Settling The Beef (4)

Matthew is currently circling around the group of crocodiles while searching for an opportunity to strike the crocodiles. He already attacked the big crocodile twice in a row with his venomous claws, and because of that, Matthew decided to switch his target to the other crocodiles first since the big crocodile should be on high alert after being sneak attacked two times.

The 3 other crocodiles that were standing behind the big crocodile, didn't do anything when seeing the big crocodile was being attacked, they only stood still and watched the event unfold. Crocodiles aren't really social animals and they move mainly for their benefit, and when they saw that the big and stronger crocodile was being attacked by an unknown creature, they didn't care less about it since they thought that they were safe.

But little did they know that Matthew is already beside the neck of one of them. Matthew then once again coated his claws with the venom and struck the right crocodile on its neck. And just like before, after Matthew's claws succeeded in penetrating the crocodile's skin, he swiftly retracted his claws and moved over to the middle crocodile by going over the top of the right crocodile's face.

But Matthew didn't stop and strike the middle crocodile, instead, he circled around the middle crocodile and went to the left crocodile.

The right crocodile didn't expect that he was suddenly struck by a stinging pain on the left side of its neck, and when he was about to open its mouth to try and snap his mouth in the left direction to bite whatever creature was attacking him, he suddenly felt that something had walked over his face and it's moving towards his right.

The right crocodile didn't like the feeling of being toyed by anything, especially when something had just attacked him and proceeded to walk over his face. The angry crocodile then swiftly opened his mouth wide and tried to snap the disrespectful creature that was moving towards his right. The attack was sudden and fast because he didn't want to miss his attack and let the creature run away.

But when the right crocodile was focusing on attacking and trying to snap the creature with its jaw really fast, he forgot that on his right is the middle crocodile, who was currently still watching the big crocodile let out its angry roar and didn't know what happened to the crocodile. So, when the right crocodile's attack that was meant to attack the unknown creature accidentally hit the middle crocodile, the middle crocodile reacted furiously by returning the right crocodile's bite with a tail swing.

The right crocodile was startled that he missed his attack and accidentally hit the middle crocodile, but when the middle crocodile started attacking him, he knew that if he didn't retaliate, the middle crocodile would only kill him without mercy.

By the time the two crocodiles was fighting, Matthew is already at the right side of the left crocodile and he already coated his claws with another set of venom and swiftly thrust his claws into the left crocodile under-scales before once again circled over the three crocodiles that are currently busy with themselves and sneak back to the big crocodile.

By this time, the big crocodile already realized that the three crocodiles behind him also got attacked by something, he didn't know what attacked them, was it a group of animals or only one, he didn't know. But more importantly, he is now becoming hyper-wary of his surroundings and especially to his body. If the creature attacks him once more, he is ready to react properly to it.

But of course, Matthew also realized the sensitive state of the big crocodile, and he didn't have any plan to attack the crocodile up close like attacking the big crocodile's belly or neck again. His main tools to fight against the crocodiles right now are not his claws that were only able to penetrate the crocodile's under-scales, but instead, was the venom.

If his main weapon was the claws, then Matthew has to deal significant damage to the crocodile's body by attacking the crocodile's vital parts to win the fight, just like when Matthew has to tear open the deers' neck to bleed them to death. But because Matthew mainly depends on his venom in this fight, his main objective is to get as much venom as possible into his opponent's bloodstream. And attacking any parts of the crocodile that wasn't vital will still achieve Matthew's intention as long as Matthew venom made contact with the crocodile's blood, including attacking the crocodile's tail.

And that is exactly what Matthew is about to do. He sneaked behind the big crocodile and coated his claws with his venom and when the big crocodile was still searching for him, Matthew pinched the big crocodile's tail with his venomous claws.

The big crocodile was once again startled and at the same time confused. He was confused about the current situation, he knew that he was already attacked three times, the first two of the attacks were near his vitals which are the neck and his belly, but the third attack doesn't make sense since the creature attacked his tail. Although the crocodile didn't know anything about anatomy, as a creature that lived in the wild and fought almost every day, he knew his weakness and the area in his body that he needed to protect, and the tail is not one of them.

