Anthony Smith:
Height: 179 cm
Weapon: Hammer
Monster: Wave (Lagiacrus)
Age: 26
Place of origin: Kotoko Village
Hair colour: Green
Eye colour: Brown
Trivia: Has realised that his green hair doesn't make him stand out at all and is now stuck with it because he knows that if he changes it he'll lose recognisability.
Joseph waited atop a building, with a clear view of the entrance to the arena. He'd been told the day before to meet with Joshua here, but he couldn't help but be cautious about it, seeing as how he'd never met another aura user before.
"What'd he call it, anyways? Well, I guess aura never really had an official name, I just sorta made it up, but this seems like it could get confusing. Well still, now'd be a good time to work out what exactly this is, since I never really got it myself."
As he was thinking, Joshua appeared, waiting patiently.
"So there he is, huh?" Joseph continued thinking "Well, this could be a trap, so I should just wait for a bit first."
After a few minutes of waiting in silence, Joseph gave up and approached him.
When he stepped close enough Joshua began the conversation with "You know, it's rude to spy on people."
Joseph responded with slightly annoyed silence, realising that he'd been caught, but sighed and continued anyways.
"Then, what did you want to talk about? I've been meaning to ask you about aura."
"Well first, your name? I don't really know it."
"...Joseph Gilmore."
"Huh, pretty similar to mine. I'm Joshua, by the way."
"I know."
"I'm sure you do. Anyways, as for aura, I can answer most of your questions."
"Ok then, what is it?"
"And immediately you asked one I don't know, good job on that one."
"Seriously?"
"Well if you're asking then you sure don't know, so it's not like I would have any better chance."
"Then… what kinda stuff can aura do? Just checkin' to see if there's anything I dunno about."
"Well you already pretty clearly know that sense for combat it gives you, basically just makes you better at it. Apart from that, we seem to heal from damage pretty quick."
"Anything else?"
"Uhh… I guess we age well, apparently I don't look a day over 20."
"I meant that thing ya used at the end of the fight. The scythe attack."
"Well I'm not sure what you call it, but that was my manifestation."
"No idea whatcha mean."
"Like… each aura user seems to have their own one, it's just that mine happens to be an attack like that. Don't you have anything about your aura that's different from what I've said already."
"As far I know, nah. So how do ya use that?"
"Once again, dunno. For me at least, it's the same as just using aura normally, so I can't explain why you haven't worked anything out."
"This… isn't very helpful."
"Sorry, so anything else?"
"Well… ya just mentioned other aura users, right? How many ya know of?"
"Well, a few. They're pretty much the same deal as us, I'd introduce you but I don't have any way of contacting them now, so you'll have to wait until we meet again, I guess. While we're on this, you know of any others yourself? Having a network's pretty good."
"I don't see why I gotta tell ya, seeing as how ya won't tell me."
"If you don't, then I'll do the same."
"...Aight fine, apparently Aron Gandor's meant to be one. Ever heard of him?"
"Huh, that's kind of a surprise."
"What, have you met him or somethin'?"
"Not really, but I've heard of him. Do you think that all famous hunters know each other or something?"
"Well sorta, famous people are crazy, but yeah anyways he might be one, though yer the first one I met. By the way this is semi-unrelated but ya got any idea of where he is now?"
"I'm pretty sure he's at the frontier now, probably."
"Well, that's about it, I guess then. I'm guessing ya probably wanna meet up again, so when?"
"Well, I'll just come to you when I want to talk."
"Sure…" Joseph then walked off, going back home.
Joshua watched as he left, before muttering to himself.
"Joseph Gilmore, huh? That's kind of a weird surname… guess I'll start there."
Joseph finally got back and found Nargy staring at him.
"What?" He asked, as Nargy silently judged him. "No like seriously what, are ya mad that I went out or something? I can do what I want, ya can't control me. Quit judging me."
Nargy continued to silently judge him, so he just collapsed onto the floor, still unable to get into his bed due to a cat wyvern that was currently judging him occupying it.
"Okay, fine, fine, ya win, I'll explain."
Joseph then explained what was going on to Nargy.
"So there ya go, that's it. Don't tell anyone about this though, seriously."
Nargy didn't move, indicating that there was nothing Joseph could do stop him from this.
"I'll stop feeding you if you do it." Nargy remained in place, but became seemingly ten times more smug, making it clear he called Joseph's bluff.
