Shadows of the Past

by dashboardgecko

A sequel to The Lost Civilization. It's been 25 years since the Alatreon was slain. The Lost are integrating into the hunter's era, and the world is slowly advancing. But darkness looms to the east, and even greater threats than before, both monster and human, are appearing to challenge the next generation of Lost. MH4U.

35. Red Flare

Red Flare

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

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Kim didn't like sea travel. At least, she didn't like it anymore. Back in her younger days she used to love the sea, the rocking of the boat and the lapping of the waves against the stern. However, as time had pressed on, she'd grown to appreciate more expedient forms of transport. As airships grew more prominent within Theron, providing a faster and relatively safer method of travel, Kim had grown accustomed to their speed and timely schedules, and now seafaring just seemed like a slog. However, it had only been twenty-five years since airships boomed in popularity, and there were still many out-of-the-way places that required other methods of transport to reach, like their destination Cobi Village.

At least the Guild had put out for one of the fleeter ships they had at their disposal for their use. The mistico ship they'd been given was small but swift, cutting through the water to the south at speeds that would've been enviable were it not for the existence of airships. The crew was a mere nine men, but they were experienced enough to do their work quickly and efficiently. The captain was vaguely aware of the true nature of their mission, though the finer details remained hidden from him; he would be their emissary between the village and the Guild back in Orage.

Clanking echoed across the deck and Kim looked up to find Rena appearing from below deck. The huntress was fully equipped and looked ready for battle; the ship would be arriving at Cobi within the hour, and Kim wanted the villagers to see them enter looking like they were ready for a fight with the Abyssal the Guild had no doubt 'warned' them about by now.

Even so, the great sword user's setup was quite impressive, even if it was just for show - for now. Rena wore a full suit of Stygian Zinogre armor, heavy black plating with grey scales and white tufts of fur lining the sides. Streaks of purplish-red decorated the faulds and chestpiece, accompanied by a pair of retractable 'claws' attached to the gauntlets that were the same color. The helmet was a rather odd design, in Kim's opinion: she knew there was a sturdy metal helm at the core of it, but whatever smith had constructed the headpiece had attached a pair of glowing metal 'ears' atop the helmet, as well as a long stretch of white fur stretching down to the huntress' mid-back. The locks even hung over her weapon, a massive Azure Rathalos great sword, thick and curved with several black-barbed talons hooking off the reverse side of the weapon.

Behind her she could see Cait shuffling out of the hold as well, decked out in his own armor. The bright orange color and unique layered plating style made it easy for Kim to figure out that it was made from Sand Barioth materials. Similar to Rena, the equipment came accompanied with a fluffy turf of Barioth fur that covered the Felyne's back, though it was less like aesthetic and more like a shell. His weapon was a heavy, spiked mace of sorts, made of cool, icy materials; Jade Barroth, if Kim's guess was right.

While Cait wandered off to walk up towards the bow of the ship, Rena smiled as she walked in Kim's direction. "Hey, boss. Is the village in sight yet?"

"Not quite," Kim shrugged, rolling her shoulder and frowning. Her Agnaktor armor was getting a little stiff, but nothing truly hindering… she'd need to have it looked at when she returned to Orage. "The captain says it'll be coming over the horizon within the hour."

Rena's eyes aimed south, as though the words themselves would make Cobi appear, and looked disappointed when nothing appeared but more ocean and forest to the east. Eventually she shrugged and sauntered over to the railing, leaning against it next to Kim and lowering her voice so that only they could hear. "So, we land on shore, look nice and impressive… then what?"

"Then be friendly. Build a rapport with the villagers. Tell stories, crack jokes, buy food from the local shops. Make friends. Get them to like and trust you. The more you act like a normal hunter just doing your job and having fun, the less likely our bomb producers will suspect we're after them."

"So make friends and have fun? I can manage that."

"Probably easier for you than it would be for me. We'll probably have you be the one who gathers supplies for the researchers… maybe Theo as well. He's the local hero along this part of the coast, that may help out."

"Fine by me! I'll want to send letters back to my family anyway."

"Just don't get on anyone's bad side and we should be fine. The last thing we need is for you to get into a fistfight with one of the villagers or something like… like…" Kim petered to a halt, tilting her head thoughtfully. "Actually, that might not be a bad idea, if you can find any sort of underground fighting ring. Maybe you can use your prestige to get close to-"

"Uh… I don't do that anymore."

"You don't?" Kim asked. "Aren't you supposed to be the champ of that 'fight club' that the airship company pretends is a big secret? That's what Lynn told me."

Rena smiled broadly. "Ha! I used to be. Took me years to finally beat Queen Sturmtrum, even with her teaching me everything she knew."

"Queen Sturmtrum?"

"Yeah. Lynn. Back when she was the champ, everyone just called her Queen. That's what you get when you go undefeated for almost ten years, I guess. But I finally beat her and took the title! Though, admittedly, I'm pretty sure she threw the fight in the first place so she could 'retire'… I was never really happy about that. Still, being the Champ was a pretty big achievement, no matter how I got it, and I decided I'd hold onto it for as long as I could.

"But, unfortunately… I barely managed to keep the title for any time at all. I got knocked on my ass by a friend of mine, Jez, only like eight months after Lynn bowed out. She blew me out of the ring like a sack of onions." Rena scratched the side of her head thoughtfully. "There was a lot of talk about whether she was cheating or not, so people weren't sure whether her victory counted…"

"Cheating? How do you cheat in a no-rules fistfight?"

"Well, there's some unspoken ground rules: you can't wear armor, no weapons, no hair grabbing, no aiming for genitals, no deadly force, don't break or knock out anything that can't heal or grow back… we have fun beating each other up, but we're not trying to maim each other. But Jez… eh, it's a little complicated. She had a couple advantages that some club members thought were unfair. She only had the title for about a week before giving it up so she wouldn't cause any real trouble."

"Didn't that mean you got your title back?"

"Well, it would've… but the Compound scientists started sending me and my buddies on a lot of material missions around that time, so I got really busy for about a month, and didn't have time to really do much with the club between hunting and being with my family. Then I got pregnant with Luca… One of my old hunting buddies, Raz, took the title in the meantime. Managed to hold onto it for a few years after that before losing it to some young blood, last I heard."

