Blood swayed back and forth horizontally as they sized up the mutated creature, numerous eyes tracking their slight movements. Snek glared down into the shifting forest of eye-stalks. The unblinkingly majority returned her gaze, though various clumps were focused on the puppy or staring in the direction the teleporting bone-dog went.

  The canine mother interposed herself in a defensive stance between the snake and mewling puppy, recognizing Snek as a threat to her pack. Fighting the mutated dog wasn’t a top priority for Snek, and certainly wasn’t ranked higher than ensuring the safety of her traveling companions. She sent a brief communication through her connection with Blood, and their body turned to move in the direction the other dog had fled.

  As they stretched out toward the next tree in the canopy, their pit organs picked out a streak of withering blue racing towards their intended branch. Blood pulled their body to a halt, rearing up to avoid the strange transparent bolt. Together they watched as the sub-zero bolt of energy struck the tree branch, spreading its temperature outward from the point of impact and forming a shallow black cloud that coated the wood.

  The tree branch made minute groaning sounds as it hardened and froze solid, before shattering with an ear splitting crack and sending splintered shrapnel in all directions. The two consciousnesses of the snake turned back to inspect the mutated dog, their attention pulled to a solitary eyestalk hanging limply from the creature’s side. The normally pale skin was darkened with blue and purple bruises, flaccidly swaying with each of the canine mother’s movements.

  “She doesn’t want us to go and help them,” Snek thought, and Blood gave her a mental nod.

  The puppy mewled frantically as the mother let out a low snarling growl. Blood slowly moved backwards into the cover of the large canopy, breaking line of sight with the small pack. Growls became irritated and frantic barks as they slunk away, and as Snek gave Blood the go ahead to flee, their body snapped forwards as the world around them exploded.

  Numerous multicolored beams sheared through the leafy branches at haphazard angles and varying speeds. Snek unfocused her attention, settling into the passive ability of her Keen Senses skill. A sharp splinter of wood bit into their falling body as she adjusted to the chaos surrounding them, but soon the location of every splinter, branch, and beam of light became known.

  As the foreign objects grew nearer, entering into their zone of awareness, Blood nimbly snapped their body out of the trajectory of multiple objects. They were still falling, but the threat of a painful landing was irrelevant if they didn’t live to hit the ground. Snek activated her telekinesis and began to influence the shrapnel that could not be avoided.

  She reached out with her spell, catching a large portion of shredded bark and repositioned it directly in front of an incoming sickly purple beam. When they collided, the bark rapidly decayed before their eyes. It malformed and collapsed in on itself, turning to ash and scattering to the wind before they fell another three feet.

  Their pit organs painted a chaotic portrait of their surroundings as they continued to fall, drawing Snek’s attention to the aftereffects of some of the eye-beams. The influx of information drew out each moment, and her mind raced to keep up with the rapid stream of information. While her vantage point did not allow her to easily decipher the specifics of each, their temperatures and colors allowed for partial differentiation.

  Snek watched a cool grey beam collide with the severed top half of a tree, turning the canopy to stone as it fell above them. The next was a dull orange with a warm twinge to it, soaring above them before colliding with and absorbing itself into a massive acorn. The seedling slowed vastly, and she soon lost sight of it as it was outpaced by the surrounding debris.

  Blood craned their neck backwards, narrowly avoiding contact with a vibrant blue beam that illuminated the rapidly dispersing shadows. It careened past them, slamming into a still-connected horizontal tree branch, engulfing it in glowing light. It was covered in a fraction of a second, and the branch violently tore itself from the trunk, plummeting towards the forest floor.

  A large number of beams made contact with falling objects but had no obvious effect. As the canopy was shredded, and light shone down into the chaos, she saw pink, violet, and silver beams of light evaporate upon contact, leaving the objects’ trajectories unchanged.

  She found it odd, even as she adjusted a rock’s trajectory to intercept a sickly yellow beam. The rock immediately disintegrated, but it was enough to adjust the ray’s course to narrowly miss them as it continued on. Blood continued to wiggle back and forth, successfully avoiding most of the flying objects and reducing their taken damage to sporadic cuts and collisions, until a sharpened branch impaled the lower half of their body.

