The Brute Tigrex did not look particularly intelligent, but its combat instincts were remarkably sharp.
As it launched its second charge, Altaïr could clearly see that the Brute Tigrex had lowered its body even further, narrowing the gap between its forelimbs and the ground.
If he tried to slip through that opening again, its forelimb would likely catch him and send him flying.
He could still use Instant Slash, but he could not repeat the same maneuver.
An instant before the charge struck, Altaïr abruptly changed the direction of his blade and launched an Instant Slash to the side.
This time, he had no intention of counterattacking with Instant Slash. He used it purely as an extremely fast repositioning move and, despite the risk, narrowly evaded the Brute Tigrex's second charge.
"ROOOOAR!!"
Realizing that its attack had missed again, the Brute Tigrex skidded to a halt amid its own roar and spun around.
Its feeding had been interrupted, and its attacks had failed one after another. Boundless rage flooded its mind as its bloodshot, glowing-red eyes locked onto the nearby Hunter. It was already preparing to launch a third charge.
Altaïr glanced toward the nearby cliff face.
His previous Instant Slash had not been a random dodge. He had deliberately moved closer to the cliff wall.
The Brute Tigrex might not have noticed, or perhaps it had noticed and simply did not care. Right now, all its attention was fixed on the Hunter.
It would not relent until it had bitten him to death and crushed him!
As the Brute Tigrex charged again, Altaïr did not use Instant Slash. Instead, he stirred his blood, activated Demon Mode, and sprinted toward the cliff wall.
Seeing the Hunter about to leave its path, the Brute Tigrex instinctively shifted its center of gravity and adjusted its course. Propelled by its terrifying core strength, it turned at an astonishing speed.
The distance between them rapidly dwindled.
Far from alarmed by the Brute Tigrex's decisive turn, Altaïr was delighted.
Its rage had clearly impaired its judgment. This was a common flaw among Tigrex; once anger took hold, they charged headlong without regard for anything else.
He carefully controlled the distance.
Ten meters. Five meters... The Brute Tigrex's massive maw opened at an exaggerated angle, almost dislocating its jaw as it prepared to swallow the Hunter whole.
But just as victory and a delicious meal seemed within reach, the Hunter vanished from its sight. A violent impact and searing pain followed, nearly knocking it unconscious.
The instant the Brute Tigrex's jaws were about to engulf him, Altaïr reached the cliff face at full speed. Using his momentum and the superhuman athletic ability granted by Demon Mode, he sprang upward from the protrusions and cracks in the rock.
He could not keep climbing like that, but using a few footholds to spring four or five meters into the air was easy enough.
That height was enough to evade the Brute Tigrex's jaws and charge. Caught off guard, the Monster slammed headfirst into the cliff wall beneath him.
"RUMBLE!"
The cliff face shook violently, sending countless fragments of rock tumbling down. Even with the Brute Tigrex's size and strength, however, the impact was nowhere near enough to bring down the entire mountain.
The rock reflected the full force of the charge back into the Monster. With no time to slow down, the Brute Tigrex's neck bent at almost a ninety-degree angle.
Altaïr would not have been surprised if the impact had snapped its neck and killed it on the spot, but the Brute Tigrex's body was far too tough.
It had certainly suffered severe damage. The armored shell around its head had shattered, its skull might even have cracked, and the violent impact to its brain had left it dazed. A mouthful of sharp fangs was embedded in the cliff wall, pinning its massive jaws firmly against the rock...
But it was still alive, and the heartbeat within its chest remained strong.
Altaïr did not regret that. If anything, he would have been a little disappointed if the Brute Tigrex had actually killed itself in the crash.
Still airborne, he twisted in midair, drew the Taikun Katana from his back, and brought it down in a vertical slash.
The lightning-wreathed scythe blade carved into the Brute Tigrex's shoulder, sending forth a gush of blood hot enough to scald skin.
With the target stunned and its teeth wedged in the cliff wall, Altaïr had no intention of ending such a perfect attack opportunity after a single strike.
The giant scythe moved in his hands as nimbly as a pair of Dual Blades. Blood sprayed beneath a storm of steel. At full force, the Crimson Slash combo and Spirit Blade combo flowed into one another, instantly tearing more than a dozen crisscrossing wounds across the Brute Tigrex's vital chest and neck.
His Spirit Gauge built at an astonishing speed. Within just a few breaths, his momentum reached its peak.
A single Spirit Roundslash brought him into the red Spirit Gauge state. He immediately followed with a Spinning Crimson Slash across the Brute Tigrex's chest, carving a second wound through the first.
Arcs of lightning flickered and leaped through the torn flesh, filling the air with the stench of scorching meat.
These strikes were far more powerful than his earlier harassing attacks. Given another half minute, Altaïr was confident that he could cut the Brute Tigrex's chest wide open and destroy its heart.
Red Spirit surged and swirled around the scythe blade. Altaïr braced the weapon with both hands, his gaze locked on the junction between the Brute Tigrex's chest and neck.
