After tallying up the supplies brought back by the Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian couple, Logan was a little sour. He hadn't expected that sending them off for treatment would result in them returning with so many goods. If not for the cats explaining that all of this had been personally pooled together by members of the Ecological Research Institute, Logan might have thought it was a reward from the Research Commission.
Who would have thought—it was just gifts freely given!
The return of the Azure Rathalos and Pink Rathian couple didn't cause much of a stir among the Fire Wyvern group. Other than the Pink Rathian, who still couldn't properly blend in due to once being infected with the Frenzy Virus, everything else passed without waves.
And so, the days went by one after another.
At the border where the Wildspire Waste met the Ancient Forest—once the Fire Wyvern group's old settlement.
By now, this settlement had changed hands.
After the deterrent left behind by the Fire Wyvern group completely vanished, certain flying creatures had begun to set their sights on the place.
At first, under the siege of the juvenile Fire Wyverns, the lower-niche monsters that tried to seize the settlement were beaten back again and again. The juveniles could barely hold their ground, and with the occasional support from the hunters of the Research Commission, life was not all that unbearable.
But as the monsters competing for the nest rose higher in the ecological hierarchy, this group of juvenile Fire Wyverns gradually could no longer withstand the pressure.
As the strength of their enemies kept increasing, and with the Commission's focus shifting back to the Ancient Forest, the "group-based" fighting style of these juveniles was no longer enough to sustain their hold here.
After all, this place—transformed by the cats and Fire Wyverns—was far too conspicuous.
When casualties began to appear, faced with the crisis of survival, the juvenile Fire Wyverns spontaneously split into several smaller groups, abandoned the settlement, and scattered across the forest and the Wasteland.
With the absence of the once-friendly "Fire Wyvern group," and because the route was too far, the Commission abandoned its camp here as well.
Without the juvenile Fire Wyverns or hunters, the battles in this place grew even fiercer.
After a series of struggles, the ultimate victor of this settlement turned out to be a tempered Astalos. It successfully claimed Logan's former nest and, using it as its center, marked one-fifth of the entire former Fire Wyverns settlement as its territory. The rest of the settlement gradually became filled with other monsters.
These Astalos, having migrated from the Old World, had after so many years finally and completely adapted to the environment of the New World.
The abundant life energy made this already powerful rebel of thunder even harder to handle, and it had clearly become the overlord of this region.
But today!
The entire settlement was suddenly shrouded in an enormous, fine web invisible to the naked eye.
A "monster" nearly 30 m long rampaged freely through the settlement, dismantling the various structures once built by the cats and hunters. Even the waterwheel by the waterfall and the Wyvern nest were not spared.
With the settlement in ruins, not only could the violent-tempered Astalos not endure it, but the other monsters also roared in fury, launching themselves at the intruder that had trespassed into their territory.
But for the ordinary monsters, charging in was nothing more than serving themselves up as fodder.
They were easily struck down by the "monster" through all kinds of unimaginable combat methods. Only that tempered Astalos was barely able to hold its advance.
Besides this Astalos, there was also a Rathalos from the Old World, and the two of them ended up locked in a standoff with the "monster" in midair.
The tempered Astalos drove its electricity-generating organs at full power; powerful yellow-green lightning, under the effect of the piezoelectric carapace, burst into arcing currents.
Its twin wings, crown, and tailtip all flashed with blinding electric arcs. The high-frequency wingbeats were like sharp blades, each sweep leaving "marks" across the monster's body. The problem was that Astalos are all mentally abnormal "lunatics"—while attacking the monster, it actually roped the Rathalos in as well.
This kind of maneuver made the Rathalos want to just leave on the spot.
Stream after stream of current poured down. Unfortunately, the shock that the tempered Astalos took pride in seemed to have little effect on this monster. Aside from blasting out pitted dents or leaving charred streaks, it accomplished virtually nothing.
Such "injuries" were nowhere near enough to affect the monster's combat power.
