Of course, you can't go all-out beating a toddler who's only a few years old and completely clueless. So, Nidhogg only intended to teach her a lesson, not inflict a fatal attack. The black dragon swooped down, passed by Huihui's side, and provocatively swiped her with his tail. Huihui's reaction was just like that of a startled husky, quickly opening all her wing panels and flipping upward at maximum speed.
The immense G-force acceleration made the Scions inside the orb gasp for breath. "Cid, think of something!" "I'm trying!" Huihui's high-speed maneuvers never took into account the passengers' comfort inside the orb. Besides not being able to shake them off, the main reason she didn't abandon the orb was because it contained several large chunks of spicy dragon meat. She was unwilling to give that up so easily.
"Awoo!" Nidhogg let out a long roar and reached out with his claws to scratch at Huihui, trying to match her speed and altitude. Although Nidhogg's speed, which relied on wind-aspected aether flow, wasn't as fast as Huihui's, his flight altitude wasn't that much worse. "Alright!" Cid forcefully flipped a switch on the bracelet. The upper half of the orb disappeared, revealing an opening for attacks. "Hold tight to these ropes!"
The safety ropes attached to the bracelets ensured the Scions wouldn't be thrown out the window, but they also allowed them to experience the "joy" of high-G aerial combat more intimately – a simple spinning wasn't nearly enough to describe it. "Huihui, Huihui, fly steady! We can't aim!" Alphinaud shouted, trying to get Huihui, who was constantly pulling high-G loops, to fly more smoothly. However, Huihui, who was being chased by the black dragon, couldn't hear him at all.
The six wing-mounted engine arrays working at full power spat out surging cyan-blue flames, flying towards the Palace of the Wyrm below. She tried to use the floating island rocks to shake off the black dragon behind her. "Hmph~" Nidhogg slowed down, a mocking expression on his draconic face. He then flew downwards as well. That was his palace, his stronghold, with countless dragonkin and dragons deployed to guard it. This young dragon was simply walking into a trap.
"Huihui, pull up!" With her wing panels reversing downwards, Huihui executed a sudden stop, the extremely hot azure flames spraying out in a fan shape, blowing away the dragonkin minions that were surrounding them. The massive inertia made the Scions scream and roll from one side to the other. However, Huihui also slowed down a bit as a result. Maintaining extremely high speed while navigating this terrain was quite dangerous, so Huihui reduced her speed slightly, constantly weaving between the rubble and floating islands.
"Alright, finally stabilized." The Machinist attached a section of his Gauss rifle barrel, and trembling, fumbled out a sniper round to load it. The rest of his companions had largely switched to ranged attack mode. "Nidhogg's closing in, attack!" "Thunder!" A streak of lightning and fire grazed past Nidhogg's side, followed closely by Alphinaud's Aero and the Machinist's shot. The Bard was slightly delayed because he needed to activate his song magic (Human machine gun pod online!).
Huihui also keenly noticed these people's attack methods. She circled around a floating island rock, tilted her wing panels, and, in a standard S-turn flight posture, bypassed the second floating island rock. This maneuver positioned the orb's firing range to intersect with Nidhogg's flight path as he charged headlong towards her, preparing to knock the orb out of her grasp. "Good job, Huihui!" Another round of sparks and lightning forced Nidhogg to pull up to avoid it. Even so, he took several hits, but they didn't cause much damage to a monster of the First Brood's caliber.
He consistently focused his attacks on knocking away the aetherial barrier orb she was carrying rather than targeting Huihui herself. The orb emanated the scent of his dragon eye. The descendants of the murderer who killed his sister were flaunting the scent and evidence of their crime in front of him, which infuriated Nidhogg even more. Powerful aetherial magic mixed with dragon blood, causing the four horns projecting forward from his face to radiate a high-temperature, red-hot glow.
"Awoo!" Huihui pulled up at high speed, flipping backward. The Scions screamed as they were flung skyward, their safety lines stretching taut. Huihui, choosing to abandon the ingredients, freed up her foreclaws and entered combat mode with improved maneuverability. Of course, she somewhat forgot about the Scions attached to her claws. "Whoosh!" The azure and black dragons clashed, sending crystalline scales and black dragon scales flying in all directions.
