Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 467 Jump's Counterattack
The crossbow bolts came one after another, igniting scorching flames on its body. These flames burned its scales and scorched its flesh, causing excruciating pain that relentlessly eroded the Heavenly Returning Dragon's nerves.

However, thanks to the pain, Tianhuilong's brain, which had been stunned by the explosion, quickly regained consciousness, and he struggled to get up from the ground.

Raising its left wing claw and using its broad wings to shield itself from the crossbow bolts, the Heavenly Wyvern moved slowly but resolutely toward the only remaining combatant hunter present.

If it were an Elder Dragon like the Rajang or Deviljho, it would have been dead long ago after being subjected to repeated attacks. But for the Celestial Dragon, it is currently barely on the verge of serious injury.

Although the Qilin had not yet fully recovered from the lightning strike, after two days of rest, apart from occasional throbbing pain, it no longer affected most of its movements.

The attacks from the elite squad's melee hunters only left a few wounds on its body, causing it to lose some strength due to blood loss. Once the bleeding stops, it will recover in a short time.

The piercing of the joint by the Night Serpent's Insect Glaive severely affected the mobility of its right wing claw. Half of the Heavenly Dragon's combat power comes from its control over the power of the Mad Dragon and the other half from its physical combat power. Of its physical combat power, the pair of wing claws account for 99%. The Insect Glaive that was stuck in its joint almost crippled a quarter of its combat power.

The super attack that Lin Lin unleashed, risking the destruction of the shield and taking damage, not only caused damage to the Tianhui Dragon's flesh and blood due to the dragon attribute energy, but more importantly, it severely disrupted the operation of the mad dragon power within the Tianhui Dragon's body, making it difficult for it to mobilize significantly in a short period of time. Thus, it temporarily crippled another small half of its combat power.

Even though Tenkai Dragon was only able to unleash far less than half of its power at this moment, Nadia still felt an astonishing sense of oppression from it.

After all, almost all members of both squads had lost their ability to fight, leaving only her to struggle on—and now she couldn't hold on for much longer, as her ammunition was about to run out amidst the almost continuous firing.

She gritted her teeth, loaded the last fireball magazine into the magazine, and fired to hinder the Heavenly Dragon's approach while shouting at Lin Lin and Ye Zi:
"Retreat quickly! I'll try my best to hold it off!"

Just as Nadia finished shouting, the powdery scales above the restricted area, which had completely blocked out the sunlight, suddenly began to fluctuate violently. Immediately afterward, a dark shadow emerged from it and swooped down rapidly.

The dark shadow was extremely inconspicuous amidst the thick scales. Neither Nadia, who was gritting her teeth and continuing to fire, nor the Heavenly Returning Dragon, which was rapidly approaching Nadia, noticed its approach. Only Lin Lin, whose face was pale, opened his eyes and a smile appeared on his lips.

The one who came was naturally Jump.

It heard Lin Lin's call in its heart, left the deck of the Isana, and rushed straight into the battlefield. As soon as it appeared, it activated its berserk dragon form, unleashing its full power.

"Oh!"

Jumping like a falcon, it swooped down behind the Sky Dragon, its talons reaching out to grab the Sky Dragon's head. With the momentum of its dive, it slammed the Sky Dragon's head heavily onto the ground, creating a large crater in the flat, solid ground, covered with spiderweb-like cracks.

"Roar!!!"

Let's settle both old and new scores today!
Jump let out an angry roar, grabbing the head of the Sky Returning Dragon with its only remaining horn with its wing claws and pulling it out of the ground. Then, it clenched its other wing claw into a fist and swung a heavy left hook into the Sky Returning Dragon's right jawbone. Faintly, there seemed to be a breaking sound coming from it.

Tianhuilong roared in pain as his head was pulled to the left by the immense force. Before it could straighten itself, Tiaotiao, who had suddenly twisted its body, lashed its left cheek with the whip tail, causing its head to turn to the right again.

That wasn't all. Jumping back to its normal position, taking advantage of the fact that the unwell Tenkai Dragon was stunned by its surprise attack and hadn't reacted yet, Jumping raised its body high, its pair of wing claws together above its head, and after a brief moment of preparation, it slammed down heavily, still targeting Tenkai Dragon's head.

