Standing beside Isis's hospital bed, the male Hunter looked at his daughter, bandaged from head to toe but breathing steadily and even letting out tiny snores, and grinned.
"Sleeping pretty soundly."
As he spoke, he reached over again, lifted the bandage on Isis's cheek to take a peek, and clicked his tongue twice. "Looks like it's going to leave a scar."
His wife immediately swatted his hand away and shot him a fierce glare.
A medic happened to pass by just then. Seeing what the male Hunter had done, her expression immediately hardened; she looked ready to call for help.
Only after learning that the two were the patient's parents did her face soften somewhat, though her words still had a prickly edge. "The patient has multiple burns across her body and needs to recuperate in peace. Please avoid touching her unnecessarily."
The male Hunter raised his hands in surrender.
The medic hesitated as she took in the two fully armed Hunters, both clearly formidable, then spoke again. "Since you're her parents, you must know her partner as well, right?"
She indicated the neighboring bed with a flick of her eyes.
The male Hunter's expression instantly turned peculiar. He subconsciously folded his arms. "His name's Altaïr, right? Of course I know him... I mean, yes, I'm familiar with him."
The medic did not read too much into it and continued, "His injuries are much more severe. He has serious burns to his skin and respiratory tract, multiple lacerations, internal bleeding, and severe physical and mental exhaustion.
The doctors had to work incredibly hard just to pull him back from the brink.
Most troubling of all, the wounds across his body were contaminated with a large amount of strange black blood. According to the other Hunters, it got on him while he was fighting a Monster.
We've never encountered blood that color before, so we can't determine whether it's toxic, harmful to humans, or likely to cause infection. We'll need to observe him further.
In any case, I wanted to give you advance warning."
With that, the medic hurried off. She still had far too much to do.
The male Hunter's face grew serious. He cast a long look at Altaïr, whose breathing was weak in the neighboring bed, then moved closer to his wife and asked in a low voice.
"That black blood sounds suspicious. That Elder Dragon couldn't have been infected with the Frenzy Virus, could it?"
The female Hunter gently shook her head. "If it had been, that boy would certainly be infected by now. But I doubt it was. After all, Elder Dragons theoretically can't contract the Frenzy Virus.
And this isn't twenty or thirty years ago. The scholars have studied the Frenzy Virus extensively by now. If it were really something of that nature, the doctors would have recognized it."
"Good point." The male Hunter breathed a sigh of relief. "Maybe that Elder Dragon simply had unusually dark blood.
As for being drenched in Elder Dragon blood... Hmm, it's happened to us more than once, and I've never seen any problems come of it."
The female Hunter, however, was not as optimistic as her husband. She looked toward Altaïr with a trace of worry in her eyes. "There have been plenty of cases where people's personalities changed drastically after contact with an Elder Dragon.
Dragon blood itself isn't the real issue. In the vast majority of cases, the cause is psychological.
But as the Monsters you face grow stronger, if you can't find the right way to channel your emotions, it's easy to become increasingly aggressive or even lose control in the heat of battle."
"So that was you back in the day, wasn't it?" the male Hunter remarked, half-joking.
He promptly received a kick from his wife.
She glanced at their sleeping daughter, then at the oddly shaped Long Sword displayed beside Altaïr's bed. It was a Long Sword, wasn't it? After a moment's thought, the female Hunter rose from beside the bed, borrowed paper and a pen from the medical staff, and wrote something down.
Once the ink had dried, she carefully rolled up the parchment and placed it beneath Altaïr's pillow.
"It may be a little beyond you right now, but judging by Master Amos's assessment of you... you should be able to glean something from it."
The female Hunter gently stroked Altaïr's forehead and said softly, "Think of it as... repayment for looking after Isis."
—--
Dozens of kilometers north of Loc Lac, deep within a dark cave beneath a rocky mountain plateau.
The severely wounded Guanzorumu had retreated here and lay coiled, silently licking its wounds and nursing its injuries.
As a highly intelligent and sentient Elder Dragon, it was capable of thought and reflection.
The Guanzorumu now understood all too well that the bipedal creatures occupying the giant rock platform were anything but "harmless little animals." They were formidable enemies it had no choice but to take seriously.