"Who'd he lose it to?"

"Aw, I don't know. I sort of got out of the whole fight club scene after Luca was born. I had kids to take care of, and I come home with enough injuries and bruises from my hunting career as is. I don't really wanna explain to my kids that I get into fistfights for kicks. Can't really sell that sort of thing as 'noble' as easy as you can hunting, right?"

"I guess not. Well, I suppose you'll just have to rely on friendliness then."

"Aw, don't worry, I think I've got you covered on that front," Rena grinned.

Kim smiled back as the sound of armor echoed from behind her again, and turned to look as both Theo and Desig made their way on deck, fully armored as well.

Theo was a walking symbol of his claim to fame, wearing a full armor set molded from Ivory Lagiacrus materials, the pale white plates tipped with light blue coloration. Impressive though the armor was, across his back was perhaps a greater talking point than the armor: a massive hammer made from a Jhen Mohran tusk. Kim knew it was an inherited weapon from his grandfather, a nearly one-of-a-kind weapon, since recovering tusks from Jhen Mohran was nearly impossible once they fallen into the sandsea, even for the most skilled hunters. Seeing that weapon would turn a few heads in a hunter's hub, that was for certain.

Desig, by comparison, had a far less bulky set of equipment on him, though still easily recognizable as a Green Nargacuga set. Kim had fought a couple of them in the forests that stretched from Orage down to the southern coast of the country, but the creatures were far more prominent over in the Yukumo area where Desig lived. Still, possessing a set of the armor was no small feat, given the wily and deadly nature of the Nargas. Strapped to his arm and his belt were his weapon of choice: a sword and shield. Kim wasn't entirely sure about the source of the weapon itself, however; both sword and shield seemed to be crystalline in nature, formed of jagged black and teal stone with sharp bones making up the edges of the blade itself.

"We're close," Theo noted, glancing at the shoreline.

"Yeah, we'll be there soon," Desig agreed.

"You can tell that?" Rena asked.

"I've been down this part of the coast quite a bit," the hammer user replied. "I recognize the terrain."

"Same," Desig said. "I spent more than two years sailing this part of the sea. Even after all these years it's all pretty familiar." The man paused, turning to glance towards the crew, and found them to be sufficiently far away for some privacy between the four hunters. Still, he lowered his voice before continuing. "So, assuming nobody panics and starts taking hostages when we get to town, how do we go about finding these bomb runners without calling attention to ourselves?"

"Try talking to the local hunters," Kim replied quietly. "Assuming they're not helping the bandits, they'll know the area pretty well. They'll know where any out of the way huts, or abandoned mines, or any hideout locations might be nearby. Wherever the bombers are operating out of, it has to be within a day or two walk of the village."

"You'll need to be subtle though," Rena said. "Keep it casual, like asking how the hunting in the area is, what sort of materials there are out there. Ask if there're any old houses out in the boonies where any reclusive hermits might live in case there's an evacuation and you need to check on them. Old mines could be bunkers that the villagers can hide in if the 'monster' comes to attack the village."

"Don't press too hard though," Kim said sternly. "Be vague, but watch out for anyone that gets nervous about your questions. Your first priorities are to ensure that the villagers aren't threatened by these criminals, and to make sure our targets don't run away. Obviously they're going to consider us a threat, but we need them to think that we're completely unaware of what they're doing, and the monster in the Meridian ruins is our only concern."

"Y'know… if there're any Felyne villages out in the forest, we could probably get Cait to talk to them. Maybe they've got some information."

"Ugh! No thanks!" the Felyne called out from across the ship, scuttling over to join the humans. "I will if I have to, but can we find another way?"

"What's wrong with Felyne villages?" Desig asked.

"I mean, usually they're pretty cordial as long as you don't bring trouble with you, but… Rural Felynes are all a little weird. They're either earthy hippies, jittery neurotics, or crazy cultists."

"That's… kind of a weird way to think of them. And what kind of cults do Felynes have anyway?"

"I don't know, worshiping some kind of grand maker gods or something like that. Or gods of death and destruction, depending on the village."

"Oh yeah," Rena muttered. "I remember those guys. That was really weird…"

"A cult worshipping a god of death? In our country?" Kim muttered. "How come I've never heard of this before? Why hasn't anyone done anything about it?"

"Well, they're not that bad…" Rena replied, getting odd looks from the others. "No really! It's not as bad as it sounds; more of a duality thing or something like that! The, what was it, the 'Black God of Mercy and Destruction'."

"Duality. Really."

"Black god?" Theo muttered. "Were they worshipping the Alatreon or something?"

"No… Well, I don't think so. It's more like, mercy and destruction together to, um… Cait, help me out here."

"I don't know much more than you, Rena. But it's something like, mercy and death in tandem, nya. 'Show mercy when you can, destroy if you must, and have the wisdom to know when to use either'. Seems like they favor the mercy bit more than the destruction side of it…"

"Exactly," Rena nodded. "We met a bunch of them once while we were in the Tundra, looking for a Jade Barroth, and they were all really pleasant! Treated us to dinner, gave us beds to sleep in for the night, gave us directions to where the thing's nest was… It wasn't until we were leaving that they caught us off guard with the whole 'May the Black God of Mercy and Destruction watch over your journey'. We all thought it was sketchy as hell, but we looked around and didn't see them doing anything dangerous so… Guess it's just a religion with really poor naming sense."

"Huh… still, it might be something to look into later. Personable or not, followers of a 'black god of destruction' doesn't sound safe. But we're getting too far off topic… can you find the local Felyne village if there is one?"

"Eh, yeah sure," Cait sighed. "Can't promise I'll get anything useful from them, but I'll see what they know."

"Good. And if they are black god cultists, let me know… Now, Theo, when we arrive-"

"Captain! Flare ahead, west by southwest!"

Kim blinked in surprise, looking up at the shout from the crow's nest before following the directions shouted. Sure enough, off in the distance a brilliant red flare was arcing into the air. Kim paled slightly at the sight; a flare's color dictated the message. White requested basic assistance, yellow was a request for medical aid, green was a hunter's flare indicating a monster was beaten and needed picked up, orange was a request for immediate assistance and signified great danger…

Red, however, symbolized an immense threat, and only those prepared to die should heed the call for help.

