As they chased each other, the two dragons had unknowingly reached a wider area above the canyon.
For the Female Fire Dragon, this place made it easier to dodge. Xingyan, on the other hand, didn't care about such a minor thing.
He was determined to hunt this Female Fire Dragon down.
With a twist, Xingyan spat a burning fireball toward the Female Fire Dragon—or, more accurately, a ball of molten rock. Trying to knock it aside would have been the worst choice, so the Female Fire Dragon had no choice but to dodge to the side to avoid the heavy projectile.
But that was only a feint. In that instant, his enormous tail scraped across the ground. Xingyan's real killer move was the slash that followed right behind the fireball!
Friend, have you ever heard of the Draw Sword Slash?
The Draw Sword Slash—that is, the Draw Sword Technique—wasn't that Draw Sword Technique [Focus] that raised your affinity on the first strike after sheathing your weapon. And of course, it wasn't Draw Sword Technique [Power], which increased stun and exhaust. It was the kind where you drew your weapon at the opponent's middle—cough, cough!
Anyway, there were many schools and techniques of the Draw Sword Technique in the real world. At its core, it was a technique for ambushes or emergency self-defense while sitting or lying down. In the world of Monster Hunter, hunters also used enormous Long Swords to perform Draw Sword Slashes, known as iai.
Unlike an ordinary scabbard, the scabbard used for the Draw Sword Technique was curved, as was the path of the blade as it swung out. It was somewhat like the principle of a lever: you began building power before drawing the weapon. The scabbard itself created resistance, so when you adjusted your stance and finally drew the weapon, you could carry that stored force into the strike, making it faster and stronger.
Glavenus's Sword Tail naturally didn't come with a scabbard, and Xingyan's little forelegs couldn't hold a matching one anyway. But that didn't mean he couldn't use this move.
Yes, the Tail Bite Great Spin was actually iai, too. The principle was the same.
But this Female Fire Dragon wasn't going to give Xingyan the chance to casually perform a Tail Bite Great Spin. No matter, though—the move he was now swinging at her also used the principles of the Draw Sword Slash.
His enormous, heavy tail swept low across the hard-packed ground of the wasteland. As it did, Xingyan used the resistance of the earth to steadily build power, then concealed his strike behind the fireball he spat out.
It flowed as smoothly as water. With nothing more than a deft turn, the slash was already right in front of the Female Fire Dragon—far faster than she could have imagined.
Sweep Fire!
Crack.
Amid the Female Fire Dragon's shrill, high-pitched roar, Xingyan shouldn't have been able to hear the cracking sound. Yet somehow he did—or so it seemed. His Sword Tail had cut off the spike at the end of her tail.
"Eee-yah!!!"
She didn't panic. Even with Glavenus's great blade less than a hundredth of a millimeter away, the Female Fire Dragon remained frighteningly calm. Not only did she avoid panicking and flying higher or dodging to either side, she actually turned around and dropped down along Xingyan's extended Sword Tail!
Heavy!
That was the first thought to form in Xingyan's mind. The Female Fire Dragon had planted her thick hind claws right on one side of his body. It was like a speeding train had suddenly slammed into him. She didn't just make him stumble—she knocked him right over!
Why was this female dragon so heavy?!
Bang!!!
Another explosion rang out for no apparent reason, but this time Xingyan heard it—or, more accurately, he desperately twisted around, trying to bite the Female Fire Dragon, and saw it.
His carapace had exploded.
Well, his Air Sac Carapace had exploded.
It happened the instant the Female Fire Dragon crashed into him.
At Xingyan's command, the carapace, which had been filled with compressed air to reduce his weight, exploded on impact. The carapace shattered, as did the minerals encrusted on its surface. It was a one-way explosion, directed solely at the Female Fire Dragon who had crashed into him.
Xingyan, however, was unharmed. He had only been pushed by the blast's recoil, which was one reason he was lying on his side now.
"Yah-ah!!!"
This time, the Female Fire Dragon instinctively beat her wings and flew upward. Xingyan saw clearly that the side of her body that had crashed into him looked as if it had been plastered with nails and metal scraps. Her already-damaged wing membrane looked even worse, and shattered carapace and hard mineral fragments were embedded among her dark green scales.
I get it.
Xingyan understood completely now.
