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MHD Chapter 75: Claws, Fangs, and Fire
🕑 Added 2025-07-31 03:24:09 +0000 UTCThe Deviljho’s vision was completely obscured by the flames, and the searing pain burning across its head made it roar in agony.
Logan seized the moment. Both claws latched onto the Deviljho’s neck, the tips piercing deep into its muscle. He began injecting large amounts of combustible venom, aiming to replicate the tactic he once used against the Zinogre leader—detonating the toxin directly within flesh and blood.
But the next second, a ripple of black-red energy surged across the Deviljho’s body.
The combustible venom was instantly suppressed. It lost all reactivity and could no longer be ignited.
The flames on the Deviljho’s head also began to extinguish. Agitated by the pain and its blocked vision, the beast lashed out madly at Logan’s figure.
Unfortunately for the Deviljho, its muscular movements had already been fully laid bare before Logan’s Mind’s Eye. The moment he sensed the detonation had failed, he released his grip and used his speed advantage to nimbly evade the monster’s wild, chaotic attacks.
Flames still cloaked Logan’s claws. Using the openings between the Deviljho’s swings, he delivered slash after slash, leaving wound after wound. Just as the fire atop its head was about to go out completely, he once again found the perfect angle and doused it in liquid fire—rekindling the flames and prolonging its suffering.
This time, the Deviljho couldn’t take it anymore. The burning itself wasn’t terribly damaging, but the fact that it just wouldn’t stop—especially on its head—was maddening.
Unlike a Rajang, the Deviljho didn’t have nimble forelimbs it could use to swat the fire away.
Its muscles began to bulge.
Most noticeably, its neck swelled like an inflating balloon, each muscle block expanding in turn. Inside its body, black dragon-element energy surged violently.
With a loud exhale, the Deviljho spewed out a cloud of black smoke laced with red lightning—instantly extinguishing the flames on its head. Its scorched face, now wreathed in the smoke, appeared even more ferocious.
It had entered its true combat form!
At this point, the dragon-element energy inside the Deviljho had been fully activated. Its stamina consumption skyrocketed, and the inflation of its muscles actually caused a drop in its natural defense.
But in exchange, it gained even more terrifying strength, faster and more violent attack speeds, and—most critically—an overwhelming elemental suppression against all other energies through its empowered dragon-element force.
Fortunately, Logan had already taken to the air before the Deviljho entered its muscle-swollen state, so the expelled dragon-elemental energy failed to reach him.
Every time the Deviljho tapped into its dragon-elemental power, it was essentially burning through its own life force. At this moment, it wasn’t just the most dangerous for its enemies—but for itself as well.
It was simply a matter of who would collapse first: the Deviljho or its opponent.
Naturally, Logan—hovering above—was not its immediate target. The Deviljho hadn’t yet lost its rationality; it knew full well how troublesome airborne wyverns could be. It needed the right opportunity to bring Logan down—that would be its chance to kill him.
Until then, the monsters on the ground were its priority.
The Deviljho launched the first attack, charging straight at the Glavenus closest to it.
Unwilling to back down, the Glavenus ground its lower jaw against its blade-like tail, then lunged like a master swordsman with a sweeping spin slash.
But the Deviljho made no effort to dodge. It took the hit head-on and, without slowing down, charged directly in front of the Glavenus. Its massive maw, filled with jagged teeth, opened to a grotesque extent—lunging to tear into the Glavenus’s neck.
[Boom!]
A fireball fell vertically and struck the Deviljho square in the head. Using Mind’s Eye, Logan had already anticipated the Deviljho’s plan and precisely where it would strike.
The fireball had been primed and ready. He released it without hesitation, and the explosion not only dealt damage but also forced the Deviljho’s head to jerk aside.
The Glavenus seized the opportunity, twisting its body to narrowly avoid the fatal bite.
Meanwhile, the Fulgur Anjanath clamped onto the Deviljho’s tail, electricity crackling as it savagely tore into it. The tempered Anjanath joined the assault, slamming into the base of the Deviljho’s tail like a living battering ram, helping the Fulgur Anjanath inflict even more damage.