"Ma'am?" the captain called from the stern, looking poignantly towards Kim. Kim frowned, calculating the direction: given their location, it had to have come from the island where the researchers were investigating the Meridian structure. She nodded quickly, and the man grew stern. "Hard to starboard! We make for the flare!"

The deck was suddenly a flurry of motion as the crew prepared the ship. The wheel spun as the boat turned west, and extra sails were unfurled for speed. Soon the boat was racing across the water, the bow bucking with each crash against the waves. Off in the distance the flare was slowly dropping towards the horizon.

"What's going on?" Theo asked.

"I don't know yet," Kim replied. "Someone in the research group set off a flare."

"I can see that, but this isn't… part of the plan is it?" he asked, lowering his voice.

"Not that I've been told… the researchers were only supposed to send a false monster report. Even if it was, they shouldn't know we're here yet. I think this is a legitimate emergency." She turned towards the others. "Prepare for the worst. We don't know what to expect, and the lives of the researchers could be on the line."

The others all nodded; they were already prepared for battle. Rena especially had a stony expression, her face a mask of gaunt worry and anticipation. The only exception was Cait, who was looking around nervously. His eyes weren't focused on the island ahead of them, but seemed to be scouring the ocean frantically.

"You okay, buddy?" Rena asked, kneeling down next to him. The Felyne let out an agitated growl.

"There's something… something wrong, nya…" the calico cat muttered. "We need… need to leave! We shouldn't be here!"

Rena frowned at the words, but before she could reply there was a call from above. "Captain, I can see their camp! North side of the island!"

Kim frowned, pulling out a pair of binoculars as the ship headed towards land. A small makeshift dock stretched out to sea, the ruins of an old Meridian structure of some kind, so covered with algae and seaweed that there was little visible of the old white stone that had been used to construct it. Still, it jutted out from the island straight and level, and a smaller ship sat moored up against it, bobbing in the swell and tied down to an old pillar. Several yards from the edge of the building a collection of tents had been raised under a rocky overhang, where a thin trail of smoke spiraled up from a single dying campfire. For the number of tents set up, however, the campsite seemed ominously quiet…

As the boat came to a halt in the water near the structure, the sailors leaping off to tether the ship to whatever they could, a figure emerged from one of the tents, scurrying their way as the hunters dismounted. It was a white-furred Felyne, Kim noted, but its gait was… stilted and pained, and the hunters rushed to meet the creature halfway. The huntress winced as she approached, getting a clearer view: the Felyne was covered in newly-applied bandages, and there were several patches across her body where her fur had been… burned off, leaving behind raw and blistering flesh visible. As the hunters neared, the Felyne collapsed, but Theo leapt forward, catching her before she hit the ground.

"Please…" she gasped, motioning towards the tents. "You have to help… Miss Hannelore…"

"Get the ship's doctor! Quickly now!" Kim ordered, and Desig nodded sharply, turning to dash back to their boat. The other three made their way to the campsite, Theo carrying the Felyne in his arms. As Kim had feared, however, they found the campsite almost completely empty. The tents stood alone and abandoned, and the only other living soul was laying in one of the tents.

It was one of the researchers, a Wyverian woman. Kim recognized her face from a photo she'd seen in the mission report. Hannelore Hartford, she recalled. However, a better portion of her skin was red and blistering, and already there were stretches of skin wherever bandages hadn't been applied. A lot of her body seemed covered in bandages, but the work was slipshod, likely done by the Felyne, who seemed in little better condition. A minute passed and the ship's doctor made it to the camp, immediately looking over the two patients.

"These are burns… ranging from first to third degree," the doctor muttered. "Maybe burns isn't the right word. Her skin isn't charred. It's more like she's been... I don't know. Scalded. Like she had boiling liquid poured on her."

"Boiled…" Kim turned at the sound of the Felyne's voice; Theo had placed her gently onto another nearby cot. She dug through her memory for the name in the dossier: Alva, she thought. Cait and Rena were seeing to her now. "The water… the water was boiling, nya… They were… they were all down there when it…"

"The rest of the researchers?" Rena asked, and the Felyne began to shiver. "Are they… Did any of them…?" She didn't need to finish asking the question. The Felyne's face said it all.

"What happened?" Theo asked. "Did a volcanic vent or fissure open up or something?"

"Volcano… it was like a volcano, nya… It was… was alive and-" Alva's eyes snapped open and she looked around the hunters and crew in terror. "I didn't… I didn't mean for this to happen! It was an accident, nya, I swear!"

"An accident?" Kim asked. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't… I didn't know it would… that I could…"

"Shhh, calm down," Rena cooed soothingly. "Just tell us what happened. We'll listen to you."

Alva whimpered a bit more, but soon began to calm down. She didn't speak immediately, however, sitting in silence for a minute or two. Soon enough, other members of the ship's crew appeared in the camp, and Kim sent orders to have the Wyverian carried back to the boat. As they prepared a makeshift stretcher, Kim approached the doctor.

"How is she? Is she in stable condition?"

"She'll live. She's not in good condition, but her life's not in the balance… at the very least we can get her to the mainland and into proper care."

"Right then." With that, Kim turned, returning her attention to Alva. Rena's encouragement seemed to be working, and the Felyne had calmed down. With a strained sigh, she began to speak.

"We were… we were investigating the ruins, like normal. We'd… we'd uncovered a new area in the last week, a cavernous tunnel that we'd found on the south side of the island. All the researchers were excited to explore it. It was a bigger chamber than anything we'd ever discovered before. We'd been preparing for the journey inside, eager to figure out what lay within. We… we left around mid-morning, donning our air filters and diving in. We had enough to spend hours underwater if we needed to. The first day was supposed to just be a preliminary study. We'd go through and make note of interesting walls and unique carvings and imagery on the walls, to come back and do a proper translation later.

"What we found was… I don't know. Pictures of dragons or something. I'm just an assistant. I've been studying, but I can't read the Meridian writing yet. The researchers seemed exhilarated though, like they'd found the discovery of the century. We kept going to the end of the chamber, where a tall metal gate led into another chamber. It was… just slightly cracked open, barely big enough for us to slip through. The researchers were all even more eager than before, desperate to find more…

"And then we found it," the Felyne breathed. "In the chamber beyond was a giant blue crystal!"

