"What should we do?" One of the gathered Hunters asked as he looked at his party. "We can't just let a World Eater go wandering around. You know what that thing's capable of."

Who didn't?

In a world ripe with beasts that rule over the land, sea, and sky; a World Eater was more a roaming calamity in and of itself. It was a simple beast, dozens upon dozens of pounds worth of muscle and bone, giving it strength alone that could very well rival the fabled beasts like Elder Dragons; but it's greatest strength came not in its overwhelming strength or in the form of some dominance over an element like fire or lightning, it was it's hunger. A World Eater was driven by an insatiable need to feed; and it didn't matter if it it's next meal came in the form of fish, birds, or other beasts, if it saw a potential meal, it would go after it - hunt it down to the ends of the world is need be.

A World Eater's hunger could drive it to wipe out whole ecosystems.

"Yeah." Gales was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard someone else speak up. "Question is, are any of us suited to deal with this kind of threat?"

"Even if we aren't, that doesn't really matter. We can't let this thing roam free." Another Hunter muttered. "It'll eat everything in the wilds, and when it's done?"

"It'll come down here…"

"Yeah." Gales muttered as he got to his feet and patted his side to get Garm to follow.

"Hey kid where you going?"

"The clinic." Was all Gales said for a moment as he looked back. "I wanna ask that Huntress something when she gets up." He admitted. "She said that there was something wrong with it. Wanna figure out what that is?"

"Good call." An older Hunter muttered as they watched Gales and his Palamute head off. "It might be a good idea for all of us to figure out what we're up against before we lose any more people.

"My party is better suited for scouting and tracking." Another Hunter admitted, looking at his party. "If we head out we should be able to learn something about the World Eater." They told the others. "Soon as we get anything we'll send word through our Cohoots."

"That sounds like a good idea." Another Hunter muttered. "Still if you're going out you need to be careful. I saw one of those things before, might not look it but those things can cover a ridiculous amount of ground in a short time." He told them. " You'd better pick up a few things from the market just to be on the safe side."

"Will do."


It happened too fast.

One second her gaze was locked onto a charging Nargacuga, as she and her party tried reaching for their weapons. The next second, the woods seemed to explode with a noise that sounded like a bomb going off. She didn't get a change to see anything come charging out the wilds, all she knew was that in an instant the Nargacuga was in the air, a massive spiked jaw wrapped both a wing and part of its body.

The crunch of bone echoed out for a moment as the remnants of the wyvern were falling to the soil a moment later.

That shadow of a beast – no the shadow of a monster seemed to just… 'appear' over her team, head drooped low as it fed on the fresh meat that had escaped its maw.

She barely heard it chew on the carcass bleeding out on the dirt floor, instead it seemed to just swallow the damn thing whole.

Soon as it was done feeding its head turned. A glance turned into a full on look as the monster gave them its undivided attention.

"W – what the hell is that doing here?" Alice's words went unheard as the monster turned to face the four, blood and drool seeping through those countless rows upon rows of teeth.

Hyde seemed to snap out of his gaze first, drawing his dual blades only to disappear like he'd never been there in the first place.

"Hyde?" Alice whispered around the same time that Mellow felt something warm and sticky splatter across her face. While still in a daze about the fact that their party leader was just… gone, Mellow slowly raised a hand to her face and touched her cheek, realizing that blood was now coating it and right next to her was a familiar arm still clenching a blade.

What just happened?

She barely acknowledged the crunching noise she heard a moment later.

"Girls!" Richard's scream was drowned out by that bomb-like bellow going off in front of them. He shouted something as he ran towards Alice around the same time that monster did and opened it's jaws.

Were its jaws supposed to open like that?

Richard didn't reach Alice in time, but his Hunting Horn did. He'd slammed it into the girl headfirst, using it to knock her out of the monster's way as its jaws snapped shut.

The hit seemed to snap Alice out of her daze as she got back to her feet. "Richard!"

Where was Ritchard's arm?

"Snap out of it and run!"


Mellow woke up in a sweat, her eyes focused on the ceiling of the clinic as she heard the muted sounds brought by people going about their day outside. "W-what?"

"Oh, your finally up." She heard a voice to her left as she glanced to the side, noticing a feral-eyed hunter looking at her as he pulled himself from a chair. "Was starting to get worried."

"What happened?" Mellow muttered as she sat up, and winched as she felt something 'bite' her.

Maybe bite was the wrong word, but she wasn't really sure how else to describe the stabbing pain that ran through her.

The Hunter next to her rested a hand on her shoulder as he started pushing her back down onto the bed.

"Easy." He whispered. "You're in really bad shape right now."

"Where am I?" She asked. "What happened to Alice - to Richard?"

"In order, you're in Harribel's clinic." The Hunter next to her stated. "As for your teammates… I don't know what happened exactly, but when you made it to the guild you said something about them being gone."

"Oh…" Mellow muttered as she seemed to think, her past actions starting to come back to her. "That's right… Nox and his party found me, they brought be back here and…"

"You blacked out after letting us know about the presence of a World Eater." The Hunter muttered. "That was a few hours ago. Another Hunting party already went out to find out more about it."

"They can't!" Mellow's eyes widened as she sat up again as another stabbing pain ran through her. "There's something wrong with that thing! It's not normal!"

"Yeah." The Hunter muttered. "You mentioned something about that earlier. What exactly did you mean by that." He asked as he returned to his seat.

"It's not normal." Mellow muttered before releasing a short, almost pained laughed. "That fucking green lizard is not normal." She shook her head. "It's gotta be some kind of deviant - it has to be."

The hunter didn't say anything for a moment as he watched the girl shiver. "What can you tell me about it?"

"It's… it's bigger." Mellow muttered. "Bestiary puts the average at 21 ft right, this one's gotta be close to thirty, so it's probably an older gen." She muttered as images flashed into her mind. "The teeth poking out its jaw and the spikes on its back are more like blades." She told him. "It's jaw was… it was weird."

"What about it's jaw?" The Hunter asked. "Was it damaged in some way? Malformed?"

"No it just… it didn't open right." Mellow muttered. "Have you ever seen a snake open its mouth?" She didn't wait for an answer. "They unhinge their lower jaw and the sides flare out." She told him. "It did the same thing." She told him before going silent. "But that wasn't the freakiest thing about it."

"What was it?" Mellow didn't say anything for a moment, seeming lost in her thoughts as she just stared off into space. What she finally said sent a sense of dread down the Hunter's spine.

"Camouflage." She muttered.

"What?"

"It could camouflage itself." She stated. "Why the fuck was it able to do that?"