The Hunters had been waiting for the Teppeki Shen Gaoren to lose patience and fight back.
But when the monster truly stopped in its tracks and turned its attention toward them, they could not help feeling momentarily at a loss.
Should they retreat for now? Or risk an attack?
The choice flashed through Altaïr's mind, but he did not hesitate for long before making his decision.
"Everyone, fall back! Find cover and get at least two hundred meters away," Altaïr shouted as he downed a Dash Juice. "I'll test its attack patterns!"
His agility gave him a better chance of evading the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's attacks than Isis and the others.
Isis instinctively wanted to say something, but Nymera stepped forward.
"Leave the covering fire to me," she said, removing the large-capacity drum magazine and replacing it with a lighter magazine that held fewer rounds but could be reloaded more quickly.
Altaïr did not object. Nymera wielded a Light Bowgun and had Wirebugs to support her, so her mobility was every bit as good as his.
Neither of the other two was suited to the task. Isis's Blast Dash was only useful in emergencies, not for a close-quarters battle demanding constant movement. As for Morgan, even in the best-case scenario, it would take him time to return with a spare weapon.
"Don't worry. We'll avoid taking unnecessary risks." Leaving those words to reassure the anxious-looking Isis, Altaïr activated Demon Mode and charged toward the nearby target at full speed.
"I'll leave the follow-up assault to you," Nymera said. She launched a Wirebug, vaulted through the air, and circled in from another direction.
Left standing alone, Isis bit her lip and reluctantly retreated.
As Altaïr rapidly closed in on the target, he studied his opponent.
The Teppeki Shen Gaoren's movement patterns had clearly changed. The most obvious difference was its stance. At first, it had stood tall with its legs fully extended. Now its legs were bent and its abdomen nearly scraped the ground as it moved like a spider.
The former posture conserved energy during long-distance travel, while the latter provided a lower center of gravity and greater speed, making it better suited to combat and threats on the ground.
Altaïr felt the creature's gaze on him. Its enormous, black-pearl-like eyes remained fixed on him, their flexible stalks swiveling to track his position.
He had its full attention.
Altaïr slowed slightly, bracing himself for any powerful attack it might unleash.
The Teppeki Shen Gaoren raised its remaining left pincer high. The front half of the limb emitted a harsh, searing glow, clearly signaling an imminent attack.
Altaïr immediately changed direction and moved away from the raised pincer.
The next second, it slammed down at the ground in front of the Shen Gaoren.
By the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's usual standards, the attack was remarkably swift. To the agile Hunters, however, it still resembled an exaggerated motion played in slow motion.
Altaïr did not dare lower his guard. He sprinted away from the impact zone at full speed, using his peripheral vision to time the pincer as it fell.
The instant it struck the ground, he kicked off with both feet and flipped into the air.
"BOOM!!!" A deafening blast like the detonation of a massive Barrel Bomb thundered in his ears.
The enormous pincer had not appeared to move quickly, but it carried a terrifying force that ordinary Large Monsters could not match. The hard, rocky ground shattered like a cracker as the impact blasted out a deep crater.
The fearsome heat concentrated at the tip of the pincer discharged into the ground, spreading outward through layer after layer of shattered earth and along the ever-expanding web of cracks.
Blazing waves of fire erupted, instantly engulfing thousands of square meters in front of the Shen Gaoren.
Altaïr twisted in midair, doing everything he could to prolong his airtime. When his feet touched the ground, he narrowly avoided the most powerful shockwave traveling through the earth.
He struggled to steady himself amid the aftershocks and stared at the vast stretch of ground spewing flames. Cold sweat broke out across his body.
This thing might be slow, but the power of its attacks was no joke.
Had he not put enough distance between himself and the impact in time, even jumping over the shockwave would have left him trapped by the burning ground.
"Keep coming..."
Terror and exhilaration set his heart pounding, and a trace of excitement appeared on Altaïr's face.
The more powerful the attack, the more energy it consumed.
Compared with the beginning of the interception, the Shen Gaoren's movements had clearly grown far more labored. If it unleashed another hundred ground-pounding attacks like that, he refused to believe it would still have the strength to keep moving forward!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" A burst of Bowgun fire rang out behind the Shen Gaoren.
