Chapter 368
Chapter 368
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 368
Chapter Title: qiqi iykow gkk-368i
-----------------------------------------------------------------
```html
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 368
Chapter Title: Magmasaur Showdown
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A creature with agate-colored wings was flying toward them, clutching a massive spider-like entity in its grasp.
In the blazing battlefield beneath the volcano, I soared toward the enemy.
The Magmasaur, sprawled prone with only its head raised, fixed all six eyes on me. Its tail, submerged in the roaring flames, suddenly reared upward. Then it whipped toward me.
A casual flick, as if it were annoyed, but I couldn't let my guard down. That tail alone stretched well over 60 meters. It might be a light probe for the beast, but from my perspective, it was anything but.
The tail came hurtling at me, thick as the pillars holding up a skyscraper.
Normally, I'd dodge an attack like that without question. But this time, I didn't.
The searing heat of molten rock and the agony ripping through my entire body. Before I knew it, I was embedded in the cavern floor.
'I knew it, but damn, it's strong.'
The Magmasaur differed from the top-tier Apexes I'd faced before.
Gallerons hunted in packs with high intelligence, Sea Demons wielded diverse psychic powers, Vortex Ones crushed foes with overwhelming specs and techniques. And then there were the other Apexes.
Unlike them, the Magmasaur didn't hunt in groups or use psychic powers. It had just one attack technique boasting devastating destructive force.
Yet it ranked among the elite Apexes thanks to its sheer physical prowess. Attacks from its 300-meter bulk could shatter mountains and cleave the earth.
And that wasn't all. Its hide was incredibly tough, nearly impervious to damage. Constant cycles of embedding and solidifying various metals within the rock had made its material bonds extraordinarily dense.
In short, it was a living mass of ultra-high-strength alloy.
High attack and defense should come at the cost of speed, but as I'd just witnessed, its strikes were blisteringly fast. Unimaginable for a 300-meter monster's tail swing.
Its only weaknesses were its immense weight slowing its movement and its inability to fly.
'A formidable foe, but...'
Having hunted it multiple times in the game, I'd taken down plenty stronger than myself.
I forcibly wrenched my body from the crater in the floor.
The blow had torn a massive gash in the membrane of my right wing. The wing arm itself was so badly damaged that bones pierced through the carapace, exposed to the air. Bio-pipes and carapace elsewhere were significantly impaired too.
A headache-inducing wave of pain crashed over me, but I could endure. Because this injury was exactly what I'd planned.
「Kurrr」
Seeing I hadn't died, it tilted its head. First time it'd seen something survive a tail strike. I let out a massive roar in response.
「ROOOARRRR!」
「Kururururung」
Our simultaneous bellows shook the cavern like an earthquake. The floor magma erupted in response.
Judging me no easy prey, the volcanic demon prepared to rise. Seizing the moment, I coiled power in my hind legs and kicked off the ground.
My body rocketed forward like a freshly launched missile. Each step sent tremors through the cavern.
As I charged through geysers of surging magma, its tail swung at me again. I poured my momentum into a forward leap.
The tail smashed the tips of the bio-pipes on my back carapace but missed my main body. Sprawled atop the magma, I lowered my stance and crawled forward using my wing arms and combat arms.
It had been ages since I'd crawled on a surface outside the spaceship, post-adulthood. Racing across the magma with four arms and two legs, I readied my Variable Bio-Weaponry.
Meanwhile, its tail looped back toward me, but I'd already closed the distance sufficiently. Bracing my arms and legs, I kicked off the half-liquefied floor from the heat.
Its long neck whipped around, trying to coil around me mid-air. Needless to say, that neck was tough as the rest. If it grabbed me, even I'd be pulverized to paste.
But I didn't evade. Instead, I unleashed all my hidden erosion tentacles from my back. The six tentacles stabbed into its oncoming neck. The sharp appendages at their tips hooked like barbs into the rugged hide.
Against another creature, I'd inject the Medusa Organ here, but sadly, it doesn't work on this one. This time, it served a different purpose.
I yanked hard on the tentacles, pulling my body flush forward. My head collided violently with the head at the end of its neck.
「Kurr? 」
「Grrr」
The impact bigger than expected, it widened its eyes. All six locked onto my altered head.
The Ice Horror's head carapace, unseen in its lifetime realm of flame, shielded my central head.
While it flinched, my flanking heads lunged and bit into its neck. In that grip, they unleashed acidic breath and decay mold spores.
「Kururururung!」
The Magmasaur growled in irritation. Its neck thrashed violently, trying to shake me off. At my will, my body clinging to it began to morph. My combat arms twisted, bone scythes protruding from the palms.
I slammed the combat arm, now the Hellside Hornet's weapon, into the junction of its neck and torso.
「Kururur!」
「Grrr!」
Its hide too tough; the blade sank only halfway. But that was fine. I never expected a fatal blow from this.
'Just need to anchor myself.'
Growing heated from my persistent attacks, it began to rise.
But it didn't know yet. The real onslaught hadn't even begun.
With the scythe-armed combat arm gripping its body, dual heads and erosion tentacles holding its neck, the distance between us was negligible.
My monstrous tentacles primed my most powerful weapon. Energy scattered across my body converted to psychic power, converging on my head.
