It was around 16 years ago that I first met Daimyo, so at the time I guess I was five.
I remember it fairly well.
My village… Tanith Village…
It was a village really far out, even for the New World, to the point where every few months or so we'd go to Loc Lac for trade dealings, due to not being able to get a lotta the stuff we needed ourselves.
It was on one of these trips that I decided to accompany them. There wasn't much to it.
For those first few years of my life I was stuck there, unable to leave. The village was pretty much my entire world, so I wanted to see what was outside of my world.
So I snuck onto one of the carts when it was leaving. No real reason why, I just kind of did.
About halfway there they found me, but at that point they couldn't turn back, so I ended up tagging along for the rest of the journey.
The way there wasn't anything interesting looking back, but at the same time I ended up enjoying the hell outta what I saw due to it being different from my day-to-day life.
We got to Loc Lac and I explored for a little while, not wandering too far for fear of getting lost in the massive city. Once again, it was nothing that special, but the feeling of being insignificant that a place like that gave me was something new.
On the way back, we were stopping for a few hours when we found a cave, that we decided to check out just in case there was anything dangerous inside.
It was completely devoid of life, but not because it was empty.
The corpses of Hermitaurs were scattered everywhere and in the middle of all this carnage was the decaying mostly-eaten corpse of a Daimyo Hermitaur.
The sight was horrifying, but while amidst the panic that ensued as a result, I noticed a slight movement.
A small Hermitaur climbed out of the ground despite our presence.
He seemed to carry on despite the violence around him, so either he wasn't a part of this pack or he was already used to the sight of his family's corpses.
Either way, I approached him and was instantly bitten.
I backed off in surprise, but when I approached with malicious intent he didn't seem to care enough to dodge.
It was like he'd given up on living.
So, in an emotion that I'd assume was pity, I took him home, and promptly got yelled at for getting on a cart to Loc Lac without permission, disappearing for two weeks on said cart and bringing a monster back home.
Still, I was allowed to keep Daimyo, due to the village generally being chill with monsters and a few months passed.
It was on that day… that everything in my life flipped.
A monster was sighted far off in the distance, it seemed to be charging straight for the town.
We didn't have many hunters in the village, but luckily they were all around at that point.
So they were sent off to go and fight off the Tigrex.
I'm not sure what happened, but the entire village flew into a state of panic after a few minutes, so it became obvious with the benefit of sunlight.
People were attempting to evacuate, but what they had seen was causing them to lose rational thought.
The village flew into a state of chaos.
There was only one way out, which was also the entrance.
So if the monster came through there, there'd be no way out.
We were trapped animals, ready for the slaughter sure to follow.
My parents tried to lead me to a place where I could hide, but I realised we forgot Daimyo. For some reason, the panic still hadn't hit me, so despite their attempting to catch me so we could hide I ran back to the house.
I heard a crashing outside when I entered by didn't think that much of it.
I found Daimyo inside, hiding for some reason.
Was he scared? To this day, I'm still unsure.
Still, I brought him outside to watch the scene that unfolded.
The monster had entered the village.
A fully red quadrupedal beast, which I later came to understand as a Molten Tigrex.
It stood a few metres away from me, eating something which I didn't realise.
Until I realised.
It was a metre or two away from my house.
My parents would've been near there when the crash occurred.
"No..." I thought, my brain completely shutting down.
I'm not sure how I looked at that moment, but all I felt was dread.
The monster looked over to me and began to charge forward.
That was where I was supposed to die.
I assumed that I was dead.
I was scared, but my fate was obvious before me.
I could do nothing.
But, fate passed me by.
The Tigrex ran by me.
As it did, I looked into its eyes.
Eyes of absolute purple, disturbed only by the empty black slits that focused on me.
The Tigrex continued to run past and started to tear into the people further back in the village.
I didn't watch it, but behind me I heard the noise of explosions.
The paralysis cast on me was completely broken, and I ran.
I ran straight out of the village, leaving everything behind.
The only thing I brought with me was Daimyo, still being held for some reason.
I don't know how far I ran.
But by the time I stopped the village was long behind me.
I stopped, breaking down out of tiredness, at which point I collapsed.
Daimyo walked off.
I must've laid there for a few hours.
Daimyo came back, with some plants that were probably herbs.
I ate them and regained some form of strength, sitting up and thinking back.
It was at that moment it hit me.
I started crying over everything that had happened.
The death of my parents.
