On the narrow mountain path, the Anjanath roared as it fled forward at full speed.
Behind it, five Jagras, their eyes burning red, were in hot pursuit.
That's right—Jagras were actually chasing an Anjanath!
Yet the Anjanath had no will to fight, no thought of turning back to retaliate. It only ran forward, as if what trailed behind it was not a pack of Jagras, but some unspeakable horror wearing their hides.
Suddenly, its footing faltered. Its step slipped, and it stumbled into the grass. Its weakened body failed to recover balance in time.
Seizing the chance, the Jagras leapt together, recklessly hurling themselves onto the Anjanath. Their teeth, though not especially sharp, tore and bit desperately at its hide.
They could not pierce its flesh, yet the pain still drove the Anjanath into frenzy.
It shook its body violently, trying to fling the Jagras away. In that moment of recklessness, it tumbled down a slope.
The incline wasn't steep, nor was the drop high, but when the Anjanath finally stopped, it lay on the ground with eyes shut, limp as though dead.
The Jagras thrown off in its fall immediately rushed back, snapping at its body once more.
Just as Logan was about to drive the Jagras away to get a closer look, the Anjanath's eyes suddenly snapped open.
The next instant, like a dying beast's last flare of strength, it surged upright, shaking off the attackers in one swift motion. It lunged, caught a Jagras too slow to retreat, and bit clean through its spine.
Now it seemed completely enraged. Its dorsal membranes flared wide, venting heat as it charged the remaining Jagras.
That was ordinary beastly combat—but then Logan noticed something strange. While the Anjanath hunted down one Jagras, the others did not flee. Instead, they threw themselves onto the corpse of their dead packmate, tearing into it greedily, utterly unbothered even as the Anjanath seized the chance to kill another.
They devoured it in great, gory bites.
Cannibalism!
Normally, aside from a handful of monsters, most would only resort to such behavior when on the brink of starvation.
But Jagras were not among that handful. And even less so in the middle of a battle!
One after another, the Jagras fell under the Anjanath's attacks. Yet not a single one tried to escape. For Jagras, that was unnatural.
At last, the Anjanath exhaled heavily, relief flickering through its bloodshot eyes. It glanced up at Logan and Aki in the sky, gave a low growl, then turned to leave. As it moved, its jaws slackened against its will, and strands of purple drool dripped slowly to the ground.
"Something's wrong!"
If a Rathalos's facial muscles could show finer expression, it would have been plain that Logan's face had darkened in realization.
Now he was certain.
The Frenzy Virus!
Both the Anjanath's state and the Jagras's madness matched perfectly the stages of infection.
The Jagras had lost all reason, their eyes blood-red, purple-black saliva dripping from their mouths, black breath spilling from their nostrils with every pant. All that remained in their gaze was flesh and blood.
This was the late stage of the Frenzy Virus!
The Anjanath had first shown weakness, unable even to fend off the attacks of five Jagras.
That was the sign of the Frenzy Virus breaching its immune cells, invading its nervous system and brain.
At this stage, Frenzy was already irreversible. The Anjanath's life was on a countdown.
Its fall and sudden recovery afterward was not evidence of the virus fading. On the contrary—the virus had fully integrated into its host's body. To preserve the "nutritional value" of its vessel, it temporarily entered dormancy, storing power for the coming outbreak.
From here, the Anjanath's mind would gradually collapse, leaving only two divergent paths that nonetheless ended the same way:
First: after transforming into a frenzied state, to be slain in battle against other monsters, or else consumed entirely by the virus.
Second: once the virus had eaten away the body to the brink of death, the Anjanath might claw back from the edge—surpassing the limits of its flesh and becoming an Apex individual. Such a state could delay its death, yet it remained forever trapped in madness.
That's right—the ending was death all the same. The only difference was whether it came sooner or later.
Apex monsters were terrifyingly strong, able to leap beyond the constraints of their ecological niche.
Because of this, no matter the risk, Logan could never allow this Anjanath to escape. Even if the odds of an Apex specimen appearing were one in tens of thousands—even if an entire region were scoured of life and still might not yield one—he would not take that chance.
