Monster Hunter: This Dragon's Built Different

Logan flew through the air, still shaken.

So close!

Just a little more and…

He had to admit—he'd let his guard down.

It had only been two months since they last met, yet that creature had improved so drastically. Clearly, life had been too easy lately—he'd lost the respect and fear one should have for this world.

Even just two months, with the help of that miraculous life energy, any creature could undergo unimaginable enhancements at any given moment. Relying on outdated experience to judge anything new in this world… could prove fatal.

He should have seen it coming.

If that Anjanath hadn't gained new strength—if it hadn't developed a real chance of taking him down—

With his five years of experience, Logan was sure it would never have dared to provoke him again.

But that near-fatal moment had snapped him awake once more.

Logan wasn't sure whether this was the world's way of enforcing some kind of balancing mechanism against an anomaly like him.

In this strange ecosystem, any being that threatened to disrupt the balance would eventually meet a counterweight—a creature evolved for just that purpose.

Logan didn't know for sure. Nor did he want to.

All he needed to understand was this: he must never let down his guard. Not until he had truly overwhelming power. He couldn't afford to underestimate any living being in this world.

Under the influence of life energy, every creature here held limitless potential.

Looking down from above, Logan stared at the Anjanath that was now making no effort to hide itself. He noticed a subtle shift in the coloration near the base of its thermal membrane—a hint of cooler tones creeping in.

And that brief flash of lightning earlier—under the insight of his mind's eye, he saw it clearly. It hadn't been an illusion.

"A Fulgur Anjanath?" he muttered.

The origin of Anjanath variants remained unclear, much like the relationship between Silver Rathalos, Azure Rathalos, and the standard male Rathalos.

Though grouped together as subspecies, no one could say for sure whether they were the result of mutations during the maturation process, or if they had always been distinct from birth.

Regardless, there was no doubt that this Anjanath was now showing signs of mutating toward a Fulgur Anjanath form.

Flames began to swell from Logan's body, enveloping him entirely. He discarded everything he once knew about this Anjanath—every assumption, every tactic. No more holding back.

He no longer treated it as an old rival, but as a new enemy—one he would now fight at full strength.

The two beasts roared and clashed once more.

Flames. Explosions. Roars!

Shattered stones and toppled trees flew in every direction.

Their battle was plunging into its most intense phase yet.

Even though the power of lightning hadn't fully fused with the Anjanath, its combat prowess had already surged to levels it had never shown before.

The creature's overall physical functions had improved dramatically—though the cost was a sharp increase in stamina consumption.

But now, with its bestial blood fully ignited and its fighting spirit entirely unleashed, the primal instinct that had been suppressed for years surged once more.

Anjanath could no longer resist its own nature.

The savage of the past had returned.

Only now, after years of habitual refinement, that savagery was more precise in execution—its attacks more calculated, its instincts sharper.

After all these years, the two were once again locked in a stalemate!

As the battle dragged on, the commotion inevitably drew the attention of an unexpected guest.

Just after Logan exploited a gap in the Anjanath's defense, swooping in and knocking it down once again before launching himself back into the sky—a sharp, piercing roar echoed from high above in the distance.

It was as if it came with its own sound system—a roar so distinct and recognizable that it snapped Logan out of his combat focus instantly.

Whipping his head around, he quickly spotted the source.

Sure enough—his keen eyesight locked onto a massive beast hurtling toward them from afar.

Its front was enormous, and its neck, back, tail, and underside were all sheathed in large, thick, silvery-gray scales. The creature's head and neck looked absurdly bulky and reinforced, and its outstretched wings resembled a bomber aircraft.

"Shit—Bazelgeuse!!"

Logan hadn't expected that their fight had actually drawn a Bazelgeuse to the scene. While these beasts weren't rare in the New World, most of them tended to stay within the Elder's Recess.

And any monster capable of carving out territory in a place filled with Elder Dragons and powerful creatures didn't need much more said about its strength.

