I examined the slobber covered ball, only mildly annoyed to have my hand covered in drool. The red fanged wyvern watched me intently, unsure how to react.

Smiling, I threw the ball, allowing the Odogaron to chase it once more. Who would've thought he act so much like a dog?

"Clifford sure is happy, isn't he," noted Viv. I merely nodded in agreement.

Yes, I named one of the most fearsome looking monsters in this world after a certain big red dog. Don't judge me!

Nearby, the Commission's various Palicoes were busy trying to catch all of my monsties, though the rolls of chaser and chased had been reversed several times already, and likely would be reversed several more times before the little monsters were caught...not that the felynes cared, of course. Above them, my rathalos and Legiana were flitted about, managing to avoid all attempts to catch them.

Grinning, I let out a sigh and reclined backwards, taking a moment to enjoy myself. Only a moment, but that was good enough for me.

The sound of footsteps was the first warning I would have of Zoe's arrival. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"

"The Commander wanted us to pass you a message," was the spirited girl's response. "There's something he'd like you two to do."

"And that is?"

"Well, you've been a lot of help so far, but we can't really send you out against big threats unless we're sure that you can handle them. So, he wants you to hunt an elder dragon."

I almost fell out of my chair as I turned toward them, provoking a stifled laugh from Viv. "What kind, and where?"

"Elder's Recesses. As for the target, it's the first elder I hunted," replied the Sapphire Star, "Nergigante."

"...The Extinction Dragon?"

"Yep," confirmed Zoe. "You think you can take it?"

"..Bring it on."

XXXXX

Donning an alpha set of Barroth Armor and a Tobi-Kadachi greatsword, I made my through the Elder's Recesses, briefly pausing to observe a battle between a lavasioth and an uragaan. Within minutes, the trail led me a clearing, where several gajalaka were milling about, examining some bones.

The relative peace was shattered by a ferocious roar, followed by a huge, black form surging toward me. Barely managing to roll to the side, I found myself staring down what could best be described as the lovechild of a classical dragon and a porcupine. The spiked predator tried to hit me thrice more befoere I returned the favor, managing to knock some of the spines off its arm. Growling, the dragon retreated, and began to circle around, sizing me up.

So this was what Zodd would look like when he grew up. Interesting.

With a hiss, the dragon swiped at me. Blocking the blow, I followed up with an overhead swing, slamming into one of the beast's wings, cracking a few spikes. With a screech, the dragon retreated, only tocounter by slamming its other forearm down, shooting a swarm of spikes my way. Hastily blocking the attack, I loaded a bomb pod into my stinger and fire it, hitting the Extinction Dragon right between the horns. A small burst of spines flew away as the dragon's course was diverted by the force of the blast. Said diversion sent it flying into a large trio of crystals, shattering them on impact. The dragon growled in indignation, then forced itself back up and roared at me.

Soon, a pattern emerged - the dragon would try to strike at me, I would dodge the blows, then follow up with a slash from my blade, always aimed at an area covered in white spikes - always aim for the weak spots! This lasted for quite a while, with Nergigante steadily growing angrier and angrier. Oh, it tried to get in a few hits at me, but it just couldn't keep up the pressure.

Of course, even I made slip ups.

After losing a large number of spines, the Extinction Dragon howled at me, before charging once more. Rolling out of the way, I watched it ram into a large pile of crystals, laughing slightly as it collided with the beautiful minerals.

I soon found myself silenced when one of those crystals flew my way. Letting loose another bellow, the Nergigante threw another large crystal slab my way, trying to hit me with all its force. It repeated this for a while, then charged me. Rolling out of the way, I swung at it..only for my blade to bounce off its hide. A second attempted strike was met with similar results, as was a third.

Crap, its spines had hardened.

Annoyed, I rolled around, trying to find an opening to attack. Unfortunately, the dragon's weakspots had mostly been covered, and the other obvious targets were not exactly things I wanted to strike. Dammit, this was going to be a problem.

Indeed it was, as soon, the dragon batted me aside, then leaped in for the kill...only to get unceremoniously blasted with a bomb. A second followed, as did a third. THe combined force of the explosive objects knocked it into a wall of rock, shattering many of its spikes in the process. As it began to recover, a herd of gastodon charged over a small cliff, with a gajalaka atop each one of them. That must have been the source of the bombs. It seemed that they had decided to intervene, for whatever reason. Not that I was complaining - help was always appreciated.

