With blazing flames evaporating vast amounts of rainwater, Logan returned to the previous battlefield.
The terrain here had already been completely transformed by the earlier clash. The Chameleos's thick mist had spread everywhere, and the air was filled with life energy carrying its scent, permeating the fog and completely concealing its presence.
From the forest canopy, the group of Fire Wyverns burst forth and flew through the fog to Logan's side.
Under his gaze, the Fire Wyverns showed mixed emotions—some angry, some fearful, some worried, and some visibly timid.
Yet regardless of their attitudes, none hesitated to follow Aki out of the Ancient Tree, gathering beside Logan and awaiting his next command.
The Chameleos, having vanished without a trace, seemed to have entered a state of perfect invisibility, leaving Logan with no target for his fury. The Fire Wyverns' behavior also helped restore some of the rationality that had been nearly burned away by the heat of battle and his blazing rage.
At the very least, his mind was no longer consumed solely by thoughts of combat and release.
Only one-third of the Fire Wyverns remained on the field. Though Logan's current strength was far beyond what it had once been—enough to suppress or even severely wound the Chameleos—that was still the extent of what he could achieve.
Even with the remaining Fire Wyverns, the chances of killing the Chameleos were slim.
Even if fortune favored them and the Chameleos chose to fight to the death, once it unleashed its full power, how many of the remaining Fire Wyverns would survive?
Reason told Logan to stop—to find a way to drive the Chameleos out of the Ancient Tree.
If he fought to the end, the result would only be the total annihilation of the Ancient Tree's Fire Wyvern group, while the Chameleos might not even be slain.
However, the bestial instinct awakened in the fierce battle whispered otherwise: this was a monster's world, where the law of survival was the devouring of the weak by the strong.
He was now stronger than the Chameleos, and since the two sides had already become enemies, a fight to the death was the natural way of monsters.
Two conflicting impulses intertwined in his mind, neither yielding to the other.
Below, within the dense mist, the Chameleos moved slowly—yet it too made no move to attack the Fire Wyvern group above.
At this moment, across the entire battlefield, both sides seemed to be waiting for Logan's final decision.
To fight or not to fight—both seemed right, and both seemed wrong.
As for whether this was all just a misunderstanding—leaving aside that it was still only Logan's unconfirmed suspicion, according to Mother Chameleos's information, this very Chameleos had long been in fierce conflict with the Ancient Tree's Fire Wyvern group, and the one that had truly driven it away back then had been the Kushala Daora from the Elder's Recess, not the Fire Wyverns.
In the world of monsters, this struggle over territory had not truly come to an end.
Therefore, whether or not it was a misunderstanding, assigning the Fire Wyvern group to intercept it was inevitable. Logan could not gamble on whether a once-hostile target had forgotten its enmity toward the Fire Wyverns.
Taking a deep breath, Logan made his decision.
Flames once again surged over his body—he was about to drive—
"Gwa!"
That unmistakably familiar croak startled the entire Fire Wyvern group. At this tense moment, the voice of the Chameleos rang out among them, sending the Fire Wyverns scattering in terrified roars.
From the gap they left behind, the figure of Mother Chameleos revealed itself.
Apparently quite satisfied with the commotion caused by its sudden appearance, Mother
Chameleos raised its head proudly—then, before Logan could erupt in fury, curled its tail and pointed toward the yellow fog to the north of the Ancient Tree.
"Gwaa!!"
Logan and a few of the Fire Wyverns who had calmed down instinctively turned in that direction. Under the sunlight radiating from Logan's own trait, they saw a Fire Wyvern wobbling weakly out of the dense fog, letting out two faint cries.
Within its frail roars was both the joy of surviving a catastrophe and the guilt of failing to complete its task.
Its appearance was like a signal. Behind it, one after another, more weary Fire Wyverns emerged from the fog, gathering toward Logan amidst the excited roars of the Fire Wyverns on his side.
The flames around Logan gradually subsided, and the fleeting look of surprise that crossed his face was instantly caught by Mother Chameleos' sharp eyes.
Mother Chameleos croaked excitedly.
Yes—this was the expression!
It had long wanted to see that look of astonishment—of incomprehension—on Logan's face!
And today, it finally had!
Even if it lasted only for a moment, that was more than enough to satisfy Mother Chameleos.
Facing Aki's unfriendly stare, Mother Chameleos wagged its tail and croaked an explanation.
As it turned out, after sending the young Chameleos to a safe place, this fellow had eagerly run back to watch the show.
