Surrounding area of Castle Schrade, Third Person P.O.V.
Two men struggled across a barren grey wasteland devoid of visible life. Grey clouds prevented any sunlight from reaching the area and dusty, rock-encrusted grey hills made up the majority of the landscape. In the far north one could barely make out the ruins of a stone city that surrounded a mountain with a destroyed temple on top.
These men knew they were risking quite a lot when they had agreed to carry their package through this territory, but it was necessary to throw the Wycademy off of their trail. These two had stolen an important artifact from the Wycademy's archives after all. Well, more like re-stole it after the Wycademy unknowingly stole it but that didn't matter.
"You're dragging your legs again Chris," the taller person, a man in a full set of Seregios armor that hid any of his features told his companion, said turning around to stare at his companion with his arms crossed. "I told you that you should have ditched the switch axe."
"Look, just cause I value power over mobility doesn't mean that you have to always give me shit about it," his companion newly dubbed Chris, a teenager that appeared to be of Hispanic origin of about seventeen or so, snarked back. He wore a set of Rathalos armor (minus the helmet at the moment) and carried a switch axe commonly known as a Flame Tempest on his back. He also appeared to be straining to carry a foot-long capsule with both of his hands. "I'd like to see you carry the f#$ one ton metal egg across forty-six miles!"
The man in Seregios armor said nothing for a moment before shrugging and gave an 'alright' in response, going over to Chris before taking the metal capsule from him with just one hand and seemingly having no problem with the weight. Without a word he continued on his trek without showing any signs of struggling with the capsule, leading to Chris muttering all sorts of curses that would not be appropriate for this a story with a T-Rating like this one to have in written form.
Their walk through the barren area continued for several more minutes before something from the corner of Chris' vision caught his attention.
"Hey Venator," Chris said, catching the attention of his companion. "You said that Veris left to embark on this year's Elder Crossing, right?"
"Yes," responded the newly dubbed Venator. "That is correct."
"And by that logic, there shouldn't be any Fatalis in this area and we shouldn't expect to ever see Veris again. Correct?"
"Not really. A great tragedy happened here long ago, leading to a lot of negative emotions, wishes and curses towards others, so of course it's eventually going to attract other Fatalis to this area. As for never seeing Veris again, I can't say for certain. She's unlikely to pass since she's rather young and might return here. It's much more likely that she left to learn from Fatalis that know or think they'll pass away. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason, except I SEE A FATALIS THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE F#$ VERIS FLYING TOWARDS US!"
A roar that sounded vaguely like the shriek or cry of a child echoed across the wasteland as soon as Chris finished yelling his statement to his older companion. An unnaturally unsettling atmosphere had descended over the area as Chris drew his Flame Tempest and Venator placed the capsule into his knapsack before he drew out his own weapons, the dual blades commonly known as the Serre Sedition. A gust of wind blew over the two men as a female voice from above spoke.
"Hello Chris Henderson," the voice greeted mockingly. "Venator. I see you're doing well for yourselves."
"Veris," Venator responded evenly.
"Cut the small talk dragon-bitch!" Chris shouted to the sky irately, unable to see the source of the voice now known as Veris. "What do you want?"
"What do I want?" the voice asked again, sarcasm and confidence practically dripping from it. "Oh, nothing much. Just the egg-shaped device that Venator has in his knapsack. And if possible, a well-done steak. My kind may not need to eat physical food for sustenance, but we do love to indulge our sense of taste every now and then."
"You're not getting the capsule," Venator replied, his tone as neutral as before. "Between angering you and The Benefactor, I'd rather take my chances with you any day. You I can actually defeat."
"Oh, how your words wound my self-esteem Heavenly Hunter!" the voice said overdramatically, obviously not meaning a single word. "I thought you would at least recognize me for a worthy opponent. After all, you and I go way back."
"You make it sound like we were friends. The last time I saw you, you were shouting bloody murder when I buried you under the rubble of a collapsing temple wall and roof to get you to stop attacking the surrounding villages and towns. Since when have we ever been on good terms?"
