``What we do now? Sneak?´´ Yoru whispered, ``Yeah, keep your head down and beware of sticks…´´ Derek spied, the Rathian was still wandering to the left. ``Let´s go´´ he motioned with his hand, still looking at the creature. Yoru crouched and started to crawl forward using the bushes as covers. After checking again to see if the creature was still walking away Derek crouched and followed the huntress but something happened.
Yoru heard a crack and a splashing sound. She looked down and saw that she had stepped on a giant hornet of the size of her. ``Oh no´´ Derek thought raising his head to look at the monster. The Rathian had stopped, it was looking around searching for the source of the noise. ``Derek…´´ the huntress mumbled, ``Quiet!´´ he whispered but his eyes widened when he saw a vespoid flying around. The insect monster was slowly going to the huntress which didn´t know if she should go or stay still. ``Dam it! If I kill it, the body will crack and make noise´´ the hunter thought as the creature approached Yoru. The huntress was fighting the urge to kill the pathetic bug, it was the first kind of monster she killed and she wasn´t fond of the paralysis effect that the poison caused. She thought that maybe she could just endure it and go on but she remembered that these creatures could sting several times before running out of poison. Fortunately Derek came with a solution.
``When I kill it, crawl the fastest you can…´´ he whispered and the huntress nodded. Derek grabbed his greatsword and prepared an upwards slash, it would require a great deal of control to move in this position and even more to stop the blade before it could reach the ground. Derek took a deep breath and prepared his blade.
CRACK! The bug exploded in many pieces and with a grunt the hunter stopped the blade just an inch or two from the ground. Green blood fell on Yoru´s armor but she didn´t have time to complain, she crawled towards the main camp with Derek behind. He didn´t even need to look, he could hear the footsteps as the green wyvern approached. They covered a good distance when the footsteps stopped, the hunter looked back and saw the Rathian sniffing the ground, some drops of green blood acted as a trail from the corpse to the duo. Derek looked back at Yoru, there was still some blood slipping through her armor. The huntress was a few steps away when she looked back to ask why her friend had stopped. Realizing the motivation, Yoru cursed under her breath, the beast was sniffing the ground following the trail.
``You go to the camp´´ Derek grabbed his bag from his back and opened it, he handed the huntress his earth crystal. ``You will…´´ she whispered taking the ore, ``I have fought Rathians before, now go´´ he whispered pointing with his hand. ``But!´´ she protested. The hunter turned and raised from the ground, his greatsword in both hands, ``Come on your bastard wyvern!´´ he shouted, the green beast roared noticing the intruder. ``Go!´´ he shouted as the wyvern stomped her way to her prey. Yoru blinked, for one second Derek turned into Rick and the Rathian into Kushala. ``I can take care of her! Don´t worry!´´ Derek shouted, bringing the huntress attention back. ``You better come back alive´´ she said crawling away. Derek smiled under his helm, he had only one thing to pay attention now.
The Rathian launched a fireball, usually a monster would fire straight but Derek knew better than that. He jumped backwards as the fireball exploded at the spot he was standing. The creature ran forward, roaring in defiance and spreading its wings wide. The hunter raised the sword high, then leaned it backwards, preparing for a downward slash. Derek grunted as he gathered all his strength, he needed to strike at the right moment. Judging the distance and speed of the Rathian he strained his muscles and bent his legs. This was the first time he tried to use this technique.
Some greatsword users started to use this kind of attack some years ago. The technique was based on the way hammer users gathered their power and slammed their weapons on the ground. But the greatswords had a bigger reach and the hunter started the move with the weapon already in a vertical position, while hammer users prepared the hammer in a horizontal position before lifting the weapon and smashing the ground, losing power in the process. Also, the blade had a tinnier area of contact compared to hammers and so, in theory, should cause a bigger damage on the target. Of course, both techniques required a great deal of strength and the hunter had to expect the attack to connect, otherwise it would leave the user exposed to the monsters.
