The Gray Rats were swarming, densely packed, their numbers now even greater than before, at least over three hundred.
They surged across the land like a gray torrent.
The magical aura of these rats generally reached C-class, with some smaller ones, seemingly not yet adults, only at D-class.
However, the rat pack showed no intention of fleeing. Upon seeing humans approach, their eyes, far from fear, gleamed with greed, and they even began to encircle them.
Happy carried Natsu, slowly descending from the sky. The moment their feet touched the ground, a small cloud of dust rose.
Cana sat quietly on her Cloud Steed. Her gaze was calm and firm, and the Cloud Steed beneath her seemed to sense the tense atmosphere, restlessly pawing at the ground.
The three were only about a hundred meters from the rat pack. At this moment, the rats, which had been running forward, suddenly changed direction.
Their green eyes turned back to Cana and her companions, filled with ferocity and greed.
Immediately after, they charged towards the three at an astonishing speed. The ground trembled slightly under their furious rush, emitting a dull thud.
Cana looked at the approaching rat pack, her expression darkening. "It seems they weren't running away just now; they were looking for food."
Cana called out, "Natsu!"
"Leave it to me!" Natsu responded loudly.
He tore open his down jacket and casually tossed it to Happy.
Beneath the jacket, his upper body was bare, solid muscles gleaming with a healthy sheen in the sunlight. He wore only shorts and flip-flops on his lower body.
Vast magical power surged from Natsu's body, transforming into tangible crimson flames.
The flames were scorching and dazzling, as if they would ignite all the surrounding air.
Natsu took a deep breath, his chest and abdomen swelling high, like a giant bellows.
The surrounding flames turned into streams of fire, sucked into his mouth by his powerful suction.
The next second, he placed his hands in front of his mouth and suddenly opened it wide.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu roared loudly.
A crimson flame breath erupted from Natsu's mouth. In that instant, the air violently distorted due to the high temperature, as if the entire space was warped by this powerful force.
The snowflakes on the surrounding ground instantly melted and evaporated, turning into wisps of white steam rising into the air.
This time, the flame breath was not the usual linear pillar of fire, but a fan-shaped giant wave of flames.
Having trained in the guild during this period, Natsu's control over flames had increased linearly.
The giant wave of flames surged, carrying an aura of destruction.
The rat pack, which had been encircling them, shrieked in terror as the terrifying flame breath approached.
They wanted to flee, but there was no time to dodge the incredibly fast wave of fire.
In just an instant, the charging rat pack was engulfed by the surging flames.
More than three hundred rats were instantly reduced by a third. Under the scorching high temperature, these rats didn't even leave corpses, being incinerated by the flames into wisps of black smoke that dissipated into the air.
"Nice job, Natsu!" Cana shouted excitedly, giving a thumbs-up.
Then, with a shake of her hands, ten cards were instantly in her grasp.
Cana tossed the cards high into the air. The front of these ten cards all depicted a pitch-black swamp, with a giant black-scaled crocodile staring out with eerie green eyes, full of malice.
"By my name, Swamp Crocodile, seal release!" Cana shouted.
The ten cards hovered in the air, flashing with a colorful glow.
The light was dazzling, like a magnificent rainbow.
The next second, the light receded, and ten giant crocodiles, all over seven meters in length, heavily landed on the ground.
The immense weight shook the ground, as if a small earthquake had occurred.
The shortest of these crocodiles, standing on all fours, was nearly one meter tall. The two largest ones were almost twelve meters long, and when on all fours, stood a meter and a half high.
Their pitch-black scales were tight and heavy, gleaming with a cold light in the sunlight, like an indestructible suit of heavy armor.
Their ten pairs of eerie green eyes stared fixedly at the remaining rat pack, filled with murderous intent and greed, sending shivers down one's spine.
Happy was startled by the sudden appearance of the Swamp Crocodiles and instinctively leaned closer to Natsu.
"Natsu..." Happy's voice trembled slightly.
Natsu, however, was not scared. Instead, he looked at the newly appeared Swamp Crocodiles with excitement, shouting, "So cool! Where did you get them?"
Cana grinned triumphantly. "I caught them in the Asgard Mountains last time, ancient species! Pretty amazing, huh?"
Natsu nodded excitedly, his eyes full of admiration. "Cool!"
Cana chuckled, pointing forward with her hand. "Go!"
Upon receiving the command, the ten Swamp Crocodiles immediately glowed with a black, muddy luster.
The luster was thick and mysterious, like a shield from the abyss. Their massive bodies actually merged into the ground, their limbs and tails moving fluidly and naturally.
They began to 'swim' through the earth. Where the massive crocodile bodies passed, the soil behaved like water, offering no resistance at all.
The ten crocodiles swam through the earth at an astonishing speed towards the rat pack not far away.
Approaching the rats, they leaped out of the mud, jaws wide open, easily biting the rats in half, one by one.
Black blood splattered, and internal organs flew.
A single flick of a tail could send three or two rats flying, with bone-cracking sounds that made one's teeth ache.
Not only that, these crocodiles opened their mouths, and black sludge sprayed out like water columns.
These black sludges, in addition to having an impact force, also slowed down the rats' movements, making it easier for the Swamp Crocodiles to catch up to the rat pack and kill them one by one.
The two largest Swamp Crocodiles, one on the left and one on the right, blocked the rat pack's escape route.
Their two thick front claws, wreathed in black light, slammed heavily onto the ground. The black light spread out in a ripple pattern.
The frozen earth in the dead of winter should have been hard as iron, but as the claws of the two crocodiles struck, wherever the black light ripples passed, the ground for several hundred meters suddenly began to soften, turning into a large pool of black, muddy swamp.
The originally agile rats were jumping and dodging the crocodiles' pursuit, but as they ran, the ground beneath their feet suddenly turned into a black swamp.
Natsu's excitement grew even more intense. "B-class magic beasts?"
Cana smiled and nodded. "I cultivated them for a month and a half, feeding them lots of magic crystals, and managed to raise these two B-class ones. When Swamp Crocodiles reach B-class, they master the racial magic, Black Mud Swamp, which is very suitable for large-scale combat and can cooperate with other Swamp Crocodiles to greatly increase combat power."
"I originally caught quite a few, but these guys eat too much. I sold most of the ones with no potential to the city defense force at the auction house, keeping only these ten."
Before Cana finished speaking, on the other side, in just an instant, all these rats were trapped in the swamp, sinking faster the more they struggled.
The remaining eight crocodiles leisurely swam freely in the black swamp, killing every rat caught in it.
Although these rats were also C-class magic beasts, they were just ordinary magic beasts, with low strength and no special talents.
As for magic, D-class magic beasts generally have one, C-class magic beasts have two, and so on.
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