A mighty roar ravaged around the mountain's walls like an avalanche, the force of the sound waves making the Hunter's body rattle as he fell to the ground. He did not bother covering his ears. It did not matter anymore. Nothing did.
Towering over him stood the Lao Shan Lung, a dragon as large as a castle and twice as impenetrable. The sheer size of the monster still impressed him, despite it having been the only focus of his life for the past few hours. When it rose to its hind legs, he had not even been able to see the head of it in the thick mist surrounding them. It was currently standing on all fours as the Hunter kept his eyes fixated at the slender tail swishing back and forth behind it, looking a little like a scaled monstrosity of a rat.
"FALL!" a shout echoed against the mountain's walls, powerful yet sounding like a feeble squeak compared to the voice of the monster. Shifting his gaze downwards, the Hunter saw a small figure waving a hammer back and forth by the right front leg of the beast, letting tears and blood fly all around him. The Pokke Hunter who had seemed so confident at the start of all this had now been reduced to a screaming mess, running purely on adrenaline as he smashed at the foot of the dragon. Each blow was met with tiny sparks as the hammer bounced off, not even leaving a dent in the thick scales of the mighty creature. The Hunter imaged the dragon was not even feeling it at this point.
To the Pokke Hunter's credit, he had been the one to snap the horn once protruding out of the Lao Shan Lung's face with a powerful upwards swing. Sadly, it had not been before the Kokoto Hunter had been gorged by it while attempting to pierce on of its eyes with her sharp lance. The Hunter winced at the thought of this, remembering that she had been the one to offer him an Armordrink the night before. He had not even had time to pull her corpse out of the way before the Lao Shan Lung stepped on it, leaving nothing but a crackled mess of blood and splintered armor behind.
The Hunter gritted his teeth in anger, looking over the dragon while ignoring his companion's desperate cries. During the first encounter the Lao Shan Lung had been completely unharmed, most likely because the regular monsters had more sense than they did and had left it alone. Now, it had blood oozing out of several gaping wounds around its body, mostly concentrated around the legs and stomach. There were still arrows with enough poison coatings to kill five wyverns sticking out between the scales, and while most of them had not penetrated deeply enough to infect it, the same could not be said for those sticking out of the dragon's face. They had hit it with everything they had for hours that felt like days. His old hunting instructor would have cried tears of joy he had known what they put into this.
Yet still, the Lao Shan Lung was heading towards the town like nothing had happened, occasionally biting at the Pokke Hunter by his feet as it continuously rammed the last wall standing between it and the townspeople trapped in the gorge. The wall had been put together by wood, rocks and gluehoppers, probably not even sturdy enough to withstand a regular wyvern. The fact that it hadn't turned into splinters and gravel yet was nothing short of a miracle. However, even miracles have their limits, and every hit against the sloppy wall could potentially be the last.
There was nothing they could do. The Hunter did not even have the stamina to stand up anymore, and the Pokke Hunter was not inflicting enough damage to drive the creature off. Everyone else had fled or died, which is the same fate that awaited all the people behind the wall in front of them. Still, the Hunter could not help but feel an ounce of pride as he spotted a particularly large bleeding chunk of meat at the bottom of the dragon's abdomen, which he had been hacking away at for most of the duration of the fight. Giant or not, there was no way it hadn't felt that.
He looked down at the weapon still being clutched in his left hand. A dulled, rusted and overall sad display of what had once been the shiniest longsword in the guildhall. The blacksmith had presented it to him with laughter on his usually grouchy wyverian face, proudly naming it "Fire". The Hunter had not been able to stop smiling at the unimaginative name, and decided that it would remain nameless while in his hands. It had been forged out of shells and sacs from multiple Rathian and Rathalos, fearsome flying wyverns that he had barely escaped form with his life many times. Even so, what he would not give to be able to feel their somewhat avoidable fire breath in place of the merciless fangs of the Lao Shan Lung.
The Hunter snapped out of his reminiscing as he suddenly heard a faint noise from behind. He did not bother to turn around. A Vespoid, Velocidrome or even a Rathalos, it did not matter anymore. Nothing did. It was all over.
"Are you still alive?" a voice sounded as Hunter felt something grab onto him before flipping him over on the ground. His eyes had been damaged by all the dust stirred by the Lao Shan Lung's footsteps, and all he saw was a grainy silhouette standing over him. He felt something push up against his mouth, and with no energy left to put up a struggle he simply opened it without giving it a second thought.
The familiar taste of dash juice covered his taste buds, and immediately made him think of better times. Any time and any place that was not where he was right now.
As the dash juice kept pouring into his mouth, the Hunter grabbed a hold of the figure and dragged it closer as to see who it was. When he did, he immediately knocked the flask out of his mouth and took a tighter grip.
