Chapter 18: Bei Bei’s Strength (Part 2)
From childhood to adulthood, the one thing that truly sparked Linley’s interest in ‘magical beasts’ was the time he saw a Velocidragon as a young child. Back then, the Velocidragon had displayed its terrifying strength. Within Wushan Town, the Velocidragon was practically an invincible existence, destroying one house after another with that dreadful power…
It left Linley deeply shaken.
At eight years old, Linley was just a child. Now, at fifteen, he was already a fifth-grade dual-element mage.
“Boss, boss, it’s mine!!! ” The Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’s’ excited voice rang out in Linley’s mind.
Linley looked toward the lake. At this moment, the Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’s’ fur stood on end like steel needles, and his muscles audibly bulged and swelled. His claws and head began to enlarge as well. Originally only about twenty centimeters long, the Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’ had now grown to nearly half a meter in length. Half a meter was the maximum size Linley had ever seen the little Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’ reach.
But even so, a half-meter-long Shadowmouse was still just a tiny speck before the massive Velocidragon.
The Velocidragon’s eyes, like red lanterns, locked their cold, eerie gaze onto the little Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’. It let out a furious low growl that echoed through the forest. In response, the Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’ raised his head and emitted a piercing shriek.
The low growls and sharp shrieks rang out in turn.
Standing on a tree branch by the lake, observing this scene, Linley suddenly felt that the Velocidragon and the little Shadowmouse seemed like evenly matched opponents facing off.
“Roar~~~” A sudden, furious roar erupted.
In an instant, a torrent of flames burst from the Velocidragon’s mouth, blanketing the space dozens of meters ahead. The lake surface immediately hissed as the water evaporated continuously. Yet ‘Bei Bei’, engulfed in the flames, stood motionless, letting the fire wash over him.
Within the blaze, Bei Bei remained completely unharmed.
“Although Bei Bei’s body isn’t large, his defensive strength is impressive. This flame power, roughly equivalent to a fifth- or sixth-grade spell, can’t hurt him.” Linley watched the scene calmly. Having been in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts for so long, Bei Bei had yet to encounter a true opponent worthy of a full-fledged fight.
The motionless Bei Bei, scorched by the flames, suddenly moved!
“Yiiii~~”
A terrifying shriek rang out as ‘Bei Bei’ transformed into a black blur, charging straight at the Velocidragon. The Velocidragon, still spewing flames, had its ruby-like eyes suddenly flare with intense red light. At the same time, its whip-like tail lashed through the air.
The Velocidragon’s tail moved with astonishing speed, nearly matching the Shadowmouse’s pace.
“Whoosh!” Bei Bei’s trajectory was incredibly erratic. He bypassed the Velocidragon’s fastest-moving tail and lunged straight for its neck. The Velocidragon immediately twisted its head, opening its massive jaws to bite at ‘Bei Bei’.
But Bei Bei was clearly faster. He sank his teeth into the neck with a vicious bite. A series of ‘crack, crack’ sounds followed as the thick scales on the Velocidragon’s neck were torn off, and Bei Bei even swallowed them into his stomach. Bei Bei was used to eating hard substances like stones and bones as food, so these scales were no problem.
At that moment, the tail whipped around. “Smack!” The sharp sound of the tail cutting through the air made Linley’s scalp tingle, but Bei Bei had already darted away.
“The Velocidragon’s neck skin and flesh are really thick. Bei Bei took a bite and only gave it a minor wound.” Linley held his breath, watching this battle between two beasts of vastly different sizes. “The Velocidragon’s tail movements are too unpredictable. Even its direction can change sharply mid-swing.”
The Velocidragon’s tail was not only fast but also erratic in its direction.
“Yiiii~~”
Bei Bei had completely turned into a black blur. He burst out of the water, dodging the tail once more. But just as he evaded it, the tail’s trajectory abruptly shifted, reversing direction and striking Bei Bei hard.
The black blur was sent crashing deep into the distant forest.
“Bei Bei!” Linley’s heart tightened.
The Velocidragon, however, stared warily into the forest depths. Suddenly, the Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’ dove down from the top of a large tree at incredible speed. The Velocidragon’s tail immediately lashed out. Having learned from his previous mistake, Bei Bei used his own Shadowmouse tail to change direction mid-air.