Cait and Rena both frowned worriedly. "A Lost crystal?" the great sword user asked.

"We… we thought so too, at first. But it was enormous! At least the size of the arena in Orage, if not bigger!"

"The arena?" Rena gasped. "Something that big… something that big could hold hundreds… no, thousands of Lost!"

"That… that's what we thought too," Alva muttered. "W-We were deciding what to do, when I- Ugh… The crystal… While we were in there, the crystal started glowing! We… we began to panic! We thought… we thought that the Lost inside were going to drown! We didn't have enough filters for that many people! All we… all we could do was watch…

"But there weren't any Lost inside, nya. There was… there was a monster inside. An enormous monster! Like… like a living volcano! And, and the second all the crystal melted off of it… it woke up." Alva keeled over, shivering in terror. "Its body lit up like fire, and-and the water started to heat up, and-and… We tried to swim away, but… It started following us towards the gate! Miss Hannelore and I were the only ones that made it out! The rest of them were… they were… too slow, and… the water was… so hot that… It was starting to boil and they… "

Apparently this was as far as Alva could go however, and the Felyne fell back into her cot, sobbing in horror and sorrow. The rest of those within the tent were silent, however, looking between each other.

"A monster inside a Lost crystal?" Desig breathed. "Is that… possible? I've never heard of anything like that…"

"It's happened before," Rena spoke up. "There was a Silver Rathalos that woke up from a Lost Crystal not far from the Compound, back before the Alatreon was killed."

"I've heard that story," Theo muttered. "So it's possible to hold monsters inside, but what about this thing that… this thing we're dealing with now? A living volcano the size of the arena? I've never heard of a monster like that before, at least not one that lives underwater, have you?"

The hunters all shook their heads. Kim knew of a few 'volcanic' monsters; she was wearing the armor of one for that matter, but leviathan or not, the Agnaktor wasn't exactly made for swimming in water, and the thought of one so big chilled her. The only others were Akantor and Teostra, but even though all she really knew about those monsters were what she'd gathered from stories, none of them seemed to be fans of the ocean.

A thought clicked into her mind, however, and her gaze snapped back to the Felyne and the Wyverian. They were both dry and bandaged. The new cavern they'd discovered was on the south side of the island, and the camp was on the north side, and either by swimming or by boat the journey back to the campsite couldn't have been quick…

Kim frowned, before turning on Alva again. "How long ago did this happen? When did the monster wake up?"

Alva shook her head, looking up at the sky. It was getting close to evening. "I'm not… sure. Five hours? I had to treat Miss Hannelore… When I got back to the campsite, I think I passed out from the pain for a while… I don't-"

"Five hours- The monster! Did it get out?!" Kim snapped.

"I don't… I don't know…" Alva admitted, her eyes wide with terror. "I… I was running away. The doors… the gate was mostly shut… but it was so big, that…"

"It might still be trapped inside," Rena cut in. "The Meridian structures were built to be nearly indestructible. If this thing is in there, it won't have an easy time getting out. And if it is powerful enough to break out of a Meridian structure… I don't think we're going to be enough to take down something like that."

"Or it might already be free," Kim scowled, staring out into the ocean. Was it possible some… volcanic monstrosity was wandering around out there already?

"In that case, what do we do here?" Desig asked. "It killed the researchers, sure, but… by the sound of it, it was accidental, not done out of actual spite. Should we even try and take it down? Leave it alone? We don't really know what we're dealing with here, or how to handle it. Maybe we should send someone in to scout it out? Who's the best swimmer?"

"I think that's me, but that might not be a good idea," Theo muttered. "If what Alva said is true, it can make water around it boil, simply by proximity. How close can I safely get? I didn't bring any cool drinks along with me, and there's no promise that would work in the first place."

"We just don't have enough information," Kim growled, shaking her head. "Either way, we need to report this to the Guild and make sure that the village stays safe. Rena, Cait, and Desig, I want you three to take the ship over to Cobi and let them know what's going on and prepare them for the worst. Set up defenses, evacuate them inland, whatever you think needs to happen. Write up a missive to the Guild and send it to Moga ASAP. Let Nedra know that the mission's on hold until we've dealt with… whatever this thing is. Tell them to send the emergency team here now. Theo, you and me are the best swimmers here. Danger or not, we need to try and get some idea of what we're up against here. No unnecessary risks, but we need to get something on this volcano monster."

The hammer user replied solemnly. "Understood. Looks like we're going to be dealing with a monster after all."

"Just my damn luck… Someone get Alva to the ship. We need to-"

"Ma'am!" Kim spun at the shout behind her to find one of the crewmen from the ship sprinting towards them, his eyes wide a fearful. "There's something… something to the southeast! It came from the south side of the island, and we-"

Kim didn't even wait for the man to finish turning and sprinting towards the ship, with the sound of clanking and boots echoing behind her as the others followed. As soon as she was at the edge of the makeshift dock she pulled out her binoculars and aimed them towards the coast, scanning the ocean for… something. She soon caught sight of what seemed to be a deep fog bank, wafting over the ocean. Kim frowned; it was far too late in the day for such a weather pattern, but from deep within the fog, she could see a deep crimson light pulsing softly in the haze. She could also see that it was… moving, rolling ominously towards the shoreline. Directly for Cobi Village.

"Captain!" she shouted, leaping onto the deck of the ship. "To the village! Now!"

The captain didn't even need to respond before the crew was in a flurry, rushing to untie the ship and prepare it to give chase. The other hunters followed her onto the ship, and Kim was glad to see that Rena had managed to grab and carry Alva back to the ship, quickly taking her below deck where it was safer. In barely a minute the ship was freed, and the captain spun the ship around to aim at the shoreline. Every sail was drawn for speed, but as Kim looked through her binoculars, she knew they'd never catch up. Whatever the creature was that had been unleashed, it was moving almost as fast as they were, and was already less than a mile from shore. Kim could see the villagers on the docks scrambling to flee, running inland in terror, as the fog washed over the beachhead.

"That's not fog…" Theo muttered worriedly, staring through a spyglass he'd taken from a sailor.

"It's not?" Rena asked.

"No. It's… steam."

