Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 338 Rotten Banana

After taking off from the high-altitude sky, Lin Lin had been searching for traces of the target using the shared senses of the high-altitude sky.

As a fire dragon, even with only one eye, Da Kong could clearly see the scene below. Through Da Kong's perspective, Lin Lin was able to clearly identify the marks on the ground.

For example, right now, a waterfall cascading down from a high mountain has gathered into a small lake in a flat area, roughly estimated to be several hundred square meters in size.

However, the lake water at this moment had a strange pale purple color, and a large number of dead fish and shrimp were floating on the surface. Lin Lin was certain that if he and Da Kong were not high in the sky, they would have smelled a strong, fishy, ​​and rotten odor.

There was a bamboo forest by the lake, with many pointed bamboo shoots in it. It should have been a high-quality place for collecting bamboo shoots, a specialty of Jieyun, but now it looked as if it had been doused with paraquat, with large patches of withered yellow. The land near the lake was also polluted by the toxic lake water. Before these toxins slowly decomposed over time, this land would probably become barren.

'It's clearly just a subspecies of aquatic beast, but its destructive power to the surrounding ecosystem is comparable to a weakened version of the Chameleon. Wherever it goes, large numbers of creatures die. No wonder it's registered as an emergency mission.'

Lin Lin couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Why was the ecosystem of Jieyun region so plagued by disasters? First, the Thunder Wolf Dragon was driven down the mountain and caused chaos, then the Deviljho came and almost ate up the surrounding area. It was only after the Storm Dragon was driven away that a Purple Water Beast appeared.

Now that they've found the traces left by the Purple Water Beast, they can't be too far from it. With Da Kong, an aerial reconnaissance unit that's just as capable as the Fukumu Rabbit, Lin Lin believes that it won't be long before they successfully locate their target and end its destruction of the surrounding ecosystem as soon as possible.

At Lin Lin's signal, Da Kong descended some altitude and began to circle and search the surrounding area, using the lake as its center.

More than ten minutes later.

"We found the target!"

Lin Lin let out a soft exclamation, attracting the attention of a person and a cat behind him. They quickly looked down and saw a fat monster that looked like a rotten banana wriggling its limbs and leisurely crawling along the stream. Venom was constantly secreted from its spongy mane, which dripped into the stream and stained it with a faint purple hue.

As it crawled, the stream behind it spread a faint purple hue, and countless fish, shrimp, and crabs floated to the surface belly up. The purple monster, which looked like a rotten banana, casually crawled through the corpses of the fish and shrimp. Occasionally, when it saw a large enough fish, such as a gluttonous tuna, it would bite it and swallow it whole.

As for the other fish and shrimp that were poisoned, they slowly drifted past the Purple Water Beast and were carried downstream by the current, without the Purple Water Beast giving them even the slightest glance.

"This guy... he's gone too far!"

Even Ye Zi couldn't help but feel indignant upon seeing this scene.

She released one hand from Lin Lin's waist and gestured forcefully towards the purple water beast below:
"Brother Lin Lin, let's go down and take it down now!"

Lin Lin did not respond immediately, but looked at the river beside the Purple Water Beast, which had been dyed light purple, and looked troubled.

"We're both melee hunters. If we go down now and fight it in the water, we'll definitely get poisoned, right?"

"Ah?"

Yoko paused slightly, then glanced down again:
"It seems...that's true?"

In fact, as a subspecies of water beast, the Purple Water Beast's actual ecological niche is not much higher than that of water beast. The reason it can obtain a danger level two stars higher than the original species is entirely due to its extremely troublesome toxins.

Compared to the original species, they have added poison glands to the spongy organs that were originally used to store water, which causes the large amount of water stored in the spongy organs to be mixed with the highly toxic substance.

For the original species, spongy tissue is a water storage organ that keeps their bodies moist, but for the Purple Water Beast, what keeps its body moist is no longer water, but venom...

Therefore, one can imagine that the original Water Beast's attack only splashed water, which could be completely ignored by avoiding the main impact. However, when the Purple Water Beast used the same attack, what splashed up was no longer water, but a deadly poison that would severely weaken combat power if one came into contact with it. For melee swordsmen, fighting the Purple Water Beast was definitely more troublesome than fighting flying dragons such as fire dragons and horned dragons.

