Alex's latest transformation was far too dramatic for the people of astera not to be in shock over mostly because alex now looked like a subspecies of his original self with vast improvements. the biggest problem alex had however was how horrible the mess the virus left in his nest. he was forced to remove all of his flooring soft stuff and burn it from the foul stains and heavy blood soaked into them. an interesting thing to note was that alex now had the vision of an eagle and the nose of a wolf and sharp hearing.
The virus improved alex's senses to great levels but he had no problem adjusting to the changes thanks to the changes in the nerve structure of his brain. alex would have been worried about his brain getting changed normally but he hadn't discovered anything out of place with it so he was fine with it. the people of astera had wondered what had brought on such a dramatic change but couldn't figure it out until the news of zorah's mutual destruction showed up. most people believed that alex had changed to better survive the blow back or even just so he could kill zorah himself.
Fast forward to the present and alex was all geared up to take nergigante apart violently and without mercy. the set up for this operation was much the same as the last one however there were firing spots for the cannons all along the coastal caverns walls. to pelt zorah with cannon fire as it tried to reach the barricade. they also set up explosive barrels on the stalactites that could also be used to damage or slow zorah down. the barricade itself was nearly twenty times stronger than the previous ones with thick stone and even metal and bone reinforcements to deny zorah.
Alex wondered if they were just going to turn the area into another base from the stupidly thorough placement of the defensive structure. the only reason they even had a chance to try and send zorah out to sea to die was thanks to the stupid dense stone surrounding the everstream. zorah had to circle around these stone to the mouth of the stream if it wanted to head into it which let the people of astera wait at the mouth for the dragon. when the day finally came alex made it a point to make his presence known at the barricade.
The main reason for this was because last time nergigante attacked the barricade rather than the hunters on zorah's back and alex refused to allow such a thing twice. early in the morning zorah appeared signaling the official start of the operation and alex stood at the ready atop the barricade. the personnel on the sides lit zorah up with their cannons as it walked while freya and a couple other hunters dropped the stalactites on it as it came under them. in addition to the hunters going after it's magma cores that had healed they weakened zorah greatly.
About when zorah got half way to the barricade nergigante showed up from the skies heading towards the barricade but stopped itself when it saw alex standing there. apparently nergigante had sharp instincts because this new version of alex outclassed it in all regards. alex had a dumbfounded look when he saw nergigante take one look at him and then fly away twice as fast as it came. one of the nearby hunters couldn't help but put it into words the thought everyone was having.
"Did he just run away?" the hunter asked with the same dumbfounded look as alex. "looks like our own guardian left quite the impression from the first time they met." the field team leader joked making everyone laugh. alex was feeling uncomfortable however as he was prepared to go and have a mighty conflict only for his opponent to bitch out at the last moment , he felt cheated. having nothing better to do alex began to bully zorah with his elder dragon level water attacks that made it so zorah almost didn't even make it to the barricade from how weak it was.
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