"Look, meow!"
Sajji, perched on Altaïr's shoulder, pointed at an SOS flare rising into the air not far away. "It's over by the estuary docks, meow!"
Altaïr and Isis, who had been strolling along and chatting just a moment ago, exchanged looks. They quickly donned their helmets and broke into a full sprint.
Even though her strength and explosive power were top-tier among her peers, the sheer weight of the Basarios armor and the Defender Gunlance still made getting started difficult for Isis, and she couldn't build up speed immediately.
In contrast, while also wearing full-plate armor, the weight of Altaïr's gear was significantly lighter, allowing him to start much faster.
"I'll head there first!" After leaving behind those words, Altaïr activated Demon Mode directly. His sprinting speed surged further as he dashed toward the direction where the SOS flare had risen.
Isis gritted her teeth and pushed harder, trying to catch up, but it wasn't just her heavy armor and weapon slowing her down, it was also the pedestrians moving back and forth on the roads outside the city.
The agile Altaïr could easily weave through the thinning crowds, but she was different. Even if she used her raw strength and explosive power to force her speed up, her massive inertia made it difficult to perform nimble turns.
If she were to collide head-on with a pedestrian who couldn't dodge in time, it was entirely possible she would send them flying or even kill them.
Noticing this, Sajji stopped. "Clawdia, go ahead with Altaïr first, meow! I'll help Isis clear the path, meow!"
Clawdia glanced at him, then at Isis. Seeing Isis nod in agreement, she dropped to all fours and accelerated after Altaïr's receding figure.
Meanwhile, Sajji, who hadn't brought his usual assortment of mechanical gadgets and could only exert less than thirty percent of his true strength, remained by Isis's side. He stayed about ten meters ahead of her, jumping and shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Move aside, meow! Quickly, move aside, meow! There's an emergency ahead, meow! Let the Hunter through first, meow!"
Sajji's tactic was very effective. Alerted by his warnings, the people on the road noticed the Hunter approaching like a moving city wall and scrambled to the sides. Isis's running speed gradually began to pick up.
The estuary docks were located not far outside Geo City. Sprinting at full speed, it took Altaïr less than ten minutes to reach the vicinity.
He slowed his pace slightly to adjust his breathing and recover the stamina rapidly consumed by the demonization state. Clawdia took the opportunity to catch up.
"I hear the sounds of battle, meow! It's right up ahead, meow!"
"Got it."
Altaïr took a few deep breaths and started running again.
"ROAARRRR!" The roar of a Monster was now clearly audible. The shouts of Hunters and the booming fire of a Bowgun were mixed in; the battle was at its peak.
Altaïr sprinted through a cargo loading area filled with stacked goods and finally reached the edge of the battlefield.
On the breakwater near the shore, three Hunters were working together to besiege a Lagiacrus.
The leader was a female Light Bowgun user clad in Rathian Armor. As the strongest among the three, she served as the primary attacker while also shouldering frontline duties, drawing the direct attention of the furious Lagiacrus.
Compared to her, the other two Hunters lacked the strength necessary to handle a Monster of the Lagiacrus's caliber.
One of them was an Insect Glaive user whose equipment suggested they were 3★ status; they utilized the natural mobility of the Insect Glaive to leap and vault behind the Lagiacrus, doing their best to help divert the creature's attention.
The last one, a Bow user, was a novice-level Hunter, no higher than 2★. At this rank, a Blademaster wouldn't even have the right to join the fray; it was only because he was a Gunner that he could stay at a distance and fire off a few arrows that were, at best, better than nothing.
The situation had been dire before, forcing them to fight despite their lack of strength, but that was no longer necessary. The coordination between himself and that Light Bowgun user would likely be more effective.
As long as they held out until Isis, the heavily armored vanguard, arrived, they might actually stand a chance of suppressing it, provided the Lagiacrus didn't enter the water.
As Altaïr rapidly approached the battlefield, he let out a sharp whistle to grab the attention of the three Hunters.
"I'll keep it busy! You two go help with the evacuation!" Before his shout had even faded, he had already cut in front of the Lagiacrus. The Iron Gospel cleared its sheath, and a flash of blade-light slashed toward the Lagiacrus's head.
The Lagiacrus's reaction speed was remarkable. The moment the blade fell, it retracted its outstretched neck, seemingly on the verge of dodging the strike.
Yet, despite having already committed to the stepping forward slash, Altaïr managed to force himself half a step further forward mid-swing. He extended the reach of his strike by half a meter, chasing the Lagiacrus's retreating head and carving a bloody gash across its lower jaw.
"Roar!"
While the strike didn't cause severe damage, the Hunter's sudden burst of speed made the Lagiacrus wary.
It shifted its attention away from the Light Bowgun user, turning its head to snap at the Hunter before it.
The speed of the Lagiacrus's bite was staggering; relying on raw reaction to dodge might not have been fast enough. However, Altaïr had anticipated an immediate counterattack and was well-prepared.
