But roaring was one thing; being forced back was the reality. Anger alone was useless.
The Savage Deviljho was completely driven mad by hunger, willing to be hacked into pieces just to stuff something into its maw. Yet, every time it attempted to charge forward, Mirrorblade's blade-tail would swiftly unleash two or three slashes right before it could draw close, landing precisely along its path and forcing it to halt once more.
This was a feat only Mirrorblade could accomplish. His attacks were something the Savage Deviljho simply could not ignore; if the damage had been any lower, the Savage Deviljho would have undoubtedly tanked the hits just to gorge on flesh.
Wound after wound stacked across the surface of the Savage Deviljho's body. The crisscrossing gashes deepened its injuries; the continuous loss of blood and the wounds tearing further open with every exertion gradually slowed the brute's movements.
It wanted meat—it had never craved flesh so intensely, desperate for the energy to heal its wounds. Unfortunately for it, out of all the living creatures present, the Kulu-Ya-Ku, despite having the most accessible meat and being the easiest target to bully, happened to be the fastest and most elusive.
This feathered nuisance had already happily squatted down beside a massive tree, treating it as both a safe piece of cover and a comfortable backrest to watch the show. It thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle of the Savage Deviljho being besieged.
As it watched, it occasionally let out loud, cackling squawks. With its booming voice, it was unmistakably mocking the wretched state of the unfortunate monster.
"Talk about an optimist, Boss Kulu-Ya-Ku," the Admiral remarked dryly, catching sight of the creature's cheerful demeanor from afar. "Didn't you just escape death's door yourself?"
"Koo-gah!"
Its hearing was surprisingly sharp. The moment the Admiral's voice fell, the Kulu-Ya-Ku snapped its head in his direction and let out a defiant, self-righteous cry.
"Admiral!" Eileen called out, stepping out from her hiding spot and waving excitedly. "You're finally here!"
"Yeah, sorry to keep you waiting!" The Admiral laughed heartily, waving back.
He wasn't the only one who had spotted the SOS flare and rushed to reinforce them. Past the Admiral, several heavily armed hunters quickly scattered, taking up strategic positions all around the Savage Deviljho.
Without a single shouted command, the hunters coordinated seamlessly, demonstrating a level of tacit understanding that seemed practiced a thousand times over. Whenever the Savage Deviljho attempted to strike a single hunter, the others would seize the opportunity to launch distracting assaults, dealing blows that the monster couldn't afford to ignore.
Taking advantage of these openings, the hunter targeted by the Savage Deviljho could focus entirely on defense.
To put it simply: four Lance wielders.
An impenetrable wall!
Armed with heavy shields and great Lances, the four hunters surrounded the Savage Deviljho from four directions. Their sharp lance-tips were capable of piercing even the monster's thick hide; the materials for these weapons had been harvested from monsters residing even higher up the ecological ladder than the Deviljho, turning the power of dragons back against dragons.
One Lance hunter even found the perfect opening. Capitalizing on a brief hesitation forced upon the Savage Deviljho by Mirrorblade's heavy slash, he drove his weapon deep into its underbelly. He then swiftly withdrew it, stepped back, and readjusted his stance, bracing for the next thrust.
The sheer fluidity of the movement laid bare his seasoned professionalism.
"Roar!!"
The Savage Deviljho unleashed a furious roar. It snapped its head down, attempting to crush the offending Lance hunter, but another hunter bearing a massive shield immediately interposed himself along its path. The thick shield face took the impact head-on. The shield-bearer was shoved backward two paces, his boots plowing two deep trenches through the crystalline dust beneath him. Yet, he held his ground. Digging his heels in, he utilized his entire body weight to shut down the brute's momentum completely.
"Shields, shift left! Don't let it break containment!"
"Ranged squad! Fire at will!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The relentless barrages from Heavy Bowguns and Light Bowguns turned the battlefield into a cacophony of gunfire, making the silent thrum of the Bows seem almost ordinary by comparison.
The Research Commission's expeditions differed greatly from the traditional four-hunter party system of the Old World. While minor requests still maintained the standard squad format, large-scale investigations usually involved a full-scale deployment of the entire fleet's hunters.
A dense hail of ammunition rained down relentlessly upon the Savage Deviljho, zeroing in on the open gashes across its skin. Frankly, the sheer volume of bullets lodged in its flesh threatened to form a new layer of armored hide over its body.
