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MHD Chapter 55: Echoes Through the Canopy
🕑 Added 2025-07-18 04:05:50 +0000 UTCThe battle between the Tempered Rathalos and the Rathalos couple erupted without warning—but it was fierce.
The Tempered Rathalos was completely baffled by the couple’s sudden aggression. After all, in the Elder’s Recess, aside from minor creatures like Dodogama, which posed little survival threat, the majority of inhabitants were terrifyingly powerful monsters. Even Tempered Rathalos had to group together to survive, and nests were built close to one another.
So chasing a trespassing creature into another Rathalos’s nest wasn’t unusual. In fact, the nest’s owner often joined in to hunt the intruder down.
But this Tempered Rathalos had forgotten—this was the Ancient Tree. And it wasn’t the same Ancient Tree as before.
The Grimalkyne were no longer something to be on guard against—they had become symbiotic partners.
If their numbers weren’t so limited, the Grimalkyne wouldn’t only serve the Rathalos couples near the canopy layer.
All the Rathalos living in the Ancient Tree had accepted their presence. Even newly arrived Rathalos quickly embraced this arrangement after witnessing how the “veterans” were treated.
Some of the younger Rathalos living in the middle and upper levels of the Ancient Tree even envied the stronger ones who had built their nests near the canopy—able to enjoy all the conveniences that came with this new symbiotic relationship.
And so, just like that, in the span of four short years, these returning Tempered Rathalos had become outliers within the Rathalos community of the Ancient Tree.
To put it bluntly: they had been left behind by the times.
And now, not only had they been abandoned by the times—they were even trying to drag the others back with them.
Even if the "Three Nos" principle—no interference, no overreach, no conflict—still applied, the symbiotic relationship had already become stable. It was now an inseparable part of the Ancient Tree Rathalos ecosystem.
...
The thin membrane of anger that had long built up in the hearts of the Tempered Rathalos couple finally burst.
Without hesitation, they launched an all-out assault on the offending Tempered Rathalos.
After all, it had broken the rules—it barged into the couple’s nest. Getting beaten up was exactly what it deserved.
Sensing the battle, the other Rathalos merely watched from afar, making no move to intervene.
This male Tempered Rathalos, hardened by survival in the Elder’s Recess, was indeed powerful. But even it couldn't take on two Tempered Rathalos at once.
It was soon overwhelmed, whimpering as it flew back to its own nest.
But the Tempered Rathalos couple had no intention of letting it off so easily. They chased it all the way back, clearly determined to drive it out of that territory.
Such an aggressive move sent waves of unease through the other four returning Tempered Rathalos, who immediately sensed the danger and tried to step in.
But the moment they moved, they were met with unified resistance from the Rathalos native to the Ancient Tree.
Under the gaze of dozens of hostile eyes, they could do nothing but watch helplessly as their old comrade from the Elder’s Recess was forced to abandon its nest and relocate to the other side of the Ancient Tree.
With that Tempered male Rathalos gone, the Grimalkyne’s travel routes became far less obstructed. Their service quality improved significantly. Although the threat of the remaining four Tempered Rathalos still loomed, the most critical travel corridor was now clear.
What’s more, after witnessing the entire event, those four Tempered Rathalos finally began to recognize the ecological shift within the Ancient Tree. They no longer targeted the Grimalkyne and instead chose to abandon some of the habits they had formed in the Elder’s Recess. Slowly, they began to try reintegrating into the Ancient Tree community.
This is the nature of a stabilized ecosystem:
Even monsters of Tempered rank—if they lack the power to reshape the system—must choose to adapt.
Or be eliminated by it.
...
After the incident where the Tempered Fire Wyvern pair stood up for the Grimalkynes, the relationship between the Fire Wyverns and the Grimalkynes seemed to have entered a new phase. The symbiotic bond between the two species had deepened further.
The Grimalkynes began serving with even greater dedication, and the Fire Wyverns appeared to trust them more and more.
Their relationship was gradually shifting from a purely transactional one toward a protective one. When the Fire Wyverns living on the Ancient Tree went out to hunt, if they encountered Grimalkynes wearing scales imbued with Fire Wyvern scent around their necks, they would occasionally lend a claw to help drive off hostile Flying Wyverns circling above.
However, this new dynamic was still in its early stages. While the shift was real, it would take time to truly solidify.
...
“Meow~ Meow!”
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader was reporting to Logan—but the message caught him off guard.
