April 16th, 1348
11 PM
The wind howled across the mountain, in the middle of a snowstorm.
A Nargacuga flew close to the ground, a hunter on his back.
"C'mon Nargy, just a little more." Joseph muttered.
The weather made it almost impossible to see more than a few metres ahead of them even with Nargy's sharp vision, which was obviously dangerous at the speed they were going at.
Still, it's not as though they had much of a choice, as they were sure to freeze to death if they waited for too long.
Nargy had to stick close to the ground, as if they flew too far away they'd surely get lost and be unable to find their destination.
Joseph wasn't sure what it looked like, he just knew that it was at the top of this mountain.
Nargy was somewhat tired out by all of this flying, Nargacuga were hardly built for endurance after all.
He felt his consciousness start to slip, but still snapped himself awake.
As he did so, he started to be aware of his surroundings again.
He now realised that there was a giant rock straight in front of him, which he had next to no chance of dodging.
Nargy still tried anyway, ultimately failing and crashing into it at top speed, knocking himself unconscious instantly.
Joseph was thrown off, but was still awake.
He looked at Nargy, on the ground.
"No…" He spoke as loudly as he could "We're not doing this shit. No way in hell that either of us are gonna die here, ya hear me?"
Joseph grabbed Nargy and grabbed him by the wings, walking backwards up the mountain.
It was a difficult walk and went on for what seemed to be hours, but eventually he saw some form of light and some buildings ahead.
Joseph walked towards it, but just as he reached it, he suddenly felt his strength give out, and he collapsed, falling into unconsciousness on the snow.
Joseph later woke up inside a hut.
From the light coming through the window, it was clearly day.
He walked outside to see a village covered in snow.
Joseph walked around until he found the woman who seemed to be the elder, judging from how she was wyverian, incredibly old and incredibly short, and asked her "This Pokke Village?"
"Yes, this is."
"Oh cool, I made it. Uh… how'd I get into the hut? I don't remember collapsing there."
"I found you and a Nargacuga passed out just outside the village earlier this morning, so I had you moved into that hut and I had that Nargacuga caged up next to the farm, since I figure that you would know what to do with it. You were almost dead when we found you, it's a miracle you're even standing right now."
"Yeah, I tend to recover quicker than others for some reason… Anyways, I'm Joseph Gilmore. Here to take up the role of village's hunter. Nice to meetcha."
There was a silence.
"Seriously?" The Elder asked.
"Whaddya mean by that?"
"Well, you almost died just coming up this mountain."
"That's only cause it was a snowstorm, if it hadn't been we'd have made it just fine."
"When did the snowstorm start for you?"
"Uh… I think we were about halfway there…"
"Then you should've just turned around and headed back, shouldn't you."
"Yeah, but at Doretal I'd already said I was leavin' so if I headed back it'd be super awkward."
"They probably think you're dead…"
"Well, doesn't matter, what matters is I'm here now. Besides, ya haven't got any other hunters, do ya? And I've gotta learn how to deal with these types of environments well. So, we're both benefitin' from this."
"Well, guess I can't argue that. Still though, you shouldn't expect much out of this place. Aside from the Ukanlos that live up on the Arctic Ridge, you're not going to be seeing anything big other than the occasional Tigrex."
"That's fine," Joseph responded, walking off "I got no intention of risking my life for no reason."
"Wait what?" The Elder replied, though Joseph already couldn't hear her.
He got Nargy freed, then took a quest to head off to the Arctic Ridge.
It was his first time seeing the area, and while he found the area to look quite nice it also seemed to be incredibly difficult to traverse, being so high up.
Luckily, he had Nargy, which made things simpler, but he considered himself lucky he hadn't hunted here before.
Nargy flew to the top of the mountain, where he could see a frozen lake.
Inside of the mountain lived the White God, Ukanlos.
While for most of the year they slept in the depths of the mountain, every year one would emerge and start heading somewhere.
It wasn't known where they went, but many said that they were headed towards the other Gods, Akantor and Odibatorasu.
