On the silty riverbed, a Typhon clad in cast-iron black scales lay coiled.
His pale eyes were dull underwater, his massive head looked as though it were sheathed in iron bones, and his entire body blended into the silt.
Under cover of the torrential rain, Famu hid underwater, lying in wait along the path this Dead Sun Armor had to take back to his lair.
Famu saw the black-armored giant crocodile swimming slowly overhead.
The downpour obscured his vision, and the Dead Sun Armor failed to notice Famu.
Famu locked onto the Dead Sun Armor's soft neck, the most vulnerable part of the armored behemoth's body.
For a behemoth of this caliber, having its throat locked in a grip was already enough to decide the outcome, but your Crocodile Uncle was still your Crocodile Uncle.
The Dead Sun Armor thrashed wildly, his thick body swinging back and forth as Famu dragged him along, the two behemoths locked in a contest of strength.
But Famu clearly had the upper hand. His heterodont teeth sank into the Dead Sun Armor's soft neck, and the sensory network on his snout quickly helped him avoid the bony armor. The bite was precise and brutal; no matter how wildly the giant crocodile thrrashed, he could not break free.
Water splashed in every direction.
The giant crocodile let out a deep roar.
Then Famu heard the hiss of water evaporating.
The Dead Sun Armor awakened his Furnace Core.
Day of Death.
The fire of a dead sun from rainforest mythology.
A domain of intense heat erupted in the downpour. Water within a radius of over ten meters vaporized in an instant into scalding white steam, bubbling and churning as the river's surface became a boiling pot.
Steam obscured everything, leaving only the pungent smell of sulfur spreading underwater. Bony protrusions spat torches of flame, and the row of obsidian-like back plates came alive. Jets of incandescent white light burst from the gaps between the bones, and water met scorching heat with a thunderous boom.
Within the High-Temperature Domain released by the Furnace Core, the fangs locked around his throat loosened, and the monster vanished behind the rising bubbles.
Ross chose not to pursue. However ferocious the giant crocodile was, he still retained enough reason to know that his immediate priority was to surface and leave the deep water.
On land, the Dead Sun Armor retained far more combat power than the Typhon, and his neck was harder to attack. That bite had left him drenched in blood.
The fangs had sunk into his neck, and as the two behemoths grappled, they tore a gaping wound in the flesh along the side of the Dead Sun Armor's neck.
Ross swung his long tail and swam toward the bank.
But the torrential rain was turning this world into a Typhon's hunting ground.
The water rose and the river widened. Muddy floodwaters surged down from upstream with brute force, carrying silt and dead branches as they pushed him into a broader channel. The scorching steam was quickly dispersed by the downpour.
Ross looked warily around him. He was certain his Furnace Core had hit.
The Typhon must have come into close contact with the scorching torch while strangling him. That would have seriously injured a Typhon; there should have been no follow-up.
But there was something strange about that damned thing.
A Typhon had actually managed to lock onto his throat and drag him along. The feeling of that bite reminded him of the Black Typhon he had driven out of the Mara River before.
It probably wasn't the same one.
That fellow had nearly died under the torch. The intense heat had scorched most of his body and penetrated deep into his vulnerable abdominal cavity. Even if the Black Typhon had survived such injuries, he shouldn't have come back so soon.
Besides, that fellow hadn't been this big.
Still, they both had black scales. This Black Typhon might have been an older one from the same family line.
More terrifying fangs lurked in the muddy yellow floodwaters.
Famu swam with the floodwaters, the murky silt providing the best cover.
Some of his scales were charred black. The torch had struck his flank, peeling back his scales, and blood spread through the muddy water like a wisp of black smoke, but that was all.
Layers of overlapping, tile-like scales resisted the impact of the scorching heat current, the armor muscles beneath them prevented widespread burns, and the connective tissue and elastic fiber layers completely blocked the effects of the heat.
The modifications targeting the Dead Sun Armor had been effective.
In the end, it was still a current of intense heat, and Child of the Earth could evolve a body resistant to high temperatures.
The Dead Sun Armor projected his Furnace Core outward, spraying torches of intense heat that could inflict secondary damage in combination with boiling water. Its power was astonishing, and it was even more formidable for self-defense, but every release placed an enormous burden on him. Compared with the Child of the Earth that Typhons used to strengthen themselves, a Furnace Core like Day of Death, which projected high energy outward, consumed several times as much energy.