Naturally, elite hunters of this caliber were far too skilled to commit friendly fire. It went without saying that anyone authorized to wield ranged weaponry possessed exceptional precision; otherwise, every quest would devolve into a disaster of crossfire.
The Admiral himself wove through the fray, anchoring the frontlines. Despite being over half a century old, the veteran still possessed rippling muscles and sharp tactical acumen, effortlessly stepping in to cover the blunders made by his less experienced juniors.
While others were forced to fall back whenever Mirrorblade struck due to a lack of coordination, the Admiral did the exact opposite, launching joint assaults alongside Mirrorblade without hindering the massive creature's movements in the slightest.
Yet, all the Savage Deviljho could manage was impotent fury. It couldn't lay a single claw on these peskily nimble human pests who swarmed it, continuously harassing it and preventing it from feeding.
"Behind you! Watch the tail—scatter!!"
Someone shouted—Vvvvzzzt!
Whirling its massive body around, the Savage Deviljho unleashed a succession of sweeping tail-whips. The thick, cylindrical tail lashed out with crushing force and blinding speed, whipping up a violent gale that sent clouds of bio-crystal shards flying through the air.
Fortunately, the hunters moved quickly enough and placed absolute trust in their comrades, evading perfectly in response to the warning. The moment the Savage Deviljho's momentum stalled and left it wide open, a pair of agile Dual Blades users utilized their Slinger tethers to launch themselves directly beneath its massive frame.
What was there left to say?
"Pedicure time, boys!"
Their dual blades blurred into an invisible frenzy of steel. A rapid, continuous slash-slash-slash echoed across the field; wherever there was an existing wound, the Dual Blades users were there to widen it.
By the time the two hunters slid past the Lance users, they were drenched from head to toe in the foul, metallic blood spraying from the Savage Deviljho's wounds, reeking of raw gore.
Having no time to clean themselves, they blindly wiped their faces to keep the blood from obscuring their vision before immediately rejoining the offensive line.
The hunters focused their onslaught on the side of the Savage Deviljho's body that had been heavily scorched by Bazelgeuse's blue nuclear explosion. Under the relentless shredding of the Dual Blades, the heavily charred hide finally gave way, breaking apart completely.
Mutilated and bloody, the Savage Deviljho's massive frame began to lean heavily to one side. Its spins and tail-whips lost all fluidity, and even taking a single step became an agonizing ordeal.
The Savage Deviljho... was drawing its final breaths.
Every time it tried to recklessly charge forward to crush and devour everything in sight, a shield-bearing hunter would invariably block its path, absorbing the absurd impact head-on and refusing to let it break the line.
Welcome to a coordinated hunt, kid!
As the old saying went, humanity didn't secure its foothold and multiply in this brutal world by relying on the mercy of monsters. It was earned through raw, unyielding strength—the power to slay any beast that threatened their home.
Only the truly insurmountable calamities were revered as Elder Dragons and kept at a distance, or even worshipped as gods in hopes that a reverent attitude might offer some protection.
Yet, even then, humanity never ceased its forward march, finding ways to harvest the remains of monsters for gear. Equipment forged from these materials inherited the unique traits and elements of the beasts themselves. Enhanced by alchemy and other esoteric arts, this gear allowed hunters to exert a combat prowess that shattered the natural physical limits of the human race.
What kept the Kingdom and the Guild consistently cautious and humble were never ordinary monsters, but the defying classification of the Elder Dragons. As long as a creature lacked the power to arbitrarily lay waste to ecosystems or reshape entire geographical landscapes, brute physical might alone was rarely enough to best a well-trained hunting party.
Two fists could not match four hands. Once humanity possessed the power to inflict lethal harm upon a monster, their numbers became their greatest advantage.
Even a Savage Deviljho was no exception.
The Savage Deviljho's roars grew lower, increasingly sporadic, and a look of profound bewilderment began to glaze over its hunger-frenzied eyes. It continued to struggle, but each spasm was more labored and sluggish than the last. The mounting wounds across its body were draining its life force at a slow, inexorable pace.
Its massive frame trembled violently, making every step forward an insurmountable challenge. With one final, drawn-out, raspy bellow, the Savage Deviljho's colossal body could no longer support its own weight and collapsed heavily onto the earth.
