Masked Knight

Chapter 118: Gate of the Abyss

Translator: Zenobys Editor:

“Preposterous!” Andy shouted in Rody’s mind. “This is a Mythical Beast! What's the name... ‘Jormungardr’1? Right, it is known as the Fang of the Pit2.. It is definitely not just any large snake!”

Rody shouted, “What ‘Jormungardr’? Stupid old skeleton! What did you say...” Before Rody could finish, he felt a sudden violent gust of wind coming in his direction as one of the snake’s head scurried forward. Rody hastily jumped out of the way and heard a loud rumbling sound. The snake fiercely lunged at the location Rody was just standing at and crashed the stones on the mountain wall into bits and pieces.

Before he could stand firmly after dodging, he heard the wind rushing on his left. He immediately started to roll in fear. Another head of the snake had ferociously punched into the ground and left a huge crack. The large snake slowly approached and caused many small stones to fall.

“Move back! Move back!” Andy shouted in Rody’s mind.

Rody was just about to open his mouth to refute Andy when Andy shouted again, “Shut up, kid! Keep quiet! Move back! This fellow is blind! He cannot see you! Do not make any sound!”

Rody immediately shut up. He supported himself on the wall of the mountains and retreated back to a corner of the cave.

After that, Rody saw the giant snake gradually uncoil its huge body and slowly moved around the cave. Its ten heads felt around to examine the surroundings. Occasionally, it bumped into a stone and caused it to fall.

“What in the world is this? What do you mean by ‘Jormungardr’?” Rody lowered his body and secretly asked Andy.

Andy’s voice sounded strange as it replied, “I heard of that during the time I spent with my Master. Jormungardr, the Fang of the Pit. It is the legendary Mystic Dragon’s ninth son, a high ranked Mythical Beast.”

Rody saw that the giant snake was gradually coming closer. It had occupied at least half of the cave that had a hundred-meter radius. The whole cave seemed to shake. Rody could not help but asked, “Why is there a Mythical Beast on the Radiant Continent? Haven’t they gone extinct during ancient times?”

“How the hell would I know?” Andy answered in annoyance and then warned Rody, “Be careful. Even though this thing is powerful, it is blind. As long as you do not make a single sound, it will not be able to find you.”

“Blind?” Rody swallowed his saliva as he looked at the giant snake from a distance twisting its body all over, with its ten pairs of eyes emitting a green light. Are those terrifying eyes really blind?

Listening to Andy’s words, Rody cautiously moved behind a rock. Just as he was feeling relieved, he heard Andy said, “Let me think of a way to deal with this thing. Hmm… those days, when Master went to the Roland Continent, he had encountered this kind of creatures. I heard that even though it was strong and could breathe out a strong fire, it should still have a weakness.”

“Weakness? What weakness? Hmm... Wait a minute…” Rody suddenly turned stiff and gritted his teeth, “Did you just say that this… this creature… can breathe out fire?”

Before Rody could finish his words, he saw the huge snake had stopped twisting around. It had recoiled into a lump. Its ten heads stood up and every single head opened its mouth. From each mouth, the two-pointed tip of a snake’s tongue could be seen. Suddenly, there was a loud sound bursting from the mouths of the snake. It was like the howling of a wild beast.

After that, one of the heads stretched out and shot out a wave of red flame that was ten meters long.

Wherever the flame went, the stones were burnt black. Rody was so surprised that he almost fell onto the ground. Shit! This monster should only exist in storybooks! Why is it breathing flames right in front of me right now?

As one of the heads breathed out fire, the other heads also rose and started to breathe out fire.

Rody immediately felt the heat waves coming from the cave. More than ten flames were continuously wreaking havoc in the cave. The flames burned the stones in the cave until they were scalding hot. The snake continued to breathe out fire, and the flames gradually got closer to Rody. The flames were about to burn the location where Rody was standing.

Suddenly, one of the snake's heads appeared about ten steps in front of Rody. Its green eyes were right in front of Rody. Rody did not dare to breathe out and bravely withstood the hot flames. He firmly gripped the dagger in his hands.

