For a time, the ordinary monsters that had only just recovered from that brutal free-for-all tightened their just-relaxed nerves once again—indeed, even more than before.
After all, although things had been chaotic previously, so long as one's strength was solid, one was not greedy, and one did a good job of hiding, the chances of surviving were still not small.
But now? High above the Elder's Recess, Elder Dragons would from time to time streak past.
In other places, Elder Dragons that were hard to see even once in several years, or even several decades, could here be seen almost every few days.
What was more, Elder Dragons frequently came into conflict with one another and fought great battles over the Elder's Recess.
The aftershocks of Elder Dragon battles were already outrageous to begin with; even if They all exercised restraint and did not employ Their authorities, by virtue of Their own capabilities alone, plus vast energy output, basically wherever They fought, the monsters there would suffer.
Not to mention that the heightened activity of Elder Dragons led Them to begin ignoring territorial boundaries as They hunted, which made life even harder for many carnivorous monsters that already relied on searching everywhere for prey—one stroke of bad luck, and they became food in an Elder Dragon's mouth.
Of course, there were also some steady-minded Elder Dragons that had just reached midlife who were not affected by these pheromones. Those incubating eggs incubated eggs; those going out to avoid trouble went out to avoid trouble—but these were, in the end, the minority.
In Logan's senses, the elemental energies of the Elder's Recess all began to grow disordered. The fire-aspected energy that had originally held the advantage would, from time to time, be replaced by other energies; the climate, too, changed multiple times in a single day, making many monsters with poor environmental adaptability live in bitter misery.
Fortunately, the battles between Elder Dragons basically all took place within the Elder's Recess area. In the other regions—the lava cave region, the volcanic region, and the basalt region where Logan was—fights occurred on occasion, but remained more or less under control.
Until one day, a certain big black hedgehog that had once more entered an excited state passed by near the basalt region and then ran into a Kushala Daora that had been forcibly driven out by fireballs.
The battle between Lunastra and Aki and the others had continued all along; it had not been brought to a halt by the appearance of these pheromones.
After all, for the Flame Dragon couple, they had only just arrived at the strongest period of Their lives and had only just jointly sired the next generation. They did not need to pursue that invisible, untouchable, pure life energy—much less did They have the time and energy to pursue it.
And as the fighting went on and on, the area of battle drew closer and closer to Kushala Daora's nest.
Because the pheromones it had once sensed had appeared again, Kushala Daora's heart was unsettled. It was hesitating—wondering whether it should leave its nest, head to the Elder's Recess, and stake everything on a desperate gamble for that sliver of life.
Then, because one of Aki's charged fireballs was dodged by Lunastra and fell directly into Kushala Daora's nest, the destruction it caused instantly ignited Kushala Daora's fury, and that long-hesitating Elder Dragon finally made its decision, driven by anger.
Just as the Kushala Daora, determined to risk everything, left its nest, it ran straight into a Nergigante.
Their eyes met, and they each recognized the other.
Thus, a battle that had been absent for several years erupted once more.
Nergigante clearly understood this old fellow's intent and deliberately blocked the path leading toward the Elder's Recess, forcing Kushala Daora into a fight.
And Kushala Daora, with the resolve of "succeed or perish," charged ahead regardless of consequence. Although it did not employ its authority, it nevertheless unleashed its full power, displaying the combat prowess befitting an Elder Dragon whose energy had reached its limit.
Having noticed what was happening here, Logan flew over to halt the battle between Aki and the others and Lunastra—and, after twenty years, once again beheld Kushala Daora's combat form.
Was this not indeed the one who, during the Elder Crossing, had fought the Tempered Namielle to such an extent that the aftermath nearly obliterated the Wildspire Waste?
Without using its authority, it was actually fighting evenly with Nergigante, countering every one of Nergigante's combat methods with a corresponding response. There were no energy collisions, no exaggerated wind fields—only breath attacks and wind control—completely avoiding physical clashes, relying on skillful energy manipulation, and even faintly suppressing Nergigante instead.
Compared to the Kushala Daora that had once fought Logan, this one perfectly embodied the immense individual differences that could exist within a single species.
But this was reality, not the cold, lifeless data of his past life's game.
