Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 358 Shion: I have an idea!
As usual, Lin Lin carried the shark-shaped guard on his back, flipped over and jumped off the sand boat. Before he had taken a few steps, he suddenly felt a slight vibration in the sand beneath his feet, and the vibration was rapidly increasing.

Is there something under the sand? Or is it coming towards me?
The thought flashed through Lin Lin's mind, but his actions reacted even faster than his thoughts. He released the flying insect, and his body soared into the air, landing on a rocky platform not far away.

The next moment, an enormous, exaggerated mouth burst forth from beneath the sand, its sharp teeth clashing together with a loud clang, and even sparks flew out.

Looking at the monster that burst out of the ground, with its back covered in hard, brownish-yellow carapace and its head taking up almost a third of its body size, Lin Lin was slightly taken aback, and then couldn't help but grin.

Good heavens, isn't that a Nautilus? We were just wondering where to hunt this thing, and here it is, running right up to us! It's like they've chosen the path to hell when there's one for them!
Lin Lin almost instinctively drew his shield axe, wanting to go up and hack at this ugly thing, then use a super explosive charge to send it to its grave in an ice blast. But fortunately, he hadn't forgotten that the purpose of this mission was to train Violet, so he forcibly suppressed the urge to swing his sword. Instead, he held his shield forward and pressed himself against the face of the Lupus to attract its attention.

Bref reacted just as quickly. As the Lupus appeared, he also drew his katana. However, like Lin Lin, after glancing down at his Ice Fang Crimson Blade, he chose to observe from the sidelines, only occasionally swinging a slash or two as a token gesture. Well, this time, this time he returned to the most basic guild katana style, sealing away all Iaijutsu and Kamui.

"Roar!!!"

Seeing that the surprise attack had failed and the prey that had been locked on was now attacking him instead, the Flood Dragon let out a loud roar, which made Lin Lin raise his shield to defend himself and made Bref cover his ears.

"Snapped!"

With a sharp crack, a crossbow bolt struck from behind, landing precisely on the skull of the Nautilus.

However, the crossbow bolt did not cause any damage to the Flood Dragon. Instead, when the two made contact, the bolt exploded, spilling all the pink, pungent liquid stored inside onto the Flood Dragon's head.

As the name suggests, paint bullets are the paint ball version of crossbow bullets, and their only purpose is to mark monsters.

However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, the pungent smell of the dyed fruit can more or less irritate the marked monsters, such as this lurking dragon at this moment.

A large portion of the dye liquid stored in the crossbow bullet splashed directly onto its nose, severely interfering with its already underdeveloped sense of smell.

The lower half of the saurus was still buried under the sand, its two front claws, like those of an excavator, gripped the ground, and it bit at Lin Lin, who was closest to it.

Glancing at the gaping maw that was almost 180 degrees open, Lin Lin didn't raise a shield to block it. Instead, he took a light, gliding step back, dodging the abyssal maw. His icy blue sword swept lightly across his body, leaving a chilling wound on the dragon's nose.

Tsk, this guy's nose seems pretty soft. Hopefully, that stab didn't cause too much damage...

As the Submerged Dragon launched its attack on Lin Lin, the roar of ballistae sounded again behind him, and bolts whistled past him, landing on the Submerged Dragon's large head.

Clearly, in that brief moment, Shion had finished reloading and officially launched an attack on the Namielle.

However, it seems that Shion's attack effect is not ideal at present.

The skull of the Flood Dragon was quite hard. The common bullets fired by Aster hit it but had almost no effective damage. Some bullets were even deflected due to the bad angle. One of the ricocheting bullets flew around and just happened to disappear into the sand under Bref's feet, startling him so much that he almost jumped up on the spot.

"Hey! Can you aim carefully before you shoot?!"

Bref scurried away, dodging the gaping maw of the Lurker Dragon, cold sweat pouring down his back. Damn it, he had faced so many ferocious and powerful monsters, and he had almost been killed by his own people.

"Sorry sorry sorry!"

Shion had obviously noticed the situation as well. She apologized as she quickly ran to the side of the Namielle.

