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WARNING: Gore within this Chapter.

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CHAPTER SIX - THE AKANTOR

It had been several months since the wyverns mated and Pablo and Lucy became love partners, they had returned to Pablo's home village after Lucy agreed to living with him. Puck's den had been expanded to fit Rosey in so she had extra comfort instead of a cramped space, and she rarely left the enclosure, mostly found in one of the corners with her back to the world, usually having to be tempted out of there for missions. Inside that corner was a single egg, and it's shell looked healthy, with only the faintest of noises coming from it... Rosey had lain her egg 2 months ago, and now it was nearing it's hatch day, but this one is a later hatcher, like Puck was, instead of hatching half way into Autumn, it has held back. Maybe it'll hatch in the Winter like it's father? Pablo hoped this egg wouldn't die...

''PABLO! PABLO!'' Lucy calls, running into the house ''what!?'' he asks in worry, instantly jumping up from his seat ''the Elder has an urgent quest, she says Akantor has returned the Volcanic Battlegrounds!'' she replied. Pablo paled... Instantly going to get his finest Armour and weapon ''Lucy, get your finest on... This fight won't be easy'' he called from upstairs and Lucy soon joined him and doing what she needed to do ''I hope Rosey will come with us... It's not nice seeing her worry over that egg so much'' she said ''Lucy... If she doesn't, then even better... Akantor is nasty business... He... Killed my parents when I was a child, and now he's back... I have a feeling things won't go easily. My parents were top hunters here, but they fell to Akantor's might.. Please, if I tell you to run... Please run... Okay?'' he asks, cupping her face with his hands, giving pleading eyes. Lucy watched him for a few moments and gripped his wrists gently ''okay... But if that happens, promise you'll come back alive...'' she replied, Pablo gave a nod and gave her a loving kiss before both got back to getting their Armour fitted, soon grabbing their wyverns' armors and heading to their room, getting their attention and fitting their finest armors as well. Lucy had to struggle with Rosey, who was unwilling to leave her egg, but seeing the village Elder coming in and sitting next to it eased her, now she knew her egg would be safe while she's gone. ''good luck to all of you... May you slay this vicious beast and bring calm to the town!'' the Elder calls as they got to their wyverns' backs and off into the air, leaving for the Battlegrounds... ''Pablo, I'm scared... What if we get killed out there?'' Lucy asks ''I don't know Lucy, but think of it this way... We will go down as hunters who tried, instead of going down as hunters who did nothing to help'' he replies, giving her a reassuring smile which she returned with slight worry, looking back at the path ahead of them... They'd reach the Battlegrounds within a couple of hours if they kept this speed up.

Within that couple of hours they had seen the dead bodies of large foes as they neared the Volcanic Battlegrounds, the Akantor's roars and hisses heard in the distance, echoing around the unusually silent areas, the rumbles of the volcano getting louder, the Akantor's fierce and mighty roars also getting louder, soon seen far down below, one of it's tusks broken in half, but over the ears rounded to a point, numerous battle scars lined it's thick large plates of armored scales, crawling along it's belly in the large area which were the Battlegrounds, and there on top of one of the colossal walls, his parents' weapons with ribbons tied to them... blowing in the wind elegantly... Pablo inhaled slowly then exhaled ''alright... time to to end this'' he said to Puck softly, patting his neck to signal stealth mode. Puck's descent from the sky was fast and silent, Lucy and Rosey soon to follow, the unsuspecting Akantor going about his usual, paying no mind to their presence... nor knew of it until they were right on top of him, Rathalos and Rathian talons scratching and pulling at large Armour plates, avoiding sharp spines the best they could, their roars mixed, filling the air with shrill screeches. Soon the wyverns parted from the beast, letting their riders off with a quick glide across the ground before soaring back into the air, tag teaming the Akantor as the hunters paired up also, using their powerful weapons to hack and slash at the Akantor's thick Armour plates, old scars from the fight with Pablo's parents left hideous gouges on the armoring, which proved useful to the hunters, their weapons able to chip of junks that were weak enough to be broken, having to avoid large tusks and a powerful jaw all the time, risking much to even get close to the creature as it's eyes glowed in rage. Even with just one tusk it was deadly business righting this creature, even the wyverns had more trouble than they usually would, this was going to be a long fight...

Akantor roars, swiping at the wyverns, missing by inches as the tail swiped at the hunters, who ducked just in time, the gigantic tail passing over them, barely touching their Armour. They got to their feet in hurry, aiming for the tail once Akantor was distracted by their wyverns, cutting deep gouges into the flesh, slicing through scales easily, they were aiming to sever the tail... It would at least give them a head start on bringing it's health down majorly, but this wasn't going to be so easy, given that it kept moving as he dueled with the wyvern pair, and the thickness of the tail and strength of the scales and muscle, but they were getting there... Eventually... Puck hisses, aiming for the face with his talons, avoiding the sharp tusks easily, his tail spikes hitting at the side of it's jaw as Rosey joined in, attacking the other side of the face. The mighty Akantor started to thrash around, it's tail only half way cut and only now noticing, throwing it's mass around as the hunters quickly and desperately got out of harms way, watching and waiting for it to calm as the wyverns clung on, biting away small chunk after chunk of scales from it's neck and face, talons proving useful as they gripped onto thick scales, but they soon let go and flew from it at the sounding of it's loud shriek, digging down into the hot magma pools right next to it, it was going to dig for the riders! Puck whistled for the wyverns and they soon glide across the ground towards their riders, picking them up and climbing into the air just in time as the Akantor bursts from the ground, it's jaw missing Puck's tail by inches! They circled high above...

