It was not a battle for predation; it was a battle for survival.
"What do we do?" Aiden suddenly asked, his voice dropped to a low whisper. "Should we step in?"
"Whether we help this Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse take down the Deviljho, or let the Deviljho—wait, what I mean is, both of these powerful monsters are threats, aren't they?"
"Can we let them take each other out? That way, we not only complete the Commander's objective but also eliminate a powerful monster, making the investigation much safer for everyone."
It had to be said that Aiden was thinking quite practically; for a hunter, this was indeed an ideal outcome.
"Wait, don't be so quick to judge!" Sophia said, her voice equally low. She actually seemed quite uncertain herself. "This monster—I mean, this Seething Bazelgeuse—it seems... familiar with us?"
To be precise, it seemed familiar with humans as a species. Sophia hadn't put it perfectly, but the other three understood her meaning almost instantly—the way the Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse's gaze had swept over them just now was... smooth?
It hadn't even spared them a second glance. It wasn't the indifference a high-level organism shows to a lower one; rather, it felt like someone who was already bored of seeing something they were well-acquainted with.
"You mean it might be the Second-in-Command of the Glavenus Tribe, meow?" Vanilla said, turning her head while pressed flat against the ground. "Then shouldn't we go over and help it, meow?"
"Absolutely not!"
"No way! That's not a fight we can jump into."
The refusals came from different voices but carried the same weight. The Glavenus Tribe had no secrets... at least, none that needed to be hidden from the Astera base for now. The connection between the two was actually much tighter than many humans—and Felynes—anticipated.
Because of this, the new hunters of the Fifth Fleet were told from their first day in the Ancient Tree Forest which monsters could be considered allies. For example, Mirrorblade, who had greeted them at Astera, or the Acidic Glavenus, the Seething Bazelgeuse, and the Kulu-Ya-Ku.
And of course, the most important ones: the Aura Soaring Dragon and Kulve Taroth. These two were already confirmed as Elder Dragons; with their positions being difficult to discern, they had to be treated with extreme caution.
"It's very likely," Sophia nodded. "We're still within the territory of the Aura Soaring Dragon, right? According to Kankan, the Seething Bazelgeuse 'Boss' uses the Aura Soaring Dragon's territory as a center and constantly patrols outward."
"It specifically challenges monsters it deems powerful enough. It's incredibly bellicose. This area only seems to have this one Seething Bazelgeuse; there have never been records of others of its kind appearing here."
"Maybe they did show up, but it chased them off, meow!" Vanilla said, peeking her head out to look at the battlefield. "But that's not the problem right now, meow. Challenging powerful monsters is one thing... but this Deviljho is definitely powerful enough, meow."
She was right.
Anyone who hasn't stood personally before a Deviljho can never truly understand the sheer pressure such a monster exerts.
It isn't just coldness or bloodlust, nor is it simple cruelty; it is a primal, singular desire—appetite.
Starting from that massive maw filled with serrated teeth, everything about this monster is born for consumption. All its strength, all its speed, all the traits that strike terror into a hunter's heart—when traced back to their source—exist only to more efficiently catch and swallow prey.
One doesn't even need deep or meticulous research; a single glance at a Deviljho, a single look at how it hunts or fights, is enough to understand this trait etched into its very marrow.
Yes, it had been slammed into the ground by the diving Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse, even pushed ruthlessly through a path of leveled trees, and then subjected to a point-blank volley of explosions against its more vulnerable underbelly.
The searing flames and the shockwaves of the blasts had scorched a patch of the thin skin on its belly, but these attacks failed to inflict any wound that could be called fatal. Instead, they acted like a veil being torn away, driving the beast into a total frenzy.
Breaking through the lingering flames and crystalline mist, the Deviljho stood back up. Its forelegs were tiny—even more inconspicuous than those of a Glavenus—and looked almost disproportionate to its massive body upon close inspection. However, its hind legs were incredibly powerful, with every muscle line taut and pulsating with latent energy even through the thick hide.
Its entire body was a bumpy, spindle-shaped mass, with the front and back ends tapering out while the middle bulged. The only thing breaking this streamlined silhouette was its massive, protruding lower jaw.
"ROOAAAR!!!"
Suddenly, that thick, cylindrical neck lunged forward at a speed that defied visual reaction—
CRACK!!
Simultaneously with its roar, the Deviljho's long neck snapped out. That mouth, which looked as if it could swallow the entire world, swung open and slammed shut with a sharp, explosive crack in the air. The resulting displacement of air even compressed into a visible ripple that expanded outward.
There was no reason to doubt the crushing force of that bite, yet the sudden attack was dodged by the Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse. It had already pivoted and retreated before the Deviljho even launched the strike, its body moving with a level of agility that completely belied its massive size.
Pure combat experience and tactical intelligence!
Anticipation, kid!
Having missed its mark, the Deviljho quickly adjusted its orientation. Its tiny red eyes scanned the area, and thick, viscous saliva continuously dripped from the gaps in its teeth, sliding down the dense protrusions on its chin.
While they looked like simple growths, closer observation revealed they were actually teeth. A Deviljho's teeth don't just grow inside its mouth; they actually pierce through its own oral tissue, erupting from the flesh on the outside of the lower jaw to expose sharp tips. These covered the entire outer surface of its chin.
The damage these extra teeth caused to the Deviljho itself seemed negligible. Instead, they served as an external set of weaponry, giving its chin devastating destructive power during impacts or when grinding against an enemy.
Those small red eyes were filled with malice and greed. The Deviljho wanted to consume everything before it—flesh, bone, everything. At least regarding the act of eating, the Deviljho can never stop.
"This... this thing is way too big, isn't it?!" Aiden looked up, his gaze following the Deviljho's form upward. Part of the behemoth's body was even buried in the higher layers of the crystal mist. His voice trembled slightly—not entirely from fear, but from sheer awe.
