1323
The other group trekked through the forest.
"Well, at the very least, I'm glad that I don't have to fight the Gobul, but…"
Allen felt the deathstares from behind nearly pierce a hole through his head.
In one corner, the one with a smoking addiction tried to intimidate him, giving off a feeling of "Just because Olivia said you're allowed in doesn't mean I'm gonna trust you, bastard."
In the other corner, the midget stared up at him with rage, giving off a feeling of "I'll make you regret mistaking me for a kid."
The one with the eyepatch wasn't really focused on him at all, giving off a feeling of "Looks like you've got it tough here, dude."
He tried to ignore of all this while continuing forwards.
"Ah, is that it?" He thought aloud, spotting a shape like a mountain in the middle of the clearing.
"Seems like it." Claire replied. "Ok. Newbie, you follow our lead."
"Got it." Allen answered, while thinking "As if I would."
Three of them ran towards it, while Lock stood back and drew his bow.
The Duramboros spun around.
Claire attacked first, unsheathing her gunlance and firing at it.
Beatrice ran around to the front of monster and swung straight up at it. The wyvern responded by slamming into the ground, stopping its attackers for a moment.
Having stood far away enough to not be affected, Allen took this chance to close the distance and begin slashing at his opponent.
It swung its tail around. Beatrice and Allen jumped away, while Claire got pushed back as she blocked it.
The Duramboros immediately followed this up by throwing itself across the arena, straight towards Lock. There was no reaction, he just said some cool one liner that Allen couldn't hear but could still tell was cool, then jumped to the side to avoid the brute wyvern crashing down.
Allen ran up to it and began slashing again, but the Duramboros moved again, trying to crush him.
As the monster moved back, Beatrice went for its head. The hammer she wielded was almost half her height, yet it was swung with incredible and slightly inexplicable strength.
The next to step forward was Claire, her gunlance beginning to heat up. The wyvern's fire was dragged across the monster's body. As she finished the attack, she pulled out a cigarette and lit it using the flames, before raising the weapon into the air.
"Oi, Lock!"
The sniper nodded and shot off three arrows at once. They passed through the flame, piercing the target's side.
Allen paused for a second to think "How long did they spend practicing that?"
The Duramboros seemed affected by all the damage it was taking, but refused to back down, roaring at them.
"I need to use something as flashy as that." Was Allen's next thought.
He pondered for a few seconds, while the rest were busy actually fighting.
Beatrice was knocked back by one of the monster's attacks and was about to rush in, before Allen stopped her.
"I need you to throw something at the same time I do."
"Why should I listen to you?"
"Cause it'll look real cool."
"You make a tempting offer. So, what do I have to throw?"
Allen handed her a large barrel bomb.
"...You know this is explosive, right?"
"Yeah, why else would I be using it? Now then..."
He turned around.
"Hey! You with the good aim! Wanna destroy the stuff on its back?"
Lock just grinned.
"...Yeah or no?" Allen asked, not getting it at all.
"That means yeah, stupid." Beatrice answered, throwing her barrel bomb.
"Hey, you were supposed to go on my mark!" Allen hurriedly threw his after it.
Lock let loose an arrow, hitting the first bomb when it was right next to the Duramboros' spine.
It fell over with a roar, crashing into the ground.
The group of hunters surrounded it and started whacking it until it stopped moving.
Claire was the first one to stop attacking, lighting up yet another cigarette.
"We're done here. You're pretty ok, newbie."
"The bombs thing was kinda cool though," Lock added, "I liked it."
"Thanks. It would've been cooler if the bombs were thrown in sync though…" Allen stared down at Beatrice.
"You go too slowly. Besides, it died anyways, so who cares? You're stuck in the past."
"I'm just saying that if you wanna be cool-"
"Can you leave it for later?" Claire cut in "Besides, techniques like that are only really cool if you work em out in advance, so you can do them without needing to communicate with words."
"Stop self-promoting." Beatrice replied.
"Never."
"I mean…" Allen thought aloud "Isn't planning a move out in advance more just showing off a trick than actually trying to kill it? You're just showing off."
"...If that's showing off, then what was your move?" Claire asked in annoyed response.
"It was a plan designed to kill it with maximum efficiency." Allen lied through his teeth.
Claire just stared at him for a few seconds, trying to work out a way to argue back, before realising she hadn't been paying enough attention to notice any problems and walking away.
They reached base camp again, finding the other group there.
"So, how'd it go for all of you?" Maria asked as they got back.
"Pretty good." Beatrice replied "Blew it up. The usual."
"That's the usual now?"
"Well if I have any say in it, then yeah, totally. At least, it should be."
Allen looked over, noticing that something felt off about David. His brother was talking to the others without a problem, but he could feel it.
They got back to the town a little while later, after some talking they left the rest for now.
The sun was starting to set on a pretty drawn out day.
"So?" Allen began "What's bugging you?"
"What, you noticed?"
"Of course I would. So what is it?"
"Y'know the gunner girl? She got mad at me for getting injured."
"Oh? So she cares about you then?"
"That's not the point. I just… feel bad."
"Well, it's not like I can't get where she's coming from. How'd you get injured?"
"Taking it down."
"Then there's no problem."
David didn't respond.
"Listen. I can get why most people see it as ridiculous, but we know different, don't we? Humans… ain't strong. We need to use everything at our disposal to fight against those things. The thing we have that they don't is determination. So… even if you feel death creeping up behind you, keep slashing until the opponent goes down. That's how we'll overcome them. Got it?"
"...Yeah. Got it."