What is a monster?
When people use the words monsters, they may use it differently. Oxford language dictionary alone had many definitions that could be used to describe monsters.
A large, ugly, and frightening imaginary creature. An inhumanly cruel or wicked person. A congenitally malformed or mutant animal or plant.
There are many more definitions that could be used to describe what a monster actually is. But they all boil down to the same emotion at the core.
Fear.
A monster's existence evokes fears. Sometimes awe, sometimes hatred.
But mostly fear.
And fear was what they felt.
The loud buzzing, the whirlwind from its wings, and its sheer presence. There are no other fitting words to describe the creature. It was a monster.
Worse yet, it seemed intelligent. The enormous monster wasp purposely hovered close to the Jimny, preventing the four from packing it and leaving.
"PACK UP! PACK UP!" Mahiro howled. "RUN TO THE WOODS!"
With nothing but a small bag and their weapon of choice, the four friends had to run as fast as they could. Most of their amenities, between clothes, tents, and other equipment, had to be left behind.
"Is there anything we can use as a distraction?"
"Smoke flares?" Karin asked. "We saved them for an emergency, so I think this is the right time."
"Right! Once we find suitable hiding spots." Mahiro told them. "Make a big cloud!"
Reika clicked her tongue and began jumping on the trees, from one branch to another. Seemingly weightless. She did it to ensure she kept track of the monstrous wasp behind them.
"The wood is too dense for that beast to come down, but the smaller one could overwhelm us in such a cramped space," Reika said. "But they're still chasing us."
"I'm sorry, it must have been me." Karin cried. "Not only did I get splashed by pheromones, but I also peed myself."
Right now, she couldn't feel even the slightest bit of embarrassment. All she felt was part dread and part regret. She shouldn't have been so excited and bold and yet panicked the most when an outside context problem happened.
"This smell..." Mahiro muttered. "We're getting close to the swamp."
"I wonder, could we mask our smell there?" Reika asked. "Because wasps are very sensitive, I think."
"Some research suggests they have a more sensitive smell sensory system than dogs," Izuru said. "With that said, I don't want to bet on anything unless we have bug repellant perfume."
"Bug spray? I have bug spray." Karin asked. "Though it was a little small."
"No, Izuru meant certain plant scented spray, like mint, lemongrass, orange, or lavender," Mahiro told his girlfriend. "In huge quantities, it should be more than enough to mask our smell. And the smaller bugs also would go away."
"The opposite is true. You're a hornet bait if you smell like flowers." Reika scoffed. "How about you just spray on your skirt? It's too dangerous on direct skin contact, though. Be careful."
Karin flinched and then decided to spray her skirt with bug repellant since it had the smell of orange. Hopefully, it could mask part of her urine smell and mess with their senses.
The four finally reached the swamp region, with wet and pungent air welcoming them.
"Wait," Karin said. "Crouch down and stay still. Don't make sudden movement or noise!"
"What?!"
Everyone else looked at each other but decided to trust her. Her sense of danger had been impeccable so far.
"What were you thinking?" Reika hissed.
"I'm just thinking... if Utahraptor and monster wasps exist... doesn't that mean insectivore exists?" Karin mumbled. "Like, giant frogs or something?"
"...That's a strangely plausible hypothesis, but there's no guarantee they lived here."
"Then, in that case... what it is?" Karin pointed at an empty place.
"?"
As the hornets finally showed up, the four almost got a heart attack. However, a prehensile tongue-like object shot up out of thin air and captured three hornets within a half second.
"What the hell?" Mahiro gagged.
"It's here!" Karin grinned.
More and more hornets were caught and confused. In fact, when the gigantic wasps' leader came, it visibly looked worried and circled the area at a distance.
And then, they head it. A gentle thud.
SOMETHING enormous is here, and they couldn't see it! Perhaps elephant-sized or even more.
"What..." Reika was at a loss for words.
"...A camouflaged monster," Izuru said. "And not just environmental color alteration, but an actual optical camouflage."
"Is that possible at all?" Mahiro asked.
"Very possible. Testbed technologies have been made since 2003 and 2006, and they're getting more advanced by the year." Reika said. "But assuming that someone perfected it... or something evolved such an ability..."
