The Lost Civilization

by dashboardgecko

Since beyond living memory, great and fantastic beasts have roamed the world, and mankind has fought them; some for glory, some to protect others, but always the monsters have been there. But when legions of mysterious people appear, engulfed in strange blue light, bearing deep wounds of both mind and body, strange things begin to happen, and a darkness unlike any other awakens. 3U

37. The Dragon Tower

The Dragon Tower

Disclaimer: Monster Hunter is copyright Capcom. Most of the characters in this story are mine. Tenebris and Nikoyle belong to IDKTellMeWhatYouThink.

Edited by: Hoenn Master96

The next morning, as they continued along the pathway, Levin kept his eyes on the relief wall, casually gazing over the elaborate reliefs. They had yet to see another reference to the Alatreon or the towers again, though the reference to monsters continued to pop up. The walls seemed to grow littered with detailed descriptions of monsters, as far as Harker could translate, at any rate. The Meridians had spent an unbelievable amount of time studying monsters, since the walls apparently dictated detailed explanations of monster actions and ecology. Harker had actually started cursing halfway through, frustrated at himself for not having fully translated the language and missing out on so much information that he could be writing down.

All the while, Tenebris kept a watchful eye on them, not wanting any of them to start poring over information that might tie to the Alatreon at all, or the towers that had been depicted for that matter. But she'd had a concerned, worried expression on her face as she'd walked away from the image of the Alatreon. Perhaps at the very least, she could be convinced to tell Stergo about the wall, so he could send people to look into it. Even if Levin and Ellie weren't allowed to be involved with anything involving the Alatreon, surely the Guild would want to look into information about the elder dragon, even if it was something that came from another civilization.

Eventually, a light appeared in the distance of the cavern, a warm yellow glow that thankfully seemed to be sunlight, implying that there was finally a way out of the cave. But before they could finally reach the exit, Levin heard Tenebris gasp in shock. He and the others turned and found her stopped, gaping up at the wall relief, with a frightened expression on her face. Levin followed her gaze and looked at the wall, and caught sight of a massive image of a monster, some terrible beast he'd never seen before. It was a two-legged brute wyvern of some kind, a powerful-looking monstrosity with a large lump swelling on its back and dozens of spikes and points jutting out from the beast's jaw. The picture seemed to be depicting the creature attacking some village, smashing apart huts with its tail and feet and jaw, but what really seemed to catch Levin's eye the most was how big the beast had been depicted; whatever it was, it had towered over the village, the tallest of buildings barely as tall as the beast's knees. Levin could barely imagine something that big. Even the Alatreon couldn't have been much bigger than whatever this thing was.

"Deviljho," he heard Tenebris mutter quietly. Levin's eyes widened in surprise; A Deviljho? He'd heard of those. In fact, he had told Ellie hearsay about them way back when they were still in Boma village, but he'd never actually seen what one looked like. The stories called them terrible monsters that tried to eat anything and everything they could, only so long as it was, or had recently, been alive. Humans, monsters, trees, bushes, even its own kind or even itself (if rumors were to be believed), it ate whatever it could sink its teeth into. But the hunting manuals he'd read that mentioned the thing had never depicted one so massive, only ones that were roughly the same size as a Lagiacrus. But nothing like this… Apparently the others had thought as much as well. Ellie, Harker, and Kerry approached, staring up at the depiction in awe at the size of the creature.

"I wasn't aware that Deviljho got that large," Harker said thoughtfully. "Such a massive creature… and Deviljhos are already known for their voracious appetites. I cannot imagine how much such an impressive creature would need to consume in order to satisfy itself."

"No," Tenebris snapped, glaring suddenly at Harker. "Never refer to Deviljhos like that. They're not impressive. They're monstrous, demonic, evil creatures, completely insatiable and gluttonous. Other monsters may have respectable lifestyles and ecologies, but not these demons. They're sick, cruel nomads that devour everything in sight only to move somewhere else and continue eating."

"Ah, yes, I see," Harker replied, surprised at the vehemence in the huntresses reaction. "I was merely making an observation. You have, perhaps, seen one before, Miss Tenebris?"

The woman's expression soured a little at the question, but she shrugged. "A couple. I've killed one before as well, but… I've never seen one as big as this. The ones I've seen myself could have only been half this one's size. Something this big… a Deviljho this big shouldn't be allowed to exist at all."

"I've never heard of such a large Deviljho before," Kerry said softly. "If someone had managed to kill the thing, surely it would be a legendary story, wouldn't it? Perhaps the Meridians that made this were exaggerating the monster's size, or… or maybe… maybe it's still alive out there somewhere."

"No!" Tenebris snapped. "No… If it ever truly existed, it must be centuries dead. Something so massive wouldn't have been able to hide itself or its appetite for long without the Guild catching wind of its existence. There are… many hunters that would jump at the chance to find and kill such a large demon like that one."

"Like yourself?" Ellie asked, and Tenebris eyes narrowed as she stared up at the image.

"Yes, like myself."

"Hmm… There's that symbol again," Harker said, motioning to the relief. Levin looked up and caught sight of the three-pronged talon that had been sitting in the symbol of the Ouroboros earlier. However, this time it was planted in front of the picture of the Deviljho, inside some blast of flame, or smoke or something that the monster seemed to be exhaling onto the village it was attacking.

"Dragon's breath," Tenebris said, earning some odd looks from the other hunters. "You've never heard of it? I would've thought that since… never mind. It's a unique elemental attack that's only used by exceptionally powerful monsters, usually only by elder dragons. The Deviljho are one of the few monsters besides elders that are capable of using the element. It's more commonly referred to as dragon element."

Levin's eyes widened in surprise, and he reached into his pouch, pulling out his secondary power phial, holding it up into the light. Tenebris nodded as the dangerous black and crimson substance swirled and churned inside of the glass bottle. "Yeah, that stuff," she said, reaching into her ammo pouch and pulling out a small shot of her own, the tip of it filled with a smaller amount of the same substance.

"This stuff is dangerous, even when it's hunters using it," Tenebris explained, passing the shot over to Ellie, who was eyeing it curiously. "I'm surprised that a smith was willing to sell you that weapon in the first place actually. They try to keep close track of who're using dragon element weapons. It's a very dangerous weapon to be using, even if they are particularly powerful against wyverns. But the biggest worry about the element is when a monster uses it against you. If you have the misfortune of getting hit by it, it… it's hard to describe. It weighs you down, makes it hard to fight. It makes it so you can't swing your weapon or shoot nearly as well. I mean, you move just as fast, but it just seems to make you weaker. Like I said, it's hard to explain."

"Dragon element, eh?" Harker said, plucking the shot from Ellie's hand and looking into it. "I've read about it before. Some say it magnetizes your armor and weapon in some mystical way, distorts your balance in some manner that challenges your ability to fight."

"That would explain it…" Levin muttered. He still remembered his battle with the Alatreon, though as time passed, the details were growing increasingly fuzzy. The madness that had seeped through his mind during the fight had distorted his perception of what had happened, and trying to remember the precise details proved to be a challenge. But he did remember that it had been hard to move around when he'd been hit by that black lightning that the Alatreon had thrown at him. So it had been the effects of dragon element, was it?

"So you have felt it before," Tenebris noted.

"I guess so," Levin replied. "It's hard to forget something like that."

"So, perhaps that symbol represents the dragon element then?" Harker asked. "Then what does it have to do with the symbol of the Ouroboros? And what is the connection it has with the Alatreon and the towers?"

"Harker…" Kerry said warningly. "You promised."

"I did, Lady Kerrigan," Harker replied softly. "But this… this is something big. Something powerful and strange and fascinating. Who knows what information these towers could unlock? Just imagine! The work of an entire civilization unraveled and understood!"

For a moment, Kerry opened her mouth to argue, but she stopped as a torn expression crossed her face, part of her appearing worried, while a curious, excited spark lit up her eyes. She seemed uncertain, unable to choose between asking Harker to stop or join him in unraveling whatever mysteries lay hidden in the un-deciphered glyphs that littered the wall. She didn't seem to be teetering more prominently in either direction either; both her fear of the Alatreon (or rather, her fear of losing her friends and love, Levin supposed) and the near-insatiable appetite for discovery that Harker had been fostering in her seemed to be equally balanced in her as far as Levin could tell.

"I don't… no… No! You're not allowed to think about these things!" Tenebris snapped. "Get your mind off of this! You're not allowed to be involved with anything concerning the Alatreon anymore! The Guild will investigate this at a later date, but until then, just concern yourselves with finding and defeating the Rathian that's been causing problems, got it?"

Levin and Harker nodded fearfully, and both Ellie and Kerry hung their heads, slightly ashamed. Tenebris glared at them for a moment or two before sighing regretfully. "Ah, sorry for the outburst, it's just…. Geez, I didn't think you all would be so quick to charge headfirst into what you're not supposed to. I'm trying to keep you all safe and out of prison or exile, and you're really making it a challenge for me. I mean, I understand why you're so interested in this, but… Stergo trusted me to watch over you guys, and that's what I intend to do. And besides, you're speaking so freely of going after the Alatreon and that's… that's just not something people are supposed to do."

"These walls seem to indicate that the Meridians had something powerful and complicated, that was uniquely designed based on their study of monsters and elder dragons," Harker said, motioning to the image. "Perhaps it is against the Guild's orders to tail after such information, but… surely anyone who could translate these walls would be compelled to delve into it. If these weapons were truly capable of matching an elder dragon's power, wouldn't anyone attempt to seek out the source?"

Tenebris scratched her head uncertainly at the words. Levin noted that she also spared a quick, worried look up at the relief of the massive Deviljho, before sighing. "Yeah… maybe."

"Anyway, if it makes you feel better, I can swear that I will not use this information in any way to search for these towers, and will offer the information to the Guild when we return to Loc Lac. But please, allow me to at least translate what I'm able to as we pass by. This could be important, a clue or some kind of what these people were planning. I don't… I have no need to go after the Alatreon, but this knowledge, these secrets, at least allow me to uncover them. I promise, I will do nothing at all with this information without the express consent of the Guild if it proves to involve the Alatreon in some way. Is that enough?" Tenebris frowned uncertainly, but Levin saw that the long sword user was looking at Kerry instead. The bowgunner seemed uncertain for a moment, but eventually nodded.

Tenebris was quiet for a long time, looking over the wall thoughtfully, as well as giving the hunters judging looks, trying to determine their motives. Finally she grimaced. "I don't think Stergo will like this, but… fine, you can keep translating the walls. But do it quickly and only so long as we continue walking. We really do need to keep chasing this Rathian down, and that takes priority, got it? And anything… everything you find out goes straight to the Guild first when we're done with this quest, got it? The last thing I need is to try and stop you all from going off chasing down some old ruins."

"Of course, Miss Tenebris," Harker replied with an overly dramatic bow. "My sincerest of thanks for your generosity. Come on, Lady Kerrigan! Let's see what we can make of this language."

Even with the both of them together, though, Harker's translating proved to be frustrating for the man, and the man spent a lot of their traveling cursing in frustration at not being able to fully comprehend half of the information that was on the walls. Apparently the writing on the walls had gotten significantly more complex since the appearance of the Deviljho's image. Whatever that massive creature had meant to the Meridians, they had dedicated almost as much time to it as they had to the Alatreon itself. Tenebris kept quiet for the rest of their trip through the cavern, but her eyes sparked in interest every time the massive Deviljho was brought up again.

However, much to Harker's dismay, it wasn't too long after their discussion that the wall abruptly cut off, the towering wall of Meridian writings covered over by rock and stone from the mountain. Harker was obviously very disappointed by the sudden cutoff, and tried desperately to slow the party down long enough for him to gather what information he could from the last dregs of the wall before they continued on their search for the Rathian. But Tenebris proved adamant, telling him that they needed to find the Rathian first and that he'd had plenty of time to write down what he could. Besides, the notepad he'd brought with him was nearly full anyway, and if he really cared that much about scribbling down so much, well he'd have a second chance to translate what he could on their way back after finding the nest. The long sword user perked up a bit after that, and the group continued on through the cave searching for an exit.

But an hour or so later, as the hunters followed the slope, the cave came to an abrupt end. For a minute or two, the cavern was filled with the echoes of hissed curses that the hunters had all snapped out at the sight of the wall that ended their journey through the mountain. They'd spent hours following this cave through the mountain, only to run into a dead end and have to turn back! The only one in the group of five that didn't seem too frustrated was Harker, likely because it meant he'd have a chance to check the relief on the way back to write down whatever he hadn't caught the first time.

But fortunately, they were saved by wind. They rested for a few minutes to catch their breath and eat a few of the rations the Guild had provided, and were preparing to return back the way they came, when a sudden breeze and soft howling noise brushed across the hunters' faces. In their despair, none of them really took note at first, but Kerry stopped in her tracks in realization, glancing around in search for the source of the wind. The other hunters were confused at first, as the bowgunner began darting around the end of the cave, seeming to wander aimlessly around, but finally she stopped, quickly darting around the side of a large boulder that leaned precariously against one of the walls. A moment later she vanished behind it, and a victorious shout drew the other four hunters over to where she'd disappeared.

As Levin followed Harker around the side of the rock, he found that Kerry had slid herself into a small nook that cut through the side of the wall, and as he crouched to follow, he could see a bright light at the far end of the tunnel. The hunters were forced to crouch to make their way through the small passageway, but thankfully it wasn't that far to get to the sunlight. Levin had to blink a lot as he stepped into the new area, his eyes unadjusted to the daylight, but looking up, he was surprised by what he saw. The five hunters found themselves in yet another spire, though this one was far smaller, akin to the one they'd used to climb to the Rath nest near Echo Village. A long, rail-less, spiraling staircase swept up the sides of the spire, twirling up to the top, where fresh sunlight was filtering in.

"Interesting design," Harker muttered, walking over to the stair and poking at them. "The lack of railings is somewhat disheartening, though. And it also seems to be made of a different material… odd. I wonder if it's as durable as the other wall?"

"Probably not," Ellie replied, pushing past the long sword user and climbing up the first few steps. "A Rathian has enough power to break this stone."

"You're sure?" Harker asked, disappointed.

"Very sure. Well… admittedly, a very old, very angry Rathian." Harker, Kerry, and Tenebris all looked at Ellie and Levin questioningly, and Ellie flushed a little. "One that, um, was trying to recover its stolen eggs."

"Ah, one of those missions," Tenebris said with a nod, though Harker's expression soured. He clearly didn't approve of egg snatching, which Levin found odd. Tenebris failed to notice though, following Ellie up the stairway as the hunters worked their way skyward. "Yeah, nothing's quite as dangerous as an angry mother monster. I imagine a normal wyvern could probably match an elder dragon in power if its eggs were threatened. Me and an… old hunting partner of mine once were hired to collect Rhenoplos eggs, and oh my, you have no idea how terrifying it is. Somehow, every Rhenoplos within miles was alerted to the theft. They chased us, barricaded us… some of them even had the tenacity to start rockslides that cut off the path we were trying to use to escape. A Qurupeco appeared halfway back to camp to cause trouble, and it was run down and trampled by a stampede of the things. If you'd taken a Rathian's eggs, I could see one of them tearing through a mountain to either get its eggs back or get revenge. How'd that turn out for you anyway?"

"We, um, we found out that the quest was bogus," Ellie replied. "The guy who hired us turned out to just want a couple of pets instead of research materials like he'd told us, so we returned the eggs to the Rathian."

"Just like that?"

"Well, she'd broken into the village we were delivering the eggs to, and messed up the docks a bit… and there's a not very attractive burn scar on my shoulder she left me as punishment for taking her eggs."

"That still seems like she was letting you off easy."

"Well, her eggs were currently sitting on the docks of an underground town, in close proximity to three hunters," Levin argued. "If she'd gone too far, she could've hurt her eggs, and they took priority. So, she… wounded Ellie, then snatched up her eggs and carried them back to her nest."

"Probably the smart thing to do…" Tenebris nodded.

"You said there was one of these towers near the village?" Harker asked, short of breath. Climbing the spire was taking its toll.

"Just a staircase like this," Levin replied. "Nothing like that massive wall we saw back in the cavern. But like we said, there was a wall like that to the south of Boma village."

"One that was heavily damaged by something powerful," Kerry said.

"Exactly. So hopefully, if the design is the same as the one there, this staircase will take us all the way to the top of the mountain."

"Where hopefully the Rathian is nesting," Tenebris nodded.

The hunters continued upwards for a long time, resting near the top for a few short minutes in same they came upon their target as they left the spire. Then, once rested, they hurried up the last few flights, before bursting out into the bright sunlight and looking around. It took a few monsters for Levin's eyes to adjust to the new light, but once his vision returned, he found himself surprised at his surroundings. Sunlight was pouring down from above them, certainly, but they were not out in the open as they had been hoping to be.

Rather, they found themselves inside the barrier of a wide, enclosed circular wall, made of the same material as the spire they'd just climbed. The staircase they'd just climbed opened into the large area on one of the circle's far sides, poking into the sun right along the edge. The top was open to the sky, but the area didn't seem to have any clear exits or gates, though several dangling trees and vines dangling over the sides of the walls provided a possible means of escape to them. Without any gates or stairways leading over the walls, Levin couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about the place, though the walls twisted along the curve of the mountain, dipping up and down with the slope, similar to the barricade walls of a village, encircling a wide valley around them. The comparison proved accurate as Levin caught sight of the ruins of a town clustered in the center of the area, the broken remains of walls and houses scattered around like the bones of a skeleton prodding out of the earth.

Levin felt a little disconcerted as they stepped out into the sun, though for a moment he couldn't explain why. Then he looked northward and realized what the problem was: the pillar of blue light, once so far away, now seemed such closer. Dangerously so. It seemed that the source of the light couldn't be coming much further than a couple miles away now, just over the next peak. And as high as they were, the peaks just weren't that far anymore.

"How fascinating!" Harker gasped gleefully. "An entire village of the Meridians almost completely preserved! Well, it may be a little worse for the wear, I'll admit, but still! I don't think anyone in the world's managed to find such a thing before! I must see what there is inside!"

Without another word, the long sword user dashed off towards the ruined buildings. Kerry shouted after him worriedly, before chasing behind him into the collection of houses and structures. Levin glanced over to Ellie and shrugged. "At least it doesn't look like the Rathian's here."

"This day just keeps getting more and more strange," Tenebris sighed. "Honestly, when I heard that you guys were like magnets for odd situations, I thought Stergo was exaggerating the whole issue. But the blue light, the wall, and now this? How am I supposed to keep you out of trouble if things like this keep happening?"

"We don't ask for this stuff to happen, you know," Ellie muttered as the three of them climbed over the remains of a decaying brick wall.

"Oh, I know, I know," Tenebris replied. "I'm not blaming you for all this nonsense. I just wish you could, I don't know, tone down the weirdness a little bit, or at least make it come a little less frequently. I mean, I can deal with all this oddity, but it's kind of hard to decide how to deal with all this nonsense when it's just coming one after the other after the other. I mean, if it was just the light, then the wall, then this town, with a week or so in between, I could send a request to Stergo for advice on how to deal with it. But it's happening too quickly, and I'm just trying to keep up with your pace. Sweet mercy, Nikoyle was never this hard to work with…"

"Who?" Levin asked, and Tenebris blanched a little, turning her head away.

"An old friend I used to hunt with," she replied. She didn't say anything else, though, making Levin feel that asking about it was probably not the best idea, so the three hunters continued on in silence.

Levin had to admit, it was eerie wandering through the ruins of this long forgotten ghost town. There wasn't all that much to see in the remains of the village, and there didn't seem to be anything fantastic about the whole area, just the broken remains of some unknown town. Glass lay shattered, scattered about from broken windows. Holes had decayed the roofs of many of the buildings, making the town look as though it had been struck by dozens upon dozens of meteorites or other falling stars. The paths were ruinous and crumbled, oddly colored stone and gravel hidden under overgrown tufts of grass the only sign of a path that remained. It certainly was a far cry from how things were built in the Hunter era. Rather than wood and stone, most of the buildings in this area were built of brick and metal beams. Admittedly, even that much seemed a bit odd to Levin, considering how fond the Meridians, or whatever Harker was calling them, seemed to be of that durable stone that they seemed to be so fond of using. Levin wondered if it was really as indestructible as Harker made it out to be; the Rathian had torn apart that one spire fairly easily, even if Harker claimed it to be much weaker.

