Iron Heart

Disclaimer: Monster Hunter is copyright Capcom. All the characters in this story are mine, unless otherwise noted.

Edited by: Hoenn Master96 and Thomas A. Hawk


Two days later, Logan and the other three 'rookie' hunters found themselves near the entrance to the village, sitting around a small fire pit as they ate breakfast. Sonia had wanted to take off on the quest the day before, eager for another shot at taking down a Nerscylla, but they'd decided to wait an extra day so Bram could fully heal.

There had been a layer of tension around the village the previous day, as news of the explosion in Dundorma circulated. What surprised Logan, however, was how the tension had dissipated so quickly: by evening, while there were still rumors of what had happened being whispered, the fear and worry had dimmed. Rather, the entire village had passed into a state of resigned acceptance.

"You get used to it, I suppose," Burmecia had told him the previous day during lunch.

"What you mean?"

"Dundorma is no stranger to damage. The city is attacked fairly regularly by elder dragons, and they're not always stopped from getting inside the walls. Kirin are easy enough to keep out, sure, but most other elders can just fly into the middle of the city if they want. A Chameleos attacked just a month or so before the exam, I hear. Didn't get to the city proper, but still caused a lot of damage to one of the walls. They're not the worst, though. Kushalas or Teostras… round about ten years ago a better part of the southern side was burned by a single Teostra. Thing wasn't even killed in the end, just chased off."

"Ja, heard 'bout that…" Logan muttered. "But this ain't exactly an elder attack, is it? This was just… an accident, or something."

"Yeah, well… One disaster isn't too different from another," the woman sighed, sliding a plate of fruit salad and mixed nuts to the hunter. Looking around and seeing she didn't have any other customers at the moment, she sat down across the table from him. "I don't want to speculate about what that explosion was before we hear something official, but we'll do what we always do: deal with it, power on through, and rebuild. That's the way it's been, that's the way it'll always be. Maybe it sounds weird to the foreigner."

"Why people put up with it, though? Why they choose to stick around somewhere they's always gonna be in danger of being attacked by an elder? Why not go… somewhere else?"

The cook sighed. "For some folks it's not so simple. Picking up your life and moving isn't always easy. Sometimes it's money; not a lot of folks can afford to move somewhere safer. Sometimes it's stubbornness; people have lived in the city for a long time and they don't want to give in to the elder dragons, no matter how many of them come. A lot of the time, though? It's love. Love for their land, love for their city, love for the place where they were raised and reared, the place they cherish for all the memories they've made. For whatever reason, the city's a giant bullseye for elder dragons, and that puts their lives at risk, but… it's still their home. And a person's gonna defend their home if they can. Are the Therians any different?"

"I guess not."

"It's not to say nobody leaves though," the woman told him. "I used to live in Dundorma myself, actually. Truth be told, I was one of the people who decided they just couldn't take the idea of living in such a dangerous city anymore."

"Really? Huh… Never pegged you for a city girl," Logan replied, popping a few slices of fruit into his mouth. "What clenched it in the end? Just one too many elders knocking at the gate?"

Burmecia smiled ruefully. "Well, when you're a newlywed who's just discovered she's pregnant with twins, and your husband and parents are killed by a Kushala… you start looking for an escape from the place that might do the same to your unborn children."

The fruit between Logan's fingers slipped out of his grip, splattering to the ground underneath him as he stared at the woman in shock. "Hoy. Wow. Sorry… I didn't-"

"Oh, don't apologize, young man," the cook smiled. "It's an old story, and one everyone around here except you hunters already knows. I couldn't stand to stay in Dundorma anymore, so I used what money I had left to buy a little wagon and sign on as a cook for the first caravan which would take an untraveled pregnant woman. And the caravan that took me was Stellazzio. Been here ever since, me and my little angels."

"Huh…" Logan glanced back towards the cooking wagon. Behind the counter, Conde and Petie were coloring on a few pieces of paper, chattering back and forth about their works of art. Logan looked around the wagons as the rest of the caravaneers worked to sell their wares to the sporadic browsing villagers. All of them were circled up as per usual… outside of the village walls. "Don't figure staying with a caravan's much safer than living in Dundorma, though."

"Hmm. Perhaps not. But I think it's much the same for caravans as it is for Dundorma: money, stubbornness, or love. In my case, just love. The road's no safer than any of the cities, maybe even less so, but Dundorma holds too many bad memories, and my time here with Stellazzio has only made me happy. Maybe one day my children will want to settle down in a safe place, somewhere stationary, but as for me… I think I'll be with Stellazzio for the rest of my life."

It had certainly given Logan something to think about for the rest of the day. In the meantime, Tuli and Vi had set off the previous day on their Emerald Conga hunt, alongside one of the local hunters, but they had yet to return. Their prey didn't have a nest, though, so they probably had just camped out somewhere. No emergency flares had been spotted in their direction, so they were probably fine.

Logan had finished his own breakfast already, and was watching with wry humor as Sonia and Leon bickered over who deserved the last slice of Mosswine bacon. Bram had finished long ago, possessing a surprisingly small appetite for a hunter, and was skimming his way through a small collection of papers he'd gotten in a letter from his sister, Mina, the previous day.

"So this supposed to be help for this big invention Sonia says you is working on?" Logan asked, glancing over Bram's shoulder. The pages were a mess of technobabble and diagrams which Logan didn't care to try and decipher.

"Something like that…" Bram replied, browsing the documents. "It's mostly details on experiments she's conducted which might be similar to what I have in mind. Not all of this is useful, but it'll serve as a fine foundation. I hate to admit it, but I might need to send a letter to Seward and Quincey as well. Getting information out of those two is like pulling teeth though; they always make a game out of it. Maybe I ought to send one to Senya as well… I could use advice on my Amritas and Cathangeas."

"Seward and Quincy's the, uh, the alchemists, right? The weird ones, ja?"

"Yeah, the 'weird ones'."

"Right. Can barely keep all you family sorted in my head. And Senya is the stoner."

"She's a botanist, Logan, not- Oh, who am I kidding. Yes, the stoner."

"Heh, thought so. You don't grow some of the stuff I seen in her greenhouse just for science, hey?"

"There are some medical properties to those herbs, you know."

"Heh, 'herbs' he calls 'em…" Logan chuckled. He looked back across the fire to discover that, while Sonia and Leon had been bickering, Franky had settled the argument for them by flying over and stealing the last slice of bacon for himself. Logan laughed at the sight of Sonia yelling at the Kinsect while the creature sat perched on top of Selene's wagon, nibbling away contentedly at its stolen meal.

The hunters waited for another ten minutes or so, watching fishers and farmers and the like walking out of the village and off to see to their daily tasks. Eventually, a loud clinking and clattering could be heard approaching the wagons, and Logan looked up in time to spot a peculiar man heading their way. A single glance was all Logan needed to peg him as their client; his outfit just screamed 'scholar'. A button-up, white-collared shirt and brown vest under a long green duster coat, and all of it clean and unsullied by dirt or mud. Several pockets were filled with pens and pencils, rulers and protractors, all sorts of equipment he needed for… whatever he needed them for. He held a thick book under one arm, and had a large satchel clattering around on his back with who-knows-what inside.

While the man's choice of clothes and obvious research equipment gave away his profession, what shocked Logan was the man's physique. When he'd heard that they'd be guarding a researcher, he was expecting someone thin and wiry, or heavyset and stout. He'd seen all number of their kind in the Compound back when he was still dating Mina. This man, however, was not what Logan had been expecting: he was built like a pit fighter. Broad-shouldered, six and a half feet tall, with short-cut black hair and a strong jaw. Mix those features with his sharp-looking eyes, and even the small, circular glasses resting on the brim of his nose gave him an imposing figure.

"Ah, um… Ahem. H-hello there. M-might you be the hunters I h-hired? Hmm? Yes? Maybe?"

And any intimidating presence the man might have had before was gone in an instant. Logan realized that, despite the man's physique and fierce expression, it was just the way his face was structured. Under the narrowed eyes, the man was nervous and uncomfortable, fidgeting as the four hunters turned to face him.

"Ja, that's us," Logan replied, reaching a hand forward. The man looked at it uncertainly for a moment before shaking awkwardly. "You Thatch?"

"Ah, um, yes. Indeed I am. Thatch Pendleton, at your service… Or, um, perhaps you are at mine, since I am, ah, hiring you after all… So, well… Hmm, well, here's my card."

The man fumbled through his pockets for a few moments, digging through half a dozen before finding a small collection of business cards and passing them out. Logan raised an eyebrow as he skimmed it, keeping his frustration from showing on his face; he hoped Thatch was more capable than he seemed. Escorting a jittery man like this promised to be a slog if he acted like this the entire time. Still, he supposed the pay was worth it, assuming Thatch didn't actively try to make this mission a living hell.

"The Elder Dragon Observation Team?" Sonia spoke up, glancing up from her card, and Logan glanced down to read his more carefully. Sure enough… "You work for them? Uh, what kind of research expedition was this supposed to be again? Because I was told a Nerscylla was our likely threat, not an elder…"

"Oh! No, no! No elders on this journey… Or, um, I certainly hope not. I haven't heard anything like that… No, ah, I am a member of the E.D.O.T.'s archeology and research division. We don't deal, um, directly with elder dragons, no ma'am. We focus on more, hmm, shall we say, historical data? My job is to study the, ah, the information compiled about elder dragons and other monsters within old historical records, including the, well, including old ruins and dig sites. Such as the Iron Heart. The ruins are presumed to contain some manner of, of information concerning elder dragons, or concerning other monsters of… of concern."

"Well, that's a relief, I guess. I'd rather not have to get up close and personal with an elder if I don't have to. Not yet at least."

"Yes! Yes, I believe… I believe we are in agreement about that. Now! Um, now, are we… are you all ready to go? Can we go? Can we… move out?"

"Think so," Logan replied, glancing at the others for confirmation and getting a collection of nods. "Right then, we can take off, hey?"

"Ah! W-wonderful. Then, let us go, yes?"

"Right, let's go."

With that the hunters and their ward headed north. The start of the journey was easy enough, following an existing road weaving through crop fields and animal farms, passing by grazing herds of Kelbi, Popo, and Gargwa. Eventually the path vanished out from under their feet, changing from well-worn gravel to rugged dirt, until there was little directing them but a thin strip of earth where years boots and greaves had stamped down the grass lower. Not much further and their path was gone, leaving them with only their sense of navigation to get them where they need.

"So, Thatch," Bram spoke up, "what can you tell us about this 'Iron Heart'?"

"Oh. Um… Well, I've never been myself, but from what I've learned, it's an old ruin out in the the Everwood. I don't know if you asked any of the locals about the legends surrounding the location-"

"We asked around the pub yesterday," Sonia replied. "Giant steel beams rising up from the earth, old and weathered like a rusty iron ribcage, the bones of a fallen giant. I heard a buncha stories about the place. They say a long time ago a great hunter fought a huge Gravios the size of Dundorma, and when it died the rest of its body was slowly eaten away, except for its ribcage. Its bones were hard as steel, and remain to this day in the place where it fell, surrounding where the creature's enormous heart had been. Thus, the Iron Heart… which doesn't make sense, because only the ribcage is supposed to be there, and the beams are made of steel, aren't they?"

"True, but 'Steel Ribcage' doesn't quite roll of the tongue like 'Iron Heart', does it?" Bram grinned.

"Either way, neither of the names are true indications for what's actually there," Thatch said. "What actually awaits us there is an old Lost ruin."

"A Lost ruin?" Logan muttered. "Didn't know they was any of them left."

"Very few. It's been over ten thousand years since our era, so unless they're in a dry area like the desert or kept well-preserved, time has reduced our old cities to rubble at best."

"So, whatcha hoping to learn from a buncha rusted old steel beams sticking up from the earth?"

"From the Lost ruin itself? Nothing," Thatch replied. "Nothing I don't already know. Old, dilapidated multi-story buildings. Maybe some lingering copper pipes or PVC. The broken remains of a highrise somewhere if you're lucky. But there's nothing there I can't find in my memories or those of older Lost."

"Then what you even going there for?"

"The writing on the wall surrounding the Heart itself," Thatch explained.

"What writing?" Leon asked. "What wall?"

"Well, like I said, Lost structures wouldn't last long unless the location was suitable, or if the buildings were intentionally preserved. From what I've heard, the Iron Heart is the latter: the entire city is surrounded by a wall of Meridian stone, which has allowed the Heart to survive the ages longer than it would otherwise. You see, the Meridians studied the Lost's civilization just as curiously as we study theirs. They found places where old Lost structures managed to survive the ages, and built walls up around them for the sake of studying them. You can find those kind of ruins here and there throughout the world, if you know where to look, and the Heart is one of those places."

