Another thing that puzzled the dragon was the battle itself—why were two Kushala Daora fighting each other?
Kushala Daora was probably the most common of the Elder Dragons. They were widely distributed across both the Old World and the New World. The Kushala Daora in the New World mainly fell into two groups: those nearing the end of their lives who had crossed the sea from the Old World, and those whose populations bred and lived in the New World. They could be found in several regions.
No wonder the New World was so unusual. It wasn't just packed with tempered monsters—even the Elder Dragons were packed together.
As Elder Dragons, Kushala Daora were actually rather proud and peaceful outside of their molting period. Well, putting those two words together might seem a little strange, but Kushala Daora tended to consider themselves above fighting other creatures or competing for territory. The immense power that came with being an Elder Dragon meant they could alter an ecosystem and drive away ordinary monsters without even fighting.
They were even less likely to fight their own kind. With the intelligence of an Elder Dragon, Kushala Daora generally wouldn't fight one another. That wasn't the sort of fighting spirit you'd expect from a dragon that mainly ate minerals.
Well, take Barroth, for example. The chubby fellow was so friendly.
The dense curtain of rain kept Xingyan from seeing what was happening at the hunters' outpost farther away, but he was sure the hunters wouldn't miss something this abnormal.
Those bold hunters—someone like the Grand Commander, for instance—might already be planning to drive off the Kushala Daora and restore the rainy season to normal.
Unlike in the games, where players killed an Elder Dragon whenever they felt like it, Elder Dragons in the real world were nowhere near that numerous, even if the New World had more of them than the Old World. The only Elder Dragon the hunters had actually managed to kill was the disgrace of the Elder Dragons, Valstrax.
Aside from Valstrax, the most the hunters could do when facing an Elder Dragon was drive it away. As for killing one... ha, that was just a dream.
Xingyan was anxiously fretting when he realized there was nothing he could do. Even if he could overcome his body's instinctive fear of Elder Dragons and go fight the Kushala Daora, they were up in the sky. What was a dragon that couldn't fly supposed to do?
It was like Groudon watching Kyogre and Rayquaza battle in the sky, left standing on the ground, gazing up at them helplessly. At least Groudon could still try to reach them with Precipice Blades. Xingyan couldn't even get close enough to take a swipe.
Sigh... A dragon that can't fly isn't a complete dragon.
Xingyan smacked his lips and let out a long sigh. He felt like he was being discriminated against... Never mind. He'd go bring the Kulu-Ya-Ku brothers an egg. After being hungry for so many days, the poor fellows were probably starving.
He'd better hurry, gather the eggs, and head home. As a fire-element dragon, Xingyan found a light drizzle on his shell rather pleasant, but this endless downpour and the water rising above his shins were torture. He'd much rather be lying in his dry nest.
In this torrential rain, the Carapace Dragons had naturally stayed in their nests. Their homes were on relatively high ground, so the floodwaters wouldn't reach them anytime soon.
After eating a Carapace Dragon and scooping up two eggs, one in each claw, Xingyan helped himself as if he were browsing a supermarket, eating as he went and taking food along. He followed the river toward home.
But after only a few steps, he heard heavy clangs like a blacksmith striking metal through the clatter of the downpour. The sounds were drawing closer and closer—BOOM!!
The curtain of rain warped. It had been hard to see anything clearly, but just then Xingyan distinctly saw something smash through the rain and land on a rocky cliff a hundred meters away. His eyes went wide.
It was a ball of wind—or maybe... the shockwave from a battle?
BOOM!!!
Two massive, heavy lumps of metal, one silver-gray and the other tea-brown, plunged from the sky at incredible speed. Like falling stars, they smashed into a much more distant spot. The metallic clanging came from them: the two Kushala Daora were locked together, clawing, biting, and crashing into one another. It was a brutally primitive melee.
There was no helping it. Battles between Elder Dragons usually turned into clashes of special abilities, but the combatants here were two Kushala Daora.
Their steel bodies were only the basics. A Kushala Daora's true power lay in its ability to freely control the natural phenomenon of wind. Wherever one appeared, it was often like a typhoon had passed through, with winds at its center strong enough to snap thick trees.