He didn't know that much about or believe in the concept of the three Gods, but what he did know is that they were originally classed as Elder Dragons and have a threat level of seven stars, one higher than that of a Molten Tigrex. While taking one down would pretty much guarantee that he could kill that bastard, he didn't feel like taking his chances, even if they were meant to be asleep right now.
Nargy searched slightly lower on the mountain, and sure enough they found their target, a Giadrome.
Nargy suddenly sped up, diving straight at it, and Joseph jumped off.
As he got close, the Giadrome noticed him. At that moment, Joseph gripped his weapon, before quickly drawing and attempted to take a swing at its head.
The Giadrome ducked and he missed completely.
His weapon connected with the ground and his grip on it slipped, causing it to clatter onto the slow. Joseph himself crashed into the snow and rolled until he hit a wall.
The Giadrome looked at him while it planned its next move, and as it was just about to relay orders to the Giaprey nearby, Nargy crashed into it, sending it flying.
It crashed into the same wall Joseph did, just to his right.
Nargy lifted his tail into the air and roared, stopping the Giaprey just about to attack.
While he did Joseph rose to his feet, shakily walked over to his sword, and picked it up to assume a battle stance.
The Giadrome stood up in a similar fashion, but it made the first move, attempting to jump at him.
Joseph used a fade slash to dodge while also connecting with its head.
The Giadrome responded by attempting to bite at him, but Joseph just had to move his head backwards to dodge this one.
Joseph then swung his sword to hit the neck, which proved successful, though was unable to completely end the fight.
Just hanging in there, the Giadrome roared, ordering the Giaprey to try and swarm him.
But, before they could reach the fight, Nargy shot out spikes, connecting with some of them and taking them out near instantly.
He turned to the rest and used a combination of tail strikes and body slams to take them out.
Finally, there was only the three of them left.
The Giadrome roared once again and attempted to pounce forwards.
It was interrupted by a tail strike from Nargy slamming it into the ground.
As it bounced back upwards it saw a swing from the sword coming straight at it, but since it was unable to dodge, it was over.
Joseph carved the corpses and looked around.
"Y'know, if get Nargy to fly me around I'm really not learnin' how to deal with these environments, am I?" He thought to himself.
Having figured this out, he started to climb down the mountain.
A week or two passed by and Joseph found himself getting used to hunting in this area.
They were walking through the village after a hunt, when Nargy turned around, seemingly having noticed something.
He growled at it and Joseph noticed it.
"What is it?" he asked.
Nargy continued to growl.
"Behind the boxes?"
Nargy continued to growl.
"Nod your head if yes."
Nargy nodded his head while continuing to growl.
"Person?"
Nargy repeated this.
"Hey, ya got noticed, show yerself!" Yelled Joseph.
The person suddenly fell other and thumped onto the ground.
He was a fairly young looking boy with pale skin, green eyes and strangely, silver hair.
"Who are ya?" Joseph asked, but the boy got up and started sprinting without answering.
Joseph ran after him, and eventually the boy ran out of breath and had to stop, at which point Joseph caught up.
The boy regained his breath and started running again, which repeated this process.
This cycle looped until the boy just randomly collapsed.
"So…" Joseph "Who are ya, whaddya want?"
"Um… I'm Terrence Gandor… Please make me your apprentice!"
"...Huh?"
"Yeah, like I said. I wanna be a hunter. So, make me your apprentice."
"Seriously? No one I've ever met has become a hunter willingly, usually it's a thing of having no other choice. Yer in a nice enough village, sure there's gotta be other choices."
"Well, it's just that I've gotta be a hunter, you know. It's been my ambition from since when I was kid."
"Ya still look like a kid. How old are ya, exactly."
"15!"
"That's way too young!"
"What do you mean!?"
"Ya gotta be 18 to be a hunter, don'tcha!?"
"Nope, the guild's lowered the age to 15. So, I'm allowed."
"Seriously? Here I was thinking it'd have gotten better over the years… Still, I wouldn't feel good if I led some kid to his death… do yer parents even know about this?"
