Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 431 I'll rip your hood off! I have to slap you in the face!

"Good job!"

Hearing that painful roar, Lin Lin's spirits lifted. Taking advantage of the gap in the animation after Jump Jump finished his move and adjusted his posture, he charged forward with his shield and axe, slashing down to fill the gap in his damage output.

After executing a smooth combo of charged double slash followed by shield thrust and then charged double slash again, Lin Lin slid back and took the opportunity to activate his red shield, making room for Jump Jump's next attack after he had been charging up.

Caught off guard by the flashbang, Lin Lin and Tiao Tiao seized the opportunity and unleashed a series of attacks on the Golden Lion.

Knowing how troublesome the Golden Lion was, neither Lin Lin nor Tiao Tiao held back at all. Under their powerful attacks, even with the Golden Lion's strong physique, it couldn't withstand them all, and blood kept flowing down its body.

"Roar!!!"

The excruciating pain stimulated the Golden Lion's nerves. The continuous beatings instantly enraged it. With its strong heart pounding in its chest, its blood flowed rapidly throughout its body. Just as it was about to launch its next attack, Lin Lin charged forward with his shield and axe. Instead of trying to get up immediately, it suddenly swung its thick forelimbs sideways and slammed them heavily towards Lin Lin.

"?!"

Lin Lin hadn't expected this guy to recover from the flashbang's effects so quickly, and he was even more cunning than to get up immediately. Instead, he lay on the ground and launched a sneak attack. Lin Lin only had time to raise his shield to meet the golden lion's paw before he was heavily slapped away, just like the red-armored beast before him, crashing into the pile of rubble.

"Roar!"

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The vision shared by Lin Lin went dark, and Tiao Tiao immediately let out a roar, no longer caring about the advice to "avoid using scale powder unless necessary to prevent the spread of the Mad Dragon Disease". He directly spat out a black and purple breath and then entered the Mad Dragon state.

In this state, although the Golden Lion's body, which was less than seven meters long, was small, the heat it emitted was like a small sun in the pitch-black vision. It leaped up and flapped its wings, and then, with the help of the conversion of gravitational potential energy, the whole dragon rushed towards the Golden Lion like a cannonball.

"Roar!"

The golden lion roared back, refusing to be outdone, and charged forward. The dragon and the beast battled all the way to the edge of the volcano, even grinding away the rocks.

In terms of raw strength, Jumpy was inferior to the golden lion, and it had almost no experience fighting against an opponent smaller than itself. However, at the start of the battle, it and Lin Lin seized the initiative with flashbangs, and the injuries they inflicted on the other made up for this. For a time, neither side could gain the upper hand.

The two fought several more times, each leaving several wounds on the other. The Golden Lion looked at Jump with fierce eyes and was about to rush up to attack again, but as soon as he took a step, the foreleg supporting his body suddenly went limp, and his whole body staggered.

After being bombarded by Jump Jump's breath attacks several times, the golden lion finally showed signs of developing a mad dragon disease.

Feeling the growing weakness coursing through his body, the golden lion roared in frustration, turned its head, and leaped away.

It's admitting defeat.

Actually, if it could, Jump wouldn't want to let it go like this, but right now, it has more important things to do.

"crash"

Jump listened carefully for a moment, then carefully dug through the rubble with its wing claws, probing and scooping, until it pulled the disheveled Lin Lin out from a pile of rubble on the left.

"Cough cough... Damn it..."

Lin Lin was still feeling dizzy. He angrily spat out the blood in his mouth, unscrewed a bottle of recovery medicine G and gulped it down. Only then did he feel a little better.

Shaking his head vigorously and scratching his hair to brush off the dirt stuck to his head and face, Lin Lin calmed himself down. Looking at the injured Jumpy with its large scales broken and wounds flowing out, he sighed softly, hugged its wing claws, grabbed a handful of life powder from his prop bag, and threw it at Jumpy.

"Thanks a lot."

Lin Lin had just been knocked unconscious by a slap, but luckily Tiao Tiao was there. He recovered after a while. He looked around and saw that the ground was full of potholes, which were obviously the marks left by Tiao Tiao and the Golden Lion during their battle.

We didn't see the Golden Lion; it seems he was driven away by Jumpy. Thank goodness, he survived this time.

