However, Akagi Shu knew the battle wouldn’t end so quickly. His opponent definitely had another move up his sleeve.

He stared intently at his opponent, watching the carpet of fireballs rain down.

Cyan Treasure’s skin suddenly took on an earthy hue, close to the color of the dirt beneath it.

’Wait, that couldn’t be...?’

Akagi Shu’s heart skipped a beat.

In the blink of an eye, Cyan Treasure seemed to melt into mud, burrowing into the ground just before the fireballs hit.

This left Akagi Shu utterly astonished.

"What?

"You also know an Earth Element Ultimate Skill Body Technique!"

He had previously been thinking about how to wear down the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster’s Mana by waiting it out if they met again.

He never expected the Little Cyan Snake would also know the Earth Escape Technique.

It was a real eye-opener for Akagi Shu.

Cyan Treasure was clearly a Grass Element Pet Beast, yet it had learned a cross-attribute Earth Element Body Technique.

’That requires some truly advanced training methods.’

It was said that this was a training program only available to Beastmasters in first-tier cities.

’Which expert did the Gu Family hire as a private tutor?’

To be honest, he was tempted. He wanted to poach them.

He also wanted to teach his Pet Beast moves of other Attributes to make the Red Flame Flood Dragon’s skill set more versatile, with more options.

This Earth Escape Body Technique was called an Ultimate Skill because it was just too overpowered in the early stages.

A Pet Beast that burrows underground can ignore any attack on the surface.

Unless an attack could blast through the ground and create a crater hundreds of meters deep.

Otherwise, against a Pet Beast that knew the Earth Escape Technique, you were basically helpless. You could only wait and try to drain its Mana.

In a wilderness battle, without a detection-type Pet Beast to help, the opponent could escape without you even knowing.

He had been too careless and underestimated his opponent before, letting the Red Flame Flood Dragon recklessly waste Mana spewing fire.

He wouldn’t make that mistake now. He immediately had the Red Flame Flood Dragon stop its unfinished flame attack, then had it pull up and get farther from the ground.

The scene quickly devolved into a stalemate.

Gu Ming watched for a few seconds. Seeing the Red Flame Flood Dragon hovering in the air, not descending or breathing fire, he knew his opponent had decided to get into a war of attrition with Cyan Treasure to see who was the king of endurance.

The Red Flame Flood Dragon had two pairs of underdeveloped wings. Although it couldn’t fly at high altitudes yet, low-altitude flight below five meters was more than manageable.

If it flew any higher, the consumption of Physical Strength, and even Mana, would increase.

Gu Ming didn’t know about the Red Flame Flood Dragon’s Physical Strength, but seeing the red necklace around Akagi Shu’s neck, he knew his opponent came from a wealthy family and must have poured a lot of precious resources into the creature.

The paper file from his homeroom teacher showed that his opponent had mastered Skills like the Fireball Technique, a Breathing Technique, the Sub-Flame Dragon Cannon, and the Wandering Dragon Soaring Body Technique. Last month’s test score of 280 for the three dimensions showed its physical stats were formidable.

Its strongest ultimate attack was the Sub-Flame Dragon Cannon.

The next level up from this move was the Flame Dragon Cannon, and the level above that was the Super-Killing Flame Dragon-Piercing Cannon. The name was long, but the principle was basically the same: use the Core Inner Elixir at its highest temperature as a power source to propel a Laser blast.

The Sub-Flame Dragon Cannon was the "youth edition" or downgraded version of this technique. It wasn’t a Laser Skill, but a direct blast from a highly condensed pillar of flame, and its destructive power was just as terrifying.

It was this very move that had broken through the Turtle Wood Flood Dragon’s absolute defense.

Gu Ming remained secretly vigilant. From the information he had, he knew this move could be charged up in its belly ahead of time and held back.

’I have to bait it into using that move.’

A pure contest of Endurance could go on forever.

Although Cyan Treasure’s Mana Evolution was based on the Frozen Pill Method, giving its Inner Core a depth of Mana far exceeding that of other Snake Pets its age...

...its opponent was a true member of the Sub-dragon Race and had been well-fed with resources. Perhaps their Mana reserves were on par with each other.

It was hard to say who would outlast whom.

