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MHD Chapter 142: Battle for the Ancient Tree
🕑 Added 2025-08-26 04:23:43 +0000 UTCThis return to the Ancient Tree took far less time than the migration to the Wildspire Waste.
After all, the overall strength of the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group was much higher. On top of that, they already had experience with one full-scale migration, so this time Logan and the Tempered Rathalos didn’t even need to coordinate them—the Fire Wyverns could divide tasks on their own.
Back then, they didn’t even have a clear destination, and had to search for a new home. That had cost them a lot of extra time.
Now, with the massive Ancient Tree standing as their goal, it was simply a straight line from one point to the other—just fly directly there and be done with it.
During a night’s rest along the way, as soon as Logan’s Pressure was unleashed, more than a hundred Fire Wyverns landed neatly together in one area. The cats chefs who had returned from training at the Astera Outpost, supported by a large number of helpers, quickly prepared simple Wyvern Meals, rapidly replenishing the wyverns’ spent strength.
By the next morning, all the energy the Fire Wyverns had consumed was already restored.
With everything well-prepared, the group returned to the Ancient Tree’s territory in just a single week.
That towering tree, its branches blotting out the sun, now loomed close before their eyes. The Fire Wyverns accelerated one after another, eager to rush back into their old home and once again feel the breath of the Ancient Tree.
Logan did not stop them. After all, they were already at their doorstep—what accident could possibly happen now?
And along the journey, Logan had taken note: the ecology of the Ancient Forest had recovered fairly well. Though he wasn’t sure of the current state of the hunting grounds from before, it didn’t look like the wyverns would be starving any time soon. With the stockpiled meat they carried, there should be no problem at all.
But sometimes, things turn out in unexpected ways.
“Rooaaar!”
A furious bellow echoed, sending a tremor through the Fire Wyverns before they had even reached the Ancient Tree.
The male Fire Wyverns guarding the females carrying supplies instantly beat their wings harder, rushing forward without hesitation. That roar just now was clearly the prelude to battle.
Whether it was an unforeseen situation in the Ancient Tree, or simply the group instinct honed by years of coordinated hunts, the males surged forward on reflex.
After two years of all-out brawls in the Wastes, they were firmly convinced—
There was nothing a pack of Rathalos couldn’t solve!
If one pack couldn’t, then send in a bigger pack!
And if even that didn’t work, then the entire Fire Wyvern group would go in together!
Numbers meant strength—simple as that.
But what could possibly be happening in the Ancient Tree?
The Fire Wyverns had lived in the Ancient Tree not for a year or two, but for centuries, perhaps even longer.
So even after the group had migrated away for two years, no other monster with any sense would dare move in.
Besides, the upper reaches of the Ancient Tree didn’t hold many resources. For land-bound monsters, climbing there was a fool’s errand, and among the flying ones, few would be foolish enough to try.
If there was any creature that might have taken advantage of the wyverns’ absence to occupy the Ancient Tree’s upper reaches, Logan thought for a moment—it would only be the Pukei-Pukei.
Curiosity stirred, Logan quickened his pace as well.
But just as he neared the crown of the Ancient Tree, a massive fireball came hurtling straight toward him.
The fireball streaked toward him with frightening speed, but at such a distance, Logan slipped aside with ease.
Yet in the very next instant, it was Logan himself who let out a furious roar!
There—right on the platform before his old nest—a massive Azure Rathalos stood its ground. Its scales were thick but rough, even tattered in places, and it was locked in a fierce standoff with the Ancient Tree group’s lone Azure Rathalos.
That Ancient Tree Azure Rathalos was still only in its youth, and under normal circumstances would never have been a match for such a tempered veteran.
But thanks to the Symbiosis of the Fire Wyvern group, drawing on the flow of energy between them, it was holding its ground despite the disadvantage in size. Blow for blow, it was forcing a deadlock against the mighty Tempered Azure Rathalos.
From Logan’s vantage point, he could see parts of the interior of his old nest. Scales scattered across the floor, claw marks gouged into the walls and branches—everywhere lay evidence that his lair had been usurped by this unknown Azure Rathalos!
Swallowing his rage, Logan turned his gaze toward the other clashes. As expected, they were all wyvern-on-wyvern battles.
Aside from the duels between a few Tempered Rathalos, the rest were clearly one-sided. The males of the Ancient Tree group were pressing their opponents down with ease. These opportunistic wyverns, who had dared to occupy the Ancient Tree while the group was away, were so weak that within the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group they wouldn’t even have ranked at the bottom tier.
The only fights that held Logan’s attention, apart from the Azure Rathalos standoff, were those few struggles between Tempered Rathalos.
“Where did these Tempered Fire Wyverns come from? Even an Azure Rathalos among them…”
Logan’s eyes narrowed in confusion. And yet, listening to those wyverns being beaten back step by step, roaring out accusations—that the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group had no honor, that they ganged up instead of obeying the old rule of single combat for territory—Logan’s temper flared.
Just then, two distant roars split the air. A pair of Fire Wyvern mates, one an Azure and the other a Pink, came winging toward the Ancient Tree.
