The Shift of Initiative

"ROAR!"

Lu Yuan charged straight at the Boss Grade Ancient Sea Giant Crocodile.

His only real option right now was to wait — wait for all the crocodiles to flood in through the entrance, clearing the path so he could escape. The moment that opening appeared, he was gone.

He was running on a Potent Speed Serum, with his tempering at 98%, backed by the all-around amplification of the Moonstone Gene Armament. He wasn't sure he could hold on until the serum wore off naturally. But what choice did he have?

He planted his feet and launched himself skyward, leaping sideways. His speed was marginally faster than the Boss Grade crocodile — barely, but enough.

Sensing the disturbance behind it, the Boss roared and wrenched its enormous body sideways, trying to slam down on top of him. If that bulk landed on him, even with his current defensive capabilities, he wasn't sure he'd walk away from it.

He was already airborne. Lu Yuan twisted mid-air, barely managing to shift clear. The colossal force had nearly sent him tumbling. He landed hard and immediately broke into a run again, dodging the follow-up before he'd even fully regained his footing.

A water arrow grazed his cheek. Thin lines of blood welled up across his face.

More than ten ordinary Ancient Sea Giant Crocodiles had poured through the entrance and were surging toward him.

The ordinary ones couldn't even scratch his defense. Lu Yuan barely gave them a thought. Their only function was to make his evasions harder — the valley floor was filling with bodies, living and dead alike, limiting where he could move. He was already having to leap onto crocodiles' backs just to find room to maneuver.

A water arrow shrieked at him without warning.

*BOOM!*

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted. He only had time to raise his sword.

The shot slammed into his heavy blade. Even his formidable Black Iron Body and Potent Defense Serum barely registered against the impact — that strike punched clean through the body of an Elite Grade crocodile he'd ducked behind, boring a thirty-centimeter hole through it, and the residual energy after tearing through all of that still managed to injure him. At full power, a single hit would have put him down hard.

Three water arrows tore through the air simultaneously, appearing almost instantaneously in front of him.

Lu Yuan's pupils shrank. He blurred into motion, threading between all three by a hair's breadth. The arrows struck the ground behind him with a series of thunderous detonations.

He'd already replenished his Spirit Power over ten times in this fight, absorbing Spirit Crystal after Spirit Crystal on the run. The drain was far exceeding anything he'd anticipated.

Then his expression shifted.

The serum's duration was ending.

The powerful energy coursing through his body began to vanish with alarming speed. His velocity dropped. The Boss Grade crocodile nearly closed the entire gap in a single instant.

Cold sweat broke out down Lu Yuan's back. He hurriedly grabbed more serums and downed them — all Potent Grade, naturally.

After swallowing them, he let out a low grunt. A thin trickle of blood crept from the corner of his mouth. Using such powerful serums back to back generated a backlash that strained even his defenses. The stinging pain across his entire body grew sharper.

He pulled out another Spirit Crystal and absorbed it on the run.

*Crushing pressure,* he thought. *Cold sweat. Keep moving.*

Even if he wanted to run, the unceasing wave of incoming crocodiles had already cut off every exit route. All he could do was survive long enough for the tide to turn.

While dodging the furious Boss's relentless pursuit, Lu Yuan kept studying it.

The creature was under fifteen meters long. Tempering — probably around 80%, possibly even lower.

Fortunately, its Combat Techniques leaned toward Guardian Type and Elemental Type. Speed was not its specialty. As a Boss Grade Feral Beast it was naturally fast, just not built for it as a primary strength. That was the only reason Lu Yuan could stay ahead of it: his stacked combination of Potent Speed Serum, 98% tempering, and the Moonstone's amplification gave him just barely enough of an edge.

He watched the blue light pulsing from the creature's single horn. Water arrow after water arrow — each one an Elemental Type Combat Technique discharge that punched through anything in its path, friend or foe. The Boss was firing indiscriminately now, and its own subordinates were dying to friendly fire. Crocodile bodies were stacking up across the shore. The stench of blood was everywhere.

