Or: When Lizards Hunt Snakes and Both Are Gigantic (And Angry)

Assistant Researcher Empty Beaker, PhD, could hardly believe her eyes; she’d stumbled into an unprocessed anomalous entity’s unlocked room with a Celestia-damned Keter class 60-foot long snake with a literal death glare on her heels, and she was still somehow alive.

What made the situation even stranger was the fact that the anomalous entity had gone from a slightly-more-reptilian-than-average D-Type human to a massive, 20-feet long, 10-feet high hulking monstrosity of a lizard. And then it had proceeded to engage in pitched combat with the Basilisk.

Senses overloaded and adrenalin rush fading, she fainted dead away, thankfully falling into a secluded spot right below the cot attached to the wall.

The newly transformed lizard-beast from hell lunged at the marauding snake, not caring that the intruder was thrice its length and was much more agile; while it may not have established a reputation yet, the beast knew that anything that challenged it was either an idiot, or powerful beyond comprehension…. and an idiot.

Thusly, the battle began, 682 latching onto the snake’s spine and biting down as the draconic serpent thrashed in agony; for too long it had ruled the AEC compound under its scaly maw, it was time for a new king to rise.

The snake stopped thrashing wildly and suddenly thrusted its spine outwards, a row of spikes lashing out of its back and digging into the tender mouth-flesh of the armored demon-lizard.

“SKREEEEE” Pained cry that came from 682’s mouth was absolutely deafening, shattering the reinforced glass observational windows and even cracking the concrete walls from the sheer volume.

“HISSS” The snake reeled back, feeling the force of the screech even as its foe dropped to the ground to nurse its injured maw.

The two titanic reptiles circled each other warily, both beasts feeling the urge to rip and shred, but both were wary of any surprises that the other may come up with.

Then, the lizard leapt at the hell-serpent, gouging at its throat as the serpent raised its tail to swat the lizard away; neither impact was completed to their fullest- the lizard was knocked away before it could do more than gouge a deep line into the Basilisk’s scales, and the snake unable to do more than graze the lizard’s dense bone armor.

The Basilisk hissed in irritation, no arrogant little upstart would dare take its throne! Concentrating for but a moment, the Basilisk unleashed the full force of its glare- a glare far removed from the paralyzing curse of its weaker brethren. This glare manifested as a pair of sickly yellow beams of light, scorching the floor as 682 dodged and throwing the scent of ozone and charcoal everywhere. Not long after 682 had climbed up one of the multitude of raised platforms in the room, the twin beams caught up to it, scorching its flesh to the bone and throwing sprays of quickly vaporising black blood.

682 fell, bleeding and yowling under the force of the twin beams. As the beams scorched into it ever more, the lizard’s cries grew fainter and fainter, until it finally stopped moving and it seemingly collapsed into a dead pile of… oddly unscorched flesh?

The Basilisk let up on its assault, clearly thinking that its opponent was dead, before moving to consume the fainted human underneath Drake’s cot. As it neared, it never even noticed 682’s form beginning to shudder and regenerate.

It certainly noticed the lancing pain of fangs and claws and bladed tail in its spine, however. The battle continued, both reptiles once again thrashing around the room, smashing concrete platforms and crushing delicate sensors. The Basilisk raised its dorsal quills once more, flaring open its head crest and pectoral spines to give it an even more intimidating appearance.

SKREEE

HISSSSS

682 itself simply shook out its mane and growled, all four, crimson, cross-pupiled eyes glowing with hatred as the swirling runes printed on its side glowed with a sickly green bioluminescence.

682 roared, sounding less like the 20-foot long beast it was, and sounding more like a demon straight from the depths of the lowest circle of hell, such was its sheer presence. The blades on its tail grew, becoming more wicked and curved, scything outwards as the tip of its tail glowed an angry, fiery red, steam coalescing around the blades.

Both combatants knew that only one would survive the fight.

And with one last, furious charge, they grappled again, the Basilisk biting down and through 682’s armor and injecting the lizard with corrosive venom, only for the snake’s flesh to be shredded and cauterized by a swipe from a now red-hot tail. The snake’s quills shuddered, their owner twisting around and firing them at 682 in a barrage of corrosive missiles, ones that were ignored in favor of scoring more slashes and gouges into the snake’s scaly hide.

At this point, both combatants were looking worse for the wear, but 682 was slowly regenerating and adapting, its plates becoming thicker and its flesh darkening further.

The Basilisk, meanwhile, was covered in cauterized wounds and scratches, it couldn’t go on much further.

Knowing this, the snake opened up its final resort: it fired its eyebeams with enough force to shred its eyes open, blood mixing with the deadly magical plasma and filling the air with deadly vapor.

Unfortunately, the lizard had adapted to both the beams and the venom, and was thus able to reflect the beams back at the snake using only its glossy, blackened hide, shredding through more of the snake even as it emptied up its entire mana reserve in a futile attack.

After thirty seconds of unrelenting laser-fire, the Basilisk collapsed, dead, and 682 bellowed in victory, conveniently blowing away the venomous vapor with the sheer force of its lungs.

All through the compound, every last AEC heard the call, and was filled with unrelenting fear of an unkillable predator. Thus subdued, the insurrection was quickly quelled.

682 took no notice of this, however, too busy feasting on the corpse of its foe, intaking its flesh and essence, causing the runes on its back to extend ever so slightly further, its dorsal spines growing slightly longer, and its eyes tinging a slight yellow for but a fraction of a second.

After finishing its gory meal, 682 wandered back to where it had discovered the scent of a human, pulling Empty Beaker out of her conveniently protected hiding space and curling around her, quickly falling asleep, thus assured of the researcher’s safety.

Author's Notes:

Fuck yeah, lizard-beast!

Suck it, Harry Potter! My Basilisk had laser eyes!