As soon as a snake head open its mouth, Andy quickly shouted, “Quickly use your fighting energy!”

Sure enough, the snake gathered its power and flames shot out from its mouth. The flames shot straight to where Rody was hiding. Rody gritted his teeth, and his body was suddenly wrapped in a pale golden flame. He held his dagger and used his energy to form a shield large enough for himself. The flames clashed at the shield and immediately dispersed. Rody’s body shook from the violent force, and his hair and eyebrows felt like they were singed.

Fortunately, the snake heads could not breathe fire for an extended amount of time. It stopped before attempting to breathe out fire elsewhere. Rody stopped his fighting energy. His heart was beating heavily, but Rody did not dare breathe.

After breathing out flames numerous times, the snake started to get anxious. It started to toss about, and its heads started to slam against the mountain wall. It roared and slammed the mountain wall, leaving large cracks.

Suddenly, there was a cry of alarm. Although the sound was soft, Rody could hear it clearly as he was fully on the alert. That sound actually came from the entrance of the cave that Rody had climbed out earlier.

Someone is here! Rody was surprised.

However, the snake’s reaction was faster than Rody. Before that person’s cry of alarm had stopped, one of the snake's heads had already ferociously slammed against that entrance of the cave.

There was a loud sound when the entrance of the cave was slammed into. The originally small opening of the cave had become much larger. From a distance, Rody could see a black figure standing at that entrance and giving out another scream.

That giant snake was blind but its hearing was fine. One of its heads stretched and shot out its long tongue. The tongue curled up the victim’s legs before biting its victim.

After that, there was a scream. The lower half of the person’s body was caught in the snake's mouth and was being pulled out of the entrance. However, there was another person in the cave. That person held his companion tightly and desperately tried to pull his companion back.

The person that was bitten by the snake did not die immediately and continued to scream in fear. Fortunately, the snake’s mouth only had two lower fangs and did not have any other teeth. Besides that, the mouth of the snake was too big in comparison to the man. Its two lower fangs did not sink into that man’s body. Instead, the snake only closed its mouth on him and forcefully dragged him out of the cave.

The snake was extremely powerful, and the two people were unable to withstand its pull. Not only did the snake swallow the victim that it was biting, it also managed to drag out the victim’s companion to the entrance of the cave. He then fell down the mountain wall.

That snake was extremely fast. As soon as the man had landed on the ground, another snake head had already lunged forward. After that, there was a large explosion as the man quickly rolled out of its way, and a hole immediately appeared on the ground.

The figure pulled out a dagger, but Rody did not see him do anything. Suddenly, the whole person's shadow faded away.

When Rody saw that he immediately realized these people were from the Silvermoon Clan.

After the figure disappeared, Rody listened carefully and could still hear that man's light footsteps. On the other hand, the snake was more alert and plunged its head down at a spot. There was another sharp clash sound as it turned out to be an empty spot. Rody placed his head on the ground to listen more clearly, and then he heard a whacking sound. A figure immediately appeared. The snake had swung its head across and flung the man into the sky; he landed right in front of Rody.

The snake noticed the movements and turned two of its heads to look at Rody. This time, the snake was clever as it kept its two heads low on the ground and slowly approached from two different directions.

Rody gave a wry smile and gritted his teeth. He jumped out from his hiding spot and rushed forward to the figure. He found that the figure was covered in a black robe. The material of the robe was similar to the one used by the Black Veil Saint. The figure’s long and black hair covered the figure’s face, but it seemed like the figure was a woman.

At that critical moment, Rody did not think. He picked up the woman and quickly ran. He hurriedly threw the stone that he had picked up earlier at the mountain wall.

There was a clash as the stones hit the distant mountain wall above.The two heads of the snake immediately rushed and slammed into the mountain walls. Rody took that opportunity to run out of the cave.

The snake continued to thrash out from behind Rody. However, Rody deliberately lightened his footsteps. Even if occasionally there was a little bit of sound, it would be masked by the sound of the stones crashing from the mountain walls.