Not having a home left to go back to.
Not being able to stop what had just happened.
I was too weak to stop anything.
I should've died.
But I was alive.
I didn't need to keep living, but I didn't want to die.
I was scared, so I got up and started to walk.
I followed the path we'd taken before, and sure enough I reached Loc Lac in about three months.
About a year or two after that I met the others and a year after that I came across David and Maria, so at that time I would have been around eight years old.
Until that point, we pretty much had an existence based on the pity of others.
Common people who felt sorry for a bunch of kids, poor people who sympathised with our situation, rich people who wanted to look good, they all ensured our survival even though it didn't matter to them.
Of course, sometimes we had to steal, but that was less common, maybe once a week.
I was alive, but only by default.
That speech I got about dying and all, it changed my outlook, to be honest.
I think I wanted to live.
I wanted to protect everyone, so to do that I just had to kill the things that would kill everyone else, right?
So I would become strong and kill everything that could kill who I care about.
Of course, that'd never work, it was just some kid's dream, and of course I was unable to, but it was what I desired to do.
When was it… that the dream changed?
Joseph took a hop backwards, attempting to gain some distance on the Tigrex.
The Tigrex swung its tail around, Joseph rolling underneath it with the same aura as before.
Joseph once again attacked, only for the Tigrex to attempt to charge at him.
Joseph lept out of the way of the charge, turning after landing to draw back an arrow as the Tigrex turned around to face him in another charge.
Joseph let the arrow go and turned to dodge again, the cycle looping again.
However, on the fourth turn Joseph found himself against a wall with no room to safely dodge.
If he jumped, at best he'd take a fair amount of damage, though there was no guarantee that it wouldn't be worse.
It was at that moment that Daimyo suddenly sprung up between them and blocked, the Tigrex being stopped by this.
The Tigrex swung at Daimyo and successfully connected causing Daimyo to slightly be pushed back and almost flinch despite his guard, but already found itself being shot at again, so it turned its attention to Joseph instead.
At that point, Daimyo's arms suddenly exploded "What the hell!?" Joseph thought "Blastblight!?"
Before Joseph could figure out what happened, the Tigrex charged forward again, when suddenly it was forced to crash into the ground by a fireball from above.
While it was distracted, Joseph checked out Daimyo's wounds and attempted to help him recover, as well as work out what was going on.
Ayano then swooped in and slashed it across the back with poison, before taking off into the skies again in a guerrilla tactic.
But, at that moment the Tigrex jumped through the air after her.
She turned to see it leaping, and prepared herself for damage, death staring her in the face.
But at that moment the Tigrex was hit from below by pressurised water, pushing it backwards through the air and causing it to crash back onto the earth, steadying itself.
The Tigrex looked affected, but soon healed off the damage.
At that point, Zino charged in an attempt to topple the Tigrex, but could barely push it back due to their size difference.
Zino jumped out of the way of one of the Tigrex's strikes, but this shot up rocks which connected and caused her slight pain.
The Tigrex attempted to charge forward, so Zino responded by jumping backwards and shooting out electricity.
Despite connecting, they appeared to do nothing.
It was at that moment that a hunter charged in from the side.
The Tigrex turned to face them but was too late and ended up getting pierced through the eye by a lance.
Alexandra quickly pulled back to join Zino.
The Tigrex quickly recovered and pushed forward once again.
It threw out rocks, with Alexandra and Zino both dodging.
The Tigrex charged forwards once again, directly at Alexandra, but Zino was able to hit with a tail uppercut before it reached her.
Zino flipped around and fell to the ground, landing slightly unsteadily.
Alexandra charged forwards, taking the offensive and piercing it multiple times.
Zino jumped back into the fray and pummelled the Tigrex with multiple hits.
The Tigrex then regenerated and lashed out.
Alexandra and Zino both pulled back, but the Tigrex pressed the attack specifically on Alexandra, striking out with its front-right leg, which was swiftly blocked by her.
The Tigrex then suddenly stopped, appearing to give up.
Alexandra suspected something was up and inspected her shield. A large amount of red smoke seemed to be rising from it, and it smelled slightly off.
"Wait…" She thought, thinking back to when Daimyo had been hit.
Joseph had immediately chucked a deodorant at him, as if noticing something that no one else had seen.
"Which means that… this is blastblight!" Alexandra had seen blastblight before, of course, but it had never produced this much smoke.