"Ah…" Terrence muttered.
"Fuck." Joseph thought.
"Fine, fine. I got it." Joseph sighed "We'll start going on hunts tomorrow, I guess. Ya can handle the preparations on yer own, right?"
Terrence's face lit up but then instantly became worried.
"...Uh… I kinda… don't know how to do that…"
"...Have ya at least got a weapon?"
"..."
"I think I've got enough money for it, but still, I thought ya had already registered as a hunter by now, haven'tcha gone out at all?"
"Well, yeah, but I haven't gone on any slaying quests or anything like that, so I don't really have anything for fighting..."
"Got it, let's go then." Joseph responded, already walking off.
Terrence grinned somewhat and started to follow him.
They made their way to the smithy, where Joseph got the attention of the guy working there.
"Hey, y'know that set that lets ya resist the cold without a drink, how much's it, I wanna buy one."
"You mean the Mafumofu set? 600 zeni."
"Seriously?" Joseph turned to Terrence "Hey, ya better get take good of this set, y'hear. Shit's damn expensive."
The smith looked over "Ah, Terrence! You're finally becoming a hunter, huh? I'm sure the Elder's gonna be happy to hear it. We all expect great things from you, you hear."
Terrence grinned "Yeah! Thanks!"
Joseph then noticed a potential chance "Hey, if you're so excited for him to be a hunter how about ya give us a discount?"
"No."
"Was worth a shot…" he thought.
Joseph turned back to Terrence "Oh yeah, what about yer weapon?"
"You want a great sword, right?" The smith asked.
"Yeah, that's what I'm choosing." Terrence responded.
So, Terrence got an Iron Sword as well as a full Mafumofu set and was ready to head out the next day.
As they got the quest, he seemed to notice the Elder smiling.
They set out and eventually reached the base camp of the Artic Ridge.
Terrence ran out to look at the mountain before him.
He seemed incredibly excited, just from the look in his eyes.
Joseph walked behind him and muttered "Don't get too excited, we're only slayin' some small monsters."
"Well, I know, but it's a start, so that's what's gotten me so pumped up!"
"Sure, sure, whatever ya say. Anyways, you ain't that good at running and physical shit yet, so we might as well do that for now."
"Got it!"
"Now come on, we're headin' up the mountain."
Terrence didn't respond, and started to run behind Joseph, barely keeping up.
It took until they got to the mountain for him to finally give in, and after he recovered they headed up.
As they walked through the caverns, they saw two Giaprey ahead of them.
Terrence seemed to freeze up, but Joseph wasn't that concerned.
"Hey, ya should know how to use that thing on yer back, right? Go take 'em out. I'll step in if things look bad."
Terrence ran forward and drew his sword.
He attempted to swing at the first one but missed, as the Giaprey jumped backwards in the time taken for the attack to be performed.
He attempted to pull the sword up to attack again, but due to its weight it took him a while to recover.
This was too long, as the one he hadn't been targeting took this chance to attack.
It jumped into the air, aiming straight for him.
Terrence just about raised his sword in time, deflecting the attack.
Now that he had it raised, he used this chance to pull the sword back and wait for a second before slamming down again.
Unfortunately, this second cost him, as he wasn't able to completely nail the Giaprey with the strike, only hitting its side.
The Giaprey reacted by attempting to bite at him, but this time Terrence was more adjusted to the weight and swung to the right, hitting its head and knocking it back.
As the bird wyvern was dazed, he stepped forwards and readied the final hit, but was interrupted by the other slamming into him from the side.
Terrence fell to the ground and just about managed to hold the Giaprey off with his sword.
He kicked out and ended up hitting the leg of the Giaprey, knocking it over.
He then quickly got to his feet and struck downwards, finishing it.
He paused for a second before swinging around to the face the other Giaprey, which was now running at him.
The Giaprey leapt into the air, but as it did Terrence swung his weapon upwards, knocking it out of the sky.
