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Seeing the drool practically dripping from Horus's beak, Jimmy waved his hand.
"Alright, take it, roast it yourself, eat it yourself. Just be careful not to start a forest fire."
"Roger!"
Horus dragged the massive anaconda straight toward a rocky stretch of shoreline.
A controlled burst of flame poured from his beak. He carefully adjusted the heat and duration, and soon the anaconda and crocodile began to release rich, mouth-watering aromas.
Horus glanced around to make sure no one was nearby. Then, with a flash of lightning, he grew larger, devoured everything in a few savage gulps, shrank back down, and leisurely flew over to perch on the bow of the boat, looking utterly content.
Jimmy stared at him.
'I'm a human being, and somehow I'm living a more exhausting life than an eagle.'
'Just wait, one day I'll make your wings catch fire.'
Jimmy silently added that to his mental ledger.
---
"Bad news! Bad news!"
Horus suddenly flew back, his expression unusually serious.
"Their boat fell down the waterfall ahead! And there's a giant spicy noodle that seems to have locked onto them!"
He paused, then continued grimly.
"There's something wrong with this forest. There are way too many giant noodles. It's bad enough that the entire food chain balance is breaking down."
Jimmy was startled.
He had just seen seriousness on an eagle's face.
"Let's go, We follow them quietly."
---
Jimmy shadowed the group from a distance.
If his guess was correct, this team would soon experience their first face-to-face encounter with an anaconda.
And the first unlucky victim was probably about to be swallowed.
'Maybe I can save someone,' Jimmy thought. Might even get some attribute points out of it.
Besides, that giant snake had to be dealt with sooner or later.
The anaconda seemed to sense Jimmy's hostile intent. It deliberately kept its distance from him. Whenever Jimmy got too close, it drifted toward the human group instead.
Jimmy didn't want to reveal himself yet, so he couldn't follow too closely.
What surprised him was that the snake's intelligence appeared to grow along with its body. After realizing Jimmy was avoiding the group, it stuck close to them on purpose.
As a result, the monkey named Kong shrieked nonstop with piercing screams.
To make matters worse, Horus circled overhead, wings spread wide, radiating the oppressive dominance of a sky king.
Kong's bladder clearly surrendered under the pressure.
Jimmy casually followed behind, blade in hand. The scabbard was strapped to his back, along with a hiking backpack containing basic medicine and food, purely for appearances.
Given the group's pace, and especially with that skinny Black technician, Cole, wheezing like a broken bellows, it was obvious they were struggling.
Cole kept muttering nonstop about football matches, ticket prices, and how he never should have come to this cursed jungle.
---
Since the anaconda isn't killing anyone yet, I'll keep it on a leash for now.
"Horus, keep a close eye on that giant noodle. Don't let it hurt anyone."
"Sky Eye acknowledges!"
Jimmy sighed.
Horus really did love role-playing.
---
"They're in danger!"
From above, Horus spotted the group entering a section of water waist-deep. At the same time, the brightly patterned giant python silently slid from the riverbank into the water.
"Plot a route. I'm following them."
Jimmy stored his backpack inside the blade, stuck it in his mouth, tested it with a few breaths, and slipped into the water.
He followed quietly behind.
Up ahead, Ben Douglas was hovering close to Sam Rogers, trying to act charming.
Sam, however, clearly couldn't stand him and showed faint but unmistakable disgust.
"Glub… glub-glub…"
From the waist-deep water at the back of the group, Ben deliberately made bubbling noises with his mouth, trying to scare everyone.
"Shut up," Sam snapped.
"Blub-blub-blub—hey—"
"Ben, can you stop messing around?"
Splash!
"Ben??! Ben?"
The anaconda made its move.
Jimmy took a deep breath, spat out the hollow reed he had been using to breathe, kicked off hard, and shot straight toward the giant snake.
"Help!"
Splash!
Ben had barely surfaced and shouted for help when the massive serpent burst from the water. With a brutal slam, it rammed straight into him and dragged him into the nearby reeds.
"Ahhh!"
"Shit!"
"Run!"
The entire group scattered like sparrows struck by a hawk. If there was one thing they all agreed on, it was that staying here was a terrible idea.
They fled in chaos, A snake this big was far beyond anything they could handle.
Underwater, Jimmy rapidly closed the distance. That was when he realized a new application of his absorption ability.
He could absorb the kinetic force of the water rushing against his body. Moving underwater suddenly felt far easier.
Stop right there.
With one clean slash, Jimmy severed the anaconda's tail. He shifted his footing smoothly, blade flashing, cutting through the massive body as if he were slicing vegetables.
The snake twisted back, jaws opening, but before it could bite, Horus dropped from above and crushed its head in one brutal strike.
Looking at the snake chopped into several writhing segments, Horus looked heartbroken.
"Such a waste, this is a terrible waste."
Ignoring him, Jimmy quickly tore Ben free from the snake's stomach.
Still alive, A faint heartbeat.
Not wasting a second, Jimmy rinsed the corrosive digestive fluids off Ben's body in the water, dragged him ashore, and immediately began emergency treatment. After several tense moments, Ben finally started breathing again.
"Don't move, I think you have a fractured rib."
"Snake!! Snake!! Big snake!! Help! Help! Help me…"
Thud!
To stop him from thrashing and making things worse, Jimmy knocked him out with a clean strike.
After checking carefully, the injuries were actually fairly minor. A fractured forearm, ribs intact, several surface wounds, and some skin irritation from the snake's stomach acid.
Not too serious, honestly, not much worse than a bad sunburn. Just red and irritated.
That was when Jimmy realized something.
Some things were not nearly as terrifying as people imagined.
For example, cutting off a snake's head did not instantly kill it. It could still struggle for quite a while.
And the digestive fluids inside an anaconda were not instantly melting flesh either.
That stuff was stomach acid, not sulfuric acid.
Yes, snake stomach acid was strong, about five to seven times stronger than a human's, but equating it to industrial acid was ridiculous.
Even strong stomach acid needs time and proper temperature to digest anything.
For an anaconda to dissolve a crocodile's hide would take three full days. For human skin, at least twelve hours.
Swallowed and spat out with your skin completely gone, Nonsense.
After finishing his examination, Jimmy found a piece of wood and fashioned a simple splint. He opened the medical kit, cleaned the wounds, and applied basic bandages.
"Horus, go watch them. If they run into danger, help them. Once they stop moving, come back to me."
He set the backpack aside and glanced at Ben, soaked and unconscious on the ground.
"Let's get a fire going."
Jimmy chose a suitable spot and lit a fire. From the anaconda's body, he cut off a large slab of meat. Half went into a pot for soup, the other half onto the fire to roast.
Dinner, sorted.
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