Unable to help the Hunter in the fight for the moment, Alma quietly slipped away from her original hiding place.
She kept the lessons of Professor Sheila and the other Handler instructors firmly in mind.
Compared with Hunters, Handlers were physically frail. Their sharp minds were their greatest weapons.
Falling rocks, vines, rivers, cliffs... She had to learn to use everything in the environment to give the Hunter an advantage.
They were not in the wilderness proper, but in an abandoned mine. There were no vines or rivers, but if she searched carefully, she might still find something useful.
Her eyes soon settled on the hoist in the center of the mine.
The machine used counterweights and a system of pulleys to lift heavy loads of ore high into the air.
There was no shortage of heavy objects in the mine. Alma cautiously ran toward the hoist's hook.
Isis had no time to watch what the apprentice Handler was doing. She was locked in direct combat with the Kuarusepu.
The Kuarusepu was massive, with a thick carapace, tremendous strength, and formidable defenses. It was relatively clumsy, however, and nowhere near as fast as its ocean-dwelling relatives.
By reading its muscle movements, Isis could choose the right response before each attack began.
She caught the Kuarusepu's claw swipe on her shield, then thrust her Gunlance diagonally upward and fired a shell.
The muzzle flash forced the Kuarusepu to raise its head and recoil, exposing its lightly armored chest to the Hunter.
With a low shout, Isis brought her Gunlance crashing down.
Repeated shelling had heated the blade until it glowed a deep, searing red. It cut through the thinner scales and hide along the Kuarusepu's chest and neck with relative ease, tearing open a charred wound.
The Kuarusepu roared in pain and swung its other foreclaw, trying to swat the Hunter away.
Isis neither dodged nor tried to defend. Driving upward with her waist and legs, she tore the Gunlance free of the ground and swung it in a full arc to meet the enormous claw.
Blade and claw collided. In terms of raw strength, no Hunter could match a beast more than thirty meters long, but the intense heat surrounding the blade proved decisive.
Just as someone would instinctively jerk a hand away from red-hot iron, the Kuarusepu shrieked and withdrew its claw. Isis seized the opening and whipped her Gunlance through a full circle, carving another charred gash into its foreleg.
"The hitzones on its back and head are extremely tough! Its limbs and belly are softer wherever there aren't any mineral scales, meow!" Taking advantage of her small size and agility, Clawdia had struck all over the Kuarusepu's body in a short time, roughly testing each part's hitzone.
The results were close to what they had inferred from the available data. The only difference was that the Kuarusepu's fear of fire and intense heat was more pronounced than expected.
Even though the mineral scales on its head were extremely tough, the Kuarusepu still instinctively recoiled from the shelling.
That was good news for the Hunters.
In her original Hunt plan, Isis had intended to circle the Kuarusepu and concentrate her attacks on its flanks.
Given the current situation, however, she could engage it head-on, use her superheated weapon to force it back, then strike its equally vulnerable neck and chest.
The decision to fight on a clear night had been crucial. Unable to draw on external energy for its more powerful attacks, the Kuarusepu had been greatly weakened and was gradually being forced onto the defensive.
Even so, Isis did not immediately commit to an all-out assault. She continued to fight cautiously, defending and counterattacking.
This was her first time facing a High Rank Large Monster alone. No one was there to bail her out, so she had to be careful.
Repeated setbacks infuriated the Kuarusepu, which was already irritable after being roused from its sleep. It braced itself on its forelegs, stretched out its long neck, and violently swung its head. Covered in mineral scales, the appendage resembled a spiked club as it swept toward the "small animal" before it.
The moment the Kuarusepu spread its forelegs and steadied its center of gravity, Isis sensed that something was wrong.
An attack powered by its entire body would not be easy to block with a shield. She immediately locked the muzzle brake and used the recoil from a shell to launch herself backward, retreating a considerable distance.
The Kuarusepu's fearsome head swept past her like a wrecking ball. Had the blow landed on a Large Flying Wyvern, it would have been enough to break its bones.
But the Kuarusepu's assault was not over.
The sweeping head strike had only been meant to drive the Hunter back. Its true "finishing move" was yet to come.
With a low growl, the crystal prisms covering the Kuarusepu's body simultaneously began emitting a blinding white light like sunlight.
This was clearly the prelude to some kind of energy attack.
Isis's expression turned grave. It was already late at night, and the skies remained clear. There was no sunlight or lightning for the Kuarusepu to absorb. Could it still unleash an energy attack?
Had it absorbed heat from my attacks? Was it drawing on energy stored during the day? Or perhaps the faint moonlight?
There was no time to think, nor could she predict what form the attack would take. Isis lowered her center of gravity, raised her Large Shield, and assumed the most stable defensive stance she could.
Judging from the white light radiating from the crystals on the Kuarusepu's back, the energy was probably not electrical. Was it heat?
Fortunately, both her Glavenus Gunlance and Zamtrios Z Armor Set offered excellent heat resistance.
As long as the Monster's attack was not absurdly powerful, she should be able to withstand it.
Hopefully...
Every muscle tensed, Isis prepared herself for the possibility that her guard would be broken and she would suffer a serious injury. At last, the Kuarusepu's attack came.
An intense flash erupted, brighter than the midday summer sun and dazzling enough to leave anyone disoriented.
In an instant, the dim abandoned mine was illuminated as though it were broad daylight.
More than ten kilometers away, the lookout aboard the Knowledge Seeker also saw the blinding flash. He immediately sounded the alarm.
"At the mine! Intense flash! A battle may have broken out!"
After a brief hesitation, the person in charge aboard the Knowledge Seeker ordered the ropes securing the hull to be released. The airship slowly rose and began making its way toward the mine.
The intense light lasted only an instant. When the powerful attack she had imagined never came, Isis peered out from behind the edge of her Large Shield.
The Kuarusepu was panting heavily.
"...?"
Wait. No breath attack, no explosion, no heat wave melting the rock... just one flash, and that was it?
That's it?!
I was ready to cart, and all you did was set off a giant Flash Pod?
Isis could hardly believe it.
On second thought, if she had not raised her Large Shield and blocked the light, the flash, far more overwhelming than any Flash Pod, would have stunned and blinded her.
In the middle of a battle, that was no laughing matter.
Many Monsters in nature possessed similar light-producing abilities. Gypceros, Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, and Gobul could all produce comparable flashes. The Kuarusepu's light was far more intense, however, and powerful enough to affect even Large Monsters.
Although it had no destructive power, it was actually a remarkably useful ability...
After catching its breath, the Kuarusepu pressed its body flat against the ground and slithered forward like a snake, charging straight at her.
This was the Kuarusepu's charge attack.
Had the flash stunned her, she probably would not have been able to evade the follow-up. But now, aside from a few lingering spots at the edges of her vision, she could see clearly and would not fall for it so easily.
Isis fired a shell to the side and used the recoil to propel herself clear, safely evading the Kuarusepu's full-force charge.
Unable to stop in time, the Kuarusepu slammed headfirst into the rock wall behind her.
Its pointed, conical head buried itself deep in the wall and carved out a massive crack. After wrenching its head free of the rock, it shook from side to side.
The violent impact had left it dazed.
The faint smile on Isis's lips instantly froze when she saw the enormous crack in the wall, more than ten meters long.
If the flash had stunned her, that collision would have shattered her shield and armor and killed her outright.
She had no room for error.