The Grimclaw Tigrex's strength was beyond question. Even against a legendary Elder Dragon that held the advantage of a high-altitude dive, the initial clash ended in a deadlock.
Sensing danger, the mysterious Elder Dragon beat its broad wings, stained the color of dried blood, and tried to climb back into the air.
The battle-hardened Grimclaw Tigrex gave it no chance. It sprang first, catching the black-and-gold Elder Dragon just as it was about to take off and wrenching it back to the ground. The two tumbled across the sand, locked in a ferocious brawl.
In sheer size, the black-and-gold Elder Dragon was at a severe disadvantage.
The Grimclaw Tigrex was a gold-crown specimen even among Tigrex. At nearly twenty-five meters long, it was a truly colossal brute.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon measured only about eighteen meters. It was by no means small and was larger than the average Large Flying Wyvern.
Beside the Grimclaw Tigrex, however, it looked almost "petite." It was barely two-thirds as long and appeared to weigh only half as much.
Had it been an ordinary Flying Wyvern, even a Rathalos renowned for its ferocity in battle, its chest and belly would already have been ripped open, its neck crushed, and its carcass left in the sand sea.
But this was an Elder Dragon.
Layer upon layer of overlapping scales and carapace gave it extraordinary resilience. Even at full strength, a single rake from the Grimclaw Tigrex could barely breach those defenses, tearing only shallow flesh. It could not inflict a critical wound in one blow.
Its raw muscular strength also far exceeded that of a Flying Wyvern its size. It could not match the Grimclaw Tigrex, but neither could the Tigrex completely overpower it.
The dark-gold horns and bony spikes lining its head, neck, and wing talons were as sharp as saw teeth. They carved a crisscrossing web of bloody gashes across the Grimclaw Tigrex's comparatively vulnerable chest and belly.
After trading bites and raking blows, the two giant dragons realized that neither could gain the upper hand and abruptly broke apart. They stood dozens of meters from each other, pacing restlessly with their fierce gazes locked.
After a brief silence, they opened their enormous jaws at the same instant and unleashed colossal roars.
"GRROOOAAARRR!!!"
"ROOOAAAR!!!"
The sound waves churned the air and hurled yellow sand aloft, forming shock waves visible to the naked eye.
The two shock waves collided with a thunderous crash.
Astonishingly, the Grimclaw Tigrex's roar was being forced back. It was an exceptional individual from a species already renowned for the power and ferocity of its voice.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon's roar struck more like a massive air cannon, blasting up clouds of sand and dust that rolled over the Grimclaw Tigrex.
Seizing the opening, the Elder Dragon leaped into the air. As if obeying a command, another seven or eight Egyurasu swarmed in and formed a protective cluster around it.
Hovering in midair, it drew a deep breath. A heartbeat later, a torrent of dark red dragon flame erupted and engulfed the Grimclaw Tigrex, still staggered by a roar that only High-Grade Earplugs could withstand.
At the same time, the surrounding Egyurasu unleashed their breath attacks from several directions. The pillars of flame merged into a terrifying wave of fire that swallowed the Grimclaw Tigrex whole.
As though plunged into a furnace, the Grimclaw Tigrex howled in agony.
The flames of the Egyurasu were nothing to it, but the black-and-gold Elder Dragon's breath was different. Its heat alone exceeded anything the Tigrex could withstand.
Worse still, the dragon flame was saturated with an alarming concentration of Dragon Element energy.
That was a Tigrex's true bane. In only a few seconds, the Grimclaw Tigrex had already suffered devastating injuries.
Amid the dragon flame, the Grimclaw Tigrex curled inward and used its powerful, rigid wing talons and folded wings to shield its head, chest, and other vital areas. It appeared intent on limiting the damage and enduring until the breath attack ended.
Seeing this, the black-and-gold Elder Dragon poured all its strength into sustaining the attack.
Their earlier exchange had shown it exactly how dangerous its opponent was. Without its breath to suppress the Tigrex, that beast could wound it and pose a grave threat.
It would reduce the Tigrex to ash in a single sustained blast!
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon failed to notice the crazed ferocity flashing in the Grimclaw Tigrex's crimson eyes behind the curtain of dragon flame.
What appeared to be a defensive crouch was actually the Tigrex coiling its body to spring.
Without warning, the Grimclaw Tigrex exploded from its crouch. A layer of its outer hide had burned away, exposing dark red flesh beneath, and the force of its launch blasted a huge crater into the sand, which had begun to melt under the intense heat.
It burst straight through the curtain of dragon flame and leaped into the air directly in front of the black-and-gold Elder Dragon.
Its wing membranes were torn and its flesh charred black, yet its grotesquely overdeveloped claws struck with no less force than they had before it was injured.