Nymera, who had circled around to its rear, began her assault.
Altaïr immediately understood. He lowered his body, slipped into the Shen Gaoren's blind spot, and suppressed his presence.
Sure enough, the Shen Gaoren's attention shifted, and it began to turn slowly.
The larger a creature was, the harder it was for it to turn. A Hunter needed less than a second; a Large Flying Wyvern often needed three to five seconds; a Shen Gaoren needed more than ten...
It could not even turn as fast as Nymera could walk. She kept moving to remain behind it while firing without pause.
Being unable to see its enemy and having no choice but to endure the attacks could hardly have been pleasant.
The Shen Gaoren raised its pincer in a silent roar as several of its legs bent beneath the front of its body...
Standing behind the Teppeki Shen Gaoren, Nymera could not see what it was doing because the massive Lao-Shan Lung skull blocked her view, but Altaïr saw it clearly.
He had seen a Daimyo Hermitaur make a similar move and hurriedly shouted, "Watch out! It's charging!"
Nymera stared at him in confusion.
Could a Shen Gaoren that size really charge?
Despite her doubts, Nymera trusted her companion's judgment, stopped attacking, and began to retreat.
The next second, several of the Shen Gaoren's legs pushed in unison, propelling its massive body backward for a "few quick steps."
To an onlooker, the move might not have seemed dangerous. Given its size, those backward steps covered less than two body lengths.
To Nymera, standing behind the Teppeki Shen Gaoren, it was terrifying.
It felt as though a mountain were being shoved straight at her...
The Wirebugs she had been saving now saved her life. She launched them in quick succession and vaulted twenty or thirty meters to the side, narrowly evading the crushing Lao-Shan Lung skull.
To stop the Shen Gaoren from continuing to pursue his companion, Altaïr charged straight toward it.
He desperately wanted to strike the wound in the Shen Gaoren's shattered head carapace, but even in its lowered stance, the creature's head remained far beyond his reach.
With no other choice, he moved in front of its all-too-familiar left foreleg and entered his charging stance. Without worrying about reaching a full charge, he swung his blade and surged forward after little more than a second.
The blade carved across the Shen Gaoren's flame-wreathed leg once more. Its spurting, superheated body fluid hissed and sizzled against the ground.
This brazen frontal assault thoroughly enraged the Teppeki Shen Gaoren.
It planted its legs heavily to steady itself. At the same time, the Lao-Shan Lung skull on its back slowly opened.
The moment they saw this, Altaïr and Nymera decisively sheathed their weapons and broke into a full sprint.
With a sickening, muffled gurgle, the Shen Gaoren's body shuddered violently. Several massive globs of molten rock erupted from the glands on its back, shot high into the air, and then plummeted toward the ground.
Altaïr and Nymera looked up at the falling chunks of magma and adjusted their positions at top speed.
This attack had been powerful enough to blast another Shen Gaoren off its feet. If one struck them... no, even the shockwave from a magma chunk exploding against the ground would be enough to gravely wound them or tear them apart.
A terrifying whistle pierced the air as a falling chunk of magma drew closer and closer to Altaïr.
Realizing he no longer had time to escape the blast radius safely, Altaïr dove flat just as the magma struck the ground. Scorching flames and a violent shockwave swept across the area, hurling him through the air despite his prone position.
He shielded his head with both hands. His body slammed hard into the ground, then rolled several more times before the force of the impact finally dissipated.
A patch of his unprotected face had been burned. He shook his head hard, pushed himself up with both hands, and staggered to his feet. Before he could fully straighten, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Having safely evaded the attack with her Wirebugs, Nymera opened fire at full speed to draw the Teppeki Shen Gaoren's attention.
Isis, who had been watching from a distance, raised her large shield and sprinted to his side. "Are you all right?!"
"...I'm fine." Altaïr hurriedly downed a Potion to ease the internal injuries caused by the blast.
His gaze remained locked on the nearby Teppeki Shen Gaoren, and a trace of joy appeared in his eyes.
Flaming Ammo continued to hammer into the Teppeki Shen Gaoren, but no magma sprayed from its wounds as it had before.
After ejecting those chunks of magma, this thing's body fluid was almost depleted!
"Attack!"