Chapter 15: Caiman
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 15: Caiman
I’d said I’d overcome brushes with death before.
I had no idea what I was talking about.
That time I coughed up blood and collapsed before coming to this world?
I was reincarnated into a new body, even if it was a lizard's.
That time I escaped the Oviraptor by sacrificing my tail?
In the end, I managed to get away.
That time I was poisoned by ants and lost consciousness?
I evolved from a gecko into a basilisk.
What I had experienced was a far cry from the true terror of death.
[「Crisis Detection LV6」 has leveled up.]
My body trembled uncontrollably. My teeth chattered, and my breath came in ragged gasps.
An overwhelming fear that robbed me of all control.
This is what the terror of death felt like.
Its skin, a green so dark it was nearly black, was reminiscent of a dragon from myth.
Dozens of sharp teeth, like daggers, lined its maw. Saliva dripped from between them. Its mere presence was crushing.
【Piranha Caiman LV30(+)】
Normally, I would have been able to see its status.
But I couldn't.
All I could see was its level and name.
【Piranha Caiman】
Grows up to ■□m in length, with males weighing up to ■■■kg.
As its name suggests, its main prey is □■□, and it is hostile toward □□□.
It is a %■■ hunter that prefers to ?% its prey in the water.
And that small bit of description was all.
Even that flickered erratically, as if it were too much for me to see.
Piranha Caiman.
It was the creature I had seen from a distance when I first arrived in this swamp.
I had watched it devour a Microraptor in a single bite.
But that one hadn't been this massive.
It was 2 or 3 meters long at most. Its snout was perfectly shaped for catching piranhas and other small animals, slightly different from the typical crocodile I imagined.
That was why I hadn't paid it much mind. I had no intention of staying near its territory, and though it was bigger than me, I figured I could always escape if I needed to.
But this one was different.
My entire body was probably no bigger than one of its forelegs.
An abnormally large size.
And that symbol after its name.
It meant this creature was capable of evolution.
A Caiman that had reached the limits of its species was an opponent I could never hope to defeat.
Creeeeak.
The Caiman’s massive jaws opened wide.
Its lower jaw touched the earth, its upper jaw, the sky.
The turtle stared blankly at the sight.
It accepted its fate, not even thinking of resisting.
CRACK!
Crunch.
The turtle’s incredibly hard shell was shattered with terrifying ease.
The Caiman seemed to savor the texture, chewing until the shell was ground to powder.
The turtle’s blood flowed from between its teeth, staining the swamp water red.
The metallic stench of blood was sickening.
Just like that, the Caiman swallowed the turtle whole.
Its blue eyes scanned the area, choosing its next target.
Its massive foreleg flew through the air.
A dark shadow fell over the toad.
SPLAT!
The toad was crushed flat without even a chance to scream.
The Caiman swallowed the flattened toad in one gulp.
Its blue eyes moved once more.
The turtle and the toad were both dead.
The green lizard would be next.
Its giant foot drew closer and closer.
The world around me darkened as if night had fallen in an instant.
Only then did I realize my fate.
I was going to be eaten by the Caiman.
…….
…Why am I just standing here?
[The effect of Cold Blood is activated.]
The moment my senses returned, I threw myself aside.
CRUNCH!
Even so, I was still within the attack's range. I immediately used Tail Sever.
SWISH!
With a sudden burst of speed, I escaped its attack.
Without stopping, I activated Sprint.
I fled at the fastest speed I could possibly muster.
I almost died.
I really, truly almost died.
Did my body freeze from instinctual fear? No, seeing the toad and turtle die without any resistance, it had to be something more than that.
Like how some deep-sea fish lure their prey, perhaps this crocodile possessed a similar ability.
One thing was certain: if I hadn't regained my composure, I would have been flattened just like my severed tail back there.
The Caiman picked up my long tail and swallowed it in one bite.
Chomp.
The grotesque sound reached my ears.
I kept running, praying it would be satisfied with just the tail.
But it wasn't.
It immediately turned its head and swam toward me.
SPLASH!
The sound of it cutting through the water echoed as the distance between us closed rapidly.
Its speed was one thing, but the difference in our size was overwhelming.
At this rate, I'd be caught.
It was time to use my last resort.
I had two charges of Tail Sever.
I could use it again on my already severed tail to boost my movement speed.
I would throw it off with a sudden change of pace.
That was my plan.
‘Tail Sever!’
The moment I used the skill.
[「%! S■□ LV1」 has leveled up.]
A strange message appeared in my status window.
But I couldn't pay it any attention.
GAAAAACK!
A hideous, unnatural sound erupted, and the massive Caiman began to falter.
It gagged and choked as if something was caught in its throat.
I had no idea what was happening, but I knew this was my only chance, so I tried to keep running.
BLEGH!
That is, until the Caiman vomited everything it had swallowed.
For a moment, I thought the turtle and toad had managed to do something from inside, but there was no way they could have accomplished such a feat after being turned into minced meat.
Among the things the Caiman spewed out was an object with a familiar shape.
Despite having been in its stomach, its form was relatively intact.
