When a living creature clings to the tip of your nose, no matter how small, it's hard not to be distracted.
Especially when that creature is brandishing two sharp little claws, trying to gouge out your eyeballs.
Faced with such an assault, the Duramboros instinctively closed its eyes and vigorously shook its massive head, trying to fling this terrifying little thing away.
Clawdia had to halt her attack for the moment, digging her claws into the crevices of the Duramboros's hide and gritting her teeth as she held on.
Thanks to Clawdia's distraction, Isis, who had been tossed away, got a chance to recover. She quickly lifted her visor and gulped down a Potion.
A strong wave of nausea surged up her throat. Isis coughed hard, spitting out a mouthful of coagulated blood, and the dull ache in her organs immediately eased.
"Are you okay?" asked Altaïr as he swung his sword from the side of the Duramboros's head, helping to divert its attention, his voice raised.
Isis pulled down her visor and shouted back, "I'm fine!"
Hearing her voice still sounded fairly robust, Altaïr felt relieved. "Change of tactics! Mobile combat, dodge as the main strategy, don't try to tank hits!"
"Understood!"
Isis took a deep breath and charged again.
This time, she didn't head straight for the front of the Duramboros. Instead, she and Altaïr split left and right, positioning themselves on opposite sides of the Duramboros's head to facilitate mobile combat.
The so-called "mobile combat" was just a nicer term; in plain words, it meant giving up on suppression.
The Blademasters would attack from different angles, the Gunner would keep their distance, and whoever the Monster targeted would retreat immediately while the others seized the chance to strike. It was a guerrilla style of fighting, pulling and poking, adapting on the fly.
This tactic greatly reduced the pressure on the frontline. Correspondingly, the risk borne by the rest of the team sharply increased.
A similar tactic could be applied to almost any Monster, in almost any scenario, but with one prerequisite: every member of the team must have no weak points, and no major mistakes could be made, otherwise they could easily be picked off one by one.
Fortunately, there were no so-called deadweights in their team.
Clawdia was eventually flung off. Luckily, for a light and agile Felyne, as long as she adjusted her posture in mid-air to avoid a hard landing, she usually wouldn't get hurt.
After shaking off Clawdia, the Duramboros's gaze settled on the left side, where Altaïr was positioned.
Without a second thought, it swung its head in a thrust, its horns, like giant curved blades, sweeping horizontally toward Altaïr's midsection.
Though Altaïr also held a small shield in his right hand, he had no intention of blocking. *You must be joking,* even Isis, clad in heavy armor and wielding a Large Shield with incredible strength, struggled to withstand that horn strike. If he tried to block it with his little arm shield, wouldn't that be suicide?
Of course he had to dodge!
But the Duramboros's horns were huge, and their attack range was quite wide. Trying to run out of the sweep's reach now was clearly too late, and rolling or diving would leave too big an opening, easily putting him at a disadvantage.
So Altaïr took two quick steps to accelerate. Just as the sweeping horns were about to hit him, he suddenly crouched low into a slide.
His legs, hips, even his back pressed as close to the ground as possible, his head tilted back. He watched as that pair of giant horns swept horizontally just twenty centimeters above his head, the airflow they stirred nearly lifting his visor off. After sliding forward for two to three meters like this, evading the Duramboros's horn strike, Altaïr followed through by leaping up and swinging his sword to slash at the creature's shoulder and neck.
The sensation of the blade cutting into flesh was like chopping a large tree with a machete. The sharp blade split the outer keratinized hide but hadn't yet penetrated deeply before getting firmly stuck by the connective tissue and fat beneath the skin.
Gripping the sword hilt tightly to prevent the weapon from being torn from his grasp, Altaïr turned and delivered several more consecutive strikes.
Regardless of the attack's effectiveness, his act of dodging the strike under the Duramboros's gaze and then pressing forward with a counterattack successfully drew the Monster's attention.
Just as the Duramboros was about to turn, Isis, positioned on the other side of its body, roared and swung down her Gunlance, followed by a horizontal sweep, an upward slash. As she swung the weapon with all her might, she interspersed the attacks with shelling.
After firing all her Shells, she thrust the Gunlance, stabbing fiercely into a fold of skin on the Duramboros's neck, then pulled the trigger once more.
"Wyrmstake Cannon!"
