His nearly depleted points and crumbling mental state were constant reminders of a cruel reality—
He was at his limit.
Against Vaal Hazak, Leon always felt a glimmer of hope for victory, but against Nergigante, he was utterly helpless.
Even though they were both Elder Dragons, the sheer power, attack frequency, and movement speed were on completely different levels...
In a battle lasting less than ten minutes, Nergigante had completely suppressed Leon. The pressure it exerted was far beyond anything Vaal Hazak could produce.
Under the light of the morning sun.
Nergigante stood like a king, head held high, seemingly having decided that the human before it was no longer a threat.
'No...'
'If I can't even handle Nergigante...'
'How will I ever go home?'
A system task had finally appeared; perhaps completing the main quest was the only way back...
How could Leon possibly give up?
He gripped the Matched Slicers tightly, re-entering Demon Mode.
Seeing this, Nergigante's gaze refocused.
In the next instant.
Leon closed the distance with a series of slides, raising his blades to slash at Nergigante's massive horns.
*Crack! Crack!*
Accompanying a piercing snapping sound, a faint hairline fracture actually appeared on Nergigante's rock-hard horn.
'I broke through!'
Because his Strength had increased, his damage output had followed suit.
Hope flared in Leon's eyes. With blood trickling down his chin and shrouded in the crimson glow of Demon Mode, he lunged forward once more.
Blade shadows crossed as sparks flew!
—Boom!!
With a loud crash, the crack on Nergigante's left horn finally widened under Leon's relentless assault.
"ROOOAR—!!!"
Nergigante let out a deafening roar that startled the birds throughout the entire forest and made the ground tremble.
It was enraged!
The next second, Nergigante lunged across the ground. Casting a shadow that blotted out the sky, its claws tore through the air as it pounced straight for Leon.
"Come on!!!" Leon roared, having no intention of backing down.
He kicked off the ground, transforming into a crimson blur as he slid along the earth, barely evading Nergigante's surface-shattering strike.
But how could an enraged Elder Dragon stop there?
It whipped its body around, its tail whistling through the air as it smashed down.
—Bang!!!
Leon was sent flying dozens of meters like a kite with a broken string, eventually buried under a heap of collapsing rocks.
A blood-stained arm slowly reached out from among the rocks.
"Cough... *hack*...!!"
Leon struggled to his feet.
His Rathalos armor was long since ruined, and there was hardly a patch of uninjured skin left on his body. Wounds were splitting open and blood flowed freely, yet a near-manic smile spread across his face.
'Finally, I see it clearly...'
"System, allocate points!"
[Attributes: Strength 30, Agility 23, Vitality 21, Perception 15. (Unassigned Points: 2)]
[Strength +1, Current: 31]
[Unassigned Points: 1]
Demon Mode erupted once again!
His battered dual blades were bathed in a crimson glow. Leon looked like an Asura crawling out of hell, advancing step by step through the blood.
Sensing the threat, Nergigante's vertical pupils—red as molten lava—locked onto the indomitable human.
Its front claws tore into the earth, and with a world-shattering roar, it lunged at Leon again amidst a foul wind.
This time, Leon still didn't choose to dodge early.
He stared at the contraction of Nergigante's muscles, the positioning of its claws and tail, and the downward shift of its body...
"I can dodge this..." Leon crouched and rolled. The razor-sharp claws whistled past, missing his body by a mere hair's breadth.
Immediately following was a tail sweep.
Leon pushed off the ground, flipping into the air just as the wind from the tail brushed past him.
—He dodged it again!
Nergigante's assault had failed to land a single hit.
In an instant, the roles of attacker and defender reversed.
Leon lunged forward, dual blades held high, aiming directly for the cracked horn.
The blades fell like crossing thunderbolts!
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*—!!!
The cracks spread violently.
—Boom!!!
Under Leon's consecutive slashes, Nergigante's massive horn finally snapped off.
The loss of its horn caused the dragon to lose its balance.
Nergigante collapsed onto its side.
Seizing the moment, Leon surged forward to press the attack.
Blade Dance! Blade Dance! Blade Dance!
Leon swung his blades frantically, the sword light descending like lightning as the blade energy whipped up a deafening gale.
Every impact sent waves of agonizing pain through his numbing arms, yet he continued to swing his weapons against the massive, dangerous monster.
Leon refused to give in!
Even if he only had a sliver of stamina left, even if it was his very last drop of strength, he wouldn't let it end here.
There was no fear in his eyes, only a fanatical desire: to defeat Nergigante and leave this place alive!
Suddenly.
A sharp snapping sound rang out.
*Snap!*
The blades of the Matched Slicers, overstrained by Leon's powerful swings, snapped clean in two.
This was followed by an intense tearing sensation in his wrists and the hollow feeling of losing his weapons.
"It's over..." Leon froze, his swinging motion stiffening instantly.
Nergigante seemed to sense this as it beat its wings violently, taking to the air.
"Just a little more..." Leon felt the world spin around him, the intense pain nearly making him collapse.
He looked at the broken weapons in his hands, on the verge of a breakdown.
Watching Nergigante prepare its final, devastating attack, Leon's mind went blank. He knew he no longer had the strength to resist.
Unexpectedly, Nergigante did not continue its attack. A light that seemed to carry some deep meaning flashed in its eyes as it looked at Leon.
Nergigante hovered in mid-air, its massive wings kicking up a gale with every beat.
Leon looked up, meeting the gaze of the colossal Elder Dragon. Though blood seeped from his wounds, his eyes showed no hint of retreat.
There was almost no intact skin left on his body, and his weapons were completely destroyed. He wouldn't be able to block even a single hit.
But Leon did not choose to bow his head.
Survival of the fittest; he had done his best.
Like a king of hell, Nergigante slowly raised its head and let out a low growl.
The next moment, it spread its massive wings wide.
—Boom!
An explosive sonic wave cleared the clouds, and the massive figure flew further and further away under Leon's watchful gaze...
Eventually, it disappeared into the horizon.
Leon stared blankly at the sky.
He didn't move for a long time.
He didn't know what Nergigante was thinking at that moment or why it hadn't delivered the final blow.
Is it because I'm worthless?
Or... has it simply lost interest in me?
Leon looked up at the sky, his lips parched and his eyes glazed, until the heavens returned to complete silence.
Only then did he lower his head and slowly pull a Potion from his spatial ring, the dark green liquid sloshing inside.
With trembling hands, Leon uncorked the bottle. The movement tugged at his nerves and wounds, making even this simple action incredibly difficult.
He tilted his head back and downed the liquid in one gulp.
The cool liquid slid down his throat and into his stomach, stimulating his near-collapsed nerves like a clash of ice and fire.
"Finally... made it through..."
Before he could finish, Leon fell backward and collapsed onto the hard rock.
His consciousness faded as the light before his eyes blurred and overlapped. The world itself seemed to spin.
He had reached his limit.