"It's really, really hot."
"Stop your whining."
"Both of you shut up, so where is the Volganos exactly."
"Wherever there's enough lava for it to swim around freely."
"Find the sea of lava and we're home free?"
"Well yeah but then we gotta kill it."
"Kungen you brought a map right, is anywhere marked with lots of lava?"
"Not that I see."
"Damn."
"Honestly, why does it have to be so hot, and a maze, it really is like a living hell."
The group came to an area with charred ground, and they saw what they were seeking, mass amounts of open lava.
"There we go."
"Now we just gotta find a giant piscine swimming in it, then get him to come up here."
Kungen scanned the open sea of lava, and saw something sticking out.
"Think I found our mark."
The three members of the group with melee weapons lined up along the lava, and Nel sat back aiming at the fin. Nel fired at the fin and a head poked out of the lava, looking straight at the three lined up. The Volganos then swam deep under the lava.
"Get ready to dodge…something, if it's like plesioth, it'll shoot something that hurts at us."
The ground behind Felix, Kungen, and Nikki then began to visually heat up. Then the rock started melting, turning molten, and the Volganos shot up out of the hole.
"I was not…expecting that."
The beast was not as tall as plesioth, but was bulkier, and bigger around. It stared at Nikki and reared its head back and shot a ball of molten rock from its mouth, Nikki rolled towards the piscine, evading the attack by inches.
"So that's what it does."
"I'll go for the legs," Felix said rushing forward.
"Be careful, watch the tail."
Volganos didn't see Felix rushing at it, but turned to Kungen, and dropped to the ground, and started quickly snaking along the ground, but unlike when plesioth did this just to get away, it was coming straight at him, with murderous intent.
"Awww hell.."
Kungen turned to the side and ran away, and dove to dodge the attack.
"That looks dangerous."
Nikki ran at the Volganos as it was getting back up from snaking along the ground, and began a devlish dance of hacking and slashing only slightly scarring the tough hide of the monster at first, but eventually each attack cut deeper and deeper, maiming the legs of the piscine.
The beast screeched with pain, but it could take it, it was tougher than most. Kungen was rushing at the monster charging an attack to break through its tough skin. As Volganos turned to Nel who had been firing arrows the whole time, but to no avail because of its tough hide, it reared its head back to fire magma. Kungen was looking for this chance because it would have to lower its head to fire in a straight line at Nel, then he would deliver the attack, to daze it and then deal the finishing blow. Wrong.
As the Lavasioth's head came foreward it shot the magma straight down melting the rock beneath, it dove into the hole, and swam back to the open sea of lava. The group of hunters were dazed, and didn't know what had just happened. Suddenly the Volganos came up from behind them and shot magma at them from its safe zone in the lava. The projectile was coming straight at Felix. He knew if the hot rock made contact with his skin he would be toast. So he did what he had to do, he raised his sword and blocked the attack. He knew what he had done though caused him to be useless for the rest of the fight, as his weapon slowly melted into nothing.
"Idiot, now what can you do."
"Distract it, which is what we need to do."
Felix reached into a pouch on his belt and took out a sonic bomb, and threw it at the Volganos.
The sound aggravated the wyvern, and it jumped from the hot lava, and landed behind the hunters. Felix picked up the handle of his Obelion, and threw it at the head of the wyvern as it turned around, clunking it on the head.
The wyvern was aggravated with Felix, its ears were ringing, it had just been plopped on the head with a hard piece of bone and steel that was tough enough to hold a 40 pound sword. It turned to Felix and shot hot magma at him, Felix evaded the attack and Nikki ran to the Volganos's legs and began hacking away once more, the wyvern paid no attention to its legs that were burning with pain, it just wanted to kill Felix. The blood was flying from Nikki's swords and the piscine's legs as it repeatedly shot magma at Felix who was easily avoiding the attack with no weapon to weigh him down. Kungen was on the sidelines charging an attack so that when Felix rotated around the wyvern and got it to face him he would unleash the attack on its head. But the unexpected happened - for Volganos. Nikki had been hacking away for so long that she had cut through the obsidian exterior of Volganos, through the thin membrane of skin, and into muscle. Nikki cut through the muscles and into the bone of Volganos's leg, causing it to fall over, and it was also unable to get up, Kungen ran over and brought his hammer down on Volganos's head, he was surprised when this didn't kill it, but he kept whacking away and eventually the poor piscine's head caved in and it stopped squirming.