「Kururung!」
With a short, thunderous roar, its front legs burst from the magma and flames. Legs thick as building pillars struck my right head's neck.
'Ugh!'
Its kick shredded my right neck—barely avoiding decapitation, a grievous wound.
Disabling my right head, it aimed to kick my body next. I blocked with my bifurcated tail. It coiled around the thick leg, the right tail's claw biting the ankle.
Annoyed by my tail, it halted. To crush it, it raised its front leg high. The instant that hit the ground, my tail would be obliterated.
I kicked off with both legs, shoving it hard. Off-balance with one leg lifted, it staggered under my weight and force. The cavern magma churned, exposing its full body from submersion.
One front leg raised, it was pushed back but braced with hind legs.
Pushing it to the wall would be ideal, but I was gathering energy for breath. This was my limit.
Its long tail surged toward me, gouging wall and floor. Too close to evade. The same force that had embedded me earlier struck again.
Was it the pain from the flames? Memories resurfaced: crushed by a car, acrid oil stench from all sides, excruciating agony.
Terrors and pains I'd thought forgotten crept in to overwhelm me. In reality, I'd have frozen solid.
But I moved. Because this pain, this situation—all intentional.
The Tyrantroid organ within detected the severe injuries and activated.
Substances strengthening the flesh secreted, spreading evenly. As Tyrantroid took effect, my body rapidly grew.
「Ku? 」
It panicked at my real-time expansion.
'Too early to be surprised.'
Tyrantroid enlarges my body and boosts energy output based on injury severity.
'So this form's Psychic Breath will hit even harder.'
While trading blows, energy fully gathered. Tentacle bundles on left and central heads glowed vivid purple. Monstrous tendrils flowing like hair from rear head carapace oriented forward.
No need to cling longer; I detached erosion tentacles and combat arms. Simultaneously, I unleashed the massive charged energy.
The entire cavern bathed in purple for an instant. Twin psychic beams blazed, slamming the enemy.
The Magmasaur reeled back from the point-blank breath. No matter its tough hide, it couldn't ignore my close-range blast.
Retreating wildly from the breath, it crashed into the wall. Its superheated hide melted it outright. Psychic breath poured, shoving it through the cavern wall inward.
'Good. Things are going smoothly.'
Honestly, I didn't think this alone would win.
Tyrantroid-enhanced breath would wound it, but not fatally. Even that would be covered by molten rock and magma, forming new hide—hardly a major injury.
I knew that, yet lured it near the wall and fired anyway. For reason.
'Gotta drag it out of here.'
This was its home turf. Normal methods wouldn't draw it out.
So, make it come willingly.
'Like collapsing the volcano's core chamber.'
The space, battered by our fight, teetered unstable. Ceiling debris rained from above; below, magma surged with immense force.
Inrushing pressures only amplified my power, breath strengthening like forged metal.
'Just a bit more...!'
Just as I thought collapse neared, light flashed from its embedded hole. Black lightning splintered into tens of thousands, sweeping the cavern.
Impact rivaled the tail strikes. Both flanking heads charred by bolts; central head's tentacles heavily damaged. Breath cut off; body collapsed uncontrolled.
Kurururururung
Thunder from its strike reached my auxiliary organs.
That attack: Ion Lightning.
The Magmasaur's sole ranged technique. Its title "King of Fire and Thunder" well-earned.
「Kurururur」
Its cry echoed over my heads in the magma. Sounded like victory declaration.
'Sorry, but it's not over.'
Its black lightning perfectly wedged the pre-eruption volcano. Sub-floor magma stimulated, began erupting.
Swept by magma waves, I slammed into some rock mass—wall or ceiling, irrelevant now. The Magmasaur's lair was done.
Blasted through the strata, my body kept tumbling. My life flame flickered out rapidly.
'Can't pass out!'
Blackout here wasted everything. Ignoring the frenzy of pain messages, I clung to consciousness.
'At least I'm out of the blast zone.'
Auxiliary senses showed I'd been pushed near the surface. Using my sole intact part—the central head—I clawed upward through soil.
Reaching ground level, I first saw clouds of massive flames. An explosion dwarfing antimatter bombs. The super-volcano harboring the Magmasaur had fully erupted.
And amid the hell of fire and ash stood it.
A 300-meter crocodylian with glowing red hide charged this way.
Its nest and pantry destroyed, fury inevitable. It wouldn't stop till I was dead.
'Same here.'
Reason for luring it topside? Not mere weakening.
To leverage my assets fully, I needed a battlefield favoring me.
「Big guy!」
Friends here to aid me.
'And traits too.'
Battered by repeated strikes and explosion, my body hit limits—just enough for Revenant Organ activation.
「Ku? 」
The charging beast halted. Its six eyes atop the elongated snout brimmed with wariness.
Wary of my changed form from underground? Or because the near-dead me stood unscathed?
Maybe both.
「Grrr」
「Grrr!」
In Emblem of the Hunt state, I tore the bio-membranes from my regenerating flank heads with my jaws. Charred then reborn, they growled fiercely as the membranes ripped.
Prep for the hunt complete.
Here, I subjugate the Magmasaur.
-
'Damn it!'
```