This wasn't an Air Sac Carapace at all. This damn thing was Reactive Armor, wasn't it?!
Reactive Armor was a layer fitted to the outside of a tank. When the tank was attacked by an anti-tank weapon, the armor reacted to the strike.
Put simply, it was armor that could explode. When an anti-tank missile hit a tank, the Reactive Armor detonated in response, disrupting and damaging the missile and reducing the harm to the tank.
Applied to Xingyan, the same principle made this a Reactive Explosive Carapace?
It wasn't gunpowder that exploded, but compressed air. It could even vent in a directed blast, firing the outer keratin layer and the accumulated deposits of hard minerals like bullets. From that perspective, it was a bit like a Shaped Charge Mine.
Now he completely understood why the Female Fire Dragon had seen through his plan earlier, then struck him with her venomous tail without following up with another attack. He also understood where the stuff on her scales had come from, how her wing membrane had been damaged—and how she had lost an eye.
When the venomous tail struck Xingyan's side, his Air Sac Carapace had detonated, firing sharp mineral fragments and pieces of carapace at the enemy who had attacked him. At the time, the Female Fire Dragon had been in the middle of a vertical aerial roll. Her head and eye had happened to be facing downward as she rolled, and they had been struck by the shrapnel.
What a pleasant surprise.
Wobbling to his feet, Xingyan couldn't help grinning. The battle-hardened Female Fire Dragon had used the techniques she'd learned fighting other Glavenus against him, never realizing that he wasn't a normal Glavenus at all. She'd walked right into his trap.
Die!!
Strike while she's down!
There was no time to build up power. The Female Fire Dragon looked ready to flee without even turning her head. Xingyan leaped up and brought his blade down in a flying overhead slash!
His sharp blade slid through her like a hot knife through butter. The knife really was hot, but the Female Fire Dragon was no lump of butter—and yet her armor, which should have been hard, failed to stop Xingyan at all.
The Female Fire Dragon struggled to beat her hole-riddled wings and fly higher, leaving half her tail behind. It wasn't neatly cut off at the tip like in the game. The cut was diagonal and ran lengthwise, leaving behind the venomous, spiked portion of her tail.
The Female Fire Dragon fled. Even though the pain of losing her tail drew a truly agonized roar from her as she flew, she never looked back. In fact, with the weight of her body reduced, she flew a little faster.
As expected of a Tempered Monster. Even when fleeing, she was a little more decisive than an ordinary Female Fire Dragon.
Looking up at the Female Fire Dragon as she flew farther and farther away, Xingyan didn't waste his strength chasing her. He knew he couldn't catch up. She would inevitably fly back to her nest, and the Female Fire Dragons who had escaped from the Ancient Tree Lair usually nested together in the same area.
That meant that even if Xingyan struggled across the dangerous Great Sand Sea to catch up with her, he would be attacked by a whole flock of Female Fire Dragons.
That would be unwise.
Damn Flying Dragon Species!
Xingyan thought angrily of how the thing he had once worried about had come true. A dragon had taken a dump over his head and flown away—metaphorically speaking, but that was exactly what had happened. When the Female Fire Dragon realized she was losing, she'd simply flown into the sky and run. How despicable!
Did having wings mean you could do whatever you wanted? Huh?!
He viciously tore into the half of her tail left on the ground. Xingyan wasn't picky. The tail was an important part of the Female Fire Dragon, and even a section of it was rich in Life Energy. It also contained things like venom glands.
He wasn't afraid of swallowing the venom. Once it got into his stomach, what venom? It was all protein, all Life Energy.
Xingyan considered whether he should make himself take on the Poison Fire Element. That way, his hit-and-run, bleed-out tactics could include poisoning the enemy, too. A righteous Glavenus might need something like that.
I think I won... As he ate, the realization finally dawned on Xingyan.
Won? Did I win?
He'd taken quite a beating, and his body had been poisoned. He was even starting to feel a little dizzy, and weakness was gradually creeping over him.
After all that trouble, he'd lost most of the carapace he'd painstakingly built up, and in the end, he hadn't even gotten to eat an entire Female Fire Dragon. He could only satisfy his appetite with half a tail... Had he really won?
