Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

2:21 Web of Deceit

"Ji! ... Jiiiiiiiii!"

Sam knew he was in a bad spot and that death could come at any moment. If he thought about it, he knew that he was terrified of that, but at the moment his mind was racing, trying to cope with the fact that his bad move might have doomed his partner.

"Ji, talk to me," he yelled, but he didn't dare look over the side. He was still preoccupied with the slithering beast in front of him, only now all he could see were its luminous azure serpent's eyes. He was also aware that his back was exposed to the snake that she had been fighting, but there was nothing he could do. The incline was too narrow to fight both at the same time especially when they were on opposite sides. His only hope was that Ji would answer him and tell him that there was a ledge he could jump to below. Without that, all he could do was make the leap on his own without a proper look and the chances of him surviving that were astronomically low.

"Attack the snake behind you, its nearly dead!"

"Ji!"

Sam was instantly relieved, but he didn't have time to process where she was or how she survived. He spun around and blindly dashed in the direction he saw her fighting before. He didn't make it far before crashing into the body of the other stone snake. Its azure eyes began a slow retreat but Sam could hear and vague see its body slowly wrapping around him. He followed its eyes then jumped up and stabbed it where he hoped its neck would be. The blade caught something solid and the snake jerked Sam off of it crashed into the ground. A white spiritual mist floated out of its body and into Sam's awarding him with a substantial amount of souls. Sam turned to face the other approaching enemy.

"I killed it, Ji! Where are you?"

"Far below you, on a precipice. You'll have to take the long way down to get here. Focus on your enemy."

She didn't have to tell him that. Now that he had some room to work with, he was ready. He opened his gateway and sent a stream of flames unto the ground in front of him so that he could see his opponent better. The stone snake snapped at him but Sam sidestepped it to its left side and plunged his Corseque into its eye. It screeched and tried slamming into him with the side of its head, but it instead slammed into a wall as he jumped backwards to avoid the telegraphed blow then plunged his blade into its other eye.

It thrashed about blindly while Sam stood back and looked for an opening. He waited for it to lower its head and when it did, he ran forward and leapt at it, burying his blade as deep as he could. The snake's head fell straight down with Sam on top of it. He breathed a sigh of relief until he felt himself moving. The snake seemed to be sliding, its body dragging it over the side. Sam scrambled off of it as fast as he could but was dragged over the cliff. He made a grab for the ledge and caught it, his fingers straining to support his armored weight. Panicked, he put his feet to the wall and scrambled up it, kicking pebbles down into the dark void. He looked below to see the snake careening to the bottom with a glow near its mouth, the glow indicating it held an item.

Sam pulled himself over the ledge and laid there to catch his breath until a wave of terror came over him. He didn't have his weapon.

"Oh no, please don't me ..."

He looked around the incline and could see nothing nearby. He lit his torch with a flick of pyromancy to get a better view and still saw noting. His Corseque had to have still been inside of the stone snake's body.

"Shit! That's just what I needed."

The only thing he had on him still was his bow and a quiver of arrows.

"Melbern." The servant rose out of the ground and bowed. "There's no time for that. I need you to go get my Corseque from down where that snake just dropped. You see it?" Sam pointed to the glowing item on top of the snake's body, he could barely see the glint possibly several hundred feet below.