"There's one of them near the Compound, actually," Bram noted, and Sonia nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, Mom and Dad took me there a couple times when I was younger. It's the place where my Mom woke up from her crystal, actually… I think she still goes by once every couple years. She takes flowers and treats it like a graveyard; apparently a few people she knew died there."

"Really? That's new information," Thatch said, intrigued. "There were Lost crystals in one of these enclosures? Perhaps there were some in this one as well…"

"Thinking if they was, the locals woulda mentioned it, hey?" Logan noted.

"Ah. Good point."

"I have a question," Leon piped up. "You said you were looking into this ruins for information about elder dragons back at the village, but just now you said this ruin was a Meridian study of the Lost. How do you expect to find information about elder dragons at the ruins of an old Lost city?"

"Or are you here for other reasons besides elder dragon study?" Bram asked poignantly.

"Oh, no! I mean, yes, I am here for elder dragon research, and no, I am not here for other purposes! Though, admittedly, my focus of study is rather roundabout…"

"How so?"

"Well… The Meridians studied the Lost, yes?"

"Certainly."

"And if there is information to be gleaned about elder dragons when it comes to the Lost, there is… certainly at least one elder dragon you could think of which has had a profound affect on the Lost, couldn't you?"

"The Alatreon."

"Precisely. Now, I am… fairly certain that, if the Meridians took time to study the Lost so intently, they must have done so with the desire to learn more about the Alatreon's abilities. After all, the beast did spite their people just as greatly as it spited the Lost, just as it spited the current world until only a quarter-century ago. So they would want to learn as much as they could about it. With fortune, these walls will have information about the Meridian's own elder dragon research on it, and who knows what sort of insights such a civilization had? The walls surrounding the Heart could change our way of dealing with elder dragons forever!"

"Really?" Leon asked skeptically.

"Erm… perhaps not. Admittedly it might just be some already-known biological data or inconsequential ponderings about Lost culture, which is admittedly rather redundant these days. But maybe I'll get lucky."

"So you might not find anything at all?" Sonia asked.

"Unfortunately, no. This could be a dangerous wild goose chase. Still, it could also lead to an archeological goldmine, so I believe it's worth the risk. And hopefully, worth what I'm paying you."

"'Less we actually run into an elder, thinking you gonna be fine, hey?" Logan chuckled.

"Well, that's a relief… I think."

Hours passed as the hunters continued north, but travel was surprisingly slow. The foliage was thick in this part of the Everwood, and more often than not the hunters were forced to find their ways around large inclines or drops, skirting cliff faces and weaving through the heavy underbrush. Even if the four of them had climbing training, Thatch didn't, and the group was forced to take the safer paths.

Local monsters certainly didn't make travel easier, as several packs of Ioprey and Congas forced the hunters to either avoid them or fight through them. They'd hoped to stop and take a break upon coming across a small clearing, but several oddly-shaped rock formations made Sonia and Leon skittish about the possibility of a submerged Basarios. Sonia was eager at the prospect of trying their chances against the monster now that Bram had a charge blade with him, but Logan forced her on, pushing the hunters in search of a safer place to rest.

Sonia didn't mind the slow pace, surprisingly enough. Since leaving Dundorma, she'd gained some of Tuli's habits, and as they continued through the Everwood her eyes would dart between the bushes and flowers in search of the nectars she needed for Franky. Her search would sometimes drive the hunters to a halt for a minute or two as she scrounged her way through a cluster of flowers, collecting whatever she could. The huntress soon had a growing collection of clinking bottles rattling around in her pouch, though each stop she had to put more effort into keeping Franky from eating the Amritas before she could even collect them.

Soon enough, noon had come and gone, leading into late afternoon and approaching evening. The sunlight was just beginning to shift from its vibrant yellow to a slight orange tint as they finally crested a hill and spotted their destination in the distance.

Logan had to admit the name was fitting. Ancient steel columns and crossbeams rose up from the earth a few miles ahead, rusted and stained yellow-orange and brown in stark contrast to the green foliage around it, breaking through the surrounding canopy. The trees of the Everwood weren't exactly small, yet these steel beams still rose above them, twisted and curved under the weight of gravity, and time had certainly deformed their shape, bending them to the point where it seemed as though several of them would surely collapse under their own weight. Yet they still stood, twisted in on themselves to the point where it was akin to a giant ribcage. The Iron Heart.

"I don't think we're getting back to the village today," Leon noted, glancing at the angle of the sun.

"Definitely not," Bram agreed. "And we're still at least a ways out. It might be nightfall before we even reach this place."

"I guess studying the ruins won't be easy at night, huh?" Sonia asked, glancing at Thatch.

"Oh, certainly not. Sunlight is preferable."

"Thought so. So should we just get to the place and camp there? We should be able to get there before the sun's under the horizon, so-"

"No. We can get a little closer, but we gonna camp a bit aways from the place," Logan replied. "Remember girlie, they's a Nerscylla 'round there. Don't need it jumping us when we sleeping, hey?"

"Oh, right. So a cave then?"

"Ja, something like that. We see what we find between here and there, and we take the first thing that looks safe."

The hunters pressed on, keeping an eye out for a decent place to make camp. Eventually they found a small hovel under a towering willow. The ancient tree was absolutely enormous compared to those around it, with a trunk two dozen yards wide and a canopy reaching higher than any other. At the base, however, a shadowed hollow had been dug out between the roots, offering a space wide enough for five travelers to settle in for the night, relatively out of sight.

"Wonder what lived here?" Bram muttered, brushing his fingers against the floor. A few old bones and sticks were scattered about, giving the impression of what was once a nest, but the remains looked as though they'd been there for a long time. The hollow had probably been abandoned for years.

"Who knows?" Leon sighed. "Pack animals wouldn't claim such a small place, so not any Dromes or Congas. Maybe a Kut-Ku, or a Tigrex."

"Is it safe here?" Thatch asked nervously.

"Ja, we gonna be fine," Logan replied. "Ain't nothing lived here for a long time." In the center of the room, Sonia and Bram were making a fire pit while Leon worked to clear some space to sleep. Logan brushed his foot across the dirt; it looked like there was some soot mixed in with the bones and branches. "Might be they's other hunters that used this place for a sleep too, hey?"

"I suppose that's somewhat encouraging."

"Thought you'd be used to this by now, if you been out searching for ruins all this time."

"Yes, well, I may have gotten in better shape over the years, but I'm no hunter. Just because I can travel further and can carry more equipment on my research expeditions, doesn't mean I won't be eaten by a pack of Jaggis just as quickly as before. I am stronger, but I still have no combat ability. Call me skittish if you want, but I'll remain wary when it comes to my odds of being eaten."

"Nah, that's fair," Logan chuckled. "Hoy, Bram, go look 'round and see if you can find anything to eat. See if they's any Bullfangos or Gargwa you can get us for dinner, hey?"

"Yeah, sure," the hunter nodded, striding out of the cave and heading towards the treeline.

"Shouldn't we rely on our rations instead?" Leon spoke up, a touch of distaste in his voice. "It isn't necessary for us to kill something when we have an adequate substitute."

"Ja, I know, Clanky, but we only got so many rations. Looking like we probably not getting back to the village 'til tomorrow night or the next morning, hey?"

"Even so, we have the food we need, so why-"

"'Cause they healthy and last forever. They's fine if you just gonna be gone a day or something, and you ain't gonna wanna waste you time hunting for something more filling, but for times like this, is always better to kill and eat what you can, hey? We pretty far from the village right now. If something goes wrong, you gonna wanna have those rations with all they preservatives and stuff; keeps real good for a few weeks." Leon frowned, crossing his arms and staring at the floor. Logan sighed and patted his shoulder. "Calm down, Clanky. It ain't like we killing anything for fun or nothing. Looking like we gonna be here for tomorrow too, maybe the morning after, too. We getting food from the deal, probably 'nuff for breakfast tomorrow and maybe lunch too, depending on how big whatever Bram finds is."

"Alright, fine… as long as we don't act wasteful."

"Jeez, I still don't know how you keep up this whole Way of the Shield thing," Sonia sighed from the center of the cave. She'd manage to dig out a small depression in the dirt, and had managed to encircle half of it with some fist-sized stones she'd found scattered around. "I mean, me and Bram and Logan already have almost ten hunts on our Guild cards already, but you're only at four. Aren't you worried?"

The lancer shook his head solemnly. "I came to terms with that a long time ago, that the Way of the Shield is going to put my hunting career in the slow lane."

"Still, aren't you worried that you'll… um… I mean… never mind."

"Worried that I'll be left behind? Worried that the rest of you will get too far ahead of me while my ethics slow me down?" Sonia winced and nodded apologetically, but the lancer shook his head with a downcast expression. "Don't worry, I'm already… I mean, Vi's already high-ranked, and I've only got four hunts to my Guild card. Hell of a gap for two hunters who were raised together and trained together, huh?" Leon crossed his arms in front of him and sighed, before turning towards the exit. "I… I'm going to go try and find some firewood."

"Wait, Leon, I didn't-" Sonia stared at the lancer's back as he sulked out of the hollow, and the huntress expression grew doleful as she returned to digging out a fire pit. Thatch looked towards Logan in confusion, but the hunter could only shake his head and shrug before setting his great sword aside and helping to clean out some places so they'd be able to lay down and rest once night fell.

Evening passed uneventfully. Leon eventually returned with a couple bundles of dry branches under each arm, setting down to start a fire. Bram returned soon after, dragging the carcass of an impaled Gargwa behind him, giving Sonia something to do as she and the charge blade user flayed the corpse. Meanwhile, Logan set up a collapsible spit he had with him, Leon did circles around the hollow to keep watch for possible threats following the smell of dead Gargwa, and Thatch busied himself with his notes. Night fell, dinner was cooked and eaten, and soon the group was preparing for the night, with Leon volunteering for first watch.

"Wake me up 'round midnight, I'll take second watch, hey?"

"Got it," the lancer replied, marching out of the hollow. Looking back into the nook, Thatch has curled himself up at the farthest end inside the deepest shadows of the cave, trying his best to hide himself away, while Sonia and Bram were huddled up next to each other, the huntress snoring slightly as she rested her head against Bram's shoulder, with Franky nestled up comfortably in her arms. Their weapons were laying in the corner next to them, the glaive buried under the bulky charge blade.

Content that things were fine, Logan lay back against the curve of the tree trunk, closing his eyes and dozing off.


Darkness. Nothing but darkness. A small sound, an echo, growing clearer through the murk. A small pressure, a weight on the mind. Small ripples, shadows and hazy illusions flickering through the black.

Hungry… Need to find food.

Can smell something. Little thing of feathers and meat. It's close…

There! Heard it… Many of them, gathered together. Noisy. Must be careful, get closer. Pouce, catch them off guard. Can nearly sense them… small dust will show them.

There. Only their feet, but can tell their location. Closer, closer, just enough to pounce… Go! Run run run run SMASH! Break bones smell blood no more noise! Another? Another! Run run run run GRAB BITE TEAR SHAKE BREAK! Neck snaps hanging limp dead now. Both of them dead, others gone running, can smell them. Hear them, feel them far away, little ripples. Find them later. Maybe the ripple spreads. They live, they die, they live again. Now eat. Take and hide and eat.

Is it safe…? It's quiet. It's safe. Now to eat. Pull feathers, tear flesh, eat insides. Be quick, don't want them getting up…

...What is this?

Hmm? A noise? Where is it?

Is I dreaming…? The hell is all this?

Noise! Voice! Words? Dust! Where are you?!

The hell is this thing talking about?

'This thing'? What are YOU talking about? Where are you? Stop hiding!

You can hear me…?

Voice with words, so noisy! I will find you! Where where WHERE WHERE?

Ugh, my head… I is not hiding! Can't see you, hey? Can't see anything here-

Liar! What is 'see'?! Liar! Can't find you! No ripples! Can't smell you! Can hear you! STOP HIDING! I will crush you, break you!

I isn't hiding damn it! I don't even know what's going on! Where is you?

No! No… no no… Where… where are you… Voice echoes, echoes in my head.

You head? What that supposed to mean?

In my head… My head. MY head. Get out! My mind, my body, my control! Nobody else!

I don't know - agh, don't… my head hurts, you yelling so loud! I don't know what you talking 'bout! I ain't- Ugh… Why… why is-

No! No, get out! Out of my head! MY head! Out out out OUT OUT OUT! DON'T LIKE YOU GET OUT NOW! MY HEAD MINE MINE MINE MINE!