It fell down and he walked over to it, raised his sword over his shoulder and slammed down, ending the fight.
He took a second to recover, before looking up, seeming satisfied with this.
"Ya still got 6 more." Joseph commented.
"I know, but, I think I've got it now."
So, they moved through the mountain, finding and slaying the rest of them.
Terrence showed a lot of improvement while doing this, but it was apparent throughout that he was being held back by something or other, even if Joseph couldn't work out what it was.
They headed back to the village and to prepare for the next hunt.
After about two weeks of going on hunts, Terrence had showed a fair amount of improvement, but it was only improvement at fighting small bird wyverns. He would need to start to fight large monsters someday, and it just so happened that that day fell right around then.
Joseph walked down to the quest counter, Nargy following him, when he noticed Terrence standing there excitedly.
As Joseph got close he looked over and held a quest paper up "Check it out!" he yelled.
It was a quest that ordered the hunting of one Giadrome.
"Oh, cool." Joseph remarked.
They headed out to the mountain, made it to area 7 where they saw a Giadrome.
"I'll handle the Giaprey and keep 'em off ya, yer gonna be handlin' the drome alone."
Before Joseph could even finish, Terrence had already rushed forwards and taken a swing at the bird wyvern.
He swung but ended up missing due to the time taken.
Not hesitating this time, he slowly lifted his weapon up and swung it around, connecting with the Giadrome's side.
While it dealt a fair amount of damage, it didn't knock it flying like with the preys, so it was less than he expected.
The Giadrome responded with anger and pounced forwards.
Terrence took a swing at it but ended up missing and the Giadrome knocked him onto the ground.
While he was down it attempted to bite at his head so he rolled out of the way, the attack narrowly missing.
Terrence then jumped to his feet and swung upwards at the wyvern, connecting with its head.
This knocked it back and briefly stunned it, which opened up an opportunity that Terrence seized by stepping forwards and swinging his weapon down on its head.
This slammed it into the ground but failed to end the fight.
Terrence stepped back for a second to recover, at which point the Giadrome suddenly whirled into action.
It pounced forwards and Terrence just about blocked the attack, pushing it backwards slightly.
The second after this it jumped to his left, nearly entering his blind spot.
As he spun to face it, it shot out some white substance from its mouth.
When it hit Terrence it froze around him, making him unable to move his arms.
So basically, he was unable to attack entirely.
"What… do I do now?" He thought, until he was interrupted by Joseph yelling "Use a cleanser!"
Terrence could just about reach his item pouch and started trying to feel for one.
The Giadrome ran towards him and swung its tail around, hitting his stomach.
Terrence was knocked back slightly and was left open to the following strike, a hipcheck.
Terrence was knocked back a fair distance, now finding himself at the edge of the cliff.
The Giadrome jumped forwards, planning for this to be the last attack.
But, it wasn't.
Terrence rolled out of the way of the strike, going underneath its claws by only a few centimetres.
The Giadrome reached the edge and almost fell off, scrambling to stay on the mountain.
It dug its claws in and pulled itself up, before taking a second to recover.
It then found itself in the air again, having been hit off the mountain by a great sword in that second.
The Giadrome let out one final scream as it tumbled down the side of the mountain.
Terrence watched it fall and realised he had won, at which point he excitedly turned around to face the other two, only to find them staring down the mountain.
"How're we meant to get the body now…" Joseph muttered.
He then felt slightly worse about his victory, but he had still won, so he knew that he must be getting stronger.
Joseph turned to him "Well, that wasn't bad, but ya still put yourself at risk there, took way too much damage and only won by chance."
"Well, yeah I guess…"
"Anyways, I'm gonna try to get that body, ya can just go head back."
15th August 1348
10 AM
Joseph walked up and headed over to the quest board, only to find that Terrence was nowhere to be seen.
In fact, there was no one around.
There was a snowstorm raging on the mountains in the distance, but luckily the village seemed to be safe.
Joseph looked around while for a little while before finally finding the Elder.