Out of fear and not having any deodorant she unstrapped her shield and quickly chucked it away.
Sure enough, within a few metres of her, the shield exploded.
Of course it wasn't broken, just damaged, but had she been holding when it exploded she'd probably be in a much worse state than she was now.
In an attempt to lose her current disadvantage of having no shield, Alexandra ran for where she threw it, but right then the Molten Tigrex ran between her and the recently discarded shield.
Alexandra stopped and quickly considered her options.
She could attempt to directly engage the Tigrex here, but she wouldn't last long without her shield and would likely die.
She could attempt to circle around it, but in her rush she would probably be attacked and without a means of defending herself would likely die.
She could attempt to run away from the Tigrex, but the Tigrex would run straight at her, so she would find herself faced with the same choices and would likely die.
Alexandra was afraid of the hypothetical checkmate she found herself in. She decided to take the course of action of running around it just because it was the most safe even if by a small margin.
But she found herself paralysed by fear. "Why… won't my body move?"
The Tigrex stood up so that it could slam downwards.
Alexandra looked at her death oncoming, fearing it yet feeling a small sense of relief that it would finally be over.
Suddenly Zino slammed into the Tigrex, knocking it backwards while aggressively howling.
Alexandra then suddenly snapped out of her state. "What was I thinking just now!?" She thought "As if I'd be happy to die in a place like this!"
Alexandra rushed forwards to grab her shield, before quickly pressing on the opening that had appeared as a result of Zino's attack.
The Tigrex then retaliated after being hit multiple times and taking three hits that would've been fatal with a strike forwards.
It connected with Alexandra's shield again, giving her no choice to discard it, this time likely for good.
But instead of throwing it towards nowhere, she had a specific target, being the Tigrex itself.
Not expecting this, the Tigrex took it square in the face, being completely blinded by the blast which destroyed the shield.
The Tigrex, while stunned lashed out, swinging around with its tail.
Unable to block and unable to dodge, Alexandra was hit by this and launched into a nearby wall.
She attempted to get up but fell to her feet again, unable to move properly. Just from that one hit, she was taken out "How... pathetic…" she thought, slumping into unconsciousness.
Zino attempted to strike at the Tigrex but was also quickly taken out herself by a single strike, luckily avoiding getting hit by any blastblight.
As the Tigrex got back up, now recovered, in an attempt to finish Zino, Anthony charged in with a strong hit to the face.
The Tigrex stumbled back slightly, not that fazed overall, but had its tail suddenly severed from the body by a great sword.
Surprised by this it fell forwards and was finally hit from above by a body slam from a Lagiacrus.
Wave released the charged up electricity from his spikes in the instant of the connection, causing extra damage.
He then pulled back as the Tigrex recovered, only to be hit once again by a hammer.
This time however, it was ready and struck out with some rocks, Riko rushing into defend with his great sword.
After the rocks had been deflected, Anthony was back on the attack again, Riko tailing just behind him.
Anthony landed a hit on the Tigrex, managed to get it to stop from the impact at which point Riko raised his sword into the air just above its head.
As the Tigrex regained sense, Riko brought his sword crashing down, cracking its skull and pushing it into the ground.
Riko attempted to hit again, but was struck by its tail lashing out in a spin.
Luckily, he wasn't too open upon being hit and was able to just about remain standing, but had no chance to attack as the Tigrex struck forwards once again, connecting with his sword.
Instead of giving up, it continued to attack, only layering his sword with blastblight.
Riko then suddenly dropped it and jumped back. The sword fell underneath the Tigrex and the blastblight took effect.
While the Tigrex took the brunt of the blast, it still managed to connect with Riko, engulfing him in flames and knocking him unconscious instantly.
Anthony attempted to rush forwards in an attempt to grab the Tigrex's attention after it regenerated, but he was already too late.
Luckily his intentions were fulfilled, the Tigrex post-regeneration focusing its attention on him instead of the easy-to-kill Riko, but he was at an disadvantage due to this.
The Tigrex boldly charged at him, Anthony just barely dodging.
The Tigrex continued to charge, but luckily Anthony was able to pull the fight to where he wanted it to take place this way.
As the Tigrex ceased its charging tactics and went for a more straightforward attack, Wave suddenly jumped in, once again attempting to hit the Tigrex with electricity, but was quickly thrown off and crashed into a wall.
The Tigrex pushed forward and got ready to pummel Wave further into the wall, but was cut off by Anthony hitting it from the side with the best swing he could manage.
