I Just Want to Farm, But My Beasts Keep Evolving!!

Chapter 178: Fighting Once More

That damn lizard was back again.

Woolie stopped in place as he glared at the Black Dragon. It was the same dragon that had driven them to desperation the last time. He was sure of it. The pressure, the smell, the way those black scales swallowed the surrounding light, and most of all those cruel golden eyes looking down at them as if they were nothing more than prey that had somehow slipped out of its jaws once before. All of it was the same.

The moment he recognised it, the lightning around his wool crackled more harshly, and the murderous intent in his little body rose so abruptly that even the nearby Terra Beasts instinctively took a few steps back.

Neva also recognised it immediately. The little spider, who had only just settled down on Raiden’s shoulder after exhausting herself earlier, went completely still before her tiny body tensed up like a drawn bowstring. Her pink eyes narrowed sharply, and the usual softness she carried around Raiden vanished without a trace. She remembered very well what this creature had done to them back then.

It had chased them through the jungle, crushed every bit of resistance they had tried to put up, and forced them to flee in humiliation. If not for luck, tricks, and Raiden’s stubborn refusal to die, all three of them would have been buried in the wilderness already.

That memory clearly had not left her, because the next second, threads of silk had already begun leaking out from beneath her body, glowing faintly as they touched the bloodied battlefield.

Raiden, on the other hand, nearly cursed out loud the moment he looked up and saw what had sent them flying

He had been hoping for many things. A random Platinum beast was bad enough. Another commander-type abomination was worse. But this? This was just unfair. The Black Dragon stood amidst the sea of Terra Beasts like some ancient calamity that has decided to target then specially across the battlefield.

It was massive, close to fifty meters long from head to tail, its entire body wrapped in black scales that seemed to drink in the surrounding light instead of reflecting it.

Jagged horns swept back from its skull like a broken crown, and every breath it took made the air around its mouth distort with heat and corruption.

There was a shallow scar near one eye and another chipped scale along the neck, and seeing those tiny marks only made Raiden’s heart sink further, because it meant the thing had not only survived their last encounter, it had remembered them too.

The dragon’s pupils narrowed slowly as its gaze shifted from Woolie, to Neva, and finally to Raiden.

A low growl rumbled out from deep inside its throat, not loud enough to dominate the battlefield, but heavy enough to make the ground beneath them vibrate faintly. Around them, even the frenzied Terra Beasts began pulling away, clearing open space without needing to be told.

Whatever madness was driving them toward the city, it clearly did not outweigh the instinct screaming at them to give this monster room. In the middle of a battlefield packed with hundreds of thousands of creatures, a dead zone formed around the dragon in just a few breaths.

Raiden felt his mouth twitch.

"Oh, come on," he muttered while forcing himself back onto his feet. "This is great, just fucking great. You are the only thing I was lacking in my life today."

The Black Dragon did not care for his complaints. It opened its mouth a little, and Raiden’s expression changed immediately as dark light started gathering inside its throat.

That same second, all the fur on Woolie’s body stood on end, and Neva leapt off his shoulder without waiting for a command.

"Move!!"

The warning came just in time. A torrent of black flames erupted from the dragon’s jaws and swept across the battlefield like a flood from hell.

It was not ordinary fire. It looked thick, almost sticky, as though shadow and magma had been mixed together into one obscene substance. The place where it passed melted.

The ground turned soft and black, corpses dissolved, and even the wild Terra Beasts ran for their lives amidst all of this.

Woolie slammed his body against Raiden and sent him tumbling out of the path, while Neva launched herself skyward, using light as propulsion at the last moment.

BOOM!!!

The black fire struck the battlefield and turned a whole stretch of it into a burning trench. Several nearby Terra Beasts that had failed to retreat in time didn’t even get the chance to scream properly before their bodies collapsed into charred ruin.

The shockwave from the impact spread outward, kicking up blood, dust, and chunks of broken stone. Raiden rolled twice across the ground before regaining his footing, but the dragon was already moving.

That was the most absurd part.

A creature of that size should not have been so fast. Yet the Black Dragon crossed dozens of meters in an instant, its huge body cutting through the battlefield like a nightmare set loose. One claw came down where Raiden had been standing a second ago and dug up a huge slab of earth, while its tail carved through two unlucky wild Terra Beasts behind him simply because they happened to be in the way.

The thing did not distinguish between human and beast anymore. Right now, it only had three targets in its eyes.

Woolie let out an enraged cry and shot forward first. Lightning exploded around him as he used Quick Attack at full force, his small body turning into a violent blur of violet light.

The strike landed straight against the dragon’s front leg with enough power to blow apart armoured Gold-tier Terra Beasts. A huge clang rang out over the battlefield, and sparks burst in all directions, but the result made Raiden’s stomach sink.

The Black Dragon’s leg shifted only slightly. It had felt the hit, yes, but not enough.

Not even close.

The dragon lowered its head and snapped its jaws toward Woolie with frightening speed. Woolie barely twisted away in time, but the pressure from those closing fangs alone sent him spinning across the dirt.

Before the dragon could follow up, threads of glowing silk shot down from above. Neva moved like a streak of pink lightning, weaving from angle to angle while wrapping thread after thread around the dragon’s wings, neck joints, and forelegs.

She did not try to overpower it directly. She targeted the points where movement mattered most, tightening everything at once as her silk glowed brighter, cutting directly into its scales.

For a moment, it worked.

The dragon’s body jerked off balance, and one of its wings was dragged downward just enough to ruin its posture. Raiden took that chance instantly.

Using Seven-Star Steps, he shot forward like a phantom, his body weaving through broken corpses and bursts of black flame before appearing at the dragon’s injured side. His blade flashed with force as he drove it into the chipped section near the ribs, aiming not to wound deeply, but to pry the scale open and widen an old weakness.

Clang!!

The blade sank in farther than before, and a thin line of dark blood spilt out, but the cost of that success came immediately. The Black Dragon twisted with terrifying fury and lashed its tail across the battlefield before Raiden could retreat. He only had enough time to cross his arms and brace for impact.

Bang!!