Logan bolted upright, gasping for air. A cold sweat chilled the skin on his face, bringing him close to shivers despite the warm air. He reached up, pressing a hand against his forehead as a deep ache pressed against his skull, not so much a pain as an intense pressure as though he was deep underwater. Everything felt muted and dull, his vision was swimming, and he didn't feel entirely there… The feeling was fading, thankfully, vanishing from his skull like he was coming up for air. The cold sweat lingered, however, clinging to his flesh and chilling him, but even that was slowly disappearing as he stared down at the dimly-glowing cinders of the fire.

"You alright?" Logan looked up to see Leon staring at him from the entrance to the hollow.

"Ja… Ja, I is fine…" Logan replied, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "Just a nightmare, hey?"

"Sounds like it was a bad one."

"Maybe…" Logan pushed to his feet, staggering towards the entrance and savoring the feeling of the soft breeze passing through the trees. The night air was warm, and soon the cold sweat on his body disappeared. However, even as the chills subsided, he found himself wide awake. It was still late at night, and the position of the moon told him it was a long time before morning…

"I'll take over watch," Logan sighed, stepping out of the small hollow leaning against a gnarled root.

"What? You sure? You can't have gotten more than a couple hours at most…"

"I'll be fine, hey? 'Sides, don't think I got it in me to sleep right now. Ain't no sense in both of us being tired."

Leon nodded slowly, pushing to his feet with a grunt and stretching. However, he gave Logan another concerned look. "Anything about the dream you want to talk about?"

"Huh? Oh, nah, ain't nothing to say. Just a dream that gave me the jibblies, and now I is too wired up to get back to sleep."

"Ah… Well, if you say so. Just wake me up if those… jibblies wear off and you need some sleep."

"Ja, thanks," Logan sighed as the lancer walked into the hovel. Logan waited for a little while, listening to the sound of Leon trying to keep his armor from clanking too loudly as he nestled down to sleep. Eventually it was quiet, and either Leon had fallen asleep, or he was well on his way to doing so.

Logan groaned, clutching the side of his head. The pressure from before was gone now, but the memory of it still clung to him. What had that dream been all about? Nothing but darkness, and a strange voice coming from nowhere talking about killing and dust. Snapping necks, tearing, biting, breaking… It was just so strange. Logan knew well enough that dreams rarely had any sort of bearing on reality; certain food and drink could lead to the strangest visions at night. The speartuna tacos he'd tried in Tanzia once a couple years back had presented him with mad delusions at night which haunted him for a few days straight. Still, no matter how strange it was, they were only dreams.

But dreams were vague, and just waking up usually erased them from his memory. Even the details of the curse wrought by the speartuna were forgotten a couple minutes after waking, with Logan only certain in the knowledge that the dreams had been WEIRD. This dream, however… nothing but darkness and a voice, but Logan remembered it all clearly. And the pressure in his skull, and how it had lingered even after he'd woken up… he'd never had dreams like that before, or at least, none he remembered.

Something about the feeling felt familiar. He couldn't place how or why, but the pressure tugged at his memory for some reason.

"What the hell…" he muttered to himself. "What the hell…"


"Wow, you look like crap," Sonia told him as they broke camp the next morning.

"Gee thanks, girlie…" Logan muttered sourly. She was probably right though. The dream had kept him awake until the wee hours of the morning, and it wasn't until about four or five in the morning before he figured he'd need to at least try and sleep, smacking Bram awake for the last couple hours and falling into a fitful rest before dawn. "I'll just try and take a nap or something while this guy does his research or whatever…"

"How professional."

"Man, you take what you can get, girlie."

"Right, right…"

It took them just over an hour to cover the last few miles to the Iron Heart. Finally, the thick foliage opened up in front of them, and the crunch of their boots against the dirt shifted to clacking as they found themselves standing upon white stone instead. As the passed the last trees, the group paused as they found themselves a few steps away from the edge of a ten yard drop.

Before them lay a massive basin, not a valley or ravine; this depression in the earth was artificially made. It was perfectly circular, at least a quarter mile across, with tall walls constructed of white Meridian stone, rising up at least ten yards high at the lowest and enclosing the area completely. The forest around the pit seemed to be held back by the white stone, with tree branches hanging over the lip as gnarled roots and vines crawled down the wall into the basin, but not deep enough to reach the earth below.

Within the core of the enclosure, were the large collection of rusted steel beams and girders rising out of the earth that they'd seen on their approach. But now that they were close, Logan could see that they all rose so high. Logan had seen the tall buildings being constructed in Orage Dell and Loc Lac, and in the furthest recesses of his memory he could vaguely recall how tall the Loc Lac Tower had been when it was still standing. Some of these steel columns rose taller than anything in Orage, however, and they must have been much taller before time had broken them down. Some of these towers might have risen taller than the Loc Lac Tower once had! Thousands of years had bent even the greatest structures down over the ages though, and even the tallest buildings had collapsed, falling onto the smaller buildings below. The result left the lower ruins a tangled mess of twisted metal wrapped around each other, fallen into a mess of crisscrossed steel.

However, though the enclosure was set apart from the forest around it, there were signs that life had found a way inside… very obvious and dangerous signs. At the center of the ruin, a couple of the taller structures had been overrun with long and intricate webs, massive white strings tapered between the rusted beams, creating a massive white construction separate from the Meridian stone. Even from this distance, Logan could make out large, bulbous shapes hanging from a few of the crossbeams, some of them with limbs or tails sticking out; Logan felt his stomach turn over at the sight.

"Well, I suppose it's no mystery where the Nerscylla's nest is, now is it?" Bram noted.

"It is a rather obvious sort of location," Thatch agreed.

"You know, when we were told that you were planning to investigate a ruin within a Nerscylla's territory, I don't believe we were expecting it to within spitting distance of the creature's nest."

"Well, neither did I."

"This does rather change the conditions for the hunt, you know. Our odds of having to deal with this spider has jumped up from a possibility to nearly an inevitability."

"Oh, I am aware. Rather unfortunate. I admit, I am rather annoyed at this turn of events, but it was a part of the mission request that you may be required to challenge one. Good thing I'm paying so well, yes?"

"Hmm, yes… And I imagine the sight of it doesn't dissuade you from continuing this research expedition…"

"Of course not!"

"Thought you was supposed to be skittish?" Logan asked, giving the man a sideways glance.

"Oh. Yes. Still am. But, well, I'd very much like to translate this wall. We're, ah, still quite a ways away from the nest itself, right? And… besides…" The researcher smiled nervously. "Isn't, ah, isn't the pursuit of knowledge like this worth… a little fear and danger?"

Logan stared at Thatch for a long moment before rolling his eyes. "What's with you crazy researchers? Thought I got away from you nutty folks while I was here in Gahiji…"

"Kinda glad it's centralized, though," Sonia muttered, reaching up and stroking Franky's head. "Don't need this fatso getting stuck in any of the webbing…"

Still, to be put off just by catching sight of the webbing would be a waste of a lot of time… and a pretty decent payment. Thatch had a point: the Nerscylla's 'nest' was located at the center of the pit, and there was a good two hundred yards or so between it and the wall. All those steel beams and rubble would offer them a lot of cover as well.

"You don't need nothing from inside the city, right? Just the walls?"

"Oh. Yes, all that rusted Lost junk is, ah, is useless. To me. Me personally. I just need to copy the Meridian writing."

"I don't think the Nerscylla's here, anyway," Sonia spoke up. There was a touch of disappointment in her voice, but her gaze was fixated on the nest. "I haven't seen anything moving in the nest - except the wind making its, uh, its food wave around a little - so it might not be here. Maybe it's out hunting for dinner?" Another uncomfortable glance towards the hanging carcasses. "Second dinner?"

"It is early in the day," Bram noted, "and it probably has a few web traps set up to catch prey. This is just the nest, after all. If it's the dominant Nerscylla in the area, its territory is probably-"

"Good five to ten mile radius, hey? Ja ja, I know. That's a lotta space to cover… and is morning, so it probably out checking them all for meals right now."

"Really?" Thatch asked. "That's, uh… You all knew that? Im… Impressive. I never knew hunters were so learned."

"Well, we…" Logan paused as the wheels in his head spun. He could see small glimmers of realization growing in the other hunters' eyes as well, and almost simultaneously the four of them groaned in dismay. "Oh, dammit, I've actually retained all that stupid information the Bug Girl's blabbed about!"

"I… what? A bug girl?"

"It's Tuulikki's fault," Sonia groaned, rubbing the brim of her nose in frustration.

"And… Tuulikki is…?"

"A friend of ours who likes Neopterons and Temnocerans… and really, really likes to talk about them," Leon sighed.

"Just don't think 'bout it," Logan grumbled. He did not like the idea that he was memorizing information about giant bugs. "So, the spider ain't gonna be here for a while, hopefully. Good. Means we might be able to do this without even seeing the damn bug, hey? Is a big hole, and they's a lotta space between here and there. Even if the thing shows up, we can hide in the columns and get out."

"Hmph. That's such a waste though," Sonia sighed. "If we're this close anyway, we should try and take it down while we're here. I've heard the weapons you can make from their parts are really good!"

"We ain't gonna fight if we don't gotta, girlie," Logan growled, and Leon glared at the huntress as well. "'Specially when we got somebody we gotta protect. Long as we got Thatch here with us, we ain't gonna fight nothing we can't avoid, hey?"

"Oh, alright…"

"So, how are we getting down?" Leon asked.

"Erm… good question," Logan muttered, leaning over the edge a little. It was a thirty foot drop, and even their mobility training wouldn't lessen the pain jumping would cause them, and the carvings were far too shallow to provide handholds. Some vines hung over the edge, but none of them dropped all the way to the floor, and Logan couldn't be sure how much weight they'd be able to carry anyway; he and Leon would both be pretty heavy loads… "Don't suppose anyone got any rope in they pouch?"

"I, ah, have some, actually, but not nearly enough to get us to the bottom…" Thatch muttered. "Maybe… maybe about fifteen feet? I had heard the Heart was in a depression, but I didn't believe it would be, ah, quite this deep."

"Eh, ja, that'll only wrap around a tree once…"

"I saw some ivy vines while I was scrounging for nectars," Sonia spoke up. "That stuff's pretty strong, so maybe we could find a long string of it and use that to get down?"

"Hmm… yeah, that'd work, I think? Hokay, fine, Sonia and Bram, go find the longest stretches of ivy you can find, least forty feet long if you can. More than one if possible so we can tie them together, hey? Me and Leon gonna keep watch here, make sure the Nerscylla don't scuttle back home… assuming it ain't here already."

Despite finally arriving at their destination, the hunters were forced to wait another thirty minutes for Sonia and Bram to scrounge around for ivy. Logan and Leon kept an eye on the Nerscylla's nest, but no motion could be seen within the webbing, giving Logan more confidence that the creature was out and about. He'd keep an eye open though; there was no certainties in their line of work. Thatch, despite his nervous demeanor, looked determined to get down there and study the walls.

Eventually the two others returned, carrying a surprising amount of wound-up ivy over their shoulders. They'd managed to find a good haul, each of them having an exceptional length of it. A few more minutes were spent braiding the ivy together and wrapping them around a tree, before tossing the line over the side. Logan rappelled down first, figuring he would be the heaviest, and got to the bottom without feeling any flimsiness or fraying in the vine; apparently Bram and Sonia had a good eye for good ivy. The others rappelled down after him, and almost the moment his feet touched the ground, Thatch had pulled out a notebook and was fervently copying down the images on the wall.

"Keep your eyes open," Leon told the others. "We haven't seen the Nerscyalla yet, but it could still be hiding or come back at any time."

However, with all the hunters only keeping watch and ready for the Nerscylla to show up, there was little they could do to speed things along. Thatch was concentrating on his work, scribbling into his notebook and following the wall clockwise around the basin. But each passing minute took them further from the ivy rope, and Logan didn't like getting further and further away from their escape route… but this was their job, and they would see to it, despite the risk.

Hours passed, however, as Thatch continued his slow march around the circumference, methodically copying the carvings. But there was no sign of the Nerscylla. Lunch came and went, with the group stopping to eat the their leftover Gargwa meat from the previous night, and the sun completed its rise into the sky and began descending toward the west. Yet the Nerscylla never showed up. Soon enough they'd traveled halfway around the circle, and were looping back around towards the ivy rope. The sun continued on in its tireless march across the sky, and soon it was approaching early evening. They were well over three-quarters done, and only the last two hundred yards or so of wall remained.

