Seed of Titan-Chapter 163: Tussling in the Deep

While the golden ape was contemplating whether this other hairless biped actually managed to grow stronger than himself in the span of several weeks, Drai turned into a white streak that quickly slammed into the ape’s less hairy chest.

The Lightning King howled as he shot farther across the Endless Blue. He managed to stabilize himself halfway before plunging into the river through successive uses of mini electric blasts, but judging from his ragged breathing, it was obvious that he had sustained considerable damage from Drai’s body slam.

Drai quickly flew over, but inwardly he was rejoicing because he had actually managed to pull off something he had never tried before—a grab-lunge. It was actually no different from his other grab moves, but for this particular maneuver, he had to picture himself as a human pincer machine, with each of his limbs acting as a claw. The result was an abrupt acceleration of his entire body’s forward momentum regardless of him being in a flying state.

Drai had only attempted this out of impulse, so he was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be highly feasible. He even felt that it was considerably easier to execute than his grab-kicks.

"You should’ve stuck to the trees, apey," Drai remarked before slamming into his foe again.

Having been made aware of his inadequate toughness, the Lightning King released a powerful lightning blast as a defensive measure, but that only managed to trivially scorch Drai and lessen the impact slightly before the ape was smashed away once more.

Drai’s mocking remark was actually right on the mark. Just like the Sky King, the Lightning King also still had a trump card, but the reason he hadn’t used the powerful skill wasn’t because of its tremendous energy expenditure but because it was practically useless in an aerial battle since the ape’s aerial mobility would still be very limited in comparison to its opponent’s. Perhaps using it could extend the ape’s struggle, but nothing more—the skill still wouldn’t allow him to gain an upper hand, let alone securing victory. Venturing beyond the shore was indeed a huge blunder by the Lightning King, but that only happened because he hadn’t accounted for Drai’s godly improvement rate.

This time the golden ape failed to stop far enough from the water, prompting a few croc-fish to leap out, eager to shred the stranded jungle ruler to pieces.

However, what happened next was the opposite—it was the croc-fish that ended up getting zapped and torn apart instead.

Drai hovered at a distance, staring at the Lightning King that was furiously staring back at him while standing on a floating charred body of a croc-fish, basked in fresh blood.

’If I let him live, he might send his entire army after me. That would be interesting, but I don’t want to inconvenience Max and Madeleine. I better finish him now.’

Drai immediately swooped in. Meanwhile, the Lightning King stood his ground, intending to duke it out on the river’s surface or even underwater, which to him seemed like way better alternatives compared to re-entering a highly disadvantageous aerial duel.

Right before Drai could land his attack, the Lightning King’s body glowed red. Suddenly, the ape’s arms blurred, and Drai was immediately knocked down, slamming hard into the water.

As coldness enveloped him, Drai quickly held his breath. But before he could swim up, his back was struck again by a jolting dull blow, launching him deeper into the water.

Drai tried willing himself to fly forward, but to his dismay, his normally responsive skill didn’t heed his intent at all.

’Fuck! Flying doesn’t work underwater!?’

It was truly an oversight on Drai’s part as he had never tried out his flight ability underwater even once since he acquired it, but this was mostly due to the meadows’ not housing any large body of water, leading to this particular blind spot in his skill utilization.

Meanwhile, the Lightning King smirked menacingly upon noticing Drai’s uneasiness. He propelled forward and grabbed onto Drai’s feet before releasing a surge of high voltage electricity.

This time Drai was painfully shocked by the attack that easily wrapped around his entire body and rapidly seeped into his more vulnerable inner organs. Although the damage wasn’t too great and he could still maintain full consciousness and control, he hurriedly set up his auto recovery in case he actually blacked out. It was after seeing the System’s confirmation that he regained his calm a bit.

Drai bent his knees, yanking the Lightning King toward him, and smacked the ape’s large head with a hammer-strike. In turn, the ape sank its fangs into Drai’s thigh, only to recoil as the bite sent more pain through its own teeth and gums than into its foe.

