Iai Dragon Slayer and the Curious Sleepy Floater Dragon

Although players always refer to the Dragon Slayer's Tail Bite Great Spin as Iai during gameplay, the Dragon Slayer's Sword Tail is not a Long Sword in essence, but rather a heavy greatsword.

Long Sword players can't perform Iai with a greatsword.

Now, this swung heavy greatsword directly severed the bones of the Sleepy Floater Dragon's left wing—much more easily than Xingyan had anticipated.

The Sleepy Floater Dragon's bones were no match for his Sword Tail. Xingyan had wanted to pierce straight through the Sleepy Floater Dragon's round, fluffy belly, but unfortunately, the creature had some reaction at the last moment, flapping its wings and dodging upward. It only ended up injuring its wing.

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Oh, sorry, not "only"—an injured wing meant the Sleepy Floater Dragon couldn't escape quickly from the air, even if its wing only served a propulsive role during flight.

Pain.

This was a significant factor that couldn't be ignored. Coupled with the sudden shock, the Sleepy Floater Dragon let out a series of croaks and desperately flapped its wings, trying to fly higher.

Dragon scares dragon, scares dragon to death.

Only after several seconds did it realize that the wing whose bones had been severed could now only hang limply at its side, causing unbearable pain with even the slightest vigorous movement.

No matter how hard it flapped its intact wing, the result was merely spinning in place in mid-air in a wider arc.

"Gugugugugugugu!!!"

It was enraged.

Once the initial shock subsided, the Sleepy Floater Dragon's large eyes finally saw who had attacked it—a young Dragon Slayer.

If you were an adult Dragon Slayer, fine, but a juvenile Dragon Slayer looking down on it?!!

Of course, it didn't have such clear thoughts, but the anger caused by being attacked by a cub was universal.

It stopped trying to escape by flapping its severed left wing. The Sleepy Floater Dragon leaned back slightly, then suddenly spat a cloud of light gray gas towards Xingyan, barely visible in the dark night.

Sleepy Gas Cloud!

This signature attack of the Sleepy Floater Dragon was within Xingyan's predictions. Dragon Slayers don't fall for such attacks.

Without even needing to retreat, Xingyan charged forward a few steps, narrowly dodging the Sleepy Gas Cloud before it hit the ground and exploded.

Grazing Hit!

He wasn't in a hurry.

In a real fight, an unavoidable factor is bleeding.

His Sword Tail had truly severed the Sleepy Floater Dragon's left wing, not just bone but flesh and blood. Therefore, even in the dark night, Xingyan could see blood constantly dripping from the Sleepy Floater Dragon.

This was why wild animals, including most dragons, wouldn't easily engage in combat with creatures of similar size. Getting injured meant a loss, and more importantly, a threat to their lives.

Even if a dragon had a lot of blood in its body, it couldn't afford to keep losing it. Xingyan didn't believe the Sleepy Floater Dragon could stay airborne forever.

Not flying purely on its wings, but rather being unable to fall to the ground, actually helped the Sleepy Floater Dragon at this moment. However, it also meant it couldn't glide away quickly to safety while enduring the pain like other winged dragons.

Like some mad giant bat, the Sleepy Floater Dragon kept spitting Sleepy Gas Clouds downward in the sky. Under its actions, even though these gas clouds didn't directly hit Xingyan, as they exploded one after another on the ground, this area gradually became covered in a thin layer of mist.

Even though the Sleepy Gas had become diluted by spreading in the air, as the quantity increased, Xingyan still felt a sense of drowsiness.

What the heck, kid, how can you spit so much??

How much sedative substance did you store??

Truly disgusted, Xingyan could only try his best to find a relatively clean spot on the ground to stand. He dared not leave this large area covered by the spreading hypnotic gas; if the Sleepy Floater Dragon slipped away from another direction, it would be troublesome.

If he were an adult Dragon Slayer, he could easily reach the height the Sleepy Floater Dragon had descended to. But unfortunately, Xingyan wasn't. Even jumping wouldn't let him reach that high.

Most importantly, he didn't dare to attack the Sleepy Floater Dragon's round, inflated gas sac, fearing he might damage it. What if a damaged gas sac wouldn't have the intended effect when ingested?