This move is almost identical to the one used by the Heavenly Returning Dragon when it struck Lin Lin. It is the move that allows them to unleash their full physical strength. After consuming the Golden Lion Heart, Jump Jump's strength has grown to the limit that it can reach in its Black Eclipse Dragon state, not much weaker than the Heavenly Returning Dragon. The power of this move is probably difficult even for the Heavenly Returning Dragon's hard ancient dragon bones to withstand.

Perhaps because it had just been stunned by the armor-piercing grenade, the Heavenly Dragon recovered from its dizziness more quickly this time. Before being hit on the head by Jumpy's heavy blow, it finally came to its senses and instinctively stretched out its left wing claw to protect its head.

"Bang!!!"

Smoke and dust were everywhere.

Even with the protection of its wing claws, the weakened Tenmai was still crushed by the immense force of the jump attack, its head and wing claws slamming into the ground, completely shattering the already chaotic ground.

"Damn, well done! I almost forgot we had this fresh blood!"

The situation took such a sudden turn that Nadia, overwhelmed with emotion, blurted out a curse.

Now that Jumpy has taken on all the pressure head-on, and even turned the tables on the weakened and exhausted Tenkai Dragon, Nadia breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, she was finally able to stop unleashing her firepower and carefully use her remaining ammunition to hit the most vulnerable spots on Tenkai Dragon's body.

"Jump! My weapon is still stuck in its back! Watch out!"

Ye Zi felt much more at ease. While helping Lin Lin to his feet, she shouted to Tiao Tiao.

Jumpy, it's unclear whether it heard or not, just kept waving its wing claws, launching a series of heavy attacks on the Heavenly Returning Dragon from both sides. Even when the dragon raised its wing claws to resist, its injured right wing couldn't muster much strength, and it was completely unable to defend itself with just its left wing claw.

"Roar!!!"

This punch was for the leader!
Images flashed through Jump Jump's mind. They had just been awakened from the abyss of the berserk dragon by the leader when they encountered the Heavenly Returning Dragon, which was still the Black Devouring Dragon at the time. Even though it and the leader went all out, they were still beaten to a pulp by the opponent.

"Roar!!!"

This punch was for the leader's spouse!
If this guy hadn't spread scale powder everywhere, infecting the Mad Dragon Disease, that Thousand Blade Dragon wouldn't have gotten sick, and wouldn't have become so strong. Yoko wouldn't have been forced into a desperate situation that almost led to her annihilation.

"Roar!!!"

This punch was for the leader's friends!
Back in the primeval forest, if it and the leader hadn't arrived in time, those friends who had fought alongside it to kill the Ultimate Thousand Blade Dragon would almost certainly have perished.

"Roar!!!"

This punch was for myself!

Why are you ahead of me on the path of evolution, one step ahead, and always ahead? Why are you the one who has evolved while I am forever barren? I'll see if you can stop my transformation when you die in my claws!
Since evolving into the Black Eclipse Dragon, Jumpy has always been quiet and obedient, following Lin Lin closely. Even when fighting in its Berserk Dragon form, its moves are quite disciplined. But now, Jumpy's wings are flapping wildly, and its two antennae on its head are emitting an eerie purple light. It keeps attacking the Heavenly Returning Dragon with claw after claw, without any strategy or method, only filled with rage and wild savagery.

Scales shattered, blood spurted, and under the heavy blow of the wing claws clenched into a fist by Jump Jump, the head of the Heavenly Returning Dragon was forced to stand high, and its blood-stained teeth flew out in an arc more than ten meters away.

From being caught off guard by a sneak attack and having no time to react, to fighting back with all his might but still being brutally beaten, Tian Huilong's mind gradually shifted from initial anger at being betrayed by the Heavenly Gang to shock and self-doubt at the thought of his transformation being in vain. As his injuries worsened, it finally turned into fear of the impending threat of death.

It no longer tried to fight back against the Black Devouring Dragon in front of it, but silently endured the attack, waiting for an opportunity.

"Be careful, it wants to... cough cough cough!" Lin Lin hurriedly warned, but the sound of exhaling aggravated his injuries, and the intense pain forced him to swallow the rest of his words.

"Oh!"

Finally, the Heavenly Dragon got its chance. With its left wing claw protecting its head, it used the force of another punch from Jumpy to twist its body dramatically and take off into the air. It also took the opportunity to lash Jumpy's head with its tail to hinder its pursuit.

