"Riki, stop making that noise, it's attracting the attention of every animal from here to Valak Mountain!"
"Big dumb Reyn noisier!" retorted Riki.
"Riki has a point," said Sharla, trying her best not to burst into laughter. It was a battle she had been fighting and losing ever since the three of them were reunited. With Reyn stomping through the undergrowth in his clankiest armour and Riki making a noise like a continuous whining drone that sounded like a Mechon with a blocked servo-jet, this was definitely not a stealth mission.
"Be quiet both of you! No ruin Riki's concentration!" snapped the Nopon, "Riki do special Monapon chant! Monapon glow when Heropon do chant! Heropon and Monapon connected at spirit level!"
"You would have better luck concentrating on actually looking around you!" said Reyn, "Oh, for crying out loud, we've been here for an hour! How are we supposed to find an old stick in a forest full of old sticks?"
Riki's voice rose several octaves, "Monapon not old stick! Riki tell you already..."
"Incoming! Get down!" yelled Sharla, crouching behind a tree and unstrapping her ether rifle from her back. She gestured upwards with the barrel of her gun and Reyn followed her gaze. The shadow that had fallen over the jungle, the one that Reyn thought was just another of the endless storm clouds, was moving towards them, and he could just see from the way the edges flickered that it was the shape of a gigantic six-winged animal, somewhere between a bearded dragon and a catfish. Reyn recognised it as a Lexos. Not just any Lexos, though. Most Lexos (Lexoses? Lexi?) weren't nearly that big, and most of them could fly in a straight line without crashing into a tree.
"Rezno!" screamed Sharla, "It's Unreliable Rezno!"
Reyn drew his driver and crouched low with the weapon's shield covering his head in preparation for an aerial attack. Riki jumped onto the armour spikes on Reyn's back and then bounced onto his driver. He waved his biter around his head and jumped up and down in excitement. Only Reyn's previous experience of fighting alongside a particularly energetic Nopon stopped him from being brained by his own driver. There was no chance of ambushing the enemy, but they had already lost any hope of this being a stealth mission.
"If you don't want me to tank, feel free to stay up there!" yelled Reyn, tilting his driver. Riki rolled onto his back and grabbed the shield with his left head wing while still gripping his biter firmly in his right, until he was now dangling from the weapon like some kind of shrieking, homicidal phone charm.
"What's it even doing here?" asked Sharla, "Rezno lives near the Falls! That's clear the other side of the jungle!"
"I don't know, maybe we should ask it when it tries to eat us!"
"It isn't actually flying towards us. Maybe it hasn't heard us... it's pretty far up... it might not be hunting, anyway, it doesn't look like it's hunting..."
"How can it not have heard us? Besides, that thing isn't moving like any Lexos I've ever seen!"
"Monster coming!" screamed Riki, darting onto Reyn's head and breathing fire at the shape that was now diving vertically straight towards them at a speed that would send it barrelling into them with a suicidal impact. They retreated to the next set of trees, Sharla picking off any shots she could while still moving, Reyn trying to interpose himself between the other two. The Lexos thudded into the ground and kept on going, felling the trees in its path and sending up a spray of earth, bracken and large glowing toadstools as it tore up the undergrowth in a huge furrow. It flipped upright, shook itself down and licked itself in a feline gesture, before training its unblinking gaze onto Riki.
"Pardon me, are you Shulk?" asked the giant Lexos.
"No eat Riki, or Riki eat you back!" screeched the Nopon.
"Riki. My mistake. Arsene's notes are so hard to read, and my eyesight isn't so good," it apologised, "I'm Rezno. Unreliable Rezno. I'm very sorry for almost flying into you!"
"You're not attacking us?" asked Reyn, his brow creasing.
"No, no, you're quite outside my patrol area, and I'm supposed to only come when summoned. I'm here to pass on a message," he said, "From the Sages. And an offer of help."
"Nopon Great Sage summon you?" asked Riki, looking even more puzzled than Reyn.
"No, no, the Five Sages! The Elder Council of Uniques!" he fluttered his wings, which were ragged from constantly crashing into things and looked a little crooked, in a gesture of exasperation, "Never mind, they did say you would have no idea what I'm talking about... but that you were looking for a legendary weapon."
"And how do you know anything about that, hm?" asked Reyn.
"Because you savagely attacked Digalus with it when he came to warn you about it! Fortunately for him, you had no idea how to use it, and even managed to break it, and when you discarded it, he warned the aerial division and Illustrious Golteus was able to grab the weapon and spirit it to safety before you decided to ritually burn it or something."
"Wait... are you telling me that the most dangerous monsters in Makna Forest worked together to steal Riki's old biter?"
"And by Arsene, you mean Despotic Arsene," said Sharla, leaning on her ether rifle, "The third most dangerous creature in the known world."
"Bad monsters!" scolded Riki, "Now Riki can no save world!"
"Um... sorry? You're the one that broke it!" protested Rezno, "Look, the long and short of it, is that the Council have it. But they want to you to come and get it off them in person."
"We have to fight all of you?"
"No, you have to persuade us that you can be responsible enough for us to let you have it back," he said, "And you have to promise to work with us to carry out the plan we're already starting to set into motion, seeing as you obviously don't have the first clue what you're doing."
"Says the Lexos who can't fly straight!"
"It's a medical condition, okay?"
"Reyn, don't upset him, he's offering to help us," said Sharla, "I haven't heard of something like this happening before, but what do we really know about Uniques other than that they're big and dangerous?"
"Well, I always thought they attacked on sight, but just shows what I know!"
"And I thought they didn't form packs," said Sharla, "Or speak Homs."
"We're solitary hunters," corrected Rezno, "And we attack trespassers on sight. Like I said, this isn't my territory. And the senior Uniques speak most languages, we just like speaking our mother tongue. We're a lot older than you, you know, we can get a little stuck in our ways. I'm sure Marcus would love to tell you all about our traditions."
"Please just tell me one thing," said Reyn, "Is Riki's biter actually an important thing? Honestly? Important enough for all this?"
"Riki told you so! Say sorry Riki!" the Nopon demanded, indignity clouding his features, "Big monster know about Monapon. Cleverer than stupid Reyn!"
"I'm going to be late if I keep on chatting to you like this. Golteus and Digalus are already there. I'm going back to Valak Mountain. If you want, I'll give you a lift. It's quicker by air."
"Flying fun!" declared Riki, dancing up and down, "Reyn! Fly on Lexos with Riki!"
"We're going to be completely helpless in the air," said Reyn, "And these are enemies who've killed our people, whether or not they can talk!"
"It's okay, I wouldn't drop you if I wanted to kill you," said Rezno cheerfully, "You might survive that. I'd take you to our actual destination and wait for you to make a massive faux pas in front of Avalanche Abaasy. Or just leave you here and watch the Noponis devour your souls."
"There's an actual Noponis?" Reyn scratched his head.
"Reyn, Riki's going whether we want to or not. We can't just abandon him."
"We can't?" Sharla gave him a murderous glare, so he shrugged, "Okay then, we can't. Let's go!"
