Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 62: Godzilla vs. Kong (Swamp Edition)

Ren hobbled with desperate velocity.

Her right leg was screaming, her head was throbbing, and her clothes were falling off, but she didn’t care. She scrambled down the obsidian corridors, ignoring the terrified hisses of fleeing servant girls.

’It can’t be him,’ her brain argued. ’Vex said he was trapped by Vara. It’s impossible.’

But her heart knew better. It was the sound of the big cat who had purred against her chest in the bamboo forest.

She burst into the Grand Foyer.

She skidded to a halt, bracing herself against a pillar, gasping for breath.

"Holy kaiju," Ren whispered.

The scene before her was something out of a blockbuster movie, but with better CGI and terrifyingly real stakes.

On one side, coil upon coil of black, armored scales rose toward the high ceiling. Syris, in his Titanoboa form, was a nightmare of muscle and purple mist, his massive head hovering high above the ground, his jaws ready to snap a buffalo in half.

Opposite him, surrounded by a dozen brave but foolish snake guards trying to poke him with spears, was the White Tiger.

He was magnificent. He was terrifying. He was covered in muck, blood, and swamp slime, his white fur matted into dreadlocks of filth.

Under normal circumstances, seeing two apex predators the size of school buses preparing to murder each other would make Ren faint.

But all she saw was white fur.

"Kael!" Ren shrieked, her face lighting up with pure, unadulterated joy. "You’re alive! You big, dumb cat, you’re alive!"

She didn’t think. She didn’t assess the threat level. She just pushed off the pillar and ran toward the muddy tiger with her arms open.

"No!" Viper screamed from the sidelines.

Ren ignored him. She reached the center of the room. Kael turned his massive head toward the sound of her voice.

"Kael, it’s me!" Ren smiled, tears streaming down her face. "I knew you wouldn’t—"

SWISH.

A massive paw, claws extended like curved daggers, swiped through the air where her head had been a millisecond before.

The wind from the blow knocked the breath out of her.

Ren stood frozen, staring at the empty air where she should have just been decapitated.

Before she could process that her "big dumb cat" had just tried to turn her into a bobblehead, the world went dark.

Something cold and smooth wrapped around her waist and yanked her backward with bruising force.

Ren gasped as she was pulled into the air, encased in a fortress of black scales. Syris had coiled around her, shielding her body with his own, his massive snake head hovering protectively above her.

"Stay back!" Syris roared.

Ren peered out from between the coils. She looked at Kael.

Really looked at him.

He wasn’t looking at her with love. He wasn’t looking at her with recognition.

His eyes were glowing crimson red. They were empty voids of rage. He looked at her the way a smoothie blender looks at fruit.

"He... he tried to hit me," Ren whispered, her voice trembling.

"He tried to kill you," Syris corrected, his voice a deep, guttural hiss that echoed in her skull. "Look at him, Ren. There is no Kael. There is only the Beast."

[System Quest Reminder: Prevent the Bloodbath!] [Status: Failing miserably.] [Time remaining before husband kills husband: Approximately 30 seconds.]

"No!" Ren shook her head, gripping Syris’ scales. "Don’t hurt him! Syris, please!"

"He is gone!" Syris argued, tightening his coil around her. "He has succumbed to Feral Madness. Look at his eyes! He is bloodthirsty. If I let him go, he will rip you apart, and then he will become a Shadow Beast and destroy my Kingdom."

"He doesn’t know what he’s doing!" Ren yelled back, desperate. "I can cure him! I’ve done it before!"

Syris paused. The massive snake head tilted down to look at her.

"You... what?"

"I cured him!" Ren insisted. "Back in the forest! He was going feral, and I cooked for him, and he came back! I can do it again!"

"Stupid mammal!" Lyssa shouted from the safety of the hallway. "Feral Madness is incurable! Once the mind breaks, it is over! Let the King put the monster down!"

Ren glared at Lyssa, then turned her pleading eyes back to the giant snake.

"Syris, listen to me! Think about it! If he’s completely mindless, if he’s just a feral animal... how did he find the swamp?"

Syris blinked his vertical pupils.

"How did he navigate the waters?" Ren pressed, her voice cracking. "How did he find the palace? How did he find me? He’s in there, Syris! He’s fighting it!"

Syris looked at the Tiger, who was currently tossing three snake guards into a wall like ragdolls.

The logic was sound. A feral beast usually attacked the first thing it saw. It didn’t travel hundreds of miles to a specific location.

’He came for her,’ Syris realized with a jolt of bitter jealousy. ’Even in madness, the cat seeks her.’

That was exactly why he had to die.

"It does not matter," Syris said cold, his decision made. "The risk is too high. I will not let a monster near you."

"Syris, don’t—"

"I will allow you to grieve," Syris interrupted, his tone final. "I will give you thirty days."

With a swift motion, he uncoiled.

Ren stumbled as she was deposited onto the stone floor. Syris’ tail swept out, gently but firmly pushing her backward toward the line of terrified guards.

"Hold her," Syris commanded.

Viper and two others grabbed Ren’s arms, holding her back.

"No! Let me go!" Ren screamed, struggling against their grip. "Syris! Stop! You can’t do this!"

Syris ignored her. He reared up, his hood flaring, purple energy crackling around his fangs as he prepared to strike the Tiger.

"SYRIS!" Ren shrieked, her voice tearing raw from her throat. "If you kill him... I will hate you forever!"

The Grand Foyer went silent. Even Kael seemed to pause in his rampage, panting heavily.

Syris froze.

The purple energy flickered and died. The massive snake head turned slowly, painfully, to look at the small, disheveled woman struggling in the guards’ grip.

Even in his beast form, the hurt was visible. It was in the droop of his eyes, the slight flinch of his massive body.

He looked at the Tiger, who was growling low in his throat, eyes fixed on Ren with hungry madness.

Then he looked back at Ren.

"You would hate me forever?" Syris asked, his voice quiet, almost human despite the monster’s mouth.

He gestured to the white beast that had just tried to decapitate her.

"And if the Tiger kills me?" Syris asked softly. "Will you hate him forever, too?"