Aki once again relied on the flames along her wings, gritting her teeth through the tingling sensation as she forcibly broke through the restraints of the electric net. Circling around the tentacle in flight, she precisely avoided the attacks from the already ragged Royal Ludroth skeleton and accurately found the gap in the bones that had just been blasted open by her Calamity Flame fireball.
With a swing of her tail like a heavy hammer, a slightly muffled sound rang out as the tentacle body that no longer had the protection of the bones was smashed, and the entire Astalos skeleton toppled to one side amid Nakarkos's roar.
However, Aki, who had unleashed this blow, did not come out of it well either; she took the full-force strike from another Royal Ludroth skeletal tentacle head-on and was forced back onto the shore.
The high-concentration toxin formed by mixing a bleeding-type toxin with a blazing flame toxin made even an Elder Dragon like Nakarkos feel unwell for a time. There are already few Elder Dragons that use poison to begin with, let alone Aki's toxin, which is a compound toxin shaped by the influence of her Symbiosis trait.
This forced Nakarkos to spend even more energy catalyzing its own immune system, rapidly restoring its burning, bleeding tentacle to a state where it could move.
Seeing Aki charge up again, Nakarkos knew that if it continued to hide, it would definitely be dragged back into the fight once more by this Gold Rathian.
To make matters worse, the auras of those two unfamiliar Elder Dragons in the distance were growing ever more distinct. With no other choice, and accompanied by great waves crashing against the shore, Nakarkos's true body—its real form resembling a gigantic squid—burst out of the water.
Amid the writhing of countless fine tendrils, deep crimson Dragon-element energy gathered in an instant.
Seeing this, alarm bells rang in Aki's heart, and her Rampaging Dragon Charge came to an abrupt halt. Rapidly beating the gigantic wings that were far larger than a Rathian's, she stopped her own sprinting steps, while the scales on her chest, under the influence of the rapidly circulating radiant fluid, turned red from the high temperature and quickly hardened as a whole.
In the next second, a crimson Dragon-element laser blasted out from Nakarkos's mouth.
That's right!
As a Disaster-level Elder Dragon, Nakarkos's true trump card was precisely its Dragon-element energy, vast in power and manipulated with incomparable skill.
Dragon-element energy that should originally have manifested as a mist difficult to control was instead fired by Nakarkos in the form of a laser. With its extremely fast ballistic flight speed and greatly enhanced penetrating power, this laser breath was something no living creature would choose to foolishly defend against in place and take head-on.
Leaving aside that exaggerated penetration and the Dragon-element high temperature, just the suppressive effect of Dragon-element energy on other energies was enough to make the vast majority of living creatures lose their corresponding resistance.
Obviously, neither Aki nor the Admiral who was planning to rush up to support her was an idiot; the very moment they realized Nakarkos's intent, they dodged in advance.
As for a certain young dragon, from the instant his mother arrived, he was only fit to howl up in the sky, now and then spitting out two fireballs to liven things up, very much aware of his own limits.
But the Little Loren who had been happily howling in the sky successfully shut his mouth in the very next second.
The exaggerated Dragon-element breath instantly pierced through the hard Ancient Tree, sliced through the rising white mist, and finally landed on a mountaintop in the distance.
Like a cake being melted, that mountaintop was silently bored through, leaving a hollow.
Nakarkos's breath, its momentum undiminished, rushed up into the heavens, instantly scattering that thick bank of white clouds.
This! Even among Disaster-level Elder Dragons, this was a terrifying breath attack whose destructive power ranked among the very best!
Fortunately, for Nakarkos at this moment, this kind of breath was only meant to intercept Aki; if it successfully hit, that would naturally be good, and if it did not, it would still create an opportunity for it to leave.
Moreover, just as this laser breath had only just been fired, in the sky over the other side of the jungle marsh a great mass of thunderclouds condensed in an instant, and amid peals of thunder, a figure was continuously darting about atop the treetops.
Keenly aware of Kirin's speed, Nakarkos quickly withdrew its tentacles, raising great sprays of water as it reentered the lake and rapidly dove down. In just a few seconds, the entire dragon had vanished from sight, and even its aura was rapidly dissipating.
At the scene, apart from the environmental devastation caused by the battle just now, only some broken bones that had been shattered by Aki were left, rising and falling with the rippling lake.
Nakarkos came fast and left fast. Having long since mapped out the waterways in the surrounding area, so long as it was not simultaneously besieged by multiple Elder Dragons or completely losing its head, no one should even think about keeping it here.
As Nakarkos's aura disappeared, Kirin, which had originally been galloping in this direction, also timely came to a halt.
Its single horn had been broken in half, and it had already been in the middle of recuperating. At this moment, that direction not only no longer held Nakarkos's aura, but was instead shrouded by two glaring Elder Dragon auras.
Unsure whether they were enemies or friends, Kirin would not recklessly enter while in such an imperfect condition.
After casting a deep look at the place where Logan and the Tempered Chameleos were, it vanished within a bolt of falling lightning.
On the battlefield, the Admiral, still shaken, put away his shield, wiped the somewhat fishy-smelling lake water from his face, and looked at the huge gouge in the ground that Nakarkos's Dragon-element breath had plowed out. The lingering black-and-red energy there was still flickering with thin red arcs of electricity.
Some of the high-temperature areas had even yet to fade, still showing a lava-like red.
In a wave of air pressure, Aki slowly landed, folded her wings, silently straightened her somewhat disheveled scales, and even gave the Admiral a rather friendly snort through her nostrils.
The Admiral did not mind Aki's perfunctory attitude. Strictly speaking, although Aki was cold and indifferent toward everyone except Logan and Little Loren, when facing the Admiral—this "old acquaintance" who had once proactively offered medicine and food when she was gravely injured and Logan was out hunting—she would still spare a moment to give him a perfunctory greeting whenever they met.
After so many years of friendship, the Admiral also understood Aki's temperament, and he deftly stuffed into his backpack the scales Aki had shed of her own accord after tidying herself.
Why do you think he has been able to keep using this set of gear he has on now all these years? Wasn't it precisely by bit by bit collecting the materials Aki shed in their daily life at the Ancient Tree, and for that having to constantly match wits with those Fire Wyvern Guard cats?
Little Loren, in contrast, had completely dropped the arrogant look he had shown over the past few days. With his head lowered and his wings drooping, he squatted at a spot neither too near nor too far from Aki, just short of stuffing his head into his wings.
Even though he had already left the nest and started living on his own, Little Loren knew very well that if Aki wanted to beat him up, she really would not hold back!
Clearly, from childhood to now, the one who had always been endangering his "physical safety" was that old father Logan, yet for some reason, the one Little Loren feared the most was Aki, who could practically be called "dotingly indulgent" toward him since he was small.
On top of that, with the berserk combat side Aki had just shown—a side she had never displayed in front of him before—and under the lingering shock of it all, Little Loren at this moment could only do his best to lower his presence as much as possible, hoping that a certain old father would hurry up and show himself and rescue him—please rescue him.
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