"Jason, you fucking coward!" the Hunter growled, recognizing the Jumbo Hunter's bushy mustache and long dark hair, "How dare you abandon us! Marie is dead, and-"
"I know," Jason replied while shifting his eyes to the side with a sad expression, "I saw her corpse on the way here." The Hunter forced himself to keep the grip around him, but his strength failed him as he fell back and hit the ground with his head. The helmet stopped most of the impact, but did little to prevent the thunderous roar that the Lao Shan Lung gave off next. Jason quickly covered one of his ears, while the Hutner did nothing. It did not matter anymore. Nothing did.
"You ran," the Hunter said accusingly as the echoes behind him died off, "Why?"
"We… We can't beat it," Jason stammered as he carefully uncovered his one ears and began poking at the other, "I realized that. No use in dying for no reason."
"But you're back," the Hunter muttered, wondering if maybe in a last ditch effort he would be able to kill this traitor to avenge his fallen comrades. While inspecting the Jumbo Hunter, he noticed that he was looking far more pale than usual.
Jason sighed and took a step back so the Hunter could see his entire body before pointing to his right arm. His armor had shattered early on in the fight when he had gotten pinned down beneath the dragon's tail, and so the Hunter could clearly see his naked flesh. However, his right arm was just barely even that anymore, showing off mixed hues of white and blue as it hung limply at his side. The same arm that had once held off a charging Tigrex with a small shield had turned completely useless.
There was a small wooden stake sticking out of a very visible wound in the lower arm, around which the flesh was the least colorful. The Hunter recognized it as the end of one of the arrows the Minegarde hunter had been using to little effect. She had fired 5 at a time, and so Jason could easily have gotten caught up in the crossfire. In the end, her armor had been too powerful as she did not die from the Lao Shan Lung chomping away at her, and he had heard her still screaming as she was sent down the throat of the mighty beast. Hopefully all the vials of poison and paralyzes coating she had with her would give the monster indigestion. If not, the Hunter prayed for her sake that the Lao Shan Lung was not as merciless on the inside as it was on the outside.
"It seems I forgot to bring any antidotes with me," Jason said with another defeated sigh, "You wouldn't happen to have any with you?"
"For you?" the Hunter replied sarcastically, knowing that he had not brought any antidotes either. A loud crunch from behind followed by the abrupt stop of the Pokke Hunter's loud yammering told him that the hammer user had finally been stepped on by the unforgiving beast.
"Damn it…!" Jason growled with a disgusted expression as he looked at the dragon, proving to the Hunter that he had been right.
"He died like a hero," the Hunter whispered slowly before hearing the monster resuming with its attacks against the wall, "You will die like a victim. Soon, there will be many more to follow you..."
"Hey, I came back, alright?" Jason said as he patted the Hunter's head with a forced smile, "I… I know I'm a goner. But if we can at least stop this fucking asshole from destroy-"
An almost deafening explosion sounded from the direction of the Lao Shan Lung, a tiny structural weakness at the bottom of the wall finally giving way to its brute force and letting the wall crumble. Hundreds of screams followed as the townspeople saw what fate awaited them, most of them barely comprehending that such a huge creature could exist. Jason and the Hunter remembered their similar first reaction to the monster.
"We… We never even stood a chance," the Hunter whispered slowly as he gave up all hope and let himself sink deeper to the ground, "This is no monster. It is a monster of a monster."
"We are monster hunters," Jason said with a determined tone before holding up a small sword with his functioning arm, "No matter what kind of monster, we can hunt it. We'll learn from this, and the next time…"
He stopped himself, slowly lowering his sword as he saw the Lao Shan Lung marching directly into town, bending its long neck towards the ground in search for treats. He felt the stinging in his dead arm slowly fade away and spread to the rest of his body. He already knew there would be no next time.
"That dash juice should be kicking in about now," Jason said as he dropped his sword and extended a hand towards the defeated Hunter by his feet, "Come. Let us die as hunters."
"… Die?" the Hunter slowly replied before giving off a short laughter, "Who's dying? You're poisoned, but I can still recover and fight this thing some other time."
The Jumbo Hunter stared at him in silence with a sad expression and shook his head.
"… What?" the Hunter asked before looking down at his own body. It was heavily damaged and weary, but nothing he had not pulled through before. The strangest thing is that where his right arm had always been, there was nothing but a bloody stump. He tried moving his arm and felt nothing, realizing that the Armorseed he had eaten earlier must still be having an effect.
"… Oh," the Hunter said bluntly, not feeling any pain yet still feeling his stamina returning as a result of the dash juice. Slowly he sat up and got to his feet, picking up the longsword next to him. The Jumbo Hunter nodded in his direction before also picking up his sword. Together, they set off against the gigantic Lao Shan Lung that had tormented them for so long.
The longsword seemed heavier than usual as the Hunter only had one arm to wield it with, and he had no idea how he was going to cut through something that had repelled even his strongest attacks. Jason has always been fine using his with one hand, but there would no longer be a shield to accompany it.
It did not matter anymore.
Nothing did.