Chapter 239: Anaconda Disaster

Said to be the canopy overhead, it was actually quite close to us, almost only two or three meters away, and we could clearly see the snake's scales. This was a tree python, the thickest part as thick as a water bucket. The canopy was dense, most of its body hidden within, and we couldn't tell how long it was. What amazed me was that the snake's scales reflected a brownish-golden luster under the light of the miner's lamp, as if the snake had been gilded.

When we climbed up just now, there was definitely no python around. This snake must have crawled over through the tangled canopy while we were resting. Pythons move very slowly when not hunting, and their movements are stealthy. There was still a slight breeze outside, and the rustling of leaves filled the jungle. Everyone was drowsy and didn't notice at all. Panzi, who was on watch, didn't detect its approach either.

But it wasn't strange to see a python here; tropical rainforests are naturally the homeland of pythons. And after seeing so many bizarre things, a mere big snake didn't seem enough to tense our nerves.

Panzi and the others had seen the world. Everyone was remarkably calm; no one moved or screamed. This type of snake has a long attack range. We didn't know if it was interested in us. If we moved rashly and startled it, it would attack in an instant, and we were at a disadvantage up in the tree.

We remained frozen, while the tree python slowly coiled down, hanging its huge head below a branch. It looked at us, its yellow, venomous eyes extremely unsettling in the dark night.

Panzi had already raised his gun, while pushing Fatty, who was such a sound sleeper that no amount of pushing could wake him. Poker-face's black-gold knife was also held horizontally behind his waist, and he reversed a dagger in his other hand. Everyone instinctively shrank back, trying to keep distance from the snake.

I was at the back, thinking to myself that if it attacked, it wouldn't go for me first. I looked down at the ground, considering whether it was feasible to jump. After all, we were up in a tree, quite high, with limited space to move—fighting head-on would likely be a loss.

After the heavy rain, the waterfalls on both cliffs had converged into numerous streams at the bottom of the canyon, now merging together. The muddy ground under the trees had turned into a black swamp, presumably a mix of roots and mud below. I wasn't sure if we could even run on it.

As I thought this, I turned to look at the rainforest ahead. Then, from all around came the sound of the canopy shaking, rustling. This time, it seemed to come from behind me.

I turned my head, and cold sweat poured down like a waterfall. Hanging down just behind my neck was another slightly smaller tree python, also brownish-golden, about as thick as a thigh, only an arm's length from my face. A strong stench of blood and slime hit my nose.

I was so frightened I shrank forward again. The people in front shrank back, I shrank forward, and we all crowded together, with no retreat left.

Now truly unable to move a muscle, everyone froze there. Human stared at snake, snake stared at human; even our breathing was tightened.

I found it strange. Pythons are solitary animals with strong territorial instincts; they rarely cooperate in hunting, except during mating season. Could the rainy season be their mating period? If so, we had come at a really bad time. These two pythons, one in front and one behind, seemed deliberately to flank us. They were probably a mating pair. Recalling the human corpse inside the snake bones made me nauseous—I thought, damn, I don't want to be a post-coital snack for them.

The stalemate lasted a long time, with no one moving. Pythons might rarely encounter humans, and for the moment they didn't understand the situation, so they didn't dare attack. Moreover, Poker-face and Panzi's aura was formidable; both stood like stone statues, staring fixedly into the snake's eyes. The pythons seemed to sense a potential threat and hesitated.

After more than ten minutes, indeed the two pythons, unable to find an opening, slowly withdrew back into the canopy, as if giving up.

Watching both sides of the snakes coil back up, I slowly let out a breath. Panzi's tense body also relaxed, and he slowly lowered his gun. I felt relieved. To be honest, fighting a snake in this place—better not. Not to mention the snake's attack power, even just falling from here would be disastrous.

But just as I was about to sigh softly to calm myself, Fatty suddenly turned over, let out a very indistinct snore, and even drew out a long nasal sound.

That was a sound suddenly breaking the extreme silence. Everyone was startled. Aning hurriedly pressed his mouth, but it was too late. The whole tree shook violently; a gust of foul wind swirled, and the front python thrust its head back out. This time its body was arched into a U-shape, a clear sign of imminent attack.

Panzi immediately raised his gun but was a step too slow. The python's head bit like lightning. In that instant, Panzi barely ducked, and the snake head passed beside his head. Poker-face behind him, with poor line of sight, dodged too late and got bitten on the shoulder. Then the muscular python body swept in like a gale, and in a very short time its upper body, like a coiled dragon, slammed onto the snake bones beneath our feet. The already unstable pile of bones instantly collapsed; we were knocked over by the snake's body, and then the ground gave way beneath us. Everyone, wrapped in snake bones, fell down.

