The giant scythe swept down, crackling with electricity. The blow failed to sever the Chameleos's horn outright, but it carved a deep wound into its base.
Blood seeped from inside the horn.
Clearly, the horn atop the Chameleos's head was not a hard structure made entirely of bone and keratin, like a Diablos's. Its internal structure was far more complex, resembling some kind of organ.
The strike caused the Chameleos immense pain. It howled pitifully, its bulky body swaying.
According to the available research, the horn on the Chameleos's head and its massive tail were both essential organs for maintaining perfect invisibility. That was why Nadia had advised them to focus their attacks on those two parts.
While Altaïr launched another fierce assault on the Chameleos's head, Isis moved into position at its tail.
She interspersed overhead slashes with shelling. With the heat-dissipation mechanism locked, waste heat rapidly accumulated, and the blade of her Glavenus Gunlance began to glow a dull red. One charred wound after another opened across the Chameleos's tail.
Pinned between the two Blademasters attacking from the front and rear, the Chameleos could no longer move freely. Nadia naturally had no reason to keep acting as bait.
She draped her Ghillie Mantle over herself and vanished into the dense fog.
The fog dulled the Hunters' five senses, but it also obscured the Chameleos's vision. Combined with the Ghillie Mantle, Nadia's exceptional ability to conceal her presence made her all but impossible to detect.
The Chameleos could no longer locate the Gunner who posed the greatest threat to it...
Yet Piercing Fire Ammo continued to streak out of the surrounding fog at irregular intervals. Each agonizing impact as a round drilled into one of its vital areas reminded it that its terrifying opponent was still circling nearby.
Now it was the Chameleos's turn to experience the misery of being ambushed in dense fog.
Realizing how dire its situation would become if this continued, the Chameleos opened its jaws wide and spewed great clouds of dark-purple venom in every direction.
The venomous mist blended into the surrounding haze, staining the dense white fog an ominous pale purple.
Although the fog diluted the venom somewhat, it spread so quickly that the Blademasters had nowhere to hide.
They were poisoned almost the instant the Chameleos released it.
The Chameleos had expected this to force the Hunters back, at least temporarily, and give it a chance to recover. Instead of retreating, however, they intensified their assault.
They bit through the Herbal Medicines they had been holding in their mouths, allowing the active compounds to spread through their bodies. The Hunters entered a delicate state in which the venom continually invaded their systems while the medicine continually neutralized it.
Chameleos venom was exceptionally potent, and a single dose of Herbal Medicine could sustain them for only a short time. Once they exhausted their supply, their sole remaining option would be a hasty retreat.
They could not even be certain they would escape safely. Naturally, they fought with desperate urgency and pressed the attack harder.
Now the Chameleos truly began to panic.
Intelligent though it was, it could not understand how the Hunters had suddenly become able to "ignore its deadly venom." Even if it guessed that medicine was responsible, it had no way of knowing how much they still carried.
What if they could keep this up for another half hour? Would they not simply hack it to death?
As it hesitated, Altaïr gathered his sword aura as quickly as he could and brought a Spirit Helm Breaker down on the tip of the Chameleos's snout, directly onto its horn. A Spirit Release Unsurpassed Slash followed at once, its storm of crisscrossing sword aura carving countless intersecting wounds into the horn.
"Scree-ow!" The Chameleos howled in pain, jerking its head back as it staggered.
Not to be outdone, Isis charged at its massive, fleshy tail and unleashed a Dragon Blast.
The terrifying wave of flame engulfed almost its entire hindquarters. Already unsteady from the severe damage to its horn, the Chameleos was sent tumbling.
With the sensory organs in its horn and tail badly damaged, it could no longer turn invisible, while the deadly venom it had relied on as a last resort was proving ineffective.
To the Chameleos, this was as terrifying as a Hunter losing both weapon and armor in the middle of a fight.
Worse still, the Hunters' "nest" was nearby. Even if it somehow defeated the few before it, more of them, and stronger ones at that, would undoubtedly emerge. Humans were simply that unreasonable.
The Chameleos was afraid.
It had only come here because there were so many insects to eat. It had no desire to lose its life over a meal...
Propping itself up with its wings, it rolled to its feet. Then, tucking its head down and weathering the Hunters' fierce assault, it broke into a full-speed run.
The sinkhole was not large. In the blink of an eye, it reached the edge, scrambled up the rock face in a few quick movements, and began writhing its way out.
Altaïr instinctively moved to fire his Clutch Claw and pursue, but Nadia, who had appeared behind him without his noticing, pressed a hand to his shoulder.
"That's enough. It's clearly frightened and trying to flee," Nadia said with a smile. "Don't corner it. It is still an Elder Dragon, and if we leave it no choice but to fight to the death, none of us will come out ahead."
Despite her words, Nadia raised her Bowgun and fired several more Paint S rounds into the Chameleos's hide.
Knowing exactly what those rounds were for, the Chameleos ran even faster...
After the Chameleos fled, the venomous mist inside the sinkhole gradually dispersed. The Hunters climbed out, checked how many doses of Herbal Medicine they had left, and all breathed a sigh of relief.
Had the Chameleos held out for just a few more minutes, they would have been the ones fleeing.
After drinking an Antidote G to neutralize the remaining venom in his body, Altaïr turned to Nadia. "Senior Nadia, what should we do next?"
The quest objective was not to hunt the Chameleos, but to "drive it back."
This kind of work was still unfamiliar to two young Hunters who had only recently reached High Rank, so they naturally sought their senior's guidance.
Nadia smiled. "The most dangerous and difficult part is over. From here on, we only need to follow it at a distance. It should remain aware of our presence, but we must not pursue it too closely or put it under too much pressure.
"That way, we'll 'escort' it out of our territory."
—--
Finding and "teaching the Chameleos a lesson" had taken less than a day in total. "Escorting" it back to its habitat deep in the jungle lasted nearly half a month.
During the first few days, the Chameleos remained extremely nervous and even tried turning back to ambush them.
But with its horn and tail so badly damaged that it had temporarily lost its invisibility, its chances of successfully ambushing High Rank Hunters could not even be called slim. They were nonexistent.
Where could such a huge, purplish creature possibly hide? Did it expect the thick fog to conceal it? Did it think the Hunters would see the fog and somehow fail to realize it was setting an ambush?
Its ambushes failed, and after receiving another couple of beatings for its trouble, the Chameleos finally settled down.
It had realized that the Hunters did not actually intend to kill it. They were herding and monitoring it, making sure it left their territory.
What else could it do but leave obediently? The loser of a territorial dispute had to tuck its tail and flee. That was simply the law of nature.
Still, was it not a bit much for the humans to claim such a vast territory? It had been traveling for more than ten days, yet their territory still had not ended... The Hunters had no idea how aggrieved the Chameleos felt. Their quest was to drive it back to its original habitat.
After nearly two weeks of travel, the Chameleos finally found itself back in the forest where it had been born and raised. Only then did those apparition-like Hunters leave.
The familiar surroundings put it at ease. This place suddenly did not seem so bad. It might lack plump Hornetaurs and Vespoids that tingled pleasantly on the tongue, but it still had plenty of delicious termites.
It would never set foot in human territory again!