"Well, this has been an efficient day," Bram said eventually. Despite his mild interest in Thatch's work, even he was getting restless after so many hours sitting around, watching and waiting.

"Woulda thought the Nerscylla'd be back by now," Sonia groaned, digging through the rubble and picking up some small rocks, tossing them at one of the nearby beams and sending echoing clangs through the area. "This is really boring…"

"It's better that way," Leon replied. "If it means we can get this job done and keep Thatch safe, it's for the best if we never even see the thing." Though he said that, the fatigue in his his voice was just as clear as everyone else's.

"Uuuugh…" The huntress goraned, flopping onto her back. "Are we sure this is actually the Nerscylla's nest? I mean, maybe that sounds like a stupid question…"

"I wouldn't say that," Bram grinned. "I'm sure the webbing would hang around for a while - no pun intended, I assure you - if the Nerscylla ever chose to move somewhere else. But judging by how, ah, fresh some of those bodies hanging up there look… I imagine it still considers this home."

"But we haven't seen it all day… maybe another group of hunters killed it or something."

"I wouldn't put too much faith in that, hey?" Logan replied. "Just cause we ain't seen it today don't mean it ain't around no more. After all, when was the last time you was in you wagon, girlie?"

"Uh, yesterday morning I guess… Ah, I get it."

"Heh, figure if humans can be away from they homes for a while, monsters will too, hey?" Logan grinned. He glanced towards Thatch as the man pushed upright, snapping his notebook shut and marching further on, allowing the hunters to follow behind. "May not be exciting, but just imagine how bored you'd be if it was here? If the thing was in its nest, we'da never climbed down, hey? Walking 'round like this ain't fun, but at least we ain't sitting up top doing nothing."

"Whooph, okay, point taken," Sonia grumbled. "Still… I'm getting bored out of my mind here. I don't get any fun out of reading the writings on these walls or anything. If I'd known it'd be like this I woulda brought a book."

"Then you's outta luck, 'less they's something 'bout these ruins that strike you interest."

Sonia muttered sourly under her breath, tapping her foot restlessly against the dirt. After a moment of thought her eyes lit up, looking eagerly into the ruins and scanning around. "Actually, now that I think of it… maybe there is something I could do to pass the time."

"What's that?" Bram asked.

"The, uh, the… what're they called? The 'cars'? Mom and Dad used to say they drove these big machines to get around back in their time. I've always wanted to see one myself… you think it'd be too much to ask to go into the ruins and see if we can find one?"

"Ah… I think after all this time, there may not be much left of any cars… aside from twisted metal."

"Still, it's better than sitting around! I'm not planning on scouring the entire ruins or anything, I just wanna scout the nearby blocks and see if there's anything lying around that I can look at."

Logan pondered the idea, shrugged, and pushed to his feet. "Ja, that's fine. I'll go with you. Stretch these aching bones of mine."

"Old-timer."

"Heh, shut up, girlie. You two gonna be fine sticking here?"

"I'll be fine," Bram shrugged, and Leon nodded stalwartly.

"Alright, we be back in a bit."

Sonia giggled with glee, perking up a little and looking around the area as she and Logan walked down the nearest street into the first few rows of ruins. "I always heard stories from my parents about their old cities… It's kinda cool seeing one of them in person, even if it is a ruin. Wonder if there's anything interesting lying around?"

Within the twisted and rusted columns, there was far more to the ruins than Logan had been able to see from above. While the steel pillars were certainly the most prominent sight here in the Heart, hidden in the shadows of the twisted metal were collections of old… things. Metal boxes and concrete structures abounded, toppled road signs and collapsed pipes. However, Logan felt a chill as he stepped through the dilapidated buildings. There was nothing overtly familiar about the decaying structures, but at one point in his life he'd actually been alive when these towers had stood tall and undamaged. As a toddler he might've looked up at these very buildings in their prime, iron and concrete and glass rising up towards the sun, scraping the sky like their names implied. But now they were old and withered, falling apart under the weight of time, and Logan was still doing fine.

Just outside one building's foundations, Sonia was eyeballing a twisted mess of metal so old and decayed that it had practically melted into the concrete underneath it, while Franky skittered across the rusted roof of it. It was in better condition than most of the other ruins around them, but Logan still couldn't guess the object's purpose at a glance. However, some exploration from the huntress had her yanking a large sheet of metal off one side of it, revealing a tangle of old machinery which Logan feared might turn to dust as soon as Sonia touched it. But the huntress began tinkering with the machinery without a thought, tossing aside bits and pieces of metal as she examined the interior of the steel mess.

"Yep, it's some kind of vehicle!" she announced with a delighted squeal a couple minutes later. "I'm pretty sure this is some kind of engine… it's actually in pretty good condition for what it's worth."

"You sure?" Logan muttered, approaching the object and looking inside. "Can barely tell one bit from another."

"Sure thing. I mean, it's never gonna work again, but this is pretty clearly a combustion engine of some kind. Probably one of those 'cars', or some other type of machine Mom and Dad said the Lost used to use to drive around. A, uh, bus or trolley or taxi or truck or… tractor? Rickshaw? Or, you know, what's left of one. Though this one looks a lot more intricate than the ones you see on the airships…"

"Was the result of the Lost's industry at its peak, I guess. Gonna be a lot nicer than anything we can make by hand these days, hey?"

"I guess so…" Sonia sighed wistfully. "Wish I could've seen these things running at their peak. Maybe Art and the other engineers at Rising Dawn can get to this level of technology within my lifetime."

"Maybe so," Logan shrugged, turning around as Sonia leaned back over the engine and continued to pick at the little pieces.

A small clink echoed up from under his boot as he stepped into a small grassy clump between buildings. A glitter in the sunlight caught his eye as he looked down, and he realized the grass was growing up through small brittle chunks of dark, colored stone. Reaching down, he plucked one of the rocks up, raising it up to investigate. It wasn't rock, Logan realized, or at least not one he recognized. It was somewhat like a gemstone, but closer to glass in terms of texture and composition, with a shape akin to a skipping stone, moderately translucent but opaque enough that he couldn't see straight through it.

Raising it to the sky and shining the light of the sun through the rock, the core contained a hidden azure color. The hue felt so… eerily familiar, tugging at something in the back of Logan's mind. The great sword user frowned, rolling the stone around in his palm a couple times before reaching down, gathering a few more of the stones, and walking back towards Sonia.

"Hoy, girlie. You mind if I have one of them nectars you found out in the woods?"

"Uh, sure I guess," she shrugged, looking up from the engine. "For what?"

"Curious 'bout something. Just wanna see if I is right."

"Uh, yeah, sure," the huntress replied, reaching for her pouch. Franky immediately skittered across the vehicle to nip at her hand, hoping for a meal, forcing the huntress to push him away. "You need anything in particular? I grabbed a lot of different types, so-"

"You gots any dragon element nectar?"

Sonia frowned, giving Logan a curious and slightly wary look, before pulling out a small bottle of viscous blood-red nectar and handing it over. "Uh… yeah. I found a couple of those on the way here. Why specifically dragon element?"

"'Cause if this what I think it is, then dragon element's gonna be what lets me know for certain."

The hunter sat down and uncorked the bottle, took one of the longer and thinner stones, and dipped the stone into the nectar. There wasn't a reaction at first, so he eventually just let the stone go, allowing it to submerge completely in the dark fluid and sending a small dribble sliding over the lip of the bottle. Franky was scrambling to try and get at the free-flowing fluid, and Sonia was forced to hold the large Kinsect back. Still, nothing seemed to be happening, and Logan frowned in disappointment. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but he'd been hoping for something visible… Finally, with a sigh, he fished the blue stone from out of the nectar.

Logan nearly missed in at first glance, but as the nectar slid off the sides of the stone, the blue rock had changed a little. The interior of the stone was a little brighter than before, the internal azure color more vibrant, and there was a subtle glow shining out from the interior. The surface of the stone wasn't as smooth and sleek as before either, and seemed a touch rough to the touch, and slightly sticky… though maybe sticky wasn't the correct word to use; clingy, perhaps, as though the stone was clinging to his glove with little burs. The effect didn't last long; the dim glow faded after a few seconds, and the clinging sensation vanished. It was as he'd found it before, though the sides of the stone were no longer smooth.

"Hmm… Thought so."

"What is it?" Sonia asked, craning over him and staring wide-eyed at the stone.

"Lost crystal," the great sword user muttered, looking back out over the ruins. "Found it inside the building. They really was a buncha Lost here, once upon a time."

"What?! But… you and Thatch both said that there weren't any stories about Lost showing up in the area! If there'd been an awakening, people would've heard about it, one way or another, and this place wouldn't just be the 'Iron Heart'. It's not too far to the village-" The huntress looked up. "-and it's open sky. Dad said you could see the glow of Lost crystals from dozens of miles away. There's no way an awakening would've been missed unless… um… unless the Lost woke up…"

"Ja?"

"...Unless the Lost woke up so long ago that nobody remembers it."

"Ja, that's what I was thinking," Logan agreed, rolling the stone around in his palm. "The jittery fella says the Meridians put old Lost structures in these enclosures, hey? Maybe when they enclosed this one, they was still some Lost crystals around?"

Sonia frowned, crossing her arms and leaning against the old broken vehicle. "I've heard the Lost have been waking up sporadically for decades now. Most of them woke up between twenty and thirty years ago, like you and my parents, but I've heard that the Guild thinks the Lost have been waking up in small groups for upwards of a hundred years now. Mom said there are Lost who have been awake for over sixty years now, maybe even longer…"

"And they's still some waking up these days. You hear 'bout another 'wakening every few years or so. But they's getting further apart. They was a lot of them back when I was little, one every few months, but these days it's 'bout five or six years between 'wakenings. Folks is thinking they's gonna be 'wakenings popping up for maybe another century or more."

"What, the average time they last was up to around 30 years ago? That's where the top of the bell curve is, and now we're sliding down the other side?"

"Ja, thinking so. That's when the most 'wakenings gonna be, but they's still gonna be some in smaller numbers in the future… and they was a lotta them before then too, just not as many, and not as often. And if the Guild's saying they was a few 'wakenings up to a hundred years ago-" Logan motioned to the ruins in front of them "-then maybe they was at least one or two back during the Meridian's time, hey? Back at the very start of that bell curve, eh girlie?"

"Wow…" Sonia gasped, looking around the ruins with a new light in her eyes. "You really think that's what happened here?"

"Eh, I ain't a scientist, girlie. Just guessin'," Logan muttered, pushing back to his feet. "Maybe they's another explanation, but would explain why they's melted crystals 'round here, but none of the locals remember hearing 'bout any Lost waking up here. Hmph… wonder how the Meridians treated us compared to the way things was in Loc Lac…"

"Bram's dad figures that the Lost were looked down on by the Meridians… not sure why though."

"Hmm… Well, let's show this to Thatch, hey? See what he thinks."

Sonia nodded, and the two of them made their way back to the wall. Thatch had made some distance since they'd left, and now there really wasn't much wall left. Bram was actively looking over the man's shoulder and commenting on what was being written, until Logan strode up to the pair of them.

"Hoy, Thatch. Look at this."

The researcher looked up and Logan tossed him a couple of the shards. "Oh! Ah, hmm… I told you, I'm not interested, ah, not that interested in the Lost structures themselves, more- Wait. This is… some kind of stone? No, closer to glass I think. No, obsidian? This texture isn't, isn't anything I've felt in a long time, like a, a marble? But rougher? What… I'm sorry, young man, but geology, ah, geology isn't my specialty, so I can't- can't really help you if you want me to-" However, as the man raised the shards into the air like Logan had, looking at the color within the stone, he stiffened. "I… this color. I know this color. It's so familiar. What… what is this?"

"You one the Lost, hey? Like me?" Logan asked.

"Well, yes, yes I am, but why would that- Ah! Is this…?"

"A Lost crystal, ja. Found it over in one of the buildings, hey?" For the next few minutes, he and Sonia shared what they'd discovered and speculated about, much to the researcher's interest.

"I see… I see! Interesting. That explains the walls…"

"What's on the walls?" Sonia asked.

"Not information on elder dragons, like I'd hoped, unfortunately. Rather, they seem to indicate something about evolution, or adaptation. A study of the human genome, I believe."

"Human… genome?"

"Yes," Thatch nodded, motioning to the wall. "From what I found here, there's a lot of notes on the Meridians' speculations on the Lost and their culture… and their failings. According to these writings, they believe the Lost to be an inherently flawed and weak ancestor to them, to such a point that they nearly believed themselves to be a different and superior species."

