Soon, just as Logan had anticipated, several mid- and low-tier Frenzied monsters burst from the forest, charging straight toward him.
They barely made it close before the waiting Fire Wyverns tore them apart.
Empowered by Symbiosis, the Fire Wyverns had not only grown stronger but also far more savage in battle.
On top of that, the sheer gathering of the Fire Wyvern swarm caused the area's fire-elemental energy to surge. With the environment amplifying their strength, their attacks against these Frenzied monsters were nothing short of overwhelming.
As monster after monster fell, Logan noted with relief that none of them belonged to the higher tiers of the ecosystem.
This alone proved that the Frenzy Virus within that Gore Magala's body was indeed at a low concentration. At the very least, he wouldn't have to worry about having to put down infected Fire Wyverns in his own swarm after taking it out.
Under such a concentrated search, it took only half a day to narrow the range down to a manageable area.
At the same time, the Admiral and his group, tracking the Gore Magala's trail, also arrived in that same zone.
With the Fire Wyvern swarm watching overhead, the Admiral and Tonkotsu remained relaxed, while Falcon and his Canyne, Kiba, were tense and on edge. It wasn't until the Admiral gave them a stern, low-voiced scolding that they steadied themselves and began to search with proper focus.
Gradually, they locked their target beneath a towering ancient tree.
The Admiral carefully parted grass taller than a man and stepped forward. With his very first step, he immediately sensed something wrong.
Looking down, he saw a thick carpet of black scale-dust underfoot.
"This is it!" The Admiral's lips curled into a faint smile. He was just about to enter when a thought struck him. Turning, he whispered a few words into Falcon's ear, then stepped back.
Falcon nodded, moved to a more open patch beside the ancient tree, and fired a signal flare into the sky.
Before long, several Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns bristling with vicious spines swooped into the area. Once Logan arrived, they quietly settled onto the branches. After Tonkotsu's quick explanation, all eyes turned toward the dark hollow beneath the great tree.
...
After enduring an entire day and night of molting, suffering pain like being flayed alive, the Gore Magala had finally and narrowly completed its first shedding.
Its inner strength and the concentration of the Frenzy Virus had risen significantly. With the abundant life energy of the New World aiding it, in just a single night its physique had rapidly caught up as well.
This was truly the natural advantage of the Elder Dragon species. Their innately high potential ceiling, combined with efficient use of life energy, allowed them to advance smoothly until reaching a certain stage. Even in its juvenile state, the Gore Magala—as the precursor to the Shagaru Magala—possessed the same edge.
With its power improved and the crisis of molting overcome, it had taken one more step toward becoming the ultimate Shagaru Magala.
This string of good fortune even let the Gore Magala start to forget how, the day before yesterday, that "little thing" had nearly pierced through its jaw.
Curled up in contentment, savoring a beautiful dream and catching up on sleep, the Gore Magala was suddenly and violently wrenched awake by a "wake-up service" in the form of a massive fireball.
The scale-dust it had been shedding for a whole day and night ignited wildly in the flames, fueling the blaze further. Because the tree hollow was small and the dust concentration far too high, the fireball directly triggered a dust explosion.
Caught completely off guard, the Gore Magala was first scorched by the fire, then blown out of its lair by the brutal shockwave.
The dragon collapsed to the ground in utter humiliation. Its freshly molted scales cracked and flaked apart, while one talon on its blood-red left wing-claw snapped clean off. The pain sweeping through its body was no less than that of molting itself.
This extraordinary "wake-up service" let the naïve juvenile Elder Dragon taste the world's deep malice for the very first time.
Outside the Ancient Tree, once Tonkotsu had confirmed that the Gore Magala was indeed hiding within that hollow, Logan was about to make his move.
But unexpectedly, the Flame Rathalos—usually so fond of its lazy, salted-fish lifestyle—suddenly felt the urge to show off.
With Logan's permission, it deliberately flew up to the tree hollow, drew in a deep breath, condensed a powerful fireball, and launched it swiftly and precisely into the opening, accompanied by a crushing wind pressure.
The next second, blinding flames burst through every crack of the hollow.
Chunks of soil, shattered stones, and splintered branches were vaporized in the blaze as a thunderous explosion erupted.
That section of roots from the ancient tree—whose age no one could even guess—was torn apart in an instant.
