In just less than a single day, the marsh seemed to have lost all vitality.
The lush aquatic vegetation that had once thrived there began to die off in large numbers due to the extreme temperature, and the corpses of all kinds of plants floated on the surface of the water, releasing waves of stench.
The reeds along the banks, the flowing-water grass, and the like all lost their former vigor; their leaves withered and yellowed at a rapid pace, while large numbers of fish wandered aimlessly among the gaps between rocks, searching for that sliver of a chance to survive.
Unfortunately, how long this bout of high temperatures would last would depend on how long the large monsters in the marsh could hold out, which for the creatures living in the shallows basically meant there was no path to survival at all.
Of course, even so, Logan could not possibly wipe out every living thing in the entire marsh; after all, under the influence of life energy, there would always be organisms that found a way to survive.
But as long as more than seventy percent of the creatures could be wiped out, it would be enough to ensure that there would no longer be conditions in the marsh suitable for the Qurio to breed and survive.
The time required for this process would not be very long.
A high-temperature environment did not cause much discomfort for Fire Wyverns; in fact, under the conditions where the Sunlight trait made the fire element more active, the Fire Wyverns' combat capabilities were even strengthened to a certain extent.
Their efficiency at clearing out those afflicted monsters that had been weakened by the sudden extreme climate shift increased by a large margin as well.
Following Logan, the Fire Wyverns swept forward all the way, leaving behind only heaps of monster corpses and Qurio swarms that had lost all signs of life.
Of course, by doing so, they naturally left behind deep traces, making it much easier for certain creatures to track them.
Nergigante was very angry. It had only with great difficulty managed to increase the numbers of this new food source to a certain extent, finally escaping its former predicament of being on the brink of extinction at any moment.
Yet before it had even had a few proper meals, the dragon that came to upend everything showed up.
As for Logan's completely undisguised Elder Dragon aura, Nergigante sensed his life energy the moment Logan arrived in the marsh. However, out of "old ties" and knowing it could not catch up to Logan, it did not pay him much mind.
No one had expected that Logan would actually trigger a natural calamity and leave it hanging in the sky for three whole days.
Now, even inside its relatively cool cavern, all the wind blowing in was hot. Some small puddles had even evaporated, and the once-damp ground had begun to dry out and crack.
More importantly, the Qurio that it regarded as precious food had also become incomparably weak. This change, together with the fact that Nergigante had already begun to be affected by the Qurio's venom, made it no longer able to suppress the savagery in its heart. It was planning to take the initiative and go out to properly "catch up" with this "old friend," Logan!!
As Nergigante left, the Qurio parasitizing the weakened Jyuratodus in the cave suddenly perked up, flapping their wings as they quietly followed behind Nergigante.
They could not wait any longer!
Half a year, a full half year!
In all that time, they had not found any opportunity at all to enter a symbiotic relationship with Nergigante!
As the "white blood cells" of the New World and the embodied representative of death and rebirth, one could call Nergigante bad, but not say that it had no bottom line.
The instinct to "reproduce and leave descendants," carved into the deepest part of its genes, was Nergigante's greatest shackle.
The Qurio's "temptation" was terrifying, but it still could not compare to the constraints that nature had imposed on the species that was Nergigante.
Up until now, aside from its heart growing even more violent, Nergigante still treated these mutated Qurio as an ATM, continuously engaging in "scumbag" behavior without the slightest wavering.
In fact, much of the pure life energy that Nergigante drew back from the Qurio was funneled into the special spine beneath its body that it had designated for reproducing offspring. This left the Qurio helpless; all they could do was continue mutating to further strengthen the toxicity of their venom while searching for a chance to break through Nergigante's psychological bottom line.
And Logan's appearance was precisely the best opportunity the Qurio could find.
Because of their own nature, the Qurio were extremely sensitive to the life energy within monsters' bodies. In their perception, Logan was an Elder Dragon no weaker than Nergigante. Moreover, because of the presence of Radiant Crystal Butterflies on Logan's body, it was inevitable that he would slaughter Qurio in large numbers.
This put them in absolute conflict with Nergigante, which was cultivating the Qurio.
As long as Logan and Nergigante clashed, given the vitality of Elder Dragons, neither side would easily die in their battle; the two would only become extremely weakened after the fight.
Just like the situation after the great battle between the Primordial Malzeno and Gaismagorm in the past, that would be the best moment for the Qurio to forcibly parasitize Nergigante!
They even dared entertain the notion of coveting Logan's essence—waiting until Logan became weakened so they could forcibly parasitize him and then siphon his essence to supply Nergigante.
With the essence of another Elder Dragon coming in, Nergigante's resistance toward them would surely drop even further at that time.
Of course, given the Qurio's level of intelligence, they definitely were not thinking with that much detail. It was merely because something like this had happened once before that their instincts drove them to make a similar decision.
...
In another part of the sky above the marsh, the Third Fleet Master held her telescope and continually adjusted the airship's course based on the traces left below.
"Has the Sunblaze Dragon really gone berserk? Along the way, it's nothing but the corpses of all kinds of monsters—he didn't even spare Aptonoth."
In a waterhole below that had not yet fully dried up, the deep red pool—darkened under the scorching heat—held several Aptonoth corpses. Judging from the marks on their bodies, they had clearly been struck down at will by a Rathalos that had suddenly descended from above, then simply tossed into the pool.
Aside from their shriveled flesh and wounds, there was not even a trace of feeding on them.
"It's pure killing for the sake of killing."
The Third Fleet Master lowered her telescope with a soft sigh.
After all, having lived in the Ancient Tree for ten years, she naturally carried a certain unique sentiment toward the Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns. Deep down, she had never regarded the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group as monsters, but as allies.
So the thought of possibly having to face the Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns left her chest feeling tight.
Beside her, the Admiral looked at the scene below; the entire way here, it had been the same. As long as the monsters were even slightly large, whether harmful or not, they were mercilessly slaughtered by the Fire Wyverns.
At this moment, only one thought remained in his heart: to find the Sunblaze Dragon as soon as possible and uncover what had happened that would make this old friend abandon his usual ways and unleash such indiscriminate killing.
"Master, look! These are Nergigante's traces!!"
Suddenly, the navigator at the bow enlarged his telescope again and pointed at the corpse of a Barroth along the route.
Hearing this, the Admiral quickly pulled a telescope from his pack and looked over. Sure enough, the Barroth's corpse was covered in Nergigante's spines. And following the line of the Barroth's corpse into the distance, one could find yet more shed spines from Nergigante.
"That direction—Nergigante is chasing the Sunblaze Dragon as well! Increase speed, full ahead!!"
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