Shadowmouse blur, tail blur!
The two blurs chased each other. Sometimes the Shadowmouse was sent flying by the tail, but he also managed to take vicious bites out of the Velocidragon. The battle moved from the lakeside into the dense forest, where trees were snapped off by the tail and crashed to the ground. The Shadowmouse and Velocidragon fought without pause.
“It looks like Bei Bei has the upper hand.”
Linley watched the scene nervously. By now, the massive Velocidragon had seven or eight holes bitten through its scales, with blood flowing continuously. The blood from these wounds stained most of the Velocidragon’s body, and its furious roars echoed without end.
The Velocidragon’s tail whipped around violently. Wherever it passed, large trees were smashed apart, one after another collapsing. In moments, the forest within a few hundred meters of their fight was completely destroyed.
“But can Bei Bei withstand being hit by that tail so many times?”
Linley grew worried. The tail’s attack power was terrifying. It shattered rocks on impact and snapped trees in half. Just watching it made Linley’s blood run cold. He believed that if he were hit even once, he’d likely lose his life.
“Whoosh!” Bei Bei was sent flying again, but in an instant, he turned into a black shadow, charging back with an angry shriek.
By now, the Velocidragon was drenched in blood, its scale-covered body riddled with wounds. It was in a sorry state.
“Roar!”
With another furious roar, the Velocidragon turned and fled, charging deep into the forest. In just a moment, its massive form disappeared from Linley’s sight. ‘Bei Bei’ chased it for a short distance before turning back.
Linley leaped down from the tree branch, and the little Shadowmouse ‘Bei Bei’ came running from afar, shrinking back to his original size.
“Bei Bei, are you okay?” Linley immediately asked through their soul link.
Bei Bei jumped onto Linley’s shoulder, stood upright on his hind legs, and raised his head proudly, squinting his shiny black little eyes at Linley: “Boss, what kind of magical beast do you think I am? Afraid of that Velocidragon?” Pride was written all over Bei Bei’s cute little face.
Suddenly, Bei Bei smacked his lips and wiggled his whole body, saying, “But that Velocidragon’s tail is really vicious. It hurts quite a bit when it hits.”
Seeing this, Linley couldn’t help but laugh. The Velocidragon’s tail wasn’t just ‘vicious’—it was extremely vicious. That Bei Bei could withstand so many hits without serious injury made Linley very happy.
“That Velocidragon’s scales, skin, and flesh are really thick. Even when I grew to my maximum size, I couldn’t bite through its hide in one go,” Bei Bei said with a sigh. “But still, if I kept at it, I could have made it bleed to death. That Velocidragon was pretty cunning, though. It kept flexing its muscles so I couldn’t bite the same wound twice.”
Linley chuckled to himself.
From the sixth to the seventh grade, there was a watershed. Both attack power and other abilities were far greater. The Velocidragon’s intelligence was probably not much less than a human’s, so of course it wouldn’t let the little Shadowmouse bite the same spot again.
The Velocidragon’s skin and flesh were thick, but even so, the same spot couldn’t withstand multiple bites from ‘Bei Bei’. The Velocidragon likely realized that continuing the fight wouldn’t end well, which was why it fled so quickly.
“Bei Bei, do you want to go up against an eighth-grade magical beast?” Linley teased through their mental link.
Bei Bei’s little eyes went wide as saucers: “Boss, don’t mess with me! That seventh-grade beast just now wore me out. I’ve heard that an eighth-grade magical beast is ten times stronger than a seventh-grade one. Its movement speed might not match mine, but its attack speed would probably surpass me.”
Movement speed and attack speed were two different things.
Take the Velocidragon, for example. When moving, it was probably much slower, but the speed of its tail swing was astonishing. Some large magical beasts might seem slow when moving, but when they attacked, they were as fast as lightning!
After all, something called an eighth-grade magical beast was absolutely not something a seventh-grade one could compare to.
“Still knows how to be humble, huh.” Linley smiled and patted Bei Bei’s head. “Alright, my clothes are almost dry. Let’s rest in the tree for a bit, eat something, and then continue on.” With that, Linley pushed off the ground, leaping gracefully seven or eight meters into the air. He lightly tapped a few points and landed on a branch about twenty or thirty meters high, leaning back to rest leisurely.