In truth, the Chameleos had not shown any clear aggression at any point so far; its temperament was surprisingly mild.
Even so, Altaïr launched his attack without hesitation.
The area where it was roaming lay far too close to the city. Even on foot, the journey took only an hour or two. Allowing it to wander nearby was simply too dangerous.
Even if they chose not to hunt it, they at least had to "escort" it away from the area.
As for how to do that...
Sending an emissary to negotiate politely and ask, "Would you please leave?" certainly would not work...
Elder Dragons generally possessed considerable intelligence, with some species even surpassing humans. Without systematic learning, however, they could not understand complex human language, much less the concept of "negotiation."
Even if they could understand, why would creatures at the top of the food chain willingly surrender a prime territory they had gone to such trouble to find?
Would humans move house simply because a swarm of bees appeared outside their door? Of course not. At most, they would find a way to remove the hive.
Therefore, the best and only way to "escort" the Chameleos away was to pin down its head, give it a thorough beating, point at its nose, and roar, "Get out!"
That was how powerful creatures in the wild settled territorial disputes, after all.
As for holding back, what a joke. This was an Elder Dragon! Even if Altaïr fought at full strength and used every means at his disposal, victory was far from certain. He had no room to pull his punches.
First, hit it with everything he had!
The blade of the giant scythe, crackling with electricity, pivoted into position and came down in an Overhead Slash. The Chameleos drew its head back to evade, but Altaïr took a long stride forward as he attacked, extending the slash's reach by another meter.
The raised head escaped the blade, but the scythe struck the Chameleos's chest and left a shallow wound.
"Tch." Altaïr clicked his tongue.
The creature's entire body looked soft and pliable. With no thick carapace covering it, its defenses appeared weak, yet the resistance Altaïr felt through his blade was anything but soft.
Even the scales and hide on its chest, a relatively vulnerable area, were astonishingly tough.
The Taikun Katana [Crape Myrtle] boasted Purple Sharpness, yet a full-power Step Slash that landed cleanly had barely broken the outer skin. It failed to penetrate the thick layer of spongy connective tissue beneath, much less reach the muscles or internal organs. The wound was literally only skin-deep.
Judging from the resistance through the blade, even the Brute Tigrex, whose scales contained large quantities of mineral powder, had not been this hard. Only a Monster such as Gravios, famed for its heavy shell and astonishing defenses, could compare.
Then again, the Chameleos already had three glaring weaknesses: high-temperature flames, lightning, and Dragon Element energy. If its physical defenses were poor as well, this "disgrace of the Elder Dragons" would truly be too disgraceful.
"The head! Its head is the only part with a reasonably good hitzone!" Nadia called from a distance as she kept peppering the target with Flaming Ammo. "There is too much fat and connective tissue everywhere else; it is difficult to inflict effective damage!"
Altaïr narrowed his eyes at the Chameleos's raised head.
The creature clearly knew its own weak point. Was it deliberately holding its head high to keep him from reaching it?
A month ago, he truly would not have had many options. Now, however...
Altaïr stepped forward and lowered his upper body as he planted the giant scythe against the ground. Tightening his core, he vaulted into a forward flip with the weapon as a lever. Midway through the rotation, he kicked off the Monster's body for additional lift and sprang three or four meters into the air. (See P.S.)
The Chameleos barely had time to react before the Hunter had leaped directly in front of its face.
Altaïr first used his remaining upward momentum to sweep the scythe upward, then brought it straight down as he fell. He unleashed in midair the rising-slash-to-downward-chop combination he had practiced countless times through Crimson Blade Slash, carving two bleeding wounds across the Chameleos's head.
As expected, the head had a decent hitzone!
As he landed, Altaïr leaped backward and evaded the Chameleos's reflexive claw swipe.
The Chameleos's divergent eyes spun wildly, as though wondering how this creature could jump and why it differed from every Hunter it had encountered before.
After retreating two steps, Altaïr saw the Chameleos open its enormous jaws and immediately assumed it was about to roar. He covered his ears and shouted a warning to his companions. "Watch out for the roar!"
The Chameleos merely extended its long tongue, licked the corner of its mouth, and glanced from side to side. Nothing happened.
"..."
Altaïr felt rather awkward. Had that Brute Tigrex left him so jumpy that he covered his ears whenever a Monster opened its mouth?
The next moment proved that the Chameleos's vacant, slow-witted appearance was only a disguise.
As it glanced around, the Chameleos suddenly shot out its tongue. The whip-like appendage lashed toward the Hunter before it almost as fast as a Bowgun round.
The creature was certainly strange. It possessed neither Jhen Mohran's towering bulk nor Guanzorumu's savage ferocity, but it was still an Elder Dragon. Altaïr had never lowered his guard.
The instant the tongue shot toward him, he braced the giant scythe horizontally to block it.
What struck him, however, was not a hard claw or fang, but a flexible, sticky tongue. Altaïr's attempt to deflect it with the blade failed, and the tongue coiled around the scythe's shaft.
Alarm flashed through Altaïr's mind as he realized what the Chameleos intended.
It wanted to disarm him, just as it had tried to snatch Isis's shield and Nadia's Bowgun earlier!
The Chameleos clearly had considerable experience fighting Hunters. It knew they would pose little threat once deprived of their weapons.
Feeling the tongue tug at his weapon, Altaïr gritted his teeth and clung to the hilt with all his strength.
He did not possess Isis's monstrous strength, so he could not overpower the Chameleos in a tug-of-war and forcibly retain his weapon. Nor was he as agile as Nadia, who had simply twisted aside from an ambush behind her.
He did, however, have a method of his own.
Pretending his strength was failing, Altaïr suddenly relaxed his backward pull on the scythe's long shaft. Just as the Chameleos was about to wrench the weapon away, he twisted his grip and turned the scythe's edge against its taut tongue.
The long tongue was one of the Chameleos's primary weapons and was extraordinarily tough and flexible. Once something flexible was drawn taut, however, it became far easier to cut.
The razor-sharp scythe bit nearly a third of the way through the tongue in a single stroke, and electricity erupted from the wound.
If the Chameleos continued pulling, the blade would bite deeper along the line of tension until it severed the tongue completely.
The Chameleos clearly had no intention of sacrificing its vital tongue merely to steal a Hunter's weapon. Hissing in pain, it released the scythe and reeled its tongue back into its mouth.
Perhaps its tongue was especially sensitive to pain, because the Chameleos was now genuinely enraged.
White vapor streamed from its mouth as it reared up, lunged forward, and slammed its body down.
Altaïr had just swung his weapon to fling the mucus from its blade. He pivoted backward at once, evading the pounce with Foresight Slash's evasive step before immediately delivering its counterattack and carving another gash across the Chameleos's snout.
"Kyaaaoooww!"
Thoroughly enraged, the Chameleos screeched with its jaws spread wide. Dark purple venomous mist churned in its throat.
That was no longer the mild toxin that merely drained stamina. It was a virulent poison capable of killing in moments.
P.S. This is Aerial Style's dodge-roll jump. The animation looks rather physics-defying, so the description adds a pole-vaulting motion. Picture Altaïr rolling forward, planting his weapon, and using it to spring into the air.
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Conquering the Anime Multiverse is also available here on Webnovel. Thank you for reading.