The gash from the Helm Breaker combined with the previous wound from the Iai Spirit Slash, merging the scars into a shape resembling the character '丰'.
The concentrated burst of multiple injuries was too much for the Odogaron to bear, and the sheer impact of the Helm Breaker slammed it to the ground.
Its vulnerable abdomen was exposed right before Andrew's eyes. As it fell, the Odogaron began to instinctively flail its four limbs wildly, trying to protect its underbelly.
Its flailing, sharp claws offered no real protection against the hunter. Facing this big dog whimpering on the ground with its belly exposed, Andrew's heart was utterly cold.
As cold and hard as someone who had spent over a decade helping a head chef gut fish.
While the Odogaron's entire body lacked large, protective scales, making its flesh one of the tenderest types, even its softest parts couldn't compare to the vulnerability of its abdomen.
Naturally, Andrew wouldn't let this chance slip by. After landing from the Helm Breaker, he drew upon the lingering power of the attack before it dissipated, consuming his spirit gauge once more.
He immediately swung the Dullahan Tachi, unleashing a flurry of red slashes. The storm of light from his blade carved a swathe of deep wounds across the Odogaron's abdomen.
"Peerless Spirit Slash!"
Although the two attacks directly drained the blade's red aura back to a pale white, the power unleashed was far greater than any of his other moves.
The powerful attack tore the Odogaron's vulnerable abdomen to shreds. The intense pain radiating from its underbelly was completely unbearable.
"ROOOAR!"
With a piercing shriek, the Odogaron ignored the crippling discomfort wracking its body and shot back to its feet, once again baring its fangs and claws at Andrew.
As the recognized 'honey badger' of the New World, the word 'fear' simply didn't exist in its vocabulary. It was also notoriously relentless.
Leaping pounces, tail swipes, claw strikes, savage bites, and the massive spinning tail whip it had used before.
Different attacks, constant attempts—its wild instincts were roaring, and the wounds covering its body constantly grated on its nerves, driving its attacks into an even greater frenzy.
But it was useless. In this battle, none of it had any effect.
Andrew switched seamlessly between Foresight Slashes and his Iai Stance, turning every one of the Odogaron's attacks into an opportunity to level up his spirit gauge and deal damage.
Occasionally, he would intentionally take a claw strike just to charge his blade, but Caesar's timely shields always blocked the blow.
The presence of his super armor even made it impossible for the Odogaron to interrupt Andrew's Helm Breaker.
Finally, having fallen into a state of complete exhaustion, the Odogaron was forced to stop.
The relentless battle had covered its body with countless gashes that cut deep into the muscle. Every movement pulled at its wounds.
Even its greatest asset besides its claws and fangs—the tail formed from layers of keratin accumulated upon reaching adulthood—had been severed by that human's high-leaping slash from before.
It had even come to recognize those two short words—'Helm Breaker'—that heralded immense pain each time they were shouted.
But for some reason, even though its wounds hadn't healed at all, the pain was gradually fading.
The wounds that brought agony with every movement now felt... comfortable.
So comfortable it was as if it had returned to its own warm nest in the Rotten Vale, a place filled with bones and carrion.
Unbeknownst to the Odogaron, the Ether corruption had begun silently and insidiously the first time curiosity and hunger drove it to swallow one of those bizarre creatures.
Otherwise, according to its usual habits, it would never have fought to the death in one spot; it would have turned tail and vanished long ago.
A voice from an unknown source emerged in its consciousness. Although it couldn't make out the words, it could inexplicably understand the voice's meaning.
It was waiting, craving, and anticipating.
Anticipating the moment it would let down its final defenses and throw itself wholeheartedly into the voice's embrace.
As long as it threw itself completely into the voice's embrace, it could obtain incomparably immense power and completely reverse its current, unwinnable situation.
And it would never again feel tired, never again feel hungry, never again feel pain.
In the Odogaron's understanding, something like this could only happen in a dream. Yet, for some reason, a subconscious feeling kept telling it that everything the voice said was true.
Such favorable terms made the Odogaron hesitate for a moment. Its simple mind couldn't even conceive of the possibility of deception.
But a sense of danger, born from instinct, flooded its entire being. Though it didn't know the source, its appearance always meant that whatever came next would not be good.
Its previously hesitant consciousness tensed up once more. The embrace it had been about to offer was sealed shut, and the Odogaron became vigilant again, shutting out all consciousness other than its own.
Seeing its enticement fail, the voice immediately became enraged.
The Ether energy that the Odogaron had absorbed from the Ethereal core began to churn violently within its body.
As if flying into a rage from humiliation, the previous coaxing turned into a forceful takeover. All the Ether energy it had absorbed began to corrode it frantically from the inside out.
The original pain began to multiply, attempting to wear down the Odogaron's consciousness.
But none of this swayed the Odogaron in the slightest.
In its life, getting injured was completely normal. A mere 'Ether corruption' of my body?
"Watch me push it back with sheer willpower!"
Feeling the rampant Ether energy in its body, the Odogaron remembered something it once saw in the Coral Highlands: a more evolved form of itself.
That black-scaled form, the Dragon Element energy it exhaled... even a fleeting glimpse had left a deep impression.
That unique scent still seemed to linger at the tip of its nose. Even with its severely degenerated eyesight, the image of that figure was burned into the depths of its mind.
"Why can other Odogarons do it, but I can't?!"
"I, the Odogaron, the top dog of the Rotten Vale, am going to wreck this entire Hollow today!!!"
"Ether energy, you will bend to my will!!!"
The constantly corroding Ether energy within its body began to yield to its flesh's relentless adaptation. The Odogaron seized control over the energy flow that had been rampaging through it.
The corrosion transformed into reinforcement. Its muscles began to grow stronger and harder.
Its skin, once dark red, gradually faded to a deathly grey, as if bleached. A rapidly proliferating layer of keratin regenerated the tail that had been cut off!
From its mouth, which once exhaled white steam, now flowed the purple, eerie aura of Ether energy.
Red lightning crackled and churned within, illuminating the Odogaron's now-pallid face.
It sounds like it took a long time, but all of this happened in just a few seconds. In Andrew's eyes, the Odogaron that had only frozen for a moment had been completely reborn!
It had succeeded. The Ether energy inside it had been completely tamed.
Though ferocious and violent, it could no longer harm the Odogaron in the slightest.
Or rather, no.
The most fitting name for it now is—the Vicious Claw Wyvern!!!
_____
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