This peace continued for a short while, until a little while after the start of the new year.
"So yeah," Zach began "Ya know those posters I put up a little while back asking people to join our group?"
"No." All three responded.
"...Well I did, so anyway we got three applicants. So, we're gonna go on a hunt with em as a test."
"How? That'd make seven of us."
"Well, we can split it up by two hunts."
"So, there'll be two of us on each, right?"
"Yeah… we should probably see what's available."
There was a quest for a Lagiacrus in the Deserted Island as well as one for a Crimson Qurupeco in the Flooded Forest.
"I'll take the Peco." Ben quickly uttered.
"Then, I'll go for Lagiacrus." Zach responded.
"Uhhhh…" Callum thought aloud "Peco."
"So that leaves me on Lagiacrus, huh…" Joseph finished.
They then walked around for a while, before Zach stopped. "This is the place." He said, looking at the three hunters.
The first looked relatively old compared to the rest, with black eyes and brown, curly hair that reached his neck. What was most noticeable about him was the fanged blade carried on his back, constructed from Tigrex parts.
"Name's Riko, nice to meet you."
The second was a woman with a more serious expression. She had incredibly short hair, and a black lance strapped to her back.
"Alexandra. What are we going to hunt?"
Then finally, that left someone who appeared to stick out more, due to his green hair. But that was really the only noteworthy thing about him, other than that he was carrying around a hammer.
"My name's Anthony, I guess I'm here for the hunting."
"All right, since there are seven of us, we should prolly take two hunts." Zach explained.
"Why? There's nothing stopping us." Alexandra questioned.
"Well the Five stuff's old superstition, but it'd be safer for a first hunt to follow it, y'get me?"
Team A consisted of Zach, Joseph and Callum. Upon hearing the first option was to fight a Lagiacrus, both Ben and Anthony immediately went for the other without checking what it is, with Alexandra and Callum joining them.
Deserted Island
The group arrived at base camp. Zach sat by the water and waited for a few minutes, to which Riko was confused. After a few minutes, a Royal Ludroth emerged. Riko began to run at it, ready to draw his sword, when Zach stopped him. "This guy's Zappy, he's probably my best friend." He explained. "Anyways, ya know the plan, right? Wait on the shore, while we go chase it out of the water, then ya capture it." The others nodded, so Zappy dived back into the water, with Zach clinging to his mane.
Joseph and Riko then walked off, before Daimyo showed up. Riko got ready to fight again, but was stopped by Joseph this time. "This's Daimyo, he's the same deal as Zappy."
Zappy stayed near the surface of the water, Zach surfing on his back. Zach surveyed the landscape, noticing Epioth that had appeared to his left. A shadow silently approached. He got Zappy's attention, pointing in its direction.
They both waited, unmoving. The Lord of the Seas made its dramatic appearance at last, the prey quickly attempting to escape, to hardly any avail. It tackled one and dragged it out of sight. Upon this chance appearing, Zappy began to rush in its direction.
The monster sensed them, looking up from its meal to see a Ludroth body slam it at full speed. It was knocked several metres backwards and spun around to face the opposition, charging up to attack. Zappy went for another body slam, but this time it was ready, coiling itself around him. Just as it was about to attack, it was pushed back by a lance. Zach pulled the trigger, causing his target to release Zappy and back off.
Zappy quickly recovered and Zach grabbed on to his mane once more, headed directly for the Lagiacrus again. The Lagiacrus dodged the charge, but just when it thought it was safe a gunlance hit it. Zach kicked off Zappy, then readying a wyvern's fire. Since it had its back to a wall, the Lagiacrus was unable to properly dodge, receiving the brunt of the blast.
After a few seconds of writhing in pain, it ceased. Zach started to back off, which the Lagiacrus took to lunge forwards, but was blocked by sponge. Zappy then rolled over to slam it back into the wall, before backing off so that Zach could climb back on.
The Lagiacrus looked at its opponents and decided that it wasn't worth fighting, so it turned to escape. It sunk further into the ocean, but Zappy chased after it. The Lagiacrus then suddenly turned around, going back past Zappy, now headed for the shore.
Everything had gone as planned, now all that was left for the others to capture it.