Besides, Levin couldn't help but feel an eerie feeling as he worked his way through the town with Ellie and Tenebris. Something about this town just didn't sit well with him. Why would the Meridians that built this town put it in such a remote place, and surrounding it with a wall of near-impenetrable stone? Perhaps they simply used the stone to build their spires, but you'd think they'd build their cities and towns out of something sturdier than brick and mortar. And why did they use such a singular, treacherous way in? Had they used airships, maybe? The way the buildings were designed was familiar as well. Perhaps the structural design had been one of the few things that had managed to carry over from the Losts' time…

But Ellie had an odd, uncertain expression on her face as they wandered, though, making Levin feel uncomfortable. It was a ghost town, but something just felt wrong about the place. As Levin continued through the village, the sound of Harker and Kerry talking to each other a few houses town, curiosity finally started to get the better of him, and upon passing one of the more stable houses that was still in close to one piece, he ducked inside, wanting to get a better look at what was hidden in the darkness of the houses. Ellie shouted at him in worry, but he gave her a reassuring smile, earning a dissatisfied look in reply before he vanished into the darkness of the house.

There wasn't much there, he had to admit, once his eyes adjusted to the dim light. Old metal shelves and rotted wooden chairs lay scattered about the room of the house he'd entered, and the tattered remains of furniture lay toppled and ruined in the darkness. As he walked through the room, looking around, he was forced to walk cautiously, avoiding stepping on the torn and worn remains of old book covers. Honestly, if he'd thought that the structure had been eerie before, it seemed even more so now.

Suddenly there was a clinking sound below him, and the switch axe user nearly jumped out of his skin at the noise. But he calmed quickly enough, looking down to see what had made the sound. He realized that he had stepped on a book, but that couldn't have made the clinking sound. He cautiously knelt down, reaching for the book cover and picking it up. A jingling sound bounced around the room as a small object dropped to the floor from underneath the book, rolling between Levin's feet. The switch axe user followed it, grabbing ahold of the object and picking it up, holding it up to the dim shaft of sunlight that was peeking through a hole in the ceiling.

It was a gemstone of some kind as far as Levin could tell; a foggy blue crystal. It was oddly shaped, not geometric in any way, but rather had a slumped, melted sort of appearance, as though it had actually pooled into a different shape, like a blob of wax fallen to the floor. But it certainly was a gemstone, its hardness and texture made that clear. It lacked any sort of shimmer or shine that you'd normally find in such precious gems, though, no glimmer that would make it valuable in a market. It wasn't something you could pluck from a monster, either. It lacked the vitality, the feeling of a material that had come from something alive that you always got from scales or fangs or even Lagiacrus crystals. In fact, though Levin wasn't exactly an expert, the rock just felt… dead to him, like something that had been snuffed out. As he lowered it and rolled it around in his hand, though, he swore a small glow seemed to flicker deep within the stone, but it was so dim it could have just been a trick of the light.

"Where did this come from?" he muttered, turning the stone over in his hand. It was very out of place here in this destroyed house. He looked down and turned to look around for more of the stones. His eyes fell on another stone that lay half-buried under a book propped up against a doorframe leading into the next room. This one appeared melted like the last one, but seemed bent in half compared to the last one. Levin picked it up, looking closely inside of it, and once more caught sight of an inner light that could have easily just been his imagination. Another couple shines caught his eye and he followed the littered gems over to yet another doorway, this one leading down into the earth as stairs descended into a dark basement. He cursed for a moment or two at his lack of a torch, before realizing that there was a small bit of light coming from down below. Cautiously, Levin worked his way down the stairs, wincing at every creak and groan that sounded as though it would all break apart below him without warning. But it held, and he continued his descent.

Levin was disappointed as he entered the basement. He'd been expecting… well, he didn't really know what he'd been expecting, but the light he'd seen was just a collapsed hole in the basement of the building, where sunlight was filtering through the cracks. The switch axe user looked across the floor for more of the gemstone shards, but he couldn't seem to find any more, much to his chagrin. He'd been hoping to find some sign of where these mysterious stones had been coming from. He walked across the room, eying the corners as he went and tilting over books and debris in search of more, but couldn't seem to find anything…

Then he realized what had been bothering him ever since he'd entered the basement: his footfalls sounded different. He looked down, kneeling, and brushed his hand across the floor. He was right! Sure enough, the entire floor was made of the same odd, foggy blue stone, stretching from wall to wall! As he knelt down, the phantom glow from the first two stones appeared below him, just barely visible from the inside the stone. It seemed to follow him around as he walked around the outside of the room, making him feel like the light was alive. But… how? Why? There didn't seem to be that many of the stones in the floor above, so why would the entire floor of the basement be made of the stuff? Then his hand brushed across an indentation in the floor, and he stopped, looking down. A collection of curved marks were pressed into the gemstone floor, all clustered together. Levin realized that another couple indentations of similar shape weren't that far away, though they were shallower in the ground. It took Levin a few moments to realize why the marks were so familiar.

Footprints. They were footprints. It had been so long since he'd seen shoeprints like that, since… since before he'd been carried to the Hunter's era. The natives of this world didn't have the unique sole designs that the Lost had used, so footprints tended to be single shapes as opposed to the collection of curves that lay before him. Had the Meridians used sneakers or something? He followed the footprints over to the wall of the basement where they had come from, searching for more information.

He froze. His eyes had landed on the space underneath the staircase, where an odd shape sprouted from the floor. It was like the trunk of a tree, but made of the same blue stone that the floor was made of, also dark and lifeless. But Levin recognized the shape. He'd seen dozens of them before, after all. But the last time… the last time, they'd been glowing brightly with eerie blue light. He stepped back quickly, looking across the floor. Blue stone, that looked as though it had melted from its previous shape, dull and lusterless, as though its life, its purpose had gone out of it.

He was standing where a Lost awakening had occurred. The crystals were gone, the people were gone, but… yes, this was definitely the location where some Lost had woken up. The crystals had melted away, leaving behind only confused Lost and a hardening substance pooled on the floor.

But… that meant that this was a Lost town, not one of the Meridians. That meant that they had built a wall around the remains of a Lost town. But why? Had they found the blue crystals with people inside, and not known what to do with them? Had they studied them? Had they experimented or… He couldn't… he couldn't understand. He couldn't reason out the Meridians' purpose, the purpose of this entire town. He had to find Harker. The long sword user would have a better guess around the whole thing.

He quickly stumbled his way up the stairs and out of the building, searching wildly for a sign of the others. Ellie and Tenebris had wandered away from the house that Levin had entered, off to look for other things to look at. But Harker could still be heard talking frantically on the other side of a few houses. His tone had changed a little from intrigued to one of worry, but that didn't slow Levin down. The switch axe user continued to hurry to find the others. He had to tell them what he'd found.

He found them standing near a broken structure near the center of town, a wide ruined building that stood half-destroyed, one side of it collapsed in. Harker was crouched near the part of the building still standing, a concerned expression on his face as he studied the ruins. Kerry and Tenebris stood nearby, watching on as the Harker sifted through the rubble. "Ah, good, you're here," he said, noticing Levin's approach. "I've discovered something odd about this town."

"I fear… I fear something strange is going on," the long sword user said quietly, his voice solemn. "This is not… these structures are not the creation of the Meridians. Steel, brick and mortar; these aren't the designs and materials used by the Meridians. No these… these buildings are the remains of our world. These are Lost structures."

"I know," Levin replied, earning a confused glance from the other hunter. "I found… I found some melted crystals in the basement of one of the houses. Whatever this place is, one of the Lost awakenings happened here, I think."

Harker nodded slowly and thoughtfully at the words. "Yes… that would explain the odd design compared to the stone that otherwise appears around their work… but why would this town be here, at the top of this spire? Did this city mean something to the Meridians? Did they find the crystals and… and… what? What would they have done? What were they capable of? If they discovered the Lost inside the crystals… were they studied? Revered? Hidden away? Why the walls? Why the barricade? Why the… the…" The long sword user blinked. "Quarantine, perhaps?"

"Like a disease?" Tenebris gasped. "No, that's… The Lost aren't a disease!"

"Closed off area, hard to reach by anything but airship, lots of area between the town and the walls," Harker rattled off, motioning to each thing mentioned. "It's very possible that the Meridians hid the Lost here away out of fear. Not wanting anything to do with it."

"But I thought you said the Meridians were dedicated to study! Why would they section off a town?"

"Who knows?" Harker replied. "They might have even made effort to preserve the town as it was, since the odds of steel and brick lasting as long as these have, exposed to the elements as they are, are very slim. To be fair, nobody knew that the Alatreon could crystalize people as it did. Perhaps they thought the crystals were a result of some other creature's work, or even the work of the Lost. But then, the crystals are not very translucent. Perhaps the Meridians didn't even know the Lost were inside the stones. I have no doubt that would indeed make them curious about the purpose of this town, a half-ruined place where several of the buildings have glowing crystals sprouting from the earth. For all they knew it was a Lost experiment gone wrong or something like that. Though perhaps they did use the town for study. With such time between this civilization and theirs, and no sign of writings or notes, I really can only speculate."

"Is there nothing else they could've kept this place for?" Levin asked.

"Not unless there's something in this town that would keep their attention here for other reasons."

"Wait, where's Ellie?" Levin murmured, his eyes darting around. His partner was nowhere to be seen.

"She wandered back towards the south side of this town," Tenebris replied. "She said she thought she saw something odd and took off before I could stop her. There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous in this area, and there haven't been any sounds of battle… but we really should find her, I suppose. This place being a Lost ghost town and the site of an awakening… I don't know. This pace is really eerie. We should try to stick together."

The other hunters agreed and the four of them hurried southward in search of their wayward bowgunner. Levin had to agree with Tenebris; now that they knew that this town was the remains of an old, destroyed Lost town, the place seemed haunting, like the ghosts of the past were looking over their shoulders as they worked through the ruined streets and alleyways. Now that he thought about it, Levin wondered what sorts of things were buried under the rubble. Old Lost tech, perhaps, or something of the like? Even if there were, Levin admitted to himself, he wouldn't want to go rummaging through them. It felt like grave robbing, somehow.

As they worked through the town, Kerrigan caught sight of something just over the next street of houses. It appeared to be a building larger than the rest, perhaps a school or warehouse or something of the like. But as they approached, they realized that something was amiss. Near the building, they realized that a dim blue light was peeking over the edges of the building, a pale glow that seemed very similar to the one that continued to glow menacingly to the north. At the sight of the pale blue glow, the hunters picked up their pace, and a moment later were running worriedly towards the source.

Levin was the first to round the last corner, and feared for what he'd find. But when he turned the corner, he caught sight of Ellie almost immediately. She wasn't hurt, but…

The bowgunner stood, frozen, staring up at the massive, ruined building that appeared as though it had been torn completely in half. Brick walls and steel were ripped in half on the closest side of the building; it actually appeared ripped apart, or blown apart, what with the fragments and remains of rusted steel and other materials sprayed across the area surrounding the building, thrown dozens and dozens of feet each direction. Some of the steel seemed torn and melted, as though exposed to great heat, further supporting the idea of an explosion of some kind destroying the building as it did.

But the truly shocking thing about the structure was what lay next to it. Propped up against the very frame of the building was the most massive crystal that Levin had ever seen, the same type that had carried him and the rest of the Lost through the ages to the Hunter's era. But rather than the seven or eight foot ovals that had carried them, this one was absolutely massive, towering a dozen feet over even the top of the building itself. It was broken, and shattered, as well, from the looks of it, ripped apart into pieces from what appeared to be from the inside out.

And the crystals were still glowing brightly, with no sign of dimming that the others in the village had.

Levin hurried over to where Ellie stood, and found her looking into the darkness of the broken building, a terrified look upon her face. He gently grabbed a hold of her shoulders, trying to pull her out of her stupor, but the moment he touched her, the woman clenched up, dropping to her knees and gasping in panic.

"This place! I know this place! This… this is the place where I woke up. This is where… this is where a Rathalos killed… so many of people I knew. I lost so many friends here. I watched so many people die, burned alive."

Levin looked around at the words. He'd never seen a place attacked by a fire wyvern before, but now that Ellie mentioned it… Metal beams were rent and torn, not something easily done by a machine. Burn marks were seared across the walls of the buildings, despite the centuries upon centuries that had passed since their time. If Levin looked closely, he realized he could just make out the ghostly outlines of the dead, their shapes forever marked upon the walls of the ruined structures by shadows of bricks darkened black by flame.

Ellie continued to shiver in fear, and Levin stayed close to her. Levin supposed he hadn't reacted that much better, upon coming across the Barioth that had scarred him upon first waking up, and later recalling the influence the Alatreon had incurred on him. Ellie seemed to be taking it a lot better than he had, thankfully; the bowgunner appeared to be recovering pretty quickly from the shock, her breathing evening out fairly quickly. Soon she had calmed down enough to smile up thankfully at him.

"I'm better now," she said. "Sorry. I thought I'd gotten over this whole issue, but I guess I never really thought I'd come across this place again."

"I don't know. You seem to be taking it fairly well, in my opinion," Levin replied with an encouraging smile. "A lot better than how I reacted to the Barioth, at least. And… other creatures I have issues with."

"Well, in all fairness, the Barioth you had a problem with was still alive and pretty nasty to take down," Ellie said. "And the Alatreon… I think everyone in the world has an issue or two with the Alatreon, the Lost in particular, and you especially. Plus… I haven't exactly been kind when the opportunity to fight Raths have come along. I remember that I wasn't exactly gentle when we went and saw the mating dance so long ago."

"Yeah, you were really intent on fighting them back then. Also, you have a surprisingly good right hook for a bowgunner."

Ellie chuckled quietly. "Yeah, I may have been a little rough, given the opportunity to fight and kill a Rathian and Rathalos. A part of me still wishes that I could have fought and killed them, despite thinking their mating dance was something beautiful. I felt a little better after managing to take down that Rathian in the Volcano hunting region, but it's not quite the same as wanting to kill a Rathalos. It's a little weird, but… I'm both pleased and disappointed that the Rathalos that caused me so much terror and pain is centuries dead. I mean, I would've liked to kill it myself. But it's been so long after all, since I was put in the crystal. If it wasn't killed by a hunter or something, it was probably done in by age. Even Rathalos can't live forever, right?"

"Most wyverns like the Raths usually live for several centuries, according to the Guild's research," Levin replied, trying to remember what he'd read in the bestiaries he'd read. "I've read speculation that Rathalos can live for over a millennia, but… Their scales change color as they age, though, giving them unique appearances. Even if they live long enough to change colors, when they do get that old, they become the targets of enthusiastic hunters, so if that Rathalos managed to live an exceptionally long time, his scales would've caught the attention of every hunter that saw it. It was probably brought down centuries ago."

"Yeah… too bad," Ellie sighed.

"Well, if you're interested, we can look through old storybooks for tales of special Rathalos hunts when we get back to Loc Lac," Levin told her. "Maybe there's a story about a hunt that happened near here. Maybe you'll be able to find the story of how that Rathalos met its end."

"Assuming it didn't die before the hunter's era," Ellie replied sullenly. But she smiled at him. "Thanks for the thought, though. It's nice to imagine the thing met a bad end at the hands of a hunter or something. Maybe it died before a hunter could fight it, but it could still be nice to read up on stories of Rathalos' getting killed."

"Glad to hear it."

Meanwhile, Harker and Kerry had made their way over to the giant crystal that was glowing off to the side and were observing it curiously, and Tenebris, having noticed that Ellie seemed in better shape, made her way over to Levin and Ellie. "So…. This is where the first wave of Lost in this area woke up, then?"

"Seems that way," Levin replied and Tenebris nodded.

"I wonder how they got down the mountain safely. I mean, it was one heck of a trek for us, and that was with all the monsters in hiding."

"I can't… I can't really remember how we managed to get down the mountain," Ellie admitted. "I think… I remember traveling to Loc Lac with the other Lost, though, and there were… there were two people, and older man and a woman a few years older than me. They were both former soldiers or something. I'm not sure. But they both carried combat knives with them, and the older guy had an old pistol with him that didn't have any ammo, but he kept carrying it around. Both of them were pretty badly injured. I think… they probably were the ones that kept the monsters at bay."

"They sound pretty tough, using old Lost weapons and knives to ward off monsters," Tenebris replied. "And people say the Lost are weak. Not many hunters could've chased off monsters with only a knife."

"I haven't really thought about either of them since," Ellie admitted. "After getting to Loc Lac, I remember being consumed at the time with the idea of becoming a hunter, so I really didn't keep track of the other Lost that woke up with me at the time. I hope those two managed to get better…"

"I'm sure they're fine," Tenebris said encouragingly. "They're not the best out there, but if there's something that they're good at, it's healing monster wounds."

"That's good to hear," Ellie said.

Even though Ellie seemed in better spirits, she still seemed hesitant to move, and spent a lot of time staring intently at the ruins of the old building. Levin supposed that, even after claiming she was fine, Ellie could still see the ghosts of the past in the walls. There was a Rathian to find and kill, and the worrying blue light still towered in the air to the north, but after finding this town, none of the hunters wanted to hurry too quickly to find the Rathian anymore. This town was eerie, and haunting.

As Ellie recovered, Harker and Kerry spent their time working their way around the bright, broken crystal, wondering at it and talking to each other, throwing around ideas and theories about the thing. Eventually their tones grew worried, though, and even Ellie became curious, finally pushing herself back to her feet. The other three hunters made their way over to the pair as Harker was leaning over the stone, staring intently through the crystal.

"Something…. Something slept in this crystal. Something massive," Harker said, brushing his hand along the edge of the massive gemstone. Abruptly, his hand leapt away as he hissed in pain. Kerry leapt forward, grabbing him worriedly, but the long sword user grinned and shook his head. "I'm fine, Lady Kerrigan, I'm fine, it's just… the crystal. It's… hot. Scalding, even. I was not expecting it."

The bowgunner turned in confusion, reaching out and hovering her hand over the bright crystal, and pulled it away instinctively. "He's right."

"What were you saying, Harker?" Tenebris asked. "Something big was sleeping in this crystal?"

"Indeed, indeed," Harker nodded, rubbing his scalded hand gingerly. "Something not human, that's for sure. That much crystal, and that much empty space inside, it was certainly a monster of some size. I cannot guess as what it was, though. Perhaps the Alatreon picked up a hitchhiker when it was collecting Lost to bring here to the Hunter's era."

"Like… the Rathalos?" Ellie asked, coldness in her voice. "The Rathalos I saw… it couldn't have been more than five feet in front of me when I was caught up in that blue crystal and carried here. Could it have been carried with us?"

"It seems possible," Harker replied, poking around the edges of the large crystal. "However… do you happen to remember whether or not this crystal was like this when you awoke? I know it was a while ago, and memories after waking up always seem fuzzy, but what do you recall?"

"I don't… I don't know," Ellie muttered. "There weren't that many of us here, just me and a couple dozen from around the entire town. I remember waking up underneath ruined wall, and… I'm not sure. I don't… I don't think that this crystal was like it is now, though. I think I would've remembered if there was a scalding hot crystal next to where I woke up. I think."

"But was it whole?"

"I don't remember," Ellie replied. "I don't… I don't think so, though. I think it was broken apart. I remember… I remember touching it for some reason, wondering about it. It was definitely shattered like it is now."

"So… perhaps your Rathalos was freed before you woke up. Perhaps that was why the Meridians had this town cordoned off; they found the preserved Rathalos inside the crystal and chose to study it… and perhaps free it."

"But why?" Ellie asked, suddenly angry. "I wanted…"

"You wanted to take it down yourself?" Tenebris asked.

"I don't… I mean, I would have really preferred it if…"

"No, I understand," Tenebris nodded. "I've gone after a specific monster before. There are a lot of hunters that have vendettas against certain creatures that have wronged them. But even if the Rathalos was still alive after all these years, I wouldn't let you go after it. Firstly, because you're not allowed to by the Guild, and secondly, a Rathalos that old would be… really powerful. Wyverns get tougher with age, and if it's really as old as you say, it would be nearly as powerful as an elder dragon."

"Yeah, I guess so," Ellie admitted.

"Well, if the Meridians actually did get the Rathalos or whatever it was out of the crystal," Harker muttered as he poked at various other parts of the massive crystal, "I doubt they were gentle with it. Their details of monster anatomy were peerless, compared to what I've seen of the Guild. Such an old creature… I am certain they were not kind to it. And if the Rathalos suffered the same disorientation that the Lost suffer upon emerging from the crystals, I'm sure they made short work of the wyvern. I doubt even its age wouldn't have helped the thing."

