Opportunities in battle were fleeting—seeing the Queen Vespoid downed, the other Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes didn't waste time questioning the strange phenomenon. They rushed forward to finish her off, then pulled back before the frenzied swarm could close in around them.
The Queen Vespoid had been struck down, her fate already sealed. The swarming Vespoids instinctively clustered around her, only to find her body still burning.
One after another, they dove in without fear of death, pressing their bodies against her to smother the flames despite the searing heat. But the Queen was already beyond saving—even extinguishing the fire meant nothing now.
Without their leader, the swarm scattered chaotically, soon vanishing into the desert.
"Did we win?"
"We won, meow!!"
After the tense fight, the Wasteland Guardian Grimalkynes looked at one another in disbelief before finally accepting the truth—they had won.
Only they knew how much trouble this sudden migration of Vespoids had caused. They had been prepared to fight to the death, even at great cost, to drive them away. Yet with the help of these four oddly dressed Grimalkynes, they had brought down the Queen without suffering a single casualty.
Without a queen, the swarm became nothing more than scattered rabble, not even returning to their hive. Instead, they would drift aimlessly across the wasteland, searching for a new queen.
And in this season of scarce food, the smaller monsters of the wasteland would not hesitate to prey on them.
With that, the Wasteland Guardians' problem was completely resolved, and they began planning how to properly thank their strange allies.
But at that moment, the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warriors' attention was elsewhere—they barely even reacted to the swarm's retreat.
"Hiss—hot, meow!"
Trying to pull his boomerang free, one warrior yelped when the lingering heat burned his paw. He blew on it with quick "hiss-hiss" breaths to cool it down.
"Hot? It's not hot at all, meow."
Having recovered from the battle, another Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne—named Egg Roll—watched his comrade's reaction in puzzlement. He yanked his own boomerang free and, at the very moment it came loose, saw a thin wisp of white smoke drift out from the gap in the sand before it could fully disperse. He froze on the spot.
"I'm telling you, I don't know anything. Do you believe me, meow?"
All the cats shook their heads in perfect unison.
[Sniff sniff.]
At that moment, some Wasteland Guardian cats padded over, sniffed the air, and looked at the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warriors in puzzlement.
"I think I smell something, meow."
"Smell?" one of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes echoed, frowning as they sniffed too—until, as if on cue, all their gazes settled on Egg Roll.
"What? What is it, meow?"
Flustered and feeling oddly hot, Egg Roll pulled off his helmet, imitating his companions by leaning forward to sniff.
"Nothing at all, meow."
But when he raised his head, he found every cat staring at him wide-eyed, as if they were witnessing some great marvel.
They were all looking in the same direction—right at his long, pointed ears.
"What? Why are you all looking at me like that, meow?"
Speaking, Egg Roll instinctively reached up to touch his ear—only for a sudden, searing pain to bite into his paw.
He yanked his paw back, and at that moment, one of the Grimalkyne warriors staring at his ear blurted out: "Your ear—it's on fire, meow!!"
"!!!"
A shiver jolted through Egg Roll as the realization hit. His pupils widened, and his body trembled slightly.
The next second—
"Meow-aaahhh! Put it out! Put it out, meow!"
Yowling at the top of his lungs, he bolted off, and seeing his companions standing there motionless, he abandoned all thought of dignity—leaping high before plunging his head straight into a mound of sand.
Both paws clawed furiously, flinging yellow sand over his burning ear.
It was only after a long moment, once the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes finally reacted, that they hauled him out of the sand.
Egg Roll blew the grit from his nose, ignoring his dirt-caked face as he urgently asked, "Well? Is it out, meow?"
One of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes hesitated, then finally decided not to hide it from him and whispered, "The tips of your ears, meow… they've turned red."
"Meow?"
Egg Roll was at a loss for words. Not only had the paw-mark pattern on his belly turned dark red—now the tips of his ears had as well, and they'd just caught fire on their own. Was he seriously coming down with some kind of illness?
The squad leader patted Egg Roll's shoulder, equally unsure what to say.
