Heart Palpitations

In the world of Monster Hunter, every monster had words that described its essence—for example, Great Jagras was a brute.

So what word best described the Black Wolf Bird?

Battle!

Among Bird Wyvern Species, whose average strength lay at the very bottom among all giant beasts, the Black Wolf Bird stood in a class of its own. It stood at the peak of the Bird Wyvern Species, and even within the entire Ecological Niche, it ranked somewhat above the middle.

The Black Wolf Birds of the New World had grown even stronger, even reaching the upper tiers of the Ecological Niche.

The most troublesome thing about Black Wolf Birds was their thirst for battle. They seemed born to fight and die fighting. This also made them easy to feed: a few insects, some carrion, or, more directly, stealing a Great Maccao's food would do. For the sake of battle, they had even become exceptionally poor at hatching offspring, able only to mix their eggs among Great Maccao eggs like cuckoos.

With such habits, a Black Wolf Bird was either fighting every day or on its way to fight.

Other creatures fought either to survive or for territory, but Black Wolf Birds fought purely to enjoy the process. Thus, no matter how powerful the enemy, a Black Wolf Bird would never retreat in the slightest.

Even against beings like Savage Deviljho or Golden Lion, it dared to take the initiative and attack.

Even if it could not win, its fighting spirit would not fade. Instead, its battle intent would grow ever fiercer during the fight. Even when seriously wounded, it would still leave wounds on its opponent.

It was precisely because of this reckless, fight-to-the-death nature that many creatures high in the Ecological Niche could not be bothered to tangle with Black Wolf Birds for too long.

So for a monster born for battle to come to a place with no enemies it could fight to its heart's content, and even wear the look of something fleeing for its life, truly left Luo Yun confused.

As for the possibility that the Black Wolf Bird knew this was a hunting ground and had come looking for opponents, that was even less likely.

This place was not particularly far from the Ancient Tree. Even amid such chaos, Rathalos still held a dominant position in the hunting grounds, and the large, high-Ecological-Niche Wyvern Species represented by Rathalos were precisely the Black Wolf Bird's natural enemies.

The Black Wolf Bird could not fly faster than Rathalos or Electric Dragon. In this kind of battle, it had no advantage in size or speed, and these were fights that ended in an extremely short time without prolonged entanglement. The poison and flames that made the Black Wolf Bird feared could not be of much use at all.

Then its only possibility was that it was fleeing for its life!

Worried that there might be other high-level predators, Luo Yun beat his wings and halted in midair, staring warily in the direction from which the Black Wolf Bird had come.

Because he had descended lower, the forest in that direction was no longer entirely hidden beneath the canopy.

But when Luo Yun looked out, there was nothing there besides a thin layer of White Mist.

Still baffled, Luo Yun heard the panicked cries of the Herbivore Dragons and hurriedly looked down. The Herbivore Dragons had been startled by the sudden Black Wolf Bird. Though it had merely flown over their heads, they still chose to flee.

If the Herbivore Dragons ran into the forest, that would be troublesome.

Thus, Luo Yun hesitated no longer. He dove down again and swiftly dealt with two reasonably sized Herbivore Dragons. While warily watching the direction the Black Wolf Bird had come from, he rapidly tore into the meat in great mouthfuls.

The fog within those woods quickly dispersed. Until Luo Yun had eaten his fill, no enemy emerged.

Luo Yun did not indulge his curiosity and enter the forest to investigate. Leaving behind the half-gnawed corpse, he grabbed the other one and flapped his wings back toward the Ancient Tree.

The matter of the Black Wolf Bird was only a small interlude. Though Luo Yun was somewhat curious, as time passed and certain things happened, he completely put it out of his mind.

For some unknown reason, an intensely oppressive feeling had been growing stronger by the day.

At first, only Luo Yun felt it. But gradually, the dragons on the Ancient Tree began to experience the same sensation, as if some being from a higher Ecological Niche had set its sights on them.

At the beginning, all the dragons merely remained wary of one another. Gradually, as the feeling deepened and something seemingly rooted in their bones frantically warned them, some dragons finally could not bear it any longer.

Scattered Rathalos families began choosing to leave the Ancient Tree and temporarily take shelter elsewhere.

The Jinouga at the bottom level also stopped fighting over territory and began migrating once more.

With the Jinouga and other creatures migrating again, food around the Ancient Tree truly became completely scarce.

Even when Luo Yun and Ya Ji went hunting together, their catches were only enough to sustain themselves, much less the other adult Rathalos.

Gradually, a vicious cycle formed around the Ancient Tree.

In such an environment, even the Detter Chief came to discuss with Luo Yun whether they should migrate. If they did, its tribe was willing to continue following Luo Yun.

Luo Yun was conflicted over this. It was not that he could not bear to leave anything behind; the main problem was where they would migrate to.

In the entire Ancient Forest, only the Ancient Tree had a Ley Line Node. Earth Vein Energy was relatively weak everywhere else.

Therefore, migration meant they could only head toward the Great Antlion Desert or the Coral Highlands across the Great Canyon.

The Great Antlion Desert's environment was not particularly suited to Rathalos, especially Male Fire Dragons.

The Coral Highlands, meanwhile, were Velkhana territory. As fellow Wyvern Species, conflict would easily break out. When that happened, Luo Yun and Ya Ji would most likely have to face an entire Velkhana population at once. Without sufficient strength, the Coral Highlands were not a good choice.

As for Dragon Crystal Land, setting aside how long it would take to fly there and how many battles and risks they would face along the way—

Even if they made it there, the scarcity of food was truly outrageous, the environment was far too harsh, and an unknown number of Elder Dragons or special species with formidable combat power lurked there.

Migration was no small matter. It was not as simple as flying wherever they wanted. It was extremely dangerous, so unless it became necessary, he truly did not want to leave the Ancient Tree.

In a bad mood, Luo Yun flew out of the nest and planned to patrol the surrounding area. Suddenly, he noticed that thick fog had risen at some point to the northwest of the Ancient Tree. It rose high enough to pierce the dense canopy, displaying an unusual color beneath the sunlight.

Something was wrong. It was afternoon—how could such thick fog have appeared?

Sensing that something was amiss, Luo Yun immediately accelerated and flew toward the sky above the dense fog.

The moment he reached that area, before he had even descended to the canopy, his trait was instantly triggered.

Flames suddenly covered his entire body. As they came into contact with the dense fog, they continuously crackled. With his sharp eyes, Luo Yun noticed that the burned-away fog briefly turned purple before dispersing.

"This fog is poisonous!!"