With a dull "thump," a thick metal stake drove into the Duramboros's body, sinking nearly halfway in.
"Mooo-roar!"
The Duramboros roared in fury. The pain from Isis's attacks was clearly more pronounced than that from Altaïr's side. Its body, which had been preparing to turn toward Altaïr, halted, and its massive head swung back to look.
"Watch this, meow!"
Sajji streaked past the side of the Duramboros's body on the Rathalos Model-07 Cannon Cart, executed a sharp turn and skidded to a stop. Before the vehicle even settled, he raised the cannon barrel and fired two shells in quick succession.
To minimize weight and recoil as much as possible, the Rathalos Model-07 still used mortars, not direct-fire cannons.
The kinetic damage of the shells, made using large Blastnuts as casings, was practically zero, but the filler inside was the key.
The two shells traced a parabolic arc, landing precisely on the Duramboros's back. However, they seemed like duds, not erupting in flames, merely shattering upon impact on the creature's back and splattering a large amount of sticky gel.
Knowing the Duramboros feared fire, Sajji had specially crafted these shells.
Inside these shells, there was no fuse, no detonator, no gunpowder; all the space was filled with incendiary agent. As for how to ignite it, that wasn't a problem he needed to consider.
Three Flaming Ammo rounds shot in from afar, landing almost exactly on the Duramboros's back the second after the shells hit.
"Boom!"
The firelight exploded brilliantly, and raging flames surged upward, transforming the Duramboros's two humps along with its entire back into a massive bonfire.
Gazing at the fiercely burning Duramboros, Sajji raised a paw high and shouted fervently, "This is our hot-blooded combo technique, meow!"
"Mooo-ooaaargh!!"
The Duramboros's roar carried a hint of terror. Its fear didn't stem from the Hunter, and certainly not from the Felyne, but from the fire itself.
Fear of fire; this was an instinct etched deep in the genes of many living creatures.
It began to swing its massive tail while simultaneously turning its head and rotating its body. Its enormous form started to pivot on its two hooves.
A 360-degree spin was something almost every Monster could do, but the Duramboros's rotation clearly wasn't limited to one revolution. As the heavy Tail Hammer swung, the speed of its body's spin accelerated faster and faster.
"That move! Fall back!" Nymera shouted a warning from a greater distance.
Altaïr and Isis immediately halted their offensive and retreated swiftly.
In all information and reports concerning the Duramboros, without exception, this high-speed spinning body attack was mentioned.
A giant beast weighing over a hundred tons, spinning at high speed, whether it be large trees, rocks, Hunters, or anything else, anything standing in its path would be pulverized.
There was, however, also a theory: if, during the first few seconds when the Duramboros just began to spin, before the rotational speed had time to build up, one could inflict severe damage to the two hooves serving as its pivot points, it might cause the creature to lose balance and topple over due to a shift in its center of gravity.
This was almost the only way said to interrupt the Duramboros's spinning attack.
But right now, neither Altaïr nor the others intended to attempt this method. Everyone retreated quickly. If they could safely escape the range of the spinning attack, there was naturally no need to take that risk.
"Watch out!" Nymera yelled while retreating and reloading. "At the very end of its spinning attack, the Duramboros can't dissipate that terrifying, repeatedly compounded kinetic energy. It'll use that force to take off!"
"What do you mean 'take off,' meow?!" Sajji, retreating on the cannon cart, couldn't help but retort.
The next second, he understood.
The Duramboros, having reached its rotational limit, suddenly whipped its tail high into the air. The precarious balance of inertia it had maintained was broken.
The Duramboros's mountain-like body was actually yanked off the ground by that tail hammer swinging so fast it left afterimages, soaring over twenty meters into the air.
Immediately after, it came crashing down like a collapsing mountain peak.
Sajji's fur stood on end all over, and sparks flew from under his foot on the pedal.
"Why is it coming for me, meow?!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — LORE SECTION
Some terms and creatures referenced in this story may be unfamiliar to readers new to the Monster Hunter universe. The following entries provide additional context.
ITEMS
Blastnuts — Naturally explosive seed pods harvested from certain plants found throughout the wilds. Their volatile properties make them a versatile crafting material, commonly used in the production of grenades, bombs, and custom munitions. As demonstrated here, a creative hunter can hollow out a Blastnut casing and repurpose it as a delivery shell for other substances entirely.