In its normal state, the Rajang could take on a Kirin head-to-head. But once it entered its Rage Mode—fueled by sheer fury—it pushed into the realm of Elder Dragon-class monsters, even managing to trade blows with the Nergigante, a beast known for hunting Elder Dragons themselves.
That’s an insurmountable gap.
How the hell are we supposed to fight that?
Flying beside Logan, Aki noticed he was staring intently at the scene below. She didn’t quite understand why—but she didn’t ask questions or make any sudden moves.
Still… that unfamiliar creature had just crushed a Barroth like it was nothing. It looked overwhelmingly strong.
Could that be the target?
Since they were scouting, Logan and Aki had been flying at a relatively low altitude.
The Rajang, having just vented some of its rage by pummeling the Barroth, easily noticed their gaze. In the next instant, it pounded both fists into the ground and let out a deafening roar—a blatant challenge directed at them.
Before Logan could even react, a massive rock hurtled through the air. The whistle of its flight screamed past his ears.
He barely had time to move when Aki responded first, unleashing a roar and diving straight down.
“Hey—wait!”
Too late to stop her, Logan let out a sigh, flames igniting around his body as he tucked in his wings and followed her into the dive.
The Rajang looked up at the two figures streaking toward it from the sky. There wasn’t the slightest trace of fear in its eyes—only wild excitement. It beat its chest furiously, the muscles along its arms swelling, its crimson eyes locked onto them like prey.
Timing it perfectly, it leapt backward with surprising agility, dodging Aki’s dive. Then, in a single bound, it launched itself forward—reappearing right in front of her. Tilting its head to avoid her snapping jaws, it caught her by the neck with one hand and slammed her into the ground with brute force.
At that exact moment, Logan’s claws, blazing with crimson flames, slashed toward the Rajang’s head.
But the monster raised an arm to block, stopping the attack cold.
His razor-sharp claws only managed to tear through the skin, leaving behind a single shallow wound.
Before Logan could even pull his claws back, the Rajang grabbed him by the lower leg and yanked him down, cutting off his attempt to take flight.
The flames wrapping around Logan’s body were completely ignored by the beast.
With one hand clutching each of them, the Rajang flexed its exaggerated, inverted-triangle-shaped muscles, twisted its body, and spun with brutal force—lifting the two massive Fire Wyverns into the air like rag dolls. In one violent swing, it flung them both away like a human whirlwind.
Logan and Aki crashed into the barren ground, skidding a long distance before coming to a stop. Before they could even get back up, the Rajang came charging in at breakneck speed—so fast that Logan’s eyes widened in disbelief.
His special trait was tied directly to his physical strength. Over the years, aside from regular hunts and absorbing energy from the land veins to strengthen his body, he had trained alongside Aki to push his limits. The increased physical power helped him ramp up to higher acceleration states faster in combat, and also allowed him to better handle the crash of momentum and exhaustion afterward.
But now, the Rajang’s speed… was completely on par with Logan’s current level.
With no time to take off again, Logan and Aki each launched a fireball toward the oncoming beast.
But even faced with the slightly purplish flames hurtling toward it, the Rajang didn’t even try to dodge. It clenched its fists—and smashed the fireballs apart, one punch each. The resulting explosions of fire only slightly slowed its advance, barely causing any real damage.
Still, that brief pause gave Logan and Aki just enough time to recover.
They each spat a fireball at the ground, using the smoke to mask their movement as they took off into the sky.
From above, they stared down at the raging Rajang below. Without exchanging a word, they began gathering power—scales on their chests glowing red-hot from the rising heat.
A storm of violent fire, laced with wind pressure, roared downward.
Their flames overlapped and merged, forming a much wider cone of scorching heat that engulfed the Rajang in a blazing inferno.
Faced with the overwhelming sea of fire, the Rajang raised one arm to shield its eyes while the other gripped the rock beneath it, bracing itself against the forceful wind generated by the flames.