They could wrap whirlwinds around their bodies to protect themselves, and they could also compress air and spit it out as high-pressure blasts to attack their opponents.
As Elder Dragons who wielded the wind, Kushala Daora were the embodiment of storms—and natural disasters. But the problem was that there were two of them here.
You could control the wind, and so could I. The two Kushala Daora sent gusts back and forth until they ended up in the purest kind of hand-to-hand brawl. In fact, that did more damage.
In the games, you could always find information saying that Elder Dragons were natural disasters. But honestly, the games' visuals and written descriptions never quite made it feel real... Not until this moment—right now—when Xingyan saw with his own eyes what a true natural disaster looked like.
To use a rather disrespectful comparison, it was like two wild boars biting each other and rolling around in a mud pit, going berserk. Sorry, but that was genuinely what came to mind.
Even as they fought hand to hand, controlling storms had long since become instinctive to the two Kushala Daora. As they tore into each other, the spreading storm seemed to plow away an entire layer of the ground, reaching far into the distance.
The two Kushala Daora fought as though the universe itself would end, grinding even the Great Sand Sea into nothing.
Of course, that was just an exaggeration. But Xingyan was sure that once the two Kushala Daora left and the skies cleared, the terrain and landscape of this whole area would be so different that he'd have to get used to it all over again.
Places that had once been towering stone walls were flattened by sheer force, while sunken canyons were filled in by fallen rocks. It was truly ridiculous. Even Kushala Daora, the very embodiment of wind, could reshape the terrain like this.
It filled Xingyan with longing... One day...
Wait... what?!
Xingyan suddenly shuddered and stared wide-eyed. Where were those two going?!
That's my home!!
Move, legs! Run!
Taking two steps at a time, Xingyan stopped hiding and charged toward his nest. The road, now a river, slowed him down a little, but fortunately, by the time he saw the outline of his cave, everything was—
BOOM!!!
Gone.
The shockwaves from the two Kushala Daora fighting—compressed air or fierce winds they released without even noticing, whatever it was—sent a mass of nearly transparent, warped air tearing through the gray curtain of rain and straight into the cave.
The cave, which Xingyan had gradually hollowed out and enlarged by eating away at its interior, had no decent protection to speak of. It collapsed completely.
Xingyan: "!!!"
My Kulu-Ya-Ku brother!!
No!!!
He didn't even have time to grieve over the destruction of the little heart-shaped nest where he'd made so many memories as he grew. His first thought was of his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother, whom he'd left in the cave. In an instant, his eyes turned red.
Rage surged in his heart, and murderous intent erupted!
The Elder Dragons might not have meant any harm, but their very existence, their every movement, could affect the ecosystems around them. When faced with an Elder Dragon, all a weak creature could do was passively endure. It couldn't even fight back...
Xingyan didn't know how many lives in the Great Sand Sea would be lost to the two Kushala Daora's battle over the past few days. He didn't care. He only knew that his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother absolutely couldn't die for such a ridiculous reason, much less vanish without a trace.
His mind went blank. No—not entirely. At that moment, Xingyan remembered one thing: he had to rush straight toward the collapsed cave, now submerged underwater.
He crouched down and frantically clawed at the earth with his little foreclaws, but he was digging too slowly. Xingyan simply put his Sword Tail to work, using it like a giant shovel as he dug, searching for any sign of his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother.
Fortunately, Xingyan had grown large enough, and his Sword Tail was huge too. It didn't take long for him to dig open the collapsed cave.
"...Gua!"
Before he had even cleared all the dirt and rocks away, Xingyan finally heard a weak bird call over the roar of the rain.
It was his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother!!
It was still alive!!
No, not "still alive"—alive was what mattered! It was wonderful that it was alive!!
The sudden Kulu-Ya-Ku call brought Xingyan's mind, consumed by rage and grief, to a halt. His massive body stiffened, too.
It wasn't only because the voice sounded so weak. It was also because of what his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother said.
"Gua?" (Got any eggs to eat?)
"Gua..." (So hungry...)
What stupid bird language. It had only just escaped danger, yet all it cared about was food... Xingyan wanted to yell at it, but more than anything, he felt an indescribable joy—his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother was alive!
