This Charged Spirit Roundslash landed, as expected, once again upon the joint of the Zamtrios's left hind leg.
Altaïr understood well the principle that it was better to sever a finger than to wound ten; rather than inflicting superficial lacerations across the target's entire body, it was far more effective to find a way to take this hind leg off entirely.
Once you're missing one of those three claws, let's see how well you can stand on the ice surface!
Crack! The crisp sound of bone fracturing rang out.
The blade bit deep into the Zamtrios's articular cartilage, yet it was just a breath away from severing the limb completely.
The agonizing pain radiating from its bone caused the Zamtrios's left leg to jerk violently, making its body stumble once more. Altaïr seized the opening, closing the distance with a few quick strides and delivering a flurry of consecutive slashes to the target's hind leg.
Struggling to maintain its balance, the Zamtrios roared. Propping itself up with its powerful forelimbs, it twisted its body around as frost-white freezing cold air began to coalesce within its maw.
This was clearly the precursor to a breath attack!
Without a moment's hesitation, Altaïr charged even closer, sticking tight to the Zamtrios's flank.
A Monster's breath attack possessed immense power and a vast area of effect; attempting to sprint out of its range in such a short time was nearly impossible.
By comparison, while staying pressed against the Monster's body carried its own risks, it was a far more effective method of evasion.
Few Monsters were capable of performing other maneuvers while maintaining a breath attack; as long as he stayed glued to its side, the breath attack would find it difficult to hit him.
"Roar!"
Amidst a furious howl, the breath attack, laden with freezing liquid mist and a barrage of blade-like icicles, erupted forth.
If a Hunter were to take such a breath attack head-on, they wouldn't just be sent flying; they would be frozen into an ice sculpture by the freezing liquid mist that could manifest ice armor out of thin air.
But that all depended on the attack actually landing.
With the Hunter stuck to the side of its head like a piece of plaster, the Zamtrios could only watch helplessly as its breath attack struck nothing but empty air.
It tried its best to wrench its head around, but the short, thick neck structure of an Amphibian would not allow for such a feat.
The Zamtrios was forced to fight against the powerful recoil of its own breath attack while slowly rotating its body, attempting to bring the Hunter back into its line of fire.
But the Hunter wasn't just standing there like a fool.
Altaïr raised his sword and entered a charging stance once more, refining his Spirit and gathering strength while constantly adjusting his positioning in sync with the Zamtrios's rotation.
He remained unfazed as the angle between himself and the gaping maw spewing the breath attack grew narrower, for he knew the Zamtrios's breath attack could not last long.
Sure enough, after a mere three or four seconds, the Zamtrios's breath attack ceased.
Such a high-yield breath attack inevitably drained a vast amount of a Monster's stamina, and the sudden disappearance of that powerful recoil caused the Zamtrios's center of gravity to falter for a fleeting moment.
Altaïr keenly caught this transient opening, releasing the attack he had already charged to its peak at that exact instant.
Charged Spirit Roundslash!
The blade once again struck the Zamtrios's left hind joint with pinpoint precision, leaving the leg hanging by a thread.
Wracked with pain, the Zamtrios instinctively retracted its hind leg, but it was this very reflex that delivered the wound directly unto the Hunter. A flash of crimson light flared as the Spinning Crimson Slash followed immediately after the roundslash, slicing diagonally through the mangled joint and severing it completely.
A blood-stained segment of the hind claw spun through the air before hitting the ground.
"Geee-a-ooooh!!"
Amidst a wretched howl, the Zamtrios, already wobbling from retracting its leg, could no longer maintain its balance. It tumbled over, crashing onto the slick ice surface.
Now's the chance! Altaïr's eyes lit up.
Continuously attacking the limbs could wound or maim, but it would not be fatal. To truly kill this Monster, he needed to strike its true vital points: the belly or the head.
The Zamtrios's fall had perfectly exposed its soft underbelly, vulnerable and lacking the protection of its ice armor, right before him.
Without a second thought, Altaïr stepped back half a pace.
He stabilized his center of gravity, tensing his waist and legs while leveling the Spirit Gauge-infused Long Sword at shoulder height, its cold, glinting blade pointing straight ahead.
In the next instant, he shot forward like a loose arrow, the tip of his blade thrusting directly into the Zamtrios's flank.
Spirit Blade Thrust!
Altaïr had expected the blade to sink deep into the Zamtrios's belly, but the seemingly soft skin was surprisingly resilient. After the tip had penetrated barely twenty centimeters, it became firmly snagged by the mesh-like connective tissue, unable to advance another inch.
Yet this was no ordinary Thrust. Using the blade tip embedded in the Zamtrios's belly as a fulcrum, Altaïr vaulted upward, leaping four or five meters into the air.
Without a single wasted motion, he adjusted his posture with maximum speed, mobilizing the strength of every muscle in his body.
