Her entire body numb from swinging her weapon, Isis clenched a ration between her teeth and eagerly stuffed Gunlance shells into her pack.
Her supply had already been running low after the previous Small Monster hunt, and even with the restraint she had shown while intercepting the Teppeki Shen Gaoren, she had exhausted it long ago.
Without shelling or Wyvern's Fire, a Gunlance was little more than a weakened Great Sword. This was the first time since becoming a Hunter that Isis had ever run completely out of ammunition.
The two Gunners were even more excited.
A Gunlance at least had a blade. In the hands of someone strong enough, it could still serve as a purely melee weapon.
Nymera and Morgan, however, used a Light Bowgun and a Heavy Bowgun. Once they ran out of ammo, all they could do was stand by and watch. If they had possessed any other option, they would never have considered withdrawing earlier.
Miss Nightmist, who had drawn up the supply list, was a Gunner herself and naturally understood what they needed most.
She had not sent a single round of Normal Ammo, whose chief advantages were its low cost and compact size. She had also excluded Spread Ammo and every other type that would be ineffective against a Shen Gaoren.
The heavy ammunition crates contained almost nothing but two kinds of rounds: a large supply of Flaming Ammo for Nymera's Rathalos Bowgun and powerful Lv3 Sticky Ammo for Morgan's Heavy Bowgun.
There were even two rounds of Supernova Bowgun Ammo...
These special Heavy Bowgun rounds possessed astonishing power, almost rivaling Wyvern's Fire, but they were extremely expensive and difficult to use.
The portly town chief had no idea what they were. He had simply heard that they were "very powerful," spent a fortune on several rounds, and left them gathering dust in the warehouse.
Had Nightmist not carefully inventoried the combat stores, they might have been overlooked entirely.
Even Altaïr, a pure Blademaster, found plenty he could use among the supplies Hibiki had brought. Alongside a large stock of Potions were Dash Juice, Energy Drinks, Nutrients, and other items that would help ease their fatigue. All of them would prove vital in the prolonged fight ahead.
With their supplies replenished, the Hunters' confidence soared.
"And this," Morgan said, handing over a note. "It was nailed to one of the ammunition crates."
Altaïr took it and glanced over the message from Miss Nightmist.
It was brief. She apologized that no Hunters could be sent to reinforce them while the town's defenses were being strengthened, but promised them all the supplies they needed. They only had to send word back with a Palamute, and everything would be prepared at once.
Altaïr looked around at his companions. "Does anyone need anything else?"
"Send us more rations!"
"No."
"Nothing until we've used up this ammo."
"I do, meow!" Sajji cried, bouncing on his feet. "Boss, can you ask them to send some high-yield explosives, meow? The gaps in the dragon skull are large enough for me to squeeze through, so I could plant the explosives directly against the creature's vulnerable abdomen, meow!
"But don't send anything as big as a Large Barrel Bomb, meow. It probably wouldn't fit. If possible, have them send my Monoblos Model-4 too, meow!"
Altaïr nodded and wrote down the request. After a moment's thought, Morgan handed Sajji the two Supernovas he had just received.
"I'm not very experienced with Supernovas, so I might not be able to use them to their full potential. You take them. They use delayed fuses, and with your skills, you should be able to modify them into powerful time bombs."
"Meow!" Sajji eagerly accepted the two enormous Bowgun rounds, which towered over him when stacked together, and strapped them to his back. "Just watch me, meow! I'll signal you later, so make sure you retreat in time, meow!"
The group quickly divided the supplies, rested for half an hour to recover their strength, then picked up their pace and caught up with the target.
Altaïr once again focused on the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's left foreleg. As a Blademaster, his options were limited against a colossal Monster with such a thick hide.
Hundreds of sword strikes would have been enough to kill any Large Flying Wyvern, yet they had not even broken through the carapace on the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's leg.
Still, Altaïr knew his efforts were not meaningless. The grooves carved by his crisscrossing sword strikes were gradually deepening and widening. It was like chipping away at a boulder with an Iron Pickaxe; as long as he kept swinging, he would eventually break through.
Isis was doing the same, but replenishing her Gunlance shells made her far more effective at destroying the carapace on the Shen Gaoren's leg.