"A different species? How?" Bram asked. "I'm fairly certain they weren't that different from the Lost. I mean, the Lost can certainly have children with non-Lost well enough-"

"Oh, I'm aware. I did say the Meridians only nearly believed it, but they weren't so proud that they believed themselves to be inhuman. Mixed-blood children couldn't exist if we weren't the same species at our core… though that does raise questions about human-Wyverian relationships." The man paused, frowning thoughtfully for a few moments of silence before shaking his head. "But that's not my area of expertise.

"As for the Meridians, according to these walls they believed the Lost to be inherently flawed. They accused the Lost of being too weak, too easily overrun when the Alatreon and other monsters destroyed our civilization. They believed humanity could be, ah, could be better, and set out to… to make themselves stronger, faster, wiser than before. Trying to… improve humanity, to stand against the Alatreon, against all the other monsters that the Alatreon had summoned into the world."

"Is that…" Leon paused in his thoughts, a strained expression in his eyes. "Is that why the people of this time are so much stronger than the Lost? Is that why there's such a big difference in power and durability?"

"I assume so," Thatch nodded. "The Meridians did what they could to make humanity stronger, to match the monsters roaming the earth, essentially molding our species into more natural warriors. The progenitors of modern 'hunters', I suppose. I can't say how much they managed to accomplish before their culling at the hands - or claws, I suppose - of the Alatreon, but it would seem they did well, considering the physical prowess the current breed of humans have. Modern humans are certainly a level or two above the Lost in terms of physical quality… though most agree that the Lost are greater in intelligence and ingenuity. I wonder why? If the Meridians spent effort making men wiser in their time, why do the Lost have advantage, if they do not have it in strength? Why…"

Thatch furrowed his brow, crossing his arms and muttering to himself as he pondered for a minute or two in silence, rolling the dark blue stone Logan had given him in his palm. Finally he scoffed, shaking his head once more. "What am I doing? This isn't my field! Never mind all this thinking, I'll leave it to those who are paid to think about it. My pay is for thinking about elder dragons, and I'll keep my mind on that… that and translating the rest of this damn wall."

"I kinda wanted to hear about it…" Bram muttered.

"I'll give you a copy of these walls once I'm done translating. Which I should still be doing, actually."

"You still interested?" Logan asked. "If this is all stuff 'bout making humans stronger, means you don't need it, hey? If you's looking for elder dragon info?"

"Perhaps… But there's still a few dozen yards of stone to go! Who knows what else I'll find? Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to work. Time enough to ponder implications later, once I've made a copy of all this… Soon I'll be done, and we can be on our-"

Thump.

Thatch stopped, blinking in surprise and looking up at the sound which echoed from above them. Logan frowned and followed his gaze. Something large and heavy had hit the ground over the lip of the pit they were in. Not a boulder or tree either… something fleshy. A wave of screeches tore through the air a moment later as a small flock of birds burst into the sky over the ruins, tearing out of the trees they'd been perched within and shooting over the hunters' heads. Logan cursed, grabbing Thatch by the coat and pulling him away from the wall, throwing him behind a tilted concrete structure. At the same time, Sonia, Bram, and Leon all scampered behind cover of their own.

Silence followed for several long seconds, and no other sounds echoed down from above the wall, or at least nothing which they could differentiate from the normal sounds of the forest. Thatch was frozen in uncertain fear, his eyes darting back and forth following the curve of the pit in search of whatever unknown threat he was imagining would come crawling over the edge. However, nothing was coming, and soon Sonia slowly crept out from behind the severed I-beam she'd been pressed up against and darted towards a collection of old stone pillars further away from the wall, craning her neck to try and get a better view.

"I don't see anything!" she hissed a few moments later. "I mean, I can't see over the wall, but-"

"Just stay out of sight!" Bram called back, and Sonia sank a little further behind the pillar.

"Shoulda kept a couple of us up on the top to keep watch," Logan chided himself, glancing towards the rope they'd rappelled down with. Could Bram or Sonia shimmy up it quietly enough to take a look around…? Better not risk it if there was a chance of something big waiting up there, and they'd be easy to spot climbing up with the white Meridian stone as a backdrop; if it was the Nerscylla, it would outmaneuver all of them on a vertical surface. If it wasn't the Nerscylla… it might be something with a ranged attack, like a Rathian, and they'd just be a moving target. "Keep quiet and stay where you is!"

The five of them descended into silence again, staying still and listening patiently for more motion. Nothing could be heard above them, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything there. However, a couple minutes passed in silence, and Logan relaxed… until a large, bulbous shape launched over the edge of the wall several dozen yards away and plummeted towards the earth.

Logan tensed, shoving Thatch further into the dirt as the object landed with a crash against the ground nearly fifty yards away from the base of the wall, almost impaling itself onto a crooked steel beam sticking up from the earth. But whatever it was, it hadn't been a graceful, or even intentional fall, as it didn't so much land as splattered against the ground with a wet crunch, sending gouts of blood and other body fluids spraying across the grass and cobblestone, its shape practically melting into a blob as it settled. Logan twisted his head to look over the wall he hid behind, and he didn't recognize the shape of whatever had hit the ground nearby, though it was about the size of a Slagtoth. However, he did recognize the cocoon of white webbing wrapped around the creature's body. Whatever it was, it was now the Nerscylla's next meal, and the creature itself wouldn't be too far behind. The question was, though… how had the spider sent its prey flying through the air?

Sure enough, a moment later a skittering shape appeared at the edge of the wall as the Nerscylla appeared. Its eyes spun down to find the location of the cocoon it had brought home, and spotting its dinner the Temnoceron wiggled its abdomen, shooting a string of web into the side of a nearby tree before leaning over the edge and rappelling down to the base of the ruins. The webbing snapped free as it reached the bottom, waving free in the wind as its maker forgot about it and scurried over to the cocoon and inspected it.

"It's small," Sonia whispered. Logan raised an eyebrow at the assertion.

"That thing is small?" It was at least a dozen times larger than a Seltas, and one of those was easily twice Logan's size, even at the smallest.

"Well, smaller than the one I fought in the arena. About… hmm… maybe three-quarters the size of the one I fought in exam?"

"Hoy… Maybe you is lucky you only got that beauty mark on your face 'stead of losing you head, girlie."

Sonia turned and scowled at Logan from her position, but the hunter ignored her, focusing on the giant Temnoceron as it continued to exam its meal. Next to him, Thatch was fidgeting nervously, apparently having finally realized the true danger of the situation.

"D-do we run?" he gasped. "Are y-you gonna kill it?"

"Yeah, are we?" Sonia asked.

"Not if we can help it," Leon said intently.

"Agreed," Logan replied. "Lessee what it does, hey? Hopefully it gonna drag that thing it brought into its nest and keep its eyes off us. When its back's turned, we make for the ivy. You got any problem with that?"

"N-no, not at all," the researcher yelped, scrambling to shove his notebooks back into his satchel. "I think, uh, I think I'd be perfectly fine saving the last bit of wall for when the Nerscylla is, ah, is gone."

"That might take a while, though," Bram noted. "It's not exactly close to its webbing right now, and given the size of its… meal, it'll take a while to drag it to where it wants it. We might be stuck here a while…"

"Ja, I know, but…"

Logan paused, however, as the Nerscylla leaned over its prey, rolling the creature around and applying a new layer of webbing around the body, spinning and rolling the corpse into a rounder shape. It wasn't going to be a perfect sphere, but the Temnoceron was doing a pretty good job. However, Logan expected the creature to pick up and carry its prey, but instead the Nerscylla stood tall, looking off towards the maze of webbing it had created in the center of the ruins. The creature skittered to the left and right, aligning itself with something before pausing. With a twist it shot a long string of webbing out to stick against the top of a tall concrete structure a few dozen yards away, hooking the other end of the tether under one claw before firing off a second round towards another beam rising up to the right of the first one. With both lines in hand (or rather, in claw), the Nerscylla wrapped them around the corpse it had returned with. It carried the body a little bit to the left, took several steps backwards, and let go.

With the speed of a rocket, the cocoon shot through the air, sailing over the rubble and ruined buildings in a flash. The cocoon shot past the concrete building the webbing had been attached to, and as the line went taut, it snapped, allowing the corpse to sail through the air until it smacked into the enormous wall of webbing hanging between the buildings at the center of the ruins. The webbing stretched wildly as the body stuck to it, but held firm, wobbling back and forth in the air for several moments before drawing to a halt, with the carcass hanging firmly in the air like all the others.

The Nerscylla stared at its work for a moment longer before apparently nodding in satisfaction, and with a slightly spring in its step the creature lifted its abdomen and shot a long line of webbing towards the same tall beam as before. The white line struck true, and the creature leapt several yards backwards and lifted its legs, allowing the webbing to slingshot it through the air as well, sailing up and over the wall of webbing and out of sight. A moment later the entire nest shivered as the Nerscylla apparently landed somewhere within, before slowly going still once more. From a distance, it seemed the same as before, but now, every so often, a small shiver would vibrate through the massive webs as the Nerscylla went about its business within.

"Well… now what?" Bram asked, looking to Logan.

Logan frowned, looking towards the line of ivy they'd strung down the side of the wall. Assuming the Nerscylla was busy with its own work within the webbing, they could probably make a break for the line and climb back up to relative safety. It would take a couple minutes for them all to shimmy up though… could they do it quickly? The Nerscylla's nest was a good couple hundred yards from the wall of the pit, with numerous ruins between here and there to use as cover. They could probably climb up before the creature could catch them.

"Let's get outta here," he replied. "We ain't gonna try and tussle with the spider. Be quick but quiet, hey? Don't need that thing spotting us 'fore we outta here."

The others nodded, and the five of them marched through the ruins towards the ivy rope, carefully darting between bits of cover to avoid being seen by the Nerscylla. They were forced to cut to a halt when the sight of the Temnoceron's tall purple spikes crested the top of the webbing, keeping hidden until it vanished out of sight again and they were able to move on. Still, there was a good hundred yards between them and their way out.

"Are we going to be able to return?" Thatch asked as they walked, looking wistfully at the last stretch of wall they were passing by.

"Depends on the spider," Leon replied. "I doubt it'll be safe to be in the pit when it's around, so we probably need to wait for it to leave again before finishing up the last section. We'll have to keep watch on it in case it ventures off again this evening."

"We've still got an extra day before we need to start walking back to the village," Sonia supplied as the group approached a street. "We have a little bit of time before we need to leave." The huntress turned, scanning the top of the nest before motioning to the others. "Clear! Let's go!" she told them, and the group scurried across the broken concrete. "Maybe we'll have enough time to try and- oh, hell, it's there!"

Logan nearly tripped at the shout, his eyes darting to the nest. He didn't see the Nerscylla at first, until he caught sight of a narrow gap in the thick webbing, just barely bigger than he was as far as he could tell from this distance. However, staring through the small gap was the spider, its eight eyes locked onto them.

"Damn!" Leon hissed, grabbing Thatch and swinging the both of them behind some rubble, and the others were close behind. "When the hell did it get there?"

"I don't know!" Sonia snapped. "It wasn't there before we crossed!"

"What gave us away? We've been keeping hidden!"

"Just stay down!" Bram told them, looking back to Logan. "Is it still looking our way?"

"Not sure…" Logan replied, yanking off his helmet and just barely peeking around the edge of a crossbeam. The Nerscylla hadn't moved, however, and was simply staring in their direction. A moment later it vanished, reappearing at the top of its nest and skittering around a little, perhaps trying to get sight of them from a better angle, but the humans remained hidden. Eventually, the creature seemed to grow bored, and vanished back into the webbing to continue whatever work it needed to. "Think it's gone… maybe. It ain't coming for us, at least."

"It saw us," Leon muttered. "I know it did. But it's not attacking?"

"Guess not," Logan replied. "We in its territory though, and monsters is pretty picky 'bout defending they nests…"

"Maybe it isn't threatened by us? Not all monsters will attack on sight. Maybe its 'nest' is just that webby bit in the center, and as long as we keep a safe distance, it'll leave us be. Maybe it's got all the food it needs already and doesn't want to waste any time on us."

"That's a bit of a gamble, hey?"

"We could go distract it or something," Sonia suggested eagerly. "Send three of us off to go get the thing's attention and fight it, while someone else gets Thatch out of the ruins."

"No. We ain't gonna aggravate it if we don't gotta."

