Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Using this chance to secure the aggression of the subordinates of the Deep Sea Alligator king towards it, the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse flapped its wings turned around and ran. The hundreds of Elden Lizardmen were behind it in hot pursuit.

GRUUHH… the sandy yellowish eyes of the Deep Sea Alligator king were still locked on the warhorse who appeared and disturbed its sleep out of nowhere.

At first, when the Deep Sea Alligator king saw the appearance of the warhorse and how fearless it acted in front of hundreds of its subordinates, it thought that something was wrong.

It ruled the northern region of the ghastly winding forest as its overlord for over more than fifty years. Over the period of time, it faced numerous opponents many of which were from the western region of the forest.

But because its power wasn't enough, it was chased away by the other powerful monsters from that region and came to the northern part of the forest.

Even though the concentration of mana here was far less pure and the size of the lake was very small, it had no choice but to make this place its territory. It chased away the former residents of this place and ruled over this area like an overlord for dozens of years.

It fought with a few others that were around its power level and finally secured its position around the northern region of the forest. Thus it was cautious when it came to enemies that did not show any fear in front of it.

Just when it was considering whether the enemy was hiding its strength, it saw the latter turn tail and run away. The Deep Sea Alligator immediately lost interest, even if its intelligence was high, it never considered the possibility that it was all a plot.

It let its subordinate chase the enemy away and was just about to dive back inside the lake when dozens of flame arrows came manifesting out of nowhere and targeted it.

BOOOM … BOOOM… the water on the surface of the lake shook and a deep guttural noise came from the Deep Sea Alligator king. Although it did not take much damage from the last attack, it was still enraged by the hidden attack.

It scanned the surroundings but was still unable to find the location of the hidden enemy.

Right at this moment a few more attacks, this time of lightning attribute, came flying from its blind spot. Nevertheless, it was prepared for an attack this time and hence intercepted the attack even before it came closer to it.

A long spiky tail appeared out of the lake dispersing a massive amount of water that blocked the incoming attack.

GRUHHH… after easily dealing with the attack, it looked towards the forest and roared. Because of the attack earlier, it was now aware of the location of the hidden enemy.

The deep sea Alligator king swam till the shore of the lake and finally came out of its abode. Looking at its broad wide body which was decked with spiky plated skin like an armour, short legs and powerful jaws, one could only say that it was menacing to behold.

After it appeared out of the lake, it extended its short legs and slammed it on the ground making huge spiky rocks emerge out of it in a straight line. The attack from the Deep sea Alligator King travelled at a high speed and targeted one of the particular trees amongst the sea of trees.

BANG… the tree was quickly skewered by the numerous spiky stones that emerged out of the ground. However, seconds before the attack hit the tree, a shadow dashed out of it and dodged the attack just in time.

The Deep Sea Alligator King narrowed its eyes and roared causing the trees in the path to be uprooted and blown away. After everything barring its vision of the hidden enemy was removed, it was finally able to see who it was that dared to sneak an attack on him.

Pale white skin, crimson eyes and horns. That dark and malevolent aura released from its body were the signature characteristic of a particular race. There was no doubt about it, the one in front of it was from that race.

BAM... BAM… BAM… the Deep Sea Alligator King walked forward, its enormous body along with its weight made it so that the ground trembled whenever it took a step. It lowered its head and stared menacingly at its enemy.

"What is a Demon Noble doing here?".

A wicked smile was hanging in the corner of his lips, hands folded, the being was standing tall even in front of its presence. Simon who was now face to face with the Deep Sea Alligator was only a few meters away from it.

The distance was so close that the Deep Sea Alligator King can open its mouth and just eat him. Nevertheless, Simon did not back down and reacted by releasing his own aura.

"Indeed, I'm a demon noble. You must be one of the overlords of this region, the Deep Sea Alligator king?" Simon said using [Analysis] on the being.