This pushed the Tigrex back, but he was momentarily unable to dodge due to needing to recover his position / breath which the Tigrex took advantage of to knock him flying with a charge.
Anthony instantly passed out, assuming that he would die there. Wave attempted to push forward, but was hit straight in the neck with a front right hook, being sent falling to the ground, at which point he exploded. Luckily this wasn't fatal, but he wasn't well off, bleeding heavily.
The Tigrex once again attempted to finish off its opponents and was predictably cut off.
Sean fired down from above, at which point the Tigrex launched up rocks.
Azure swiftly dodged around them, but saw the Tigrex charging up the valley walls.
It then lept backwards at Azure.
Reacting quickly, Azure was able to dodge around it, but the Tigrex almost connected, just missing.
It crashed into the ground, but noticed something stick itself to its head.
The crag shot exploded, destroying part of its head, causing it to require regeneration once again.
It then attempted to take off into the skies.
Normally, Tigrex and had this one attempted to take off normally it would've had a tough time of it, likely getting pushed back into the ground, but instead the Tigrex chose to spring off of the ground.
It lept straight at Azure, narrowly missing him and Sean.
Sean attempted to shoot off a clust shot, which connected, but the Tigrex was unfazed, the shot connecting with its underbelly.
Now above Azure, the Tigrex dived downwards.
It was directly above them.
While Azure could dodge, he'd have to move at an incredibly high speed to do so.
Sean would have to cling to his scales or get flung off.
Sean was holding his bowgun, having just fired a clust shot.
He wouldn't be able to dodge in the time it would take Sean to get ready for the dodge.
Sean also seemed understood this, so he rolled off of Azure's back.
Azure was surprised, but managed to dodge the attack anyways, the Tigrex crashing onto the ground.
But, Sean was also on the ground, a few metres away from the Tigrex.
Recognising this, the Tigrex charged forwards.
Sean managed to get most of his body out of the way, but was slightly hit by the Tigrex, sending him sprawling forwards.
Sean looked up from where he landed, still lying on the ground.
The Tigrex turned to attack him.
As it charged forwards, Azure suddenly intervened, shooting out a fireball which connected with the head of the Tigrex.
Azure landed between the two of them as Sean got to his feet.
The Tigrex didn't give them a chance to recover, lunging straight at Azure.
Azure attempted to fight back, but when faced with an irresistible force he was stopped.
Azure got slammed into the wall by the Tigrex's entire body weight.
The Tigrex pulled back and repeated the motion.
It continued its repetitive, Azure taking more damage each time.
Suddenly, it felt something land on it side and was blown apart by a crag shot.
The Tigrex fell over and Sean ran over, as Azure slumped down.
"Shit…! Azure!" Sean thought, looking at the damage.
Luckily, he wasn't dead, and there didn't appear to be any blastblight on him, but what was important was that his right wing was broken.
Which meant that, he couldn't fly through the air anymore.
That was assuming that he was still conscious though, which looked highly unlikely.
The Tigrex recovered and lunged towards Sean, but was cut off by Ayano slamming it into the ground with a tail swipe.
The Rathian landed in between the two of them.
The Tigrex managed to get back up and lunged at Ayano.
The Rathian shot off a fireball, instead of dodging.
The Tigrex then attempted to run around.
The Rathian responded with a horizontal tail swipe.
There was a brief silence while the Tigrex planned.
Sean thought to himself while this was happening "That ****ing idiot, she knows it'd be easier to dodge and attack rather than defending me like this. I'm sure that thing's caught on by now, you need to change things up!"
The Tigrex got up and started attempting to run around the two again.
Ayano recognised this and went in for another tail swipe, anticipating the Tigrex's movements.
Suddenly the Tigrex changed its direction and lunged straight at Ayano.
Ayano was in the middle of a tail swipe, so while she could've dodged normally she had no way of dodging while doing this.
The Tigrex's attack was only interrupted by a clust shot from the sides, connecting with the Tigrex and launching it flying.
Sean then yelled "Don't worry about me, just keep attacking!"
Alicia was briefly confused by this, but decided that if Sean wanted her to change the plan then she'd have no choice but to.
Ayano already understood the command and flew straight at the Tigrex.
The Tigrex lunged at her but was responded to with a freeze shot from Alicia, at which point it was hit with a load of normal shots, Sean having entered siege mode.
The two guns continued to attack, Ayano staying back for the time being.
