Single Mother of a Werewolf Baby-Chapter 318: Five Water Serpents

Eleanor waited until the frantic scratching of sand and the roaring wind finally died away. Then, slowly, she uncurled. A full-body shake sent a spray of grit flying from her matted fur. She sneezed violently, clearing the dust from her nose. Her first deep breath tasted of clean, still air, and it was the sweetest thing she had ever known.

She opened her stinging eyes to a world erased and redrawn. Familiar dunes had shifted, replaced by new ones. She listened closely, ears swivelling. No birds, no insects... only an eerie calm.

Thirst clawed at her throat, sharper even than hunger. Lifting her face, she caught a faint breeze carrying a distant, damp scent. She looked ahead. The treeline was still there. It hadn’t been swept away by the storm. A long sigh escaped her.

Steeling herself, she resumed her long walk, a solitary figure crossing the newly scoured land. Step by step, she pressed on. The trees slowly grew clearer. They were real. A surge of strength stirred within her. The sand gleamed gold beneath the sun, and the silence felt almost peaceful.

The sand beneath her feet was hot, the grains rubbing against her skin. She paused to rest, sitting atop a dune and looking back. Her tracks were already fading as a light wind brushed over them.

About an hour later, another sandstorm rolled in, much like the last. This time, she was ready. It took little effort to find shelter. She waited until it passed, then continued on her way.

With every step, her thirst deepened, hunger soon following. Weakness crept into her limbs, but she forced the thought aside and focused on placing one foot before the other.

The sun remained stubbornly fixed above her, unmoving no matter how much time seemed to pass, and the sand stayed searing beneath her. There was nothing to do but push forward, straight towards the trees.

After the tenth sandstorm, the trees loomed much larger. She quickened her pace and soon reached their edge. Green leaves swayed gently, and beyond them lay a different world altogether.

She spotted a lake filled with crystal-clear water. Without hesitation, she plunged in, first washing the sand and grit from her body. Then she moved to another spot and drank deeply, quenching her thirst.

When she climbed back onto the shore, exhaustion crashed over her all at once. She rested and meditated for a while.

A few minutes later, Eleanor felt most of her strength return. Unwilling to repeat the mistake she had made in the valley; she rose and surveyed her surroundings. Behind her stretched the desert she had just crossed. Ahead lay a body of water roughly two hundred feet across, though its length was impossible to judge... she could see no end to it. It resembled a river, yet the complete stillness of its surface said otherwise; there was no current at all.

Given the situation, swimming across seemed the best option. Two hundred feet was well within her ability. Avoiding the water meant wandering its edge, with no guarantee of finding an end anytime soon.

She made her decision.

After resting another five minutes to fully recover, she leapt back into the water. It was pure and clear, tasting normal, with no hint of discomfort. She swam steadily towards the opposite shore, conserving her strength. At the same time, she stayed alert for any sudden attack.

Her caution proved justified. Just as she reached the middle of the lake, five enormous shapes surged up from beneath the water, surrounding her from all sides.

"Water dragons? No... they lack the majesty of true dragons. Water serpents, perhaps," she thought.

Seeing the five serpents emerge, Eleanor couldn’t help but feel awe at their sheer size. At the same time, a trace of fear crept into her heart. She had no abilities, no weapon, and she wasn’t even in her human form. How was she supposed to overcome five massive serpents like these?

"This is a trial. It wouldn’t present me with something impossible. There has to be a way through," she told herself.

"HISS!" The serpents hissed in unison.

"Fuck!" Eleanor swore as her vision blurred. Her body staggered as though she were drunk, her mind slipping out of focus. The serpents’ hiss carried a mental attack. She realised that a bit late.

"This is bad," she thought grimly as her body began to sink.

"Cough! Cough!" Water flooded her mouth and nostrils, jolting her awake from the haze just in time.

The serpents showed no mercy. They attacked while she was in a drunken state. They knew perfectly what they were doing. Two of them lunged at her simultaneously, jaws gaping wide, striking with astonishing speed. Sunlight flashed along their teeth as they broke the surface.

She evaded one by sheer luck and slashed at the other with her claw. Her strike tore into the side of the serpent’s mouth, but she wasn’t unscathed. One of its teeth raked her leg. Blood burst forth, spreading slowly through the water.

A long gash split the serpent’s mouth, stretching towards the corner of one eye, blood dripping freely. It glared at her with naked fury, its only desire to kill. With an enraged hiss, it charged straight at her, maddened by pain.

Eleanor ignored her own wound. Even in the water, she could feel her agility intact... her alpha strength was still there. She waited, a plan forming in her mind.

As the serpent’s gaping jaws surged towards her, she twisted sideways. It missed and struggled to halt its momentum. In that brief instant of adjustment, its neck passed directly in front of her.

She opened her jaws wide and bit down with all her strength.

The scales along the serpent’s neck were hard. Eleanor bit down with all her strength. For a moment, her teeth scraped uselessly against the armour, then, with a sharp jolt, they pierced through. Her fangs sank deep into its neck.

The serpent thrashed violently, trying to shake her off, but she clamped down even harder. At the same time, she wrapped herself around its long body, driving her claws in wherever she could.

The serpent writhed with all its might, yet failed to dislodge her. Two more serpents rushed in to help, but they hesitated, unable to strike without risking their companion. One of them, however, found an opening and whipped its tail across Eleanor’s back. Agony ripped through her, but she gritted her teeth and refused to let go. She was going to tear this serpent’s head off, no matter the cost. With every passing second, her fangs cut deeper into its neck.

At last, the serpent dove beneath the surface. Eleanor was already at a disadvantage in the water; she couldn’t breathe underwater and had been snatching air whenever she could during the fight. Her lungs were nearing their limit, but she resolved to see this through. All she had to do was sever its neck before her breath ran out.

Clinging to that thought, she drove her teeth deeper, ignoring the blood that poured out and clouded her vision. The water around them darkened, stained red.

After a long, brutal struggle beneath the surface, the serpent’s movements finally slowed... then stopped. Eleanor released her bite and looked at the head, now hanging at an unnatural angle in the water. The serpent was dead.

She barely had time to register her victory before a searing pain tore through her lungs. The rush of battle had dulled it before, but now, with the serpent lifeless, her body reminded her of the toll she had taken.

She swam upwards with everything she had. This was a race against time... she had to break the surface before her strength was completely spent.

Just as she was about to emerge, her body flared with an unnatural silver light, and the world dropped away into darkness.

The next moment, she found herself lying on solid ground. It felt like concrete, or some other hard, unyielding surface. With her vision gone, she moved cautiously.

She groped around, trying to find a wall or any kind of boundary, but there was nothing. One of the strangest aspects of this place was the complete absence of sensation. She couldn’t perceive anything... not even darkness itself.

"It seems I’ve entered another level of the trial. Just how many are there?" Eleanor frowned.

Without warning, a dense killing intent crashed into her senses. Danger surged through her, and she shifted aside on pure instinct.

A sharp object pierced her left shoulder. She cried out in agony.

"What? I’m back in my human form," she realised, startled. The sudden change in environment and the absolute darkness had prevented her from noticing before. After so many stages spent trapped in her wolf form, she had assumed nothing had changed. Now, the pain in her human shoulder made the truth clear.

Her relief was short-lived. She frowned as she realised something was terribly wrong. She could not see, hear or touch anything.