“I’m fine,” she said, sounding a little wobbly. “But I won’t be able to do much for a little while. A blow to the head is not the best thing to happen to a psycher. I’m a bit scattered…”

“There’s something else,” said Astrid. “The cave… it’s full of dead people, at least 20 of them. They’re… ugh… they’re all wrapped up in cocoons, as if the monster was collecting them.”

“Must be the remains of the cultivators this Cobra has been feeding on. Nothing we can do for them now—let’s kill this monster.”

At that exact moment, the Cobra swiped its fangs a bit too close to one of the Flora Whelps, catching the tip of its tail. The Whelp squirmed and wriggled, and would have died if Selena had not saved it by blasting Storm Spheres from her rifle at the Cobra’s head. The Cobra released its grip momentarily, allowing the Whelp to leap away.

“That was too close for comfort!” I said. Even as I spoke, the Cobra swung its head round to look at us again. The bolts from Selena’s gun had brought its attention back to us.

Suddenly ignoring the Flora Whelps that still dove in and out to nip at its tail and back, the Cobra reared up with a screeching noise.

“It’s going to charge!” shouted Astrid, but she was wrong. Instead of charging us, it blasted something at us from an orifice low down on its belly. Glistening white projectiles about the size of my fist fired out at us, smashing to the ground and bursting open to release puddles of some kind of thick fluid.

“What the fuck?” muttered Selena, taking her eye off the monster for a moment to look at this new threat.

In the piles of wet stuff that had come out of the white projectiles, there was something wriggling.

“Eggs!” I shouted. “They’re eggs! It’s the Cobra’s version of summoning!”

Slithering from the smashed eggs came zombie cobras about the length of my forearm, looking like miniature versions of the big one we were fighting. They seemed disorientated at first, but then they began to attack. There were several of them in each egg, and we were forced to leap away, giving ground as a whole cluster of them began to rush toward us.

“This is a job for a cat!” I said, and summoned two Frostbreath Cougars. They pounced out of the portals, growling, every bit of fur standing on end. The long rows of ice-like spines that ran down their backs looked razor sharp.

The wave of Zombie Cobras gave back under the assault of the Cougars. Catlike, the Cougars batted at the wriggling creatures, smashing them with downward blows from their huge clawed paws and chomping them with their massive teeth. I couldn’t help but smile—the Cougars were having too much fun.