Looking much like a sausage skewered by multiple toothpicks, the beast lay still. Seasoned hunters knew better than to relax and celebrate the moment a monster fell—nature was full of creatures that feigned death. Thus, the Lance wielders promptly drove their sharp weapons into the most vulnerable points of the Savage Deviljho's hide, ensuring that it was truly dead.
And dead it truly was.
A lifetime spent driven by an insatiable gluttony, to the point of completely losing its sanity, only to ultimately perish because of that very same hunger.
When the Admiral stood atop the carcass of the Savage Deviljho, raising his right fist high and letting out a victory shout, the hunters erupted into celebration. The oppressive tension that had gripped the battlefield instantly evaporated.
Some raised their weapons high, others laughed as they clapped their comrades on the shoulder, and some yanked off their helmets to collapse onto the ground, panting heavily. The sheer pressure exerted by the Savage Deviljho had been staggering; even with so many allies fighting side by side, many found themselves drenched in a cold sweat.
However, Bazelgeuse and Kulu-Ya-Ku did not join in on the post-battle festivities. Well, to be precise, Kulu-Ya-Ku had wanted to join, but Bazelgeuse had held him back.
"Hello there," Karl said, taking a deep breath as he looked at the massive monster resting on the ground. He raised the necklace in his hand high above his head so Bazelgeuse could get a clearer look. "My grandfather once studied swordsmanship alongside Boss Glavenus. I want to meet him."
"Roar?"
Seldom encountering a hunter who spoke so directly, Bazelgeuse blinked in surprise. He already recognized what the human was holding; the scent of his eldest brother was distinct and unmistakable.
Yes, and there were two other unfamiliar scents mixed in, making for a rather peculiar combination.
He wants to see Big Brother?
Sizing Karl up with an evaluating gaze, the man and the dragon stood entirely still, staring intently at one another—a tense standoff that caused Aiden and the others who followed to break out into a cold sweat.
"Is this really going to be okay?" Aiden managed a strained chuckle. "Should we say something else?"
"Say what?" Sophia tapped her forehead. "We'd better not interrupt them. Well, this is definitely Karl's style, after all."
Ignoring the onlookers, Bazelgeuse immersed himself in thought.
To be honest, even he hadn't seen Asterion very many times over the years. It was only recently, while Asterion was teaching the young ones how to fly, that—
"Roar!!"
His sharp combat instincts suddenly picked up an approaching presence, prompting Bazelgeuse to snap his head upward toward the sky.
"Roar!! Roar—!!"
It wasn't a hostile, intimidating roar, but sounded more like a call or summons. The answer to his query was delivered almost instantly.
BOOM—!!!
Like a falling meteor, a brilliant flash of blue light plummeted from the heavens and slammed into the earth. Instantly, a violent geyser of soil and bio-crystal fragments erupted upward, blanketing many of the onlookers in debris.
Accompanying this blue meteor was a rapid succession of deafening sonic booms. It was as if countless explosions had overlaid one another, coalescing into a single, piercing screech that reverberated outward, ringing sharply in everyone's ears.
A blue meteor—at this moment, who else could arrive with such world-shaking momentum in this corner of the Ancient Forest besides Asterion?
Valstrax were known as red meteors, a manifestation of their crimson Dragon element energy.
But unlike any of his previous flights, Asterion wasn't utilizing fire to propel himself. Instead, he was channeling the dark bioenergy from his internal thermal organs as jet propulsion, transforming what would have been a white contrail into a brilliant, blazing blue.
"What happened?!"
"Look out! Cover your heads!!"
Hunters' frantic shouts rang out across the battlefield. As a sudden gust swept away the billowing dust and crystalline shards, a colossal titan was revealed, standing proudly atop the carcass of the Savage Deviljho!
The overall silhouette of his head retained almost no trace of a standard Glavenus. The two short, blunt horns atop his brow had grown significantly thicker and longer. Centered around those horns, a pair of massive, crystalline horns branched backward like streaks of frozen lightning, tapering in a perfect, streamlined curve along his neck.
Yet, despite its exaggerated and monstrous proportions, the massive head didn't look out of place on this titanic beast. Instead, it exuded an overwhelming aura of absolute, unrivaled dominance!
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