Lin Lin breathed a slight sigh of relief, rubbing his chest, which felt stuffy. Fortunately, he managed to protect his body with the shield, which dispersed some of the force; otherwise, breaking a few bones would have been the least of his worries.

As expected of the Golden Lion, that power—even a casual slap almost knocked my head off when I was completely unprepared…

Hmm, the helmet was all torn off. I wonder where it's buried under some pile of rubble right now. We'll have to look for it carefully. It shouldn't be too far away.

After a while, Lin Lin put his helmet back on, took out some medicine, and carefully treated the wounds on himself and Tiao Tiao.

The intensity of the battle with that golden lion was much greater than that of the Ghost Frog or Shadow Spider, almost comparable to that of the Ultimate Thousand Blade Dragon. Jump was exhausted, but luckily there was a corpse of a Dracodon that had only eaten a few bites, which it could feast on to recover its strength.

"How was it? After this match, did you notice any changes?"

Lin Lin stripped off every single piece of the Crimson Armor Beast's shell, then dragged a large bundle to Tiao Tiao's side.

"Roar……"

What changes? Pain, hunger, and fatigue, nothing else.

"Is that so?"

Lin Lin pondered for a moment, "Alright then, since we've already got the goods, let's go back to the village after we've eaten and get some rest."

……

Of course, before returning to the village, Lin Lin made a special trip back to the hot air balloon to inquire about the golden lion from the two scholars at the Ancient Dragon Observation Bureau.

However, to his surprise, the two scholars carefully reviewed the recent observation records but found no record of the Golden Lion.

"That's quite normal. The golden lion itself is an ecologically mysterious and difficult-to-observe monster. We still know nothing about its reproduction, growth methods, and habits. Perhaps this golden lion has been hiding very well. However, considering its aggressive behavior, it may have just arrived at the volcano."

That's what the old dragon man said.

Lin Lin was a little worried. In order to protect itself, Tiao Tiao had to fight with all its might, which caused the golden lion to be infected with the Mad Dragon Disease. Its aggression would inevitably become stronger afterward. Would this affect the ecology of the volcano?

After learning of Lin Lin's concerns, the old dragon said that he would focus on observing the golden lion's situation and would issue a subjugation request if necessary, so that Lin Lin could rest assured.

After concluding his brief hunting trip with the Crimson Armor Beast, Lin Lin returned to Naguli Village with a large bag of materials and handed it over to the blacksmith.

Hmm... Speaking of which, ever since he and Yoko joined the guild, the blacksmith's workload has been completely overwhelmed. He's been working non-stop every day. He just finished forging the Thousand Blade Dragon Shield Axe and armor, and now he's working on a Shadow Spider Insect Glaive, followed by a set of Armored Dragon armor. Now he has to cut in line to forge a batch of Mycology Beads...

Besides that, he also had to keep track of the airship's construction progress to ensure he understood the vessel so he could better maintain it in the future; the village chief's daughter, with her horned beard, also pestered him, wanting to learn forging techniques from him... Busy, really too busy...

All Lin Lin could do was try his best not to disturb other people's work.

……

"Lin Lin, Lin Lin, tell me, what kind of monster is the Golden Lion?"

That day, Sophia, holding the notebook again, came to Lin Lin with great interest to ask him questions.

"I already told you, it's a very dangerous creature, no less dangerous than an ancient dragon. It has immense strength, a small and agile body, and is very difficult to deal with!"

"These are all in the books. Could you tell us something that people don't know?"

Lin Lin rested his head in the crook of Tiao Tiao's arm, somewhat speechless:

"What do you mean, 'everyone'? Aren't you the only one who's curious?" "I'm curious too, I'm curious too, meow!"

Nia, who had followed along out of curiosity, raised her hand to interject.

Even if you can't imitate it, it would be good to explain its moves!

"Well... there's not much to say about this. It's just a series of random punches: instantaneous random punches, random punches followed by random punches, back jump followed by random punches, spinning dash followed by random punches..."

As Nia listened, she felt as if the meaning had become saturated, and she no longer understood what the three words "turtle fist" meant.

Sofia was also somewhat dissatisfied:

"But something feels off. Does the Golden Lion only know how to throw punches? I remember reading a record that said it can shoot lasers. Could you describe what its laser shooting looks like?"

