Snake? Kyle was thinking to himself, his mind moving at a thousand miles per second. What snake?

A literal snake, yes? So, a Horned Serpent? A viper? A python? A Basilisk? Surely something magical; it wouldn't be a magical competition if--...

... SSSSSSSSssssssSSSSSSSS...

The hissing sound nearby - so close and so real - was suddenly the only thing on Kyle's mind. It cut through the air with a harshness and severity that Kyle could liken to nothing else. He felt the hairs on his arms and on the back of his neck stand up on end, and a shiver ran through him.

Without really thinking - given the situation, one might forgive him for being so reactive - Kyle span around. The sudden movement may have been unwise, and forgetting the potential that he might be facing a Basilisk surely even less wise, but the compulsion to see what was bearing down on him was simply too strong to ignore.

But now he saw it: about as long as Kyle himself was tall, orange and black, not to mention the THREE HEADS. Huge three-headed snake. Africa. Runespoor.

For just a moment, all Kyle could do was stare. He was not a man--... okay, boy - of action. He was smart, sure, but there was a difference between being academically intelligent and being able to think quickly enough to leap into action and instinctively know how to handle a situation. Kyle Baker was not exactly used to danger - not before this competition, anyway - and his natural reaction was to stare (or, well... gape) and attempt to process.

That was, until the Runespoor suddenly lunged forward with one of its heads. The Shield Charm was still there, it had held until now, but that mattered little to Kyle. Even as the Runespoor crashed into the magical barrier, Kyle was darting to the side and nope-ing the heck out of there.

He rounded the cherry-red door, hoping to put it between the Runespoor and himself, and ran as fast as he could through the tall grass, getting a horrible reminder of exactly how hot it still was outside of the range of his Atmospheric Charm. In the back of his mind, he remembered that he needed to try and stay close to the door if he wanted to find it again later and finish the rest of the challenge, but mostly he just wanted to get away from the creature. Kyle would never deny having a certain affinity for snakes, especially since being sorted into Horned Serpent; had even attempted learning Parseltongue when he was younger (only to give up when he was around fourteen with the realisation it was occupying too much of his time and was ultimately a lost cause... something to curse his past self for). But a Runespoor was not exactly your average, run-of-the-mill snake. It was a freaking Runespoor.

And this was a challenge, and Kyle needed to keep his head, and work out how to defeat the creature, to stop it from roaming free. How though? Did they want them to knock the creature out, or trap it? Surely not kill it, though Kyle didn't exactly have any qualms about that at the moment. In fact, he was thinking less and less about progressing through the challenge and avoiding disqualification, and more about just getting that thing away from him.

Runespoor. Three heads. Planner, dreamer, critic. That left head head needed to be put out of action.

But first, distance. He needed to put distance between himself and the creature, to have enough time to think, to plan, and to be rational. At the moment, Kyle was extremely temped to throw a long string of Bombardas over his shoulder at the Runespoor, but he needed a moment to think, in case there was an easier (and less messy) way to do this. Would any old spell be able to penetrate its scales?

Stopping at the foot of a tree, Kyle didn't dare waste a moment in looking to see how close behind him the Runespoor was. Instead, he pointed his wand at the ground and cast, "Spongify!" Then, turning his wand upwards towards the hight canopy of the tree, he cried out, "Ascendio!"

Just a moment... he just needed a moment to think, and propelling himself up a tree would hopefully secure him a few valuable seconds to do just that.