Every monster's experiences, growth environment, and potential differed, resulting in disparities in the peak strength of each one.
That a monster of a certain species could reach Elder Dragon level did not mean that every member of that species could do so; likewise, it did not mean that no monster of that species could ever surpass that level in the future.
It was precisely because of such uncertainties that this world was so rich, so full of variety and color.
The battle between Nergigante and Kushala Daora was fiercely fought.
All kinds of black spines and storm-breaths flew wildly, gouging furrows one after another into the basalt.
Although on the surface it looked as if Kushala Daora had reversed things and was suppressing Nergigante, in reality only Kushala Daora itself knew its own suffering.
In order to shake off Nergigante as quickly as possible, it had opened by unleashing its maximum energy output, relying entirely on its extremely high energy reserves to forcibly keep Nergigante down.
And Nergigante? It looked to be fighting wildly, like a mad dog trying to break through the wind field and rush in to give Kushala Daora a heavy slap to the face.
But in fact, it had spread its black spines all over its body, increasing its own defensive power while constantly avoiding the black tornado breath that did it the greatest harm; what it was really doing was a battle of attrition that merely looked ferocious.
So don't say Nergigante is a muscle-brained brute—this guy adopts different fighting methods against different opponents.
After all, an Elder Dragon's vitality is that tenacious; if you can't kill it in one go, why waste so much energy at the start?
Against such an aged Elder Dragon, it only needs to drain the opponent's energy and stamina, inflict an appropriate degree of damage, then keep chasing it in the days that follow, and finally launch the last strike when the opponent's long-term exhaustion and accumulating injuries have grown ever more severe.
Using the least energy to obtain the greatest result—that is Nergigante's predation method, and also its instinctive behavior.
Of course, all of this still only existed within the teachings of the Nergigante that bore it and within its own expectations.
In reality, it had not yet once successfully completed a hunt of an Elder Dragon using this method.
That was honestly a bit heartbreaking, but such instincts were not something it could control any better.
This could be considered one of nature's constraints on the creature known as Nergigante.
Seeing the commotion of Nergigante and Kushala Daora's battle grow ever larger, Logan decisively took Aki and the Scorching Heat Rathian, who had been watching from the side, and flew back to the nest.
As for Lunastra, after Logan appeared and blocked it, it flew straight back to its own nest.
It too had seen the big black hedgehog confronting Kushala Daora, and with no desire at all to become Nergigante's new target after Kushala Daora, it left with great decisiveness.
Kushala Daora and Nergigante fought for a full three-plus hours, and in the end, amid a heavy downpour, both vanished without a trace.
In all likelihood, Kushala Daora broke through the blockade and successfully escaped.
Only, at this moment, Logan had no mood to pay attention to any of that.
He looked toward the entrance of the nest, where the Azure Rathalos, with half its body still outside, was shrinking back timidly like a quail, and his anger surged up uncontrollably.
This guy—its life energy had been in an active phase for a full month, yet not only had it failed to break through and become a Tempered individual, it had even been beaten by a Tempered Rathalos!
If the Flame Rathalos hadn't happened to pass by and lent a hand to drive off that Tempered Rathalos, this guy might very well have been chased all the way back to Logan's nest.
Disgraceful, utterly disgraceful!
It had once been a front-line combatant among the Fire Wyvern group of the Ancient Tree, and although later it was squeezed down to the third tier of the Symbiosis Energy Pyramid by the Flame Rathalos, the Tempered Azure Rathalos, and the increasingly evolved Aki, as an "elder member," the Azure Rathalos was still heavily influenced by Symbiosis; the energy feedback circuits from the lower-tier Fire Wyverns were not low either.
And yet this was the result it delivered.
At that moment, Logan almost felt like tearing its heart out.
If the Flame Rathalos hadn't also been explaining from the side that the Tempered Rathalos it fought had indeed been strong—and that it hadn't faced just one wyvern, but a pair, a Tempered Fire Wyvern couple—before this, the Azure Rathalos had fought two at once, injuring the Rathian and only being pursued afterward because it had exhausted too much stamina—
Logan would have already driven the Azure Rathalos out, forbidding it from returning until it became Tempered.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---