"Glavenus isn't in any hurry to collect the laundry," Yano quipped first. Only afterward did she belatedly recall Glavenus's expression just now... But the more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
She really couldn't make out anything resembling an expression on that fierce dragon face, let alone an emotion like impatience.
"How could you tell?" Yano couldn't help asking. "Monsters don't have expressions as rich as ours."
Most dragons had no delicate skin on their faces. They were covered either in hard scales or hard shells—and Glavenus's face was naturally covered in hard shell. It couldn't even change color when it cried, let alone make an expression.
"Hmm, I just had a feeling?"
The Leader rubbed his chin as he spoke.
"No time to think about it. Keep up, Yano!"
"Yes!"
Elsewhere, Xingyan had no idea that two people were following behind him. He had already strode into Great Jagras's territory.
"Roar!!!" (Come out!)
That was more or less what he meant. Xingyan's roar was a challenge: if you've got the guts, come out and face me.
"Roar!!!"
A response came from far away. Great Jagras didn't seem to be nearby, but it had undoubtedly heard Xingyan's taunt. Who could put up with that?
Over the past few days, hunters had taken to calling Great Jagras the "thug of the Wildspire Waste." It wasn't just tall, strong, and powerful; it also had a terrible temper and was incredibly violent. It would wipe out any creature that trespassed on its territory, whether it ran on the ground or flew through the sky.
Because of that, hunters tasked with exploring the Great Sand Sea and mining there had been bullied by the thing more times than they could count. Some hunters had even died at Great Jagras's hands, making the Research Commission's already inadequate manpower situation even worse.
Reality wasn't a game. In a game, the Palico cart could always rescue a hunter from an enraged dragon's jaws or claws. But in reality... it all came down to luck.
If the hunter could be rescued, they'd save them. If not, they'd collect the body. Even so, the Palico cart's fees were exorbitant. Every time it was dispatched, the hunter was charged roughly thirty percent of the quest reward.
Still, no hunter could refuse the Palico cart's rescue. After all, staying alive mattered more.
With heavy steps, Great Jagras approached from a distance. On this rocky terrain, where nothing blocked the view, Xingyan spotted the massive beast from far away—and it spotted him, too.
Glavenus was a large Beast Dragon Species monster, and Great Jagras was also a large Beast Dragon Species monster.
As it happened, both sides had a strong urge to fight.
"Roar, roar, roar, roar!!" (You're the one who bullied my brother the other day, right? I'll cut you to pieces!!)
Xingyan scraped his sharp Sword Tail and roared.
"Roar!!" (Die!!)
The answering roar came from Great Jagras.
Xingyan could understand what the creature was shouting. There were no complicated words, only murderous intent and threats. It was strange, really: the higher a creature ranked in the food chain, the more intelligent it seemed to be.
The Female Fire Dragon was like that, and so was Great Jagras.
Yes, they were different kinds of dragons, but they could still understand what the other meant when it roared.
For instance, the mutual threats they exchanged while fighting over territory, the roars warning others not to approach, or the cries they made to protect their young.
In that sense, dragons could communicate with one another. They shared a kind of understanding on a mental level.
Of course, no matter how mysterious I made it sound, that didn't change the fact that these large dragons had to fight whenever they met.
They could communicate, sure, but they still had to kill each other.
Otherwise, if a few kind words made one of them leave, how was the other supposed to fill its hungry stomach? If you ate everything, what was I supposed to eat?
As the saying went, eat when it's time to eat, drink when it's time to drink, and don't let trouble weigh on your mind.
Everyone had to eat, after all.
True to the image of a large monster modeled after the tyrannical Tyrannosaurus rex in his previous life's memories of the game, Great Jagras really did act like a tyrant. The moment it spotted Xingyan, it charged.
A dragon charge!!
It was a move used by all sorts of dragons, from ground-dwelling species to those that flew through the sky. Put simply, they charged at their opponent and tried to crush them.