Fortunately, the snake bones were tangled with many vines—bones broke but tendons held. As we fell, the vines caught parts of us midway. I flailed my hands and feet, grabbed a vine, slid down a few meters, and hung there. I looked up and saw Poker-face tightly coiled by the python, lifted into the air. The black-gold ancient knife had been knocked somewhere. The snake body constricted, coiling tighter and tighter. Poker-face struggled hard but to no avail.

Burning with anxiety, I yelled for Panzi to shoot. Turning my head, I couldn't see Panzi; he'd been thrown somewhere. Just then, I saw Poker-face in midair suddenly shrug his shoulders, shrink his whole body, slip out of the python's coils, land on a branch, then flip over and slide down the tangled vines. He slid to my side and shouted at me: "Give me the knife!"

I hurried to draw my knife, but I was too nervous and couldn't pull it out. At that moment, the python realized it had coiled around nothing, flew into a rage, coiled back onto the tree, and in an instant was right in front of us. The snake head flipped and lunged again.

"Holy crap!" I cursed, seeing the huge bloody mouth heading straight for my face. The visual impact was something few could experience. Poker-face grabbed a vine, tore a bone out of the tangle, and threw it. The python dodged in midair, buying us a little time. Poker-face shouted to me: "Jump down—now!"

But by then I was dumbstruck. I don't know what I was thinking; I reflexively curled up and couldn't react. In that moment, the snake head arched again. Poker-face clicked his tongue in annoyance, kicked me hard, and sent me tumbling out.

That kick was extremely forceful. The vine I was holding broke, and in my panic I kept grabbing, but grabbed nothing. I fell straight down, hitting several branches along the way, and then landed hard on the ground. Fortunately, there was water and mud below; I flipped a few times and landed in it, with a mouthful of mud, but not much pain.

Dazed, someone helped me up and dragged me out. After a few steps, I began to feel a burning pain all over. Wiping the mud off my face, I saw that the ones dragging me were Aning and Fatty. Looking around, all the miner's lamps had fallen into the mud and gone out; everything was blurry. Panzi was aiming his gun at the tree, but looking up from below, the canopy was pitch black; nothing could be seen.

"Are you okay?" Aning asked me.

I shook my head, saying I was fine. They started dragging me away. I said no—that guy was still up in the tree, we couldn't just leave him! As I finished, the whole tree shook violently, and Poker-face leaped down like a monkey, jumping off the trunk. At the same time, leaves and bark wrapped around a huge black shadow, following like a gust of wind. The two figures were almost bundled together as they crashed into the muddy water. Before the splash settled, the python lunged at him with a strike. Poker-face ducked low and vanished into the splash. I thought, holy crap, he's actually fighting the snake in hand-to-hand combat. I yelled to Panzi, hurry and help!

Panzi was already charging over, cursing, without waiting for me to speak. He dodged the splash, raised his gun, aimed, and finally fired the first shot. His marksmanship was excellent; one shot hit the snake's head, knocking it into a twist midair. Poker-face rolled out from under the snake's body and sprinted outward. The snake, not dead, flipped violently, rebounding like a spring, striking again. But Panzi fired another shot, forcing it to recoil. He also retreated, shouting to us: "I'll cover! You guys get out—"

Before he could finish, suddenly another tree python shot down from the tree, biting Panzi's shoulder in an instant. Then, in a flash, the snake arched and lifted him entirely into the air.

The attack was too fast; no one reacted in time. We were horrified. He was already coiled up in midair. I watched him flailing his hands and feet, a sinking feeling hitting me—it's over!

In the nick of time, Panzi showed no fear. He quickly rotated his hand, flipped out his folding military knife, stabbed upward, and drove it deep into the snake's eye. The giant python writhed in agony, its entire body bending, and loosened its grip. Panzi was flung off, hit a tree, and tumbled down, his face covered in blood. Then Aning pulled two cold flares from her backpack, struck them on her knees to ignite, and rushed between the python and Panzi. Using the cold flames to block the snake, she shouted at us: "Drag him away, run!"

I yelled, "No! The cold flares aren't hot enough!" Aning replied, "The snake doesn't know that!" Me and Fatty rushed over, picked up Panzi, and ran toward the forest. But before we had gone a few steps, a wave of water and mud came splashing at us. Turning around, I saw the giant python behind Poker-face was still alive, its head covered in blood, its massive body furiously chasing him. Poker-face was sprinting toward me, the huge snake writhing behind him, appearing almost as if it were flying.

