Half an hourglass had passed since the battle at the edge of the pool had begun.
Locke, who was hiding behind the boulder, was watching the battle not far away. He saw that the humanoid creature was covered in scratches and green blood seeped through its ragged clothes.
Although it wasn't caught by the giant crocodile, it inevitably collided with the scales and sharp stones at the edge of the pool as it dodged. However, this was already the best outcome compared to being caught by the giant crocodile. If it had been caught by the giant crocodile, it would have been torn apart and swallowed in an instant.
However, the giant crocodile seemed to have had enough of the humanoid creature's provocation. It planted one of its claws on the ground and opened its huge mouth, which was nearly two-thirds the length of its body. A pale blue gas gathered in its mouth, causing the surrounding temperature to drop a little. Finally, the pale blue gas condensed into a ball.
When the humanoid creature noticed that the pale blue ball had begun to condense in the giant crocodile's mouth, it screamed in horror and began to run away, ignoring the scratches it received and the giant crocodile's other claw.
The light blue ball in the crocodile's mouth was finally formed. With a "piu" sound, it hurled itself at the humanoid creature. The humanoid creature's nimble body and speed were so slow in front of the light blue ball that the crocodile had shot out.
"Bang!" The humanoid creature was hit with a dull thud. Amid the sound of ice forming, its body slowly froze. Its hands flashed with a black light, and the ice that had condensed on its arms showed signs of weakening as if it had been corroded by acid. However, it was only a small sign.
In the end, the black glowing arm was still frozen, and the pale blue ball seemed to have exhausted its energy and began to dissipate. The space gradually calmed down, leaving only an ice sculpture of about 1.3 meters on the ground, telling the story of the fierce battle that had taken place earlier.
The giant crocodile was now crawling on the ground on all fours. Its mouth was slightly open, and it was panting heavily. There was a look of exhaustion in its eyes. It seemed that the pale blue gas wasn't released for free.
Slowly leaving the edge of the pool, the giant crocodile crawled to the side of the frozen humanoid creature. It opened its mouth wide and bit the ice sculpture into pieces, chewing and swallowing it.
Crunch, crunch... In the silent space, only the sound of the giant crocodile eating could be heard for the time being.
Seeing that the giant crocodile was focused on eating, Locke, who had been lurking on the other side for a long time, moved.
He gestured to Elaine to stay here, then bent down and kicked off his legs, accelerating abruptly. His speed wasn't any slower than the humanoid creature from before.
"Roar!!!" The giant crocodile was stunned by Locke's sudden appearance.
Then, seeing that Locke was obviously coming towards him with ill intentions, he didn't care about the ice sculpture he had swallowed and quickly spat it out. He got down on all fours and got into a defensive position, ready to face this new enemy.
It felt that Locke was much stronger than the dwarf.
The ice sculpture that it had spat out fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. The humanoid creature's body also shattered into pieces. The giant crocodile's powerful battle prowess was constantly displayed.
In the blink of an eye, Locke was already in front of the crocodile. A green longsword appeared in his hand in a flash. While the crocodile was distracted, a deep green impetus surged from the edge of the longsword and the tip of the sword was already close to the crocodile's nose.
The giant crocodile felt a piercing sense of danger, but because the sword was too fast, it could only twist its body and move its head a little.
Locke had originally aimed for the crocodile's head horizontally, but as the crocodile twisted its body, he managed to cut the crocodile's neck.
"Roar!!" The giant crocodile let out a painful howl. Scarlet blood with a little bit of blue frost gushed out from the wound on its neck.
Locke, who was the closest to it, was drenched in his armor. Through the sturdy and thick armor, Locke could still feel the coldness in the blood.
The giant crocodile swept its tail, forcing Locke to take a few steps back. Then, it arched its body slightly and the light blue gas from before appeared in its mouth again, causing the surrounding temperature to drop again.
Locke's expression changed when he felt the change in the surrounding temperature. He covered his head with his arm shield with one hand and brandished his longsword with the other, charging forward again.
The light blue ball that the giant crocodile released was a little faster than before. Before Locke could get close to it again, a blue ice ball had already formed and was quickly flying towards Locke's face.
Bang! The ice ball shattered when it hit a hard object, and a large amount of blue mist instantly appeared in the surroundings, blocking everyone's vision.
The giant crocodile cautiously took a step back with its right claw. With its strong intuition, it could sense that the enemy that suddenly appeared was not dead. Its fist-sized eyeballs slid to the pool not far away, and it was already planning to escape.
But before the giant crocodile could make its next move, a black figure appeared from the blue mist. Locke was holding a longsword, and his entire body was emitting a green impetus glow, which was especially obvious in the dark cave.
Through observation, one could see that Locke's body was covered in frost of varying degrees, and the stubble on his chin was even whiter. It was obvious that Locke wasn't feeling good after taking the giant crocodile's ice ball head-on.
Locke rushed out again, causing the giant crocodile to roar loudly and crash into him head-on. Locke had appeared in the direction of the pool, so if it wanted to return to the pool, it would have to knock Locke away.
Through the battle between the giant crocodile and the short humanoid, Locke knew that this was the crocodile's weakest state. If he wanted to get rid of this giant crocodile once and for all, now was the best time.
Activating the impetus in his body, Locke went straight for the giant crocodile.
This was a head-on battle. The giant crocodile's huge size and narrow terrain severely hindered Locke's ability to fight, so he could only choose to fight it head-on.
Fortunately, Locke had already changed into his light blue heavy armour before entering the cave. It allowed him to collide with the three-meter-long giant crocodile without much of a disadvantage.
"Bang!" Finally, a piece of the scales on the giant crocodile's face was knocked off, and it let out a painful roar. Locke's shoulder also had an obvious dent.
As the two fought, the giant crocodile didn't bleed as much as other creatures because the wound had been frozen, and the white ice perfectly prevented the wound from worsening.
This was the reason why the giant crocodile, which was only a mid-level major monster, could persist for so long after being injured by Locke's sneak attack.
Holding his longsword tightly, Locke decided to end the battle. His reserves of impetus had been greatly depleted in the consecutive clashes, and no one knew if there were any hidden dangers in the dark.