Ellie nodded, though she still looked disappointed at not being able to fight the creature herself. Levin smiled in amusement, before walking over to the glowing crystals. This was the first time he'd had a chance to really look at the crystals ever since the awakening in the Tundra. He might have considered them beautiful once, before he'd learned their true origin and purpose. Now they just seemed dangerous and unnerving.

Levin held a hand over the hot crystals, as they glowed with their eerie blue light. What had the Meridians done with the Rathalos that had slumbered inside this giant crystal? Awoken it? Studied it? Or had it just awoken on its own? But Ellie had said the crystal she'd seen here hadn't been hot like it was now, so what had happened?

As he leaned over the crystals, though, the glow of the gemstones suddenly pulsed intensely. Levin stepped back in surprise, and the glow faded away, dimming to its previous state. The switch axe user blinked in surprise at the oddity, uncertain what caused it. He cautiously leaned forward once more, though, and the glow of the crystals grew brighter yet again. Was it reacting to… him?

It took a few moments of leaning back and forth (and looking quite silly he had no doubt) for him to realize that the crystals weren't reacting to him, but something on him. It seemed to glow more prominently when his item pouch was facing the stones. Confused, he began rifling through his bags, searching for something that could set off the crystals; he'd had a lot of the same stuff on him when he'd seen other masses of the stones, so what was different this time? Potions, whetstones, a shock trap, some rations, some tranq bombs… there was a little yellow gem that one of the older hunters had gifted him, a charm that was supposed to make him tougher, but he'd had that a while. There wasn't much else in the pouch but a couple of antidotes and his secondary power phial, and a couple of collapsible pickaxes…

He paused in thought, before pulling out the power phial. He hadn't upgraded to his new weapon the last time he'd encountered the Alatreon's blue crystals, had he? The Lagiacrus switch axe had possessed a lightning element phial, while this one…

"Dragon element, huh?" Levin muttered to himself, pulling the secondary phial from the pouch. Immediately, the crystals began to glow brighter, and as he held it up the massive collection of gemstones, it grew to the same intensity that the switch axe user remembered seeing of the crystals in the caves near Hearth.

"Now that's interesting!" Levin turned in surprise, flinching as he found Harker hovering not a foot behind him. "So it reacts to the dragon element, does it? How fascinating… though if what you've told me the Alatreon said is true, many of the other elder dragons possess the ability to create these odd crystals. It shouldn't be surprising that they react to dragon element, considering how many of the elder dragons are able to wield the power, even if only a little bit."

"But why would the crystals be like this now?" Levin asked. "If these things only react to dragon element, what set them off?"

"That… that is a very good, very terrifying question. Perhaps Miss Tenebris was right, and all this blue light nonsense really is the work of an elder dragon."

"But this has all happened before, according to them. Why mess with this crystal now?"

Harker paused in thought. "Perhaps… perhaps the crystals are… recyclable? The gems seem to melt after the Lost inside have awakened, but… if they also react to the dragon element, it's possible they could be re-forged, and something could be put back to sleep inside of them?"

Levin frowned at the thought. "How much dragon energy would that take?"

Harker paused to think for a moment. "Well, you'd have to melt the crystals, and if the increase in glow from your element phial is any indication… I suppose you'd need a good dozen or so of them emptying their energy at the same time to reinvigorate the stones, at the very least. I suppose it might be that such ability is out of human reach. Such power may be something only elder dragons or monsters can produce, if the difficulty of making dragon phials is to be believed. And honestly, perhaps it's for the best. I for one have no desire to try and replicate the cryogenic state that these crystals produce."

"Really? You're not?" Levin asked, surprised. "There's actually something you don't want to study?"

Harker smirked. "I've slept long enough in those crystals, my friend. I have no intention of spending more time in there, or experimenting on others."

"That's encouraging, I suppose."

"So where do we go from here?" Ellie asked Tenebris suddenly. "We still haven't found the Rathian nest at all, and we haven't seen any signs of the creature at all since yesterday."

"I don't… I really don't know where to go from here," Tenebris admitted. "I've never needed to travel this high into the mountains to find a nest before, and with all these tunnels we've traveled through the last couple days, and this town here as well… I'll admit, the Rathian could be anywhere for all I know. Unless we find some sign that the beast is still around, I don't think we can really do anything else but keep looking around for the nest. This entire area is closed in, though… is there any way we can keep going?"

"There were vines hanging over the edges of the walls," Kerry noted. "We could climb over the walls and… I don't know, see what we can spot from there."

"Well, that's something," Tenebris said. "But if we can't see anything… I don't like saying this, but we might have to go back down through the tunnels and head back to Nastre."

"Well… then let's try climbing over the walls and see what we can find," Ellie said sternly. She clearly liked the idea of cutting off their Rathian chase less appealing than Tenebris did.

It proved to be more of a challenge than the hunters thought to find a place to climb over the wall; the vines and branches that leaned over the sides weren't always sturdy enough to climb in some places, and didn't go high enough to get over in others. But eventually they found a place they could scramble over the wall, a thick collection of roots that curled and twisted down the wall from an ancient-looking tree that hung just a touch over the tip of the wall. It was a bit tricky; Levin was never a fantastic climber. But the wall was only a dozen yards high or so, making it not too difficult of a climb.

Once they were over, they found quite the view waiting for them. The tower they'd climbed had led them to the other side of one of the lower peaks in the mountain range, where several mountains clustered close together. Ice-tipped peaks hung off in the distance, far taller mountains than the ones the hunters had appeared next to. There seemed to be a couple more spires breaking out of the mountains way off in the distance, but they were damaged or mostly buried by rockslides or other natural disasters. As they climbed up to the top of the mountain closest to them, they were able to look down the other side, where the valley that Nastre lay in was. The valley was still coated in fog, though, so it was hard to see much of anything.

For a while, the hunters weren't sure where to go from there, but fortunately Ellie caught sight of something odd off in the distance. Trees were sparse up this high in the mountains, but a few clusters of old, resilient clusters of them managed to survive the altitude. But about a quarter mile away from them, down the slope a bit of the mountain they stood on and up the side of a connected one, was a small tree-covered area. What caught Ellie's eye about the foliage was that a small section of the woods were burnt away. It could've been the result of lightning, but the hunters really didn't have much to go on at the moment.

Though the trees weren't that far away, it still took them a good hour to work their way safely down the mountainside and up the next one. It was a comfort when they arrived back at the trees, though; with all the caving they'd done the last couple days, it was nice to be back among living plants again. But their thoughts on the foliage vanished immediately as they entered a burnt-out area of the woods. A good dozen dead mountain Kelbis lay strewn around the area, burnt and cooked by the fire that had burned down the section of the forest. But several of them were also ripped apart, and body parts were missing from several of the corpses. And by the amount of blood that was sprayed around the area, there were likely more Kelbis that had been around, besides the dead ones that were visible.

But despite the death and gore of the area, both Ellie and Tenebris seemed to grow excited at the sight. "Well, well!" Tenebris laughed. "I thought we might have to go back down the mountain if we couldn't find any sign of the Rathian down here. But it looks like the thing was only teasing us before! This creature must think quite highly of itself, to have a nest so high up in the mountains! Look lively, my friends, we're back on the hunt!"

It took some time for Harker, Kerry, and Tenebris to figure out which way the Rathian had gone, but eventually they were able to guess which direction the creature had set off in. A couple of talon prints seemed to point the Rathian going northwest, along the ridge of mountains. Fortunately, there seemed to be some ancient pathways leading along the sides of the mountain, likely created by the Meridians to connect between the spires that sprouted from the mountains. Harker was excited for the chance to observe more of the Meridian's spires, but as they trekked along the path, the long sword user was disappointed to find that most of the stairwells had been buried beneath rock and stone, or had no visible entrances whatsoever. The walls on the exteriors also were surprisingly blank, much to the man's disappointment, not allowing him to uncover anything more about the people.

The path itself was surprisingly well-kept for its age, though it wasn't much to see. For the most part it was a fairly level bit of ground marked by odd unmarked obelisks made of the same sturdy stone that the Meridians favored. But it allowed them to travel along the side of the mountains fairly quickly for such rocky terrain. Levin was getting a little worried, though. Their work tailing the Rathian further and further into the mountains seemed to be leading them closer and closer to that blue pillar of light.

However, they were caught off guard once more not long after starting on the path, as once again the blue light flickered and faded away from sight, fizzling away like an old candle before vanishing completely from sight. Once again, the hunters paused, keeping their eye on the north, waiting for the pillar to appear once more. However, after a good five minutes of waiting, the pillar of light had yet to reignite on the horizon. Harker began muttering theories and ideas, speculating that perhaps the source had finally burned out, though that would mean that their phantom beast had done its work during the time they'd been wandering the wilds, which wasn't a happy thought.

However, after a while, the hunters knew they really could do nothing about the light, on or off, and pushed off again, continuing to follow the faint trail the Rathian had left behind. A couple more Rath signs showed them they were on the right track as they continued; more dead Kelbi and the remains of another Aptonoth, carried all the way from the basin up to such a high altitude. But the remains seemed fresher, oddly enough, leading them to believe that they were actually getting close to the Rathian's nest.

The path was actually quite long, twisting over and around the hills and peaks of the mountains, continuing to lead them northwest for several hours, all the way until noon. After a quick break, they pressed on, following the path up the side of one of the taller mountains in the region. Levin hoped that they wouldn't be following it all the way to the top of the peak; he was wearing out fairly quickly due to his lack of acclimation, and that was no state to fight a Rathian in.

Thankfully, the path instead began to slope downwards before looping around the side of the mountain, leading into the valley between the mountains. The hunters were completely caught off guard by what they found there, though. They'd expected another runoff valley, where the snow from the mountain made small streams through the dips between slopes, but instead, they found a wall. A wall of truly astonishing proportions. From the rocky earth, a wide circular wall rose up from the ground below them, springing up a good couple dozen yards into the air above them. It wasn't as tall as the wall back in the cavern, but this one seemed to stretch off into the distance just as much as the other one had, following the curve of the mountains around it.

"Another one of these?" Tenebris asked, stunned. Harker seemed to be delirious with excitement next to her at the sight of more detailed images on the wall.

"Perhaps we can climb over it?" Kerry suggested. "Perhaps the Rathian put its nest on top of this wall. I mean… it looks like we can get on top of this wall, assuming it has a roof of some kind."

"Hah, now there's a thought," Harker muttered. "If this whole wall is just an exceptionally large spire, I wonder what's inside? Or on top?"

"Only one way to find out," Tenebris replied. "Hopefully there's a Rathian on top, though. We're a good two day walk back to Nastre, after all. Any further, and we might have to find a different village to head back to once we're done. This Rathian's got one hell of a territory range, I'll tell you that much; living this far away and still stealing Aptonoth from Nastre's herds. Got an ego too, if I do say so, thinking it can do what it wants over such a wide area. I'll be glad to find this wyvern and knock some sense into it."

"Well, hopefully it's up there then," Harker replied. "I'm quite sick of wasting time chasing shadows, I think! As fascinating as studying these walls has been the last couple of days, even I am looking forward to cutting this Rathian down to size!"

Though they were enthusiastic to climb the wall, it took them a good hour of traveling to find a place where they could get over the wall. Harker continued to scribble notes on his pad as they traveled, though he had run out of space earlier, and was scribbling what he could in the ledgers off to the sides of the pages and all over the margins. Soon, as far as Levin could tell, the pages were more graphite than paper.

Eventually, though, they managed to find a section of the wall where a rockslide had piled up against the wall, piling up rubble and dirt several yards up the sides of the relief. It wasn't quite high enough for the hunters to climb up over, but Harker was tall enough to hoist both Kerry and Levin up high enough for them to pull themselves up and over the edge. Levin reached back quickly as soon as he was over, grabbing hold of Ellie's hand and pulling her up behind him. Kerry had made it up the wall as well, and had grasped both Harker and Tenebris' hands, hauling them up onto the top of the spire with little to no effort at all. Levin was mildly surprised; he hadn't expected the woman to be so strong. Wonders never cease… but no sense thinking about it now, he figured, as he brushed himself off and turned to look over the expanse of the spire.

His jaw dropped in shock. The spire was… massive; far more so than he'd ever imagined, even after walking alongside the walls encircled the sides of it. It easily spread at least two miles across, a completely flat and smooth surface of the indestructible white stone stretching as far as Levin could see. Apparently, the spire was built jutting up from the center of a wide mountain valley, with a half dozen peaks jutting into sight over the sides of the far edges of the top platform. And in the very center of the spire, a tower stood, jutting straight into the sky even further than the mountaintops that surrounded it.

The tower was like it had been built of blocks, cylindrical pillars stacked on top of one another, growing smaller and smaller with each level. The bottom of the tower was a wide circle, at least a hundred yards across, and going up several stories, before cutting in half in size and continuing even further into the sky, before cutting in half again even further up, until the tower finally stopped its towering reaching to the heavens, several dozen stories above the top of the spire. At the base of the tower was another massive structure, just as circular as the rest of the towers, that spread over nearly a half mile diameter of its own, large enough to house a town within itself. Was it a wall, perhaps, and inside the remains of one of the Meridian civilization's cities? Levin couldn't help but wonder, curiosity swelling inside of him, imagining that this was how Harker felt all the time.

From the walls of the wide structure beneath the tower were over a dozen aqueducts, shooting out from the tower at perfect angles to one another, slicing the entirety of the spire into perhaps eighteen or twenty pieces. Levin half expected the aqueducts to still be flowing with water, as they had in the aqueducts that had cut across the Volcano hunting grounds, but looking over at the ones that still stood, they all seemed dry to the bone, showing that whatever source had provided the water had dried up, or whatever creations that had been used the draw up the water in the first place had long since broken or worn down.

"This is it!" Harker suddenly exclaimed. The long sword user reached quickly to his pouch, pulling out his notepad and flying through the pages. He stopped on a specific page, glancing back and forth between the tower in the center of the spire and his notes. "Yes! As I thought! This is one of the towers we saw depicted on the walls below!"

"But… how?" Tenebris gasped. "I don't… ugh, I should've guessed this would happen, considering the luck we've had recently."

"Ah, but I hope there's a chance for us to see what that tower in the center is! The depictions below were quite vague, I'll admit, but I'm certain that-"

"What's that over there?" The long sword user sputtered in surprise at being cut off. Apparently, though, Kerry had caught sight of something more interesting than Harker's speculating, and took off at a quick stride towards the base of one of the aqueduct pillars. The other hunters followed behind curiously, though Harker seemed a bit pouty at being interrupted. As they approached the base of the pillar, Levin caught sight of a strange black circle, which seemed to be what Kerry had seen. But with a cry of surprise, Tenebris motioned across the top of the spire, at the base of the other pillars. More of the strange dark blue circles were strewn across the spire's top, dozens and dozens as far as they could see.

The hunters walked cautiously over to the closest of the blue circles. As they approached, Ellie noted that the stone platform they stood on seemed to tilt down towards the dark spot. Finally, they got close enough to peer down onto the circle. At first it appeared like a cover of some kind, a glimmering metallic plate. Levin curiously kicked a pebble over it, but rather than clattering over the top as he had suspected it would, the small stone abruptly vanished, sinking through the blue material. The hunters stumbled away in shock; the stuff was fluid! Or very viscous, at least.

Both Harker and Kerry seemed massively interested in the substance, and began chatting back and forth excitedly as they poked at the mysterious substance. Several more stones were thrown at the edge of the pool of… whatever it was. The stuff seemed to be very thick, like paste or honey or something like it. Looking closely at it, though, Levin could see an eerie reddish tint to the stuff that swirled and churned just below the surface of the pool. Both Harker and Kerry seemed very curious at the odd fluid, and soon Levin was lost, unable to keep up with their thoughts and speculations. Tenebris sighed next to him, motioning him and Ellie away from the pool.

"Are people like them common for the Lost?" the bowgunner asked, overwhelmed. "They talk so quickly and over such complex things… it's like they don't slow down for anything! Are many Lost as… enthusiastic as they are? I know there are some smart folks in the Lost group in Nastre, but none like them."

"Kerry isn't a Lost, actually," Ellie replied. "And the two of them are… unique, to say the least, Lost or not."

"I'm pretty sure if another person as enthusiastic about research and experimentation as those two pops up, the sheer energy they exude will destroy Loc Lac entirely," Levin laughed. "Or at least several square blocks. You should see the kind of damage those two by themselves have done to the inn we live in back in the city. Add one more to the mix, and you've got a recipe for mayhem."

"So… they're the only two as… excitable as they are?"

"As far as I know."

"Thank goodness!" Tenebris sighed. "I can keep up with the inventors and alchemists in Nastre well enough, even the Lost ones with their weird techno-babble, but those two are in a league of their own. Any more like that and I'd believe that they could level Loc Lac from sheer fervor. Though I suppose I've met some hunters that are just as bad when it comes to wanting to fight certain monsters… Anyway, I'm going to assume that trying to pull those two away from that pool in pointless?"

"You'd assume correctly," Ellie agreed.

"Then let's look around for the nest while they're occupied. There's a lot of area on top of this spire… but a nest shouldn't be all that hard to spot. I don't think so at least… Well, at the very least, we should be able to find signs of where the damn Rathian went. So let's get cracking."

The three didn't travel too far away from the pool where the two mad scientists poked and prodded at the mysterious pools, seeing as they didn't want to get too far away from their friends in case the Rathian appeared. But then, checking around for wyvern tracks wasn't very challenging either. The surface of the spire was flat and smooth across the entirety of the structure, allowing the three to see quite clearly for a great distance, all the way to the base of the towers at the very center of the spire. Aside from the occasional dips in the surface where the dark pools were, the stone of the spire seemed clear and unmarred by anything, as far as they could tell. Not a single sign of the Rathian's passing could be seen at all.

Tenebris let out a growl of frustration after a good half hour of wandering the top of the spire, searching for some sign of the creature they hunted. The three of them had made their way back to where Harker and Kerry were poking at the dark fluid, and sat to rest against a couple of fallen pillars nearby. A blanket of clouds was rolling in at the time, and the air was growing chill from the vanishing sunlight, combined with the exceptionally high altitude.

"Damn it all! This Rathian is proving to be one of the biggest pains in the butt I've ever chased after! Save the beast's leftovers, we haven't found anything at all we can use to find this thing's nest!"

Ellie seemed particularly irritable as well, having been looking forward to hunting yet another Rath and adding it to her repertoire of hunts. "Any other ideas of where the thing could be? Short of going to that tower in the center of the spire, I can't think of anyplace else around here that the thing would perch."

"I know!" Tenebris groaned. "I've never had a Rathian be this much of a pain! It's like… it's like it doesn't even have a nest, and is just flying around, plucking up food whenever it gets peckish! But that's unheard of! Even Rathalos have nests, or at least comfortable caves or overhangs they find to sleep in!"

Levin frowned. "But if the Rathian didn't have a nest… Why wouldn't it?"

"Geez, I don't know," Tenebris sighed. "That would make it… let's see, a nomad or something. But a nomad wouldn't stick around in one place and mess with herds like this one has. And this one knows the area well enough to be sneaky about plucking away its meals, so it's got to be a local. But as to why it wouldn't have a nest… it would still have to have a place it knew it was safe from harm, someplace out of the way and well-hidden. It wouldn't need to be really big, nothing as homey as a real nest, just large enough to sleep in or hide to escape foes."

Levin scratched his head in thought. Honestly, he'd only fought two Rathians, and managed to only kill one of them. Besides the monster manuals he'd read, he really didn't know that much about wyvern ecology. He could ask Harker, but it might be a trick getting the long sword user to tell him the information he wanted to know, without an earful of excess info he didn't need. "So… a Rath that moves around a lot and doesn't need a nest… a loner then, without a mate. But it would need a safe place, someplace no one can find. What's the safest place you can think of that could house a wyvern in the area?"

"You mean besides this place? There's a few hard to reach overhangs and cliffs that a wyvern could nest in to the west of here. They're a huge pain to get to without repelling down a cliff to them, though. Other than that… all I can think of is that massive crystal we found in that Lost town. I mean, if what Harker said is true, it could hold a Los for a really long time all nice and cozy, I don't see why it couldn't… um…"

The three grew nervously quiet at the thought. Harker had never figured out why that massive crystal in the town had been so hot…

"I know I said that I wouldn't mind fighting the Rathalos that gave me so much trouble," Ellie said, "but in all honesty, I really hope that… um…this Rathian is…"

Suddenly, a familiar thumping sound filled the air. The hunters immediately looked to the sky worriedly as a loud growling sound filled the air above them, but they could make nothing out from the skies above through the thick clouds that had filled the skied. But suddenly, a large shape suddenly dropped through the clouds, a bulbous, writhing mass with no discernible shape that Levin could make out, and it was plummeting straight down. Whatever it was, it was certainly not a Rathian like they had thought it was. Immediately the hunters went for their weapons, preparing for whatever it was that bore down on them.

