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MHD Chapter 50: Meow, Flashbugs, and Glory!
🕑 Added 2025-07-15 21:04:43 +0000 UTC[Boom!]
Another fireball came hurtling in. The Zinogre Alpha leapt to another branch to evade it. Flames immediately engulfed the branch it had just been standing on, and with a groan under the strain, the wood began to snap apart.
Logan couldn’t quickly destroy the large branches, but the smaller ones were no problem.
He was deliberately shrinking the Zinogre Alpha’s area of movement.
Gliding forward, Logan reengaged it in close-range combat.
Suddenly, when the Zinogre Alpha landed on a large platform, its body staggered. The arcs of lightning wrapped around it scattered in an instant, and a few thunderbugs shot out from its electrically charged fur. It looked like an old injury had flared up again at the worst possible moment.
The sudden weakness caused it to falter—and just like that, it dropped out of its supercharged state.
Logan wasn’t about to miss an opportunity like that. With a powerful beat of his wings, he lunged straight toward it.
Gritting through the weakness, the Zinogre Alpha hurled two balls of lightning in an attempt to halt Logan’s charge.
But to Logan’s eyes, their trajectories were plain as day. With a slight swerve, he dodged them effortlessly.
He then slipped past a snap of the Zinogre Alpha’s jaws, circling smoothly around to its back.
Flames blazed from his claws as they clamped down onto the Zinogre Alpha’s spine. The sharp tips pierced through the scales, plunging deep into the muscle beneath.
Just as Logan was about to exert force and lift it off the ground, a massive electric surge jolted through him—the Zinogre Alpha had abruptly re-entered its supercharged state, and the electricity shot straight through Logan’s foreclaws, surging into his body.
A surge of paralysis shot through him in an instant.
“Got you!”
The Zinogre Alpha, gritting through the pain, wildly increased its output of electricity. Even though Logan’s claws had torn through its electro-sac and it would suffer from the feedback, the Zinogre Alpha showed no intention of stopping.
This was the only way it could think of to end the fight quickly.
Feigning an opening, faking the relapse of an old wound—then sacrificing itself to injure the enemy.
Rathalos weren’t known for high resistance to electricity!
That’s right—Rathalos do not have strong resistance to thunder.
But… was Zinogre highly resistant to fire?
Sometimes, a hunter disguised as prey ends up becoming prey themselves.
What the Zinogre Alpha didn’t know… was that skilled prey also knew how to play pretend.
When only a small amount of flammable fluid is present, it merely burns. But if the amount suddenly surges—
It explodes.
A massive quantity of combustible venom had been pumped into the Zinogre Alpha’s back muscles through Logan’s claws—now ignited by the very electricity the Zinogre Alpha was discharging.
In the blink of an eye, a violent explosion ripped through the air.
With a tortured howl, the Zinogre Alpha’s back was torn apart—chunks of flesh and blood flew in every direction.
This time, it really was forced out of its supercharged state.
Ignoring the numbing current still crawling across his body—and the pain from his cracked, bleeding claws—Logan gritted through it all.
He seized the Zinogre Alpha in his grasp.
As it realized what fate awaited and began one final desperate struggle, Logan carried it up—forcefully—above the treetop canopy.
Without hesitation, he released his grip.
He watched as the Zinogre Alpha's body passed through the canopy and plummeted powerlessly in free fall, tumbling from the sky.
Taking a deep breath, Logan folded his wings and dove down.
He had to see it die—with his own eyes.
...
The Thunder Wolf Wyvern leader plummeted from the sky at terrifying speed. Perhaps it had resigned itself to fate—there was no further struggle. It simply let its body free-fall.
Logan dove after it, eyes locked onto his target. He didn’t break focus until the Thunder Wolf Wyvern tore through the smaller branches below and crashed into the lower layers beneath the Ancient Tree with a dull, bone-jarring thud. Only then did Logan follow it in, wings whipping up a pressure surge as he hovered low beside its massive frame.
Half of the Thunder Wolf Wyvern’s body was buried in the earth. From this height, not even an Elder Dragon could escape unscathed—let alone a heavily injured one like this.
Its jaws leaked blood and foam, and the soil around it was soaked in crimson. The last few Thunderbugs flickered and scattered from its body. Logan readied himself to unleash a breath of fire, intending to end it once and for all.
But suddenly, he felt a tingling sensation course through his body—tiny arcs of electricity flickered across his scales.
A memory struck him. He recalled how certain Thunder Wolf Wyverns in his past life had behaved just before death.
With a powerful flap, he surged upward, quickly gaining altitude and putting distance between himself and the corpse below.
A second later, a thunderous boom erupted like a crashing storm. Wild arcs of electricity lashed out, striking nearby vegetation, and an intense burst of light illuminated the entire shadowed lower layer of the forest.
“—Tch! Damn, that hurts!”
Even though he had retreated in time, the explosion had come too fast. The end of his tail still caught some of the blast.
The Fire Wyvern’s hide had poor resistance to electricity. Logan’s tail now throbbed with pain, hot and raw. Several of his tail spines had even snapped off.
When the lightning faded, what remained of the Thunder Wolf Wyvern was a pale, ashen shell. The gaping wound from the fall had evaporated all the blood from its body, leaving behind the pungent, roasted stench of cooked flesh.
