Taking advantage of the Kecha Wacha's dizziness and disorientation, Altaïr swiftly closed in on his prey's head and launched an all-out assault.
Generally, when dealing with agile monsters like this, the standard approach is to first injure one of its legs to impair its mobility.
But the Kecha Wacha was different from those bipedal monsters. Compared to crawling and running on the ground, it was more adept at climbing among branches and vines.
With four legs plus a flexible and powerful tail, even if two were cut off, it could still maintain most of its mobility. It was more straightforward to attack the head and chest areas, soft flesh where vital organs were concentrated.
Sajji pushed his "Model-01 - Custom Custom Custom," drifting sharply to come alongside the Kecha Wacha.
To be honest, compared to the original Rathalos Model-01, the current Model-01 looked rather shabby, full of a hastily cobbled-together, crude feel. Many parts still had weld seams and burrs left from saw cuts, clearly not properly polished.
But this wasn't because Sajji's craftsmanship had gotten rougher, nor was it due to laziness.
Back then, he had meticulously designed the appearance, carefully polished every component, every screw, spending countless hours and effort to finally create the "Rathalos Model-01."
And then it got chomped by a Tigrex on its very first mission.
Although the prototype did serve its intended purpose in that battle, it also made him realize that these weapons were easily damaged in actual combat.
Moreover, whether it was the prototype, the current Model-01, or future Models Two, Three, and Four, they were essentially all experimental weapons, likely to be modified or upgraded at any time based on practical combat needs.
Given that, why spend excessive time and effort on appearance?
Once he figured this out, Sajji even became casual with naming. If the improvements didn't feel substantial enough to warrant calling it "Model-02," he'd just slap a few more "Custom" labels on it.
Long live pragmatism, meow!
"Boom!"
Sajji pulled the firing cord, and a cone-shaped shell made of nuts whistled out.
Externally, it looked tattered, as if scavenged from a junkyard, but this mobile artillery platform, pushed around on a small cart, packed a punch not much weaker than the heavy bowguns used by hunters.
Flames erupted beside the Kecha Wacha.
To avoid injuring his companion, Sajji had specifically used a shell structure that wouldn't produce large fragments. While killing power was somewhat reduced, with a sufficient payload, it was still plenty potent.
Especially those Incendiary Rounds, hastily modified before departure with added large amounts of fire herb. Their explosive power was average, but the flames leapt especially high.
Altaïr, several meters away, could feel the scorching heat wave. The scattered sparks quickly reignited the Kecha Wacha's fur.
Watching this scene, Sajji's eyes sparkled.
Looks like in the future, not only the artillery platform itself needs modifications, but shell modifications must keep pace too, meow! Like these Incendiary Rounds, against monsters with obvious elemental weaknesses like the Kecha Wacha, they're much more useful than shells loaded with ordinary gunpowder, meow!
"Squeee–!!"
Finally recovering from the dizziness caused by the Flash Pod, the Kecha Wacha's vision wasn't fully restored, but it knew it couldn't keep taking hits like this.
It shrieked, wrapping its ears around its bloodied head for protection, and swung its arms and long tail with all its might, forcing the hunter in front of it back.
Then, it rolled clumsily on the ground a couple of times, using the nearby stream to douse the flames on its body and wet its fur. That way, Sajji's artillery fire would have a hard time igniting its fur again.
Realizing this, Sajji decisively switched to conventional shells and continued firing.
"Boom!"
The blast's shockwave made the Kecha Wacha stagger. Furious, the Fanged Beast panted heavily, turning its gaze toward Sajji.
Even with its ears covering its entire face, somehow the Kecha Wacha locked onto Sajji's position.
It flipped over, hooked its tail onto the vine net above, then violently swung its body, leaping up and spreading its limbs. Aided by the membranes between its limbs, it glided in a pounce toward the distant Sajji.
"Watch out!" Altaïr shouted a warning.
"Meow!" Facing the monster soaring toward him, Sajji panicked a bit. He tried to push the artillery cart and run, but the ground underfoot was uneven. Getting the cart up to speed quickly wasn't easy at all.