But the thing falling from the sky refused to slow down, and Levin braced himself as it neared the ground. But rather than pulling up or stopping its decent, whatever the thing was, it didn't slow at all, and a moment later it crashed onto the stone floor, its body nearly exploding on impact, blood and organs spraying across the stone as the body of whatever it was fell apart from the fall.

The hunters stared in shock at the sight of the ruined body of the creature that had fallen from the sky. Harker was the first to recover, pressing forward to the impact zone, where dust kicked up blurred the corpse. Kerry followed warily behind him, and the other hunters after her, all of them wondering what sort of beast would kill itself as this thing had. The dust began to settle, and Harker pushed through the dust to where the beast remained.

"It's an Aptonoth," he said, shocked. Levin couldn't help but show his surprise, hurrying forward to look himself. It took a moment to look past the blood and broken body parts, but it was most certainly an Aptonoth, and one of considerable size as well. Its body was blackened and torn apart though, and various limbs were missing from the creature's body, and not just damaged from the fall. It was little wonder that Levin hadn't recognized it when it had fallen from the clouds. It also had the remains of leather straps strung across it. Had it come all the way from Nastre? Or had it been picked up from some unknown caravan and brought here?

The next moment, a powerful roar ripped across the surface of the spire, and a huge winged shape swept through the clouds above them, far larger than the Aptonoth, and swooping over their heads before swinging to a halt and hovering several dozen yards in the air above them. For a moment, Levin didn't know what the creature was, but its shape and size, and the way it flew gave it away. It wasn't a Rathian, but a Rathalos.

A pure silver Rathalos. The red scales, the defining feature of the Rathalos, had long since aged and rusted away. Time and battle had slowly peeled away the old, fiery color, hardening and strengthening the beast's scales and plates until they shone and gleamed with a new, powerful, silvery sheen lusted after by hunters the world over.

"Oh, crap, we're in trouble," Tenebris groaned.

The Rathalos continued to hover for a few moments, glaring down at the hunters in anger. The beast seemed to seethe at the sight of the hunters infringing on its territory. Flames were already licking at the creature's chops as it growled furiously at them. Abruptly, the Rathalos stopped beating its wings, and dropped out of the sky, plummeting the few dozen feet to the ground, smashing into the stone spire with a resounding crash. But it didn't even seem to flinch as it landed, its sturdy legs bracing against the impact.

Levin felt an eerie shiver as the Rathalos' red eyes stared piercing glares at the five of them. The creature seemed scarily intelligent as it… analyzed them. That was the only way Levin could think to describe the way the wyvern looked at them. It was as though the Rathalos was judging them, studying them, estimating how strong they were, calculating their threat to him. The beast even seemed to look at their weapons, taking note of what they had brought against him. Did it actually recognize the weapons they carried? Was it figuring how best to counter their attacks? It seemed to stare at Levin for a while, seeming uncertain what kind of weapon the switch axe user was wielding.

The Rathalos paused as its eyes landed on Ellie, though, and the bowgunner froze under the beast's intense stare. All of a sudden the creature's eyes seemed to glaze over in seething anger. Flames gusted from the creature's mouth as it growled furiously at her, familiarity and rage in its eyes.

"It remembers me," Levin heard her whisper, before she growled in determination. "And I remember it!"

Without another moment of warning, Ellie fired her bowgun, immediately sending a powerful Crag round tearing through the air towards the creature. However, without missing a beat the Rathalos snapped its head forward, sending a powerful jet of flame through the air straight at the flying round, meeting the shot midair and causing it to detonate long before it could connect with the beast. The hunters stared in shock at the wyvern's quick reaction as the beast howled a challenging call at them, before pumping its wings and pushing itself back away from them.

Ellie growled in anger, firing again and again until the chamber was empty, but the Rathalos continued to burn the rounds out of the air before they could connect, aiming and throwing lances of flame almost lazily as it continued to push itself further away from the hunters. Both Kerry and Tenebris fired at the beast as well, and though the wyvern couldn't blast all of the rounds out of the air, its aerial maneuverability proved to be just as skillful as its aim, and it swept and slid through the air out of the paths of the rounds with unsurpassed agility. All three of the bowgunners were left flabbergasted, their chambers all empty, without having landed a single shot on the creature as it gracefully settled back to the earth next to the body of the Aptonoth it had carried all the way up to the top of the spire.

The hunters closed in on the beast as the bowgunners reloaded. The Rathalos' eyes darted between the five of them, teeth bared in a wicked smile. The wyvern seemed excited to fight them! Levin and Harker branched out to flank the beast on either side, and the Rathalos eyed them warily. Just as the pair of them began to close in on the beast, the Rathalos' head snapped down, grabbing hold of the Aptonoth corpse and hauling it into the air. As the two hunters stopped, uncertain what the wyvern was doing, the creature quickly spun around, then released the dead pack animal, sinding it tumbling across the spire straight towards Levin.

The switch axe user tried to dive out of the way, but the tumbling corpse caught him, the Aptonoth's tail striking him directly in the side, sending him slamming into the stone floor. Levin struggled to push himself to his feet, but he found it hard to do so; the herbivore had been flush with such force that he'd already cracked a rib! How strong was this Rathalos that throwing a dead body had wounded him already?

As he finally got back to his feet, a flash of light caught his attention, and he immediately dove out of the way as a massive fireball seared through the air above his head, nearly taking off his head. The Rathalos had fired at him before he could even stand up! Harker raced in from the creature's other side, but before the long sword user could reach the wyvern, the Rathalos spun around again, this time swinging its tail low against the ground and nearly impaling the man as he rushed in to attack. The spiked tail kicked up a wave of sparks that washed over the long sword user's armor, knocking him back as he held up a hand to keep the sparks from burning his face.

A bang and a clang echoed across the spire as the bowgunners began firing again. The wyvern's agility had forced them to try and wait for an opportunity to use their more powerful rounds, when the Rathalos slowed down enough for them to hit it. The creature's scales were thick and sturdy however, and many of the rounds ricocheted harmlessly off the beast. The creature did wince as some pierce rounds managed to wedge into its softer spots along its legs and tail, but the shots barely went deep enough to even draw blood from the wyvern. The Rathalos growled in irritation, and twisted its head around, unleashing a wide wave of flames.

The bowgunners were far enough apart that only Kerry needed to move out of the way of the attack at first, but the fire continued to blaze from the creature's mouth, spreading across the spire in a massive wave. All of the hunters were forced to run back to get out of the way of the fire, and Levin even needed to dive behind the Aptonoth corpse to avoid getting set ablaze. Ellie, whose anger at the Rathalos had pushed her too close to the wyvern, caught some flames along some exposed flesh on her legs, crying out in pain before stumbling behind one of the standing pillars on the spire. Harker somehow managed to jump and dive out of the way of the fire, despite being only a few yards away from the creature's feet. But even the silver Rathalos had only so much stamina, and the flames eventually cut out.

Immediately Harker rushed forward, long sword lancing out to catch the wyvern's legs out from under it, but the Rathalos swiftly swept its wings around, sending a gust of wind at the long sword user, making him stumble a bit. In the same fluid motion, the Rathalos beat its wings, pushing itself into the air, and at the same time fired a massive fireball straight at Harker. The man's stumble likely was the only thing that saved the long sword user from taking the fireball straight in the chest; when the wind knocked him back, it had pushed him just far enough away from the beast to avoid the full force of the fireball. The blast still caught the hunter as the fireball detonated upon impact, a spray of fire blasting Harker off his feet and sending him skidding across the spire with flames dancing along his armor.

Kerry was there in an instant though, grabbing hold of Harker desperately and pulling him away as the Rathalos swept through the air after them. The long sword user carefully patted away the flames on his clothes, even as Kerry dragged him away from the wyvern tailing them. The Rathalos ducked and wove through the air after them, spitting occasional fireballs at them, trying to finish the job he had started. But Kerry, despite hauling both a fantastically heavy bowgun, as well as Harker, was able to keep just out of the wyvern's range, though Harker was yelping in fear as the flames from the explosions licked as his feet.

A shot suddenly rang out from behind the Rathalos. Ellie had managed to recover from the flames and was tailing after the Rathalos, loading bright yellow paralysis rounds into the chamber of her bowgun. However, the firing sound had come instead from Tenebris, who was firing several shots from near one of the pillars. She seemed to be using Pellet rounds, which for the most part were deflecting harmlessly off the Rathalos' plates. But the creature grunted in irritation as each smattering of buckshot rattled against the creature's body, occasionally spraying against the wyvern's face and making the beast wince to protect its eyes. But it had done its job, and the beast's attention had pulled away from Harker and Kerry long enough for the pair to get behind a pillar to recover.

As the last of Tenebris' rounds fired off and the bowgunner moved to empty her chamber and reload, the Rathalos turned and rushed through the air towards her. Levin couldn't believe how aerially skilled the wyvern was; rather than simply flying across the ground towards Tenebris, the Rathalos swept low, and with a burst of speed the silver monster tore low across the ground, grazing not a foot over the ground as it charged at the bowgunner. Tenebris yelped and dove aside, but got caught up in the gust of wind that blew across the spire as the creature passed. The bowgunner was pushed back several feet by the force of the wind, nearly losing her footing as the Rathalos rushed past.

Several yards past where Tenebris struggled to retain her balance, the Rathalos beat its wings to steady itself as it slowed to a hover once more, before twisting around in the air and rushing towards the woman a second time. But before it could charge again, one of Ellie's rounds managed to hit the creature right in the wings. The sticky yellow venom splattered across the wyvern's webbing, spreading slightly as it tried to seep into the monster's blood. But the Rathalos' body was sturdy, and even the leathery hide beneath the wyvern's scales was thick and durable, and the venom was barely able to seep into the monster's body at all.

But even the little bit was enough to bother the Rathalos, making the creature's wings twitch and waver a little bit, just enough to throw of its balance and keeping it from doing another aerial charge. But it continued to fly, twisting through the air out of the way of Ellie's next shot before sending a fireball her way. It was a quick shot though, and not very accurate, and the huntress had plenty of time to dive out of the way, letting the blazing orb sail cleanly over her head and colliding into another of the pillars.

As Ellie ejected the cartridges from her weapon, the Rathalos swept through the air towards her, dipping low to the earth with its teeth and snapping at her with its fangs and talons. The bowgunner wasn't quite quick enough to reload her weapon before the creature's fangs snapped towards her, but with a growl of anger, she swung her bowgun around at the wyvern's snout, pistol-whipping the creature in the nose with the butt of her bowgun. The Rathalos was so caught off guard by the attack that its jaw swung wide, missing the huntress completely. However, the beast's clawed feet were still on target, and both of them tore into Ellie's armor. The Lagiacrus materials were thick and sturdy, but weren't on par with the power that that silver Rathalos possessed, and the huntress cried out in pain as the wyvern's thick talons bent the armor and pierced the flesh through the gaps in the thick plates. Ellie shouted in anger and agony as the Rathalos lifted her several feet into the air, its talons tearing through her armor futher, before unceremoniously dropping her back down onto the stone spire.

The bowgunner landed with a painful smack on the stone, and immediately tried to crawl away from the creature as she clutched at her wounds. The Rathalos' talons had pierced her armor along both arms and over her right shoulder, and bright red blood rolled down her arm onto the stone. The Rathalos growled in anger at the strike she'd landed on the beast's snout, and a gurgling noise swelled up from the beast's gullet as more fire swelled up in its maw.

But before it could unleash its fire on the wounded bowgunner, Levin charged the creature from behind. The beast was still airborne, making it hard for him to reach the wyvern, but the Rathalos' tail was just low enough for him to attack. He immediately sent his weapon into its 'sword' mode, and swung it down at the wyvern's tail. To his despair, the blade almost completely bounced off, shattering and breaking off only a few of the weakest scales off. But the surge of dark dragon energy that swelled from the phial seemed to do more.

As the dark energy leapt from the sword and seeped into the Rathalos' body, the creature howled in surprise. The flames that had been welling up in its throat sprayed wildly as it twisted its head to look at the switch axe user, missing Ellie completely as the bowgunner scooted away, pulling a couple potions from her pouch. Levin swung again, releasing another jolt of dragon energy and breaking off another few scales. The Rathalos twisted around quickly and beat its wings, kicking up a gust of wind that slid Levin back across the smooth stone. Levin recovered fairly quickly, and pressed forward to attack again. But as he approached, the Rathalos growled angrily, and inhaled deeply. A moment later, the Rathalos released a powerful, ear-splitting roar.

Levin winced, and then blinked in surprise. He'd… expected the roar to be ear-splitting, but instead it sounded like an exceptionally loud shout, not even enough for him to need to plug his ears. He'd nearly forgotten that his armor was designed to dull the sound of monster roars! He hadn't had the opportunity to test it since fighting the Alatreon. With a grin of excitement, he rushed forward again towards the roaring Rathalos, and saw the beast's eyes widen in surprise as he charged towards it, swinging his switch axe at the wyvern's tail again. But the Rathalos quickly cut off its roar before the switch axe user could reach it, pushing itself backwards away from the hunter, before firing a massive fireball at him. Levin tried to slide to a halt, but wasn't quite quick enough, and the fireball smashed into the ground not a foot in front of him.

His armor was once again the only thing that saved him. The Rathian plates were nothing compared to the Rathalos' thick silver scales, but they were exceptionally fireproof in their own right. The explosion and flames from the erupting fireball hurt like hell, knocking the wind out of him, and making him feel as though he was cooking inside his own armor for a fraction of a second, before the blast knocked him of his feet and sent him flying backwards, his switch axe tumbling away off to the side. He skidded and bounced almost thirty yards across the top of the spire before finally sliding to a halt.

His ears were ringing, and his chest felt as though it had been crushed under a rock. He gasped in pain as he tried to force his body to stand up, though it wasn't replying as quickly as he wanted it to. The sounds of battle filled his ears as he breathed in, filling his lungs with cool air to battle the burning heat that covered the rest of his body.

But… the feeling was dissipating quickly. Somehow, the burning sensation that licked at him through his plate mail was vanishing, rapidly cooling down to comfortable levels. Behind the pain and ringing in his ears, he felt surprise welling up. He was still in one piece, somehow or another. He'd taken nearly a direct hit from the Rathalos' fireball, yet he was still alive and… relatively uncooked. He was pretty sure that he was suffering from a few good burn wounds across his body, but nothing fatal. Not yet at least. Suddenly a firm hand grabbed hold of his arm, pulling him off his feet and dragging his away from the fighting, despite his weary and strained protests.

"Oh, come now, my friend." The voice was dull and faded through Levin's still-ringing ears, but it was Harker's voice. Probably. "There's little either of us can do at this point in the battle, I fear. That Rathalos simply does not seem to run out of energy when it comes to keeping itself airborne; the result of spending a lot of time flying and carrying things between here and Nastre I suppose. Anyway, while it's up there, it's unlikely either of us will be able to do much against the wyvern as long as it stays aloft."

"I hit its tail," Levin muttered, wincing even as he spoke. His chest just hurt so much from the explosion, he could still barely breathe. He coughed a few times before he managed to catch his breath enough to speak again. "Took off… a few scales. I don't think it likes my weapon very much."

He heard Harker chuckle a little at the words. "Well, I doubt the beast had witnessed a weapon that releases elemental damage like your switch axe does. Usually elemental strikes are more passive in other weapons, barring a few of the more powerful ones. I imagine it's not taking to a new threat very comfortably, considering its age and experience."

"So what do we do?"

"You aren't going to do anything, not for a little while," Harker replied quickly. "Drink some potions, patch your wounds, and then see if you can get back in the fight. Until then, I fear we'll have to leave the fighting to the bowgunners. Perhaps one of them can paralyze it for a little while or something. I'd use a flash bomb if I could, but the creature seems quick to destroy them before they can detonate. I've only got a couple left anyway."

"There must be something we can do, though," Levin growled as Harker leaned him up against one of the pillars, pulling out one of the potions and handing it to him. A pool of the dark blue fluid sat nearby, the surface shivering as explosions and roars rattled the stone spire. A flash of light caught Levin's attention as he drank the potion, as the Rathalos unleashed a wave of fire at the bowgunners. The three of them were all spread out though, and the wyvern couldn't get a solid hit on any of them.

"I don't think we can really do much at the moment, I fear," Harker replied, staring over at the battle. "The fight may turn in our favor if we can manage to damage the Rathalos' wings a bit, preventing it from flying so much. But once again, that leaves our hopes of survival entirely on the shoulders of the bowgunners."

Levin frowned in thought. "You sure you can't hit it with a flash bomb? You don't have to be too close, considering the power of those bombs you make. Those things could blind a Gigginox, and they don't even have eyes."

"Ah… well, actually, my last two are just regular, Guild-produced bombs," Harker replied sheepishly. "I haven't had much time to mix up new ones in the last few weeks."

"Well… what if we both threw them?"

"I don't see how that would-"

"At the same time?"

Harker paused, blinking in surprise at the suggestion. "Ah. Hm. Of course. That could work, couldn't it? The beast would certainly be quick enough to shoot one of the bombs out of the air, not both of them. And they may not be that powerful, but the Guild bombs should be potent enough to drop the Rathalos out of the sky… for a few moments at least. Hm. Yes, I think that could work just fine. Assuming we can pull it off, that is. Though I suppose we don't have many other options at the moment."

"Then let's get back to business, then," Levin said, pushing himself to his feet. Or trying to at least. His breathing came in bursts, his lungs still aching from the blast of hot air that had assaulted his lungs, and despite the potions he had taken, the burn wounds that lingered just under his armor ached horribly, making it hard for him to move without wincing, and the cracked rib wasn't helping. But he couldn't just give up…

"Ah, perhaps you should just wait a bit longer and rest up a bit more, my friend," Harker said quickly. "You're not exactly in excellent condition. You should wait a bit and let the potion's effects settle in a bit more, any try to patch up your burns if you can. This battle is a challenge, but it's not yet desperate enough to need us to ignore our injuries to win yet."

"What! I can't, Harker! You guys… I can't just leave you hanging here! I have to help!"

"No… no you really don't," Harker replied. "We can keep the Rathalos occupied and hurt him well enough without you my friend, long enough at least to let you heal up a bit."

"But-!"

"You know how I am perfectly capable of learning the weak spots of monsters and using them against them when it's required of me, Levin?" Harker cut in quickly, interrupting the switch axe user. Levin blinked in surprise, sputtering and uncertain how to reply. Harker looked down at Levin with a very serious look on his face. "For your information, Levin, I happen to possess the knowledge of several methods that can be used to incapacitate a human for a short amount of time, and I'm perfectly capable of using them on you if you persist in your desire to fight, despite the need to patch your wounds."

Levin was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out if the long sword user was serious. It was always so hard to tell when Harker was joking or not. He had a very good poker face. "Exactly… how many times have you needed to use these so-called methods?"

Harker grinned wickedly. "I've told you that I've looked in the Guild's restricted research section before, yes? The guards at the door sometimes aren't as easily convinced that I'm on confidential Guild business, and I must use… other methods to get through the door."

Still couldn't tell if he was joking… "Fine, I'll… I'll hold back a bit…"

"Good to hear, my friend," Harker nodded. "Now… I suggest you be quick, and leave the flash bomb issue to me. But do try and be quick, my friend. When you see the flashes, I suggest you hurry back to the battle if you can. If we're lucky, it will be our chance at getting the Rathalos out of the sky."

Levin grimaced in frustration as the long sword user hurried back into the fray, ready to act, if nothing else, as a good distraction to the Rathalos and give the huntresses the opportunity to fire upon the wyvern while its attention was elsewhere. Levin had to be quick if he wanted to get back into the fight and help. His armor had several gaps where the flames had managed to sneak through and burn his skin, and some of them would be tricky to patch without removing his armor in some places. But as he moved to unlatch his gauntlets, he realized that maybe Harker had been right for him to sit out for a moment to fix himself up; the burn wounds under his armor chaffed badly, making him feel like a monster was raking their claws against his skin. But though he wasn't going to go charging after the Rathalos in his condition, he still forced his way through the pain he felt in order to patch himself up.

