Into the Pit of Fire and Snakes
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It has been 2 months since that near deadly battle at the arena, as you can obviously tell from me still writing this that he didn't die, but he almost did.
For a whole month I was out cold in a coma from my injuries in the meantime when I was out cold Captain Clementine was sent away from Amazon Lily under the elders orders, they did this as a precaution under the thought that I would possibly want vengeance on Clementine for what she did to me.
In all reality I never thought of having vengeance upon her, she was justified in her actions and she believed what she did was right, though it didn't stop the girls from hating her for what she had done to me, which was also another reason why she was sent away.
After about a month's time I slowly began to awaken from my slumber, the healers recognize that I was Awakening so they sent the guards back to the Palace to alert the princesses of my Awakening.
During the month I was out cold the girls were hold up in there rooms crying to themselves because of the suffering I had gone through but when they were told I was waking up there gloomy mood turn to pure joy knowing I was back so they rushed towards the healers hut to check up on me.
"Vargas!!!" They shouted happily to see me awake.
"…. Your too loud…."
"You've been in a coma for a month from your injuries" (Hancock)
"I had a feeling I'd be out for awhile after all that"
"I'm just glad your alright and since you passed the Rite of Challenge your officially exempted from the rule of forbidding men from staying on this island." She said with a happy look while she gently caressed my face "also we sent that hateful woman off the island to find a man or something so you don't need to worry about her."
"Mmm… I need to rest now, unless you girls want to nurse me back to health personally you should go back to the palace and do whatever it is you girls do usually." I say as I start to fall back to sleep, they decided to stay with me till I fell back to sleep before returning to the palace.
It took me a month from waking back up for me to heal back to a state where I could be in great condition to move around normally once again though the spear hit will leave a permanent scar on my lower right stomach and it seems with the help of Hi-cures from the system healed up my intestines back to normal.
After leaving the healing hut for the first time in months I made the treck to the palace to see the girls and finish the Rite of Initiation from the elders.
Along the way the women were shocked to see me up and about in the city, some more of the braver girls greeted me and I greeted them back as I slowly reached the palace where the palace guards brought me in to see the elders and the girls.
"Vargas! You came to visit us!" Hancock said all excited like seeing me come to visit.
"Of course after all we have some unfinished business don't we elders?" I said seeing the elders also join us in the throne room.
"Yes since you are all healed up you should be able to do the to steps to the rites of initiation the staying in the snake pit for an hour an using your abilities to cross the lava pit up on the mountain." (Rose)
"So be it let's head over to the snake pits then."
They nodded and led me over to the snake pits that were located in a cave behind the palace, deep within the cave is where the snake pit was, the place where every young kuja gets there life long snake partner from, but it's also used as the rite of initiation ritual if one wishes to join the tribe they have to be accepted by the snakes, which means not biting you to death with there poison fangs, your actually considered a true Kuja by the clan if a snake wishes to be your life partner when you enter the pit.
"Well here we are at the snake pits, now if you'll take this wooden ladder to lower yourself into the snake pit" (Nightshade)
I nod as I lower myself down into the snake pits and sat down in the very center of the pit, it was currently empty but I could see 4 other entrances that were cut off currently by a relatively thin wall of stone, I could hear the snakes slithering on the other side of those walls of stone, there could be anywhere between hundreds to thousands of them on the other side of those walls, then I could hear gears turning as the rock doors lifted up and soon after the cave was flooded with hundreds of not at least a thousand snakes, they didn't go straight at me first but were slowly circling around me.
I was as calm as possible even if I was freaking out a bit internally but I didn't let it show on my face and kept my calm but I knew I needed to get truly accepted by the Kuja I needed to get a snake to wish to be mine so I slowly started to heat up my body to attract the snakes, then being cold blooded and all they love being around warm things so I became to them a human shaped heating rock for them to go and relax on.
The snakes were still cautious of me but a few Brave snakes approached me and after circling me for a bit, climbed up me and began to rest all over me enjoying the feeling of heat coming off my body, and that's what broke the camels back not wanting to feel left I was the swarmed by every snake in the pit, I was barely able to hold myself up and not let myself fall down failing the Rite and it went on like that for the next 45 minutes that was until she appeared.
It was a huge red snake that came out of the snake tunnels, a King (Queen) Cobra she was absolutely stunning for a snake, her scales were completely smooth to the touch, under her hood were black markings that made it look like large eyes when spread wide open and her eyes were vertical pupils similar to a cats unlike the normal rounded eyes for snakes.
As I was admiring her she began to approach which in turn scared off all the other snakes right off me, as she slithered around me she kept looking at me in my eyes all the time she was circling me as she was slowly getting closer and closer, I was keeping eye contact as she was looking at me whenever she was in front of me because I couldn't turn to look around, and then finally she began to wrap me up all the way to my chest before looking at me directly and hissing at my face, but I remained unmoved and kept staring at her, after she stopped she wrapped herself around my neck and laid there resting just like that for the rest of the time.
"Alright time is up, if your still alive down there you can come back up!" Rose said as she yelled down into the pit.
"Uhh well I'd love to but this big King *HISSS!* ah sorry! I meant this big Queen Cobra is kinda wrapped around me and won't let me go…"
The elders and the girls look at each other and decide to go down to see the situation for themselves, and what they come down to see is him sitting by himself with a huge snake wrapped all around his body.
