Chapter 56: Blasting the Crocodile’s Lair

The earth-element Crocogator with its ashen back and golden eyes was already a beast of immense strength. Coupled with its massive, heavy form, when it charged with wild abandon, even Yan Yu could only yield and avoid its direct path. Hovering beside the Crocogator, Yan Yu found herself at a loss for what to do. She could kick Hu Jianming aside once or twice, but if she did so too many times, she feared Sun Ruohua would risk her life against her.

After all, Hu Jianming was still unconscious, having only just escaped death not long ago. If he were to be kicked a dozen times with Yan Yu’s full force, the outcome would be no different from ending up inside the Crocogator’s belly.

"Jianming!" Sun Ruohua screamed in anguish as she saw disaster about to befall Hu Jianming.

In his unconscious state, Hu Jianming seemed to sense his peril, groaning as he instinctively rolled over. But that small movement was nothing for the Crocogator—a simple stretch of its neck would suffice. Just as Yan Yu began to fear for Hu Jianming’s life, a pair of hands appeared from nowhere and pulled him to safety, successfully avoiding the beast’s snapping jaws.

The Crocogator paused, and when it turned around again, it couldn’t find Hu Jianming. It turned out that Song Yi, having seen Rong Xue’er to safety, had arrived in time to carry Hu Jianming away to a blind spot, out of the Crocogator’s line of sight.

Yan Yu sighed in relief and could finally fight without restraint.

She could now unleash over a hundred wind blades at once, and, eager to end the battle quickly, she released them all in one go. Not only that, but she conjured a dense flurry of illusory wind blades. Though these lacked killing power, they were perfect for confusing the Crocogator. With so many fakes, the beast might dodge straight into the path of the real ones.

A pained roar tore from the Crocogator’s throat. Its body was covered in shallow cuts from the wind blades—none fatal, but all excruciating. Especially with the “little one” on its back seizing every chance to hurl crackling orbs of lightning at its head. The damage wasn’t severe, but—

Yun Duo’er’s lightning abilities, even after days of devouring low-grade thunderbeast meat, had only advanced to the second rank. Don’t be fooled by how helpless the Crocogator seemed under the onslaught of mother and daughter; as a sixth-rank dungeon monster, it was highly resistant. The lightning orbs did little real harm, but the true terror of thunder attacks was the pain.

Unable to withstand this torment, especially as Yun Duo’er and Yan Yu worked in perfect coordination, the Crocogator’s earth spikes never came close to hitting them.

After searching in vain for Hu Jianming, the Crocogator finally retreated, unwillingly conceding defeat.

“Yun Duo’er, come back!” Yan Yu knew all too well never to pursue a desperate foe. It was a lesson carved into her bones by countless bloody experiences in her previous life, but Yun Duo’er was oblivious. High on the thrill of battle, she clung to the Crocogator’s jagged back, hurling one lightning orb after another, oblivious to the fact that the beast was carrying her straight towards its lair.

Not until her mouth filled with grit and sand did Yun Duo’er snap back to reality. She was on the verge of being dragged into the Crocogator’s den!

Yan Yu swooped to her side, scooping her daughter into her arms and, with a swirl of wind, whisked them both out of the cave. “Why do you lose all sense in a fight and throw caution to the wind?”

“Heh.” Yun Duo’er stuck out her tongue sheepishly.

She was embarrassed to admit it, but she had always been the burden in her mother’s battles. Since refining the meat of the horned rhinobeast, she and her mother had only entered two dungeons together. The howling boars of Fuzhu Rockwood were too weak to be any fun. But this giant Crocogator—its enormous head made the perfect target for her lightning orbs, and every throw hit home.

The unrestrained thrill of attacking was something she’d never experienced in her entire life.

Yan Yu only grumbled, knowing well enough what her daughter was feeling.

Their sheltering tree had been half knocked over by the giant Crocogator, so Yan Yu quickly searched for a sturdier one to regroup. She gathered everyone—six people and a dog—and was surprised to learn that the one who had pulled Hu Jianming to safety was actually Qu Zimo!

Sun Ruohua was effusive in her gratitude. “Zimo, if not for you, my husband would have died in that monster’s jaws.”

Though there was a touch of awkwardness in her thanks—after all, just yesterday Qu Zimo had pushed Liang Hong into a swarm of bomb ants—saving her husband was still a fact that deserved gratitude.

The commotion roused Hu Jianming from his stupor. He was hissing in pain, his whole body battered and bruised, barely surviving the bomb ants only to receive a kick from Yan Yu. When he’d fallen from the tree—which was five or six meters high—the impact, compounded by Yan Yu’s inability to hold back in that critical moment, had sent him crashing into another tree, snapping his leg with a sickening crack.

Yan Yu felt a pang of guilt and exchanged a glance with Yun Duo’er. Mother and daughter worked in tandem: one used her psychic power to create illusions, the other employed the Watershine Butterfly’s bloodline technique to heal Hu Jianming. After their ministrations, his color improved, though his broken leg was beyond the fourth-grade Watershine Butterfly’s ability to mend.

Zhao Kai, a former doctor before the arrival of the dungeon world, found two thumb-thick branches to splint Hu Jianming’s leg. All they could do now was hope for the best.

Sun Ruohua worried, but she knew Yan Yu had acted out of necessity. A broken leg was far better than losing a life. This was the second time Yan Yu had saved both her and her husband—a debt not easily repaid with mere words.

In her heart, Sun Ruohua made a silent vow.

Once everyone was settled and provided with food, Yan Yu decided to take Yun Duo’er to finish off the Crocogator.

But she would never chase it into its lair; if she had intended that, she wouldn’t have stopped Yun Duo’er earlier.

Her plan was simple: use the sixth-grade Fire Rhino Horns.

With two horns placed, the ten-meter-deep cave collapsed in a thunderous explosion. The battered Crocogator was exposed at the bottom of the crater. Compared to Yan Yu’s feeble, tickling wind blades and Yun Duo’er’s modest lightning orbs, the aftershock alone from the Fire Rhino Horns left the Crocogator in agony.

A large chunk of flesh was blasted from its back; one foot dangled limply, rendered useless.

Even Yan Yu hadn’t expected such an effect. For a sixth-grade beast, even a sixth-grade Fire Rhino Horn’s explosion, muffled by layers of earth and rock, should have been mostly absorbed. Why, then, such devastation?

The answer soon became clear.

From beneath the Crocogator’s soft belly, a cluster of small, pointed heads emerged—six tiny Crocogator hatchlings, their golden slit pupils wide with wonder as they gazed out at the world.

It was likely their first time ever seeing sunlight, and their eyes shone with freshness and curiosity...