Closing in on the Seregios using his Clutch Claw and rope, he didn't recklessly climb onto the Monster's body. Instead, he released the Clutch Claw early and rolled with the momentum, coming to a stop directly beneath the Seregios.
For most Large Monsters, dealing with an enemy positioned under their body is a difficult problem.
After all, the natural evolution of biological organisms is measured in tens of thousands of years. Before the appearance of Hunters, almost no "small animal" could pose a lethal threat to a Large Flying Wyvern like this, so they naturally never evolved abilities specifically designed to target enemies that ducked beneath them.
The Seregios was no exception.
It lowered its head in an attempt to bite the Hunter, but Altaïr decisively rolled forward again, positioning himself right between the Seregios's two hind legs.
The Seregios bit air.
Among the various species of Flying Wyvern, the Seregios is considered to have fairly flexible limbs, but it still lacks the ability to bite its own heels. On the contrary, by lowering its head so drastically, it created a momentary opening in its movements.
Altaïr seized the opportunity to stand. Before his waist or legs could even fully straighten, he began swinging his Dual Blades with maximum speed.
Sword light, the mixed red and blue demonic aura, hazy frost, and misty water vapor interlaced with splashing Monster blood into a blur of light and shadow.
In just two or three short seconds, the inner sides of both of the Seregios's hind talons looked as if they had been put through a meat grinder, covered in over a dozen densely packed, crisscrossing wounds that were dripping with blood.
Blade Dance!
"Screee!"
Stimulated by the sudden, intense pain, the Seregios screeched and flapped its wings, flying back two body lengths to retreat.
Altaïr's breathing was slightly laboured; running while maintaining Demon Mode until now, followed by a high-intensity Blade Dance, had placed a massive burden on his stamina.
Forcing himself to maintain the demonization state was becoming too much for his heart to handle, even if his muscles still had strength left, so he had no choice but to let the fighting spirit dissipate and deactivate Demon Mode.
Fortunately, during the previous Demon Flurry Rush and Blade Dance, he had already gathered enough Spirit Gauge to successfully enter Archdemon Mode.
This way, even with Demon Mode deactivated, he could still maintain physical functions nearly identical to the demonization state for a short period, allowing him to continue high-mobility combat.
Seeing the Seregios attempt to pull away, Altaïr kicked off the ground and gave chase with a sudden dash.
The previous Blade Dance had made him realize one thing, perhaps to ensure the flexibility of its hind limbs, the gaps between the Seregios's leg scales were quite large.
His agile Dual Blades could follow those gaps, easily bypassing the Seregios's leg Defense to cut directly into the flesh.
The Defense on the inside of the Seregios's legs was equally weak; the texture of the scales here was similar to those on its belly, nowhere near as hard as the golden Bladescale Hone on its neck or tail. With the Sharpness of the Cool Cleavers, he could effectively deal damage.
This discovery took Altaïr by surprise.
It was evident from its limb structure that the Seregios's most powerful weapons, aside from those glittering golden scales, were this pair of exceptionally thick and long giant talons.
A weapon that was simultaneously a weakness was a rare sight indeed.
For Dual Blades users, fragile legs were the best news possible. His next combat objective was clear: continuously attack the legs to force an opening and make it trip, then launch a heavy assault on true vital areas like the chest and abdomen. As he watched the Hunter rapidly approach, the Seregios's eyes turned a deep crimson.
With its attacks missing one after another and its legs stinging from the constant slashing of the inconspicuous "small animal" before it, the naturally ill-tempered Seregios could no longer suppress its rage.
It spread its wings wide, unleashing a series of violent roars at the Hunter.
Wearing his Earplugs Talisman, Altaïr ignored the shockwaves of the roar and continued his charge. However, what happened next set off alarm bells in his mind.
Amidst the roaring, the Seregios's body began to vibrate violently. The golden Bladescales covering its entire body unfurled layer by layer, clashing and grinding against one another with a scalp-numbing "shing-shing" sound.
It was obvious that those Bladescales had become "activated." Predictably, the battle was about to become far more dangerous.
Considering the range of the Bladescales, pulling back was pointless; close-quarters combat was his only option.
Altaïr pressed forward through the waves of the roar.
Crossing his steps, he converted the inertia of his charge into the spinning momentum of his body and Dual Blades. He lunged forward like a whirlwind, his blades carving a path from the Seregios's extended neck all the way down to its chest, leaving behind a series of fine lacerations.
The Seregios's counterattack came exceptionally fast.
With its Bladescales fully deployed, its massive tail, which had transformed from a "rasp" into a "morning star," swept across the ground, cutting off any possibility of him using a Sliding Slash to slip underneath the attack.
Seeing this, Altaïr used the remaining inertia of his Demon Flurry Rush to spring into the air. He twisted his body mid-air, backflipping over the oncoming tail.
Upon landing, the azure fighting spirit glowing from his Dual Blades intensified.
He crossed his blades for a forward Thrust, preparing to launch a high-pressure Blade Dance, only to see the massive Seregios perform a maneuver strikingly similar to his own.