Forcing another attack on the giant rock platform while so gravely injured would be sheer folly.
Yet even with its "army" shattered, it had never once considered giving up.
The scattered Egyurasu packs could be gathered again, bred, and nurtured. Within a year or two at most, it could muster an even stronger "army."
When that time came, it would command its dragon horde and, at the peak of its power, sweep across the giant rock platform in one fell swoop! Just as it pictured that triumph, it sensed a terrifying presence that made its heart pound with dread.
Though already gravely wounded, the Guanzorumu sprang up like a Felyne whose tail had been stepped on. It fixed its eyes on the cave entrance and growled uneasily.
Its gaze met two points of light glowing in the darkness, a pair of dark-gold, vertically slit pupils.
"Tap, tap, tap." Light, nimble footsteps drew closer. Each one felt as though it landed directly on the Guanzorumu's heart.
A petite Wyverian Hunter emerged from the shadows, a sword in one hand and a Large Shield in the other.
"Commanding dragon hordes and attacking cities... You've grown awfully arrogant for a stray dog, haven't you?"
—--
Altaïr opened his eyes, his gaze unfocused.
He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but it had definitely been more than a day or two. An indescribable weakness suffused his body, and every joint felt loose, as though it might come apart.
He had probably been lying here for at least a week. Never before had he been injured so badly.
"Boss, meow!" Tears streaming from her eyes, Sajji pounced on him and knocked him flat again just as he was trying to sit up.
On the neighboring hospital bed, Isis heard the commotion and abruptly turned her head. When she saw that Altaïr was finally awake, she could not help sniffling.
Altaïr stared at Isis for two seconds. Once he saw that she was not seriously hurt, relief washed over him. "What happened after that? How long was I out?"
"After you slashed the Guanzorumu, you passed out too, meow. All the Hunters around it rushed in to attack, and the Guanzorumu got scared and fled, meow."
Clawdia answered him, still practically glued to Isis's side. After all, neither Isis nor Sajji had been able to take part in the final phase of the battle.
Sajji picked up the thread. "You were out for over a week, Boss, meow. Isis woke up long before you, meow."
"It fled?" Altaïr's heart tightened. He hurriedly sat up and asked, "Did the Guild Master send anyone to track it? Have any other High Rank Hunters returned to Loc Lac yet?"
They had given everything they had and suffered heavy casualties just to drive off the wounded Guanzorumu. If it recovered and returned for another attack, Loc Lac would be in extreme danger in its current state.
Isis smiled and gave him a reassuring gesture. "It's all over now. The Guanzorumu was later confirmed dead."
"Confirmed dead? Didn't you say it escaped?"
"The Hunter's Guild headquarters actually sent powerful reinforcements, meow. Isis's parents were among them, meow," Sajji explained. "Unfortunately, they arrived half a day too late, meow.
I heard one of the other reinforcements was a 9★ Hunter, meow. She tracked the Guanzorumu to where it was recovering from its injuries and killed it while it was still badly wounded, meow."
"Your parents? Then that means–" Altaïr stopped mid-sentence. He felt both grateful and regretful.
Anyone hearing that news would probably sigh and think, "If only the reinforcements had arrived a day or even half a day sooner." But how often did reality grant anyone such an "if only"?
Still, the reinforcements had finished the job and eliminated the lingering threat to Loc Lac. Amid the tragedy, that alone was a blessing.
"It's a shame you woke up so late. Otherwise, you might've gotten to meet them."
Isis looked a little rueful. "Didn't you say you'd hit a wall with your swordsmanship, one that was hard to explain in writing, and that you hoped to return to Dundorma for Master Amos's advice?
If you'd woken up a few days earlier, you could've asked my mom directly. She would definitely have been able to help you.
Besides, they only left after I woke up. When I came to, Dad even praised me, saying I'd grown up and everything..."
As Isis spoke, a happy, silly grin spread across her face.
"Mm."
Listening to Isis chatter, Altaïr did not really regret missing them. Instead, he felt quietly relieved.
He did not dare imagine the nightmarish scene of opening his eyes to find Isis still unconscious in her hospital bed while her parents stared at him. Given the choice, he would rather have remained unconscious until next year.
(Translated by yourtl.app)