"Well… that took less time than I expected," I say to myself as I watch a Rathian feeding on some small monster in the Wasteland.
The Queen of the Land was in a relatively wooded part of the Wasteland—obviously less forested than the Ancient Forest, but still fairly wooded by Wasteland standards.
The Rathian had already eaten more than half of the monster's body and still didn't seem satisfied. Even while eating, I noticed she remained constantly alert, watching her surroundings.
I can't tell if this is normal behavior for her species or if something has her on edge. Honestly, it doesn't really matter right now.
"Her being alert is bad news for me… or it would be, if she were a little smarter," I say, looking down at a decently sized rock.
…
POV: Narrator
The Rathian kept feeding without letting down her guard. She herself wasn't sure why, but the atmosphere in the Wasteland had recently changed. She didn't know exactly what it was, but she was sure it wasn't anything good.
She decided it was best to return to the Ancient Forest before running into the cause of this change. Besides, mating season was approaching, so she needed to head to the forest anyway.
In the middle of a bite into her prey's corpse, she lifted her head and dropped the remains. She had heard a sound.
She could tell the direction it came from, but not what caused it. It wasn't a roar, or a footstep, or the rustling of leaves in the wind.
The Rathian slowly began to lower her guard after realizing the noise didn't continue. Thinking it was a false alarm, she resumed her meal.
And at that precise moment, Chryssia came crashing down on the Rathian like a meteor, using [Meteoric Fall].
The monster roared as the scales on her back shattered and her spine cracked—miraculously not snapping entirely.
Despite the pain and the awful position she was in, she managed to perform one of her species' signature moves.
With a quick flap of her wings, she propelled herself upward and flipped backward mid-air without touching the ground. Normally, she would use this move to strike with her tail and poison her prey, but this time she used it to throw off whoever was on top of her.
Chryssia hit the ground hard. She hadn't expected that move at all, but still managed to react quickly enough to roll out of the way before the Rathian could crush her underfoot.
In one swift motion, she stood and leaped backward to avoid the Rathian's tail strike.
The Rathian followed up with three consecutive fireballs, forcing Chryssia to dodge to her right.
Taking advantage of the brief pause the monster took after spitting fire, she activated [Thunder Core] to charge her claws with electricity. She aimed for the head, but the monster moved it at the last second.
Instead, she landed a long slash from the middle of the monster's neck to her chest, where the built-up electricity exploded, widening the wound and burning the flesh.
As her flesh smoked, the Rathian roared in pain. The neck wound was deep but hadn't pierced anything vital, nor had the chest wound.
What it did do was enrage the monster. The Queen of the Land roared and took to the skies, launching another fireball attack.
Chryssia dodged the flames and the following tail strike, but the attack from the creature's hind leg spurs did land.
It didn't knock her down, but it did send her sliding back several meters, leaving two large wounds across her chest.
She passed her hand over the injuries and noticed that, along with her blood, there was also a purple liquid. She'd been poisoned.
Aside from a grunt, she didn't give the poison much attention. After all the ability fusions she'd undergone, if her body couldn't handle a poison like this, she might as well lie down and let the Rathian eat her.
Seeing the monster preparing to bite, she waited for the right moment and used [Strong Bioluminescence] to blind it, bringing it crashing down.
Seizing the opportunity, she used the energy stored by [Inertia Retention] to activate [Empowerment], delivering a crushing downward blow to the Rathian's skull.
The energy from [Inertia Retention] was now depleted, so she couldn't use more [Empowerment]. Instead, she used [Thunder Core] again, charging her right hand with electricity.
To end it, she drove her entire hand into the monster's eye, and before it could react to the pain, she unleashed all the stored electricity, causing a small explosion inside its head.
The monster's body convulsed several times before finally falling still.
Chryssia panted as she pulled her hand from the beast's skull, glancing at it—now covered in blood and charred brain matter.
Then she looked at the corpse of her enemy and prepared to do what she enjoyed most after a fight: eat her rival.