The vigorous life force of the New World had significantly enhanced the unique abilities of these large monsters. And unlike in games, the real world didn't need to cater to player experience, nor did difficulty need to be smoothed out.

Xingyan was already feeling a bit dizzy.

Even though it couldn't escape, relying on its ability to fly and the advantage that the enemy couldn't reach it, the Sleepy Floater Dragon had made him dizzy and nauseated.

It was just a mere Sleepy Floater Dragon. If it were some aggressive, aerial combat expert, like a Fire Dragon or Azure Rathalos, he, a pathetic dragon who couldn't even fly, wouldn't know how badly he'd be bullied!

Attacking and retreating at will, always having the advantage, occasionally spitting fire to bombard...

Such a thing would never be allowed!

Xingyan couldn't even imagine how disgusting it would be if some despicable dragon were to fly overhead and defecate or urinate on him in the future.

Even if the enemy provoked him from the air, he had to have the ability to chase after them and kill them, rather than just standing on the ground to defend and swatting away a few thorns from the attacker to force them back.

He wanted the initiative!

The current feeling of just being able to look up and watch the Sleepy Floater Dragon go mad only strengthened Xingyan's resolve that he needed to be able to fly too.

Finally, the Sleepy Floater Dragon's round body began to deflate. It consumed the gas stored in its air sac when spitting the Sleepy Gas Clouds, and it couldn't inhale while exhaling.

Under Xingyan's intensely expectant gaze, the now thinner Sleepy Floater Dragon finally landed on the ground. The accumulated gray Sleepy Gas on the ground naturally couldn't make it fall asleep, and the prolonged frenzied attack had also made it exhausted.

Even though it knew its left wing was injured and couldn't function, long-ingrained habits still made the Sleepy Floater Dragon instinctively try to flap its wings while airborne. It was an instinctual habit.

And such habits, apart from causing more pain with vigorous movements, also led to more bleeding.

After truly coming to this world, Xingyan found that the most effective tactic was bloodletting. His Sword Tail was practically made for this job. As long as he inflicted a sufficiently deep and wide wound on the enemy, all he needed to do afterward was wait.

How evil, Dragon Slayer.

"Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle!!"

The Sleepy Floater Dragon was still roaring loudly, stirring up another wave and charging at Xingyan—but its charge felt somewhat too slow to Xingyan.

Things had reached this point, and the Sleepy Floater Dragon was basically condemned to death; it couldn't escape.

When the Sleepy Floater Dragon once again raised its head and began to inhale a large amount of air, intending to fly up, Xingyan, who had been waiting for this moment, unleashed the Dragon Shock Speed.

Charging, leaping, landing—and its sharpened Sword Tail easily severed the Sleepy Floater Dragon's head.

"Roar!!!"

Standing on the corpse of the Sleepy Floater Dragon, Xingyan let out a victorious roar.

A victory without taking any damage, though he had been somewhat disgusted by the enemy during the fight.

How to describe it? Easy.

Xingyan selectively ignored the fact that he had preemptively torn off one of the Sleepy Floater Dragon's wings.

He was currently busy feasting and had to carefully tear open the Sleepy Floater Dragon's flesh to find its air sacs. They were quite easy to find, but dismembering the corpse was a bit troublesome.

Xingyan's knife was sharpened quickly, and before long, he had found two large, slightly shriveled air sacs from the Sleepy Floater Dragon's corpse. Without a second thought, he swallowed them whole.

It was like someone who had just transmigrated to the One Piece world and eaten a Devil Fruit, afraid they wouldn't gain powers if they ate too little.

However, the taste of dragon meat was nothing Devil Fruits could compare to.

After swallowing the Sleepy Floater Dragon's air sacs, Xingyan immediately began to chant in his mind:

"Give me air sacs, give me air sacs, give me air sacs, give me air sacs..."

"Air sacs can increase my buoyancy but not reduce my combat power or defense..."

"...they can't make me a fat dragon, nor can they affect my body's flexibility..."

"..."

Ugh, it was like wishing for something, and all the wishes were extremely greedy ones.

What a greedy dragon.

But as a dragon, who wasn't greedy?

