December 29th, 1346.
9 PM
The village of Rekusara was silent, all the energy of the day having died down.
A masked man laid his eyes upon it from the distance.
He remembered how he had seen the the two hunters fly in this general direction on the backs of their wyverns.
"Looks like I've finally found you." He muttered aloud.
The monster that he was riding atop started to charge off, headed for the village.
December 30th, 1346.
8AM
The sun rose, and Sean walked outside.
He looked around as the village began to start up again, facing another day.
The last day of the year.
As he was taking this in, he heard a noise in the distance.
He suddenly jumped back as something crashed into the ground just next to where he was.
Without missing a beat, Alicia looked up from where she was, seemingly not caring about this.
"Good morning!" She yelled at him, only to get an unenthusiastic "Mornin'." in response.
The two then walked off to go choose a quest to do. After picking one, they went to the pub to get something to eat.
Finally walking outside, they found themselves faced with a man wearing full armour.
He had a strange type of bowgun strapped to his back.
"It has taken months of searching, but it appears as though now I have finally found you."
Sean thought for a second, recognising the voice.
"Now then, prepare yourself! For-"
"Mornin' Matt."
"..."
"..."
"Hey Matt why're ya wearing that weird armour and talkin' all fancy like that?" Alicia asked.
"Um… I thought that it'd look cool." He turned to Sean "...Why'd ya hafta go and ruin it like that?"
Sean lightly shrugged, not really having a proper answer.
He figured that he should explain inside his head, just in case there was anyone observing who didn't know what was going on.
"So yeah, this is Matt. He's from Yukumo back in the New World, grew up around the same place we did. I dunno, not that much can be said about him. He's pretty much an average guy. A little too normal if you ask me. Like his normalness is abnormal. But yeah, he generally hung around the two of us. It seems like he could be popular if he tried, like maybe try and be a little less passive, but for some reason he's just like us, which is kinda weird."
Matt then spoke "So uh… anyways, what's up, I guess?"
"Not much. I mean, right now, we're just kinda goin' from place to place, seeing as how we got banned from Dundorma and all."
"Hold it a sec! How the hell'd ya get banned from Dundorma and shit!? You were only there what, a few months odd, weren'tcha!?"
"Well yeah, y'know, a few crimes here and there…"
"Why the hell do ya sound proud…?"
There was a silence until Alicia went "So, wanna go on a quest with us?"
Matt responded with a "Yeah, sure." that was meant to sound surprised but due to his lack of disguising skills made it quite clear that this was what he'd been hoping for due to his enthusiasm.
So, the three set off into the desert, going to hunt a Cephadrome.
As they entered the hunting zone, Matt looked across the desert.
He then snapped his fingers, which was followed by nothing happening.
Matt paused, momentarily reconsidering.
Matt snapped his fingers again, attempting to get the attention of something.
After the fifth try he stopped.
He then started yelling random things into the desert, nothing occurring again.
Finally, after about five minutes he pulled out his bowgun and fired off a shot into the sand, causing something to shift.
A Diablos lept out of the ground, roaring angrily.
Instead of being able to gain the upper hand in this argument, the Diablos instead found itself being angrily yelled at.
"Seriously, Klaus! I was tryna go and go for a cool introduction and everything! Why the hell'd ya have to go to sleep!? Yer settin' a really bad first impression, y'know!?"
He then stopped and then turned to the other two.
"This is Klaus, he's my monster."
"...Yeah, I kinda guessed..."
They moved further into the desert and found themselves in area 5.
Sean suddenly stopped them and pointed forwards.
The sand was moving slightly.
Which meant that there must be something underneath it.
They were about to get ready to fight, but Matt stopped them.
He then signalled to Klaus, who appeared to be paying attention this time around.
Klaus dug into the ground and disappeared.
At that moment, Matt began running, yelling "You guys follow me from above ground!"
With that Sean and Alicia got onto the backs of their Raths.
They flew forwards, Matt blindly running forwards without even having drawn his weapon.
Three Cephalos jumped out of the ground, but he wasn't so much as fazed.
Matt rolled through them and ended up with his back facing to them.
The Cephalos quickly recovered and attempted to turn around, running for him again. They were a fair distance away at this point.
Matt spun around, pulling his bowgun off his back.
Luckily, it wasn't folded, so he was able to prepare instantly.
He loaded multiple lvl 3 normal shots.
The Cephalos were now only a few metres away.
One shot was fired, connecting with the one on the left.
The other two reacted with some slight surprise, but instead of thinking to back off they continued to press, assuming it to be lucky.
A second shot was fired, narrowly missing the one to the right.
Matt fired again, not missing this time.
Unfortunately though, he didn't kill it.
It pressed the attack again, but Matt instead decided to shoot to its left.
This bullet connected with the Cephalos who happened to be leading due to not being slowed down.
The bullet caused near-instant death and it fell backwards.
The remaining Cephalos was hit the body of the recently passed down, causing it to come a halt as it got caught by it.
Matt then shot off one final shot, which tore through the corpse and connected with the Cephalos, presumably killing it instantly.
Matt then began to reload, but in the middle of this he heard a noise behind him.
