Hey all, this is Ghostalker again. This is the sequel/interruption to Justin Russo, Planeswalker. This is a short break from the main story wherein Justin travels to the world of Monster Hunter in his quest to find Juliet and bring her back.
I've taken some creative liberties in transplanting Monster Hunter into the realm of Magic: The Gathering. Most notably, I've turned the world of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (Minegarde) into its own separate plane, just one that hasn't been visited by planeswalkers in a while.
Also, I don't own Monster Hunter, Magic: The Gathering, or Wizards of Waverly Place. I probably never will.
Hope you enjoy!
Justin woke again.
And again, he found himself face-down in a drift of snow.
Damn, I am getting really sick of the snow.
He pushed himself to his feet, his backpack still intact and attached to his back. He shucked the pack, rummaged through it to make sure he still had everything he'd left Geeratia with, and then took in his surroundings: a snow-covered mountain, overlooking a grassy green plain below, the wind blowing the dry white powdery snow around and around, into his face. As he pulled his jacket of canvas more tightly around him, he set off in the direction of the grassy plain.
Little did he know that two eyes were watching him with a feral hunger.
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Justin continued down the mountain, the cold getting to him, though he had to admit it was better than when he first landed on Geeratia. In the distance, he saw a cave, and he headed toward it, hoping to find some shelter from the wind and snow that was plaguing the mountainside at the moment. He noted that the large yak-like animals that he had first seen when he landed were conspicuously absent. Just to be safe, he began to draw on the local mana like Sentir had taught him, but he found a large amount of red mana, mana he didn't know how to use, or more accurately, which he hadn't found any spells to use it with. At least I should still be able to conjure artifacts, he thought. Artifacts were, for the most part, colorless, so they could use red mana, green mana, or any kind of mana.
He clutched his wand in his hand, calling to mind all the battle spells he'd memorized back on Earth, his fingers numb with cold. He looked around for the menace which was driving away the yaks and also causing him to have that feeling, the one where you feel like you're being watched.
Just as he was about to trudge into the shelter of the cage, he heard a deafening roar. As he covered his ears to shield them from the painful scream, he turned and saw what appeared to be an orange-scaled, four-legged tyrannosaur with faint blue stripes along its hide. Its long white teeth gaped from its massive jaws, which were still open in its deafening roar. Its long tail was tipped with a spike, and its sprawling stance belied its quickness as it charged at Justin, its mouth open wide to devour him.
Justin quickly gathered the red mana from the mountain, then formed an image in his mind of a humanoid minion composed of metal pieces connected by arcs of energy. As he released the red mana, the arcbound condensed into being in front of him. The creature charging at Justin paused only for a moment, long enough to smash the arcbound into tiny pieces which soon dissipated. Justin turned and ran for his life.
Just as he was sure he was about to be killed—and I've come so far, too, he thought bitterly—a bright flash filled his view, causing his vision to go dark for a minute. When he could again see, he saw three people fending off the massive beast with enormous weapons. One carried a massive bow, and with each shot he loosed, bursts of lightning lanced into the beast's hide. Another carried a massive spear and a shield that was equally large, and was alternating between punishing the beast with the point of his spear and blocking its attempts to slash him to ribbons. The last person was smaller than the other two, and appeared to be a woman, and she was wielding a giant hammer and was bashing the monster in the face with it.
As the three battled, they almost seemed to dance with the monster and with each other. No movements were wasted, and no attack the monster made could touch them. After about three minutes of this, the creature decided that it was best to simply leave the area, and with great effort leapt into the air and glided away down the mountain.
Justin sat up, as the three others approached him and sheathed their weapons. The one with the bow, a man, reached down to help Justin to his feet. Justin accepted the proffered hand, and was immediately pulled to a standing position. Justin marveled at the strength of the man, though he realized that anyone who could pull the string on such a massive bow would have to be incredibly strong.
"Greetings, stranger." The archer spoke first. "What are you doing up on this mountain without a weapon? Didn't you know the Tigrex is always on the mountain this time of year?"
"I'm sorry… the Tigrex? Is that what attacked me?" Justin asked.
"Yeah," the man with the massive spear replied, "and no offense or nuthin' but if we hadn't been here, you'd have been eaten alive. Where are you from anyway, that you didn't know what a Tigrex was?"
"Uh… I… that is…" Justin was at a loss for words. He could hardly believe Sentir's explanation of planeswalking when he had experienced it himself; how could he explain it to these people. He gave it a shot anyway. "I planeswalked here. From Geeratia. I'm not sure why I ended up on this mountain…" he paused at the strange looks the three were giving him. "…what's wrong?"
"Planeswalked? Geeratia? You must be mad!" the woman exclaimed. "Those words don't mean anything! Maybe the cold has numbed your brain."
"Heheh… yeah, maybe…" Justin chuckled nervously. Better to just let them believe that. Easier to explain, and they may be hostile to outsiders.
"Well, come on down with us. There's a snowstorm coming to this mountain, and if we're not down before it hits, we'll be stuck up here, and the last thing we want is a Khezu finishing us off after surviving a Tigrex." The man with the bow turned to enter the caves, and Justin trudged through the snow to follow him and the other two. Khezu? Tigrex? Where the hell am I? I don't remember seeing or hearing anything about these creatures in Sentir's library…
One thing was for certain. Justin certainly owed these three his life and his gratitude, and he certainly wasn't going to question anything they said right now. All he could hope was that he would be able to help them to repay them for their kindness.
He had no idea that the next year would include some of the most incredible adventures of his life. And that included his planeswalking.
And that concludes the first chapter of Justin Russo, Monster Hunter! I hope you enjoyed it.
If you don't know what Monster Hunter is, there are plenty of videos you can find that show gameplay. It's a very fun game. And if you want to know what a Tigrex really looks like, just search for it; I can tell you that it's one of the hardest monsters to beat in the game.
Read and review! Tell me what I'm doing wrong, doing right, could be doing better, etc. I'm writing to practice my narrative writing so please, feedback is much appreciated!