Precisely because Aiden had seen a Deviljho before and had fought one himself, his understanding only made him more shocked by the power of the monster before him.
"The Deviljho I faced before didn't look like this. It's supposed to have greenish-black skin!"
Indeed! That was the memory they all held!
But before them, while this Deviljho possessed a size that matched the Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse, its body was a deep, dark brown. The familiar greenish-black skin was nowhere to be found.
Specifically, its head—from its neck to the top of its skull—had something pulsing beneath the skin. It was black and red, like lightning, like a rushing torrent. Even the blue glow of the Bio-crystals couldn't change this hue, turning the Deviljho's entire head black as it continuously discharged bursts of black-red lightning.
In other contexts, one might call this "Conqueror's Haki," but in this world, it was the manifestation of Dragon-element energy condensed to its absolute limit.
Snap! Crackle!
Several bolts of black-red lightning arced between the Deviljho's teeth in an instant.
"I knew it! That's the one!" Aerin's voice suddenly spiked an octave as she cried out, "Everything matches what the scholars said. That is a Savage Deviljho!!"
Due to an endocrine system failure, a Deviljho's metabolic rate and aggression can far exceed that of a normal specimen. Those individuals that have also engaged in repeated acts of cannibalism undergo an irreversible transformation.
The appetite-suppressing mechanisms and Dragon-energy organs within their bodies undergo a mutation. The "stop eating" signal that the brain should send to the body after a meal disappears, replaced by an eternal, bottomless hunger.
The entire dragon has completely lost its sanity, eroded by this hunger and its own massive Dragon energy. It is no exaggeration to say that from the day it becomes a Savage Deviljho, this titan is already dead.
What remains in the world is a mere eating machine and a biological engine of ecological destruction. It lives to eat, and nothing else, until it is eventually slain by another monster.
"ROOAAAR!!!"
Words were unnecessary. A normal Deviljho still understands how to weigh the costs of a battle; all its actions are ultimately for the sake of food. If the energy expended in a fight exceeds the food gained afterward, a normal Deviljho will abandon its current target for easier prey.
A normal Deviljho might even ignore its enemy mid-fight due to intense hunger, rushing toward smaller creatures at the edge of the battlefield to feed on them. In that process, they would rather endure an enemy's attack just to shove a few more pieces of meat into their mouths.
But a Savage Deviljho will not do this.
It will consume all flesh that appears before it with total equality. It knows no satisfaction and will never retreat of its own volition until its life ends.
Ironically, this extreme trait is the reason the Deviljho species has survived to this day. While they do cause catastrophic damage to the ecology and can strip an area of all life, they also burn themselves out quickly through this constant, ceaseless combat, often starving to death as a result.
Because of this, an area cleared by a Deviljho can eventually begin to recover, rather than being destroyed beyond the point of regeneration.
The interesting part lay right here: a Bazelgeuse becomes a Seething Bazelgeuse due to extreme fury, remaining in that state until death.
And a Deviljho, upon becoming a Savage Deviljho, falls into a perpetual, never-ending rage. By comparison, the Seething Bazelgeuse was almost lucky; at least it retained its sanity, could distinguish friend from foe, and could make judgments outside of combat.
But now, in this crystallized forest, one driven by appetite and the other by the lust for battle, these two monsters—both fueled by the emotion of rage—had clashed head-on. Because of these two instincts rooted deep in their souls, neither would choose to back down after sensing the other's strength. They were locked in a total war, oblivious to the world around them.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"GRAAA-HROOOAR!!!"
From the moment the group had arrived near the battlefield, the sound of explosions triggered by the Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse had never ceased. Continuous roars followed one after another, without a single moment of respite.
This level of stamina and recovery, even within the Bazelgeuse species, was exceptionally prominent. This Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse seemed to possess a certain dominion over its surroundings.
Much like Mirrorblade, this monster could freely manipulate the nearby Bio-energy. For it, there was no better battlefield than this Crystallized Forest.
With the hunters' keen observation, they naturally noticed this. The Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse would occasionally tilt its head back in a motion like a deep breath; simultaneously, the crystal mist centered around it would pulse with a brilliant light.
It surged inward like a tide until it flowed into the creature's body.
Karl silently made a note of this. Not all "Crystallized" monsters possessed the skill to directly manipulate Bio-energy; most were just acting on raw instinct. But when facing one that could, one had to be wary of these environmental buffs and avoid being dragged into a long, drawn-out battle.
At a pace visible to the naked eye, the forest where the three humans and one cat were hiding was being demolished by these two giants.
Thick trunks snapped in the collisions, exposing glowing blue sap flowing within the fractures, which dripped onto the crystal-covered ground and spread into small pools of blue light. Shattered crystal shells, broken crystal plants—countless shards and dust were kicked up with every explosion, only to settle back down in the shifting air currents.
They were now in the eye of an energy storm. The overwhelming cloud of crystal dust had completely obscured their path back and everything else in sight.
A corner of the forest was leveled in the wake of the two monsters' struggle. Amidst the vast sea of blue fire and crystal mist, only that single streak of black-red lightning tore a consistent opening, darting through the mix of blue and black, piercing and chaotic.
The Savage Deviljho didn't care about the damage it took. The scars layered upon scars on its hide were the best proof; every old scar had gone through the same cycle: tearing, healing, and becoming a thicker, tougher layer of skin that would require even more force to penetrate the next time.
It was a meat grinder.
The two monsters, tearing at each other's shells, thick hides, and flesh, had turned the battlefield into a gore-slicked mess in a very short time. And in this trade of injuries, the Blue-Crystallized Seething Bazelgeuse was clearly at a disadvantage.
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