Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 530 The Approaching Gloom

Mojia Village, in the open space in the center of the village.

Anxia and Sophia looked up at the departing figure of the male fire dragon, speechless for a moment.

After a long pause, An Xia finally let out a slow breath: "They're leaving..."

Of the four hunters in the White Wind Squad, three were old friends she had known since Lokrak. Her hometown was in trouble this time, and it was entirely thanks to their righteous help that she was able to express her gratitude with just a large fishing feast.

Unfortunately, the situation on the mainland was not peaceful, so they could not stay there. Instead, they were blown away like a white wind to places where they were needed more.

Sofia nodded: "They've left."

Anxia stood there for a moment, then turned to look at Sophia:
"And what about you? When are you leaving?"

Seeing the reluctance in Anxia's eyes, Sophia smiled and hugged the girl.
"If you're reluctant to leave, I'll stay a couple more days to keep you company. Anyway, the trading ship needs to replenish its cargo and will have to stay for several more days."

Anxia had always been a lively, cheerful, optimistic and strong person, but now, being held by Sophia, she couldn't help but reveal a hint of her inner softness, burying her face in Sophia's chest and acting like a little girl.

"Couldn't you have stayed a little longer...?"

Sofia gently patted Anxia's back:
"There's no other way. Dongdoruma is still researching the plant that caused the ferocity. I need to get back as soon as possible so I can let you know if there are any new developments!"

The two best friends were whispering to each other when a footstep quickly approached. Sophia turned her head and saw the "Coat Cat," who had fallen into a deep sleep after handing her the letter, trotting over. She was quite surprised.

"Shouldn't you be resting? Why are you here?"

The cat in the coat bowed respectfully.
"I cannot sleep soundly because I have failed to fulfill my responsibilities."

Without personally delivering the secret message to its target, it would have nightmares even in its sleep, constantly drifting on the sea as if chasing someone but never being able to catch up.

Therefore, the cat in the coat, who had been startled awake, felt that he had recovered a little and decided to meet the hunter who had chased him for 365 miles in person to put an end to his obsession, so that he wouldn't still be chasing people in his dreams.

"That's unfortunate, they just left."

Sofia pointed to the sky, where a small black dot could still be vaguely seen in the distance. However, a few seconds later, a cloud drifted by and completely obscured it, making it impossible to see anything at all.

Coat Cat: ...

I'm tired. Whatever happens, happens. There's no such thing as an obsession that can't be let go of. So what if I have nightmares for a few days...

The cat in the coat suddenly felt dizzy and was about to fall asleep immediately.

"Buzz..."

A paw reached out and hooked the scarf around the back of the coat cat's neck with the hook between its claws, preventing it from falling over. After all, this was the beach, and the ground was cold; it would catch a cold.

"Gujia?"

Sophia stared in surprise at the large, glossy beetle, momentarily bewildered.

"You didn't go with Lin Lin and the others? Did they forget about you?"

"Buzz..."

Guga flapped its wings a few times, trying to explain that it hadn't been forgotten, but clearly, Sophia didn't have Lin Lin's ability to sense thoughts. She simply tilted her head, glanced at it, and made her own decision:
"It seems we'll have to ask Mr. Hao to arrange a larger seat for this trip. There's a Baobao and a Gujia, I wonder how many tickets we'll need."

Guga: ...

Never mind, I won't explain anymore. This is fine as it is.

Although it can fly, its endurance and speed are far inferior to the Great Sky. Its only advantage is its small size, which makes it more agile in confined spaces. Lin Lin and his group are going to Minagard at full speed with the Great Sky, so it is obviously impossible for them to take it with them.

When Lin Lin spoke to it, it was actually thinking of staying in Moga Village to help the hunters protect the village. However, Sophia's suggestion wasn't bad. Dongdoruma... after being away for so long, it really missed that villa.

……

Western part of the mainland, on the coast, halfway up a mountain.

