"So what the hell's fathers day?" Natasha asked.
"Wait, you seriously dunno?" Josh asked in response.
"Would I be asking if I did? I heard a bunch of people talking about it when I was walking around town, but I've never heard of it before."
"Well it pretty much says it in the name, right? It's the day where you show appreciation towards your dad. Usually giving some gifts or something. There's also one for mothers, just on a different day."
The entire group responded with somewhat awkward laughter.
"Wait a second," Lyra thought aloud "That means I've gotta get something for Shoot."
The awkward laughter was interrupted by confusion.
"Wait, how's that even work?" Natasha asked.
"I'm assuming or at least hoping she doesn't mean biologically." Vert interjected.
"You really didn't need to add that part at all." Muttered Natalie.
"Well," Lyra continued "From what I've seen, your dad is a dude who raises you, right? Or gives you a lot of money."
"...Gonna ignore the second part, but yeah sure." Matt answered.
Lyra was silent a while longer.
"I've got no idea what to get, though. You guys help."
"Aren't you the one who knows him best?" Terrence pointed out.
"Mm. Guess so."
Despite this answer everyone ended up going with her, out of not having anything else to do.
Even when they were shopping, Lyra still had no idea.
"Can't I just get him food or something?"
"Isn't it better to get something that'd last?" Natalie suggested.
"It'll last at least a few hours."
"Longer than that…"
They continued for a while longer, unable to settle on anything.
"Shoot's approaching quickly." Sean reported. "Someone's gotta stop him."
The group was silent. They then all turned to Josh. Josh took a deep sigh.
"Need to get potions, antidotes, pitfall traps." Shoot muttered to remind himself of what he had to get.
Josh approached him as ominously as possible.
"Oh, it's Josh. What's up, nya?"
Josh paused for a second, before drawing his scythe.
"I really need you to stop."
"So nya finally decided to betray us."
"Isn't this just reusing the same scenario from last time?" Josh thought.
"Well, Josh can only hold him off for so long. You should decide fast."
"..."
Lyra thought for way too long.
"What about getting him some armour?"
"Then why did we even come here?" Natasha asked.
"Dunno."
Despite her previous indecisiveness, Lyra was now too difficult to convince otherwise, leading the group to the blacksmith.
"Let's go with Najarala armour. Cause it looks cool."
"Cool, have you got any parts?" Asked Terrence.
"Nope, none."
So the group of Lyra, Chante, Natalie, Natasha, Aki, Ed and Revel headed to the Primal Forest.
The skeleton of an ancient wyvern loomed in the distance as they drew near. Lyra moved forwards without even pausing to take this in. The rest of the group was somewhat surprised by this complete lack of hesitation, hurrying after her. A few minutes later, the Najarala was discovered. Sensing Lyra's intent to fight, it roared at the group, stopping them instantly.
"Chante. Sleep." Lyra commanded her partner. The owl-like wyvern showed acknowledgement before sending an ultrasound in the Najarala's direction. The monster saw it coming and quickly slid out of the way.
"It's probably already experienced with fighting Malfestios." Natalie noted.
"Change of plan, then. Whatever the plan was…" Natasha added.
"Not that it matters!" Proclaimed Ed "So what if it can dodge one puny beam? Does that matter to a lord of hell such as myself!? You can avoid a single attack all you want, but does that matter in the face of Revel and I's ultimate buster ultra ending act slash bullet combination!? Or our super hyper buster mega prologue gatling extreme strike sunset formation!? Or even the crescent arc crimson moon cataclysm zone-"
"Shut up already. I'm trying to focus." Lyra snapped.
Ed suddenly froze mid-sentence, before stammering out a "Y-yes ma'am... Sorry."
"She removed the crazy from him!?" Natasha yelled in shock, before being silenced with a glare.
Slightly deterred from being as loud as usual, she moved closer to Natalie to whisper.
"Isn't she being way more serious than normal?"
"That seems to be happening."
"This feels wrong."
"It's fine. Hopefully."
Lyra was the first to charge forwards. She was followed by the twins, then by the now despondent Ed.
The Najarala swung its tail in their direction, shooting scales into the ground. Chante flew out of the way with Lyra on her back, before swooping down towards the snake wyvern. The enemy prepared to bite at her when she got close enough, but at the last second she completely changed direction as Lyra used her glaive to jump off Chante's back. The monster's jaws slammed shut just below her as she swung around to deliver an attack to its head.