Great Jagras's charge was even more ferocious than most. With its mouth wide open and its lower jaw scraping the ground, it barreled toward Xingyan with the force of a beast that meant to plow through the rocks beneath it and the air in front of it.
Fragments of stone flew everywhere as clouds of dust rose. Great Jagras's massive body came barreling forward like a small mountain. Honestly, this kind of charge, with its mouth wide open as it rushed forward in a frenzy, always reminded Xingyan of Brute Dragon.
Brute Dragon's charge was even more violent. It was enough to terrify timid hunters into running away on the spot.
It was impressive, powerful, and brutal. No wonder it was a monster that could rival the dinosaur tyrant, Tyrannosaurus rex. But—who the hell did you think you were scaring?
To be honest, ordinary dragons' attacks seemed rather unimpressive to Xingyan. They did little more than charge around, bite with their teeth, smash with their tails, and rake with their claws. Even the imposing Elder Dragons weren't exempt from those moves. Their bodies limited how many agile attacks they could perform, so they could only fight with their powerful physiques.
The only difference was that Elder Dragons could control Life Energy more freely and possessed all sorts of unique abilities. They were called natural disasters because their powers were so overwhelming that it seemed as if nature itself had turned against you.
Torrential rain, violent winds, lightning, floods... or even a moving mountain. Ordinary creatures could do little but endure when faced with disasters like those.
But those were abilities that only Elder Dragons possessed.
You were just a Great Jagras. Did you have anything like that?
Xingyan wasn't an Elder Dragon. He couldn't fly into a rage and destroy the ecosystem of an entire region like they could. But Great Jagras wasn't an Elder Dragon, either.
As large Beast Dragon Species monsters, they should have been on the same level. They could have tested whose body was tougher, whose strength was greater, and whose teeth were sharper—in short, a contest of basic stats.
But as a Glavenus, Xingyan had an extra blade.
That blade was deadly.
It was like two adults getting into a heated fistfight, only for one of them to suddenly pull out a knife. The other person would naturally end up stabbed, blood spilling from the wound.
Xingyan wasn't about to indulge Great Jagras's foul temper. He didn't even dodge. He lowered his body, swung his hips, and whipped his heavy Sword Tail straight at Great Jagras's mouth!
From the side, it practically looked as though Great Jagras had lost its mind and rammed its head right into Xingyan's Sword Tail.
Clang!!
Great Jagras had noticed what Xingyan was doing, but it was too late to dodge.
The heavy blade swept across from the front. With a sharp crack, it cleanly severed the four teeth at the very front of Great Jagras's hard lower jaw!
The resistance sent Xingyan's swing rebounding, but it barely affected him. A light hop was all it took to get back into position. His next strike was a vertical chop!
"Roar!!!"
Great Jagras roared furiously. The injury to its treasured lower jaw had wounded its pride, too. It hadn't expected the little thing that used to run away as soon as it saw it—and sometimes even go out of its way to squeeze through narrow terrain it normally avoided just to escape—to be so tough.
But in the past, Xingyan had only avoided it because he didn't want to waste his energy. Great Jagras had no evolutionary information he needed.
And now he was no longer the frail hatchling Glavenus he had been six months ago. He was a strong, well-built brute with a deadly blade!
Even in the eyes of the Bird Bro siblings, this fight seemed a little too unfair. Well, perhaps the two dragons simply weren't on the same level at all. The battle was completely one-sided.
Great Jagras was just an ordinary specimen. It couldn't even touch Xingyan. It could only rage helplessly, either scooping up a rock with its toothless lower jaw and throwing it at Xingyan, or opening its mouth to bite him... It was flimsy. Far too flimsy.
It was like a chef scoring ingredients for cooking. Xingyan's Sword Tail kept slicing through the pink fur covering Great Jagras's body. The fur helped the sweat-glandless Great Jagras shed heat more effectively, and it was incredibly tough.
But even so, no matter how tough the fur was, it still couldn't match the defensive power of traditional scales or shells.
When hunted in the past, Great Jagras could often rely on its thick, tough hide to absorb attacks from other monsters, then use its extraordinary strength and offensive power to defeat its enemy first.