This was the first successful counterattack by Tianhuilong since Tiaotiao entered the arena. Although it could not exert much strength due to its serious injuries, and its tail whip only made its head tilt heavily to the side, it did stop Tiaotiao's pursuit. By the time Tiaotiao tried to flap its wings to catch up, its figure had already disappeared into the sky full of scales.

The scales originating from the Celestial Dragon that filled the air diluted Jumpy's scales significantly, and almost instantly, Jumpy lost all sense of the Celestial Dragon's location.

"Jump, let's go together!"

Having learned his lesson, Lin Lin remained silent, only raising the Bond Stone in his hand and silently chanting in his heart.

"Ride On!"

Sensing Lin Lin's intentions, Tiaotiao ran over without hesitation, scooped up Lin Lin and Ye Zi on its shoulders with its wing claws, and then flapped its wings and soared into the sky, chasing after the direction in which Tianhuilong had just fled.

……

Two airships hovered around Sky Mountain.

On one of the airships, which was shaped like a large red whale, a group of people nervously watched an area halfway up the mountain that was emitting billowing black smoke.

"How is the situation now?"

The dragon-human merchant asked nervously.

Sofia held up her binoculars, straining to observe the pitch-black area, filled with anxiety yet utterly helpless.

"No, the powdery coating is too thick; I can't see anything at all!"

"Don't be too nervous, meow! Since Jumpy just rushed down, everything should be going according to plan, meow!"

The date palm didn't waste its time observing the restricted area; it simply kept track of time, its two furry ears twitching occasionally as it caught sounds carried on the wind.

"How's the Dragonfighting Spear coming along, meow?"

The cabin door was pushed open with a bang, and the blacksmith wiped the sweat from his forehead:
"Fuel loading complete, ready to fire within fifteen minutes!"

Then Yeza turned to the brigade commander at the helm, her voice low:

"I feel it's about time, meow. We should be able to prepare to move the ship closer, meow."

The brigade commander, his face serious, glanced up at the sky where rocks were still falling intermittently, and nodded forcefully.

"Alright! Let's move over! Everyone, prepare for an impact!"

All that painstaking effort was put into building this airship, wasn't it all for the purpose of finding the answer we've been searching for all along? Now that the answer is laid out before us, what's so special about a mere airship that we can't give up?!
"Meow! I heard it! Meow! The roar of the Heavenly Returning Dragon, and the howl of Jump Jump! They're flying upwards!"

At this moment, Nia, who had been standing on the bow of the ship above the dragon-slaying spear, twitched her ears slightly, opened her tightly closed eyes instantly, and shouted loudly.

Nia's reminder officially became the signal for the airship to start. The propeller in front of the airship's gasbag spun rapidly, propelling the giant whale through the sea of ​​clouds, charging into the airspace where rocks often fell, as if it were going to its death.

Nearby, on the airship belonging to the elite team, the Palicoes on board noticed the movements of the Isana and were all greatly alarmed:

"The Isana just charged straight at it, meow! Aren't they afraid the airbags will be damaged and it will crash, meow?"

"How amazing! Perhaps in their eyes, the airship crash is a small matter, but the danger of failing to defeat the Heavenly Dragon is much greater!"

"Should we rush over there too, meow?"

"No, meow! We should be the last line of defense on the perimeter! If both airships crash, we'll be completely helpless against the Heavenly Returning Dragon!"

So, the airship of the elite team continued to linger a little further out, while the Elru watched with admiration and respect as the giant whale soared straight up above the area filled with black smoke.

Perhaps the heavens favored human courage, for although some rocks fell and hit the airship, they were all small stones and did not affect the airship's flight at all.

"Ah! I see it! They're charging up!"

Sophia had been observing the area near the restricted zone through her binoculars, so when the blood-stained platinum figure broke through the black mist and staggered into the sky, Sophia locked onto it immediately.

"Okay! Watch me!"

The brigade commander tensed his muscles and pulled the airship to full throttle. The giant whale quickly changed direction and charged towards the direction from which the Heavenly Returning Dragon was flying up.

Nia's eyes were also fixed on the figure of the Heavenly Returning Dragon. Her cat paws gripped the lever of the Dragon-Slaying Spear on the bow of the ship, and she silently counted down in her mind:

"Three, two, one..."

"Dragon Slayer Lance, activate!"

(End of this chapter)