"Boom——!"
A thick, high-pressure water column swept across, instantly splitting the giant tree where Caesar was hiding in half.
"Boom!"
Another water cannon.
From the Giant Crystal Crab King's massive pincer, thicker than a signal tower, compressed water shot out at a terrifying speed, tearing a huge gap through the Sandstorm Caesar had created along its path, and blasted straight toward his position!
Caesar leaned his body to the side, pushed off with his right leg, and narrowly avoided this fatal blow.
The water cannon struck the giant tree behind him, the explosive sound making his eardrums ache. The hard bark was blasted into a crater nearly two meters in diameter, with debris flying everywhere...!
"Is this never going to end?"
Caesar cursed inwardly, but his movements didn't dare slow down in the slightest.
He forcibly twisted his waist mid-air, his deep blue dragon scales covered in a layer of murky dust. Under the cover of the surrounding yellow sand, this dust became the best camouflage.
Ability: Sand Veil!
As long as the Sandstorm persisted and he kept moving, this clumsy, red-eyed giant crab wouldn't be able to easily lock onto him.
"Hiss——roar!!!"
The Giant Crystal Crab King let out an angry roar, its massive claws flailing wildly in the air, each swing stirring up a gust of wind. It could clearly sense that annoying little bug was nearby, right in this damned sand, but each attack missed by just a hair.
This feeling of having strength but nowhere to use it drove this Level 40 overlord nearly insane.
Caesar landed, the quicksand beneath his feet instantly sinking, carrying him seven or eight meters to the left, just in time to dodge a [Rock Tomb] falling from above.
Several huge rocks smashed into the spot where he had just stood, the ground shaking violently...!
"Tsk, a stats monster."
Caesar spat out a mouthful of sand, his eyes cold.
This giant crab's stats were too high. If that water cannon had hit him squarely, with his current small frame, he'd probably lose half his health bar.
And, most troublesome was that new skill.
Caesar glanced at his left arm, which he had used to block the residual force of the water cannon. The scales there still retained a faint glow, but the light was already dim.
[Protect].
This skill was indeed a divine technique, said to be able to block any attack. But what the System didn't tell him was that this thing's mana consumption was dynamic!
The higher the damage blocked, the more terrifying the mana drain.
Just now, to block that glancing blow from the water cannon, he felt a large chunk of energy instantly drained from his body, his head buzzing as if he hadn't slept all night and then run five kilometers.
In a game, using [Protect] consecutively would lower its success rate. In this real world, what limited him besides the success rate was his mana bar, which had never shown a specific value.
This System was also a half-finished product, not even displaying an MP bar—all guesswork—
Taking advantage of the crab king turning to search for its target, Caesar quickly pulled a pear-colored fruit from his System space.
flower beer fruit.
This thing was looted earlier from that Fierce Boar Beast's tree hollow, with the effect of restoring a small amount of MP.
Caesar didn't care whether the fruit was washed or over-fermented, stuffing it directly into his mouth, chewing even the core and swallowing it.
As the fruit flesh entered his stomach, the effect was still there. A warm current slid down his esophagus into his stomach, his previously parched Mental Energy recovering slightly...
He still had to hold on a bit longer!
That stupid dragon should have gone underwater by now, right?
While moving quickly through the Sandstorm, Caesar glanced out of the corner of his eye at the distant lake surface. It was calm and peaceful, showing no signs of abnormality.
"Roar——!"
In the center of the distant Sandstorm, the Giant Crystal Crab King grew even more frenzied due to its missed attacks.
That colossal creature had long since come ashore, swinging its two massive pincers like battering rams, charging recklessly through the Yellow sand everywhere.
Each pincer strike landing on the ground triggered a small-scale Earthquake.
The ground cracked, earth and stones flying.
The once orderly lakeside woodland had now been plowed into ruins.
Caesar didn't fight head-on.
He knew his role very clearly.
A heavy-armored warrior? No, that's what fools do.
His current role was a "kiting" assassin.
As long as aggro was held steady, damage output relied entirely on attrition.
Caesar took a deep breath, his chest swelling high.
