Nergigante roared even more angrily after temporarily losing its's sight but when the poison seeped into it's bloodstream through it's eyes it was literally huffing out steam in anger. 'mistakes were made' Alex thought as the spikes on nergigante's body grew much longer and visibly darker. "FWAP!" Alex lashed out with his tail but nergigante was a powerful and talented beast as it turned its head the moment the sound reached it causing the attack to strike it's horn instead of it's skull. The attack gave it it's heading however as the elder charged at Alex's location with it's razor sharp fangs wide open.
Alex flapped his wings hard while pushing off the ground to jump above the elder and forced it's head into the hard stone below it from his weight as he fell on it. This proved to be a very bad idea however as the spikes dung into Alex's claws making him roar in pain before flapping his wings again to dismount nergigante. Blood poured from his claws as he landed on the hot stone below sizzling and filling the air with the scent of copper. Alex quickly retrieved another max potion and shuddered slightly as the flesh closed on his claws.
Nergigante was beyond pissed however as it seemed to lose all sense of reason and randomly struck around it in a bid to strike Alex. All it accomplished however was to kick up a dark cloud of dust that would only impair it's vision once it got it back. Alex carefully and most importantly quietly walked behind the elder before viciously slashing at the part of nergigante's tail that wasn't spiked with his claws. The level six [sharp claws] trait showed it's prowess as it slide halfway through the thick limb before the bone stopped them in the middle.
Nergigante screamed in fury and pain as it took it's first real injury during this fight and it was horribly confused under all that wrath and pain. As a predator that ate other elders nergigante had an instinctive and profound understanding of how powerful monsters fought. However none of Alex's actions fit it's understanding as he dodged attacks and even took nonlethal attacks of opportunity. None of this fit the way an obviously powerful monster like Alex should fight against it and it showed with how poorly it was reacting to him.
This all changed however when zorah reached the first barricade and stood up on it's hind legs. Alex took to the air to avoid getting thrown off but nergigante was sent rolling like a huge spikey snowball onto the side of the mountain they had been fighting at the base of. The good news is that this battered it a little bit snapping off most of it's spikes. The bad news however was that it regained it's vision by the time it stopped and it was pissed. Alex didn't land on zorah again as he knew it was going to spend only a few minutes at the barricade before moving past it on all fours again.
Nergigante didn't know this but that didn't matter since it also took to the sky and charged at Alex again. This was where the biggest difference between Alex and nergigante was shown however beyond their fighting styles and power. Alex was extremely aerodynamic as he insisted on it due to his regular forays into the seas needing it. This meant that while in the air his shape doesn't slow him down much at all but nergigante however was very drag heavy making each aerial movement harder and slower than if it was aerodynamically sound.
Alex moved through the air gracefully and with ease while anyone watching could tell that nergigante flew more out of pure brute strength than anything. This resulted in the aerial dog fight between the two not only visually spectacular but also massively advantageous to Alex who was capitalizing on it. Shallow but numerous bloody groves were placed all over nergigante's body where it was not covered in spikes while Alex was still untouched. Despite being outmatched stat wise Alex's intelligence was allowing him to just barely suppress nergigante while they were in the sky.
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