In less than a minute, the wounds on Nergigante's body completely healed. Even the high-density fire-element energy left behind by Logan's heat-blade wings was completely purged by Nergigante's own energy. It could be said that aside from the very real consumption of energy and stamina, Nergigante had already returned to its peak in terms of its physical body.
With such monstrous self-healing, it was no wonder it could keep chasing down other ordinary Elder Dragons to fight them.
Yet, judging by what it sensed, Logan still showed no intention of coming out of the clouds, and Nergigante gradually grew a bit irritable. Its eyes rolled, and it simply turned around, putting on an air of "if you don't come out, I'm leaving."
Sure enough, in the next second that mass of cloud began to churn, and the silver-white giant dragon burst out of the clouds, once again charging straight toward it.
"Roooaaar!"
Having had its guess confirmed, Nergigante turned around in excitement, its suppressed battle lust flaring up again. Instead of retreating, it advanced, launching a counter-charge at Logan.
But in the very next second, Nergigante's excited roar cut off abruptly.
"Raaah?"
Nergigante's charging momentum stopped at once. It blinked rapidly; if the timing weren't so inappropriate, it would even have wanted to slap itself on the head to clear its mind a bit.
What had it just seen? A completely intact Logan without a single injury on him!!
By virtue of its own special nature and its long years of hunting down Elder Dragons, Nergigante could easily judge an opponent's injuries from external signs and from an Elder Dragon's aura, thereby determining whether the other side had really taken enough damage, or was just deliberately feigning injury and actually looking for a chance to hit it with a big move.
Or, conversely, whether the opponent was bluffing—clearly already badly wounded and sure to pay an even higher price if the fight went on, but using techniques such as replacing scales and sealing muscle tissue to disguise itself as still unscathed, thereby forcing Nergigante to withdraw on its own.
But now, whether Nergigante judged based on Logan's current outward appearance or on the aura it sensed, all the results pointed to the same conclusion: the injuries Logan had taken earlier in their battle had actually healed completely!!
It made no scientific sense, and no sense as a hunt either!!
In the fight just now, Nergigante had taken three blows before Logan would be counterattacked once. Even counting the backlash damage, Logan could at most be said to have taken 1.5 hits.
After it had paid such a heavy price, how long had it even been, and Logan's injuries had already completely recovered like this?
'Not sure. I need to check again!!'
Momentarily starting to doubt its own judgment, Nergigante quickly made up its mind. In its understanding, aside from itself, there seemed to be no other Elder Dragon that could possess regeneration like this—not even the Yama Tsukami it had fought before.
For some reason, it suddenly felt a bit flustered, with a constant feeling that things had really gone far beyond its expectations.
Deep down, Nergigante could not accept such a possibility. More than that, it still felt that Logan was bluffing—that those wounds had surely been hidden away by some special ability and in reality still existed.
With that thought in mind, Nergigante once again collided with Logan.
"Rooaaar!"
That familiar burning and tearing pain swept over it. The black spikes and adamant spikes smashed against Logan and snapped, and the force fed back was as powerful as ever.
Watching Logan smoothly turn to avoid its counterattack, then spew a blast of fire to stop it from launching a chase before its own speed could ramp up, and then, in the midst of a beautiful turning-back slash, have those heat-blade wings once again slice across its body—
Faced with this series of fluid movements, even if Nergigante really did not want to, it had no choice but to admit that Logan's injuries had truly recovered completely.
Which also meant that the beating it had just taken… had been for nothing?
Nergigante felt a tightness in its chest. While defending, its mind was spinning furiously.
At the moment, when it came to Logan's current state, the only thing it could think of was that croaking weirdo living at the edge of the forest—the one that had once tucked itself behind Logan and hurled provocation at it!
During the battle to defend Astera, Nergigante had also received treatment from Mother Chameleos. The healing speed of that special medicinal mist was on par with its own regenerative ability.
If, in this battle, the opponent it was facing was actually not just Logan alone as a single Elder Dragon, but also included a Mother Chameleos sneaking around invisibly off to the side, then wouldn't that mean it was fighting one versus two?
Then why fight at all?
