Finding bodies of water in the wilds isn't anything remotely surprising. After all, those that live in the deep woods need someplace to drink from. And a fresh water source was always welcome.

Today a river found itself stained red.

The Hunters had found an Aptonoth bleeding into the small river that it had once been drinking from. It's blood slipping out from between the fangs of something with enough strength in its jaws to hold the beast in the air with relative ease. Scarred green scales greeted them, as did a body that looked more muscle and steroid than anything.

A loud, audio crunch caught everyone's attention as the aptonoth in the beast's jaws started to hang at an awkward angle. Without a word it threw its head back as its jaws started to open wide as the aptonoth flopped before starting to disappear down the beast's throat, much like how a snake does a rat. As soon as its meal was done the brute of a beast turned its head, seeming ready to wander off before looking back to notice that it was no longer alone. With a low growl the beast - a monster of muscle turned to see the group that had come for it.

Rearing back it sucked in a breath before releasing a monstrous bellow.

"Let's begin the hunt."


She was singing again. Siegfried realized as he looked to the side, his attention turning away from the wyvern that had carried them this far into the western lands.

Looking at his counterpart, a woman who called herself Morgana, Siegfried just listened to hers singing with a somewhat bemused smile.

Honestly, she wasn't bad at singing, in fact she was actually very good. One of the best he'd heard in a while.

Her voice wasn't like anything that her companions had grown used to in their lives. Rather it was like a chorus that could make the angels fall from grace and the demons rise in redemption.

No human woman had that kind of voice… wyvernian… maybe, but certainly it wasn't the voice one would find amongst the human women. When she sang, the world itself seemed to resonate in a sense of harmony.

Whether that was a good thing or not though, that was up for debate.

"You like singing don't you?" Siegfried asked as he returned to showing his affection to his mount in the form of petting its white scales.

"It fills the silence." The woman stated as her song came to an end. "Often I find myself singing because it's too quiet for my tastes."

"Is that so?" Siegfried muttered as he felt his wyvern mount hit him in the chest with its head. "Right, right." The Wyvern Rider muttered. "Fafnir is ready to fly again."

"Oh?" The woman asked. "Already? He doesn't want to rest more? We've been flying for quite a while." Siegfried shrugged.

"Yeah well…" Siegfried paused as he heard something echo in the distance. "That sound…" He muttered as he looked at his wyvern, noticing his head turned in the direction of scattered birds.

"It appears the wilds have some matters to be attended to." Morgana muttered. "Shall we leave it to the Hunters?"

"I see no reason to get involved." Siegfried admitted before seeming to think. "Still." He muttered before reaching for his bag and pulled out an iron mask. "It would be nice to get some exercise in." He stated, putting his mask on his face and pulled up his hood before walking off. "Get the blood flowing and all that." The masked youth muttered as he made a wave-like gesture with his hand. "Stay here and keep Fafnir company will you, I'll be back soon."

"As you wish."


In half a second a tree was turned into splinters as the Deviljho rammed into it, missing the Hunter it had targeted and turned around. Various Gunners started firing upon the beast who simply ignored the rounds falling upon it before reaching down, grabbing the tree that it had broken and picked it up in its jaws. Without much prompting it threw the makeshift weapon, hurling it at the Hunters and causing them to scatter.

"Don't group up?" A guild knight shouted as they lunged forward, charging the creature with his gunlance as they reeled back and jumped, and smashed his shield against the creature's face

If the strike did any damage, it was ignored, as the Brute turned and tried to bite down on the Knight only to fail as a bullet slammed into it's face and exploded. Turning it saw that the other Guild Knight had made themselves known, their heavy bowgun aimed at it and fired another round. The Deviljho responded by turning its tail smacking the round with it's tail as it took force of the crag round and split it. When it's turn was complete it ground its bread into the ground, using it almost as a crude shovel to knock dozens of stone chunks into the air. Dodging the makeshift weapons Guild knight rolled before taking aim again, only for the monster to come falling down on her location.

It jumped and was intending to crush her under it's weight.

"Evelyn!" Her partner shouted as Karma took aim with his bowgun and fired, not at the monster but thew Guild Knight. Whatever round he fired did it's job, slamming into Guild Knight with enough force that it launched her backwards and out of the range of the monster coming down with enough force to uplift parts of the earth.

"I'm probably gonna pay for that later…" Karma grumbled as he adjusted his sights and took a breath. He fired, and so did the Knight as they locked the monster between them. Round after round slammed into the Deviljho as it started to get back up, ignoring the shells that were slamming it before looking around, seeing the other Hunters closing in on it. "Shit - reloading

"Reloading!"