Even the greatest swordsman shed no tears lightly. Xingyan couldn't imagine how lonely his future would be if his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother had died in that cave, leaving him alone... As a dragon with human intelligence, loneliness was the blade most capable of killing him.
He quickly dug away the rocks pressing down on his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother and pulled him out of the ground with one claw. Then he wrapped him in a powerful hug that nearly squeezed a bird call out of him.
You're not dead!!
"Gu, gua!!" (I-I can't breathe!)
At his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother's desperate plea, Xingyan loosened his grip and looked him over. He was covered in mud, but the downpour washed it away in no time. Within seconds, his scales looked spotless.
It was a dragon, after all. Even a small dragon like his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother had a sturdy body. So, although falling rocks had left him dazed while he was hiding in the nest, he hadn't been injured.
Just look at him now—his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother was gazing up at Xingyan, eager to find the eggs he'd brought back.
The bird was about to starve to death!!
But the eggs... Xingyan had already tossed them aside when he saw that the nest had been struck and rushed back in a panic.
Fortunately, the water had collected into a small pond there. When Xingyan led his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother back to the spot, both eggs were still floating in the water, unbroken.
His Kulu-Ya-Ku brother had only been startled by the sudden cave-in. Even now, he had no idea what was going on in the Great Sand Sea. Instead, he quickly pecked open the eggshells and started eating.
He really was starving. Eating was all he could think about.
But the fact that he could still eat was a good thing... It really was.
Watching his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother slurp away, Xingyan felt a rush of emotion he couldn't put into words.
"Roar, roar, roar!" (I'm so glad you're okay, brother!)
"Gua? Gua-gua-gua!" (What's wrong? Eat with me!)
His Kulu-Ya-Ku brother had no idea what Xingyan was worried about. He pushed the half-eaten egg in his claws toward Xingyan, but Xingyan pushed it back.
"Roar, roar, roar? Roar, roar, roar! Roar, roar, roar!" (I'm not eating. You eat. When you're done, go find somewhere safe to stay.)
Grief and joy overwhelmed him all at once. Xingyan felt his brow throbbing. His nest had been destroyed, and the fighting and killing instincts of his Glavenus bloodline were surging within him.
He really wanted to chop something up.
So what if they were Elder Dragons?
Did being an Elder Dragon make them so special??
Did being an Elder Dragon mean they could do whatever they wanted???
Once, Gold Rathian had torn off Kirin's horn. Now, Glavenus would take on Kushala Daora!!
"Gua-gua?" (Let's run together, little one. We'll go to the desert!)
Still holding an egg in each claw, his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother called to him eagerly. In his mind, the two of them would be safe once they escaped to the desert, far from this dangerous place where even the scattered traces of those creatures' presence made his whole body ache.
By now, his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother had also noticed the two Kushala Daora fighting in the distance. Honestly, just looking at them made his knees tremble.
"Roar! Roar, roar!" (No. You go first. We'll meet here again once the rain stops.)
"Gua?!" (What are you going to do!)
"Roar!!" (Go!!)
After urging him once more, Xingyan nudged his Kulu-Ya-Ku brother with a claw. He watched as the little fellow glanced back at him again and again, then hurried off into the rain. Within seconds, he could no longer see a trace of the bird.
Turning around, Xingyan strode straight toward the two Kushala Daora. His thick hind legs kicked up enormous splashes as he trampled through the river. The downpour had lowered the temperature over the past few days, but now the air around Xingyan was slowly warming.
The dense raindrops vanished quickly as they landed on Xingyan's shell. Steam curled from the heat-dissipating plates along his back. He had entered battle mode, his body temperature climbing rapidly as his dormant muscles gradually woke. From a distance, he looked as if his entire body were shrouded in a cloud of white vapor.
A demon in the rain.
Meanwhile, the two Kushala Daora were still absorbed in their own world, entwined as they clawed, bit, and fought. They had completely lost track of everything around them.
Elder Dragons had a pride all their own, and Kushala Daora were especially proud. The only ones they considered worthy of their attention were other Elder Dragons. As for ordinary dragons... over the course of their long lives, ordinary dragons meant nothing to them.
Before you continue