The others rested by the shore, with Riko on the ground and Joseph on Daimyo's shell.
"Ain't it uncomfortable up there?" Riko asked.
"Nah, it's pretty great." Joseph said, correcting him.
"Lemme try it, then." Riko asked.
"Nah." Joseph quickly answered.
"Why?" Riko questioned, followed by the observation "You're tiny."
Joseph stood up and started to draw an arrow, but was stopped by Daimyo's claw. He then got back down.
"So, where'd you come from?" Riko asked
"Loc Lac. What about yerself?" Joseph replied.
"Jumbo. Guess you were pretty lucky escaping there, for somewhere where there was actual work, huh?" Riko joked.
"Yeah, somethin' like that." Joseph muttered. "What about you. Heard Jumbo ain't that bad for hunters these days."
"Well…" Riko began, before a Lagiacrus leaped onto the land, roaring at them.
They got up to fight, but sick of being rushed the Lagiacrus lunged straight at them. Daimyo quickly pulled up a large rock and placed it between them. The leviathan's head connected with a loud thunk noise, to which it then instantly dropped to the ground, unmoving. All three of them stared at it in silence, waiting for the fight to resume. The Lagiacrus didn't get back up. Panic began.
Joseph noticed Zappy quickly approaching. He pointed out this out Daimyo and both of them tried to work out what to do, before Daimyo reached the solution of picking it up by the neck and flinging it into the distance.
Zappy then arrived a few seconds after, Zach surfing on his back. "Hey," he asked "did you guys see the Lagiacrus?"
"No, why?" Joseph shakily questioned in response.
"Weird, thought I chased it here, musta lost it. I'll just go back to lookin'." Zappy then turned around and headed back the way he came.
"We've been saved…" Joseph murmured. "Now we gotta work out what ta do."
They thought for a little while.
"We could just throw it back and get a new one." Joseph suggested.
"That'd be kinda… poaching." Riko replied.
"Oh yeah, that old thing…" Joseph realised.
"What if we just trapped it anyway?" Riko suggested "It's gonna die anyway, so..."
"Sure." Joseph responded, setting a pitfall trap.
"Why not shock trap?" Riko asked.
"Don't got any, that's why Zach had to get it outta the water." Joseph explained.
The pitfall trap was set up, but the Lagiacrus didn't fall in.
"Do we need to push it?" Riko asked.
All three of them went to one side of the Lagiacrus and in unison pushed its body into the trap. Just as it worked, Zach and Zappy arrived, to witness this.
The Lagiacrus fell into the trap, just as Zach rushed at them.
"Seriously, what the hell's wrong with ya!?" He yelled "How'd you even manage to kill it, it was barely injured!"
As he loudly complained, he swung his gunlance around for effect. This provided a problem, when the Lagiacrus revealed itself to have only been unconscious this entire time, followed by Zach accidentally whacking it across the face and it crashing into the ground.
Silence broke out.
"Wow Zach," Joseph began "what the hell's wrong with ya?"
"Ah come on, I couldn't even see it!" Zach aggressively came back.
The argument continued for a while, so long that the Lagiacrus revealed that it was just unconscious again, sneaking back towards the ocean.
"Wait, how are we gonna trap it now?" Zach asked.
Riko then held up a shock trap.
Both Zach and Joseph were silent, before Zach finally pointed out "Why didn't you just bring that up before?"
"I just assumed you had one." Riko answered.
"Why would we've had ta chase it outta the water if we had one!?"
"I dunno, I just figured you knew what you were doing." Riko explained.
This argument continued for a while, while Daimyo walked over to the weakened Lord of the Seas, grabbed it by the throat with his right claw and chucked it back into the pitfall, then dropped two tranquilisers out of his left claw.
Joseph turned to him and said "Thanks, bud."
Eventually, the argument ended and they returned to Port Tanzia.
"So," Zach asked "You gonna join our huntin' group?"
"Sure, not like I got anything better." Riko responded.
They waited a while for the others to get back, until finally they arrived, injured.
"What happened?" Zach asked.
"Backup." Callum weakly answered.
With that, everyone in the other group understood everything that happened.
TO BE CONTINUED