Logan wasn't the type to take his frustrations out on infants. Once he had made the cubs settle down, he ignored them and turned to pull several branches from the Rathian's nest, tossing them down to the cavern floor.
Zhu Peiniang immediately approached and sniffed them. She let out an affirmative growl—they had found the right target. Now, they only had to wait for the Rathian to return.
Thinking about it, this Rathian was quite pitiable. Every day, she had to satisfy four screaming, hungry mouths. She had to set out at the crack of dawn to hunt and then drag heavy prey back over dozens or even hundreds of kilometers.
This lifestyle would continue for two or three years. As the cubs grew, their demand for food would increase daily, and the pressure on her would only mount. It was no different from being saddled with a massive mortgage in his previous life; Logan certainly never wanted to live like that again.
Waiting was dull. There was no telling when the Rathian would return—if she had bad luck and couldn't find prey, she might be delayed until very late.
An hour passed. Zhu Peiniang had found a flat spot and was sprawled out on the ground, lazily wagging her tail. Logan, bored out of his mind, began teasing the Rathian cubs.
Suddenly, the triangular ears on his head twitched. He had captured the sound of whistling wind.
Logan looked up toward the circular opening in the cave ceiling. A massive dark shadow was flapping its wings, slowly descending.
It was a Rathian. Her dark green scales shimmered with a deep luster, her muscle lines were distinct and powerful, and her body was immense—roughly 19 meters from head to tail. Bright yellow circular patterns adorned her wide wings, flashing with a brilliant metallic sheen under the sunlight.
Without a doubt, this was a Rathian in her prime. Even among her own kind, she was a formidable individual. No wonder she dared to raise four cubs at once.
Logan's expression grew solemn; this was not an opponent to be taken lightly. At the same time, a trace of doubt rose in his mind: why would such a powerful Rathian nest in the Wildspire Waste? By all logic, shouldn't she be in the Ancient Forest with a Rathalos?
Before he could dwell on it, the Rathian spotted the uninvited guest near her nest. She let out a deafening roar, dropped the small Apceros she was carrying in her talons, and dove straight for Logan.
A fierce gale buffeted his face. Logan prepared for battle instantly. He coiled his limbs and lunged, his body shooting out like an arrow from a bow, narrowly evading the Rathian's grasping talons.
The claws, nearly two meters in diameter, slammed into the platform with a thunderous crash. The hard rock buckled under the weight, leaving two bathtub-sized craters behind.
With his keen vision, Logan saw the metallic gleam on the Rathian's talons. Composed of a mixture of chitin and calcium, their durability likely rivaled high-performance alloys. Combined with her weight of dozens of tons and the momentum of her descent, a single stomp could likely pierce through centimeters of steel plating.
Though his thoughts raced, Logan's counterattack was seamless. After dodging, he lashed his tail like a bolt of white lightning, aiming a brutal strike at the Rathian's lower leg.
The beast was clearly a veteran fighter. She swiftly lifted one leg, curling her claws inward to use her hardened nails as a shield against the incoming tail blade.
CLANG!!!
The sound of clashing iron rang out, and brilliant sparks flew like fireworks.
Logan felt as though he had struck a thick slab of steel. The recoil numbed him from the tip of his tail to his spine. The Rathian didn't come out unscathed either; standing on one leg made it hard to maintain balance, and she was forced back a step.
Recovering quickly, Logan performed several agile leaps to put distance between them. He looked up to see that the Rathian was also hesitating to launch a new attack, staring at him with a wary gaze.
Glancing at the nearby nest, Logan understood. She was worried about harming her cubs. That was why she hadn't used fireballs to bombard him from the start, choosing instead to engage in close-quarters combat.
'As expected of the series' poster girl. She looks like a fierce brute, but she's surprisingly maternal.'
Logan glanced at his tail and saw several chipped gaps. On the Rathian's talons, a deep indentation had also appeared.
The next moment, the electrical organs in his body began to operate at full capacity. A massive current surged like a flood, stimulating his cells and causing the metallic dust within them to rapidly expand and contract. His muscles, originally driven by chemical energy, now seemed to be bolstered by electrical power. This was Current Overdrive!
The violent swelling of his muscles caused his tightly packed scales to crack open, revealing patches of crimson skin. Though his defense would drop as a result, he gained an explosive increase in strength.
In an instant, Logan, wreathed in electricity, charged at the Rathian. The dozen-meter gap disappeared in a blink. He ducked skillfully under her sweeping wing and slammed into her chest.
Powerful explosive force created extreme speed, which translated into terrifying kinetic energy. He tackled the Rathian's multi-ton frame, and together they plummeted off the platform.
The two behemoths tumbled and grappled in mid-air before slamming into the ground below with a bone-shaking thud. A massive cloud of dust billowed up. The white bones scattered on the floor were instantly crushed, bone fragments flying like shrapnel. Several unlucky rodents were turned into meat paste in an instant.
Relying on his superior agility, Logan gained the upper hand in the chaos, successfully pinning the Rathian beneath him and avoiding the brunt of the impact. He recovered faster, raising two thick forepaws crackling with electricity and slamming them toward the Rathian's head.
Even with her thick carapace, the Rathian struggled to withstand such force. Several small spikes were snapped off, and blood began to flow from the wounds.
The Rathian's retaliation was equally fierce. No longer worried about the nest above, she unleashed her breath attack. A brilliant light ignited in her maw, and a fireball erupted, exploding instantly.
The rising flames bloomed like a giant mushroom, and the shockwave separated the two monsters. The fire licked at Logan's scales but left no mark. He paused only for a moment before charging again.
The Rathian scrambled to her feet, snapping her wings open with a powerful flap. The resulting wind pressure surged outward as venom secreted from her spikes, filling the air with a thick, acrid scent.
Logan crouched low, dodging the wings that swung like giant blades, then leaped into the air as the Rathian's poison-tipped tail swept beneath his feet. Mid-air, he twisted his body with all his might, swinging his tail like a meteor hammer toward the Rathian's head.
'Take this! Behemoth Cleave!'
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