The outcome had been decided!
Once they saw Little Loren, after absorbing the energy of the Radiant Crystal Butterflies, unleash all at once the not-yet-fully-mastered flame body and take on that form, the battle that had already gone on for quite some time finally drew to a close.
Although Logan did not know whether Little Loren had inherited his Mind's Eye trait, at such speed, that Ancient Tree Rathalos simply had no time to carry out much evasion. In the worst case, the final result would only be mutual injury.
But Little Loren was, in the end, an Elder Dragon hatchling, and in terms of vitality and ability to withstand blows, he surely still had a bit of an advantage.
[Boom!!]
A huge rumbling sound exploded in midair. After a flash of blazing light, a tremendous impact swept in all directions, and the no-longer-restrained raging flames scattered with the gale, sending the air temperature soaring.
As those flames tinged with faint blue-violet were about to fall onto the Ancient Tree, the cats watching, however, did not make the slightest move to dodge. They still stared eagerly into the smoke and dust, guessing who would be the final victor.
Multicolored refracted light scattered in all directions. From every part of the Ancient Tree's canopy, group after group of Radiant Crystal Butterflies flew out, forming a thick "crystal wall" outside the canopy layer. Whether it was the aftershock of the impact or those chaotic flames, when they touched the crystal wall, they were all easily blocked by these dreamlike butterflies that looked as if they were fragile objects.
The creatures inside, apart from feeling a wave of heat that lifted icy-blue scale dust and let it fall onto the dense leaves, did not feel any other discomfort.
As the two figures fell out of the smoke and dust and crashed heavily onto the cliff, all the onlookers held their breath and craned their necks in anticipation.
Very soon, that slightly petite silver-white figure was the first to move, then slowly pushed itself up, using its wings for support.
When Little Loren looked at the Ancient Tree Rathalos in the distance, whose scales over most of its body had exploded, although it was still panting, the entire wyvern had already lost consciousness and would not have the slightest combat ability again in the short term.
As he let out a sigh of relief, he could no longer suppress the fire inside. Raising his head, he roared toward the sky, releasing a dragon's roar that was still somewhat immature, yet already carried the first traces of dominance!
At the canopy level, the cats watching the battle also let out cheers together, not only because Little Loren had successfully completed this challenge, but also because, in this fight, both sides had displayed the true strength that belonged to the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group.
Of course, this was excluding a certain Grimalkyne whose fur color differed from its kind.
"Boss Loren is the best!!"
Throughout the entire Ancient Tree, the only one who would address Little Loren like this was Bunbun, Tonkotsu's child. At present, he was also the only Grimalkyne who had clearly established a subordinate relationship with Little Loren.
After venting like that, Little Loren panted heavily as he slowly folded his wings.
At this time, an Ancient Tree Rathian flew down with a group of cats carrying large packs on their backs, and hurriedly rushed to the side of the fainted Ancient Tree Rathalos. While using her huge lower jaw spines to poke at the Rathalos's head, she kept letting out anxious, low growls.
"Please drink these recovery potions, meow!"
Unlike the Rathian, these cats had long since grown used to situations like this over the years. Let alone now, when that Rathalos still had one breath left— they had even seen cases where, because the battle was too intense, a small accident occurred and the Fire Wyvern died on the spot.
Little Loren unceremoniously drank down the special Fire Wyvern medicine for injuries. Feeling the cool sensation coming from his wounds and having recovered some stamina, he flew straight toward the cave in the middle section.
From now on, that place was his!
After this battle ended, the vast majority of Fire Wyverns were excited because they had witnessed such a brutal and bloody struggle. But there were also Fire Wyverns who appeared very troubled.
As things stood now, among the nearly thousand Fire Wyverns in the Ancient Tree, the ratio between the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group and the ordinary Fire Wyverns had become extremely close to one to one.
This enormous number had already pushed the entire Ancient Tree area into a saturated state. If not for the fact that, over so many years, Logan had diligently acted as a second sun, turning the Ancient Tree area into a tropical jungle, and together with the gentle life energy continuously emitted by the Ancient Tree, attracting enough prey to live and multiply in this region, the biological carrying capacity of the entire Ancient Tree area would not have increased several times over like this.
However, in the Ancient Tree area, aside from Fire Wyverns, there were also monster groups such as Seregios and Zinogre living there. Therefore, once he noticed that the number of Fire Wyvern groups on the Ancient Tree could not increase any further, Logan decisively once again activated the cruel last-place elimination system, strictly keeping the numbers of ordinary Fire Wyverns and the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group within a certain range.
Because Little Loren had challenged the Ancient Tree Rathalos, this meant that this round of elimination had nothing to do with the ordinary Fire Wyverns living at the bottom.
When Little Loren's opponent recovered, if it did not want to leave the Ancient Tree, it would have to look for the next opponent to challenge. In this way, it would be passed on layer by layer until a Fire Wyvern left the Ancient Tree area.
That's right— in the past, when Fire Wyverns were eliminated, they only needed to leave the Ancient Tree. But now, for the sake of the entire Ancient Tree region, Fire Wyverns that were eliminated had to leave this region altogether.
Having lost the competitive edge of a large group, even Fire Wyverns like the Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns, which were almost equivalent to a subspecies, even if the eliminated ones formed groups again, once scattered across the vast New World, would not amount to much.
Even their very survival would return to the same harsh state as in the past.
After the battle ended, Logan and Aki returned to their nest. But even Aki, who had once treasured their child so much that it could practically be called monstrous pampering, did not show the slightest intention of going to check on Little Loren's condition.
Just like a normal Rathian, once the hatchling had gained the ability to survive on its own, the Rathian's gaze would return to her mate. As for the hatchling that had already left the nest, while it could not quite be said that it was left entirely to live or die, it was not far from that.
In a world where the weak are prey to the strong, to survive in this cruel world ultimately still depended on oneself.
If Little Loren were to die during his growth, that would only mean he was not suited to this world. Aki might feel a little sad when the time came, but that would be all.
Because their fighting spirit had been stirred by Little Loren's battle, the hot-blooded Fire Wyverns headed in groups of three or five to Seregios's territory, planning to pick a fight with this "old neighbor" and properly vent the violence in their hearts.
As for whether such behavior would trigger a war between the two groups— in any case, the two sides were already in a competitive relationship for the same ecological niche, and battles like this had not stopped for even a single day over all these years, so if they were going to fight, then let them fight.
As the overlapping wyvern roars gradually receded into the distance, the Ancient Tree slowly quieted down.
At this time, Tonkotsu, who had inherited his father's authority and had already become the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader, walked in holding the staff that symbolized the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader, inlaid with scales from all stages of Logan's growth. Just like the former Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader, he began his report respectfully.
"Boss, meow, according to the report from the resource collection team jointly formed by us and the research base, for reasons unknown, the Lagiacrus groups and aquatic beasts in the inland sea and marsh area to the west of the Ancient Tree region have begun migrating toward several large rivers in the Ancient Tree region. I'm afraid it will have quite a considerable impact on the current ecological environment, meow."
Right now, the Ancient Tree region was just at saturation. As for the aquatic beasts, never mind them; monsters whose ecological niche was roughly the same as Great Jagras's coming in would not have too much impact. On the contrary, because their niche was somewhat lower, they were very likely to become food for monsters at higher ecological niches.
But the Lagiacrus were migrating as well—
"Roar!" (Issue a request to the hunters. They're better at this kind of investigation.)
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---