An invisible giant monster. The four felt it was even more terrifying than helicopter-sized wasps.
Impatient, the wasp leader headed toward the kneeling four humans to attack them, but it was stopped in its tracks.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" A loud screech filled the quiet swamp with pure emotion as a giant chameleon appeared from nowhere. Or rather, it allowed itself to be seen.
Its head was the size of a Kei car, with thick webbed wings as wide as a jet fighter. Head to tail, it should be at least twenty meters long. The swamp lord was angered by the little queen willing to trespass on his territory.
The four humans immediately backed away, albeit carefully, to avoid alerting both sides of the turf battle. The wasps got distracted and no longer paid attention to them.
"Karin turned out to be correct," Reika muttered. "Is this an entire ecosystem of monstrous animals?"
"In a balanced ecosystem, the insects have always been one of the smallest in size by individuals. Of course, they're very numerous." Izuru raised his glasses.
"If we assume these wasps belong to an entire hive, then a few hundred isn't that unbelievable. In that case, the big one is..." Mahiro finished. "The queen."
"But is it common for a hive queen to emerge? Doesn't that put the entire hive in danger?" Karin blinked.
"Not necessarily. If a queen wasp can freely roam like this, they have secured a population of fertile female and male pairs since most worker wasps are infertile females." Reika corrected her. "Many wasps are invasive species willing to sacrifice the queen as long as their genes can be passed to the next hive."
Fertile female and male pairs always leave the old hive to build a new one. Wasps had no soldier class as the workers were also combatants.
"Didn't the doctor say the wasps preyed on a van's passengers? In that case, perhaps they laid out the fertile larvae already and fed them to... oh..." Izuru stopped in realization.
Ill feeling suddenly crept up in their collective stomach.
The sheer unadulterated horror and disgust filled their collective mind. And as much as the four wanted to ignore the situation...
They couldn't.
"If only... we have more weapons..." Karin began crying again.
"Honestly, I doubt things can change even if we have military weapons." Mahiro held her shoulders. "The only reason we survived is that we could fight."
"We have one." Reika pulled her katana out.
The dinosaurian chameleon jumped meters high and landed with a thunderous impact, which shouldn't be possible without breaking its own bones. Tongue shot out so fast it was almost like a bullet, the wasp queen now in its clutch, struggling.
The wasp queen shrieked and trashed around. Its foot-long stinger stabbed the chameleon multiple times. The chameleon was visibly pained but refused to let go.
The strength exerted by both sides was so high that it was like a small typhoon broke out on the border between the woods and the marsh.
Were they any more superstitious, the four would think it was a battle of gods.
The rest of the hornets didn't let their queen get consumed without doing anything. Hundreds of hornets latched on the chameleon and began stinging in a frenzy.
And even if one sting equals a mosquito bite, thousands of stabs from these cat-sized hornets would hurt anything that doesn't have steel skin. The chameleon shivered and shook its body desperately to get rid of the infestation.
"Reika!"
Reika ran forward and began to swing her blade like a whirlwind, tearing through the mass of wasps like an angry weed wacker. She ran so fast it wouldn't surprise anyone if she could run a vertical wall.
When she jumped off the chameleon, almost a dozen hornets fell apart.
"Come here, you barren bitches!" Reika grinned manically while holding both her katana and wakizashi. Somehow, she switched midway to Musashi's legendary two-blades technique.
"I need a weapon!" Mahiro muttered, realizing that he was almost out of arrows. Not that arrows would be a good support weapon in this case. Aside from that, he only had a survival axe, and the reach was too short for safety.
Mahiro looked around and found himself an arm-sized tree nearby, cutting its branches and turning it into a pole in fifteen seconds.
"Eaaaargh!" Mahiro swung the pole to swipe away the smaller hornets. "Get off!"
Mahiro's eyes met the chameleon, who looked at him strangely. Mahiro knows, though. It was not out of malice.
The chameleon flapped its weirdly short and thick tail, shaped like a leaf. The power of the resulting wind was enough to push away all the latching hornets... and sent the humans away from sheer raw pressure.
"What the?!" Karin had to dig her tonfa to the ground to stop getting pushed.
"It doesn't need help, I think." Izuru cringed, holding to the shovel whose head planted firmly to the ground. "This would send kids flying."
