It took a few minutes, but the water not only cooled Kumkani's skin down enough, but the Rune as well, which he pulled out from the water. Surprisingly, as much as his glove and sleeve had been burnt away, his skin wasn't burnt too badly. That being said, he was still injured and in pain, and very gingerly put the Rune back in his rucksack.
'Makes sense that these things are mounted on staves.' He thought to himself as he slid the rucksack on his back again.
The momentary respite was brought to an abrupt end, as the ground shaking slightly alerted Kumkani to something approaching rapidly, and violently. Leaves, branches and dust flew high into the air at an alarming speed, causing the Venator's shoulders to drop a smidge as he closed his eyes and faced the sky, letting out a sigh from the very depths of his being.
"…I have a bad feeling about this." He said out loud.
The feeling was vindicated, as the temperature increased right before the giant snake burst into the alley Kumkani was in, still on fire in some parts and hissing loudly.
"Fuck."
That was all that managed to escape his lips, before Kumkani turned around and ran for dear life, with the serpent slithering after him. He was absolutely tearing through the streets, doing his best to only go down narrow passageways and alleys, in an effort to bog the snake down. The more he ran, the more he discovered Goblin infrastructure, including bridges and walkways along and across roofs, ramparts, all that ended up getting destroyed as the snake crashed through them with barely a care in the world, as its attention was focused squarely on the person who had set it alight. Said person, increasingly looked for and found ramparts, as they were spiked and fortified, hoping that they would do incremental damage. He vaulted over one that which had spikes made from more than just wood, and heard the snake hiss after crashing through it.
'How many more of these things do I need to find?' Kumkani thought to himself as he darted across a much larger road, before darting back into an alley.
The alley actually led to a dead end, forcing Kumkani to leap onto a wall to his right, push off of that wall and twist his body in midair, generating momentum and spinning over the wall. As he landed on the other side and pushed off, darting forward, snake simply smashed its way through, having folding its 'wings' in front of its head to shield it from the bricks. There was another wall further down the alley, which Kumkani vaulted much in the same way as the first, pushing off the ground with a bit more difficulty before running towards yet another wall. After surmounting it with a little more difficulty, the exit to the alley was within sight, however owing to just how much he had been pushing his body, Kumkani got up and ran just a little slower that before. The snake exploded through the wall and Kumkani broke through and exited the alley, his eyes grew wide as he only had an instant to respond, immediately going down and sliding on his side as the giant cat from before flew past, claws out and mouth wide open. The moment the snake opened its still flaming hood, the cat's paws smashed into its face, claws digging into and piercing the snake's eyes, blinding it in the process. The serpent wailed and thrashed about in even more pain, as the cat leapt back and positioned itself in front of Kumkani, who by this point was sucking in as much breath as he could, whilst crouched over and trying to recover. He looked up at the still injured, still bleeding cat and stood up gingerly.
"Good job." He said between a deep breath. "Being blind won't stop it for long, but it bought us enough time to escape. Don't stay and fight."
The cat looked at Kumkani, its large eyes the deepest of blues as it seemingly weighed its options after listening to him.
"You're free to come with me." The Venator offered, appearing to have recovered enough.
The feline simply snorted before hobbling off.
"Thanks." Kumkani said, before turning around and leaving as well.
He walked in the direction of his hideout, moving at rapid rate of knots, trying to get there before the snake could recover and taste his scent in the air. As the flora became less concentrated, indicating that he was approaching the outskirts of town again, the sounds that had called him to that part of the city echoed again.
'The humans and wolves from earlier.' He thought as he stopped running for a second. 'Maybe I can use them if that vindictive bastard of a snake is still on the hunt and finds me again.'
Kumkani then followed the sounds of battle again, moving along what was clearly the border of the area until he found the two groups, before leaping up onto the branch of one of the trees peeking out from a building. He fully intended on just watching the skirmish, because as much as he knew that these were fellow Venators, he was not getting involved. That was however until he saw a fuzzy orange mop flash across the battlefield, bow drawn, and then take cover behind a broken wall. Two wolves gave chase; however, they were swiftly shot through the head with two arrows – killing them before they even hit the ground. The mop was then on the move again, firing off another arrow and killing a third wolf, all the while scanning the surrounding area for more wolves.
'She's out of arrows, it seems.'
As she crouched down to remove her arrows from the dead wolves, three more wolves appeared as if from nowhere and ambushed her before she had removed even a single arrow. The orange haired Venator pulled a dagger from a holster on either hip, ducking below one wolf and slicing through its neck, stepping and spinning clockwise whilst crouched beneath the bleeding wolf before leaping up and driving her fist skywards, slicing the second wolves head clean off. As she turned her attention to the third wolf, her eyes grew wide at the sight of Kumkani in midair, driving both feet with uncredible force right into the ribs of the wolf, dropkicking it so hard she heard its ribs shatter and spine snap as it bent in half before flying off. Kumkani landed so awkwardly though, the woman grimaced and felt his pain as he let out an involuntary noise before sliding a little on his ass.
"Fuck." He exclaimed, before struggling a little to his feet and looking at the dead wolves.
He then looked at the Venator with a look that just screamed 'what did I tell you?' to which she just shrugged and pointed to a scar on her right shoulder, as if it should have meant something to Kumkani. After sheathing her daggers, she then quickly got to retrieving her arrows from the corpses, all the while glancing at Kumkani and taking in his condition. The burns on his exposed hand and forearm, the other arm still in a filthy and slightly singed sling, his head bandages all kinds of filthy – he was just incredibly haggard. He took a few deep breaths, before looking around.
"More are coming." Kumkani said simply, before darting off in what looked to a random direction.
As it turned out, it was not a random direction after all, as Kumkani absolutely launched himself into the air, bending and raising his right knee, driving it forcefully into a wolfs face as it suddenly burst forth from the bush with two other wolves flanking it. The female Venator fired an arrow into the head of one of them moments after they all burst out – showing impressive reaction time after Kumkani kneed the one. The wolf that Kumkani hit flipped and twisted in the air, before hitting the ground as he landed. He looked at the shattered face, and broken jaw of the still live wolf as it struggled to breathe. Kumkani pulled the arrow from the dead wolf, and immediately felt Aura on it. He went and stabbed the wolf through the head, which killed it instantly, before running over to the other wolf he attacked, which was surprisingly also still alive, and put it out of its misery as well. By the time he had done that, the woman had taken care of the remaining wolf, so Kumkani walked over to her, and handed her the arrow back. The pair simply nodded its farewells, before Kumkani turned around and ran off.
'I lingered long enough that if the snake arrives, it'll be intercepted by those Venators.'