If Adrian wasn't so terror-stricken already, he would have noticed an excited glint in the beast's eyes. It wasn't often that it would have so much food at its disposal.
It opened its mouth and hundreds of serrated teeth came into view, as it let out an ear-piercing roar. The lake shook as the sound waves sent Adrian and his associates flying.
However, this was to their advantage as they were sent flying upwards towards the surface of the lake.
The roar woke Adrian up out of his terror, and he started swimming madly towards the surface. The others who were previously still in shock saw him and immediately snapped back to reality. Even Bryce, who was flung away earlier, joined them.
However, no matter how fast they swam, how could they swim faster than the Stoneveil Crocodile?
The first person to get caught was Andrea. She reacted later than everybody else and was thus at the bottom of the group when the crocodile arrived.
"Water bullet!" She pointed her longsword and yelled just as the crocodile was about to reach her. This was the martial skill she had purchased just before embarking on this mission. She had spent most of her sect points before finally being able to obtain this silver-rank martial skill.
The skill condenses the water qi in the dantian before shooting it out at a very high speed. The longer one condenses qi, the more powerful the skill will be. Of course, there were limits. The amount of Qi present in the body of a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator wasn't much.
Also, condensing that amount of Qi would require a long time. An opponent would obviously not wait for you to complete the activation of the skill.
The combination of these factors was what limited the water bullet to the silver rank.
However, because they were underwater, the skill unleashed more power as it shot forward and landed on the left eye of the Stoneveil Crocodile.
The Stoneveil Crocodile, caught off guard, was struck by the empowered martial skill. It was knocked back slightly, which gave the group more time to escape. The others were already about to reach the surface, leaving just Andrea in her struggle to escape fast enough.
Heads started poking above the water as the group frantically struggled to get to solid ground.
A roar filled with pain resounded from their backs as they continued swimming. Andrea's face paled as she realized that her attack had not done as much harm as she had realized to the beast.
Her water bullet had managed to pierce the beast's left eye, but that was as much damage as it could do. The Stoneveil Crocodile spun around and sent its massive tail crashing towards Andrea.
It's unknown whether she could be considered lucky or not, but the impact ended up sending her upwards towards the rest of her companions.
The bones in her right hand snapped as they bore the full brunt of the impact. Her whole body was covered in injuries as soon as her body surfaced. However, she gritted her teeth and continued swimming with her feet
The first person to reach the lake's shore was, unsurprisingly, Daniel. He had been at the back of the group alongside Adrian. His excuse was that he wanted to keep an eye on Adrian, but everyone who knew him knew the real truth.
His cowardice made him stay at the back, even though his cultivation was the highest in the group after Bryce. His cultivation at the seventh level of the foundation establishment realm enabled him to be one of the fastest when escaping
As soon as he reached the lake's shore, he started running. He didn't even wait for the rest of his companions before taking off. Adrian followed right after him and mimicked his actions. He didn't have any loyalty to these individuals, so waiting for them would just be idiotic.
Bryce was the next to come. Even though he was already injured, he was still much faster than the remaining two. Robert and Lily finally joined them on land.
Robert crawled onto the shore and sat down a few meters from the edge. His breathing was rapid as he was trying to catch his breath. He wanted to say something when he turned to his side to see Lily making a beeline towards the entrance of the valley.
He was surprised to see her still running after they had escaped. It was then that he noticed Daniel, Adrian, and even Bryce all running at full speed in the distance. In his mind, they had already escaped, right? Right??
In his fright, He seemed to have forgotten that the Stoneveil Crocodile was amphibious. Because it was swimming, it had its legs tucked to its side, which blended in seamlessly with the rest of its body. Because of his lackluster knowledge, Robert mistook that for the creature not having any legs
His thoughts were soon interrupted when he saw Andrea swimming frantically towards the shore with only one arm. He instinctively wanted to rush towards her, but he suddenly froze in his tracks.
Andrea, who was about to reach the shore, saw the change of expression on Robert's face. Her heart was filled with dread as she turned her head. The scene behind her made her whole body weak.
The granite crocodile had its huge mouth open as hundreds of teeth became visible to her. The beast then clamped down on her entire lower body. Robert could hear the sound of bone being crushed as Andrea's screams reverberated in the surroundings
The creature then started swinging its head from side to side. This action separated Andrea's upper body as she was flung ashore. Slowly, the environment quietened down as the beast finished munching on Andreas' legs.
Robert watched all of this in terror as his legs became weak. He was frozen in shock and couldn't muster up the energy to run away.
It was only when the beast was done with its meal and directed its gaze toward him did he realized why the rest of his group was still running. Unfortunately for him, such a costly mistake could cost him his life.
He immediately turned around and, at his fastest speed, took off into the distance. He didn't care about emptying his Qi consumption as he kept channeling his Qi towards his legs. Like the others, he didn't have a movement technique, so this was the best that he could do.