Judging from the state of the Admiral and the others, they must have been away from Astera for quite some time already.
The news about the Radiant Crystal Butterflies had only recently reached Astera along with the transport convoy from the Ancient Tree, to say nothing of how the feasibility of turning the Radiant Crystal Butterflies into Kinsects had only just been tested over at the Ancient Tree.
This Insect Glaive user, relying solely on the battle between the Radiant Crystal Butterflies and the Qurio, was already able to judge that the Radiant Crystal Butterflies could exist as excellent Kinsects. His eye was indeed quite good.
Hearing this Insect Glaive user quietly discussing with his companion off to the side, and seeing his eyes occasionally drift toward the Radiant Crystal Butterflies freely flying in the sky, this slight commotion naturally could not escape Logan.
Seeing that both the Fire Wyvern and the Radiant Crystal Butterflies had vented their emotions enough, Logan let out a faint, calm roar.
In that instant, the swarm of insects that had just turned this place into a seven-colored illusion suddenly paused. Then, amid the gasps of amazement from the Admiral and the others, they surged toward Logan in unison. After they lined up in an orderly fashion across Logan's wings, each one folded its wings onto its back carapace, once again turning into rows of "quiet" silver scales.
From a distance, without examining them carefully up close, Logan's pair of wings now seemed to have taken on a completely different appearance. The scales were neatly arrayed, and once the ice-blue patterns on the Radiant Crystal Butterflies' backs joined together, they formed an enormous, incredibly regular pattern.
Taken as a whole, the pattern on Logan's wings at this moment was so precise it looked almost like some kind of technological product.
As the last Radiant Crystal Butterfly returned, the remaining surviving Radiant Crystal Butterflies were evenly distributed among the remaining Rathalos, making the Rathalos, whose scales had already returned to their original colors, once again gain many mottled, multi-colored patches of scales.
At this moment, sensing a burning gaze fall upon his wings, Logan, who had still been folding his wings, paused for a moment in surprise, and the words the Ancient Wyverian prophet had spoken about the Radiant Crystal Butterflies atop the Ancient Tree surfaced in his mind.
Immediately, his wings trembled lightly at a certain rhythm, and a low growl came from his throat.
Under the puzzled gazes of everyone present, after hesitating for barely two seconds, one perfectly ordinary "scale" detached itself, circled around Logan several times, then finally drifted lazily over to hover above the Insect Glaive user's head. It swayed about in circles twice like that, and in the end, with a hint of disdain, landed on the other party's shoulder, which was still not all that dirty.
"Th-this, this is…!!"
The Insect Glaive user turned his head in disbelief to look at the crystal-like Radiant Crystal Butterfly. Its body, where silver and ice-blue intertwined, and those folded wings that were almost crystal-clear—no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a fragile "luxury item." Yet the great battle between the Radiant Crystal Butterflies and the Qurio just now had shown them that it possessed combat strength completely at odds with that highly deceptive appearance.
[Bzz, bzz!]
Inside the insect pouch, the Kinsect, sensing something, dragged its utterly exhausted body and rubbed its wings together, producing a buzzing sound as if to announce its presence. But its fickle, novelty-chasing bastard of a master subconsciously clenched the mouth of the insect pouch, dampening the sound the Kinsect was making.
At a critical moment like this, he did not want the little fellow on his shoulder, who seemed to still be somewhat disdainful of him, to get the wrong idea!
The interaction between the Insect Glaive user and his own insect did not particularly draw Logan's attention. He had only casually sent over one Radiant Crystal Butterfly that was not especially important to him, just to test the feasibility of those words the Ancient Wyverian prophet had spoken.
Therefore, after finishing all this, Logan lowered his head and began to ask the Admiral about the information they currently had at their disposal.
"Roar!"
"Yeah, I didn't expect it to be completely different from what we had inferred. The Qurio have already overrun the marshes."
"Roar, roar!"
"Chameleos intervening? No, no. During this period, ever since Chameleos returned from the Ancient Tree, it hasn't left Astera. In the past few years as well, aside from going to the Ancient Tree, it has basically stayed in its lair on the back mountain."
"Roar~ rooar~"
When the backup personnel carrying supplies arrived riding on wingdrakes, what they saw was the Admiral sitting directly on the ground, engaged in completely unimpeded information exchange with Logan.
Yes, unimpeded!
There was not even a single Grimalkyne or Felyne there to act as translator, yet the Admiral actually fully understood what Logan was saying!
Even someone like the Huntsman off to the side could only roughly judge Logan's current mood from the tone of his roars, yet the Admiral had already reached the point of having no language barrier at all, trading remarks with him fluently!
After a round of rapid exchanges, Logan shot up into the sky in satisfaction, leading the Rathalos as they flew toward the depths of the marshlands. The purpose of this trip was to carry out a grand cleansing of the marshlands; the battle with Lagiacrus just now had only been a warm-up to test the strength of the Fire Wyverns under his command.
As Logan and the Fire Wyverns departed, the Admiral finally turned to look at his companions—only to see the slightly strange expressions on their faces.
"What's wrong? Why do you all look like you don't recognize me?" The Admiral scratched his head, puzzled.
"Um… Admiral, I have a question, but I'm not sure if I should ask it."
"A question? Oh, oh, you're wondering why I can communicate with the Boss Fire Wyvern, right? Let me tell you—"
"No!"
The hunter cut off the Admiral's explanation, clenched his back teeth hard, and only then "struggled" to speak: "What I want to ask is… do you really have nothing to do with Rajang?"
The Admiral fell silent. Only after a long moment did he smack the hunter hard on the shoulder. As the hunter sucked in a sharp breath through bared teeth, the Admiral forced out a strained smile.
"No relationship!!"
The already thoroughly exhausted Huntsman and the others burst into laughter at the sight.
As for why the Admiral was able to understand what Logan was saying—aside from calling it exceptional talent, they truly had no further thoughts about it.
As for the idea that simply spending years around the Fire Wyverns would let someone understand their "language"—that was absolutely impossible. If it were really that easy, the scholars who had lived at the Ancient Tree research base for years would have mastered it long ago.
Even the Ancient Wyverian prophet—who already counted as part of the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern clan's upper ranks—would not need the young Wyverian girl to act as translator.
When Logan led ten Fire Wyverns from the Ancient Tree into the marshlands, it was like dripping water into hot oil—the entire place burst into chaos instantly.
Although Logan rarely acted personally, every Fire Wyvern, including Flame Rathalos, joined the subsequent battles. Any large monster that appeared within their field of view—whether there were signs of aberrant mutation or not—was killed without exception, plunging the marshland area into total turmoil. Even the Kulu-Ya-Ku did not dare come out casually to forage during the day.
During this period, the Radiant Crystal Butterflies also took to the field many times. They eradicated a large number of Qurio, but suffered considerable losses themselves.
To replenish the number of Radiant Crystal Butterflies, Logan had no choice but to deliberately shed over a dozen back scales infused with his energy, so the Radiant Crystal Butterflies could draw energy from them at night to accelerate reproduction.
After several days of cleansing, Logan finally obtained a relatively clear understanding of the marshlands' current state: at least sixty percent of the monsters still living here had been infected by the Qurio.
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