''Pablo, this is getting dangerous!'' Lucy calls ''I know, but we have to fight as hard as we can, it's tail is almost off! we'll aim for it's legs and forearms next, weakening it's fighting, and hopefully lessen the power of it's swings, hopefully break it's tusks as well... Those points are a growing threat, even with our Armour. Throw some bombs if you have any'' Pablo replies, swooping down with Puck to distract Akantor as Lucy rummages through bags on Rosey's bucklings, taking out small barrel bombs, dropping them which Rosey lit with small spits of fire, not missing any of them as they fell and bombarded Akantor around his face and neck, breaking off scales from the explosions and weakening it slightly, but they didn't seem to effect the beast much as it roared out in anger, swinging his only large tusk at Puck and his rider, scraping across the Armour pieces Puck wore, thankfully not cutting any of his tender underbelly skin or piercing his thick specially made Armour. Puck hisses at Akantor angrily at marking his Armour, swooping down and dragging razor sharp talons along the Akantor's face, creating deep gouges into the thick scales as they forced against eachother, smaller wyvern pushing vast amounts of strength upon a much larger few, formally Elder Dragon. Puck has dealt with strong foes such as Elder Dragons, some stronger, but this... This battle would be his hardest... Both wyverns roar and snap at eachother as Pablo jumps from Pucks back and onto the Akantor's, running along it and down to it's tail, hitting away at the last part which kept the tail knitted to the rest rest of it, which a few strong and deep cuts the tail severed. Akantor thrashed, throwing Pablo high up into the air, thankfully being caught by Puck ''NOW LUCY, THE LEGS!'' Pablo calls, as he, Puck and the female pair swoop back down towards the Akantor, forcing it off it's feet and onto it's back, it's thrashing having caused a weakness in it's footing.

Akantor, now on his back, his belly exposed... The hunters and wyverns attacked the underbelly, thick scales protecting it just enough to prevent any severe damage within the short space of time it took him to get back to it's feet, the group dispersing so they wouldn't get crushed under it's great hulking body. Loss of it's tail had indeed weakened it, but it still wasn't going down without a fight! It hisses loudly at them, slamming its jaw on the ground in anger and attempting to charge them... Thankfully it was slow, the hunters were able to avoid it easily and attack from behind, jumping from their wyverns and attacking it's back legs while the wyverns kept it busy from the front, roaring and hissing, swiping and biting. They ripped at chunks of Akantor's Armour, gouges having made pieces weak enough to tear or break off, exposing soft skin of it's neck and ripping off thick armors from it's skull, also exposing soft skin as the hunters' blades dealt greater damage to the back legs, cutting through scale and muscle, having disabled one leg temporarily as it swung it's bulk around to face the hunters, hissing deeply and limping towards them rather fast, being dragged back by the power of the Rathalos and Rathian he turned his attention from. Akantor went to it's back again from instability, instantly being attacked on the underbelly from the wyverns, both just as angry as he was. Akantor's usable back leg forced them off easily getting their much smaller bodies away as he rolled back to his stomach, hitting them both away with the stump of his tail and charging at the hunters who turned and ran, darting off to the sides to avoid being crushed as they ran up behind it, going from the other leg quickly with powerful swings.

Within a short space of time it's back end collapsed down as both legs were temporarily disabled. Akantor forced it's front around quickly to bite at Pablo and Lucy, soon being stopped by a powerful tail swing to the face from Puck, who roared loudly at Akantor which roared back with it's shrieking roar. This gave the hunters time to get a distance away to sharpen their weapons quickly, soon enough running back towards the towering black beast, aiming for it's front legs now, wyverns distracting it from biting at them once more, only this time the biting between them got rougher, more scratches and scrapes lined the Armour plating on the wyvern pair, their soft scales becoming damaged and small tooth cuts lined their skin as the Hunters' swords sliced at the forearms of Akantor, it sung it's mighty head, only to have it's largest tusk bit onto firmly and tugged with great power, friction caused from it trying to pull away started to break it. With only 4 strong tugs the tusk broke clean off, Akantor sending out a loud shriek and backing up in reaction as the group flinched from the sound. Puck drops the tusk and hisses, his energy was running out fast... And so was Rosey's and the hunters'... On the upside, Akantor was also getting tired, but it wasn't about to give up now.

It could no longer tunnel into the ground with both it's tusks this short, so it had no choice but to remain above ground and fight to the death. It's retreat was also cut off... Hunters on one side, and wyverns on the other. It's back legs still paralyzed but it's fore arms were powerful and could propel it's body forwards without any trouble, and it did so, aiming straight for the hunters, swiping for them, but they got the better of Akantor, rolling out of the way and aiming for it's weakest fore arm, aiming for gouges made by their wyverns, easily disabling that arm and aiming for the face, only to stop at the vicious biting aimed at them... They couldn't attack head on, it was thrashing it's head too much to even get close to it, but the Akantor had other plans in mind... When he saw them back down he quickly forced himself up and forwards at the pair, taking them by surprise... Pablo pushed Lucy out of the way quickly and braced himself as the wyverns ran towards them... Everything seemed to go in slow motion...

END of Chapter 6

Okay, sorry to leave you all hanging! Final Chapter is next!