According to Rachel's instructions, when encountering an unfamiliar monster, you can first use the most common lv1 normal ammo to test the texture of the monster's body parts, and then switch to a more powerful type of ammo to officially launch an attack.

Ziyuan did the same, but she didn't expect that the team's first collaboration would go wrong. The head of the Namielle was so hard that it could deflect the crossbow bolt.

Now Ziyuan dared not probe the head of the Flood Dragon anymore. Although the tip of its nose looked soft and the flesh was probably of good quality, the area was too small. If the attack was slightly off-center, it would hit the skull. To be on the safe side, she should find another suitable spot.

As Shion ran, clutching the heavy crossbow, she cautiously probed other parts of her body.

Its body... is similar to its head, with a dark brown carapace that is very hard, making it impervious to crossbow bullets.

Its forelegs...are slightly stronger than its head and body, but still very tough.

As for the hind legs, tail, and abdomen, since the Flood Dragon fought while lying down and almost buried its entire lower body under the sand, it had no chance to shoot.

On the contrary, the lighter-colored, earthy-yellow carapace in the center of its back seems much softer, and it still bleeds when hit.

Let's lock onto that spot and attack!
Shion switched to LV1 piercing ammo, reporting her findings while starting to flank and prepare to ambush the Lupus dinosaur from behind.

Upon hearing Ziyuan's intention, Lin Lin and Bref did not hesitate and decisively moved forward to draw the attention of the Hidden Mouth Dragon and prevent it from having the energy to attack the back row archers.

As for Yoko, she did not join the battle for the time being, but returned to the sand boat to collect the supplies that Shion had brought.

The more they searched, the more alarmed they became. This was truly outrageous... Putting aside the usual items like healing potions and food, they brought twelve secret medicines—were they planning to eat them like candy? And then there were twenty sonic bombs! I mean, if they used so many sonic bombs in quick succession, given the monsters' incredible adaptability, they'd probably just adapt to them completely, right?

And this giant barrel bomb G—it doesn't seem like there's any chance of blowing it up, does it? The monsters aren't going to just wait for you to set up the bomb before attacking. And what's even more ridiculous? What's with that fishing rod? Isn't this a desert? Are you planning to fish in the desert with a fishing rod? What kind of fish can you find in the desert? Only sandfish, right? But you don't fish for sandfish! This thing isn't for catching monstrous predators, is it?

Ye Zi glanced at the battle situation on Lin Lin's side, and seeing that nothing unexpected had happened, she simply picked up a fishing rod and tugged at it.

Wow, the materials used here are quite high-end. The fishing rod is made of specially treated Juniperus chinensis wood, which is strong and tough enough to be used as a weapon. The fishing line is made of spider silk and ivy leaf fibers, using the same material as pitfall traps.

So, this isn't actually used to fish for monsters, is it...? That's insane...

After thinking for a moment, Ye Zi put the fishing rod away. Shi Yuan probably brought this thing along because of Lin Lin's suggestion. Although she didn't know why Lin Lin would let her bring this, he must have his reasons.

……

On the field, a fierce battle was taking place.

Well, okay, maybe it's just more intense for the schizothorax.

The constant barrage of crossbow bolts from behind caused a persistent stinging pain. He tried to turn around and attack, but Lin Lin and Bref kept him firmly pinned down. He tried to attack the two people in front of him, but they were as slippery as eels, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach them.

Under constant passive attacks, the squirm let out an angry roar. As its emotions surged, its heart rate increased, its blood pressure rose, and its nostrils began to swell, spewing out large plumes of white steam.

It opened its mouth wide and began to inhale forcefully. Large swaths of golden sand from the ground rushed into its mouth with each breath, like a golden waterfall.

"Watch out! It's a breath attack!"

Lin Lin gave a reminder and began to circle around the side of the Flood Dragon.

In fact, he didn't need to remind him. A qualified hunter would be on high alert when he noticed the monster making unusual movements. Almost at the same time, Breve began to circle around in the opposite direction from Lin Lin.

The next moment, thanks to the powerful lung capacity of the scorpion, a column of golden sand gushed out and swept out as it turned.