Seeing this, Altaïr chased with all his might, but there was no way he could catch up to the gliding Kecha Wacha. He could only yell anxiously, "Forget the artillery cart!"
Reluctantly, Sajji had to abandon the cart and flee on all fours.
He had only run a few steps when he heard a loud "crash" from behind.
Under the Kecha Wacha's gliding impact, the Rathalos Model-01 - Custom Custom Custom shattered.
Well, at least I didn't spend too much effort on the appearance, meow. As an experimental unit, it collected plenty of data, meow. Of the five shells carried, four were fired, meow. From every angle, it wasn't a loss, meow! Sajji tried hard to console himself.
But recalling the past two months, starting from a scrap metal plate, building the Model-01 piece by piece... recalling pushing the Model-01 across hunting grounds, running alongside hunters... recalling improvement after improvement, patch after patch...
Tears gushed out.
"Model-01, meow!" Sajji drew his cat sword, which hadn't seen proper use in a long time, and charged furiously at the Kecha Wacha, which was still tearing and pounding the cart wreckage, hacking wildly at the monster's shins.
This gave Altaïr quite a scare.
Currently, sixty percent of Sajji's strength lay in machinery, thirty percent in using various items. As for close combat ability with the cat sword, compared to when he first left Loc Lac, it couldn't be said to have made no progress, only that its regression was noticeable.
Plus, blinded by rage, one careless moment and he was kicked flying by the Kecha Wacha.
Altaïr was about to cry out in alarm when he saw Sajji flip back up from the ground, meowing furiously, and charge the monster again.
Seeing the Kecha Wacha's attention about to be captured by the little guy, Altaïr hurriedly shouted, "Fall back!"
At full sprint, he had already reached the Kecha Wacha. He met it with a forward Step Slash, grabbing its attention back.
The fur on the Kecha Wacha's ears was thick and tough; wrapping around its head was like a helmet, poor hitzone quality. The bone spurs growing on the edges of the pinnae, with the ears folded together, formed a structure resembling fangs, looking quite intimidating.
Under the "helmet's" protection, Altaïr's sword slash had limited effect. The Kecha Wacha didn't retreat a step, swinging its sharp claws in retaliation.
Facing the oncoming claws, Altaïr didn't retreat either. Instead, he swung his arms overhead, using a Fade Slash to block the Kecha Wacha's claws, twisting his waist to deflect them.
Simultaneously, borrowing the Kecha Wacha's force, he side-stepped to adjust his stance, then followed with a reverse Fade Slash striking the Kecha Wacha's shoulder and neck.
Furious, the Kecha Wacha hopped in place a couple of times. Regardless of whether it could hit the enemy, it swung both claws, spinning while madly smashing at its surroundings.
If Isis were here, she'd likely choose to back-jump to create distance, temporarily avoiding the onslaught, or raise her large shield to block the attacks.
Altaïr's choice was the opposite. He simply activated Demon Mode, closing in even closer to the Kecha Wacha, and launched a Crimson Blade Slash two-hit combo.
Seeing the Kecha Wacha swing its claws back, Altaïr immediately side-stepped to adjust position, continuously using the extremely quick Crimson Blade Slash and spirit blade attacks, repeatedly chipping away.
During this, he unexpectedly discovered that linking Crimson Blade Slash and Fade Slash was incredibly smooth, even more fluid than directly executing a spirit blade combo.
So he decisively abandoned the spirit blade combo, coordinating only the Fade Slash initiated from a spirit blade, with the upward slash and downward chop of the Crimson Blade Slash.
After several minor adjustments, his sword speed increased more and more, even gaining a bit of a Blade Dance feel. Relying on the ultra-high attack frequency, he forcefully suppressed the enraged Kecha Wacha.
By now, Sajji had also regained some composure. He no longer charged headlong. Instead, taking advantage of Altaïr fiercely attacking the Kecha Wacha head-on, he circled to the monster's back and stabbed its tail hard with his knife.
Seeing the Kecha Wacha couldn't attend to him, he put all his effort into stabbing repeatedly.
Stab you, stab you, stab you to death, meow!
(Translated by yourtl.app)