She followed every slash with shelling and seized each opportunity to unleash Wyvern's Fire.
Altaïr could not match that kind of siege power, even after switching Tyrant Blade [Heaven Swallower] into Great Sword mode.
Morgan and Nymera had equally clear objectives. From the beginning of the battle, they had concentrated their fire on the joints of the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's two forelegs.
Against a Monster of this size, crippling one limb was far more effective than spreading damage across several.
Now fully stocked, the Gunners opened fire at full force. Under the relentless barrage of Flaming Ammo and Sticky Ammo, the joints of the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's forelegs began to glow faintly red from within.
The same change appeared on the soles of its forefeet, exactly where the Blademasters had been attacking.
The sight lifted the Hunters' spirits.
The Shen Gaoren still made no attempt to fight back, but this change proved that their attacks were working.
It might have looked like a mountain, but it was not one. It could be wounded. It could feel pain. And it could die.
Meanwhile, atop the enormous Lao-Shan Lung skull, Sajji worked furiously with an assortment of small tools.
He had already dismantled the casings of both Supernovas, exposing the complex mechanisms inside.
Covered in viscous, murky green fluid, Clawdia crawled out of a wound in the Teppeki Shen Gaoren and paused to catch her breath.
A Teppeki Shen Gaoren of this size had tremendously dense muscles. Even after bypassing its tough outer carapace, widening the wound was still extremely difficult, and repeated attacks had begun to warp the blades of her claws.
Its body also contained internal carapace supports resembling the watertight bulkheads of a ship. Following the wound deep inside and tearing apart the Monster's organs and brain would be no easy task.
"Are you done fiddling with those yet?" Clawdia asked irritably as she shook the sticky fluid from her fur and looked over at Sajji.
During her training with her father, she had seen him modify Supernovas in the blink of an eye. He had never needed to spend so long fussing over them with wrenches and screwdrivers as Sajji did.
"All done, meow! All done, meow!" Sajji snapped the two Supernova casings back together and handed them to Clawdia. "This is my first time working on one, so of course I'm a little slow, meow!"
"Turn this gear all the way down to set the fuse for roughly thirty seconds, meow. Once you're ready, I'll signal everyone below, and we'll escape with the glider, meow."
Without another word, Clawdia hoisted both Supernovas onto her shoulder and turned to leave.
"Wait, meow! You're going to use both at once?!"
"Why not, meow? Wouldn't setting off two at once pack a bigger punch, meow?"
Sajji nearly jumped out of his fur. "What the hell is wrong with you, meow? You might be obsessed with weapons, but your father was a legendary Bombing Palico! How can you lack even that much common sense, meow?
"These use delayed fuses, not impact fuses, meow! What if one explodes first and blasts the other straight back into our faces, meow?"
Clawdia glanced at the Supernovas on her shoulder. "Can that really happen, meow? Can't you just set them to detonate at the same time, meow?"
"How could I possibly time them that precisely, meow? Even a difference of one-twentieth of a second would be enough for the first blast to send the other Supernova flying, meow!
"Use them one at a time, meow! Your father would do the same, meow!" Sajji snapped.
"Is that so, meow?" Clawdia muttered. She strapped one of the Supernovas to her back, took the other in her arms, then ran forward and leaped into the wound near the Shen Gaoren's head.
Sajji blinked. He seemed to have discovered a way to lecture Clawdia without making her fur bristle.
...No, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that, meow.
Sajji hurriedly packed away his tools. As he deployed his glider, he shouted to the Hunters still attacking below.
"We're planting the bomb, meow! Get ready to retreat, meow!"
At the signal, the Hunters immediately broke off their assault and moved away from the slowly advancing Shen Gaoren.
A few seconds later, Clawdia crawled out of the wound and raced toward Sajji. The glider could not carry both of them in sustained flight, but it could bring them safely to the ground.
"What's the countdown, meow?"
"Didn't time it, meow."
"What the hell is wrong with you, meow?!"
Sajji did not dare wait any longer. He told Clawdia to hold on tight, and the two Felynes leaped from the dragon skull and glided to safety.
"Next time you plant a bomb, remember to time it, meow."
"Too much trouble, meow. Why not just plant it and run, meow?"
"If you can't even manage that, your father will be disappointed, meow!"
"...Got it, meow."