An airship advanced above the sea. It carried eight of the guild's executives.
"So, what are we here for?" Musk asked.
"This is the eighth time I've had to explain it to you." Corra replied.
"Then you should know exactly what to say by now."
"...We're going to Dia to fight our way through the monsters they have there, so the rest of our hunters can follow us. This is our vital first mission."
"Oh."
Musk looked around for a minute, before turning around again.
"So, what are we here for?"
"This is on purpose, isn't it?"
"You're going about it all wrong." Roy told her "You've gotta be more simple when explaining to guys like him."
"Are you calling me simple?"
"Yeah."
"That's understandable."
"I know. But anyways. Going to new place. Kill every monster you see."
"Got it."
The pair began arguing again, while Musk looked around, already having forgotten what the objective was.
Across the ship, Hitoiki played wildly. Gol emerged from below deck.
"Could you stop it with the racket!? I'm trying to do my makeup."
Hitoiki stopped playing.
"You're putting on makeup?"
"Of course."
"We're going to war, you know?"
"All the more reason. This is an entire new threat we're dealing with, first impressions are important. Do you want me to be known as the enemy commander who looks like he just crawled out of bed, or the stylish ultra-sexy enemy commander."
"I really don't think what they think of you is going to affect me."
"It will when I take your life in an act of revenge for ruining my public image."
"I'd say 'I'd like to see you try', but I'm getting too much of a feeling that you're completely serious."
The rest were up to what they usually did.
Kara was asleep in the middle of the deck. Morgan stared blankly, waiting for opponents to appear. Lion stood at the bow, looking forwards.
"We've reached land!" The one piloting the ship yelled.
Lion instantly dropped from the ship.
"Hey, no headstarts!" Musk yelled, jumping off after him.
Morgan was next.
"This isn't even where we're supposed to get off!" Roy protested as Hitoiki and Gol followed.
"You can just say you're too scared to jump off the airship, we'll understand." Corra replied, instantly pissing him off.
She grabbed Kara and jumped, followed by Roy.
"I just wanted to get a look at the country, how did this even happen? I knew that ship was too slippery." Thought Lion "Surprisingly I don't feel like screaming for once. Maybe my energy's just gone. Oh well, I'll just wait for the rest to come pick me u-"
He finally looked up, seeing the rest jumping down.
"What are these idiots doing!? Did they think it'd be fun to jump off a moving airship!? Ah… I wanna go home… why didn't Fallon come with us?"
He landed in the trees. The rest all landed in the same way, except Morgan and Musk, who just crashed through.
The group either got down or got back up, surveying their environment. A beach was nearby, with an empty looking town in the distance.
A monster that was patrolling nearby spotted them and roared. Instantly, many more gathered around, some emerging from the sea.
An Abyssal Lagiacrus leapt up from the depths, seeming more important than the rest.
"I never expected humans to reach us so quickly. I told Firmitas his plan was going to fail, but he just had to run off anyways. Not that it matters to any of you. I am Justita, the one who guards this coast. I cannot allow you any further into our country."
"Oh, a talking one showed up." Hitoiki observed.
Gol was the only one who felt like saying something dramatic. "You seem to be under the impression that you're capable of stopping me."
"Shouldn't that be capable of stopping us?"
"No."
The Lagiacrus roared, causing all the monsters that had surrounded them to charge.
An Uragaan rolled forwards. Musk ran towards it.
He threw a punch, connecting with the rolling monster and sending it flying away.
A quick grin, before he went to chase after it.
Muskular Musculoso. Manifestation: Reinforcement.
"Looks like he's off." Roy observed.
"We don't have time to pursue, though." Corra replied, as more monsters surrounded the group.
A Royal Ludroth swung its tail at her, she raised her blade in response. The strike failed to reach her, a second later a cut appeared across its mane.
Corra Fay. Manifestation: Perfect Counter.
A Shogun Cenataur jumped towards Lion. He barely dodged around its claws. Even more strikes, somehow being dodged perfectly. Lion moved towards it, dodging around another strike as he advanced, then slashed at it. The cycle repeated, his opponent unable to touch him.
Despite the cool appearance, Lion internally screamed in fear as his aura guided him through the fight, showing what attacks were coming.
Lion Hart. Manifestation: Future Sight.
