Four Years and New Traits

Time always slipped by unnoticed, and in the blink of an eye, four years had passed.

In an open hunting ground near the center of the Ancient Tree Area.

Ya Ji clamped her jaws around Jinouga's electrified forelimb as it came down, then violently twisted her head. Her powerful bite cracked the armored, gauntlet-like carapace on Jinouga's arm. The absurd brute force threw Jinouga off balance and sent it crashing hard onto the ground.

She immediately spun and swept her tail sideways. The spikes at its tip tore through the scales on Jinouga's abdomen, making it howl in pain as highly potent venom flooded into its body.

Not far away, Luo Yun, wreathed in flames, made a series of dazzling midair turns before diving toward another Jinouga. Before it could react, his sharp claws struck twice, carrying scorching heat as they ripped through the fur on its back and shattered its charged shell. They left behind two deep wounds, along with two streaks of flames that continued to sear it.

At that moment, the third Jinouga reacted. It sprang up fiercely, opening its massive jaws to bite at Luo Yun's wing.

An orange-red fireball streaked with purple flew in from the other side and struck it dead center, blasting the Jinouga away.

Luo Yun lowered his head and spat out a looping stream of fire, driving back the Jinouga beneath him as it recovered, before taking to the sky again.

Ya Ji's Dragon Charge followed immediately, smashing the Jinouga that had been trying to roll on the ground and extinguish the flames on its back. She then launched an attack on the other Jinouga that her fireball had struck.

Meanwhile, Luo Yun turned into a ball of fire in midair and dove down again. He evaded the poisoned Jinouga's pounce, seized it tightly, and viciously stomped it into the dirt.

The flames surrounding him exploded in an instant. The Jinouga was burned into a corpse before it could even scream.

Before Luo Yun could take off from within the flames, a figure charged in. With a long howl, thick claws wrapped in lightning came crashing down.

At that very moment, Luo Yun was caught between spent momentum and strength not yet gathered. He could not completely evade this strike.

Fortunately, Mind's Eye gave him advance warning. Luo Yun judged the point of impact and trajectory of the claw, forcibly twisting his body and turning sideways so the attack could not land fully on him.

As he adjusted his angle to ensure his tilted body could disperse the force, he positioned the hardest part of his scales to receive the blow, minimizing the damage he would take under the circumstances.

Jinouga's full-force lightning-charged strike had actually been mostly avoided!

Yet even though only the sharp tips of its claws landed, lightning-enhanced claws could still easily pierce scales and tear away a chunk of flesh!

But the result was beyond Jinouga's expectations.

This claw strike could barely scratch the smooth scales on the Male Fire Dragon's chest, leaving only a conspicuous mark.

Furthermore, because of Luo Yun's sideways angle, most of the force had gone into empty air.

Not only had it failed to truly injure its opponent, but the extraordinary hardness of those scales even made its own claws ache faintly.

Jinouga stared in disbelief at Luo Yun as flames began to gather in his mouth and his chest and neck turned bright red. Its slipping claw struck the ground, leaving behind a small pit crackling with scattered electricity.

Weren't Rathalos weak to lightning?

Why were his scales so hard?

Before Jinouga could figure it out, an orange-red Fire Pillar streaked with purple, just like Ya Ji's, erupted from Luo Yun's mouth. Jinouga's electric shell in its Supercharged State was completely incapable of resisting this different kind of flame.

The Lightning Bugs on its body fled in all directions, trying to escape the fiery attack, making the already-overwhelmed Jinouga even worse off.

A wave of heat spread outward with an explosion, and another charred Jinouga corpse appeared on the ground.

Trait, Scorched Body: Having bathed in flames for many years, the body's scales had thoroughly adapted to the intense heat of fire and undergone a certain mutation, gaining the ability to absorb flames and greatly increase their hardness.

Simply put, after absorbing fire damage, his overall defensive ability would increase.

Body of Flames, Fire Attraction, and Scorched Body formed a cycle.

Body of Flames had altered Luo Yun's fire gland and venom glands, allowing bodily fluids capable of burning for long periods to seep from every part of his body. Luo Yun could control the flames wrapped around himself by controlling these fluids.

The Fire Attraction trait could absorb flames to strengthen his flame temperature, then convert the flames back into Fire Element Energy and return it to the fire gland for storage.

The flames, now raised in temperature, could further strengthen his scales, greatly increasing his defense.

This boost was extremely terrifying. Even with this Jinouga enhanced by its Supercharged State, so long as Luo Yun adjusted his angle properly, that lightning-wreathed claw could only scratch the outer layer of his scales.

Luo Yun had dealt with two Jinouga, while Ya Ji had likewise successfully killed her two.

With obvious disgust, she tossed aside the Jinouga whose neck she had bitten through. Her enormous body, over twenty meters long, spread its beautifully patterned wings and roared toward the heavens. Her scales, which glimmered in a gradient of orange light, sparkled beneath the sun.

Ya Ji vented the irritation that had been building up inside her lately without restraint.

Hearing that roar, Luo Yun instinctively shrank his neck.

It was not that he was afraid of anything. The main reason Ya Ji had been feeling so irritable lately was related to him.

Ya Ji was already fourteen dragon years old this year. In a little over half a year, she would turn fifteen and become an adult Female Fire Dragon.

As for Luo Yun, although he was exceptionally gifted and had grown to nearly seventeen meters over the past four years, he was only ten dragon years old. His abilities in that regard were still sealed away in an immature state.

So, well, you know how it was.

Their encounter with these four Jinouga at the hunting ground today had been entirely deliberate.

He did not know what had happened to that Jinouga leader from back then, but these Jinouga had become active again recently. However, they were like a scattered mess, wandering about in groups of three or five without any goal, and once again actively clashing with other monsters.

Luo Yun guessed that the Jinouga leader had probably failed to pull through and was completely dead.

Without a leader, these Jinouga could not produce a new one in such a short time. They had therefore been scattered by other creatures and could only wander aimlessly in search of new territory.

This situation once again stirred up unrest throughout the Ancient Tree Area.

Thus, when Luo Yun and Ya Ji encountered these four Jinouga, which were also hunting, while out on a hunt together, Luo Yun did not hesitate. He led Ya Ji in landing beside them and intervened in their hunt, triggering this one-sided battle.

The prolonged roar threw the forest into chaos. Flocks of small birds burst from the trees and fled into the distance.

After venting, Ya Ji felt much better. She came to Luo Yun's side, affectionately rubbing her head against his neck before taking small steps toward the prey they had seized.

Luo Yun let out a breath of relief. It was good that she had vented. Otherwise, with how clingy Ya Ji was at this stage, one nuzzle would have lasted quite a while, until she managed to suppress her emotions herself.

It was not that Ya Ji could not control herself after entering heat. As an intelligent creature, a Rathalos had that much self-control.

The main issue was that Ya Ji and Luo Yun had long lived like a Fire Dragon Couple due to their childhood-sweetheart relationship. As a result, Ya Ji, having only just entered adulthood, could not quite adapt to it at first. Her temper had grown somewhat impatient, and she could only ease it through intimate gestures.