The target had appeared, but Altaïr and the others did not immediately launch their assault.
The little canyon had a narrow entrance and widened deeper in, like a bag with its mouth drawn tight, while the Lagiacrus was still near the entrance. If they attacked now, they could easily drive it back outside, which would be troublesome.
"Don't attack yet! Lure it inside!" Altaïr shouted.
Sajji took out his personal horn and was about to blow it, but Jara beat him to it. "Watch this!"
With that, he threw the bottle containing the last bit of Lagiacrus Mucus, smashing it against the ground not far away.
The smell, barely noticeable to humans but exceptionally pungent to a Lagiacrus, spread through the air.
Stung by the scent, the Lagiacrus, which had been hesitating just moments earlier because it saw no sign of an opponent, immediately burst into a string of furious roars.
Seeing that the timing was about right, Altaïr flicked a Paintball and struck the Lagiacrus on the head.
The Lagiacrus, already frenzied and with nowhere to vent its rage, immediately glared viciously at the Hunters inside the canyon.
In plain terms, this luring tactic was somewhat similar to the way a Qurupeco calls other Large Monsters in as "reinforcements."
It is not that the Qurupeco can control those Monsters. Rather, it mimics sounds to stir them into a fury.
When those Monsters arrive on the scene enraged, the Qurupeco immediately tries to fly away, leaving the opponent behind to suffer the consequences.
The Hunters were doing much the same thing. After arriving at the source of the scent but finding no opponent, the furious Lagiacrus would naturally focus its attention on the only living creatures inside the canyon.
As an aquatic Monster, Lagiacrus are generally much larger than land-based Monsters. Their massive frames, often exceeding twenty-five meters, can be rivaled only by a very small number of Large Flying Wyverns.
Yet their movements are exceptionally agile.
The canyon was strewn with pebbles and crossed by streams from the Misty Peaks, terrain that suited the Lagiacrus perfectly. With a twist of its body, it darted deep into the valley in the blink of an eye and came right up to the Hunters.
Nymera, the Gunner, and Jara, the Insect Glaive user assigned to skirmishing, immediately scattered to either side.
Isis, serving as the main frontliner, stood her ground with her shield raised, fired a shot into the sky, and roared loudly to attract the Lagiacrus's attention.
This method of provocation was old-fashioned but effective, causing the Lagiacrus to subconsciously fix its gaze on her.
Altaïr's pattern of movement, however, was different from usual.
As the team's attacker, he normally hovered at the edge of the battlefield at the start of a fight, making it easier for Isis to stabilize the target's attention while he searched for an opening to strike.
This time, however, he chose to launch an assault in the very first instant.
While the Lagiacrus's eyes were on Isis, he activated Demon Mode outright.
His entire body dashed forward, practically hugging the ground, slipping into the blind spot beneath the Lagiacrus's head and charging all the way to its chest.
Khanga Rebellion flashed from its sheath. In a streak of cold light, it sliced a gash across the Lagiacrus's chest.
Only then did the Lagiacrus notice that a Hunter had gotten beneath it. Its instinct was to look down, and in that instant, Isis charged out.
Shield and all, she slammed heavily into the Lagiacrus's head.
This back-and-forth tug-of-war over its attention left the Lagiacrus somewhat disoriented, with the distinct sensation that if it guarded its chest, its head was exposed, and if it worried about its head, its chest was wide open.
That stood in sharp contrast to the classic tactic, where the main frontliner drew the Monster's attention head-on while attackers launched surprise assaults from the flank or rear.
Altaïr and Isis were now employing something far more complex, more technically demanding, and more reliant on coordination: Dual Vanguard Tactics.
Indeed, for this Hunt, Altaïr and Isis would fight simultaneously as frontliners.
The most basic single-frontliner tactic is more stable. Throughout the fight, the Monster's attention rests almost entirely on one main frontliner. As long as that frontliner can hold out, everyone else simply looks for openings to attack.
Dual Vanguard Tactics, however, emphasize alternation and give-and-take. Both Hunters are frontliners, and at the same time, both are attackers.
One launches a fierce assault to draw the Monster's attention and provoke a counterattack, while the other immediately intensifies their own offensive to follow up, like two heavy fists relentlessly hammering at the Monster's head and face.
