Lin Mu could feel a massive presence forming in the lake.
The presence was strong enough that one didn't even need to have an affinity to the fire element to sense it. The same was the case for Lady Kang and Little Shrubby, they too felt the presence and knew that it was going to be a tough battle ahead of them.
'Considering its sheer size, it will take at least a quarter of the lake's size.' Lin Mu estimated before his gaze went to the iron key in the central platform. The place that the platform was forming was right next to it, and with the rising lava mound, Lin Mu felt worried about the key.
'Considering this is a trial, there should be fail conditions too… If we let that key get damaged, we'll probably fail it.' Lin Mu grasped and decided to prevent that from happening.
~SHUA~
Then in the next moment he disappeared, appearing at the central platform. "Teleportation?" Lady Kang witnessed Lin Mu's sudden movement and knew what it was. "But to do it so effortlessly… His proficiency with Space is indeed quite good… If he really was using all his skills during the tournament, others simply would not have lasted more than a minute." She muttered to herself.
In fact, she thought that even for her going up against Lin Mu would be a difficult task. Lin Mu's spatial abilities gave him superior maneuverability as well as the ability to dodge basically every attack that came his way.
'The only way it would be possible to go against him would be to let him exhaust himself. Using Spatial Skills is not easy and costs quite a lot of Qi after all.' Lady Kang thought to herself, not knowing that she was wrong.
Though her assumption was wrong only in the case of Lin Mu. If it were any other cultivator, using spatial skills would indeed cost quite a lot of Qi. Then there was the fact that she didn't know the true extent of Lin Mu's Spatial abilities. He hadn't revealed all of them yet.
While she was thinking all this, Lin Mu had taken hold of the iron key. His immortal sense scanned the key closely and found that it was indeed just a basic iron key. Something which could be easily damaged by an attack, or melt if it fell in the lava around it.
In fact, the key was actually quite hot from the surrounding heat. If a mortal were to touch it, their skin would become charred.
~SHUA~
"There we go," Lin Mu said, safely storing the key away in the ring.
~SPLASH~
And just as he did that, a large glob of lava fell right where the key had been a moment ago.
"Yeah, it was the right decision to get the key." Lin Mu muttered, knowing just how close to failure they had been. "Though it's not over yet… gotta get rid of this thing too." He said looking up at the mound of lava that had now taken on a proper shape.
This lava slug was several times bigger than the previous giant lava slugs and also had a different body type. It had two heads that were attached to a singular flat body that was about two hundred meters long!
It then had black rocky spikes that covered its back, and extended all the way to its heads. On its head, it had two pairs of eyes each that glowed in a bright orange light. Its mouths were large and cavernous, filled with sharp and spiky teeth that were made from dark obsidian.
~Rilllllllllll!~
The massive lava slug let out a trilling cry from its two heads, that glared at Lin Mu and Lady Kang.
'At least as strong as a Fifth Tribulation Stage Immortal.' Lin Mu estimated feeling the sheer amount of energy that was emitting from the beast's body.
If he were to consider the previous lava slugs, the small ones were as strong as First Tribulation Stage immortals, while the giant ones were as strong as Third Tribulation Stage Immortals. And now the colossal version was skipping two stages again, reaching the fifth stage.
Though it would be a mistake to compare it to a normal fifth tribulation stage beast. Not only was it larger than most such beasts, but it also had bigger energy stores. "Can you sense its core, Little Shrubby?" Lin Mu questioned finding the density of fire element within the colossal lava slug to be a bit too high.
"I can't right now." Little Shrubby replied. "Its all feels the same inside its body." He added.
"Hmm… Looks like we'll have to explore on our own." Lin Mu said, getting ready for the battle.
~BOOM~
"I'll start first!" Lady Kang took the lead and shot a fragmenting star right into the right head of the colossal slug.
The fragmenting star exploded and created a meter wide hole in the Colossal Lava Slug's head. ~Rilllllllll!~
But that only served to enrage the lava slug, as it spat out a giant ball of lava at Lady Kang.
