//------------------------------//
// Corpse Coat Dragon 
// Story: Monster Hunter World: Monsters and Magic 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

After resting for a while, and regaining as much energy as he could, Grogar set out for the Rotten Vale, as it was time to see if he could find Vaal Hazak and either confirm or deny its existence to the rest of Astera, even though the Third Fleet were sure it existed and had seen it before their airship had been downed. Still, he had the feeling that since neither Kushala Daora or Teostra wanted to talk with him, as he had discovered after locating both beasts in the Elder's Recess, the same thing would happen when he reached the domain of the last target he was tracking down. As he thought about that he realized one thing he hadn't considered in the past, the power to talk to the Elder Dragons was basically worthless, as it only seemed to work on Nergigante and Ava'jiiva, though the latter had the ability to speak their language thanks to her transformed state, as all the others, for the most part, didn't care what he had to say. Such a thing meant that when he reached his target's home he was likely going to fail talking to it, as he was sure that it would attack him, so he had to be ready for a battle and not a nice conversation to convince them to stand down and stop messing with the region they were currently living in.

He turned his thoughts away from that as he glanced back for a moment and found both Sherry and Ava following after him once more, so they could land in one of the camps in the Rotten Vale as he headed down into the depths, though such a thing made him think about the Effluvium again. That was a substance he needed to avoid, as it seemed to weaken anyone who was in it for too long and was able to erode the bodies of the fallen Elder Dragons, though as he considered it he had an idea as to what he could do. There was one Elder Dragon whose power could aid him in bypassing the Effluvium, while at the same time there was an ordinary monster he had observed that might be able to boost his resistance to the substance, so he came up with a plan that would grant him the ability to move around without worrying about the clouds of Effluvium. He also considered the fact that Scarlet was down there in the Rotten Vale, though given her new monster instincts he was sure that she and her Odogaron must have fled when the Elder Dragon showed up, so he wouldn't have to worry about them getting in the way.

A few moments later he touched down in the main camp they had set up in the Rotten Vale, allowing him to glance out at the large skeletons that went into making most of the upper reaches, though he waited for a few seconds as Sherry and Ava landed nearby, the Barnos resting on the post after the pair landed.

"Before you go, you had best eat something." Sherry commented, as she knew that Grogar was strong, and had seen that thanks to what happened in the Elder's Recess earlier, though that didn't mean he could just fight on without regaining his energy and reserves, hence why she walked over to the stove and started to prepare something.

"Good idea. We have no idea if our target is here, despite the tracks confirming that it moved recently," Grogar said, as he had been thinking about the information he had gleamed from the various corpse related tracks he had found not that long ago, and what it might mean, before considering the fact that he had used a lot of energy to force Kushala Daora and Teostra into submission, "might as well take a break and get something to eat before tracking down the last Elder Dragon we were told about."

"Hey, maybe you guys will be promoted from 'rising stars' to 'shooting stars' if we find Vaal Hazak," Ava remarked, though she made no effort to add herself to the team or the potential reputation rewards that might come from them finding the Elder Dragon the Third Fleet had seen all those years ago, showing that she had positioned herself as the third wheel that would no doubt leave in due time.

Grogar wasn't sure what to say to that, even though it was odd for Ava to act like she wasn't important to the team, given that she did nothing but fly from place to place to watch him engage his opponents, but he decided that he would worry about that once they were done with the Elder Dragons. A few moments later he found that Sherry presented a platter of food to him, which had meat, rice, shrimp, and pretty much everyone else that the Meowscular Chef put into his dishes, so it told Grogar that she had a cooking skill that wasn't used all that much. Ava, on the other hand, moved to the entrance of the camp so she could make sure that none of the monsters of the Rotten Vale came up here, even though it was rather safe now that none of the Girros and the Great Girros bothered to come here. Such a thing allowed him to sit there for a time and enjoy some food, restoring more of his energy for what he was about to do, and he had to admit that while her skill needed a bit more work to match that of the Meowscular Chef, which was nothing to be ashamed of, his Handler was a good chef and they were lucky to have her.

Once he was done eating, however, Grogar excused himself and carefully moved down into the depths of the Rotten Vale, though this time around he focused on the monsters he needed the powers of as some of Nergigante's power surged to the surface, thanks to a few spikes on his arms and legs, before a series of black scales appeared around them. What he was doing was using the power of the Great Girros to his advantage, as they seemed to have some resistance to the foul Effluvium that plagued the lower reaches of this region, so he wouldn't have to worry about losing some of his power as he searched for Vaal Hazak. When he went down into the depths of the Rotten Vale Grogar discovered that the set up he had seemed to be working quite well, the Effluvium didn't do anything to him as he walked down the path that would, in due time, bring him to where they found a fragment of Zorah Magdaros. As such he was able to find his way to the area he was interested in, avoiding the acid pits that were around him, before he discovered a wall of red vines that he could push out of the way to see what was on the other side, which he did without wasting time, as the tracks he was following went through it.

