Chapter 331: The King of the Mountains
Marcus clenched his jaw and thought bitterly, If only the Five-Colored Green Oil Toad’s long red tongue would spear straight through the Venomous Horned Serpent’s skull.
He was furious, and judging by the savage way it kept striking, the Five-Colored Green Oil Toad seemed to feel exactly the same.
Unfortunately, the Venomous Horned Serpent had begun to show why it was a Divine Beast. The poison thunder gathering around the horn on its head grew more violent with every passing second, while waves of water and chunks of earth burst outward in all directions, as if the creature were throwing a monstrous tantrum.
In moments, the Five-Colored Green Oil Toad, which had been standing atop the pond’s surface, was buried beneath the serpent’s assault. The ambush from earlier no longer mattered. The serpent had shaken it off completely and now controlled the battle.
Above them, the green mist surrounding the Black Crow Poison Fruit was thinning.
It was almost ripe. Almost.
The toad was clearly panicking. Under the serpent’s relentless barrage, it had no way of knowing how much longer it could endure.
Then things worsened.
Its battered body was finally beginning to fail. Its movements slowed, its reactions dulled, and the five-colored glow surrounding it flickered weakly.
The damage from the earlier explosion had caught up at last. The moment the glow weakened, the wound across its back, which had been suppressed by that strange light, burst open again and began pouring green blood.
The serpent noticed immediately. With the fruit on the verge of ripening, it had no intention of allowing the toad to remain nearby and compete for it.
The toad’s tongue slowed for only an instant, that instant was enough. The serpent’s tail blazed with dark light.
"Divine Serpent Tail Swing!"
A sharp crack split the air as the black tail lashed out like a bolt of dark lightning and smashed into the toad’s extended tongue.
Ribbit!
The toad screamed in pain. Its tongue snapped backward violently, trembling as it recoiled. It could barely drag it back into its mouth.
But that strike had only been the beginning.
The serpent tilted its head. A massive thunderbolt gathered upon its horn, swelling with poisonous light.
"Poison Thunder Sky Strike!"
Crack!
Thunder tore through the air and struck the toad head-on.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The violent blast shredded the five-colored venom surrounding the creature and pierced straight through its fading protective glow.
Ribbit... ribbit... ribbit...
Its cries had become weak and broken. The toad skidded helplessly across the pond’s surface, blasted backward nearly five hundred meters before finally slowing.
The serpent flicked its tail, descended from above, and calmly took the position the toad had lost. It coiled beside the nearly ripe Black Crow Poison Fruit as if the spot had always belonged to it.
Far away, the toad finally came to a stop. It looked ruined. Its five-colored radiance flickered like a candle in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
"What are you doing?"
The archer caught Marcus by the arm before he could rush forward, staring at him as though he had lost his mind.
"Killing the Five-Colored Green Oil Toad."
Marcus pointed toward the broken creature in the distance. It glared at the serpent with hatred, yet did not dare move.
If he did not strike now, when would he ever get another chance? The toad was half-dead. If he killed it now, the experience and loot would be his.
All the drops from the smaller Green Oil Toads and One-Horned Poison Armor Snakes in the pond had already disappeared. There was no way Marcus intended to let this opportunity slip away too.
Passing up profit had never been his style.
Was it dangerous? Of course. But fortune favored the bold. If no risks were taken, no rewards were won.
He had already judged the battlefield. The toad was five hundred meters from the serpent, while the serpent was fixated on guarding the fruit. Unless forced, it would not leave that position.
So long as he kept his distance and moved carefully, he should not attract its attention.
He had thought it through.
And even if something did go wrong, he trusted his skills and equipment enough to escape. If all else failed, he still had the Ring of Resurrection’s invincibility effect as a final safeguard.
What was there to fear?
"Kill the Five-Colored Green Oil Toad?"
The archer stared at him in disbelief. Marcus’s nerve had genuinely surprised him, though what he mostly felt was that the young man was insane.
"It still has over a hundred thousand health left. You think you can kill that?"
He released Marcus’s arm.
’Fine.’
If the fool wanted to die, he’d let him try.
"What?!"
Marcus nearly toppled off Blackie. Over a hundred thousand health? He had assumed the creature had less than ten thousand left.
He shot the archer a suspicious look. Was the man joking? The toad could barely maintain its five-colored shield. How could it still have that much left?
"It still has one full-strength attack remaining," the archer said coldly. "It’s trying to lure the serpent in."
He was rapidly losing patience with Marcus’s greed and overconfidence.
"Heh... Boss, then you should go do it."
If Marcus could not handle it, surely the archer could.
"No." The archer did not hesitate.
"This is a perfect chance." Marcus grinned shamelessly, trying to flatter him.
"Killing the toad means nothing," the archer replied. "If the serpent sees what I can do, it may refuse to fight. It could dive into the mud and escape. Then everything would be wasted."
His true target was the serpent.
Although this was indeed an excellent opening, the wounded toad still introduced too many variables.
"Boss, there’s really no chance at all?" Marcus put on a miserable expression.
The archer’s face darkened further. He still made no move. Marcus was beginning to doubt him. He has plenty of talk, but no action.
"Ah, the Black Crow Poison Fruit is almost ripe."
