บท 24: Chapter 24: Rivalry
Seojun's eyes shot open, and he immediately sat up, breathing hard. His heart was racing, his chest heaving as if he had just sprinted a mile.
Slowly, Seojun raised his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes as if trying to scrub away the remnants of the awful dream. "A dream..." he muttered, his voice barely a whisper. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.
When he finally opened his eyes again, he noticed something strange. Seojun took a deep breath, looking around.
"Huno? Silla?" he called out. His two guardians, who were almost always by his side, were nowhere to be seen or sensed.
"Where are those two?" he muttered,
Meanwhile, not far from where Seojun stood, Huno and Silla were causing their own little competition. The ground around them was a mess—dirt flying everywhere, small craters dotting the landscape as the two creatures competed in their strange game. Huno, in his adult dog size form, was digging up the ground with his strong, powerful paws, each of his three heads sniffing the air and ground with keen interest.
"There! Another one!" Huno barked, his middle head leading the charge. His tail wagged with excitement as he uncovered a burrower—a nasty creature that looked like a giant scorpion with a razor-sharp tail. The burrower shot out of the ground, aiming its stinger at Huno's side. But Huno was ready; he swatted it aside with a Cerberus Clawnand finished it off with a powerful Tri-Jaw Bite, tearing it to pieces.
"That's thirteen for me, snaky!" Huno growled triumphantly, all three heads grinning.
Silla, who had been using his long, agile body to lure out the burrowers and then strike them down, hissed in annoyance. "Thirteen? Only because you're making a mess and scaring them over to my side!" he retorted, hissing or flicking its tongue.
"Not my fault they're drawn to a real hunter," Huno barked back, his middle head snapping its jaws while his left and right heads chuckled.
Silla's eyes narrowed, his main head giving a sly smile. "Oh, I'm not complaining," his voice dripping with mock sweetness. Suddenly, he whipped his tail around, grabbing a defeated burrower, and flung it right at Huno's heads. The creature splattered against Huno's left head, sending goo and bits flying.
Huno blinked, his middle and right heads looking at the messy, stunned left head. Then, with a deep growl rumbling from his chest, he picked up a burrower carcass with his own jaws. "You're gonna regret that, snake boy!" With a quick swing, he tossed it right back at Silla, hitting him squarely across his main head.
The two of them continued their strange fight.
"Not so fast, mutt!" he shot back. "I've got plenty more on my side." With a flick of his tongue, he used his luring skill, luring several stingers out from the ground beneath him. As they surfaced, his silver-scaled tail whipped around, striking them with lethal precision. The dead creatures flew through the air and landed in his own pile.
Huno's left head barked, "Hey, no fair using your tongue tricks, snake!" His middle head snorted, "Bet I can catch more without any fancy skills."
Silla laughed, a low, vibrating hiss. "Please. You need every advantage you can get, dog."
Huno's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah? Watch this!" He grabbed one of the dead stingers with his tail, swung it around, and smacked it right into Silla's face.
The impact left a trail of bug guts sliding down his snout. Silla blinked, his face scrunching up in disgust.
"You filthy—" he hissed, grabbing a stinger of his own with his tail.
With a swift motion, he slapped it right across Huno's right head. "How do you like that, you overgrown mutt?"
Huno's right head shook off the mess, and all three heads growled in unison. "Oh, it's on now, snaky!" he barked. With a flash of his Tri-Jaw Bite skill, he grabbed another stinger, tearing it apart before slapping Silla's side with the remains.
The two continued their back-and-forth, tossing dead stingers and taunts at each other, their piles growing larger.
"I'm gonna show Master who the real hunter is!" Huno declared, his middle head snapping up another stinger with glee.Silla scoffed.
"As if. When Master sees how many I've caught, he'll know who's truly superior."Huno's left head smirked.
"You keep dreaming, snake. We all know he likes a good dog better than a slippery snake."
"Then why does he let me around more than you?" Silla taunted, his tail coiling around yet another dead stinger, which he promptly added to his pile.
Huno and Silla suddenly stopped talking. Both of them felt something familiar—the presence of their master, Seojun. Without saying a word, they ran quickly and they saw Seojun standing with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. His eyes were narrowed, "I heard some voices," he said.
Huno shook all three of his heads, denying it, while Silla.
Seojun watched them, looking both annoyed and a bit amused. He scratched his cheek and looked around the empty, eerie place. "I really heard some voices earlier," he muttered, glancing around as if expecting something to appear.
Suddenly, Huno barked to get his attention. He gently bit Seojun's shirt and pulled him towards a spot. "What?" Seojun said, following him. They stopped in front of a big pile of dead creatures, all stacked on top of each other.
Seojun raised his eyebrows, his frown deepening. "What the heck is this?" he asked, seeing two piles of dead stingers.
Silla slithered forward, his head bobbing, while Huno stood beside him, wagging his tails a little, looking up at Seojun. It seemed like they were trying to tell him something. Seojun tried to figure it out. "Are you guys saying... this is for me?" he asked slowly. "And you're competing to see who gets to stay closer to me?"
Huno barked excitedly in response, nodding his middle head. Silla nodded and hissed softly, looking proud.
Seojun couldn't help but smile and shook his head and he chuckled. "But you don't need to compete with each other. You both have a place by my side."
He sat down on a nearby rock, still smiling at them. Huno's tails wagged faster, and Silla seemed to relax, his head no longer tense.
"You don't need to fight over who gets to be closer or who does more," Seojun said gently. "You both are important to me. You're my guardians, and I need you both."
Huno barked happily, his three heads looking pleased. Silla nodded, hissing softly with a satisfied look.
Seojun muttered to himself, still sitting on the rock, "What are we going to do with this?" He stood up and walked closer to the pile of dead stingers, staring at them with a frown. The creatures were twisted and grotesque, their bodies covered in jagged spikes and venomous barbs.
Just then, System blue hologram showed. [Master, you can absorb their souls. There is a possibility you might acquire new skills.]
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