Honestly, Xingyan didn't even know if what he was doing now would work or take effect, so he felt a little uneasy and decided he would have to keep praying silently in his heart until the change appeared.

While his mind wandered, speculating about the form this desired change would take, Xingyan quickly ate the rest of the Sleepy Floater Dragon's corpse. There wasn't much meat; it was even quite scrawny.

He finished most of it in no time. After casually finding a desert cactus to moisten his mouth, Xingyan began his journey back to the nest.

A successful Hunt, and before the evolution truly manifested, Xingyan believed he needed to Hunt more Sleepy Floater Dragons.

Keep up the good work!

Although he was still considered a Young Dragon, Xingyan already had the lives of several adult dragons to his credit.

However, he still didn't have his own territory, because Xingyan always worried that his strength wasn't enough to allow him to openly claim a piece of land.

For all large monsters, territory was something earned through battle. If two dragons coveted the same area, they would fight. They might not kill each other, but they would definitely establish dominance.

Then both sides would know each other's territory and would avoid each other's hunting grounds during their daily activities.

The Mudfish Dragon Xingyan had defeated was indeed a minor lord of that Flower Field Marshland Area, but its position was always challenged by a strong Earth Sand Dragon. Now that the Mudfish Dragon was dead and gone, the Earth Sand Dragon had occupied it.

This guy liked to bury itself in the mud when it had nothing else to do.

Xingyan wasn't interested in fighting the Earth Sand Dragon again; they had no enmity. Although the Earth Sand Dragon was also a carnivorous beast dragon, its diet consisted only of Beetles or Ant Workers. Its massive head crest was even designed to destroy anthills or insect nests.

He didn't like meaningless fights, and Xingyan wasn't interested in the traits the Earth Sand Dragon had evolved.

His unique Feast Evolution ability already guaranteed that he would never lack battles in this life, so it was better to have fewer now.

Anyway, when Xingyan appeared in the Flower Field Marshland Area to drink water and Hunt Herbivore Species, the Earth Sand Dragon didn't react aggressively, thus a unique tacit understanding developed between the two dragons.

Mutual non-interference.

Another beautiful sunny day after waking up from a nap. The scorching sun felt like a warm massage to Xingyan. He had just eaten some Iron Plate Carapace Dragon Meat and was currently drinking water in the Flower Field Marshland Area to quench his thirst.

In terms of filling his stomach, Herbivore Species, which offered little resistance and a lot of meat, were indeed more suitable.

They had gentle temperaments, somewhat like capybaras. They lived if they could, died if they couldn't, and were naturally indifferent. Most importantly, they were very numerous and reproduced well, giving the impression that if other dragons came to hunt them, they would just let them eat, and after they were done, they would continue living.

It was a Sacrificial Flow, so to speak.

But it had to be said, even though they were hunted by all sorts of dragons, and even their eggs were used to feed creatures like Kulu-Ya-Ku, the Herbivore Species had still survived and thrived in various places.

Xingyan's current location was considered the outskirts of the Great Sand Sea, far from the truly desolate desert regions. But precisely because of this, there were still sufficient water sources here, some coming with the sea breeze, others flowing or seeping from the farther Ancient Forest.

Before the Lava Dragon broke through the mountain and opened a path, there was a lack of a direct connection between the Great Sand Sea and the Ancient Forest. The accumulated and deformed rock formations perfectly blocked this passage, only opening briefly when the rock strata moved and deformed again due to Leyline activity or Elder Dragon activity.

Therefore, even though they looked close on the map, getting there would require taking a boat or taming a flying wyvern.

He still remembered the huge Lava Dragon tracks from before. In Xingyan's memory, when Hunters followed the route of Elder Dragon Crossing to the New World, the First Expeditionary Force landed in the Great Sand Sea and established a base along the coast, which was the predecessor of Starry Base.

He didn't know how many times the Lava Dragon was attempting to enter the New World's Leyline Corridor, but after gaining a certain degree of self-preservation ability, at least being able to run away if he couldn't win, Xingyan felt he should visit the seaside more often.

Curiosity was like that. Since he had transmigrated to the world of Monster Hunter, how could he not be curious about those familiar game characters from his previous life?