1323

"Now then... " Olivia began "We should probably go hunting, to get you guys acquainted. Well, we're right next to the flooded forest, so why not go there?"

"You wanna split up?" Allen asked David "It'll probably make things go quicker that way. Let's make a good first impression for as many of em as possible."

"Sure."

"There's two quests available… Gobul or a Duramboros, huh? Then, I'll go with the Duramboros. You take the Gobul."

"Isn't there anything else?"

"Nope."

"...Fine then. See you later."

"We're heading to the same place, though."

"Oh. Then I'll see you later, later."

Olivia looked at the remainder of the dawn hunters. "Well, since you guys need to get to know them, why don't you go with them? Me and Troy'll go fight something else, since there's only four of us in each quest."

"Well, I'm not really interested in fighting a Gobul, so I'll go with the Duramboros." Beatrice thought aloud.

"Same here." Lock added, going to join Allen's side.

"Then in that case," Claire continued "I guess I'm on the Duramboros team. That leaves the rest of you for the Gobul. Sorry, I guess."

"Eh, doesn't matter much." Maria replied "They're both pains to deal with, in their own ways."

Doug silently walked over to the Gobul group, not really having anything to add when there were no interesting opponents present.

"And that makes me the last, I guess." Nate narrated, before putting his arms over David's shoulder, having to strain himself slightly to reach but still trying to act chill. "Let's kick its ass, bud."

David remained silent in response, while all he could think was "Who the hell are you?"

"See you guys in a few hours." With those words from Beatrice, the two groups split up.

"So, where are we even gonna find this thing?" David asked.

"Don't you know anything about it?" Maria asked.

"Nope. Never fought one."

"Then why were you so against it?"

"Fighting what I know's easier. Though from how all of you are treating it, I'm not in for something fun."

"Yeah. Well, lemme just explain now. It's a leviathan, likes to hide underground a lot. Round bastard. It's a lot easier to fight on land."

"Which is why we'll be fishing it out of the water." Nate continued, trying to get some turn to speak. "Using these." He held up a frog.

"...Where did you even get that from?" David asked.

"Dunno. It was just on the ground."

"Put it back?"

"No, we need it. We'll probably need a few actually."

"Look, I came here to hunt, not grab frogs off the ground."

"It's part of the experience."

"I'm just here for the hitting things until they die experience."

"Look, it's just frogs." Maria cut in "You won't die. Probably."

"...Yeah sure, whatever."

They made their way over to the water.

About one second in, Doug already seemed sick of things.

"This is too boring. I'm just gonna go find it myself." Before they could respond, he dived into the water.

David stared at the water in vague confusion.

"Knowing him, he'll be fine." Maria explained.

"If you say so."

"Yeah, I did say so. Now let's get to fishing."

They sat down.

Nate started to explain a bunch of sorta pointless things about fishing to make himself seem cool, when David finally decided he couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, time out for a second." He interrupted.

"What?"

"You've been talking a lot like we know each other well and stuff, and I guess that's not bad, but like… I have no idea who you are. At all."

"...You already know I'm Nate though, right?"

"Yeah I know that but, I have no idea of anything other than that. At least with the rest there was the whole bar fight, but I don't think you were even there."

Nate sighed, giving a confusing sense of disappointment.

"Is your memory really that bad?"

"...What?"

"It was only last night, you know. I never thought you'd be the type to just forget a battle that passionate. A clash of wills, transcending humanity, never to be seen again after that ephemeral moment."

David's mind was completely blank.

"A-are you sure?"

"Of course. Maria was there to witness it. Tell him."

"Don't tell me what to do." She replied "But yeah, you guys sure did fight. And then I won. Remember?"

David's mind continued to be blank for a few more seconds until he vaguely recalled shoving something annoying out of the way after Maria entered his field of his vision.

He looked back to Nate, staring at him expectantly.

"A-ahh, now I remember. The fight was just… so dramatic, that it slipped my mind. Y'know."

"Yeah. I totally get you."

"That's good…"

Nate went back to focusing on fishing.

David glanced back at Maria for a moment.

She seemed distant. Not just because of the physical distance. She was closed off, uncaring for her surroundings. He was trying to find a cool way of describing it, but was faced with the insurmountable wall of barely knowing any words.

As he was on the verge of thinking something vaguely smart sounding, he was cut off by something bursting out of the water.

Doug jumped out with it, yelling "Found the target!"