"Those swords are pretty nice."
"Yeah, took a while to cut all the way through but its hide was something else."
"Yeah it's a pure obsidian shell."
Kungen motioned to the rest of the group.
"Alright guys scrap him, and lets go home, he was a lot easier than Nargacuga, lets hope James can make you a new sword though Felix."
"Yeah…I'll make sure to carry as many materials as I can so I can assure that he can."
"Good idea."
--------------
"Yeah I can make a sword with this, Greatsword right Felix?"
"Yup, that's my style."
"Alright come back tomorrow, it'll be ready."
"Sweet."
"So what now?" Nel asked.
"Let's report to Kefka and get some food," Kungen said, already walking to the guild hall.
"Sounds good," Nikki said following.
Uppon entering the guild hall, Kungen immediately placed an order for his dinner, and then turned to the rest of them.
"Save me a seat, I'll go report to Kefka."
Kungen walked through the office door, and saw Kefka sitting at his desk, like he always was.
"So how was Volganos."
"Not bad, the only casualty was Felix's sword."
"That's what molten hot rock does to things."
"No shit." Kungen paused and then the look on his face turned sour. "So Kefka, I need to know, because these guardians are pretty strong, just how strong is Yamatsukami."
"Well, I can't give you a good idea, but your lives are on the line, that's for sure."
"We're hunters, our lives are on the line every single day, what I want to know is if we're commiting glorified suicide."
"I really don't know, Yamatsukami was repelled by one hunter who was one of the best ever, but there was just one of him, there's four of you."
"I'm just worried."
"I can understand, usually the only requests around here are for khezu and the occasional blangonga, maybe a rathalos here or there, but that's all easy compared to what you're going against."
"We'll keep going, Volganos was a morale boost for me, he was easier than the last one, but I just don't know if I ever really want to find that rare diablos."
Kungen walked out of the room without any notice.
He sat down next to Nikki and across from Felix, and lowered his head and thought. He thought about the consequences of such dangerous hunts that he was wishing for at one point, but now, he missed easy mode Khezu.
"Kungen you're food came while you were in Kefka's office, here," Nikki slid a plate piled high with meat and veggies over to Kungen.
"Thanks."
"What's wrong? You seem out of it."
"I am just a little, don't worry, I'm fine."
"If you say so."
They all ate and went home quietly, without Kungen brightening the mood, they knew something was wrong, so they didn't say a word.
The next day they went by the crafting shop to pick up Felix's sword, it shone brightly for having such a dark blade, it was incredibly sharp, and emitted heat without even getting too close to it.
"This is one of my better pieces, swining it can evoke fire, and if it sees a spark it can even cause an explosion."
"Now I gotta kill something with it to break it in, thanks James. I'll just run this home, go wait in the hall for me."
Felix ran off and the other three went to the guild hall, and sat. They waited to hear news of the mysterious Diablos that they had to kill to release the final lock on the tower. They ate lunch at the hall and waited, and waited for what seemed like days, though it was just a few hours. They sat in the Guild hall till around midnight, no news. They all went to bed annoyed that they couldn't find the last guardian.
-----------------
As they sat in the guild hall bored for the second straight week they started to wonder if they could find anything to a amuse them, a stick or a dead rat would have brought them more joy then waiting for scouts to find something they were starting do doubt the existence of.
When the clock struck 11 at night, they all stood up ready to leave, when through the door barged a wounded hunter. Kungen looked at him closer and realized it was Ivan, the man who was the main village hunter until Felix and Kungen took over. He was a skilled hunter there was no doubt about that.
"You alright?"
"Not really..I was fighting a Diablos, they're a routine hunt for me but this one was different, it was faster, stronger, and had a much harder shell, It ran me down and got a piece of me with its horn but I broke it off," Ivan held out an enormous horn to them. "It's still out there, that Diablos is not normal."
"So there's a one horned super diablos out in the desert?"
"Yeah, basically."
"Kungen?" Nikki turned to Kungen.
"Yeah it has to be, get ready, we leave now, we'll get sleep at the desert base camp."
