Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 341 - 14: Strike the Snake at Its Weak Spot (Part 2)
A folding mechanical arm extended from the back of vehicle number four, with several field operatives securing ropes to the hook at the end of the arm. Meanwhile, Candle Dragon stood between them and the metal serpent, raising a wall of water five to six meters high as their shield.
Ye Jiu looked up again and saw Wang Xiyi in the air launching several attacks against the metal serpent—her flames could instantly melt the metal objects composing the serpent’s body, but the problem was that the molten iron would drip along the serpent’s body, solidifying before hitting the ground, becoming part of the serpent again.
It didn’t even need to solidify—the crimson molten iron would adhere to the serpent, forming its flowing skin and scales.
"Unless we can melt the whole serpent in one go, it’s not going to die... No, maybe even melting it all wouldn’t work; by then it wouldn’t be a metal serpent but a serpent of molten iron, potentially even more destructive," Ye Jiu murmured in the car. "Damn it... How do we deal with this abomination?"
"Rescue complete for vehicle number three!" A rare piece of good news finally came through the communication channel after several seconds.
"Can vehicle number three still move?" Ye Jiu asked.
"It can!"
"While Night Slayer is distracting that creature, you all retreat quickly! Candle Dragon, go with them!" Ye Jiu instructed.
"What about you?" Candle Dragon immediately asked.
"I... I’ll stay here and think of something!" Ye Jiu gritted his teeth, "We can’t go on like this! Night Slayer’s strength will be exhausted, but this creature doesn’t look like it will tire at all... Our chances only grow slimmer the longer we fight!"
"Mr. Ye, can’t we retreat?" A somewhat familiar field operative asked over the communication channel, "We could take a detour or just retreat to the border post to regroup... It’s better than fighting this monster head-on here, isn’t it?"
"He makes a valid point," Candle Dragon sighed, "We’ve lost half of our vehicles, one person dead, two seriously injured, two lightly injured... If the seriously injured aren’t treated in time, they will die."
"I know! But, Candle Dragon, have you considered one thing—this creature looks cumbersome, but it’s not slow at all; if we retreat, it can definitely catch up... it could even loop around and block our path ahead."
"I’ll hold it off!" Wang Xiyi’s voice came through the communication channel, her tone urgent, mixed with labored breathing, "You figure out a way to get the wounded back to the post, as for this operation..."
"You’re not thinking of playing the lone hero again, are you?" Ye Jiu asked.
"What’s wrong with that? Is there a problem?" Wang Xiyi countered, "It’s not the first time."
"How sure are you that you can deal with it?"
"Fifty percent."
"Then, if you do manage to deal with it, what are you planning to do next? Go find Sun Hang?" Ye Jiu further inquired.
"We’ll discuss that later!"
As they spoke, Wang Xiyi flapped her wings, ascended high into the sky, and then performed a swift dive. The flames in her hands formed a massive dragon claw, tearing three half-meter-wide, over ten-meter-long, crimson glowing gashes on the serpent’s body.
Several tons of metal objects melted, but the serpent only strengthened itself with Wang Xiyi’s flames, continually tempering its body—the battle had gone on for five minutes, and the metal serpent’s trunk had shrunk a full circle, yet the metal objects forming its body had become denser, the molten iron seeping like blood into the metal gaps, fortifying the serpent’s body further.
Wang Xiyi clearly grasped this, but initially intended to leverage this method to erode the serpent’s flexibility—like welding active gears and mechanical structures with molten iron; despite the overall strength, it becomes an immovable hunk of metal.
But reality didn’t conform to her plans—the force aggregating countless metal objects not only attacked but could transform the solidified metal into any form, appearing as if the metal filling the gaps remained liquid.
This ability closely resembled Sun Hang’s metal manipulation ability.
"Damn, could Sun Hang be inside it?" Ye Jiu murmured.
"No!" Wang Xiyi affirmed sharply, "If it were him, I’d sense it."
After Sun Hang absorbed part of the Black Dragon meme, they not only developed powerful combination techniques but also gained a peculiar sensitivity—when within a certain distance, they could sense each other’s presence. As Yang Qi put it: it’s a manifestation of ’meme resonance.’
"This won’t do!" Ye Jiu yelled, "You’re not going to kill it, just wasting energy!"
"So you better get out of here! If you don’t leave, I can’t break away!" Wang Xiyi shouted in anger.
Ye Jiu scrutinized the still battling metal serpent, then suddenly slapped his thigh, jumped out of the car, and charged toward the serpent!
"Are you trying to get killed?!" Seeing Ye Jiu advancing instead of retreating, Wang Xiyi couldn’t help but curse.
"I have an idea; maybe it can take care of this thing!" Ye Jiu shouted while sprinting.
"What’s the idea?"
"Did you notice, no matter how you attack, it only exposes this part of its body above ground?"
"What are you saying? Just say it! Don’t keep us in suspense!"
"The serpent’s rear half stays hidden in the hole, it doesn’t want to come out—maybe its weakness is there! There’s an old saying: To kill a snake, strike at the seven inches, maybe that’s exactly where its ’seven inches’ are buried!"
Upon Ye Jiu’s words, Wang Xiyi pondered... it kind of made sense.
During the skirmish, several times, the serpent extended to its limit, but she narrowly evaded each time—had it crawled out a bit more, just a few meters, she would have been trapped.
This metal serpent definitely isn’t short of intelligence; during these five minutes, Wang Xiyi’s once effective attack means had become increasingly difficult to execute.
The creature could continually learn in battle and predict Wang Xiyi’s attack patterns and dodge directions based on her habits...
Moreover, it grasped an important detail: the opponent’s attacks couldn’t inflict effective damage, but its own, once hit, would doom the adversary...
Having realized this, it abandoned all defensive moves, opting for a strategy of trading wounds for wounds... Wang Xiyi’s attacks required substantial sacrifice to land.
A creature with this intelligence surely understands it only needs to crawl out a bit more to swallow its enemy whole...
It doesn’t want to, but it can’t!
"I’ll try my best to hold it off! You better hurry!" Wang Xiyi shouted, beginning to ascend further and deploying long-range breath attacks to divert the serpent’s focus.
Ye Jiu wasn’t slow either, quickly reaching the spot where the metal serpent emerged, and swinging his Wolf-tooth Spear savagely toward the ground!