As he proceeded to cover his wounds, he kept a close eye on the battle. Even though Harker returned to the fighting, the battle didn't seem to be turning in the hunters' favor any at all. Even with three bowgunners firing on the creature as it swept through the air, the wyvern's aerial mobility seemed unparalleled, and only one out of every three rounds that the huntresses fired seemed to hit its mark, and even then it was as though the Rathalos was moving so the shot would strike it only where its scales were thickest. And they still couldn't afford to use their more powerful round either, with the creature being able to dodge their attacks half the time. Harker seemed to be waiting patiently for Levin to patch up his burn wounds before doing whatever it was he planned to do with the flash bombs.

Levin hurried as quickly as he could to remove his armor and cover the burns, but it was a slow, painful process, popping open his armor in various places and patching up his injuries. He was thankful that the Rathalos seemed to forget about him for a moment, allowing him a chance to rest and recover. He wasn't sure anymore whether or not he'd actually be able to fight all that well anymore; Harker had been right, and the burns on his body were sure to slow him down if he weren't carful.

Right as he was unlatching the hooks on his chest piece to get to the seared skin bothering him on his waist, he noticed something odd. The pool of deep blue fluid that sat nearby his pillar was frothing oddly. A subtle red color seemed to be welling up from inside the depths. It felt like the pool was alive to Levin for a moment, and though he couldn't say why, he felt that the pool was swelling up in… anticipation.

But suddenly a rush of air swept around the sides of the pillar, and Levin cringed in fear. He edged his head around the corner of the pillar, and sure enough, the Rathalos and hunters had slowly been working their way over to where he was trying to recover. The hunters were obviously trying to pull the Rathalos further away from where Levin was, but the Rathalos just kept backing up towards Levin's hiding spot.

Then, as the wyvern sent a blaze of fire down towards Tenebris, it shot a quick look in Levin's direction, looking directly at him. Levin cursed in frustration. The Rathalos hadn't forgotten about him at all, it was just looking for the chance to make his way over to the pillar. Levin rushed to finish his patching, working quickly to cover the last of his burns before the wyvern covered the last distance. He barely took the time to make sure the bandages were attached before swinging his mail back into place and latching it together as quickly as he could.

And just barely in time, too. The moment after the last latch clicked shut, the Rathalos abruptly turned away from the other hunters and rushed through the air towards the pillar, swinging around the side of it with fire already licking at its maw. Levin yelped in surprise, quickly sliding around the side out of the Rathalos' sight, just as another wave of flames leapt from the creature's maw, smashing into and around the pillar and sending two streams of fire surging around each side of the pillar. Levin felt the flames licking at his shoulders and arms, wincing as the heat washed over him again. The sounds of bowgun fire echoed from the other side of the side of the pillar, and the Rathalos roared in frustration as rushed away as rounds pinged off its scales, working its way away from the column back towards the nearby pool of blue fluid.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, Levin saw Harker glance intently at him. Levin realized the meaning of the look, and nodded quickly. The long sword user shouted to the other hunters, and the bowgunners braced themselves as the hunter pulled a flash bomb from his pouch. As the Rathalos backed away, Harker rushed forward, before flinging the flash bomb low across the ground, sending it skidding towards the Rathalos across the spire. With a howl of irritation, the Rathalos unleashed a wave of fire at the clattering bomb, incinerating it completely in a blaze of fire.

However, even as the flames were reducing the first flash bomb to cinders, Harker had swiftly pulled the second flash bomb from his pouch, and with a grunt of effort, the long sword user hurled the second bomb up and over the flames that the Rathalos was firing, right towards the wyvern's face. The creature's eyes widened in surprise when it finally caught sight of the incoming tool, and it tried to pull its head up to raze the bomb to ash, but it wasn't quite quick enough, and a moment before the fire could hit the bomb, it erupted in a massive flash of light.

Levin winced as the flash bomb blinded him for a moment, thankful that the Guild bombs weren't nearly as powerful as the ones Harker liked to mix up. After just a few moments, the glare in his eyes was beginning to fade. However, the moment that the bomb had gone off the Rathalos had howled in pain as the bright light of the bomb had blinded it. As Levin's eyes began to clear, a loud splashing sound echoed across the spire, followed by a screech of fear. The sound of struggle and splashing came close behind, and as Levin's vision finally cleared, he caught sight of the Rathalos; the creature had dropped out of the sky and right into the pool of dark blue fluid that it had hovered over.

The Rathalos was struggling desperately to free itself from the pool, swinging its wings wildly in an attempt to pull itself out of the viscous fluid, but with its vision destroyed, it couldn't find a hold to pull itself free. Besides, the smooth surface of the spire was too pristine to even allow the creature a grip, even with the ruined aqueducts that littered the ground broken stones. And the blue fluid wasn't helping it either. The substance almost seemed to be grabbing hold of the creature, solidifying slightly into blue stone to grip the creature's body and trying to drag it under.

"Hit its wings!" Tenebris shouted, while at that moment sliding in several massive rounds. "Now!"

A moment later, the sound of bowguns firing from three different locations resounded across the spire, and round after heavy round slammed into the wyvern's wings, followed by a symphony of explosions from the multitude of incendiaries that erupted across the Rathalos' leathery wings. With a howl of pain, the Rathalos continued to struggle as the scales, plates, and webbing that lined its wide, powerful wings were shattered and ripped by the force of the rounds. The wyvern continued to howl in pain as the onslaught continued, round after round detonating across its wings. The explosions were so intense that neither Levin nor Harker could even get close to the down creature to attack it.

But finally, the Rathalos seemed to shake its head and its eyes finally began to focus again on the hunters around it, a new, hateful rage seething through it. With an exceptionally powerful burst of effort, the wyvern swung its wings forward, wedging the spines that tipped its wings against the stone floor, and forcefully dragged itself out of the pool. The fluid really did seem to cling tightly to the wyvern's body as it emerged from the pool, solidifying across the creature's body for a moment, before breaking apart into pieces of glass-like substance as they flaked off its body.

The onslaught of explosives had yet to dull though, and the creature winced painfully as the rounds continued to erupt across its wings and torso. Its leather wings were now torn and dotted with dozens of holes, and the brilliant silver luster that covered them was now shattered and flawed. Burns covered exposed flesh, and for the first time in the battle, the Rathalos appeared somewhat vulnerable.

For a moment though, the wave of explosions began to dwindle, and Harker and Levin saw their chance to rush the creature. The Rathalos still had its eyes on the bowgunners, howling furiously at them even as it was flinching back in pain, and nearly missed the two hunters' approach. Flames licked at the beast's mouth as the beast twisted its head to the side to snap at Levin. The switch axe user nearly got caught by flames again as a series of small bursts of flame burst from the wyvern's gullet, creating a small explosion just in front of its snout as it snapped at him. But Levin managed to stay just far enough away to avoid getting set on fire again, before grabbing the hilt of his blade, swinging it around, and sending it into sword mode in one motion.

As the blade struck the creature in the neck, the Rathalos roared in pain as the dark energy from the dragon phial lanced across the wyvern's scales. At the same time, Harker rushed in with his long sword, slicing at the wyvern's legs with a series of quick slashes. The Rathalos stumbled back in pain, nearly sliding back into the blue pool, but managing to keep itself from doing so. Smaller rounds from the bowgunners pelted the wyvern's body, the huntresses having changed to smaller caliber rounds to avoid harming the two blade swingers. For a moment, Levin thought that this was their chance to finally finish the beast off, as the Rathalos continued to wince and howl in pain and anger.

But the Rathalos abruptly spun around, swinging its tail at the two hunters up underneath it. Harker was caught by the bulk of the tail, fortunately being missed by the spines that lined the tip, but still taking a hard hit and getting sent skidding across the stone spire. Levin managed to avoid the tail for the most part, but the spines on the end of the tail caught him in the side, denting his armor plates and sending him sprawling to the ground in pain. The wyvern spun around to attack the downed hunter, flames licking at its maw again. But the creature's head was peppered with several pierce rounds, fired from Ellie's bowgun.

The Rathalos turned in rage, and with swiftness that Levin hadn't expected, the wyvern shot a lance of flame at the huntress that ripped across the earth with such speed that the bowgunner didn't even have time to dodge. The fire smashed into the huntress' shoulder, heating the woman's armor up and pulling a scream from her as she dropped to the ground in pain. More bowgun rounds fired at the Rathalos from the other two huntresses, trying to provide Ellie cover as Levin rushed over to her, trying to help her. The Rathalos was utterly enraged now, and it fired another gust of flame at the other two bowgunners, and despite the distance it was from them, a tidal wave of fire stormed across the spire, nearly catching both of them as they dove for cover. Even then they were caught by the fires before they could reach their hiding places, and they were stumbling before they could get behind cover.

The Rathalos continued to howl in fury at the damage that they'd done to it, sending a constant stream of fire roaring from its mouth at anything that moved. Levin managed to get to Ellie and help her to her feet, and continued to run as the fires swept their way again. Levin pushed Ellie ahead of him as the flames pressed behind them and Levin gasped in pain as the fire brushed against his legs, heating his armor painfully. But before the fires could completely envelop them, the pair of them managed to run behind one of the aqueduct columns, and the flames slammed into the other side, boxing them in on the other side as two walls of fire appeared on either side of them.

Immediately, Ellie slumped to the ground, clutching her shoulder in pain. Blackened burn marks covered a good portion of her left shoulder, coating her armor in ash. Levin quickly handed her a potion, and she drank it down greedily as the fire rushing past the sides of the pillar began to dwindle. But Ellie's frustration with the creature hadn't dwindled with her injury, and as the flames s died away, she quickly snapped around the corner and fired a couple rounds at the wyvern. But before the shots could hit their target, the Rathalos beat its wings powerfully, pushing itself up and into the air, and away from the rounds.

Levin cursed in frustration as the wyvern pushed itself further into the air; the Rathalos could still fly! However, it didn't seem that the creature could do so as well as before. It wobbled uncertainly in the air, just a bit off balance, and seemed worried by the whole issue. But it still managed to keep itself airborne and even managed to fly around a little.

The Rathalos craned its head back as it swept through the air above them, growling in anger at the holes that ruined its wings. The gurgling sound filled the air as the creature began to gather more flames to raze down upon the hunters. But the sound seemed a touch different to Levin this time; the gurgling was mixed with another sound, a twisted static-like sound like the crackling of electricity can from inside the creature's gullet. Out of the corner of his eye, Levin could see the massive pools of dark blue liquid suddenly begin to churn and froth wildly.

Flames licked the edges of the Rathalos' maw, but this time it appeared to have a sickly tint to it. The fire seemed to swell with shadows and darkness, the flames touched with a black color that seemed to seep with dangerous power. Bright crimson tendrils of energy also danced from the edges of the creature's fangs. With a howl of rage, the creature reared back, unleashing a massive wave of fire at the hunters. But what emerged from the wyvern's mouth could just barely be considered fire. The flames that blazed from the Rathalos' mouth were a dark wave of black and red energy. The hunters leapt away in fear at the blast of energy, and the black wave of power smashed into the solid stone platform, washing over a wide area as the blaze swept out in all directions. Levin nearly tripped over himself as the fires licked at his boots. His armor started to tingle as the energy snapped out, as though trying to catch hold of him, but he managed to get just out of the way before the energy engulfed him.

As the dark energy continued to sweep from the Rathalos' mouth, the churning and bubbling pools of fluid suddenly erupted as the dark energy washed over them, reacting to the dangerous power. It was though bombs had gone off inside the pools, the strange fluid exploding upwards, creating massive pillars of swirling blue and red liquid. It seemed that the fluid was catching the energy from the Rathalos' power as well, the dark energy seeping into the fluid and the red lances of electricity shooting through it.

At the same time, the sky suddenly seemed to grow darker around them, blotting out to what seemed like night. Levin looked around, terrified, before realizing that the sky hadn't gotten darker, but simply appeared dim compared to a new light that had appeared to the north of them. In the center of the spire, where the tall towers climbed up to the sky, a bright blue glow was swelling up, growing brighter and brighter at the center, making the tower itself seem to be glowing a deep azure. The light continued to swell brighter and brighter, until even the sun seemed dim in comparison, and when Levin thought the entire structure was sure to vaporize under the intensity of it all, the light twisted and bent, twirling and spinning around the tower, until finally it erupted, firing up into the sky in a massive, blazing pillar or energy and radiance. The glow inside of the tower finally seemed to dim as the pillar fired into the sky, glowing in brilliant radiance that could be seen for miles and miles. Levin would have found the whole thing absolutely stunning, if the Rathalos weren't still breathing its terrible black flames down on them.

It seemed like hours, but the Rathalos' flames finally cut out, and the dark energy dissipated. The dark blue liquid in the pools continued to churn and swell, though the attack had ended. It was as though the liquid had been brought to life, and was trying to escape the confines of its pools, but was simply not able to do so. Waves of the substance crashed against the edges of their confines, flinging viscous fluid over the tips only to have them roll back into the pools from the tilt of the earth.

"Dragon element!" Tenebris said in shock. "It's using dragon element!"

"What? How?!" Kerry shouted in stunned reply.

"Its age… if this is the same Rathalos that Ellie said she saw back before she was crystalized, that means this thing is positively ancient! As old as any elder dragon, who knows what kind of powers it's discovered over the years!"

A low, rumbling growl curled through the air, like the Rathalos was laughing. Ellie hissed in anger next to Levin as she glared at the wyvern, still sweeping through the air, mockingly out of reach of their attacks. But as Ellie held up her bowgun to fire once more, she paused, tilting her head in confusion. Levin suddenly realized that the hissing sound hadn't cut off, and seemed to be growing increasingly louder. The hunters turned quickly, searching for the sound.

The pools of viscous blue fluid was still reacting dangerously, but now it seemed to be doing more than just writhing and twisting in reaction to the dragon element. It seemed to be growing upwards, swelling with… something. Levin felt as though the air was drying out, like he was back in the desert again rather than in the mountains. The Rathalos swept through the air as the pools grew, dodging the splashes of dark liquid that sprayed into the air every now and then. Then, when it seemed the pool was about to spill over, the Rathalos unleashed a massive wave of red-hot flames, this time without the dark dragon energy, right into the swelling pool.

The next moment Levin felt that he had been blinded. As soon as the flames touched the churning pool, a cloud of steam erupted up from the pool. The steam swept out from the pool with such speed, volume and ferocity, that less than a second after the Rathalos' flames touched the swirling black mass, the steam razed past the hunters, coating a massive area in white.

Levin gasped in pain as the hot steam bit into his flesh. The pain was quickly over, though, as the cool air of the mountain rapidly chilled the steam. But somehow the steam didn't dissipate at all, and continued to linger eerily, switching from painful steam to cold, thick fog. Levin could hardly see through the fog at all; Ellie was only a few yards away from him, yet she was hazy to see.

The sound of the Rathalos flying around could still be heard, though. However, the fog was so thick that both of the hunters could only look around frantically in hopes of catching sight of the beast. For a split second, Levin thought he could see the wyvern through the thick fog, but even then, it was only the beast's bright red eyes and the flames licking its lips, then they were gone a moment later. Levin and Ellie flinched as the sound of flames ripped through the air not far away. Both the hunters could just barely make out a small glimmer of light through the fog where the Rathalos was unleashing a wave of fire. A moment later the fog seemed to shift, and a wave of warmth crept through the fog for a moment before the cool air chilled it once more.

"It… the Rathalos is making the fog?" Ellie asked, stunned. "It… how?"

"It's those pools," Levin replied. "It's reacting to the dragon element and doing… something."

The sound of bowgun fire blasted through the fog off to the north of the hunters, followed by the sound of the Rathalos roaring, and the crackling sound of fire. A dark light raged through the fog as the Rathalos unleashed another wave of the dragon energy at one of the other hunters. Immediately Ellie's bowgun snapped in the direction of the light, firing a pierce round in the beast's direction. There was a quiet clanging sound off in the distance, signaling that the round had hit its target, but the Rathalos didn't seem to react at all to the impact.

"What do we do now, then?" Ellie asked, pulling back and reloading her gun. "We can barely see five yards in front of us, and that Rathalos' silver scales make it nearly impossible to see unless it's right next to us."

"I guess we know now how it managed to be so damn sneaky, stealing all those Aptonoth from Nastre," Levin replied.

The sound of the creature's wings suddenly swept closer to the hunters, and the pair yelped in surprise as a set of glowing red eye appeared in the mist above them; the Rathalos materialized out of nothing, fire already licking its maw. The two hunters scrambled away quickly as a thick blast of dark fire sprayed from the Rathalos' mouth, smashing into the ground and rolling after them. But they had been caught too off guard, and the dragon energy caught up with them just before they could get out of range.

Levin gasped in pain as the dark energy smashed into him. This was a pain he remembered! The black and red voltage seared through his body and armor, hardly blocked at all by the solid Rathian scales. Both he and Ellie screamed in pain as the powerful energy knocked them painfully to the ground, gasping for breath. The Rathalos cut off its blaze of dragon fire, and Levin tried to force himself back to his feet. However, his body was no longer letting him move as freely as he wanted to; his armor seemed to resist his movement, making it a challenge for him to get up. The joints in the armor seemed to tighten and twist as the dark energy seeped through it, refusing to dissipate and sparking through his armor like static. A roar of victory rattled across the spire as the Rathalos swept down towards the ground, intent on finishing the job.

The creature lowered itself towards the earth, straining itself to do so. Apparently the creature's damaged wings were still bothering it, and as it landed near the two hunters, the creature's face seemed filled with relief. It was strange trying to look at the creature; even at only a dozen or so yards away, the wyvern was tricky to see. Even with both of its wings damaged, the shining silver scales made the creature hazy to see through the fog, half-vanishing from sight. The only part of the beast that could be seen very clearly at all was the creature's bright red eyes, and the dark flames that licked at its maw.

Both Levin and Ellie were trying desperately to crawl away from the Rathalos, but neither of them were having much luck. The pure pain that the dragon fire had inflicted on them was enough of a hindrance, but the lasting effect, known as the 'Dragonblight' as Tenebris had called it, was another issue to deal with altogether. The joints of their armor seemed to have trouble moving, as though they were stuck together, and it took a lot of energy to do much of anything, energy they had very little of after taking a hit from the dragon breath.

Though neither of them had the energy to run away, Ellie apparently still had the tenacity to fight, as the Rathalos walked towards her. Once the creature was only a few yards away, she quickly swung around, bowgun at the ready, and immediately fired point blank at the Rathalos' face. The wyvern reeled in surprise at the desperate attack, wincing back as the rounds shattered scales along its crest and neck. But it was only a couple rounds before the chamber was empty, and it would take a moment for the bowgunner to reload, time that they really didn't have. As Ellie struggled to remove the spent shells from the chamber, the Rathalos growled in frustration, before rushing the last few feet, intent on running her down and finishing her off.

But before it could sink its teeth into the bowgunner, two bursts of light and a rush of motion came at the Rathalos through the fog. Several bowgunner rounds smashed into the wyvern's flank and side, breaking scales and piercing flesh. The Rathalos flinched and began to stumble, and a moment later, Harker appeared right next to the creature's leg, his long sword slashing out and cutting at the creature's ankles, finally tripping the beast up and bringing it to the ground. As the wyvern slammed into the stone spire, it just barely missed landing on top of Ellie, and the huntress sighed thankfully, before quickly scooting away from the fallen wyvern.

Levin moved to pull out his switch axe. He had to attack now, while he had the chance! But before he could get the chance to even draw his blade, Harker rushed towards him and grabbed Levin by the arm, dragging him away from the fallen creature as the wyvern struggled to push itself upright. Kerry was doing the same for Ellie, much to Ellie's frustration; the bowgunner was shouting in anger, wanting to attack. Tenebris pushed forward though, and Levin realized that attacking would have been a bad idea; as their handler began firing rounds at the Rathalos, the wyvern suddenly unleashed a wave of flames at the huntress, even without its footing underneath it.

Tenebris was caught almost completely unawares by the sudden attack, and the Rathalos' disorientation was the only thing that kept her from taking the full force of the blaze. The fire still hit her in the side as she turned to dash away though, and Levin heard her yelping in pain and panic as the cloth in her armor was set ablaze, and the Dragonblight took hold of her armor as well, making it a challenge for her to move. Harker was pulling Levin in her direction anyway, and as the two hunters passed by her on their way to the nearest pillar, the two blade swingers each grabbed hold of the huntress' armor and dragged her away from the flailing Rathalos.

