The sin of pride

Out of the three elder dragons to show up at this time kushala daora was by far the most difficult for Alex to handle at the moment. The reason for this was that it's power over the air nullified all of his mist abilities and his [variant electrosis] trait was both not unlocked and far too weak to be anything more than an irritation for the elder. The fact that kushala was covered in a thin layer of organic metal also meant that he was totally going to have trouble dealing damage with any form of elemental attack.-

That said Alex did know that strength wise he surpassed kushala easily and planned to literally beat the elder to death while poisoning it. Poison was a totally broken thing in this world as nine times out of ten a monster was capable of being poisoned regardless of size and power or even if it was poisonous itself. Biologically speaking this made perfect sense as organic matter was very weak to foreign substances that were harsh. Alex himself could be poisoned if the stuff was potent enough or had enough volume , it was just much harder than with most other monsters.-

Alex left astera after informing the commander of his target so that they could expect it when he returned victoriously. It might seem arrogant for Alex to assume he was guaranteed to win this fight before it even began but considering he could hunt nergigante who also hunted this elder it was only reasonable to assume he had nothing to worry about. He wasn't wrong either as without it's winds kushala wasn't actually any stronger than teostra but rather was actually slightly weaker. Alex had taken a few flash bugs with him specifically to get the elder out of it's winds before beating it to death.-

It was a popular tactic in the game since while the elder was blinded it completely ignored the fact that it was nearly untouchable in it's miniature tornado and charged around recklessly. Alex wasn't entirely sure if the game could be trusted in this regard since unlike in the game this version of kushala was an actual creature and wasn't limited by programming like in the game. He had learned many times that the creatures of this world behaved much more like actual animals than the limited and stupid programed version.-

Alex's near death at zorah's hands was the biggest proof of this as in the game even if the player was right in front of the elder it totally ignored them and followed it's preprogramed actions rather than just squish them. Alex shook his heads to get these thoughts out and focused as he had entered the airspace of the elder's recess and needed to keep an eye out for kushala. Like most elders kushala daora changed the environment around it to one more suitable for itself , in this case a windstorm covered the recess making it harder than normal for Alex to fly.-

Not unreasonably harder merely enough that Alex needed to make a few corrections to his posture while he did so. Finding the windy dragon was easy as it was always where ever the winds were strongest which in this case happened to be on the ground kicking up crystal shards and loose rocks. Clearly the elder didn't realize that Alex was flying above it or simply didn't care as it casually strolled about with an arrogant disregard for it's surroundings. This proved to be a huge mistake when Alex slammed down onto it's back like a meteor.-

The ground cratered from the impact and cracks immediately covered the majority of the elders torso metal layer both on the front and back of it. "ROAR!" Kushala announced it's anger loudly and the air began to kick up but Alex crushed a flash bug right in front of it's face blinding it and stopping whatever it was about to do. What followed after that was a pitiful spectacle where Alex ripped the elder's throat out slowly while it was helpless to stop him and even the final burst of winds as a last ditch effort proved pointless as Alex had his claws deeply dug in. Arrogance was basically the entire reason kushala died without much of a fight.

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