The Grimalkyne tribe living on the Ancient Tree had expressed a desire to become a subordinate group of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes.
That part wasn’t too surprising. After all, they lived in the same Ancient Tree and had already begun to integrate. Becoming vassals was entirely normal.
But after friendly discussions between both sides, they’d gone a step further: they believed that the combined number of Grimalkynes in both tribes was still too small. They wanted to go out and recruit other struggling but friendly Grimalkyne groups to move into the Ancient Tree.
Their plan was to form a brand new Grimalkyne tribe centered around the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes, based on the upper layers of the Ancient Tree—distinct from the other Grimalkyne tribes of the Ancient Forest. They even proposed abandoning their old identity as part of the "Forest Insect-Cage Tribe" and renaming themselves the "Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern Tribe."
Good grief—Logan couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes served exclusively under Logan and Aki. The other Grimalkynes who joined as vassals would serve the rest of the Fire Wyverns dwelling on the Ancient Tree. With the growing intimacy between the species, these Grimalkynes would embark on a completely different path than that of the traditional Forest Insect-Cage Tribe.
It was clear now—the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader and the elder of the other tribe intended to grow stronger, to establish a new species group within the ecosystem.
Such boldness. Such ambition.
And yet, Logan had no intention of stopping them. On the contrary—he wanted to see for himself whether this new ecological relationship, born from him and the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes, could truly take root on this continent, where the laws of the jungle reigned supreme.
In ecosystems, a single change often sets off a chain reaction. Perhaps this seemingly minor symbiotic relationship might someday flutter its butterfly wings and unleash a storm.
With Logan’s approval, the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader was filled with motivation. He willingly offered up their only Jagras and dispatched Felynes along with the newly affiliated Grimalkynes to the mid-level regions of the Ancient Forest, to persuade and recruit small Grimalkyne tribes hidden throughout the area.
...
Near the Great Ravine at the edge of the Ancient Forest, the continuous rumble of thunder echoed from the mountaintops. The Zinogre pack had retreated deep into their territory. Now crowned as the new leader, the Tempered Zinogre stood at a high vantage point, warily watching the thunderstorm-filled region in the distance.
Blinding bolts of lightning rained down in dense clusters, illuminating the pitch-black night.
There, striding calmly through the heart of the storm, was a creature like something out of a fairy tale—a unicorn-like phantasmal beast. Wherever it walked, the cataclysmic thunderclouds followed in its wake.
Thunder was its plaything, descending around it at will. Every step its four hooves took left trails of lightning, drawing bolts of thunder from the sky above.
Even though its body was small—out of place among the dominant, colossal monsters of the world—this power to summon natural disasters was, without a doubt, the clearest proof of its identity as an Elder Dragon.
Its steps came to a halt. Following its gaze, one could see a beast with a physique and face resembling a gorilla, a pair of sturdy horns, and a mane as thick and wild as a lion’s. Covered in dark brown fur and stretching about 12 meters in length, the Rajang was bracing itself against a cliff face, its eyes locked onto the Elder Dragon with a glare full of greed and fighting spirit.
For the Kirin, this fated scene was nothing new.
It had already experienced it three times before, and it knew exactly why this Fanged Beast, slightly larger than itself, had come.
The phantom pain from having its horn forcibly snapped three separate times still lingered faintly.
But the pride of an Elder Dragon would never allow it to retreat without a fight.
Known as a Mythical Beast, the Kirin possessed the ability to teleport by riding thunderclouds. If it truly wanted to flee, there were few creatures in existence that could hope to stop it.
Yet without a word, both sides understood: this was a matter of pride. Just like the three times before, the Kirin initiated the attack.
For the Rajang, defeating the Kirin—an Elder Dragon—and devouring its horn was the key. By absorbing the electrolytes contained within the horn, the Rajang would activate and perfectly control the electricity coursing through its body, gaining the powers of discharge and energy transformation.
This was an essential part of every Rajang’s rite of passage into adulthood. Those who succeeded would survive and continue to reign as apex predators, second only to Elder Dragons.
Furthermore, once it awakened its energy state—its body surging with charged fury—it would wield power on par with ordinary Elder Dragons, even capable of clashing head-on with the likes of the Nergigante, one of the strongest among Elder Dragons.
But failure meant only one thing: elimination by the ecosystem. Among adult Rajangs, there was no place for the weak. That was the law of their kind.
