It took some time for their friends in Astera to send over the materials that were necessary to set up a camp, such as the tent, an eating area that Sherry could cook in and some food to cook if they wanted to eat something, and everything else that went into a base, including the chest of materials and a Barnos post. Grogar had to fly back to Astera to tell Shepard and the others what they had discovered during their time with Keiji, a whole new region that was beyond what they had seen from the four that the Commission was used to dealing with, eventually convincing him to approve of the equipment being sent. In addition to that he handed his notes over to the Researchers, who were surprised by the discovery of the monsters he had found and were eager to get their hands on one of them, just to study them up close and personal, like what they did to the Pink Rathian he had captured. Grogar also asked if there was any news that he needed to be worried about, as there were other Elder Dragons out there and he was surprised that none of them, save for the Kirin, had been spotted so far, but there was nothing new in terms of their movements, so he nodded his head and backed off to let the Researchers do their jobs with what he had handed them.
A few moments after his return to the Elder's Recess he found that the Barnos who delivered all the camp supplies had followed him to the brand new region, to which he carefully directed them to where Sherry and Ava were resting, with both Patches and Keiji standing nearby, and once they arrived Sherry went to work getting everything set up.
Once the camp was set up, and Grogar was sure that there was nothing else he had to do with Sherry and the others, he did his job by heading out and focused on the monsters he had seen during his time in the Elder's Recess, where he decided to start with the Uragaan that was resting nearby. Sure enough he found that the monster was just rolling around and leaving marks in whatever it rolled over, even though it seemed that it used the same route and didn't deviate from what it was used to, though when it noticed him coming it stopped and glared at him. This time he decided to mix powers as he targeted his opponent, where what he meant was that he turned the outer layer of his body into the hard material of Zorah Magdaros, for a defensive measure, while adding the latent strength of Nergigante, so when he landed he raised his arms and blocked the incoming attack. His decision was due to the Uragaan rolling right at him, where he found that it tried to dig through his new defenses and failed, causing him to shift his stance as he knocked his foe backwards, forcing it to land on it's back for a moment, demonstrating the strength of Nergigante.
He didn't end the battle immediately, by picking the Uragaan up and hurling it at one of the walls, rather he backed off for a moment and shifted his stance as he waited for the monster to come at him again, where his foe got up, rolled so it was facing him with it's feet on the ground, and huffed for a couple of seconds. Based on what he knew the monsters of this world, both the Old World and the New World, were more intelligent than what the Researchers had originally believed, as with his arrival the ones in Astera had realized that monsters were much smarter than they originally gave them credit for and changed their ways almost instantly. That fact meant his foe was thinking about what was going on and what it might do to overcome what had been thrown in it's way, though he also knew that it would focus on attacking him with the sole purpose of pushing him away, until it came up with a plan to get rid of him entirely. In accordance with that fact he raised his arms and readied himself for the next stage of this battle, while at the same time altering his legs to an Odogaron's as he protected his legs with a Barroth's hard armor, just to avoid using all of one monster so he could get used to each and every power he had access to.
As Grogar rushed into battle he also made one more quick alteration, the shocking tail of a Tobi-Kadachi with the spikes of a Radobaan, which he was sure would transfer the electricity into his unsuspecting foe, and as he dodged his opponent's incoming attack he lashed out with his tail. Sure enough he found that it did some damage to his foe, both the spikes and the electricity that danced between the spikes, where Grogar made a mental note to think about that in the future, before he landed nearby and turned to face his foe once more, who was struggling against the shocking nature of his attack, only he was sure it would come undone in no time. As he expected the Uragaan loosed some of the rock bombs at him and it lead to Grogar trying something new out, he altered his tail again and dropped scales bombs down on where his foe was resting, just like a Bazelgeuse would, surprising his opponent for a moment as it realized that something was up, even if he had positioned the scales all around the monster. With that done he gathered one of his other powers for a moment before loosing a burst of flames down on where the Uragaan was standing, igniting the scale bombs and blew up the area his foe was resting in, blasting his foe back into one of the walls in the process.
The Uragaan, sensing that this wasn't a battle it could win, not against the arsenal of powers that Grogar was gathering, did what seemed to be the best thing it could do, it rolled off to the side and disappeared by heading down the tunnel, a fact that caused Grogar to sigh as he reverted to his base state and unfurled his Rathian wings.
With that done he checked out the other monsters who lived in the Elder's Recess, where he found that Dodogama was still resting near the main crystal area he had seen the docile beast in and landed near it for a moment, though as it took a moment to look at him he raised his hands and told it that he wasn't here to fight. Sure enough the monster didn't want to fight and was willing to talk for a time, where he discovered that the Dodogama was a target for all of the other monsters that lived in this region, even though he would fight back if someone tried to take him down, meaning it wasn't passive all the time. It was an interesting discovery, which he made a note of so he could add it to what he had found out so far, and talking to the Dodogama informed him that there was another monster out there that he hadn't seen yet, an azure beast to be exact, meaning it had to be a Rathalos, as he and Rathian had some of the more well known subspecies. Finding that there was an Azure Rathalos out there was an interesting thing to discover, even though it didn't look like the monster was currently in the Elder's Recess, but he thanked the docile creature for the information he was willing to share, and once he was done talking Grogar departed.
After that he flew over the rest of the Elder's Recess and found an area that some of those tribal Felynes were in, running out of a crystalline structure and caused him to raise an eyebrow as he landed nearby, though they were freaking out as something chased them, the whole tribe, out of the area... before the crystals shattered as Nergigante, in all her glory, burst through them and entered the area Grogar was in, only to come to a stop when the Felynes disappeared.