Harker handed both of the other hunters a couple potions once they were out of the Rathalos' range, which both of them accepted gratefully; that dragon breath hurt like hell! Only the sight of the black flames creating a swath of destruction through the fog was all they could see of the creature, and a few moments later, the wyvern managed to regain its feet, and the black flames cut off at last. Then the Rathalos was as good as invisible again, its silver scales allowing it to vanish into the haze. The hunters glanced around fearfully as the sound of muted footsteps and low growls echoed through the fog. But it was a challenge for them to tell the direction of the sound. The hunters continued to look around, searching for the source of the beast, and the sounds began to grow closer.

"Behind us!" Tenebris suddenly shouted. Levin and Harker snapped around, and sure enough, a pair of bright red eyes peered at them menacingly through the haze, hovering over a wavering collection of black flames. The Rathalos burst forward towards the hunters, its massive shape appearing through the haze, closing the distance quickly as flames welled up in its gullet. The hunters didn't even consider trying to meet the creature's charge, and dove for the nearest column, a tall, nearly perfect condition pillar with a large pool of the blue fluid nearby, the three of them just barely making it behind the safety of the stone pillar before black flames erupted from the Rathalos' mouth, roiling across the ground towards them in a wave of black destruction.

"I'm beginning to grow suspicious of how powerful this Rathalos really is," Harker muttered as the three braced themselves behind the pillar, black and crimson flames sweeping past them on both sides. Levin winced as the nearby pool reacted to the dragon fire, lancing up into the air in an attempt to grab at the searing black energy, several drops splashed out, landing near them and solidifying into rough blue stones.

"What do you mean?" Levin snapped, wincing as a crackle of dark energy sparked across his gauntlet, leaping across his armor. The hunter pulled his hand away from the edge, rubbing his wrist in irritation as the joints twitched and tightened on his body. "Are you fighting the same battle as I am? This Rathalos sure as hell seems more powerful than anything we've ever fought before! All three bowgunners unloaded more explosives on it than I've ever seen, and all we did was poke some holes in it and make it angry! And now it's spitting dragon element at us?"

"Haven't you been paying attention to the thing at all?" Harker asked incredulously.

"We can't all be as obsessively perceptive as you are, Harker! Besides, I've been a little preoccupied with staying alive rather than noticing this things every nuance!"

"Come on now, Levin, that's one of the most important things to do whilst hunting! Don't you remember the Diablos we fought together back during the hunters' exam? If I hadn't paid close attention to the thing, we might never have brought it down!"

"Well, that's why we have you around! As I recall, me and Ellie nearly got ourselves killed during that test while you sat back and watched! I'll leave the monster watching to you, thank you very much!"

"Would you two shut up?!" Tenebris snapped. "I don't think now's the time for this kind of argument! Just tell us what you think you've discovered about this thing, Harker!"

"Hmm… well, for starters, it seems uncomfortable using that dragon element. It's slight, but the beast seems to wince with every use of that dark power it uses."

"Winces don't exactly help us take down a wyvern with the same firepower as an elder dragon, Harker."

"Perhaps not, Miss Tenebris, but it does show us something entirely useful. The beast may be able to use dragon element, but if using the power wounds it while it's using it, that must mean that it's exceptionally weak to dragon element."

"So how does that help us?" Levin asked. "All we've got that can use dragon element are those shots Tenebris brought with her and…" Levin paused, glancing over his shoulder at the hilt of his switch axe. "Ah. Right."

"You're becoming rather perceptive, my friend," Harker said with a smirk. "Perhaps there's hope for you yet."

"Oh, shut up," Levin replied with a smirk, before blinking in surprise as the black fire suddenly cut off. The hunter glanced warily around the side of the pillar, and his jaw dropped when he realized that the wyvern had vanished again. He looked around, searching for where the beast had gone, when Harker suddenly shouted a warning as the Rathalos swept rushed at them through the fog, more dark fire already jetting from its mouth.

This time Levin took note before diving around the pillar again, and saw the wyvern wince in pain as the energy rushed from its gullet. Once again, the dark blue pool burst to life, rising up to try and suck up the energy again. As he, Harker, and Tenebris braced themselves on the other side of the pillar, he continued their conversation. "So I can use my blade's energy detonation to wound it, maybe even ground it for a little while. But first we have to get it to hold still long enough for me to hit it. Any suggestions for how we can do that? It barely holds still long enough for the bowgunners to hit it, and you used up the last of your flash bombs earlier. Then there's its vanishing trick, which is a whole new mess of its own. Got any other brilliant ideas?"

"I… am still working on that," Harker replied sheepishly. "But I'm sure I can think of something between now and before the creature manages to cook me like meat on a spit. Just be ready to blow a hole in its flank when the opportunity arises."

"You're so encouraging."

"Thank you."

"Look, how about this," Tenebris cut in, "one… or both of you distract it, while I find Ellie and Kerry. I'll give them some dragon shot-"

"I don't think Ellie's bowgun can use that…" Levin muttered.

"Fine! Just Kerry, then, and I'll give Ellie some of my extra Crag rounds. You two keep it distracted for a bit, and when we see a chance to attack, we'll hit it with the dragon shot, and if it's really weak to the element like you said, it should do enough damage to hurt it enough to at least slow it down, right?"

"Possibly," Harker replied honestly.

"Well… 'possibly' will have to be enough, then," Tenebris said. She glanced around as the black flames cut off again. "See if you can blow a hole in it if we can trip it up then, preferably in a place we can shoot. At the very least, maybe it'll hurt it enough to chase it away."

"I think that might me a little… ack! Run!" A shimmer in the mist and a couple of small red dots were all the warning the three hunters had before a black fireball roared through the mist towards them. The three dove away from the pillar, and the shockwave from the explosion nearly knocked them off their feet as the black ball smashed into the column, hitting it so hard that a massive crack shot up the center of the pillar, even though it was made of the Meridian's impossibly solid stone. The pool of fluid swelled especially high this time, nearly grabbing hold of Levin before stopping and swirling back into its hole. The Rathalos howled in anger at the miss, before backing up a ways, vanishing once again into the fog.

"Levin… Levin! This way!" Harker hissed, motioning him away from where Tenebris stood. Levin sprinted awkwardly across the spire towards where the long sword user stood, looking warily around through the fog for signs of the Rathalos. The only sign that the beast was still around was the low rumble of footsteps and the Rathalos' low growling echoing through the haze.

"What if it goes after Tenebris instead of us?" Levin hissed worriedly.

"I suppose it might," Harker speculated. "Chasing the hunter that is by themself would be the most tactical choice."

"But?"

"I don't have a reason why it should choose to come after us if that's what you're looking for. Though… her armor is far less visible in this mist than ours is. Perhaps she can vanish in this fog a little easier than we can, and the Rathalos will come after us instead. And I suppose the Rathalos knows that she has more maneuverability and range than you and I do. So… the odds might be pretty even. Though maybe it's more likely to come for us."

"And why is that?"

Harker smirked at him. "Because we're the ones talking and making a lot of noise."

"Ah." Sure enough, the sound of footsteps seemed to creeping closer and closer to him and Harker. The growling had cut off as well, and the Rathalos seemed to be trying to move silently through the area, in an attempt to sneak up on… someone.

"Then of course," Harker said, "with you having that dragon element weapon, the beast could get the idea to take out one of its biggest threats while he's relatively alone…"

The footsteps of the monster suddenly began to speed up in the fog around them, and the spire below them began to quake a little bit. The hunters looked around quickly, searching for some sign of the Rathalos' red eyes, or a hint of the dark fire the creature favored to throw around. However, rather than fire, the Rathalos had decided instead to choose a more personal approach. From the side, the Rathalos suddenly charged through the haze in a bum rush towards the hunters, its eyes closed tight to prevent the hunters from catching sight of them through the fog. Levin was so thrown off guard by the creature's change in tactics that he was almost run down by the beast as it plowed past him, and just barely managed to jump out of the way in time. The Rathalos continued to sprint for another couple seconds, before suddenly sliding to a stop and spinning to face them, its eyes open again and growling in irritation at missing. It gave a quick beat of its wings, pushing itself backwards through the air, and vanished through the fog again.

"Well, it's on us now," Harker muttered. "Whether that's a good or bad thing is yet to be seen, though."

"So how do we-" Levin began, but was cut off as a massive black fireball suddenly flew through the air, sailing past the two hunters off to their right. Levin and Harker watched it sail off through the fog before looking at each other in confusion. "What was that about? It missed."

"I… couldn't say," Harker replied uncertainly. "I suppose it could be trying to keep itself out of sight by attacking from a distance, but then, if it did that, it's not really going to be able to see us either, so… pot shots? Maybe it's-"

Suddenly a massive wave of black fire swept out of the fog, rolling close to the ground. Both of the hunters yelped in surprise and bolted in the other direction as the direction.

"Or maybe it wanted us to talk so it could get a bead on us!" Harker yelped. Another fireball roared out of the haze behind them, this time soaring only a few feet to their right.

"Then stop yelling!" Levin snapped, and another fireball actually went right between them.

"You're one to talk!" This one smashed into the ground not five yards behind Harker, and the long sword user was knocked forward, just barely keeping his feet under him and forcing to shout in pain as a tendril of the dark lightning lanced out and caught his leg, simultaneously making the cloth in his armor burst into flame. The hunter yelped in surprise, trying both to run from the incoming black fire and pat himself out at the same time.

And suddenly they were blinded. Levin gasped in shock as bright light filled his vision, and he immediately stumbled, crashing into the ground. A good thing he did, too, because he felt the searing heat of one of the dark fireballs soar right over him as he rolled across the ground. Harker hadn't fared much better, either, and Levin could hear the long sword user smack the ground nearby, before the sound of him furiously patting the fire on his armor could be heard.

Levin winced against the glare as he quickly pushed himself up again, but his vision was returning quickly enough and soon he realized where the light had come from: it was the sun! The sky was clear again! The fog was just… gone. He turned around quickly, and blinked in surprise. Behind them was a massive wall of the fog, just… hovering there. Levin looked both ways along the wall of fog, and saw that to the south side of the spire, the massive blanket of fog was pouring over the sides of the spire and cascading down the mountains, likely towards the valley where Hearth lay. He and Harker had somehow made their way over to the western side of the spire, and the fog, while thick and heavy, seemed to be making its way down the mountain rather than spreading across the spire.

"Well, this is strange," Harker muttered, finally getting back to his feet. His leggings were blackened with ash from the fire, and sparks of dark energy were dancing along his armor. "I've never seen fog act so oddly. Perhaps it's because it is artificial in nature… And this, what did Miss Tenebris call it, Dragonblight? It's quite the hindrance, isn't it? Perhaps the theories were true, and it really is magnetizing my armor? I wonder…"

"Now might not be the best time, Harker," Levin reminded his friend.

"Ah, yes. Perhaps you're right," Harker muttered. A low, seething growling sound emanated from the fog, and just beyond the wall of haze, a pair of furious red eyes stared out at the two blade masters. The creature's head couldn't have been more than a couple yards past where the fog began, and still Levin could only make out the vaguest outline of the wyvern through the haze. The creature's eyes swung left and right, in search of the other hunters, perhaps, but Levin and Harker were the only ones that had gotten free of the fog. In fact, neither of the hunters had any idea at all where the other hunters were at all. With all the fog, they very well could've been on the far other side of the spire. Apparently though, the Rathalos liked its odds. With a challenging growl, the wyvern stepped out of the haze, appearing clearly before their eyes for the first time in a while. Black fire already licked the creature's lips as it made its way towards them.

"Well, if we're going to distract it, now would be the most opportune time to do so, my friend," Harker said, pulling further away from the fog and reaching for the hilt of his long sword. The Rathalos' gave a low, rumbling growl that sounded eerily like amused laughter. Levin did the same, unsheathing his switch axe, and the laughter vanished, replaced by a threatening grumbling.

With a quick motion, the Rathalos suddenly fired another black fireball at the pair of hunters, aiming it to hit the spire directly between them. Levin and Harker dove away from the impact zone, but just as soon as the fireball had left the wyvern's mouth, the Rathalos had begun to charge, heading straight towards Levin as the switch axe user turned to face the charging creature. Levin moved to dodge the charge, but before reaching him, the Rathalos came to a halt, then turned to swing its tail around at him. Levin yelped in surprise, dropping his body to the ground and just barely ducking under the spines that lined the creature's tail.

As the Rathalos swung around, Harker rushed in from the side, swinging his long sword at the beast's ankles as he tried to bring it down. But the wyvern's scales were thick, and most of his swings deflected off harmlessly. Had he been able to reach the creature's wings, that might have made it easier, but most of the plates that lined the Rathalos' lower body were still whole and unmarred, giving the creature a powerful defense to break through. The Rathalos turned on the hunter, a short burst of flame crackling from its jaws as it snapped at Harker with its fangs. The blast of flame caught the long sword user unawares, and sent Harker sprawling back across the spire, his armor once again burning.

Levin rushed forward to help his friend, but the Rathalos was ready for him before he even got close. Black fire leapt from the wyvern's mouth, spraying across the stone towards him. Levin winced back as the flames brushed up against him, sending dark energy searing into his armor. His legs nearly gave out from under him as the energy tweaked his armor, making it hard for him to move. Even so, once the fire cut off, Levin pushed forward a little bit more, surprising the Rathalos as he got close enough to swing at the beast.

The Rathalos was quick; Levin only managed to nick the wyvern's face with his weapon as the creature gave a powerful beat of its wings and pushed itself airborne. The quick spike of dragon element that sparked from Levin's switch axe seemed to affect the Rathalos though, and several of the scales near its jaw actually seemed to loosen up a little. For a moment it wobbled in the air, but gained its balance again. Then without any warning at all, the wyvern lunged straight through the air towards Levin as the hunter tried to sling his weapon back into its sheath.

Levin shouted in pain as the wyvern smashed into him, its talons forcing him backwards down to the ground. With a leap, the creature spun around, pinning the hunter to the ground before he could even get himself up. Levin groaned in pain as the wyvern's great weight came down entirely on his arms. The Rathalos howled excitedly as it looked down at the switch axe user, black fire dancing at its teeth. Slimy drool dripped from the creature's fangs, and it looked down at Levin hungrily.

"Get the hell off him, you damn monster!"

The Rathalos blinked in surprise at the voice, turning its head to look around as the sound of bowgun fire exploded through the fog. Three shells soared out of the haze at the creature, smashing into its neck and chest, one of them a large explosive round, and the other two glowing with a dark black and red color. The larger round slammed into the Rathalos right at the base of the wyvern's neck, while the other two shots smashed into the creature's back. The Rathalos howled in pain as the dragon shots hit it; upon striking the wyvern the round seemed to activate some power, and the rounds suddenly began to actually drill into the Rathalos' back, tearing through the scales and piercing into its body, releasing small pulses of dragon element as it went. The Rathalos cried out in pain, stumbling back off of Levin a moment before the Crag round detonated on its neck, sending glittering shards of silver scales flying everywhere.

Several more rounds came at the wyvern as the creature staggered and Levin pushed himself to his feet, fighting through the pain to get away. He could hear Ellie cursing at the Rathalos as she continued to fire at the creature, unloading round after explosive round at the beast that had haunted her dreams for so long. The Rathalos continued to stumble back further and further as the bowgunners appeared through the fog, firing their weapons at the creature. Ellie was pushing far closer than the other two huntresses were, a glare of anger on her face as she fired upon the Rathalos, firing and reloading her weapon at a breakneck pace.

The Rathalos howled in anger as it turned on the bowgunners. The wyvern fought through the assault of fire, pushing towards the huntresses. The three bowgunners pulled back in shock at the Rathalos' attacking through the fire, but didn't get far enough back before the creature inhaled and fired another wave of fire at them. This time though, there was something different about the blaze. Black and red still tinted the fire, but not as completely as it had before. The normal orange and yellow flames were returning again. The attack was still enough to push back the bowgunners, though, and the dragon power strong enough to knock all three of the hunters off their feet and tumbling back towards the fog, with dark energy sparking across their armors. The attack was lessened by the loss of some of the dragon energy, but it was still plenty to hit the bowgunners hard, making it a struggle for them to get to their feet.

Levin pulled out his weapon, ready to run interference if the Rathalos decided to go after the bowgunners while they were down, but was surprised to find the creature still standing in the same place. The Rathalos was gasping for breath, and drool was sliding out of its mouth as it wobbled a bit where it stood. The creature had obviously not expected this much of a challenge from the hunters, and was getting very worn out from the damage it was taking, combined with the exertion of using the dragon fire. If there was a time for Levin to attack…

The switch axe user charged forward, ignoring the strain and the damage from when the Rathalos had landed on him, and switching his weapon to its sword mode. The Rathalos heard him coming, and turned to face him, weary challenge in its expression. Flames, this time with hardly any of the dragon fire tainting them, licked its lips as it moved to shoot another jet of flame at the hunter, but as its head snapped forward, there was only the smallest puff of fire, that barely shot a foot out of the creature's maw. The Rathalos grunted in surprise, and tried to step away, but Levin was already on it, swinging his switch axe up, smashing it into the wyvern's side, and pressing the release button on the dragon phial.

Dark energy matching that of the Rathalos swelled through the weapon, searing through the core of the weapon and out of tubes at the end of the blade and into the Rathalos' body. The wyvern howled in pain and stumbled back as the tremendous energy poured from the blade and under its scales, growing in intensity as the phial emptied its stores, but Levin pushed forward, pushing the blade into the creature's hide as scales and plates shattered around it. Finally, the energy release reached its maximum, and the dragon phial released one last, massive surge of energy, a powerful wave of dragon energy that crashed into the Rathalos' body and detonated in an explosion of black and red energy.

Levin was thrown backwards by the force of the blast, trying to keep his balance as his weapon's safeties activated and the weapons hissed, automatically returning the weapon to its axe mode. The Rathalos however, was hit far harder as the dark energy coursed through it. Shining scales and plates were broken free and rained down as the dragon element ripped apart its armor. A shock of red voltage swept through the wyvern's body as it stumbled, and Levin watched in surprise as the creature's very scales seemed to shift, spreading apart a little near where the blast of energy had hit it. The Rathalos' thick scales, once an insurmountable defense, now seemed less than they were, spread out and easier to breach. If he could just get in there and attack again…

But suddenly the Rathalos bellowed in rage, so powerfully that Levin, even with his sound-dampening armor, winced painfully at the sound. Black energy surged back in full force in the wyvern's maw, and two furious eyes turned to glare at Levin. The creature's maw swelled with dark energy as the beast swung towards him, ready to unleash the full force of its flames on him.

Before it could unleash its flames, however, several rounds of bowgun fire shot past Levin's head, smashing into the creature's side near where Levin had struck with the force of his dragon phial. The scales had spread and loosened across the creature's chest from the effects of the dragon element, and both the dragon shots and the Crag round broke through the scales easily as they smashed into the beast, the dragon shots' dark energy pressing them into the creature's body and the Crag round detonating with furious force, sending the wyvern staggering back.

Levin was knocked on his back, he was too close to the round as it had detonated, but he quickly crawled away, dragging his weapon behind him as bowgun shots continued to pound into the creature, one after the other, in a constant barrage of dark energy and blasts of fire.

The Rathalos howled in pain and fear at the onslaught, its thick plates and scales no longer defending it as they had before. The dragon rounds were only exacerbating things as well, their own energy further weakening the scales where they hit and making the wyvern take even greater damage. The Rathalos tried to leap away, but the waves of fire kept coming. Finally, with a howl of desperation, the wyvern spread its wings and pushed itself skyward, its eyes sweeping desperately around, trying to decide whether to try and escape into the fog or to fly away completely. Its wings didn't seem quite sound enough to make it a great distance.

Three simultaneous rounds crashed into the Rathalos as it tried desperately to escape, an explosive Crag round crashing into and detonating across the beast's back, and two dragon elemental rounds piercing into the beast's thick wing bones and sending dark energy through its body as the rounds drilled the energy further into its body. This time, the powerful rounds were too much for the creature to handle, and the Rathalos' wings spasmed violently, sending the beast plummeting out of the air. With a sickening crash, the wyvern's body crashed down not a dozen yards from the edge of the spire and only a couple yards from one of the deep blue pools, and actually managed to create a sizable crack in the near indestructible stone.

The creature reeled, roaring in pain as it struggled back to its feet, but Ellie rushed forward furiously, already loading another incendiary into her weapon's chamber and tailing after the beast. Dark black and red energy tainted the flames that lined the Rathalos' mouth as the creature turned to face her, anxious to strike before the huntress could strike first, but the wyvern was close enough to one of the nearby pools of blue fluid that the substance reacted, crystalizing and shooting out of the pool to latch onto the creature's chest, spreading hungrily for the Rathalos' mouth to steal away the dark energy from inside it.

