The massive noise and impact instantly drew the attention of the Lagiacrus's mimetic tentacles. Almost at the same moment, two of those tentacles pivoted and locked onto the Gunlance user. Two different elemental energies coiled around the exposed bones, rapidly building up power.
Darren leapt into the air, gripping his blade with both hands. He twisted his waist, every muscle in his body tensing as dark-red battle aura quickly gathered around him. With a slight adjustment of the blade's angle, he used the force of his descent, swinging the enormous Fire Wyvern Greatsword downward in a mountain-splitting arc.
In an instant, the cold gleam of metal collided with the reinforced skeletal armor covering the mimetic tentacle.
The moment the blade edge made contact with the strengthened bone, Darren felt immense resistance feed back through the weapon. It was a sensation he had not experienced in a long time. He immediately understood that this was an issue of sharpness. The Radiant Fire Wyvern weapon was, without question, a decent weapon, but when facing a monster like Nakarkos, it was only barely sufficient—far inferior to the weapon he had used back in the Old World.
Enduring the counterforce, he exerted strength through both arms once more. With a low roar, the sharp edge finally broke through the surface of the bone, cutting straight down along the breach and leaving a long, conspicuous "wound" across the mimetic tentacle clad in bone armor.
After landing, Darren did not stop. He followed through with a sweeping horizontal slash, cutting apart the scattered fragments of bone flung up by the writhing tentacle. When he saw Aiden sprint up to his side, he used sheer arm strength to forcibly halt the Greatsword's recovery, turned his body sideways, and once again activated his battle aura to begin charging.
A fireball fell from the sky. Darren ignored it completely, his gaze fixed solely on the base of the mimetic tentacle ahead.
Heat surged through the air. Just as the fireball was about to engulf him, Aiden raised his small shield and precisely positioned himself between the fireball and Darren. Taking a deep breath, he relied on that small shield to endure the massive fireball head-on, without taking a single step back, creating a fire-free zone for Darren behind him.
The fireball's explosion came fast and went fast. Before the flames in the air had fully dispersed, and sensing that the impact on his shield had already faded, Aiden performed a sideways back-jump. A red battle-aura trace—identical to the one on Darren—streaked across his deep-red armor, and he began charging in place at high speed.
In the next second, Darren completed his third charge. The massive blade sliced through the air, scattering the stray flames ahead; wherever the edge passed, they vanished. Carrying tremendous force, the blade smashed into that thick mass of bone.
Amid a dull, heavy thud, a large bone plate burst free and flew out, exposing beneath it the tentacle's true body, still oozing blue mucus.
Even a mimetic tentacle that could wrap itself tightly around a large ocean-dwelling sea wyvern and wrestle with it began to sway under this blow, and the second fireball that had been gathering overhead was forcibly interrupted.
Darren did not get greedy for extra hits. After landing that strike, he rolled forward with the momentum and dropped to one knee, using the blade as a shield. He angled the door-slab-sized blade diagonally at his side, preemptively defending against an attack Nakarkos might launch while his new strength had not yet surged back.
But at this moment, how could the mimetic tentacle spare any attention to counterattacking Darren?!
Just as Darren finished rolling away, Aiden's charge was likewise complete. He drove off with his right foot and lunged forward, pouncing toward the tentacle's exposed body where the bone plate was missing, the Sword and Shield in his hand swinging rapidly at a specific rhythm.
With each swing, it was the optimal moment for his battle-aura charge to peak.
Sword and Shield and Greatsword, given their relatively limited reach against large monsters, are, in principle, not ideal for such encounters.
Yet through a series of trials, hunters ultimately developed another style of attack distinct from other heavy weapons.
Sword and Shield borrows part of the Greatsword's battle-aura charging technique; through multiple concentrated charged attacks, it delivers repeated point damage against large monsters. This concentrated, burst-style offense allows Sword and Shield, in overall damage, to be no weaker than various heavy weapons—including Greatsword—and because it also has a shield, in a certain sense this thing is a lightweight variant of the Greatsword.
A pleasing-to-the-eye combo of strikes came down. Amid the mimetic tentacle's soundless "screech," Aiden pulled the Sword and Shield out from deep within the flesh, kicked off with both feet, and rapidly withdrew, avoiding Nakarkos's counterattack.
The battle between Nakarkos and the hunter squad almost immediately unfolded into a back-and-forth of offense and defense.
It was just that the hunters had studied Nakarkos quite a lot, while Nakarkos was not familiar with hunters, so even Nakarkos took a small loss at the start.
However, Nakarkos was, after all, Nakarkos. As a monster at the very top of the ecological hierarchy among Elder Dragons, this minor injury was, for It, nothing at all—aside from being a bit embarrassing.
Years of experience allowed It to quickly grasp the hunters' action patterns. Its attack style also shifted—from the initial, brute-force approach used against large monsters, which appeared powerful but lacked any precision, to a mode with slightly reduced power but far greater control, higher speed, and increased attack frequency, overall better suited to targeting smaller creatures.
For a time, all kinds of small, dense arcs of lightning and fireballs continuously appeared across the battlefield. Combined with the many tentacles lurking beneath the sea of bones, ready to surface at any moment, the situation abruptly evolved into Nakarkos pressing down on the three hunter squads.
Fortunately, all of the hunters had anticipated this outcome.
Battles against Elder Dragons are prolonged and dangerous work.
The shifts between offense and defense are extremely rapid. In such battles, hunters usually look for counterattack opportunities within the gaps of an Elder Dragon's assaults, rather than being able to maintain steady suppression as they would when hunting ordinary monsters.
After all, Elder Dragons will not foolishly allow you to fully figure out their attack patterns, nor will they obligingly stick their heads in front of you for a strike.
Even melee-type Elder Dragons will abandon inefficient, high-risk methods like biting. Wings, claws, and armored scales are their best weapons.
On the cliff above, Noah and a group of hunters who had long been prepared to provide support watched the battle below with tense focus. Seeing the situation begin to stall, and the squad facing constant danger under Nakarkos's attacks, one somewhat impatient hunter could no longer hold back. He called out to Noah, who appeared calm but whose right hand gripping the binoculars was taut with muscle.
"Director, shouldn't we start providing support? At least let the bowgun team hidden in the forest move out!"
"Hoo—"
Noah lowered the binoculars, frowned deeply, and ultimately shook his head.
"The intelligence says that Nakarkos's true body is not those two mimetic tentacles. Its main body is still concealed beneath the sea of bones. It's too early to support them now!"
"But the squad—"
"They're fine. This level of fighting is nothing for them! They're still working on coordination right now!"
"Huh? Still working on coordination?" The hunter blinked in disbelief as he looked at Noah. With the level of coordination they were already showing, you're saying they were still working on it?
The impatient hunter felt that Noah was just brushing him off—but he had no proof.
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