"Ah, so you're saying we weren't friends?" Veris said in fake hurt and disappointment. "That's too bad. I guess that means I'll just have to kill Chris over there and cripple you to take the capsule."
"HA!" Chris called out in humor and slight arrogance. "Kill me? I'd like to see you try ya dumb overgrown lizard! Did ya forget the nastyass scar I gave you last time I fought you?"
"Oh believe me, I haven't," Veris said angrily, a rumble behind her voice. "And I plan to repay you in full with some interest."
With that, the air above them shimmered once before said shimmering disappeared to reveal a large shape descending to the ground before them. As the shape got closer, it became apparent what it was.
A black dragon that stood thirty feet tall while standing on it's hind legs was staring down at them. Four horns, two on each side of it's head, gave the slight appearance of sideburns. Fins that served no apparent purpose jutted from both sides of the dragon's lower jaw and a row of spines went down from it's long neck all the way to it's even longer tail. The beast's raisin purple wings spread out behind the dragon, the useless dewclaw on each wing serving only to make it ever so more intimidating. A long tongue, about as long as a giraffe's tongue, licked the sharp fangs that would serve as the dragon's weapons as she glared at the two men before her with one scarred eye and another unscarred one.
"Tell me Chris," the dragon with the same voice as Veris (probably because this dragon WAS Veris) said to the Rathalos armorclad teenager as her chest started to glow orange and wisps of flame started to escape her maw. "How do you want to die?"
The Rathalos-clad teenager stood still for the briefest moment and blinked before yelling "BY OLD AGE BITCH!" at the top of his lungs as he did something nobody (not even his companion) expected: he flung his switch axe through the air (with some visible effort) at Veris. Her eyes widened at this but she had no time to move her head out of the way as the weapon embedded itself in between her eyes.
Veris howled in pain and shook her head but the weapon remained stuck in her skull (it wasn't thrown hard enough to pierce entirely through the skull and kill her) where it was situated. She tried to reach the weapon with her long arms, but her longer neck worked against her and led to her being unable to pull it out. Had she remained calm she may have been able to reach it by bending her neck to the side, but the pain was clouding her judgement.
"YEAH! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR RIPPING OFF SMAUG YA OVERLY EDGY SCALE-BITCH!"
The dragon directed her attention away from the pain and pain-inducing item to give Chris the death stare before letting loose a torrent of orange flames from her maw to travel towards him. Chris merely had time to say 'oh crap' and brace himself for the flames before the wall of heat and fire washed over him.
Veris smirked at this victory before she felt something wrap around her left horn. She briefly wondered what it was for a moment before her eyes widened in realization. She had completely forgotten about the biggest threat present!
Damn Chris and his bombastic nature!
Her brief half second of confusement, realization and cursing Chris was all Venator needed to use his slinger to shoot his grappling hook, wrap it around Veris' horn, swing in front of the dragon's head and pull out the switch axe, causing Veris to give shriek of even greater pain at the unexpectedly removal of the weapon's blade, before Venator jumped off to where Chris was still standing, relatively unscathed except for some minor burns, despite having had a wall of fire wash over him like a tidal wave.
"Thanks V," Chris said as Venator tossed him his Flame Tempest back. "There's a reason your my favorite uncle."
"When this is over, remind me to get Vilicus and Grimgrin help us kill Veris," Venator said in a serious tone. "I've been meaning to give Enmity a new handbag for our three year anniversary. That'll be our next family excursion."
"I think not," Veris growled out, bleeding profusely from her head. "I forgot how annoying it is to fight you Heavenly Hunter. It's good that I had the foresight to collect some allies, however temporary and costly they may be."
An eyebrow raised on Venator's hidden face. "Allies?"
Without so much as a word, Veris slung her head towards the monotone heavens and gave a deafening howl. Chris brought his hands to his ears to block out the sound while Venator stood there unfazed. When the howl was brought to a close, Veris made no move towards the two, simply smirking at the two humans below her as she waited.
