The group finally arrived at Omaten a few hours later. The journey had been mostly silent. The twins hadn't said a thing the entire time, clearly irritated over their loss. Luke also remained quiet, still in fear of that Deviljho.
While Mary and Luke knew Judah, they had no idea who the girl with him was. She didn't seem very interested in finding out who they were, either. Judah didn't say much.
The only one who seemed willing to talk was Mary, but due to the lack of enthusiasm everything she started seemed to either go ignored or was dropped after a few short exchanges.
"Well, here we finally are." Mary said. "It's quite big, isn't it?"
No response. She seemed somewhat irritated now.
"You might as well leave it at this point." The new girl told her "Their minds are clearly elsewhere."
"...Fine then. Well, it's getting late. Let's just find somewhere to stay."
No response, once more. She turned to the trio.
"Let's just find some-"
"We heard the first time." Isa responded.
"Then respond."
The morning eventually arrived.
Luke found his way to Mary and Judah.
The large man gave him a relaxed smile.
"Are you feeling any better now?"
"A little." He then finally realised how he hadn't said a thing to Judah since yesterday. "Ah, uh. You look good. How have things been out here?"
"You don't need to act like that. It's only been a few months."
"Sorry."
"Titan's been fine. It was quiet out here until that thing showed up out of nowhere, at least."
"I see. Oh yeah, I think I was so out of it yesterday that I missed her name. Who's that girl you were hunting with?"
"Ok good," Mary thanked him silently "Now I don't have to look awkward asking the same thing."
"Oh, that's-"
"If you're gonna ask about someone you should do it to their face, right?"
The trio jumped as the girl announced her presence.
"Y-yo." Judah tried to sound calm "I didn't notice you at all."
"Well yeah, that's because I snuck up on you on purpose."
"Oh."
"So, you two listen up."
"Wait, me too?" Mary thought.
"I'm Zara. Despite how it may seem, I'm a hunter as well. Don't bother asking me how I ended up working with him, I'm not sure either. It just sort of happened."
"O-okay." Mary turned her attention, noticing the final two approaching. "Have you two recovered any since yesterday?"
They walked past her. Mary turned, not saying anything.
"While we're here, should we take some quests?" She suggested.
"That's probably a good idea." Judah replied "The hunters here are busy trying to work out how to deal with that Deviljho, so there's not as many available as usual to deal with quests."
"That still leaves the question of how the hell we're meant to divide things up, though." Mary thought.
"Well, I guess it'd make sense to split into two teams of three, right?" Luke suggested.
Spence finally seemed to respond to something.
"Big man. We're going to fight something together."
"I'll go with him." Isa added.
"Sure." Judah responded.
"That just leaves us, then." Mary looked to Zara.
"I can't say that it doesn't."
"There's a Tetranadon trying to prove its strength and fighting anything it comes across, as well as a Bishaten that keeps interfering with investigations around the mountain because it's too territorial." Judah paused "We'll take the Bishaten."
"Sounds good."
The two groups set out.
As Mary and Luke got further away from the outpost, they reunited with Kasa and Panzer.
Zara waited a moment, before a Nerscylla descended. Luke jumped back.
"Don't be so jumpy, Arachne's with me. She shouldn't bite too much."
"Too much?"
"Never know for sure."
"I didn't know that you were also a monster tamer." Mary commented "Is that why you partnered up with Judah?"
Zara turned, pausing for a moment.
"Not really. Though it is a weird coincidence, I guess."
The group searched around the waterfalls for a while, making the assumption that it was where the target was most likely to be.
Mary glanced over. Arachne carried around a large box, but nothing that resembled a weapon.
"Zara, I'm curious."
"About what?"
"What you use to fight. Unless you're just planning on staying back and leaving everything to us, you need a weapon, right?"
"That doesn't sound too bad, but yeah, I-"
A rumble in the distance. The group froze, knowing what was about to happen.
"Never mind. You'll see in a moment."
A Tetranadon burst out from the trees, headed directly towards the group.
Arachne and Zara quickly dodged out of the way. Mary and Kasa also dodged, but were too early to notice that Luke remained stuck to the spot, watching the monster approach. Panzer shielded him from the strike.
The hunter and spider turned to face the amphibian. Zara unlocked the box and reached inside. She pulled away from it wearing some strange gloves.