Forcing myself upright, I charged back into battle against the dragon, taking advantage of my newfound allies to get in plenty of openings against the spiny beast. Slowly but surely, we began to wear it down, and I even managed to break the large spines on its forelimbs. That, however, pissed off the dragon enough to force its way out of the corner we'd boxed it into. From there, we spent some time running away from it, until we found ourselves boxed into a corner. How ironic.

Sensing an opportunity, the dragon leapt at us...only to be tackled by another winged beast. Another dragon, in fact - a Kushala Daora. I didn't even know it was there! Still, its intervention was much appreciated - though the Nergigante was more thank capable of fighting it off, the Steel Dragon refused to just lay down and die, and managed to inflict quite a few injuries upon the Extinction Dragon before it was forced to run. In fact, as soon as the Daora had flown off, the Nergigante decided to makes it retreat.

Yeah right.

I shot my slinger at the dragon and managed to catch one of its legs, allowing me to follow the beast without tiring myself. Not that it was easy, of course - the dragon tried its hardest to fight me off, to no success. In fact, all this resulted in was the Spiky Boy slamming into a wall, then getting blasted by a Nitrotoad. Of course, seeing how it had a full set of black spikes, I wasn't really inclined to gloat. Especially since the dragon was staring right at me. I tried to seek cover, only to trip over a...… an egg?

….Yep, it was an egg. But where was the parents?

I got my answer when the Nergigante leap at me, only to be tackled mid charge by a Teostra. The Flame King Dragon grappled with the Extinction Dragon for a moment, before being thrown aside, but before the Spiky Boy could go for the deathblow, a Lunastra leap at him, saving her mate from harm. She briefly wailed upon the Eater of Elders, before being wrestled off her target, extinguishing her flames. Not to be outdone, the Empress of Flame fired forth a supermova, shattering Nergigante's he was now at a disadvantage, the Eater of Elders once again attempted to retreat.

Once again, I used my slinger to attach myself to him. This time, though, he didn't try to shake me off. Instead, he just flew low enough to rake me against the ground. Good god, that HURT!

Fortunately for me, we'd flown all the way back to Nergigante's nest, so now, I knew we were in the end game.

Problem was, unlike most other monsters, Nergigante fought even harder when it had one foot in the grave. With a roar, it slammed into one of its nest's walls, sending a trio of stalactites falling toward me. I rolled out of the way, but Nergigante simply followed that up by rake itself around the walls of its nest, which did manage to hit me.

Good god that HURT!

As I slowly began to recover, Nergigante moved to attack again, only to take a flash-pod to the face. Having acquired a moment to recover, I forced myself to stand back up and turned my attention back toward the spiny dragon. Howling (yes, people do that, don't judge!), I swung my balde at the dragon, managing to catch its unarmored belly, causing it to flinch in shock. From there on, we traded blows, each attempting to overwhelm the other. I managed to cut off part of the dragon's tail before it finally knocked me away. Then, before I had a chance to react, it leapt into the air and flew right toward me.

I moved my sowrd to block it.

A moment later, the divebomb impacted, sending me flying away.

A moment after that, I felt several spines go through my chest...ooowwwww.

Forcing myself to ignore the pain, as well as the critical damage my insides had suffered, I forced myself to advance toward the exhausted dragon. Just as the beast recovered, I leapt into the air and began to make an overhead slash.

Before the Extinction Dragon could react, I slammed my blade on its head, shattering its horns.

Shortly after that, the Eater of Elders collapsed, its breath growing short, then ceasing all together.

..I did it. I'd slain an elder dragon.

...Huzzah!

XXXXXX

After allowing the felynes to collect the carcass (and getting a few carves in), I slowly ambled my way back to camp, all the while listening to Viv critiquing my fight.

"Really, I'm sure you could've blocked the spines. Or dodge that divebomb."

"Yeah, that was a stupid move."

"Eh, we all make mistakes. Still-"

Any further criticism of the battle was halted when what appeared to be a cactus suddenly sprinted in front of me...followed by several more cacti...wait, were those...cactuars?

"..I think they were but, how did they get here-"

Suddenly, the cacti scattered as something huge flew above them, landing on the ground some distance away. As the object regained its footing, I realized it was another Nergigante, which swiftly charged out of sight. A moment later, it and a purple creature flew back into my field of vision, with the purple creature managing to overpower the Elder Dragon. As the purple one roared in triumph, finally letting me get a good look at it and...no way. It can't be.

...But it is.

The creature in front of me...

"That thing," began Vivian.

was/"is..."

We finished our thoughts simultaneously.

"Behemoth."

…..HOW THE HELL DID THAT SHOW UP HERE?!

XXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!