The Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard seemed to have completely lost its mind.
Its tail hammered the ground over and over, its head slammed about wildly, and its body thrashed upward in a frenzy.
It was as though the one attacking it wasn't the Fire Crow King at all, but the earth itself. Every ounce of its rage was being poured into the ground beneath it.
Dust billowed into the sky, and the thunderous sound shook the heavens.
Even from this distance, the tremors rattled Jiang Chen's eardrums. Fortunately, his Heart of Rock was extraordinarily resolute, and his mind remained unscathed.
"Weird. This is really strange. The Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard — a Saint Grade Spirit Beast — even if both its eyes were attacked, it shouldn't have gone this berserk?"
Jiang Chen found the situation highly suspicious. No matter how irritable the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard might be, as a Saint Grade Spirit Beast, surely it wouldn't attack so aimlessly? Such a tremendous expenditure of its own energy would only make its situation worse. Did it not understand that?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each strike from the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard drove the pit beneath it a little deeper. Dust filled the air and smoke blanketed the area, preventing the Fire Crow King from closing in for the moment.
Then a thought flashed through Jiang Chen's mind — the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard was trying to escape!
Sure enough, in that pit several zhang deep, the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard was burrowing relentlessly into the earth. More than half of its body had already vanished underground, with only its tail still hammering the soil, sending waves of mud skyward and creating the illusion of a terrifying commotion to confuse the Fire Crow King.
The participant was lost in confusion, but the observer saw clearly.
Jiang Chen understood the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's intentions, but the Fire Crow King had not caught on yet.
By the time the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's body had fully sunk into the ground, the Fire Crow King finally realized what was happening.
It threw its head back and let out a piercing shriek. Furious flames erupted around its body as it summoned all the remaining Fire Crows to attack the ground together.
The Fire Crow tribe's greatest strength was their flame-breathing ability. However, flames were entirely useless against the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard, which was why the Fire Crows had never employed fire attacks until now.
The situation now was no different.
One by one, the Fire Crows obeyed the command. Their wings transformed into blades, and they began hacking at the earth relentlessly.
The Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard had burrowed underground, but in its current condition, it couldn't have gotten far.
The Fire Crows poured their fury into the ground, carving away at it with savage intensity. The pit in the earth grew deeper and wider by the moment.
Before long, the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's tail was exposed once more.
Running on its very last reserves of strength, the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's movements had become severely sluggish. This creature, which was naturally gifted at burrowing through the earth, had failed to escape under the relentless pursuit of the Fire Crow tribe.
The Fire Crow King let out a cruel laugh. Its wings, sharpened into blades, slashed down savagely at the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's tail.
Clang!
The crisp sound of impact rang out like metal striking metal.
The Fire Crow King grew more vicious. It accelerated its attacks, blade after blade, relentlessly striking the same spot.
The Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's scales were formidable, but no matter how tough they were, they required the creature's own vital essence to sustain them. Now, with less than a tenth of its vital essence remaining, the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard had been pushed to the very brink.
Its vital essence was almost entirely depleted. It was relying almost solely on the heaven-defying defense of its scales to withstand the attacks.
One slash, two slashes — only faint hairline fractures appeared on the scales of its tail.
But slash after slash, twenty or thirty blows later, the scales at that same spot had been cleaved open, revealing a ghastly wound.
The blade had clearly cut deep into the flesh, and blood gushed from the wound without pause.
The Fire Crow tribe was a bloodthirsty lot. The sight of blood utterly awakened the Fire Crow King's savage nature. It summoned wave after wave of Fire Crows, ordering them to attack the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's tail in a ceaseless assault.
Blood sprayed through the air, and the Fire Crow King screamed with excitement. Its great beak opened wide, and it devoured every droplet of blood that sprayed outward.
This was the bloodline of a dragon descendant — the Fire Crow King naturally refused to let a single drop go to waste.
"Aaaah!" Having tasted the blood of a dragon descendant, the Fire Crow King was beside itself with elation. It shrieked in delight, venting the thrill surging through its veins.
Strike while the enemy is down. Take its life while it's weak.
The Fire Crow tribe, driven wild by the scent of blood, redoubled their ferocity.
As the earth was clawed away bit by bit, the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's hindquarters were gradually laid bare.
The Fire Crows' endless progeny were clearly not satisfied with attacking a single wound. They spread out, hammering at other areas of exposed flesh.
The Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard appeared to have lost all capacity to resist, allowing the Fire Crows' attacks to rain down upon its body without any attempt to fight back.
As the old saying went — enough ants could kill an elephant.
Once the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard could no longer fight back, the Fire Crows attacked without the slightest restraint. Combined with their overwhelming numbers, the relentless assault quickly yielded results.
Wounds appeared one after another. The Fire Crow army carved open new gashes across the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's body in an endless succession.
Blood sprayed in every direction, driving all the Fire Crows into a frenzy of excitement. They shrieked without inhibition as they pressed their attack.
"No way — the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard is going to die just like this?" Jiang Chen watched the Fire Crow army's rampage, finding it completely impossible to believe.
Just then, the soil around them shifted slightly.
Boom!
Without warning, the earth in every direction erupted as though detonated by an explosion.
A massive vortex of soil blasted upward from underground. Countless clods of earth were hurled into the air, and under an overwhelming surge of force, these chunks of soil transformed into projectiles that flew outward like razor-sharp arrows.
Bang! Bang! Bang!