"It doesn't matter what it is!" Kim snapped. "Pick up the pace! Whatever it is, we have to-"

The lancer's words were cut off, however, as a thunderous roar bellowed across the water. Something massive was rising out of the water, and even from this distance Kim could make out the sound of deep footsteps rolling over the ocean's surface. A vague shape appeared through the steam, nearly indiscernible, but positively massive; Alva's claim that it was comparable to the arena had been no exaggeration, and it was still mostly submerged in the shallows. A torso… maybe a couple wings? Kim just couldn't make out the details. The red light from before grew even brighter, and a blast roared through the air, like a mix between an earthquake and an explosion.

There were flashes of deep red light from within the mist, and in rapid succession no less than two dozen massive flaming orbs launched into the sky, sailing up a couple hundred yards into the air before plummeting towards the village. Huge plumes of flame rose up above the treeline as the meteors detonated on impact, blasting craters into the earth. Several fell against the walls of the city, completely obliterating the heavy stone barrier and sending flaming shrapnel into the forest, setting fire to the nearby trees. Other fireballs crashed into the town gates, falling onto the unfortunate civilians that had been trying to flee. Screams echoed across the water as guards and civilians were caught up in the blasts. In a single volley, the city was surrounded by a ring of flames and devastation.

More thumping eruptions sounded, and another wave of meteors launched out over the village. This time, the spread was narrower, falling into the core of the village itself. One flaming orb crashed down near the docks, obliterating what looked like a fishery. Several fishing vessels were caught in the blast, the flames quickly consuming the sails until the masts collapsed, setting fire to the ships themselves. In moments the entire bay area was alight with fire, and from within the flames, a fluttering green Guild flag was lifted into the air, its fringes burning as the blaze consumed it.

Another rumbling, and a final volley of meteors took to the sky and fell upon Cobi. What little remained of the already ravaged village was set aflame in the resulting barrage, residential homes and little shops smashed under molten earth and fire. At this point it almost seemed needless; the wind from the ocean was already spreading the flames on the docks inland, consuming half the village.

Kim could only feel her heart sink as she watched through the spyglass, unable to do anything. It felt as though their ship was practically crawling across the water while this… creature laid waste to Cobi. It hadn't even come up on shore yet, still nearly fifty yards away from the docks, but its meteors could be launched far enough to destroy the village with ease.

All they could do was watch.

From the flames she saw a small team rush through the burning wreckage, a cluster of hunters rushing the shore to try and do… something, as futile an effort as it seemed to be now. Two bowgunners… a long sword user… and a dual blade user?

"No, don't! Just… just run…!"

The dual blade user was fastest, rushing the water and diving in, and Kim winced fearfully. Even from here she could see how the water near the shore was frothing and churning from the heat, filling the air with a thinner haze of steam. Though the creature was so far from shore, the water had to be warming up, if not… The hunter made it ten yards from shore before stopping in the water. Kim could almost hear him screaming as he turned, trying to swim desperately back to the shoreline.

The other hunters were still on the dock, and they scrambled to pull their friend out of the water, though he seemed to be badly hurt. The long sword user knelt over his friend, while the bowgunners pulled out their weapons and fired on the creature. Kim couldn't tell if they'd even hit the creature in the mist… but she saw it retaliate. From within the steam, a bright red light swelled brilliantly from within for a second or two, before a fireball more massive and intense than any of the meteors before it roared out of the haze. The hunters on the shore didn't even have time to react before the orb struck the dock they stood on.

An enormous explosion erupted across the Cobi waterfront, a blast several times larger than any of the meteors had hoped to create. The shockwave raced across the water, striking the bow of the ship and blasting against the sails, making the entire boat shake and jolt to a halt, twisting sideways as the helmsman struggled to maintain control. Kim and several others at the bow were knocked backwards by the gust, and the crewman in the crow's nest shrieked as he was thrown from his perch, over the edge of the ship and into the water; a few other members of the crew rushed to the side to try and recover him.

Kim's gaze snapped back to the village as soon as she was back on her feet, however, and her heart sunk in horror. Even without the binoculars she could see the devastation caused by the fireball: a crater nearly three dozen yards wide had been blasted into the docks, obliterating everything within range and leaving behind nothing but a pillar of fire and smoke as ocean water rushed in to fill the new hole in the world. The shockwave that had shaken the ship had flattened dozens of the huts and buildings of Cobi, literally blowing away the flames from before and exchanging burning frames for little more than the skeletal foundations and what had been too heavy to not be blown away.

As for the hunters… Kim doubted there were even ashes left.

The ship shuddered as the wind behind them brought them to speed again, and they began to approach the village. But what would they even be able to do when they arrived? The dragon hadn't even stepped foot on land and yet it had managed to level Cobi in only a couple minutes!

The creature hadn't done anything in a while, however, and the red glow within the steam had been still since it had annihilated the hunters. A deep rumbling echoed across the water, and the creature began to shift slightly, the red lights moving ominously for a moment, before the glow dropped downwards. There was a loud splash as the lights dipped underwater again, and once more the creature submerged itself, moving around underwater for a moment. And then the dragon began to move directly towards them.

"Damn it! Prepare the cannons!" she shouted to the crew, and those on deck scrambled to do what they could. Not that they could do much, considering the ship only had a couple small cannons on each side, and hardly the necessary firepower for something like this.

"It's coming too quickly!" Theo bellowed, and he was right: the red glow was racing through the water faster than they could hope to prepare. The captain bellowed orders to his crew, spinning the wheel and trying to turn the ship's guns towards the approaching dragon, but it was a close thing, and they barely got the ship turned before the churning water began boiling under their ship, and a blast of steam swelled over the deck. The entire ship found itself doused in a fiery red glow that rose up from under them like the flames of hell.

"Where do we aim?!" a crewman shouted.

"I don't…" From a distance Kim had been able to tell that this dragon was enormous, but now that it was right beneath them, the glowing red light seemed to coming off of a being equal in size or bigger than even a Ceadeus! "Just… just shoot! Anything! Anywhere!"

"Wait, don't!" Theo shouted from the side of the ship. Even with his helmet on, the hunter was keeping his hand close to the slits in his armor, wincing from the heat of the steam. "It's too deep! We fire and the cannonballs will lose all momentum before it reaches it!"

