Logan's gaze instantly darkened. There was no other reason—this reckless hothead who had barged into the Elder's Recess was clearly his own good-for-nothing son.
If it were not for the fact that, at this moment, within the Elder's Recess, both Logan and Kulve Taroth were constantly releasing their own pressure, with their life-energy auras openly and unmistakably asserting their presence, then with behavior like little Loren's, he would have been targeted by Nergigante the very moment he entered the Elder's Recess.
Some of the Elder Dragons whose nests lay along his flight path would also regard such behavior as a provocation, and a battle would be unavoidable.
Although somewhat angry, what Logan felt more at this time was curiosity—why little Loren had run to the Elder's Recess.
Given his Elder Dragon bloodline, under normal circumstances—when not breeding, or attempting to break through his limits—he generally would not choose to come to a place like this to suffer.
What was more, from the dragon roars emitted by little Loren, Logan sensed no small amount of urgency.
There was no helping it. After all, he was his own offspring. Even though he had already gone out to live independently, Logan still could not stand by and allow something to happen to him right under his own nose.
Slightly spreading his wings, the entire dragon instantly rose into the air on an updraft, and with a sharp sonic boom, flew toward the direction of little Loren's life aura.
At the corner of the crystal platform, the Admiral—who had just cut down a large chunk of roasted meat from the grill, planning to let Logan have a taste—stared somewhat blankly at Logan's figure shrinking into a black dot in the distance, and scratched his head.
...
"Roar!"
Sniffing the sulfurous smell in the air, little Loren—who was continuously letting out dragon roars while searching for Logan—had not yet seen Logan's figure when a Crystal Urchin that had been wandering nearby in search of prey arrived first.
Ruiner Nergigante had not expected that, at a time when it had lost a great deal of energy from being beaten up some time ago, it would actually encounter a juvenile Elder Dragon without its parents by its side.
And one that did not even know how to hide itself—a reckless hothead!
This was simply a moving all-you-can-eat feast.
Thoughts did not last even a second before Ruiner Nergigante concealed itself and stealthily pursued little Loren.
At this moment, little Loren—delighted to discover that the Elder's Recess was littered with Radiant Crystal Butterflies brimming with energy—was just about to use the highly ranked second-generation Radiant Crystal Butterfly on his body to rally these scattered Radiant Crystal Butterflies and make up for the Radiant Crystal Butterflies he had expended.
Thanks to the Radiant Crystal Butterflies' warning, it barely managed to evade the sudden strike.
Ruiner Nergigante, its entire body wrapped in adamantine spikes, slammed into and snapped that enormous bioenergy crystal pillar, then looked at little Loren soaring in the air with some disbelief.
It had not expected that its sneak attack would fail again!
And this time, it had lost to a juvenile Elder Dragon.
It could not accept this!
"ROAR—ROAR—ROAR!"
A long, heavy bass rumbled from Ruiner Nergigante's throat. A pair of vertical pupils stared icily at the "all-you-can-eat buffet" in the sky that was trying to intimidate it with roars. Unmoved, it tensed all four limbs, and the wings on its back beat again and again, continuously building power as it tried to land a decisive blow.
Up in the sky, little Loren's body trembled faintly as it kept roaring, contorting its limbs into all kinds of ferocious postures in an attempt to intimidate the massive special Nergigante below.
At the same time, it summoned the Radiant Crystal Butterflies around it to supply it with energy.
Ruiner Nergigante felt completely different to little Loren. Those cold eyes were like Nakarkos back then—utterly the gaze of a superior looking at food.
And the absolute gap in strength made little Loren instinctively feel fear, wanting to flee this place.
But it knew very well that against an opponent like Ruiner Nergigante, the moment it revealed even the slightest opening, what awaited it would be a fatal blow.
There was no chance to run!
If it resisted, perhaps it could still gain a sliver of survival!
What was more, if it could stall for a bit, it might draw the old father's attention. With the old father's speed, he should be able to rush over soon, right?
Just as little Loren was making these plans, it suddenly saw Ruiner Nergigante launch upward like a cannonball—so fast that it was already close before the sound even arrived.
Without thinking, little Loren instinctively drove the Radiant Crystal Butterflies to surge toward Ruiner Nergigante, using them to buy itself time.
But something it did not expect happened!
Faced with a diving swarm of Radiant Crystal Butterflies, Ruiner Nergigante did not charge in brainlessly like young Nergigante. Instead, it twisted its body in an extremely abnormal way and directly changed direction, dodging the Radiant Crystal Butterfly swarm.
It was as if what was diving down toward it were not Radiant Crystal Butterflies at all, but a swarm of miniature missiles—the evasion maneuver was no longer so deft.
What had originally been meant only to buy a little time instead resulted, through Ruiner Nergigante's evasive move, in little Loren successfully opening up a considerable distance. It stared toward Ruiner Nergigante with heightened vigilance.
And at this moment, Ruiner Nergigante was flying in the sky, its four limbs hanging slack, staring blankly at the swarm of Radiant Crystal Butterflies that had missed their target and detonated at its original position. Those continuously exploding calamity-flame "grenades" bloomed like fireworks.
It was as if they were mocking its excessive caution.
Ruiner Nergigante's body trembled slightly, an intense sense of humiliation flooding its mind, as its eyes gradually began to turn red.
They were clearly the same little bugs, the same kind of explosions.
When it had been beaten by Logan, the self-detonations of those Radiant Crystal Butterflies were like TNT explosions, easily blasting apart the adamantine spikes on its body.
It could sense that this was a pure energy explosion no weaker than the dragon-attribute energy within its own body.
But little Loren's Radiant Crystal Butterflies?
Those clusters of calamity flames bloomed like flowers—blue-violet blossoms bursting open, dazzling to the eyes!
It—had been played!
"AOOO—OOO—OOO!!"
Upon its regenerative shell, the adamantine spikes surged and grew once more.
Ruiner Nergigante's teeth ground together with a grating sound. Its broad wings whipped up violent gusts of wind, dragging its body into a furious burst toward little Loren.
Little Loren, not knowing why the other side had suddenly flown into a rage, had no time to think further. It decisively turned and maneuvered through the air, performing one high-difficulty movement after another to confuse and evade Ruiner Nergigante's attacks.
But this was never a long-term solution. The gap in strength between the two sides was an overall one. As things stood, little Loren would already struggle even against an ordinary Nergigante, let alone a Ruiner Nergigante.
That manner of flight still appeared extremely immature to an experienced Ruiner Nergigante.
After merely preemptively sealing off a few positions, little Loren's flying speed began to slow.
A bloodthirsty gaze, a punch thrown with full force—just as it was about to land on little Loren's back.
The pressure wind from Ruiner Nergigante's strike made the scales on little Loren's back turn icy cold.
Just as both sides believed it was about to end—
A beam of light shot in from the distance, striking little Loren with pinpoint accuracy. The impact directly caused little Loren's body to twist unnaturally, and as it fell, it narrowly avoided Ruiner Nergigante's blow.
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