Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The monster was skipping merrily across the cliff face when suddenly, it stopped in its tracks as if it had sensed something. Its head did a 180-degree turn.
Its eyes were immediately locked on Flamy, who was circling in the air behind it as if in search of something.
At that moment, Flamy sensed that it was being watched from afar. Instinctively turning towards where it sensed the gaze, it caught sight of a 30-foot-long white shell sprawled across the cliff face. It wasn’t hard to miss in the middle of a dark forest.
Flamy had also caught a glimpse of the trees and the fruits between their branches not too far away from the white-shelled creature. The tree’s fruits were white and covered with tiny black spots. They were just what it was looking for!
“Gao Peng, I found it!” shouted Flamy cheerfully. “I’ve found the fruits that you want. They’re just on top of that mountain!” It quickly told Gao Peng what it had seen.
The white-shelled creature cocked its head to one side as it gazed curiously at Flamy. The look on its face grew even more dangerous when it realized that the strange red bird had no intention of leaving the area.
But for some reason, it didn’t move towards Flamy. Instead, it jumped down from a branch and landed lightly on the ground, then climbed to the top of a mountain, rose up on its hind legs and let out an angry screech at Flamy.
Gao Peng stopped. He could see the strange white creature rearing up on the mountain peak from where he was standing.
[Monster Name]: White Steel Bladed Beast
[Monster Name]: Level 49 (Lord-tier)
[Monster Grade]: Perfect
[Monster Attribute]: Wind
[Monster Ability]: Hardened Shell Level 3, Sharp Edge Level 4, Wind Mastery Level 3
[Special Characteristics]: Wind Armor (It’s able to form an elemental armor with the wind in its body. Passive Effect 1: Gives the monster a certain resistance to psychic and spiritual attacks. Passive Effect 2: While moving at high speed, it’s able to further boost its own speed and agility by generating a powerful rush of air from within its shell.)
[Weakness]: Ice-type attacks
[Description]: Not only does it have a hard shell, but it is also surprisingly light. It’s capable of moving at high speed and unleashing powerful, explosive attacks. However, as it was born with short stature, the White Steel Bladed Beast has developed a complex about its size.
It’s insecure about its own size?
Gao Peng was speechless. He gazed at the 20-foot-tall monstrosity roaring at Flamy from the top of the mountain. Why would something that huge feel insecure about its size? How should Da Zi feel about itself, then?
“Isn’t that right?” asked Gao Peng, stroking Da Zi’s head absentmindedly.
Da Zi looked at Gao Peng strangely. Why are you looking at me like that? it thought. Could it be that Gao Peng finally realized that I’m his most favorite familiar in the world and not this lion?
Da Zi began working its brain in order to figure out the best way to let Gao Peng know that it wasn’t happy with his current situation…
The White Steel Bladed Beast was a Level 49 Lord-tier Perfect-grade monster. Its grade was lower than Dumby and Goldie’s by two levels. However, in terms of monster level, it was at least four levels higher than both of them.
While a four-level gap in level might not have been enough to compensate for the two-level gap in grade between them, this didn’t mean that the White Steel Bladed Beast was far behind Dumby or Goldie in terms of sheer power.
More importantly, the White Steel Bladed Beast had a special characteristic. Gao Peng had no idea if it was innate or if the monster had attained it when it dropped from Epic to Perfect-grade.
In any case, Gao Peng decided that it would be best not to get on its bad side. However, he still had to retrieve the Guise Fruit for Stripey. He had no intention of breaking the promise that he had made to it.
“Da Zi, direct an electrical discharge at Goldie.”
Every familiar around Gao Peng knew how Goldie’s passive effect worked. They knew what Da Zi’s attack would do to it.
Electricity began unfurling from Da Zi’s body and wrapping itself like vines around Goldie. Then Da Zi discharged all the electricity from its body!
Hum, hum, hum…
A dull electrical hum echoed in the air. Goldie’s muscles began bulging and spasming uncontrollably. A strange sound could be heard as Goldie’s body began to grow and gleam with purple light…
“All monsters who are bigger than me will feel my wrath,” growled the White Steel Bladed Beast as it lowered itself into a crouch. Without warning, it launched itself towards Gao Peng in a white blur. A powerful wind howled from its shell, as if another monster was living inside it.
The wind swirling around its body began picking up speed until it turned into a layer of green light.
The White Steel Bladed Beast’s body began shrinking as it approached its target. It then became apparent that its 30-foot-tall appearance was nothing more than an illusion. The size-altering effect of the Guise Fruit that the White Steel Bladed Beast had ingested not too long ago was dispelled almost instantly when its wind elemental energy began circulating in its body.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Arcs of green light sliced through the air. Due to the incredible speed it was moving at, the White Steel Bladed Beast was able to corner Flamy in the air with the traces it had left in its wake.
Flamy was completely surrounded. At that moment, it could feel a slight pang of panic.
Flamy began shedding its feathers from its body. Its feathers gradually formed a fiery shield before it, which streaks of fire burst forth from. Without warning, a streak of green light collided with Flamy’s fiery shield like a sharp dagger.
Boom!
The fiery shield exploded the moment the White Steel Bladed Beast’s attack pierced through it.
Flames exploded in all directions, spreading out like a red fiery lotus in the air. The resulting shockwave sent Flamy flying in the opposite direction and the White Steel Bladed Beast in a downward spiral towards the ground.
Arcs of green light pierced through the flames and whipped up a fiery cyclone in the air.
“Help Flamy, quick,” said Gao Peng. Goldie and Dumby leaped into action without hesitation.
“Be careful, Gao Peng. This guy has incredibly explosive power,” muttered the Desolate Frost Lion.
The data frame had indeed emphasized the White Steel Bladed Beast’s explosive power. However, Gao Peng had never thought of the data frame’s information as an accurate representation of reality.
For instance, monsters that supposedly specialized in defense, at least according to their descriptions in the data frame, never lasted long in a fight with Goldie.
“This guy’s really powerful. I’ve seen monsters like it take out other monsters of the same level in a single shot,” said the Desolate Frost Lion again, noticing that Gao Peng didn’t seem to be taking the White Steel Bladed Beast seriously.
This time, Gao Peng took the lion’s advice seriously. He ordered Flamy, Goldie, and the others to keep their guard up through their Blood Contracts.
At that moment, Goldie was engaging the White Steel Bladed Beast.
Thanks to Da Zi triggering its passive ability beforehand, Goldie now stood approximately 20 feet tall. The three-foot-tall White Steel Bladed Beast before the duck couldn’t even reach its knees. This was what the battle between David and Goliath would look like if the White Steel Bladed Beast was a scrawny boy and Goldie an enormous Philistine.
The White Steel Bladed Beast fearlessly charged at Goldie like a warrior going up against a seemingly undefeatable evil. Deftly avoiding a punch from Goldie, it sprang forward and held its silver blade-like appendages in the shape of a cross before its chest. Wind elemental energy began concentrating around them.
In an instant, the White Steel Bladed Beast’s attack struck Goldie’s chest.
The impact was so powerful that it sent Goldie flying backward, crashing through a couple of trees behind it before it finally rolled to a stop on the ground. A huge tree then fell on Goldie’s body, pinning it to the ground.
Goldie’s chest was rising and falling rapidly, its breathing now ragged. There was a terrible cross-shaped wound on its chest. It was so deep that a bit of bone could be seen poking out from it.