Unfortunately, its action of inhaling sand was too obvious. The three hunters were prepared and easily dodged the range of its breath. They then took advantage of the moment when it had finished exhaling the sand to stick to it again and attack.

Seeing that even with such a wide-range breath attack, he still couldn't get rid of the two hunters beside him, the Fiery Dragon was not only angry but also felt a bit annoyed with them.

Well, these two guys are just good at dodging anyway. Their attacks are harmless and not a big threat. If we can't hit them, we can just ignore them. On the contrary, the one that keeps shooting at it from behind is a big threat. Although the damage caused by a single crossbow shot is not high, the continuous shooting has already caused the Flood Dragon to suffer considerable injuries.

With that thought in mind, the Submerged Dragon ignored the two pretentious guys beside it and their ineffective attacks. Instead, it used its claws to dig up the sand in front of it and disappeared back into the sand in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace of its presence.

Ziyuan was slightly taken aback. "It ran away already?"

Lin Lin shouted, "Watch out, it's charging at you!"

Ziyuan had no doubts about her exceptionally talented senior brother. She immediately folded the heavy crossbow and put it behind her back, then started running.

Feeling the faint vibrations beneath her feet getting closer and closer, Ziyuan's heart raced uncontrollably as she nervously calculated the distance, ready to pounce at any moment.

"Buzz!"

Suddenly, a buzzing sound came from the open ground behind me, with high-frequency vibrations accompanied by visible sound waves spreading outwards.

Shion didn't need to turn around; just hearing that familiar voice made her overjoyed. It was a sonic boom grenade! Thank you, Yoko-nee, for saving me from this urgent situation!
Ziyuan immediately stopped in her tracks. In her mind, she could already picture the Flood Dragon being shaken by the sonic boom, seeing stars, and jumping onto the ground like a salted fish that couldn't turn over, struggling and thrashing about in vain.

But when she reloaded her heavy crossbow and turned around, she was surprised to find that the image in her mind had not appeared. The Flood Dragon seemed to be completely unaffected by the sonic boom, still charging out from under the sand with great momentum, its big mouth making a grunting sound.

How could this be? Wasn't it supposed to be that monsters that are good at burrowing are usually vulnerable to sonic bombs, and that throwing sonic bombs at monsters that burrow underground is always the right thing to do? Why is the Namielle unaffected?
Wait, that’s not right!
As Shion watched the Flood Dragon burst out from under the sand and bite the air hard, she suddenly realized something was wrong.

That thing clearly locked onto her and came towards her direction, so why is it now emerging from there and biting at thin air? That spot... is where the sonic boom grenade exploded!
Ziyuan has excellent hearing. Under Rachel's tutelage, she has a solid foundation in sound localization. She made the correct judgment after only a short moment of thought.

The subterranean dinosaur can only rely on its hearing to determine the location of its prey underground. The explosion of the sonic bomb must have disrupted its perception, making it think that the location of the sonic bomb was where the prey was!
But why can't the sonic boom bomb blow up the Flood Dragon like it did with the Sand Dragon King or the Diablos?
Ziyuan was filled with doubt, but that didn't stop her from aiming at the Flood Dragon that had missed its bite and starting to shoot.

In fact, the reason why sonic bombs could not kill the squirmosaur was because the squirmosaur relied on vibration to locate its prey, not hearing.

It might sound strange—isn't sound caused by vibration? But for the Thrush, as long as I have no hearing, you can't damage it. The Thrush's ears have long since degenerated, forming a single organ with its gills. It has abandoned hearing, relying entirely on its body's keen perception of vibrations for positioning—which is precisely the principle behind how sonic bombs affected the Thrush's attack location.

Although Shion didn't understand the underlying principles, that didn't stop her from coming up with a brilliant idea based on her observations. While shooting to attract the attention of the Flood Dragon, she shouted loudly to tell the three of them her plan.

"Yoko-nee! Bring out the Mega Barrel Bomb G! When the Lumbricus burrows again, throw sonic bombs at the location of the Mega Barrel Bomb!"

(End of this chapter)