Skales x Pythor: My Loyal Number Two

Chapter 5: A most devious trap

"Hmm?" Pythor muttered softly, still waiting for an answer.

"Yesss." Skales replied, with a bit of unwillingness in his voice. Pythor didn't even answer him, as he let go and started slithering onwards, clearly expecting Skales to just follow behind him.

Skales on the other hand took a moment to rub his chin. There weren't any bruises or anything, but he couldn't stop thinking about the Anacondrai's touch. Neither did it pass him by how quickly the snake's personality had changed.

For all the problems Slihraa had, I can appreciate the fact you knew where you stood with him. He thought to himself, also thinking back to how his former General had the very least stayed in the same mood for more than a minute. With Pythor it was like there was a coin toss every few seconds, deciding how he responded to something. For others that might have been enough to scare someone away, but not Skales. Whatever games the Anacondrai was playing with him, he wasn't going to break. Whether it was respect or pride talking, he didn't care. He wasn't going to give up.

With newfound determination he caught up to his King, deciding if he couldn't ask about his future plans, he could at least ask about the current ones.

"Can you at least tell me how you're planning on catching the ninja? The last time we tried they managed to free themselves and foil your plan."

"That was because we didn't catch all of them. If the trap is gonna work, we have to make sure that we get every. Last. One of them!" Pythor declared, with a certain passion behind his voice. If Skales had to guess, he would say that Pythor still hadn't forgiven them for their part in his failed 'meeting'.

"And how are we gonna do that?"

"Don't worry, I have an...idea."

The next day Skales was going around Ouroboros, ensuring everyone was on their stations. If the ninja came, he wanted to make sure that they wouldn't sneak past them. At least not without difficulty. And just as was scolding a few Fangpyres, there came a commotion from the Slither Pit. He quickly made his way over there, praying to the Devourer that he wouldn't need to break up another fight. To his surprise, he wasn't met by a nig brawl, but instead, a bunch of Serpentine standing still, while looking up in the air. Skales slithered over to them, wondering what it was they were doing instead of keeping a lookout for the ninja.

"What do you think you're doing?! You're sssupposed to be on guard duty!" He yelled at the group, though only a few of them even glanced at him. But just as it seemed like Skales would need to yell again, a Hypnobrai noticed him and quickly ran over to him.

"O-oh, sorry boss! It's just that we were distracted-"

"DISTRACTED!?" Skales shouted in disbelief, the others finally turning their attention to him, with the unfortunate Serpentine only able to stand in fear and wait for his General to contuine. "I gave you a direct order to guard the city, and here you are, looking at cloudsss! What even isss it that is ssso captivating that it keepsss you from doing your job!" He continued angrily, before finally turning to look at the sky himself.

"That." The Hypnobrai somewhat anxiously answered Skales, while pointing at what looked like a ball of fire in the air, very quickly making its way through the sky.

"What the..." The confused Skales muttered to himself, as he tried his best to try and see if he could figure out what was flying through the air, which upon further inspection, wasn't a giant ball of flame. After a little while, he could see that it was some kind of mechanical contraption, one with limbs at that. He had heard Fangtom talk about something called a 'mech', which description seemed to fit whatever it was that was flying over them. It was also at that point he realized that it wasn't flying over them, but towards them, at very high speed at that. He also figured out that since he was able to see it better, that meant it had gotten closer. Very much closer.