Watching little Loren—his body covered in wounds—launch yet another diving attack at it, Darren, whose stamina showed no sign of a limit, swung the Blazing Wing that little Loren had specially reinforced with Calamity Flame, and continued to weave forward with agile footwork, dodging its tentacle strikes as they came.
Nakarkos had to admit that at this moment, it was truly scared.
A massive life-and-death crisis surged up in its heart. Even with its vitality, at this point it was only somewhere between heavily injured and lightly injured—but scared was scared.
Once that thought appeared, any pride of an Elder Dragon was thrown aside by Nakarkos.
It was a dragon that had already once snatched its life back. Its desire to live had reached the absolute limit; as long as it confirmed something would endanger its life, no matter what it was, it could give it up!
With a roar, the Dragon Element energy coiling around Nakarkos erupted. Large amounts of black-and-red high-temperature mist, accompanied by crackling lightning sounds, rapidly spread outward, forcing back Darren and little Loren who were charging in.
Two tentacles slammed down onto the ground below that had turned into bone powder, and its massive body drilled toward the Dragon Graveyard.
Right at this moment, the sky became overcast with dark clouds in an instant, and the sizzling sound of electrical current exploded.
Along with a blinding bolt of electricity, the Kirin-incarnated lightning sphere pierced straight through the Dragon Element mist, and with a tremendous explosion, forcibly interrupted Nakarkos's attempt to flee, blasting it out.
And it wasn't over yet. Blue flames ignited from the sea surface; Lunastra, beating her wing, continuously whipped up wave after wave of fire hurricanes, directly melting through the connection between the portion of the Dragon Graveyard on the sea surface and the coastline.
Aki, together with the Flame Wyvern couple, sprayed a charged flame in a triangular formation, instantly blanketing Nakarkos as it retreated back onto the shore.
"So there are actually this many Elder Dragons!"
Even Darren, who was used to seeing Elder Dragons, had never expected that one day he would witness a scene where multiple Elder Dragons gathered in one place—and they were even joining forces to deal with another Elder Dragon!
Seeing the Elder Dragons' attacks about to spread to him, Darren's pupils constricted. He quickly shouldered his Greatsword and sprinted at full speed in the opposite direction.
His armor, over such a long battle, had likewise become contaminated with far too much of Nakarkos's Dragon Element energy, and in the face of a combined assault like this from the Elder Dragons, it truly could not hold up!
Watching as flames and lightning drew closer and closer, Darren grit his teeth and prepared to draw the Blazing Wing for protection, to gamble for a way to live—when a dragon roar came from above.
He looked up and saw that little Loren's current altitude was right at the limit of the Clutch Claw's range.
Without thinking further, he fired the Clutch Claw toward little Loren, and just as the faster lightning was about to touch his body, his entire person rose into the air.
Little Loren tightly gripped Darren's Clutch Claw and rapidly beat his wings, carrying him out of the battle zone.
...
On the command platform, Noah, clenching his fist tightly, let out a long breath!
In that instant just now, he had thought Darren was going to suffer badly! Fortunately, this "Prince" of the Ancient Tree still had a bit of willingness to lower himself, and knew to rescue a comrade who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him.
Since Darren was no longer in danger, Noah's gaze naturally returned to the battlefield, and he fell silent.
No one present had expected things to develop into this.
They had originally thought it was a lone battle, but in reality they were actually serving as the vanguard for these Elder Dragons hidden in the dark.
To say there was no unwillingness—there definitely was!
But even more, they were thinking: with so many Elder Dragons mobilizing together, what exactly did it mean? Afterward, would they be able to obtain something?
Back then, the Yama Tsukami interception battle had left behind many Yama Tsukami materials. Although none of it was enough to use to craft the corresponding equipment, as people researched those materials and became able to understand this kind of Elder Dragon better, that too was an enormous gain.
Therefore, as for the Elder Dragons taking over the battle, the Research Commission's attitude toward it was one of being glad to see it.