The Dead Sun Armor's high-temperature ability was hard to evade, so it was best not to meet it head-on. Famu's strategy was to keep wearing this Dead Sun Armor down until he could no longer release his Furnace Core.
This was a common bloodletting tactic used by prehistoric Carcharodontosaurids when hunting giant titanosaurs.
Many of Famu's biological features now drew on these excellent predators.
For example, his upward sprint after diving was inspired by sharks, while his heterodont teeth and skull were modeled after tyrannosaurs. Famu was not a born Typhon; much of his hunting skill and understanding of living creatures came from knowledge accumulated during his time as a human.
He could find the best hunting method.
Against this Dead Sun Armor, the best method was to wait for his strength to run out.
Until then, Famu would not give him a chance to climb ashore.
Ross swung his body through the floodwaters, while Famu followed him like a shadow beneath the surface, dragging him back into deep water.
Whenever Famu attacked Ross, he would put on a show of strangling him. Once the Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core began to rumble and a red torch spewed out, Famu immediately withdrew from the High-Temperature Domain and sank into the muddy water.
But the Dead Sun Armor could forget about escaping Famu's control during that opening. After the first burst of heat, Famu could brave the boiling water and continue biting. His great maw, lined with heterodont teeth, could tear through the Dead Sun Armor's scales and rip away a large chunk of crocodile flesh.
Ross grew frantic. He roared and spat torches into the floodwaters, bringing the entire stretch of water to a boil.
By the time the steam cleared, the floodwaters had swept him into a broader channel again.
Famu watched him coldly through the steam.
Dead Sun Armors and Typhons were super species of the same tier. The Dead Sun Armor possessed the overpowered ability to project a High-Temperature Domain, and Typhons naturally had a way to deal with it.
In the rainforest, the key for a Typhon dealing with a Dead Sun Armor likewise lay in the Furnace Core.
A sufficiently mature Child of the Earth.
At this stage, a Typhon could apply the force of vibrations to other things, such as shaking its prey's bones and internal organs or sensing currents through vibrations. The more mature and powerful the Furnace Core, the greater the force it could exert.
Thus, only a Typhon that had mastered Child of the Earth to this degree had the ability to deal with a Dead Sun Armor. In ordinary close combat, it was easy to be severely injured by the Dead Sun Armor's Furnace Core.
Famu had devoted all his energy to modifying his body, and his use of Child of the Earth was still very rudimentary. He could not reach that point.
But he had one most fundamental measure: melee combat ability.
The oldest measure in nature.
His dragonified cervical vertebrae and heat-resistant scales alone were enough to make the Dead Sun Armor suffer terribly.
This was the targeted approach that came from human intelligence.
Famu had more targeted methods. As long as he had enough Earth Vein Energy, he could remake himself into a Dead Sun Armor's natural predator.
The Day of Death Furnace Core beat ever more slowly in his chest, and the embers of its heat still glowed red in the gaps between his bones. He knew that if this went on, he would not even have the strength left to ignite another torch.
Ross stopped swimming.
He was exhausted and had realized that the Typhon was steadily draining his strength, but he could not ignore the risk of being strangled.
Ross was a Dead Sun Armor who had been an adult for a long time. He understood his own strengths and weaknesses better than those arrogant young Dead Sun Armors.
This Typhon was comparable to him in size. A Dead Sun Armor in the ten-meter class matched a Typhon in the seventeen-meter class. His opponent was not long enough, but he was thick and strong enough. At such sizes, a fight between a Typhon and a Dead Sun Armor should not have been so one-sided.
A Dead Sun Armor could not possibly be entangled by a Typhon so easily, nor could a Typhon defend against a Dead Sun Armor's mouthful of bone-crushing teeth.
Combined with the strongest bite force in the rainforest, a Dead Sun Armor's bone-crushing teeth could pulverize a Typhon's bones. They were enemies that feared each other, not locked in this kind of almost playful entanglement.
Ross simply could not bite this fellow. Though his opponent was thick and strong, his body was too flexible. His neck could turn in ways a Typhon's could not, letting him evade Ross's attacks and quickly bite onto Ross's body.
He lay on the riverbed, planted his limbs in the mud, and fully extended the bony protrusions on his back, like a fortress set ablaze.
Ross watched the dark green river water and saw the Black Typhon peering at him through the curtain of water.
This was the final battle. If he won, he could return to shore; if he lost, he would sink to the bottom.