Isis's seemingly reckless move was absolutely critical.
This was no open wilderness where they could simply mark a Monster with a Paintball, track it at their leisure, and drag the battle into a war of attrition.
They were inside a gargantuan labyrinth whose total area rivaled, and perhaps even exceeded, that of the ancient city ruins above.
They currently stood at the labyrinth's very center, directly beneath the ruins of the grand hall.
If the Ghost Dragon escaped this area and began racing through the maze, they would have almost no hope of catching it unless it stopped.
According to Mr. Alva, the labyrinth also contained countless traps and mechanisms of unknown purpose. Chasing the Ghost Dragon blindly through it would be asking for trouble.
The sweeping strike at the end of Isis's head-on Blast Dash brought the Ghost Dragon's escape to an abrupt halt and nearly knocked the airborne creature down again.
The Ghost Dragon landed on all fours and skidded sideways, barely regaining its balance. It opened its enormous jaws, ready to unleash the same high-frequency roar that had injured their internal organs before, but Isis moved first. She fired her Clutch Claw, let the line pull her forward, and clambered onto its head.
"Try this!"
She drove the entire Gunlance into the Ghost Dragon's empty eye socket and pulled the trigger hard.
With the muffled thud of exploding gunpowder, the Wyrmstake Cannon buried itself deep in the Ghost Dragon's skull.
The blow clearly inflicted severe damage. The Ghost Dragon's entire body convulsed violently, and it collapsed almost at once.
"Nice one!" Altaïr shouted. Holding his Long Sword diagonally in both hands, he closed in at full speed.
Their target was already gravely wounded, and Isis's last shot had dealt critical damage. If they still could not suppress it head-on, they would hardly deserve to call themselves High Rank Hunters.
As he reached the Monster, Altaïr activated Demon Mode. He alternated Crimson Blade Slashes with Spirit Blade attacks, whipping his weapon into a blur of afterimages.
Isis sprang backward and landed, slammed the butt of her Gunlance down to reload, then snatched a bottle of Mega Demondrug from the strap behind her shield and drained it.
Frenzied power surged through her. Her red-hot Gunlance came crashing down with every bit as much force as a Great Sword user's blow.
"Less than a minute left!" Isis shouted as she pressed her all-out assault.
Altaïr knew she meant the cooldown on Wyvern's Fire.
She intended to finish the fight with the devastating Dragon Blast. Until then, he had to keep the Ghost Dragon pinned firmly in place.
"ROAR!"
An inhuman howl rang out as Altaïr activated Beast Soul Possession without hesitation. A jet-black aura of fighting spirit erupted around him and spread across the blade of his Long Sword.
Ignoring the faint tearing sensation caused by the fighting spirit building within him, Altaïr drove his speed and power to an entirely new level.
Faced with a mortal threat, the Ghost Dragon shrieked and forced itself upright. It endured Altaïr's ferocious assault head-on and swept its claws at him, trying to knock him away.
At the same time, its flexible bony tail stretched out and silently curled around behind the Hunter.
Altaïr never paused his assault. He waited until a bony claw was almost in his face, then raised his blade horizontally and deflected the talons with a Tempered Spirit Blade. The downward counter that followed carved another wound into the side of the Ghost Dragon's neck.
"Watch out!" Isis shouted from the flank.
The instant she spoke, Altaïr leaped and backflipped over the tail that had struck at him from behind.
His feet touched down, and he continued the turn. His rising diagonal slash knocked aside the Ghost Dragon's other claw as he plunged back into position before the Monster's head.
Foresight Slash: Spin!
As he parried and anticipated each attack, his fighting spirit climbed at a startling pace and reached its peak in the blink of an eye.
Enraged at having every attack thwarted, the Ghost Dragon opened its enormous jaws and snapped at him.
Normally one to meet a Monster head-on, Altaïr instead retreated with a sliding step. It could not carry him beyond the creature's reach in time, but Isis promptly lunged in from the side, took the front position, and knocked the Ghost Dragon's head backward with a Shield Assault.
Now safely behind Isis, Altaïr did not waste time on a Spirit Thrust. Instead, he quickened his pace, stepped first on her weapon and then on her shoulder for leverage, and vaulted straight into the air.