Then he noticed something.

Not all of the Boss's scale armor was equally hard.

The dorsal scales were the toughest — dense to the point of impossibility, as he'd already established when his sword had barely penetrated five centimeters last chapter. But the flank and underbelly scales were a pale, ashen black. Visibly thinner. Clearly weaker.

He narrowed his eyes.

Even a Boss Grade creature at 100% tempering had a finite Spirit Power reserve. This one was only at 80% — which meant even less. He himself had replenished over ten times already, and he was inscribed with Elite Grade genes at nearly 100% tempering. The Boss's reserves had to be running dry.

*Just maybe — there's a chance to actually kill this thing.*

The drops from a Boss Grade kill would dwarf anything an Elite could offer.

He watched the entrance again. The roars from that direction were thinning.

Just then, from across the valley — a furious roar.

Then nothing. The blue light on the Boss's horn flickered. Water vapor began to condense—

— and immediately dissipated.

Lu Yuan froze.

Then a grin crept across his face.

The Boss tried again. Same result — the mist collapsed before it could form.

It roared and abandoned the attempt, switching to a direct charge instead, jaws gaping.

*"Is this... it has no Spirit Power left to use Combat Techniques?!"*

He stared at the fallen Elite crocodile lying in a pool of blood. His expression shifted from shock to something bright and hungry.

Without its water arrow Combat Technique, the Boss couldn't close the gap on him. He was faster. He had the initiative now — he could attack or fall back freely.

*Originally I was just hoping to escape,* he thought. *But now...*

He glanced at the entrance. Fewer roars. The crocodile reinforcements were nearly spent. He could see the numbers thinning in the distance, and a slow smile spread across his face.

*This could work.*

Lu Yuan charged straight at the Boss.

The creature, which had been burning with fury at being unable to catch him, suddenly found its prey charging directly at it. It let out a delighted roar and opened its enormous jaws to meet him.

Just before the gap closed to nothing, Lu Yuan slipped sideways into the space between two crocodile corpses — and vanished from the Boss's line of sight.

A cold smile played at his mouth. His heavy sword drove hard into the pale underbelly.

*Thwick!*

The blade sank deep. Blood erupted in a geyser.

Sensing the wound, the Boss wrenched its body with a roar, trying to pin him beneath it. Lu Yuan was already in midair, twisting desperately — barely clearing the descending mass.

*BOOM!*

The force was catastrophic. It nearly launched him entirely. A full-body spike of agony punched a mouthful of blood from his lungs.

He landed and immediately pushed off into motion again.

The Boss tried to condense another water arrow as it charged. Water vapor gathered — and scattered. Nothing.

*Still out.*

He kept moving, threading between four crocodile corpses and two still-living ones, using them as cover against each new charge. The enormous bodies that had once been obstacles for him were now obstacles for the Boss — too large, too slow to navigate its own dead.

*Black Iron Body. Moonstone. Black Steel Force. Potent Strength Serum.* All of it stacked. That was the only reason his blade could pierce those underbelly scales at all. The back armor was impenetrable. But the belly — the belly was a different story.

He had to end this fast.

The Boss charged again, its pale underbelly exposed.

Lu Yuan aimed for the same gap. His sword found it.

*Thwick!*

More blood.

The Boss let out another furious roar and slapped a five-meter crocodile corpse aside like it weighed nothing, surging forward.

Lu Yuan was already stepping across the backs of the fallen, retreating several meters in an instant.

He glanced at the entrance.

The roaring had gone almost quiet. The wave was spent. He could see it — in the distance, the numbers were nearly gone.

A quiet smile crossed his face.

Blood drenched the shore and was already trickling into the pool below the cliff. The air reeked of iron and raw meat.

He had every advantage now.

Attack or retreat — the choice was entirely his.

*Time to finish this.*