"We should keep moving," Bram suggested. "Standing around won't do us any good, and if it comes looking for us it'll come here first. Just keep a weather eye out in case it tries to sneak up on us."

"Think that won't be too much of a problem," Logan scoffed. "The bug may not be as big as the one girlie fought, but we gonna see those purple spikes coming a long way away, hey?" A glance around the next corner, and no sign of the Nerscylla in sight. "Come on, let's go!"

A lot of the caution they'd had before was discarded this time as the five of them dashed between the ruins, pausing occasionally behind cover to steal glances towards the nest. Logan expected the Nerscylla to be on edge after sighting them, but they never so much as caught a glimpse of it again as they covered ground. Had the creature chosen to ignore them? Or had it just not actually seen them in the first place? Either way, the hunters soon found themselves on the final stretch, with only fifty yards to go.

"Bram goes up first!" Leon shouted. "Thatch'll follow him up! Make sure you protect him if the spider follows you!"

"Got it!" Bram replied. "Any sign of the spider?"

"Nothing yet!" Sonia called out. "Far as I can tell it's still in its nest, and it's not circling us or anything!"

"Good! Thatch, I hope you're quick at climbing!"

"In times like this I very well will be!" the researcher gasped. He was nearing the end of his stamina, but fear was driving him on. "Today is the day I make up for - gasp - for my failures to climb the ropes in physical education! Up in two shakes of a lamb's tail! Or… what're they called, Moofahs?"

"Don't really matter, buddy!" Logan snapped.

"I suppose - gasp - suppose not… but either way I- Ohsweetsh-!"

The researcher's squawk of horror slammed the group to a screeching halt, and several of them echoed his string of curses as two hooked claws swung over the roof of a toppled building ahead and to the right of them. The peaks of several purple spikes rose into the air as though they were coming over the horizon, and a moment later the Nerscylla itself pulled itself into view directly in front of them. The creature wasn't facing their direction yet, but its eyes were already darting around in search of them, allowing enough time for the five of them to dive to the side and through the door of the nearest ruined building.

They collectively slid up against the wall, pushing themselves under the windows and out of sight. The sound of heavy, skittering feet echoed in from outside, and the sunlight coming in through the windows was blotted out as something large eclipsed it. The scraping of claws against stone could be heard, alongside the subtle clicking and chittering of mandibles right outside the window. Squares of sunlight on the floor of the building lit up and darkened as the creature skittered back and forth, and Logan could imagine the creature's small head stopping in front of each window and peeking through in search of them. Logan could feel Thatch shivering next to him as he clutched the man's shoulder, and the shaking only grew worse as one of the creature's hooked claws slid through one of the windows and scratched a little at the frame, sending some dust down onto the ground between Bram and Leon. There was some agitated clicking as the claw pulled back out of the building, and the creature skittered down the street in search of them.

"Damn it! How'd it sneak up on us?" Bram hissed. "I thought we'd be able to see it coming!"

"Can it burrow?" Sonia asked. "I remember Tuulikki said something about the Nerscylla burrowing… Maybe it dug underground and-"

"That's the desert variant," Leon corrected. "This version can't dig! Or, it's not supposed to…"

"Heh… heheheh… Maybe, ah, maybe it took the subway…" Thatch muttered, giggling nervously.

Logan paused, registering the words but not understanding them. "The what?"

"The subway," the man repeated, as though the meaning was obvious. "Took the blue line from downtown, ha!"

"...And what's a subway?"

Thatch turned, staring at Logan for a moment before realization lit his face. "Oh… right. No, I mean a tunnel. An underground road for trams."

"They's tunnels under this city?" Logan asked.

"Erm… Possibly? I haven't really been looking. That's not what I'm here for. Several large cities did have them."

"Damn, just our luck…" the great sword user growled. He paused, listening for the Nerscylla's footsteps, but couldn't hear anything at the moment. He cautiously pushed to his feet and leaned his head out the window, but there was no sight of the creature in sight. "Alright, let's go, quick 'fore the thing comes back. Someone keep a flash bomb or something ready, hey?"

"I got it," Sonia replied, pulling a steel cylinder from her pouch and keeping it in her hands. The hunters slipped out from the ruin, scanning up and down the street before darting across; again the spider had vanished, but they knew it was close by…

As they were running, however, movement to the right caught their attention as the Nerscylla slid around the corner of a building two blocks away from them. The spider paused at the intersection, glancing both ways before catching sight of them. It didn't charge them, however, observing them for a moment before climbing onto the nearest building and skittering across the rooftops parallel to their path, as though it was giving them a wide berth.

As the hunters slid into the nearest alleyway, however, and the Nerscylla disappeared from their line of sight, they could hear the spider chittering. The sound of sharp footsteps echoed from the rooftops above them as the creature tailed them, before shifting ahead of them and to the right. As the hunters burst out into the next street, Thatch cried out in horror to find the Nerscylla only a dozen yards to their right, out in the middle of the street and beginning to climb up the next row of buildings. At the researcher's shout, the spider actually shivered in surpise, taking a couple shocked steps backwards as they appeared, its eyes darting between them rapidly.

"Close your eyes!" Sonia shouted, pulling the pin on the flash bomb and hurling it skyward. The spider watched it rise, and Logan covered his eyes a moment before it burst. With his eyes closed, all he could hear was a shocked screech from the creature… as well as a horrified yelp from right next to him.

"Oh, mercy, my eyes!" Thatch wailed.

"Oh, dammit! Bram, get him outta here!" the huntress snapped, and the charge blade user grabbed Thatch, pulling the researcher into a half-collapsed building as the man bemoaned the loss of his vision. However, rather than following, the huntress leapt forward, swinging her glaive from its sheath as she charged the Nerscylla, waving its claws over its eyes in dismay.

The spider was stumbling backwards and bumping into the buildings and steel beams around it. With a flick of her arm, Sonia sent Franky flying low over the ground, not aiming for the creature itself but sliding directly under the Nerscylla. The spider cocked its head nervously, tilting its head down to follow the sound of the kinsect's buzzing wings and swinging its claws out to clack off the concrete floor. However, by doing so, the creature brought its head within striking range just as Sonia caught up to it.

"Take this!" she snapped, swinging her glaive towards the spider's numerous eyes. The weapon clipped slightly as it struck the beast's hard exoskeleton, but Sonia's swing held firm enough that her hooked blade tore up the Nerscylla's face and straight through the largest left eye.

The Nerscylla shrieked, swinging its claws at the huntress wildly as it reared back, trying to get away from her, but Sonia darted under it, slicing her blade into the spider's softer underside. The creature hissed in agony again, and a spray of webbing jetted out from its abdomen, splattering against the ground in front of her and forcing the huntress back a few steps.

"Move, girlie!" Logan shouted as he caught up a moment later, swinging out his great sword and striking one of the creature's legs. The Zinogre blade splintered the hard exoskeleton, sending fractures up the appendage as the spider shrieked again. Sonia ducked out of the way, sliding out from under the Nerscylla a moment before it collapsed, before leaping forward and charging its face once more.

This time the creature heard her footsteps and lashed out wildly with its claws as it struggled to get its feet back under it. Sonia yelped in shock as the hooked edges pierced the road in front of her, and the creature followed the sound of her shout, pulling itself forward and swiping at the sound of her armor clacking together and frustrated curses.

"Look out!" Leon shouted, leaping in front of her as one swing got too close, catching the tip of the claw with his shield. The blow knocked him back into her, forcing her to catch him to keep them from falling, and he nodded thankfully before slamming the base of his shield into the ground. He struck the ground several more times, shuffling sideways as the blinded Nerscylla's head bobbed along, following the noise and swinging its claws after him while Sonia slid the other direction.

As Sonia circled the creature to meet back up with Logan, the great sword user glanced over towards Bram and Thatch. The researcher seemed to have recovered some of his vision by now, and Bram was leading him towards the ivy rope. But if Thatch's vision was returning… "Hoy! Look out, Leon!"

The lancer glanced his way for a moment before looking sharply back at the creature's face. Sure enough the Nerscylla's eyes were swiveling slightly, before centering back on him. But it took a step back, pulling away from the lancer and right towards Sonia and Logan.

"Gotcha!" Sonia grinned, charging up from behind, but a jolt leapt through the spider's body at the sound of her boots, and in a flash the creature had spun around, spotting the two behind it in an instant and abruptly backpedalling once more to get away from them, before spinning around to run full-tilt. "Wh- Hey, get back here, dammit!"

The lancer was still planted in the creature's path, however, bracing himself for attack, but the spider drew itself up short at the sight of him. For a moment Leon prepared to attack, but instead he hesitated, staring up at the Nerscylla as the creature took a step away from him. Leon hesitated a moment longer, glancing over his shoulder, towards the creature's nest almost directly behind him, before stepping to the side, pressing himself up against the wall of a nearby building and out of the Nerscylla's way. The spider tilted its head warily for a moment before taking the chance and shooting past him, crawling over the buildings and back towards its nest.

"Hey, get back here!" Sonia snapped, giving chase, but as she passed, Leon reached out and grabbed the shaft of her glaive, making her snap to a halt. With a growl she spun around, glaring at the lancer. "What the hell are you doing?! It's still a threat and you're letting it get away!"

"Let it go!" the lancer shouted. "If we don't need to fight it-"

"Just because you don't want to, doesn't mean-!"

"Shut up! We done here!" Logan bellowed, grabbing Sonia and yanking her back to her feet. "Spider wants to run, so will we!"

"What about the Nerscylla?!"

"Not now, girlie! For now we get outta here, before it decides to come back!"

"Ugh… fine!" Sonia groaned, sheathing her glaive and following after the others.

Logan froze for a moment as a large, dark shadow passed over them. The hunter immediately spun, looking up. He'd been expecting the Nerscylla but was shocked when he instead found a spiralling, rusted steel beam sailing through the air over them. The steel rod smashed into the cobble walkway only a dozen yards or so ahead of them, the head of it shattering several small chunks of concrete as the metal beam toppled end over end for several more yards before crashing into a stone pillar at the end of the road.

"Holy-! Where the hell did that come from?!" Leon gasped.

"It… look at it!" Sonia shouted.

A second glance at the beam made the blood drain from Logan's face; the center of the steel beam had been completely wrapped in thick spider webs. Even now the silky, sticky substance had stuck the beam to the stone column it had struck, slightly stretching under its own weight.

"You can't… you can't be serious," Leon muttered, looking back towards where the Nerscylla had fled. Logan followed his gaze, spotting the spider's telltale purple spikes poking up over the tops of the ruins, and from two steel columns nearby hung a two long stretches of webbing. The creature raised itself up, spotting them from its higher vantage point before grabbing the two lines of webbing and vanishing into the dilapidated buildings again. A few seconds passed, and the two lines of webbing stretched taut a moment before a broad chunk of stone rocketed into the sky like a slingshot, sailing through the air towards them.

"Aw, hell… move!"

The three hunters darted away from where they'd been standing, sprinting towards the ivy vines they'd climbed down into the pit. A second later, a thunderous crash rumbled behind them, and Logan looked back for a moment, where sure enough, the stone slab had smashed into the earth almost exactly where they'd all been standing. Across the ruins, the Nerscylla was scouting them out again, getting another bead on their location before ducking down and launching another steel beam at them. A couple seconds later the beam smashed through the roof of a building on the right side of the road, toppling over and crunching to the ground only a few yards behind them.

For the next minute, all the hunters could do was run towards their escape route as large chunks of debris rained down around them. Despite the ever-growing distance between themselves and the Nerscylla, and despite them ducking through alleys and between buildings, the spider's aim was uncanny, and each shot struck less than a dozen yards away from them each time. Each impact shook the earth around them, pressing them on to run ever faster to avoid being caught under the Nerscylla's catapulted ammunition. More than once Logan winced as a shard of shrapnel clashed off the great sword slung across his back as he ran, until they finally reached their ivy rope. Bram and Thatch were already at the top, staring wide-eyed as large metal box smashed through the roof of one of the buildings, collapsing it in on itself.

"Sonia, go!"

"I… right!" the huntress yelped, leaping forward and hauling herself up the side of the wall, shooting up the white stone. Logan winced as another shadow passed over them, and a large slab of concrete exploded across the stone several yards below and to the right of where Sonia was climbing. The huntress yelped in shock, losing her footing for a moment, but managed to keep a grip on the rope, scrambling up the last few yards to the top and pulling herself over.