A powerful city called Minagard is located here. Unlike the remote Kokot Village, or the peaceful Kingdom of Westshredder where monsters are nowhere to be seen, this place was once just a cave built against the mountain, used as a gathering place for farmers, merchants, craftsmen, and hunters to exchange goods. It was the hunters' long-term activities here that made it more and more prosperous, and eventually it became the capital city it is today.

The city wall here is ten meters high, and is built entirely of dark gray giant stone blocks. It has withstood hundreds of years of wind and rain. Combined with the large ballistae and movable giant cannons on the city wall, as well as the dragon-slaying spears that are mostly hidden in the wall and only reveal their cold gleam, a sense of vicissitude and grimness can be felt at first glance.

Normally, such strong armed defenses, coupled with the large number of hunters living in the town, would have provided the citizens with an unparalleled sense of security, attracting people to settle and trade here. However, compared to the peace and tranquility of the past, the entire city of Minagard seemed to be shrouded in gloom at this moment. The streets were deserted, completely unlike the bustling crowds and traffic of the past. When pedestrians did appear, they were in a hurry, their faces filled with anxiety, as if a great disaster was about to befall them.

The reason for all these changes is the warning that was issued not long ago.

Lao-Shan Lung is about to arrive at the fortress, where hunters will engage in a fierce battle. If they can defeat it, Minagard will be safe, and the citizens will have only had a false alarm. However, if they fail, there will be no obstacle between Lao-Shan Lung and Minagard.

At that time, the ten-meter-high city wall might be able to stop some large monsters of bird-dragon and beast-dragon species, but compared to the huge body of Lao-Shan Lung, which is sixty or seventy meters long, it can be said that it would collapse at the first touch and there would be no chance of victory.

Once the city falls, the hunters will have no time to protect the citizens, and the people will have to rely on themselves.

Therefore, since the alert was issued, some people have chosen to pack their bags, leave Minagarh, and head to other safer areas;
Some people have stockpiled food and water in their basements, using them as shelters;

Some people had complete confidence in the hunters, believing that Minagard was impregnable, and were not particularly alarmed by it;
Some people felt that Minagard was their city, and the responsibility of protecting it should not be entirely placed on the hunters. As ordinary citizens, although they could not participate in the battle, they could still provide assistance to the hunters in any way they could. This ranged from wealthy merchants donating their own granaries to ordinary people helping the hunters load and transport goods.
Of course, some people are very pessimistic, believing that the Laoshan Dragon is a deity coming to punish people. They call on people to give up resistance, accept the punishment brought down by the deity to cleanse their sins, or offer up their family wealth to obtain the protection of the mountain god and avoid the destruction of their families.

However, such people usually don't stay active for long before they fall silent. Whether they angered the public and were beaten into silence, or angered the city's law enforcement and were thrown into jail, remains unknown.

Today is the day that Laoshanlong arrives at the fortress. After today, either nothing will happen and the city will be peaceful, or there will be heavy casualties and the city will be reduced to ashes.

Perhaps for this reason, there were an unusually large number of vehicles transporting supplies between the fortress and Minagard.

On a cart carrying medicine, a boy dressed in a training hunter's suit kept looking ahead, his expression filled with undisguised anxiety. He kept wanting to pick up the whip to urge the herbivorous dragon pulling the cart to move forward faster, but he was worried that he would hurt the dragon and slow down the journey.

After hesitating for a moment, the boy finally put away the whip, jumped off the cart, and walked to the side of the herbivorous dragon, walking alongside it to lighten its load.

Upon closer inspection, one can see that the boy's face is very similar to that of Brave, except that compared to the mature katana-wielder, the boy's face still retains a childlike innocence.

The boy's name was Zack, who was Brave's younger brother from the same parents. When his family went to visit Brave, who was a member of the fortress guerrillas at the time, they were unexpectedly attacked by the Sand Dragon. If Brave and Lin Lin had not arrived in time, his family might have already lost their lives.