And the opponent’s Flaming Dragon Curtain was a great counter to ranged attacks like Storm Ball. He had to get around it to hit the target.

’So, how should I play this?’

’I’ve got it!’

Through the Pet Beast Contract, Gu Ming secretly sent a Mental Suggestion, telling it to emerge from the ground far away from the Flood Dragon and release an enhanced Storm Ball.

Cyan Treasure received the suggestion and nodded.

The target was the spot directly below the Flood Dragon, not the Flood Dragon itself.

But when it was time to fire, its master hinted that it needed to use a special technique.

What technique?

It suddenly emerged from the ground and glanced at its master.

Gu Ming moved two fingers in a downward swimming motion and mouthed silently, "Knuckleball!"

Cyan Treasure had a flash of understanding, recalling the clever idea its master had come up with while it was practicing Storm Ball.

’It’s that move!’

It just hadn’t practiced it much.

It originated during a dream-training session. During a break, Gu Ming had pulled out a soccer ball from his room and started kicking it around with Cyan Treasure to relax.

It was during that dream-game that it learned about the various ways to kick a soccer ball.

Its master’s meaning was to give the Storm Ball some variation instead of just shooting it in a straight line.

’I get it!’

The next second, it burrowed back into the ground.

The Red Flame Flood Dragon watched coldly the entire time. It almost couldn’t resist the urge to blast it with a Sub-Flame Dragon Cannon.

At that depth, a Sub-Flame Dragon Cannon could blast a crater several meters deep.

It wasn’t impossible that it could hit it.

But its master had already laid out the plan, so it couldn’t object.

This allowed Gu Ming and Cyan Treasure to communicate for a second or two without being attacked.

Gu Ming glanced over at Akagi Shu, his expression growing more serious.

’Putting his terrible personality aside, the guy really is patient when it counts. He’s a formidable opponent.’

「Underground.」

Having received its master’s instructions, Cyan Treasure moved rapidly through the earth, recalling the feeling of playing soccer with its master in the dream.

According to its master, to pull off a knuckleball, you had to add a certain spin to it.

This was where the wonders of the Earth Shifting Technique came in.

Earth Shifting could not only move its own body, but also sand and dirt outside its body, or even other objects.

However, moving non-earth objects would cause Mana consumption to increase drastically.

Fortunately, Cyan Treasure had a powerful Magic Power Inner Core, so a little extra consumption was nothing.

Cyan Treasure moved to the edge of the field, its mouth already fully charged with a Storm Ball laced with a large amount of venom.

As the Earth Shifting Technique and the Array operated in sync...

...the instant Cyan Treasure emerged, a large amount of dust and dirt was moved into its mouth, compressing together with the high-pressure Spiritual Qi.

It didn’t know if this hastily modified move would actually work.

Everyone just saw that Cyan Treasure couldn’t sit still any longer. After moving underground for half a minute, it reappeared and opened its mouth to spit out an ultra-high-speed Storm Ball.

BOOM!

Under the influence of its Origin Power, the Storm Ball shot from Cyan Treasure’s mouth like a heavy cannonball, letting out a world-shaking sound of explosion.

The Red Flame Flood Dragon immediately beat its wings, casting down a Flaming Dragon Curtain. This curtain was infused with intense fire that could explode on contact with air, specifically designed to counter Wind Element moves like Storm Ball.

However, the ball’s trajectory was strange. It wasn’t flying in a straight line, but bobbing up and down in the air, soaring high before suddenly plummeting.

This made the Red Flame Flood Dragon anxious. It thought the Storm Ball was going to bypass the Flaming Dragon Curtain and come straight for it.

It hurriedly beat its wings again, fanning out another curtain to defend its right side—the direction the Storm Ball was curving toward mid-air.

But after curving from the right, the ball began to plummet sharply, and it didn’t rise again.

BOOM!

The Storm Ball blew the ground to pieces. The massive gale sent grass and dirt flying everywhere, and the invisible venom spread upwards with the storm and dust.

"It missed?"

"Not good! Quick, breathe fire downwards! There’s poisonous gas!"

Akagi Shu was stunned for a second. Then, seeing the billowing smoke and dust from the explosion, he immediately realized he had been outsmarted by Gu Ming.