Driven by the momentum of its tail sweep, the golden Flying Wyvern lunged upward into a spin. After completing a full mid-air rotation, its wings snapped open with a "whoosh," stabilizing its massive frame in the sky.
Immediately after, its powerful hind claws slammed into the ground. Leveraging the inertia of its aerial spin, it rotated its body with a speed incomparable to typical Large Monsters, whipping its massive tail forward.
Over a dozen Bladescales shot out in a fan-shaped spread, blanketing the area toward the Hunter.
"Damn!"
In an instant, Altaïr broke into a cold sweat.
The spread of the scattering Bladescales was immense; outrunning the blast radius before they arrived was impossible.
The difficulty of dodging was equally staggering.
Unlike Bowgun Ammo, the high-speed spinning Bladescales did not travel in a straight line; they moved in unpredictable arcs.
If it were just two or three Bladescales, dodging wouldn't be too difficult given his dynamic vision and reaction speed.
But with such a massive spray, he couldn't possibly lock onto them all at once.
At a time like this, he missed Isis terribly.
If she were here, she would surely slam down her Large Shield and shout, "Get behind me!", a true height of security.
Casting aside these useless distractions, Altaïr's eyes scanned rapidly, attempting to find a gap in the encroaching wall of Bladescales.
Finally, he found one.
Altaïr didn't dare take any chances; he triggered Demon Mode and bolted toward the opening.
His body twisted like a fish in water, dodging two whirling Bladescales in quick succession. He was just about to slip through the dense net of blades. But at the final moment of his escape, a Bladescale flying elsewhere suddenly spun and banked, tracing a wide arc that struck at him from the side.
With no room left to dodge, Altaïr could only twist his body with everything he had to avoid a direct hit.
The golden Bladescale whirled past, trailing a spray of blood.
That desperate twist at the critical second saved his entire left leg from being severed at the hip, yet he failed to avoid the attack entirely.
The spinning Bladescale tore through the protection of his greaves, leaving a gruesome wound nearly twenty centimeters long on his left leg.
Unlike the smooth cut of an ordinary blade, the whirling scale acted like a serrated saw, tearing the flesh at the wound's edge into a jagged mess as blood jetted out.
Gritting his teeth against the bone-deep agony, Altaïr stumbled backward while swiftly pulling out a bottle of Mega Potion. He bit off the cap and gulped down half the bottle, pouring the remaining half directly onto the wound on his thigh.
However, the gash on his leg was far too wide; even the Mega Potion, with its exceptional clotting properties, could not stem the surging flow of blood.
At this rate, he would lose consciousness from blood loss in just a few minutes.
But it seemed he wouldn't even last those few minutes.
Seeing its prey slow down, the Seregios let out an excited screech. It beat its wings, lifting off the ground as it raised its razor-sharp Wyvern Claws and lunged forward.
With death looming before him, Altaïr's emotions grew strangely calm.
No... it wasn't calm. It was that his mind could no longer hold any other thoughts.
He released his grip on the wound. With blood-soaked hands tightening around his blades, Altaïr took a deep breath. In the little time he had left, he would launch one final assault!
As the Wyvern Claws closed in, the Hunter, having forgotten the fear of life and death, met the charge without flinching.
Under extreme mental concentration, every muscle and every organ in his body was mobilized.
The movements of the Seregios, once so fast they were difficult to track, were now distinct and clear in his eyes.
Maintaining his speed, he pivoted his body with minimal movement to let the first lunging Wyvern Claw slide past. Immediately after, he leaped sideways, corkscrewing through the air to evade the following claw from the other side.
He had actually slipped right through the gap between the Seregios's two talons.
Spirit Gauge surging, his Dual Blades spun at high speed into a storm of steel, carving from the Seregios's belly all the way to its tail, leaving a series of crisscrossing lacerations.
"Gah-aoo!!"
The Seregios stumbled a few steps as its kick missed, screeching in pain.
Altaïr, rushing out from behind the monster, felt his leg give way and sank to one knee.
A look of relief washed over his face. At least in this final clash, he was the victor!
As for whether he would be torn to shreds by talons or swallowed whole by the Monster next, it was nothing more than the law of the jungle.
He had made his peace with this the very day he decided to become a Hunter.
The enraged Seregios spun around, intent on tearing the incapacitated Hunter to pieces.
A Large Shuriken, the size of a square table, whistled through the air and struck the side of the Seregios's head with pinpoint precision.
"Large Shuriken technique, meow!"
(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.
ITEMS
Mega Potion — An enhanced healing potion that restores a significant portion of a Hunter's vitality. More potent than a standard Potion, it also has stronger clotting and wound-sealing properties, making it invaluable when dealing with serious injuries in the field.
Large Shuriken — A large, disc-shaped throwing weapon used by Felynes. Functioning like an oversized shuriken, it is hurled with considerable force and can strike targets at range. Sajji uses it here as a precision ranged attack in support of Altaïr.
SKILLS & TECHNIQUES
Blade Dance — A high-speed Dual Blades technique in which the Hunter unleashes a rapid flurry of slashing attacks in close range, dealing a large number of hits in quick succession. It is one of the signature moves of the Dual Blades weapon type and requires the Hunter to be in close proximity to the target.