The Tigrex ran up the sides of the valley and jumped off, but was swiftly dodged by Ayano, but unfortunately that wasn't its intention.
It charged straight for Sean, who was quickly trying to get out of siege mode.
Ayano shot off a fireball, but it missed the vital areas and didn't faze the Tigrex.
Having no choice, Alicia gave the command to Ayano to dive in, exactly as planned.
As Ayano closed in she went for a claw swipe, but suddenly the Tigrex lept back.
Ayano didn't have time to react before she was hit by a full on body slam, Alicia being brought down with her.
Sean looked ahead at the Tigrex, thinking "Ah, so they must've felt at this time… huh?"
The Tigrex roared and charged forward, only for Sean to suddenly grab his bowgun and run forwards.
The Tigrex pursued, refusing to stop despite being battered by shots from Sean's bowgun.
Sean continued to dodge and shoot, refusing to stop.
The Tigrex launched off some rocks, Sean rolling out of the way to dodge them.
While he was in this roll the Tigrex charged for him.
Unfortunately, due to Sean's having been worn down over the course of this fight and the distance between the two, he wouldn't be able to dodge in time, but he had expected this to happen since the rocks were thrown.
Sean managed to land, giving him just enough time to load in the bullet he had on hand before the roll.
Which happened to be a wyvern's fire.
He quickly reloaded, barely any space between him and his opponent and the shot started to charge up.
Suddenly the Tigrex rammed into him at full force.
Sean was taken aback by this and almost launched flying, but just about managed to grab onto the Tigrex's back as he flew over..
He then slammed the gun down on the Tigrex's neck seconds before it went off, the Tigrex having almost no time to respond.
The wyvern's fire seared through its neck, burning straight through it and scorching the ground.
The Tigrex fell to the ground, writhing with pain.
Sean got off and already knew that he wouldn't be able to last for much longer.
The Tigrex was only half recovered, but furiously sprung to its feet and lashed out at Sean.
It connected with its front right leg, hitting him into a wall.
There was some blastblight on him as a result of this, so even if he was conscious after that hit he wasn't after the explosion.
The Tigrex looked around for anymore hunters, only to find itself surrounded by three hunters and three monsters.
By process of elimination this was Zach, Zappy, Ben, Plessy, Callum and Sanchez.
The first one to make a move was Callum, running straight for the legs.
The Tigrex lashed out at him, but was dodged around and stabbed through the stomach.
At that moment Plessy shot out a beam of pressurised water, connecting with the Tigrex and making it slightly unstable on its feet.
When the Tigrex attempted to move to get a better position of attack, it was hit by Zappy's mucus, greatly reducing its speed.
Ben then finally hit it over the head while in axe mode, which didn't do much but briefly stunned it due to its current weaknesses.
Finally the rest stepped in for an all out attack while it was weakened.
Callum didn't have any dash juice on him, but still managed to get a fair amount of damage done regardless.
The three monsters were able to get in some damage, but it was nothing major, mostly just revolving around hits to the chest or lower body.
The main sources of damage here were Zach and Ben, using gunlance and switch-axe respectively.
The gunlance was able to deliver piercing damage to the sides of the Tigrex as well as the occasional shell being thrown in.
The consistent source of damage was Ben, hacking and slashing away at the Tigrex's head.
Finally the Tigrex appeared to be recovering from its slowed state.
Zach used a wyvern's fire and Ben switched into sword mode for one last attack, Zach overheating his gun and Ben quickly burning through his phial.
Ben and Zach both hopped back as the Tigrex was finally able to get to its feet and began to attack.
Zappy attempted to pull off the same plan of attack again, and it was almost successful until suddenly the Tigrex started to roar.
The roar carried on for who knows how long, but Zach's ears were already damaged.
After the roar ended and he was able to look around again, he noticed that Callum was missing.
Soon after Sanchez disappeared.
Zach and Ben were now both on guard, standing in a formation where they and their monsters were scanning all four directions.
The Tigrex charged at Zappy's side.
The others turned to face him, but were pelted with rocks, which Zach quickly blocked, Ben dodged and the monsters were hit with.
Ben tried to run at the Tigrex, Plessy backing him up, but the Tigrex continued to charge forwards, moving past him.
Zappy just about rolled out of the way, but the Tigrex turned back around and charged again, this time being blocked by Zach.
The Tigrex was nearly completely stopped, but managed to launch off some rocks with its landing.