``Raaaah!´´ Derek shouted swinging the sword as the Rathian got into range, the monster roaring at the same time. Somewhere in the forest Yoru stopped and looked back, she was too far to see anything but could swear she heard Derek shouting in fury. ``It is a battle cry, not a pain shout´´ she thought running again, ``It seems I own you one, again…´´ she mumbled in a bitter tone.
The Rathian fell on the ground, the greatsword craved on the head. Derek breathed heavily, adrenaline was pumping through his veins. He grabbed the sword and took it off the creature´s head, sighing in relief. But then he heard a grunt and looked at the monster, the Rathian shivered and opened its eyes. ``How did you survive that?!´´ he asked in disbelief. The monster raised and stood up, shaking the head to the sides as some scales fell to the ground revealing a deep cut in the head. The creature roared again, this time to the sky, ``Don´t tell me you called him´´ he said to himself as he held his sword diagonally. The Rathian spun to the side, the hunter crouched as the tail passed just inches from his head.
The hunter delivered a horizontal slash when the Rathian´s head was visible again and then used his own momentum to hit again. The monster opened the mouth in anguish as blood spilled on the ground. Before Derek could attack again the monster jumped back, flapping its wings and creating a wind gust. ``Dam it! She is winning time for her partner arrive´´ Derek said covering his face with his hand, when he looked again the monster was rushing at him. He held the sword horizontally and rolled to the right, barely dodging. The Rathian continued to run for a while before falling to the ground.
Yoru entered a clearing gasping for oxygen. ``What am I doing anyway?! I should be there, helping him! They say Shen created these rules to save hunters, then why I am following them now?´´ she asked to herself cleaning her forehead with the hand as she looked back. ``However Derek said he killed Rathians before and besides I would get in the way. But every hunt is dangerous, one slip and he is struck down. No, I am going back´´ she said looking back. A swooshing sound came from behind, followed by a powerful roar. Yoru looked back as the form of a red Rathalos came with claws extended to snatch she.
Yoru dived and fell on the ground, the king of the skies passed through and then ascended to the sky once more before he crashed the trees. ``I think I have my own problems right now´´ the huntress grumbled raising from the ground. She looked at the sky, the wyrm was flapping his wings, keeping a steady position at the center of the clearing. ``He has the height advantage and I have no places to hide´´ she thought biting her lips, she wished for an archer or a bow gunner at that moment. The king of the skies reared its head, smoke puffing from the mouth. Yoru ran to the side the fastest she could, the fireball exploded behind she and then another and another, she could fell the last´s one heat.
The Rathalos stared at the huntress as she regained her posture and looked back, they were immobile for an unknown time until the monster bend his neck backwards. Yoru prepared to run when a powerful roar filled her ears, forcing she to cover her ears with her hands, ``Agh!´´ she screamed in pain. When she opened her eyes, the monster had already launched an enormous fireball. She had no time to dodge or block with her small shield.
Derek blocked with his greatsword as the Rathian jumped and spun, hitting the weapon with its tail. The hunter was thrown back with the impact and slid for a while until he regained his footing. He jumped with his sword raised, aiming at the monster´s head as it landed, that was a mistake. As the monster landed it reared back and then jumped again, doing a back flip. The thorn filled tail struck the hunter in the chest, launching him at the ground.
Black smoke covered the area around Yoru, as the fog dissipated a giant shield stood in front of the huntress. ``Need some help?´´ a familiar voice asked, Yoru opened her eyes and saw a man covered in light blue armor, wielding a greatshield and lance of the same color. The armor was composed of several layers of scales, an orange hide of sorts covering the midsection at the front and white pants with a dark blue adorning the sides. The shield was made of the same kind of scales and was producing smoke as result of absorbing the fireball. ``Rick?´´ the huntress asked, ``The one and the same! My job is to slay that guy over there´´ he pointed his lance at the flying wyvern. The monster responded by firing another fireball, which the man easily blocked.