"I don't believe it…. How did you convince a leader snake to approach you?" (Nightshade)
"This big girl here is a leader snake? Wait what even is a leader snake?"
"Leader snakes are the biggest snakes of the whole of the island, not including Yudas that is, they only choose people who are meant to lead the Kuja Tribe usually only the Princess/Empress of the tribe have leader snakes like Salome for the princess here is a leader snake as well, but it's unheard of for a leader snake to ever choose a male since all animals wild or domestic on this island hate men." Rose said with a look of shock on her face.
"Oh well maybe it sensed that I could help lead the Kuja to greatness *shakes head* No? Let me guess I just feel comfortable to be around so you decided to cuddle up to me? *nods* *sigh* I thought so but do you want to be my personal snake partner?
It started to think about it before nodding her head at me.
"Alright then you need a name that fits you…. Hmmm how about Kamala that sounds like a good name for you, do you like it?"
She quickly nodded and began to lick my face in joy which I just smiled and began to massage her head before a message popped up in my head.
System: New member has been added to your Physical Units, Kamala the Queen Cobra, has joined you, unlocking the ability to bring physical units into the virtual battlefield, unlocking leveling for physical units, current maximum number of people that can be brought into the virtual battlefield is currently only 5 while those still in the virtual world is at 100 units total.
Based upon what I heard I can bring a total of 5 people with me into the virtual battlefield from the real world which is great meaning I can start to train others that I completely trust to train and get stronger in the virtual world, I'll have to tell the girls about this later to see what they think about this.
"Well I think that means I've completed this part of the challenge correct?"
"… Yes it means you've completed the first half of the Rite now as for the 2nd part of it would you be so kind as follow us?" Rose said after recovering from her shock of seeing something that should be impossible to happen, happening right in front of her eyes.
So with that said we began to climb up the ladder out of the snake pit, well they did with Kamala wrapped around me and refusing to let go it made climbing the ladder nearly impossible and when I got onto the first rung the combined weight of both of us, the others had already gotten out already, was putting to heavy of a strain on the ladder so I had to get off of it.
"Well looks like will have to do this another way, hold on tight Kamala!" I say as I use my flames like thrusters sending us straight out of the hole, but I miss calculated and put to much thrust in my launch so…
*BAAAAMM!!!*
I smashed my skull right through the ceiling of the cave, leaving myself stuck up there….
"...….." (everyone)
After a few seconds of silence I slowly pull myself out of the ceiling while swinging myself to propel myself forward to land outside the hole of the snake pit.
"Ahem! Well what are you guys waiting for let's get this over with already!" I say as I quickly walk out of the cave.
*… he's embarrassed isn't he* was the thought in everyone's head while the girls were snickering behind his back.
After that fiasco was out of the way, the Elders and the girls took a hour long treck all the way to the top of the mountain to stand on the edge of the caldera of the mostly inactive volcano on the island, after we arrived I was then given the final challenge.
"For the last challenge is a rest of your skill, you are a natural born Fire user correct? Then this shouldn't be too hard of a challenge for you then, all you need to do is swim this lava filled caldera from here to the opposite side and back and you finished the challenge." (Nightshade)
"I never asked, why do I need to do this challenge in the first place?"
"Well you say your from a long line of fire user's right? That means your children will inherit those abilities like being resistant to fire or in your case supposedly complete fire immunity so we want to see your skills if it's truly worth it for you to be a kuja and become a part of the tribe and to have our blessings to be wed with these girls here." Rose said while giving a cheeky look that caused the girls to begin to blush when thinking about it.
"So be it if I can get the tribe's blessing I'll do whatever it takes to make them happy."
"Vargas…" the girls all say while blushing even harder with steam coming out from there heads
"Alright enough flirting you guys have all the time in the world to do that later, let's just get this trial out of the way first." (Nightshade)
"Well if you guys will excuse me, I'll be back, oh and Kamala stay with them ok?" She just nods at me as she detaches herself from my body before I begin to step into the lava.
*This is actually pretty hot, not unbearable but it feels like being at the office in 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside and the ac broke down, your sweating like a pig and you hate your life but it's not gonna kill you if you don't do much…. Man what I would do for a nice ice cold juice right now.* I think to myself as I'm swimming through the lava at my fastest pace possible which is hard because it's like trying to swim through wet mud it's really hard to get anywhere and exhausting to get to where you want to go.
After finally reaching the other side after an hour I had to take another hour long slog all the way back and by the time I got back they had brought beach chairs and were laying out on them trying to get a tan while waiting for me to get done with this challenge.
After pulling myself back onto the ground I just layer there like a dead dog while I tried to absorb all the heat back into my body so I wouldn't set things on fire from just touching it or accidentally burning anyone with my touch, after about 10 minutes of laying there I finally absorbed it all and brought my tired body over to the relaxation group.
"Well congratulations you have completed the final test and now are an officially a member of the Kuja tribe, and the accepted fiancé of the princesses." Rose said as she handed me a glass of juice that I greedily gulped down to quench my thirst.
"So what happens now?"
"Now? Why he have a huge celebration of course!"