The rest of the hornets turned their attention to the humans again. They became far more aggressive than before. Their speed and ferocity increased to a level where the humans started to get overwhelmed.
And it only takes one sting.
Izuru's body convulsed and collapsed when he got stung on the back of his shoulder.
"IZURU!"
Managed to free herself, the queen hurriedly picked Izuru's powerless body and left with the surviving swarm. They speed up toward the direction of a mountain.
"IZURU!" Karin roared. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO HIM-!"
The chameleon's tongue wrapped around Karin, which for a moment, made everyone panic. Instead of swallowing her, the chameleon threw her to its back.
It wasn't gentle by any means but hardly fatal. The chameleon looked at Reika and Mahiro as if asking them if they wanted to come.
Reika and Mahiro didn't waste time and began climbing the monstrous yet friendly chameleon.
This creature shows incredible intelligence, understanding, and willingness to cooperate. Back on earth, these traits only exist in select few animals in the wild.
Dolphins, for example. And even then, the three surviving people weren't sure they could pick this up quickly.
The chameleon hurled itself forth at close to highway speed, probably around 70-80 km/h. The people on its back had to cling dearly or else they'll be thrown and unable to catch up. The chameleon ran through woods like a lizard through the foliage, a testament to its strength and resilience.
"We're catching up?" Reika asked.
"Somehow." Mahiro nodded.
Karin was silent. Mahiro might be her boyfriend, but Izuru was her precious childhood friend. They spent more than twelve years of their life together.
There is a question on whether Izuru survived that sting in the first place. The Japanese giant hornet was the size of a human thumb yet had a deadly neurotoxin. Several stings are fatal, even to humans without allergies.
However, neither Mahiro nor Reika wanted to say the quiet part loudly. If she lost him here, Karin would be destroyed.
They're holding to that faint hope.
"It is my fault." Reika grasped her hand, mournful. "If only I wasn't being hasty..."
"Shut up!" Karin growled.
Mahiro opened his mouth but then decided not to say anything. Mahiro agreed that Reika was at fault for trying to help the chameleon.
It was unnecessary.
Still, Mahiro knows that Karin also blamed herself, particularly for her urine trouble. That's why Karin couldn't rest all her anger on Reika alone.
Not at the moment.
"Is that-" Mahiro gasped as he looked through a compact binocular. "There are multiple queens?!"
The image was faint, but Mahiro couldn't be mistaken. In the sky, there wasn't just one but multiple queens.
"Wasps having multiple queens aren't common, right?" Reika clicked her tongue. "Only a few known species do that. Hive-based wasps tend to compete for territories and resources."
"That's true," Mahiro remarked. "If they have multiple queens, it makes sense how they could afford this many casualties just to chase a few humans."
Wasps are intelligent yet also irrationally angry and vengeful creatures. They'd pick a fight over the small things and throw bodies at the problem of their own making.
"This chameleon can hold on its own, but what should we do?" Reika anxiously asked. "Even if they're not lethal, one sting is enough to take Izuru down."
Through his jacket, at that. Meaning what they need isn't just a heavy weapon.
"We need armor." Karin suddenly spoke. "But if we don't have armor, then our only solution is to not fight."
Mahiro and Reika looked at each other.
Monster Hunter - Rise of the Dragoon
Original works by CAPCOM
By ZeroXSEED
Chapter 2 - Elder Dragon and Apex Monster Part 1
The humans were dressed in a coat of fronds and sprayed with bug repellant. Not a camouflage by perfect definition, they made themselves as unappealing as possible.
While most bug repellants don't work with wasps, the ones with DEET-based ingredients might.
The chameleon brought them to a cave in the mountain. The cave was enormous, at least three meters tall. Unfortunately, it was still not big enough for the chameleon.
"I feel sick." Reika squirmed. Even though she ensured to hold her breath before, the smell of DEET was getting to her. Because they emptied 100 ml worth of 50% DEET spray for this gamble.
However, it seemed to work, as several hornets deliberately avoided them on their way in.
"We cannot kill anything here," Mahiro said. "If we kill just one, the pheromone will alert the entire hive."