Afterward, the two kept tussling as their bodies sank deeper due to Drai’s increased weight. The waters also steadily darkened along their descent, and not too long after, both of them were almost out of breath.

Drai didn’t know whether his healing skill could restore his breath, but it was far too late to retreat now, so he could only pray that he could somehow survive this ordeal. On the other hand, the Lightning King was totally regretting ever getting himself into this unnecessary predicament. It was obvious to them that regardless of the fight’s result, both of them would likely end up nourishing the river’s inhabitants. Even now, numerous aquatic eyes were greedily observing the pair from afar, ready to swoop in once the water surrounding their meal was clear of electrical currents.

Just then, the waters churned, and both Drai and the Lightning King were swept away by a powerful torrent. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

’Just fucking pass out already!’ Drai soundlessly screamed, tightly clamping his foe’s neck with his feet as he withstood the painful electrocution that had risen significantly in voltage since the past ten seconds.

At the same time, the Lightning King was frantically unleashing the greatest amount of electricity he could muster, as he was steadily losing consciousness from Drai’s improvised chokehold.

Suddenly, the two were hurled into the air. This startled them greatly, causing them to lose their grip on each other. The two quickly came to their senses though and inhaled the fresh air voraciously. However, their eyes almost instantly watered, and they immediately fell into a fit of coughing, gagging in disgust.

It turned out the air wasn’t fresh at all—it was rancid and putrid.

Disregarding his repugnance, Drai activated his flight to stop his fall. On the other hand, the Lightning King had almost run out of lightning and energy, so he could only helplessly plunge.

A nasty splash echoed, and shortly after, the golden ape could be heard howling in panic.

The area was completely dark aside from the air surrounding Drai which was being illuminated by Nova Flux, so Drai didn’t know why the Lightning King was panicking like that.

"Did you fall into a pile of poop or something, apey?" Drai curiously asked as he slowly hovered toward the noise. Upon arriving there, he could see that the ape was almost completely submerged in a viscous liquid that seemed to be burning him, as his submerged part was faintly sizzling.

The ape looked at Drai pleadingly and waved his sizzling arms.

"Heh. If both of us hadn’t just been stranded in this strange place, I would’ve mistaken you for a shitty underling ape. Who knew your cocky-ass smug could make such a pitiful expression?" Drai teased cheerfully. Just now, he felt it was totally worth going through all the trouble just to witness this single moment.

The ape secretly raged due to the hairless biped’s obvious contempt, but outwardly, he maintained his undignified demeanor, whimpering for help.

"Say sorry first," Drai ordered.

The sizzling ape shook his head, sending Drai a confused look.

"Say sorry. Saaww-riiee..."

Somehow, the ape understood this. With some difficulty, he curled his mouth and growled, "Wowiiee..."

Drai instantly burst into laughter, which echoed throughout the dark chamber. Right below him, the Lightning King was trembling in fury, so much that he barely felt his body sizzling. Still, the eerily clever ape quickly suppressed this and extended his arms upward in resignation.

"Oh shit, my stomach hurts... Damn it, you’re so fucking funny, apey!" Drai eventually remarked while wiping off his tears. He then lowered his hand and yanked the Lightning King loose from the viscous, murky water and carried him along.

"Where the hell are we even? Did we get sucked into some kind of underwater cave?" Drai mused loudly as he slowly flew forward with the golden ape dangling from his hand.

Minutes later, the two stumbled into a huge wall. However, the wall looked weird, as if it was made of organic matter. There were also numerous bumpy parts along its surface, varying in size.

Drai hovered there, contemplating. "Hmm... I guess there’s no other choice but to blast thro—YEOW!"

Drai reflexively swung his hand that had just been stung with immense pain, which ended up hurling the Lightning King toward the wall.

The large ape quickly latched onto several protruding parts of the strange wall before turning to Drai, grunting cheerfully.

A vein popped on Drai’s forehead as he looked at the ungrateful primate while fresh blood flowed out of his left hand, which was missing most of its fingers.

Even without the crunches coming from the ape’s chewing mouth, Drai had no doubt on what had just happened.

For the first time ever, Drai’s mouth curved into a cold, menacing smile.