A Hypnocatrice went for Gol, in response he simply posed with his arms raised to the sky. A blinding flash of light emerged from his body, temporarily blinding the Hypnocatrice, as well as several others. Before it could recover, the Hypnocatrice felt a hammer connect with its head.
Gol Platin. Manifestation: Second Sun.
Hitoiki continued playing from her hunting horn while attacking the monsters around her, strengthening her allies beyond normal limits.
Hitoiki Costelli. Manifestation: Amplifier.
A Barroth charged through the group, on a course to trample the one who'd been lying asleep on the ground since the start. Before it could reach her, it felt its charge slowly down, before finally coming to a halt completely.
Kara finally opened her eyes, having been woken up by the chaos around her.
"Ah… what's going on?" She looked at the Barroth in front of her, unable to move. "Oh… it must be time to work."
She pulled out her bowgun and pressed it up against the Barroth's head, yawning before pulling down on the trigger.
Kara Kanap. Manifestation: Laid-back World.
Seeing all of this, some of the monsters turned to flee, figuring they'd at least be able to outrun the humans.
At top speed they dashed away, planning to take on the humans with a greater number, believing this battle to have no chance of survival for them.
A figure suddenly appeared before them. The midget with a greatsword stared them down.
They tried to run in another direction, but were cut off by her again, moving faster than what they could keep up with.
Death slowly closed in on them.
Morgan Tanashi. Manifestation: Teleportation.
Justita roared again, frustrated by this turn of events.
He charged at Lion, who barely dodged.
"Looks like we underestimated you. But it doesn't matter, I'm still more than enough to take you all on."
Roy pushed his glasses up.
"It's got good control over electricity, better than normal. Keep your distance from it, aiming for the crystals should disable it. Hmm… can it even regenerate those? There's only one way to find out, so yeah, no change in the plan for now."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm telling them how to defeat you, obviously."
Roy Tanner. Manifestation: Analysis.
Justita didn't really react this time. It targeted Hitoiki first, having identified her as both vital support and a weak link. She was unable to avoid the attack due to how focused she was on the music, but the damage was far from fatal.
It suddenly felt a force slowing its movement to a halt.
The rest of the hunters surrounded it, going for an attack.
Justita recognised Kara as the cause. The hunter's weapons connected, but that's what it was hoping for.
A blast of electricity, knocking back everything surrounding it. As it hoped, this disrupted Kara's focus, causing the slowness to weaken. Refusing to let the chance go to waste, it lunged for her, trying to crush her.
Before it could finish the job, Musk showed up again. He didn't understand the situation in the slightly or even notice who Justita was trying to kill, he just attacked it because it was in front of him.
The Lagiacrus reacted with disbelief as the man managed to flip it over, releasing Kara. Before he could attack again, more electricity was released, forcing him to stop for a second so it could get away.
Morgan finally returned.
With all eight of the warriors gathered once more, Justita recognised the disadvantage it was at. Yet, it wouldn't allow itself to retreat. The Lagiacrus roared once more, no longer finding words necessary, before trying to attack again.
"I guess this means we've taken the coast." Kara muttered, before going back to sleep.
"Hmm… there were people living here before, right?" Musk asked "Shouldn't we try to find 'em?"
"Even if we knew where they were," Corra answered "It wouldn't be as simple as talking to someone back at home. They speak an entirely different language to us."
"What's a language?" Musk asked.
"Of course," Roy replied to Corra "That would only be a problem if you hadn't learnt the language already."
"Ah, that's good then, because I've learnt it."
"Hmm… have you now? Are you completely sure?"
"Of course I am. I learnt from the locals."
"Oh, so did I. Who did you ask? They might've gotten things wrong, you know."
"Can't you say the same thing about the ones you learnt from?"
While the two argued about who understood the language better, Musk stood there, still confused.
The rest watched as the airship drew near.
"We've taken over the coast!" Hitoiki yelled, before getting cut off by Gol yelling "This area is now secure, thanks to me!"
Lion went to get on the airship, but before he could near it it flew off.
"Ah. Lion, what're you doing?" Hitoiki asked. "We can't go back yet, y'know. I mean, there'd be no point in coming all the way out here and going all the way back when we've only just taken the coast. We're not heading back until the enemy's destroyed!"
"...But I just wanna go home." Lion thought.
TO BE CONTINUED