Hunt 8: Old Rival

It's been 4 days since Zedept, Lyra and Raylin arrived in Abagret and meet Kristia.

A Guild Room: Mid-Day

Zedept is laying on a couch with his hands behind his head on one arm of the couch and his feet on the other arm of the couch with his greatsword leaning on the wall next to the couch. Lyra is sharpening her long sword while sitting on a chair. Raylin is preparing more ammo for the trip. "What's taking so long?" Lyra asks frustrated. "Chill out." Zedept said with his eyes closed. "Why should I?" Lyra asks.

"Think about it like this, you've learned how to use your ice element better here and Raylin learned how to make ice shots." Zedept said with his eyes still closed. "Ok, you got a point there." Lyra said. "I know." Zedept said as he turns onto his left side. "Why do you sleep most of the day?" Raylin asks. "It's to conserve heat and energy. With the cold up here, it's better to sleep most of the time." Zedept answers. "Oh, that makes sense." Raylin says. 5 minutes later, Kristia walks in. "Good, you all are here." Kristia said. "Any clues?" Lyra asks.

"One of my informant friends from the Western Continent thinks that they may have a clue but you'll have to go there and meet their guild leaders." Kristia said as she sits down on a chair. "The Western Continent." Lyra said. "The Land of the Great Lava Sea." Zedept said. Raylin and Lyra looked over at Zedept. Zedept turns over and sits up. "The Western Continent is a volcanic land where about 1/3 of the land is covered by lava. All the hunters there are masters of the fire element and it's also where tough monsters live." Zedept explained.

"So we go from extreme cold to extreme hot, great." Lyra said. "You and Raylin have fire armor so you'll be fine but I'm in ice armor so I have to be careful." Zedept said. "Any idea on how long it will take to get there?" Raylin asks. "It'll take 5 days to walk to the port that will take you there and then it's a 2 week boat ride." Kristia said. "That's a long time." Raylin says. Lyra looks over to Zedept but he's not there. "Where did he go?" Lyra asks. Kristia and Raylin look and sees that Zedept left and took his greatsword.


Abagret Streets

Zedept is walking through the streets and heading towards an exit. "It's been a long time but this time, I'm going to finish this for good." Zedept said as he looks up a mountain and starts walking.


Guild Room

Kristia, Raylin and Lyra are looking at maps of the Western Continent. A person enters the room. "Kristia, someone saw Zedept heading towards Scarred Mountain." The person said. Kristia eyes widened. "What's Scarred Mountain?" Raylin asks. "It's where Zedept kept hunting that Tigrex. Due to the fact that they always fought on that mountain, we decided to rename it to Scarred Mountain." Kristia said. "Why are we just standing here? We need to catch up to him." Lyra said. "Yeah, I'll guide you up the mountain, let's go." Kristia said and the 3 of them leave and heads to Scarred Mountain.


Scarred Mountain Summit.

Zedept is walking up the mountain. He looks around. "This is the spot where it started." He said as he stops. "According to Kristia's files, it always comes this way around this time." He said. He now waits. 10 minutes later, Kristia, Lyra and Raylin catch up to Zedept. "I knew that we'll find you here." Kristia said. "You shouldn't of brought them here." Zedept said not facing them. "We're partners, that what we're here for." Raylin said. "And more importantly, we're friends." Lyra said. Zedept closes his eyes and smiles a bit. "Thank you both but this is my fight and my fight alone, ok?" Zedept said and asks.

"Ok." Lyra said. A roar came from nowhere. Raylin and Lyra are looking around as Zedept and Kristia just stand there. A large black figure starts to appear through the snow. They stare at the figure as it gets clearer. The figure stops and the snow stops falling and reveals a scarred and busted up Tigrex. Lyra and Raylin just stare at it since it's their first time seeing a Tigrex this close. "It's been a long time." Zedept said to the Tigrex. Tigrex looks at him. Zedept takes off the hat to reveal his hair. Tigrex got into attack position.

"So now you recognize me." Zedept said. Tigrex let out a series of low roars as it was talking to Zedept. "I'm here to finish this for good." Zedept said as he grabs his greatsword and gets ready to hunt. "You 3 take cover." Zedept said not taking his eyes off Tigrex. Kristia takes Lyra and Raylin to a safe spot to watch. Zedept and Tigrex stare at each other. Tigrex makes the first move by slamming its right claw into the snow and throwing 3 snowballs at Zedept. Zedept dodges them and charges. Tigrex charges forward and does its spinning tackle. Zedept quickly guards and get set back and Tigrex goes back to where it was.

"Damn, I see that you learned some new moves." Zedept says to Tigrex. Tigrex does a series of low roars, like it's trying to tell Zedept something. Zedept charges. Tigrex raises its head up and does a load roar. Zedept stops suddenly and plugs his ears and closes his eyes. "That's load." Raylin says covering her ears. Tigrex jumps and Zedept opens up his eyes in time to block it but gets pinned down with his greatsword blocking Tigrex's claws. "Damn, not like this." Zedept said in his head. Tigrex goes to bite Zedept's head.

Suddenly a series of small yelps came and Tigrex stopped and looked where it was coming from as well as the gang. They see 3 baby Tigrexes. Tigrex gets off Zedept and walks over to the babies. Zedept gets up. "Now that explains why you didn't want to leave that area, you was protecting them." Zedept said as he gets up. Tigrex lets out a low roar. "She's been trying to tell you that." Kristia said. "You know I can't understand monsters like you." Zedept said as he puts his greatsword away. "Hold on, how do you know the this Tigrex is a female?" Lyra asks. "Female Tigrexes have longer horns than the males." Zedept said. "Oh." Lyra said. The baby Tigrexes heads towards the gang. The babies just look at them with weird looks.

Raylin goes to pet one when Tigrex growls and Raylin stops. Zedept grabs his greatsword. Tigrex growls at him. Zedept walks to a mountain wall and leans his greatsword on it and walks away from his greatsword. Tigrex stops growling. "Do the same thing." Zedept said to them. They takes their weapons and lean them with Zedept's weapon and walks away from them. "Ok Raylin, it's safe now." Zedept said as he stares at Tigrex. Raylin slowly bends down and touches one of the babies. It does a little yelp roar. "So cute." Raylin says. Lyra and Kristia bends down and touches the other 2 babies. Zedept walks over to Tigrex. They stare at each other. Zedept places a few of his right fingers over his scar.

Tigrex moves its head to have its scar towards him. Zedept places his left hand on Tigrex's scar. "We both have scarred each other." Zedept said. Tigrex does a low growl. "This rivalry is done." Zedept said as he takes his hand off Tigrex as well as his scar. Tigrex looks at him. "Go and raise your kids and lets meet again soon." Zedept said. Tigrex lowers its head. Zedept places his right hand on its head. "Goodbye, my old rival." Zedept said. Tigrex raises its head and does a low roar and the babies run over to Tigrex and they walk off into the mountain.

Kristia walks up to Zedept. "Looks like it's over." She said. "Yeah, now we're even." He said. "Yep and now I know why Tigrex has been avoiding hunters." She said. "Let's go back, we have a long trip ahead." He says as he walks over to his greatsword and places it back on his back. Kristia, Lyra and Raylin do the same thing and heads back to town.