Huihui's wing-blade strikes were incredibly powerful. In comparison, Nidhogg's wing attacks could only be described as moderately forceful slaps. Conversely, a gruesome wound appeared on his flank. "ROAR!" The wound further enraged Nidhogg, and a loud draconic incantation resounded. "BOOM!" Lightning spheres bombarded Huihui, while a large amount of white fur spread across her body, crackling with azure-purple arcs of electricity. In contrast, the Scions, who were too close to Huihui, got shocked a few times.
"BOOM!" The lightning spheres scattered, and arcs of electricity leaped through space, striking Nidhogg. It was a mutually damaging exchange, or rather, Nidhogg, who lacked electrode-like fur, suffered more damage. However, his resilience far exceeded Huihui's. Therefore, the two dragons simultaneously broke apart, pausing for a moment to catch their breath. Huihui shrieked "Eep eep eep~!" as she flew over a mountain peak, nearly smashing the Scions into it. It took a while for them to alleviate the muscle numbness and stinging. Meanwhile, the gruesome wound on Nidhogg's flank gradually closed under the effect of dragon blood magic.
"Cut the ropes, let's get down!" The ensuing battle was not something the Scions could easily interfere with. Cid decisively cut the safety ropes, allowing the Scions to take the opportunity to land on the floating island peaks. "Awoo!" Huihui flew upwards once more. She had no idea why the big black dragon was attacking her, but for her, fighting various dragons for the sake of hunting ingredients wasn't a new experience. Although most of the time, she only needed to gain altitude to happily fly away with her spoils.
"Enough!" Nidhogg coiled himself atop a mountain peak, his draconic eyes coldly watching the Scions in the distance who were still bent over, retching on the ground. Then, he roared loudly in the draconic tongue, "I said, enough! Return to your nest, this is not a place for you!!"
"Awoo!" As a complete "illiterate" who couldn't understand dragon speech, Huihui didn't pay attention to his bellowing at all. Keep in mind that even Hydaelyn's voice couldn't penetrate her Echo. Nidhogg's voice was quickly completely drowned out by the howling wind and the roar of the engines.
"Are you going to fight me, your elder, your king, to the bitter end for these contemptible humans?!" Nidhogg didn't give up on his efforts to persuade her. You see, although the dragon race still had many deployments and descendants, those creatures induced by dragon blood were nothing more than cannon fodder. The number of pure dragons was already small. He wasn't willing to kill a fellow dragon over something like this.
Perhaps, in the eyes of humans, Nidhogg was evil and cruel, but in reality, before he completely went mad, he had never killed a fellow dragon, and he hadn't even harmed the "innocent." Because every Ishgardian carried the original sin of consuming his sister's flesh and blood – Dragonblood! All of them carried the guilt of betrayal and murder. Therefore, in Nidhogg's eyes, and even in the eyes of the dragons and Moogles who knew the truth, there was nothing evil about Nidhogg's revenge. On the contrary, the actions of the Ishgardian Pontiff were even more evil and shameless.
"Awoo!" "Whoosh!" The Piercing Shot came tearing through the air, slamming into Nidhogg, directly shattering his aetherial barrier shield, and tearing away a large chunk of dragon flesh and scales. "Awoo~!" Huihui didn't understand his words at all. Although at this moment, the meaning of the dragon language had been conveyed through telepathy, but... "Awoo!" The azure ancient dragon waved her wings and circled in the sky. The meaning she expressed was simple... "Buzz off!" (or "Get lost!") would be a good localized equivalent here.
"You hit me, I hit you. You made me drop my meat, I'll turn you into meat." Although there seemed to be something logically wrong with that, the meaning was expressed clearly, which stunned Nidhogg for a moment. Hmm, the simplicity of this expression was very fitting for her age and experience.
However, it was precisely because this expression was so simple that Nidhogg didn't know what expression to use to respond. - Yes, he had made the first move, so it was normal for this young dragon to retaliate. And he glanced at the pieces of meat scattered everywhere. He really seemed to have made her drop her meat... Wait? Meat?
Nidhogg turned his head to look at the resolute Scions, and started to build a logic in his mind. The ball Huihui was carrying was full of meat, and she seemed to think so too. And meat for a young dragon of this age was the equivalent of food. In other words, that ball was a ball for storing food, and these humans were inside the ball of food... Hmm~ Hmm~ Nidhogg wondered if he had misunderstood something. Did this young dragon capture these humans to take back to her nest to eat? Then, did his attack save them?
