A few months with nothing particularly important happening passed by.

Even so, Joseph was now nearly curled up into a ball, ready to draw his weapon at any time. Nargy was right next to him, also ready to attack anything suspicious at the drop of a hat.

"What're ya doin'?" Zach asked.

"Can't ya feel it?" Joseph explained "We're being watched again. Whenever that happens, it means something bad's about to happen. So I'm on guard. Last time we almost died. The threats are probably gonna keep ramping up. So it won't take me by surprise. Fully ready for any attack, nothing's getting by me."

"Sure…"

Meanwhile, at another location, a figure hid itself in the shadows.

It waited.

The target finally appeared. Riko was walking around, oblivious. The figure lunged forwards, making a break straight for him. Riko noticed this presence and moved to get away, but it was already too late.

"Yo, Riko." Anthony said.

"What's up?" Riko asked, dreading what was to follow.

"How are your injuries?"

"...Pretty good."

"Then let's move onto the main topic."

"Nah, let's not."

"No. Why are you so insistent on sacrificing yourself?"

"Well, it's not like I have much of a reason to live. Unlike you, who does, probably. So it's fine."

"Aren't you just trying to die?"

"No… I'm just not trying to live that hard. What's your problem with it?"

"I don't want you to die. I like you being alive."

"Well, that's like, uh, um"

"You said you didn't have a reason to live, right? So live because I want you to be alive."

"What, no, you can't just like. What. No."

Anthony also got embarrassed at that line a few seconds later.

"Still, like. We're friends, right? So please don't just die and stuff like that."

"Sure…"

Despite the conversation being awkward, the message was conveyed, after months of Riko trying to escape dealing with it.

"Still though," Anthony continued "Wanna go hunting now? Might as well, it's been a while."

"Yeah, I guess."

Joseph was still ready to strike at any time.

Suddenly a presence was sensed behind him, causing him to react first with a slash upwards.

It was barely dodged by an incredibly surprised Vert, who took several more jumps back after that, before raising her tonfas and charging forwards.

Joseph then got up to see the one he swung at, suddenly lowering his stance as he went. "Oh, it's just you."

"What the hell does that mean!? Why would you-!?"

"...Because I thought you were an enemy."

"How? Besides, check first or something."

"Well like… ya did come pretty near me, so..."

"Don't say that like it's reasonable, please. Even I don't think that's slightly reasonable, if you think that's reasonable I'm worried."

"Look, it makes sense since we're probably gonna be attacked soon. Anyways, what'd ya want?"

"...Terrence wanted to talk and stuff. A little ways away."

"Are ya kiddin'? That's the perfect place to get attacked, is he crazy?"

"Stop thinking you're gonna get attacked all the time. We wiped them all out, who else is gonna come after us?"

"That's what you think, but what if one survived or something."

"That's… unlikely. Even if they weren't dead from their fights wouldn't they have died anyway in the crash? Unless they somehow escaped mid-air."

With that, Vert started to walk off. Joseph reluctantly followed, realising that if he left it another problem might show up.

A little way into town, they saw Terrence.

He saw them approach, but didn't show any reaction other than acknowledgement.

"So what did ya want?"

Terrence walked up to him slowly. Joseph had no way to respond to this, until Terrence muttered "Grit your damn teeth."

Joseph took a second to process this, causing his aura to kick in reacting to the punch faster than his eyes did. He dodged around it easily and almost got ready to slash in retaliation, before realising if he did that Terrence would die, which would be kinda pointless all things considered, so instead he jumped back.

"Why!?" He asked.

"You weren't meant to dodge that!" Terrence yelled back.

Joseph was confused.

"Well like… I wanted to make an impact, so I did what you did when you wanted to, but like. Don't dodge it."

"Look, ya can't just go around randomly attacking people." Joseph felt bloodlust from behind him, but decided it'd be best to ignore it if he could.

"Well still, what we gotta talk about is, what the hell are you doing exactly?"

"Uh… standing here?"

"No, I mean with how you fight."

"What about it?"

"Weren't you the one who was complaining I was too reckless? You're the exact same."

"Well I have aura… so it's fine."

"It's not fine at all, you almost died." Vert chimed in.

Joseph looked to Nargy for approval, only to be met with a similar response, leaving him on his own.

"Look. I just… don't want anyone else to die, ya get me?"

"But it's fine if we watch you die?" Vert asked.

"Well nah, but like…"

"I get that you have some super special power or whatever, but it's fine to rely on others. Putting yourself at risk every single time isn't gonna help anyone."

"Sure…"

Terrence hadn't gotten to add anything, but finally saw his chance.

"We're not heroes, are we? We're… just hunters. So, you don't need to try saving everyone. Just live your life normally."

