The battle on this side was so immense that it even caused changes in the weather over the entire jungle swamp region. At times it became scorching hot, at times thunder rumbled, and every so often a red laser that made living creatures shudder with fear just at the sight of it would blast apart the thick cloud layer, frightening the monsters into fleeing this area one after another.
On the other side, after the hunter squad that had escaped the bone-remains area blew the Wyvern-Summoning Whistle several times in succession, an Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern couple finally flew over from the distance. However, they only circled above the jungle swamp and did not dare to overstep in the slightest.
The hunter squad could also understand this Fire Wyvern couple's behavior. After all, behind them were two Elder Dragons jointly fighting an unknown monster; it was perfectly normal for them to feel afraid.
There was nothing they could do about it. They could only keep blowing the Wyvern-Summoning Whistle to guide this Fire Wyvern couple to their position while quickly leaving their original spot.
The swamp was teeming with life. Although it could not compare to the best Ancient Tree area of the Ancient Forest, compared to the other regions deep within the Ancient Forest, thanks to its ample water sources and diverse lifeforms, there were likewise quite a lot of monsters living here. The turmoil caused by the three Elder Dragons' great battle spreading from the basin to the jungle swamp greatly affected the hunter squad's retreat speed.
Fortunately, after they struggled forward for some distance and got away from the Elder Dragons' pressure, the supporting Fire Wyvern couple finally began to lower their altitude. After confirming that the Wyvern-Summoning Whistle was genuine, they took the initiative to shield the hunter squad. Relying on the deterrent force of their high ecological niche and the advantage of their aerial field of view, they managed, after a bout of frantic haste, to lead the hunter squad out of the chaotic area.
Watching the Ancient Tree Rathalos swallow the used Wyvern-Summoning Whistle into his mouth and then fly off with the Rathian as she spread her wings, the hunters—now in a safe area—finally set up a temporary tent. Once everything was done, they began to pool their respective memories, and very soon a simple standing sketch of a monster that had not yet revealed its true body but was extremely distinctive was pieced together on a piece of cardboard.
"What rotten luck. I originally thought it would be a simple investigation mission."
The Long Sword user picked up a whetstone and, by the firelight, began sharpening the Long Sword.
The Dual Blades user off to the side was staring eagerly at the whetstone in the Long Sword user's hand. Scraping away with it really did feel great, but the wear it caused to his weapon was enough to make his heart ache, and the whetstones he had brought with him had all been used up in the battles along the way, so now he had set his eyes directly on his teammate's piece.
As captain, the Hunting Horn user poked at the campfire, too lazy to pay any attention to the Great Sword user off to the side who, even after decades, still seemed like a newbie, humming a song as he timed the roasting meat. He sighed and said, "The New World really lives up to its name. In the Old World, Elder Dragons that are rarely seen and mostly only exist in myth and story—here you can see a new one every few years. That kind of frequency is enough to write a whole storybook!"
The Great Sword user skillfully lifted the meat skewer, sniffed the large piece of meat that was charred on the outside and tender on the inside, then sprinkled on some seasonings and handed it out to everyone.
"Then just write it. At our age, we should have retired long ago. If you, Captain, hadn't dragged us over to the Ancient Tree on the sly a few years back, we would have already gone back to the Old World. Now we're still here wasting resources."
After the Great Sword user finished speaking, everyone present fell somewhat silent. They had come here together with the Second Fleet, and by now they were all 'old geezers' in their fifties, and they weren't prodigies like the Admiral either. Aside from hunting experience, compared to the Third Fleet hunters in their prime and the still-young Fourth Fleet hunters, they truly had no advantages left.
"Yeah, it's about time we retired. Once we bring this set of data back to the Ancient Tree, let's apply to return to the Old World. You've all heard the news about the Fifth Fleet, I imagine—that's a hunting group made up of elite hunters. Once they arrive, they'll definitely place an enormous burden on logistics. We old geezers who are about to be useless shouldn't be here adding to the trouble."
"Captain, it's good that you've thought it through. It's just a bit of a pity that we couldn't personally unravel the secret of the Elder Dragon Crossing."
Everyone sighed together.
There was no shortage of hunters who shared the same thoughts as this hunter squad. To leave this place where they had risked their lives for decades with such regret—how could anyone be willing?
But although their dream had not been realized, it could still be passed on. In this way, perhaps these old hunters who had devoted their whole lives would be able, within their remaining years, to hear the news that the secret had been unraveled and thus not spend the rest of their lives in regret!
More than half a month later, the hunter squad, travel-worn and dusty, finally made it back under the escort of several Fire Wyverns. However, in a great melee, that Great Sword user who, despite his age, still seemed like a newbie had shielded his gravely injured teammate and held out until the Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns came to support them, and in doing so left one of his legs behind on that battlefield.
...
The area where Nakarkos was fighting the two Elder Dragons just happened to be in far too coincidental a location, and as a chain reaction it caused large numbers of monsters on the western side of the Ancient Tree area to break out into one massive melee after another.
If not for the Seregios group living in the west, which had already completely adapted to the New World environment and, with Logan's tacit consent, occupied a large stretch of territory, their presence pinning down those large monster groups that wanted to carry out a great migration and firmly blocking them outside the Ancient Tree area, this disturbance would probably have affected the ecological balance of the Ancient Tree area.
A bloodstained cardboard sheet bearing a simple sketch was placed on the table at the Ancient Tree research base once the mission ended.
Since the Ancient Tree research base did not deliberately conceal it, the information quickly reached Logan as well.
When Logan first heard the term "two-headed dragon," he was a bit surprised; he had not expected even such a fantastical creature to appear in the New World.
But when the huge copied simple sketch and the description of the monster's traits were laid out in front of Logan, he finally understood what kind of monster this actually was.
A necromancer among Elder Dragons, which, in a very unconventional way, made the dead "come back to life" to fight for it.
If one did not know its true body, one would probably really think it was some kind of creature from a high-level fantasy world.
But in reality, this was nothing more than a special kind of mimicry.
The so-called "revival" was merely Nakarkos using its tentacles that closely resembled dragon heads, sticking monster corpses onto them with that special mucus, and then using its own energy to, through mimicry, reproduce the combat style of the original owner of the bones.
Because its energy level was too high, the attacks reproduced in this way naturally could surpass the original owner.
Of course, here "original owner" referred to existences that were not Elder Dragons.
But for Elder Dragons, since all of them use life energy, there is no longer any major difference in the quality of that energy. Even if Nakarkos obtained an Elder Dragon's bones, aside from the bone armor becoming harder, it could not reach the level of far surpassing the original owner.
In addition, it was also unable to "revive" super-giant Elder Dragons; after all, its body length was only 36 meters.
As for why Nakarkos could have such a high ecological niche, aside from its own outrageous dragon-element energy, there was also the fact that the mimicry of its tentacles could display Elder Dragon–level combat power; fighting it was truly the same as fighting a group of Elder Dragons.
A typical Disaster-level Elder Dragon would feel considerable pressure when facing several ordinary Elder Dragons at the same time, whereas as long as Nakarkos had enough high-ecological-niche monster bones, before its true body was thoroughly damaged, wouldn't that be an endless Elder Dragon army?
On top of that, its true body's ultimate move "Genesis" was also considered among the very top even within Disaster-level Elder Dragons. Even among Disaster-level Elder Dragons, there were not many that were willing to fight it in its Dragon Graveyard.
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