When Rody entered the pitch dark cave, that huge strange snake was still thrashing outside in the mountain pit. Rody followed the cave path and ran down it. It was dark and Rody could not see the path. As a result, he stumbled a few times. With that large monster behind him he had to ignore the pain.

Rody could not help but think to himself, I wonder if I could cut off its heads with the Half Moon Slash.

Although Rody thought of it, he knew he could only use the Half Moon Slash three times at most. On the other hand, the giant snake had ten heads. Even if he were to cut down two or three heads, he might not be able to kill the snake. If he were to fight using that little bit of fighting energy, he would be exhausted in the end, and he would perish quickly.

Rody ran for quite a distance. Unfortunately, he did not know if the path he took would lead him to something else. After all, that giant snake came from that cave. He was afraid there may be some strange creatures, below. If he were to enter the nest of the snake, even with just one such creature, he would probably lose his life.

That giant snake behind him had already occupied the valley of the mountain. As a result, Rody could not turn back. He could only run forward.

Suddenly, Rody tripped on some stones. This caused him and the person he was carrying to roll down the tunnel of the mountain.

Rody finally stopped rolling after about ten meters. After that, he struggled to get up. He felt pain all over his body. In the dark, he grasped wildly with his hands. Suddenly, his left hand managed to catch something. He gave a hard squeeze and realized that he was holding a person’s leg. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that it was the leg of the Silvermoon clansman.

However, Rody felt strange that there was something at that person’s leg. When he touched it, he found that it was a small, metal bell. Rody felt something familiar about the bell, but he was dizzy and could not recall what it was about.

A chilly wind blew in the cave. Rody feared that the snake would follow the cave tunnel to come back. He struggled to stand and then carried that person with him. He continued to move down the tunnel.

Just now, when he was running for his life in a haste, he had not paid much attention to the person he was carrying. He now realized that person was unusually light, soft and had a delicate figure. The body also had a light faint fragrance. She's a woman!

Although Rody was sure that she was one of the two Silvermoon people that had looked for him, he could not tell if she was the person whom he injured or the person who stood behind him without showing her face.

After walking for some time in the dark, Rody felt like this mountain was endlessly long. Rody was already tired for the night. He was also carrying someone and was quite breathless. He could not help but asked Andy in his mind. “Just now you said that the huge snake was the ‘Fang of the Pit’. What do you mean?”

Andy’s voice only resounded in Rody’s head. However, when Andy spoke in the extremely dark and cold night, it became a bone-chilling experience.

“That monster is a high ranked Mythical Beast, the legendary Mystic Dragon’s ninth son. According to the legends, the Mystic Dragon was amongst the most powerful beings created by the Gods. However, it betrayed the Gods and got sealed in the abyss of hell. The snake we just saw was the ninth Mythical Beast created by the Mystic Dragon. According to the myths, the Mystic Dragon created nine powerful Mythical Beast to be its subordinates to challenge the Gods. However, the Mystic Dragon was not as strong as the Gods. That was why all the Mythical Beasts he created had a flaw. That snake was the ninth Mythical Beast created, and it had defective eyes. That snake was known as the 'Fang of the Pit'. which meant the tooth that guards the Abyss of Hell.

“Wait!” Rody suddenly stopped and asked, “The tooth that guards the Abyss of Hell.” Rody spoke in an unnatural tone of voice. “If the snake was guarding there… does that mean… that path would take us to hell’s abyss? Was that where the Mystic Dragon was sealed?”

“Kid, are you afraid?” the skeleton laughed in Rody’s mind.

Rody snorted and replied, “Nonsense! I cannot even defeat a snake! Let alone a dragon!”

Translation Footnotes:

1 约尔曼冈德 or ‘yue er man gang de’. Not knowing what it is, I used google image to find many snakes, wolves, knights, anime characters, robots, the Kraken, and finally found a card that says ‘Jormungardr the Serpent’.

This monster sure looks like the Hydra. But its name says otherwise. At the same time there is another monster in chinese mythology, the nine-headed 相柳 ( Xiāngliǔ ) which is not the Hydra.

2 深渊之牙. Fang of the Pit. Taken from the same Chinese name of a dagger in World of Warcraft.