351: You Got Lucky

You Got Lucky

Luca quickly gathered blades of wind that were sharp enough to cut through steel on both sides of the python, but the blades of wind that reached the python merely cut through its body of water without hurting it.  0

When he realized that his wind power couldn't hurt the python, Luca's eyes widened in fear, and for a moment, he was unable to think of anything else. 

"LUCA!" 

When Luca heard someone yelling his name, he quickly snapped out of it and cast a spell to create a thick wind barrier around him. By now, the python head was just meters away from him, and with the speed that it was heading towards him, there was no way Luca could escape. 

"GRRRR!!!" 

The mouth of the python was opened so wide that Luca could see part of his reflection from the inside of its mouth. 

"ARGH!"

BAM! 

Luca was suddenly kicked to the side and landed on the ground in great force. When he looked up with blood trickling from the sides of his mouth, he saw the python's fangs were stabbed into a huge tree trunk. And not far away, he saw Wolfe panting heavily while Juin stood next to him. 

Juin glanced at Luca for a second before looking up at the python head with the cross mark. 

"I know you can understand me!" Juin said loudly. "Stop the attack! We are not here to harm you!" 

To show his sincerity, he released his soul shield and raised both hands up. "We are not here to harm anyone!" he said softly as he took a few steps forward.

"@$#%^$&," said the python head that had a tree trunk in its mouth. It tried to spat out the tree trunk, but its fangs were stuck. It swung around wildly as it tried to dislodge the trunk, not caring at all that the trees around them were tumbling down like dominoes as it did so. 

BAM!

The python tail slapped at the python head once before pulling the tree trunk out. The attacking python head shook itself a couple of times before looking at the python head with the cross mark. 

"What are you doing?!" Wolfe hissed and pulled Juin back. By now, Caelian, Luca, and Cyrus were near them. 

"Sshh…" Juin said as he pulled his arm away from Wolfe. He took a few quick steps forward until he was at a dangerous distance from the python. "I know what happened to you!" he yelled out loudly. 

At this point, the two python heads glared at him. 

"@$%#%$^&!"

"!#@#@$%#%!" 

They took turns making weird noises, as if they were trying to communicate with him. 

"I don't understand you," Juin said. But he then patted his chest and added, "But I know you were humans!" 

Upon hearing his words, the two python heads glared at him angrily and their tail slammed down onto the ground with such force that the boys nearly fell into a hole when the earth split below them. 

"What…" Wolfe stammered once he moved to a safer zone. "What do you mean, Juin?" 

"They aren't humans," Cyrus said with a frown. "They don't smell like humans." 

Juin ignored them and focused his attention on the python

The two python heads then moved down and only stopped when they were mere inches from Juin's face. They were snarling at him, and showing identical facial expressions.

"I don't know what happened here, but I know that you guys were once humans…" Juin said in a soft voice, but there was no fear on his face, only sympathy. "I wish you guys can tell me how to help you…"

The two python heads remained quiet for a while before they looked in a direction and motioned with their heads. 

"Is there something there?" Juin asked as he looked in the same direction. "Is your family there?" 

Both heads looked sad as they shook their heads. Then, their eyes turned red, and they slammed their tail down on the ground angrily a couple of times, causing the cracks on the ground to grow even wider and deeper than before. 

Juin had to jump from side to side a couple of times to avoid the deep cracks that were heading in all directions. After a while, he jumped onto a tree branch and yelled, "Are your enemies there?" 

The tail that was about to slam down on the ground again stopped in midair, and both heads nodded as they continued to glare in the same direction as earlier. 

Seeing their reactions, Juin asked in a gentle voice, "There's the one, right? The one who did this to you. Whoever that is, they are in that direction, is that what you are trying to say?"

The two heads nodded. "!@@#%$#." 

Juin looked over, but before he could say anything, he sensed someone jumping behind him and turned to see Luca landing on the same branch. 

"I know what you are thinking, but no!" Luca hissed. "None of the treasures is in the direction. Don't forget about our mission!" 

"Someone turned the humans of this world into these… creatures!" Juin hissed back. "You want me to leave this alone?" 

"I know that it's a terrible thing, but this is none of our business," Luca snarled. "We need to focus on our goal, not going around saving every little creature. And how do you even know they are humans? Cyrus and both Wolfe confirmed that they are not!" He grabbed onto Juin's sleeve and said, "As your leader, I command you to complete the mission!" 

Juin pulled his hand back and snapped, "They are humans!" 

"Why are you so stubborn?!" Luca yelled. "Do you really want everyone to die with you?!" 

His words struck a chord with Juin, and he looked at Wolfe, Cyrus, and Caelian, who were all nearby and in high alert. None of them said anything, but from their expressions, it was clear that they were with Luca in this. 

Juin clenched his fists, and after a moment of hesitation, he was about to say something when all of their watches beeped. 

"Hey…" Wolfe said as a frown appeared on his face. "Is my watch broken or are there a bunch of treasures in that direction?" 

He then looked up and pointed in the same direction as to where the python was looking in earlier. 

"What is happening here?" Luca mumbled as he looked at his watch. On the screen of his watch, in the direction that the python was looking in, five stars appeared and seemed to gather in one spot. 

"Wait… The stars indicate where the treasures are… Does that mean anyone with the treasures would appear as stars on the watch as well?" Juin suddenly thought of something and voiced it out. 

"Look," Wolfe said, pointing to his watch. Everyone jumped to him and looked at the screen of his watch as he said, "The treasure star that was in the west is now moving towards the treasure star in the east." 

"Not only that, quite a number of the treasure stars are moving," Luca said as he touched the screen of his watch and moved the map around to get a good look at the stars. Some of the stars were moving towards their east, which was the direction the python was looking in earlier, while some of the stars were moving towards their north and west.

"I don't think we are the only ones gathering the treasures…" Juin said solemnly. "That person who did this to the natives here probably knows about our existence. They are trying to get the treasures before us." 

He then looked at Luca. 

"You got lucky" was all that Luca said. 

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