Darren was like an assassin lurking in the shadows. As battle energy surged through his body, both of his arms rapidly gathered strength.
Earlier, when Logan continued using breath attacks, he had deliberately drawn Darren to his side. Because of this, when Xeno'jiiva's heart began to take shape, Darren saw it clearly as well.
As the three Elder Dragons suddenly accelerated into their next large-scale movements, he instantly understood Logan's intent.
In his heart, there was both the excitement of the battle being about to end and the exhaustion brought on by the rapid depletion of his stamina.
This battle was a swift-kill engagement. Every strike could be said to be a full-power attack. Added to that was the strain that Terastal energy placed on his body—so even for him, fatigue was unavoidable at this moment.
Hiding behind a massive Bioenergy Crystal, he lifted half of his mask and swallowed the last Ancient Potion from his backpack. Immediately after came a Mega Demondrug, a Might Seed, Demon Powder, and finally, he tucked a Might Pill into the corner of his mouth. Only then did he lower the mask again.
"It's a pity I didn't know a battle like this would happen. If I'd eaten a Felyne Fire Feast before the fight… I could've been even stronger!!"
Gripping the Blazing Wing that was continuously burning with Calamity Flame, Darren fixed his gaze firmly on Xeno'jiiva, not allowing himself to miss a single movement.
As layers upon layers of high-concentration Terastal crystals replaced the Bioenergy Crystals and basalt inside the platform, the feedback of leyline energy to Xeno'jiiva gradually weakened. The ground, which had originally been filled—aside from magma—with blue streams of leyline energy, also shifted into a different shade of blue.
The icy blue of Terastal energy!
Shard after shard of Terastal fragments burst up from underground, mixed with the corpses of Radiant Crystal Butterfly, and were crushed under Xeno'jiiva's furious trampling.
It tried to awaken that vast leyline energy by attacking the ground.
And even though its attacks pierced the Terastal crystals, under the dual support of the tide-like flood of Radiant Crystal Butterfly pouring in and Logan in the sky continuously injecting Terastal energy through the Radiant Crystal Butterfly, the hollowed-out gaps were quickly filled back in. Xeno'jiiva had only just taken a single breath when that brief moment of relief was cut off.
Did it feel good?
It did! But it also felt like it didn't!
That conflicted sensation made it even more irritable.
Already a qualified Disaster-level Elder Dragon, and with Ruiner Nergigante clinging tightly to it in this irritable state, plus Kulve Taroth at the side launching that highly threatening breath attack at it from time to time—
Xeno'jiiva, for the first time since it was born, lost its reason.
And it also made a combat movement that it would only do once in its entire life.
Actually used its hind limbs to make itself stand up, using its absolute advantage in size to counterattack Ruiner Nergigante!!
You have to understand: at this moment, the only parts of Xeno'jiiva that had completed an initial metamorphosis were those dark scales and spines on its back!
As for its belly, it had only a luminous organ and those semi-transparent scales as protection.
And while a bipedal stance truly let it use its size advantage to reverse the situation and suppress Ruiner Nergigante in close-quarters combat, it also reduced its contact area with the ground!
Its body was easier to throw off balance, and also easier to restrain!
The opportunity had finally arrived!
At this moment, whether it was Logan, Kulve Taroth, or even Darren—who was silently accumulating strength while observing the battle—everyone noticed it.
While Ruiner Nergigante was fully exerting itself in a contest of strength with the standing Xeno'jiiva, Logan suddenly increased the output of Terastal energy.
In an instant, the leyline energy beneath Xeno'jiiva's feet was completely forced away. Thick Terastal pillars erupted directly from beneath it, suspending the target in midair.
Xeno'jiiva, which had already been pressing downward and grappling with Ruiner Nergigante, suddenly found emptiness beneath its feet, and its connection to the leylines was severed for a brief instant.
And it was precisely in that instant that its chest was directly exposed within Kulve Taroth's line of attack.
