Hunter in Ruin

I woke up to another day in the outlands. I've been stationed here for quite some time, when I think about it I'm not sure exactly how long I've been here. I was sent here with three other hunters to keep the creatures at bay. We thought this was going to be easy, but were severely mistaken.

I lost one hunter to a Vexid, a nasty little creature that likes to dig a hole then cover it up like the pitfall traps we use. Only difference is instead of waiting on the outside for a creature to fall in, they like to wait inside the trap which gives you no time to rescue someone once they fall in. You hear them screaming on the way down, but the screaming stops without them ever hitting the bottom.

The second we lost to a pack of Ioprey that wandered into the area. He got bitten on the arm trying to fend them off and got a huge dose of poison we couldn't treat.

The third one I just lost to an Akantor. The two of us were trying to hunt some food when this tremendous roar split the air. I looked back to see if he was alright, but when I turned and looked at him half of his body was all, mush like he didn't have any bones left and the rest was all sliced up.

I dove behind some boulders, I didn't want to face an Akantor. Just the thought of what just his roar could do to you... I just couldn't muster the courage after what I saw what it did to a hunter wearing full Hi-Metal armor. I heard the grotesque sound of my fellow hunter being gnawed on and a sick slurp as he was swallowed. I barely even breathed for a while hoping just to hide from the monster and wait for it to chase something else down.

After a good five minutes I heard the beast's heavy foot steps close by the rock face. I held my breath and didn't move a muscle. I felt like I was going to throw up. The fear of dying in a thunderous roar of blades and heat churned my stomach. The footsteps got lighter and farther away after a few minutes, but I didn't want to move and risk it noticing me.

I've been here for about two days now. I killed a Apcynoth that wandered close to my hiding place and have been living off the carcass for a few days now. I'm pretty sure the path to our camp is clear by now. At the very least the Akantor should have moved on...

But where are my manners! My name is Phoenix. A hunter from the Guild stationed here to keep the monster population down, but I already told you that. I was originally a hunter in the village of Kokoto for the first year of my career, but after I defended myself from a Rathalos in the forest and hills region when I wasn't licensed, or prepared, to fight one the guild thought I was some sort of prodigy or something and decided to throw me into the real grit of this world.

I like to have a Heavy Bowgun with a few high power rounds along with a Sword and Shield. Most people think one weapon is enough, but I like to have a bit of the arsenal on me just in case. My sword is a bit bigger than most of the other ones I have seen and I usually prefer to land a good shot with my bowgun before charging into melee to finish a monster off. I guess that's why I've survived so long in this insane region. My armor is a getting to be a bit worn down after all the surprises I've run into, but it's a wonderfully made set of Rathalos gear reinforced with a nice load of Dragonite Ore I ran into a while back.

Enough about my past lets see if we can let you in on my future, assuming there is one. I'm going to try and head out a little before sunrise. Dawn here creeps me out mostly because of the bizarre colors the sky turns. This region always has a macabre green glow about it, and at sunrise it's in particularly noticeable. At first, I thought it was something poisonous, like the mists in the swamp region, but after living here for a while it just turned out to be the minerals in the ground. On top of the creepy green glow, most of the ground and the canyon walls are eerily beautiful shades of gray and black, like a Gravios spent all day blasting everything with it's lava breath. At dawn the entire region looks like something out of a nightmare.

I guess I'll try to get some sleep for now and when... if I wake up I'll try to get back to camp, get some supplies, and head back to the nearest Guild outpost to tell them what happened.

I woke to a sharp pain in my right leg, at first I thought it was something trying for a free snack, but then I remembered that during my teams little encounter with that pack of Ioprey one of them got a lucky claw or two into my thigh muscle. I was never able to take proper care of the wound, I suppose I'll have an ache there for a while.

Before standing up, I took a gander at the entrance of my lovely home in the rocks. I didn't see anything, but that didn't mean a Vexid hadn't realize somebody was here and decided to make a nice grave right outside my door. Well, no way to tell other than to lob a rock out there and see if anything moves.

I reached for my sword and hit the wall with the butt knocking loose some rubble to throw outside. I lobbed a chunk of it toward the door and got ready to stab anything that came at me.

I didn't hear any movement so I then latched my bowgun to my lower back, put my shield on my arm, picked up my sword, and stepped quietly to the entrance of the rock formation. I poked my head outside and looked at the nearby ground for recent tracks, I didn't see any.

I glanced up at the walls of the black canyon looking for any grumpy Remobra that might want to glide down and take a chunk of my body. Nothing moved, but I wasn't that confident it was clear. I thought to myself how I always has had this tingle at the back of my neck ever since I got here. It was like the whole region was on the brink of death and everything just wanted one last meal.

I mumbled to myself. "It's not safe near the walls of the canyon, something could crawl or leap down and take me out before I could react. It's best to stay low and move quickly along the middle of the canyon, at least I can see something coming and have a better chance of making out of here alive."

I jogged at a good pace for about three hours until I came across my teams camp. It seemed pretty untouched for being so open. The camp was mostly just a few tents made out of some heavy tanned hide. The food and weapons were stored at opposite ends of the camp in wooden crates, about fifty feet apart. The entire camp was about one hundred feet wide all formed in a circle around a big fire pit. It was up on a ridge of the canyon, only a mile or so away from the entrance to the region.

I slowly crept toward the food crate to get an actual meal, but when I got there and opened it up, it was empty. I looked towards the back and spotted a hole where some wildlife had chewed their way into to the crate. I guess I will have to wait until I can get back to the Guild outpost for a good meal.