Special individuals like this had never appeared among the Grimalkynes. For the cats, it was easier to believe he was sick… rather than think some wyvern had triggered a strange evolution.
With the situation already set, they had no idea how to comfort him. For now, all they could do was complete the mission, and once they returned home, see if there was any way to fix it.
...
Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern nesting grounds.
Logan watched yet another Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leave his nest with a look of relief. Exhaling slowly, he turned his gaze toward a spot not far away—where Tonkotsu was sitting, occasionally rubbing his paw over the mark on his belly.
Lately, many Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes had come to see him, all for the same reason: the paw-mark pattern on their stomachs had turned from black to dark red.
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader had no idea how to handle this. For such a major matter concerning the tribe's mutation, the only option was to ask Logan to make the judgment.
As a result, every day, aside from spending long hours out hunting, Logan also had to set aside time to give the cats psychological counseling.
The cats had no clue why such a mutation was happening—but could he really not know?
When Tonkotsu, under the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader's repeated persuasion, finally agreed to ask Logan for help, he had looked resigned, as if already prepared for Logan to cast him out of the tribe.
Instead, upon hearing Tonkotsu's account, Logan not only refrained from driving him away with disgust—he became visibly excited, questioning him eagerly, like a child about to receive a new toy, eyes full of anticipation.
But after so many days, reality had poured a bucket of cold water over him.
Including Tonkotsu, all the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes who had mutated showed no change at all apart from the paw-mark pattern on their stomachs turning dark red. This led Logan to wonder—could this so-called Symbiosis really amount to nothing more than changing their fur color to set them apart from other Grimalkynes?
If so, what use was that? It would be a complete waste of his expectations.
Fortunately, after some self-adjustment, he kept reminding himself that biological mutations take time. Even though so much time had passed and the only change was their fur color, it was probably just a matter of patience—surely this trait would bring him a surprise eventually.
And indeed, that day, when he and Aki returned from a hunt and saw the uneasy Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warrior named Egg Roll, that surprise arrived.
"Come on, don't be afraid. Try to recall the feeling from back then—show me."
Under the weight of Logan's intimidating roar, Egg Roll took a deep breath, clutching his boomerang tightly as he focused on the paw-mark pattern on his belly, replaying the memory of that moment.
Before long, the sensation returned—his body temperature began to rise from the paw-mark, and the previously dark-red pattern suddenly brightened into a vivid crimson.
As his temperature climbed further, Egg Roll's heartbeat quickened, blood flow surged, and sweat began to pour from the soft pads of his paws, coating the boomerang he held.
"Now, meow!"
Acting on instinct, Egg Roll hurled the boomerang. With his keen vision, Logan saw the sweat heating up as the weapon spun through the air, taking on a reddish tint.
Then, the temperature broke past a critical point—the sweat ignited instantly. From the outside, it looked as if the entire boomerang was flying wreathed in flames.
The sight instantly reminded Logan of his own Charred Body trait.
Because of the modifications from Charred Body, he could secrete large amounts of flammable, adhesive fluid from the gaps between his scales—and even the toxins in his claws had transformed into sticky, flaming venom.
And what this Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne was showing was something strikingly similar—except that for cats, the sweat came from the soft pads of their paws.
By then, Egg Roll's body temperature had stabilized, but small flames suddenly flickered to life at the tips of his now dark-red ears, as if releasing excess heat.
The boomerang spun back, and seeing that Egg Roll seemed hesitant to catch it, Tonkotsu nimbly drew the massive hammer from his back and intercepted it.
What he didn't expect was that the force of the boomerang striking the hammer was far greater than he'd imagined. With a crisp clang, it bounced high into the air before landing on a patch of bare ground.
The cats in charge of keeping Logan's nest clean immediately rushed over with tools, putting out the flames on the boomerang to prevent it from accidentally setting the nest on fire.
Logan, meanwhile, glanced at the now-cowed Egg Roll, then turned his eyes to the hammer Tonkotsu was holding.
At the very spot where the hammer had collided with the boomerang, a small flame was still burning.
That confirmed it—Egg Roll's secreted flammable liquid was the same type as his own.
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