Chapter 340 - 340. The Weakened Drake
The Grim Sand Drake roared furiously as it shook away the Grandmother spider's bite. It used its powerful front paw to push the spider aside as its maw shot at it. The drake's return the spider's bite with a bite of its own. Its maw clamped at one of the Grandmother spider's front limbs and forcefully tore the limb from the spider's body.
The Grim Brood Great Grandmother screeched painfully as it scurried away from the Grim Sand Drake. It finally realized that this new opponent was not a pushover. The Grandmother spider had been the lord of this region that it did not realize there could be a more powerful creature in this area. It just simply attacked something that had abruptly gotten in its way while it was chasing its prey.
Jack moved away to put more distance as the two gigantic beasts tussled with each other. He didn't want to be caught in one of their accidental attacks and ended up dying after putting in all these efforts.
"It's working!" He exclaimed. "What do you say? My plan of combatting poison with poison is awesome, ain't it? Although one of them indeed had poison. Wait! They both had the words Grim in front of their names, maybe I should call this tactic combat grim with grim instead."
"The Grim in their names indicates that they are tougher version from the standard monsters," Peniel responded to Jack's ramblings and then asked, "do you intend to stay here until they are finished?"
"You are right," Jack said. His plan was to lure the Grandmother spider to be killed by the Grim Sand Drake. During the two monsters' brawl, he would return to the spider's lair and destroyed the eggs. With both the Grandmother spider and the eggs gone, his quest should be completed. For that, he would need to get away from this place fast. Otherwise if the Grandmother spider was dead, the drake would come for him. He would have trouble escaping its speed if he was still in the vicinity.
However, as he was about to split. He realized a peculiar issue. The Grim Sand Drake and the Grandmother spider were fighting almost equally. The drake was in advantage but oddly it was not as large an advantage as Jack had thought. The drake also did not use its yellow dust breath, which could have easily ensure their battle outcome. More weird was the health bar above the drake, it was already half empty to start with.
Overcome with curiosity, Jack used Inspect on the drake.
Grim Sand Drake (Special Elite monster, Draconic), level 45
HP: 127,300/260,000
Status: Weakened, Poisoned
Weakened? Its grade was down to Special Elite and its level was down by ten levels! No wonder it only held a slight advantage over the Grandmother spider. Their stats were almost the same, the drake was just bolstered by its physical superiority due to its dragon lineage.
"How did it end up weakened?" Jack asked. "Was it because of the lingering effect of the duke's spell?"
"Probably," Peniel answered. "But although that Prism Prison spell weakened an enemy greatly, it is when the spell is in effect. It does not lower them till this extent after the spell is over and certainly cannot last for these many days. I reckon it was also because of the drake's own last resort move."
"The one that broke it out from the duke's Prism Prison spell?"
"Yes, that was probably a last-ditch move it used when its life was in danger, but it carries great repercussions to its body. That combined with the duke's spell might have been the ones that caused its current condition. It probably affected its healing ability as well. Monsters of Special Elite grade and above had regenerative ability after they left combat. If it only healed half his HP after so many days had passed, its condition must be really bad. And it seemed like this weakened condition also robbed it of all its skills. It could only rely on its physical body in this fight."
"Special Elite and above could heal their HP out of combat? Troublesome, so I can't use hit and run tactic against them," Jack said as he remembered his experience with the Lizardman Blood Guard. He thought he could chip away its HP slowly, but the monster had healed back to full HP when he went back to engage it.
"Troublesome? Wait till you meet the Mythical grade. They had regenerative ability even during combat," Peniel informed.
"Ugh, I don't plan on meeting one."
"With your reckless nature, I say it is only a matter of time. By the way, why are you still not leaving?"
"They fought pretty evenly. Even if the drake is still stronger, it started with half health while the spider has full HP. In the case that I am lucky and they end up killing each other, wouldn't I have hit a jackpot?"
"I rest my case."
The Grandmother spider kept on getting pushed back and suffering from the drake's aggressive assaults. Each of their hits caused thousand in damage, with the damage inflicted by the drake almost twice compared to the spider.
The Grandmother spider jumped back and put some distance from the drake before it shot a torrent of sticky webs at the drake. The drake was wrapped with webs and had a problem moving.
"Holy…! If it used that move when it was chasing me, wasn't it game over for me already?" Jack shouted.
"Yes, you are one very lucky guy," Peniel said.
"So it was my luck stat at work, or probably it just saw me as a weak pebble and did not want to waste this move on me."
While they were chatting, the Grandmother spider squatted down. Jack was confused about what it was doing. This was the perfect time to pounce at the drake why it was incapacitated. However, the webs did not keep the drake immobile for long. The drake used raw strength to tear the webs apart. The webs ripped like a piece of thin paper under the drake's immense strength.
Still, the webs bought the Grandmother spider some time. When it stood up again from its squatting position, hundreds of small crawling spiders rushed out.
"Ugh, it was giving birth? That was nasty," Jack commented as he felt goosebumps seeing the huge numbers of the crawling insects.
The small spiders swarmed at the Grim Sand Drake. They surrounded it and started climbing on its body. The drake used its four massive legs to stomp at the creepy insects, turning lots of them into paste. But there were just too many of them. The ones that had climbed onto its body started to bite on it, but the drake's scale was too hard for the small critters.
The drake shook its body hard to throw off the ones that were on its body. Many were thrown off. Jack had retreated to put more distance between him and the two behemoths, yet he did not expect those clinging small spiders would get toss to his place. Four of such spiders fell nearby him.
Although Jack described the spider as small, it was only in comparison to their great-grandmother. In comparison with the common bewitching spiders that roamed the wilderness around here, these spiders were only slightly smaller. Which made them still considered as giant if compared to his real world's counterpart.
Jack took out his weapons in haste as he used Inspect on these critters.
Brood Spiderling (Basic monster, Insect), level 27
HP: 9,000
Jack breathed a relieved sigh. They were only basic monsters. Although their levels were higher, it was not something he couldn't deal with. He was just about to run when these four spiders fell near him, now he boldly engaged them in a fight.
As Jack was dealing with the four spiders, the drake kept on shaking the ones that were on his body and stomping on the ones that fell. These critters did nothing other than irritating it. The Grandmother spider took the chance while the drake was distracted to circle around it.
When the exposed back of the drake was in view, the Grandmother spider jumped on it. Its remaining seven limbs stabbed at the drake's body and clung tightly onto it, as it bit another time into the drake's neck, injecting more venom.
The drake was already poisoned from the first bite. It lost around tens of HP per second. After this second bite, the loss of HP increased to almost one hundred in one second.
The drake roared painfully and furiously. It used its powerful hind legs to bring its body standing upward, before bringing it down to its back. It meant to use its entire weight to squash this vile spider on its back. The Grandmother spider cunningly jumped away before that. The drake's back crashed onto the ground and created a tremor.
The Grandmother spider shot another wave of webs again. Encasing the drake which was flat on the ground. It continued to spew out the webs until the drake was encased in a cocoon. It seemed that the Grandmother spider was intent on finishing this battle.
"Crap! Is it losing?" Jack thought with worry as he fought the spiderlings. If the drake lost, then he would not be able to complete his quest.
'What dragon lineage? This lizard is too disappointing,' he complained in his mind.