Zappy was briefly stunned, unable to shoot out any mucus in time, at which point the Tigrex pulled its head back.
Zach recognised this from moments ago and attempted to cover his ears, but ended up being sent flying backwards just from the force of the roar itself.
But, Zappy didn't move, due to his weight.
As Zach recovered he watched the Tigrex ram Zappy at full force, giving him no time to recover and dodge.
Ben then charged in, only to be easily stepped around and slammed down upon with a tail swipe.
He still wasn't done yet, though, but ended up being quickly taken care of with a turning strike, being launched away and exploding mid-air, still somehow alive.
Finally Plessy was hit with a combo of tail swipes and strikes, unable to dodge, and the blastblight took him out.
This left just Zach, who decided to wait.
The Tigrex ran towards him, but he stood firm, just managing to block the attacks.
But, his stamina wasn't going to last long enough to survive this fight, so on the third or fourth strike he dodged around and stabbed at the Tigrex.
"If I can just last until my gunlance cools down… I might be able to do this!"
But, a weapon that could only live up to the second half of its name wasn't a match for a monster like this.
Zach attempted to repeat the cycle, but on his dodge the Tigrex swung its body around, slamming into him with a tail hit.
Zach was knocked to the ground and quickly attempted to recover, but to no avail as the Tigrex battered into him at full force, the only thing the attack was lacking was a build up of speed.
Zach attempted to get back up again, but ultimately unable to rise to his feet. He slipped into unconsciousness, falling to his own weakness.
The Tigrex moved for the kill, only for the last standing hunter and monster duo to stand between them.
Joseph spoke "Leave the others out this shit. Daimyo and me… we're the two that survived your attacks. The ones who somehow managed to escape. I'm not sure why ya kept either of us alive, or how we even managed to live that long, but after that time… I decided on my purpose. We've experienced what ya can do firsthand. That needless destruction… it was like a second nature to ya. If you're alive, all you're gonna do is kill. So, to stop ya from killing anyone else… we're gonna be the ones to kill ya!"
The Tigrex seemed to smile. It moved its mouth "Very well, then."
There was a long silence between the three. Finally it was broken by Joseph saying "I knew it… ya could talk, couldn't ya? ...ya fucking bastard."
Finally he took to the attack, drawing his weapon and shooting straight for the neck of the Tigrex before it could roar.
The Tigrex was taken off guard, stumbling slightly backwards, which Daimyo used to rush forwards and hit him with both of his claws at once.
The Tigrex recovered after a brief pause and suddenly struck out, clashing against Daimyo's guard.
The blastblight was about to explode, when suddenly a deodorant was thrown over the shoulder of the Tigrex.
It connected with Daimyo's claws, getting rid of the blastblight.
Joseph grinned "Ya think the only thing we were doing while you were fighting the others was healing? Hell no, we were gathering! Now ya can't you use your explosive attacks, anymore!"
Joseph thought to himself "Good, we need to keep it under the impression that we've got the upper hand here. If I keep on negating the blastblight, then it'll learn that there's no point in hitting with it anymore. Even with that, gotta be careful about how I use em. Only got four left, if it catches on then we'll really be screwed."
The Tigrex then turned its back to Daimyo and charged at Joseph.
As the Tigrex closed in, the blue aura that had previously surrounded him flared up again. The front of the Tigrex's head briefly connected with it, at which point Joseph took off into a jump almost instantly.
As he flew back through the air he pulled back on his bow and shot off multiple arrows.
The Tigrex crashed into the mountain, briefly getting stuck.
The arrows rained down, sticking into its head and causing it to appear to stop.
Still not having landed, Joseph looked around only to notice why the Tigrex had stopped.
It wasn't due to the arrows, it was to attack.
The Tigrex had dug its tail into the ground and dug it up flinging it straight at Joseph.
Having not seen this coming and currently being off ground, giving him no way of properly dodging it, he instinctively raised his arms to shield his own body.
It was at that moment that the attack was stopped by Daimyo, jumping between Joseph and the attacks.
The rocks were reflected off of his claws, hitting the Tigrex in return.
They both landed on the ground and Joseph thought to himself "Shit, that was close, good thing I got Daimyo to back me up. Still, those rocks back there were reflected. Why was that? I don't know why, but it bugs me. Normally they'd just connect and drop to the ground, but this time they bounced off. Ugh, I don't have the time to think about this, I gotta get back to the fight!"