"It's that deep?!" Kim hissed. If that was the case than it was even bigger than she'd thought! Already the red light was almost directly under them. The air was sweltering, and the ocean around them was churning as the water boiled. "Cool… cool drinks! Does anyone have any?! If we take them, we might be able to dive down and-"

"Don't! You'll be boiled alive! We have to-"

Desig's shout was blotted out, however, as a sharp and piercing pain shot through Kim's skull, sending the huntress reeling to the deck in pain. At the edges of her vision she could see that the others had fallen as well, hunter and crewman alike, clutching their heads in sharp agony. A painful whistling or whine seemed to emanate through her skull, shaking her brain so much it felt like her head would explode! Flickers of… something began to flash through her head, a pulsating strobe that flashed behind her eyes…

Then it was gone, as if it was never there. She blinked, looking at her hands as she pushed to her knees, gasping for air. The others around her were recovering as well, searching around to check up on the rest of the crew, trying to understand what happened.

But not all of them. Across the deck, one of their number was still writhing in agony on the deck of the ship: Cait. The Felyne was convulsing in pain, clutching his skull as his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Rena shrieked in horror, scrambling across the deck towards her partner and pulling him into her arms. It looked as though he was having a seizure, frothing at the mouth and shaking violently as he clutched his head in agony. Even through Rena's desperate pleas, the Felyne gave no reply.

The next minute seemed like a small eternity, until Cait seized up and then went limp in Rena's arms. Kim could see the huntress' eyes widen in horror for a moment, and her face paled, but the next moment the Felyne let out a weak cough, one bloodshot eye cracking open weakly.

"Ugh… Rena? I don't… It hurts…"

The huntress choked back a sob and pulled the Felyne into a tight hug. "You're gonna be okay, buddy…"

"Think it's a little early to say that…" Desig muttered. The ship was still enshrouded in stinging steam, awash with the bloody red glow coming from beneath them. From the stairs to below deck, the ship's doctor stumbled up from below, only to freeze on the last step when he found himself in an all-encompassing hellscape. The deck of the ship was silent; all of them realized that there was little they could do in their current situation, surrounded on all sides by thick red haze, knowing there was a colossal, fireball-spitting monstrosity simmering in water that would boil them alive if they tried to dive down and fight it. They could hear the hull of the ship groaning as the bow warped under the intense heat.

Then the dragon began to move. The boat rocked and swelled as the red glow under them shifted, and the water under them surged. A deep thumping sound shuddered up from below, and Kim realized that the light around them was shifting. She scrambled over to the edge of the ship to find that the dragon was moving out from under them, making its way parallel to the shoreline and heading north. In a few moments the ship no longer floated directly over the creature, and the dragon was swimming away from them. A few moments more and the steam haze began to dissipate as the water around them ceased its churning and the sea breeze carried away the scalding moisture towards the shore.

Silence covered the deck of the ship as the air around them began to cool. Kim felt her exposed skin throbbing in pain, and she wondered how badly her face had been harmed by the steam. Everyone around her was red-faced, and a couple of the crewmen looked as though the skin on their arms were close to blistering. The silence was finally broken by a sharp screech from the ship's messenger falcon as the bird lashed out against the door to its cage, trying to break loose.

"Send the falcon," Kim muttered, pointing to the captain. "Tell them a dragon… tell them an elder dragon destroyed Cobi, tell them it's heading north. Tell them to tell Orage and Tanzia as soon as possible. And… and the emergency team, send them to the village immediately north of here. Do it. NOW!"

The man nodded quickly, stumbling as he turned to dash towards the stern, where another crew member was already pulling the bird from its cage, trying to sooth the bird from its frantic flurry. Meanwhile, Kim motioned towards the other crewmen. "Get us to shore! We need to look for survivors immediately!"

The nearby men and women nodded, rushing towards back to their posts and aiming the ship back towards shore. Despite what Kim had said, however… it didn't seem as though there was much hope of finding anyone living in the ruins of Cobi. More than half of the buildings in the village had been completely decimated by meteors, and those that hadn't had been set ablaze. Beyond the walls of the village, the surrounding farms and forests had caught fire as well, and the makings of a forest fire were already in the works. A blinding column of smoke billowed towards the sky, and Kim had little doubt that any nearby villages that hadn't seen the red flare from before would soon know that something was amiss from the smoke.

Despite their haste, the ship was forced to slow cautiously as they neared the shoreline. What docks hadn't been obliterated by meteors or the dragon's giant fireball were mostly filled with the burning wreckages of fishing vessels and trade ships, leaving little room for the Guild skipper to find a safe dock. They eventually found a place to settle in, a small dock that the meteors hadn't hit, and the fires hadn't spread to yet.

The hunters were off the ship first, rushing into the village as the sailors followed behind, calling out for survivors and scrambling through the village. Though a few of the huts hadn't been hit by the falling meteors, the fires that had blazed to life from the impacts of others had caught them alight, and not a single structure in the village had escaped untouched.

But not all life had been snuffed from the village, thankfully. Kim had begun to give up hope that anyone had survived the assault, until a pained cry echoed out from a small house just beyond the waterfront. There was a scramble among those that had heard it, throwing aside debris and brushing away cinders to try and save even a single life. Eventually they found the source: a pair of siblings, a teenage brother and his toddler sister. There were… other bodies in the wreckage as well, but only corpses.

As the pair were spirited away towards the docks, where the ship's doctor set to treating them, more life began to appear, from without the walls rather than within. In the wake of the destruction, a few civilians that had been outside the walls or those who had managed to flee the city before the monster had trapped them within a ring of flames began to return now that the threat had vanished from their waters. Wide-eyed and horrified they came, looking around as they found an unfamiliar ruin standing where their village had been less than an hour ago. They walked slow and dazed, wondering if they were dreaming until Theo rallied them into searching for survivors. Fishing vessels that had been out to sea returned as the sun touched the horizon, and Kim couldn't help pitying them as they stood speechless on the deck, wondering if they'd moored their meager trollers at the wrong place, and where Cobi had gone. The time of day brought them no comfort either, as the orange-red glow of the sky lit up the village as though it was aflame once more, even as the last of the cinders were dying away.