It was quite a weird thing to hear that from him, but Joseph just accepted it with a "Sure, got it."

"Nargy's also pissed too, huh?" Joseph thought "I guess they really hate it when I fight like that, so from now on I'll try to avoid it. Well, I wanna avoid using aura too much if I can anyways. Besides, with any luck, I shouldn't need it anymore, though I kinda doubt that."

The others had already left while he was thinking, so Joseph started to walk off, until he noticed a presence behind him.

Figuring it was another fake-out, he turned around without much concern, before seeing a short guy with fairly long black hair, but this time with an eyepatch.

The one enemy who escaped the crash.

Joseph took a second to recover from his annoyed shock before immediately swinging straight for him.

"The hell are ya doing here, scythe guy!?"

Joshua just about managed to raise his scythe in time to deflect the strike, before jumping back.

"Hey, calm down, I'm not here to fight."

Joseph didn't believe him, going for some more swings, which were barely deflected. Joshua then took a jump back and dropped his scythe. Joseph almost attacked again, but figured this was a sign that Joshua didn't want to fight, so he gained some distance and stopped.

"Then the hell do ya want? Aren't ya meant to be dead anyways, can't ya do that?"

"Look, it's a long story. After I feel, I ended up landing in a river, then I kinda got dragged around for a while. I was still alive, because my aura kept me going."

Joshua dragged himself out of the river, looking around, seeing that he was in a tundra now, in the middle of a snowstorm. His aura was barely holding him together, he needed to get inside a cave so he could try to recover, before he died from the cold. Then, a figure approached, a Barioth came into his line of sight.

The flying wyvern had already spotted him, seemingly defenseless, an easy prey.

"I won't let myself die here!" He yelled with everything he could manage, before attempting to take the monster by surprise by attacking first.

There was no way he could escape, since the Baritoh would be faster than he was. The only option was to fight back.

He leapt straight for it, but it quickly evaded. An attack came from behind, which he also dodged around, now grabbing onto the monster's tail. He raised his free hand into the air.

"I can probably use my power in the same way I do for my scythe. Just gotta make my punches stronger." He channelled everything into his fist and punched the Barioth with all he had, leaving an impact on it. He repeated this process, each hit more desperate than the last, all while the Barioth attempted to shake him off.

Eventually it succeeded, flinging him a considerable distance, before pouncing to close the distance between them.

Joshua saw this attack incoming, but rather than try dodging, he channelled everything into his right leg and swung it around at the perfect moment, stopping the Barioth from advancing and knocking it back. Joshua then took the offensive and went for another kick to the side of its head, stunning it briefly. After some more attacks, he felt like he was barely able to move anymore, but continued anyways. His opponent was still taking damage, the fight would surely conclude soon, but since he knew he would collapse the moment he took damage it was impossible to tell which way it would go.

Joshua landed another kick, knocking the Barioth away again. It recovered quickly and spun around, only to find its enemy not moving. He just stood in place, his eyes still open, having passed out from the cold while standing up.

Joshua then woke up later, inside a cave. He felt confusion, especially once he saw the Barioth walking around.

He approached it and the Barioth didn't react, only letting out a grunt of acknowledgement.

"Well, it took me a while to understand, but eventually I worked out the reason he kept me alive was out of respect, for how I'd fought like that, or something. Well, no matter what it was, I was hardly complaining. After that, I headed back to Dundorma. My first priority was looking for Isaac or any of the others, since I figured you guys would've lost even without me there. Then, once I heard that they'd all disappeared… I didn't know what to do anymore."

Joshua slumped down in an alleyway, looking towards the ground.

"I guess Isaac can't tell me what to do anymore, huh?" He thought "...I could go finish what he started. Those guys are probably defenceless right now. I'd take em by surprise. Their heads would all be gone before they knew what him 'em. But still… I'm the only one left. I couldn't even do anything to help. Would avenging them... really fix that? Has stopping the problem until now even changed anything?"

He finally looked up, at the sky that was raining the same way it had been before. He brushed away the hair covering his missing eye, feeling the pain from the rain hitting the wound.

"After being beaten like that… is there really a point in me continuing this fight?"

With that thought, Joshua reached up to the sky, being unable to reach anything except the rain which slipped through his fingers. After a few seconds, he realised that there was nothing he could do and lowered his arm again, as he felt all his will to fight disappear.

"What a… pointless journey." The former reaper thought.

"So yeah," Joshua continued in the present "After that, I guess my aura just disappeared. Like… I can't use it anymore."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. It's weird."

"Sure." Joseph realised this might not be a lie, due to his trouble with avoiding damage earlier.

