The team consisting of four hunters trudged through the Flooded Forest. As they neared a river, Anthony suddenly became smug.
The others were confused, until he yelled "Come on, Wave!" Followed by a Lagiacrus with a long scar down its chest leaping from the water. Alexandra instantly charged, until Anthony interrupted her with "This guy's with me, don't hit him."
He then looked over to Ben and Callum and asked "Why didn't you guys react?"
"We're the same deal." Ben explained, as Plessy jumped out of the water and landed next to Wave, while Sanchez silently materialised into the area.
"Oh." Anthony disappointedly responded, attempting to ignore Wave having instantly falling asleep behind him.
Ben and Callum laughed at him for this, while Alexandra continued to walk on, seeing the interaction as pointless.
They quickly hurried after her, but before they could she noticed the target.
The Crimson Qurupeco was attempting to catch fish swimming by, to not much effect. Without thinking for a second about strategy, Alexandra sprinted straight for it, piercing its side before it could react, then quickly pulling back. The brightly coloured bird wyvern then began to bash its flints together, creating electricity and pouncing at her, however this strike was quite easily blocked, Alexandra only being pushed back slightly.
She struck again, this time repeatedly, but midway through the Qurupeco was suddenly knocked aside by a pressurised water laser. Ben then charged straight for it and began slashing wildly without concern for his stamina, Callum doing the same. Sanchez just kicked it a lot.
Eventually, Anthony and Wave appeared, having just caught up. As the Peco got back up, Anthony hit it on the skull, causing it to nearly collapse but remain standing. It then pounced on Anthony, but was tackled by Wave, who coiled himself around it and clamped his jaws into the bird.
Unable to move its wings or escape, the Peco had only way out left. It puffed out its chest, its vocal sac becoming noticeable, and imitated a monster cry.
A deep, intimidating roar rang out through the forest. Upon hearing this, everyone present except the Peco momentarially froze to the spot. Fear ran through them, screaming at them to escape. Wave pulled away from the Peco, which now felt as though victory was assured.
In its smugness, it began to ignore its surroundings, so it didn't even notice as the devourer of worlds chose the easier prey first.
Callum felt kinda sick watching the Peco get ripped to shreds, but on the bright side the quest was done now. Another upside was that they had a few seconds to plan before the Jho was done eating.
"So uh, plan on gettin' outta here?" He asked the others.
"Swimming seems pretty good, seeing as how we've got two leviathans." Anthony answered.
Callum turned his head "Sure? Ben?"
"Yeah, I'm for that. Not fightin' this thing." He answered.
"That's kinda surprising." Callum pointed out.
"I'm angry, not retarded." Ben explained "What kinda idiot'd take on a Deviljho if they didn't have ta?"
They then realised Alexandra wasn't there and finally noticed she had started trying to fight the Deviljho.
The others were in complete silence, until Ben eventually yelled "WHAT THE HELL'RE YA DOIN!?"
Alexandra didn't answer, simply pressing ahead. The Deviljho finished consuming the former target and turned its attention to the hunters.
As Alexandra drew near, it slammed its foot into the ground, briefly stunning everything in the surrounding area. It then attempted to bite at her, but she quickly reacted and hopped backwards, before charging forwards and thrusting her lance forwards. She then pulled back slightly and struck it repeatedly, unrelenting barrage of attacks.
Yet, the Deviljho was hardly affected. It roared once more, then swung wildly with its tail.
Alexandra just about raised her shield in time, while she still sustained damage it could've been far worse. As she was knocked near the others, she finally answered the question from before.
"I'm fighting the Deviljho." Explained Alexandra "I will be the strongest hunter, as if someone who runs the moment something strong shows up could get there. So if you're not willing to fight it, then just run and get out of the way."
"You're hardly gonna be the best if yer dead." Ben pointed out.
"If I lose, then I wouldn't have been able to make it to begin with." She returned.
She then charged forwards again, leaving the others behind.
The Deviljho closed the distance by leaping towards her, she just managed herself in time to avoid the attack. She then hopped backwards to recover some distance between them, then went back to stabbing at it.
Anthony turned to jump off the cliff into the water, assuming the others would do the same, until he heard them talking.
"Well, I sure ain't as obsessed with glory as she is," Ben began "But we gotta do somethin', yeah? It'd kinda go against that whole helpin' others thing if we didn't."
"Yup, pretty much." Callum confirmed "Having principles can be a bitch sometimes."
Ben laughed. "I dunno what that even means."
With that, the two hunters and the two monsters charged towards the Deviljho. While Anthony would've liked to run for it, he realised that it'd look incredibly bad to do so, so he stopped Wave just before he dived off and climbed atop his back, the two now charging forwards.
The Deviljho noticed them coming, assuming the Lagiacrus to be the largest threat due to its electricity. It swung its tail at Alexandra, without the intent to harm but simply to push her out of the way, before raising its left foot up and slamming it down, causing a tremor.
Most were stunned, except for Sanchez and Callum, as Sanchez had jumped with the right timing. He landed again, but the Deviljho underestimated his strength, due to appearing like a regular Great Jaggi.