After traveling deep inside the tunnel network, they finally arrived in the central hive chamber. Vast arrays of intricately designed hexagons filled the hive.
"It's here," Mahiro whispered. "Find Izuru, and if there are any other victims, try to free them quietly."
Mahiro might have said that, but when he saw a severed hand, he almost hurled his stomach out. There were no signs of humans, only scattered pieces of meat here and there.
Some of them most likely came from other animals that become prey.
Unfortunately, their movement hasn't gone unnoticed. Some of the hornets began to roam closer and closer, curious about the strange moving bushes that smelt awful to them.
"Izuru isn't here, I think," Reika whispered. "There were signs of human... victims, but I checked their cloth scraps. Not a single one match that of Izuru's."
"Same here," Mahiro said. "I wonder if he survived somehow."
Karin was torn about it. On the one hand, she felt that they gave up too soon. On the other hand, signs pointed to Izuru not being here for some reason.
Izuru wore a checkered shirt, and it was distinct enough that his friends would recognize them at first glance. Unfortunately, they couldn't find any human survivors, either.
The human victims have been butchered for body parts and protein to feed the young larvae. There were cloth scraps and bones that the wasps could not digest and littered around the hive.
"We have to go." Mahiro gravely said. "Let's burn the hive on our way out."
Karin and Reika felt the same way. And the three pulled out 91% rubbing alcohol from their emergency pack.
After a creative use of matches and tinder later, they ran out like madmen. The entire hive went apeshit, and they used to chance to get out.
They looked outside and found the monster chameleon wasn't here... or perhaps invisible. Karin did feel its presence.
The chameleon reappeared at last before it started to release a lot of mists. This stunned Mahiro for a moment, but he was dragged to safety by the two girls.
"The mist would give us an excellent cover," Reika said. "I know what you were thinking. But it might not be that related."
Unfortunately, the mists also prevented them from seeing anything clearly. They could hear and even feel the carnage with their bones as the entire hive evacuated in panic.
It was a genocidal feast.
"...Do you think that chameleon took advantage of us?" Karin finally calmed down and asked.
"Most likely, that's the case." Mahiro nodded. "Because we showed our willingness to fight alongside it, even at the cost of our own member, the chameleon might think we're useful allies to flush out the hive."
A sudden burst of wind dispersed the mists in a short time. An even louder buzz could be heard as something descended from the sky.
A larger helicopter generates a bigger wake in its presence. And the same principle could be applied to the monstrous wasp species.
This queen was over ten meters tall, possibly closer to fifteen. It was twice as long and eight times as large as the surrounding queens.
All of the hard-earned courage humans gathered was all but gone.
Meanwhile, the chameleon was biting a minor queen to death. Unlike the humans, it wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
"EEEEEEEE!" The chameleon screeched and flapped its leaf tail, causing more wind turbulence.
The combined wake from both monsters created a localized hurricane. The humans could barely stay in their place and watch.
Now that the mist had cleared completely, they could see the top queen clearly. Its color was darker. Its chitinous body was thicker and littered with hundreds of red scars.
Its eyes glow with demonic red light.
The smaller hornets decided to engage the humans. Those 'soldier' hornets stepped up the threat level from the workers, four feet from head to toe, and with much stronger chitin that takes some beating.
While their numbers are substantially lesser than the workers, they're a dangerous match against the three humans and their woefully underpowered weapons.
Nevertheless, the soldier hornets fell, one by one.
"What the hell is that thing?" Mahiro gawked when he smashed the last soldier hornet with his pole.
"That's an Apex Vespoid Queen." Someone said.
The three humans looked aside and noticed a strangely regal-looking woman, likely in her twenties. She wore what could be described as a stylish military uniform that officers wore in World War I and prior.
"An Apex what?"
"An Apex monster is a monster that survived an encounter with gods and lived the rest of its lives in anger and agony. Or so the locals said." She pulled out her weapon, which somehow transformed into a giant axe. "They subjugate lesser monsters of the same species and form a horde upsetting the rules of nature and ruining ecological balance."
The axe was enormous. Its head was as broad as a TV screen.
Yet she lifted it with ease.
"In other words... apex monster is a monster that earned alpha status in a species where they don't usually form a group?" Mahiro concluded. "Because wasps queens are supposed to be rivals."