"Well, anyways. That takes me here, I guess."

Joseph had no idea how to respond to this, so he remained silent.

"Do you know why we did it?"

"Of course I don't."

"Then… let me tell you. I'm not sure if you want to hear it, but I want to say it."

The four on the hills fought against a Velocidrome.

The raptor took a lunge forwards, only to be blocked by a shield.

Isaac then pushed it back with his shield, before using his gunlance to fire straight for it.

"Now, William!" He yelled as the tall dual blades user charged in with a "Got it!", slashing wildly.

A short long sword user also started attacking, but both of them quickly backed off as a curly-haired switch-axe user prepared an elemental discharge, finishing off the monster instantly.

"Dan, the hell are you doing?" William asked.

"Finishing it, why?"

"Cause we could've been finished too, y'know."

"But you didn't die, right? So it's good."

"That really isn't-" William protested, before being cut off by Isaac.

"Josh, you're good, right?"

"Sure." Josh replied.

"See, it's fine." Isaac announced, somewhat jokingly "Anyways, we still got one left, so let's get going."

William muttered in annoyance, but the group took off regardless.

A peaceful day continued on, but as they began to head further up the hills, this suddenly all shattered.

A flying wyvern descended from the sky with a crash, roaring straight at them.

As Dan was the first to be able to see again, he yelled out "A Rathian?"

They were barely equipped to deal with this, the best option would be to retreat.

Isaac also noticed something that sent chills down his spine. Poison seemed to be secreting from the monster's scales.

"It's a Dreadqueen! We gotta get out of here!" He yelled before turning to run.

But, as the group tried to leave, another monster appeared in front of them. A Rathalos, made even worse when Isaac noted how bright the pattern on its wings was.

There didn't seem to be anywhere left for them to run.

William backed up slightly, but that was a mistake, as everyone but him noticed the tailswipe approaching. Isaac tried to run to push him out of the way, but had no way of being fast enough.

He crashed into a wall but barely managed to stay awake, feeling the poison draining his energy fast.

Dan yet out a small yell and charged the Rathalos, attempting to open a path. The Rathalos was barely affected, before retaliating with multiple fireballs, knocking him back. Not wasting a second, the Rathalos then swung around quickly, knocking him into a wall, poisoned in the same way that William was.

Isaac had already been rushing forwards to check on William as this happened, but as he checked a cold wave of realisation swept through him.

There no breathing. No pulse. No heartbeat. No response. No signs of life.

Isaac looked over to the monsters, as a mix of feelings filled him, ranging from sorrow to fury.

Josh had no way of telling what was going on with him, but felt the same feelings within him as he felt the same lack of response from Dan.

Without needing words, they both understood the one the other had checked was already gone. Something resembling blue flames started to surround the both of them, but they ignored this, staring straight for the monsters in front of them.

After that, Josh couldn't remember what happened, but by the time he regained control, all that was left was the corpses of two monsters. He looked over to Isaac, who seemed to have regained control at the same time. They also looked over to their two friends, who were lying there, already long gone.

"It looks like… it's over." Josh muttered, trying to find something to say.

"Yeah. We avenged them. But… I don't feel satisfied with just this. Do you?"

As much as Josh hated to admit it, he felt the same way.

"Yeah. So… what should we do from here?"

"...Aren't deviants created by people failing to hunt them?"

"And so, after that" Joshua continued "We started looking for the ones who'd failed to hunt the Raths before this, since they were our next target in who to blame for the incident. I guess it was kind of stupid but… we needed something to blame, otherwise we were gonna fall apart."

The hunter had his back against a wall, covering a cut that had just been made.

"Who the hell are you people!? What'd I do to you!? Why are you-"

"Allen Loroco?" Isaac asked.

"W-what?"

"A hunter who originally lived around Jumbo, by the name of Alan Baird, before getting caught up in a murder case and fleeing, reaching here and changing your name. That is correct, isn't it?"

"Hell no, you've got the wrong guy, I don't even know who the hell that is, what's wrong with you!?"

"Even if you try to deny it we already know who you are. I just wanted to see how you reacted. Anyways. You failed a quest to hunt both a Rathalos and a Rathian. As a result of that, they deviated. The blood of two lives is on your hands. So, I am here to deliver judgement."

"Wait, no, I, how is that my fault!?" He yelled, before Josh slashed at him. He almost cried out in pain, before Isaac also charged in to silence him.

The two took turns attacking.

Allen felt himself be burnt from flames as he was being attacked, but it all ended a second after he noticed the one with the sword pull back slightly before unleashing a powerful swing.

After they were done with the body, Isaac and Josh looked up towards the sky.

Both were silent, until Isaac finally spoke.

