Damn it feels good to write this again.

Side step.

Slash.

Roar.

Reiya's heavy breathing filled her own ears, rolling to the side as the Rathalos charged, its powerful jaws snapping shut just where she had been standing.

Up slash.

Wyvern Blade "Pale" cut into thick hide, a brilliant explosion of fire lighting up where the blade had bitten deeply into the wyvern's softer skin on the bottom of the neck. Not that the flame attribute of the sword mattered; Rathalos were quite resistant to fire damage. The cut, also, was less than stellar, the blade only digging in rather shallow. Too shallow for her liking. The Rathalos' head snapped back toward her, its jaws open with fire spewing from its open maw, a mix of orange flame and dark particulates flowing between its jagged teeth.

With a grunt, Reiya mustered herself to jump, narrowly avoiding the massive jaws clamping on her once again. All the while, her sword remained connected to the wyvern, another explosion of fire brilliantly lighting its neck as the blade slashed all the way around to the the thick shell. Loose scales flew everywhere, Reiya landing on her feet before rolling away from the wyvern to get some distance. From the corner of her eye, she spotted what she could only assume was the tail, the massive spiked club flying around as the Rathalos spun to do a tail slam.

Spirit energy welled up from within.

Ducking below the attack, Reiya let out a deep breath, relaxing her body as the tail narrowly flew over her head. Her armor, and sword, both let out a flash of white light as she spun around, her sword raised up and away from her body. Her eyes closed, she focused her other senses, feeling for the right moment to attack.

"Three…"

A snarl from the Rathalos.

Time slowed down for her.

"Two…

The ground rumbled, the wyvern charging.

"One."

Reiya's eyes shot open, swinging her sword around. Another brilliant explosion of flame filled her eyes, her sword smashing the side of the Rathalos' face, the wyvern having been right in front of her from charging. A pained, and strained, groan erupted from the Rathalos as it fell over onto its side, flailing its legs around as it struggled to regain its balance. This, however, was quickly interrupted as Reiya stabbed her sword deep into the base of the skull, the Rathalos' body tensing up as she then jumped high into the air, her eyes narrowed as she eyed her prey down.

And down came her sword.

The distinct ping of a Spirit Helm Splitter filled the air.

And what started as tensing quickly turned into limpness as the fire wyvern's head slowly fell off its neck.

—-

"Hey Joe."

Joe glanced up, his mug of beer half full as his attention turned to Lucian, the man having just arrived back to Seliana after going back to Astera. The whole situation seemed out of whack; there was so much miscommunication going on between all of the senior officials. Hunters being sent to and fro, not even having any assignments upon arrival to their destinations. The whole ordeal was rather annoying. Not that any of them could do anything about it, they could only follow along.

"Did you hear about the rookies with their Rathalos? They've really come a ways," Lucian stated, smiling proudly. Joe snorted a smile; he always knew that Hazel and Anna had potential. Maybe even better potential than he had when he came to the New World. Maybe…even more than Reiya.

The thought was quickly shot down as Lucian then said, "But get this. So I heard Reiya had killed a Rathalos as well. Now, that doesn't sound so weird until you realize that she was out there not long after the two rookies had returned. Coincidence? I think not!"

Lucian pointed a finger up and proudly stated, "they were slacking and didn't finish the job!"

Lucian's voice echoed in the gathering hub, Joe burying his face in his arms in a feign attempt to hide, trying to pretend like he didn't know Lucian. All the other hunters turned to look at Lucian, everything going quiet before they all slowly turned back to continue their activities. Joe cursed under his breath as Lucian relaxed, looking at the other hunter and asked, "so how's your elder hunting going?"

"Stale," Joe answered, his face still buried in his arms. However, he lifted his face and looked up at Lucian, a furrow on his brow as he then said, "there's supposed to be an elder dragon out here. Well, I can't find it."

"Huh. Weird," Lucian replied, leaning onto the table as well.

"Elders are elusive, sure, but this is just ridiculous," Joe sighed, propping his head up as he leaned on an elbow, "even if it was a Velkhana, it wouldn't be this hard to find."

