129 Crocodile Hunter (1/2)

Van and the 9th ranked Stone-Armored Crocodile stared at each other without blinking. There was a small smile on the youth's face despite the fierce and aggressive aura being emitted by the crocodilian beast, who watching the youth with its dark beady eyes.

The red-haired youth was hovering about half a meter off the ground on the edge of the swamp, a few hundred meters away from the Stone-Armored Crocodile.

A few minutes passed in tense silence.

The Stone-Armored Crocodile was tense but also slowly getting bored. After another twenty minutes without movement it's guard relaxed by a tiny amount. The little human was entertaining bad thoughts but didn't have the guts to do anything. It was possibly waiting for friends to join them, but the Stone-Armored Crocodile's partner would soon be back from hunting for prey.

At that moment, ten powerful auras dropped out of the sky. From their auras alone it could be told that 5 of them were in the 7th rank and 5 of them in the 8th rank. They shot menacingly towards the swamp, following a red-haired blur that was dashing towards the nest of eggs.

The crocodilian demon beast's protective instincts instantly roared to life. It lunged violently towards the largest of the 8th ranked golems and clenched its incredibly powerful jaw over a stone leg. With a powerful death roll, the stone leg was ripped off the 8th rank golem, which fell to the swamp with a large splash!

ROARR!

The 9th rank Stone-Armored Crocodile attacked the golems aggressively.

Van saw its powerful jaws and sharp teeth slice into the golem's as if they were made of butter and gulped.

It was lucky that crocodilian-type beasts had small brains relative to their large and fierce size. If it figured out that the golem-type monsters were actually aiming for Van, and not their eggs…

Shuah!

Van sped through the air, a tiny speck compared to the giant sizes of the golems and the crocodilian demon beast fighting above him. With his incredible speed he was able to evade the relatively slower golems and keep leading them in circles around the enraged Stone-Armored Crocodile that was getting increasingly incensed. It rapidly killed off four of the 7th ranked golems but was getting injured by the combined attacks of the remaining four 8th ranked golems.

Van landed lightly on the edge of the nest and looked down at the three emerald green eggs. His eyes gleamed and he rubbed his hands. The stone golems kept trying to run forwards to where Van was and kill him but they were blocked by the incredibly aggressive Stone-Armored Crocodile who slammed its giant snout across the legs of any golem that tried to move towards the center of the swamp. Due to being attacked, the golem's reflexively fought back, dealing significant damage to the crocodilian monster.

The three green eggs rapidly disappeared into Van's waist pouch.

ROARRR!

At that moment, a powerful aura crashed into the area. The hairs on the back of Van's neck raised. Without hesitation he revolved [Scattering Smoke Steps]. In combination with the Palladium Wind Nymph Sandals, Van seemed to instantly teleport several hundred meters away.

A second, larger Stone-Armored Crocodile also in the 9th rank, charged through the bushland surrounding the swamp. It's black eyes pinned Van with a furious and blood-thirsty gaze.

At that moment, due to Van changing his position, the golems that were chasing after him stopped trying to move to the center of the swamp and ran off to the side. The bloodied and injured Stone-Armored Crocodile breathed heavily but did not chase after them. However, a split second later it saw its partner charging in and realized that the eggs in the center of the swamp were gone!

Van picked his ear – it was time to high tail out of here!