[Quicksand Abyss]!
The ground shook violently once again.
The already dry, cracked lakeside soil, under the drive of his magic, completely turned to sand.
The Giant Crystal Crab King's heavy body suddenly sank, half of its eight legs instantly trapped.
This level of restraint couldn't hold a Level 40 overlord for long, but it was enough to annoy it.
"Hiss——!!!"
The crab king let out an angry hiss, its crystal carapace glowing with a blinding blue light, countless water bullets firing indiscriminately in all directions.
Caesar's figure flickered, weaving through the surrounding Yellow sand everywhere and giant trees, evading those deadly water bullets one by one...
In the distance.
Instructor Raymond leaned against a broken rock, panting heavily as he leaned on his staff.
That flame shield had long since shattered, the old mage's robe torn and tattered, looking utterly disheveled.
But at this moment, he couldn't care less about tidying up his appearance.
His turbid old eyes were filled with disbelief.
That blue dragon... was toying with the terrifying Guardian of the Lake Heart?
Not only that.
Because of the quicksand and chaos created by that dragon, the ordinary Rock Shell Crab horde that had been surging like a tide was also affected.
Large numbers of crabs were trapped in the quicksand, unable to move, becoming living targets.
"Everyone! Focus fire on those trapped crabs!"
Raymond suddenly realized—this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Although he didn't know what that dragon's goal was, the enemy of my enemy is a temporary ally.
"But Instructor... that dragon..."
"Shut up! If you want to live, listen to me!"
Raymond sharply cut off his student's hesitation.
Fireballs and ice spikes whistled out, smashing into the crabs trapped in the quicksand!
Although the damage was like scratching an itch, the advantage lay in the dense numbers.
For a time, the sounds of cracking carapaces and the screams of monsters rose and fell on the battlefield.
Caesar took a moment to glance at that group of humans.
They had some brains after all.
If these people had just stood by shouting "666" or screaming, he would have turned and run without hesitation, leaving this frenzied giant crab as a snack for them.
But now it seemed these people could still serve as a decent support group, helping him share a bit of the pressure from the minions.
"Almost there."
Caesar calculated in his heart.
The bigger the commotion here, the emptier the defenses at the lake bottom.
If Lao Zhai still couldn't succeed, he'd roast her when she got back.
...
Beneath the lake.
This was another world.
Light rapidly diminished with increasing depth, the originally azure-blue water turning into a deep ink-green. The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the hum of water flowing past eardrums.
A somewhat oddly shaped "Rock Shell Crab" was lying on the silt at the lake bottom, its eight short legs paddling desperately.
It was Cecilia, transformed into a crab.
She felt terrible now.
The lake was deeper than she had imagined, the water pressure squeezing her body, making her chest feel tight. And this "crab shell" didn't fit at all—heavy and seriously affecting her flexibility as a noble Silver Dragon.
"For the crystals... for the shiny things... for that bastard Caesar's promised half..."
Cecilia silently chanted a mantra in her heart to bolster her courage.
She carefully crawled along the rocks at the lake bottom, trying not to make any noise.
Suddenly, a powerful current surged from ahead.
Cecilia, frightened, quickly retracted her six legs, flattening her entire body in the silt, pretending to be an ordinary rock.
A few seconds later, a group of real Rock Shell Crabs swam past above her head.
These crabs had clearly received the crab king's summons, hurriedly heading to the shore to provide support. Their eyes were red, pincers waving, filled with Killing Intent.
One of the Crystalline Rock Shell Crabs seemed to sense something. It stopped, landed on the lake bottom, and suspiciously examined Cecilia.
Cecilia's heart nearly stopped beating.
She tightly closed her eyes (if crabs had eyelids), praying frantically in her heart: Don't see me, don't see me, don't see me...
The Crystalline Rock Shell Crab circled her twice, its bulging eyes rolling around.
It extended one pincer, tapping on Cecilia's silver-gray carapace.
"Thump, thump."
The sound was dull, indeed the texture of stone.
But this color... why isn't it quite like our tribe's? We're all brown, why is this one grayish?
And... this shape—
Isn't it a bit too round?