Bang! Bang!...
Two days later, at noon, in the canyon, several red signal flares exploded in succession high in the sky, approaching from afar.
On the wooden perimeter wall, the combat personnel who felt the tremors drawing nearer looked towards the direction they came from.
The explosion of the signal flares abruptly ceased.
Only the rumbling of heavy footsteps and the anxious roars of wyverns remained in the canyon.
Hissing... Hissing!
The guiding insects carried by everyone suddenly reacted, flying out restlessly, with clusters of bright blue light points flashing continuously in mid-air.
In the direction the swarm of guiding insects was heading, a huge, pitch-black figure appeared from the far end.
"It's already visually confirmed..."
Commander-in-Chief Fly finished speaking, lowered his binoculars, raised his hand, and shouted loudly, "Zorah Magdaros Capture Operation, commence!"
"Ooh!"
Everyone responded in unison with loud cheers that echoed through the canyon.
After Zorah Magdaros could be visually observed, the cannons' aim entered the final adjustment phase according to the target's actual position.
"Zorah Magdaros's abdomen and head have relatively thin armor, so these will be the primary attack targets!"
"Zorah Magdaros has passed the 500-meter marker!"
"Ammunition crates have been deployed. Hunters carrying fire-elemental weapons, stay clear!"
"Supply team, evacuate all personnel!"
...
Bang!
When Zorah Magdaros reached the 300-meter marker, the first cannon shell was fired.
The incoming shell, tracing a slightly curved trajectory in mid-air, exploded violently on Zorah Magdaros's chest.
Thick smoke billowed, and shattered black rock fragments scattered downwards.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
The sound of dense artillery fire erupted, almost drowning out all other noises.
"Reload! Adjust aim!" Fly shouted loudly after the first round of bombardment.
Li Fan, standing behind a cannon on the side of the wall, glanced at Zorah Magdaros's current position and informed, "Eudora, maintain altitude, push to the left."
"Got it!"
Eudora immediately followed the command, rotating the cannon to aim.
Meanwhile, Patch, carrying spherical cannonballs, ran swiftly between the cannon and the ammunition crates.
After loading all five cannonballs, he reported, "Loading complete, meow!"
"Hmm... a little further to the left."
Li Fan provided another angle correction for the moving Zorah Magdaros.
Clang...
As the heavy cannon was rotated to the intended direction, Li Fan inserted the cannonball into the barrel and kicked the trigger lever with his foot.
Bang!...
Five cannonballs were fired in rapid succession.
Since Zorah Magdaros was moving, the impact points of each shell varied.
However, under the fierce bombardment of the second concentrated attack, Zorah Magdaros's pace slowed slightly, and it let out a muffled, groaning roar.
Hoo~
From the numerous circular holes on its black dorsal shell, orange-red light began to flash, resembling a newly ignited furnace.
Magma erupted from the cracked orange patterns on its shell.
Streams of white smoke rose from the top of its dorsal shell.
"Zorah Magdaros is accelerating! This means our attacks are effective! Continue!" Fly shouted loudly upon seeing this.
The morale of the participating hunters surged again.
Zorah Magdaros increased its metabolism to raise its body temperature in order to increase its travel speed, making it significantly harder for the cannons to aim.
Everyone could only fire predictively to bombard it.
"Landing on the back! Destroy the heat-dissipating organs!"
When it reached the 100-meter marker, Fly immediately issued the order for a back-landing operation.
Because the colossal, volcano-like dorsal shell blocked the front, and Zorah Magdaros's exposed heat-dissipating organs were usually located within the caverns formed by the shell, cannon fire had difficulty reaching them.
However, hunters operating on the dorsal shell would not be hit by stray cannonballs.
Therefore, these two attack methods could be carried out simultaneously.
"Patch, when Zorah Magdaros comes this way, a lot of molten rock fragments will fall from above. Don't push yourself; remember to escape in time." Li Fan instructed.
After they left to go to Zorah Magdaros's back, the cannons would still be manned to continue firing.
Li Fan was worried that Patch might be too focused on transporting and loading cannonballs and miss the opportunity to evacuate.
"I will, meow! You be careful too." Patch nodded.
"Alright! Eudora, it's time to go."
"Grab me."
Eudora floated into the air, inverted her posture, and extended her hand downwards.
As their hands clasped, the electric sparks and airflow on both their armors suddenly surged towards their hands, converging and intertwining.
"What's happening?" Li Fan looked at their clasped hands, a little bewildered.