The Gobul crashed into the ground, spinning to face the hunters.

Nate quickly drew two light bowguns.

"Heh. Pretty cool, right?"

David turned to him.

"...What is?"

"These bowguns."

"What about them?"

"I'm using two."

"Yeah."

"You really don't get how this is special, huh?"

"I've never seen anyone use them before, so…"

"Usually," Maria cut in "You just use one. Like this."

She fired at the Gobul.

"Hey, I found it first!" Doug complained, before drawing his charge blade and attacking.

"And I was showing my weapon off first!" Nate complained back, starting to fire.

David just kinda watched for a moment before realising "Oh, I should do that too."

The swordsman swung at the Gobul's side, while Doug attacked from the front, taking the monster's focus. It lunged forwards but, almost instinctively, he leapt out of the way of the attack.

As it jumped, the Gobul swung its tail around, managing to catch David off guard.

Maria and Nate fired at it from the side.

Recognising that trying to hit the fast one was getting it nowhere, the Gobul switched targets.

It charged into David, knocking him back. He quickly stood back up to counterattack.

Doug tried to jump at it, but the Gobul responded by extending its spikes, paralysing him and causing him to land facedown on the ground.

It then started to move back towards the water. David ran in front to block its path.

The lantern began to flash.

Maria observed for a second.

"Cover your eyes!"

"But I'm fighting!" David responded.

"That doesn't matter!"

"Yeah, it do-" David began, before being cut off by the flash of light taking out his vision.

David took the blast of light face-on from pointblank, so he was unable to see a thing. Nate had also been blinded, having been too into attacking to listen to the warning.

"It sorta got me too…" Maria mentally grumbled.

She heard David get knocked out of the way, unable to fight back. She also heard the sound of bowguns being blindly fired.

It seemed like it was going to escape. That's why it was a relief to hear footsteps running towards the monster.

"Thought you got me, huh!?" Doug yelled as he attacked the Gobul's tail.

It continued trying to run, but he jumped over it, switching to axe mode and swinging straight for the monster's head.

The strike didn't finish it, but it stopped it from escaping.

The Gobul attempted to blind them again, but a bullet pierced the lantern.

"As if I'd let you pull the same trick off twice." Maria explained, her sight now restored.

David lay on the ground, hearing all this unfold.

"Sounds like they've got this all wrapped up. Meaning that I don't get to do anything. ...So I'm just useless, huh?"

His sight didn't clear up at all. It probably wouldn't for a while.

"...No. As if I'd just accept such a shitty outcome. Allen wanted us to make a good first impression. Right… those are important. Not doing anything will be a bad start. I have to do as Allen says."

He stood up, feeling his way around. The world around him was still nothing. But he couldn't let that stop him.

"Even if I can't see, I'll show you all how I'm useful."

The heaviest footstep was directly in front of him. He charged straight into it. The Gobul responded with pain.

In the next second, he felt his instincts telling him to block. He listened and got pushed back as the leviathan rolled into him.

Unfazed, he charged for a second before swinging down, barely missing the chance to directly hit it. The Gobul spun around and bit into the hunter's arm.

It waited for a response of pain, but found nothing. A second passed. Its eyes scanned upwards, seeing a greatsword raised towards the sky.

"Right where I want you."

It crashed down on the Gobul's back, knocking it out.

David stumbled backwards and fell over. His sight was on the verge of returning by now.

When it finally cleared, he found Maria standing over him.

"What the hell was all of that?"

"...Being useful."

"You almost died."

"But the monster died first."

She seemed to get more annoyed the more he talked, so he decided to shut up.

"Look, trying to get yourself killed isn't cool. Especially over like… something this pointless. I don't really care, but you'd be better off avoiding suicide tactics. Anyways, we're pretty much done here. See ya back at camp."

She walked off, while the other two stayed behind. They looked at David intently for a few seconds.

"You guys wanna scold me too?".

"Nah, not really." Nate replied, taking him by surprise. "I mean, it was stupid. But it was stupid cool."

"Yeah." Doug continued "You're an idiot. Like, who even takes that much damage to fight a Gobul? But it wouldn't have been as cool otherwise."

David contemplated this for a second, before just replying "You guys get me."

The newfound companions walked off into the jungle, united over stupid cool things.

"This isn't really the ending I was hoping for… but it's a good enough impression, right? I hope Allen isn't mad… thinking about it, I wonder how things are going for him?"