Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 381 Hunting Success
Cold sweat seeped out involuntarily, only to be evaporated by the scorching heat wave that rushed towards him. The fire dragon's breath attack, which swept away fire, had been charged up and mixed with more combustible dust, so even the temperature of the flames was much higher than the fireballs that had been spat out earlier.

Even though Lin Lin had taken precautions to avoid the direct burning of the flames, the surrounding air still heated up instantly, and the heat rushed into his trachea and lungs with each breath, bringing a burning pain.

"Oh shit!"

Lin Lin cursed inwardly. He couldn't let this guy fly around so arrogantly anymore. He could judge the attack once or twice by the body movements, but if this continued, once he made a mistake, the result would be a complete defeat.

His first instinct was to throw a flashbang at the creature to bring it down, but that would mean he would have to put away his weapon, take out another flashbang, and in those few seconds, the Rathalos would have had more than enough time to launch another attack.

If only we had a projector, we could just throw a dodge during combos without affecting anything...

A thought flashed through his mind, and Lin Lin shouted in a hoarse voice:

Dates!

"Got it, meow!"

Only able to observe from the edge, using boomerangs to inflict negligible damage, watching helplessly as its leader faced perilous situations, Date was already impatient. Upon receiving Lin Lin's signal, it did not hesitate and directly pulled the fuse off the flashbang it was tightly clutching in its hand.

"Hey! Big guy, look at me!"

Hearing the noisy commotion from the smaller, weaker creature not far away, Rathalos glanced at it but paid it no mind. Compared to the harmless boomerang launcher, the hunter beneath it who dared to scratch its wing membrane was clearly more hateful.

However, in just one glance, before it could even clearly see the date palm's body, its vision was suddenly filled with a burst of intense white light. Even though it instinctively closed its eyelids in the next moment, it was clearly too late.

Tears welled up involuntarily in the corners of his eyes. His vision was completely deprived in a short time, and all he could see was a white blur. The Rathalos, which was in mid-air, suddenly lost its visual aid and let out a mournful cry as it crashed to the ground. Its wildly flapping wings were not enough to allow it to regain its balance in an instant.

"Hahaha! Well done! Dates!"

Lin Lin let out a wild laugh, completely ignoring the burning pain in his throat, and strode to the outside of the Rathalos's right wing. He completely disregarded the air turbulence caused by the Rathalos's desperate flapping on the ground, and directly launched a Wirebug upwards. At the same time, he combined his sword and shield to transform into an axe, and slammed it down heavily on the Rathalos's wing membrane.

"Eat my aerial super-solution!"

The giant axe swung from in front of him to behind him, and Lin Lin's entire body transformed into a taut spring. After being compressed to its limit, it suddenly sprang forward, and the heavy giant axe, carrying immense force, crashed down, easily splitting the tough wing membrane at the point of impact in two, as if piercing a piece of paper.

And this was just the beginning. Following the fall of the giant axe was an energy explosion that surged forward like golden fountains. Under the influence of the terrifying impact, the wound torn open by the axe blade expanded and rolled in an instant. A large number of fragments of the wing membrane scattered in all directions with the impact. Even its entire body was moved to the side by one or two meters due to the powerful impact and its own instinctive reaction under the pain.

When Lin Lin took a deep breath and disassembled the sword and shield again, a large hole nearly five or six meters in diameter had been torn in the wing membrane of the male fire dragon in front of him, with only two broken wing bones barely connecting the remaining part of the wing membrane.

"Ouch!"

Rathalos howled in agony, its struggles becoming even more intense.

Lin Lin didn't have time to recover from the brief weakness after unleashing his full power in the air with his Super Amped Explosion. He quickly ran to the front of Rathalos's head, tensed his arm muscles, and gripped his sword to begin charging up.

As the guild knight said at the time, the protection of this talisman [Concentration] is far less than that of [High-Speed ​​Transformation]. Even so, Lin Lin could still feel that his charging was a little easier than before, and the time to complete the charging was also shortened.

Although not many, they do exist.

