Ruiner Nergigante turned its head and saw three slender figures ejecting their claws from within its "body," propelling themselves rapidly toward it.
The gaze that even made it feel threatened was coming from those three.
When it first saw Darren and the other two's builds, Ruiner Nergigante had not taken them seriously. After all, judging strength by size was a commonly used method.
But as Darren drew the Blazing Wing—whose outward appearance had not changed much—while sprinting forward, Ruiner Nergigante's expression shifted instantly!
It recognized that weapon!
And from his physique, it also identified Darren's identity.
No wonder he could make it feel threatened. If it was that one who had participated in the hunt for Xeno'jiiva and delivered the final fatal blow, then he indeed possessed the strength to pose a major threat to it.
Not to mention that he now had three of the same kind beside him.
And on top of that, this special Chameleos...
Ruiner Nergigante felt the situation had become somewhat tricky.
Darren and the others' involvement would increase the difficulty of hunting Chameleos, and might even cause all its efforts to go to waste.
Yet Mother Chameleos' proactive appearance—her deliberate reveal—made Ruiner Nergigante feel this was an excellent hunting opportunity. It did not want to give it up!
At this moment, Ruiner Nergigante had not yet realized that the Darren rushing toward it and Mother Chameleos were actually on the same side!
And what it did next caused it to fall into a disadvantage in its very first battle against hunters.
It actually chose to temporarily ignore Darren and the others, instead charging toward Mother Chameleos while deliberately lowering its attack frequency, allowing her to raise the density of the toxic mist in the battlefield to an extremely thick level.
As everyone knew, Chameleos' toxic mist was an indiscriminate form of attack. It did not possess the kind of powerful control that Vaal Hazak had. Therefore, once a fight broke out and the mist spread, it did not distinguish between friend and foe.
Ruiner Nergigante's plan was simple: make use of this trait of Chameleos to force Chameleos to share more of the hunters' attention.
Whether the hunters' target was itself or Chameleos, under such circumstances, they would have to deal with Chameleos first—at the very least, stop her from continuing to release toxic mist.
It had to be said, this was an extremely correct choice.
Of course, that was under the premise that this battle was unfolding under conventional conditions.
In reality, because Ruiner Nergigante had allowed it, while Mother Chameleos released a large amount of medicinal mist specially blended for it, it also allowed the Admiral and the others to successfully enter the range of Mother Chameleos' medicinal mist, obtaining even stronger buffs.
With one rising as the other fell, Ruiner Nergigante lost its chance to seize the initiative. While being continuously weakened, it also had to face the hunters—pumped up like they'd been given a shot of adrenaline—and Mother Chameleos, who was off to the side playing the hidden opportunist.
Just as Ruiner Nergigante was feeling satisfied with its on-the-spot response, Mother Chameleos and the hunters launched a concentrated assault on it.
By the time it realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
Every so often: paralysis, dizziness, even blindness.
Pressure that would occasionally surge through its respiratory tract and nervous system, the rapid draining of energy within its body, and a whole series of other negative debuffs directly left Ruiner Nergigante unable to mount effective countermeasures against the hunters' attacks.
Meanwhile, the hunters, brimming with vigor, used the Clutch Claw to move rapidly, continuously launching attacks at various parts of Ruiner Nergigante's body.
For a time, its screams came one after another.
If Ruiner Nergigante did not have Regeneration far beyond that of Nergigante, as well as the more durable diamond thorns as a last line of defense—letting it forcibly withstand the hunters' onslaught and carry out some counterattacks that barely counted as useful—
If it were some ordinary elder dragon, after losing the initiative under these circumstances, it would probably have chosen to withdraw long ago.
Counterattack?
It should first make sure its own condition was stable!
And so, on this side, an utterly inhumane group beating began to unfold.
Compared with the Admiral and the others' side, the battle situation on the other side looked somewhat less than ideal.
This "Nergigante" was not some country bumpkin like Ruiner Nergigante who didn't understand hunters. It had, after all, once fought alongside the Research Commission against Yama Tsukami, and it even had experience battling a top-tier hunter like the Admiral.
Moreover, the relationship between the Research Commission and the Ancient Tree meant that "Nergigante" would occasionally turn its gaze to the hunters who frequently came and went around the Ancient Tree.
Therefore, it had no information gap regarding the hunters' fighting style.
This led to the two squads of recommended hunters that had rushed over—in a situation where they had more people attacking fewer—being suppressed instead by "Nergigante," which stayed airborne and rarely landed.
If they hadn't prepared enough Flash Pods, they probably would have started taking injuries long ago.
In the sky, after once again turning to avoid the frontal impact of a Flash Pod, and using the diamond thorns on its body to deflect the arrows shot toward it, "Nergigante" swiftly locked onto its target and launched another diving slam.
However, from the corner of its eye, it noticed a shield-bearing figure beside its intended target, clearly poised to act. In that instant, "Nergigante" abandoned the dive, executed a wide aerial spin, and flew back up into the sky.
The Lancer's "Heaven-Shattering Strike" thrust thus landed awkwardly in empty air. Helpless, he peered through the slit of his helmet at "Nergigante," which had resumed circling at low altitude.
He had never encountered an opponent as troublesome as "Nergigante"!
If there was an opening, it attacked. If there was none, it withdrew. It simply did not give them any chance to encircle it. There had hardly been any direct clashes at all. From beginning to end, it had remained in the air, no matter how the Felynes taunted it—it refused to come down.
Since when had Nergigante developed such a calm mindset?
How much of a beating would it have had to endure to temper such a formidable will?
The completely different choices in combat style on the two sides determined the different treatment the two Ruiner Nergigante would receive.
While the hunters and the two Nergigante were locked in fierce battle, inside the Everstream lava cavern—
Within a massive crystal, Logan's metallic-textured eyelids trembled slightly and, as time passed, slowly opened.
Having regained consciousness, Logan sensed his current state: two terrifying energies were transforming within his body, then each flowed toward two separate worlds.
He did not dare make any movement, fearing that a rash motion would shatter this extremely strange balance and trigger unpredictable consequences.
To put it bluntly, he was afraid that such a massive volume of energy might explode within him and take him out directly.
Yet to simply become a tool for two worlds like this—resentment filled his mind.
Was this his ending?
Was this the price he had to pay?
All kinds of negative emotions surfaced continuously. His azure eyes began to grow hollow.
At that moment, perhaps the existence on the other side of the spatial passage sensed something and realized that Logan had misunderstood.
Accompanied by a surge of energy from the spatial passage, a furious roar—like that of a creature embodying the earth itself—traveled along that energy. Yet the roar somehow carried a hint of impotent rage.
As that energy poured into Logan's body, the panel that had previously disappeared once again appeared before his eyes.
After a burst of garbled text, only a single line remained:
[Trait: Desolate Land (Loading)]