Eudora, who was lifting him and flying, kept an eye on Zorah Magdaros's movements and didn't notice this anomaly.
A large number of wyverns carrying hunters arrived above Zorah Magdaros's dorsal shell for deployment.
Among them, hunters who felt their weapons were not powerful enough and believed they couldn't even inflict effective damage on the exposed heat-dissipating organs simply carried large bomb barrels and rushed forward.
This was an extremely dangerous act on the surface covered in erupting lava, yet many hunters charged forward without hesitation.
"Eudora! Here!" Li Fan pointed downwards at a black cavern sunken into the dorsal shell.
This was the place where Apo had accidentally wandered into before, and he remembered it vividly.
"Okay! Then I'll let go."
"Mm!" Li Fan said, opening his palm. Seeing that Eudora hadn't let go yet, he reminded her, "Let go!"
"Mm... Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"
"Don't worry."
Eudora slowly released her hand, and Li Fan plummeted downwards.
Whoosh! His feet landed, and a cloud of dust dispersed.
Li Fan immediately felt a wave of heat.
Zorah Magdaros's dorsal shell was like a hot plate for roasting meat. Everywhere he looked, heat waves were rising.
Li Fan drank two bottles of cold beverage and rushed towards the cavern.
Looking into the cave entrance, a dark red horn that was continuously spewing magma appeared.
The soft tissue within the orange patterns on its surface trembled like living muscle.
Li Fan observed the magma's eruption pattern and found that there was no pattern at all.
Since the magma in the cavern hadn't accumulated too deeply yet, he decided to use the regenerative disc to force it out. Li Fan thought of a plan.
Although the entire process would be extremely painful, he felt he could endure it, having adapted to strength training.
"Captain! Be careful!"
Hearing the shouts from above, Li Fan immediately looked around vigilantly but detected no threat.
"Careful!... I!"
The approaching warning sounded again. Li Fan looked up and saw Aiden, carrying a large bomb barrel, falling directly from above, headfirst.
Weakness Exploit immediately activated. Seeing Aiden's falling trajectory, Li Fan extended his hands and caught him steadily.
"Phew~ You saved me again, Captain." Aiden said with relief after his feet touched the ground.
"It's okay. Why were you falling like that?" Li Fan asked curiously.
"Although we've completed many missions together, my coordination with the wyvern is still lacking. Of course, it might also be due to Zorah Magdaros's influence." Aiden explained.
"So it was a coordination issue."
"Captain, have you found the heat-dissipating organ yet?" Aiden asked eagerly.
"The one in this sunken cavern is it." Li Fan pointed.
"Its appearance is quite unexpected." Aiden exclaimed.
"You should detonate that bomb barrel as soon as possible." Li Fan advised.
"Yes, but Captain, you need to assist." Aiden said as he unstrapped the large bomb barrel from his back. As it was risky to touch the high-temperature dorsal shell, Li Fan helped him hold it while Aiden pulled the safety pin from the top of the barrel.
Then, Aiden held the bomb barrel and threw it into the cavern.
Boom! Black smoke billowed out.
The magma accumulated on the cavern floor was all blasted outwards. Except for a small amount that flowed back to the surface, the rest adhered to the black rock walls.
Seeing this, Li Fan roughly understood the formation of the cavern enclosing the heat-dissipating organ.
Zorah Magdaros's dorsal shell was formed by magma flowing from its surface and cooling.
As the heat-dissipating organ with the largest eruption volume, it was prone to forming a surrounding shell over time.
Li Fan and Aiden seized the opportunity to rush into the cavern. Although the ground was hot, it was better than stepping on magma.
With each swing of the Thunderclap Divine Blade, hot blood splattered out, and the two quickly became covered in blood.
Li Fan continuously changed the direction of his slashes, cutting in a circular motion, and soon the deep wounds connected.
The heat-dissipating organ tilted to one side amidst the explosion of flesh and blood.
Orange-yellow magma reappeared from the severed opening, but it had lost its outward flow.
When the accumulated magma reached the same level as the dorsal shell, it could no longer erupt, as if the outward channel was blocked.
"Let's go, to support elsewhere!"
"Okay, Captain!"
The two ran quickly, searching for the next heat-dissipating organ.
The operation proceeded quite smoothly. After the four heat-dissipating organs were successively destroyed, Zorah Magdaros's movement clearly slowed down.
It was evident that the sudden rise in its body temperature forced it to slow its pace.