But there was no doubt the Female Fire Dragon had lost. She was a Tempered Monster, battle-hardened and experienced, with full mastery of her body and a thorough understanding of how to use her advantages in a fight. Her combat experience was far beyond that of a dragon like Xingyan, who still fought using human intelligence.
And yet she had still lost. She'd lost her tail, her wing membrane was riddled with holes, and she'd been blinded in one eye.
That was the cruelty of nature. Even greater combat experience and a stronger body couldn't prevent unexpected setbacks. Nature didn't care about fairness.
After gnawing away a layer of the rocks stained with the Female Fire Dragon's blood, Xingyan shook his head and reviewed the battle. Having Glavenus's information was his greatest advantage, but when it came to the brutal, direct battles between dragons, he still needed to hone his skills.
Information alone couldn't guarantee that he would win every fight.
"Gugah?"
Turning around, Xingyan saw Bird Bro jump over from the platform, looking worried.
"Roar." (I'm fine... Let's go home.)
There was no reason to be discouraged. Xingyan believed that the Female Fire Dragon wouldn't escape him. She had already been a loser who'd fled to the Great Sand Sea after losing a contest, and now she'd lost her tail, too. Leaving the Great Sand Sea now would be tantamount to suicide.
Xingyan waited. As a mature hunter... Dragon Hunter, he had plenty of patience.
As long as that Female Fire Dragon stayed in the Great Sand Sea and still needed to hunt to survive, he would eventually hunt her down.
Compared to that, seeing Bird Bro now suddenly reminded him of something. Did Bird Bro spend all day running around wearing his explosive reactive air sacs?!
The moment Xingyan realized it, he broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, he'd let the air out of the sacs before drilling holes in the carapace, and he hadn't removed several more plates to hang along Bird Bro's sides. Otherwise, things would have been serious.
Even so, the thought of Bird Bro pecking at his carapace with that huge, blunt beak whenever he had nothing to do—or whenever he wanted Xingyan to do something—made him sweat even more... Psychologically, that was. Glavenus didn't sweat.
Luckily, these Air Sac Carapaces only detonated in a directed blast when struck with enough force. Otherwise, Bird Bro might have lost his head.
That would've been a dragon-class horror story.
He'd have to explain it to him properly later.
With heavy steps, Xingyan and Bird Bro made their way back to his territory. As soon as they entered the nest, before he even had a chance to tell Bird Bro anything, Xingyan tilted over and collapsed onto the ground.
The Female Fire Dragon's venom was starting to take effect. Or rather, the fact that it had taken this long to hit him so hard was proof that Xingyan's vitality and resistance were strong.
The real world wasn't like the game. Being poisoned didn't just make bubbles come out of your mouth or make your stamina drain faster. Poison really did destroy a victim's flesh, blood, and nerves... Some small dragons and herbivores could even be killed outright by a Female Fire Dragon's venom.
It was just that those creatures usually had little ability to fight back, so the Female Fire Dragon didn't bother wasting energy producing venom for them.
The venom Xingyan had taken came from a Female Fire Dragon on the verge of becoming a Gold Fire Dragon. That transformation didn't just change her color; it meant a complete increase in strength, including her venom glands.
This was Xingyan's first time being poisoned by a Female Fire Dragon, and his body didn't have any decent antibodies yet.
"Gugah!!!"
"Gugugugagagaga!!"
"...Roar..." (...Don't panic... This little bit of venom won't kill me...)
As a large dragon, Xingyan had a reasonable understanding of his own body. A Female Fire Dragon's venom—even that of a Tempered Female Fire Dragon—wasn't strong enough to kill a Glavenus outright. It wasn't like the venom of a Purple Poison Princess Female Fire Dragon. But he was simply too exhausted. The toll of the battle, the damage the venom had done to his body, and the energy needed to heal...
A crushing fatigue was swallowing Xingyan's mind. He knew he needed a good sleep and time to heal.
So tired that he couldn't even finish speaking, Xingyan sank into a deep sleep. Before he completely lost consciousness, his blurry eyes could still hear Bird Bro's panicked cries and the sound of him anxiously hopping back and forth in front of him.
What the hell are you bouncing around for... You dumb bird...
The thought flashed through his mind, and then he was completely asleep.
While Xingyan slept deeply and recovered from his wounds, the hunters' outpost grew lively.
The advance team, missing for more than half a year, had suddenly returned.
Before you continue