The serpent was knocked into the ground for a second, before quickly recovering. It lunged towards Lyra, snapping at her. These attacks were dodged. Chante flew in at the side to take a few swipes at it. As the Najarala turned once more, Natasha jumped in to take a few slashes at it, blocking a tail strike. Ed followed this up with some slashes to the monster's back, with his blade coated in a green oil. Revel attacked with a vertical tail swipe, inflicting poison.
Natalie landed some hits before playing a song to raise everyone's motivation, making their attacks more effective. Frega also helped with songs.
Ami tried to land punches, but the snake was too fast for her to keep up with, knocking her back with a tail strike to the chest. The Brachydios slid across the ground, almost losing her footing, but managed to stay upright as she lept forwards to press the attack.
The Najarala was already sick of this. It continued to attempt to dodge hits and lazily counter until the perfect moment, where all four hunters were closing in. It roared, causing all the scales scattered around to explode. The four were knocked off balance by this, the Najarala took this opening to begin circling them.
Revel flew in to pick up Ed, narrowly avoiding a bite. Ferga did the same for Natalie. Natasha just kicked off the ground and managed to clear the serpent's body. This left Lyra, unmoving. The rest turned in confusion, as she continued to not respond. The circling sped up, before the Najrala finally constricted the space completely.
It saw Lyra land a short distance away, having vaulted out at the last second. As it was processing this, it suddenly heard the sound of something crashing into the ground next to it. It turned to see Chante, before noticing it was caught up in a cloud of scales. It tried to lunge forwards, but ended up going completely the wrong way. Confusion had already set in.
Before the monster could adjust properly Ami charged in, swinging wildly. These were still mostly dodged, as the monster adjusted. It retaliated with some strikes, but this ended enraging Ami. The signal for the Najarala to flee was her deafening roar.
It burrowed underground, moving to the next area. Ami watched this, thought for a second, then stuck her head into the ground. A few seconds later the ground erupted with explosions, launching the Najarala into the sky. As it came down, it noticed Chante preparing another beam. The monster attempted to dodge but was barely able to move. It crashed into the ground as the beam connected.
The Najarala slowly rose. Everyone prepared themselves, expecting the fight to continue, but instead it just collapsed again.
A few seconds passed before the group realised they'd won, raising their arms to the sky in a victory celebration.
As Lyra finished placing down barrel bombs, she looked over to Natasha.
"Hey."
"What?"
"If you got your Brachydios to use slime wouldn't the explosion be more effective?"
"...Yeah, I think."
"Then tell her to do that."
"Ok, what could go wrong?"
A few seconds later, everything was set up. Everyone stood a good distance away. The slime went off.
The resulting explosion ended up even shaking the skeleton above them.
As Natalie recovered her grip on reality, she tried to push Natasha off the top of her. Noticing that things were fine, Natasha stopped shielding her.
As they rolled in different directions, a scale landed where they'd just been, shocking them both.
"It's good…" Natalie muttered "We moved."
"Yeah…" Natasha responded.
They continued to search around, while keeping an eye on the sky.
"Ah, wait!" Natasha randomly yelled.
"What?"
Natasha turned, holding up a sword and shield that had been left there.
"It looks like this is all that's left of him…"
They had a moment of silence, before hearing the flapping of wings behind them.
"Don't be fooled into thinking I can die, fools. I'm the immortal demon lord!"
"Ah, the explosion knocked the crazy back into him, huh?"
"Kuhahah! That brush with death is what I needed to regain my instinct, now I'm unstoppable!"
"Sure… still, that leaves one. Where is Lyra?"
They continued searching, until they heard the sound of something being cut.
Moving closer, they found Lyra carving like normal, Chante nearby.
She looked over.
"Why aren't you guys carving? There's still enough left."
The group couldn't respond for a few seconds until Natasha yelled "Did that explosion even faze you!?"
Lyra didn't answer, just continued carving.
A short while later, they found themselves in the cart headed back to Dundorma. As she waited, Lyra thought back, to why she cared so little.
She grew up as part of a group of travellers. It was quickly taught that showing emotion was just a waste of time. The only thing that mattered was survival. No matter how hungry you were, no matter how many were lost, no matter how much it hurt, you had to continue.
It was unsurprising that a short while later, she found herself left behind. She hadn't done anything wrong apart from take too long to rejoin the group, but they were already gone to who knows where. She tried to pursue, but these efforts were unsuccessful, just leading to her getting lost. In the end, she collapsed somewhere in a forest, assuming this to be the end.
In the middle of the village, a lone Melynx stood watching over a pair of graves. He heard a commotion behind him.
"I found a human, nya! It's still alive! We can use it!"
"For what, nya?"
"Ambushes, nya."
"Well, I guess. Still, we need someone to take care of it."
