Revenge of the Serpent

Chapter 16

I posted on Instagram that this chapter would come out earlier today (20th Sep) but because of personal reasons (my situation was explained in the previous chapter I believe, or maybe it was on Instagram as well) my schedule changed and I didn't get the chance to upload this chapter in the morning, so apologies for the wait!

The next chapter's post date is still unclear, I'll have to decide what would be best, go follow my Instagram since I'll update the release date and time there!

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Eugune couldn't help but smile, his voice filled with certainty as he spoke. "Yes! That's me! You remember, right?"

Merlin frowned, confusion expressed clearly on his face. He had many questions swirling in his mind and couldn't help but blurt them all out in one go. "What happened? Why are you here? And what's with that eyepatch?"

"Woah, woah…One thing at a time…I'll tell you. So, I was out gathering goods with my team but…"

Eugune began explaining his situation to Merlin, starting from his near-death encounter with the weird jaguar to how he'd found the ginger by accident. "There was a…Jaguar, I don't even know what it was, it jumped us and killed everyone…I barely managed to escape with my life."

He would speak again after a slight pause. "...I don't want to talk about how I lost my left eye." The dark-haired man shook his head in dismay, prompting the end of his story.

"...Okay." Merlin was curious about the eye, but he decided that for now he wouldn't push the matter any further.

"Anyway, how did you get the collar off? I thought you can't mess with it or else it would explode." Eugene pointed towards the ginger's neck, which still has a light trace of something tightening at the skin.

"Ah, about that…"

Suddenly, Eugune's deep blue eye dilated into a small dot as it landed on something towering behind Merlin.

Its scales were seemingly made of dark green iron plates, all overlapping each other in an orderly manner, it would've looked very beautiful if not for the monster's piercing green eyes that were staring down at the two of them coldly.

Most shocking of all was how long its large body had extended behind it. This behemoth of a serpent could surely crush a tank with its pure strength.

"Mer…Merlin…" Eugene's shaky hand pointed towards the monster in front of him.

"What?" The ginger frowned before turning around, after noticing the snake, he looked up, seemingly unfazed by it. "Oh. I was just about to talk about him."

"What about me?" Theodore slightly tilted his head as he stared at the one-eyed man. "Who's that?"

"Ah, this is Eugene, you remember him?"

"Eugene? 'That' Eugene? They look nothing alike."

"Yeah, I almost didn't recognize him because of the eyepatch, but I remember his thug-like build."

"Wait!" Eugene put his hands out, his face still showing shock and confusion. "What's going on here, Merlin? You're friends with that monster!?"

"Who are you calling a monster?" Theodore hissed angrily, speaking in a human language. "You can't recognize my voice? It's me, Theodore."

"Theodore? You mean Theodore Varon? But he's dead!"

"Well, I'm alive now."

"But you're…a very big snake."

"So?"

"...How!?" Eugene threw his hands in the air, clearly in doubt.

"It's a long story, but basically I've crawled back from hell to get revenge on Rhys." Theodore spoke in a voice lashed with venom. "And that f*cker just added to his sentence by kidnapping my father too."