novelden Chapter 511: Water And Fire
Chapter 511: Water And Fire
Chapter 511: Water And Fire
But there was one problem.
How in the world am I supposed to retrieve those treasures? Leo thought.
All the Inferno Marrow Lotuses were on top of the boiling-hot lava, and even the Furnace Vein Mosses were growing just above the molten lava rocks.
The first thing that came to Leo’s mind was to spray water all over the area to somewhat cool the upper layer of the lava, then immediately retrieve all the treasures before the rock melted again. But that would wake up the Drake.
And that was a pretty big move he was considering. The Drake could wake up even if it sensed Leo’s presence in the vicinity. The only reason it was still asleep was that he was in stealth, while the elves and beasts were out.
Leo thought of using vines as ropes to tie himself to the ceiling and lower himself down to retrieve the treasures one by one, but abandoned the idea when the vines caught fire the moment he grew them.
"Damn, so hot," Leo muttered, the oppressive heat seeped through his layers of ice, water, and aura while he stood at the edge of the lava pool. He immediately retreated.
At this time, he wished he had a telekinesis skill to simply pluck the lotuses from a distance, but there was no use crying over a missed shot.
In the end, he decided to take the fire elemental crystals before fighting the Drake.
But the moment he reached out and pressed his hand over the crystals, the Drake’s eyes shot open.
It had slit pupils, completely orange.
"Oh..." Leo uttered before casually pressing his palm against the fire elemental crystals under the Drake’s prying eyes. The next moment, the entire heap disappeared.
"GROO!" The Drake jolted awake when its mountain-like treasure pile vanished before its eyes.
Only when it stood up did Leo witness its full size. It was a 25-meter-long beast from head to tail and nearly 10 meters tall.
The beast was still frantically looking around for where its collection and tasty food had gone when it sensed some presence just outside the opening of the underground cavern.
GRAAAAHHHH!!
It released a thunderous roar and charged toward the location. Its speed was commendable given its size, though it looked like it was pushing itself harder because of the chance of recovering what it had lost.
"You can’t go there."
At that exact moment, Leo came out of stealth, and the Drake skidded to a halt before sharply turning toward him.
It tried to sense Leo’s strength and snorted upon realizing the aura around him was equal to its own. But the Drake was a draconic species with many positive traits and a massive body; Leo was no match for it in direct combat. The overall power level of the Drake was far superior to Leo’s.
But at that moment, Leo called upon one of his trump cards.
"Pryde! Hold this beast down and use Tidal Burst!" Leo shouted as he jumped aside to dodge a tail attack from the Drake.
RRROOOOOAAAHHHHH!
Pryde’s spirit form materialized, dwarfing the Drake almost instantly. It didn’t wait even a moment before water began pooling beneath the Hydra’s enormous body.
The Drake was startled when a beast of higher strength suddenly appeared before it, but the moment it saw the Hydra using a water move, it snarled.
Because of the hot environment saturated with fire elemental energy, the effectiveness of water moves was drastically reduced.
And it was obvious. A move that normally wouldn’t have taken more than 5 seconds to charge had already crossed 10 seconds and still wasn’t ready to be released.
Thankfully, the Hydra was a spirit, and the physical environment didn’t affect it too much. If it had been in its physical form, the dense fire elemental energy in the surroundings would have suffocated the Hydra entirely, as it was predominantly a water beast.
But even now, its water-related abilities were reduced by almost 80%, and the Drake made full use of that, charging forward while building up a flame attack in its maw.
But while the Drake was charging toward the Hydra, Leo was busy doing other things.
He himself used [Tidal Burst], and it took almost as long to charge as the Hydra’s.
Then both released the attack.
A wave of water erupted from beneath their feet and spread like a circular disk across the cave floor.
Siiiizzzzlleleiiizzz!
A furious wave of sizzling echoed through the cavern as the scorching floor rapidly cooled, and Leo’s [Tidal Wave] directly splashed water onto the lava lake.
Within seconds, the entire region was covered in dense steam.
But Leo and the Hydra were not done yet.
With a little water elemental energy finally appearing in the region, their next water moves came faster as they rapidly unleashed one water-based attack after another.
The Drake had actually used its flame-charged maw to bite the Hydra’s neck, but as if it had no effect at all, the Hydra had already released the [Tidal Wave].
And even though the first tidal wave was weak, it still came from a Peak 4-star being. The water made direct contact with the Drake’s blazing-hot body.
The beast panicked and immediately ran toward a patch of dry ground.
For a beast whose body remained extremely hot at all times, peak condition depended on maintaining that heat. Contact with cold water wouldn’t just weaken them physically; it would also cool their body’s outer surface, making their armor brittle.
And since they had lived for centuries in volcanic regions without access to proper cold water, they had never developed proper defenses against abnormalities like Leo.
The Drake could only back away lest it risk weakening its basalt scales through sudden contact with water.
But of course, the Hydra wasn’t about to leave the cautious beast alone.
Soon enough, it fired a pressurised water cannon straight at Drake’s slightly open mouth.
As a natural water beast, the Hydra could see through the dense mist with ease, unlike the Drake, which was now completely blind.
The attack hit, and the Drake directly gulped some of the water into its stomach.