On top of the constructed wooden city wall, sixteen giant ballista restraint bolt bases were constantly adjusting their aim as Zorah Magdaros moved.
These were the ultimate weapons to intercept and capture Zorah Magdaros.
With its movement slowed, it not only allowed for accurate hits but also reduced the remaining distance to the city wall.
Commander-in-Chief Fly felt it was time.
"Restraint bolts! Fire!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...
At Fly's command, restraint bolts with sharp arrowheads flew out.
After piercing Zorah Magdaros's body and embedding themselves, the base winches quickly retracted the ropes, pulling them taut.
Feeling the resistance of the pull, Zorah Magdaros continued to step forward, and two giant ballista restraint bolt bases were immediately overturned, detaching from the city wall and falling into the canyon below.
"They were secured to the rock wall with the highest specifications, yet it could break free so easily..." Fly clenched his fist, filled with unwillingness.
Faced with an absolute gap in size and strength, a sense of powerlessness surged within him.
"Old man! It's time to retreat!" Seeing Zorah Magdaros about to reach the wooden city wall directly in front of them, Di Yan shouted a reminder.
The city wall was built solely for the placement of cannons and ballista bases.
Therefore, as soon as Zorah Magdaros was deemed capable of reaching it, they could retreat.
"Wait a moment..." Fly insisted, looking up at Zorah Magdaros.
"Don't be stubborn anymore, old man..." Di Yan said, stepping forward to forcibly drag him away.
"It stopped." Fly said in surprise.
Di Yan turned his head and saw that Zorah Magdaros had indeed stopped in place, its head lowered.
Waves of scorching hot air emanated rhythmically from its mouth, like an exhausted old man gasping for breath.
"Its stamina is depleted... Cannons! Continue!" Fly issued another attack order.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
A moment later, the previously silent cannons roared to life again.
However, due to the extremely close firing distance, a portion of the shattered shell from each shot fell onto the city wall.
Simple stones were fine, but if they contained magma and fell into the ammunition crates, it would cause a chain reaction of explosions.
The top of the city wall flashed with fire.
A moment later, Zorah Magdaros let out a long, low roar and continued to move forward.
However, under the drag of the remaining restraint bolts, this step was extremely difficult.
After its front paw landed, it had to gather strength in place, and it was now only one step away from breaking through the wooden city wall in front of it.
On the dorsal shell, Li Fan saw how important the heat dissipation was to Zorah Magdaros and came up with a new plan.
"Everyone, find broken rock fragments, pick the largest ones, and then do this..." Li Fan, holding a huge black rock fragment, threw it towards a hole on the surface of the dorsal shell.
Plop! Magma splashed, and the black rock fragment slowly sank.
Soon, this hole was blocked, and apart from a little heat, no more magma could erupt outwards.
"Although the heat-dissipating capacity of these holes is not strong, if a large number of them are blocked, it will definitely cause Zorah Magdaros's internal temperature to rise again. Let's go!" After explaining the principle, the fifth-tier team members who landed on the back dispersed to find suitable rock fragments.
Some even picked up their mining picks and carved them to fit the size of the pits on the dorsal shell.
Zorah Magdaros rested for two minutes and was about to move when it suddenly felt something was wrong, as if its external heat dissipation had been further restricted.
Hoo~ Hoo~
Zorah Magdaros began to shake its body. Although the amplitude of the shaking appeared small and very slow from the outside, for the fifth-tier team members on its back, it was like the sky collapsing and the earth cracking.
"My rock!" Aiden, seeing the giant black rock fragment he had just discovered rolling away in the shaking, immediately chased after it.
"Forget the rocks!" Li Fan shot out a silk thread, wrapping it around Aiden's waist, and pulled him back.
He himself gripped a protrusion on the dorsal shell with one hand to prevent himself from being thrown off.
Since the placement was done manually and precisely, only a few shallowly placed rocks were dislodged.
More sank deeper into the pits during the shaking, causing the rocks to be jammed even tighter.
Zorah Magdaros now sensed that something was amiss. First, its heat-dissipating organs were destroyed, and now its heat-dissipating holes were heavily blocked.
Someone was clearly targeting it.
Roar! A roar echoed through the canyon.
"This is Zorah Magdaros's roar of defiance. After witnessing the power of the fifth-tier team, it knows it has no escape." Aiden said with emotion.
"Uh... this roar sounds like it's cursing, to me." Li Fan suddenly felt that understanding monster roars wasn't always a good thing.