The vast, fan-shaped wave of fire caused the already arid Wildspire Waste to grow even hotter. Many of the exposed rocks began to turn brittle in the blaze. As the fiery gusts dispersed, the surface of the ground’s sand and stone began to smooth out—showing early signs of crystallization.
Even the Rajang hadn’t expected that the charged breath unleashed by both Logan and Aki together could reach such extreme temperatures.
Though it had long lived in volcanic regions, its body boasting absurdly high resistance to heat and magma, this level of flame—prolonged and direct—was still too much to withstand unscathed.
From the wound previously pierced through by the Kirin, the newly regenerated flesh and skin didn’t carry the same ridiculous defense as before. Sharp stabs of pain surged from that spot, and its brown fur had begun to curl in the fire.
Gritting its teeth, the Rajang used the wind pressure to launch itself backward in a powerful leap, narrowly escaping the heart of the flames.
Before Logan and Aki’s fire could fully catch up, it clenched its fists and raised them high above its head—then slammed them violently down onto the ground, cracking the rock beneath its feet.
Immediately after, it thrust both hands into the fractured earth—and lifted.
A massive boulder was wrenched free and rammed upright into the ground with a heavy thud.
The Rajang gripped the stone slab like a towering shield and braced it in front of itself, blocking the searing blast of flame behind it.
The firestorm roared past on both sides of the Rajang. The surface of the boulder began to glow red and melt, but this level of heat remained within the Rajang’s threshold of tolerance.
As the breath attack came to an end, Logan and Aki panted heavily, staring at the scorched-black earth.
The glowing rocks and molten ground quickly cooled and hardened into jet-black masses once the intense heat faded. Thick smoke billowed upward, and the very air shimmered and warped from the lingering heat.
Suddenly, Logan’s eyes flicked—he sidestepped and spread his wings, narrowly dodging a massive chunk of rock that came hurtling toward him.
Out of the dense smoke burst the Rajang, its skin scorched and singed but still bursting with vigor. With fists pounding the earth, it let out a roar of defiance at the two wyverns in the sky—a bellow that was practically a challenge.
It looked as if it hadn’t taken any damage at all—full of energy, overflowing with battle lust.
'This monster had to be something the world’s consciousness just spat out on a whim, right?' Logan thought through gritted teeth.
Even the Deviljho and Bazelgeuse had glaring weaknesses—vulnerabilities that even ordinary creatures could exploit with the right strategy.
But the Rajang?
Even after taking a direct hit from a breath of this magnitude, it was still bouncing around like nothing had happened.
And more importantly—it still hadn’t entered its Rage Mode!
Are we seriously supposed to keep fighting this thing?
While Logan doubted that the world’s consciousness would send him an enemy that was truly unbeatable, he genuinely couldn’t think of any effective way to deal with the situation right now.
Long-range attacks barely scratched it—they couldn’t deliver a lethal blow and were only good for annoying it. But what if it suddenly decided to retreat?
With all the underground caverns scattered across the Wildspire Waste, the Rajang only needed to dive into one of them—and Logan wouldn’t have a good way to follow. Was he supposed to chase it underground?
Besides, those tunnels were interconnected and had exits all over the place. Once the Rajang disappeared inside, tracking it down again would be nearly impossible.
As for getting in close for melee combat—based on how the Rajang had just pinned Aki with one hand—Logan had no doubt that it could stop her full-speed dragon charge with its bare fists.
He cast a deep glance at the furious Rajang below, then called out to Aki and decisively retreated.
They had already expended a good deal of stamina, and still hadn’t found an effective way to deal with the Rajang. Staying here and dragging things out would be meaningless. It was better to pull back for now, observe more, think more—figure out a real way to take it down.
The Rajang, eyes bloodshot, watched the two Fire Wyverns soar away, growing increasingly agitated. But thanks to the commotion of their earlier battle, the surrounding wildlife had long since fled.
With no outlet for its rage, the Rajang resorted to smashing the rocky terrain around it in a frenzied attempt to vent.
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