"Watch the tail! The attack range is huge!"
Olivia held her Hammer at a slant, adjusting her positioning while shouting a warning to her companions.
She had repeated similar warnings many times before they set out, but she still couldn't help blucking them out now.
She was worried that the three young hunters might have developed some form of contempt for the Glavenus due to their successful suppression of it just moments ago.
One must understand that even among 5★ Threat Level Monsters, the Glavenus was famously difficult to deal with.
There was a saying that the Glavenus was the best whetstone for a powerful Blademaster; some Long Sword users would even specifically seek out Glavenus to hunt just to hone their sword techniques.
However, the "powerful Blademasters" mentioned here usually referred to experts at the level of a high-rank Hunter.
The fact that it was seen by them as an opponent for polishing their skills proved that this monster could pressure them and pose a genuine threat.
Altaïr and the other two certainly wouldn't be careless.
Though they had mentioned having faced or even defeated 5★ Threat Level Monsters several times shortly after being promoted to 4★, every single one of those encounters had been a narrow escape.
They barely had time to be cautious, let alone feel contempt...
Relying on their high-speed mobility, Altaïr and Nymera quickly increased their distance, heading toward the blind spots behind the Glavenus.
As attackers, their job right now was to lower their presence as much as possible, ideally making the monster forget they even existed.
Once the frontliners drew the target's attention again, they would look for an opportunity to strike.
As a heavily armored hunter, Isis couldn't simply run away like they did; she had to find a way to weather this wave of counterattacks.
Through the slats of her visor, her eyes remained fixed on the Glavenus's movements.
When Olivia shared her experience hunting Glavenus, she had emphasized that its attacks were powerful, fast, and wide-reaching, making it extremely dangerous for the inexperienced.
But conversely, the Glavenus's tells before an attack were relatively obvious.
Carefully observing its movements, predicting its attack patterns, and preparing in advance was arguably the only way to deal with its onslaught.
Under Isis's watch, the Glavenus let out a low growl and lowered its body while its greatsword-like tail blade rose high into the air.
Seeing this, Isis immediately stepped back, simultaneously firing consecutive shelling to use the recoil to accelerate her retreat.
In the next second, the Glavenus's tail blade came sweeping down.
Isis's timely reaction was critical. By retreating early, although she didn't completely exit the attack range, she had moved out of the sweep's most powerful zone.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she slammed down her Large Shield and entered a Defensive Stance.
The tip of the tail blade swept across the Large Shield, sending sparks flying and leaving a clear gash on the solid alloy surface.
The massive impact traveled through the shield; Isis lowered her center of gravity, tensing her muscles as her battle boots bit into the ground, helping her withstand the strike.
Isis broke into a cold sweat.
She could barely handle the force of the blow, but the shield in her hand didn't seem capable of perfectly blocking the tail blade's slashes. It looked like she would have to avoid taking hits head-on whenever possible, or else gravity might split the shield apart.
"It's not over yet!" Olivia yelled. The Glavenus took another large leap backward, pivoting on a single leg to spin one hundred and eighty degrees as its tail blade came down in a Vertical Chop.
Isis recognized this move. The last time she had faced this Glavenus, she had nearly been wounded by it, and she scrambled to leap to the side.
However, the hurried side-hop lacked sufficient distance; while it saved her from a direct vertical hit to the head, her shoulder and arm remained within the trajectory of the tail blade.
Isis clearly realized this as well. She raised her shield at a nearly vertical angle, bracing the Large Shield against her exaggerated pauldrons to solidify her defense.
In this position, she would likely sustain some injury from the impact, but she hoped to deflect the downward slash.
She could only pray that the Large Shield in her hand would hold.
Altaïr, circling the edge of the battlefield, had already prepared to charge in for support, while Nymera raised her Light Bowgun, intending to use suppressive fire to distract the Monster.
Right then, Olivia approached with heavy strides.
Her Hammer had long been at full Charge. The moment the Glavenus's tail blade slammed down, she let out a roar and leapt into the air, swinging her Hammer upward to meet the side of the descending tail blade.
Clang!