The Spirit he had condensed and refined through repeated attacks was funneled entirely into the blade. It transformed into a dazzling crimson Spirit Blade that crashed down vertically along with the iron-gray steel edge.
Spirit Helm Breaker!
The power of this strike was incomparable to the previous thrust. The moment the blade fell, a long, narrow gash appeared on the Zamtrios's flank. A massive spray of blood erupted, staining the ice surface beneath it a deep red.
Sensing a lethal threat, the Zamtrios ignored the agony in its belly and hind leg, quickly rolling over.
Altaïr assumed it would collapse from the loss of a limb, or at the very least stumble and struggle to stand on the ice surface, but to his surprise, the creature's movements remained remarkably stable.
It supported the majority of its body weight with its two powerful forelimbs, which, along with its thick tail, formed three stable points of contact.
Its intact right hind leg tapped against the ice to help maintain balance, while the severed left leg was held completely aloft, exposing the jagged white bone at the stump.
It can still stand steadily?!
Altaïr looked on in shock, but he quickly realized he had been making assumptions.
While an ordinary four-legged land creature would naturally limp after losing a leg, the Zamtrios was an Amphibian.
He recalled the Zamite he had encountered earlier; they didn't even have hind limbs, only two small, bump-like protrusions. Even so, they moved nimbly across the ice.
As an adult, it was perhaps not so strange that a Zamtrios could stand and move even with a missing hind foot.
Regardless, his previous efforts had not been in vain. Many of the Zamtrios's movements, including its pounces, charge attacks, and turns, relied on the power of its hind legs for propulsion.
While it was true that a Zamtrios missing a leg could continue to move across the ice surface, its speed and agility would inevitably be compromised.
Having realized this, Altaïr began attempting to circle around to the Zamtrios's rear right side.
Sure enough, just as he expected, the Zamtrios's turning speed had slowed considerably.
He didn't even need to trigger Demon Mode; using only his regular running speed, he successfully maneuvered behind his opponent before it could finish turning.
He rapidly slashed out several times at the Monster's flank and hind leg areas, which lacked the protection of ice armor, then continued running in circles to relentlessly sap the creature's stamina.
This kind of war of attrition wasn't particularly grand to watch; doing this in an Arena would even draw boos from the crowd.
But in an actual hunt, any Hunter with a functioning brain would never let such an opportunity slip by.
If a Monster could be ground down to death, then all the better.
However, the Monster was no brainless object. After several consecutive failed turning attacks, the Zamtrios realized it couldn't go on like this and skidded to a halt.
Altaïr, having circled behind his target once more, did not rush to attack. Instead, he pulled back slightly to a safe distance, raising his vigilance to the maximum.
He had a premonition that this fellow was about to pull out a new trick.
The Zamtrios dug its three claws firmly into the ice surface to stabilize its body, lowering its head as its entire frame began to tremble slightly.
A strange sound, like liquid boiling violently, emanated from within its body.
In the next second, the streamlined belly of the Zamtrios ballooned rapidly. The ice armor covering its body was instantly shattered by the expansion; in just a second or two, it had inflated into a comical sphere.
"Gwaaaaaaah!"
Looking at the Zamtrios, which was now bloated like a ball and wobbling back and forth on the ice surface, Altaïr couldn't help but feel bewildered.
He knew that the Zamtrios possessed the ability to inflate its body into a sphere, but why would it do so now? Wouldn't this just make its movements even more sluggish?
Just as he was wondering, the spherical Zamtrios thrust its belly out and leaped into the air.
It didn't jump very high, only about two or three meters, but the moment it landed back on the ice surface, a massive section of the ice layer shattered with a roar.
"Shit!"
Altaïr couldn't help but swear. This guy was trying to destroy the ice!
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — LORE SECTION
Some terms and creatures referenced in this story may be unfamiliar to readers new to the Monster Hunter universe. The following entries provide additional context.
CLASSIFICATIONS
Amphibian — A Monster Hunter classification for creatures that share traits of both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Unlike Piscine Wyverns, Amphibians typically possess four stubby limbs and are highly adapted to environments near water or ice. The Zamtrios and its juvenile form the Zamite are prime examples: capable on land but equally at home beneath the surface.
CONCEPTS
Zamtrios Sphere Form — An ability unique to the adult Zamtrios triggered as a last-resort defensive and offensive maneuver. The creature rapidly inflates its body with internal gases, shedding any accumulated Ice Armor in the process and transforming into a near-perfect sphere. In this state its mobility is altered but not eliminated; it can launch itself into the air and use the impact of landing to shatter ice surfaces, fundamentally changing the battlefield.
SKILLS & TECHNIQUES
Spirit Blade Thrust — A Long Sword technique that uses the Spirit Gauge-charged blade as both a weapon and a vaulting point. The hunter drives the blade tip into the target at close range, then uses the embedded sword as a fulcrum to launch upward, positioning for a high-damage aerial follow-up such as the Spirit Helm Breaker.