The hunter profession's inherent strength is beyond doubt, after all—what they face are colossal beasts like these, easily over ten meters long, several meters tall, immensely powerful, and possessing all kinds of supernatural abilities.
But the portion of that power that comes from equipment cannot be ignored either. With hunter weapons in hand and without them, a hunter's threat to monsters is simply not comparable.
Therefore, even for someone with multiple legendary exploits back on the Old World, without armor for protection and with only a hunter dagger whose damage, to a large monster, was like a toothpick, facing this Anjanath was extremely dangerous.
High offense and low defense could be said to be the best description of hunters; only with those hunters whose gear had special forging and alchemy enhancements could the disadvantage on the defensive side be offset.
"You go first. I'll drive this thing off!"
The hunter's gaze was resolute. Without turning his head, he spoke in a low, steady voice to the freckled girl behind him, gripping the hunter dagger as he carefully observed Anjanath's every move.
"I understand! Please hold on—I'll go for help right now!"
There was no extra melodrama. As a compiler in the recommendation group, when facing a large monster, the only thing she needed to do was: trust every judgment of her hunter companion!
Besides, with her slight build, before becoming a compiler, she'd only been at the level of dealing with a Yian Kut-Ku at best—staying would only hold him back.
The freckled girl ran toward the narrow pass, glancing back with every step. The hunter lowered his body slightly, ready at any moment for a defensive counterattack.
Anjanath's nostrils blasted out two jets of scorching breath. The instant the high heat met the air, flames ignited right outside its nostrils; the heat-dissipating membranes on its back spread open, and its throat began to flush faintly red as the high temperature built up.
It knew very well that if it failed to kill this little human immediately, once that red thing flew up into the sky, it would soon be besieged by a group of little humans.
To prevent that from happening, Anjanath planned to go all out with its firepower, striving to kill the opponent in the shortest possible time.
Just then, specks of blue dust drifted down from the sky like a dream, floating with the wind in midair, as if adding a touch of ornamentation to this battle.
Just as the hunter frowned slightly, his gaze a little puzzled, the Anjanath—whose killing intent had been overwhelming—went rigid all over under this blue dust. Its formerly scorching aura subsided; its nostrils no longer vented breath. Instead, it clamped them shut, as if it did not even dare to take a big breath.
This newcomer of a hunter did not understand what this dust represented, but that did not mean a monster like Anjanath, which had long roamed the Ancient Forest, did not understand.
Nowadays, the existence of Radiant Crystal Butterfly is already one of the marks of Radiant Fire Wyvern. Under the Radiant Crystal Butterfly's continuous evolution over these years, this dust has become extremely stable—so much so that after a creature inhales it, it will not emit high-temperature burning unless it is triggered.
This, in turn, causes monsters that fight Radiant Fire Wyvern, during the battle, not only to face attacks from Radiant Fire Wyvern, but also to constantly guard against the dust they have inhaled reaching a certain amount at some moment, thereby scorching the respiratory tract from within.
Of course, because the number of Radiant Crystal Butterfly a normal Radiant Fire Wyvern can carry is limited, this kind of dust usually only gets released in large quantities by the Radiant Crystal Butterfly hidden between its scales during close-quarters combat.
But now, before it had even seen the main body, the air around Anjanath was already filled with Radiant Crystal dust—this had already exceeded Anjanath's past understanding.
At this moment, several Radiant Crystal Butterfly that had appeared who knows when flew past in front of Anjanath, their glittering bodies trailing through the sunlight's reflection.
In the next second, within Anjanath's rapidly contracting vertical pupils, the Radiant Crystal dust all around quickly shifted from blue toward a crimson red.
[Boom!]
Firelight laced with wisps of blue-violet flame detonated in that instant. Sensing the danger, the hunter reacted at once, lunging outward in a flying dive, narrowly avoiding this sudden explosion.
Although he did not look back, from past experience the hunter could still judge the explosion's power behind him—and with his keen senses, he heard what seemed like another massive body dropping at high speed from the sky, charging toward the Anjanath at the heart of the blast.
With a practiced roll, the hunter sprang up, gripping the hunter dagger in a reverse hold. As he slowly retreated, he watched warily as a gigantic silhouette emerged from the thick smoke.
A gust of sea wind swept past, carrying the smoke and dust away into the distance—
Very soon, a gigantic dragon appeared before the hunter, its appearance as though derived from Silver Rathalos as a template. That body, clearly still in its juvenile stage and not particularly robust, now stood there quietly, stepping on Anjanath's body.
Just moments ago, the Anjanath had been brimming with killing intent. Now its entire body sagged as it lay collapsed on the ground, clearly taking in far less air than it let out.
Several crystal-like butterflies fluttered down and landed on this wyvern's wings, perfectly disguising themselves as its scales. This kind of creature, never before seen on the Old World, pushed the hunter's vigilance to its highest level.
It was not that he feared for his life or anything of the sort. As a hunter who could be described as "inhuman," one who had on several occasions handled Elder Dragon incidents alone and faced Elder Dragon pressure head-on, even without wearing armor, his skills and the grappling claw on his wrist meant that as long as he was not facing an Elder Dragon, his personal safety could still be assured.
It was just that little Loren's method of attack earlier had indeed been somewhat outside the norms of ordinary monsters. Coupled with certain information about the New World that had surfaced in his mind, the hunter had a faint suspicion about little Loren's identity.
What was more, little Loren was now simply standing on Anjanath's body, quietly observing him, without any other superfluous movement.
"Wait! Not an enemy! Please don't attack!!"
At that moment, Noah and the freckled girl who had gone to call for support ran quickly out from within the narrow pass. Seeing the faint standoff between the man and the dragon, they hurriedly shouted at the top of their lungs.
"Hah—good thing we made it. Are you all right?" Noah ran swiftly to the hunter's side, let out a long breath, and habitually asked while looking at the completely uninjured hunter. Seeing him shake his head, she then turned to look at little Loren.
"Thank you so much!"
Little Loren did not respond. Instead, he cast a deep look at the hunter beside Noah, who was wearing only an inner garment. At the instant the smoke had dispersed, seeing that defensive posture, an intense sense of danger had surged up in little Loren's heart.
A living being's instincts do not deceive. This hunter's strength was likely truly extraordinary. In any case, he was remembered.
With a light beat of his wings, carrying a gust of fierce wind, he flew back up into the sky. He had originally only sensed that immense life energy arriving in the New World and planned to take a look—but who would have thought he would discover such a powerful hunter. Perhaps this should be recorded after returning to the Ancient Tree.
Little Loren's aloof attitude did not cause any discomfort for the three present. Noah was long since used to it, and for the hunter—who had already guessed little Loren's identity—within his understanding, Elder Dragons, including their offspring, ought to be like this.
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