What shocked Logan wasn't just that—it was the fact that although Bazelgeuse was a flying wyvern, as one of the largest among its kind, it wasn't particularly good at flying.

Unlike Rathalos, it couldn't ascend into high altitudes with ease.

Its massive weight and its limited wing membrane—supported by only one finger bone—made long-distance flight difficult.

That meant once it left the Elder's Recess… it wasn't going back anytime soon.

The arrival of Bazelgeuse meant only one thing: the fight between Logan and the Anjanath could no longer continue.

The nickname 'Party Crasher of the New World' wasn't given to Bazelgeuse for nothing.

This creature possessed the ability to sense conflict between living beings. It thrived on crashing into ongoing monster battles, launching explosive assaults with its scales, turning every other combatant into casualties—then walking away with the spoils.

That peculiar habit, combined with the fact that it could even physically overpower certain weaker Elder Dragons, made one thing very clear:

If Logan dared to keep fighting the Anjanath under Bazelgeuse's bombardment, neither of them was getting out alive.

Having confirmed its identity, Logan made a decisive choice—

He ascended skyward immediately, abandoning the battle without hesitation.

The Anjanath on the ground had just begun to rise, eyeing Logan warily.

But the moment it noticed Logan was actually trying to flee, something felt off.

Just moments ago, they had been locked in a life-or-death struggle—with Logan slightly holding the upper hand. In that kind of situation, there was no way he'd simply back off unless something serious had changed.

The Anjanath quickly came to the same conclusion.

Rationality once again took hold.

Without hesitation, it turned and bolted into the forest, not looking back.

Sure enough, just after the two combatants had retreated, a series of thick, scale-like projectiles—coated in volatile liquid—began raining down on the battlefield like a deadly meteor shower.

Moments later, the entire clearing erupted in a rolling wave of explosions, one after another, as though the area had been carpet-bombed.

Bazelgeuse slammed into the ground with a resounding thud.

Using the thick, bloated scales of its upper body to brake, it finally came to a halt.

Then it turned its massive head toward the pockmarked battlefield.

What it saw was nothing but a shredded Kestodon corpse—blown to pieces.

Aside from that, there was nothing else.

Bazelgeuse looked genuinely puzzled.

"Roar?" (Where did the two monsters who were just brawling here go?)

It wasn't the first time it had 'responded to a disturbance'. But this was the first time it had shown up, unloaded a full-scale bombardment—and not a single 'suspect' remained on-site.

Based on the sounds of battle from earlier, the fight should've been at its most intense.

So why had everything suddenly disappeared?

Had it flown all the way here for nothing?

Frustrated and confused, Bazelgeuse let out a long roar and began flapping its wings, slowly lifting itself back into the air.

Time to head off to the next battlefield to 'break up a fight'.

...

High in the clouds, Logan concealed his form and finally let out a breath of relief only after confirming that the Bazelgeuse had truly flown off with its peculiar aerial movement.

After the intense battle between Logan and the Anjanath, followed by the relentless bombardment from the Bazelgeuse, this area likely wouldn't see any prey for a while.

Marking the direction the Anjanath had just taken, Logan turned and flew off in the opposite direction.

By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, Logan returned carrying an Aptonoth. Aki immediately showed signs of alarm.

From her perspective, Logan's hunt had taken far longer than it should have.

If her wings had been fully healed, she would have already flown off to search for him.

Now that she saw Logan had returned with prey, Aki didn't rush to eat. Instead, she circled around him carefully, inspecting him closely.

Only when she saw that some of Logan's wounds were already starting to heal did she finally relax.

It was obvious that Logan had been in a fight. But judging by the size of the wounds, the battle had stayed within acceptable bounds—he'd likely be fine after a night's rest.

As for who or what Logan had fought, she didn't care.

In this world, fighting was inevitable. The fact that Logan had returned at all already said everything that mattered.

As long as the outcome was good, the process didn't matter at all.

Only after confirming this did Aki finally begin eating without worry.

Meanwhile, Logan walked off to speak with the Grimalkyne chief, who had been waiting for quite some time.

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