A Cephadrome lept out of the sand and would've gotten, had Klaus not lept out to intercept it.
The Cephadrome was sent flying across the desert, landing a few dozen metres away.
Matt reloaded and stood up, ready to get back to the fight.
But first, a brief explanation of Matt's weapon.
He was using a medium bowgun, a classification of bowgun where the weight falls between light and heavy. It acts as a neutral ground, having none of the major advantages and disadvantages of the other types.
While all bowguns are highly customisable, this one is majorly customisable as it can take aspects of both and use them.
It mainly found usage in the New World, especially in Loc Lac back when it was still thriving as a city.
Unfortunately though it hasn't found much usage afterwards, most people finding it fine to just go for one type or the other, but there are still people who prefer adaptability above all else.
The type Matt was using at the minute didn't need to be folded to be sheathed, saving him from the problem of wasting too much time getting ready. Though it was still like a heavy bowgun due to its high firepower and slow reload time, meaning rapid fire couldn't be properly used.
Matt began to run forward once again.
Klaus charged in front of him slightly, still going at around the same pace, at which point Matt lept onto his back.
He got properly seated and yelled "Let's go!", then Klaus pressed forward, running at full speed.
"He's really tryna show off, isn't he…" Sean muttered.
The Raths followed onwards anyways, reaching the Cephadrome.
When Klaus reached it, Matt jumped off of Klaus' back.
He ended up failing the landing slightly and stumbled a little, but managed to get to his feet, making it look like part of the show.
The Cephadrome lunged for him, but a bullet stuck to its face for some reason.
The Cephadrome didn't stop its attack, not that it could at this point, but the attack was stopped for it by the explosion that was caused by this.
It crashed to the ground, writhing with pain.
Klaus didn't stop because of this though, following it up with a charge attack.
The Cephadrome, despite its injuries, didn't stop from this, knowing full well that if it did it would be dead.
It landed and burrowed into the sand.
Klaus started to burrow to pursue it, but in that moment it leapt back out and shot mucus at Matt.
Matt was slowed down by this, unable to move nearly as well as he once could.
The Cephadrome then dug back down into the sand, moving towards Matt at top speed.
Matt now could barely dodge, and if he threw a sonic bomb then Klaus would be badly affected too.
"Shit…! I can't look bad here!" He thought.
He started to try and work a way out, when suddenly the sand where the Cephadrome was was assaulted by fireballs.
It flew into the air as a result of the Rath's attacks.
"As if I'd let you guys show me up like that…!" Matt thought as he quickly pulled out a nulberry and bit down on it.
The Cephadrome also recovered and attempted to fight again.
It dug into the ground once more, but this time Klaus wasn't anywhere nearby.
So he was free to use sonic bombs as he pleased, which he proceeded to do.
The Cephadrome was sent into the air for what must've been the upteempth time by now.
It didn't land any more successfully than before though, landing on its side.
It flopped around for a few seconds, attempting to properly gather its bearings.
The Cephadrome got back up only to find Klaus running at it again.
It dodged the hit but was pelted from the sides with more bullets.
This got its attention, followed by a shot from a crag shot, severely injuring it.
The Cephadrome was enraged and an easy target, but instead of charging it Klaus ran at Matt.
Matt then hopped onto his back and the two charged off.
The Cephadrome, still feeling enraged, attempted to pursue.
It ran straight at them from where it was positioned, just as planned.
As it began to sprint in order to get enough momentum going to just dig straight into the ground from a jump without stopping, the ground beneath it gave away as it fell into a pitfall trap.
The Cephalos fell into it, completely ensnared and Matt yelled out "NOW!"
It noticed that the Raths and their riders had landed.
Sean was crouched down and Alicia was ready for rapid fire.
Bullets flew along the desert aimed directly at the Cephadrome.
Due to its inability to dodge, they all connected.
Not only that, but the Raths were partaking in this too, hitting it with a barrage of fireballs.
The Cephadrome felt pain across its entire body, but it wasn't yet over.
Klaus spun around and began to charge backwards at full speed.
While this was happening Matt was perched on his back, shooting multiple normal shots at the Cephadrome.
The Cephadrome managed to break out of the trap, just moving a few metres away.
But by then, it was already too late.
Klaus rammed straight into it, sending it once again flying across the desert, this time dead.
Klaus came to a stop, sliding across the sand.
Matt had been desperately hanging on for the past few seconds now let go and attempted to appear cool as he put away his weapon.
The Cephadrome was then carved and they ended up getting back to Rekusara at around sixish.
Due to the fact that it was almost New Year's the village was full of energy from all the people trying to get home early to spend time with their families.
There'd also probably be a fair few people filling up the pubs pretty soon, so they'd have to hurry if they wanted to beat them to it.
So, they ate pretty early and found themselves without much to do at that point.
Since it was the near year, there'd be fireworks going off at midnight, so they figured they might as well go to see that.
They managed to climb their way up one of the cliffs with help with their wyverns, so they could get a proper view.
It was a fair distance away, but still probably good enough to see from.
Alicia realised that she'd forgotten some stuff at the bottom the cliff, so she decided to go down to get it.