'Allies?' Venator repeated in his mind as he continued to stare down the dragon. 'Allies? What does she mean by al….curses! She wouldn't!'
Venator turned his head towards the horizon at the sound of a howl very similar to Veris' own, Chris quickly mimicking him. In the grey yonder of the bleak sky, flying towards them from all directions were at least a dozen other dragons of the same species as Veris. While it was uncommon for Veris' kind to come together in any sort of numbers, there was one reason that they would gather.
"So you've measured the worth of Chris' death to be worth more than your own body," Venator asked Veris solemnly before his tone turned slightly snarky. "You should feel flattered Chris. Most females of sapient dragon species are usually only willing to mate with those they believe are their soulmates. The fact that Veris is willing to bear the hatchlings of the first male that kills you shows how much your death means to her."
"Not funny Venator," Chris said, all of his jolly and joking nature from earlier now replaced with a more serious attitude. "I'm not eager to fight a group of Fatalis in this state….or any state. What are our options for this scenario?"
"Hope your reputation as the Crystal Bane and my reputation as the Heavenly Hunter discourages them?"
"No."
"Stand and fight."
"Not happening."
"Run and fight."
"Still not happening."
"Send up an SOS flare and hope there is some other hunter wandering this wasteland that'll see it and be either brave or stupid enough to help us fight off an entire group of hormone-driven male Fatalis."
"That's a long-shot and you know it."
"Try and talk them down and hope they send us on our merry way."
"Can you give me realistic suggestions please?"
"...well, we could use that."
"What do you mean by….no. I refuse."
"It's the only realistic way that you get out of this alive without me having to result to draconic mass murder."
Chris seemed to hesitate for a second before biting his lip and clenching his fists. "Fine. But if we lose the package and Benefactor gets upset, then I'm placing all the blame on you."
"Fair enough. Brace yourself. We may end up in the higher atmosphere of some other world."
"As long as I don't have a horde of angry dragons trying to kill me, I'll suck it up."
Without another word Venator put his Serre Sedition back into their sheaths, causing Veris to raise an eyeridge. Venator wasn't one to surrender and she knew that quite well. She had fought with him for thirteen days straight in the past after all. It would be foolish to think that he would change after a mere seventeen years when he had only gotten stronger and more experienced.
The Seregios armor clad man reached into his knapsack before pulling out a blue glass-like sphere and throwing it onto the ground below, shattering it. Upon the shattering, Venator grabbed onto his Serre Sedition and knapsack extra tightly while Chris merely tightened his grip on his Flame Tempest. Veris visibly tensed up at this, knowing something was about to happen.
"What did you do?" Veris growled, small embers leaping out of her mouth as she tried to appear more imposing, although it was somewhat hard as the wound between her eyes kept sending excruciating pain throughout her body.
"Oh, nothing," Chris replied nonchalantly. "Except save this world from having to deal with a Fatalis with a shapeshifting device."
A rumble started to build in the dragon's throat once again before the glass shards of the broken sphere all flew together, as if pulled by a magnet. Upon contact they exploded once again, this time into a swirling blue vortex that rapidly increased in diameter, sucking Chris and Venator inside almost instantly, with them providing no resistance.
Veris gave a roar in shock and took several steps back, but the portal continued to expand. Upon the portal sucking in her first foot, she tried to fly away, but the portal's gravity pulled her towards it. Realizing this, Veris strained her wings and pushed them to their maximum power in an effort to get away. At first this appeared to work and the portal soon started to slowly shrink in diameter. However, just as she was starting to believe she would escape it, a Fatalis male (either the fastest one or closest one when Veris gave out her roar since he arrived first) got sucked in by the portal's gravity. Unprepared, he was pulled towards Veris and knocked into her stomach, winding her and preventing both dragons from flying away from the vortex.
The two dragons howled as they were pulled into the azure portal before it closed in on itself, resulting in an empty wasteland that would soon have about nine or so Fatalis fighting to the near-death over it once they saw their potential consort had vanished without a trace.