The Tigrex recovered and charged forwards again, straight at Daimyo. Daimyo blocked the strike and the Tigrex almost seemed to bounce off of him, before striking out again.
Three strikes, in total all of which were unsuccessful.
The Tigrex briefly pulled back to find a new angle of attack, but in that opening Daimyo opened his guard and fired off a beam of pressurised water, connecting directly with the Tigrex and causing damage mainly to its body.
While the Tigrex attempted to recover from this, Joseph quickly threw deodorant onto Daimyo, getting the blastblight off of him.
Three left
The Tigrex turned around and roared, catching both Joseph and Daimyo off guard.
It didn't hesitate, taking advantage of the few seconds it would take them to recover.
It ran directly at Daimyo and the moment it was closed enough it turned to have its left side facing Daimyo and performed a hipcheck, slamming his entire body weight straight into Daimyo's front.
Daimyo was greatly injured, Joseph could've sworn he heard a bone or two cracking, but luckily he managed to avoid blastblight.
Joseph was now able to move, but the Tigrex was right next to him and quickly slammed down with its front right leg.
The tremors briefly stopped Joseph, but he was still able to recover enough to dodge the next attack, being a charge forwards.
However, he was now on the right side of the Tigrex.
Joseph attempted to run to where Daimyo was, but the Tigrex quickly turned to throw out some rocks.
They weren't much, but Joseph's aura activated and he jumped back.
"Shit… gotta get to Daimyo!" Joseph though, running forward again, only to be cut off this time by a Tigrex running in.
Instead of running in between them, much to Joseph's horror it turned its attention to Daimyo.
Daimyo was first hit with a charge, the Tigrex just about being stopped.
Blastblight was now on him.
The Tigrex suddenly flipped around, hitting him with a tail swipe.
This was deflected, barely doing anything.
Joseph ran in to attempt to get the blastblight off Daimyo and threw a deodorant his way, hoping that it'd hit Daimyo and get rid of the blastblight, but at that moment the Tigrex turned to face him with a turning strike, intercepting the deodorant while doing this. Joseph was unable to dodge even with his aura activating due to the amount of distance between the two.
Two left
At best, he was able to move most of his body out of the way.
Still, his right arm was trapped by the Tigrex.
Joseph looked up, unsure of what to do.
"He's already got blastblight on me there, so if I wait too long then my arm'll be blown off! But I only have so much deodorant left, so I need to use it sparingly. The hell am I thinking, I can't drop my illusion of the upper hand just because I'm running low, here it'd work out horribly! Still, even if I get out of that, I'll still be pinned by the Tigrex with no way out, so I'm pretty much screwed. At this angle, I can't properly get a hit in at its leg, so should I just sever my own arm? I mean, I won't be able to use my bow properly, melee attacks only at best, but it'd mean that I'm still alive. At that point I might as well let the blastblight take effect… shit! The hell am I gonna do!"
While Joseph was busy frantically weighing his options, the world was still moving.
The Tigrex lowered its head, opening its mouth.
Joseph suddenly noticed this and grabbed an arrow he had nearby.
He slammed down into the Tigrex's head with it, the attack only amplified by his aura. The Tigrex's skull was pierced and Joseph had clearly damaged something, but the Tigrex didn't stop.
It was at that moment that Daimyo ran in and hit the Tigrex with a strong jab and shot out pressurised water once again.
The Tigrex was pushed up and Joseph quickly rose to his feet, ignoring the pain, so that he could apply deodorant to Daimyo just before it took effect and himself.
None left.
Joseph froze up for a second attempting to plan things out.
"If that thing even hits with blastblight once, then the gig will be up."
Some slight fear showed on his face, but he had to suppress it.
The Tigrex rushed forward and attempted roar, but was cut off by Joseph pulling back multiple arrows and launching them straight into its throat.
The Tigrex gave up on this and charged forwards, both of them dodging around it.
Joseph shot off some more arrows, which got lodged in its side, but seemed to have no effect.
The Tigrex turned to run straight at Daimyo.
"Shit… why would it focus on Daimyo? Did this thing see through us!?"
Daimyo wasn't that mobile, but he could block, but against blastblight this was practically useless.
As the Tigrex ran towards him, Daimyo suddenly dug into the ground, completely disappearing.
Joseph recognised this and shot off an arrow.
It connected with the Tigrex and bounced off.
Suddenly, the Tigrex noticed something else about it.