"Hey, what's goin' on right now? Can't go on quests, no one at the board."
"From the looks of things, a Ukanlos has emerged, so hunting in that area's currently prohibited. A team's been requested from the Guild, they should be here by tomorrow."
"Got it, guess I can't go huntin' today then."
Joseph walked away and started to think to himself "Still though, I haven't got much too do, have I? I should probably just find Terrence… yeah, thinkin' bout it I don't know anything about him…"
He walked around until he found a place which had the sign "Pokke Orphanage" placed on it.
"Bettin' he lives around here." He thought, before knocking on the door.
He was answered by a woman who looked to be about in her forties or fifties.
"Hey, some kid called Terrence live here?"
"Yes… who are you, exactly?"
"Joseph Gilmore. Workin' as the village hunter right now, and somehow or another he's workin' with me."
"Ah, I see. Well, I'm the head of this place. You can just me call me Ann. Please, come in."
So, Joseph headed in and sat down, and refused the offer for anything to drink when asked.
"So then, how is Terrence doing with his hunting?"
"Well, right now he's around the middle of low rank. Just the other day we went against a Blangalola. I mean, he ain't a bad hunter by any means, but I think that there's still something holdin' him back."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I guess it'd be two things. First, I don't think that the weapon he's using is the right one for him. Right now, he's using a weapon that requires a lot of strength to use, but he doesn't really have that. I think he'd be better suited to a lighter weapon, but whenever I try to bring it up he refuses to say a thing on it, so there's not much I can do there… and, the other thing is, he seems to rush headfirst into everything."
"I… see."
"Yeah, he's fine on the way there, but the moment he lays eyes on a monster he's off, can't say a thing to him in most cases… hell, he's even more enthusiastic then ya'd expect in terms of fighting new monsters, it's real weird…"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, think about it. He's in a nice enough place, so there's no need for him to be one in the first place. Most people aren't hunters by choice, y'know. Even then, they don't have such a reckless attitude towards hunting. Hey, ya know him pretty good, got any idea on what's causing this?"
"Hmm, I think there might be a reason for his actions…"
"Guess I'm in for a story." Joseph thought.
"His father, Aron Gandor, was the village hunter. He was raised in this village and worked here for a few years. Then, in 1327, he decided to leave to explore the world. We didn't hear anything about him, until he came back nine years later with Terrence. Physically, he was pretty much the same, if anything he looked healthier than he did before, but for some reason his personality and way he acted was a lot… heavier, I guess would be the right word. For two years after that he stayed as the village hunter, but one day a Ukanlos emerged in the mountains. While normally, that'd be fine, this time, the hunting party the Guild never showed up. We'd later find out that they had been attacked and wiped out by some monsters, though what was capable of such a feat was never discovered. But either way, it meant that no help would arrive. Deciding that there was no other choice, Aron went up there alone, armed with only a great sword, armour and some items. Then…"
"So, this is where it ends, huh?" Joseph thought.
"He killed it."
"Wait, hold up a sec, ya serious here!?"
"Yes, everyone was about as surprised as you are now. He returned the next day, quite heavily wounded, but still alive. Because of that, he ended up gaining a lot of fame. A small village hunter who singlehandedly took down a god, a story like that spread like fire. So, because of that, he gained some titles. The one that seemed most prominent was 'The Frozen Demon'. Pokke was the centre of attention for a little while, we got plenty of hunters showing up. This lasted for about three months until one day, when he disappeared off the face of the Earth."
"Wait, whaddya mean by that? So he just vanished into thin air?"
"No, not entirely. From what we heard later he had made his way to the Frontier… but that was eight years ago now. Either way, he left without saying a thing in the dead of night, and left everything save for his equipment. After that, the village's popularity almost completely died out, since the legendary hunter had already left."
"So then, that means he left Terrence behind as well, huh?"
"Yes, exactly. After that, he moved here, and he's been here since if you can't already guess. At first, I thought it'd be somewhat hard on him, but he almost right away he started going on about how he was going to be a great hunter just like Aron was. So, a little under ten years passed, and here he is now, working as a hunter himself."