"We have to wait until it comes ashore before we attack."

Just as Lin Lin finished speaking, he suddenly heard Da Kong beneath him let out a soft roar.

"Eh? You want to fight too?"

"Roar!"

Da Kong let out another roar filled with fighting spirit, and this time, the Purple Water Beast below finally noticed the commotion in the sky and raised its head.

"It has spotted us! Prepare for battle..."

Before Lin Lin could finish speaking, he saw the Purple Water Beast below tremble. Gone was its previous leisurely demeanor. Its long tail swung vigorously, propelling it to swim rapidly along the stream.

"It's going to run!"

Ye Zi was somewhat taken aback. What was going on? This was the first time she had ever encountered a monster that would run away without even fighting upon meeting her. It was far too unconventional!

Lin Lin was silent for a moment, then sighed:

"This guy is afraid of Da Kong. He thought Da Kong roared to take over his territory, so he ran away."

Yoko: ...

"what should I do then?"

Lin Lin scratched his head:

"Let's land first..."

……

on the ground.

In the makeshift campsite.

Lin Lin sat cross-legged on the spot, spread out the map, and slowly moved his finger across it:

"We are currently here. The Purple Water Beast was here before, but after being frightened by the Sky, it moved downstream. Judging from its speed at the time, its current location... should be around here."

Finally, he pointed his finger to a wide riverbank and then drew a circle.

"It's just a bit of a pity that we didn't mark the other side with a color ball back then. We'll have to have Ozora fly up again to reconfirm its location later."

Ye Zi sat cross-legged next to Lin Lin, leaning close to examine the map. Strands of her hair occasionally brushed against Lin Lin's nose, making him feel a little itchy.

"It's a pity I didn't bring Afu with me this time, otherwise I wouldn't have had to trouble Da Kong again..."

Date squinted at the distance between the two, squeezed in between them, and stared at the map with an air of seriousness: "That's not a problem, meow. The thing to consider now is how to deal with that rotten banana, meow? We have to find a way to get it ashore, meow, otherwise melee hunters simply can't fight it, meow!"

Yoko, who had been pushed aside, couldn't help but wrinkle her delicate nose. She glanced at the serious-looking Coconut, wondering if this little kitten was doing it on purpose or by accident.
Forget it, now is not the time to worry about these things...

"Actually, it's quite simple to lure it out of the water."

Yoko raised her right arm, and the bright red rhinoceros beetle, which had been lying there quietly, flapped its wings and emitted a low hum.

"Although we can't go into the water ourselves, we can have Xiao Jia attack and attract the Purple Water Beast's aggro, luring it ashore!"

"Won't Xiao Jia get poisoned?"

Lin Lin glanced down at the gleaming rhinoceros beetle and a thought suddenly popped into his head.

The hunter-gatherer absorbs essence and then returns it to nourish the hunter; this process is called "lighting the lamp." But if the target monster is covered in poison, won't the hunter-gatherer get poisoned while absorbing the essence? Or will the essence it absorbs be poisonous?

The rhinoceros beetle flapped its wings briefly again, and Yoko couldn't help but chuckle softly:
"Brother Lin Lin, don't underestimate the vitality of the insect hunters! Little Jia has even drunk the blood of an ancient dragon!"

Hmm...that makes sense...

"The only problem is that the Purple Water Beast seems to be a little afraid of Da Kong. When luring it ashore, it's best not to let Da Kong appear in its sight, otherwise it will scare it away."

Lying quietly on the ground to the side, it cast its gaze toward the two of them in the vast sky: ...

Its tail suddenly drooped down softly.

Lin Lin quickly patted Da Kong's head:

"You can't go in before the battle starts. Once we lure the Purple Water Beast out of the water, you, Da Kong, will block its retreat!"

The limp tail suddenly regained its strength and began to wag excitedly.

"Alright, the plan is set. Let's set off. We'll have to walk this short stretch of road from here."

……

Actually, Lin Lin said something wrong.

There's absolutely no need to send Da Kong up into the sky again to investigate in order to confirm the location of the Purple Water Beast.

The stream is flowing water, which will continuously dilute the venom secreted by the Purple Water Beast. The longer it goes on, the fainter the purple hue in the water will become. Therefore, if you want to find the location of the Purple Water Beast, you only need to go in the direction where the purple color in the water is the deepest.