The python was furious! The consequences were dire! That phrase suddenly popped into my head. Seeing the scene, my legs went weak. Poker-face yelled, "Get down!" Fatty grabbed me and ran a few steps forward before diving into the water. The python arrived in an instant. Poker-face and A Ning rolled into the mud. The python's massive body swept past my back, unable to stop, and slammed into a large tree nearby, nearly snapping it in half. Leaves and debris rained down like a storm.

We scrambled up, disoriented, no sense of direction. Fatty's killing intent surged, and he cursed, "Fuck your grandma, let's fight it!" He suddenly pulled the dagger from my waist and charged at the dazed python. I rushed to grab him around the waist to stop him. Poker-face also got up, and I saw his shoulder covered in blood—he was clearly badly injured. Panting, he pointed at the jungle beside us and shouted, "Run, those two snakes are off!"

Seeing Poker-face so injured, Fatty grew hesitant. He quickly hoisted Panzi onto his back and tossed me his gun. I raised the gun to cover our rear, and we fled straight into the jungle. The moment we burst into the bushes, water splashed behind us—the snake was coming again.

None of us had time to look back. Beneath the trees was a dense thicket of shrubs and ferns. We charged in, and branches with thorns scraped my exposed skin, leaving countless bloody welts. I grimaced in pain but had no choice—I gritted my teeth and ran like crazy.

No one would have believed we could reach such speed in the jungle. If we'd kept up that pace, we'd have crossed the canyon by noon. Soon we reached the canyon's edge. The cliff walls were covered in waterfalls, and the water was already knee-deep, slowing us down.

We glanced back. Damn, the snake had barely lost any ground—its coiled body followed like lightning through the bushes. We tried to run again, but ahead was the waterfall, a dead end. Fatty cursed, "Who led us here?!"

Panic set in. The water was deep and movement difficult, and tree pythons were agile in water—this was truly a dire situation. Then A Ning spotted something and yelled, "There!"

Following her miner's lamp, we saw a crack behind the waterfall on the rock face, which might offer shelter. Fatty urged, "Quick, quick!"

We rushed through the waterfall. The crack was narrow—a python couldn't get in, and even we barely fit. We squeezed in sideways, the crack full of water. We barely managed to pack in, but Fatty couldn't squeeze in no matter what.

We pulled him desperately, and he pushed inward, but only one leg got through. Inside, A Ning shone her lamp toward the gap. The massive snake head loomed outside the waterfall curtain, a huge shadow. Fatty panicked and yelled, "What are you shining for? Turn it off! Turn it off!"

I reached out and covered his mouth, shushing him softly. But everyone knew hiding was useless. We all grabbed our weapons, ready to fight to the death.

Strangely, the python lingered outside the waterfall, not sticking its head in. After pacing a few times, it turned and left.

We looked at each other, baffled and confused. If the snake had just poked its head in a little further, Fatty would have been done for. We couldn't have stood by—it would have been a bloody battle, at least half of us dead or worse. Why did it suddenly leave? Was it afraid of the waterfall?

Then we heard a series of "cluck cluck cluck" sounds from deep inside the crevice, like a chicken clucking. The waterfall's roar was loud, but that sound cut through, sharp and clear. We all heard it.

Everyone turned. Only now did we have a chance to look at the crack. The water had risen to our waists. Looking deeper, the crack ended. At the far end, in a crevice of the rock, something stood. It was completely hidden in darkness, invisible in the dim light of the miner's lamp.

My vision blurred; I couldn't make it out. But the way it stood felt wrong. I couldn't put my finger on what was strange, so I asked A Ning to turn the lamp.

The light swept over, revealing the thing in full. I stared for two or three seconds without realizing what it was—those seconds of utter shock. Then it hit me, and I couldn't believe my eyes.

I saw at the very end of the crack a snake about as thick as a wrist. It wasn't a python. Its body was fiery red, its head sharply triangular, and atop its head grew a large rooster comb. What I couldn't believe was that this snake was standing upright, head lowered, eyes glaring at me with a menacing look. Its entire posture resembled a person without limbs.

I stared at the snake's eyes and could barely move, frozen under its glare, until A Ning tugged at me. In that instant, I realized what I was seeing and why the giant snake had given up on us. Childhood fears flooded back through my entire body.