The Rathalos reeled back, trying desperately to pull away from the fluid that was assaulting it as the crystalline material spread across its face, but Ellie used the moment to her advantage, firing the last of her Cluster rounds at the creature's face. The Rathalos heard the shot, and a jet of black flame shot from the creature's mouth as it tried to locate the source of the shot and detonate the blast before it could hit, but the wyvern's aim was just off, and the shot slid along the edge of the flame, like a boat coursing over the churning waves of the ocean. The round continued to soar through the air, before finally colliding with the Rathalos' head. The first detonation made the wyvern flinch backwards in pain, and the following blasted across the creature's wings, tearing wide holes into the weakened leathery webbing.

The Rathalos stepped further and further back as Ellie continued to load more rounds into her weapon, as Kerry and Tenebris fired the last of the dragon element rounds at the wyvern. The Rathalos continued to step back, trying to shield itself from the rounds that struck him, but not being able to fight back against the dangerous element. Finally, it had gone as far as it could manage, its feet against the edge of the spire, nothing but a long drop behind it. A pierce round caught the Rathalos' leg then, and the monster's wince then carried the leg over the edge.

A look of shock covered the Rathalos' face as gravity took hold of it, carrying the rest of the beast over the edge of the spire when its leg failed to find a hold. Immediately it beat its wings wildly, desperate to stay aloft, but the damage it had taken from the explosives and other rounds had left the creature's wings in tatters, and with a sickening ripping sound, the last vestiges of tension that was holding the webbing together gave way, and the Rathalos' wings tore straight in half. The creature screamed in panic as its wings failed to lift him up, and the beast toppled over the edge, dropping off the side of the spire.

The hunters hurried to the edge of the spire as a horrified howl of terror echoed from over the side. As Levin reached the side, he looked over and caught sight of the Rathalos tumbling wildly through the air, trying to save itself from the fall. Nothing was below it but clouds and jagged cliffs. As it twisted in the air, it spread its wings, trying desperately to right itself in air, but every time it stretched its wings out, they refused to catch the air properly. It managed to glide a little, but it wasn't nearly enough to save the wyvern as it fell out of the sky.

With a resounding crack that was loud enough to be heard from the top of the spire, the silver Rathalos crashed into a stone cliff jutting out from one of the mountains, sliding across the stone and tumbling over itself. Its momentum was enough to carry it even beyond that, though, and the wyvern slid right over the edge once more, tumbling over and over in the air as it fell out of the sky, gravity carrying it downwards as its wings failed it. Finally, the Rathalos vanished below the clouds that continued to pour over the sides of the spire, still plummeting down out of the sky towards its death. Its horrified howls continued to echo through the skies for much longer though, and it was several minutes before silence finally filled the air.

Ellie was the first to move, her weariness and relief overwhelming her as she sank to her knees, gasping for air. "We beat it… we actually beat it."

A moment later the rest of the hunters were on the ground as well, the toll of the fight getting the better of them. As the adrenaline drained away, their wounds and bruises came back at them in full force. They had all suffered heavy injuries from the creature, thanks to its ability to use its dragon element. The power just had a way to seep into you and drain you of strength, while searing you at the same time. Even through the armor that they wore, the dragon element had left painful burns across their bodies. All of them had fallen prey to the dragon fire at least a couple of times, and none of them were keen on moving about until they'd patched themselves up.

Levin, Ellie, and Harker had taken the worst beating of them all, having gotten close enough to suffer the Rathalos' physical assaults as well as its dragon breath. Levin had several broken ribs, but was lucky to not have had his arm or legs broken when the Rathalos had leapt on top of him. Harker's shoulder and arm were badly sprained from taking a hit from the Los' tail, and Ellie had a couple broken ribs of her own to contend with from the Rathalos' brutal hit on her from the battle.

The group of five stayed on top of the spire for several hours, patching themselves up what they could, and just resting and trying to recover. Nearly all of their bandages and potions were used up fighting against their injuries, especially the grievous burns that the dragon fire had inflicted on them. Every burnt patch of skin needed covering to keep their wounds from infection and protected from the friction of their armor, and in the end they had but a single roll of gauze remaining for their trip down the mountain. Their armor was a challenge to remove to patch themselves up; apparently Harker's suspicion on how Dragonblight worked was fairly accurate. Their armor joints seemed magnetized to each other, and were a struggle to remove to tend to their wounds. But the effects were wearing off slowly, and they would be able to travel soon enough.

Even then, they didn't make ready to leave the spire until very late in the afternoon. The fog that lingered over the top of the spire had slowly been dissipating as they'd tended their wounds, sliding over the southwest side and down into the valley where Nastre lay, and it was finally getting thin enough for the group of hunters to find their way through the haze to where they'd gotten onto the spire in the first place. Harker seemed disappointed that he wouldn't be able to go off and study the tower that stretched to the sky in the center of the spire, but was perfectly content with leaving and returning to Nastre to fully recover.

Ellie had kept her eyes on the cliff the Rathalos had fallen off of for most of the time since they'd defeated the wyvern. As they walked away from their resting spot, looking for the place to jump down, she frowned in concern.

"Do you think… are you sure we actually killed it?" she asked. "It was still alive when it fell, and as tough as it was, maybe the fall wouldn't have killed it."

"I doubt it survived," Harker replied. "As strong as the beast was, with its wings in the condition they were in, it wouldn't have been able to effectively slow itself down, and would have hit the ground hard."

"I'll have to agree with that," Tenebris added. "I've seen a few of these odd monsters before, the ones that change color as they grow old. They're tough, but not invincible. In the condition that Rathalos was in, I don't think it would have survived the fall. If it was still in good condition, if we'd only damaged its wings then knocked it off the edge, then maybe it would have survived the fall. But after everything we did to it… I think the impact will likely have killed it. And if worse comes to worst, once we tell Stergo what happened here, he'll likely send some hunters this way to make certain that the Rathalos is dead."

Ellie grimaced in frustration as they managed to find the point where they could get down. "Even so," Ellie said, climbing over the side. "I wish we could have killed it ourselves. I wish I could have at least carved something off it. Just a scale to keep as a memento or something like it."

"Maybe it's for the best," Tenebris said as she leapt off the spire to the path below. "After all, considering how you're supposed to be avoiding calling attention to yourselves, it'll be better if people don't find out about this whole mess. I mean, just imagine it! People hardly ever see silver Rathalos in this area of the world, or any area, for what I've heard. If people found out you four had managed to take one down, even with my help, people, lots of people, would take notice. So, for now, people will just have to… be amazed by the mysterious dead silver Rathalos a traveling caravan found in the mountains."

"Won't there be suspicions raised about who did it, though?" Ellie asked. "I mean, it'll be pretty obvious from the markings that it was a hunter that did it."

"Yeah, I know," Tenebris nodded. "But a group of four-star hunters that have only been hunting Jaggis, Qurupecos and Royals recently? I doubt you'll even be considered. No offense."

"None taken," Ellie replied. "Honestly, I'm still having trouble myself believing that we did what we just did."

"Go ahead and be proud of yourselves," Tenebris said with a grin. "Sure, nobody will ever know that you guys took down a silver Rathalos, but you'll know you have, and that's better than nothing. There're very few hunters out there that can claim such a feat in this country. And hey, when this whole political issue blows over, you'll have something to brag about. Maybe they'll go a little easier on you all when everything's said and done, once you tell them about what you've done here."

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Levin replied doubtfully.

As the hunters made their way back towards the caves, they noticed that the sky began to clear, the clouds of fog finally beginning to fade out of sight. It took Levin some time to realize that Tenebris had her eyes comfortably on the sky as they traveled, and Levin noticed that as the sun dropped below the horizon, the stars were coming out in full force once more, a blanket of lights shining above them. That's when he finally figured out what was different; the light of the tower had vanished once more, finally leaving the sky clear and clean once again.

"It was the Rathalos' presence that made the towers react as they did, I suspect," Harker speculated. "It would seem that it was the cause of Nastre's legends of the blue light. The dragon element that tainted its flame sac caused whatever that blue substance was to respond, and likely the tower in the center as well. Amazing! To think a tower could be used to change the very weather around it! I wish I'd gotten the opportunity to study it more; it would seem that the tower was some dedicated study of the dragon element, or perhaps a weapon against it… Now that I think about it, I suppose I can understand why the Meridians sectioned off the Lost crystals as they did."

"You do?" Levin asked. "I thought you believed it to be quarantine?"

"I did at first, but now I believe otherwise. That dark blue substance that was in the towers was very similar to the Lost crystals, at least in how they react to the dragon element. I suspect that the Meridians were trying to learn to control or replicate the crystals in some way, though I'm still not sure if they realized that there were Lost inside them or not. Did they awaken some of them? Were some of our people around for the Meridians' time as well? I can only guess. I'd like to return to the tower someday, if the opportunity arises, and try to figure out what its true purpose is."

"You may be waiting for a long time," Tenebris sighed. "When Stergo gets word of the silver Rathalos here and the weird things you found about that tower, I doubt that things will unfold very cleanly. Chances are the whole thing will be sealed off until the Guild researchers can scour it with a fine-tooth comb."

"But how did the Rathalos learn how to use the dragon element in the first place?" Ellie asked. "I mean, stronger scales and more powerful attacks is one thing, but developing the ability to use a power usually reserved for elder dragons? That seems… excessive."

"Hmm… As for that," Harker muttered, "I admit, I'm uncertain what the cause could be. If I had the opportunity to study the body of a monster that has the ability to produce this dragon element, I could come up with a better idea of how the Rathalos gained the ability. But I doubt that I will get that chance anytime soon, as elder dragons and the Deviljho seem to be the only creatures with such ability, and that is somewhat out of my reach at the moment. I'd love the opportunity to have dissected that Rathalos, but I fear that too is not something that I will be able to do."

"Maybe it was from the crystal," Kerry said thoughtfully, earning a curious look from the others. "I mean… maybe…"

"No, please, my dear Lady Kerrigan!" Harker urged her. "Please continue! I'd love to hear your thoughts."

"Well… I remember, when Levin and Ellie told us about how the… Alatreon locked away the Lost in those crystals, but it said that it had side effects on creatures that weren't elder dragons, didn't it? The Lost were inflicted with their… madness, after all. But, the Rathalos isn't… technically an elder dragon, so… wouldn't that mean that the blue crystals would have had an effect of some kind on Rathalos as well."

"Huh. I guess that is possible…" Tenebris said. "I mean, I don't know anything about those crystals or anything, just what Stergo filled me in on."

"But why would the Rathalos be blessed with a powerful attack, while the Lost are cursed with madness?" Ellie asked.

"I wouldn't call it exactly a blessing," Harker replied. "I pointed this out to Levin during the fight, but the dragon element likely was injuring the Rathalos even as it was using it. I'm sure that, before its body aged to the strength and durability we fought it at, using such a power was just as grievous for it as it was for us."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Ellie grumbled, rubbing her hand as another shock of dark energy leapt up her armor again.

"Well, maybe not as bad, but it certainly had its consequences for using it. Can you not say that you found your own form of madness useful in some situations?"

"Every once in a while, I suppose," Ellie admitted. "But… just as often as not, it's proven to be a hindrance, causing me trouble. I wouldn't want anyone else to have to deal with these issues like we Lost have to."

"Perhaps in the future, the descendants of the Lost will have gotten rid of the madness that lurks in our minds. If the source of the madness was caused by the crystals, then presumably, any children born, those that never slept in the crystals, will not have the madness. Of course, it will need to be tested, to see if the madness isn't inherited… perhaps, Levin-"

"Harker, if I live long enough to ever have children, I'm never letting you near them. No offense, but there's Lost crazy, and then there's… you."

"You wound me, my friend."

"Try and use any children I have in one of your experiments and I'll show you a wound."

"I think you two are both getting several steps ahead of yourselves," Ellie growled, grabbing a hold of Levin's ear and pulling his head down to her level. "In case you forgot, it's not exactly your say if and when you have a child. And besides, there are supposed to be a few things you're supposed to do between here and there, remember?"

To both Levin and Harker's credit, they both flushed a bright red in embarrassment at Ellie's words. Tenebris burst out laughing uproariously at the whole conversation, and Kerry smiled as well, though she seemed to be blushing a little at the words. She didn't seem to mind the thought of children. Ellie seemed quite miffed at Harker and Levin for making assumptions of her and Kerry, but after their successful hunt she couldn't keep a sour expression for long, and soon enough the hunters were joking and laughing with each other again.

They camped on top of the mountain that night, just over the lip of the wall surrounding the old Lost town ruins. They had intended to take turns keeping watch during the night, but their injuries and weariness overwhelmed them, and all of them had passed out around the fire they had made inside the remains of one of the Meridian spires they had found. Thankfully, the fact that they had been in the Rathalos' territory had kept the area free of monsters, and they were all able to sleep soundly until well into the morning of the next day.

As they passed through the old Lost town the next morning, they passed by the giant crystal that had once held the Rathalos as it had slept away the years in hiding. The material was far cooler than it had been the day before, and seemed to be fading into the same dark stone that covered the floors of so many of the other buildings that filled the town. Harker suspected that the Rathalos had been keeping the crystal 'primed,' in a sense, using its dragon element, so that once its time causing trouble for Nastre had passed, it could ease itself back into the crystal to sleep away the years once more. Harker wanted to stick around and contemplate the process, but Kerry managed to drag the long sword user away so that they could return to Nastre.

The trip back down the mountain to Nastre was long, though not nearly as long as it had been coming up. At least this time, they knew the path they were taking, and traveling was far easier. But with their victory over the Rathalos still fresh on their minds and the knowledge that they'd gotten rid of the threat on Nastre, even the imminent frustration they knew Stergo would have with them for fighting something they weren't supposed to, nothing could diminish their collective good mood. There were more attacks from small monsters than before on their way back with the pillar of light gone, but even then, the hunters found themselves laughing about the scuffles as soon as they were done. Managing to survive a fight with such an ancient, powerful wyvern was one thing, but defeating the beast had put the five of them on cloud nine.

Harker had looked forward to looking over the walls again, but his notepad had long been completely filled up, and he had failed to bring a second one along with him. So as they were going back through the caves, the long sword user made a valiant attempt to memorize what he could of them. Levin knew the man was intelligent, but he wasn't too certain of how good his memory was. He seemed frustrated though, much to Kerry's amusement, but the bowgunner volunteered to help him to try and remember what they could.

Since their battle with the Rathalos took place in the afternoon, it was the second day after their battle when they finally emerged from the caves, coming into the valley where Nastre lay once more. As they came into the sunlight again, all five of the hunters were surprised to find that the fog in the basin between the mountains was still there, despite the Rathalos having been dealt with. The haze was thin compared to when they had been traveling through it though, so Harker suspected that their battle with the Los had kicked up enough fog to cover the area for the last couple days, and now it was finally beginning to fade away.

Getting down to the grasslands again proved a bit more challenging than it had been on their way up into the hills. Monsters were still lost in the fog, and after several days not being able to hunt efficiently, many beasts were willing to attack anything for the sake of getting a meal. At least a dozen Jaggi packs ambushed them through the mist, though they weren't much of a threat. It was still tiring having to deal with them, after so many days of traveling and considering they were still wounded from the fight. Something odd they noticed as well was that the Dragonblight, while not as restricting as it had been when they'd first been inflicted with it, still seemed to be effecting them, sparking along their armors and making it hard to move properly on occasion. It was more of an irritation than anything else, but it was still odd that the effects were still there. Tenebris claimed the effects could last a while, but she'd never seen them last this long. It was probably because they hadn't been able to change out of their armor the whole time, she suspected, and hadn't had a chance to change into unaffected clothes. Or maybe the Rathalos was just a unique circumstance. Either way, the problem had been dealt with.

But finally, through the mists, the lights of torches began to flicker through the gloom. The fog seemed to finally be clearing up at last as they got closer and closer to the village. But as they traveled, they found an oddity; a massive chunk of land had been overturned parallel to the road they walked, a wide swath of flung dirt and soil that followed alongside the path.

"Maybe they tested out that flying monstrosity that Silas was working on," Tenebris mused as they passed a couple overturned stones and tree stumps. "Looks like they might have crashed it while they were at it."

"I hope it wasn't too disastrous a landing," Harker said. "This trail looks like it heads straight to Nastre. If it didn't break up quickly enough, it may have run into one of the town walls."

"Oh wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake," Tenebris groaned. "All this Lost suspicion in Nastre and Silas goes and smashes a jury-rigged flying machine through the town walls."

"Maybe it's not as bad as it looks," Levin said. "Maybe he got sidetracked and accidentally invented a… overpowered… farming… tool. Yeah, I got nothing."

"Well, hopefully it really did stop before it hit the side of Nastre. I've tried to patch things up between the Lost and the locals, but if Silas actually managed to destroy the outer wall…"

"Then you can sugarcoat the whole thing by pointing out that, my goodness, the pillar of light on the horizon is gone, and all the Lost did was knock down a wall. That's hardly the doom and destruction people thought was coming. And maybe you can convince them that the best way for Silas to make it up to the town is for him and his lackeys to put in some hard labor fixing the wall instead of causing trouble."

Tenebris grinned wickedly. "That would keep them out of trouble for a month or two. They might be nice and smart when it comes to technology, but something simple like building a sturdy wall might keep them busy for a while. I like that idea! And I'm sure the town won't be adverse to that, either. I just have to make sure they know it's Silas' work, not the Lost collectively, but that shouldn't be too hard."

The torches of the village grew clearer through the fog as they followed the road. As the road curved towards the gate, the crash line veered away through the fog out of sight. Soon the gatehouse appeared through the dim, and appeared to still be in one piece, thankfully. There were still only two guards at the gates, which was encouraging. The pair stiffened a bit at the sight of the hunters coming through the fog, but relaxed a bit upon recognizing Tenebris.

"It's about time you got back, ma'am," one of them said. "Some of the hunters at the inn were thinking you were taking too long killing that Rathian and thought you might've died."

"No, no," the bowgunner replied, shaking her head. "It just… the nest was very far and hard to find. We were running in circles for the last few days. What happened here? We saw the upturned earth on the way back into town. Did Silas and his crew actually finish that flying machine and crash it?"

The two guards looked at each other uncertainly for a moment. "No, no… nothing like that. It was… well, it'd probably be better if you go look for yourself. It's to the north of here. You can't miss it; there's a big hole in the town wall."

Tenebris grimaced at hearing that the wall had indeed been damaged, but seemed surprised that Silas didn't seem behind it. Without another word, she took off, following the wall north, with the other four hunters close behind. As they traveled, they caught sight of a large number of torches up ahead, and a large crown materialized through the fog, all standing around murmuring between each other uncertainly. A large, terrible hole suddenly appeared in the town wall, the lumber pillars having been torn and unearthed.

The hunters stared in shock at the sight. It wasn't a machine or airship that had crashed into the town wall, but the remains of the silver Rathalos. The large lumber pillars from the town wall had been crushed and broken below the creature's massive bulk when it had crashed through them. Several of the spiked logs had wedged themselves up into the beast's body as well, at least three of the thick lumber pikes wedged through the wyverns chest, and over a dozen had torn more holes into the creature's already damaged wings.

A small crowd was gathered around the downed wyvern's body, shock apparent in all of their eyes. The fallen creature was encircled by nearly a dozen town guards, keeping the more curious civilians back as well as several hunters that had come out from the inn to see the beast themselves. Some were poking around the Rathalos with hungry looks in their eyes, no doubt wanting to peel away some materials from the creature's body for themselves, but a pair of Guild reps kept sharp eyes on them to make sure they kept their distance.

"There you are! Oh, thank goodness!" Cedric, the large innkeeper, suddenly appeared from gate into the city, hurrying over to them and gasping for air. "You'll never believe it! A couple days ago, that massive beastie over there just drops out of the sky, through the fog and smashes through the wall of the village! Scared the pants off of nearly every guard on this side of town when it hit. Thing was barely alive, though, so people went off calling for any hunter we could find to finish the damn thing off! Sweet mercy, it must have fought a dozen hunters to get so damaged, a creature this old and powerful."

"It was still alive after hitting the ground as hard as it did?" Tenebris asked, shocked.