"Well, look, aura's my deal, right? I wanna keep them out of this if they can, it's not like it's something they should have to know about. Now please let me go to sleep."
Nargy continued to judge him, Joseph got what he should talk about pretty quickly.
"Well as for the guy himself, he does seem kinda shifty, not entirely sure he's alright but still… knowing more about aura would hardly hurt anyone, right?"
Nargy still didn't fully approve, but decided to display some mercy and went to sleep himself.
Joseph still had to sleep on the floor though.
As he woke up the next day, he figured that for the first time in who knows how long there should be a chapter focused on hunting.
"Hey," He asked Terrence as he approached him "Wanna go hunting?" He had already forgotten about what he learnt about Aron, since he was trying to not think about the previous night for the time being.
"Sure." Terrence replied "Where are we going?"
"Dunno, we'll have to see what's available."
Suddenly Matt appeared, still annoyed with how quickly he got taken out in the tournament. "I'm also going." He announced.
"Sure…" Joseph replied, before glancing around "Might as well go with four, yeah, there we go." He pointed to Lyra, resulting in a look of confusion. "When was the last time ya got to do anythin'?"
Lyra shrugged and replied "Good point."
So they set off to the gathering hall, but found that the only quest still free was hunting two Yian Kut-Kus in the Verdant Hills.
"This seems kinda like overkill, doesn't it?" Matt thought aloud.
"Guess so, but we'll be done faster this way, so who cares?" Joseph replied.
The first Kut-Ku was sighted in the middle of a plain, but since it was hardly going to be a difficult fight Joseph and Nargy decided that the best course of action would be to just to charge straight for it.
Lyra and Chante then suddenly raced ahead of the two and Chante slammed into the ground, bringing up a great number of scales, before flapping her wings towards the Kut-Ku to confuse it.
Joseph, now uninterrupted, took this chance to jump forwards and start striking at the monster, while Nargy took the other side with tail swings.
Demi circled around the monster in the air, with Terrence firing arrows down from atop his back, before swooping in himself to land a few claw swipes.
Matt fired at a distance, with Klaus having completely vanished.
After a few seconds, he yelled out "Ya probably wanna get back!" and they sort of got what was going on, barely getting out of the way in time for Klaus to leap out of the ground underneath the Diablos, launching it straight into the air.
The Kut-Ku was almost down, but while in the air it shook around slightly, before suddenly snapping awake and starting to float its wings.
Matt watched this through the sights of his gun.
"Sorry, yer role's over." He said, before pulling the trigger, sending a bullet straight through the bird's skull.
"That was kinda underwhelming…" Terrence pointed out, as the Kut-Ku slammed into the ground.
"Well, who cares?" Lyra responded, before going to carve.
The group headed into the forest, spotting the other Kut-Ku they had to take out.
Joseph got ready to charge in, when suddenly Nargy stopped him, having heard something.
The Kut-Ku continued to wander aimlessly, minding its own business, when suddenly a purple bird crashed down from the sky towards it, leaving a trail of red behind it.
The Kut-Ku took a few seconds after impact to register the threat, but once it did its first reaction was to take flight. It quickly jumped into the air, only to then be knocked straight out of it by the opponent's charge.
"That's a Yian Garuga, right?" Lyra asked, faintly recognising it for a reason she didn't remember.
"Yeah, like Ed's." Matt explained, having paid more attention.
"This one's kinda different though, ain't it?" Joseph questioned.
"It's a Deadeye." Said Terrence.
Everyone turned to him with a look of confusion.
"Uh… like… I read about it, y'know." Terrence wasn't doing very well under the pressure of 3 people and 4 monsters staring at him at once.
"After a Garuga goes through a bunch of fights, it gets injured pretty heavily, which is why this one is so beat up, but it gets stronger from this. I think it's poison should also be better."
"Got it." Joseph didn't really get it at all.
"Wait, I know it's a deviant," Matt cut in "but how come all Garugas that deviate eventually only have one eye?"
Terrence looked at him for a few seconds, as it dawned on him that he had no way to explain this. He finally shrugged and announced "Deviants are crazy."
While this conversation was happening, the Kut-Ku was still getting beaten up. The Garuga swung its tail through the air, slashing at the Kut-Ku and inflicting poison. The Kut-Ku wasn't even trying to fight back, just taking any chance it could to escape.