"Huh, got it… That'd explain a lot…" Joseph thought to himself.
Joseph suddenly snapped out of his thoughts "Oh yeah, speakin' of, I should probably get to what I was gonna do when I first got here."
"What's that?"
"Well, where's he at the minute? I mean, I figured he'd be round here, that's why I came here, but it's pretty clear now that he ain't. Ya should know, right?"
"I thought that he had gone hunting on his own?"
"No way he coulda done that, hunting in the mountains' forbidden right now."
"Oh… this morning he was completely missing, so I'd just assuming. He must be in town then, right?"
"Yeah…" Joseph hesitantly responded.
So, they searched around town, asking everyone who about if they had seen Terrence.
As feared though, no one had seen him.
Joseph got Nargy to fly into the sky.
Despite the good vision that a Nargacuga held, they couldn't see him anywhere.
Which only left one likely place where he could be.
Joseph found the Elder. "Hey, can ya give me a quest up to the mountains. Anything'll do, just need to head up there."
"Don't be ridiculous, we can't send you up there in conditions that dangerous. You'll die for sure."
"No way in hell I'm gonna die up there. Plus, that ain't what's important. Terrence's up there, y'know!?"
"...Even if he is there, we can't risk the lives of two hunters just to chance saving the one."
"Really, even if he's the kid of yer legendary demon?"
The Elder seemed silent.
"Seriously, just decide if ya wanna raise him to be a replacement or not… Anyways, I'm headin' out!"
"Wait, you can't just leave like that!"
"Just watch me!"
Joseph ran off and hopped onto Nargy's back, who quickly took off.
After a few minutes, they were at the base of the Arctic Ridge.
Nargy hesitated, unsure about going up the mountain.
"Don't worry, it'll be fine. We'll just take him, fight it off, then head down once the Guild shows up. I'll handle it myself, ya can just head down yerself, got it?"
Nargy then suddenly took off, heading straight up the mountain, at a breakneck pace.
Terrence stood with his weapon drawn, facing down the giant flying wyvern before him.
The Ukanlos roared, temporarily stunning him.
He then saw it move back slightly, before springing forwards into a jump.
Terrence just about recovered in time to dive out of the way.
As it landed on the ground the Ukanlos dug into the ice, making only its top half visible.
It started to move towards Terrence at a surprisingly fast speed, but nothing he couldn't get around.
He reached into his item pouch and found that he was incredibly low on potions, despite having barely hurt it.
He regretfully downed his third-last mega potion and felt his strength return to him somewhat, only to see the Ukanlos climb out of the ice and shoot a beam towards him.
Terrence almost dodged, but was caught up in and launched into the wall, crashing into it and dislodging some icicles nearby.
Terrence looked up to see the Ukanlos now staring at him, as if planning its next move.
It then suddenly snapped into action and charged forwards.
Terrence attempted to stand up, but wasn't sure if he'd be able to do anything.
As he tried this, he was suddenly slammed into by a somewhat smaller flying wyvern.
Terrence crashed into the ground a short distance away, and rolled over to see the backs of Joseph and Nargy.
"Huh? Joseph, why-?"
"Cause, yer too damn dedicated to this whole succeeding yer dad shit. Anyways, for now just shut it, I've gotta god to beat the shit outta."
"But still, why would you come up the mountain in this weather…?"
"Obvious, ain't it?"
Joseph drew his weapon and faced the Ukanlos, who seemed to be getting ready for another attack.
"Wouldn't be able to sleep good if I let some orphan brat die."
TO BE CONTINUED
So yeah, that's a chapter finished. Once again it's one of those cases where the majority is only fought of while I'm writing it, as that whole Ukanlos thing wasn't even considered in the original plan, despite it having first been thought up like 2 years back.
Recently I finished AA3, NDRV3 and the first season of Kaiji, but since this was a long chapter I don't need to pad with my author's notes, so they were all cool I guess.