What he discovered, however, was a shocking sight, as he found an area that contained a massive pile of corpses, all sorts of fallen monsters were resting all over it, and there were a number of Girros scattered all over the place, some dead and some alive, while pieces of the ceiling fell every now and then. It was a disgusting place, that much he could tell from just a glance, and suddenly he didn't want to be here, not with all of the dead monsters that were scattered all over the place, so he made a note of what he was seeing and prepared to leave so he could do something else. What he discovered was that all of the Girros were affected by the Effluvium and seemed to be suffering, like their life was being drained out of them or something, though as he discovered that fact the large pile of bones started to shift before his eyes, before a twisted limb emerged and crushed one of the Girros into the ground, draining the life out of the poor creature before the Effluvium in all of the others surged out of them and entered the beast in the pile. That was followed by something emerging from the pile, a twisted skeletal dragon whose flesh looked like it was fall off, even though he was sure it had some silvery scales on its body, it had some sort of double jaw, and it exploded out of the pile of corpses without delay.

Instead of wasting time, and trying to talk to such a creature, Grogar called upon his newest powers as Vaal Hazak readied itself for battle, his left wing became that of Kushala Daora and his right changed into a Teostra wing, due to the fact that he wanted to test both of their powers out and understand both elements better. As such he flared his wings for a couple of seconds and made the first move of this battle, creating a number of blast charges in the space around his foe, where he found that the corpse dragon stalled for a moment before glancing around, debating what to do next. He discovered that the wings on Vaal Hazak seemed to be useless, it didn't try to fly out of the area it was now trapped in, though he had to guess that it being a corpse of a dragon, based on its form, cancelled out some of the normal powers that it had, hence why he focused on the battle once more. In that moment he swung his arm and sent all of the blast charges at Vaal Hazak, surprising the beast as each one connected to it in a matter of seconds, where they flared for a second before detonating, blasting it backwards and caused it to collide with the wall behind it.

Normally such a thing would convince someone that this was a bad idea, though Vaal Hazak roared and gathered a vast amount of Effluvium in its throat, like a normal dragon gathering power to loose a burst of fire, though given what it was doing Grogar decided to counter it. What he did was gather the power of Kushala Daora and summoned the wind for a couple of seconds, as when the blast came at him, a horrid looking beam of Effluvium that would no doubt cut into his life force and deliver what was taken to Vaal Hazak, he swung his hand and summoned a tempest between them. This simple attack tanked the beam and forced it elsewhere in the cavern, meaning he wouldn't have to worry about taking it head on, though because Kushala Daora's tempests lasted a while he decided to have some fun as he loosed a burst of flames into his windy creation, creating a flaming twister. He then sent the attack flying at Vaal Hazak, who screeched, or whatever sound it was trying to make since he was sure its vocal cords had been rotten away, in pain as the flaming twister struck it, though he didn't let up at all as he summoned Fireballs and hurled a burst of them at the ground, causing him to magically seal his nose for a moment, as the smell of burning rotting corpses was too much for him.

Given the power of the combination of fire and wind Grogar kept at it, combining the powers of the two Elder Dragons he had fought earlier and blasted Vaal Hazak into the wall repeatedly, until the point where it seemed to whine and cried for a moment, as if it didn't want to be abused like this, before digging into the pile of corpses and hid from him... where he stopped and sighed as he returned to the camp, as it seemed like he was victorious.

"So, I beat Vaal Hazak... to the point where it whined and cried when it gave up," Grogar commented, where he reigned in his power as he rubbed the back of his head for a moment, as he wasn't too sure what to make of the situation, due to the fact that he made an Elder Dragon, one of the strongest beings in this world, whine, cry, and dig under a pile of corpses to avoid fighting him.

"...okay..." Ava said, though that was a shocker, meaning Grogar's power was either far greater than they assumed, or his intelligence in combining his new power with his magical abilities made him a force to be reckoned with, and she wasn't too sure what to make of the situation either.

Sherry really didn't know what to say either, this was too weird for her, even with the shapeshifting Elder Dragon that had taken her place for some time, though since this made a third beaten Elder Dragon she decided that they would return to Astera and give Shepard the good news, before worrying what Grogar would have to fight next.