Matt felt kinda awkward just sitting there in silence and tried to start a conversation.
"Kinda reminds ya of Yukumo in a way, don't it? Back there, they'd have fireworks going off at every event, wouldn't they? Even though it was stuck all the way out in the New World, we'd get people comin' round from round the world just to see that. Guess it was kinda common for us though, didn't think much of it all. Still though, I never realised how weird it was not to have them happenin' until I ended up leaving, so I mean there's something for ya."
A silence rang out slightly.
"Hey… it alright if I go on a sorta personal rant?"
"Well yeah, we gotta pad the chapter somehow, if we came back off hiatus with only 2K words the readers'd kill us." Sean thought, but he simply responded with "Nah, go ahead."
"Hmm, I'm not sure when the problem really started, but it really hit after I noticed things started to change. Specifically, it was after ya took Azure and flew off without a damn word. Next few years after that, Alicia seemed depressed as hell, y'know? She said it was nothing but it was pretty obviously yer fault. I still don't get that… to be able to just up and leave like that, not even thinkin' of the damn consequences and what yer gonna leave behind, it just doesn't make sense to me. And then, little while after that, she met that Rathian and did the same damn thing. To be fair here, she didn't just sneak off, but still, I just don't fuckin' get it. The hell causes somethin' like that. So, I guess that's why I'm here. The thing I want more than anything is just a normal life, the way it used to be. But for some reason, you guys decided to leave, and now it's gone. I don't get it, so I guess the reason I was tryna find ya was to work out what caused that. The hell is it in this world that can just cause a random flash like that, one so strong that you wanna drop everythin just to chase it? That's what I'm lookin' for. Though funny enough, even though I found ya, here I am now, doing nothin' but going on this long ass story."
He then paused in thought for a second. "Oh yeah, speakin' of which, what was Alicia's Rathian called? She didn't name it before she left Yukumo, so has she done so now? I mean, it'd be kinda awkward to ask her herself..."
"Ayano." Alicia said, randomly appearing behind him.
Matt was startled by this and instinctively jumped forwards.
"How long were ya there for!?"
"About two seconds, why?"
"Oh… okay then."
"Still though, Ayano, that's her name. Ya really shouldn't find it awkward to ask though, it's fine, I mean it makes sense ya wouldn't know."
"Yeah…" Matt turned around "Oh yeah, the fireworks should be startin' now, shouldn't they?"
They turned to face the village as it hit midnight.
The first firework launched into the sky and exploded, sending colours flying everywhere somewhat spectacularly.
Then two more followed, being less spectacular.
A few more fireworks shot off, not really doing much.
A final firework shot off, being only slightly better than the first.
The three felt kinda underwhelmed, but that was to be expected, seeing as how they'd been expecting it to be similar to a village that had half of its popularity made up by its fireworks shows.
Even so, they ended up going back and decided to go to sleep.
Matt woke up at around 10 AM, on the first day of the New Year.
He looked around for the others but couldn't find them.
He was about to give up and go to eat, until he saw two Raths flying off in the distance.
One blue, one pink.
There appeared to be people on their backs.
He paused for a moment, almost denial, before sprinting back to his hut, gathering up all his stuff, checking out of the hut and running towards Klaus.
He threw his stuff onto his back and Klaus set off, charging through the desert in their general direction.
When Klaus was nearby he yelled "GODDAMNIT!"
"Oh, hey Matt, what's wrong?" Alicia asked.
"Why the hell did you assholes leave me behind!?"
"Eh? Weren't ya gonna stay back there?"
"No! I wanna join yer hunting group thing! So don't leave me behind!"
"Oh… I just assumed that ya were stayin' back there, like as a side character or something... sorry."
So, the three hunters and three wyverns set off into the desert, going to wherever they would end up next.
TO BE CONTINUED
I'm back, ready for part 3, I guess.
Unlike my other chapters after coming off hiatus, this was more of a normal length chapter, since while this one was important for a sub-plot next one is gonna be important for the overarching plot. Of course, so is this, but this won't play into the focus of the end, so I mean there's something.
As for why this is first? I decided that I'd play out this arc in chronological order of events just to keep things from being confusing, so as this is only 2 months into the 3 years, it makes sense as opposed to almost a year like next chapter is gonna be.
Also here's something pointless I wanna address on the off chance someone asks. So you might notice that back in his rant to emphasise his point Matt uses the word "Fuckin'", now normally, this wouldn't be a big deal for anyone above like 10, I mean if you've ever talked to me you'd know I swear like a man of the sea, but here I hadn't done that until now, opting for asterisks in its place, kinda like what the games do as I found out on day 1 of MH4U. I figured it'd be funny, though now I'm getting knee-deep into serious plot and it feels outta place. So I mean, if you're super opposed to swearing and shit, then sorry 'bout that, I just feel like it'd make sense to have them. Though no need to worry, I'm not gonna become some edgelord fic or something, I'm sure someone else can do that for ya.
Also I hope I can make this fly with a T+ rating, because if I put this onto M it won't get onto the main page by itself, then it'll really be dead…
On that significantly pessimistic note, I say bye.