Blood sprayed into the air.
Since it was a slash rather than a thrust, the brow ridge stopped the blade, preventing it from destroying Espinas's remaining right eye. The burst of Dragon Element energy still forced the Monster's eye shut, and the blood streaming into it blurred its vision even further.
"ROOOOAAAR!!!" Espinas bellowed in fury.
It lowered its head, its mangled wing claws scraping at the ground as it prepared to launch another charge.
Altaïr glanced behind him, sheathed his weapon, and broke into a sprint.
Half-blinded and with blood clouding its remaining eye, Espinas could barely make out the direction the Hunter was fleeing. It leveled its horn at the target and charged recklessly.
The target drew closer and closer. In another instant, it would gore the Hunter from behind and hoist him into the air on its horn.
However, with its head lowered and vision blurred, Espinas failed to notice the massive tree standing directly in the path of its charge, its trunk more than two meters thick.
At the last possible moment, just before the charge caught him, Altaïr threw himself to the ground. Espinas finally noticed the giant tree ahead, but it was already too late to stop.
With a thunderous crash, Espinas nearly snapped the unusually thick tree in half.
The tremendous recoil hurled Espinas backward, and its own charge nearly broke its neck. Its horn, already laced with cracks, shattered at the base and spun away to land nearby.
"GUROOOOAAARR!!!"
The agonized howl carried far into the distance, startling flocks of birds from the Jungle.
Dazed and disoriented, Espinas staggered on unsteady feet. The broken horn was a greater psychological blow than a physical one.
As ruler of the Jungle, no creature had ever defeated it head-on, nor had its horn ever been broken.
For the first time, an utterly unfamiliar feeling crept into Espinas's heart. Unease.
It sensed that it truly might not be able to defeat the two opponents before it.
Its mind remained muddled from the tremendous impact. The wounds covering its body bled ceaselessly, sapping its stamina by the moment.
Harsh, ragged breaths echoed through the forest, and saliva laced with venom dripped steadily between its teeth. The muscles that had swollen with blood in its enraged state gradually subsided.
As it fell out of its enraged state and exhaustion set in, Espinas finally began to consider retreat. It turned and limped toward the forest.
After all the effort they had put into reaching this point, the Hunters had no intention of letting it escape so easily.
Altaïr quickened his pace and circled in front of Espinas, bringing a Step Slash down on its head to force it to stop.
Espinas ignored both him and the blow and kept trudging forward.
The situation turned awkward. Now that Espinas was no longer enraged, its thick, hard shell plates settled back into place. Nearly every wound cut into the gaps between those plates was concealed again.
Without the blood seeping between its shell plates, its broken horn, and the mangled flesh on its unarmored legs, it might have looked almost unharmed.
Altaïr's Draw Slash left nothing but a useless white mark on its skull, and he ground his teeth in frustration.
He hated thick-skinned bastards like this.
Just as he was planning to keep attacking Espinas's legs until it stopped or collapsed, Isis came running over.
She carried the Stinkmink, which hung utterly limp and looked as though it had lost all will to live. After releasing pheromone gas so many times, the poor thing had been wrung dry.
Isis scratched its belly. When that drew no response, she squeezed hard.
"Mew!!"
The Stinkmink's fur stood on end as it shrieked, and Isis nearly made it soil itself. At last, it managed to spray one final puff of pheromone gas, though both its color and smell were already a little off.
Fortunately, they were close enough to Espinas for even the weak pheromone gas to work. Its lone eye, clouded by blood loss, dizziness, and exhaustion, turned toward them, and it staggered after Isis.
Altaïr immediately broke off his attack and watched as Isis slowly led Espinas toward an area dense with vines.
One patch of ground was a slightly different color from the earth around it. That was the Pitfall Trap Isis had set earlier.
The unsuspecting Espinas plunged headfirst into it.
The Monster jolted fully alert and began to struggle, but the sticky net inside the Pitfall Trap and the surrounding vines bound it fast. It would not break free anytime soon.
Altaïr hurried over and joined Isis in hurling several Tranq Bombs at it.
As Espinas inhaled the medicinal mist formulated from Sleep Herb and Parashroom extracts, it gradually stopped struggling.
The Espinas Hunt was a success!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Maki lightly nudged the head of the deeply sleeping Espinas with her foot and clicked her tongue. "So you actually pulled it off."
Altaïr sat on a rotting tree stump, cleaning the blood and gore from his weapon. "Pure luck. If Isis hadn't arrived in time and I hadn't narrowly dodged several attacks, I would have been out of the fight long ago."
"Well, at least you're self-aware." Maki gave him a mocking grin. "What, did you really think you could Hunt an Espinas alone?"
Altaïr laughed awkwardly. He was not that arrogant, but he could not deny that a tiny part of him had hoped he might succeed.
"Honestly, I was planning to let you get carted once or twice," Maki said as she stroked her chin and examined the jagged stump of Espinas's horn. "But now that I've seen you fight, even if you can't solo a Monster at this level, you can at least hold your own.
"Still, that wasn't enough pressure. Hey, Minoto, didn't the Meowcenaries report earlier that they'd spotted a Flaming Espinas in the Citadel?"
Minoto did not answer. She gave Maki an icy glare and stomped hard on her foot.
Wyverian feet were structured differently from human feet, and a full-force stomp was no joke. Maki yanked her foot back like lightning and raised her hands in surrender. "It was a joke. I was only joking..."
Altaïr and Isis exchanged a glance.
Nymera had told them Maki was a woman of few words. They certainly were not seeing that side of her.
Under Minoto's stern gaze, Maki finally grew a little more serious. "Ahem. Anyway, the two of you Hunted this Espinas yourselves. I never interfered, so its materials are yours.
"I'll arrange to have it transported back to the village and properly processed. Mr. Yan needs its venom and venom gland, and we can use the Monster Bones. We'll sort out your share of the materials in a few days. How does that sound?"
Transporting a captured Monster was far more troublesome than carving a slain one in the field, but capturing it would ultimately yield more materials. Maki was clearly doing them a favor, so Altaïr and Isis naturally accepted.
"Senior Maki, how good is armor made from Espinas materials? Or do you have any recommendations for a weapon?" Altaïr asked after thanking her.
After the past few days, he had grown familiar enough with Senior Maki that he felt no need to stand on ceremony when asking for equipment advice.
"The Espinas Armor Set, if I remember correctly, mainly boosts paralysis and poison buildup. Its defensive skills aren't especially impressive for armor of the same tier, but Espinas is one of the more formidable species with a 6★ Danger Rating. The set is certainly sturdier than the Regios Armor Set you're wearing.
"As for weapons, they're what you'd expect, with poison at their core. I've forged Espinas Dual Blades before, and they're solid weapons. Use those as a reference and decide for yourselves."
Maki spoke as if it were nothing, but Altaïr and Isis knew that equipment made from Espinas materials was a rare luxury beyond most Hunters' reach.
For a Hunter of Maki's caliber to describe it as merely "decent" meant it had to be top-tier gear.
"How about I have a set of armor forged for you and use the remaining materials for a weapon of my own?" Altaïr asked Isis.
"I don't want it." Isis shook her head firmly. "Armor that boosts status buildup is completely useless to me. It would be a waste.
"Besides, both my Lagiacrus Armor Set and my Zamtrios Z Armor Set come with the Guard skill. I can't bear to give that up.
"A weapon would be even more useless. I've never heard of anyone using a poison Gunlance. No, no. You take all of it!"
"These are materials from a 6★ Monster. Why do you sound so dismissive...?"
(Translated by yourtl.app)