[Hoo—]
The wind swept over the Anjanath's body as Logan appeared in front of it. Without hesitation, he spat out a fireball.
The Anjanath dodged in surprise, cruelty flashing deep in its eyes.
Before it could act, Logan's wings swept down. The fireball burst apart, transforming instantly into a whirling inferno—a firestorm tornado that engulfed the Anjanath.
Immediately after, Aki's fireball followed, crashing into the blazing tornado and bursting apart, making the already violent inferno even hotter.
The next instant, Logan plummeted from the sky, diving into the flaming vortex like a missile.
In that moment, the flames roared in a deafening explosion. Gale winds whipped fire outward in all directions, the tornado's core detonating with searing heat as blinding light scattered amid the raging gusts.
Aki narrowed her eyes, beating her wings hard to steady herself against the chaotic wind.
Not far away, the corpses of several Jagras were roasted whole by the heat. The grasslands withered, and the rocks were left scorched black.
The Anjanath's body was hurled high into the air, then crashed heavily to the ground.
A massive claw pinned its neck, holding down its charred body so it could not rise again.
Flames licked across its scales. Logan lowered his gaze, locking eyes with the Anjanath's blood-red stare, feeling the desperate power struggling beneath his talons.
It was clear: after being wounded, the Frenzy Virus coursed faster through the Anjanath's blood. It had skipped dormancy entirely, instantly entering its active phase and driving the beast into a frenzied state.
For a monster already consumed by Frenzy, there was no need to hesitate. The kindest mercy was to end it quickly.
From close range, Logan exhaled a steady stream of fire, engulfing the Anjanath's head.
His control was precise—the flames did not spread too far, yet they completely carbonized its skull.
Once it was done, he released the lifeless body and looked around. In the distance, a flock of Mernos were already flying this way.
Good. There was no need to waste more effort cooking the Anjanath's corpse.
So long as the blood was not directly injected into another creature, a Frenzy-infected body would rarely cause infection.
That was why the propagation of Gore Magala was so difficult. Even if every frenzied monster in a region perished, it was no guarantee that a single Gore Magala could hatch.
Those corpses, serving as the "cradle" for Gore Magala, had to remain untouched until its birth. If nature's relentless cycle consumed them first, then the hatchling would never emerge.
Perhaps this was one of nature's restraints upon the Gore Magala.
Rising once more into the sky, Logan looked down at the frenzied swarm of Mernos tearing into the corpses of the Anjanath and Jagras. Yet despite the grisly sight, Logan felt no relief.
"This cursed place… why does disaster never end here?!"
He grumbled inwardly but chose not to turn back. Instead, he circled the area again, intending to get a clearer sense of the situation—only then could he judge whether the one spreading the Frenzy Virus was the Shagaru Magala or the Gore Magala.
That distinction was crucial.
The Gore Magala, infamously called the "Disgrace of Elder Dragons," in its base state—without entering Frenzy—had power fluctuating somewhere between that of large mid-tier monsters and "police."
Because it lacked eyes and could only rely on its scales' dust to perceive both living and nonliving things, this creature was even prone to falling into traps that were painfully obvious.
The Shagaru Magala, however, was different. As the Gore Magala's ultimate form, it embodied the true horror of "virus" as a calamity. Its power ranked among the top even within Elder Dragons. Like the Teostra, it was one of those rare types with virtually no weaknesses.
Against such a foe, even the Nergigante might not be able to claim victory. In the New World, unless multiple Elder Dragons joined forces, or the Arch-Tempered ones of the Elder's Recess rose to fight, perhaps only a special subspecies of Nergigante—the Ruiner Nergigante—could confidently slay it one-on-one.
Yes—slay, not merely drive it back.
Unlike the Blackveil Vaal Hazak, which spread its miasma yet still left some room for recovery, the Shagaru Magala's devastation of an environment was nearly irreversible. Nor was it affected by the ecosystem—it destroyed, regardless. Because of this, the world's stance toward it was never to repel, but to kill.
In a battle of that scale, Logan could only play a supporting role at best.
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