"Why not have Shoot do it, nya? Not like he's done anything for a while now."
"Sure."
Shoot returned to his hut to find the other Melynx leaving Lyra there.
"What're nya doin'!?"
"Leaving this human here. It's your responsibility, nya."
"Why?"
"It's not like you're doing anything else, nya. So take care of it."
It wasn't as though Shoot agreed, but he wasn't in a position to disagree.
A few hours later Lyra woke up.
"Where is this?" She asked, her tone sounding somewhat defensive.
"A Melynx village, nya."
"I see."
"I'm the one who's been told to look after nya. The others want you here for ambushes, but if nya choose to run it's not like it'll be my concern."
"No. I'm going to stay here. That's my best way to survive."
He was a little shocked by her lack of emotion.
"Sure, nya."
A few months passed. The two lived together, but it was like they were in different worlds. Lyra went to steal with the others while Shoot still found himself stuck at the village, unable to leave those graves behind.
One day, he noticed a presence behind him.
"Hey." Lyra began "Why do you always come back here?"
"Isn't it obvious, nya? These are my family's. I can't just leave them behind. It's not even like I have a reason to continue."
"I don't understand. Why do you keep coming back? They're already gone."
"Hey, I-!" Shoot began, before turning around and seeing a complete lack of emotion on the girl's face. "Nya… don't get it at all, do nya?"
"Not really. Why else would I ask?"
"Ah… so that's how it is, nya." Shoot thought "I figured she just being cold out of choice, but of course that was wrong. She doesn't know how to act any differently, does she?"
It was only a little while later that he reached his decision. The rest of the villagers got ready to head out, when Shoot approached them.
"Take me too, nya."
"What, so nya finally got out of your state. Well, that's handy."
The rest didn't think much of it, but to Shoot this meant a lot.
"I still can't get over that… but I can't stay here forever. Even if I'm gonna spend the rest of my life doing nothing… I need to help this person right in front of me before I can just resign myself to that for good."
Several years passed.
Shoot was unable to see any changes in Lyra.
She was the same as when she first arrived, an immovable object of indifference.
This is what made the moment that suggested change all the more surprising to him.
As they returned to the village, they found a wounded Malfestio unable to lift itself off the ground. Shoot continued walking, not even bothering to pretend he hadn't seen it. There was no reason to help, so he ignored it.
Lyra suddenly stopped. Shoot turned in confusion, as she muttered. "I want to help that one."
A few seconds to process the statement. A few more seconds to think of a response.
"Alright then, nya."
They brought the wyvern back to the village, leaving it in their hut.
"Hey, nya serious?" One of the other Melynx asked. "That thing's dangerous, it's gotta stay away."
"I've decided to save it. So no. It's going to be saved."
"It has to leave."
"Then I'll just leave with it."
This didn't sound like something empty. For whatever reason, she felt the genuine need to protect this random Malfestio.
So she naturally followed through with it. A day later, she set off, accompanied by the slightly recovered Malfestio.
Shoot was unable to act. He'd guessed that something like this could happen, but had been so caught up he hadn't thought about what to do if it did.
A few dozen minutes later, Lyra noticed a sound near her. She was on guard, but realised quickly that it was Shoot.
"You don't have to leave too, do you? So why are you here?"
"I already said, didn't I? I'm the one who's been told to look after nya."
"...Mm."
The three continued to press forwards without a destination. Back in the village that had until recently been home, a pair of graves rested with a single flower atop each.
In the present, the armour was finally ready.
As Shoot returned home after a lengthy fight, he saw the gift lying there, Lyra nowhere to be seen.
He read the label saying it was from Lyra and smiled.
"Aren't nya supposed to give these in person?" He mumbled, half-chuckling, "Well, whatever."
"It doesn't fit." Was his only thought after actually trying it on.
"Well, whatever. Even if it fit, I think this'd be too important for me to risk damaging, nya."
As the rest of the group headed back, Natasha suddenly yelled out "Ah!"
"What is it, mortal?" Ed asked.
"Where are those four?"
"What foolishness are you referring to?"
"The four who show up most of the time. Isn't it weird? They haven't shown up at all."
Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away.
A group of four hunters and four monsters stood aboard a ship moving across the sand.
"We must be getting close now." Callum thought aloud.
"About time too, this took way too long." Ben complained.
"It was only a few hours." Zach pointed out.
"Yeah, so?"
Joseph was focused on the horizon. Finally, the outline of the trading city in the sands appeared.
"Who'd have thought we'd ever be coming back here…?"
As those audible thoughts concluded, the ship drew closer to Loc Lac.
TO BE CONTINUED