I closed the food crate quietly and headed over to the weapons crate to get some whetstones to sharpen my now almost blunt blade and to restock my bowgun ammunition. Everything was undisturbed thankfully. Since they couldn't eat any of it the wildlife had left the crate alone.

I grabbed twenty high caliber shells and the last Cluster and Crag shells. These I normally don't carry because they had the ability to reduce a good sized monster to bite sized bits and I just don't feel very safe having them in my backpack. But I decided to take them just in case.

"Alright I gotta head out now. Don't wanna stay in one spot too long around here." As he closed the chest there was a loud bang as one of the shells in the weapons crate went off and grazed his shoulder armor. "I need to make a nice bullet proof case for these things."

He then headed north east toward the entrance of this region. He stopped about every quarter mile or so to take a drink of what little water he had left.

"Alright the entrance to this canyon should be about another three hundred yards to the east of here." Right as he said that he stopped in his tracks. He heard a faint whooshing sound behind him.

"That sounds like wings!" he shouted and dove to the side

Right as he did so a Gypceros flew right by him, it's talons scraping the ground where he once stood. As he hit the ground he rolled to the wall of the canyon.

Panting he said quietly. "Damn just my luck, I get this close and I have to run into one of these!"

Gypceros are normally a well built, almost fat, looking wyvern that have purple rubbery-like hide and a crystal on the front of its beaked head. They can slam the crystal into a crest on their beak to make a brilliant flash of light. But this region stresses everything that dwells in it and the Gypceros here are much more stream line and prefer to use diving tactics to kill their prey quickly.

He heard its wing making a faint sound like a breeze going down a small corridor. It passed over him screeching loudly in frustration. After the second pass he decided to make his move, he holstered his sword and drew his bowgun. He loaded a normal high caliber shell into the breach and cocked the weapon.

He ran as hard as he could straight into the open canyon. He heard the Gypceros coming down behind him. Skidding to a stop he spun around, right as he did so he fired off a shot.

There was a loud bang that was mildly deafening and a bullet came screaming out of the bowgun's barrel. The bullet was large anti-wyvren round and went straight for the chest of the Gypceros.

It tried to veer out of the way at the last second but wasn't quick enough to dodge it completely. The shell went right through the left wing's arm nearly took it clean off. The wyvern came screeching down and slammed into the canyon wall, rubble flying in every direction.

Phoenix knelt raising his shield to protect himself for the flying debris. Rocks slammed into his shield nearly knocking him down, but he was able to brace himself enough to avoid falling over. After the dust cleared he stood up, holstered his bowgun and drew his sword.

He slowly crept towards the wall which now had a good sized crater several yards up from the ground. He took deep breaths gathering his courage up while he approached the downed Gypceros. Once he was about 10 feet away from the beast and still heard no noise, he began to let his guard down a little. He got about five feet away from the beast when it lunged at him with its one good wing, slashing its claws like swords.

Phoenix took a defensive step back then deepened his resolve, he drew his sword back and thrust it into the Gypceros's throat all the way to the hilt. There was wheezing sound as it tried to take a breath through it's ruined throat and he twisted the sword sideways with the blade still in the creature's neck to finish it off. After a few moments the wyvern took it's last failing breath and died. He pulled his sword out and fell too the ground with relief.

'I was able to survive another attack like this.' He thought to himself. 'It was just like when the Rathalos attacked me.' He had sudden flashbacks to that day but shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. He rested for a good ten minutes then took out his carving knife. He carved some materials off the carcass to take with him. He had a good one hundred pounds of materials he gathered from various creatures since he first came to this region, most of it would fetch a good price with the smiths at the guild. He set off to the guild camp... again.

Soon, he made it out of the canyons and saw grass for the first time in weeks. He wanted to lay down and relax in a soft patch of it, but decided to push onward. After about a full days worth of hiking without any incident he walked up a tall hill and across the plains he could see the Guild outpost.

He was overcome with joy at seeing human civilization again. As he marched across the plains he heard a familiar voice yell his name. He turned towards the sound and instantly recognized the source. It was a friend of his, Dragoon. A tall very well built man completely covered in a Azure Rathalos armor.

"Phoenix! I took you for a dead man." He said jogging over to him. Phoenix took off his heavy backpack and let it drop to the ground. Dragoon slowed to a walk and punched Phoenix on the shoulder. "I didn't think I was gonna see your sorry ass again. You look like you got beat down by a pack of rabid conga! What happened?"

"It's gonna take a long night at a tavern to tell you all of it, you're buying." Phoenix replied.

"The hell I am! You still owe me for the last one. You said you'd cover the last tavern we stayed at." Dragoon said in a stern manner.

"Oh yeah, I guess we'll just have to use some of the money I get from these materials I found." Phoenix said. "I'm not trading this one in, though, I'm gonna make me a nice cloak out of this baby." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a glowing white hide.

Dragoon stared in shock. "Is that what I think it is?"

"It sure is!" Phoenix says in a gloating tone. "It's the hide of a Kirin. I found a dead one in the canyons a week back, took me hours to skin it off."

"You lucky son of a bitch." Dragoon grumbled.

"Yeah, not like I could take one of those things out myself, but I figure since it's dead why let it go to waste."

"Lets get back to the guild... and put that thing away before I kill ya for it." Dragoon muttered in a sarcastic voice.

Phoenix put the hide away and threw his pack back on. "It's damn fine to be back and not so bad to see your ugly face again, Dragoon." They began walking back to the Guild outpost bragging back and forth about their recent adventures.