It looked like a piece of a perfect sphere.
A fragment of something.
「Fragment of a Superior Inner Core」
An inner core!
And a superior one at that.
It just so happened to land right in front of me, and as if possessed, I snatched it.
The Caiman immediately began to gobble up the contents it had spilled.
It ignored things like the toad-paste and focused on the inner cores it had eaten over time.
As it frantically devoured them, it seemed to realize something was missing and let out a great roar.
“KRAAAAAAAAW!”
The roar shook the heavens and the earth.
If it caught me, my death would not be a clean one.
But I had already put enough distance between us.
At this range…
SPLASH!
How can something that big be so damn fast?
I leaped into the air and landed in a puddle of water.
And then I bolted.
Th-th-th-thump!
But no matter how hard I ran, the distance between us only continued to shrink.
If I threw the inner core and ran in the opposite direction, would it stop chasing me?
No. I couldn't do that.
Even if it would work, I wouldn't do it.
I had been on the verge of being helplessly killed by that thing.
The emotion of fear had blossomed into something else.
A feeling of something boiling up inside my chest.
Yes, it was anger.
To run away like this would be the same as admitting defeat.
I couldn't accept losing to a mere beast.
Of course, that didn't mean I wasn't going to run.
No lizard in its right mind would face that monster head-on.
But there was a way to escape without losing to it.
By taking something precious from it.
【Piranha Caiman LV30】
The symbol that had been after its level was gone.
If it couldn't retrieve this inner core fragment I stole, it would suffer a significant blow.
Gulp.
I opened my mouth wide and swallowed the fragment in one go.
There was no time to taste it.
I couldn't even absorb its energy.
I just hastily shoved it down my throat.
“KRAAAAAAAAAAH!”
The beast roared again, even louder this time.
It was, in a way, my last stand.
Now, the only way for it to retrieve the inner core would be to eat me.
Not that it wouldn't have tried to eat me anyway.
“Gekgegek!”
I let out a valiant cry of my own, not to be outdone by its roar.
The Caiman, its fury reaching a boiling point, charged blindly forward.
A single graze would be a critical hit. No.
A single graze would mean death.
I initiated my footwork.
Moving just out of reach, as if about to be caught but never quite, was my specialty.
But I had no such luxury against this opponent.
I had to get as far away as possible.
I kicked off the water's surface and grabbed a vine.
I swung between vines before landing back on the ground.
I fled through paths only I could take.
But to the Caiman, obstacles were meaningless.
CRASH!
It simply smashed through them with its brutish body.
Most obstacles couldn't stop it.
Perhaps a jungle tree or a boulder larger than the beast itself might, but this was a swamp.
There weren't many large trees.
However, there were a few massive boulders.
I pushed myself harder.
Its speed and mine were evenly matched.
But the effect of Tail Sever was starting to wear off.
I could still sprint, but I couldn't use Tail Sever again right now.
At this rate, I'd be caught.
Outrunning it was impossible.
“Krawwwwww!”
Creeeeak!
Its massive jaws opened wide.
It seemed to think it could finally devour me.
I mustered my last bit of strength and kicked off the ground.
The Little Dragon's Skyward Step was a footwork technique that mimicked the steps of a small dragon.
Dragons can fly.
I leaped to a height that might as well have been flight.
I tucked my head forward, shifting my center of gravity.
THUD!
I landed a little farther than my original landing point.
But my posture was unstable, and I felt the full impact of the fall.
The Caiman’s teeth flew toward me.
All the conditions were met.
It was time to use the technique I had been saving.
My secret technique.
Narye Tagon.
Tumble, tumble, tumble.
I ran away by rolling my body like a pill bug.
Despite its grand name, it was nothing more than rolling, but what wouldn't I do to survive?
CHOMP!
I heard the sound of its massive jaws snapping shut on empty air.
The Caiman tried to attack again, but it couldn't.
I had already escaped to a safe place.
A crevice between massive boulders.
It was a natural fortress, one I could enter but the Caiman's sharp claws could not.
“KRAAAAAAAAW!”
The Caiman let out a furious roar.
Hoo.
I panted, catching my breath.
Even a Caiman couldn't easily do anything about a boulder bigger than itself. All I had to do was hide here and wait for it to leave.
BOOM!
Unable to contain its rage, it slammed its body against the rock.
CRASH!
The sound was deafening, but I knew it was ineffective.
This place was practically a small mountain of rock.
There was no way this huge boulder would collapse from something like that.
CRRAAASH!
Just give up and go away, I thought.
Consider the superior inner core a settlement fee. Think of it as getting off cheap for just one fragment.
“Gek gek.”
Just as I let out a deceptively cute cry.
Crack.
…There were a few things I had overlooked.
That while the Caiman's actions couldn't bring down this entire rock mountain, they could be effective against a section with an unstable foundation.
And that the place with the weak foundation just happened to be right where I was standing.
Crack, crackle, crack!
The ground beneath me suddenly gave way.
“GEEEEEEK!”
I plummeted into a seemingly endless labyrinth.
No, I was still falling.
Just how deep is this place?