This is a classic suppression tactic, suitable only for highly aggressive teams.
Altaïr and Isis had experimented with similar teamwork many times before, but this was truly the first time they had aimed to forcibly suppress a Monster right from the start of the engagement.
They had chosen this rather radical tactic because of the other female Lagiacrus still on the island.
Even though they had used the scent of another male Lagiacrus to separate the two, who could guarantee the female would not wander over to investigate the commotion? The moment she discovered that the male's fight was not against another challenger who might become her new mate, but against a few two-legged intruders, a four-against-one would likely become a four-against-two.
Considering the other possibilities they absolutely had to avoid, the Lagiacrus fleeing or the fight shifting underwater, their plan this time was no longer a conventional battle of attrition. It was a suppression assault, maintaining high-intensity offense from start to finish.
"Boom! Boom!" Isis planted her shield, braced her Gunlance, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.
The shrapnel bursting from the muzzle flew barely a meter through the air before blasting apart against the Lagiacrus's triangular face.
Drops of blood bloomed, and searing shrapnel mixed with tiny carapace fragments sprayed in all directions. A considerable amount even landed on Isis's armor, producing a crisp, scalp-tingling crackle.
At this distance, the shells fired from a Wide-type Gunlance were in no way inferior to the Spread Ammo used by Gunners. Arguably, they were even superior.
After all, Gunners almost never fired while pressed directly against a Monster's face.
The impact and stinging pain on its face, along with the deafening roar of the blasts, forced the Lagiacrus to keep recoiling its head.
If a Gunlance's ammunition were infinite, perhaps Isis could have suppressed the Lagiacrus all by herself.
But such a fantasy was meaningless. The Glavenus Gunlance's magazine held only three shells, and the instant the shelling ceased, the Lagiacrus immediately sought to counterattack.
Yet at that very moment, an unbearable, piercing pain erupted from its chest.
In conventional battles, one had to carefully control the tempo of the attack, lest the Monster abandon the main frontliner, shift its attention elsewhere, and disrupt the formation.
This tactic of mutually "competing" for the Monster's attention was clearly far more suited to someone like Altaïr, a man whose mind was filled with nothing but offense.
Having activated Demon Mode, his entire body was wreathed in Blood Rite aura, and even the gold-and-white Khanga Rebellion blade in his hands was stained with a crimson gleam.
Wielding only a single Long Sword, he somehow produced the afterimages of blade-light normally seen only among Dual Blades users.
To facilitate movement, the white carapace on the Lagiacrus's chest had never been particularly thick, and it stood no chance of withstanding that fierce storm of blade-light.
Crisscrossing wounds spread across the Lagiacrus's chest like a chaotic spiderweb, and as the blade danced, the splattering blood dyed Altaïr's golden armor a deep scarlet in the blink of an eye.
The Lagiacrus roared in fury, bending its flexible, long neck as its head descended to bite the Blademaster at its chest.
By this time, however, Isis had already swiftly finished reloading.
The Glavenus Gunlance, snapped open at the breech, was still ejecting its spent shell casings when Isis drove it upward with a powerful rising slash, striking the Lagiacrus's relatively fragile lower jaw.
The freshly loaded shell had spent less than a second inside the barrel before being ignited and fired.
The simultaneous eruption of slash and shelling sent the Lagiacrus's head snapping backward.
Beneath the heavy helmet of her Basarios Armor, her usual gentleness and honesty had vanished, replaced by a fervent, almost savage grin.
Ha! You think I'd just let you steal the Monster's attention like that? Where would that leave my pride?!
As if sensing that fanatical will emanating from behind him, the smile in Altaïr's eyes grew even more dangerous.
The two of them practically attacked the Monster before them with the mentality of sparring partners locked in a competition.
Realizing that continuing this way would end badly, the Lagiacrus lowered its head and retracted its neck as pale blue electric light began to flicker across the dark-red dorsal spines on its back.
Firing her crossbow from a distance, Nymera, who had the widest and most complete view of the battlefield, was the first to notice this and immediately shouted a warning.
"Electric shocks inbound! Break off!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)