Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 410 Approaching the Limit

Lin Lin stood there quietly, watching as Tiao Tiao lay there, her breathing gradually becoming slow and even, and she slowly exhaled.

Really? The transformation didn't seem too difficult... That's good.

Although what happened to Tiaotiao seemed to differ somewhat from the information he knew, Lin Lin no longer wanted to investigate the reasons. At least Tiaotiao was lying in front of him now, and that was enough for him.

Lin Lin took a step forward and carefully examined Tiao Tiao's wounds, preparing to see which areas were more serious and then apply more medicine to them.

After going around in circles, he discovered that Jump Jump didn't actually have many wounds; most of the injuries were concentrated on its wings and talons, which covered its body like a cape.

The wounds on the wing claws, being directly exposed to the air, were healing rapidly at a visible pace thanks to the previous application of the Life Powder. However, the wounds on the wing membranes were more difficult to treat. The layers of fine, smooth, filamentous scales, resembling tassels, while providing excellent defense for the wings, also blocked the contact of the medicine, resulting in the slowest healing.

Lin Lin touched his prop bag and turned to look at Ye Zi, "Do you have any more healing medicine? I've run out."

"some."

Yoko nodded and took it out of her prop bag. "The injury on Jumpy's wing isn't easy to treat. How about I come with you?"

"Then trouble you."

Ye Zi chuckled softly. Having successfully found Tiao Tiao, her heart felt lighter. "Given our relationship, why be so polite?"

Lin Lin nodded slightly, reached out and parted the thick, silky scales to reveal the wound hidden beneath:

"Come on, let's do it together."

"I'll go look around for some raw meat, cat. Jumpy looks really weak; he'll definitely need a big meal when he wakes up, cat!"

Date glanced at the two people huddled together treating Jump Jump's injuries, and felt a strange sense of fullness just looking at them. After thinking for a moment, she chose to ignore them.

"Senior Date Coconut, you're going hunting by yourself, meow? You can manage, meow?"

Hearing Nia's question, Date gritted its teeth in annoyance. It hadn't played any role in the battle, and the traps it had set up had also failed to be used due to an accident. It was astonishing that this little black cat was questioning its combat ability.

"Don't underestimate us hunting cats, meow! Raw meat is no challenge at all, meow!"

"I want to go too, meow! I want to learn the fighting skills of a hunting cat, meow!"

"No problem, meow!"

……

While Lin Lin's side repelled the Black Corrosion Dragon and the atmosphere eased, in the depths of the forest a little further away, the top hunters were caught in a fierce battle.

Julius gripped his twin swords tightly in a reverse grip, slid forward to avoid the oncoming scales, then stomped on the tree trunk in front of him, using the momentum to leap up, and finally pushed off with all his might, flipping his body and landing on top of the Thousand Blade Dragon just before the Mad Dragon transformed into a Thousand Blade Dragon and crashed into him.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells"

A series of dense sounds of blades colliding with scales rang out. Julius Core continued to exert its power, skillfully using the recoil force transmitted back by the blades with each collision to propel its body to spin rapidly. Before the Thousand Blade Dragon could react, it had already slashed all the way from its head along its spine to the tip of its tail. Then, it did a somersault and landed on the ground, sliding forward for nearly two meters before stopping its momentum.

Feeling the slight pain travel from its head to its tail, the Thousand Blade Dragon immediately turned around, whipped its head around, and fired three sharp scales that covered the area behind it.

The scales rushed straight toward Julius's back, and he was still unable to dodge due to the momentum of his forward charge. Just as the Thousand-Blade Dragon's attack was about to pierce him, a large golden shield suddenly appeared from the side and stood behind Julius at the last moment, like a thick city wall.

"boom!"

The scales collided with the great shield, shattering into countless tiny, sharp fragments that scattered in all directions, yet they were unable to penetrate the golden shield's protection and harm those behind it.

"Captain, are you okay?"

It was Fabius who, upon seeing the Thousand Blade Dragon turn to attack, raised his spear and charged directly towards them. Fortunately, the distance between them was not far, allowing him to arrive at the last moment and avoid any casualties.