He charged up for a double slash, followed by a shield thrust, and then another charged double slash. Seeing the four horns forming the sword faintly emitting a red light, accompanied by a continuous "sizzling" sound, Lin Lin raised an eyebrow and decisively began charging.

Based on past experience, that combo should have been enough to fill the bottle, but it almost overheated the sword. So, does [Concentration] affect the efficiency of energy accumulation?

He remembered that this had never happened when he played games before. Could it be another difference between reality and games?

Although the sword form's attack power was far less than that of the axe form, the two consecutive charged double slashes landing on the same spot still caused Rathalos intense pain. Not only were the scales shattered and the skin torn, but the flesh inside also became bloody and tangled under the powerful attack. If he could land one or two more charged slashes, Lin Lin felt that he should be able to touch the opponent's skull.

Unfortunately, after being repeatedly struck, the intense pain made the male fire dragon realize that things were very bad and death was imminent. So it struggled more violently than ever before. Before Lin Lin could finish filling the energy bottle, it had already gotten up from the ground and let out an angry roar.

Seeing the other party inhale, Lin Lin realized that the other party was about to roar again. However, he had just inserted the sword into the shield to reload it, and there was no time to pull it out and raise the shield to block. In desperation, Lin Lin simply grabbed the sword hilt with one hand and shook it with the other hand, thus holding the sword and shield horizontally in front of him.

"Roar!!!"

Perhaps the several injuries had caused the Rathalos to lose confidence in defeating its enemies, or perhaps it was because it was hungry and its meal had been interrupted, leaving it little time to replenish its energy. The Rathalos's roar no longer seemed as powerful as before, and Lin Lin simply lowered his arm slightly to block the impact of the sound waves.

However, Lin Lin had no time to think about the reason at the moment, because he had just discovered that after he made that abnormal shield and axe move in his haste, the red light flashing on the shield suddenly became stronger.

Normally, the intensity of the red light flashing on the shield indicates the duration of the shield enhancement state. The red light is strongest when the shield enhancement is first activated, but as time goes by, the energy gradually dissipates, and the red light will continuously weaken. When it reaches a certain level, it will turn into yellow light, and after a few breaths, the shield enhancement state will completely end.

To maintain the red shield, you need to use "Attribute Enhancement Refill Slash" again to infuse the bottle's energy into the shield. During the intense battle just now, the red light on the shield had weakened by about one-third, but after that desperate action, the red light has returned to its strongest state.

This phenomenon can only mean one thing: that random move just now had the same effect as the attribute-enhanced refill slash!
With his mind racing like lightning, Lin Lin didn't have time to think about the underlying principles. He simply memorized what he had just witnessed and quickly disassembled his sword and shield, preparing himself for the Rathalos.

After a roar, the Rathalos seemed to want to repeat its previous combo, using the roar to intimidate the enemy, launching itself into the air with a fireball, followed by a powerful flying kick that tore open the hunter's armor. Unfortunately, its right wing now had a large hole, allowing it to barely stay airborne for a few seconds using only its left wing; flying was a pipe dream, and clearly, it hadn't noticed this.

This resulted in the Rathalos failing to take off. Instead, the movement disrupted its balance, causing it to tilt and fall again. As a result, the fireball flew far off course, never even reaching within two meters of Lin Lin.

Lin Lin certainly wouldn't let go of this good opportunity to kick a dog when it's down. Seeing the fire dragon crash on its own, he didn't hesitate to swing his sword and charge forward again.

……

Not far from where Lin Lin was fighting the Rathalos, in a thicket, the black cat Niaru, along with the white cat Steak and a group of other Elru, were watching the battle. While they were holding their breath for the thrilling fight, they couldn't help but feel an immense longing for the hunter profession.

It turns out that Senior Dates really wasn't exaggerating. Lord Lin Lin really can fight against such a huge and terrifying flying dragon with such a tiny body!
"Hunter, you're amazing, meow... If I had that kind of power, maybe our clan wouldn't have..."

Upon hearing this, Steak crossed his arms and glanced at the thin and small Melaloo. He had already guessed what had happened to it—after all, it was not uncommon for wild tribes to encounter such things.