About ten minutes later, Lin Lin spotted the purple water beast peeking out from the edge of a shallow beach.

This guy kept glancing at the sky to make sure he didn't see the previous Rathalos chasing after him before lying down again.

Lin Lin gave Ye Zi a wink, and Ye Zi gave a thumbs up, took the long staff from his back, and swung it lightly.

Air whistles as it passes through the special hollowed-out structure of the Insect Glaive. This structure is used by the Insect Glaive to issue commands to control Kinsects. Of course, there are differences between Kinsects. For highly intelligent Kinsects, this thing is just a secondary command device used when it is inconvenient to speak with the Insect Glaive.

The Purple Water Beast, recalling how it had been frightened and fled in panic by the Fire Dragon in the sky, felt a bit annoyed. It raised its paw and slammed it down on a giant rock in front of it.

"Oh!"

Seeing the oval stone roll to the side, but still without a single crack on its surface, the Purple Water Beast became even angrier. It flicked its tail and sent the rock flying.

But it could only sulk here; it would never dare to go back and seek revenge on that male fire dragon.

Not long ago, it encountered a female Rathalos while wandering around. The female Rathalos seemed to be fighting something and looked quite disheveled. The Purple Water Beast thought it could bully her, so it excitedly rushed up to her and splashed her with poison. However, the female Rathalos seemed completely unaffected and slapped it twice with her tail, followed by a fireball that burned it painfully, forcing it to retreat in a sorry state.

If the Earth Queen is already so formidable, wouldn't it be even more outrageous for the Sky King, who looks almost identical but has an extra advantage in flight, to possess such a powerful ability?

The Purple Water Beast took a deep breath and was just about to swim downstream again to get further away from the male fire dragon that had appeared earlier when it suddenly felt a pain in its head.

"Roar!!!"

What kind of scoundrel dares to launch a sneak attack?!
The Purple Water Beast suddenly turned its head, and then a red beetle appeared in its line of sight, constantly flying around it. The buzzing of its wings was like a subwoofer, which annoyed the dragon so much that it wished it could slap it to death on the spot.

The Purple Water Beast thought this way and did this. It suddenly raised one of its front paws and slammed it down, but apart from splashing a large patch of pale purple water, it had no effect whatsoever. The red beetle even intensified its attack and swooped down again, its single horn slicing through the Purple Water Beast's skin like a sharp arrow, bringing a stinging pain.

The Purple Water Beast was furious. It had been bullied by the female Rathalos, bullied by the male Rathalos, and now even a beetle on the roadside dared to bully it. Did they really think the Purple Water Beast had no temper?!

After a moment of preparation, it vomited and spat out a purple water ball, which it then hurled at the red beetle.

Unfortunately, the speed at which this venomous breath flew was not even as fast as the speed at which the Purple Water Beast slapped its body. The rhinoceros beetle dodged it without any pressure and even took advantage of the gap to launch another attack.

"Roar!!!!!!"

On the distant riverbank, seeing that Xiao Jia had almost secured the Purple Water Beast's aggro, Ye Zi once again swung her insect staff, using a special frequency of sound waves to call for the beast to return.

The Purple Water Beast was burning with rage after being attacked three times by the tiny insects. Suddenly, it saw the insects begin to flee and immediately stepped out of the river to give chase.

You think you can just walk away after offending the Purple Water Beast? You're kidding me!
The purple water beast swiftly twisted its fat limbs, then suddenly leaped and opened its huge mouth to bite the red beetle.

Compared to the clumsy body of the Purple Water Beast, the Crimson Rhinoceros Beetle was far more agile. It had already sensed the Purple Water Beast before it pounced, and with a slight adjustment of the frequency of its wing flapping, it swiftly moved a meter or two to the side, causing the Purple Water Beast to "plop" onto the rocky riverbank.

Impacted and squeezed, a large amount of purple venom suddenly spurted out from its purple, spongy mane.

"Ugh, that's disgusting..."

Yoko couldn't help but express her disdain.

"We're far enough away from the stream now, we can go up."

Lin Lin glanced at the location and nodded slightly to Ye Zi. The two of them jumped out from behind the giant tree where they were hiding.

(End of this chapter)