After finishing off the two monsters, Leon realized that working with Vos was incredibly smooth. He no longer had to dodge and weave constantly; he just had to make sure he didn't pull the monster's aggro.
Vos held the monster's aggro perfectly, leaving Leon free to focus entirely on dealing massive damage.
'Is this what it's like to have a tank in the party?'
'This is great.'
After carving the materials, the two continued deeper into the area.
As they walked across the wilderness, the sun beat down, and the air was thick with the scent of sulfur and blood.
"Do you smell that? Something isn't right..." Leon frowned as he stepped over a patch of scorched earth.
"Yeah," Vos nodded warily, scanning the surroundings. "It looks like it was caused by widespread fire. It's probably a Bazelgeuse..."
Leon knew that Bazelgeuse had a massive territory, making it difficult to find. The quest had given them seven days for a reason, and he hadn't expected to encounter signs of it on the very first day.
He looked down at the tracks on the ground and whispered, "The footprints are chaotic, and some have been crushed... These are the overlapping tracks of multiple large monsters..."
"And—" Leon pointed to a blackened rock. "There are signs of intense heat here. The temperature was extremely high; it doesn't look like a natural fire source."
Vos's expression grew grim. "There's a powerful fire-element monster nearby. It could be a Rathalos or... something even more troublesome."
After a moment of silence, Leon pointed to a high plateau ahead. "Let's go. We'll check from up there first."
The two continued to move stealthily.
Leon switched back to his normal state and sheathed his dual blades, cautiously avoiding any hidden dangers.
Up ahead, the view suddenly opened up. A large area of scorched earth appeared before them; even the dragon crystals were melted and distorted.
The carcass of a monster lay sprawled on the ground, covered in burns and bite marks.
Leon's pupils shrank as he recognized the monster. "Is that an Azure Rathalos?"
"An Azure Rathalos burned to death?" Vos frowned. The scene before them defied common sense.
As a Rathalos subspecies, the Azure Rathalos was more mobile and generally stronger, but...
"What kind of monster could burn an Azure Rathalos to death?" Leon inspected the wounds. There were almost no external injuries; it had clearly been burned alive.
Dumpling suddenly spoke up, "Look at its eyes, meow! They're so weird, meow!"
Leon and Vos crouched down simultaneously to examine the Azure Rathalos's head, and their expressions changed instantly.
"It was wide-eyed when it died..." Vos analyzed. "Its pupils are severely constricted, and its face is frozen in a crazed, hideous expression—"
"Excitement," Leon finished for him. "It's like it was drugged and lost control."
Vos stood up, his face grave. "Signs of abnormal excitement in a monster? What could have caused that?"
"I don't know," Leon said coldly. "But those two Uragaans and the Dodogama earlier weren't right either... By the end of the fight, their attack rhythm was a mess, but they were getting faster and faster, charging forward as if they didn't care about dying."
Suddenly, several shrill howls tore through the silence of the Elder's Recess.
This was followed by the echoes of continuous monster roars from the distance. A faint vibration traveled through their feet, the ground resonating at a low frequency as if being dragged by some massive object.
The sounds were violent, hoarse, and frantic, sounding like a release of long-suppressed madness.
"Did you hear that? There's more than one." Vos's face changed as he quickly turned to look at the surrounding cliffs.
Leon drew his dual blades and said in a low voice, "They're coming from all directions... and it's not just monsters roaring."
"Someone is fighting." Vos looked up at the sky. A column of thick smoke was rising into the heavens, and the sounds of explosions and chaotic shouts were faintly audible.
At that moment, Dumpling stood on a high crystal. His ears twitched as he cried out, "Something's coming, meow!"
"ROAAR!!!"
Not far away, a massive Rathalos suddenly crashed through a crystal wall and plummeted from the sky.
It slammed heavily onto the ground right next to the Azure Rathalos's carcass!
Its eyes were blood-red and its body was twisted. Its once-orderly scales were charred and falling off, revealing scorched flesh beneath. The Rathalos looked like an out-of-control beast, roaring as it tore into the Azure Rathalos's corpse. Its claws ripped at the remains, and it even tried to swallow the charred chunks of meat.
Leon muttered in disbelief, "Is it... eating its own kind?"
"Get back." Vos pulled Leon toward a nearby pillar of dragon crystal.
However, the frenzied Rathalos snapped its head up. Its blood-red eyes locked onto their hiding spot, a low growl gurgling deep in its throat. A moment later, a blast of fire smelling of molten magma erupted from its mouth—
Right toward the two of them!
"Scatter!" Leon leaped away and rolled across the ground. The flames brushed past his back, instantly scorching a deep furrow into the earth.
Vos didn't dodge. He planted his large shield in front of him, braced a foot against the ground, and roared, "Come on then, you beast!"
BOOM!
Seeing this, the Rathalos lunged forward. The two collided with a violent force, sending dust flying everywhere.
"It's way stronger than a normal Rathalos. We have to finish this fast!" Leon rushed to the other side, circling behind at high speed as lightning crackled between his blades.
"Understood!"
The two cooperated flawlessly, attacking from both sides!
Just then, Leon caught sight of three more abnormal monsters approaching in the distance. One of them was—
A Bazelgeuse!
"Vos!" Leon growled. "We can't get bogged down here. All the monsters have gone crazy!"
Vos shoved the Rathalos back with his shield and quickly moved toward Leon. "Retreat! Let's regroup on the high ground!"
Leon glanced at the charred corpse of the Azure Rathalos and then at the red-eyed Rathalos that was still howling and feeding. Killing intent surged in his eyes, but he suppressed the urge to charge.
"Remember this guy. Once we figure out the truth, we're coming back to slaughter it."
"Let's go!"
The two quickly withdrew from the battlefield.
At that moment, chaos had broken out across the Elder's Recess. The roars of monsters, the tremors in the ground, and the sounds of non-stop combat echoed from every direction between the different hunting parties.
There seemed to be an invisible restlessness building in the air...
As the two quickly scaled the high ground, the sounds of battle grew even more frequent.
Leon looked back and saw black smoke rising and fire flashing from multiple directions, as if the entire Elder's Recess had been set ablaze.
On the high ground, Dumpling was already crouched low. The lenses of his binoculars shimmered as he said, "This is bad, meow... There are at least six battle sites nearby, and they all involve large monsters!"
"Six?" Vos frowned. "How could so many monsters go berserk at the same time?"
Leon didn't speak. He stood up slowly, gripping his dual blades. His gaze swept over the area, but his mind was still replaying the sight of that Rathalos frantically devouring its own kind.
This wasn't just a simple rampage.
He whispered, "It's like something stimulated their nerves... No, it's like a primal desire has been 'awakened'—violence, hunting, and devouring."
Vos said solemnly, "I've only seen that state described in ancient records of 'Frenzy,' but that condition was supposed to have gone extinct decades ago..."
Dumpling suddenly cried out, "A hunter fired a distress signal, meow! They're not far from us, meow!"
Leon and Vos shared a look and, without hesitation, bolted toward the direction of the SOS signal.
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