``Where is Derek?´´ he asked recovering from the impact, ``Fighting a Rathian´´ she answered. ``You go back to the camp, I will deal with this guy and then help he´´ Rick said impaling the ground with his lance and grabbing a yellow sphere from a bag hanging on his back. ``Cover your eyes!´´ he shouted launching the sphere, Yoru covered her face with her arm, she heard a small bang and then a flash coming from the corner of her eyes. ``Now run!´´ Rick shouted grabbing his weapon, she saw that the wyvern had fallen to the ground and was having trouble getting up. ``Go!´´ Rick insisted as he ran towards his target with his shield up and lance extended.
The huntress considered helping Rick, but then remembered her fight with the white skinned Khezu and her conversation with Rick when they first met. She wasn´t ready nor had the equipment to cause damage or survive the vicious attacks of the monster. ``One day…´´ she mumbled to herself as she fled from the battlefield.
Rick blocked a bite from the still dizzy Rathalos, the flash bomb was useful for taking flying beast from the sky but some monsters kept turning and attacking without a pattern, which made attacks risky situations. The monster suddenly jerked its head up and then shook it to the sides, Rick trusted his spear, aiming at the creature´s neck but missed by just a few inches and so jumped back twice to gain distance. ``I am glad I had this blue kut ku armor in my storage´´ he thought as he blocked the fire breath of the wyvern.
Yoru stopped and then crouched behind a bush. She almost ran straight into a pack of bullfango. The boar like monster were annoying to every monster hunter, be a novice or even a high rank one. One or two here a nuisance, but an entire pack of eight or more was a walking nightmare to every hunter in the entire continent. The last thing she wished at that moment was a group of them running behind she to the resting camp, they were faster than any human, especially hunters carrying heavy materials or using heavy armor. Yoru waited for the monsters to pass through and then resumed her way to the camp.
After half of an hour or so she reached the camp, but then she hid behind a tree. The blue box was open, she was sure that Derek had closed it when they left. Something or someone had found their camp and might be inside the tent. The huntress spied for a long time while also paying attention to any sound around the area. When nothing came she walked from behind the tree and with over caution and went to the box with sword drawn, the box was empty. She twisted her legs and waist and then jumped in front of the tent´s entrance. ``Nothing?´´ she asked looking around, the bed sheets were all scrambled . The cupboard was open with nothing inside, but that's because Yoru didn´t store anything there. Yoru crouched and checked the ground for footprints, there were none since the ground inside the tent was harder than the outside because of the lack of humidity. She instead went outside again and searched the area around the box. ``These marks, they…´´she didn´t have time to finish, a group of Melynx jumped from behind the trees and quickly surrounded the huntress.
``Melynx, you dirty thieves´´ she said looking around, the black cats were wielding staffs with a pawn like structure on the tip while some had small barrels on their hands, all had their faces covered by a green veil. ``Give the felvine human! Meow!´´ one of the black cats said. ``Felvine? I don´t have any´´ the huntress answered. Felvine was a yellow herb coveted by Melynx, the black cats would do almost anything to put their pawns on the "holy" herb, including robbing items from hunters in search of said plant. Yoru had bad experiences with these black cats during her "three months training", which included stole ores, materials and food. She wouldn´t let these thieves rob her precious earth stones.
``I bet you are lying, meow!´´ one Melynx said, ``So we will have to "check"´´ another said snickering. ``Just try! I am not in a good mood today!´´ Yoru said grabbing the hilt of her sword, she spun and then kicked a Melynx that was sneaking behind her with a small explosive bomb. The cat flew back to the circle of bandits and the explosive detonated just a few seconds later, creating a cloud of black smoke.
Derek shook his head as he sidestepped the Rathian´s bite, his vision was getting blurred and his muscles stiff. Blood was dripping from a crack in his belly´s armor. ``Dam these poison spikes´´ he thought slashing the sword downwards, aiming at the creature´s head. The monster recognized the attack and used its head as a battering ram, sending the hunter flying away. ``Ugh! This is…not my day´´ he said hugging his belly as the monster stomped its way to him.
A metal ball fell from a nearby tree, bouncing on the branches and falling at the hunter´s side, he looked at the sphere, trying to recognize what kind of object was that, until white smoke erupted from the top, covering the area around him.