"Oh, yes! Not very, but still a little alive. It wasn't that way for long though, just enough for it to impale itself on all those pikes and breathe a bit of fire at the guards. Ah, that's another thing! Something odd about that beast, its flames were a sickly black, so I'm told! Some say it's nonsense, but I know some of those guards, and they're not the type to lie. Only a couple of hunters managed to see it, and they were just a couple of rookies that none of the older ones would take seriously."

"Black tinted fire… you don't say," Ellie muttered.

"And I suppose, even with all that fog, that you saw that the blue light off on the horizon vanished sometime earlier, and hasn't returned! It's a lot of hearsay, of course, but with that Rathalos falling out of the sky not long after the light vanished, people are beginning to believe it was the cause of the light in the first place, somehow or another. A beast as strange and powerful as this, it wouldn't surprise me! I suppose we'll have to mention this to whoever the Guild sends to investigate this whole thing.

"Ah, but I'm getting off track. Are all of you all right? We saw how damaged the creature was, and we thought some unfortunate hunters came afoul with the wyvern out there. If this silver Rathalos is as terrible and powerful as some of the other hunters seem to think, especially with that black fire, it must have been quite the fight. You all were out looking for a Rathian, weren't you? Perhaps it was that Rathalos' mate or something like it."

"No, nothing of the sort happened," Tenebris replied quickly. "We just managed to find the Rathian and bring it down."

"Well, that's a mercy. All five of you look beat to hell… no offence. If a Rathian gave you that much trouble, you'd all would have had a terribly hard find ahead of you going toe to toe with that beastie. I hope the hunters that met up with that Rathalos managed to survive their tussle… perhaps the Guild should send out a search party or two after the hunting parties that are still out there. But let's get you back to the inn, my friends. It's still crowded, but I'm sure I can find you a place."

The hunters followed the man back through the gates. However, Levin realized that Ellie was slowly drifting off the main path, her eyes on the downed Rathalos that was still impaled on the lumber pikes of the wall. Cedric noticed her movements, and laughed it off, saying they could come by the inn later; after all, he didn't blame the hunters for being curious.

She wasn't the only hunter looking at the beast, Levin noticed. A number of hunters of all ages were clustered around the fallen beast, looking down at the beast with greed and envy in their eyes. Even some of the older hunters were giving the fallen creature hungry looks, clearly hoping for a chance to take some parts when the guards and Guild workers weren't looking. But the Guild men had a watchful eye on the body of the Rathalos, and any hunter that got close to the beast was watched carefully to make certain nothing was carved from the body.

Ellie and Levin were watched just as closely as they approached. They were forced to crawl over the broken remains of wooden beams that had been unearthed from the wall, but Ellie walked straight for the wyvern's head, which was mostly free of rubble compared to the rest. Kneeling down, she stared straight down at the creature's face, now marred and scarred from battle. The Guild man watching them nearby eyed them carefully, but didn't move to stop them, even as Ellie reached forward and brushed her hand across the beast's snout.

"So… I've finally killed it then," she murmured. "I've finally gotten my revenge."

"Looks like it."

"It's odd, you know? Now that it's dead, it doesn't seem as big as I remember it being. In my dreams, and when we were fighting it, it always seemed impossibly big, like it could swallow me up in a single bite." She reached up to the wyvern's eyes, and peeled them oven. The red eyes were dead and cold. "But now it doesn't seem as nasty as I remember. It's not the same thing I was afraid of. It's just… another monster."

Levin grinned. "I wouldn't call it just another monster."

Ellie smiled back. "Okay, maybe not. But it always had some mystical, indestructible image in my head, and looking at it now, so wounded and dead, it really makes me feel foolish for picturing it as more than it actually was. It was… powerful, and deadly, but it was just a monster. Seeing it like this… it really puts things in perspective."

"But you don't regret fighting it or taking it down right?"

"Oh hell no! I'm glad I got the chance to do so! I just thought if the opportunity arose, it would be something more than just a hunt to deal with. But it really wasn't. It was just another monster to fight, and I managed to win."

"Good for you," Levin said, kneeling next to her and grinning. Ellie grinned back, before turning back to the Rathalos and huffing in disappointment.

"But it really irks me that I can't carve this damn thing! I'd love the chance to make armor or a weapon out of this thing, or mount its damn head on the wall. But we can't even keep a scale as a memento."

Levin smirked. "Well, you seduced that one Guild worker that visited Boma that once for Ludroth materials. Maybe you should try that again."

"Oh shut up!"

"Though, I may be the jealous type. Is it dishonorable to punch a man after suggesting your significant other seduce him?"

"Stop! Jeez!" Ellie laughed. "You're not supposed to promote infidelity in your girlfriend, Levin, no matter what the benefits might be!"

"I suppose you're right," Levin shrugged. "But then, they are materials from a silver Rathalos. Not something you see every day. We could make it fair and I could take a shot at seducing someone too. It looks like all the Guild workers here are men at the moment, though… hm. Well, statistically, I'm bound to catch the attention of at least one of them. Think I should try?"

"No! No… well, actually, now I'm kind of intrigued to see you try. But then again, it took you several months, almost a year, before you finally managed to get together with me. I don't think we have that kind of time."

"Hmm. Maybe not."

Ellie winced a little suddenly. Levin looked down and saw her flexing her hand as a small spark of dark energy danced between the joints of her bright blue armor. The dark lightning continued to dance up her armor, bouncing around before finally coming to a halt near her knee joints. "Jeez, this damn stuff doesn't go away very quickly, does it?" she muttered.

"I guess not," Levin replied. "I don't remember how long it affected me back in the Tundra… I was a little preoccupied at the time. But…" As he was talking, a little twinge of the dark energy crept across his shoulder, rattling his armor and making movement a challenge. He glowered in irritation as he rotated his arm. "But it looks like it lasts for a while. No wonder creatures like the Deviljho are considered so deadly, if they're able use such dangerous powers."

"Harker says there's a rare berry or something in the Volcano area that can counter the effects, though for the life of me I can't guess how," Ellie replied, pulling her gauntlet off and shaking her hand. "He also claims that the Guild is stockpiling them somewhere for reasons unknown, though I can't imagine where he gets his information."

"You okay there girlie?" a voice behind them asked. The pair looked up to see a Guild worker looking at the pair of them worriedly, an older man that had clearly seen some years. "Looks like you took a bit of damage on your hunt. The pair of you doing okay, or should I call for a doctor?"

"No, we're fine, we're fine," Ellie replied, putting her gauntlet back on and giving the man a reassuring smile. "I'm just… a little tired from our hunt, and wanted to see the, um, silver Rathalos."

"Quite the sight, isn't it?" the man said with a smile. "I've worked for the Guild for decades, and I've only heard of about a dozen of these things taken down in that time. I can't speak for the challenge they may be, but they're just so rare that there's a fuss about it when someone manages to take one down. Wish we could find the ones that took the thing down, if for no other reason than to know they're alright. Especially with that dragon element breath it's got… nasty stuff, that."

"I'm sure… I'm sure they're fine," Levin said, and the Guild man smiled thankfully.

"It might be a bit early to show such optimism, but I thank you nonetheless. Now then, perhaps you two should find a doctor. You certainly look worse for the wear. This thing will still be here when you've healed up a bit, I have no doubt, so you can come see it later if you wish. I'm sure it will be quite the attraction for some time."

"Yes, that would probably be for the best," Ellie said, standing up again. She winced a little at the motion, as a spark of dark energy sparked from her chest piece down across her faulds before it vanished once more. She groaned in irritation; Levin could understand. It didn't hurt, but it really made it hard to move around.

However, the Guild man's expression changed immediately, to one of concern. Abruptly, he grabbed ahold of Ellie's wrist, holding it up and staring at it intently. A moment later, another small spark of dragon energy jumped across her armor, and the man's eyes widened in shock. "This is… this is dragon element!"

"No, wait!" Ellie said quickly, pulling her hand back quickly. "It's not-"

"Don't try and fool me, little girl," the Guild man interrupted. "I've seen far too much in my years to mistake that dangerous power for anything else! There's nothing else quite like that power, and when you've seen it once, you don't forget it! Now where the hell did you two manage to get yourselves tangled up with something that can use dragon element? You aren't good enough to go off chasing Deviljho or elder dragons, certainly, so what in the world did you…"

Then the man's eyes darted to the Rathalos' large skull, at the fanged maw that he swore had spewed out black flames. His eyes widened in sock and terror, looking back and forth again between the dragon and the dark energy that refused to dissipate from Ellie's armor. "No… it couldn't be…"

"It isn't," Ellie said quickly. "We just came here to look at the Rathalos. We had nothing to do with it! We just wanted to see it."

"There's nothing else in this whole valley that could possibly have used the dragon element," the man said breathlessly. "It was either this silver Rathalos, or you hunters had the great misfortune of meeting a Deviljho, or even worse, an elder dragon. No, no, it must've been you!"

Ellie pulled back quickly, wanting to get away, but it was too late. As Levin helped her back to her feet, he looked around and realized that the other hunters and civilians in the area had overheard the Guild man's words, and were looking their way, eager to see who the man was talking about. Out of the corner of his eye, Levin caught sight of Silas in the crowd, who looked very pleased with the situation. Levin's heart sank as he saw the man open his mouth and turn to the followers that were with him.

"You see this?" he called to them. "This is the power and ability of the Lost. Though our strength may not be a match for that of the rest of the world, we are capable of outmatching any other hunter in the world, with our intelligence and wits! It was a Lost that brought down this creature, this powerful beast! Who can say now that the Lost aren't the greater peoples?"

Now there was some murmuring going through the crowd, some disgruntled at Silas' words, others in agreement of his speech. But whether in agreement of the man or not, they all were staring in awe at Levin and Ellie, shocked that they had been able to take down such a unique, powerful beast.

"Oh no," Ellie murmured as the tone of excitement surrounding them began to grow. "Oh no no no…"

---

"What tha hell were ya thinkin'!" Stergo roared at them from across the desk in his office. Levin winced at the man's words. He'd never seen an angry Wyvernian before, and he wished he still hadn't. Stergo was red with fury, a terrifying visage to look upon as he seethed with fury. "I told ya ta stay out of tha spotlight, not dive headfirst inta it! No monsters stronger than a Rathian, that's what I told ya, and certainly no gettin' involved with local politics! And ya did both! Not only did ya get involved with that blue light nonsense, but ya also went and battled a Rathalos! And a silver Rathalos ta top it all off! That was tha worst possible thing ya coulda done! Then ya went and let tha whole dang town know that is were you that done it!"

"Sir, we really didn't have much of an option when it came to the Rathalos," Tenebris argued. "When we found the nest, we didn't know it was a Rathalos, and we were far out in the open. Escape would have been nearly impossible out there on the mountaintop, especially with how skilled that Rathalos was in the air."

The Wyvernian glowered at her, and the huntress' mouth snapped shut under his glare. "And I suppose tha thought ta just turn 'round never crossed yer minds? Ya never thought that maybe ya were gettin' inta somethin' over yer head, what with those old towers sittin' round, especially with that light pillar issue in Nastre? Ya didn't think somethin' mighta been amiss? Ya didn't think! Ya didn't consider the consequences o' what ya were doin'!"

"Sir-"

"Who do ya think I'm doin' all this fer?" Stergo snapped. "It's not fer the lot o' ya, that's fer sure. I'm doin' all this ta keep tha Lost from sufferin' needlessly from yer stupid mistakes! Ya think the rest o' Loc Lac, the rest o' the world will be so forgivin' of yer kind if they learn what ya did, rilin' up the Alatreon? If anyone finds out what ya did in Hearth, there'll be hell ta pay for all the Lost, even if they didn't have anythin' ta do wit' it. I'm doin' all this fer them, not fer you!"

"Sir, please," Ellie pleaded. "We know we messed up, but we couldn't-"

"No! No more o' this!" Stergo snapped. "If the handlers ain't enough ta keep you lot outta trouble, then I'll have to do it myself! I hoped it would be enough ta keep you just huntin' things that weren't that tough, but if that won't work, I'm perfectly willin' ta inhibit you further if it'll keep people safe! From here on, no more direct monster huntin'! For any o' ya! Until this political foolishness with the Lost is done, none o' ya will be doin' nothin' but gatherin', minin', and escort missions! If you so much as fight a Great Jaggi, y'all should consider yerselves so lucky! And I'll be damned if I let any o' ya stay in Loc Lac long enough ta talk ta anyone! If any o' ya stays in Loc Lac longer than a day, I'll have ya arrested, consequences be damned! Startin' now."

Levin winced as the Wyvernian began tearing through piles of papers on his desk, sheets that the switch axe user recognized as mission requests and reports. Stergo seethed in anger and frustration as he flipped through the pages, searching for something, anything that would keep the four of them out of trouble and out of Loc Lac.

"Ah! This. This'll work just fine for now," Stergo finally said, sliding out a specific paper. "This'll get you all out of here."

The Wyvernian threw the paper at the hunters wildly, and Ellie caught it messily, unfolding the creased page nervously and looking over it. "Um… an escort mission?"

"Exactly, and a long one at that," the Wyvernian growled. "You five will be escortin' a materials wagon to a fortress to the south, beyond the far side of the Volcano huntin' grounds. The last one didn't make it, and no survivors were found. Probably got attacked by a monster or somethin'."

"You're sending us to protect a caravan from a monster?" Levin asked, confused, and Stergo glared at him.

"Not even close, boy. We're sendin' in other hunters to clean out tha path o' monsters. We can't afford ta have the fortress lackin' materials, though, so we'll be sendin' tha caravan along a diff'r'nt path. A longer path. It'll be a three week journey there and a three week trip back. This trip'll have ya out o' my hair fer a good month and then some. And don't even think o' lingerin' in the fortress or leavin' the company o' the caravan. I don't want you lookin' around the area at all, or gettin' any ideas ta help the local effort ta push back monsters. I'll be askin' the caravan folk too ta make sure. I'm tempted ta throw tha lot of ya into prison if you leave enough o' an impression on them for any ta even remember your names!"

A month gone? Just like that? But what else could they do? They were already toeing the line, bordering getting sent to prison or getting exiled. The only reason they weren't already on their way to the nearest prison was because word from Hearth had been really well pushed down.

Tenebris shifted uncomfortably. "Sir, I don't think that-"

"I don't care what ya think!" Stergo snapped. "Ya were supposed ta keep these fools out of the public eye! But know people know their names even more than before! It's been ten years since tha last silver Los was seen and you can be sure it weren't no four stars that killed it! No, yer done as their handler! I'll find someone else ta do it from here on! I didn't like having some o' tha rougher hunters keepin' an eye on ya, but now it looks like it's the only choice I got! Now get out o' my office! I've got enough ta deal with right now without thinkin' about all o' ya! I'll be sendin' a hunter ta meet ya tomorrow mornin' ta drag tha four o' ya out there."

The hunters nodded quickly and hurried out of the office before the Guild master could do anything else to them. Almost immediately, they were met by a couple of serious-looking guards, who led them out of the building quickly, nearly tossing them out on their backsides.

"I'm really, really sorry about all this," Ellie said to Tenebris once they were out of the building.

"No, no, it's alright," Tenebris replied with a rueful smile. "I don't think that hunt could have really gone much differently. For all intents and purposes, it should have been a Rathian we found. I mean, sure, we could've turned back at that relief wall, or at the old Lost ruins, or when we got to the top of the tower… I guess there were a lot of chances for us to about-face… but, well, I suppose I've always been pretty ambitious about hunts. I didn't really want to quit the hunt until the Rathian was dead."

"Still, if it weren't for us…"

Tenebris smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "No, like I said, this hunt probably wouldn't have gone much differently. We wouldn't have been able to escape once that Rathalos got its eyes on us, we couldn't have known that the beast was the cause of most of Nastre's problems, and it was a real bit of bad luck that dropped the Rathalos right onto Nastre. I'm pretty sure if it hadn't been for that, and those rather long-lasting effects of the dragon element, nobody would've figured out any of us had been involved at all. I guess it was just a bit of bad luck that led to this, so don't blame yourselves for this, just… try to keep yourselves out of trouble for the next person, okay? I don't think Stergo had the patience to give you many more chances."

"Still, I'm sorry," Ellie sighed sadly. "What will you do now?"

Tenebris tilted her head in thought for a moment. "I guess I'll head back to Nastre and make sure everything's okay there. The Lost there trust me, and with this silver Rathalos issue, I think they'll need someone they trust around to talk to, someone who the Guild and the rest of the town respects. Well, the Guild bit might be a touch wobbly now, but I want to try and talk to the locals now that their blue light issue is cleaned up. I'm curious as to how those doomsayers are reacting now that it's no longer a problem. And then they'll need someone to guide the Guild folks through the caves when they get around to looking at that Meridian tower… ah geez, who am I kidding? I have a whole lot of work to do up there. I won't be leaving that place for a long time."

"Think you'll be alright?"

"Oh, I'll be fine, don't you worry!" Tenebris laughed. "Aside from a couple Guild workers that knew the whole reason I was told to watch after you four, most of the town will look at me like a hero for helping take down that Los. I wonder what they plan on doing with the damn thing, I wonder…" The woman paused in thought. "I suppose they aren't going to let anyone carve materials off the thing, are they?"

"Last I heard, the Guild was confiscating the parts and donating what they can to Nastre to help them repair the damage done to the town," Harker replied. "But… most of it is just being confiscated by the Guild for 'other uses.' I imagine they don't get materials from such a beast very often, not without having to give away the pick of the litter to the hunters that killed it."

Tenebris raised an eyebrow. "How do you get this information?"

Harker smirked. "I have my sources."

"Well, in that case…" The bowgunner paused in thought for a moment, giving a thoughtful look at Ellie. "Hm. There's an idea… Well, I'll probably stick around Loc Lac for a day or two before heading back to Nastre. I wish you all the best of luck with the rest of your probation, and I'm sorry I can't do anything to help you. But I'll try to meet up with you guys later, to see how you're doing. Maybe… hopefully things will improve for you all somehow. Good luck."

And with that, the huntress left to head back to Nastre. Levin hoped her reputation wasn't too damaged with the Guild due to her involvement with them. But he had little time to think about it too much. Even with their lingering injuries, Stergo was sending them all off to act as guards to a caravan. There wasn't supposed to be any monster attacks on the way, but Levin didn't trust their luck at the moment.

"I guess we'd better go get ready, then," Kerry said quietly. "It's going to be a long trip…"

"You don't have to come with us, you know," Levin said. "You and Harker… you're not the ones in trouble. You could just… find something else to do. You don't have to suffer the punishment like we are."

Kerry froze for a moment. For a moment, she appeared grateful for the offer, and Levin thought she'd take it. But the next moment, her expression grew stronger and more determined. "No, that's alright, dear. You… both you and Ellie are my friends, and I don't want to leave you hanging with this whole issue. I don't… I may not like the idea of you going after the Alatreon, but… I'll help as much as I can, okay?"

Levin nodded thankfully, and Harker grinned approvingly at the bowgunner. Levin supposed there wasn't much good about their situation, but at least their friends were sill sticking with them. That was something. He only hoped that they wouldn't get too bored hanging around them. Only gathering and escort missions from then on in? Hardly anything exciting about that. He supposed he'd better bring something to amuse himself with on tomorrow's trip. It was certain to be a long and boring journey.

---

Author's Note: Please Review! Yep. It's finally that time. Things are never easy for my characters, are they? I'll be totally honest about this. I borrowed the idea of how dragon element works from how Zephyr Overlord described the effects in his own story 'I, Zephyr.' I just wanted to be honest, since I liked the idea so much. In retrospect, I probably should have written this chapter from Ellie's perspective. But I didn't. But I should've.

So, after working on my 1000 words a day on this chapter, I created a new word document upon which I began working on parts of the story that I feel compelled to write early. I've got bits and pieces of the big moments in the final chapters written out, and I'm currently working on the epilogue as well. I just felt like I should write out what's in my head so that I had something to aim at, rather than the chapter by chapter method I've been using up until now.

I really, really wish I had a PS3 at the moment. Though a WiiU is currently my priority (among other things), I'd really like to get one for the sake of buying and playing Ni No Kuni. For those of you that don't know, that's the JRPG that was made by Studio Ghibli, one of the greatest anime studios ever. It looks like unbelievable fun.

Finally… I made a map of the world I created. It's kind of derpy, and very noobish, but I'm a writer, not an artist. If you want to check it out, the link is here == fav. me/d5w7ykv. Just remove the space.

Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Playing: Minecraft: Tekkit mod, MHTri, BF3, Black Mesa
Listening: Fun, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Les Miserables Soundtrack
Watching: Futurama, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Howl's Moving Castle, Freeman's Mind