Relying on his own high resistance to fire and impact force to damage the opponent... well, that wasn't really a problem. After all, very few monsters were killed by their own moves.
That Teostra looked very angry. Even though it was currently noon, the entire sky was dyed with a layer of orange-red radiance, looking much like twilight.
Even standing on the coast hundreds of meters away, Asterion could see dancing flames suddenly appearing in the air. There was nothing there to ignite; these flames appeared out of thin air, burning in the atmosphere.
This was the completely unreasonable power of an Elder Dragon. No, even Elder Dragons had to conform to Capcom-style science, right? Why—Asterion widened his eyes and finally spotted wisps of faint powder.
It was similar to the scales and dust on the wings of butterflies and moths. It was precisely this dust that caused flames to dance across this area of several hundred meters. It was the Teostra that released them.
There were no massive explosions, just an unadorned, simple rise in temperature.
The original high heat of the Wildspire Waste became even more terrifying under the Teostra's influence. Without exaggeration, the sea was boiling.
White steam rose continuously from the sea surface. At first, it was just wisps of white lines, but in mere seconds, a layer of white fog covered the sea—steam hot enough to cook fragile skin and steam flesh right off the bone.
Asterion's eyes went straight. The Teostra was actually f*cking boiling the sea?!
Flapping its wings to hover in mid-air, the Teostra's demeanor and movements at this moment were like a true emperor inspecting his territory. It was truly majestic.
Meanwhile, the Nergigante attempted to break through this blockade of high heat to attack the Teostra. His hard spikes became more brittle under such temperatures. The Nergigante did indeed manage to pounce in front of the Teostra, but by then, he had already been burned into a black dragon.
The spikes that had been burned to ash hadn't even fallen off his body before new spikes began to grow again from beneath them.
The cooked and charred flesh simply fell off, as if he were shedding dead skin. The Nergigante's regeneration speed was terrifyingly fast, giving off the impression that he would grow back exactly as much as the Teostra burned away. Debris constantly fell from the Nergigante's body into the sea below.
It was too brutal.
Obscured by the flames, Asterion couldn't see the specific details. He only knew that, unlike their previous fight, the current Nergigante was truly risking his life to kill the Teostra.
He was serious.
"Roooaaaarrrr!!"
Just then, an exceptionally deep and resonant roar came from the sea. At first, there was a distinct sense of it being submerged, but followed by a massive crashing sound breaking the surface, the voice became penetrating.
Following the sound, Asterion saw an island. He had originally thought it was just a coastal island—many such small islands could be found along the coastline of the Wildspire Waste, so he hadn't paid it any mind before.
Until this moment, he suddenly realized that the "island" was much larger and closer than when he had first climbed the slope.
No, that wasn't a damn island! That was Zorah Magdaros!!
Ten years later, Zorah Magdaros had once again answered Xeno'jiiva's call and come to the New World. And on his back, many monsters were currently flapping their wings to take flight and flee!!
Monsters from the Old World—not Elder Dragons, but ordinary monsters. There were Rathalos, Astalos, and even small monsters like Wingdrakes. They viewed the volcano on Zorah Magdaros's back as a habitat, so when Zorah Magdaros began to migrate, they followed it to the New World.
At this moment, facing the pressure brought by two battling Elder Dragons and the heat released by the Teostra—heat enough to boil the sea—these monsters finally couldn't bear it anymore and began to flee toward the shore.
Those that could fly were naturally the luckiest; they could cross this final stretch of ocean and step onto the land of the Wildspire Waste. But those that couldn't fly were in trouble. Even if they could swim, they had to pass through the boiling seawater. Very few would survive.
Asterion watched these monsters pass by him or in the distance. Even monsters like the Rathalos, which stood at the top of the ecological niche in both the Old and New Worlds, were panicked to the extreme at this moment. Once they neared the shore, they fled deep into the Wildspire Waste without looking back.
Even though many died, Zorah Magdaros still brought many new species to the New World... or perhaps old species.
Unable to fly up and join the battle between the two Elder Dragons, Asterion could only let his imagination run wild on the shore. The battle between Nergigante and Teostra hadn't actually involved Zorah Magdaros. To be precise, it was Nergigante, that greedy fellow, who wanted to attack Zorah Magdaros while also attacking the Teostra.
