Book 3, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts – Chapter 18, Bebe’s Prowess (part 2)
From his earlier years until now, the only magical beast which he was genuinely fascinated by was the Velocidragon, which he had seen that one time. That time, when the Velocidragon had demonstrated its terrifying power in the middle of Wushan township, it seemed to be an invincible force. With its terrifying power, it had wiped out one house after another...
Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart quake.
When he was eight years old, Linley was just a child. But now, at age fifteen, he was a dual-element magus of the fifth rank.
“Boss! Boss! This one is mine!” The excited voice of the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, rang out in Linley’s mind.
Linley turned to look at the surface of the lake, and saw that Bebe was so excited that all of the hairs on his body were sticking up as straight and stiff as needles. Even all of the muscles on his body were pulsing with energy. His fierce claws and head had grown in size as well. The little Shadowmouse, Bebe, was previously around 20 centimeters in size, but now he suddenly elongated to a size of half a meter. This half-meter long size was the largest that Linley had ever seen Bebe grow to.
But despite this, the half-meter long Bebe was nothing more than a speck in comparison to the Velocidragon.
The Velocidragon’s huge, lantern-like red gaze was fixed coldly on Bebe’s form. It let out an angry snort that reverberated within the mountains. In reply, the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, also raised his head and let out a high-pitched shriek.
The sound of the low, growling snarl and the high-pitched shriek clashed.
Linley, who was watching all of this atop the tree next to the lake, suddenly felt as though the Velocidragon and the little Shadowmouse were two equally matched adversaries having a staredown.
“Raaaaaawr!” A thundering roar!
An all-encompassing, blazing flame suddenly erupted from the Velocidragon’s maw, covering the entire area of dozens of meters ahead of it in flame. The lake began to hiss as the surface water instantly began to boil. But Bebe didn’t move at all, despite being bathed in flames; he just let the flame burn as it might.
From within the blazing flame, one could see that Bebe was not harmed in the slightest.
“Although Bebe is physically small, his defensive abilities are incredible. The power of this flame is approximately on par with a fire-style magus spell of the fifth rank, but it isn’t able to harm him at all.” Linley quietly watched. Despite having been in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts for so long, Bebe had yet to meet a genuinely worthy opponent to do battle with.
Bathed in flames, Bebe was motionless. But then suddenly, he moved!
“Shkkkkkkkkreeee!”
With a terrifyingly high-pitched howl, Bebe transformed into a black shadow that sped towards the Velocidragon with vicious speed. The Velocidragon, which had continued to breathe out flames this entire time, suddenly widened its enormous, lantern-sized red eyes, while suddenly slapping forward with its long, whip-like draconic tail.
The incredible speed of the tail of the Velocidragon actually approached the speed of the little Shadowmouse’s movement.
“Whoosh!” Bebe’s movements were extremely bizarre, and he was actually able to dodge the hyper-fast attack of the Velocidragon’s tail, and immediately tried to bite at the Velocidragon’s throat. But the Velocidragon, in turn, immediately turned his head down and then tried to bite back at Bebe.
But clearly, Bebe was still a bit faster. As he gave the Velocidragon a vicious bite on the neck, a sharp ‘crack’ sound could be heard, as one of the thick scale on the Velocidragon’s neck was actually broken, and then swallowed whole by Bebe. Bebe was a creature that was capable of even devouring stones and bones. This Velocidragon scale proved to be edible by him as well.
But just at this time, the Velocidragon’s tail swept towards Bebe. “Thwack!” A high-pitched slapping sound could be heard, causing Linley to shiver. But Bebe had long since dodged and scurried away again.
“This Velocidragon has such a huge, thick neck. That bite Bebe gave it was nothing more than a light wound.” Linley breathlessly watched this battle between creatures of totally different sizes. “This Velocidragon’s tail moves in such an unpredictable manner, and it’s able to twist in turn at high speeds as well.”
The tail of a Velocidragon was not only fast, it was also agile and unpredictable.
“Shkreee!”
Bebe once more turned into a vicious black shadow. Erupting out from the water, Bebe once more dodged the draconic tail. But just as he dodged, the tail suddenly changed directions in a rapid, unpredictable manner. With a sudden twist, it struck Bebe a direct blow.
The vicious black shadow was sent flying into the faraway woods.
“Bebe!” Linley’s chest tightened.
But the Velocidragon only stared cautiously at the forest, as though keeping an eye out for a dangerous foe. Suddenly, the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, came flying down at him from atop a particularly tall tree. The Velocidragon’s tail immediately twisted to strike at him, but this time, Bebe had learned from the previous painful lesson. With a twitch of his tail, he too suddenly changed directions in mid-air.
The little Shadowmouse was a blur. The draconic tail was also a blur!
