Chapter 3: Brother Mid-Parting Drives Off Cucumber, Why Am I Having Such a Dream?
When Jié Jié was perched atop the Great Thief Dragon’s head, he truly experienced the vastness of the Ancient Tree Forest.
An ordinary Hairy Spider might spend its entire life forever lingering by its web. Even a spider imbued with a human soul, striving to actively traverse the map, would still see only minuscule things from its perspective.
But when the Great Thief Dragon left the forest and arrived at a coastal terrace teeming with Herbivore Dragons, Jié Jié finally beheld the azure sky. The Hairy Spider’s eight eyes gazed upward toward the high heavens.
If he could transform into a flying Large Monster and soar through the skies, what kind of scenery would he behold? What kind of freedom would it be?
A small Hairy Spider planted a grand ambition within its heart.
Several Thief Dragons were sprinting along the path toward the Great Thief Dragon, bringing with them the sounds of massive movement behind them.
These Thief Dragons were sentinels, responsible for patrolling the territory in the Thief Dragon clan. Only an incoming Large Monster could rouse such a reaction.
Jié Jié could feel the muscles beneath the Great Thief Dragon’s scaled skin tightening. Its eardrums swelled as its gaping mouth roared thunderously toward the direction from which the Thief Dragons came.
Several coconut trees on the terrace swayed violently under the force of the airwave.
“Roar!”
In response, a roar equally powerful echoed back. A sinewy, dark green Beast Dragon emerged from the path, its mouth filled with teeth that dripped saliva, instantly corroding all the plants it touched.
“Cucumber?”
Jié Jié bared his Poison Fangs and emitted “squeaks” in surprise.
The Terror Tyrant, nicknamed Cucumber due to its resemblance to one, is a top-tier predator in the food chain. With an insatiable appetite and rapid metabolism, it constantly demands food.
The Terror Tyrant’s life revolves around either eating or hunting for food, sometimes doing both simultaneously.
The Great Thief Dragon, due to its strong stomach acid, must consume vast amounts of food to avoid ulcers, giving it a similar colossal appetite to the Terror Tyrant.
However, while the Great Thief Dragon occupies the lowest ecological niche among Large Monsters, the Terror Tyrant reigns supreme at the top. Moreover, the Terror Tyrant’s habit of hunting while eating often involves carrying smaller Large Monsters, using them for attacks—earning it nicknames like “Thief Dragon Great Sword,” “Scratcher Bird Katana,” and “Grim Claw Dragon Blade.”
As the Terror Tyrant approached, its appearance became clear. Its body length matched that of the seasoned Great Thief Dragon at about twenty meters. But due to the Beast Dragon type’s robust legs, it appeared even more massive than the Great Thief Dragon.
Its body was covered in scars, and its muscular frame surged beneath thin skin as it moved.
While Jié Jié hesitated, the Terror Tyrant had already leaped forward, locking in combat with the Great Thief Dragon.
He quickly hid himself within the Great Thief Dragon’s mane, preparing his web for an emergency escape.
The Terror Tyrant’s jaws clamped onto the Great Thief Dragon’s side, its thigh muscles bulging so much they tore through the skin, pushing and crushing numerous coconut trees as it collided with the Great Thief Dragon.
Though the Great Thief Dragon retaliated, the Fang Dragon Type’s limb strength paled in comparison to the Beast Dragon Type’s, leaving Jié Jié disappointed. Though he couldn’t see clearly, he could sense the scales tipping toward victory for one side.
After being pushed away a considerable distance, the Great Thief Dragon clearly couldn’t use the other dragon as mobile sustenance. Instead, its explosive power began rapidly depleting.
With weakening strikes, the Great Thief Dragon finally found room to counterattack, breaking free from the Terror Tyrant’s bite at the cost of losing a chunk of flesh from its side. It then swung its tail around to strike the Terror Tyrant’s head before fleeing.
“Can special individuals really not challenge their ecological niche?”
Jié Jié watched the Terror Tyrant grow blurry as it slowly pursued, seemingly restoring its stamina for another burst.