But the Teostra wouldn't let off the guy who provoked him; he intercepted the Nergigante perfectly. Zorah Magdaros, on the other hand, had a calm temperament. He didn't care what happened to the creatures living on his back; he simply walked step by step along the route from ten years ago, heading toward the depths of the New World.
As the seabed rose, the part of Zorah Magdaros exposed above the surface became higher and higher. He was like a leisurely spectator, just passing through.
Watching Zorah Magdaros's determined figure and the creatures constantly fleeing from his back, as a Scholar among Dragons, Asterion suddenly understood something.
An elderly Zorah Magdaros would travel to the New World due to the call of that unique Xeno'jiiva egg, wanting to die in the depths of the New World's veins. But perhaps the veins of the New World didn't currently have a passage large enough for Zorah Magdaros to enter, or perhaps the Xeno'jiiva's development wasn't sufficient, making its call not attractive enough to Zorah Magdaros.
After all, Xeno'jiiva would only urgently need a massive amount of bioenergy when it was close to hatching, so the call to elderly Elder Dragons would be strongest then.
In short, feeling he could still live a bit longer, after arriving in the New World and discovering he couldn't enter the deep veins, Zorah Magdaros returned to the sea. After all, his food was the heat and energy of volcanoes.
During this back-and-forth process, every time he felt the intense call of the Xeno'jiiva, Zorah Magdaros would leave the edge of the Old World and head for the New World. And those creatures that had made their homes on Zorah Magdaros's back during the periods when the Xeno'jiiva's call wasn't strong would follow along to the New World.
Just like that, the New World, which was extremely far from the Old World and possessed a unique ecosystem and species, gained many Old World monsters and biological organisms.
But when the immature Xeno'jiiva's call was weak, or when Zorah Magdaros couldn't find an ideal place to die, he would return to the place where he had settled for so many years in the past.
In this process, Zorah Magdaros would take some New World monsters bold enough to step onto his back peaks over to the Old World.
This explained why monsters that should only exist in the New World could be seen in certain regions of the Old World.
The number of monsters brought to the Old World by Zorah Magdaros was necessarily small, but as they landed and began to reproduce, their range of activity gradually expanded. Finally, one day in the future, they were discovered by Guild hunters.
Shaking his head in satisfaction, combined with intelligence from his past life, Asterion applauded his own brilliant deduction.
It was a way to find joy amidst hardship. He couldn't participate in the aerial battle between Nergigante and Teostra at all; he could only spectate from the shore.
The commotion caused by these two guys was no less than the commotion caused by two fighting Kushala Daora back in the day. Or rather, battles between Elder Dragons were never quiet—with the exception of Nergigante.
Oho, thinking about it this way, Nergigante gave off the feeling of an Elder Dragon version of Groudon. He had the potential to become a target of persecution.
The hunters had already fled. The three ships from the Old World inevitably carried large amounts of supplies and equipment. For the Research Commission pioneering the New World, these were extremely precious treasures they were unwilling to lose.
However, a few brave ones still remained.
For example, the Commander.
With the sound of Wingdrakes flapping their wings, the Commander and The Huntsman landed beside Asterion. It was unclear when they had discovered Asterion's presence.
"Yo! Boss Glavenus! How have you been lately?"
A standard, overly familiar greeting. Asterion glanced at the Commander and ignored him.
Once the Second Fleet arrived, this guy would probably be promoted to Admiral, right?
Asterion's attitude of looking once and then ignoring him seemed to be taken by the Commander as a sign of friendliness. This guy even boldly leaned in and touched the blade scales on the side of Asterion's body with his hand.
"Truly beautiful," the Commander exclaimed with heartfelt admiration. "Hey, Huntsman, do you want to try too?"
"Don't touch things at random, you idiot!" A sword hilt struck the Commander on the head. Unable to see The Huntsman's face through his helmet, his voice sounded very tense. "Apologies, Boss Glavenus. He means no harm."
"Don't be so nervous, Master," the Commander said with a loud laugh. "If Boss Glavenus didn't want us to, we wouldn't even be able to get close to him. By the way... Boss Glavenus, do you still count as a Glavenus?"
