The young Nergigante, who had originally been cautiously approaching and would immediately turn around and leave the moment it discovered that Chameleos was bullying the weak, never expected that what awaited it this time would be an Elder Dragon that was also not yet fully grown.
It had originally only intended to take advantage of Zorah Magdaros nearing death to find an opportunity to take a couple of bites, but now it directly changed its target.
The incomparably scorching life energy unique to Zorah Magdaros meant that even taking just a couple of bites carried considerable risk. Leaving aside Zorah Magdaros's desperate struggle before death, the explosion triggered after its death alone was enough to potentially leave any creature coveting its life energy with no remains at all.
Yet before little Loren appeared in front of the young Nergigante, this had already been the best option it could find.
Otherwise, with it being merely an immature Nergigante, how could it dare to provoke those fully grown Elder Dragons?
Unwilling to follow the slow, step-by-step path of hunting ordinary creatures to grow, and equally unwilling to provoke adult Elder Dragons, it could only look for the old, the weak, the sick, and the wounded, to see whether it might run into some kind of opportunity.
And so, after probing and confirming that Mother Chameleos was indeed not present, and with little Loren charging over in a posture that clearly demanded a fight—
The young Nergigante made a decisive judgment, abandoned Zorah Magdaros, that scalding, hard-to-swallow prize, and instead fixed its sights on little Loren.
Admittedly, the young Nergigante had been born less than half a year ago, and if age alone were considered, it was still just a baby.
However, the reproductive method of Nergigante determined that not long after birth, once they fully gained control over the life energy within their bodies, they could already possess considerable combat strength.
At the very least, they had the ability to escape with a high probability even when facing an ordinary adult Elder Dragon.
Judging purely by the amount of life energy stored within its body, the young Nergigante's actual reserves at this moment were not inferior to those of little Loren.
The hunters who had originally been assembling on Zorah Magdaros's back, preparing to deal with the young Nergigante's charge, upon seeing little Loren take the initiative and become entangled in combat with it, once again quickly dispersed in all directions, resuming their search for Zorah Magdaros's heat-dissipation pipes.
The hunters atop the pass, who had once participated in Qurio extermination missions under the Admiral's leadership, watched the two second-generation Elder Dragons tangled together in the distance.
Setting aside those large-scale elemental energy attacks, the battle between them at this moment was practically a reenactment of the battle that had once taken place in the swamp between Logan and Nakarkos.
Little Loren's control over flames was not as skilled as Logan's, and Gale Wings had not been fully inherited, so many techniques developed based on those two traits were ones it could not use.
But!
When it came to commanding Radiant Crystal Butterflies to assist in battle, no living creature on the Ancient Tree could match it!
Including Logan!
Unable to create a cyclone? Then have the Radiant Crystal Butterflies scatter scale powder, use its own flames to indirectly control the burning, high-temperature scale powder, and add in the Radiant Crystal Butterflies' active spinning flight, thereby achieving a similar effect.
Unable to fling scales out to cause explosions? Then have each Radiant Crystal Butterfly turn into a self-detonating grenade and explode at point-blank range.
In short, relying on the command methods it had figured out on its own for Radiant Crystal Butterflies, it forcibly developed quite a few combat methods by itself. It even deliberately used its own life energy as an energy spring, letting the Radiant Crystal Butterflies continuously spray out vast quantities of high-temperature dust, thereby forming a dust zone.
Whether it was using the dust to strengthen the power of its own flames, or using the dust to scorch the other party's respiratory tract and suppress the other party's energy efficiency, and so on.
It could be said that after going through the stage of imitating Logan's fighting style, little Loren could be considered to have carved out a path of its own.
At this moment, as it faced the young Nergigante, it felt—just like Logan did—that it had finally found a "well-matched" punching bag.
Not only was it incredibly tough to beat down, but in the few rare close-range collisions, those exaggerated black spines had nearly caused the scales on little Loren's body—scales that had been strengthened by Terastal energy—to crack apart. And with its two wings and two feet facing two wings and four feet, and with little Loren not having developed close-range combat techniques like a heat-pressure blade, it finally tasted bitter fruit.
In hunting ordinary Fire Wyverns, aside from flames, the most powerful things were their two claws with tremendous gripping power and their two wings that could easily drag large monsters into the air.
Even if there were some disadvantages in body structure, in actual combat, a Fire Wyvern's close-range fighting ability was not weak.
Little Loren had also suffered from inexperience. That was why, during one pursuit by the young Nergigante, it tried to use Swallow Reversal to fly above the young Nergigante, wanting to break its flight.
But the young Nergigante did not go along with it at all. With a roll of its wings, its entire body flipped over, and its forelimbs covered in black spines smashed down heavily onto little Loren's chest like a wolf-tooth club.
If not for the fact that the scales on its chest had received dual reinforcement from Terastal energy and the Blaze state, becoming incomparably hard, that single blow alone would have been enough to make little Loren lose its breath for a short time.
Fortunately, large numbers of Radiant Crystal Butterflies threw themselves forward without hesitation, continuously self-detonating on the young Nergigante's body. The exploding Blaze flames blocked the young Nergigante's further pursuit, giving little Loren a brief window to readjust itself.
Otherwise, little Loren would likely have been cut out of the air in reverse, and at that point it would probably have required support from the hunters' side.
After suffering once, little Loren completely abandoned the idea of close combat. Like walking a dog, it relied on speed to drag the young Nergigante flying chaotically in all directions, continuously wearing the opponent down through the Radiant Crystal Butterflies while also constantly replenishing its own consumption.
It had to be said that although excessive reliance on symbiotic organisms could lead to situations like that of Gaismagorm—where the presence or absence of Qurio resulted in an extreme polarization of strength—when one's own hard power was insufficient, having such a fully functional symbiotic organism could indeed allow little Loren to gain sufficient advantage when both sides were evenly matched.
...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Massive sounds rang out continuously from the pass, followed closely by Zorah Magdaros's cries of pain.
So many Dragonators and Dragonator cannons—without even counting the ordinary cannons and ballistae—this configuration already surpassed the interception operations the Old World used when dealing with migrating super-colossal Elder Dragons.
With just a single volley, it gave Zorah Magdaros, which was charging forward recklessly with its head down, a profound lesson.
It wanted to trigger a volcanic eruption on its back, or directly spew lava to destroy these things.
But the moment it forcibly mobilized its power, with more than half of the heat-dissipation pipes on its surface already destroyed, its body temperature skyrocketed. The life energy that had originally been forcibly suppressed erupted again, nearly bursting Zorah Magdaros apart.
Enduring the intense pain throughout its body, it only managed to spew part of its magma before the volcano once again fell silent.
Sensing the vast and pure life-energy aura still emanating from within the Everstream, Zorah Magdaros thought it over repeatedly, then once again tried to ram the pass with its massive body.
Whether Dragonators or Dragonator cannons, reloading all required a certain amount of time.
Fortunately, the reinforced pass was not something Zorah Magdaros could easily break through.
Forcibly withstanding Zorah Magdaros's collision, and watching it raise its upper body and brace its enormous foreclaws against the pass, the Commander calmly issued orders.
"Open fire!!"
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