A Sword to Remember

Part I

"Just because we make it look easy doesn't mean it isn't painful."

I was too engrossed to comment. My arms underneath his, my feet moving frantically, trying to pull him behind a massive boulder. "Stop complaining, Taro."

Tendrils of flame licked at us over the edges of the rock as a blast of fire nearly knocked it on top of us. Pushing himself to his feet, Taro patted the dirt and grime off the heavy black carapace chunks that made up his armor, firmly affixed to a tightly stretched suit of red hide. "I'm just saying! It takes a lot more than people think to be a monster hunter."

He happened to be correct, but there was far more crucial business at hand. "Look, that big beastie has us cornered, and he knows exactly where we are. I'll draw him around. I need you to take off the tail."

Taro's grin always made him look like an excited child. "He's not going to like that." In a slow motion he lifted the tip of his sword from the ground where it rested, a heavy blood red dai-katana with spikes across the blade.

"That's the point!" I moved out from behind our cover, light on my feet. There I saw him again. Towering, several times taller than I. Beastly, strong arms, massive wingspan. Black scales and hot ivory teeth. A log of a tail, tipped with long spines and poison glands. He was terrifying, majestic, beautiful. Eyes ahead, I ran. He roared and plodded in my direction. I could tell his every step when crushed bits of pebbles bounced away from the silver stone ground. He wasn't running, he was turning. As I looked across my shoulder I saw his swinging tail rapidly gaining behind me. "Dammit Taro!"

I leapt forward and dropped my swords, covering the back of my head. My chest slammed against the stone with a ringing "Clang!" and air rushed over the top of me. Coughing, gasping for air, I rolled over and sat up. Bright yellow eyes and eager fangs were ready to give me a warm reception. The wyvern screamed in my face and dived in at me. Grabbing the single sword that had landed in my reach, I swung across my body in desperation. The finely edged scarlet claw that made up the blade raked across his dark scales, carving a wide line down his face. He reared back, head whipping vigorously about and released a piercing cry of pain and frustration. Most predators aren't used to their dinner putting up a fight.

The lucky shot gave me the only chance I needed. I bolted ahead, jumping and rolling between the pillars that were his muscled stocky legs. He loosed a whirlwind of fire from his maw only seconds too late to cook me alive, it spread over the ground where I had been a split second ago and dissipated. "There goes another perfectly good weapon..."

The earth shook as the twisting dark columns went up and down, stealing away any chance for me to balance on my feet. His rough pink pads and menacing black claws were a cage for me to escape from. I crawled and stumbled out under the canopy of a draping wing. A screech resounded off the walls of the cave. I felt something like icepicks being hammered into my eardrums. Throwing off my helmet, I fell to my knees, grabbing either side of my head. I screamed, but I couldn't hear myself. Dropping on to my hands I whimpered, or sobbed, or simply shook. I can't seem to remember which. Every second the blood pulsing to my brain sent a shockwave through my body. In my life I had known burning, bruising, breaking, and slicing, but I had never known pain like this.

Abruptly I was jerked to my feet by the shoulderplates. Noise came back to me slowly.

"The tail! Kai, help me with the tail!"

My eyes ran down Taro's outstretched arm. His finger pointed in the direction of a massive scaly appendage with sharp stakes on one end. A cracked vertebra protruded from the other side, dripping a purple ooze. He ran, and I followed. Each slipping a hand under the bleeding stump and the other over the top, we clasped our fingers and lifted the tail together.

"Walk towards me!" Taro commanded.

"What?"

"Just do it!"

I stepped forward, Taro moved to the side. We began to spin. The more we turned the easier it became, the burden of the weight slowly lifted. The Rathalos had not forgotten that my companion had permanently disfigured him. The yellow eyes that were once beady were now bloodshot and wide, furious. He wanted vengeance, and he intended to have it. Charging, the beast's weight came further forward with every broad stride. His head snapped side to side on the end of his slender snakelike neck. With his smoking snout point toward the ceiling of the cave, the spines of his own tail dug through his natural armor in to his face, piercing his eyes and his elongated skull. He contorted and screamed. The poisoned spikes tore clean through the roof of his mouth and skewered his forked tongue. Writhing on the ground, small spits of flame and ember sputtered through his gnashing jaws. He stopped moving. Stopped breathing.

"I wasn't lying when I said it hurts."

"I know, Taro. I know."