Cobi had been the home to almost four hundred people that morning. Twenty-one had been outside the village walls when the dragon attacked, and eighteen had been out fishing. Out of those within the village, only nine survived. Four hundred villagers, cut down to less than fifty in an hour. Night fell, and flames were forced to grow in the village once more as they lit torches just to see what they were doing as they searched for just one more life to save. But no more appeared, or at least, none they found in time.

Kim wondered if it was a blessing or curse that the fires had devoured so many bodies. Was it better to see the remains of the ones you loved, even with their flesh and bodies charred, sometimes beyond recognition? How many corpses had they found, identified only because of which ruined home or shop they'd been in? How many bodies had been found under the collapsed walls and town gates, only a few steps from survival?

Had the falcon reached Moga in time to deliver the message? Had the helljumpers managed to intercept the monster before it reached the next village, or at least arrived in time to evacuate them? How many more had the creature killed already while she sat here unearthing bodies?

Kim found herself numb as the questions repeated in her mind, as her body toiled automatically, digging through the wreckage.

Exhaustion overwhelmed her several hours later, and she found herself retreating back to the ship, desperate for some sort of reprieve from the strain of the last few hours. The survivors of the attack had taken refuge in one of the few remaining structures that had survived the destruction, an old stone building on the edge of town that had been built years ago but remained unused by the public. Somehow it had avoided the meteors the creature had rained down on the city, sitting far enough from the town wall to avoid being damaged by its destruction, and distant enough from the town proper to avoid being caught in the ensuing blaze that had consumed the rest of the village. It was large enough to house all the survivors… though that wasn't so much a statement on the size of the house as much as the number of survivors.

Kim slumped against the base of the mast, not even bothering to go below deck; the open beds had been taken by the wounded so that the ship doctor to look them over. Kim's armor had long since been discarded onto the deck of the ship, covered in soot and dust from their work in the village. Theo and Desig sat nearby, leaning against the banister going up to the helm. Both were baggy-eyed and as filthy as Kim was, Theo's ivory Lagi armor now blackened and smoky, and both looked as though they were barely warding off their need for sleep.

"We need to go after it," Theo muttered.

"And do what?" Design scoffed. "Menace it with our inability to get close to it? Shoot at it with cannons that won't reach its depth, mounted to a ship that's made for speed, not combat? Boil ourselves alive trying to swim down to it? And even if we did manage to find a way to attack it, how are we supposed to do enough damage to that monstrosity to kill it before it annihilates us with one of those fireballs?"

"We can't just sit here!"

"We're not 'just sitting here'. We're helping the people of Cobi. The monster destroyed the outer walls, and their licensed hunters were all incinerated. All they have left are a few apprentices that were out gathering honey, and they're not going to be any use if something nasty comes along. They need someone to protect them right now, until the Guild can send support, and despite our ulterior motives, we were sent here to protect them, so we might as well do our job."

"That's not good enough."

"Well, that's where we're at right now," Desig sighed. "We're not equipped to deal with an elder dragon, especially not one that big and that powerful. If we chased after it like a bunch of idiots playing hero, we'd end up just like the hunters at the dock."

"That's not good enough…" the hammer user muttered again, glaring at the ground in frustration.

Kim had been listening to the two argue back and forth all night. Theo had been arguing for them to take the ship and give chase to the monster, but his words had a bitter tone, and there was little real conviction to his words. It had been irritating at first, until she remembered that his hometown, Boma, lay along the coast to the north of here, in the same direction the monster had traveled. If the creature did the same to other villages that it came across as it did to Cobi, then his home could very well suffer the same fate.

But Desig was right: they had to protect Cobi's survivors. They'd have to trust that the Guild would get their message in time and retaliate accordingly. There was little four hunters on a mistico could do against that thing.

A dull creaking echoed from near the stern, and Kim turned her head wearily to find Alva the Felyne emerging from below deck. Her wounds had been patched by the doctor, much cleaner than her own meager attempts, and she looked a sight better than she had before. However, though her appearance was better, her expression was gaunt as she walked towards the railing and stared out over the smoldering ruins of Cobi. Kim could see her chest quiver in contained sobs as she slumped to the ground in despair. Kim understood the sentiment; she figured the only reason she was taking it so well right now was because she'd been in Loc Lac when it had been destroyed as well.

Heavy boots signaled Rena marching up the gangplank onto the ship as well, and the tall huntress was just as worn and ragged as the rest of them. Cait was with her, slumped over her shoulder at the moment, but despite whatever had happened to him when the monster had passed under their ship, he seemed to have recovered enough to offer his help as well, though it was clearly taking its toll.

"Oh… you're up," the huntress noted, as she spotted Alva. The Felyne looked up at her hopelessly for a moment before returning her bleak gaze towards the village. For a moment, she looked between the other hunters uncomfortably, before she and Cait shared a pointed look with each other. Finally she sighed, rubbing her neck and approaching the miserable Felyne and kneeling down so she was closer to eye level.

"Alva… I need to ask you something. Something important." The Felyne looked up at her hopelessly, but for a moment Kim saw her expression shift to… worry? Fear? "This monster… you said it came out of a giant blue crystal, right? Kinda like one of the Lost crystals?"

"Er, yes, nya…"

"Right, right… Back when we first met you on the beach though, you said you 'didn't mean to do it'." Alva winced at the words, and her head sank again. "You said it was 'an accident'."

"You 'didn't mean to do it'?" Kim pressed, her eyes narrowing on the Felyne. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I… I didn't know… I didn't…"

"Didn't what? If you did something to-"

"Hold on, hold on, calm down, let me ask her the questions," Rena pressed, stunning Kim to silence. "Answer me this: did the crystal only start to melt… when you touched it?"

"It… yes," Alva whispered. In moments, tears began to cascade down the Felyne's face as the creature began to sob. "I didn't know! I swear I didn't! I… just touched the side when we were investigating it, and then… then it started melting from where I'd touched it! Please, I didn't… I didn't know… I didn't want all these people to die…"

"Shh, shh, it's okay, I believe you," Rena cooed comfortingly. "I get it."

Kim stared in confusion at the conversation. Behind her, Theo nudged Desig, lowering his voice. "Felynes can awaken Lost crystals?"

"I… guess?" the sword and shield user shrugged. "I've never heard anything like that before myself. I always thought they just activated on their own."