Spirit and strength gathered with blinding speed. In the next instant, he thrust the blade forward.
The lethal threat pricked at the Monster's nerves like needles, jolting it out of its daze.
The Brute Tigrex pushed off with all four limbs, ignoring the fact that at least a quarter of its fangs had snapped off inside the cliff wall. By sheer force, it wrenched its head free and instinctively recoiled several meters.
Altaïr's Spirit Blade Thrust struck nothing but air.
He clicked his tongue softly and quickly reined in his Spirit to keep it from dispersing after the miss. At the same time, he entered an Iai stance in preparation for the Brute Tigrex's counterattack.
Covered in crisscrossing wounds across its head, chest, and neck, the blood-soaked Brute Tigrex steadied itself on its forelegs. It half-raised its body, opened its massive jaws, and took a deep breath.
A vast amount of air rushed down the Brute Tigrex's throat. Wind whistled through the gaps between its teeth like the wailing of vengeful spirits.
Its chest and most of its abdomen visibly began to swell.
A roar? No!
That much air was clearly not meant for a simple roar. It looked far more like the preparation for a Monster's breath attack.
A Tigrex using a breath attack? Theoretically, that should have been impossible.
No known Tigrex, whether base species, Subspecies, Rare Species, or even a Deviant such as Grimclaw Tigrex, should possess an organ like a Flame Sac that could generate elemental energy.
Wait...
Altaïr suddenly remembered something Madam Marydan, whose own title was "Brute Tigrex," had once told him. A Brute Tigrex's roar possessed enough destructive power to shatter rock.
By now, this Brute Tigrex had roared at him dozens of times.
At close range, the shockwave from a Brute Tigrex's roar could indeed penetrate armor and injure a person, but the claim that it could shatter rock had seemed exaggerated.
Could its extraordinary cardiopulmonary strength and specialized vocal cords allow it to compress airflow and sound into a breath attack?!
As the Brute Tigrex finished inhaling and raised its head to stare at him, Altaïr felt as though all the blood in his body had frozen, making even breathing difficult.
The last time he had felt anything similar was while fighting the aberrant Taikun Zamuza, when it had been on the verge of death and prepared to detonate all its electrical energy to take him down with it.
There was no time to consider counters or backup plans. Faced with the certainty that he would die in the next second, his body reacted before his mind.
His taut muscles released in an instant. The bloodstained giant scythe swept through a perfect arc as he charged forward with an Iai Roundslash.
Whether the Roundslash struck its target did not matter. What mattered was using its movement to close in on the Brute Tigrex as quickly as possible.
This evasive maneuver worked against any Monster that spewed a breath attack from its mouth. No matter how broad the attack or how great its range, the area beside the Monster's head and neck was always a blind spot.
At the same time, a terrifying blast erupted from the Brute Tigrex's mouth. The breath attack, formed from high-pressure airflow and sound waves, compressed the air before it into a series of translucent rings.
Wherever those rings passed, solid stone shattered like brittle, weathered paper. Even the cliff face a dozen meters away began collapsing across a wide area.
Altaïr reached the side of the Brute Tigrex's neck at the last possible moment and narrowly escaped a direct hit from the potentially fatal breath attack, but he was far too close to its vocal cords.
The residual sound waves traveled through the Brute Tigrex's muscles and hide, rattling Altaïr's internal organs. Blood sprayed uncontrollably from his mouth and nose.
His vision darkened in waves, and he nearly lost consciousness.
As he gritted his teeth against the sound waves battering his body and mind, a sharp pain shot through him, like strong acid eating into his flesh and flames scorching it.
The familiar roar echoed through his half-conscious mind. Altaïr opened his mouth on instinct and answered it with a similar hoarse bellow.
"ROOOOAR!"
Blood-red light flashed in his eyes, and pitch-black fighting spirit shrouded his entire body before coiling around his blade.
As his fighting spirit surged, he ignored the lingering effects of the sound waves and thrust his blade forward with a low growl.
The sharpened tip of the Taikun Katana pierced the Brute Tigrex's body. Using the embedded blade as a foothold, the Hunter leaped into the air and brought down a vertical Spirit Helm Breaker filled with all his strength and Spirit Gauge.
Spirit Helm Breaker!
Blood erupted from the side of the Brute Tigrex's neck. Its scales, tough hide, muscle fascia, blood vessels, and trachea split open layer by layer beneath the slash.
The Brute Tigrex's breath attack had not fully ended. The high-pressure air racing through its throat suddenly found another outlet and detonated violently through the wound in its neck.
The trachea and most of the neck, once held together by thick bands of muscle, exploded completely. Shredded flesh, blood, and the resulting blast wave sent the nearby Hunter tumbling as if a Barrel Bomb had detonated beside him.
The Brute Tigrex's breath attack ceased abruptly. The pitch-black beast that had roamed the Volcano staggered several steps before collapsing helplessly into a pool of blood.