"Aha! Looks like luck is on our side this time!"
Ayame's booming voice startled the Shagaru Magala in the middle of its bath. Intelligent enough to rival a human, the Elder Dragon immediately realized that this was a trap.
Without a moment's hesitation, its gleaming wing membranes snapped open with a whoosh. The Shagaru Magala beat its wings and tried to take off and flee.
But Ayame was faster.
Carefree though she might be, Ayame was by no means reckless, and her strength as a 7★ Hunter was entirely genuine.
Since she had dared to draw the Shagaru Magala's attention with a shout, she naturally had a way to bring it under control.
Pulled by Ironsilk, she vaulted through the air and reached the Shagaru Magala in a flash. Before it could react, she hurled a grayish-white mass slightly larger than a plate onto its body.
The next instant, great tangles of silk tougher than steel wire gushed from the abdomen of the pale creature now perched on the Shagaru Magala's back.
In an instant, the threads wound around every joint across the Shagaru Magala's body, binding it securely and leaving it unable to move for the moment.
It was a Puppet Spider.
The silk released by this Hunting Helper endemic to Kamura possessed astonishing tensile strength. Even an Elder Dragon like the Shagaru Magala could not break free instantly.
"Hey!" Grabbing several strands of the tough yet elastic spider silk, Ayame vaulted onto the Shagaru Magala's back.
She released two Wirebugs and, through a dizzying series of maneuvers, used their Ironsilk to connect the tangled threads released by the Puppet Spider.
Using threads that would have seemed hopelessly tangled to an ordinary person, Ayame seized control of the Shagaru Magala's body.
Kamura's secret Wyvern Riding art!
The first step of the tactical plan was a success!
The Shagaru Magala struggled with all its might. As a fully mature Elder Dragon, its strength far surpassed that of the Gore Magala it had been before transforming.
Under the strain, the threads binding its body groaned and creaked in protest. At this rate, it would soon break free.
But Ayame had never planned to hold it for long.
"Kid! Are you ready?!" Ayame laughed heartily as she worked the Ironsilk with all ten fingers, then wrenched her arms upward.
Through some chaotic combination of acupoint stimulation, leverage, joint manipulation, and other principles Altaïr could not begin to understand, the Shagaru Magala swung its Wingtalon like a rigid puppet and smashed it down at Altaïr, who had been raising his blade to attack.
Startled by the Shagaru Magala's sudden movement, or more accurately, the sudden movement Ayame had forced it to make, Altaïr hastily abandoned his offensive and spun backward.
After evading the attack, he immediately sprang forward again and swung his blade in a counterattack.
Foresight Slash!
Blood sprayed from the wound. Having read the attack and countered in time, Altaïr felt his Spirit Gauge fill rapidly.
Altaïr glanced at Ayame, shock and speechlessness flickering in his eyes.
Ayame had told him earlier that once she initiated Wyvern Riding, she could make the Shagaru Magala attack him, "helping" him rapidly build his Spirit Gauge and momentum.
At the time, he had assumed Ayame was only joking. She had actually been serious?!
After that strike, the silk binding the Shagaru Magala visibly loosened, and the Elder Dragon's struggles grew more violent.
"Oh? Looks like it's time!" Ayame stood and yanked hard on the Ironsilk in her hands.
The thrashing Shagaru Magala turned like a horse pulled by its reins and charged straight toward a nearby cliff face.
"Boom!"
Unable to control its body, the Shagaru Magala slammed headfirst into the cliff. The earth trembled, rocks tumbled down, and the force of the impact sent the Elder Dragon staggering backward.
"Ha! Once more!"
Ayame repeated the maneuver, pulling the Ironsilk again and dragging the Shagaru Magala into a thick stone pillar off to the side.
"Rumble!"
Perhaps the first collision had left the Shagaru Magala dazed and weakened its resistance, because the second impact struck even harder than the first.
The stone pillar collapsed with a thunderous crash. The Shagaru Magala howled in pain as it reeled backward and toppled to the ground.
Ayame released the Ironsilk a moment early and leaped from the Elder Dragon's back. She rolled once to bleed off her momentum, sprang to her feet, and strode swiftly to the fallen Shagaru Magala's side. Drawing her Long Sword, she joined Altaïr, who had already arrived, in launching a relentless assault on the joint midway along the Shagaru Magala's wing.
The Monster was down. Step two was a success!
Their blades fell in rapid succession. For the two Long Sword users, their task now came down to two things.
First, they had to break through the defenses around the Shagaru Magala's right wing joint and inflict as much damage as possible. Second, they had to build their Spirit Gauges as quickly as they could, raise their momentum, and prepare for the next phase of the battle.
The two collisions had left the Elder Dragon dizzy and disoriented, but this level of injury was still far from severe for a healthy Elder Dragon.
