As Haoyuan plummeted from the sky, sharp tree roots suddenly shot up from the ground just as he was about to land.
Driven by gravity and momentum, the roots instantly thrust him back up, piercing his belly.
Warm blood spilled down. He let out a roar of agony, ducking his head to spew a long Fire Line toward his belly.
The Fire Line ignited the tree roots, causing miserable shrieks to echo from deep within the forest.
The tree roots pulled out immediately, thrashing around in pain. Unable to extinguish the flames, which only burned brighter the more they thrashed, they retreated back underground.
Falling from the sky once more, Haoyuan hit the ground, feeling a wave of pain.
The wound wasn't severe.
Still, getting injured right at the start made him cautious.
He glanced toward the location in the forest where the shrieks had originated—it was surprisingly far away.
Deciding to eliminate one threat first, Haoyuan pounced on the rhino monster in front of him.
Having finally recovered, the rhino monster immediately transformed its body armor into bright silver hide armor, which glowed red-hot from the heat while mitigating its pain.
It violently spewed Icy Mist at the great white dragon. Striking the dragon scales on his chest and belly, it dealt no damage, though it slowed his advance.
Haoyuan pushed forward through the attack, staring in shock at the rhino monster's bright silver hide.
Its skin and flesh had actually turned as hard as steel armor, clearly indicating it was no ordinary special variant.
This was a strange transformation similar to the water monster's.
Haoyuan felt a chill, wondering how such a transformation had come to be.
He swung his claws, striking the rhino's neck. Sparks flew everywhere, accompanied by a metallic clanging sound.
“It's actually this hard?”
Haoyuan was astonished.
The rhino monster let out an angry roar, lowering its head and planting its feet as it charged violently toward the great white dragon.
Haoyuan dared not be careless. Timing it perfectly, he used the momentum of the rhino monster's charge to grab its silver horn and leap upward.
His long body soared into the air before landing heavily on the rhino's back.
Right as his body soared up, numerous tree roots burst from the ground once more.
Haoyuan narrowly dodged them, and they struck the belly of the charging rhino instead, producing metallic clanging sounds.
Haoyuan breathed a sigh of relief. He had been on guard against that root monster all along. Estimating the timing, he had leveraged the rhino's charge to dodge the attack perfectly.
Hit by the tree roots, the rhino monster subconsciously let out a cry of pain, its body leaping uncontrolled.
This jump threw Haoyuan off balance into the air.
It seemed to realize something.
Taking a couple of steps upon landing, it immediately began bucking frantically, kicking up its four hooves.
It repeatedly threw Haoyuan into the air, tossing him against its own iron-like frame.
Haoyuan cursed under his breath. As he fell once more, he was caught squarely by the surging tree roots.
He unleashed Thunder instantly. Dazzling lightning submerged both the tree roots and the rhino monster in a flash.
Wretched shrieks instantly burst from both the rhino monster and the forest.
Haoyuan wasn't done yet; he activated Molten Body.
Fire serpents flowed out from between his scales, burning along the tree roots and igniting a massive surge of flames.
Haoyuan spewed a Fire Line toward the rhino monster again, scorching it repeatedly until its entire bright silver armor glowed red-hot.
He burned it continuously, pushing it to its absolute limit.
Just as he was preparing for the next step, a strange bird cry rang out from the sky.
Then, a broad stream of Icy Mist descended from above as a creature swooped down.
In an instant, the flames on the tree roots and Haoyuan were completely doused.
Haoyuan was startled. There's a third special variant!?
On second thought, it made sense.
Under the cataclysmic extinction, fires were everywhere. It was natural for special variants to gather and help extinguish fires for mutual survival.
However, the arrival of this special variant actually did him a huge favor.
The rhino monster's bright silver armor, previously glowing red-hot, suddenly hissed with intense steam upon contact with the Icy Mist, like water dousing hot charcoal. Then, it violently contracted, cracking inch by inch.
The rhino monster immediately let out a painful wail.
As the Icy Mist spread, Haoyuan quickly used Whale Gulp Dragon Inhale, sucking all the Icy Mist into his mouth.
First, he feared it might freeze the migrating dinosaur army, and second...
He opened his mouth and spewed a Fire Line once more, scorching right into the rhino monster's flesh through the fractured gaps in its armor.
An even more agonizing shriek resounded.
The rhino monster's massive body thrashed in agony before collapsing heavily to the ground.
The bird monster in the sky had no idea what had happened. It had clearly extinguished the fire, yet the great white dragon had broken the rhino monster's armor and burned it to death.
It spewed another burst of Icy Mist to douse the remaining fires elsewhere before diving back down.
Having recovered from the burns, the tree roots thrust toward Haoyuan once again.
Knowing he could engulf himself in flames, the roots no longer tried to entangle him, choosing to pierce him directly instead.
Seeing this, Haoyuan rolled off the rhino monster's body, using his immense frame to dodge the root thrusts.
The bird monster's Icy Mist descended from the sky, but dealing no damage to him, he quickly dodged. While staying alert against any roots shooting up from the ground, he inhaled the Icy Mist into his mouth.
Then he spewed fire, burning the incoming pseudo-dragons one after another.
Two massive Argentinosaurus raised their heavy, column-like front legs, stomping down toward him.
He quickly slithered underneath one of them, coiling up its thick hind leg as he climbed.
The surging tree roots thrust over, stabbing down along his winding body.
However, they were either a step too slow or stabbed straight into Haoyuan's hard waist and back scales, which endured the blows head-on.
Though the dragon scales were deeply dented, the damage was far less severe than what his belly had sustained.
On the other hand, the forty-plus-meter sauropod titanosaur cried out in pain under the impact transferred through Haoyuan's body. Coupled with being accidentally stabbed by the tree roots, it could barely endure, teetering on the verge of collapse.
Haoyuan climbed onto the back of this eight-meter-tall sauropod titanosaur.
Suddenly, a shrill roar echoed from the sky, so intense that Haoyuan's ear membranes throbbed with pain.
Finding its Icy Mist ineffective, the bird monster had changed its tactics.
Terrible sonic waves rippled outward. The dinosaurs and pseudo-dragons in the midst of battle were instantly knocked down like grass by the sound, suffering terribly.
Haoyuan took a glance and felt deeply pained for his herd.
He immediately aimed in the direction of the bird monster and unleashed a furious dragon roar.
The two soundwaves collided. The instant they met in the sky, they crushed each other into powder, forming a powerful white shockwave that rippled through the air.
The bird monster's soundwave was no match for Haoyuan's dragon roar. Blown backward by the blast, it uttered a sharp, agonizing cry.
Right at that moment, tree roots snuck up in front of Haoyuan. Under his astonished gaze, one shot directly into his mouth, secreting venom.
He hastily bit down with force. His sharp teeth slammed into the hard tree root, and though it jarred his teeth, he managed to crush the root completely.
The venom made contact with the mucous membranes inside Haoyuan's mouth, causing a violent, burning pain followed by widespread numbness.
Haoyuan was shocked; he hadn't expected the venom to be so lethal.
Even his internal mucous membranes, enhanced so many times, failed to completely block it.
A surging torrent of water burst forth from his throat, flushing out all the root fragments in his mouth while washing his throat clean, significantly easing the burning sensation.
Haoyuan couldn't help but feel a deep sense of wariness toward the root monster.
Both of his injuries had been caused by the tree roots. Not only were they hard and sharp, but they were also venomous and extremely insidious.
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