Lucian nodded, his eyes wandering as he began thinking deeply. Joe also thought deeply, trying to decide on what move to make. However, Lucian and his ever conspiracy theorist mind then asked, "what if this mad shuffling of hunters was because the top brass doesn't want us to find something?"

Joe perked at the thought.

There was no way.

…was there?

"Shut the hell up."

Both Joe and Lucian jumped, the Sapphire Star herself, Reiya, walking up to their table.

"Reiya! What're you doing here?"

Joe turned to the woman hunter, immediately wanting answers as his full attention turned to her. Reiya chuckled and shrugged off his question, then answered, "I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere. Where am I not, most of the time?"

Reiya then took a seat next to Joe and leaned onto it, elbows on the table and resting her head in her hands as she then said, "Nobody wants to hear about your mad conspiracy theories, Lucian."

Lucian opened his mouth to speak, only to get cut off as Reiya then turned to Joe and said, "I'm just seeing if you've checked up on the rookies. They left a hell of a mess for me to clean up at the top of the tree the other day. Was certainly a handful that was there, that's for sure."

"Huh? I thought they slew that Rath?"

Joe raised an eyebrow as he watched Reiya, observing her reaction. Reiya opened her mouth, almost caught by surprise, but then quickly cleared her throat as she then said, "...yeah, you're right. They did. Just what I saw up there caught me by surprise, is all. I forgot how messy it can get up there at the top of the tree."

Joe could tell that Reiya was probably lying, but he wasn't going to be saying it in front of Lucian. Lucian finally interjected with a laugh, his arm going around Reiya as he said, "Well well, our Sapphire Star met her match with a RATHIAN? That's the only other thing that would be up there, if not a Kushala Daora!"

"...Not. True," Reiya replied in annoyance, taking his arm off her shoulder as she then said, "Sure, the Rathian is an obvious one, but there's also Azure Rathalos that will occasionally go to that nesting site, Kushala Daora love going up there and you know how annoying that can be, we've baited Anjanath up there before, and..."

This proceeded to go on for what felt like an hour. Joe rolled his eyes, clearly unamused at Reiya and Lucian going back and forth. At some point, Joe had finally just grabbed Reiya's arm and dragged her off to a private corner. The action caught both Reiya and Lucian by surprise, Lucian reaching out for them, but choosing not to follow. Reiya in particular figured that Joe knew she was lying to him, but she couldn't tell him the truth. At least not the complete truth.

Joe's hand slammed against the wall he had pushed Reiya up against, the Sapphire Star keeping her eyes averted from Joe's as the man tried looking her right in the eye. Joe's brow was furrowed as he watched her, observing her reactions, not that she was showing any at the moment. They had played this game too many times. Joe knew what she was going to do, most likely what she was going to say. Reiya, as well, knew what Joe was going to ask, knowing all too well that he wasn't going to be satisfied with her answer, but she was going to give him an honest answer.

"...What happened up there?"

Reiya took in a deep breath, then sighed as she relaxed, leaning against the wall. Her arms came up and crossed across her chest, her eyes staying down as she furrowed her brow in confusion. Joe waited patiently as he waited for her answer, knowing all too well that she often thought out her answers. Whether they were the complete truth or not, Joe always had his suspicions, but he knew he couldn't get the complete truth out of her, no matter how hard he pried.

"...That Rathalos wasn't dead," Reiya replied, causing Joe's hand to pull back from the wall. His eyes widened as he watched her, seeing her turn her face to the side. It was almost as if she was deep in thought, like she was debating on what exactly happened during her hunt.

"I went up to the top of the tree to recover the kill, but when I got up there, the damn wyvern was still alive. I killed it, but I could've swore that they had done the job," Reiya continued, tapping her finger impatiently as she then said, "I've already reported to the Chief, but–."

"JOE! REIYA!"

Immediately, the two's serious conversation was interrupted by the familiar voice of Lucian calling for them both. Coming out of their hiding place, they could immediately see Lucian in a bit of a panic. Reiya blinked, as did Joe, seeing how flustered he was as he immediately ran up to them upon seeing them. He went from being normal a few moments ago to suddenly panicking as he then says, "We need to go to the Reach! Now!"

"Lucian, wha–?"

"Ilia's out there by herself! She just fired off an SOS Flare! We need to go!"