Lin Lin closed his eyes and repeatedly reviewed his previous encounter with the Golden Lion. Although he was unclear about the details of the latter part of the battle because he was knocked away, he was still able to reconstruct the scene in his mind through Tiao Tiao's supplementary information.

"The laser... it didn't spray."

Sophia: "Huh?"

"It's strange, I didn't see that Saiyan monkey transform during that battle. There was no laser, no hardened red hand with battle aura. Could it be..."

Sofia: "Huh? What's a Saiyan monkey? And what does 'red hand' mean?"

Lin Lin shook his head. "That means I'm still a bit lucky. That golden lion wasn't in its complete form. Otherwise, Jump Jump and I would probably be in real danger."

Nia tilted her head: "Not in full condition? What do you mean, meow?"

"That means that guy probably hasn't completed his coming-of-age ceremony yet, so he can't enter the Qi Transformation state and can't unleash his strongest power."

"Coming-of-age ceremony?"

Hearing about something new that she didn't know, Sofia's eyes sparkled, as if she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Well... that's a long story..."

Lin Lin scratched his head, pondering where to begin and how to make his information sound less abrupt, when a vibrant voice suddenly interrupted the tea party.

"Brother Lin Lin! Master wants to see you!"

"Oh? It's Gemma?"

Lin Lin peeked out and nodded: "I'll go right away."

Sofia: ...

What the hell?! The chapter ends abruptly here! That's outrageous!

……

"Brother Blacksmith, are the mycology beads ready?"

The eldest brother gave a slightly relaxed smile:

"It's done. Once the beads are inlaid into the armor, it will take effect. You can test the effect later. It should be able to effectively inhibit the activation of the explosive slime mold."

"Thank you, brother!"

"Don't be so polite. Which set of equipment do you want to socket it into? Is it the newly crafted Armored Dragon armor, or this Transforming Ice Shark set?"

"How long will it take to get the Armor Dragon set?"

"Well... it will take about half a month, maybe ten days or so."

Lin Lin fell into thought, "The airship should be finished in the next few days, right?"

Gemma didn't understand what they were talking about, but she just kept nodding.

"Of course! With the whole village of Naguli working together, building an airship is a piece of cake! It will be completed by the day after tomorrow at the latest!"

Lin Lin nodded. "Once the airship is built, we'll be leaving, right? Then don't hesitate, put on this Transforming Ice Shark suit. Before leaving, I still want to do a little more for the villagers."

Gemma was curious and pressed him for details before she learned that a broken dragon was lurking in the underground volcano, and Lin Lin wanted to eliminate the threat to the village before leaving. This moved her deeply, and she kept thanking Lin Lin.

"Don't mention it, we're just helping each other out. Without everyone's support in the village, we wouldn't have been able to reach our destination, would we?"

……

Since Lin Lin brought back a considerable number of Crimson Armor Beast shells, and the blacksmith brother also crafted a large number of Mycology Beads, after Lin Lin completed his set, Ye Zi also finished inlaying them onto the Thousand Blade Dragon armor.

Well then... it's time to set off!

Lin Lin, Ye Zi, Ye Zao, Ni Ya Lu, the two humans and two cats, plus Tiao Tiao, were fully equipped at the village entrance. After enjoying a hearty meal of fried rice cooked by the cat chef, they were ready to set off on their hunt.

"Wait, take one with you, take one with you!"

Sofia ran over quickly, waving as she went.

Ye Zi frowned slightly. "The Shattered Dragon is not easy to deal with. We really can't protect your safety this time."

"I understand, I understand!"

Sofia nodded vigorously, "I'll stay hidden and watch the scene with binoculars! I won't bother you!"

You seemed to have said the same thing last time...

Lin Lin silently muttered a curse to himself.

After thinking for a moment, he finally nodded, "Okay!"

Since the extermination has already been changed to a capture because of Sophia, there's no need to go against her wishes on this matter. Let's take her along. It's not like we haven't taken her before.

"Yay! Let's go!"

"Jump Jump, let's go!"

And so, accompanied by a few excited shouts, the black dragon spread its wings and soared into the sky.

(End of this chapter)