"As did I…"

Kim continued to stare at Rena as the huntress soothed Alva. "Don't worry. It's not your fault, not at all. Nobody blames you. Go on below deck and get some rest, you're still injured…" The Felyne nodded weakly, stumbling back towards the door to below deck. The hunters watched her disappear into the darkness of the hull, sitting in silence for a few moments as Rena stood uncomfortably in place for a moment. "Hmm… damn it. So… I need to send a message. When will the falcon come back? Will it come back?"

"Hold on a damn minute!" Kim hissed, leaping to her feet and grabbing Rena by the armor. "What is going on?! What the hell was all that?"

Rena winced, averting her eyes. "I can't… really talk about it."

"Bullshit! Don't you dare try and brush off whatever the hell that was! What's all this about Felynes… activating Lost crystals?! What's the connection between that and the monster? How the hell did you know about that?"

"I can't. Talk. About. It." Kim paused her shouts as Rena lowered her voice. "The Guild won't let me."

"The Guild?" Kim muttered. "Why would the Guild-?"

She didn't need to finish the sentence. She knew how the Guild operated better than most people did. Years as an internal affairs officer and I.S. member had given her an idea of the Guild's more underhanded and shadowy business, and some of the tactics they'd used to keep people from knowing things they shouldn't, and hiding secrets that needed to be kept.

Rena's hunting record was mostly spotless, though there were a few indiscretions: a few counts of disrupting the peace, bar fights, property damage, at least one count of public indecency… You couldn't find a hunter that didn't have a few things like that on their record. Then there was all her work for the Renfield family, as well as several other researchers in the Compound, but even those were relatively benign compared to others, simple hunt-and-gather requests and the occasional expedition. Now that Kim thought about it though, there had been something strange in the records detailing her early high-rank career that she could never pin down, a large time gap that was unaccounted for. If it was something the Guild itself was trying to keep secret…

"Tell me," Kim demanded.

"I can't!"

"I don't give a damn what sort of red tape and regulations are holding you back! You know something about this… thing that attacked Cobi! You know something about the crystal it was trapped in, and something about how Alva was able to free it, and you're not going to keep that from me after seeing it wipe out and entire village! Now tell me!"

"Really, I… I would, but there's clearance and stuff…"

"Then tell me whose approval I need to make you tell me!"

Rena grimaced, sharing another look with Cait. "Uh… Elhart."

Kim stared blankly at her. "Elhart? High Guildmaster Lucius Elhart?"

"Y-yeah…"

"I need… his direct permission to get information from you?"

"Yes."

"That… that's…"

That was insane. Rena's records were impressive, certainly, and there was no telling what sort of strange situations a G-rank hunter could find themselves in, but there was nothing in her transcript that implied that she was holding secrets that required permission from the most powerful person in the Guild to reveal. What the hell had Rena seen or done that required that level of secrecy, that could possibly be connected to a monster that had flattened a village in a matter of minutes?

Harker. It was obvious. Harker… hell, most of the members of the Renfield family had dossiers that were covered in more red tape than almost every other classified report in the Orage Guild archives combined. Dangerous lunatics, every last one of them, with Harker being the worst; he had an entire filing cabinet with his name plastered on the side. And Rena had worked directly for him for years. In retrospect, the fact that her file was as clean as it was after so long working under him made the whole situation that much more suspicious. Kim wouldn't be able to pry any information from Harker; he was off on that 'adventure' to Gahiji, or whatever it was. But what sort of secrets had Rena gotten hold of working for the Renfield family? It could be almost anything!

"Fine," Kim hissed. "Fine. What can you tell me?"

"About this situation? Honestly, not much," Rena admitted. "I knew about the Felyne-activated Lost crystals, and some, uh, other dangerous things, but I'm not sure how they really apply here… I have no idea where this monster came from, I swear! And I don't want to say anything without understanding how all the dots connect. But we really need to report this quickly. I'm sure Elhart knows more than I do, so even if I can't see the connections, he probably can, or someone that works under him…"

"Hmph… Well, we won't know until the Guild sends word back about what happened. Airship lanes be damned, with something like… like an elder dragon or whatever the hell that thing was, they'll be pulling out all the stops. But make no mistake, Blackwater, I'm going to find out what you know, one way or another."

"That's… that's fine. I understand."

"For now, just… ugh." Kim wobbled for a moment as weariness washed over her. "Get some rest then get back to helping the village. We need to be ready to evacuate the survivors if we can. And keep an eye on the horizon; I want to know the moment the Guild sends something back to us."

.

Author's Notes: Please Review! Thanks for reading this chapter about arriving in Cobi!

Hehe, and now we get to the meat of Kim's story. Honestly, with the inclusion of Rena and the knowledge that they'd be heading to a Meridian ruin, I was expecting someone to guess that there'd be an appearance of a Meridian or something in a crystal like Capsus, but my false trails with the Abyssal and Goldbeard seem to have worked well enough to throw things in their direction instead! Not that there wasn't a monster waiting for them at the end, but I'm still a little disappointed. Maybe it took too many branching paths to get here, but this isn't the first time there's been a monster released from a stasis crystal, is it?

Unfortunately, despite the dramatic nature of this chapter, it'll be a while before we come back to Kim and friends. The Dire isn't your typical elder dragon, and it's not something that a simple team of four hunters will be able to take out on their own. For now we're heading back to Sonia and the rest of the Stellazzio crew, where a whole different type of mess is unfurling in Gahiji.

Also, if it isn't clear by now, the bomb runner plotline is over. All of the bomb makers except for one is dead, and he doesn't have the will to keep pu that line of work anymore.

On a fun sidenote, I've been continuing my efforts to commission artwork of my OCs! I've recently finished drawings of Tuli, Vi, and Leon, so if you're interested in what they look like, figure out the link below and go check it out! I've done Sonia, Bram, and Logan already, now I just need to do Rikki, Rey, and Grim and I've filled out all of my main characters!

dashboardgecko dot tumblr dot com/post/172815255028/fsnowzombie-comissions-for-dashboardgecko

Playing: Super Mario Odyssey, Final Fantasy IX, Breath of the Wild
Listening: The Adventure Zone, TAZ: Commitment
Watching: Critical Role season 2