The dark purple energy aura crashed against the upright shield like a tsunami. Isis clenched her jaw, struggling to maintain her Defensive Stance.
Standing behind her, Altaïr pressed both hands against her shoulders to give her leverage and support.
They withstood the first wave of energy, but the attack involved far more than a single explosion. The shock wave had scattered scale powder across the surrounding ground, where it activated in a chain reaction.
A purple glow flared beneath Isis's feet. Another eruption was about to follow.
"Look out!" Altaïr shouted, yanking hard on the harness strap behind Isis.
Even the sturdiest shield could not block an attack from below, and Isis knew it. Using the force of Altaïr's pull, she leaped backward in an attempt to escape the explosion.
"Boom!"
Purple-black energy erupted upward like a geyser.
Isis cleared the immediate blast zone at the last possible moment, but the erupting energy was not so easily avoided. She barely had time to angle her shield downward and protect herself before the force hurled her backward. It even knocked Altaïr, who had been standing a short distance behind her, off his feet.
With Isis absorbing part of the impact ahead of him, Altaïr fared relatively well. He braced himself on both arms and quickly scrambled to his feet.
Isis had taken the blast head-on and was in far worse condition. She was thrown nearly a kilometer and rolled several times after hitting the ground before finally coming to a stop, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Knowing that staying down on a battlefield was as good as asking to die, Isis gritted her teeth and tried to push herself upright. The impact had left her head spinning, however, and her limbs gave out beneath her. She collapsed again.
The Gunners saw her fall and immediately quickened their rate of fire, closing in on her position as they laid down covering fire.
Altaïr charged again, rushing alone toward the Chaotic Gore Magala, which was visibly winded after unleashing such a powerful attack.
The move was risky, but he had to buy his companions time to regroup. If the Monster were given a moment to act freely, both the badly wounded Isis and the Gunners providing cover would become targets.
The team would be picked off one by one.
Sprinting at full speed, Altaïr closed the distance to less than twenty meters in moments. His eyes remained fixed on his opponent's movements as he lowered his center of gravity.
Faced with the lone charging Hunter, the Chaotic Gore Magala swept its right Wingtalon sideways out of habit.
Altaïr's eyes flashed. He had guessed right.
Perhaps because the metamorphosis had made the right side of its body stronger and more powerful, this Chaotic Gore Magala consistently favored its right limbs when attacking.
It had done the same when attacking Nymera earlier and when countering Isis's charge.
Prepared for the pattern, Altaïr read the speed and angle of the strike. Without breaking stride, he leaned back into a slide close to the ground, slipped past the Wingtalon sweep, and came up directly in front of the Monster.
The Chaotic Gore Magala reacted with astonishing speed, stretching out its neck to bite him.
Using the momentum of his slide, Altaïr surged upright and slashed diagonally upward. He braced his blade beneath the Gore Magala's lower jaw and knocked its lunging head aside.
This hybrid of the Sword and Shield's Sliding Slash and the Rising Slash used with Long Swords and Great Swords had proven time and again to be a reliable way to evade, counterattack, and close with an opponent.
Before he had fully regained his footing, Altaïr brought his Long Sword up horizontally.
As expected, the Gore Magala whipped its head around after the first bite missed and followed with a double bite.
With its bloody maw bearing down on him, Altaïr drove his Long Sword forward with all his strength and parried the approaching fangs. He then turned the blade over and followed with a simple but vicious backhand Overhead Slash.
Tempered Spirit Blade!
The blade split open the Chaotic Gore Magala's lower jaw. Contact with its incompletely transformed Elder Dragon blood sent crimson lightning erupting from Tyrant Blade [Heaven Swallower].
With its very life already in an unstable state, the intense Dragon Element energy clearly aggravated the creature.
The Chaotic Gore Magala spread its wings wide and beat them with tremendous force. The wind pressure drove Altaïr back as the Monster twisted nimbly in midair and flew backward.
Its movements were clearly more fluid than before. Was it gradually adapting to its new body?
Altaïr lowered his stance and braced against the gale from its wings while raising one arm to fire his Slinger. He launched the Clutch Claw in an attempt to catch the retreating Chaotic Gore Magala.
The wind pressure threw off his aim. Instead of hooking into the Monster's torso as he had intended, the Clutch Claw caught its tattered wing membrane.
The sharp claw blades tore a few small holes in the membrane but found no purchase, forcing Altaïr to reel the Clutch Claw back in.
Just as he prepared to charge again and close with his opponent, the Chaotic Gore Magala opened its bloody maw in the middle of its backward leap. A purplish-black breath projectile shot out and hurtled toward him.
Turning to flee at a moment like this would have been the worst possible choice. Altaïr accelerated straight into the attack, then leaped and spun through the air an instant before it struck, avoiding the projectile itself.
But dodging the projectile did not put him out of danger. It struck the ground several meters behind him and detonated the scattered scale powder, producing an explosion far larger than anyone had anticipated.
Altaïr landed and flung himself forward, but before he could get flat, the shock wave caught him from behind and hurled him through the air. He hit the ground and rolled hard.
Because the explosion had occurred some distance away, his injuries were not as severe as Isis's.
Something even more dangerous than his injuries had happened, however.
The Chaotic Gore Magala's breath consisted not of flame or simple energy, but of highly concentrated Frenzy Virus. Caught in the attack's wake, the Wystone calibrated for an ordinary Gore Magala could no longer suppress the Frenzy Virus already stirring within him.
Ominous purplish-black markings surfaced across his body. His eyes became bloodshot once more.
His Frenzy Virus infection was beginning to flare up.
The dizziness from the blast, coupled with the sudden eruption of violent emotions from deep within, clouded Altaïr's thoughts. He shook his head hard and staggered to his feet.
In the distance, the Chaotic Gore Magala seemed to sense the sharp spike in the Frenzy Virus within the Hunter. It howled excitedly, clawed at the ground with all four limbs, and charged the struggling Altaïr.
Just as Altaïr was about to fall into grave danger, Rathalos Model-10, which had been circling the battlefield and harrying the Monster, abruptly changed course. It raced to intercept the charging Gore Magala.
"Full! Power! Accelerate! Meow!" Sajji yowled. He and Clawdia pumped the pedals to the verge of snapping.
"Screeeech!" Sparks sprayed from the gears as they spun at high speed. Amid the shrill strain of the machinery, Rathalos Model-10 exceeded its design limits and barreled recklessly toward its target.
Fifty meters. Thirty meters. Twenty meters...
At the last moment, Clawdia sprang up from the rear seat, seized Sajji by the scruff of his neck, and leaped clear of the speeding war chariot.
Two seconds later, Rathalos Model-10 slammed into the Chaotic Gore Magala's flank and shattered into pieces.
The fully stripped-down Rathalos Model-10 was simply too light. Despite its astonishing speed, the impact carried little force and barely made the charging Chaotic Gore Magala stagger for an instant.
But plenty of unfired shells remained aboard.
Sajji had disengaged their safeties in advance. A second after the collision, bursts of searing fire erupted one after another.
The force of the shells detonating in succession far exceeded the impact of the "tracked armed bicycle." In the middle of its full-speed charge, the Chaotic Gore Magala lurched violently and nearly toppled over.
The lethal charge was interrupted.