Right now, Logan felt nothing but irritation—frustrated and stifled.
This Seregios was on the same level of strength as him, and neither side could do much to gain the upper hand. Neither had the ability to take the other down in a single decisive blow.
But that wasn't what truly gave Logan a headache. In his eyes, this Seregios had gone completely mad. Its Frenzied state didn't just fill it with a constant, unrelenting rush of excitement—it had also dulled its sense of pain to the bare minimum.
Any charged flames he tried to unleash were dodged at high speed, and the endless sky gave it far too much room to evade. Even when ordinary flames grazed its body, they barely caused any surface damage. With its pain dulled, that faint sting only served to fire up its nerves further, making it even more frenzied.
It was practically a berserker mixed with a masochist—enough to make Logan feel utterly sick of it.
On top of that, Aki's situation was starting to weigh on his mind. He had full confidence in her strength, certain she could hold out until he arrived.
But to his surprise, the fight had turned into a drawn-out tug-of-war.
Truth be told, Logan wasn't satisfied with how things stood now.
The timing of these three Tempered Seregios showing up was just too coincidental—right after he and Aki had driven off the Diablos, when their vigilance was at its lowest.
Worse still, they had attacked from high altitude at his rear, then split the battlefield, keeping him and Aki from joining up. Even during the few brief moments they had reunited, there hadn't been enough time for Aki to charge him up.
If he had just gotten that charge—even without entering his full Cataclysm Flame state—just a pseudo-Cataclysm Flame would have been enough to crush this completely Frenzied Tempered Seregios.
All he needed was that one chance to charge.
Time flew by, and Logan had no idea how long he'd been fighting this Seregios. He only knew that the injuries he'd taken at the start were already fully healed, and even the light wounds from later skirmishes had all closed up.
By now, Aki had also taken quite a few hits and was at a clear disadvantage.
Still, because Logan had shown no intention of retreating, as his Rathian mate, she would never pull back before him—not until the very last moment. So she gritted her teeth and kept struggling on.
Seeing this, Logan suddenly felt like maybe it would be better to just call it quits and withdraw.
He'd already been at a disadvantage; dragging this out would only make the loss worse.
Just as that thought surfaced, a loud, drawn-out roar rang out from the horizon.
"Roooaaaar~~~!"
It was here. It was flying in, blasting its own soundtrack!
The battle here had been raging for a while, and the commotion had drawn in a Bazelgeuse migrating through the Wildspire Waste.
It had evenly soaked its scales with explosive fluid, spread its massive wings, and came gliding in.
That huge, heavy body swept across the sky, each beat of its wings sending out a deep, distorted wave of sound—like a low-flying bomber, bearing an overwhelming sense of pressure as it dove toward Logan and the Seregios leader.
If Aki's "dragon cart" was a truck, and the Diablos' was a semi-trailer, then the Bazelgeuse's dive was a self-destructing heavy bomber.
Even an Elder Dragon wouldn't want to take that kind of "suicidal dive" head-on—a strike like a small-scale nuclear blast.
So, both Logan and the Seregios leader reacted almost instantly, dodging out of the way as the Bazelgeuse tore through the air like a missile, sonic booms trailing as it shot between them.
"Roar!"
Logan seized the chance to put some distance between himself and the Seregios leader, bellowing down at Aki to warn her to get clear.
Frustrated at missing both its intended targets, the Bazelgeuse vented its anger by dropping a stream of scales glowing with a red-hot light.
Fortunately, Aki knew well how a Bazelgeuse attacked. Without hesitation, she spat a fireball to force back the Tempered Seregios that was hounding her, then beat her wings and, instead of flying around in a panic, climbed in a circular ascent right into the falling scales.
Once separated from the Bazelgeuse's body, its scales had a brief delay before detonating unless struck by something. If you timed it right, there was plenty of room to react.
Panic, though, and fail to climb, and what awaited you was an endless barrage of explosions.
A chain of smaller blasts tore the ground below into a jagged mess. The blast winds kept the two Tempered Seregios from catching up to Aki, allowing her to reunite with Logan without further pursuit.
Just as the two Tempered Seregios, humiliated and furious, were about to climb to join their leader and resume the fight, the Bazelgeuse swung around again.
This time, it dove straight for the two below. But the Seregios' sharp sensitivity to changes in the air current let them predict the dive path and barely avoid the strike.