"We… can't stop here. There are surely many more like him out there. So long as they exist tragedies like ours will repeat. This power must be some kind of gift from something greater, telling us to bring judgement until there isn't any left. That's what we must do. What do you think?"

"Yeah. I agree. We've got to keep going."

"Then, let's go, Joshua."

The two walked off into the night, irreparably changed from how they were once were, but now with a strong purpose.

"So yeah, that's how it all began." Joshua finished his story up with that line, before continuing with "I guess it never really made sense. But it made sense to us. That was all that mattered by then."

Joseph went silent for a little while before finding the first response he could. "Do ya want me to feel sorry for ya? I really can't, by this point."

"It's not anything like that. I just wanted someone to know."

"Well, anyways, what are ya gonna do from here? Well, maybe I should focus more on what ya even came here to do."

"Ah yeah, that. I wanna join your group."

Joseph didn't respond to this, just blinked.

"Sorry, I didn't hear that."

"I wanna join your hunting group thing."

"...No."

"Okay, look I get that you don't trust me. But I wanna at least try to make up for what I've done. And that's the only way I can think of, at least for you guys."

Joseph thought about this for a little while until he figured it'd be better if the others just checked.

"Let's just go find the others for now, see how they respond."

"Sure." Joshua replied.

Joseph turned to walk away and Joshua followed, but as they were doing this Joseph suddenly twisted around and swung his sword straight for Joshua. Joshua had no time to process this, not even moving. Joseph stopped himself with barely any distance between his sword and Joshua's neck, stumbling slightly from how abrupt the end of the move was.

"So I guess you really don't have it any more after all…" Joseph muttered.

"Yeah…" Joshua replied, kind of annoyed that he genuinely had no way of reacting to that.

They continued on a little while longer, until Nargy appeared, charging straight for Joshua.

"Waitwaitwait, he's chill now, hopefully. Just don't attack for the minute. Please." Joseph explained.

Nargy gave him look as if to ask if he was for real, before begrudgingly accepting this and relaxing again.

"Oh, right." Joshua thought aloud, before snapping his fingers. "You can show yourself now."

Joseph and Nargy were both confused, until a Barioth landed next to Joshua.

"This is the same guy who I fought and who helped me out in the tundra, his name's Frost. After that, he just started following me around. So yeah, we're kinda like you guys, I guess."

Joseph looked at this for a few seconds and looked over to Nargy, seeing him have the same feeling he'd experienced many months ago.

"Frost's an… unimaginative name… anyway." He muttered with a slight hint of spite in his voice.

Joshua heard this, but figured that for now it'd be best not to say anything.

They continued until they found most of the others. Riko, Anthony, Zach, Ben, Sean, Matt, Alicia, Lyra, Shoot, Ed, Natasha, Natalie, Terrence and Vert.

They saw Joshua approach them and were instantly on the defensive, until Joseph spun around to kick him in the face, knocking him into the ground.

"See. He can't use aura anymore. So he's safe. Anyways, he wants to join, so what are yer thoughts?"

Pretty much instantly, Zach announced "Well he can't do anything, so there shouldn't be a problem, I guess. Just don't trust him for a while."

While there was still some problems, they all sort of agreed that was fine for now.

"Wait, first of all. You need to pay to get in. Y'know. After all of that."

Joshua knew he was being scammed, but didn't have much room to object anymore, so he sighed and agreed to Sean's terms.

As Sean was getting this money he remembered something else.

"That's right. I still haven't gotten money for fighting against them, have I?"

As he thought this, another figure conveniently approached.

"Yo, what'd I miss?" Callum asked, before noticing Joshua, causing Joseph to quickly explain the lack of aura the same way he did before.

After this was cleared up Sean quickly moved in.

"Speaking of aura, ya still haven't paid me for fighting up there like ya said you would. Ya said you'd pay me anything, so I want everything ya got. C'mon."

Callum thought about this for a second. "Yeah, but… didn't I also say to get everyone back safely or something like that?"

"Yeah and everyone did, so-"

Callum knocked on his left arm, creating a noise like a door would.

"That's… No. Like."

Sean continued to protest, but Callum had already stopped listening.

"Oh yeah, right." Joshua thought aloud to the others.

"What?" Joseph asked.

"Can you call me Josh?"

The peace that had fallen seemed to be continuing.

TO BE CONTINUED

So that ends this story arc. It went on way longer than I expected it to and partway through I started naming every chapter after songs from Guilty Gear, but I managed to reach the end, so that's all that matters.

The next few chapters should be a return to more normal stuff, rather than jumping straight back into combat, so for anyone who hasn't stopped reading yet for whatever reason there you go.