Zain was a little creeped out about how eager Alex was to bring the pain to nergigante , but couldn't say that he didn't understand since he had personally witnessed the problems the elder had caused Alex. It had almost gotten him killed at one point while the other time it ran away without finishing the fight leaving Alex with a lot of pent up aggression towards the elder. That said the plan was a solid one with a high chance of success so he had no problem with it so he agreed to draw nergigante out to Alex.-
Like planned Alex suppressed his aura and silently snuck over to the area that was reported to have recent activity from nergigante. Anyone who had played the game would recognize it as the same spot that nergigante was found originally making Alex smile. He quickly dug up a small divot in the hard volcanic stone and laid down in it before shifting his coloration to match the stone around him. He noticed that if you looked closely you could notice something off due to his wings folded on his back and decided to stretched them out at an angle around his sides making him now look like a boulder.-
Zain came into the area casually a few minutes later and looked around for Alex and could only shiver slightly when he failed to find him until Alex waved his tail. 'Those terrantoads must be masters of camouflage if he blends so well after adapting to them.' he thought seriously. Still he nodded at Alex and began to make a bit of noise by banging on the crystals nearby. Alex had to hold his laughter when Zain realized he was in the splash zone and retreat alongside the fleeing gajalaka as nergigante burst through the wall of crystal like the Kool aid man.-
The elder clearly recognized the presence of a human and tensed up while looking around from Alex. Once it failed to find any sign of him the elder immediately started to act arrogant and roared at Zain. The hunter in question briefly felt bad for the elder when he saw this as he was aware that the very monster it had searched for nearby was less than a meter from it. Nergigante also discovered this when it's posturing was cut off by a literal sucker punch to the side of it's face.-
Alex had lunged forward with a bawled up fist aimed straight to the elders cheek and felt a sense of satisfaction when nergigante was launched face first into the nearby wall. Zain drew his longsword and with masterful footwork brought the blade down on the elders wing the instant Alex struck. The blade may not have cleaved the wing from it's body but it was rendered inoperable leaving nergigante permanently grounded. The elder screamed in rage and agony but it was also panicked because it could tell that whatever had struck it very much exceeded itself.-
In the time between their last confrontation and now Alex had undergone earth shattering changes and was qualitatively different than before , better in literally every regard. He was stronger , faster , had more elemental power and far far more aggressive. Neither Alex nor Zain let up after landing their successful strikes and began handing the poor elder a beating that made them seem like schoolyard bullies. Nergigante couldn't even defend itself as whenever it tried Alex would hit it so hard it was seeing triple. Alex didn't want to kill the elder quickly , no he wanted it to suffer the way he suffered because of it.-
Zain on the other hand was trying his best to end the poor elder as quickly as possible because seeing vindictiveness from Alex didn't sit well on his mind at all and once nergigante was dead he would hopefully chill out. There was no better word that pathetic to describe nergigante as Zain cut it repeatedly and Alex effectively curb stomped it repetitively. It did eventually die from the wounds Zain inflicted on it and Alex gave the corpse one final punch before he visibly relaxed like all the tension in his body evaporated.
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