  Its impact sent them flying back into the forest away from the explosion’s epicenter, and Snek cast her spell, through the pain, to slow the branch’s movement before they hit the ground. Her perception of time returned to normal as she released the skill, and the forest slowly grew still as the last bits of detritus and pebbles clattered to the forest floor.

  Blood worked quickly to remove the impaled branch while hastily slithering beneath the stone canopy that landed a few feet towards the clearing and mutated dog. They collected themselves for a moment and Snek examined the injury. It didn’t hit anything vital, so she used her telekinesis to wrap the wound tightly with a large leaf. Assuming their Bloodless mutation could take care of the rest, she gave control of their body back to Blood.

  Their Stealth skill activated as they slunk out of the temporary hiding spot, the settling dust covering their lithe form and helping blend them into the surrounding environment. It was useful, and Snek mentally acknowledged the value of the color-shifting mutation. She would need to move that up on her list of priorities.

  She glanced toward the canine mother as they slowly slithered towards the edge of the new clearing, and she did not look well. While some patches of eyestalks remained undamaged, the majority of the unnatural growths that once protruded proudly from her torso, hindquarters, and wiry muscled legs were now severely crippled. Some had completely burned away, leaving behind charred bulges of flesh that were actively flaking off. Others were shriveled and dried, the eyeball that once adorned the end of each stalk having collapsed in on itself or popped entirely. Some seemed to have been aggressively torn from the dog’s body, leaving behind open and bleeding wounds that ran down its mangled form.

  As she continued her inspection, Snek tried to puzzle out the motivation behind such a self-sacrificing attack. Was it because of the puppy? Was she trying to ensure the ‘dangerous’ snake was destroyed? Similar thoughts ran through Snek’s mind, up until the mother canine sniffed the air and vanished from sight. More teleportation?

  They flicked out their tongue to taste the air, and were rewarded with the distinct and pungent aroma of blood and tangy burnt flesh. It flooded their sinuses, and Snek felt a manic glee rising through her connection with Blood. The obsessive desire to spill even more blood washed over her consciousness, and continued to grow stronger in spite of her attempts to resist its temptation or sever their bond.

  She was so swept away in the second-hand desire that she didn’t immediately notice their body snapping forward towards the injured and encroaching dog. Part of her mind acknowledged that this was an unnecessary attack. That they could have just left to check on the goblins and rat, as she didn’t believe the dog had actually seen them, but that part of her mind was silenced as new blood welled past their fangs and their venom pushed into the canine’s bloodstream.

  There was no convincing the pup’s mother that she had succeeded in killing them now, and the surprised dog vanished once again. Blood was moving towards the nest even as the dog reappeared in its previous position, guarding the newborn puppy that was flailing ineffectually in the nest of matted flowers.

  As the snake slithered out of the destroyed patch of forest and into the clusters of vibrant blossoms, Snek reactivated her telekinesis and attempted to pick up a large log. It wiggled back and forth, but was just beyond the ring’s capabilities. Snek’s manic mindset brushed her inhibitions and careful planning aside, hastily assigning her earned attribute points to Wisdom - raising it to fifteen.

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  Their zone of awareness flashed outwards, almost doubling in size while causing Snek to briefly falter. It didn’t last long, however, as her increased Wisdom proved enough to lift the large log off the ground and into a parabolic arc as it gained momentum and exited at the highest crest of her spell’s range.

  The log loomed in the air briefly, before gaining speed in its descent towards the mutated canine and her puppy. Warning bells rang in Snek’s mind as one of the dog’s remaining eyestalks turned to face the projectile, emitting a vibrant blue beam that burst forth from its pupil and connected with the improvised projectile.

  The log briefly continued to fall as it was encapsulated in light, but lurched to a stop in the air just above the canines. The spent eyestalk withered and crumpled to the dog’s side with a dull thud in the temporary silence. Then the log began to move towards them.

