A swarm of Water Serpents swimming in the lake is a kinda impressive sight to behold. Each individually is a scaled snake of five to eight meters in length with a long fin on the back along its whole length, with larger than normal snake's, kinda draconic head with sharp teeth lining its jaws and a pair of peculiar, jagged horns growing to the back of its head. Their scales are from light to azure blue in color and there are a bit more than a dozen of them waiting on the edge of the lake, presumably for the group to attack.
They could technically attack us on land since they are only primarily water creatures and they can move on the ground, but they are much stronger in the water. If I had to guess, I'd say they won't go out to attack us on the shore unless we piss them off more than we already did. Though we're here to destroy their nest, so we'll be going into the lake sooner or later.
And, uh, it's not exactly a shore. The lake is wholly surrounded by wild forest, without any beaches or anything. The closest thing to a shore is a wide sort of swamp where there are no trees and neither water, but the ground is muddy and treacherous and smaller vegetation thrives, mainly various types of grasses. There is also a hell lot of insects, but hardly any of them are large enough to be worse than mildly annoying.
Speaking about sizes, the Black Lake is also surprisingly large for a lake, if I'm honest. Not on the level of the largest lakes on Gaia, because I can easily see the other side, but it's good ten kilometers across on average, with at least twice that at the widest as it seems to be in a sort of valley. Hm, I guess the lake surface wouldn't be as... curved as on a planet? Hm. Yeah, so I could see the other side even if it was much larger. Ignoring the fact I'm flying in the air, of course.
I'm kinda scouting the situation for the group, because, while there is a cognimant among them, her abilities work mostly on things she perceives. She has actually a really neat set of abilities. They aren't really impressive, but she has weak foresight and sharpened senses, which, combined with her magic as a healer, give her incredible utility. With that said though, she can't scout the nest, and since there are no trees in vicinity, their scout is similarly helpless.
Anyway, since the serpents are not creatures living only in the water, their home is a rather large structure on the edge of the lake, not in its depths. I'm pretty sure the reason for that is that Water Serpents, despite having water in their name, need air to breathe. And well, I say structure, but in reality it's a large mud wall rounding a bed of grasses filled with water, which says a lot about thier social structure, or lack thereof, and their level of intelligence.
Their behavior seems to support the theory, because they are like an angry mob by the edge of the lake while the nest is completely empty. Completely no strategy or planning. Well, we did throw an air bomb there, essentially a sound grenade, but they are still stupid. And they seem not to notice me, likely because I have sun behind me.
Hm, let's go back to the group, which is currently hiding in the grasses. Ten of them actually, because the scout from Hunter's Guild is checking the surroundings for any other monsters and going up a tree to use his bow properly.
I fly away a bit so the Serpents won't notice me because of some dumb luck and make half a circle back to the group. I land softly among them them, earning quite a few wary gasps and one curse from a warrior-looking guy, and turn to Daria and Grant discussing the battle strategy from the sound of it, but stopping at my arrival.
"So?" Daria rises her eyebrows.
"A dozen or so, out of the nest, still in the water. Pissed off from the sounds of it, though they didn't go out as we hoped. We can either try to bait them again or go in, which shouldn't-." I pause as I see something entering the range of my mana sense and immeditely spring up from my relaxed position. "Incoming! From the lake! At least ten!" I shout and all the hunters scramble around to get their bearings.
"Daria, get back! We're splitting up! Cath, Crimson, Vulcan, Xethu, to the left!" I shout out orders and shot up into the air with a beat of my wings, then turn around to Letty, who is still in the back as she was relaxing before all that. Eeeh, damn, if we knew we'd be attacked out of the blue, I'd get her to the front.
Why did they even attack? It's either that something else made them attack or I underestimated their intelligence, and I'm not sure which one is worse. I should have been paying more attention.
I look at my girfriend jumping up and creating a pair of twin black swords, and grin as I beat my wings to fly up to her. Behind me I notice Daria flying off with some sort of spell and the group splitting up after Grant gives his orders to retreat and get the sepents in a pinch. Not surprising. And why is Catherine laying on the ground? No matter, she'll cope.
"When they split their attention between the two groups, we're butting into their middle." I say, standing at Letty's side and turning to look at the hunters already engaging in a messy brawl with monsters having a bit higher numbers.
They aren't having problems, not yet at least, because of the swamp and because of how the serpents are built. It's just impossible for them to attack in close distances to each other if they value their lives, and from what I've seen they do. Each of the two groups has three people at the frontline plus support, and the serpents, having came from one side, needed to split up and fight on two fronts. They are only just now starting to slither around, so... I guess it's time.
"Try to leave some alive." I mutter and shot out into the fray with a beat of my wings, creating a pair of flaming gaunlets on my fists so I would have good grip.
...
