"What are we doing again?" Glenn asked as he followed Sean through the canyons. The Lagiacrus armour teen only glanced back at him, adjusting the grip of his blade as he turned to peer around the corner.
"A Diablo's was found making its way towards a Barroth resting ground, the Barroths were forced out and took the canyon fighting with the Jaggi's that live here" Sean explained. "I know, we were chased by the pack remember" Glenn grumbled as he gripped his horned head lightly.
He really didn't want to relive that day.
"Yeah, but the Jaggi's had moved towards the forest, all of them, so we need to take care of the Barroths and then the Diablo's" Sean explained as Glenn looked at him like he was crazy. "You expect me to survive that?" He asked as Sean shrugged.
"You all but killed Ceadous by yourself, this won't be that hard" he said uncaringly. "But what about Junko, she isn't here with us" Glenn added. "She's keeping an eye on the Diablo's, for now we just need to kill at least two of the Barroths here, that should scare the heard back into their nesting ground" Sean explained as he continued down the canyon.
"But don't Barroths travel alone?" the Zinogre armoured teen questioned. "They do, but they have one nesting ground that they all use at one point or another, they can't fight a Diablo's, so we have to take care of it" Sean replied.
"What about the other monster in the desert, like the niblesnarf?" Glenn asked as the two moved around the next path, the sight of the clearing just ahead of them. "The sand sharks hunt on their own, they don't actually have a nesting area here, they'll travel to the great desert for that" Sean explained as he stopped.
Glenn raised an eyebrow, peering over the teens shoulder his eyes widening at what he saw. Unlike what the job had told them, it wasn't just a few Barroths they would see in the canyon.
It was a horde.
The rocky behemoths all laid down together within the tight confounds of the canyons clearing, each sleeping peacefully, not even a foot from another one. Glenn lost track at counting ten of them, his hand slowly rising to his blade as Sean glanced back at him.
"Shit, this wasn't in the job description" Sean mumbled, crouching beside the canyon wall as he thought about what they should do. A horde of this size could cause so much damage to the desert part of the island.
How did they, miss something like this?
Shaking his head, Sean gripped his blade as he glanced back at Glenn. "The mission hasn't changed, kill as many as we can and the rest should move back to their nesting ground, but a horde of this size shouldn't have been scared away by one Diablo's" Sean whispered.
"Are we really going into that?" Glenn questioned fearfully. "We don't have a choice, the raise of Jaggi's will cause problems for the village, and they'll attract more dangerous monster to the forest" Sean replied as he stood, his blade gripped tightly as he prepared himself.
"Well, let's get to it" Glenn sighed, unsheathing his blade, a crackle of lightning going down his arm and sparking across the thunderclap. Nodding to each other, the two young hunters shot forward, leaping into the middle of the sleeping horde.
Sean blade descended on to the neck of a sleeping Barroth, Glenn stabbing his thunderclap towatrds the back of another head. As the two blades hit.
All hell broke loose.
Every single Barroth awoke to the wounds of two of their kind roaring in pain. As the chaos unfolded, some of the monster spotted the two blue armoured hunters, their roars of confusion turning to fury as they charged the duo.
Sean drew his blade back, turning his attention to the charging group of Barroth, watching as they bashed and pushed each other out of the way as the one beside him struggled to climb to its feet. With the lead Barroth getting with striking distance, Sean swung his blade.
The large broadsword connected to the Barroths jaw, forcing it to crash into the one to its left. The affect was an instant as the lead Barroth toppled over, the other behind it tripping over themselves as they all piled up in front of Sean.
With a grin, Sean leaped onto the face of the confused Barroth, running up the pile of monsters as he spotted more regaining some sense of awareness.
On the other side of the clearing, Glenn ripped his blade out of the back of the Barroths head, bits of brain and flesh sticking to the sparking sword as he killed the beast with a lucky strike. Turning to the roaring chaos, Glenn blinked as two Barroth stared him directly in the face, their hot breaths washing over him as he stepped back slightly.
"Can we talk about this?" he whimpered as the two growled lowly. "Guess not" he mumbled as the two threw their heads forward, intending to crush the blonde between their jaws. Glenn rolled forward, going under both beasts as they slammed into the rocky ground. Climbing to his feet, Glenn slashed his blade across the inside of the Barroths leg, blood exploding from the wound as it cried out in pain.