"Not all hunters are like Mr. Lin Lin, possessing the ability to face a wyvern head-on, meow!"

"I have a son, who is learning and training with the hunters. For most hunters, a hunter who can challenge a dragon is someone they can only look up to!"

"If you want to have such power, the fastest shortcut is to become a hunter's Palico and learn skills from him, meow."

It sized Nia up and down, then turned its gaze back to the fierce battle between the human and the dragon in the distance:
"You're pretty lucky, meow, to have met such a reliable hunter as Mr. Lin Lin. If you want to become a hunting cat, maybe you can ask him if he'll take you in, meow..."

Upon hearing this, Nia Lu pinched her slender arms and legs, glanced at the date palms that were much taller than her in the distance, and sighed silently.

"It's probably impossible, meow. Lord Lin Lin already has an excellent hunting cat like Senior Date Palm by his side, why would he take me in, meow..."

Just as Nia sighed, the steak next to her suddenly narrowed its eyes and shouted:
"Watch out! Scatter, meow!"

Nia looked up blankly and saw a blazing fireball flying out from the direction of the fierce battle between the man and the dragon in the distance, and it was rapidly approaching in that direction.

"Meow!!!"

The next moment, chaotic screams of cats rose and fell, and a large number of Ailu jumped out of the bushes and scattered in all directions, as if their butts were on fire.

Yes, it's definitely a case of being in dire straits. Take Niaru, for example. A small flame is clinging to the tuft of black fur at the tip of her tail, and it's dancing merrily as she runs away.

Smelling the acrid smell of burning protein in the air, Nia panicked and, driven entirely by instinct, threw herself to the ground, rolling around until she finally extinguished the flame, leaving only a bare, pointed tail.

"My beautiful tail, meow!!!"

Nia Lu held the tip of her tail, which was almost scalded by the flames, her face filled with grief and indignation.

Unlike Niaru, who had no experience dealing with such a situation, the local Airu tribe, though panicked, remained calm and, under Steak's command, quickly extinguished the surrounding flames and rescued the cart hidden behind the bushes.

This is the cat cart used to save hunters in dangerous situations, it must not be lost!

……

Lin Lin, who was engaged in a fierce battle with Rathalos, naturally had no time to notice the little incident involving the Palicoes in the distance. After Datenia took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack with a Flash Bomb, and Lin Lin then seized the opportunity to disable the Palico's flight ability with a Super Amped Elemental Discharge, the balance of the battle had already tilted in their favor.

Of course, even so, Rathalos has only been weakened. If you don't maintain absolute focus, and make any misjudgment, you could easily be hit by a dragon charge or a fireball, which could turn the tide of battle in an instant.

Lin Lin would never do something like riding the wave when things are going well or throwing himself into trouble when things are going badly.

After achieving its strategic objective of suppressing the opponent's flight, Date Palm finally put away its boomerang and stopped observing from the sidelines. Instead, it drew its Thunder Wolf Dragon Cat Sword and joined the battle. Together with Lin Lin, they harassed and attacked the male Rathalos from the left and right or from the front and back. Although they could not inflict any decisive damage, the numerous small wounds would draw a lot of blood from the opponent, thereby depleting its stamina and pushing the battle toward victory.

Wounded from the start of the battle and bleeding profusely, the Rathalos, having fought for a long time, was already in a weakened state. Thick saliva dripped from its panting mouth, but it ignored it all and was still filled with rage, determined to crush the creature in front of it into dust.

A charged double slash left a bloody gash on the side of Rathalos's head. Lin Lin immediately shoved his sword into his shield to parry the attack, blocking the Rathalos's bite.

This bite seemed to have completely exhausted its already limited strength, leaving it standing there panting, its angry eyes fixed on the tiny hunter before it.

"Take another one of my swords, meow!"

Taking advantage of the opening, Yezao plunged her sword into the gap in the Rathalos's ankle, causing blood to splatter everywhere.

Date's sword strike was like the last straw that broke the camel's back. The Rathalos let out a mournful howl, its body went limp, and it collapsed to the ground.

(End of this chapter)