Leon was sent up next, slower than Sonia before him but still with the speed of fear. Every fifteen seconds or so, another chunk of concrete of steel beam would sail through the air and crash into the earth or against the wall, each shot getting closer and closer to hitting its mark. Logan winced fearfully as an I-beam struck against the wall at the narrow end, clanging wildly off the impenetrable Meridian stone and wobbling through the air, crashing down only a few yards behind him and collapsing a small stone hut.

"Logan, c'mon!" Sonia shouted down at him as Leon pulled himself over the lip. The great sword user nodded, grabbing the ivy and hauling himself up towards the top. Thirty feet, twenty-five, twenty, fifteen- "Logan, look out!"

"GO LEFT!" Leon bellowed.

Logan pushed himself to the side, swinging left along the wall a few yards, and not a moment too soon. A second later, a large heap of metal (which Logan realized was an object similar to the vehicle Sonia had been inspecting earlier) smashed into the Meridian stone, twisting apart and sending bits of metal flying. Logan winced as a few nuts and bolts pinged off of his armor, and the screech of metal against stone grated through his skull as the mass of rusted metal slid to the ground, grinding against the wall the whole way down before smashing against the rocky soil below. Logan gasped in relief before reaching up and pulling himself the rest of the way up the ivy, with both Sonia and Bram reaching down to grab his armor and pull him over the lip.

"Are you alright?" Bram asked.

"Ja, I is fine, let's-"

The younger hunter glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes widened before he grabbed Logan's shoulder and yanked him backwards into the treeline. Logan stumbled forward and threw himself to the ground as a thunderous crack sounded behind him, and the earth under him shivered. As he pushed himself up, he looked behind him and winced at the sight of another steel beam which had been thrown at them sideways. Both ends of the beam had slammed into a pair of trees against the edge of the pit, splintering the wood and embedding itself into the trunks. With a groan the I-beam fell free, clattering onto the stone lip of the pit. Looking over the beam, Logan could see the distant points of the Nerscylla's spikes as it craned its head, eyeballing them from more than a hundred yards away.

"Come on, let's go before it shoots anything else!" Leon shouted from further into the woods where he had a hand on Thatch's arm.

Logan nodded, pushing to his feet and joining Sonia and Bram in running away from the Iron Heart. When they were roughly fifty yards in, there was one last crash of something heavy hitting the forest, but it was far behind them, and the hunters knew they were finally out of range, but kept running despite it all. They didn't stop until they'd returned to the small hollow they'd stayed in the night before.

"What the hell… what the hell!" Leon gasped. "I didn't… I didn't know it could do that! Mercy, Tuli's going to have a field day when she hears about this…"

"Guessing that ain't normal for the spiders?"

"Not that I've ever heard… but I guess-" Leon paused at the sound of boots stomping in his direction, and turned to find Sonia marching up to him, yanking off her mask and revealing a livid look on her face.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Sonia hissed at him, shoving him over. "Why the hell did you let it go?! You nearly got us all killed, you moron!"

"I… It was running away!" Leon snapped back, pushing back to his feet.

"It wasn't running away, it was getting into firing range!"

"How was I supposed to know that?! I've never heard of a Nerscylla doing that before! I've never seen anything like that before… You wouldn't have thought it could do that either, don't try to pretend you would! And why are you blaming me for this? You're the one who agravated it!"

"I was the- It was attacking us!"

"It was keeping its distance from us until you threw the flash bomb! Didn't you see how skittish it was? Nerscylla are ambush predators! They wouldn't attack head on, they'd try to sneak up on us!"

"You don't know that!"

"I've been friends with Tuli for almost ten years, and she won't shut up about insectoids! I know more about Nerscyllas than almost any other monster on the planet!"

"You didn't know about that slingshot though!" Sonia snapped, and Leon faltered. "If you didn't know that, how do you know it wouldn't attack us, just because it's an ambush predator? You can't predict what a monster will do just because of what Tuli says!"

"It… maybe not, but if it wanted us dead, why sneak up on us in the first place? If it could hit us from range in the first place, why didn't it just smash us to pieces without getting close?"

"I don't know, but you can't just assume it's gonna be all buddy-buddy! I'm not gonna just sit back and hope a monster doesn't try to snap my face off again just because it might look a little jittery!"

"And I'm not going to try and butcher a monster just because you think it should die!" Leon growled crossing his arms. "If I'd known it would start launching things at us, maybe I wouldn't have let it go. But I didn't know. I couldn't have known! So I let it run, and I'm not sorry I did! I'm not going to kill a monster if I don't have to-"

"Shut the hell up with your worthless 'ethics'! Because of you stupid Shield bullshit, you almost got all of us buried under steel beams, you freaking moron!"

"You- Don't you dare insult the Way of the Shield!" the lancer roared. "Just because one of us actually thinks the Nerscylla doesn't have to be butchered instead of chased off-"

"I don't give a damn about the Nerscylla!" Sonia shrieked at him. "I don't care if you think the Nerscylla is this holy creature that deserves to be all but worshiped! I don't care if you thought it was running away! Those are your idiotic ethics, not mine, and because of them you almost got us squished! No matter what you say, the Nerscylla is just another damn monster, that is all it ever will be, I'm not going to risk my life just so you can piss and moan over its damn 'right to live', squawking like a cuckoo clock every time we do something that twinges your damn ethics! The only thing in the world that I care about less than that damn spider's life is your stupid Shield-code!"

"Sonia, calm down…" Bram muttered, putting his hand on her shoulder, but the huntress swatted it away.

"No, I will not calm down! I'm sick of him treating us like we're barbarous, bloodthirsty lunatics just because we don't treat monsters the same way his stuck-up ass does! He's just a weakling and a coward!" Leon tensed at the words, his expression growing wooden, and Sonia turned on him with a dark sneer. "Don't like that? Well, that's what I think! You're just using this stupid 'Way of the Shield' garbage as an excuse! You're too weak or too cowardly to be a real hunter, so you hide behind your stupid ethics so you don't have to fight monsters that you're too afraid to challenge!"

Leon was quiet for a long moment before speaking, his voice dark and poisonous. "I may be weak. I may not be as skilled as other hunters. But I am not a coward, and if nothing else I'm doing my best to get stronger. And, no matter how badly you think of it, my ethics are real and honest, and I'm trying to live up to the legacy I've chosen to follow to the best of my abilities, no matter how much it may hamper me or endanger me… But that's more than I can say for you."

Sonia stared at him for a moment, her sneer faltering as she registered his words. "Excuse me?"

"Isn't that what you're doing, Sonia? Trying to live up to a legacy? Your parents' legacy?"

Immediately the huntress' face twisted with rage, and her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. "Don't you dare try to insult my family!"

"Of course not," Leon scoffed. "I'm not about to insult someone's family. I don't think badly of your parents at all; rather, I admire them! The Alatreon was a scourge on humanity for ten thousand years or more, and your parents ended all that. They saved countless lives by putting that dragon down. That's a legacy to admire.

"But you, Sonia… if you're trying to match that legacy the way you are now, trying to live up to that heroic namesake of yours, then you're doing a piss-poor job of it. Treating monsters as little more than points to tally on your Guild card, treating your role as a hunter as a 'barbarous, bloodthirsty lunatic'... If that's really what it takes to live up to that legacy, than it's worth less than dirt. Hmph, and maybe that's a fitting legacy for someone like you."

"You son of a bitch!" Sonia screeched. Before she could lunge at the lancer, however, Bram stepped in again, this time throwing his arms around her waist and holding her back. Leon didn't even move, standing his ground as the huntress flung curses and threats at him, trying to break free of Bram's grip.

"Hoy, that's enough!" Logan snapped, finally stepping in. He'd been too stunned by the shouting match to intervene at first, but now he pushed between them. He shoved a finger at Leon's chest. "You. Go… keep watch or something, make sure the spider ain't following us."

"Fine," the lancer replied dourly, marching out of the hovel. Thatch was scrunched up near the entrance, his eyes wide and fearful as Leon passed.

As Leon vanished around the corner, Logan turned towards Sonia, right as the huntress wriggled free of Bram's grip. She got two steps before Logan got in front of her, and his dark expression brought her up short. The huntress paused, her grip squeezing tightly around the 'jaw' of her facemask, before releasing a howl of rage and frustration as she hurled her mask at the wall with such force that half of one horn broke off, and the mask clattered across the room before sliding to a halt on the floor. The huntress was breathing heavily, staring at the ground with her fists clenched at her sides.

"Hoy, Sonia…"

The huntress' head snapped up, and her face was a contortion of dozens of emotions, though most prominent was clearly anger. Her voice came out in a low and restrained growl. "I… am done with him."

That was all she said before whirling around and stalking to the far end of the hovel, finding the smallest, darkest corner and planting herself down in it, burying her face in her knees. A few moments later, Bram followed, sitting down cautiously next to her but not speaking. Logan frowned, scratching his head uncomfortably in the silence.

"Great… Just great…"


"Hey! Welcome back!" Vi cheered eagerly as the hunters walked back into the circle of Stellazzio's wagons.

It was late afternoon of the third day since they'd left for the Iron Heart, and the group had finally returned to the caravan, where a few straggling villagers were still lounging around in search of goods to buy. Thatch had branched off to return to his room at the inn, and to inform the Guild about the 'success' of the mission. As for the hunters, however…

"How did everything go? Looks like everyone's safe and sound… Oh, man, I can't wait to tell you what happened on the Conga hunt! It was-"

"Not now, Vi," Leon growled. "I'll… I'm not in the mood."

The horn player blinked in surprise as the lancer stalked past her. A moment later, Sonia simply huffed in disdain, not saying a word before turning and stomping back to her own wagon as well. Vi looked nervously between the two of them as the pair vanished into their wagons, slamming the doors behind them.

"What… what happened?"

"They got into another fight," Bram replied solemnly.

"Oh no… again? What happened this time?"

The archer sighed and recounted their hunt and their 'battle' with the Nerscylla, from the creature's arrival at the Heart to chasing them away with catapulted rubble. Vi and Tuli's eyes were wide from the story, but soon after the glaive user had a dour expression on her face.

"It sounds as though she attacked it unnecessarily."

"Maybe," Logan shrugged. "Hindsight's clear as day, sure, but the thing got real close to us, and if they's any one of us gonna be jumpy 'round one of them spiders, gonna be the girl lost a bit of her face to one, hey? Ain't a stretch thinking it's gonna try something. I done the same before, attacking a monster 'fore it can attack me. Probably woulda done the same as her here too. Girlie ain't a lancer or nothing, so I ain't gonna fault her for a 'best defense is a good offense' mindset, hey? Can't blame Leon for letting it run though. Couldn'ta known the thing was a deadshot with using its webs like a slingshot. Sonia blamed him for it though, nearly getting us squished under steel beams." The great sword user rolled his shoulder uncomfortably. "The arguing afterwards didn't help none."

"What did she say?" Vi asked.

"Things got… heated. I'm sure he'll tell you about it, hey?" Logan sighed again. "Gotta talk to her once she's cooled off. The two of them was fuming the entire walk back, barely get a word in edgewise, hey?"

"I'll go speak with her in a few minutes," Bram said, giving Logan a wry smile. "I'm sure I can calm her down somewhat."

"Hope so, Pinkie," Logan replied, before turning back to the two huntresses. "Any news 'bout Dundorma yet?"

"Not as of yet," Tuli sighed. "We've been waiting for letters since we returned from our hunt, but nothing has arrived."

"I heard a ruckus in town about an hour ago," Vi said, "but we haven't had a chance to head in to ask for news… And considering the situation with Leon and Sonia, that might have to wait until tomorrow… Aw, I'll just ask Steward about it later. He usually keeps his ears to the ground with things like this."

"Indeed. Perhaps he could- Oh, speak of the devil."

From across the caravan, the four of them spotted Steward marching quickly their way. The old sword strapped to his belt clattered about at his pace, and as he neared, Logan realized the man had a fearful look on his face, his eyes snapping to Bram.

"Ah. You… you have returned safely. Excellent. Excellent…"

"Uh… yes," Bram replied nervously, catching the man's expression. "There were some issues on the latter end of the hunt but… we've all come back in one piece. Is, ah, is something wrong, Steward?"

"No, it…" The man paused, pursing his lips and staring at the young hunter - more specifically, Logan realized, he was staring at the charge blade on Bram's back - before shaking his head. "No, I must be honest. There is trouble brewing in the village. Young Bram, I know this may seem an odd request, but I must ask you to go into your wagon and stay there until further notice… and also, perhaps you should take your switch axe down from where it is hanging and take that inside as well."

"I…" Bram looked worriedly at Logan, but the great sword user could only share a bewildered look. "I… I can do that, certainly, but why? What's happened?"

