Revenge of the Serpent

Chapter 7

"Do you think my scales looked good?"

"Hm? I guess they're pretty shiny."

Theodore and Merlin made a stop at a nearby river, they still had plenty of time before the sun set so they were taking their time to catch up with each other, mostly they talked about the past and how things used to be, then the conversation shifted to how much of an ass Rhys Giffins is, but they would shift their attention back to other positive things after Theo had accidentally burned down a tree using his fire breath.

He was once again examining himself in the reflection of the water, noticing that the hoods of a cobra had disappeared from his figure. His dark green scales overlapped each other, like those of a viper, but the patterns on them were a green mamba's. "The cobra look was cool for a moment though."

"Yeah, as if your size doesn't already look threatening enough." Merlin rolled his eyes as he dipped his feet into the water. The redhead was right though, currently, Theo's length was 15 meters while his body was as thick as an average man.

"Anyway, tell me more about this era, is the Stella Academy still standing?"

Merlin went silent again before nodding. "Mm, it'd been five years since I graduated from there. I'm actually one of the instructors—Though it's just so that the Griffins family can have connections."

"You're an instructor?" The Stella Academy was built from the ruins of Manhattan after a wave of monsters that'd appeared out of the portals had swept the whole place clean. It was also the place where the Delphi Forest was located, it's the most dangerous zone to go out of all the other gate creature-infested areas, but despite that, they still use such a death zone to train the students of the academy.

"Yeah, I teach in Hunting class, I'm also a homeroom teacher for Class 4-10." There are a total of five levels within the academy, each one having ten classes. The levels are assigned based on strength, five being the weakest and one being the strongest, the class number that goes behind the level doesn't discriminate power though.

Stella Academy doesn't care for the student's age, a 14 year old could be grouped with an 18 year old. As long as one has the qualifications to become a 'future star of humanity', the academy will accept them. When Theo and Merlin were invited, they were around 17 at that time.

"...How is the job?" Theodore asked, genuinely curious about his friend's reply, the Griffins had forced Merlin to become an instructor although, judging by how he'd been talking about it so far, he didn't seem to dislike the job.

The ginger smiled after a chuckle. "Oh, it's okay. I kinda like those kids, they remind me of our time at school."

"..."

"Anyway, let's quickly head back now, the sun's dangerously close to the horizon." Merlin looked up at the orange sky before he pulled his legs from the river before standing up and stretched lazily. "Don't think too much about it, after all, The Coldest Flame Duo is back together now!"

It was the stupidest name he'd ever heard in his life, but he couldn't help but laugh. "How nostalgic, now I feel like an old man reminiscing about the past." Before his death, he and Merlin used to be one of the most powerful heroes in the world, and people would jokingly dub them as the 'Coldest Flame Duo', while Merlin doesn't have any fire attributes, his attitude was fiery enough to create that name.

"Haha, you're a month older than me after all, it's only natural."

"Whatever you say, kid"

Theodore slithered past Merlin and they would eventually continue their journey out of the woods. The Delphi Forest is quite big, spanning over into Bronx's territory and it is said to cover that entire state, although due to the dangerous creatures living in the forest, no expedition had been sent to explore just yet.