Without the slightest hesitation, and without regard for Ruiner Nergigante that was still locked in a struggle, Kulve Taroth unleashed in a single breath the heat waves that had long been accumulated within its body. Its temperature, which had been driven to an extreme, dropped rapidly, all of it converted into the heat poured out in this single strike!
Boom!
A thunderous roar that should not have existed erupted between the ultra-high-temperature heat wave and the luminous organ on Xeno'jiiva's chest.
Xeno'jiiva instinctively mobilized the bioenergy within its body, injecting it into the luminous organ in its chest to contend against Kulve Taroth's breath. In the midst of this confrontation, it instinctively attempted to perform an evasive movement, striving to avoid the subsequent sustained scorching.
However, Ruiner Nergigante—which had narrowly avoided Kulve Taroth's attack—did not fly into the sky. Instead, like an agile muscle-bound dragon, it circled around to Xeno'jiiva's rear. With its thick, powerful forelimbs, it firmly seized the base of the opponent's wings and wrenched backward with all its strength, forcibly halting Xeno'jiiva's movement.
It forced Xeno'jiiva to act like a shield, able only to "obediently" block the front and contend head-on with Kulve Taroth's breath.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One massive, pure Terastal pillar after another burst up from the ground, crushing and shattering the Bioenergy Crystals. Dense Terastal energy replaced the leyline energy that had been visible everywhere, enveloping the area and successfully cutting off the leylines' supply to Xeno'jiiva!
As Xeno'jiiva's luminous organ grew increasingly red amid the energy collisions—those semi-transparent scales even dissolving and blurring until their shapes could no longer be made out—and as the steadily pounding heart became clearer and clearer—
The somewhat exhausted Logan converted energy into lightning, and in an instant pulled Darren—who was dodging the Terastal pillars erupting in explosive bursts—up into the air.
"Three… two… now!"
Logan narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Xeno'jiiva's heart. The moment he saw the scales completely melt away, exposing the internal muscle that was half energy and half flesh, he hurled Darren forward with all his strength!
The remaining Radiant Crystal Butterfly no longer rushed toward the ground. Instead, they turned and surged toward Kulve Taroth, and within the wind path created by Logan, they used their own bodies as a wall, forcibly blocking that deadly ultra-high-temperature heat wave.
Just as Kulve Taroth's breath was intercepted, and as the melted scales on Xeno'jiiva had only just begun to regenerate, the Darren who had been thrown arrived at exactly that moment.
There was no roar, and no words.
Both hands tightly gripped the Blazing Wing. He crushed the Might Pill in his mouth. He had already gathered strength who knew how many times—his muscles swelling and surging until they no longer felt like his own.
But Darren did not care about any of that at this moment!
He only knew one thing!
Right now, he was going to pierce through that layer of muscle, stab through that heart, drive the blade deep into it, and completely pin this monster here!!
"For!! Nature!!!"
Zzz!!
The massive Greatsword plunged entirely into Xeno'jiiva's chest. Half of Darren's arm sank into Xeno'jiiva's flesh, enduring the searing wash of high-concentration bioenergy.
Calamity Flame! Lethal poison!
They spread within Xeno'jiiva's energy core organ—the heart.
The Terastal crystals coating the spine of the blade rapidly disintegrated, transforming into pure Terastal energy. Like countless razor-sharp blades, they began severing the tangled energy circuits inside the heart.
Then, Xeno'jiiva's constantly beating heart began to swell!
And then it rapidly contracted!
The enormous body of the dragon flickered between bright and dim, flashing with blue light.
Beneath a chain of luminous organs, cold pupils devoid of any emotion stared in disbelief at this tiny human.
The strength in the wings—previously tensed while contending with Ruiner Nergigante—slackened, collapsing limply and crashing onto the Terastal ground.
The sound of crackling electricity rang out. Exhausted and drained of strength, Darren was pulled free by the current, still tightly gripping the Blazing Wing that had returned to its normal state, and was lifted up into the sky, away from Xeno'jiiva's body.
The Radiant Crystal Butterfly that had been blocking Kulve Taroth's breath with their lives suddenly scattered, once again opening up Kulve Taroth's field of view.
In the air—there was no wind.
Only silence.
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