Dragons that fought Great Jagras often lacked sufficiently lethal ways to attack. At most, they could bite off a chunk or two of flesh, or leave deep claw marks or bite marks in its fur. They could never inflict enough damage to kill it.
But Xingyan was different.
The sharp Great Sword he had carefully forged could easily slice through Great Jagras's fur. Made from various minerals, it was heavy enough that every strike forced Great Jagras to give up on using its jumping ability to close in and trade wounds.
Because before it could trade blows, it knew it would be the first to get cut down.
In the end, Great Jagras simply couldn't compete with Glavenus on the same level.
Even when the fierce battle and its rage activated the fire sac in its throat, letting it spit out scorching flames, nothing changed. It still couldn't touch Xingyan.
Glavenus's Sword Tail was simply too long. It let Xingyan swing his Great Sword from a safe distance and cut the creature down.
"A one-sided slaughter." After lowering the binoculars in his hands, Yano summed up the battle between the two dragons from the safety of a high stone ledge. "It's like it's just playing around. Ordinary monsters aren't a match for it."
"Looks like that clever little fellow has grown up... Haha, it's only been half a year. Why has it grown so fast?" The Leader's feelings were complicated, too. "It's already the size of a juvenile Glavenus, isn't it?"
"Even bigger," Yano said, shaking her head slightly. "A normal Glavenus is about twenty-four meters long, with a tail over fourteen meters long—almost half its total length."
"Twenty-four meters?" The Leader estimated its size. "In terms of its build alone, it's already nearly as large as an adult Glavenus."
"But according to the scholars' observations, this Glavenus actually hatched only recently. It's about the equivalent of a baby a little over a year old." Yano started laughing as she spoke. "That's no baby's appearance."
"Did you see the shells on the side of its body? It looks like there are two layers, and it seems to have been injured recently." The Leader pointed suddenly at Xingyan's flank. "I noticed when it passed us earlier. Glavenus should only have one layer of shell, right?"
"That's right, I noticed it too. That's why the scholars think this Glavenus might be a Two-Named Monster, different from the original Glavenus," Yano continued. "There haven't been any reports of it attacking hunters so far, but no one dares approach it, either. They can only observe from a distance... So it's just a guess."
"Hmm... I thought they'd try communicating with it. This Glavenus seems pretty friendly," the Leader asked.
"One scholar tried feeding it Apceros, but it kicked away all the meat they brought. Maybe it only eats prey it catches itself?"
"Proud little fellow, isn't it? Interesting." The Leader couldn't help laughing. "I quite like it. Looks like the little fellow didn't just survive in this harsh wilderness; it's thriving."
"Now isn't the time to celebrate, Leader," Yano said with a helpless look. "I agree that this Glavenus... Let's keep calling it Glavenus for now. Anyway, I agree it's worth studying and observing, but its territory is far too close to the base."
"I understand." The Leader nodded firmly. "Leave it to me. I'll talk to it properly!"
"Wait, what are you planning to do?" Yano immediately grew tense. "Don't do anything reckless, Leader!"
"This isn't reckless, Yano!" the Leader said with a hearty laugh. "I heard what the scholars said, too. It's hard to judge this Glavenus's attitude, but that's exactly why I need to get closer to it!"
"If we don't bravely take the first step, we'll never find the answers to some things—don't forget why we set sail!"
With that, he glanced at the battlefield in the distance, where the fight was gradually drawing to a close, then jumped straight down from the rock.
"Leader..."
Watching the Leader crouch down and slowly approach the Glavenus below, Yano murmured under her breath.
Shing—squelch—
With one more slick sound of flesh being cut open, Great Jagras finally ran out of strength. With a faint, mournful trumpet, it fell to the ground.
It was dead.
Xingyan didn't feel the relief or relaxation of having fought a formidable foe. To be honest, Great Jagras had put far less pressure on him than that Tempered Female Fire Dragon had.
This Great Jagras was far too inexperienced.
Before you continue