And then there was the Ebony Odogaron—leaping once again, attempting to sink its dragon-element-infused fangs into the Deviljho’s neck.
"Roar!" (You idiot! Don’t charge in like that!)
Logan clearly saw that the moment the Fulgur Anjanath bit down on the Deviljho’s tail, the monster’s side muscles immediately began to contract with explosive force. The subsequent charge from the Tempered Anjanath made it twist its head around in pain.
And right then, the Ebony Odogaron leapt toward the same side.
Wasn’t it just throwing itself right into the Deviljho’s mouth?
At this point, with its muscles in a fully pumped state, the Deviljho possessed terrifying strength. Its tail lashed out violently, tearing off a chunk of flesh in the process as it broke free from the Fulgur Anjanath’s bite. Blood gushed from the wound—but for the Deviljho, with its outrageously rapid metabolism, such an injury would be easy to recover from as long as there was enough food.
The Deviljho twisted its body around, and the Ebony Odogaron clinging to it had no time to leap off before it was caught in its jaws.
With a horrific crunch, all signs of resistance vanished from the Odogaron. Just like that Great Jagras at the start, it was now being wielded as a weapon by the Deviljho, flung violently again and again at the remaining three monsters.
Each strike was pure torment for the Ebony Odogaron. Blood gushed from its body like a spring, splattering from the Deviljho’s mouth in a crimson arc.
High in the air, Logan unleashed precise fireballs one after another. Each exploded on the Deviljho’s body, searing it with blackened craters.
On the ground, the three remaining monsters adopted a hit-and-run tactic—doing their best to avoid the Deviljho’s attacks while looking for opportunities to strike back.
The four massive beasts clashed in an ever-shifting melee, and the shockwaves of their battle sent waves of vegetation crashing down in their wake.
Finally, just as the Deviljho focused on attacking the Tempered Anjanath, the Glavenus seized the moment—its tail blade glinting with a cold sheen as it arced around the Odogaron, which was now being used as both shield and weapon. With pinpoint accuracy, the Glavenus struck the Deviljho right in the forehead, carving a deep gash that reached to the bone.
The Deviljho staggered, stunned for a brief moment, and its jaw fell open. The Ebony Odogaron—its breath already more out than in—crashed to the ground, blood gushing like a river.
Logan seized this hard-earned chance and soared directly above the Deviljho.
Flames quickly gathered in his throat.
At that moment, the Fulgur Anjanath—already exhausted and bearing several wounds—suddenly gave a low, urgent growl toward the Tempered Anjanath.
“Huh?”
The Tempered Anjanath thought it had misheard. Was the Fulgur Anjanath really asking it to shoot flames at the Rathalos in midair?
The Fulgur Anjanath growled again. Seeing that the Deviljho was starting to recover, it forced its electric sacs to discharge once more, sending a burst of energy through its body as it charged forward and knocked the Deviljho back down to the ground.
The Tempered Anjanath didn’t understand the reasoning, but it chose to comply.
Sparks ignited at the corners of its mouth, and a long stream of flame shot upward—hitting Logan just as he was gathering strength.
The sudden blaze was warm, and it was rapidly absorbed through the gaps in Logan’s carapace. Channeled into his flame sacs, it was converted—amplifying the power of his own flames.
What had nearly reached full charge now surged even further. The blue-violet hue of the fire became increasingly vivid.
And at last, just as the Anjanath’s fire stream ceased and the Deviljho struggled back to its feet, Logan unleashed a breath of flame at close range.
A pillar of blue-violet fire, scorching like divine retribution, rained down in a vertical torrent—accompanied by intense wind pressure that engulfed the Deviljho entirely.
The temperature of the air shot up at once. Even the Glavenus, with its high resistance to fire, was forced to retreat rapidly—avoiding the blaze that fell like the wrath of heaven.
The Deviljho’s massive body was swallowed whole by the fire. Even the ground around it began to melt, turning to magma beneath the inferno.