The two blurred shadows chased each other about in mid-air. The little Shadowmouse would occasionally be sent flying by the Velocidragon, but every so often, he would also manage to land a vicious bite on the Velocidragon as well. They continued their fight, fighting all the way from the lakeshore to the forests. One mighty tree after another was knocked down by the Velocidragon’s tail as the Velocidragon and the Shadowmouse continued to fight without pause.
“From what I can see, it seems as though Bebe has a slight advantage.”
Linley nervously watched the fight. By this point in time, the huge Velocidragon had already lost seven or eight scales, and blood continuously flowed from seven or eight wounds, covering half of its body in blood. The Velocidragon’s enraged roars continued unabated.
Its tail whipping back and forth, any tree touched by the Velocidragon’s tail was snapped in half. One mighty tree after another toppled over, and an area with a diameter of approximately two hundred meters around the two combatants was totally cleared.
“But can Bebe keep on being hit like that, by the Velocidragon’s tail?”
Linley began to worry. The offensive power of the Velocidragon’s tail was very high. If it smashed into a stone, the stone would crumble; if it smashed into a tree, the tree would snap. This sort of offensive power made Linley’s heart grow cold. Linley knew that if he was struck so much as a single time by that tail, his life would be gone.
“Whack!” Bebe was sent flying again, but in the blink of an eye, Bebe once more transformed into a furious black shadow as he charged into the fray again, screeching.
By now, the Velocidragon was covered with blood, with many damaged scales throughout its body. It looked to be in a bad way.
“Raaaawr!”
With an angry roar, the Velocidragon actually turned and began to leave. At high speed, it began to run towards the core areas of the mountains. In a short period of time, the Velocidragon disappeared from Linley’s vision. Bebe actually pursued it for a while as well before turning around and coming back to Linley.
Linley dropped down from his tree just as the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, also ran over to him, his body shrinking back to its normal size.
“Bebe, are you okay?” Linley immediately asked him through their mental link.
Bebe jumped onto Linley’s shoulder and stood erect on his hind legs, as he looked arrogantly at Linley with his beady little black eyes. “Boss, what sort of magical beast do you take Bebe to be? How could I be afraid of a Velocidragon?” Pride and self-delight suffused Bebe’s adorable little face.
But suddenly, Bebe twitched his tail. Shaking himself, he said, “But that Velocidragon’s tail really is a rather nasty piece of work. My entire body hurts.”
Seeing this, Linley couldn’t help but chuckle. The Velocidragon’s tail wasn’t just a ‘rather nasty piece of work’. It was an extremely nasty piece of work. Linley was extremely glad that Bebe was able to withstand so many blows from it without sustaining any serious injuries.
“And this Velocidragon’s scales and meat really is thick. Even at my maximum size, I couldn’t bite through him.” Bebe sighed. “But I’m confident that if we kept on at it, I, Bebe, could’ve bled him to death. This Velocidragon was pretty sly though. It kept on moving about and never let me bite it on the same location twice.”
Linley secretly laughed.
There was a huge gap between the sixth rank and the seventh rank, in terms of combat ability as well as other factors. Most likely, that Velocidragon’s intelligence was not much less than a human being’s. How could it possibly allow the little Shadowmouse to bite it in the same place twice?
No matter how thick the scales and flesh of the Velocidragon were, it couldn’t withstand being bitten by Bebe multiple times. This Velocidragon most likely also realized that he wouldn’t gain any benefit from continuing to fight, which was why it fled.
“Bebe, want to give a magical beast of the eighth rank a go?” Linley mentally teased.
Bebe’s little eyes suddenly turned round as the moon. “Boss, don’t mess with me like that. Dealing with that magical beast of the seventh rank was exhausting enough. I hear that magical beasts of the eighth rank are ten times as powerful as magical beasts of the seventh rank. Even if their movement speeds aren’t as high as mine, most likely their attack speeds are higher.”
Movement speed and combat attack speeds were two different speeds.
For example, the Velocidragon was perhaps much slower in terms of movement speed, but its tail was able to attack at an astonishing speed. Although some larger magical beasts appeared to be slow and clumsy, when they really started to fight, they were as fast as lightning!
After all, if they were mighty enough to be described as a magical beast of the eighth rank, they definitely would overmatch a magical beast of the seventh rank.
“Heh, looks like you know when to be humble after all.” Linley chuckled while stroking Bebe’s little head. “Alright, my clothes should be dry by now as well. Let’s go take a rest on top of the tree, then eat some food. After a while, we’ll continue onwards.” As he spoke, Linley leapt up seven or eight meters onto a branch, and then he continued to lightly jump up, before leisurely coming to a rest at about twenty or thirty meters above the ground.