As the other turned its attention to him, Glenn twisted to the other unwounded leg, his right boot cracking against the knee as the roaring beast toppled over. Onto the other Barroth as they both fell to the ground in confusion.
Sean landed on the back of Barroth, the beast kicking and jerking it body around to throw him off. Gripping one of its spikes tightly, Sean raised his blade above his head, holding it in a reverse grip before plunging it downwards.
The Barroth roared in pain as the large broadsword was forcefully stabbed in between its scales, ripping apart its flesh as it crashing against its armoured spine. With another roar, the beast threw its head back, trying to throw Sean off as the young hunter gripping his impaled blade tighter.
With a grunt, Sean viciously twisted his blade to the side, a sickening crack echoing from the large rocky monster back as it roared in agony. With a final roar, the beast fell over, Sean leaping from its back, his blade being tore form its flesh as the beats ht the ground dead.
Landing in a roll, Sean swung his blade upwards as he came to a stop, sending the head of a Barroth skyward as it tried to take a bite out of him. With a vicious grin under his helmet, Sean turned to see the rest of the horde watching him as he lifted his blade.
Across the clearing, Glenn dove out of the way of a charging Barroth, the large beast crashing into the canyon wall as it stumbled back in pain and confusion. Leaping to his feet, Glenn swept his blade downwards, cutting through the Barroths legs scales as he turned towards another one.
With a roar it charged, its head lowered as it started to rip through the ground towards the zinogre armoured blonde. Glenn sheathed his blade, meeting the monster charge with his own. As the two met, Glenn leaped into the air, running up the charging monster spine as he unsheathed his blade.
Jumping off the moving best, Glenn twisted in mid air, his blade slicing across the Barroths back before it collided with the other one, both of them collapsing into a heap on the ground as the blonde landed across from them.
Taking a quick breather, Glenn turned to see another three of the large monster turning away from Sean to attack him. Gripping his thunderclap tighter, Glenn felt sparks racing across his armour, going up the blade as the Katana was encased in lightening.
With a grin, the blonde lunged forward, the three Barroth meeting his charge with their own.
Sean cut the Barroth across its throat, rolling under the staggering beast as he swung his broad sword towards its inner thigh as he came to a stop. As the beats above him toppled over in pain, Sean turned towards another Barroth, his blade coming across his chest as its rocky head smacked into the flat side of his sword.
Gritting his teeth, Sean slid to a stop, the Barroth pushing against his blade as he held his ground. With another push, the Barroth threw Sean off his feet, the black haired hunter crashing into the ground with a thud.
Shaking his head Sean rolled to the right, just avoiding the descending head of the Barroth beside him, its rocky forehead crashing into the ground with a resounding crack. Jumping to his feet, Sean swung his blade towards the confused Barroth, the large sword cutting through its chest as it cried out in pain.
Turning to the rest of the horde, Sean noticed Glenn leaping over a Barroths back, his blade descending on another's back as the thunderclap electrocuted the rocky monster. Seeing as the blonde was handling himself well, Sean turned to his own fight, leaping to the side to avoid a charging Barroth as it crashing into the wall behind him.
As he slid to his feet, Sean's eyes widened under his helmet as the Barroth ripped its head out of the wall, its body turning away from him as it tail collided with his chest. Smacking against the canyon wall, Sean gritted his teeth as he fell to the ground, his broadsword a few feet in front of him.
As he scrambled to grab his blade, a large rocky foot stepped down on the sword, breaking it in two. Sean only stared as he glanced up at the Barroth growling down at him, his eyes trailing his broken broadsword.
With a sigh, Sean leaped to the side, avoiding the descending head of the beast, the ground cracking under the blow as Sean staggered to his feet. Turning back towards Glenn, Sean noticed how the blonde armour fed lightning into his blade as he turned his attention to his gauntlets.
Before he could think on its further, he was forced to dive to the ground, avoiding a tail swing as the Barroths tail collided with the canyon wall.
Across the clearing, Glenn ripped his blade out of a Barroths leg, leaping away from the falling beast as another charged straight into the falling monster. Breathing deeply, Glenn wondered how much longer this would last as another of the monster charged him.