A swarm of Water Serpents swimming in the lake is a kinda impressive sight to behold. Each individually is a scaled snake of five to eight meters in length with a long fin on the back along its whole length, with larger than normal snake's, kinda draconic head with sharp teeth lining its jaws and a pair of peculiar, jagged horns growing to the back of its head. Their scales are from light to azure blue in color and there are a bit more than a dozen of them waiting on the edge of the lake, presumably for the group to attack.
They could technically attack us on land since they are only primarily water creatures and they can move on the ground, but they are much stronger in the water. If I had to guess, I'd say they won't go out to attack us on the shore unless we piss them off more than we already did. Though we're here to destroy their nest, so we'll be going into the lake sooner or later.
And, uh, it's not exactly a shore. The lake is wholly surrounded by wild forest, without any beaches or anything. The closest thing to a shore is a wide sort of swamp where there are no trees and neither water, but the ground is muddy and treacherous and smaller vegetation thrives, mainly various types of grasses. There is also a hell lot of insects, but hardly any of them are large enough to be worse than mildly annoying.
Speaking about sizes, the Black Lake is also surprisingly large for a lake, if I'm honest. Not on the level of the largest lakes on Gaia, because I can easily see the other side, but it's good ten kilometers across on average, with at least twice that at the widest as it seems to be in a sort of valley. Hm, I guess the lake surface wouldn't be as... curved as on a planet? Hm. Yeah, so I could see the other side even if it was much larger. Ignoring the fact I'm flying in the air, of course.
I'm kinda scouting the situation for the group, because, while there is a cognimant among them, her abilities work mostly on things she perceives. She has actually a really neat set of abilities. They aren't really impressive, but she has weak foresight and sharpened senses, which, combined with her magic as a healer, give her incredible utility. With that said though, she can't scout the nest, and since there are no trees in vicinity, their scout is similarly helpless.
Anyway, since the serpents are not creatures living only in the water, their home is a rather large structure on the edge of the lake, not in its depths. I'm pretty sure the reason for that is that Water Serpents, despite having water in their name, need air to breathe. And well, I say structure, but in reality it's a large mud wall rounding a bed of grasses filled with water, which says a lot about thier social structure, or lack thereof, and their level of intelligence.
Their behavior seems to support the theory, because they are like an angry mob by the edge of the lake while the nest is completely empty. Completely no strategy or planning. Well, we did throw an air bomb there, essentially a sound grenade, but they are still stupid. And they seem not to notice me, likely because I have sun behind me.
Hm, let's go back to the group, which is currently hiding in the grasses. Ten of them actually, because the scout from Hunter's Guild is checking the surroundings for any other monsters and going up a tree to use his bow properly.
I fly away a bit so the Serpents won't notice me because of some dumb luck and make half a circle back to the group. I land softly among them them, earning quite a few wary gasps and one curse from a warrior-looking guy, and turn to Daria and Grant discussing the battle strategy from the sound of it, but stopping at my arrival.
"So?" Daria rises her eyebrows.
"A dozen or so, out of the nest, still in the water. Pissed off from the sounds of it, though they didn't go out as we hoped. We can either try to bait them again or go in, which shouldn't-." I pause as I see something entering the range of my mana sense and immeditely spring up from my relaxed position. "Incoming! From the lake! At least ten!" I shout and all the hunters scramble around to get their bearings.
"Daria, get back! We're splitting up! Cath, Crimson, Vulcan, Xethu, to the left!" I shout out orders and shot up into the air with a beat of my wings, then turn around to Letty, who is still in the back as she was relaxing before all that. Eeeh, damn, if we knew we'd be attacked out of the blue, I'd get her to the front.
Why did they even attack? It's either that something else made them attack or I underestimated their intelligence, and I'm not sure which one is worse. I should have been paying more attention.
I look at my girfriend jumping up and creating a pair of twin black swords, and grin as I beat my wings to fly up to her. Behind me I notice Daria flying off with some sort of spell and the group splitting up after Grant gives his orders to retreat and get the sepents in a pinch. Not surprising. And why is Catherine laying on the ground? No matter, she'll cope.
"When they split their attention between the two groups, we're butting into their middle." I say, standing at Letty's side and turning to look at the hunters already engaging in a messy brawl with monsters having a bit higher numbers.
They aren't having problems, not yet at least, because of the swamp and because of how the serpents are built. It's just impossible for them to attack in close distances to each other if they value their lives, and from what I've seen they do. Each of the two groups has three people at the frontline plus support, and the serpents, having came from one side, needed to split up and fight on two fronts. They are only just now starting to slither around, so... I guess it's time.
"Try to leave some alive." I mutter and shot out into the fray with a beat of my wings, creating a pair of flaming gaunlets on my fists so I would have good grip.
...
