Logan had never thought that, after diligently doing his best to be a good Elder Dragon, he would one day become the one being intercepted.
With a single flap of his wings, he sent out a gust of air that blew the two cats floating beside him, each with a large kite strapped to its back, far away from this area. Staring at the white mist that was radiating Elder Dragon pressure and continuously spreading outward, the scales on Logan's already "crystallized" wings lifted piece by piece, and swarms of Radiant Crystal Butterflies rushed into the thick fog.
Large quantities of high-temperature scale powder fell along with the Radiant Crystal Butterfly swarm, and amid sizzling sounds, they punched hole after hole in the dense mist.
As the Sunlight trait was triggered, light and heat were refracted through the Radiant Crystal Butterflies' transparent wings, and in almost an instant they turned the surroundings into a realm of light and shadow. Under such complex lighting conditions, even Chameleos would have to expend more effort to maintain its invisibility.
As long as it made even slightly larger movements, the tiny flaws that appeared could not possibly escape Logan's Mind's Eye perception.
Not sensing much hostility, Logan slowly descended. Ice-blue streaks of light slid through the gaps between the scales on his body, crystallized Terastal energy flowed throughout him, and the spines that had already fully crystallized surged once more under the stimulation of this energy.
The spines on his wings, ankles, toes, and at the corners of his mouth were further amplified; in particular, the edges of both wings now took on smooth crystalline surfaces like blade edges.
With this kind of reinforcement, the talons and feet that had originally evolved from Rathalos were no longer a burden, and Logan's entire dragon form was now even more suited to close combat than when he was in the air.
[Adaptability: As understanding of energy that does not belong to this world deepens, this special ability can be used with greater ease. In battle situations set in different environments and different circumstances, this special energy will spontaneously change the way it manifests, allowing the host to better adapt to the current combat environment.]
Although nothing major had happened over these past few years, Logan had still gained a very powerful trait.
Originally, at this stage, close-quarters combat and ground combat still were not Logan's strong suits; this was not something that could be changed just by enhancing certain aspects, but a weakness that arose from the choices made in his body's skeletal structure.
But with the Adaptability trait, he could not claim it would instantly and completely reverse the situation in this regard, but at the very least it would no longer hold him back.
Moreover, this trait not only made up for the shortcomings in this area; in Logan's already dominant speed and ranged attacks it still provided considerable support, including but not limited to making his body structure more suited to flight and making the control of his energy organs smoother when using the Sheer Force trait to enhance the power of his breath, and so on.
In the jungle swamp, the Tempered Chameleos helplessly hid itself beneath a hollow tree root, watching from far away as it sized up Logan, whose outward appearance had changed slightly.
Ever since, a few years ago, he had found himself completely unable to break through the tight defenses of Mother Chameleos and Little Chameleos and had finally decided to temporarily drop the idea of entering Astera and instead go deeper into the forest, he had originally planned to make a temporary home at the Ancient Tree.
After all, with his strength, he had no need to fear that Kushala Daora that had once lingered at the Ancient Tree.
But unexpectedly, on the way to the Ancient Tree, he happened to run into his eldest son, who was currently "serving his sentence."
Although he could not understand why, as a Chameleos, his eldest son—who should have been a complete good-for-nothing—could be targeted by the consciousness of nature to such an extent, that faint blood relationship still made him show himself and talk with that Chameleos for a while.
It was definitely not because he wanted to fish for information on whether there was any way to bypass Mother Chameleos and enter Astera!!
In the end, not only did he fail to find anything out, he also learned that the Ancient Tree already had an owner now!
It was not that Kushala Daora that was always being dispatched, but an Elder Dragon even younger than his eldest son.
Of course, that was not the main point. The main point was that his eldest son had actually been beaten up by the other party—and the reason he got beaten was actually because he wanted to go to the Ancient Tree to settle down.
And then, his mate, who had undergone some mutations that he could not understand, actually turned out to be in an alliance with that other party—and was even on the weaker side of that alliance.
Between Elder Dragons of different species, relationships were essentially dictated by strength.
Mother Chameleos was weaker than Logan within that alliance, and he himself could not beat Mother Chameleos at all right now, so instead of going on to share his eldest son's fate, he directly abandoned the idea of going to the Ancient Tree to settle down and, as a lone dragon, happily trotted back to the nest where he had once lived together with Mother Chameleos—this jungle swamp rich in resources and with a diverse ecology.
Yet it had only been a few peaceful years!
First, Nakarkos, the "tumor" that had once been acknowledged as such by the Elder Dragons of the Guiding Lands, had, for no reason at all, turned up in the nearby sea area, looking as if it was planning to reestablish the Dragon Graveyard here.
Right afterward, because of Nakarkos, the jungle swamp had only just descended into chaos when two more Elder Dragons arrived to "subjugate" Nakarkos, causing the Tempered Chameleos to once again start thinking about moving away.
But before that thought could be put into action, the Logan couple came running over.
After having successfully slacked off several times in the past and thus made the consciousness of nature too lazy to summon him, he had actually been summoned again—and the will behind it was so strong it was practically stating outright: If you don't contribute this time, you're next.
With no other choice, the Tempered Chameleos braced himself and released his aura, carefully using his breath to separate Logan and Aki, successfully "intercepting" Logan within this area.
"I don't want to fight, gwa!"
The Tempered Chameleos rolled his large eyes, flopped onto the ground in the exact same lame-duck posture as Mother Chameleos, and the dense fog thickened and spread with each of his breaths.
Only, the amount of toxin within it was pitifully small—so little that even ordinary endemic creatures, those jungle lizards, could breathe the heavy mist and sprint effortlessly through the undergrowth.
This meant that although the mist looked intimidating, it was completely hollow on the inside—purely for show and obviously just going through the motions.
Although they had not spoken, Logan still read something from this fog that only obstructed vision. Based on his understanding of Chameleos, this thick mist from start to finish expressed only two words: giving up!
Aki's battlefield was not far from here, and that cold Elder Dragon aura was rapidly weakening; there was no need to think to know that things had not taken a bad turn.
Having understood the Tempered Chameleos' intention, Logan no longer maintained a stance as though ready to launch into a major battle at any moment. He simply stayed where he was and focused all his effort on releasing Pressure in the direction of Aki's location.
Sensing Logan's intent, the Tempered Chameleos let out a sigh of relief and cooperatively released his own Elder Dragon pressure, imitating Logan's approach and no longer suppressing his aura.
This allowed the hesitant Nakarkos—who could sense them precisely even in the midst of battle—to detect two new Elder Dragon auras.
Worried that these were new enforcers the consciousness of nature had assigned to deal with him, Nakarkos decisively chose to retreat.
Compared to continuing to tangle with the Gold Rathian, maintaining his condition was the key.
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