Amidst the ear-piercing ring of the collision, the Hammer in Olivia's hands bounced back, but the path of the Glavenus's tail blade was shifted by the impact.
Even though it was only jarred twenty centimeters off course, it was a critical difference for Isis, who was bearing the brunt of the attack.
It was the difference between taking a punch square in the face and a fist merely grazing the cheek. With Olivia's help, Isis parried the blow with relative ease.
As she lowered her shield, she didn't forget to shout, "Thanks, Olivia!"
Olivia had no time to respond. As her feet hit the ground, she used the inertia of the rebounding Hammer to swing the weapon once more.
Most Monsters are loath to leave their backs exposed to an enemy, and after a spinning tail strike, the Glavenus's first instinct was to turn back around.
Using the Hammer's inertia, Olivia leapt once more, bringing the heavy weapon crashing down onto the Glavenus's head. The force drove its skull downward, causing the beast to stagger back several steps.
Seeing the crisis on Isis's end averted, Altaïr halted his charge.
Olivia's counter-attack and follow-up techniques were unlike anything he had ever seen. Her composure when facing a Glavenus's powerful assault made him fully realize the gap between himself and a truly experienced 5★ hunter.
With his current skills, he could, at a push, be considered capable of hunting 5★ Monsters alone; if he were to apply for a 5★ promotion exam, he would have a chance of passing.
But he could never achieve the effortless ease displayed by Olivia.
She had spent more time honing her skills at 5★ than his entire career as a Hunter.
No wonder Teacher Karin had judged him as "not yet qualified." Compared to Olivia, he was severely lacking in both technique and experience.
Having successfully repelled the Glavenus, Olivia held her Hammer high and let out a series of shouts: "Hua! Ah!" (A Hammer combat technique, a forceful provocation with the literal intended effect.)
This provocative stance successfully drew the Glavenus's attention entirely onto her.
Although Isis was the true heavily armored hunter of the group, Olivia had noticed Isis's shortcoming during the battle just now, her outdated weapon performance. In her view, Isis's techniques for both offense and defense were quite outstanding, but her shield was simply not enough to block the slashes from the Glavenus's tail blade.
As such, it was no longer appropriate to let Isis remain the primary frontliner and bear the brunt of the pressure; she would take over instead.
Facing the provocative Hunter before it, the Glavenus pressed its tail blade against the ground and suddenly jerked it upward.
The shell, coated in sulfur and other flammable substances, ignited into a fierce blaze from the high-speed friction against the earth. As its tail swung, the fire transformed into a flame wave that surged forward.
Olivia and Isis hastily performed a diving roll toward opposite sides, narrowly avoiding the incoming wave of fire.
Having temporarily forced the Hunters back, the Glavenus began churning flames within its maw.
Altaïr and the others immediately tensed up; was this a precursor to a breath attack?
However, only Olivia, who had hunted a Glavenus more than once, truly understood what this phenomenon meant. Springing to her feet, she held her Hammer at a slant to begin storing power and charged toward the Monster, shouting a warning to the group.
"Get back!"
Without a second thought, the others did as they were told.
The Glavenus curled its body, its massive mouth spewing blazing fire as it clamped down on that greatsword-like tail blade.
Under the scorching heat of the dragon flame, the deep-blue crystalline tail blade was dyed in a heat-red glow of high temperatures within a matter of seconds.
The massive tail dragged through the Glavenus's mouth, the friction between its sharp teeth and the tail blade making the burning edge even sharper.
Having complied and retreated dozens of meters away, Altaïr watched the Glavenus's movements in surprise, catching a faint resemblance to the Long Sword.
The tail blade was the long blade, and the dragon's maw was the scabbard.
The resistance between the dragon's teeth and the tail blade was both a sharpening process and a way of storing power for the coming strike.
Thinking of it from this perspective, he felt as if he could predict the exact moment the Glavenus would "draw its blade."
Is this a goddamned great Iai?!
P.S. It's a bit of a pity I didn't let Altaïr use a Long Sword to trade Iai strikes with the Glavenus. I mostly feel that the current protagonist might not necessarily win an Iai exchange against a Glavenus.
Maybe I'll set up a Hellblade later (x)
(Translated by yourtl.app)