Julius stopped, glanced back, nodded vigorously, and then started running again.

"It's alright, keep fighting!"

The Thousand-Blade Dragon's attack did not stop at all. After flinging out its scales, it immediately flapped its wings and took off. Then it swooped down rapidly towards the large shield that blocked the scales and kicked the shield with a Heavenly Cripple Kick.

Fabius was, after all, an experienced high-ranking hunter. After realizing that he had been targeted, he knew that with the cumbersome spear, it was impossible to dodge the attack. He immediately knelt down and shrank behind his shield, forming a triangular structure with the shield and the ground. The surface of the shield even faintly emitted a hazy white light.

This is the most unbreakable move for the spear user: a power defense.

"boom!"

"Zi La"

The claws slammed heavily against the shield, producing a dull thud. The sharp claws scraped across the shield's surface, making a sharp, screeching sound like fingernails scratching a blackboard.

Fabius groaned, his body sinking slightly, and he even suffered a serious internal injury, but he still managed to withstand the attack.

"Now it's my turn!"

Sensing that Thousand Blade Dragon was trying to regain its footing, Fabius roared and leaped into the air as if springy, his spear, more than three times the length of a man, piercing towards Thousand Blade Dragon's head from mid-air.

This leaping thrust wasn't just Fabius's own power; it also returned a small portion of the power Thousand Blade Dragon had used in its attack. Even though Thousand Blade Dragon changed its angle and tried to use the scales on its neck to block the attack, it was still pierced through the neck, leaving a dark, bloody hole.

This caused considerable pain to the Thousand-Blade Dragon. It roared, showing no fear, and instead launched a frenzied attack on Fabius like a mad dog.

"Whoosh!" A crossbow bolt flew out from the shade of the tree and landed precisely on the head of the Thousand Blade Dragon. The slight pain did not affect the Thousand Blade Dragon's movements. It flapped its wings and took flight, delivering another Knight Kick.

However, this move did not seem to lock onto Fabius, but instead rushed towards his side, and the speed was not as fast as before, rendering his defense useless.

Upon discovering that the Thousand-Blade Dragon had not attacked him, Fabius assumed it had set its sights on Captain Julius again. He had just caught his breath and was about to give chase again when he noticed something amiss out of the corner of his eye.

After Qianrenlong kicked out, his movements did not stop at all. He immediately turned around and kicked out again.

not good!

Fabius's expression changed drastically. He tried to turn around to defend, but Thousand Blade Dragon had deliberately held back his strength during his feint, just in preparation for this second burst of power. There was no time to react at all. He had just turned around and before he could even raise his shield, he was kicked away along with the shield.

"Fabius!"

Julius had just downed a bottle of stamina-enhancing drug to maintain his extremely tiring demonic state when he turned around and saw Fabius in danger. He hurriedly tried to rush over to distract Thousand Blade Dragon and get him out of trouble.

However, even faster than his movements were the crossbow bolts flying out from the forest. After discovering that the Thousand Blade Dragon had launched a feint attack with two consecutive kicks, Nadia, who was hiding in the shadows, suddenly increased the pace of her firing. With her superb archery skills and the barrage of firepower, one of the crossbow bolts successfully hit the armor-piercing grenade that was stuck in the Thousand Blade Dragon's head, detonating it prematurely.

Having successfully defeated Fabius, who was much harder than stone, Thousand Blade Dragon was preparing to launch its next attack. However, the intense shock that traveled through the steel nails from the explosion caused it to lose its focus for a moment, interrupting its movements and causing it to fall from the sky.

Julius remained in his demon form and rushed to the front of the Thousand Blade Dragon almost the instant it hit the ground. However, instead of choosing the head, which had better flesh and was easier to kill, Julius rushed to its wings and unleashed his Demon Dance without hesitation.

The two rapiers were wielded with impenetrable force, and even though each strike only left a small wound, when such wounds appeared on the wing membrane in just a few seconds, the effect was that the wing membrane was torn apart over a large area, and a large spray of purplish-black blood splattered, almost soaking Julius's entire body.