Race- Deep Sea Alligator King

Level- 476

Skills- Water Magic Mastery, Earth magic Mastery, Bunt Super Resistance, Cut Resistance, Super Enhanced Strength, Super Enhanced Defence, Super Enhanced Endurance, Sense Presence, High-Speed Regeneration, Body Enhancement, Berserk, Raise Guard, Body Slam, Overpower.

Inherent Skill- [Swift Swim], [Hydro Breath], [Tail Slam], [Hardened Scales], [Poison Touch], [Brutal Bite], [Spill], [Spike].

"Hehh, to stand and face me even after knowing who I am, Demon Noble I applaud your courage. However, you are not my match. If you run away now, I will overlook your previous transgressions… now scram" The Deep Sea Alligator King roared and bared its spiky teeth threateningly.

Even though it hadn't yet reached level 500, due to its intelligence being higher than other creatures and close to complete evolution, it was somehow capable of speech.

Simon smiled in front of its intimidating behaviour, instead of backing down in front of an enemy that was multiple times stronger than him, he pressed forward and even tried to incur the ire of his enemy.

"Haha, It seems like I'll be disappointing you in that case. I am not here to run away but to subdue you. From this moment forward, I claim the northern region of the Ghastly Winding forest as my own territory. You who are living in it, have two choices, either become my subordinate and swear unwavering loyalty to me or die".

After finishing his sentence, there was a silence of a good few seconds before the Deep Sea Alligator King became furious. It extended one of its legs and tried to smash Simon underneath it.

BANG… "You puny ant dare to have thoughts about subduing me?!! Who do you think I am??".

A deep depression formed on the ground and cracks appeared within a few meters of area. Just from this attack, one could see the raw strength the beast possesses.

Simon who had dodged the stomp without any problem, appeared a few meters away from it.

"Does this mean that you are defying me?" Simon asked with a haughty attitude that was meant to irk his opponent even more.

As he had planned, the Deep Sea Alligator King became more furious after it saw this attitude.

"Taking claim of the northern region? Know your place puny Demon Noble!!!" It started chasing after Simon who kept dodging its attack and backtracking.

To make sure that he had the entire focus of his opponent on him, Simon did not shy away from using his powerful and mana consuming attacks and bombarded his enemy with them even when he knew that the latter was taking hardly any damage from it.

Those plated scales of the Deep Sea Alligator King were so durable that they easily shook off most of the intermediate tier magic attacks from Simon.

Whoosh... a powerful tail sweep came from the left side that cleanly cut all the boulders and trees behind him.

Managing to dodge that attack somehow, Simon fell back and observed the tail in dread. A droplet of sweat trickled down his face, his expression completely serious.

That attack earlier, that tail sweep from the Deep Sea Alligator king was so fast and fierce that had it not been for his increased levels and battle practice with the Valkyries for the past few weeks, he would have been completely decimated or seriously injured by that.

That long slither tails packed enough power to even crumble a mountain and bypass Simon's defence stats. The Deep Sea Alligator King, most of its stats were focused around its strength and defence.

However, it was extremely slow. Other than a few parts of its body like its tail, its other attacks were extremely slow.

BANG… BANG… BANG…

Perhaps it learned that its attacks weren't connecting and it started swinging its tail in a frenzy more and more. For it, the demon was an annoying bug that was difficult to swat.

Simon would doge its attack and lead it deeper towards the forest while simultaneously trying to figure out its weak point from his magic attacks.

Even though it was to keep all of its attention on him, Simon wasn't just blindly bombarding it with attacks. If one looked carefully, Simon never attacked the same place twice and was continuously observing and analysing his enemy.

Thanks to his battle experience, and his high mana pool that made it possible, Simon finally noticed a pattern. Whenever he attacked the Deep Sea Alligator king's lower body, or any attacks that specifically targeted its underbelly, it would always lower its body and use its back to endure all of the attacks.

This pattern was so frequent that it was on the level of a behaviour. Since the Deep Sea Alligator king had a streamlined body that was flat to the ground, Simon was unable to see its belly.

However, from its behaviour, he could tell that its weakness or something that it did not want to expose lay there.