Just like an old friend meeting up, the Commander chattered on and on. Even though two Elder Dragons were fighting fiercely in the sky, he showed no nervousness whatsoever. Instead, he gossiped with Asterion as if making small talk, explaining that scholars had given him a secondary designation, classifying him as a Glavenus Deviant known as the "Sage-Mirror Blade." He even thoughtfully explained the definition of Deviant monsters to Asterion.
Although he talked a bit much, the information the Commander brought did pique Asterion's interest. Sage-Mirror Blade—he chewed over the name, feeling it suited him quite well.
As expected of professional scholars.
Listening aside, Asterion made no response to the Commander's words. His gaze remained locked on the two Elder Dragons in the sky. It wasn't an illusion; the battlefield of these two guys was gradually shifting toward the shore. The Teostra seemed a bit unwilling to fly.
No! Suddenly standing up from his crouching position, Asterion retreated to the bottom of the slope without hesitation.
The movements of the two hunters beside him were even faster than his; they slid down on their butts in a flash.
The Teostra in the sky had probably had enough of the Nergigante's harassment. He stopped flapping his wings, yet strangely, his body didn't fall from the sky in accordance with gravity. Instead, he hovered in mid-air.
Two broad wings wrapped around him. At this moment, the Teostra resembled a massive ball of fire. His crimson scales flowed with orange-red radiance, and wisps of flame surged from the gaps in his body, looking like a volcano about to erupt—a sun close to the ground!!
Even from hundreds of meters away, one could see the explosive powder released from the surface of the Teostra's body. Shining with orange-red luster under the sunlight, they were immediately swallowed by an even more blazing fiery light.
Supernova.
Also known as the "Nuclear Explosion." This wasn't like in the game where an explosion wouldn't even leave a crater. Even huddled at the bottom of the slope, Asterion could hear the deafening blast, and especially feel the heat that seemed ready to melt the rocks overhead.
"Boss Glavenus?" Huddled side-by-side with Asterion at the bottom of the slope, the Commander wiped the sweat oozing from his forehead due to the heat and said, "Do you want to hunt an Elder Dragon? I mean those two guys fighting right now."
Asterion's intention wasn't hard to guess. After all, normal monsters had fled long ago, just like those creatures escaping from Zorah Magdaros's back, burrowing into the Wildspire Waste to get away from this battlefield. Under these circumstances, Asterion's refusal to leave made his intention to stand guard here obvious.
Too lazy to acknowledge the overly familiar hunter, as soon as the blinding white light brought by the Teostra's move finally dissipated somewhat, he immediately charged up the slope, his eyes scanning around, looking for traces of the Nergigante.
—That guy covered in spikes was smart enough not to attack while the Teostra was curled into a ball. Instead, he had flown toward the shore in a flash—who knows if he dodged the Supernova explosion—and was currently flying toward the Teostra.
And the Teostra showed no intention of fleeing after releasing the Supernova; instead, he flew toward the Nergigante who had landed on the shore.
Yes, flee.
Asterion had already foreseen the end of this great Elder Dragon battle. As a professional commentator, he had to make the call: The Teostra was going to lose.
Don't look at how miserable the Nergigante was burned earlier—the cooked meat shedding from his body and the spikes turning to ash were enough for Asterion to have a small snack—but in reality, the one with the upper hand was the Nergigante.
Not only because this Teostra was nearing the end of his life and his stamina had dropped significantly compared to his prime, but also because the Teostra's attacks couldn't do anything to the Nergigante—whether fire or explosions, the Nergigante took them all, and then healed from them all.
Yet the damage the Nergigante inflicted on the Teostra was real damage. A bite would take a chunk of flesh; a claw strike would crack scales and draw blood.
Asterion could be certain that this Nergigante absolutely had experience hunting Teostra before. He understood the Teostra's moves far too well, knowing which moves he could tank, which moves to dodge, where his advantages lay, and how to exploit the Teostra's disadvantages.
It was cruel to say, but despite the Teostra holding an upper-middle status within the Elder Dragon ecological niche—able to fight battles against Elder Dragons like Velkhana or Kushala Daora...
...In short, even so, the Teostra still belonged to the category of "prey" for the Nergigante.
The kind that could be put on the daily menu.
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