Taking hits, Nergigante glared indignantly at that mass of cloud Logan had just been hiding in. That damned sneak was definitely hiding in there!
As Nergigante took more and more of Logan's attacks, its resentment toward Mother Chameleos grew stronger and stronger.
At that moment, behind the mountain at Astera, Mother Chameleos—who was currently using her unfilial child to practice a newly developed medicinal mist—suddenly sneezed. Her perfect invisibility briefly showed some flaws, which let the young Chameleos seize the chance and lash at her wildly with its frenzied tongue-whip.
But as the young Chameleos opened its mouth, in the next second a strong dizziness hit it. Its enormous body wobbled, spun into circle-eyed daze, and collapsed in a faint.
"Gwa!"
Mother Chameleos struck the young Chameleos on the head with her tail, punishing this rebellious child who had just tried to murder its own mother. At the same time, her heart felt fuzzy and uneasy, as if something filthy had set its sights on her.
Meanwhile, in the Wildspire Waste, beneath the current battlefield of Logan and Nergigante, the number of Afflicted monsters was not decreasing but increasing. Not only were high-ecology-position monsters gathering, but even creatures like Afflicted Kulu-Ya-Ku had rushed over.
Even with the mutated Qurio guiding them, once their numbers grew, the Afflicted monsters also began fighting among themselves—especially Barroth and Jyuratodus, that pair of enemies whose feud seemed carved into their very bones.
Already driven into extreme brutality by the stimulation of the mutated Qurio, the two species went completely insane after converging together, triggering a chaotic brawl that even pulled many other Afflicted monsters into the fight.
Fortunately, because the Afflicted monsters fell into internal conflict, even as their numbers increased, the battle group formed by the Rathalos and the hunters was still able to hold the line successfully.
The Admiral raised his shield, precisely blocked the head-swing attack of the Afflicted Diablos, and after thrusting upward with his lance to counterattack, the Huntsman executed a roundslash that successfully cut through the Afflicted Diablos's major artery. Amid the spray of blood, the heavily scarred Afflicted Diablos finally lost its life.
A large number of mutated Qurio flew out of the corpse. After a round of fierce fighting with the surrounding Radiant Crystal Butterflies, more than half were eliminated. But the remaining mutated Qurio dashed out of the battlefield, hiding among the broken rocks and weeds on the outskirts of the swamp.
"The number of Radiant Crystal Butterflies isn't enough! I wonder if this will affect Boss's plan."
From beneath his visor, the sound of the Admiral's slightly labored breathing came through. As the one who had been taking the front and drawing fire for the group the entire time, even with his inhuman stamina, he had still expended quite a lot in this continuous battle.
If the Scholars and the Ancient Wyverians atop the Ancient Tree had not joined forces to recreate a more easily crafted Ancient Potion—and if he had not brought enough Ancient Potions from the Mobile Research Base before the fight—he would likely have already needed to temporarily leave the battlefield by now.
"Have faith in him." The Huntsman spoke few words, but waves of heat spilled out from beneath his faceguard.
Among Long Sword techniques, maintaining Spirit Blade consumed no less stamina than using a Great Sword. Fortunately, the Huntsman—accustomed to using Great Sword techniques with a Long Sword—had switched to a "lightweight" large tachi at this time, allowing him to better manage his stamina consumption. In his current state, he was still far from needing to fall back.
After taking a couple of steadying breaths, and with the Rathalos covering them, they once again engaged a high-ecology-position monster. A new round of battle erupted.
High above, it was still a straightforward clash of speed and brute force, a collision of fire and spikes.
Both sides seemed to have already adapted to—and tacitly accepted—this method of fighting.
Logan intended to drain more of Nergigante's energy, while Nergigante wanted to confirm whether that damned Mother Chameleos was really stealthing nearby so it could make its final decision.
And so the battle continued in tacit understanding, until in one fierce clash, Logan's wings took a hit from Nergigante's full-force punch—a punch that Nergigante delivered by using its own chest wound as the price to grab hold of Logan mid-flight.
Watching Logan's flight turn awkward from the wing injury and seeing him dive into the clouds once more, Nergigante gritted its teeth and charged in after him!
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