit its own tail.

"The eyes!" shouted another captain. "The mouth! Hit them inside, inside!"

A novice fired into the air and fired into the air again. A corporal pushed his barrel down with one hand.

"Breathe, boy. Breathe and aim. It is three meters of meat, it will not miss you."

The kid aimed. He hit the eye. The serpent reared up and another man put two explosives in its throat.

There was a scream on the left and a man went down with his leg opened. Two comrades dragged him back without stopping firing, and the captain plugged the hole with two more shooters.

The small ones flew through the air when an explosive hit them. The big ones had to be stopped with three or four rifles on the same head, and even then they kept coming two more steps before they fell.

Then the earth opened again, wider, and one of the big ones came out.

It was over fifteen meters and its back passed above the low treetops.

"Concentrated! Everyone on the one on the right!" roared the captain. "Do not let it past the line!"

They emptied into it. The plates on its neck shattered into splinters. Its head folded and it kept pushing with its body.

"Do not let up! Do not let up, you sons of bitches, do not let up!"

It took four full seconds of fire before it collapsed.

Julian and the men from the ship had come down with their weapons sheathed and watched on their feet, without stepping in. The knights had spread into a fan in case it was needed. It was not needed yet.

At the front of everyone, Kellar fought hand to hand.

He was enjoying himself.

A serpent snapped at his hip and he answered with the mace to its skull, driving its head down into the ground. Another wrapped its tail around his leg. He tore it off with one pull and slammed it against the rock.

It was like hitting a mole. He got into the holes and beat them out, and the ones that came out did not go back in.

With his stats they were nothing. A pile of beasts ready to be slaughtered.

He burst one’s skull and wiped his face with his forearm.

"Here!" he shouted, and took two more down. "The next one that comes out, I want it alive!"

From the edge of the clearing, the village saw all of it.

They saw their gods come out of the earth and die. They saw the men with iron sticks aim at their eyes and their mouths, and they saw a skinny young man, shaking, put a bullet in the back of the skull of one three meters long and laugh afterward, as if someone had clapped him on the back.

There was no mercy in any of it. It was a game.

The shaman was on his knees on the ground, black, mouth open and smoke coming out of his clothes. Nobody gave orders. Nobody knew what to do with their hands.

A woman leaned toward the dirt path, her body already loaded forward, and did not move. An old man had had his feet pointed at the forest for a full minute and did not dare.

Nobody ran. Running was putting yourself in front of something.

The last shot died out. The sound of powder and hot meat stayed, and a small serpent dragging itself with no direction, half its head open.

Kellar put the mace on it and left it still.

Then he turned around and looked at all of them, his breath still high and another man’s blood on his face.