Tiansheng Zhankuang had already scrambled up from the ground. Brandishing his battleaxe, he let out a furious roar and charged toward the five-headed dragon beast.
"Ugly piece of trash!"
"Your Grandpa Zhankuang is here!"
He knocked an incoming, hideous head aside with a blow of his axe and chopped toward its slender neck, only to be forcefully knocked flying again by another head.
Mantou scrambled to roll to the left, once again dodging the dragon beast's gaping maw as it lunged straight down, yet the splashing slime still burned him, making him yell in pain.
"That thing's heads are definitely stitched on from wyverns! I know this corrosive burn all too well!"
Dodging another heavy stomp, he turned his head toward Singo in the distance and couldn't help cursing:
"Damn it, do something useful!"
"Brother Zhankuang and I are fighting for our lives up front! Sing-dog, stop slacking off in the back!"
From a distance, Singo observed the chaotic battle. Mantou and Tiansheng Zhankuang were completely suppressed by the five-headed dragon beast, while he himself couldn't find a prime opening.
The five-headed dragon beast had thick, tough hide protected by scales; unless arrows hit vital spots, it was difficult to deal sufficient damage.
*Without a spellcaster, taking on this kind of monster really is a pain.*
After waiting a moment, Singo saw all five of the monster's heads rear up simultaneously, exposing their vulnerable throats, and his eyes finally lit up.
He immediately shouted:
"Mantou, now's the time!"
"Hit it with Dragon Roar!"
Singo's daily uses of Dragon Roar were already exhausted and currently on cooldown. But as a fellow Redscale Conqueror, Mantou could also use Dragon Roar, even if its effect was far weaker without the resonance of a wyvern mount.
"Damn it, look at you ordering me around."
"What, are you playing Pokémon here?"
Mantou grumbled resentfully in his mind, but his body didn't dare slack off in the slightest. Subconsciously opening his mouth wide, he instantly activated the skill.
"Roar—"
With the activation of Dragon Roar Charge, a booming roar tore from deep within Mantou's throat.
The sound resembled the bellow of a red dragon. The power stemming from Cassius subjected the five-headed dragon beast to an overwhelming pressure of bloodline, instantly freezing it in place with its heads still reared high.
Singo pulled a gleaming black arrow from the quiver behind his back, etched with crack-like patterns.
He drew the Hunting Longbow to full stretch, aimed with his right eye, and released his grip within the span of a single breath.
*Whoosh—*
Only the whistling shriek of an arrowhead piercing the air could be heard.
That special arrow abruptly split into three mid-air, fanning out in different directions, each shooting toward the throat of one of the dragon beast's three heads.
The arrows pierced the thinner, unscaled skin at their throats, directly rupturing the vessels pulsing with filthy blood and driving deep into the grotesque heads.
Meanwhile, the Hunter's Mark flickered faintly, its magical power continuously tearing open the already severe wounds and grinding the flesh to pulp.
Blood gushed out.
Three waterfalls of blood cascaded through the air.
The dragon beast's three grotesque heads thrashed in mid-air, swaying back and forth before slumping down limply.
Although this five-headed dragon beast was a stitched-together monstrosity whose five heads each possessed their own will, their nervous systems had long since been linked together by Vagnerd's magic, sharing all sensation of pain.
As the three heads were struck by the splitting arrow, the remaining two felt excruciating agony and immediately let out wails of torment.
"Awoo—"
Then, however, a bone-chilling scene unfolded. The remaining two heads actually bit through the dead heads. Opening their maws to an exaggerated degree, accompanied by loud gulping sounds, one head forcibly swallowed one of its own dead heads whole, and even wanted to devour another.
The dragon beast's consciousness had been overridden by a voracious urge to feed, driving it to madness to the point where it could consume "itself" as food—yet without a doubt, doing so indeed provided it with precious energy.
Singo had intended to seize the opportunity while the dragon beast was feeding to shoot another arrow, striving to finish it off in one fell swoop, but his hand reached into his quiver only to find it empty.
"Shit!"
He couldn't help cursing out loud.
His arrows, which had always been plentiful, had actually run out mid-battle!
Mantou and Tiansheng Zhankuang charged in from the left and right, but the dragon beast's thick, long tail lashed out violently, sending both unprepared players flying.
The now two-headed dragon beast, its jaws drenched in blood, swallowed with a loud gulp before raising its heads. Two pairs of eyes glared fixedly at Singo in the distance, a hint of cunning gleaming in their murky depths—even as a pure beast, it possessed its own brand of intellect.
The dragon beast parted its jaws slightly, cold mist rising from deep within its throats.
Singo found the scene somewhat familiar. As if recalling something, he hurriedly yelled a warning:
"It's Frost Breath!"
Frost-white breath erupted in unison from the dragon beast's two heads. Wherever the breath reached, a layer of frost coated the surfaces, and solid ice even formed.
If hit by this Frost Breath, they would most likely be turned into ice sculptures and lose their lives—and this hard-won dungeon run would be wasted!
"Run!"
Singo said without hesitation.
Behind him, the frost spread like an advancing road, pursuing him at visible speed.
Seeing this, Mantou and Tiansheng Zhankuang scrambled up from the ground and followed Singo's footsteps, bursting out through the doorway. Their condition was hardly any better; with nearly all their resources exhausted, fleeing was their only choice.
"Roar—"
Both heads of the dragon beast reared up together, hissing and bellowing. It grabbed the doorway and lunged out, its massive body smashing through the surrounding walls.
"We have to shake it off!"
"Otherwise we'll be frozen solid and eaten sooner or later!"
Mantou shouted anxiously, already feeling a thin layer of frost dusting his back.
The dragon beast's ferocious claws swiped through the air, several times nearly snagging Mantou as he sprinted for his life.
Singo looked down the long corridor ahead, eyeing door after metal door, when he suddenly noticed a massive opening over ten meters high in the distant wall.
Unlike the surrounding laboratories, this passageway seemed to lead toward the center of this tower floor, heading straight to Vagnerd's largest testing ground.
Gritting his teeth, Singo said:
"Let's gamble! We're heading straight inside!"
Mantou narrowly dodged another blast of Frost Breath and cried in panic, "Fine, your call! Just don't get me killed!"
"Three, two, one."
"Go!"
Just as they reached the entrance of the passageway, the three abruptly veered, dodging the dragon beast's raking claws, and plunged together into the pitch-black, cavernous opening.
The dragon beast instinctively tried to follow its prey inside, but the moment its heads poked in, it whimpered as if catching sight of something terrifying and jerked right back.
It clung to the edge of the opening, growling low, threatening roars at the players inside.
"Roar—"
Bent over and panting heavily, Mantou didn't forget to taunt toward the outside: "You ugly freak!"
"Come in if you've got the guts!"
"Roar!"
Outside the opening, the two-headed dragon beast snarled with ferocious fury and roared once more, yet it remained cowed and hesitant, not daring to take even a single step into the passageway.
Chapter 199