Now that Long Lan was back in his original form, he was now far too large to be eaten by the maw of the serpent. He looked down at the incoming maw and bent down to use one of his arms to grab onto the lower mandible of the serpent!
The embarrassing thing was that his forelimb was a little short than average, so the fangs of the snake was already nearing his chest by the time he grabbed onto the mandible. He had no way to tear apart the snake, but neither did the snake have a way to bite down onto his chest.
It wasn't his claws that were the most powerful weapons Long Lan had. As soon as the serpent was caught, he opened his mouth wide to chomp down on the serpent!
Long Lan's transformation was surprising to the serpent, but not enough for it to stop its attack. The serpent wanted to clamp down onto Long Lan even when its maw was caught, but it thought otherwise when Long Lan's claw was poised to stab through its maw if it did. Instead, it hissed. A dark shadow darted out from its mouth to strike at Long Lan's own jaw.
It was the tongue of the serpent!
The serpent's tongue was as thick as a man's arm was. The tongue had two black tips to it and was flying so fast that its exact likeness could hardly be seen. If the serpent really wanted to eat Long Lan, then it'd definitely have to 'stab' at him first before taking him into its maw.
Long Lan's eyes narrowed ominously. Tilting his head, Long Lan allowed for the tongue to graze past his 'cheekbone' and beyond.
The tongue traveled a few meters longer before seemingly reaching the end of its reach. Rather than flopping, the tongue softened in the middle before whirling around. The tip of the tongue still sharp as ever, it traveled around Long Lan's head and then moved to stab at his left eye!
Long Lan hadn't thought the tongue of the serpent would be able to do something as flexible as coil around his head. The tip of the tongue was already just three inches away from his eye, so he knew to not let it extend any further. Without any other choice, he disengaged from the serpent and flew up into the air with enough speed to propel his giant body a hundred meters high into the air and several dozen meters backwards.
Now free again, the black-scaled serpent swung its head up to glare at Long Lan. Its tongue was back in its mouth as it prepared to go after it. But then the upper half of its body swung backwards like a bow. Five Spatial Edges came tearing through the places where the serpent's body used to be a split-second afterwards…..
Because of their ambush being found out and the first strike being done by the serpent instead, Bai Yunfei wasn't even able to attack the serpent before the three class seven soulbeasts were already engaged in a fight between themselves.
Xiao Qi trilled in annoyance when he saw his Spatial Edges miss. Spreading his wings wide, the Wind and Lightning Feathers started to glow with violet light and was transformed into a bird of lightning as soon as it was fully charged up. All around him, the air crackled with purple lightning that only increased in size and intensity with each second. Xiao Qi flapped his wings again to summon several hundred bolts of lightning to send towards the serpent!
Long Lan howled again at this time, gathering a massive amount of elemental water to him. In preparation for the strongest move in his repertoire, Long Lan formulated a giant ball of elemental water in front of him with a hint of darkness inside of it to slam into the serpent!
Faced with two powerful attacks from both sides, the serpent had to unleash a powerful attack of its own. Its body compressed down on itself so that it went from being several dozen meters tall to just about two stories tall around the mountain. There was a powerful glow of dark light as the black-scaled serpent's entire body compressed down on itself. With every second the dark light shined from the serpent's body, the serpent's body grew even more rigid before its mouth snapped shut and went still. From the outside, it looked as though the gigantic black-scaled serpent had turned into a crystalline statue or something.
The bolts of purple lightning came striking down as soon as this transformation was made along with the spheres of elemental water!
Elemental lightning and water splashed across the black-scaled serpent a moment afterwards, sending beams of violet light flying everywhere!!
Xiao Qi's attack of hundreds of lightning bolts had been….reflected back away from the serpent!
Somehow, the serpent's body had transformed into a series of mirrors that reflected everything. The purple lightning bolts slammed into the serpent's scales, but they were each reflected without exception!
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!"
The world was rocked with the sound of lightning bolts striking the ground. With each bolt of lightning, the ground was burnt black and purple with clods of dirt and dust being kicked up and leaving behind giant craters about ten meters tall.
