Altaïr's successful escape let Jara and Clawdia breathe a sigh of relief.
After such a wide-area electrical discharge, the Lagiacrus would be fatigued, making this their best window to attack.
If Altaïr had been badly injured during the discharge, they would have been forced to abandon the opening and prioritize rescuing their companion.
But now, they could return to the Monster's side at once and seize that chance to launch a fierce assault!
Altaïr naturally wouldn't miss such an opening. Earlier, he had used an underwater sprint and the Clutch Claw to cross forty to fifty meters in just a few seconds, moving from the Lagiacrus's side to the stone pillar.
The reverse was equally true.
He reached the Lagiacrus even sooner than Clawdia, their fastest swimmer. He circled back into the blind spot where neck met back, swinging his blade in a continuous assault on the wound.
But the Lagiacrus was only tired, not immobilized. Pain flared behind it, and it twisted with an agility far beyond anything it could manage on land, snapping its jaws at the enemy on its back.
Altaïr had been ready. Without even sheathing his weapon, he tucked in his limbs, compressed his body, and thrust forward sharply, shooting backward through the water like a squid and slipping clear of the bite.
Clawdia and Jara had also returned to the Lagiacrus's side by now, launching their own offensive.
Using her small size and nimble movements, Clawdia circled the Lagiacrus's head, occasionally raising her Felyne Fork to strike vital spots like its eyes and nose. The harassment frustrated the Lagiacrus immensely, making it far harder to focus on the two Hunters' movements.
Altaïr and Jara seized the moment, attacking the wound repeatedly.
As their assault continued and the Lagiacrus kept moving, blood seeping from the lacerations across its body dyed the surrounding water deep red.
Through sheer biological instinct, the Lagiacrus understood that it should move as little as possible when badly injured, sleep, recuperate, and let the wounds heal.
But the Hunters gave it no chance to rest.
Cornered and entangled, the Lagiacrus tried to change the situation. It thrashed its massive tail and began swimming rapidly through the water.
The Lagiacrus's top speed underwater was at least three or four times the Hunters'. No matter what they did, they couldn't catch up, so they had no choice but to stay where they were and watch their quarry warily.
For a moment, the Lagiacrus shook off the Hunters' harassment, but this was also a form of slow suicide.
With each rapid, sweeping movement, blood gushed from the wound, leaving a clear trail in the water behind it.
If this continued, it wouldn't take long for the massive blood loss to render it completely unable to move.
Yet the Lagiacrus's sudden change in movement clearly wasn't meant as "suicide." After swimming nearly a hundred meters, it turned around, its orange-red draconic eyes fixed on the Hunters' position.
In the next second, it accelerated again, charging toward the Hunters. At the same time, bright arcs of electricity sparked from its back, spreading across its entire body in an instant.
The colossal beast, its entire body crackling with dazzling arcs of electricity, charged straight toward them. Now the Hunters finally understood its plan.
A wide-area discharge consumed too much electricity and struggled to harm agile Hunters effectively.
So it lowered the discharge output, wrapped the arcs only around its body, and relied on its superior underwater agility to compensate for the limited range with high-speed rushes.
The two Hunters and the Felyne hastily scattered, swimming away in different directions.
Forget taking a direct hit from the Lagiacrus. Even a glancing brush would be disastrous. No, even if it merely swam past within a few meters, the arcs of electricity coiling around its body could inflict tremendous damage on them.
Given the Lagiacrus's underwater mobility, any target it locked onto had almost no chance to escape. Their immediate response was to scatter. At the very least, they had to avoid being wiped out all at once.
Altaïr swam forward with all his strength, limbs churning. From the corner of his eye, he could vaguely see the lightning-wreathed Lagiacrus change direction and come straight for him.
It knows my Thunder Resistance is the worst, huh?
Cursing inwardly, Altaïr suddenly stopped swimming.
Seeing its target go still, the Lagiacrus tucked in its limbs and accelerated even faster, charging in a straight line toward Altaïr as he floated in the water.
The distance between them shrank rapidly. Altaïr raised his hand and fired his Clutch Claw once again at one of the underwater stone pillars.
The moment the claw bit in and the rope retracted, Altaïr, who had remained motionless and seemed about to be rammed by the Lagiacrus, suddenly shot sideways at high speed.
Such an abrupt movement was beyond the Lagiacrus's comprehension. No matter how agile its body was at full swimming speed, it couldn't possibly make a sharp turn in such a short distance. It could only watch helplessly as the Hunter escaped its charging path.
In the distance, Clawdia and Jara, who hadn't been selected as targets, exhaled in relief.
But before they could relax for even a few seconds, they saw the Lagiacrus, having missed its mark, turn around without any pause and come charging straight at them.
It was clear the Lagiacrus was now fighting with everything it had.
If it could use the last of its stamina and electricity to take down one or two enemies, the outcome of the fight afterward was still uncertain.
Jara and Clawdia panicked as well. Jara wasn't in the habit of using the Slinger, and Clawdia was even less capable. They couldn't maneuver rapidly using the Clutch Claw and the surrounding terrain like Altaïr could.