It attempted to bite him, but Sanchez quickly dodged to the side, while Callum leapt off his back. Callum slashed at it as he flew past, but then ended up flailing through the air once he was clear of it, only for Sanchez to catch him once more. Before they could go for another pass, the others had already recovered, as the Deviljho was in the side by a pressurised water beam. Ben then charged towards it, beginning to slash away it. Wave then slid in, Anthony jumping off his back to smash his hammer into its head.
This irritated the Deviljho, as it roared, stunning everyone once more. Its body started to turn red, enraged. It then swung its head around, unleashing dragon breath.
Ben found himself lying on the ground, struggling to get up. The only one left standing was Alexandra, still holding the intent of fighting.
Suddenly the Deviljho froze up, as if it was sensing something the rest couldn't. Ben thought he heard something, but he didn't have time to think about that, as he yelled "Plessy! Let's get outta here!"
Plessy then wildly hip checked, knocking everyone towards the cliff. Alexandra managed to recover before falling off, but Plessy hip checked her again. The seven of them fell, the monsters hitting the water first. Looking up, Ben heard an explosion, but that was all he could understand of what was going on above the fighting. Silently, they returned to land, before finally talking.
"I said that I was going to take it on, why did you get in the way?" Alexandra asked.
The other three hunters paused for a second, just to check if they actually heard what was just said.
"Y'know that ya were pretty much 'bout ta die, right?" Callum asked in return.
"If I had died, then it just would've been that I wasn't strong enough." Alexandra hastily replied.
She then began to walk off, but was cut off by the question of "Why?" being asked by Ben.
"...I've decided that I'm going to be the strongest hunter. So of course, if I were to lose to a monster, then I wouldn't achieve that."
"That's it?" He questioned her again.
"What? It's better than simply becoming complacent with nothing. If you just stay at the bottom all the time, then eventually something that you're not ready for will come along." Alexandra explained.
"That thinkin's dumb," Ben rebuked her argument "and yer still takin' too many risks anyways."
Alexandra justified her actions with "A Deviljho is something meant to be destroyed as soon as possible, they can easily destroy an ecosystem. Sure, I could report it and have another team sent out, but how much damage would it cause in that time? As a hunter, I'd be failing."
"Don't bullshit, if you can't take it out then yer just gonna make things worse." Ben still refused to agree.
There was an awkward silence.
"You're complaining that I'm taking risks, but aren't you the same?" Alexandra questioned.
"Wazzat mean?"
"You didn't need to aid me, you could've just escaped." She pointed out.
Ben thought about this for a minute, before finally giving yet another question "Whaddya think of death?"
Alexandra hesitated slightly before answering "It's natural."
"Well yeah, but that's when y'get like really old n'shit. So dying before then sucks, since y'can just not. That's why, I guess."
"That's an odd view for a hunter to have, isn't it?" Alexandra joked.
"It's not really like we got a say in being hunters, so might as well try ta make it better, right?" Ben was probably done talking now.
Ben then started to walk off, followed by Plessy, then followed by Callum and Sanchez. Anthony started following them as well, accepting that he wouldn't get to do anything today, with Wave slinking back into the water.
Alexandra turned back to the way to the Deviljho, contemplating challenging it again. After a few seconds, she then turned away, choosing to fail for now, since she had something more interesting to pursue now.
Eventually, they made their way back to Tanzia and back to the others, with Callum quickly explaining what happened, bringing things to where they were last chapter.
"So?" Zach asked "Are the two of ya gonna join?"
Anthony was frustrated that he hadn't gotten to do anything, so he quickly responded "Yeah, seems interesting." Hoping that he'd get to do something next time.
Alexandra answered, with some final hesitation involved "Yes."
"That's surprisin'." Callum pointed out "Doesn't really fit the become the strongest thing ya were goin' for."
"Well if there's a problem I'll leave." Alexandra quickly replied.
"No but like…" Callum said "I don't get it."
"Same reason as Anthony, I suppose." Explained Alexandra "This group is certainly… interesting."
The group then silently accepted this reasoning, before Zach broke this with "That went way better than I thought it'd go."
"Well yeah," Joseph replied "Why the hell would time go into designing characters if they were gonna refuse?"
While the others understood what he meant, they didn't want to disrupt reality further, so they frantically looked for a change of topic.
"Oh yeah," Ben thought aloud "We still gotta go report that Deviljho, yeah?"
He then quickly moved before further conversation could happen.
He walked up to the counter, talking to guild girl working it "There's a Deviljho in the flooded forest, it's what killed the Crimson earlier."
"Ah yeah, that. It was sighted a little while after the quest began, so a team was already dispatched to deal with it. They finished up around the same time the Crimson hunt did."
"Oh, never mind then." Ben muttered, walking off.
He thought about it for a few seconds. "So what distracted the Deviljho was likely those guys… the hell were they doin', then?"
Leaving the speculation since it didn't particularly matter, he wandered back to the others.
TO BE CONTINUED