"I… I will explain later, but please: go to your wagon. I do not want you out and… visible right now, not when- Oh no."

Steward's eyes darted towards the gate into town, and Logan followed them, catching sight of a small collection of six men and women clustered together and heading towards the wagons. Hunters, if Logan had to guess, and there was an oppressive air about them as they approached. Logan didn't feel like these were shoppers coming to barter for trade goods; they were heading this way with purpose… and Logan didn't much care to find out what their purpose was.

"Get outta here," Logan muttered, smacking Bram's shoulder. The hunter nodded, nearly stumbling as he spun to head for his wagon and immediately working to free the straps keeping his switch axe latched to the side. He was too slow, however, and before he could get the weapon free, one of the hunters spotted him and pointed him out to the others.

"Hey! Hold it right there you piece of shit!" the woman in the front snapped. Bram winced, his hands dropping down to his side as he turned to face the approaching gang.

"Ah, can I, uh, be of some assistance?" he asked nervously, though the words only agitated the group further.

"Help? You want to help us, huh? That's rich…" one of the others growled. Before they could get closer, however, Logan stepped in front of them, and Vi and Tuli weren't far behind.

"Thinking if you ain't looking for help, you can leave, hey? Don't look like you here to do any shopping."

"Move it, buddy," another man snapped. "We ain't got any business with you."

"If you walk up looking like you's planning on starting something with my friend, we's gonna have business, hey? I don't think I ever seen you before… you know these guys or something, Bram?"

"I… no, not at all. I… may have seen them around the village at one point or another, but I don't think I've interacted with any of them…"

"Huh… Hokay, why you acting like you got a problem with my buddy here, hey?"

"Why? 'Cause he's a damn Progressive, that's why!" the woman in front snapped.

Logan blinked, staring at the group expectantly. "And?"

"And that's all the reason we need! And if you try to stop us, then you've got a problem too! Now move!" she bellowed, grabbing at Logan's shoulder, but the hunter caught her hand and twisted it sideways, making her yelp in pain.

"That is… Now, hold on a moment!" Tuli spoke up. "Just because he is a Progressive does not-"

Her words were drowned out, however, when the woman snarled in rage, kicking at Logan's chest. The hunter was able to dodge easily, but the others in the group took the moment to swarm around her, lunging towards Bram. Logan managed to grab another one by the shirt, and both Tuli and Vi scrambled to halt a couple more, but another three got past them and charged the younger hunter. Bram panicked, freezing up for a moment before desperately reaching one hand for the hilt of his charge blade's sword and the other for his carving knife, but the men were upon him before he could draw either. He managed to slide out of the way of the first man's fist, but the next one caught him by the helmet and slammed his head into the side of the wagon, making him cry out in pain and topple to the ground.

"Bram!" Logan bellowed. "Hoy, you get 'way from him or I swear I'll-"

"You great damn fools!"

The locals winced and froze where they stood as a sharp hiss pierced through the scuffle. The fighting stopped, and the men and women turned; Logan looked behind them to find a wiry man standing shuffling up to them. He was no man of battle, that was obvious. He didn't have any great strength in him labeling him a warrior, but there was an intensity in him which Logan couldn't ignore; strength of spirit if nothing else.

"Let. Them. Go," the man growled. Logan felt a shiver rush through his assailant's body, and the man pulled away, and the others attacking Vi, Tuli, and Bram pulled back just as quickly, hanging their heads like chastised children under the man's withering glare. "What do you violent asses think you're doing, assaulting a caravan guard? Since when do you braindead layabouts make fun out of assaulting travelers?"

"We… but Boss-" The man's eyes snapped to the huntress who spoke, and the flame in his gaze sealed her lips into a fearful crease. "He… he has a charge blade…"

"I can see that just fine. I'm not blind. What I'm asking is, what makes you think it's your right to act as self-imposed arbiters of justice, or whatever nonsense you think justifies your actions?"

"What?! But Boss, it's because of inconsiderate assholes like this brat here that… that Simon…"

The man scowled at the huntress, but it lacked the fire in it from before, and carried a weary and mournful weight to it. "I am perfectly aware. But lashing out against random travelers like this will not change the past."

He shook his head, stepping between the assailants, who parted with his passing as he approached Stellazzio's hunters. "Allow me to apologize on behalf of my friends here, though I won't ask you to forgive them or anything like that. They don't usually cause trouble like this, but they're a stupid and sensitive bunch, and recent events have made them feel vindictive. I suppose they simply lashed out like children at the first thing they could find to vent their anger at."

"You say that as if it was an obvious decision they made, but it was still no less than assault!" Tuli growled, stepping in front of Bram and glowering up at the man. "What is the meaning of all this?! I do not approve of Progressive weapons any more than any other Purist, but to lash out at a hunter for simply possessing one of them is madness! You cannot just assault Progressives without reason!"

The thugs turned, staring at the huntress incredulously. "A reason?" one of them hissed. "You think we don't have a reason to beat any Progressive we see into a sticky red-"

The boss raised his hand sharply, clenching it into a fist and cutting off the speech immediately as he stepped closer to Tuli, studying her intently. The huntress was a touch nervous, but stood her ground.

"You're a Purist, are you?"

"...I am."

"Really. You say my friends here have no reason to act the way they do? Have you not heard of what happened in Dundorma?"

Tuulikki frowned uncomfortably, looking around at the agitated people. "Not much," she admitted. "We've received word that there was an… accident of some kind, an explosion on the west side of the city. We have not gotten any more details, however. Is that what you are talking about?"

"It is," the man replied, scowling darkly. "An accident… one which killed over two hundred and maimed even more. Untold destruction, on par with an elder dragon attack. And do you know what caused that accident, miss Purist?"

Tuulikki grew terse, her lips creased into a pinched line. She glanced over her shoulder at Bram, who still sat pressed against the wall of the wagon, eyes looking nervously between the men surrounding the huntress. "What?" she whispered.

"A charge blade caused it. Word from the city arrived this morning, announcing that the detonation occurred during a Troverian exhibition. One of their weapons… malfunctioned, apparently, and many dozens of innocent men and women paid the price for their carelessness."

Tuli's eyes were wide for a moment, but there was little surprise in the expression. A moment later it shifted to a terse look of contained anger. "I had… I had my suspicions that one of their creations had been the cause, but…"

"Well, you can confirm those suspicions now, if it brings you any pleasure." The man tensed, looking towards his feet solemnly. "It brings me none. The blast took my brother."

"It did?" Bram asked, shifting uncomfortably under the withering looks from the local hunters.

"It did indeed. Just got a fine letter of condolence from the city yesterday, letting me know that they'd found… what was left of him to be identified. Suppose I should be happy there was enough of him left for his friends to figure out it was him… Cremation is the typical fare for our village, maybe I should be thankful the Troverians did half the job for us." The boss smiled, a wry and humorless expression. "I never liked the idea of those Progressive weapons myself. Tried to convince him to use something safer, something more tried and true. But those Troverian contraptions always filled his eyes with stars… right to the end."

He motioned to the men and women around him, who had all grown melancholy. "I won't say these fools here were right to confront you with only violence and not explaining themselves, but they loved my brother almost as much as I do, and the loss pains them. It doesn't justify their actions, but I hope you at least understand why they lashed out in the way they did. They want justice against someone, and those who caused the blast in Dundorma are likely all dead; they heard there was some unfortunate lad in the caravan who possessed one of the weapons which took Simon from us and… well, it's easy to aim your ire somewhere close when it's convenient, and your grief blinds you to logic."

Stellazzio's hunters were quiet. Tuli was staring at the ground, her expression tense and strained. Logan and Vi hadn't moved from where they'd planted themselves to protect Bram, and both of them were simply staring in shock. Bram himself had gone pale and gaunt, and his fingers were brushing nervously against the curve of the weapon strapped to his back. The boss of the locals sighed and shook his head.

"I won't try and argue with you about Progressive weapons here and now; I'm in no mood for confrontation, and I doubt I'll be acting much better than my friends if I get too fired up. It's not my place to tell a person what risks they should take or weapons they should carry. But know this: I lost a brother to one of those damn weapons. If I were you, I'd ask yourselves what you're willing to lose to one of them, if you choose to wield one of those damn things or stay close to someone who does.

"Now, I think we've wasted enough of your time. I bid you all good day. I wish you good fortune… especially in times like these." He turned, waving his hand towards the hunters around him. A few of them hesitated uncertainly, but followed after him, leaving Stellazzio behind as they returned to the village. Silence surrounded Stellazzio's hunters for a while, until Tuli finally spoke.

"Bram." The younger hunter looked up as Tuli quietly spoke his name. "I do not… want to act callously towards you. I do not wish to lash out at you for your choices. I like you, and I wish to remain on good terms with you. So please, I ask you, for the sake of our relationship if nothing else: do not ever use any Progressive weapons in my presence again. Especially your charge blade."

The huntress spun, stalking back towards her wagon, vanishing inside and closing the door behind her. With a hazy expression on his face, Bram pulled the weapon off his back and laid it across his lap, staring down at his new weapon with a look of uncertainty and distrust.

"Is this… Was that why you wanted Bram to hide earlier?" Vi asked, looking at Steward.

"It… yes, it was. We heard the news only an hour or so before you four returned from your mission, and we felt it might be… prudent to keep young Bram's weapon preferences out of sight. I feared there would be trouble with the local Purists once word spread. Forgive me, I was not quick enough to avoid an altercation…"

"Coulda gone worse," Logan muttered.

"Not much worse," Vi sighed.

"Well, I ain't having to add another notch to my fistfight tally here in Gahiji, hey?" Logan shook his head, kneeling down and patting Bram on the shoulder. "Come on, Pinky, let's get you stuff inside the wagon. Don't wanna wait and see if they's any other locals ready to start trouble, hey?"

The younger hunter nodded uncertainly, looking up towards the gate with a moment of fear, as though he expected more men and women to appear in search of his blood. But he nodded, standing up to help unhook his switch axe from its mount on the side of the wagon. "I don't… I don't understand. I studied the charge blade's design. I discussed the safety mechanisms with the Troverian I bought mine from in-depth. They shouldn't just… blow up!"

"Well, obviously one of them did," Logan replied, hoisting the weapon up. He glanced at Vi as they made their way to the door of the wagon. "So… how bad you think this gonna be?"

"I don't know," the huntress replied, shaking her head. "Worse than this, probably."

"Great, one thing after another ain't it…"


Author's Note: Please Review! Thanks for reading this chapter about a not-so-itsy-bitsy spider!

I feel like I could have a Homestar Runner reference in every single chapter from here to eternity and I'd never feel bad about it. I'd never run out of them either.

It took a little while for me to properly visualize this chapter and get the sizes for everything good and accurate. For reference, the Iron Heart is a pit that's roughly ¼ mile wide (i.e. 1320 feet, 440 yards). That means the outer wall that Thatch wanted to copy is roughly 4146 feet long, ¾ of a mile. I had to figure out how far they'd really be from the center of the ruins, as well as the time it would take to travel the distance around the circle while giving Thatch time to copy the images. It helps that the Nerscylla nest was pegged at being roughly 660 feet away, giving them some room to believe they wouldn't be seen immediately.

As always, I really enjoy giving my monsters unique traits or battle tactics that differentiate them from the standard monsters you see in the story, or using the terrain they're familiar with to their advantage. The idea spawned from the sight of a Nerscylla using a web line to 'pull' itself across the arena like a slingshot, and I thought 'what if it did that to other objects'? So I gave it the ability to use its webs to slingshot debris from the ruins around it from a safe distance rather than attacking directly, until it used its ability more like a catapult than anything else. It's a monster that's relatively passive and not much of a threat to humans, but in its nest where it has a lot of 'ammunition', it's quite deadly.

Also, I've given this Nerscylla a name. It's called Springald. I doubt he'll have the same impact in the story as Goliath ever did, but if I find a place for it, I've at least prepared for it.

Finally, if you have a Switch and want to hit me up with a friend code, here's my ID: SW-6819-6591-5298. I'm playing Splatoon 2 these days, so we can actually play together if you're into that kind of game!

Playing: LOZ: Breath of the Wild, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Splatoon 2 Testfire, Nier Automata, Shovel Knight, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix, Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy, Mario Kart 8, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Splatoon 2
Reading:
Mahoutsukai no Yome by Yamazaki Kore, Ane Naru Mono by Iida Pochi
Listening: LOZ: Breath of the Wild OST, The Adventure Zone podcast, Jonsi, CatHatFiddle, The Strokes, My Chemical Romance