Dust billowed, fire and smoke spread in thick waves.
The shockwave flattened surrounding branches, and the raging gale even forced some of the nearby Rathalos to take to the skies and flee with the wind.
From above, the scene looked as though the site had been struck by a high-yield missile. A mushroom cloud rose slowly upward, while a visible ring of shockwave carried dense smoke outward in all directions.
The Admiral braced his shield across his chest with one hand, while Tonkotsu clung tightly to his thigh, meowing loudly, its hind legs swinging helplessly in the turbulent wind.
Falcon and his Canyne were sprawled on the ground, claws locked tight around the roots of a plant, barely keeping themselves from being blown away.
Only Logan, in that very first moment, had analyzed the weak points in the raging gale. With a few beats of his wings, he created a countercurrent of air that neutralized the blast. For a time, all the Fire Wyverns around him remained safe and sound.
A massive black figure was hurled high into the air by the explosion, then crashed heavily back down. It rolled across the ground in a pitiful tumble before finally collapsing, motionless, as though it were already dead.
Gradually, the aftermath of the blast dispersed.
The Fire Wyverns stared at the Flame Rathalos in disbelief—even ignoring the creature that Logan himself had treated with such gravity.
"You… since when did your flames get so ridiculously powerful?"
By his own measure, Logan knew that under normal conditions, with such a short charge time, the fireballs he spat could never reach this level of destructive force.
The strength of his own fireballs lay primarily in their temperature—the explosion was merely collateral damage caused by that extreme heat.
But the Flame Rathalos's fireball had flipped that balance entirely, its devastation lying first and foremost in the explosion itself.
"Could it be… that it secretly snuck off and ate the Research Commission's gunpowder?"
Faced with the wide-eyed, incredulous stares of the other wyverns, the Flame Rathalos itself looked dumbfounded.
It had no idea either.
It was clearly just a normal charged fireball—so why had it triggered such a massive detonation?
Could it have mutated again?
"Hmph~"
The weak, rasping snort echoed clearly in the lull that followed.
Almost at once, every pair of eyes—wyvern and human alike—turned toward the battered, pitiful body of the Gore Magala.
"Hss~"
The Admiral sucked in a sharp breath, stunned.
"This thing's vitality… it's strong enough to survive even that! No wonder the leader of the Fire Wyverns treats it with such seriousness. Incredible."
He muttered with excitement under his breath. In his eyes, the force of that blast was overwhelming—judging by the Gore Magala's strength back at dusk two days ago, even if it had been braced and prepared, it could never have withstood it. And yet, here it was, still clinging to life after being struck completely unguarded.
And yet, what he saw now was that the creature had not only withstood it, but seemed ready to rise again!
Aside from its sheer tenacity, the Admiral could find no other explanation. He certainly couldn't claim that in just a single day its strength had leapt forward by such a margin—that would make no sense at all.
At this moment, the Gore Magala was slowly forcing itself through the agony. After enduring the hellish torment of molting, its tolerance for pain had risen considerably. Though its injuries were grave, it could still just barely hold on.
It pushed itself upright, gradually reopening its senses.
In an instant—even without the aid of scale-dust—it became aware of its surroundings.
"One, two, three… I can't even count them, there are too many!"
The Gore Magala's perception extended in a full 360 degrees without blind spots. In its view, the area all around was crowded with blazing heat signatures—at least a hundred large organisms, encircling it in a tight formation.
It almost wondered if it had somehow violated the laws of heaven itself, to be treated with such overwhelming force.
After all, it was only a dragon that had just completed its very first molt—not even two months old yet!
And on top of that, with Logan's Pressure radiating outward, the heat signature representing him grew larger and larger within the Gore Magala's mind, until it felt as though he had consumed its entire consciousness.
That nameless sense of danger pounded against its already fragile nerves, the roar of death reverberating in its heart.
Under such crushing pressure, its primal survival instinct and raw feral nature seized complete control.
The Gore Magala bared its teeth and let out a defiant roar, while secretly driving the Frenzy Virus within its body to surge into its nervous system. The virus rapidly shifted in its blood, from inorganic matter into organic, and with what little life energy remained it activated them, spurring their replication at an accelerated pace.
In barely a single second, under its desperate self-provocation, the Gore Magala finally entered its Frenzied state!
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