[BOOM!!!]
In an instant, the ground quaked violently.
The Wildspire Waste, already ravaged by their battle, was now unrecognizable—its terrain utterly transformed.
It was like the aftermath of a missile strike: the ground ripped open, and from above, a massive crater yawned where there had once been solid earth. The brittle sandstone was obliterated in the blast.
A roaring wind rode the shockwave, and even at cloud height, its force still buffeted Logan.
With rapid wingbeats, he steadied himself, then moved above Aki, keeping a wary eye on the Seregios climbing to evade as well.
"ROO-ROO-ROOOO!!"
The call rang out, its tone layered and hard to pin down. It wasn't the same kind of roar as before, but Logan instantly grasped the meaning behind the Bazelgeuse's cry.
Yeah—it was swearing. Filthy.
Even in his now-cooler state, Logan felt a strong urge to swoop down and give it a beating.
But that's all it was—an urge. He knew better. Bazelgeuse might be the weakest of the "ecological enforcers" among apex predators, but it still carried the full ecological dominance that came with that rank.
Especially once it entered its Heated State, with scale temperature and explosive lethality both boosted, it could stand toe-to-toe with an Elder Dragon.
But here's the key—
Logan knew exactly where Bazelgeuse stood in the food chain and how strong it was. The Seregios, on the other hand, had only been in the New World a short time, operating mostly in the Wildspire Waste or around the outskirts of the Ancient Forest in groups. They had never seen a Bazelgeuse before.
The Seregios leader, already stripped of reason by its Frenzied state and driven into a frenzy of violence and excitement, was hardly thinking clearly to begin with.
Now, after hearing the Bazelgeuse's foul-mouthed roar, and comparing it with the threat the Bazelgeuse had just displayed, it made a disastrously wrong decision.
That decision was—deal with the more dangerous one first!
And just like that, Logan and Aki were forgotten. Without any warning, the Seregios leader dove straight down, heading directly for the Bazelgeuse, which was already scattering its explosive scales.
The other two Tempered Seregios had little choice. Now that Logan and Aki had regrouped and their leader had shifted targets, they weren't about to foolishly tangle with the two knowing they'd be at a disadvantage.
Better to join their leader and take out the creature that had just triggered such a massive explosion.
Whether Aki would take the chance to leave—well, that was no longer their concern.
"A true warrior," Logan muttered inwardly with a faint sense of relief as he watched the Seregios move.
The Bazelgeuse below was more than pleased. It hadn't expected that a simple, routine roar—meant to assert its ecological standing and mask the embarrassment of having missed twice—would actually prompt these unfamiliar newcomers to launch a counterattack. For it, this was an unexpected delight.
Among Flying Wyverns, aerial battles were often about claiming the advantage of altitude. The one higher up usually held the edge.
But for a Bazelgeuse, altitude hardly mattered—it could fight just as well above or below.
Its scales scattered through the air like a deadly shower of flower petals, arcing toward the Seregios as a third battle ignited in the skies over the Wildspire Waste.
Seeing them clash, Logan eased a little. A prickling ache spread across his body, and between the slashed scales on his hide, thin lines of blood seeped out—hidden well under the glow of his blazing body.
"We're leaving—"
He was just about to say it to Aki when a thought struck him. The reason they'd been unable to gain the upper hand earlier wasn't just because they'd been separated and unable to coordinate—it was also because he hadn't received the boost from his Flash Fire trait.
Before, there had been no chance. But now? With the Bazelgeuse and the Seregios locked in combat, neither side had the attention to spare for him and Aki high above.
Wasn't this the perfect moment to charge?
Leaving like this, tail between his legs… Logan wasn't willing to accept that.
Perhaps it was youthful pride, or a naturally short temper, but when Logan voiced the idea, Aki agreed without hesitation.
She'd never been put in such a frustrating spot—not even the last time, when she'd been badly injured by an Anjanath attack.
Those two Tempered Seregios had shown no honor—double-teaming her, and on top of that, constantly trying to clip her wings to force her under high-altitude suppression. Every time she tried to trade blow for blow, the targeted Seregios would immediately disengage. The constant back-and-forth had left her utterly exasperated.
In short, she wasn't about to swallow her pride. Even if she wasn't the one to beat them down personally, Logan's strike would be just as satisfying.
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