Meanwhile, the Thief Dragons had scattered and vanished from sight and perception.
The Great Thief Dragon stopped, and Jié Jié felt the shaking beneath him first steady, then intensify as it rocked backward.
Turning around, he caught a glimpse of half a Herbivore Dragon before it disappeared.
The earthquake caused by the seasoned Great Thief Dragon’s mad dash terrified the Herbivore Dragons into panic.
One, two—three.
Jié Jié’s perspective rose higher because its esophagus and stomach were stuffed full, forcing the Great Thief Dragon to raise its head. From an outside observer’s point of view, it might have been taller than the Terror Tyrant.
He thought of something and turned his body. That dark green silhouette was growing clearer; the Terror Tyrant, with restored stamina, was accelerating, charging with terrifying momentum.
His perspective shifted as the Great Thief Dragon clumsily turned to face the apex predator.
Unbeknownst to it, the Hairy Spider hiding in its mane also turned, baring fangs and claws, facing the Terror Tyrant alongside it.
The eight spider eyes locked onto the approaching Terror Tyrant, briefly spotting the cracked skin and exposed resilient muscle layers across its body.
It looked fierce and full of tension, but its “ride” was a pot-bellied yellow-furred fatty.
The Terror Tyrant slammed into the Great Thief Dragon, and Jié Jié worried whether the bloated Great Thief Dragon might vomit from the impact.
But it didn’t. This time, it merely slid several steps back before lifting its upper body, pressing its enormous belly down onto the Terror Tyrant.
At this moment, the Terror Tyrant was in a phase where its previous force had run out and new energy hadn’t yet regenerated. It stumbled under the Great Thief Dragon’s pressure, closed its eyes, shook its head, and tried to bite another piece of flesh off the Great Thief Dragon.
What greeted it instead was the seasoned Great Thief Dragon’s highly raised front claw.
The claw was raised so high that Jié Jié could feel the Great Thief Dragon’s tilt and see the bulging muscles on the claw through the mane.
It seemed the food in its belly was rapidly converting into energy, which surged to the front lines as active power.
This claw strike would carry the weight equivalent to a twenty-meter-long, fully-fed Great Thief Dragon. The Terror Tyrant, having blindly shaken its head back, practically offered up its own head.
“Roar!”
In a manner reminiscent of the Extinction Dragon, the claw slammed downward onto the Terror Tyrant’s face. The apex predator toppled over, kicking up clouds of dust and dirt.
Terror Tyrant: ????
Jié Jié: ????
Thief Dragon Group: !!!!
The Thief Dragons that had fled into hiding surged out, tearing into the fallen Terror Tyrant as much as possible.
The Great Thief Dragon similarly lifted its belly, repeatedly pressing and colliding with the Terror Tyrant, attempting to crush it under its weight. However, the Terror Tyrant, being at the top of the food chain, kicked two poorly positioned Thief Dragons away with its muscular legs and continuously stomped on the Great Thief Dragon’s abdomen.
The Great Thief Dragon retched up stomach acid and digestive fluids, coating the Terror Tyrant in disgustingly irregular bursts, disrupting its own energy flow. It could only retreat and pant, suppressing its strong nausea to restore strength.
The Terror Tyrant seized the opportunity, using its head to brace itself against the ground and rise up, shaking off the clinging Thief Dragons. It let out a weak roar toward the Great Thief Dragon.
The Great Thief Dragon slightly turned its body, directly facing the Terror Tyrant and roaring deafeningly, splashing saliva and stomach acid onto the Terror Tyrant’s face.
After exchanging breaths and spitting, it was the Terror Tyrant that retreated first, picking up an injured Thief Dragon unable to escape, chewing it in its mouth before turning and leaving, disappearing from Jié Jié’s sight.
“Can the food chain and ecological niche be challenged?”
“No, this is just individual variance.”
The Hairy Spider “squeaked” and ended its self-talk. He crawled backward from the Great Thief Dragon’s head to its tail, jumped down, and disappeared into the grass.
