Chapter 491 - 490: Flawless Coordination

Chapter 491: Chapter 490: Flawless Coordination

The axe blade slammed against the scales on the Drake’s lower jaw, letting out a deep, thunderous boom.

There was no blood, no cracks—only a shower of sparks that erupted like fireworks, vanishing in an instant within the dim space.

The impact sent a numbing shock through the webbing of Silentrain’s thumb, and the Long-handled Axe was nearly jolted from her grasp.

The force of the recoil traveled up the axe handle, making her entire arm hum.

But she had achieved her goal.

The Drake’s eyes snapped fully open.

Its amber, vertical pupils reflected Silentrain’s figure, narrowing into thin slits in an instant.

It clearly hadn’t expected prey to deliver itself to its doorstep, much less that this insignificant morsel would dare to attack it.

The Drake rose, shook its body, planted its claws on the ground, and unleashed a sky-shattering roar.

The sound wave, carrying a foul stench, blasted toward her. Silentrain’s hair was whipped back, and her eardrums throbbed as if they were about to rupture. She clenched her jaw and stood her ground, refusing to retreat a single step.

The Drake reared its head high, its forelimbs stomping heavily on the ground, causing the entire tunnel to tremble.

It finally turned to face Silentrain completely. Its vertical pupils burned with offended rage, and with every flare of its nostrils, it exhaled a thick, green mist.

’It’s going to attack!’

Silentrain tightened her grip on the axe handle, her knuckles turning white.

She tore the rune Seraphina Sinclair had given her, and several layers of moon-white shields materialized in front of her.

Though she’d never used this rune before, in that moment, Silentrain felt completely at ease.

The next instant, a stream of poison so thick it was almost liquid erupted from deep within the Drake’s throat, blasting straight toward Silentrain like a high-pressure Water Cannon.

The dark green venom traced an arc through the air. The Stone Tablet floor beneath it hissed and smoked where it touched, and even the air itself seemed to twist and deform.

The moment it struck the shield, Silentrain’s heart leaped into her throat.

One shield shattered.

A second took its place, only to be covered in cracks three seconds later.

The third and fourth shields lit up simultaneously, their overlapping barriers of light barely managing to hold back the remaining poison.

Behind the barrier, Silentrain narrowed her eyes, peering through the distorted, dark green haze to watch the Drake’s movements.

Its head tilted slightly, and a faint glow once again lit up the depths of its throat.

’This thing isn’t giving me a chance to breathe.’

Silentrain gritted her teeth, pulled out her remaining runes, and tore them all at once. New shields formed just before the old ones could break.

Silentrain remained rooted to the spot, not yielding an inch!

The Drake was clearly enraged by her stubbornness.

It stopped spitting poison. Stomping its forelimbs heavily, its entire body began to turn to the left.

It was going to turn around and use its more lethal tail, or perhaps its claws, to smash this annoying little pest into a pulp.

But this was the very moment Silentrain had been waiting for!

She gripped her axe handle and abruptly retreated several steps, but her peripheral vision caught a shadow suddenly darting out.

The shadow slipped out from the darkness on the left side of the tunnel, flowing silently through the gloom.

A long blade left its sheath.

Seraphina Sinclair’s figure materialized at the Drake’s left rear. Her Blade drew a near-perfect arc, slicing into the gap between the cracked scales.

Broken Abyss tore through flesh and sinew, plunging deep into the Drake’s body to wreak havoc.

Seraphina Sinclair even drew closer, landing two vicious slashes with her Moon-Tracking Blade.

The sound of the Blade sinking into flesh was drowned out by the Drake’s furious roar.

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t overextend.

Once the long blade was buried deep enough, she used the momentum to backflip away, escaping the Drake’s attack range just as it swung its tail.

The thick tail whistled through the air where she had just stood, smashing a half-foot-deep crater into the stone wall. Dark green blood gushed from the wound, splattering against the wall with a corrosive SIZZLE.

The Drake’s body began to thrash violently. Its forelimbs clawed frantically at the ground, sending shattered Stone flying in all directions like shrapnel.

It had clearly sensed a mortal threat. Broken Abyss had precisely sliced through the soft membrane between its scales, the Blade following the muscle grain to cut so deep it almost reached the spine.

Just one inch more, and it would have died right here!

But after the terror came a volcanic rage.

It had lived for three hundred and seventy years, fighting its way up from the weakest hatchling in the nest to an A-level apex predator. Never had it been so humiliated!

A C-level human acted as a meat shield in the front, while a B-level human had the audacity to stab it in the back.

Their teamwork was flawless.

The Drake’s head snapped around, its amber vertical pupils locking onto Seraphina Sinclair’s landing form.

It didn’t immediately give chase. Instead, it made an unexpected move—its entire body suddenly contracted, as if it were folding in on itself.

Seraphina Sinclair’s expression changed.

"Retreat!"

As she shouted the word, she was already diving to the side.

Silentrain’s reaction was just as fast. She braced her Long-handled Axe against the ground and used it to vault away.

The next second, the Drake’s body sprang open like a coil.

Its injured tail became the deadliest of weapons, sweeping across the entire space with terrifying speed.

The Bone Spike on the tip of its tail let out a sharp shriek as it cut through the air, carving a deep trench into the stone wall and sending debris flying.

Seraphina Sinclair barely dodged it, but the Bone Spike still grazed her shoulder, instantly tearing three gashes in her jacket.

Silentrain wasn’t so lucky.

Though she avoided a direct hit, a piece of shattered Stone sent flying by the tail struck her square in the back, making her grunt in pain and stumble for two steps before regaining her balance.

It turned to face them, deliberately keeping its injured left side protected. What now confronted the two was a giant maw filled with sharp teeth and two forelimbs poised to strike.

The beast had learned to protect its weak spot in the midst of battle.

"It’s smarter than we thought," Seraphina Sinclair said, her voice calm.

Silentrain spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and grinned. "Smart monsters are more fun to fight."

Seraphina Sinclair glanced at her.

’This woman doesn’t seem to know the difference between a monster and a creature,’ she thought. ’But no matter. To survive, we have only one option: kill the Drake before us!’

"That last strategy is useless now."

Seraphina Sinclair spoke quickly. The Drake’s muscles were tensed, ready to attack at any moment.

"So what do we do now?"

Silentrain’s voice was tinged with anxiety, but more than that, with weakness.

That piece of Stone had hit her hard. Silentrain could feel a constant, aching pain in her back, which was probably a massive bruise. But she didn’t look, nor did she say anything. She just shifted her grip on the axe handle and reset her stance.

She looked ready to keep fighting at a moment’s notice.

Seraphina Sinclair sighed, took out an Advanced Medical Kit, and tossed it at her feet. "I’ll hold it off. You heal. Once you’re done, take over for me immediately. The old plan won’t work anymore. We’ll have to attack together and overwhelm it!"