A blade descended and cut through the Tetranadon. It tried to counter with a slap, but found no person there. A humanoid figure with blades in the place of its limbs floated just off the ground, looking as though the wires connected to it kept it suspended in the air. Those wires led back to Zara, splitting off into ten. One for each finger.
Her arms moved once more. The weapon danced through the air, weaving through the monster's attacks and hacking away at it.
"Wirebug puppetry."
She looked to the others.
"Huh?"
"You asked how I fight. This is it. Because I'm not strong enough for normal weapons. Now get to helping, or are you just gonna stand around the entire time?"
"S-sure." Mary and Kasa finally snapped into action. "Come on, we have to get going."
Luke moved once more.
"Sorry, I was just- just. It doesn't matter." He tried to shake off the fear still plaguing him, before opening fire at the target.
The Tetranadon rampaged around, preventing any of its opponents from being able to rest. Its large stomach were able to block most of its lighter attacks, as it used its speed and weight to attack.
Panzer charged into the amphibian, which it met with a slap in response. The two were knocked back slightly, before charging forward again. They reached a tie.
The Tetranadon broke away, targeting the one standing behind Panzer. Luke watched it approach, his mind freezing up once more. Panzer dived between the two, taking the Tetranadon's slaps at a bad angle. He collapsed, knocking Luke back slightly as he rolled across the ground.
Arachne wrapped webs around the target, trying to restrain it, but this didn't prove effective for very long due to its size. It broke out and counterattacked.
Mary and Kasa tried to jump in and distract it, quickly slashing and dodging around. A few slaps barely connected, being too fast to stay clear of.
Luke stared down at Panzer, still on the ground.
"Why is this happening? Why did he get injured because of me? That can't be right, can it? He got injured because of me. It was because I couldn't dodge. It was because I was useless. It was-"
"Hey, the hell are you doing? We're still fighting."
Zara's voice cut off his thoughts.
"Huh?"
"You heard me. Stop staring down like that. You giving up?"
"It's just that- Panzer got hurt because of me."
"Oh, cause you were afraid?"
"...Yeah."
She looked up for a moment. "Things aren't gonna get any easier, you know. The world's dangerous. But you probably came here for a reason, right? So don't just give up on that. You've got at least enough strength to pick up a weapon. So fight."
It was something incredibly obvious. So obvious that it didn't need saying at all. To the point where you might question whether the speaker was really okay, saying all of those obvious things as though they were profound. Of course it was going to be difficult. Of course he could fight. But it was what he needed to hear. What the boy caught up in fear from his first experiences in this new world needed was a reminder.
"She's right. I have to fight. I can't just cower forever. If I don't fight, I can't reach him. So… let's fight."
He opened fire, running towards the Tetranadon. The Tetranadon shot water at him, which he barely dodged past. It then slipped past the two it was fighting to charge at him with numerous slaps once more. He barely dodged out of the way.
Mary attacked the side while Kasa spat fire at the Tetranadon's back.
Panzer managed to get himself back up, Luke hopped on his back to fire at the target while clinging on. The two monsters clashed with one another.
The struggle continued for a while longer, until Panzer finally managed to charge and knock the Tetranadon back.
"Right now should be good."
Zara spoke as Arachne descended from above, catching the monster in a web. It finally managed to properly restrain its movements. The puppet descended through the air, all blades pointed towards the monster. It lunged.
The blades sunk into the creature's head. A sharp cry filled the surroundings. Within a few moments, it ceased to move.
Zara struggled slightly to pull the puppet back, with some assistance from Arachne she managed to get it.
"Looks like we won."
"That was intense…" Mary sighed.
"That's just how it is out here."
"Thanks…" Luke paused "For helping me out, I mean. I was still scared, terrified even, but you reminded me that I've got a reason to keep going."
Zara tilted her head.
"Huh? Oh, that." She looked away slightly "I wasn't really trying to help. I barely know you, after all. It was just making fun of you. OK?"
The other two went silent.
"Okay."
"But you managed to become useful after that anyway, which was interesting enough. So good job on that one, I guess."
He wasn't sure if this was an insult or a compliment this time, so he decided to remain silent. Mary noticed this, and tried to take over the conversation.
"Well, that aside, the important part is that we're done. Shall we get going? The other team should be done by now, I can't see them having much trouble."
As she spoke those innocent words, she had no way of knowing how wrong she was.
TO BE CONTINUED