"Correct." She nodded. "That Apex Vespoid Queen caused a depopulation of this region's prey species and drove countless predators elsewhere. It will become an unstoppable horde and destroy this whole ecosystem."
"But looking like this, it would be difficult for me alone." She shook her head. "I planned to slay the minor queens one by one before taking on the apex queen."
"A guerilla tactic, huh." Reika quipped.
"Is... is it possible if we join with the chameleon?!" Karin desperately asked.
"Oh, by any chance, did you make contact with that Chameleos?"
"Yes. We worked together to route a small horde near the flooded forest. The chameleon almost killed a minor queen there." Mahiro nodded. "Afterward, the chameleon carried us here, allowing us to sneak into the hive and burn it from the inside."
"A lot of people died to their hunger, we were trying to find our friend who was kidnapped, but we couldn't find him," Reika added. "Please, help us!"
"Openly working together with an Elder Dragon, interesting." The woman rubbed her chin, thinking. "You need armor and weapons."
As a godly battle raged behind them, the humans retreated to safety and reorganized. The three people were brought to an emergency caravan where the woman stored all her supplies.
"Lady Rondine!" Someone greeted her, he was one of the men guarding the caravan, and many wore similar knight-like armor. "Have you returned?"
"The hive is a toast, and a Chameleos is battling the apex vespoid's horde. If left alone, it wouldn't last. We need to intervene as soon as possible."
"Wha... you guys did it alone without weapons and armor?!" The soldier gawked in shock.
"It's a long story." Mahiro winced.
"They need weapons and armor. Whatever spares you can throw, bring it."
"We have the Melahoa armor fresh out of crafting." The armored soldier told the woman. "But as for weapons, we could only scrounge up what's unused."
"Perfect."
Much to their confusion, the 'armor' was closer to clothes than anything. In fact, while they could feel the weight when moving, it doesn't burden their muscle and joint at all.
"It feels almost as if I'm wearing nothing." Karin clenched her gloved hand. "But this looks very durable."
"It is specifically geared to counter Vespoid's neurotoxin. It's unlikely you'll be paralyzed in one or two stings." The woman said. "My name is Rondine, Knights of the Royal Order. I came here to take care of the apex monster problem."
"Otomo Mahiro."
"Wakaba Karin."
"Sawanuma Reika."
"Right. Ordinarily, you three would be forbidden from engaging monsters without a permit. But seeing your performance just now, I believe you have what it takes to fight." Rondine told them. "With a caveat, don't defy my orders and take any unnecessary risk until the fight ends. Otherwise, I can't vouch for you down the line."
Reika grimaced. Trusting Rondine is one thing, but following her order without question is another. "Why should we?"
"Calm down, Reika," Mahiro said. "Without taking care of this Vespoid problem, we wouldn't be able to search for Izuru."
Hearing this, Karin steeled up and nodded. "I agree. I'll follow Lady Rondine's words."
"Fine."
"Now, please take a suitable weapon for yourself. I wouldn't be responsible if you injure yourself, so be careful and don't force yourself."
Mahiro didn't waste any time and picked a set of warbow and a quiverful of arrows. He could feel the weight as he pulled the string. By old earth standard, this would be closer to a siege weapon than anything human-operated.
Mahiro let go of an arrow and somehow stabbed a rock with it, and that's when he dropped his jaw.
"Why so surprised? This bow is one of the weaker, though." Rondine asked.
That was the weaker bow?!
"Uhh, I'll be fine with this, thanks."
Karin opted for a combination of a sickle and a shield. She focused and tried her best to recall her Kobudo training as she warmed up with several stances.
She's more skilled with twin tonfa, but they don't have such a weapon at the moment. And wooden tonfa is too weak. Karin needed every ounce of killing power she could get.
"This is good enough," Karin said.
Reika, meanwhile, just picked a random oversized Katana. In the old earth, this would be outrageously huge. It's even longer and thicker than the famed Zanbatou (horse cutter).
"Are you sure that's enough?"
Reika pulled the sword halfway out of its sheath, and a sudden rush of energy made Rondine shiver. A small tree nearby Reika was cut and fell even though she didn't touch it.
"It's more than enough." Reika serenely smiled.