In his long life living in the lake, he had met all kinds of creatures such as the boars, the deers, the wolves, the two-headed turtles that also lived in the same lake as him, and even some of the insects, but he never met any creature that was invisible and unpredictable like the one that is attacking him right now.

The big crocodile glanced backward at the 3 crocodiles that were following him and finally realized that 2 of them were currently biting and swinging their tail against each other while the other one seemed to be having the same attitude as him to find out the ones responsible who did this to them.

The big crocodile then growled at the other two crocodiles to stop whatever they were doing. At first, the two crocodiles didn't adhere to the big crocodile's command and still going against each other, but when the big crocodile came closer to them, growled directly in front of their faces and slapped his tail hard down to the ground, the two finally stopped and went back to staying still at their place.

After that, the big crocodile released a series of sounds to the other 3 crocodiles. When the 3 crocodiles heard the big crocodile, they all looked at him until the big crocodile stopped 'speaking', and then, the 3 of them all looked in different directions as if they were trying to work together to find their attackers' whereabouts.

Matthew noticed their behavior and thought to himself,

'Oh, you're trying to be smart aren't you. Don't worry crocs, you guys can take your time and slowly search for me.'

'Yes, slowly and easily, the longer you are wasting your time the better it is for me.'

Matthew really took his time and played the long game with the crocodiles. But of course, Matthew didn't stay still and just wait either. Matthew didn't rush out and constantly harassed them every second, but when one of the crocodiles let their guard down, Matthew would use the opportunity to sneak in and poke their bodies with his venomous claws to fasten the process of spreading the venom.

Seconds have gone by and after about 10 minutes, the venom finally starting to show its effect. All of the crocodiles' movements have become sluggish, even the big crocodile who was supposed to be stronger than the rest is also affected by the venom because of Matthew's 'extra attention' to him. The only exception was the middle crocodile who is still somewhat more lively than the rest because the middle croc got injected by the venom later on compared to the others.

Taking this opportunity, Matthew's attacks now became more aggressive, using his venomous claws to inject even more venom into the crocodile's weak body. Their initial quick and sudden reaction that made Matthew wary about them is now nowhere to be seen. With their reaction speed being delayed tremendously and their retaliation could only amount to an attempt to open their mouth and snap, but to only fail when their snapping becomes so sluggish that it looks as if they were yawning.

Matthew's harassment to the group of crocodiles didn't stop at all until finally. When Matthew attacked them, they could only stay still, unresponsive to Matthew's claws poking them. Soon, the three crocodiles are already lying limply on the ground with 4 of their limbs spread open while the big crocodile is the only one that is still able to stand on its four feet even though he's also stopped his movement and his senses fully numb.

Now with their body incredibly weak, they are like a bunch of ragdolls, and using his tongue and his whole body, Matthew flipped their bodies upside down starting from the 3 crocodiles. The big crocodile size is significantly different from the other three, so Matthew decided to deal with him later on after he finished with the 3 crocodiles just to make sure that the big crocodile is already completely powerless.

After flipping the 3 crocodiles' bodies, Matthew bit their necks and tore them open to quickly end the crocodile's life. Matthew started from the middle crocodile to the left crocodile, then to the right crocodile.

But when Matthew was about to finish off the right crocodile, Matthew suddenly felt something was gazing at him. Matthew looked all around him, then finally looked at his back, and he noticed that the big crocodile was looking straight at him.

'Can he see me? Impossible right? I mean I got the aura ability…'

Matthew then hurriedly connected to his aura center to see the glow of the orb, but when he connected to it, he could see that the supposedly white glowing orb now looked like a clear glass orb with no light at all coming out from it.

'...'

'Well, at least he wasn't able to move anymo…'

Matthew's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a loud roar. So loud that it made Matthew's wolf ear hurt a little by the sheer volume of the roar.

When Matthew looked in the direction of the roar, and it was at this moment he knew, he f***ed up.

Either it was the last bit of strength from the dying crocodile or some kind of ability, the big crocodile was now running towards Matthew as if his life depended on it, with its jaw wide open ready to break Matthew with one bite.

'Ah, Sh*t.'