Carried by the momentum of its leap, it raked those claws from the black-and-gold Elder Dragon's chest to its flank, tearing open a ghastly wound eight or nine meters long.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon roared in agony. Its breath attack cut off, and the Grimclaw Tigrex pounced on it once more and slammed it to the ground.
The intense pain left it momentarily unable to retaliate. Pinning it down, the Grimclaw Tigrex bellowed and raked its charred claws again and again across the open wound on the Elder Dragon's abdomen.
Massive claw marks crisscrossed the wound, and scalding Elder Dragon blood gushed from the repeatedly torn flesh like a fountain.
The humiliation of being forced onto the back foot only stoked the black-and-gold Elder Dragon's fury. Momentarily pinned beneath the Grimclaw Tigrex, it answered with the same savage gleam in its eyes.
Unable to rise or even shift position, it opened its massive jaws from where it lay on its back. A point-blank blast of dark red dragon flame, threaded with coiling arcs of crimson lightning, struck the Grimclaw Tigrex squarely in the chest.
The energy blast hurled the Grimclaw Tigrex off the black-and-gold Elder Dragon. It rolled twice across the sand, its blackened, dark red body becoming caked in yellow grit.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon seized the chance to rise and beat its wings, retreating a short distance.
The two grievously wounded monsters stared at each other.
One was burned across its entire body, while lingering Dragon Element energy continued to erode its flesh.
The other bled profusely from a vital wound across its chest and belly. The enormous gash running from chest to flank had been ripped wider by the relentless claw swipes, and the torrents of blood stained the ground such a deep red that it looked almost black.
Even an Elder Dragon's vitality and regenerative power could not close a laceration of that size quickly.
If they continued fighting to the death, even the winner would claim only a pyrrhic victory.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon suddenly released a long howl. Countless Egyurasu swarming nearby closed ranks around it and faced down the Grimclaw Tigrex with murderous aggression.
After several tense moments, the Grimclaw Tigrex fixed the black-and-gold Elder Dragon with one last, lingering stare. Then it turned and limped away.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon chose not to pursue. Instead, it turned its gaze toward Loc Lac.
Until now, it had intended to toy with its prey. Severely wounded, however, it urgently needed a safe nest where it could feed and recover.
That enormous rocky platform was the ideal choice. It offered both water and readily available food, and finding such a perfect nest in the barren Great Desert was no easy feat.
The "little two-legged animals" occupying the platform meant nothing to it. They were merely prey.
Its servants had multiplied beyond need, and those same "little two-legged animals" had already culled the old, weak, sick, and injured among them. The young and strong that remained were enough for its purposes.
The black-and-gold Elder Dragon released another long howl. More than a hundred Egyurasu obeyed the signal and took wing together, massing into an oppressive black cloud that swept toward Loc Lac, dozens of kilometers away.
—--
High above, an observation Airship was monitoring the battlefield.
The young Scrivener Luga hurriedly recorded his observations on a small slip of paper. With no time even to place it in a message tube, he tied it to a peregrine falcon's leg and released the bird.
"Its breath contains Dragon Element energy? What a shame. If not for that, the Grimclaw Tigrex might have killed it outright."
Luga had just exhaled in relief as he watched the falcon fly away when several Egyurasu climbed to the Airship's altitude, closed around the bird, tore it apart, and devoured it.
"They can fly this high?!" Luga went pale and lunged for the SOS Flare hanging from the ship's rail beside him.
With the falcon gone, transmitting a detailed battle report was impossible. But he had to send at least a warning of the impending attack!
Suddenly sensing something behind him, he turned. His gaze met a pair of dark-gold Elder Dragon pupils.
The pressure of its presence left him unable to move or breathe.
It's all over now.
Helplessness flickered across Luga's face. Once he accepted his fate, the Elder Dragon's gaze no longer seemed quite so terrifying, and the stiffness left his limbs.
He wrenched the fuse cord with all his strength, launching the red SOS Flare into the sky.
In the next second, a blast of dragon flame turned the entire observation Airship into a gigantic fireball.
-----------------------
tl note:
Hi everyone. As you've probably noticed, I've managed to keep up a release rate of 4 chapters per day. I should be able to maintain this pace for a long time since I have a huge stockpile of chapters ready to go. I might skip a day here or there for whatever reason, but overall, there shouldn't be any hiatuses.
Since I have so many chapters in stock, I'm offering 10 bonus chapters if the story reaches 50 power stones before tomorrow's power stone reset. Even if we don't hit the goal, I'll still release some bonus chapters to thank you, as the story is getting quite a few power stones. Still, I'd really love to see the story reach the top 200, even though I know it's tough since it doesn't have a system, an isekai plot, or a harem.