What a potent sword spirit. Rondine thought. I haven't seen ANYONE do an Iai spirit slash without fully unsheathing their blade.
As they returned to the fighting area, they saw how destruction and carnage were immeasurable. Trees uprooted, rocks crushed, landslides and fissures reshaped the local geography to the point that it was recognizable.
Not to mention, pools of poisons could be seen in many parts of the flattened peninsula. Was this really a place where humans could fight?
"Chameleon!" Karin called. "It's enough! Run!"
Although they can see several minor queen corpses, the Chameleos were this close to dying. Meanwhile, the Apex Vespoid Queen was relatively pristine.
"There were too many injuries. It was unable to use camouflage." Rondine unleashed her axe. "We should go, or else it'll be too late! Fire support!"
Mahiro launched the opening arrow salvo toward the apex and struck. Though the damage wasn't severe, it was clearly hurt. Mahiro also shot some of the minor queens and made them distracted.
Rondine's soldiers joined with artillery support, launching near-supersonic bolts from their giant hybrid crossbow/gun, using a combination of rope tension and explosive powder.
When several vespoid soldiers approached, Reika stepped forward and unleashed her giant katana. The sheer energy released obliterated three out of five and stopped the rest.
Karin put her shield up to protect Reika and deflected the stabbing of another queen. The impact caused an echoing ring and pushed Karin two meters away. Her boot dug the soil and left marks.
It was an impact that could cave in the side of a truck. But Karin was determined and unshaken. She will see this fight to the end.
"I'll save you, Izuru."
Rondine launched something into the air, glowing wires that pulled her up and allowed her to engage the Apex Queen alone.
...
Karin gasped in shock, finding herself laid on a familiar bedroll. However, she didn't remember using the bedroll before.
What happened?
"You woke up?" Mahiro approached her and helped her to sit. "Thank God nothing fatal happened."
"Nothing fatal? What about the battles?"
"We fail, technically." Mahiro sighed. "We managed to scatter the minor queens and a significant chunk of the Vespoid swarm, but we failed to slay the Apex Queen. Both you and Reika were rendered unconscious."
Ah.
So they fell in battle.
"What about Reika?"
"Had a moderate fever. Doctor Asami is taking care of her as we speak." Mahiro helped her to stand. "Strangely, it's not the venom that hurt her the most. A combination of injuries, infection, and exhaustion. Her body is internally burning."
"Ah."
Welcome to the new world, indeed. As Karin walked out of the tent, she noticed two cars. The Jimny and the N-Box. This whole area was built better as campgrounds.
They decided to visit Reika.
"I talk big, act cocky and then get my ass reamed with hornet neurotoxin." Reika scoffed. "Everything went wrong because of me. I'm sorry. It was all my fault."
It was clear that Reika was broken by this defeat. Not only did she partly cause Izuru's disappearance. She also failed the one time when a victory could save countless lives.
"Not everything is your fault." Karin hugged her.
"Honestly, you all performed better than I thought. If anything, I let my expectation go way over my head and overestimated you." Lady Rondine spoke. "You people were neither soldiers nor hunters. You're civilian scholars."
"In some definition of that word, yes." Mahiro uncomfortably cringed. "We were students until a few weeks ago."
"Your skills definitely fooled me. I didn't notice your exhaustion and fragile body until it was too late." Rondine shook her head in disbelief. "Besides, we have slain several queens. That alone would be a benefit to the environment."
"I wonder, how long it would take for this region to be repopulated?" Dr. Nino came in and spoke. "The endemic small animals almost got eradicated. No wonder the forest is so quiet."
"It might take a few months. That's why, the sooner we slay the Apex Queen, the better," Rondine said. "I am not a hunter, but I am filling in the role of one in someone's stead. It is a hunter's job to preserve the balance of the ecosystem, and a big part of that is eradicating anomalies."
"That's what it means to be a monster hunter. And I believe the three of you have the potential."
"I don't know about being a hunter or whatever," Karin said. "All we wanted was to survive. And go back to our home."
"But an important friend of ours is out there, somewhere," Mahiro added. "Even if he's dead, I wanted to find his remains."
"Of course, I will help you in that regard," Rondine promised. "It's my oath as the member of Royal Knight."