Reaching down the Deviljho bit into a piece of displace stone and hurled it at the hunters, causing them to scatter before charging forward.

"Incoming!" With a sweeping motion of its head it tried biting into a Hunter only to miss. Thorn grit her teeth as she dodged, sliding back before charging in as her longsword left a small wound on the monster's face before it stepped forward and stomped forward, trying to either pin or crush the huntress under it's foot. She dodged the stomp, as well as the one after it before a Guild Knight raised in, his Gunlance pointed straight at the Deviljho's stomach as he released a number of rounds. The Deviljho didn't seem to even notice, instead just reaching down with its mouth and tried to swallow him whole.

Before the teeth could close around the Guild Knight the bowgun roared, releasing an explosive strike known as the Wyvern's Fire right down the Deviljho's throat. It's head reared back in pain, smoke billowing out its jaws as it stumbled back, shaking it's head along the way.

"So you do take damage…" Gales muttered as the Deviljho started to gag, the smoke seemingly stuck in its throat before it was released, the monster throwing up its earlier meal as it spilled the vomit-drenched aptonoth onto the floor.

Without warning the Deviljho bit down onto the dead aptonoth as it lifted it up, and started swinging it wildly around smashing it into the ground to try and hit the various Hunters before finally throwing it at them. Right afterwards an arrow dug into its neck before turned, noticing that a hunter had the ballista sized arrow connected to a chain that was wrapped around a tree. Without a warning the Monster bellowed out loud, the sound deafening the crowd as bowgun rounds continued to pelt its iron-like skin. With it's jaw it bit down on the chain as it pulled, ripping the tree right out the ground as it was swung around, nearly hitting the other hunters before being dragged across the ground.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Thorn muttered as the brute raced forward, its jaws low as it dragged the tree it was still chained too. "Gales!" The Hunter in question went sliding back, his greatsword taking the blunt of the force as the deviljho raised its head, kicking up some debris before slamming it's chin onto the ground and formed a crater.

Gales stumbled back as he stepped out of the dust cloud before coughing. Without a word he started moving, trying to get as far away from the monster's teeth as he could before they found their way around him.

"Cover your eyes!"

A flash bomb went high, and the Deviljho bellowed in pain, its vision lost as light exploded out into the world. It stepped back as it shook its head and growled.


Watching the beast retreat, Siegfried made a face as the hunters continued attacking it. "Looks like I'm a bit late. They found it before me." He muttered before looking around watching the felyne and hunters do what they could while the brute was blinded. "I guess I won't get some exercise in after all." The youth stated, putting his hands behind his head as he made a noise. "But you know… I didn't come all this way just to sit on my ass." He admitted, adjusting his glaive. "Time to ruin someone's day."


"Can anyone tell if we're making any progress?" Holland asked, his grip on his dual blades as tight as ever he found himself on the monster's back trailing a number of cuts down its back. "It feels we're not doing anything to this thing."

"You're right…" Glade grumbled as he took a breath and charged forward, his greatsword ready before be felt something sharp pierce his back. "W-what the?"

"Hey there." A masked figure whispered into Glade's ear the hunter slowly looked at the figure.

"W-who the hell?"

"Glade?" Nox turned to look at the figure behind Glade and forced him to hunch over. "Glade!"

The deviljho howled in the background as the masked individual looked around and hopped onto Glade's back before kicking off again as he pulled his weapon free. He practically flew, twisting around before landing on the flailing deviljho's back.

"Who the hell is that?"

"Does it matter?" The figure asked as he tapped the deviljho on the back with his bloody weapon as the brute started to regain its eyesight. "Hey there big guy, need a hand?" The deviljho just growled, it's muscles started to bulge and stretch as the masked figure chuckled. "I figured as much, still I'm already here and…" He revealed something as he raised it high. "I'm not giving you much of a choice." Light erupted from the gemstone the figure was holding as the Hunters and Guild Knight's covered their eyes.

"A flashbomb!"

"No… that's not a flashbomb…" Evelyn muttered. "That light…" The light started to darken, gradually turning black "Is that a kinship stone?" Evelyn asked.

"A what?"

The light suddenly died down as the hunters regained their sight, and saw the Deviljho had gone limp. "What just happened?"

Some form of purple smoke started to rise from the deviljho as its scales started to darken. Raising its head it breathed a thick haze that caused the dirt beneath its feet to deteriorate.

"I'm sorry, what the fuck?" Gales asked as the Deviljho raised its head and released a bellow, this one sounding less like a bomb and more like a demon howling out into the dark.

"Now then…" The masked figure stated as he adjusted his glaive and brought it behind him. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's start the opening act, shall we?"