The Garuga shot a fireball at its head, knocking the Kut-Ku into the ground. Deciding that it was done, the Garuga then lept forwards, landing on the Kut-Ku's head and repeatedly stomping on it until it stopped moving.
"Well, we should get outta here then." Joseph announced, getting ready to leave now that the target had been dealt with.
"Shouldn't we take out the Deadeye though?" Terrence asked.
"No way, that's not our target. We got no reason to deal with it."
"Yeah, but it's dangerous to just leave."
"Someone else can deal with it, not us."
Terrence was about to say something in response, when the monster turned to face them.
"Let's get outta here!" Matt yelled, as the Garuga shot a fireball in their direction.
Everyone dodged out of the way of this strike, but while Lyra quickly hopped on Chante's back and took off and Matt was trying to convince Klaus to back off, Terrence and Demi rushed forwards.
The Garuga dodged out of the way of a claw swipe, lunging forwards afterwards, only to be interrupted by Terrence firing an arrow at it.
Joseph quickly jumped in with a slash, while Nargy slammed his tail into the ground, sending spikes into the Garuga's side.
It moved back slightly, giving Joseph time to turn around.
"Get back already!" He yelled, before dodging out of the way of a tail swipe.
Terrence still didn't move, readying an arrow once again.
His opponent noticed this and quickly raced towards him, not giving him any time to react before flying into the air briefly with a tail swipe, hitting him across the shoulder.
Terrence was knocked back and as he tried to move he realised that he'd been poisoned. He also didn't have any antidotes on him, which he regretted as his consciousness began to slip.
Joseph watched this happen in a somewhat shocked state, unable to respond, before launching himself off the ground towards the monster.
He furiously slashed away at it, unable to see anything else.
The Garuga attempted to headbutt him, but the strike was dodged around with ease, before he then swung his sword straight for the monster's throat. The Garuga narrowly avoided this before wildly attacking him. All of these attacks were dodged, Joseph seemingly disappearing from sight. The bird wyvern then stopped, somehow sensing that attacking there wouldn't do anything else, at which point Joseph finally made his move, dropping in to slash straight through the Garuga's side.
The Garuga dropped to the ground, but got back up just as fast, clearly being prepared to fight until the end. Joseph spun to meet its challenge, grinning as he did so.
As he prepared to charge forwards again, there was a rumbling underground. Klaus burst out of the ground, beneath the two, finally distracting Joseph from the fight long enough to hear his surroundings.
"We need ta get Terrence an antidote, what're ya doin' fightin'!?"
With that, Joseph completely snapped out of his current state, now realising that he should've been more focused on saving Terrence than winning the fight.
The Garuga noticed his lack of will to fight, but decided it was best to now limp away, recognising that if it pushed further it would definitely die.
Demi could now move closer again, so with Joseph's help Terrence was placed on his back and the two took off.
Joseph then quickly retreated back to base camp himself.
"By the way," Matt began "What was up with that… thing back there?"
"Oh, right, ya dunno what aura is. Well it's basically just makes me better at fightin', I guess that's about it."
"Then why weren't ya usin' it from the start?"
"Well… as ya can see. I wanna use my powers to protect everyone, but in the end, this is just a power that can only kill. It can't do anything important, or what I need it to."
Joseph looked down as he hurried back to the town, feeling only regret at how useless he found himself.
Joshua continued to look through records of hunters.
"Oh, finally found a Gilmore, huh. Wonder if there's a link... "
Next, he searched through news reports for the city of Loc Lac, at around a specific time.
After finally finding something he was hoping he wouldn't have to, he let out a sigh.
"No doubt about it, what a shame… I feel like we could've gotten along nicely."
He then left, locked the door behind him and quietly slipped out of the building, taking care not to be spotted.
He wandered the city for a while, before finally reaching home and seeing Isaac, who looked at him expecting results.
"Yup," Joshua reported "It was no good. Not only the one we were looking into, but three others as well. We'll have to gather everyone."
"Got it." Isaac replied, sounding uncaring. "They have been deemed unworthy of the perfect world. So begins the plan."
TO BE CONTINUED
As I keep doing these author's comments, I find that I have less to talk about, probably because of having less free time than I did before. So I've decided that unless I have something relevant to say, I just won't write anything, so this is the last one for now.
Also for the time being I'm going to stop doing the character profiles at the top of each chapter, since the story's starting to get more serious and they might clash with the tone.