Even if they barely dodged one charging rush, a second and third would inevitably follow.
Thanks to the mobility granted by his Slinger, Altaïr had been removed from the Lagiacrus's target list. A sudden idea flashed through his mind.
He swung his arms vigorously, making an "ascend" gesture toward Jara and Clawdia in the distance, then quickly swam upward himself, heading for the surface.
Jara and Clawdia, frantically dodging the Lagiacrus's attacks, couldn't immediately grasp Altaïr's intent. But they still chose to trust his judgment and swam desperately toward the surface.
This time, the Lagiacrus had locked onto Jara.
Seeing its target ascend, the Lagiacrus adjusted its swimming direction, accelerating continuously as it bore down on the fleeing Jara.
A predatory rush like this was essentially a charge attack. The key to evading it was a sudden, sharp change of direction at the last moment, leaving the Monster no time to adjust.
As a 5★ hunter, Jara naturally understood this well.
Just before breaking the surface, he gauged the distance between himself and the Lagiacrus. At the last possible instant, he twisted his plump yet surprisingly streamlined body like a seal and accelerated sideways, slipping clear.
His timing was precise enough to evade the direct impact, but he couldn't escape the electric currents radiating from its body. Even clad in the exceptionally insulated Gypceros X Armor Set, a wave of stinging numbness still wracked his frame.
But at least he hadn't taken a serious hit.
Because of the angle of its ascent, the Lagiacrus, having missed again, shot right out of the water. It flipped in the air like a leaping fish before crashing heavily back down into the water.
This gave Isis and the others on shore a terrible fright, but it also snapped them to alertness. Nymera shouldered her Rathalos Cannon directly, ready to open fire.
The Lagiacrus's target remained fixed on Jara. Once back in the water, it wheeled around and began accelerating again.
Jara popped his head above the surface for a breath. Turning his head, he saw the Lagiacrus, most of its back cresting the water, coming at him once more, and suddenly understood Altaïr's plan.
He swam with all his might toward the shore where Isis and the others stood. The Lagiacrus naturally adjusted its course to follow him, heading straight for the bank.
Seeing this, Nymera immediately opened fire. A cascade of Flaming Ammo rained down onto the Lagiacrus's exposed back, the erupting flames searing its electrical organs.
Under the scorching stimulus, the organs, already nearly depleted, could no longer function. The electrical arcs, already much dimmer than before, flickered and died.
"Sajji!" Altaïr, having likewise surfaced, shouted.
"Understood!"
While the Hunters grappled with the Lagiacrus underwater, Sajji, with Isis's help, had hauled over the second Rakna-Kadaki Model-4 and driven its anchors firmly into the solid rocky ground on shore.
After a brief moment of aiming, the One-shot Binder attached to a sturdy rope shot forth and drilled deep into a gap in the carapace on the Lagiacrus's back, lodging firmly in place.
Noticing this, Jara immediately changed his swimming direction. The Lagiacrus moved to follow, but was firmly restrained by the rope.
If the Lagiacrus had been at full strength, no, even in the badly injured state it had been moments ago, it would have taken only three to five seconds to tear free from the One-shot Binder.
But after the prolonged underwater struggle, the desperate counterattacks, severe blood loss, and plummeting stamina, breaking free was far more difficult now.
On shore, Sajji worked the line as if angling for a massive fish, constantly adjusting the rope's length and angle, steadily sapping the Lagiacrus's strength.
Altaïr, floating on the surface, smiled at the sight. He replaced his breathing mask, took a deep breath, and dove back into the water.
At this moment, the Lagiacrus was struggling furiously to break free, completely oblivious to Altaïr slipping silently beneath it.
The Spirit Gauge built up during the earlier fight had not yet dissipated. Altaïr rapidly tightened his muscles, readied his Long Sword, and channeled every ounce of his strength and Spirit into the blade.
Among the many techniques of the Long Sword, this one might not have been considered especially powerful, but at this very moment, it was the most fitting technique of all. Spirit Blade Thrust!
The piercing sword aura hid within the blade. The sword tip glinted coldly as it split the water, all of its force concentrated into a single point. It pierced through the scales and muscle of the Lagiacrus's chest in an instant and plunged deep into a lung.
Despite its aquatic nature, the Lagiacrus was unlike Piscine Wyverns, which were closer to fish. Its primary respiratory organs were lungs, not gills.
As Altaïr withdrew his blade, a jet of blood erupted from the wound.
Driven by the searing agony of a pierced lung, the Lagiacrus's chest cavity contracted involuntarily, drawing in a massive rush of water. For the first time in its existence, this amphibious Monster experienced the agony of drowning.
Massive blood loss, drained electrical reserves, water flooding its lungs, and the One-shot Binder's relentless drag all bore down at once. Under the crushing weight of these compounding factors, the Lagiacrus had no choice but to scramble clumsily back onto shore.
And the moment it did, the outcome of the fight was sealed.
Isis, who had been waiting impatiently, lowered her visor, hefted her Large Shield and Gunlance, and advanced to meet it with a savage grin.
"Well, hello there! Hand over my materials! Hand over my materials!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)