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MHD Chapter 49: Lightning Against Flame
🕑 Added 2025-07-15 01:07:15 +0000 UTCThe weather was quite pleasant today. After returning from their hunt, Logan and Aki had been lying atop the canopy outside their nest, basking in the sun. When they heard a Fire Wyvern’s roar from the other side, they had no idea what was happening.
The Zinogre pack's assault came without warning.
A Fire Wyvern that resided beneath the canopy had just returned—before it could land steadily, a Zinogre pounced out of nowhere and knocked it down. Immediately afterward, a whole pack of Zinogre burst forth, crackling with electricity as they launched a ruthless attack.
The poor wyvern only had time to let out a single roar—didn’t even get a chance to fight back—before it was swallowed up by the tide of Zinogre.
Fortunately, that roar successfully alerted the Fire Wyverns on the Ancient Tree.
Hearing the sound, the Rathalos took flight from their nests one after another. What they saw was a dense horde of Zinogre, led by a commander wreathed in blue and gold lightning, surging up the slope toward the upper canopy of the Ancient Tree.
Such an open and brazen charge ignited the Fire Wyverns’ fury.
With a chorus of roars, they beat their wings and charged without hesitation.
Logan and Aki were among them.
Logan immediately spotted the Zinogre leader.
Without hesitation, he let loose a blazing fireball to announce his presence.
Naturally, the Zinogre leader had also spotted Logan. Its eyes flared with light, but it didn’t lose focus—instead, it deftly evaded the diving attacks of the other Fire Wyverns and continued its charge toward the treetop layer.
Its subordinates took over the fight, engaging the Fire Wyverns and shielding their leader’s advance.
Among them, several Tempered Zinogre swiftly entered their supercharged state, circling the leader and clearing a path through the conflict.
Even while charging, the Zinogre leader’s gaze kept locking onto Logan.
Logan understood—this was coming for him.
Just how deep was this grudge?
To go so far as to ignite a war between species.
Even though the Fire Wyverns had lost forces during the Chameleos incident—some Tempered Fire Wyvern couples had followed the Black Flame King to the Elder’s Recess, and two more squads were lost during the follow-up operations—
The remaining Tempered Fire Wyverns, along with those who had returned over the years and the newly joined ones, should still make them stronger overall than the Zinogre packs, which had been dwindling since their split.
Logan couldn’t understand the Zinogre leader’s way of thinking. But watching its retreating figure, he felt not the slightest fear. Flames roared from his body as he launched himself into pursuit.
The five Tempered Zinogre guarding the leader were quickly intercepted by a group of Tempered Fire Wyverns.
Aki had originally intended to pursue the Zinogre leader alongside Logan, but only three Tempered Fire Wyverns remained stationed at the Ancient Tree.
At Logan’s call, Aki reluctantly halted mid-flight, turned around, and charged toward the Tempered Zinogre instead.
Though the Zinogre leader’s intentions were unclear, the upper levels of the Ancient Tree were the Fire Wyverns’ home turf! Logan had no reason to worry!
If its target was him, then so be it—let’s clash again!
This time, it won’t escape!
In the canopy zone, the Zinogre leader, crackling with electricity, leapt off the main path and bounded nimbly across the thick branches suspended within the treetops. In no time, it landed on a small platform formed by a tangle of branches and vines, calmly staring at Logan as he gave chase.
The canopy’s terrain was extremely complex, not only filled with climbable branches sturdy enough for large monsters, but also dotted with countless uneven platforms.
The Pukei-Pukei had once made its home in this very area.
As Logan charged into the canopy, he seemed to understand what the Zinogre leader was planning.
It was true that the upper levels of the Ancient Tree were the Fire Wyverns’ domain. Here, Logan could fly, without the fear of falling.
But in this dense canopy, the crisscrossing branches and vines severely restricted his flight. Even his breath attacks were significantly hindered.
The Zinogre leader couldn’t move as freely as it would on flat ground either—and there was always the risk of falling.
But at least the terrain gave it a fighting chance to strike Logan.
“So this is your plan?”
Logan’s vertical pupils were icy cold, but there was no sign of retreat. His battle spirit surged wildly.