As like usual, the serpent's aura was completely unaffected by the bolts of lightning. Xiao Qi's attacks had failed to leave even a scratch onto them, and Long Lan's elemental water had only managed to surround the serpent's scales in it.
"Boom!!"
There was another mighty explosion that not only affected the serpent, but the hill it was hiding on. Just thirty meters above the base of the mountain, the ground was starting to be split apart!
"Hiss!!"
A dreadful hiss cried out halfway before the prior explosion could even subside. A giant black shadow sprung out form the mountain to reveal the entirety of the serpent's giant body. Now free of its earthen nest, the black-scaled serpent flung itself towards the right at Long Lan!
And judging from the light shining off from its scales….the two attacks Xiao Qi and Long Lan did on it had done absolutely nothing on it!
The earth shook again when Long Lan's gigantic body landed on the ground. He had to do so in order to evade the serpent's lunge at him, as his body wasn't as agile when he flew compared to when he was on the ground. The serpent was also a very powerful foe that didn't give him much breathing room. Even moreso, Long Lan's giant body wasn't as large as the serpent now that its body was fully out there for everyone to see.
The two soulbeasts were engaged in a battle of supremacy now. Coiled and hissing, the black-scaled serpent tried its best to ensnare the blue-eyes white wyrm in an attempt to subjugate him. With its tail swinging violently and its head poised to strike, the earth shook whenever the serpent make another move against Long Lan. The forest beneath them was already being torn apart with their physical movement and shockwave of elemental energy.
Flying overhead was Xiao Qi, whose body was rather insignificantly sized compared to the serpent and Long Lan. Every so often Xiao Qi would find an opportunity in battle to unleash a volley of fireballs or wind blades, but the effects of his attacks were rather limited.
The three soulbeasts were engaged in a fierce battle of supremacy, but Bai Yunfei couldn't even find a chance to partake in the fight!
Bai Yunfei had to admit he didn't really have a master plan against the black-scaled serpent. He didn't even know if his Eighty-one Fold Fist Force or Winged Flame Blade would even leave a scratch onto the serpent or not. The explosion effect of the Fire-tipped Spear would definitely only leave behind a sore spot at best, and do nothing else if he didn't land it on the right area. So Bai Yunfei gave the battleground a wide berth to stand there with his spear out to watch the battle and see if there was a way to kill the snake.
The battle taking place beneath him was already far beyond what he initially thought would happen. Thankfully, the black-scaled serpent didn't decide to hide back in its mountain rather than fight, but the serpent was still a lot stronger than he gathered.
"This isn't just an early-stage class seven soulbeast. It's probably already a mid-stage class seven!!" Bai Yunfei thought to himself on just how strong the soulbeast was.
Xiao Qi and Long Lan were both strong for their respective levels, and yet they were still hardly able to win against the black-scaled serpent when fighting together. This definitely meant that the serpent's strength was comparable in intensity than to the both of them despite not being an actual mid-stage class seven. Still, this meant that it had more soulforce or power than either Xiao Qi or Long Lan individually.
If Bai Yunfei had to guess, then this black-scaled serpent had to have a reason why it didn't hide in its mountain like the other times with the Underworld School. If it was fighting so earnestly against two other class seven soulbeasts, then it had to mean it was close to becoming a mid-stage class seven….it was close to advancing!
This was a battle to help the snake advance in stage!
It wanted to kill Xiao Qi or Long Lan and devour their soulgem in order to help it succeed!
Or perhaps the black-scaled serpent felt happy about this situation. It was in the middle of training when 'prey' knocked on its doorstep for it. This would save the serpent any time and energy to go hunting. If it could just kill these two soulbeasts and devour their soulgems, then it would definitely succeed in advancing in strength!
Bai Yunfei stared fixedly at the intense battle taking place beneath him. His left hand subconsciously touched upon the black ring on his left hand.
He originally planned on having Xiao Qi and Long Lan capture the black-scaled serpent by themselves, but it seemed that he'd need to call upon the permafrost mastiff if the snake was somehow a lot stronger than they thought.
"We can't delay this fight. We've already started the fight, so we can't hesitate or let it return to its nest…."
Bai Yunfei stared hard at the snake a while longer. "We….we have to kill the snake off in one strike!"