Defensive boosts don’t do much?

Faced my first hyper nargacuga and immediately got hit with the tail slam which took way more life than I expected, carting me.

I abandoned quest and instead of taking my usual attack (M) food buff, I went with defense (M) instead, AND I also grabbed a mega armorskin potion.

So I get back in the fight and get hit with the tail slam again and… it looks like it took the same amount of health as before? Keep in mind in both examples, the tail was NOT the hyper part.

Is defense really that useless in this game? I can’t make better armor until I kill more hyper monsters so I feel kind of stuck. Help lol