At that moment, the Rathalos—having only just managed to evade the monster's tail swipe—had not yet had time to readjust its flight posture.
Suddenly, the "spines" on the monster's wings tore free by brute force. While tracing a strange arc through the air, they pierced straight through the Rathalos's wing in a flash.
As it howled in pain, the monster spun its body rapidly and, with a heavy smash, reinserted the spine back into its wing. Looking closely, that "spine" was actually the corroded head of a Dragonator!
Under that battering strike, the Rathalos could no longer maintain its balance and, with a resounding crash, slammed into the soil below.
On the other side, the tempered Astalos tried to seize the moment, launching a surprise attack from behind while the monster's attention was elsewhere.
Who would have thought—the monster seemed to have eyes on its back. With a stiff, awkward motion, it suddenly clawed upward.
While dodging the Astalos's electric tail-spike, it gave another highly unnatural twist amid a series of cracking noises and, like a puppet on strings, was "smashed" by its master straight toward the tempered Astalos, completely ignoring the torrent of lightning surging from the Astalos's crown.
High in the sky, the tempered Astalos was caught in a state where its old strength was spent and new strength had yet to rise. Facing the monster's sudden turn and charge, it could only push its piezoelectric armor to the limit. Lightning crackled around it, and a thick bolt shot out, instantly engulfing the monster.
Unfortunately, this did nothing to halt the monster's assault. It was like a heavy hammer tied to a rope, swinging violently, colliding hard with the tempered Astalos.
In an instant came the crisp sound of bones breaking and scales shattering.
The monster's body split apart like a broken toy, bursting at every joint—yet under those faint, nearly invisible threads, it was forcibly stuck back together. The gaping seams fused again.
Only the area that had collided with the tempered Astalos remained in ruins, its parts shattered and deformed.
It looked as if it were made from cheap, counterfeit materials.
As miserable as the monster appeared, the tempered Astalos, being the one struck, fared even worse.
Bleeding profusely, it plummeted from the sky, crashing into the raging river below. A towering splash rose up, and before it could even resurface, the current swept it away, carrying it over the waterfall and down the cliff—its fate uncertain.
The other monsters, watching from afar, saw the downfall of the region's overlord, the tempered Astalos. Having already been crushed effortlessly by it, they turned tail without hesitation, scattering in all directions.
In just moments, the monsters that had gathered here to contest their occupied territory were gone without a trace.
With no more "blockers," the threads in the air retracted, lowering the monster to the ground. Amid a chorus of booms, it began gleefully tearing the place apart.
It must have been missing parts for too long—any structure still intact, whether makeshift defenses or wooden houses, it dismantled without discrimination, stripping everything bare.
The monster's damaged areas from the previous battle were soon patched up with salvaged parts, quickly restoring it to its original form.
This settlement was vast; scavenging it would take some time.
On a distant hillside, an Ancient Wyverian, still clad in a specially crafted "cloak of invisibility," watched it all unfold. At last, his gaze shifted toward the depths of the Ancient Forest.
There were many ancient civilization ruins buried by earthquakes there, and they were precisely this monster's next destination.
...
A string of fiery-red shapes streaked across the forest canopy; wherever they passed, all manner of creatures hid their forms, fearing they might suddenly become a target.
Wave after wave of Fire Wyverns took to the air. For the wildlife of the Ancient Tree region this had become a common occurrence; once, species such as Anjanath, which had competed with the Fire Wyverns for territory using the cover and barriers of the trees, had repeatedly learned a harsh lesson from being ruthlessly beaten by the Fire Wyvern packs.
Now it could be said that, except for the lower areas of the Ancient Tree region and the marsh and inland-sea area to the west, the territory had almost entirely become the domain of the Fire Wyverns.
Luckily, because of Logan's restraint, the Fire Wyvern packs normally—aside from their daily hunting—rarely drove other monsters out of the Ancient Tree region and kept to their own patch of land.
Otherwise, given the Fire Wyverns' formerly violent temper and exaggerated territorial instincts, once they formed into clans there would have been trouble long ago.
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