"Why isn’t the toad moving?"
"If the serpent eats it, will it become even stronger?"
Marcus muttered one line after another, glancing sideways at the archer, probing him deliberately.
"Kid, shut up."
The archer glared at him as if considering whether to kick him off his mount.
"I still don’t understand why Wayne accepted you as a student."
His gaze shifted toward the Eagle’s Crest on Marcus’s chest, confirming it was genuine.
’Wayne.’ Marcus’s heart jumped. He followed the man’s gaze to the badge, then stared wide-eyed.
"You’re Liam Windrunner... the King of the Mountains."
Even his voice dropped instinctively. So that was why the archer had been so composed.
Liam Windrunner, one of the most famous experts in Dreamland. Marcus immediately broke into a broad smile.
"Boss Liam, Uncle Wayne talks about you all the time. He told me I should learn from you."
He clasped his hands eagerly, almost shamelessly.
"Quiet."
Liam raised one hand, his eyes fixed on the pond. "It’s starting."
Marcus instantly turned back. The Black Crow Poison Fruit had begun to shine. Black light and green poisonous mist burst outward together, twisting around one another in spirals.
The final moment had arrived.
That fruit truly was strange. Earlier, the massive explosion had wiped out the smaller Green Oil Toads, the One-Horned Poison Armor Snakes, and even the black waterweed around them.
Yet the Black Crow Poison Weed itself remained untouched, standing there peacefully as it continued to ripen.
Ribbit!
The Five-Colored Green Oil Toad let out a helpless cry and kicked off the water with both hind legs, launching itself toward the serpent.
Its act of playing dead had failed as the serpent had not been fooled at all. Now that the fruit was ripening, the toad had no choice but to gamble everything.
"Five-Colored Venom Reincarnation Drill!"
It leaped high into the air and spat out a stream of five-colored venom.
The poison twisted violently, spiraling tighter and tighter until it formed a sharp rotating drill of light, every ounce of power condensed into a single point aimed directly at the serpent.
It was risking everything on one strike.
’So the archer had been right. The toad really had saved one final killing move.’
Marcus felt a chill run through him. If Liam had not warned him, he might already have charged in and died.
He gained new respect for Mythic-tier monsters. Their strength was dangerous enough, but their cunning was worse.
Still, the gap between Mythic and Divine remained enormous.
Had the toad continued relying on ambushes and tricks, it might have had a chance to injure the serpent. In a direct clash of power, however, it was doomed from the start.
Especially in its wounded state.
That attack was likely only eighty percent of what it should have been. As the venom drill roared forward, the serpent prepared its own strike.
Its tail shone black, expanding in size as dark scales rapidly spread across it. In the blink of an eye, it resembled the tail of a black dragon.
"Black Dragon Tail Swing!"
The serpent lashed out.
Smack.
The scaled tail collided head-on with the incoming drill.
Boom!
The five-colored attack exploded in midair like a firework. Poison scattered everywhere, unable to reform.
The dragon tail did not stop. It crashed into the toad’s body with crushing force, tearing it’s flesh.
The toad gave a strangled cry and dropped from the sky like a stone into the swamp below.
Compared to the earlier Divine Serpent Tail Swing, this Black Dragon Tail Swing was on an entirely different level.
One blow had nearly ended the fight.
The toad, realizing death was moments away, did not hesitate. It plunged into the mud and fled for deeper water as fast as it could.
A decisive victory.
Hiss... ROAR!
Watching its enemy flee, the serpent coiled proudly around the Black Crow Poison Fruit and released a strange cry, half serpent hiss and half dragon roar.
The fruit belonged to it now.
Even the serpent’s usual caution had faded beneath the pleasure of victory. But right then, everything changed.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
Arrow after arrow tore through the air toward it.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Every shot struck true as red damage numbers rose above the serpent’s head.
-1500
-1800
-1000
-1200
Liam Windrunner, the King of the Mountains, had made his move.
"That fast..." Marcus could not help muttering.
The toad had only just vanished beneath the swamp when Liam said a single sentence.
"I’m going in. Stay back."
Then he was already five hundred meters away, with arrows flying one after another.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
Marcus nearly choked when he saw the damage.
The serpent had spent mana fighting the toad, but it had lost only around a tenth of its health. Liam’s arrows dealt less than two thousand each.
Against a boss with hundreds of thousands of health, that damage looked pitiful.
’Seriously? This was a top expert?’
Marcus suddenly had doubts. The serpent seemed to share them. It barely acknowledged the attacks, remaining beside the fruit as if nothing important were happening.
"Forget it. We should just leave."
It was better to retreat than have Liam killed and drag him down too. But just as Marcus muttered to himself, Liam changed tactics.
He stopped focusing on the serpent.
Nearly eighty percent of his arrows now flew toward the Black Crow Poison Fruit itself, trying to shoot it down before it fully ripened.
"Is Liam crazy?"
Marcus scratched his head.
That fruit had survived a massive explosion without a scratch. What could a few arrows possibly do?
Yet the serpent panicked immediately.
Its tail whipped back and forth in a frenzy, desperately knocking away every arrow aimed at the fruit.
It would rather let arrows strike its own body and suffer damage than allow even a single arrow to touch that fruit.