Sean and Azure walked through the halls, before seeing a figure appear before them.
"Hey, what're ya doing here?" Matt asked as he revealed himself "Did ya already forget what I said? I told ya I'd kill ya, remember?"
"Of course I remember."
"Hmm? I see. So basically, ya got no problem if I kill ya? I don't have to hold myself back anymore. Is that right? This is what ya want."
"It's not like I'm particularly planning on either living or dying." Sean said, drawing his gun "I'm just here to stop ya. That's it."
Azure looked at him with concern.
Sean fired at Matt.
"No use."
The bullet stopped in mid-air before it reached him.
"Just letting ya know, bullets won't do a thing. I can control anything within my aura."
Matt looked over and it flew back towards him. Azure barely dodged.
"And just like that, I can flick em back. I don't need a gun anymore."
Matt smirked confidently.
"Ya seemed pretty full of yerself there, but it was unwarranted. I'm the worst possible opponent for a gunner like ya. And… the one in control of this fight is me."
He picked up rubble and other small objects, firing them towards Sean like bullets. The pair quickly took cover.
Azure still looked at Sean with concern.
"I said I didn't plan on dying, didn't I? Don't worry about it."
Azure's concern didn't change, but Sean didn't have time to deal with that.
"Anyways, we've gotta work out a plan. Bullets won't work on him. So we need to try something different. First, let's work out what the limits of that power is. If he can really hold anything, then he wouldn't need to stand so far away, he'd just end it up by running up to us. So… we've just gotta find what that limit is."
Azure ran forwards. Matt changed where he was looking, firing towards the two running towards him. As Azure charged, Sean fired. Not at Matt, but at the projectiles he fired, shooting as many out of the air as possible. In response, Matt tried to overwhelm them.
"Now, Azure!"
On the hunter's command, Azure shot a fireball towards their opponent. It burnt through the incoming attacks.
Matt dropped everything to block it. The fireball was stopped from hitting him. Struggling slightly, he then sent it back towards them.
"So that's his limit, huh?" Sean thought.
Azure barely dodged his own fireball.
"Ok, so charge straight at him."
Azure didn't question the order, going for a headbutt.
Matt shot back at them, Sean unable to stop them all at this distance. Both were hit, but managed to avoid anything serious.
Matt dodged out of the way at the last second, but the attack didn't stop there. Sean jumped off Azure's back, trying to hit the warrior with his rifle.
Matt blocked the attack, holding the rifle in place. Sean then kicked him in the stomach.
Irritated, Matt pushed the rifle away and stuck back at Sean. He fired some more rubble, piercing his opponent's upper body. Matt was then cut off from doing this by a charge by Azure, who had spent the time they were fighting turning himself around.
He desperately kept Azure's head away from him, but this left him open to Sean's bullets. The hunter fired. Matt stopped those instead, which left him open. Azure swung his tail at him.
Matt was knocked backwards, but recovered quickly, assuming his stance from before.
He paused. Sean and Azure also paused. Both sides caught their breath. Matt asked a question.
"Hey. I asked before, but thinking about it I didn't get an answer. What exactly are ya here for?
"I told ya. It's to stop ya."
"Are ya getting paid?"
"No."
"Then that's my question. It's abnormal. For ya to just show up out of nowhere like this, for no reason. What're ya hiding?"
"Nothing. Though, I should ask you the same thing. Why exactly are ya here?"
"It's because… I need to be able to control everything. If I don't, then it'll all just fall out of my grasp. It did before. It did back then. It's going to happen again. So long as yer here, it'll keep happening. Yeah… yeah, that's it. That's right. Yer the one who made things keep slipping away from me. So once I get rid of ya, I'll have that control. So that's why I'm killing ya."
"I see."
Sean raised his gun again. He looked a little closer. Matt moved around like a puppet. The one who seemed to be controlling those strings was a girl he'd known for almost longer than he could remember.
"Then I've really got no choice."
The battle resumed, the two sides taking the same approach as before.
Matt and Sean fired at each other. Matt moved to avoid the other side's attacks, while they only pursued, without a single other concern.
Matt only had his projectiles. Sean only had his gun and Azure. The fight played out repetitively.
Sean was hit with more attacks. He fired. Matt blocked, but was then attacked by Azure.
Matt struck back at Azure, but this ended up leaving him open.
Sean threw something. Matt blocked it without even looking, holding it there. Before he could move again, Sean swung his rifle again.
"It's not gonna work!"
As Matt blocked his attack, he prepared himself for a kick. It was only while doing this he noticed what had been stopped. A handful of small barrel bombs. He looked up again, seeing the rifle flare up as it charged up a wyvern's fire.
His brain was too slow to respond. The blast went off, knocking away both him and Sean.
Sean flew backwards into the other wall, while Matt ended up disappearing through a gap created by the blast.
Sean slowly got himself off the ground, before noticing this. He rushed over to check with Azure, but that's when he saw something unexpected.