Even with the spider silk and Ironsilk still restricting its movements to some degree, the Shagaru Magala rolled back onto its feet within only ten or twenty seconds.
Enraged, it twisted its head and lunged at Ayame, aiming to skewer the Hunter's chest with its razor-sharp horn. At the same time, it swept its spike-covered tail toward Altaïr, who stood farther back.
The Hunters had anticipated the attack and reacted with lightning speed.
Ayame instantly raised her blade and caught the horn in a solid guard. She then retaliated with a vertical Tempered Spirit Blade that carved a gash into the side of the Shagaru Magala's head and sent her momentum surging once more.
Altaïr leaped and spun out of the way in the nick of time, using Foresight Slash: Spin to evade the tail's whip-like sweep.
The Shagaru Magala's golden eyes glared fiercely at the two Hunters before it. The Elder Dragon desperately wanted to continue its attack and tear them to shreds, but reason held it back.
This was clearly a trap. If it allowed these two Hunters to tie it down until an even more formidable opponent arrived, escaping would become anything but easy.
Just you wait...
The Shagaru Magala pushed itself upright with its forelegs and beat its wings faster, using the wind pressure to force back the nearby Hunters as it tried to take flight once more.
"Now!" Altaïr shouted.
Just as the Shagaru Magala's limbs were about to leave the ground, several Felynes burst from the earth all around it.
A miniature folding cannon emplacement was mounted on each Felyne's back.
The cannons strongly resembled Sajji's Rakna-Kadaki Model-5, but their designs were rounder and more streamlined.
Unlike the Rakna-Kadaki Model-5, these devices did not need to fire barbed One-shot Binders. Instead, each cannon mount had several Wirebugs fixed directly to it.
This made the cannon structure simpler and sturdier while shifting most of the weight to the base and anchoring spikes, making the devices much harder to destroy.
These were the Ironsilk launchers Hibasa had specially modified for this operation!
"Ironsilk formation, meow!" At the lead Felyne's spirited cry, several Felynes slammed the cannons from their backs onto the rocky ground.
The ground spikes locked automatically, securing the bases firmly. The Wirebugs darted out like Bowgun Ammo and wrapped Ironsilk around the Shagaru Magala's limbs and wings, preventing it from taking flight.
This was the countermeasure Hibasa had devised.
One-shot Binders were not sturdy enough? They could not hold the target? Then the Hunters would simply deploy more of them!
The gleaming Ironsilk threads pulled taut one after another, straining against the Shagaru Magala as it beat its wings with all its might and tried to lift off.
The Shagaru Magala clearly realized that it could not fly away without dealing with these devices. It drew a deep breath and lowered its head.
A high-energy breath attack laced with the Frenzy Virus was about to erupt.
Once it blasted these devices apart, nothing would be able to hold it down any longer!
At that very moment, however, a streak of fire hurtled in, aimed straight at the Shagaru Magala's injured right wing joint.
Morgan had remained hidden since the operation began and had held his fire even when the Shagaru Magala was knocked down. Now he fired the critical shot.
The Shagaru Magala was struggling against the Ironsilk, fighting to maintain its flight stance, and gathering energy for its breath attack. It could not spare any attention for the sudden assault.
The exploding golden-red fireball flipped the Shagaru Magala, which was already struggling to maintain its balance in the air, and sent it crashing headfirst to the ground.
Altaïr had been waiting for precisely this moment. He rushed straight to the wing that the explosion had reduced to a mass of mangled flesh.
He crushed the Might Pill between his teeth and activated everything: Demon Mode, Beast Soul Possession, and Tempered Spirit Blade. He unleashed them all for the sole purpose of maximizing his destructive power over the next few seconds!
Spirit Helm Breaker! Spirit Release Unsurpassed Slash!
"Hahaha! That's the spirit! Then I won't lose either!"
Ayame had been holding an Iai stance. She surged forward with a sliding step, ignoring the razor-sharp sword energy from the Unsurpassed Slash as it carved bloody cuts across her body, then struck in a flash.
"Sacred Sheathe Combo!"
Under the relentless assault, the Shagaru Magala's right wing joint suffered severe damage.
The damage was not enough to rob it of flight completely, but taking off to escape would clearly no longer be easy.
Phase three of the operation was complete!
Now they only needed to stall a little longer. Lady Maki should arrive soon, right?
By then...
As Altaïr considered this, a colossal shadow swept over everyone's heads.
He instinctively looked up and saw a massive Bazelgeuse howling as it dove straight toward them.
On its back, Maki worked a tangle of Ironsilk with all ten fingers, directing the Bazelgeuse's movements with precision.
She wore a terrifying smile.
"Caught you!"