A clash between furious Elder Dragons—one that didn't even require its participation—was a rare spectacle that might happen only once in decades or even centuries. Naturally, Mother Chameleos would never miss it.
It was just that the later interception by the Fire Wyvern group had exceeded Mother Chameleos' expectations.
According to its account, that Chameleos, though angered by the Fire Wyverns' interference, had not actually gone for the kill.
The poisonous mist it released merely disrupted nerves and interfered with stamina; in truth, its lethality was far weaker than the toxic mist Mother Chameleos had once used to exterminate monsters infected by the Frenzy Virus.
After Mother Chameleos drove the poison away with its own medicinal mist, those Fire Wyverns who had fainted from exhaustion or neural disruption gradually regained consciousness. Only after recovering some strength did they finally fly out from within the mist.
Even those Fire Wyverns that had been directly struck by the Chameleos were merely injured. During the entire battle, that Chameleos had not delivered any killing blows.
Its goal had only been to shake off the Fire Wyvern group's pursuit and reach the battlefield between the Kushala Daora and Logan.
The evidence was clear: one after another, Fire Wyverns continued to fly out from the medicinal mist. Though some bore wounds, they were only minor by the standards of large monsters.
Perhaps, even without Mother Chameleos' intervention, they would not have suffered any serious harm.
All signs pointed to the same conclusion—the Chameleos hidden below within the white mist had indeed let go of its old grudge against the Ancient Tree's Fire Wyvern group. This time, it had all been a misunderstanding.
With the misunderstanding cleared and reason fully driving out his bestial instinct, the flames on Logan's body withdrew back inside him. The state of Sunlight dissipated, and a hollow emptiness swept through his body.
Casting one last glance at Mother Chameleos—who was still swaying its tail slightly, vaguely blocking the line between him and some point below—Logan let out a roar and, together with the now-gathered Fire Wyvern group, flew toward the top of the Ancient Tree.
Watching the Fire Wyverns' retreating silhouettes, Mother Chameleos' swaying tail came to a halt. Through the special sense shared among Chameleos, ripples of color like flowing light flashed swiftly across its body, and a large scale fell away.
At last, with a long croak, Mother Chameleos flapped its small wings and once again entered perfect invisibility, vanishing into the sky.
At the base of the Ancient Tree, the white mist dispersed rapidly. Beside a massive broken root, the Chameleos stared with puzzled eyes toward the direction Mother Chameleos had disappeared, then lowered its head and sniffed at the fallen scale before it. The familiar yet distant scent stirred an ancient memory within it.
After a moment of contemplation, it lowered its head and buried the scale where it lay. As the air shimmered faintly, the Chameleos too vanished into the night.
...
At Astera, the Admiral reached out his massive hand to catch the raindrops falling from the sky. Soon, his broad palm was filled with a handful of water.
"Hot."
"Why is the rainwater hot?"
Two days had passed since Kushala Daora's landing. During this time, aside from dispatching a single team of hunters to follow the Elder Dragon's trail, the rest of the Research Commission had been occupied repairing damaged structures and awaiting the arrival of the Third Fleet.
Wrapped in her fur-lined coat, the Field Master walked up beside the Admiral and reached her hand past the eaves to feel the rain.
"It really is hot. The New World's climate seems to have gone strange ever since Kushala Daora arrived. Last night it was blizzards one moment, torrential rain the next, followed by hot winds—and now there's even hot rain. I wonder how many of the weaker ones will fall ill because of it."
As she spoke, the Field Master smiled at the Admiral, her tone half serious, half amused.
"By the way, judging from the information gathered so far, it seems Kushala Daora headed toward the Ancient Tree. Do you think maybe it clashed with the Sunblaze Dragon—and that's what caused these climate anomalies?"
"Maybe. Or maybe I just missed it again, hahaha!"
The Admiral turned his hand over, letting the water flow away from his palm. Yet this time, there wasn't much regret in his tone. After all, nothing disastrous had happened—just a scare with no real danger. For the sake of Astera, he knew his priorities well.
If the climate could grow this abnormal merely two days after Kushala Daora entered the Ancient Tree, only a fool would believe nothing had happened.
'We'll have to wait until the Third Fleet's business is settled before heading to the Ancient Tree to ask. I just hope the scholars at the Ancient Tree Research Base are safe.'
With that thought, the Admiral braved the heavy rain and made his way toward the Smithy and the Canteen.
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