“How much energy had that thing stored in its charged carapace, anyway?”
Even in death, it still managed to pull off one last move. If he hadn’t dodged in time, the blast wouldn’t have killed him, but it definitely would’ve left him badly wounded.
Confirming once again that the creature was truly dead, Logan turned and flew toward the upper layers of the Ancient Tree, where battle still raged.
After his departure, the stench of blood finally drew the long-delayed flock of scavengers. They swooped in, descending upon the Thunder Wolf Wyvern’s remains—only to find that its once-hardened carapace now crumbled at the slightest touch, turning to ash upon contact with their claws.
The flesh beneath resembled burnt jerky—dry and rock-hard. Even the ravenous scavengers found it impossible to swallow and ultimately gave up.
...
When Logan reached the upper layers of the Ancient Tree, he immediately located Aki.
She was holding her own against two Tempered Thunder Wolf Wyverns, not showing the slightest sign of retreat.
Though she’d taken her fair share of injuries, the two Thunder Wolf Wyverns were in far worse shape.
One of them had been knocked out of its supercharged state. One of its forelimbs was visibly shattered—completely useless now.
The other had been hit with a potent venom. Even the blood oozing from its wounds had taken on a deep purple hue. No matter how the battle ended, this one was as good as dead.
Logan let out a powerful roar, announcing his arrival!
The Thunder Wolf Wyverns instantly understood what that meant—and the ferocity in their attacks dropped sharply.
Meanwhile, the Fire Wyverns surged forward with renewed vigor, as if injected with adrenaline. The Thunder Wolf Wyvern pack, already on the back foot and merely holding out through sheer desperation, began to crumble under the mounting pressure.
Logan, after making his presence known and boosting the morale of the Fire Wyverns, plunged straight into the fray, joining Aki in launching a new wave of slaughter.
Inside the Ancient Tree, a group of Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes were engaged in a desperate struggle for survival.
A regular Zinogre was ensnared by vine traps on a wide platform. From a distance, the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes hurled poisoned spears and boomerangs, but unfortunately, the poor sharpness of their weapons made it difficult to break through the Zinogre's defenses.
"Meow! Stay focused, everyone, meow! We've spent years setting up these traps just for this moment—for the Fire Wyvern boss!!"
A Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne, holding a horn and wearing a Fire Wyvern claw as a head ornament, rallied its companions while using the horn to coordinate their assault.
The Zinogre thrashed about wildly, tearing at the vines with its claws and fangs. Just as it broke free and landed, one of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes tossed a small cage toward it.
Inside the cage—a swarm of Flashbugs!
"Close your eyes, meow!!"
Like a flash bomb detonating, a burst of blinding light instantly turned the entire platform white.
Caught off guard, the Zinogre's eyes seared in pain, its vision stripped away by the sudden flash.
Panicked and disoriented, the Zinogre lashed out madly. In the chaos, it stepped right into another vine trap, which promptly ensnared it once more.
"Charge, meow!!"
Sita had just arrived on the scene via a narrow path with a squad of Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warriors and witnessed the moment unfold.
The Zinogre howled in agony, its claws clamped over its eyes. Vines coiled tightly around its body like a net, and a large group of Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes swarmed in, wielding bone weapons, hacking at the now-helpless monster.
But to Sita’s eyes, their gear was woefully outdated—despite their full-force strikes, they were barely managing to pierce the scales.
“Out of the way, meow!!”
At that moment, a slightly larger Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne burst out from a nearby wall, holding a bomb made from some kind of fruit husk. As the others cleared the area, it lobbed the bomb straight at the Zinogre’s head.
The moment the Zinogre barely regained its vision and loosened its front claws, the bomb went off with a thunderous blast—hitting it at the perfect instant and dealing massive damage!
"Meow, meow, meow! Charge!!"
A Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne warrior charged forward riding a Jagras, while Sita made to follow—only to be stopped by another Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne.
"Don’t go, meow! You don’t know where the traps are—you’ll just slow us down, meow!"
Seeing that this Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne wasn’t joking, Sita relaxed her paw from the sword hilt and gave a cool nod, stepping aside to quietly observe.
And so, under Sita’s watchful gaze, the Zinogre stumbled into trap after trap—barely taking three steps before getting caught again. Even when it managed to struggle free, it was immediately hit with another round of Flashbugs. Though it tried to shut its eyes in time, its panic led it right into the next snare.
Caught in this endless cycle, it wasn’t just losing stamina—its mind was breaking down too.
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes’ attacks weren’t particularly strong, but most of their weapons were coated in poison.
And this poison wasn’t ordinary—it included toxic compounds gifted by Aki herself. After several rounds, even the Zinogre began to show signs of faltering.
When it saw the Grimalkynes preparing yet another batch of Flashbugs, the Zinogre could take no more. Its eyes bloodshot, body trembling, it ignored the attacking Grimalkynes and limped away at full speed, fleeing the battlefield.
Cheers erupted from the Fire Wyvern Grimalkynes.
They had successfully held back and driven off a Zinogre—they had made their contribution to this war.
This was a Zinogre, after all!
In the long history of the Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne tribe, never before had they achieved such a feat!