"Well, you see to be in good health." Grogar commented, speaking as Nergigante glanced around the area she was in for a few seconds and stopped when she noticed him, where he raised his right hand and altered it to match her right arm, a reminder of who he was, just in case she had forgotten about him.
"You... the one who awakened during our battle with Zorah Magdaros." Nergigante said, showing that she did recall who he was and that him showing her his power again might not have been necessary, though he wasn't taking chances with someone who was as powerful as this particular Elder Dragon, where he found a grin on her face, "I'm eager to see just how strong your power really is!"
Grogar nodded for a moment as he shifted his stance, as he had a feeling that when he encountered Nergigante again, in a time where the New World wasn't in danger of being wiped out, that they would have to fight each other, and because of that fact he altered his arms, legs, and tail to match his opponent. His reasoning for not using the powers he had gained so far was simple, the powers of the normal monsters would do next to nothing against the might of the beast in front of him, while using everything he had gained from the other Elder Dragons was out of the question, given his foe's ability to deactivate, or 'seal', the power of an Elder Dragon. Nergigante was a force that negated the powers of the Elder Dragons, allowing her and her kind to take out those who threatened nature, like how Zorah Magdaros was going to blast the New World to pieces, and he was sure that his copied powers might suffer the same thing, hence why he was focusing on her power, as two negations would cancel each other out. He had no idea if that was the case, since this would be his first time fighting her with her own power, so this battle would be an eyeopener into the core aspects of Nergigante's power, and as he readied himself he could see that his foe was doing the same thing.
A few moments later the pair rushed at each other, Grogar quickly adding the horns of his foe before they clashed, with their heads to be exact, where he found that the collision of Nergigante's power and his own caused the area that was all around them to shake for a time, as if two Elder Dragons were fighting. After that they separated from each other for just a few seconds before Grogar rushed forward, swinging his right arm at his foe as Nergigate did the same, causing another collision of their energies, though neither of them cared as they moved into a series of punches, showing anyone that was watching that, for the time being, they were evenly matched. The other aspect was that the spikes on their arms made it harder for one to just gain the advantage over the other, though after the start of their battle Nergigante switched up her style by using more berserker moves, like slamming her head into the ground, striking the stone with her clawed hands, in an effort to smash him, and just enjoying battle to the fullest. Grogar, while not having the same battle senses that his foe had, had his mind to fall back on and dodged some of the incoming attacks as he studied his foe, finding that the spikes on her body were getting darker as time went on, which he suspected were the key to her ultimate attack, the one that had nearly killed him back in the Wildspire Waste.
As Nergigante started to smash her head down into the ground Grogar altered himself once more as he unfurled a pair of wings that were identical to his foe's, which he used to defend himself for a moment and caused her to smash her face into the spikes on his wings, though sure enough it didn't do a lot of damage, which he was fine with since it was more for an extra bit of protection. With his foe's view disrupted Grogar made his move as he jumped into the air a little and spun around, where he lashed out with his tail, which Nergigante only saw when he moved his wings out of the way, so he was able to strike her side as he knocked her backwards, but all it seemed to do was excite his foe. Another thing he found as they fought was that when Nergigante swung her claws into the ground there were instances were she was able to break either the ground in a way that sent spikes of earth at him or it actually broke off the spikes on her arms and she used the force of her attack to send them flying at her target. Given that he was her target he knew that they were coming at him, an interesting tactic to be sure, though as he dodged the attacks, and countered a blow to the best of his ability, a plan of sorts came to mind, one that might end this battle between him and Nergigante, and if he messed up he was sure that she would smash him into the ground again.
While his foe was readying her spikes, purposely stalling so they could become black, Grogar let himself be knocked into the air, where he gathered a bit of magic and loosed it at the ground around her, blasting the stone and knocking smoke up in the process. Such a thing was designed to temporarily blind his foe, who would be expecting him to stay in the air for a time, so what he did was expand his magic to make a copy of himself, where he dropped it in front of Nergigante, all to make it seem like this was all a sneak attack, while he landed behind his opponent. As Nergigante fought his copy, likely ignoring the smoke in the process, Grogar gathered his power as he strengthened himself for what he was about to do, all while noticing that the spikes on his Nergigante limbs were changing color, to which he made sure to alter his muscles and his body a little more to ensure it could withstand what he was about to do. Once he was ready he leapt into the air as his magic came undone, causing Nergigante to glance around as she tried to find him, and as soon as she turned towards the area he was in Grogar rushed down in a dive bomb, just like what happened when she fought and nearly killed him back in the Wildspire Waste.
What made this better was that Nergigante raised herself onto her hind legs and Grogar's attack struck her in the chest, the force of which sent her flying, since Grogar had added his own magic into the mix, and she collided with the crystals she had burst out of earlier, dropping them on top of her... though as he huffed, as that used more power than what he was expecting, he heard something odd as Nergigante emerged from the wreckage, bestial laughter.
"You got me good... body hasn't hurt this much in years. You've honed your powers quite well." Nergigante said, her tone revealing that she was pleased with his power, even if it was him mimicking and copying her own powers, before she made her way over to where he was standing and he was sure that there was a smile on her face, "Come, let us return to your base... your chef has good food and we'll definitely need some after that battle."
Grogar chuckled as he reverted to his base form, as it seemed like he might have befriended Nergigante by showing her his own power and her judging it to be worthy in some manner, but he wasn't about to complain as the pair walked back to the camp, as he knew Ava and the others would be surprised when he returned, not to mention those in Astera when they finally returned and told Shepard what they had discovered in this place.