The moment the Lagiacrus's massive jaws lunged, he spun and leaped backward, evading the snapping maw.
At that moment, the Lagiacrus once again demonstrated speed and reflexes far beyond those of an ordinary Monster. With the speed of a lightning bolt, it twisted its head and snapped again, pursuing the retreating Hunter.
A Long Sword user with less experience, accustomed to immediately following a Foresight Slash with a forward redirected strike, would have essentially delivered themselves right into the Lagiacrus's pursuing jaws and likely panicked.
But Altaïr's swordsmanship had entered a new stage. He no longer performed combos by rote; instead, he judged the Monster's movements on the fly and responded with flexibility.
Facing the second lunge, he twisted his waist, transforming the counter-attacking Foresight Slash into a lateral movement, once again evading the Lagiacrus's attack.
This scene played out before the eyes of the female Gunner clad in Rathian Armor.
She didn't recognize the Armor Altaïr wore, but through the exchange between him and the Lagiacrus, she formed a general assessment of his strength.
No weaker than herself, at least 4★.
This gave her a sense of reassurance. With a sufficiently skilled vanguard handling the frontal pressure, she could finally go all-out on the offensive.
Quickly adjusting her positioning, she moved to the flank where she was less likely to draw the Monster's attention and had a more flexible shooting angle, launching a higher-frequency assault.
Clawdia joined the battle at that moment as well. She hopped forward, scaling the Lagiacrus's front leg before scurrying up toward its head and neck.
She had some kind of inexplicable obsession with slitting a Monster's throat.
Altaïr remained fully focused, squared off against the Lagiacrus. In a standard operation, the pressure on the primary vanguard was immense; it could be said that he was shouldering the vast majority of the burden by himself.
As a fellow 5★ Threat Level Monster, the pressure exerted by the Lagiacrus was not much lower than that of a Tigrex.
Altaïr had almost entirely abandoned his offense, doing his best to maneuver around the Lagiacrus and only launching limited counterattacks when he was certain of them. He needed to prevent the Lagiacrus from shifting its focus back onto the Gunner, who was maintaining a continuous stream of fire.
The opponent before it was slippery, and there was another mosquito-like creature flitting around its body, stinging repeatedly. The battle was beginning to irritate the Lagiacrus.
With a series of snaps and bites, it forced the Hunter in front of it to retreat. The Lagiacrus twisted its supple, elongated body and slid backward by a full length.
Immediately afterward, arcs of electricity, far brighter and more dazzling than those seen during last year's hunt of the Khezu, surfaced across its body. In less than two seconds, they converged at its mouth, coalescing into a massive, shimmering globe of lightning radiating an aura of destruction.
A second later, as the Lagiacrus swung its head, the electrical sphere shattered and sprayed outward, blanketing a wide fan-shaped area in front of it.
Seeing this, Altaïr kicked off with all his might to backstep, narrowly escaping the range of the lightning globes. Before he could even steady himself, he saw the Lagiacrus charge through the lightning-covered zone in a sudden strike, slithering toward him.
"Tch."
Altaïr swung his Long Sword diagonally, using the inertia of the reverse fade slash to dodge to the side.
Up until now, the Lagiacrus's offensive hadn't reached a point where he felt powerless to respond, but he hated this stifling feeling of being constantly on the run, unable to find the opening to strike back.
Seeing the Lagiacrus turn its head to lunge at him once more, Altaïr was about to backstep again to evade with a Foresight Slash when he heard a familiar roar from behind him.
"Hyaaah!"
A hint of a smile appeared in his eyes. Altaïr planted his feet firmly, no longer retreating. He raised his Long Sword into a charging stance, allowing the Lagiacrus to extend its neck and bring him within its reach.
Just as the gaping maw was about to envelop him, a figure intercepted the attack, lunging in front of him.
A solid Large Shield forged of steel slammed forward, firmly jamming the Lagiacrus's jaws just as they were about to snap shut.
"Taste this!" Having finally arrived, Isis didn't give the Lagiacrus a chance to exert further pressure. She shoved the Gunlance directly into that wide-open, bloody maw and yanked the trigger.
"Wyvern's Fire!"
BOOM!
The searing explosion erupting from the muzzle blasted the Lagiacrus's head backward.
Immediately after, she side-hopped out of the way. Altaïr, who had completed his Charge, didn't waste half a second; he dashed forward, his body spinning as he executed a horizontal sweep with his blade.
Charged Spirit Roundslash!
The power of this strike was incomparable to the counterattacks like the Foresight Slash from before. The Iron Gospel carved through the relatively thin shell on the Lagiacrus's chest, ripping open a wound of upturned flesh.
The Lagiacrus shrieked in pain, instinctively backing away two steps to regain its footing.
The two of them pressed forward, one after the other, continuing the assault.
Now was the time to strike back!
(Translated by yourtl.app)