Its charging body and wide-open, cobalt-fanged maw were like a terrifying dragon locomotive, barrelling towards the Dullahan. Although the Dullahan had raised its shield in an attempt to block, before that massive mouth, the consequence of blocking was simply getting bitten, shield and all, by the Odogaron.
The advantage of a big mouth was on full display. The moment it clamped down, the Odogaron went straight into a tearing frenzy.
As its sharp teeth tightened, the grating sound of shattering echoed out. The connection point of the Dullahan's right arm, caught outside the incisors, was already being torn to shreds.
Immediately after, the Odogaron violently threw its head back. The right arm blade, already on the verge of breaking, could no longer hold and was flung off, landing not far from Andrew.
This sudden skyfall of materials was a bit of a surprise, but a Hunter's instinct is to act before the mind can even process it. My body was already moving.
Seeing this material delivered right to his doorstep, before he even had time to properly react, Andrew had already slipped over and, in a few quick motions, carved off the complete arm blade and stored it in his item box.
Coming back to his senses, Andrew looked at the "Blade of the Infamous Dullahan" now resting in his item box and couldn't help but clasp his hands together.
"Thank you for nature's gift."
As the Odogaron slammed the Dullahan to the ground, the now limb-deficient "Infamous Dullahan" had completely entered a near-death state. At the same time, it had lost all ability to resist, lying motionless on the ground like a corpse.
The fight was over quickly and efficiently. Before the Odogaron, the Dullahan was like a helpless toy, fragile and powerless.
Watching the Odogaron's clean and practiced movements, Andrew felt that this was probably not the first time it had taken down a Dullahan. The whole process screamed of familiarity.
The last time he'd seen such a practiced response was when he saw an Odogaron hunting a Radobaan. It was that move—biting down and slamming its prey into the ground—that looked exactly like what happened to an Odogaron after getting caught in a Deviljho's mouth. The sense of déjà vu was overwhelming.
The battle between the two was nearly over, but what happened next made Andrew's pupils shrink. He watched as the Odogaron's teeth tore relentlessly, and in a few moments, the Dullahan's core was ripped out.
Then, the Odogaron's massive maw closed, and with a gulp, it sent the core down into its stomach.
"Damn, so this really wasn't a turf war. It was hunting prey!"
Caesar saw Andrew raise his tachi, ready to fight the demonic monster, and quickly stepped in front of him, asking with some confusion:
"This monster... you said it's not an Ethereal, right? If that's the case, we just need to let that Dullahan die completely, and the Hollow will dissipate, won't it? There's no need to fight that creature!"
In response to Caesar's plea, Andrew was silent for a moment, but there was not the slightest hint of hesitation. Making monsters that threaten both the ecosystem and human survival disappear is a Hunter's duty. And right now, this thing checks all the boxes.
For a Hunter, a threat to the ecosystem and a threat to human survival are both unacceptable.
Not to mention, from the moment the Odogaron appeared in this world, it became an invasive species. If it ever got outside the Hollow, it would pose an immense threat to New Eridu.
Perhaps some would say, 'Then just leave it in the Hollow, problem solved.'
'It can't threaten humans, it can't threaten the ecosystem, and it can even kill some Ethereals. Isn't that perfect?'
If these wyverns could live in the Hollows forever without eating, you might have a point. But for Andrew, who had witnessed and hunted an Etherealized Rathian, this was just delaying the problem and letting it snowball into a much bigger disaster.
Why was Andrew so sure that Ethereals were the Odogaron's prey? It all went back to what happened when he and the Rathian first arrived in this world.
The current situation was a carbon copy of what he had seen when he first arrived.
As a Hunter, he could ignore the Ether corrosion within a Hollow, so it stood to reason that wyverns like the Odogaron and the Rathian would naturally not be much different. At the very least, they wouldn't succumb to the corrosion and turn into Ethereals so soon after arriving, especially when Andrew himself felt no effects.
So why did the Rathian transform so quickly? Looking back now, Andrew realized he was partly to blame.
Man and wyvern were suddenly transported to a Hollow in this new world, but that didn't mean their battle came to a stop. The fight was already nearing its end, but the sight of the distinctly modern decor here made Andrew freeze for a moment.
But in that moment of hesitation—whether by luck or something else—the limping Rathian stumbled into a spatial tear and vanished instantly, leaving a bewildered Andrew completely clueless about the nature of these Hollows.
As it turned out, that escape created a huge problem. The heavily wounded Rathian was desperate for energy to heal its injuries.
In this place, where there was almost nothing but Ethereals, it acted on instinct. By the time Andrew caught up to it again, it had already started devouring Ethereals. And from the looks of it, it had consumed quite a few.
In Andrew's sight, crystals were already sprouting from the Rathian's body. The place where its head should be, the upper part containing its brain, was beginning to contract and collapse.
As it swallowed the core of the last Ethereal, a pitch-black core appeared there in just a few seconds, replacing the Rathian's original brain.
The moment the core manifested, its body, which hadn't been particularly huge, began to mutate rapidly as if injected with steroids, while a massive amount of Ether energy surged madly from its Etherealized form.
Afterward, analyzing the situation, Andrew could confirm one thing for certain. Whether it's a Hunter or a wyvern, once they start consuming Ethereals, their natural resistance to Ether corrosion turns into acceptance. It's highly likely that after reaching a certain point, they will mutate completely.
Their powerful life energy, which could originally resist Ether corrosion, would instead become the perfect breeding ground for Ether.
An Ethereal born from their bodies would be terrifying beyond words. The stronger the wyvern, the more horrifying it becomes after Etherealization.
The combat power of that Etherealized Rathian had increased exponentially. If it were an Elder Dragon, Andrew didn't even dare to imagine it.
Then again, given the intelligence of an Elder Dragon, it probably wouldn't come to that, right?
But that wasn't something Andrew needed to worry about right now.
What he needed to consider now was that if he let the Odogaron go, a creature occupying a similar ecological niche as the Rathian, it would absolutely become a menace no less than the Etherealized Rathian.
After all, there was no food in the Hollow to satisfy its needs. Given the Odogaron's appetite and metabolism, it would soon starve.
If it had looked lively before, Andrew might have assumed it had just arrived. But seeing its practiced skill in capturing Ethereals, that possibility was now completely ruled out.
If he let this continue, an Etherealized Odogaron would immediately cause the Hollow's danger level to jump at least three ranks.
Thinking of this, Andrew hesitated no longer. He grasped the tachi on his back once more:
"In that case... let the hunt begin!"
_____
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