There was a sonic bomb tied to it.
It went off, stunning the Tigrex, at which point Daimyo jumped out of the ground from beneath it, toppling it.
Joseph ran closer to the Tigrex to attempt to get more damage in while it was toppled, but the Tigrex leapt back onto its feet, far quicker than he expected.
Apparently enraged, the Tigrex moved much faster than normal.
Within seconds it had closed in on Joseph, not even giving him a second to respond.
His aura activated, but it wouldn't be nearly enough for him to dodge the charge.
Joseph saw his death oncoming, no matter how much he tried to fight it.
Joseph turned to attempt to dodge, even knowing that it would do nothing, when suddenly Daimyo jumped in between the two.
The Tigrex hit Daimyo with a charge, already leaving blastblight on him.
It then struck out again and again, unrelenting with its strikes.
The entire time Daimyo stood firm, refusing to fall to the Tigrex.
Joseph stood their shocked, unable to respond to this.
Finally, the Tigrex roared.
It was not stopped.
Daimyo's guard was lowered, and the Tigrex hit him with a full-body-slam knocking him back several metres, where finally Daimyo collapsed to the ground.
The Tigrex moved in for the final hit, when suddenly Joseph snapped back into action, apparently brought back into reality by the impact of the hit.
He took the Tigrex of guard, with a strike straight to the face with his arrow.
The Tigrex fell back slightly, but instead of backing off Joseph only used this to press his attack more.
One strike.
Two strikes.
Three strikes.
Joseph refused to relent, his aura making every attack a brutal hit to the Tigrex.
Four strikes.
Five strikes.
Six strikes.
The Tigrex attempted to strike back, only to continue to be cut off.
Seven strikes.
Eight strikes.
Nine strikes.
Joseph finally pulled back on his bow, his aura activating in full force.
It circled him and seemed to also surround the arrow.
Joseph pulled back and just as the Tigrex had finally recovered from the previous hit he released it.
The aura followed the arrow the entire way, leaving Joseph's body.
It first pierced the Tigrex's right eye, going straight through that and further in, connecting with the Tigrex's brain, almost completely destroying it and flying straight out the other side.
It connected with the wall nearby, cracking it.
Ten strikes.
The aura finally dissipated and seemed to rejoin Joseph's.
The Tigrex struggled to recover.
Its brain was brought back from the brink, followed by its right eye.
But the left eye didn't recover.
Joseph moved to pursue, his aura surrounding him, but the noise of an explosion rang out, coming from where Daimyo was.
The aura completely disappeared and taking this chance, the Tigrex slipped away, being forced to drag some of its limbs along.
Joseph ran over to Daimyo and found him looking incredibly weak.
"Daimyo!" he briefly yelled, running closer.
He checked the wounds.
This was bad. His claws were broken to start with, badly burnt by the explosion and the rest of his body was covered in bruises.
"Don't worry," Joseph tried to sound reassuring despite his panicked state "I'll fix you up, buddy."
He checked his pouch for any healing items, but he found that they had all already been used up.
Joseph's panicked state increased.
He looked around for a miracle, but all he saw was blood and fallen hunters.
Joseph started to panic more, when suddenly Daimyo managed to move his right claw just enough to put it on Joseph's shoulder.
Joseph realised what the was trying to convey by this.
Daimyo appeared tired.
Joseph started to yell "Daimyo, don't close your eyes! Please, whatever you do just stay awake!"
Daimyo was drifting away, with nothing Joseph could do to stop it.
"Daimyo! Please, don't die on me! I need you! We need to go kill that thing together!"
His panic increased even further, to the point where his breathing became ragged.
"Daimyo! Don't go! Please, Daimyo!"
Daimyo closed his eyes.
There was a long silence as Joseph attempted to process what happened.
For the first time in what seemed like years, he cried.
All the while, the blue aura encircled him, only burning stronger.
TO BE CONTINUED
Note: The last scene should be read while listening to Irreversible Sadness from the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable OST. At least, that's what it was written to.
I really don't have much to say this time, I'm already over 7K and I don't wanna wait much longer before updating (seeing as how I'm already late)
I'm sorry if the aura was kinda confusing, it'll be explained soon enough but just know now that it was somewhat based off of brave style from MHXX, just with my own twist to keep things interesting.
Like seriously, that's it. I need to start work on the next chapter, so that it won't be late like this one. See you in two weeks, with any luck.