Chapter 47: The Cracked Screen:
The crocodile was enormous and extremely long. It possessed six legs, and hard blue scales covered the upper part of its body, while its broad mouth contained three rows of sharp fangs.
Even though its attack was fast and surprising, Arthur managed to retreat in time, which made it bite the empty air.
But this was not the end, for the moment the crocodile landed on the ground, it turned toward him, bent slightly in a strange position, then in the next moment surged toward him at a blinding speed.
Soil flew behind it, and the ground shook faintly for a moment.
The crocodile was not running. Instead, its body shot forward through the air more than half a meter above the ground, like a cannonball.
"Shit." Arthur was taken by surprise, but given his great fighting experience, and the many dangerous situations he had been through, his body was always on high alert.
He moved instinctively and leapt to the side, barely dodging the crocodile as only a few centimeters separated him from its massive jaws.
Like the previous time, the crocodile bit the empty air, and out of control continued surging forward, shattering several trees in its path. It lost its momentum little by little, and in the end stopped after covering a distance of one hundred meters.
’Is this a crocodile or a falcon? Its movements are unreasonable.’
He clicked his tongue irritably, then examined it with the "Evaluation" skill to get a better understanding of what it was.
As usual, the blue system screen appeared before him, but this time it was completely empty, there was no writing on it at all, only large cracks that made it look like shattered glass.
"What?! What is happening?" His eyes widened slightly, and without realizing, he said what he was thinking out loud.
’Why is the Evaluation skill not working? And what are these cracks?’ In truth, he was greatly surprised, to the point that he froze in his place.
He stared at the empty screen in confusion, and little by little, he connected the pieces together, forming an idea of what was going on, and unfortunately, it was not a good thing.
"Is it possible that the system has completely malfunctioned?"
He could not accept the words that came out of his mouth, but at the same time, he could not deny them, for he had not forgotten that the system had started behaving very strangely, since he fought the wolves.
Before he found enough time to comprehend this shocking news, or more precisely, the conclusion he had not yet confirmed, he noticed that the massive crocodile had taken an attack stance, then once again surged toward him in the same way.
"Tsk." He gathered himself, removed the shattered system screen from before him, then at his maximum speed, dodged the crocodile.
It passed directly beside him, making his fur dance from the strong wind it left behind.
It seemed the crocodile did not have the ability to stop itself, so it continued surging forward.
Again, it shattered a large number of trees in its path, and did not lose all its momentum, until it had covered a distance of one hundred and twenty meters.
’Truly, this is starting to become annoying.’ A heavy killing intent emanated from him.
He had to get rid of the crocodile first, and only then, could he direct his full focus toward the system.
Even though the Evaluation skill was not working, he had no problem determining the Rank of the strange reptile before him, for his instincts told him everything he needed to know, and his many experiences had made him somewhat an expert in determining the danger level of monsters.
The crocodile was E-Rank like him, yet, there was a simple problem he had not overlooked, he was still in poor condition and had not recovered his full strength, so he was the weaker party in this confrontation.
Of course, he did not allow that to stop him, and without any hesitation, he bared his fangs, and let out a ferocious growl filled with threat.
He walked slowly forward while his cold eyes remained fixed on the crocodile, and on the other side, the crocodile stared at him the same way. The only difference was that instead of advancing, it retreated slowly backwards, returning toward the lake.
’Does it want to flee? Does it no longer want to eat me?’ He was a little surprised.
He raised his guard further, and prepared himself to respond, in case the crocodile was planning a treacherous attack, but, contrary to his fears, nothing happened.
The crocodile continued retreating in a defensive stance, it was a little tense, and apparently, had completely lost the desire to fight.
’So that is how it is, I forgot it is an amphibious monster, fighting on land is not in its favor, for this reason it seems eager to return to the water after its attacks failed.’
The moment he realized that, a sly smile appeared on his face.
He ran quickly around it, and stood as a barrier between it and the lake, then said coldly and sarcastically at the same time:
"Where do you think you’re going? You know, there’s a bitch... I mean, a noble madam, who ordered me to bring her some food, and if I don’t, she’ll eat me. So, I’m not sorry to say that you’ll be her next meal."
The crocodile did not understand anything he said, yet, it felt the threat behind his words. It opened its massive mouth, and let out a cold hiss filled with killing intent.
It looked left and right, and realizing it had no other way to return to the lake, it had no choice but to get past Arthur.
On land its movements were very slow, but it compensated for this weakness with a special skill.
It stood firmly in place, bent the rear part of its body slightly, gathered all the strength in its four hind legs, then pushed itself forward with great force.
Soil flew behind it, and a small crater appeared in the place it had been standing, and the nearby trees shook slightly.
Like a projectile, it surged forward in a straight line at tremendous speed, its body floating at a low height above the ground, and its wide mouth was open to its fullest, directing its rows of sharp teeth toward its target.
’So this is your trick.’ This was the first time Arthur got a good glimpse of its pouncing method.
He did not tense up, and with as much calmness as possible, he lay on his side, and lowered his body to the ground as much as possible, then bared the claws of his right front leg.
The crocodile was greatly surprised, and did not understand or comprehend the crazy and illogical move the thin wolf before him had made.
Since it had no control over its surge, and could not change its height or direction, even slightly, it could only watch in shock, while its body passed directly over Arthur, like a fast train.
At that moment, Arthur raised his right leg, and drove his long dagger-like claws into the crocodile’s belly, the weakest part of its body.
His sharp claws penetrated the crocodile’s skin with complete ease, sank deep into its body, and tore its flesh and the lower portions of many of its internal organs, like a hot knife cutting through butter.
A long and very deep wound opened in the lower part of the crocodile’s body, its face twisted in agony, and its blood and parts of its organs rained on Arthur and the ground, forming a straight red trail in the path it had taken.
It let out a pained scream, and staggered in the air, and because it had sustained severe damage, it was unable to land smoothly, so it fell hard to the ground and rolled several times, finally stopping right beside the lake.
It forced itself to stand on its legs, its organs dangled beneath it, and with difficulty it headed toward the water.
"I will not let you do that." Arthur quickly got up from the ground, and ran toward it.
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