As for why Zak, who originally lived in Tangia Port, was here, it happened to be related to this matter.

When faced with the attack of the Sand Dragon, he could only flee in a sorry state, unable to even protect himself, let alone his parents. His brother, a hunter, however, was able to fight it with his own strength and even kill the huge creature. The moment Brave appeared in front of them, his brother's tall and majestic figure was deeply engraved in Zack's heart.

An idea popped into his mind.

He also wanted to become a powerful hunter like his brother, someone who could stand up and protect everything he cherished when disaster struck, instead of just desperately running away and praying that someone would come to save him.

Unfortunately, his parents did not approve of his desire to become a hunter.

Although the Hunters were very open-minded and loving towards their children, the profession of hunter was far too dangerous, with the risk of death at the slightest mistake. They already had one child who had taken on such a dangerous job and achieved success, so they simply couldn't accept another child following the same path.

The reason the Hunters initially agreed to let Brave become a hunter was because they thought that even if something happened to Brave, at least there would be Zack to carry on the family line. But now that Zack is also going to become a hunter, there is a real risk of having no descendants, which is something the Hunters absolutely cannot accept.

As a result, Zach had many arguments with his parents, which always ended badly.

Seeing that it was hopeless for him to be sent by his parents to the hunter training camp in Tangia Port like his older brother, Zack finally made up his mind. One night, after leaving a letter at home, he packed his bags and ran away from home to find his own path as a hunter.

Because of Brave, Zack had some knowledge of hunters since childhood, knowing which cities on the continent were popular for hunters to gather and study, such as East Doruma, Lokrak, and Minagard...

As the most powerful city on the continent and the city where the guild leader, the Grand Elder, resides, East Dorma is undoubtedly the most suitable destination for a young man with a dream of becoming a hunter. However, Breve often sends letters home, and he knows that his older brother has a residence in East Dorma. If he were to run into him there and be forcibly sent back by his older brother, it would be really bad news.

Before he has made some progress on his path as a hunter, Zack doesn't want to run into his older brother yet.

As for the second option, Lorac, they had visited that place when they went to see Brave. Zach didn't like the kind of environment where you could easily get a mouthful of sand while eating, so he ruled it out and finally chose the third option, Minagard.

Things were going very smoothly. He ran away from home and came to Minagard, joined the training camp and received training. Perhaps it was because his family had good genes, but he performed very well in the training camp. If nothing unexpected happened, he would be able to accept the promotion assessment request in the next two days and become a formal hunter.

But then, an unexpected event occurred: Lao-Shan Lung attacked, and Minagard went into a state of high alert, preparing for battle with all his might. His promotion assessment was thus put on hold.

Although Zack believed he had the ability to become a full-fledged hunter, he had not yet passed the test and obtained his own hunter's notebook, so he could not be considered a full-fledged hunter. In addition, Minagard itself was a large city and had no shortage of low-star hunters, so it was impossible to recruit an apprentice hunter to participate in this crucial Lao-Shan Lung ambush.

Therefore, no matter how much Zach wanted to participate in the battle, he only received a logistical transport mission, responsible for helping to transport supplies to the front lines.

"Never mind, this is good enough. At least I was able to help..."

Zach raised his hand to shield his eyes from the glaring sunlight, gazing at the magnificent and towering city walls of the distant fortress, his expression subtly changing.

Because what he saw in the distance was not blue sky and white clouds, but a huge expanse of black clouds—no, it wasn't black clouds at all, it was a procession of countless winged serpent dragons!

Although he was far from familiar with the information on many monsters, Zac was quite aware of the imminent threat posed by Minagard.

The approaching swarm of Pteranodons means that the Lao-Shan Lung has also arrived! The decisive battle is imminent, and it may have already begun!
Once the battle officially breaks out, there will inevitably be a large number of wounded. Medicine must be delivered as soon as possible! We must not allow the hunters to be left without medicine!
(End of this chapter)