He reversed the blade in his hands. His Spirit and strength were already concentrated to their limits. Aiming at the vital point on the Ghost Dragon's neck, exposed when Isis forced its head back, he brought the blade straight down.
Spirit Helm Breaker!
A massive wound two to three meters long tore open from its throat to its chest. Pitch-black fluid poured out amid the Monster's piercing shrieks.
After landing, Altaïr kept swinging and gathered the lingering Spirit around his blade once more. It coiled into a gale, then erupted again.
Unsurpassed Slash!
The gale-like burst of Spirit kicked countless sparks from Isis's shield. Holding her firm defensive stance, she pulled the trigger at the same moment.
Staggering heat gathered inside the muzzle.
His attack complete, Altaïr bolted away with all his strength, like a Gargwa that had just been kicked, while silently counting down.
"Three, two..." He threw himself flat on the ground!
"Dragon Blast!"
Golden-red flames engulfed the Ghost Dragon. The terrifying shock wave instantly shattered the vital areas of its chest and abdomen, which had no carapace to protect them.
Such an injury would have been fatal to any living creature, let alone the Ghost Dragon, whose frail body was naturally vulnerable to intense heat and flame.
The grotesquely twisted creature raised its head in a silent, mournful cry, then crashed heavily to the ground and lay still.
The Hunters did not dare lower their guard yet.
Isis raised her Gunlance and shield and crept toward the Ghost Dragon's corpse. She thrust the weapon into its empty eye socket and emptied the remaining shells in the chamber.
The Ghost Dragon still showed no sign of movement. Isis exhaled softly, folded and stowed her weapon, then lowered her shield.
"Confirmed kill."
Altaïr walked over with a hint of exasperation on his face. He had barely avoided being blown away by Dragon Blast's aftershock.
He badly wanted to remind Isis that Dragon Blast packed a serious punch and that, next time, she could wait until her teammate was farther from the muzzle before firing it.
On second thought, however, Isis's timing had been perfect.
His Spirit Helm Breaker and Unsurpassed Slash had just torn open the vital areas of the target's neck and torso. The Wyvern's Fire that followed had struck those wounds dead-on and kept the dying Monster from dodging the decisive blow. It had been a flawless combination.
He simply needed to run faster next time so he would not end up in such a sorry state after every attack.
By the time he spoke, his intended complaint had turned into something else. "It'll probably take Mr. Gordon and the others quite a while to reach us. Let's start carving."
"All right!" Delighted by the successful Hunt, Isis drew her Carving Knife, only to freeze. "Carve what? This thing doesn't have a single scale. Its skin isn't even tough, and it doesn't have any fangs. Can we really collect materials from it that could be used to forge equipment?"
"...Yeah." Altaïr fell silent for a few seconds. "At least take a couple of claws as souvenirs. Leave the rest for the scholars who come later."
As the two discussed how to signal the others above, Isis suddenly noticed something unusual. "Hey, what's that? Fireflies?"
Fireflies? In the desert? Where could fireflies have come from?
Utterly baffled, Altaïr followed her pointing finger.
Tiny specks of light had begun to flicker across the Ghost Dragon's corpse.
As time passed, the lights grew denser and brighter until they enveloped the entire body.
Altaïr could not help stepping closer. He noticed the specks flowing out of the Ghost Dragon's wounds. They seemed to be... the same microscopic organisms that had formed the black haze earlier.
They were glowing.
No, they were not coming only from the Ghost Dragon's corpse. More points of light drifted up from every corner of the labyrinth and floated overhead, dotting the pitch-black underground palace until it resembled a star-filled sky.
Beautiful as the sight was, the Hunters were in no mood to admire it.
Without a word, they both recalled the inscription the Ancient Wyverian had left on the stone carving.
"When the night sky fills with stars, the dragon that devours the stars... shall be born from a rift in hell...?" Altaïr murmured.
The earth suddenly began to quake violently.
As though responding to some stimulus, or perhaps a command, the countless specks of light converged from every direction. They settled on the Ghost Dragon's corpse, their blinding radiance almost impossible to look at.
The Hunters retreated rapidly, putting distance between themselves and the unnatural remains.
"Riiip!"
A sickening sound of tearing flesh rang out. The Ghost Dragon's corpse split open from within, and a claw seemingly forged from pure light thrust out through the gaping tear, reaching toward the sky hidden beyond the cavern's rocky dome.