A drop of around 10 metres. Anyone falling from that height would surely come close to death. The wall had been weaker than he expected, his plan was just to weaken Matt with the attack.
He saw his opponent raise upwards, being carried by the rubble.
"Looks like I can finally stay off the ground. I'm finally… in that sky everything escaped to!"
Matt carried himself upwards, challenging them to a battle in the air. They agreed, as Sean hopped on Azure's back.
The fight continued through the air.
Both sides moved around, attempting to dodge each other's attacks. Azure was now only focused on flying as Sean fired. Matt could no longer block his shots.
The fight would end the moment one of them began to fall.
Matt fired. Sean fired back.
An endless moment, suspended in the air. Neither were able to advance.
As he dodged around some more shots, Sean thought.
"He isn't wrong. The one responsible for Alicia's death was me. I'm sure of it. After my parent's deaths, all I did was focus on money."
Azure dodged another attack.
"If we'd been richer, they wouldn't have died. That was all I took from it. It was that simple. I cut myself off, tried to stop feeling things, so that it wouldn't hurt anymore. All I had to do was survive. But, it didn't work. She just kept following me everywhere. And then it ended up like that. If I'd been different, then things would've gone differently. I'm done acting like that."
He spoke.
"Azure. Move above him."
Without questioning why, Azure listened.
"What yer doing now won't change anything. Things are just gonna be out of control, no matter what we do. We're just two men who failed to recognise that. But even now, yer still in denial about it. Since it's my fault to begin with…"
Sean jumped off Azure. He looked back in confusion. Sean didn't respond.
"I at least have to wake ya up!"
He aimed for Matt. The warrior was too confused by his attack to dodge.
"Doing this won't change anything, dumbass!"
As Sean yelled that, he punched Matt. Matt stuck back. The rubble holding him up began to fall as he lost focus.
The two fought as they fell through the air, yelling at each other.
"What do ya know!?"
"I know it won't!"
"Shut up! Ya just wanna stop me cause you take away everything from me!"
"Yeah, that's true! I'm just the worst!"
"Yeah, I- wait, what?"
"I'm agreeing."
"No, that's the part I'm stuck on."
"Yer not wrong. I caused all these problems. Which is why I have to be the one to get ya out of this."
"Huh?"
"This won't lead anywhere. Those powers aren't gonna control a thing."
"Then what the hell can!?"
"Dunno. No clue."
"How the hell am I supposed to accept that answer!?"
"No idea. But… it's the only one we're ever gonna find. I don't know whether there's a better option out there, but I can guarantee this. What yer doing now won't change a thing, ya just have to move on."
"As if I can move on with an answer like that!"
"Ya don't have much of a choice. Because right now, yer control's been defeated. That should wake ya up. All ya need to do from here is keep living."
"And how the hell am I gonna do that!? We'll die when we hit the ground, stupid!"
The ground was close by now. Azure was too far away to reach in time.
Sean repositioned himself in the air, prepared to take the brunt of the impact.
An unexpected interference.
Something burst out from the ground, breaking their fall slightly.
Both of them hit it and flew off in different directions, landing on and rolling across the stone ground.
Matt looked upwards. The fall hadn't been fatal, but he'd still broken more than a few bones. He looked for what caused it.
"K-Klaus?"
The Diablos crashed into the ground again, before going to check on Matt.
Sean heard this as he tried to get up. Azure landed next to him, almost stumbling over due to the rush he was in. Azure ran up to him and started roaring.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry. But if ya keep being that loud I'm gonna die for real."
Azure stopped roaring but was still visibly annoyed at him.
"At this point I can't even tell what's broken. Well, it's better than what I was going for."
He looked over to Klaus and Matt, still thinking.
"For him to be able to find us like that, with that timing is a hell of a coincidence. Was that yer influence?"
There was no answer. The one he was talking to wasn't there, after all.
"So, yer forcing me to live, huh?"
He looked around, before focusing on the still annoyed Rathalos.
"Oh, well. I already said I didn't plan on either, so it's not like I want to die. If I've got no other choice, then I'll just keep going with him."
Matt looked up at Klaus.
"Why did ya keep following me? I already… went and threw ya away like that."
Klaus started trying to help him up.
"Hey, what're ya doing?"
Klaus snorted back, like it was obvious.
"Ok, I get what yer doing, it's just… I said terrible shit to ya, ya know? And ran off on my own to do this. Don't just forgive me outta nowhere. We've gotta be even somehow first."
Klaus looked at him, asking him if he had any ideas as to how that would work.
"I dunno… how about you abandon me first, then we'll be equal."
Klaus decided to ignore him.
"Hey, I still… yer not gonna give me a choice in this, huh?"
Klaus finally agreed with something Matt said.
Matt hesitated for a while, then sighed.
"Oh well. I don't care anymore. I've already tried to stay in control of things… for long enough."
As he said those words, something seemed to lift off his shoulders. Klaus lifted him away. They were unable to fly upwards, only able to continue forwards, down their own path.
TO BE CONTINUED