~SPLASH~
The ball of lava was avoided by Lady Kang, and it landed on the ground, creating a pool of lava there. The heat from the lava was strong enough to melt the floor under it, showing that it was strengthened by the colossal lava slug.
~SHING~SHING~SHING~
Lin Mu slashed out with Afternoon Pine, cutting three notches into the body of the slug.
"Hmm… It's quite dense." Lin Mu observed that his cuts hadn't gone deeper than half a meter.
Which was basically the same as a notch when considering the size of the lava slug. "Afternoon pine!" This time, Lin Mu used a strong attack, activating the sword's skill.
The yellow sword slash transformed into a large pine tree, that stabbed into the colossal lava slug!
It then quickly grew branches and leaves inside the slug's body, before they started protruding out of multiple holes.
The metal elemental immortal Qi from the yellow Metal pine tree started spreading from the leaves, causing thousands of small cuts to appear on the beast's body.
~splat~splat~splat~
This caused a lot of lava to splash around, but the beast still seemed to be tolerating it.
'Hmm, the core is hidden well.' Lin Mu narrowed his eyes.
Lin Mu had intentionally used the skill of Afternoon Pine, as he knew it had a rather large spread. And since the energy core was hidden in the body of the lava slug, it would be the perfect to hit it from the inside. Though it didn't seem like Lin Mu had managed to hit the core.
~Rillllllll!~
The Slug let out a cry before its back bulged. ~SHA~ SHA~SHA~SHA~
The sharp spikes that were on its back suddenly shot everywhere at great speed, causing massive damage to the area.
~THUD~THUD~THUD~
Craters were left wherever the stone spikes landed, as if they were mortars. ~BOOM~
Lady Kang accurately shot at the ones that were coming towards her, causing them to explode midair. ~WHOOSH~
Little Shrubby directly dodged them with his speed, managing to track their moment with ease.
Lin Mu on the other hand, didn't even dodge them instead getting closer to them and directly letting them pass through him.
Flicker!
While the Longgui Bulwark Armor would have easily managed to block the incoming spikes, it would have also slowed down Lin Mu. And since he couldn't fly here, he had to do his best in dodging them instead. ~SHING~
And when Lin Mu was just ten meters from the slug, he used Afternoon Pine's skill again, causing another metal pine tree to grow inside the beast's body!
~Poot~poot~poot~
As it pustules were exploding, branches and leaves popped out of the slugs body.
"If one doesn't work, I'll just add ten more!" Lin Mu smirked.
~SHING~SHING~SHING~
Lin Mu continued to slash out, each slash creating another yellow metal pine tree that pierced through the colossal slugs body. In just a few seconds, the two headed slug had been skewered from all sides, causing it to get stuck in a single place!
"Now to look properly for the core," Lin Mu said before directly diving into the body of the slug!
Lady Kang couldn't even say anything before Lin Mu had already entered the lava slug's body. She was a bit concerned, but reckoned if he had taken this decision, he should be confident of himself.
"Sure enough…" A couple seconds later, she saw Lin Mu swimming inside the slug's body.
Unlike the energy core, it was a lot easier for Lady Kang to sense Lin Mu inside the beast's body. He stood out in all that fire energy inside the beast's body while the pine trees kept the slug frozen. ~CREAK~
But it didn't seem like the tactic was going to work for long, as the slug started to struggle against the skewering trees.
~HUA~
And ten seconds later, its anger seemed to have reached a point where it was burning hot. This reflected on its body, as the metal pine trees started to succumb to the heat of the lava. After that, it didn't take long for them to melt down and become part of its body.
~BOOM~
But just as it had finished melting down all the metal pine trees, one of its head exploded!
"Haha! Knew it would be easier to find it from the inside." Lin Mu's laughter could be heard, as he jumped out from the slug's neck.
He had just destroyed the energy core that was hiding inside the slug's head.
