The three-person assault team entered the cave without any lighting equipment, fearing that illumination might alert whatever lurked within. However, this didn't mean they were operating blind—each wore military-grade night vision goggles that turned the darkness into a green-tinted world of sharp detail.
They advanced with absolute silence while the five team members outside took defensive positions, alchemical bullets loaded and ready. At the first sign of trouble, they would open fire without hesitation.
Inside the cave, the three men dared not speak, placing each footstep with extreme care to avoid making any sound that might wake a sleeping predator.
They moved in a tactical triangle formation—Wang Jianjun, the strongest and most experienced, took point while Ma Yue and Chen Moqing provided flanking coverage from behind.
The cave entrance stood barely three meters high, but as they penetrated deeper, the space expanded dramatically. About fifty meters in, the ceiling soared to over twenty meters, creating a natural cathedral of stone.
Wang Jianjun suddenly raised his fist, the universal signal to halt. Ma Yue and Chen Moqing froze instantly.
Through their night vision, they could clearly see what had captured their commander's attention: a massive serpent coiled on a stone platform to their right, apparently in deep hibernation.
Even coiled, the creature's size was staggering. Its head alone was half the size of a grown man, suggesting a body length of at least fifteen meters. This was no ordinary snake—the faint shimmer of scales and the subtle rise and fall of its breathing confirmed they'd found their target.
Wang Jianjun used precise hand signals to coordinate their approach: Ma Yue and Chen Moqing would circle to flank the creature while he launched a frontal assault, catching the giant snake off-guard during its dormant state.
As the primary attacker, Wang Jianjun wielded an alchemical lance—a formidable four-meter weapon with a sixty-centimeter blade sharpened on both edges and equipped with armor-piercing capabilities at its tip. The weapon could punch through most dragonborn defenses with ease.
When not in combat, the lance disassembled into four one-meter segments for easy transport, then reassembled quickly when needed. It was a rare and deadly close-combat weapon.
His secondary armament was an alchemical pistol holstered at his waist—insurance in case the lance was lost or damaged during battle.
Ma Yue and Chen Moqing both carried Miao Daos as their primary weapons—elegant 1.6-meter sabers with slender, curved blades designed to withstand powerful impacts while delivering devastating slashing attacks. Like their commander, both carried backup pistols.
The trio crept closer to the sleeping serpent. When they reached approximately five meters from their target, Wang Jianjun tensed every muscle in his arms and shoulders, then exploded into his final charge, aiming his lance directly at the creature's right eye.
The giant snake's enhanced senses detected the attack instantly, ending its hibernation in a heartbeat. But Wang Jianjun's lance was already less than half a meter from its target.
As a dragonborn creature, the serpent possessed supernatural reflexes. It opened its massive jaws, releasing a wave of putrid, toxic breath that would have felled ordinary humans.
The snake's quick reaction saved its eye, but Wang Jianjun's thrust remained devastatingly effective. The lance tip struck one of the creature's steel-hard fangs, shattering it instantly, before continuing deep into the monster's mouth.
Though the broken fang had slowed the weapon's momentum, Wang Jianjun's tremendous strength drove it forward, piercing approximately ten centimeters into the serpent's upper jaw—just short of reaching vital brain tissue.
The giant snake's agonized roar shook the entire cave as its coiled body unraveled with explosive force. It reared up, lifting Wang Jianjun off the ground along with his embedded lance.
But Ma Yue and Chen Moqing had already positioned themselves perfectly. Moving with coordinated precision, they leaped high and struck at the serpent's "seven-inch" point—the traditional vulnerable spot where a snake's heart lay protected.
Ma Yue's blade cut first, shattering the iron-like scales that armored the creature's vital area. Chen Moqing's follow-up strike drove deeper, carving through the gap Ma Yue had created and opening a massive wound that barely missed the heart, stopped only by the serpent's protective spine.
With its upper jaw pierced and its vital point slashed open, the giant snake entered a berserker rage. Its enormous body lashed out like a steel whip, striking the cave walls with such force that rocks exploded into fragments wherever it made contact.
Fortunately, Wang Jianjun had pulled his lance free and retreated the moment his teammates struck their blows. Ma Yue and Chen Moqing also disengaged immediately after delivering their attacks—prolonged close combat with an enraged dragonborn was suicidal.
Pain and fury overwhelmed the creature's rational thought, just as they would any sentient being. The agony from its wounds drove the giant snake into indiscriminate attacks, sweeping away tons of stone debris. But Wang Jianjun and his team had already found secure cover positions where they remained safe despite the serpent's rampage.
During this lull, Wang Jianjun got his first clear look at their opponent and realized he'd underestimated its size significantly. Visual measurement suggested the creature exceeded twenty meters in length, while the prominent spikes running along its spine indicated an extremely high concentration of dragon blood.
Wang Jianjun applied classic guerrilla warfare principles: "When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue."
After several minutes of frenzied thrashing, the giant snake showed signs of exhaustion. Wang Jianjun immediately signaled Ma Yue and Chen Moqing to launch their second assault, using the same tactical formation—frontal distraction with flanking strikes.
When the serpent spotted Wang Jianjun emerging from cover, it twisted its massive body toward him without hesitation. But this time, while Wang Jianjun maintained his role as primary target, the real attack would come from his flanking teammates.
The giant snake lunged at Wang Jianjun, who responded with fluid evasive movements, constantly harassing the creature with lance thrusts to its head while staying just out of reach. The enraged serpent focused entirely on the obvious threat directly in front of it, failing to notice the two warriors positioning themselves for another coordinated strike.
Once again, they targeted the seven-inch point. Ma Yue's initial cut found that the serpent's powerful muscles had closed the previous wound, so his strike served to reopen the gap and clear a path for Chen Moqing's decisive blow.
Chen Moqing's saber followed the opening Ma Yue had created, driving straight through to the spine. The force of his strike severed half the creature's vertebrae, though the impact also shattered his Miao Dao's blade.
This wound proved far more devastating than their previous attacks combined. The giant snake's spine was critically damaged, and its pain transcended anything it had experienced before. Complete madness overtook the creature as Wang Jianjun again retreated with his teammates.
The serpent opened its jaws wide, and a tremendous explosion echoed through the cave. A massive boulder suddenly detonated without any physical contact with the snake's body.
"That's Word Spirit Sequence 17, codename Hidden Thunder!" Wang Jianjun shouted, his voice carrying both recognition and concern. "It compresses air to create bomb-like explosions! This giant snake is descended from the King of Sky and Wind!"
Wang Jianjun's identification was immediate and certain because he shared the same draconic bloodline. His own Word Spirit was of the same family tree.
"Word Spirit: Dust-free Land!" he called out, activating his own supernatural ability.
The air around them shifted as Wang Jianjun's power took effect, expelling all matter—living and non-living—from a designated area and creating a perfect vacuum zone. The giant snake's Hidden Thunder Word Spirit suddenly became useless, unable to compress air that no longer existed.
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