But the Azure Rathalos among them gleamed with a metallic sheen across its scales, its body stretched to 24 meters—the very limit of the species’ natural size.
It was clearly a Tempered Azure Rathalos.
That roar wasn’t just heard by Logan; even the battered intruder wyverns caught it, their spirits suddenly revived. They responded with exultant cries, their morale surging back at once.
There was no doubt. This Tempered Azure Rathalos was the leader of these usurpers.
Logan’s eyes glinted with killing intent. Aki appeared at his side at just the right moment.
She too had seen the state of their nest, and knew full well what Logan intended. Sunlight shimmered in golden flecks across her scales, her eyes cold as ice as she fixed her gaze on the Pink Rathian trailing behind the Tempered Azure Rathalos.
The claim to the Ancient Tree would be written in blood.
From the moment he decided to return, Logan had already considered the possibility of a fight. He had even thought about the chance that some wyvern couples might have returned ahead of them, found the Ancient Tree deserted, and tried to seize it for themselves.
But in Logan’s first calculations, at most they would only have to drive out some weak intruders. If any among them proved strong enough… they might even have been absorbed into the group.
But what Logan had not expected—was the presence of a Tempered Azure Rathalos.
A wyvern of such overwhelming strength might not necessarily acknowledge the rules of the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group. After all, the group now had a clearly defined hierarchy and order.
And even if it did recognize those rules, by the code of challenge and by the pride inherent in wyverns, its opponent would inevitably be Logan.
What’s more, from this wyvern—no, from these Tempered Rathalos, as well as from the Azure Rathalos below and the Azure–Pink Fire Wyvern pair—Logan sensed something familiar.
It was the scent of the Elder’s Recess.
He had once felt it before, on the Tempered Rathalos that returned from that place.
Though he did not know what had transpired in the Elder’s Recess to drive them here to the Ancient Forest, one thing was certain: this battle could not be avoided.
And perhaps it was just as well—the Ancient Tree needed a battle of true strength to announce the return of the Fire Wyvern group!
“Rooaaar!”
With a thunderous roar of declaration, Logan unleashed his Pressure in full. It was not only the wyverns fighting among the canopy who suddenly felt the crushing weight, but it also drew the gaze of the Tempered Azure Rathalos itself.
That Azure Rathalos locked its wary eyes on Logan, whose scales gleamed with a silvery metallic sheen. Hovering in the distance, it felt as though a bloodthirsty beast had fixed on it without escape. The psychic weight pressed down so heavily that its heart pounded wildly in its chest.
Even its breathing grew rough and heavy, while the Pink Rathian at its side had already flown off to clash with Aki, yet it scarcely took notice.
Logan’s wings began to blaze with fire. His four wing bones flexed and stretched, the membranes shifting into a rippling wave-like shape.
His Speed Boost surged into effect. With his strengthened physique, his base acceleration had already doubled, climbing swiftly to two and a half times. But to push beyond that required far more time—time a battle would never allow.
This time, however, he had found a better way.
At the tips of his wing membranes, four whirling cyclones formed with each beat, drawing in the air, compressing it tighter and tighter!
At last—inject the combustible fluid!
Ignition!
With a thunderous sonic boom that split the sky, a blazing contrail burst forth behind Logan. His entire body shot forward at supersonic speed, blasting straight toward the Tempered Azure Rathalos.
In that instant, to the eyes of the Tempered Azure Rathalos, it was as though a burning comet was hurtling down upon it. It wanted to dodge—but its body simply couldn’t react in time.
For a Fire Wyvern with terrifying dynamic vision, this was the classic case of the mind recognizing the threat, but the body failing to keep up.
Was supersonic speed fast?
Fast, yet not fast.
Fast—because so few creatures could reach such velocity without external aid. Over a short distance, it was almost indistinguishable from teleportation.
Not fast—because it was still within the range the naked eye could just barely follow.
But under Logan’s Pressure, with its reflexes dulled, the Tempered Azure Rathalos could only watch helplessly as a razor-sharp claw seized its skull.
Agonizing pain flared across its neck, nearly snapping bones as its head was wrenched backward. Its body flailed violently, like a torn plastic bag whipped about by the wind.
It tried to resist, but the absurd strength—strength that should never have belonged to a wyvern—crushed its skull in a vice of agony. Under that immense force, its body couldn’t even muster a proper response.
With a deafening crash, its body slammed into the ground, carving a crater that spread out like a spider’s web.
Its wings snapped at unnatural angles. The carapace, hardened by the Elder’s Recess’ concentrated life energy, shattered into fragments. Blood streamed from its jaws, each ragged breath spraying crimson froth.
Logan narrowly veered aside to avoid colliding with the massive trees, flying far before he finally managed to halt his momentum.
It was his first time unleashing such a move, and failing to control the force properly had torn parts of his wing membranes.
Even so, he beat his wings steadily, rising to hover above the battered Tempered Azure Rathalos.
“Such tenacity… If you can survive this, the Ancient Tree will welcome your arrival.”
Ignoring the Pink Rathian that darted to its mate’s side, baring its fangs at him, Logan gave a low growl before wheeling back toward the upper reaches of the Ancient Tree.
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Abzolute
Ty for the ch