Flicking his blade forward, Glenn stabbed the tip into the lowered head of the monster, flipping over his blade as the thunderclap sliced through the gap in its rocky crow. Landing on its neck, Glenn tore his blade free, sweeping the Katana downwards as it cut through the monster spine, its agonising cries gathering more attention of the destructive horde.
"Glenn!" a voice yelled as the blonde turned to see Sean rolling under Barroth chomp, leaping to his feet as he rushed towards the zinogre armoured teen. "What!" the blonde yelled back, leaping form the back of the wounded Barroth as another slammed into it.
"How do you do the lightning thing!" Sean yelled as he rolled under a tail swing, keeping himself grounded as a Barroth stomped over him. "What?" Glenn questioned, his Katana slicing through the jaw of Barroth as it tried to tackle him.
"The lightning thing with your armour!" Sean yelled, leaping over Barroths chare, grabbing on to its rocky spikes, running along its back as he leaped over the next one. "I don't know!" Glenn replied his blade sparking as the Barroth impaled on the blade cried out in agony.
"Where's your weapon!" Glenn yelled as he noticed the lake of sword on the teen. "It was broken alright!" Sean snapped back as he rolled to avoid a charging Barroth, climbing to his feet as he noticed he was right beside Glenn. "Just tell me how you're doing that!" he added, pointing to the sparking blade as the lightning was coursing down his arm and into the Barroth.
"I don't know, doesn't a zinogre horn just conduct lightning form the air?" Glenn replied as he ripped his blade free, spinning around to slice through the head of another Barroth before it could smack him across the clearing.
"Yes, but how do you do it, I need something to fight with" Sean yelled as he dove to the ground, avoiding a charging Barroth as it crashing into the one still twitching on the ground. "I don't know, I just do it!" Glenn replied as he stabbed his blade into the eye of the struggling Barroth, sparks exploding across its scales as it cried out in pain.
"Fine!" Sean roared, punching the nearest Barroth. A explosion of sparks flew form his close fist, racing across the Lagiacrus scales and into the Barroth head as he stumbled back, crying in agony as it flesh was burned form under its scales.
As the roars of pain echoed throughout the clearing, the other Barroths slowly turned to stare at the two, one of them backing away, watching the two hunters as each of their armours sparks warningly.
Soon enough the horde ran, fleeing the clearing as the two were left with just corpses of numerous Barroth at their feet. "How did do you do that?"Glenn asked, sheathing his blade with a sigh of relief. "I don't know, I just did" Sean replied as he glanced at his sparking hand.
"It won't help anyway, I don't have a lighting conducting weapon to use this" he added as he turned towards his broken blade. "We better catch up to Junko and see what's going on" he added picking up the handle of his blade, leaving the bladed half behind.
"Weapons weren't going to last forever" Glenn spoke as Sean shrugged. "I know, but I liked that sword" he replied turning to make his way out of the canyon and towards the desert nesting ground.
Finding the nesting ground wasn't hard as they met up with Junko. "You have to see this" she said, glancing towards the cliff that over looked the nesting ground. Sean raised an eyebrow as he crouched, moving towards the edge as he looked for what was using the nesting ground as a home.
His eyes widened in horror at the sight before him, a large jaw crunching down on the corpse of a Barroth. "That's not possible" he mumbled, staring the two horned monstrosity feeding below them. Dark black scales running along its dragon like body, thick vicious claws sprouting from the bends in its wings as its powerful legs clawed into the ground.
Two large horrific horns sprouted form the top of its head, pointing forward as the tips ripped into the flesh of its meal. "That shouldn't be here, it's not possible" Sean mumbled as Glenn joined him, staring in fear at the large monster.
"Is that..." he questioned, staring at the cracked horn on the left side of the monster head. "Yeah, that Diablo's we fought malted" Sean replied as the black scaled monster continued to devour its meal.
"What do we do, a black Diablo's isn't something we can just fight, its take planning" Junko spoke up beside Glenn. "We need to kill it, it's causing it much trouble for the other monsters and our village, but we need a plan" Sean replied as he crept away from the cliff edge.
"This isn't going to be fun" Glenn mumbled, staring down at the beast they were going to fight.