  It didn’t float upwards in an arc as it had in its maiden voyage across the sky. This time, the large log rocketed in a straight line towards the snake, quickly gaining momentum as it drew closer and closer. Snek reached out in an attempt to catch or slow the projectile, but her spell shattered upon contact.

  The ring in their nose grew hot, adding more pain to the Mana backlash that ripped through her mind and breaking the hold Blood’s emotions had on her. Blood wasn’t aware of any of this as it pressed their body to the ground, narrowly avoiding the pirated projectile. It tore into the ground behind them, ripping up a large swath of roots and dirt.

  Snek reoriented herself, using the pain to completely quelch the haze of bloodlust in order to formulate a better plan. She tried to send calming emotions to Blood, but they were immediately rebuffed, so Snek cinched their connection closed and suppressed the hatchling consciousness. She couldn’t afford to blindly follow Blood’s urges right now.

  She could feel it still, fighting her and trying to gain control, but Snek tightened her mental grip as she stared at the pup’s mom. Her venom was beginning to take its toll, piling onto the various wounds left by activating the eyestalks. The dog staggered, but pulled itself up to its feet and faced Snek.

  In the temporary standstill, Snek felt her Adaptive Resistance skill activate, dulling the pain from the backlash and helping her maintain her hold on Blood’s manic emotions. Ambient pressure released in a series of pops, informing her of two system notifications, but she temporarily ignored them in favor of the ten new eyestalks rapidly growing out from the base of the wounded dog’s skull.

  Snek darted forward, lunging out towards the canine mother’s neck, but was foiled as the dog blinked out of existence momentarily. It reappeared just far enough to the side to avoid her attack. As Snek attempted to retract her head, she felt the dog’s canines sink into her lithe body. It jerked her back and forth frantically, the sharp teeth pierced her scales and tore into her flesh.

  Letting go of her mental hold on Blood, she moved aside to let it handle their current predicament. The haze of bloodlust wasn’t nearly as difficult to resist the second time, and Snek was able to activate her spell and grasp a small rock resting just beneath the surface. She used it to pelt the wound from their previous bite, as Blood simultaneously whipped their head around and sunk their fangs into the dog’s neck.

  The canine pulled at their body in an attempt to dislodge their fangs, but her injuries proved to be too much. She let out a sad whimper and collapsed to the ground. Snek had to once again seal away Blood as it turned their body towards the now defenseless puppy.

  Eating the small dog wasn’t a priority, and Snek turned back towards her formidable foe. The pup’s mom was laying on the ground, and continued to whimper and tremble. Its head was rapidly swelling, and Snek cautiously moved back before turning back to watch while quickly scanning her system notifications. Her resistance to mental delirium had increased and she had earned a new skill, but that was small news compared to the transformation happening before her.

  The creature’s head continued to swell, and she sensed an empty cavity forming behind the top of the dog’s skull. The skin on its head shifted from pale and sickly to a fleshy purple mass. The eyestalks reached out and away from the massive head before terminating in an empty socket. The creature’s forehead bubbled and shifted as a large eye grew out of it, and the snout melted away while the mouth widened in a wicked grin.

  The large central eye opened, its iris a vibrant purple that was bisected by a large slitted pupil. It looked around, the corners of its eye lifting and wrinkling to match its toothy smile. It looked up to the tentacle-like eyestalks and watched as an eye grew to fill the cavity at the end of each stalk.

  The new creature was still connected to the rest of the canine mother’s corpse, and began to drag it upwards as the many eyed creature floated into the air. Snek hoped it wouldn’t realize, and the venom would make its way into the new creature, but it wasn’t to be. The beholder severed itself from the corpse with a casual flick of an eyestalk.

  The remains of the pup’s mother fell to the ground with a wet thwack, as the creature continued to raise itself into the air. It rose high above the many colored flowers yet still below the surrounding canopies. It spun in a slow circle before gazing back down and making eye contact with the openly gawking snake.

  Somehow, its smile widened.

  Graf Maga for the review and feedback. It's much appreciated!