Earth Giant Lizard

Xia Ming flashed to a safe spot more than ten meters away from the Earth Giant Lizard, letting out a slight sigh of relief as he watched it face off against Tang Ge and the others.

Tang Ge and Su Weiwei were treading on thin ice. Su Weiwei was doing somewhat better; the female knight remained cool and aloof as a lotus, her clear, icy eyes fixed upon the Earth Giant Lizard. Only the hands tightly gripping her sword revealed the caution in her heart.

Tang Ge, meanwhile, was holding on entirely through the conviction in his heart. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, beads as large as beans rolling down his face.

What puzzled Xia Ming was that the Earth Giant Lizard still had not attacked Tang Ge and Su Weiwei. It merely shifted its enormous body again, bringing it within less than ten meters of them. Tang Ge could even smell the stench of rotting flesh spewing from its gaping maw.

"You go first." Su Weiwei parted her vermilion lips and spoke flatly.

Xia Ming gave Su Weiwei a deep look, unable to stop a trace of admiration from rising in him for the female knight. To say such words at a moment of such peril—though her nature was cold, beneath that frosty exterior beat the heart of a knight.

Of the four of them, Su Weiwei was the only one with even a slight chance of contending with the Earth Giant Lizard. Only she might possibly survive the terrifying beast on her own.

Tang Ge gritted his teeth and abruptly retreated several steps. Then, with a flash, he slipped past the Earth Giant Lizard's flank. Likewise, the Earth Giant Lizard merely flickered its blood-red beast eyes and, astonishingly, made no response at all!

Tang Ge had escaped safely too!

Xia Ming frowned, his gaze thoughtful. The situation before him was strange. Could the Earth Giant Lizard be here specifically for Su Weiwei? Yet Xia Ming kept feeling that something was off. It was as though he had grasped onto something, only to be unable to pierce through it.

Only Su Weiwei remained in the cave. The Earth Giant Lizard flicked its huge tongue in and out, its fierce beast eyes brimming with savagery.

Su Weiwei cautiously stepped back a few paces. The savagery in the Earth Giant Lizard's eyes seemed to intensify, yet it still made no move.

Su Weiwei's body traced a graceful arc, and in the blink of an eye, she was already more than ten meters away, standing shoulder to shoulder with Xia Ming.

Only then did the Earth Giant Lizard seem to finally react. It turned its massive head, and tangible-looking light radiated from its terrifying demonic eyes. Black venom spewed from its gaping maw as it fixed its gaze on the group once more.

"Run!"

Everyone turned and ran. Xia Ming and Sherlock each cast a Lightness Spell on all four of them, and in their desperate flight, they rushed out of the cave in a single burst.

"The Earth Giant Lizard didn't follow us!" Sherlock's face was full of delight, and the aftermath of surviving a disaster filled his features with relief.

Xia Ming frowned in puzzlement. This Earth Giant Lizard was simply too strange. By all rights, a Magic Beast this savage should have been eager to drink blood and go berserk long ago. Why had it let them off so easily?

"Thank goodness. We finally escaped this calamity!" Tang Ge let out a long breath, as though a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

Xia Ming's brow remained tightly furrowed. The more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong.

Suddenly, Xia Ming sensed a faint mental fluctuation. He froze slightly, then narrowed his eyes and stared toward the depths of the cave.

"Xia Ming, what are you doing? Hurry and go! If the Earth Giant Lizard catches up to us, we're dead!" Tang Ge shouted anxiously.

A smile suddenly spread across Xia Ming's face. "So that's how it is," he murmured to himself. Then he smiled and actually began walking back toward the cave where the Earth Giant Lizard was!

"Damn! Are you crazy?" Sherlock cried out, grabbing Xia Ming.

Before a level-seven Magic Beast, a level-three mage was no different from paper mache. Going back now was plainly seeking death.

Xia Ming gave a strange smile, his tone brimming with absolute certainty. "Don't worry. It'll be fine." With that, he walked back into the cave without hesitation.