"I said enough! Now go back to your nest! If you want meat, I'll give you meat!" "Gimme meat first!" Huihui flipped her wing panels and flew past Nidhogg, insisting on seeing the meat first. "You hit Huihui, need more meat!" There's nothing that a meal can't solve. If it can't, then offer two! "..." Now that she said that, Nidhogg was silent for a moment, wondering where he could find meat for her. He didn't have any on hand.
Was this request too much to ask? Not really. Nidhogg couldn't think of a reason to refuse. He wasn't as shameless as those humans, who would deceive a youngling who, by dragon standards, probably had just hatched from her egg and couldn't even speak fluently. But fulfilling this request was a bit difficult. Where was he going to find meat for this little one on such short notice?
"No meat, Huihui hit you!" The young dragon didn't give any face to this member of the First Brood. She immediately pulled up and prepared to dive-bomb attack again. In the New World, or rather, in the world of Monster Hunter, the Elder Dragons' worldview was so simple and straightforward. You hinder my eating, I'll beat you up. You beat me up, I'll beat you up.
Therefore, hunters often attacked when their targets were eating or sleeping in order to accomplish the goal of repelling Elder Dragons... which, to some extent, was also a behavior that increased their aggro. That's why even Kirin, an Elder Dragon that would even adopt human children to a certain extent, would beat the crap out of hunters as soon as it saw them draw their weapons.
"Enough, I said enough. Go ahead, those are all your meat!" Nidhogg flicked his tail, directly knocking down a dragonbird that was cawing annoyingly nearby. He didn't consider these creatures, which had been mutated by dragon blood, to be his kin at all. The same went for those heretical, mutated dragons. "...Not tasty, get another one, get another one!" Huihui refused to use such unappetizing low-grade ingredients to pad the numbers.
"You, don't push your luck!" Nidhogg flapped his wings and took flight, his massive size attempting to dominate Huihui, but it backfired. "No meat, Huihui hit you!" The young dragon rolled to the side to dodge Nidhogg, and the extreme-electric fur growing on her body released rings of lightning. "ROAR!" Nidhogg decided to beat this little brat down first and then deal with those humans.
"I'm going to help!" The Azure Dragoon leaped up, using aether to almost fly through the air as he charged towards Nidhogg. "Despicable human!" Nidhogg was especially enraged when he noticed the sneak attack. Powerful aetherial orbs rained down like a storm, followed by the traditional dragon fighting methods: claw strikes, pounces, wing swipes, and tail whips. "Clang!" The lance held in front of him was instantly knocked aside, and the Dragoon was sent flying backwards, crashing into the floating island.
"Human, you have the scent of my eye on you, and the scent of my sister. Ishgardian, perhaps I should kill you first before dealing with that little one?" Nidhogg lowered his head, revealing his sharp teeth. "Awoo!" Then he was pounced on by Huihui. The young dragon didn't care about any of that. You hit her and made her drop her meat, she's going to bite you.
The twin-ringed fangs gripped Nidhogg's neck tightly, and both paws pressed down on his head. Even for Nidhogg, it was difficult to shake off the weight of over thirty tons. "Woof woof~" Huihui made a sound like a puppy biting something, trying hard to use her weight to overpower her opponent. Then, her wing-blades continuously slashed, spewing azure flames that pinned Nidhogg to the ground, making it difficult for him to move.
"You... Let me go! Damn it, let me go!" Nidhogg struggled and roared. He didn't expect this little one to have such strange power, and he was actually being suppressed by sheer brute force. "Woof woof~ (Huihui's language: "No let go! Meat!")"
"Ha, hahaha!" Estinien picked up his already-deformed dragon lance and let out a mocking laugh. "How hilarious. Nidhogg, the Evil Dragon Nidhogg, you look even more pathetic than I do right now." Although he didn't look much better himself.
Then he was smacked away by Huihui's tail. "Woof woof~ (Don't touch my meat - Huihui language)" "Dammit!" Although Nidhogg escaped the fate of having his eye gouged out, he didn't think it was a good thing. On the contrary, it was utterly humiliating - to be suppressed like this by a young dragon!