Actually, there was one point Logan had misunderstood: it wasn't that the Vaal Hazak had done nothing, but that they truly were powerless.
Leaving aside the fact that their combat largely relied on effluvium to weaken energy and life-force levels as their main fighting method—so they didn't have many highly impactful, instant-kill techniques—there was also the matter that, while trying to block Zorah Magdaros, the Vaal Hazak still had to devote even more effort to easing the constantly overflowing scorching life energy caused by Zorah Magdaros's renewed outburst.
This left the Vaal Hazak—who already didn't have many effective means of stopping it—in a state of helpless confusion when facing the nearly frenzied Zorah Magdaros.
Zorah Magdaros even took advantage of the Vaal Hazak's continual suppression and erosion of its life energy to instead draw out even more power than before.
Therefore, when Logan rushed over at high speed, he saw several Vaal Hazak circling around Zorah Magdaros as they flew—letting out furious roars on one hand, yet having no choice but to manipulate effluvium to suppress Zorah Magdaros's energy on the other.
Without any further thought, Logan, with a sonic boom, turned into a streak of light and blasted forward to the space in front of Zorah Magdaros.
That body of his—enormous by human standards—was in front of Zorah Magdaros, not even much bigger than the other party's head.
Perhaps because it had been overly corroded by effluvium, or perhaps because its life had already completely neared its limit, Zorah Magdaros's pupils were somewhat gray-white.
When it discovered Logan's arrival, its advancing steps still did not waver in the slightest. It simply kept its head down and pushed forward, looking as if it intended to smash this unknown little Elder Dragon in front of it to death.
Logan did not indulge it either. Amid a clear, piercing dragon roar, explosive Terastal cones continuously launched from his wings and struck Zorah Magdaros all over.
Zorah Magdaros's massive body—was both a threat and, at the same time, an enormous target.
Facing Logan's saturation bombardment, its steps—no longer being held back by the Vaal Hazak—paused for the first time.
A succession of continuous explosions covered it, and the special nature of Terastal energy—something that did not belong to conventional elemental energy—turned Zorah Magdaros's elemental resistances into a decoration.
Amid the flying rubble, Zorah Magdaros's head was blasted up high. As the volcano on its back swayed, it actually erupted just like that.
Fortunately, the Vaal Hazak promptly spewed out large amounts of heat-resistant effluvium to cover that magma, and only then did they suppress the erupting volcano once again.
"ROAR!!" (NO PASSAGE AHEAD!!)
Having successfully forced Zorah Magdaros to halt its steps, Logan, as he roared loudly, once again drove Terastal energy to sweep out in all directions.
Very quickly, amid a series of crisp clashing sounds, a large amount of Terastal crystal grew up from the ground. These hard crystals were like ropes one after another, constantly winding around and wrapping Zorah Magdaros's limbs, trying to bind it.
Noticing that these astonishingly strong crystals were exactly the same as the crystals from before at the entrance to the Great Ravine, Zorah Magdaros immediately understood that it was this guy—Logan—who, while it had been asleep back then, had put a pile of restraints on it, forcing it to spend more time and stamina in that place.
As a result, its chances of survival had now dropped even further.
Zorah Magdaros's eyes immediately turned red. Its four limbs stomped continuously, preventing the Terastal crystals from binding it completely, as a massive torrent of molten breath shot straight toward Logan.
Seeing that the growth speed of the Terastal crystals simply could not keep up with Zorah Magdaros's rate of destruction, Logan decisively abandoned this approach.
With a sonic boom, his body instantly broke free from the range of Zorah Magdaros's breath, then directly closed the distance between them.
Under Logan's high-speed movement, large swathes of effluvium were blown apart.
As he swept past the joint of Zorah Magdaros's forelimb, he keenly noticed that the scales at that joint were clearly newly grown.
Without hesitation, Logan twisted his body and unleashed a burst of laser breath straight at the joint.
For any creature, joints are extremely critical areas—let alone for Zorah Magdaros, which walked while dragging an enormous volcano.
To protect this weakness, the defenses at the joints were indeed stronger than those of other parts. However, when facing an opponent of the same ecological niche, and when its elemental resistance was virtually zero, that bit of defensive strength appeared utterly negligible.
A streak of laser swept past. As the scales melted and flowed into magma, large areas of flesh were torn apart by the extreme heat.
Zorah Magdaros had only just finished its breath and was about to charge forward again when its forelimb suddenly went limp, and its body nearly collapsed onto the ground.
Before it could make any new movement, Logan's next attack arrived once more.
Only then did the intense pain in the joint finally register in its brain, which had already begun to descend into obvious chaos.
Zorah Magdaros's furious roars echoed through the canyon. Wave after wave of sound surged all the way to the Coral Highlands, startling countless Raphinos into rapid flight; even the hunters who were retreating toward the upper levels of the Rotten Vale could faintly hear the disturbance.
Zorah Magdaros lifted its forelimbs and swung them repeatedly, waving toward Logan as if swatting at mosquitoes.
The enormous body brought not only tremendous strength, but also—relative to small-bodied creatures—much greater acceleration.
Amid Zorah Magdaros's swings, listening to the cracking sounds of rocks being smashed apart, Logan quickly pulled away from the range of its forelimb attacks and shifted toward other parts of its body.
In the sky, with Logan's assistance, the group of Vaal Hazak decisively abandoned interception and instead devoted themselves fully to moving effluvium, wearing down Zorah Magdaros's vitality.
Zorah Magdaros's repeated actions, again and again, also enraged this group of Vaal Hazak. They no longer bothered with any gentle methods of letting an Elder Dragon slumber peacefully in its sleep.
They were clearly intent on killing it!
And at this moment, after successfully driving Logan away, Zorah Magdaros immediately seized the time to charge forward.
It could sense that it was not far from the Everstream. Its mind was filled only with the information coming from the still-connected magma flow, and because of this, the pain throughout its body became far more bearable.
"Big-bodied guys are just troublesome!"
Logan rapidly weaved through the swings of Zorah Magdaros's four limbs, continuously spitting out streak after streak of searing laser attacks at its joints.
But Zorah Magdaros was like something that could not feel pain at all. On the surface it seemed to be blocking Logan's attacks, yet in reality it was exhausting every possible means, regardless of the cost, to keep moving forward.
This kind of advance-at-all-costs behavior truly made it difficult for Logan to stop it.
As Zorah Magdaros continued to inch forward, Logan, at a certain moment, also sensed a branching flow of the Everstream that was emitting a dense concentration of pheromonal information.
After another blast of laser tore open the scales at the joint of Zorah Magdaros's right hind leg, large numbers of Terastal spikes shot out. After penetrating beneath the surface, they detonated, causing Zorah Magdaros's forward momentum to stall once again.
Logan seized this opportunity to dive down at high speed, rushing to the entrance of that Everstream branch. At a glance, he saw the magma that had flowed out due to a collapse.
At this moment, Zorah Magdaros—halted because of the pain in its hind leg—also noticed Logan's current position. When it lowered its head and saw a large mass of Terastal crystal beginning to grow at high speed, almost about to bury that entrance in an instant, Zorah Magdaros panicked.
Ignoring the effluvium that had already followed its wounds and seeped deep into its blood vessels, it decisively gathered power in its mouth. Forcing its energy—now faintly growing sluggish—into motion, it unleashed a torrent of magma breath like a gigantic water column.
Target: the Terastal crystals that were about to seal the entrance!
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