Tang Ge and the other two looked at one another, none of them knowing why Xia Ming would make such a lunatic move. Su Weiwei's eyes flashed, and she was the first to follow him.

Tang Ge and Sherlock gritted their teeth and chased after them as well. They had no idea what Xia Ming intended to do, but they were members of the same adventuring party after all. Neither of them could simply stand by and do nothing.

Xia Ming walked at the front, while Su Weiwei quickly caught up. Her starry eyes flickered as though she wished to see straight through him.

The Earth Giant Lizard's roars still echoed through the cave. Seeing Xia Ming's group of four return, the Earth Giant Lizard seemed to be provoked into a fury. It kept unleashing chilling roars, and the thick stench it spewed filled the entire cave.

The Earth Giant Lizard's massive tail swept across the huge boulders in the cave. The cavern shook incessantly as rocks fell with sharp cracks, kicking up clouds of dust.

Roar!

The Earth Giant Lizard let out a ferocious roar at Xia Ming, then shot toward him with a whoosh. Its terrifying speed made one's tongue click in amazement. Its gaping maw opened wide, almost swallowing Xia Ming whole!

"Watch out!" Tang Ge shouted.

Yet Xia Ming remained standing where he was without the slightest intention of dodging. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his face. "A truly perfect disguise. Too bad I've already seen through it." He muttered softly to himself.

Xia Ming chanted a single-syllable incantation. A scorching flame emerged at the tip of the Earthflame Staff—it was actually the most basic level-one spell, Fireball Spell.

"What is that guy trying to do? Does he think he can contend against a level-seven Magic Beast with the lowest-level spell? Has he gone mad?!" Sherlock's eyes widened, as though he could already foresee the bloody sight of Xia Ming being torn to pieces by the Earth Giant Lizard.

Tang Ge had already closed his eyes, convinced that Xia Ming was dead for sure.

Xia Ming merely raised his hand. A massive fireball whistled forth, its scorching radiance blasting out and slamming directly into the Earth Giant Lizard's huge body!

At the same time, the Earth Giant Lizard's gaping maw was practically right before Xia Ming's eyes. It was only a hair's breadth away from swallowing him whole!

But at the very instant the massive fireball struck the Earth Giant Lizard's body, something strange happened.

The part of the Earth Giant Lizard struck by Xia Ming's fireball suddenly gave off countless specks of light. Its body stiffened, as though a mirror had abruptly been shattered. The Earth Giant Lizard's form slowly broke apart into countless cracks, each one blossoming with dazzling light.

Then, with a ding, the Earth Giant Lizard shattered into fragments and became ten thousand motes of light. Like a balloon punctured by a needle, it abruptly shrank until it vanished completely!

"Th-this... what's going on?" No matter how they looked at it, it felt like a dream. Tang Ge's mouth hung open in shock.

The Earth Giant Lizard had just vanished like that?

Sherlock was a mage after all, and he immediately thought of one possibility. "An illusion! That Earth Giant Lizard was fake—we were all trapped in an illusion just now!"

His words woke the dreamers with a single cry. Everyone came back to their senses and carefully considered the Earth Giant Lizard's strange behavior. At once, they understood.

The cave was still the same cave. The rocks that the Earth Giant Lizard had supposedly smashed were entirely intact, and the Earth Essence Gold was still there. Everything had returned to its original state, as though it had all been nothing but a dream.

"That's right. It was indeed an illusion." Xia Ming nodded. His gaze flickered as he spotted a small thing darting rapidly amid the pile of rocks.

It looked like a miniature pony, less than half a meter tall. Its entire body was covered in pink fur, and it had a pair of wings, making it look quite beautiful. A single horn grew from its head, glimmering with specks of multicolored light. It was an adorable little creature.

But this little creature was incredibly fast. Xia Ming had barely caught a glimpse of it before it shot five or six meters away. All he could see was a blurry shadow flashing toward the cave entrance!

"It's a nightmare! No wonder we fell under an illusion just now!" Sherlock cried out again.