Yellow Sun Academy

Chapter 13: Shocking

Shocker:

With the larger and paler serpecdysis lunging at me, I jump to the side and watch as it shoots past me. I barely land when the serpecdysis turns around and lunges at me again.

This time, I don't have time to jump. All I can do is cross my arms as the serpecdysis charges right into me. It hits and knocks me to the ground. Skidding against the stone ground, the serpecdysis wastes no time and grabs one of my feet with its mouth.

It throws me into the air before jumping up and wrapping itself around me. With my arms pinned to my sides, I can't do anything as the serpecdysis starts to squeeze the air out of me.

Clementine Mira:

No matter where I jump, I still can't lose the smaller serpecdysis. It's still chasing me, always one move away from swallowing me whole.

Running toward a wall, I jump up and back. I hope the serpecdysis would run into the wall but it stops before it does and turns around. It shows me its sharp, shining teeth before chasing after me again.

I don't even have time to catch my breath as I run.

"I have to time this right," I tell myself. "I have to time this just right or else."

I look behind as the serpecdysis is quickly catching up with me. Waiting until it's only a few inches behind me, I jump into the air and use my gift.

As expected, the serpecdysis chases after me. It sees me and opens its mouth. Even before I could do anything, it had me in its open mouth. The serpecdysis closes its mouth with a snap before swallowing the fake me whole.

"Hey," I scream after landing a few feet away from the serpecdysis. I turn around and flip the switch on my weapon. The buzzsaw on my sword handle pops out and falls to the ground. Now, the only thing that connects the saw to my handle is a thick black cable. "Wrong me."

The serpecdysis sees me after swallowing me. It seems confused at first but doesn't give it much thought. It lunges at me again. This time, however, I don't run. I swing my saw at the serpecdysis.

Chadd Owen:

"Which one should we take," I ask, looking at all the different game pieces. I stop and examine one of them. The one I choose is a light purple-colored game piece, with a bunch of diamonds overlaying each other.

"Who knows," Honey answers, picking one up. The one she picked up is green and with a triangle inside of a cube. "The Headmaster said choose carefully. These weird symbols must mean something."

About to examine another game piece, I stop when I hear a slithering sound coming from behind. I turn and see both Shocker and the girl struggling against the serpecdysises.

"Wait, what? There are two now?"

I slap myself on the head when I realize what happened.

"Honey," I say, grabbing and turning Honey around. I show her the two serpecdysises.

"Wait," Honey says, "How are there two? We only saw one!"

"It's because serpecdysis have the unique ability to split into two. One serpecdysis can turn into two by coughing itself out and separating from its skin. When the skin serpecdysis catches its prey, the other serpecdysis will eat it before crawling back into its skin."

"Hmm," Honey utters while nodding her head. "You're making me regret not taking a class on animal study."

"Sorry," I say. I look back toward the purple gamepiece with the diamond. Walking up to it, I grab and throw it in my pocket. I then grab the one right next to it. A blue game piece with circles on it. "I got one piece for me and one piece for Shocker. Did you get one?"