In this kind of terrain, where both sides faced limitations, the gap in their strength was undeniably narrowed.
With two simultaneous roars, Logan and the Zinogre leader launched into battle once again!
...
The Zinogre Alpha leapt and weaved between platforms and branches, trailed by streaks of crackling lightning.
Logan soared with fiery wings, unrestrained. Even in such a complicated environment, as a Rathalos of the New World—with an extra wing bone granting greater maneuverability—he could control his flight path with far more precision. He glided and twisted through the narrow terrain with ease, without getting stuck or hindered in any way.
From the Zinogre Alpha’s back, golden spheres of lightning shot out. The thunderbugs within darted through narrow gaps, circling around into blind spots, flying toward Logan from wickedly tricky angles.
In response, flames surged from the gaps between the scales on Logan’s back. Just before the electric spheres reached him, those flames erupted in a violent explosion. The shockwave detonated the spheres mid-air. Unfazed, Logan continued weaving through the branches, shifting angles and directions as he searched for a flaw in the Zinogre Alpha’s defenses.
[Zzzzt—!]
Lightning and fire brushed past one another. During a forward leap, the Zinogre Alpha suddenly feinted, only to reverse mid-air. With a flash of electricity coiled around its claws, it struck down toward Logan’s wing.
Unfortunately for it, that feint had already been seen through. Logan’s 'Mind’s Eye' had caught the subtle muscle shifts that betrayed its true intent. He dodged in advance, and not only did the attack miss entirely—he flapped hard and shot forward, swinging his tail toward the Zinogre Alpha’s back.
But as if it had eyes on its back, the Zinogre Alpha preemptively dodged as well.
It side-hopped out of range, and lightning exploded across its thick tail. It followed up immediately with a horizontal tail sweep crackling with electricity.
Logan repeated the same tactic—evading while generating large quantities of flammable fluid from his body. Another explosion burst forth, once again forcing distance between the two.
“A coincidence…?”
Logan couldn’t tell. That earlier dodge from the Zinogre Alpha—was it the result of countless battles, a reflex to evade once an attack missed? Or had it actually predicted his follow-up move ahead of time?
For a unique individual like this Zinogre Alpha, developing strange and specialized abilities wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
What Logan didn’t know was that the Zinogre Alpha itself was just as baffled.
Its earlier feint had been completely seen through, and even the follow-up attack trajectory had been anticipated. Logan had reacted in advance and launched a counterattack of his own.
That kind of near-instinctive predictive ability—the Zinogre Alpha had honed it through endless life-and-death battles. It was a culmination of hard-earned combat experience, refined bit by bit over time.
But Logan… this Rathalos that looked barely out of adolescence—how could he do the same?
Refusing to accept it, the Zinogre Alpha lunged again. The two monsters tore through the forest canopy, chasing and clashing, switching between offense and defense in a relentless rhythm.
Yet the strangest part of this battle was how, despite the repeated destruction of their surroundings, they rarely made direct contact.
It was as if they could both read each other’s attacks. Every dodge and counter was already the beginning of the next dodge and counter.
Only when the terrain made complete evasion impossible did their bodies finally clash.
'This won’t do!'
'This won’t do!'
Both Logan and the Zinogre Alpha muttered the same thought to themselves.
After fighting to this extent, Logan was certain now—the Zinogre Alpha did possess an ability akin to the Mind’s Eye.
Unlike the Zinogre Alpha, Logan’s reactions stemmed from heightened senses—his responses came only after detailed, micro-level observation.
The Zinogre Alpha didn’t possess that kind of perceptive ability. It relied purely on instinct and experience, responding with subconscious evasive movements.
At this point, the Zinogre Alpha was starting to feel uneasy. It had assumed that by limiting Logan’s flight and breath attacks, it could overpower him in close combat with ease. What it hadn’t expected was that Logan’s close-quarters technique was no weaker than its own.
Looking around at the many broken and crumbling platforms, it realized its footholds were steadily diminishing. On top of that, the Zinogre pack was already outnumbered in this war—every Zinogre was buying time with its life.
If it couldn’t finish Logan off quickly—once its underlings were eliminated and it faced a coordinated assault—it would be completely doomed.
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Lucas
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