...
The appearance of three Elder Dragons plus two Elder Dragon-class special-species Fire Wyverns instantly left the caught-off-guard Nakarkos with no small amount of injuries.
Staring at the dragons that had completely surrounded it, Nakarkos became ever more convinced its premonition had been right.
The consciousness of nature truly had killing intent toward it.
Such a lineup was enough to suppress it and drive it back, yet they had deliberately waited until it had fought those ants for so long, expending all of its mimic bones and consuming no small amount of stamina before appearing—this was clearly a killing trap!
But even so!
Nakarkos had not the slightest intention of letting itself be captured without resistance! Its desire to live made it begin to recklessly squeeze its own stamina and energy, striving to find a slim chance of survival within the encirclement and the siege.
Thus, the Elder Dragons gave the hunters present—most of whom had not experienced the Yama Tsukami interception battle—a display of what combat between Elder Dragons looked like.
In only a very short time, the entire Dragon Graveyard was filled with the energetic lights and shadows of Fire Element, Thunder Element, and Dragon Element, and the weather in the sky likewise became extremely extreme along with the Elder Dragons' bursts of energy, stretching continuously to distances beyond what the naked eye could see.
Unlike the finely controlled combat used against hunters, energy combat between them was broad and unrestrained. What stood out most was saturation strikes: when faced with some attacks that looked "relatively small," they did not even bother to evade, instead relying entirely on their own vitality and defensive power to take them head-on, solely in order to deliver an equally threatening blow in return.
Compared with precise hunting, combat between Elder Dragons was far more savage, with the ferocious factors within monster bloodlines displayed to the fullest.
The surrounding environment continuously changed amid such fighting. The coastline was blasted open, the jungle was burned to nothing by flames, and even the waves that surged in were completely vaporized.
A heaven-and-earth-piercing "Genesis" breath erupted, tearing the sea apart!
Aki and the others' combined charged breaths scorched the land.
Kirin, appearing amid flashes of lightning, constantly darted across different positions, unleashing sharp and threatening attacks.
Lunastra fearlessly engaged in close combat, continuously striking and tearing at Nakarkos's main body amid blue flames.
This kind of battle made the hunters' blood boil. That primal beastliness kept battering their senses, leaving their mouths dry.
"This is nature!!"
A hunter who could no longer restrain his excitement let out a loud roar, his eyes bloodshot as he refused to miss a single detail.
In the midst of such slaughter, beyond Aki and the others' expectations, Nakarkos actually relied on the suppression of Dragon Element energy. Even though it had already lost its mimic bones, it still forced its way to a path of survival with the combat power of its own main body.
Watching Nakarkos take Kirin's lightning strike head-on, then leap toward the nearby sea as large amounts of bone fragments shattered, Aki and the others felt their hearts sink.
To think it could still escape like this!
"Roar!!"
At that moment, an ill-timed roar of excitement suddenly rang out.
Nakarkos, having already seen the dawn of survival, looked at the large black spiky hedgehog that charged out of the sea, despair showing in its dark eyes.
At some unknown time, the Nergigante that had been lying in wait beneath the sea beat its wings and burst out of the water. Its powerful forelimbs clamped tightly onto Nakarkos's main body, and opening its ferocious, blood-filled maw, it bit down hard on a certain spot of the body.
Amid Nakarkos's frantic struggle, it was actually pressed firmly onto the shoreline, just a single step away from the sea.
Already grievously wounded, Nakarkos was bitten in a vital spot by Nergigante. Its eyes yearned toward the boundless ocean; the eyes that craved life gradually lost their color, and the entire dragon ceased struggling as its life force rapidly faded.
This sudden turn stunned the Elder Dragons present. Before they could make any move, Nergigante dragged Nakarkos's corpse and leapt into the sea, leaving behind a group of Elder Dragons that could not swim, staring at one another on the shore.
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