The reason for not attacking the head, which has better flesh, but instead choosing the relatively tougher wings, is mainly because the most threatening move of this guy is the Heavenly Crippled Kick Knight Kick. As long as its wings are destroyed and it is difficult for it to take off, its combat power can be weakened.

The crossbow bolts flying through the forest paused for a moment, firing two recovery rounds at Fabius before resuming their barrage of piercing rounds at the Thousand Blade Dragon. One bolt after another struck the Thousand Blade Dragon's head, causing it to splatter blood and become utterly wretched. Despite the Thousand Blade Dragon's struggles under Nadia's relentless barrage, a single bolt still managed to pierce its eyeball, eliciting a frantic scream.

Normally, when facing flying dragon monsters, swordsmen would attack the monster's weaknesses to inflict damage, while archers with a wider and freer attack range would restrict their flight ability. However, Nadia and Julius switched targets at this moment, mainly because in their previous encounter, Nadia had discovered that the Thousand Blade Dragon's wing membrane structure could effectively block crossbow bolts, and it would be difficult for Nadia's shots alone to damage its wings.

The tacit decision made by the two clearly yielded excellent results, with the plane crash causing massive damage to the Thousand Blade Dragon.

"cough cough"

Fabius got up, feeling the pain in his chest, and gasped.

Even with the protection of his heavy armor, which was specially designed to provide defense, Thousand Blade Dragon's kick just now must have broken at least two or three of his ribs. If Nadia hadn't fired two recovery bullets in time, the excruciating pain would probably have prevented him from even getting up.

"Cough cough..."

Feeling the weakness emanating from his body and the gradually increasing burning pain, Fabius took out a Delight Fruit, put it in his mouth, and made a gesture towards the jungle.

Bones are the support of the whole body's strength. If it is just a skin injury or an internal injury to the internal organs, he can grit his teeth and continue to fight. However, a fracture will greatly affect his power, making it impossible for him to withstand attacks that he could normally block. Staying to continue fighting will only become a burden, so he has to temporarily withdraw from the battlefield.

"Master, the trap has been set!"

Aiden shouted and rushed into the battlefield, then saw Fabius's terrible condition and immediately panicked.

"I'm fine, the battle is the priority, you go and help."

Aiden hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded vigorously, drew his Insect Glaive, and charged forward.

Before he could get close, he heard the Thousand-Blade Dragon suddenly roar. Despite the attacks from the two high-ranking hunters, it forced itself to its feet and used a powerful flap of its wings to force Julius back.

Julius wiped the dark purple blood from his face, his expression grave:
Something's not right!

As the Thousand-Blade Dragon rose, a purplish-black aura rapidly spread around it, turning its golden body into a dark black-gold color.

This sight reminded Aiden of his conversation with Lin Lin about the mission objectives.

"Hopefully, that Thousand-Blade Dragon hasn't reached its limit yet."

"Extreme limits? What's that?"

"It is a monster that has completely overcome the Mad Dragon Disease, an individual that is infinitely close to its limit, and it is quite difficult to deal with."

"How did you know?"

"Me? It was recorded in an ancient book that I found by chance. It said that a dragon wearing black clothes would spread madness. Most monsters would die in the madness, but a few monsters could overcome the madness and turn it into their own, thus becoming stronger."

"Wow, that's amazing! So there were already records of this kind of monster in ancient times? Is there any other information?"

"Yes, but it's described vaguely, so I don't know if it's true or not. It says that the ultimate monsters emit black aura all over their bodies; some body parts become extremely hard, even comparable to rock dragons; they have extremely high resistance to various elemental energies and abnormal statuses such as poison and paralysis; some can even master combat skills that the original species does not possess..."

"Is it really that exaggerated? Can I borrow it to take a look?"

"I'm sorry, that book was burned to ashes in a fire. I was just casually reading it for fun and didn't take it seriously. It was only after I personally fought the Black Corruption Dragon that I realized the 'dragon clad in black' mentioned in the book was probably true."

"Since the records of the Black Eclipse Dragon are true, then the so-called limit of power must also be true, right?"

"Then I don't know..."

Looking up at the Thousand-Blade Dragon, whose entire body was radiating black energy, Aiden's heart sank even further.

(End of this chapter)