MHGA Chapter 198: Out There—You Gotta Call It the Pale Hoof!
"All right, all right now."
Not long after, Kazuma lay face-down in Granny Felyne's lap, getting his head gently patted.
"No more crying now, Hunter Kazuma. You did very well."
"Granny Felyne… you'll always be number one on the list of people I respect most!" Kazuma sniffled, tears welling up as he clung to her lap.
After news spread that Kazuma had been Cat Carted, the Hunters still in Night City soon found time to return to the Gathering Hall.
Watching Kazuma cry in Granny Felyne's arms, the expressions on the new Hunters' faces turned… complicated.
"What the heck happened to him?" David looked thoroughly puzzled.
He had just returned from Vik's clinic with a bunch of immunosuppressants to help deal with his implants—only to find someone in worse mental shape than him.
"Hunter Kazuma seems to have encountered the target of your hunt," Granny Felyne said kindly, gently stroking Kazuma's head. "But it looks like Hunter Kazuma failed."
After patting Kazuma one last time, she helped him up.
"Granny still has duties at the Gathering, so no more tears now, okay? Granny will make something you like to eat, Hunter Kazuma."
And with that, she walked off.
Kazuma was instantly surrounded by the other Hunters.
"Hmm… this isn't adding up," Kairo Retsu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How did Kazuma suddenly find the monster? He hadn't been gone that long."
"Plus, how'd he end up like this? Something fishy's going on!" Kairo swung his arm down. "Come clean, Kazuma! What exactly happened after you left the Spirit Emporium?!"
"N-nothing happened…" Kazuma turned his head away.
"Hm?" Kairo leaned in, staring at Kazuma's guilty face. "Nope! Doesn't add up at all! That's nine parts suspicious!"
"Where did you encounter the monster?" Kairo's eyes grew serious as he motioned behind him.
"…By the river…" Kazuma mumbled, head still low.
Next second, Kairo scooped up the lazy Winged Lion and placed it right in front of Kazuma.
"Winged Lion! Is Kazuma telling the truth?"
"Falsehood."
The Winged Lion slumped lazily on the table. "It smells like lies."
"!" Kazuma's eyes shot open. "Why is there a lie detector now?! Since when can the Winged Lion smell lies?!"
"And why do you even have that function?!"
"Because I developed it," Kairo said smugly. "Winged Lion's super useful now."
"…Fine. It was in the city center…"
"Lie," the Winged Lion said again.
Kazuma stiffened, then finally admitted with his head down: "I got drugged by two punks and dumped near a small power plant in the outskirts. They said they were gonna use me to shoot a black-market Braindance…"
"Pfft—"
Kairo bit his lip, barely holding back laughter. Then he patted Kazuma on the shoulder.
"Well… that's rough, buddy."
Kazuma dipped his head even lower.
"This is outrageous! Those villains!" Tanjiro burst out, righteously furious. "Kazuma-san didn't do anything! How dare they abduct him like that!"
Kazuma's face sank even deeper.
"But Kazuma was here in the Gathering before us, right?" David asked, confused. "How'd he get knocked out by a couple Night City punks?"
He'd personally seen Tanjiro and Joseph react to Sandevistan-level speeds with ease.
Kazuma buried his face into the table.
"I am a total noob, okay?! I don't train every day like Tanjiro and Joseph!" Kazuma wailed. "I didn't think I'd get jabbed with a syringe just two blocks from the Emporium!"
Kairo finally couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
After the group had a good chuckle, Kairo finally got serious and asked Kazuma about what he'd seen of the monster.
Hoofbeats… silver-white glow… near a power station…
These clues made Kairo's expression turn grim.
"They really threw an overpowered target at us, huh." Kairo sat down, massaging his temples. "And it just had to be in a place like Night City—where electricity is abundant… they're really not holding back."
"Is this target… that bad?" Naofumi frowned at Kairo's tone.
"Kirin, the Phantom Beast…" Kairo muttered, rubbing his forehead. "It's an Elder Dragon."
"!"
The word "Elder Dragon" made the veteran Hunters—those who had once witnessed Ruiner Nergigante trample even demonized monsters—fall silent.
"Elder Dragon… what does that mean exactly?" Shirou Emiya asked, noticing the sudden change in atmosphere.
"Well…" Kairo nodded, motioning to the Felynes nearby. "Let's break it down properly—what an Elder Dragon is, and the details on Kirin."
As the Felynes hurried off to gather materials, Kairo began explaining to the new Hunters.
"Elder Dragons are the apex of natural lifeforms—primordial beings that lie outside the ecosystem, with unmatched physicality and power equivalent to natural disasters…"
Just then, the Felynes returned, arms full of reference materials, one of which was a large illustration scroll of a silver-white Kirin.
Once it was hung up, the Hunters all turned to look.
[Illustration: Kirin]
"That's a… unicorn?!" Rakuro exclaimed. "A silver unicorn!"
"No wonder we heard hoofbeats. It does look like a unicorn…" Naofumi nodded.
"No way—it's completely different!" Laios interrupted. "I've studied this before! Its ecology and behavior are totally unlike unicorns. Unicorns don't command lightning!"
"While Kirin isn't the strongest Elder Dragon…"
Kairo began explaining with visible reluctance: "Out in the field, we refer to it as 'The Pale Hoof,' 'The Thunder God'… the Phantom Thunder Beast!"
"Kirin really can bring down natural disasters," Kairo said, massaging his head again. "This thing's not something Hunters still in Low Rank gear can just take down casually!"
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