The group of seven hunters and six monsters approached Valrag at last.
"Hey, captain." Isa asked, looking around.
"What is it?"
"What did you make this place sound so boring for?"
"Like I keep trying to tell you, I've never been."
Rather than saying the outpost resided between two cliffs, it was more accurate to describe it as built into them. Platforms were built on both sides, all connected by various elevators and bridges.
Spence and Laura ran forwards, eager to explore the place. Luke remained in place and observed the lifts, trying to figure out how exactly they functioned.
Mary pushed his back.
"We haven't got all day to just stand around. You can look at them up close once we get there, right?"
"Oh, right."
By the time they reached the outpost, the sun had already set in the sky.
"We should probably just get something to eat then rest for tonight." Said Judah.
"Don't have time for much else." Zara replied.
Luke seemed somewhat frustrated.
"They'll still be there tomorrow."
"I know that. But still…"
"Are you saying they're gonna run away or something?"
"No."
"Then there's no problem."
"Why do you even care?" Laura asked.
"Because I am so tired from all the walking that I feel like I could collapse and not get up for a week, so I'd rather just find a place to stay quickly."
"Oh."
A short while later, after everyone else had fallen asleep, Luke snuck out of where the group was staying.
"Ah." He turned, trying to work out who had spotted him.
Isa stood there.
"So we had the same idea, hmm?"
Luke processed this for a moment.
"You're interested in working out how the lifts around here work, too?"
"Nah, I meant just taking a walk around. Though I don't have any real idea where I wanted to go, so I'll go check that out too."
"Oh. Cool?"
The pair of them headed through the outpost, barely illuminated by the torches. During the day, it had been relatively busy, but at this time of night there was almost no one to be seen.
They reached the lifts.
"Ah, I got it now." Luke began to ramble about how the lifts went up and down. "I've never seen anything like it before! What about you?"
Isa could barely process any of what he just said. "Nah, I've never seen it either."
"Sorry, did I talk too much?"
"Yeah. Don't worry about it though, I lost the ability to follow pretty quickly, so most of it didn't matter."
"That doesn't make me feel better."
"You're not the one who got their brain forcefully turned off."
"I guess."
"Well, not like there's not much else to talk about, so whatever. Except for maybe ghosts."
"Are you scared of ghosts?"
"What? That's crazy. They're definitely not real, so I wouldn- there's no wa- okay, yes."
"Why bring them up if you are?"
"I don't know. But it doesn't matter. I may or may not have been really scared of them at some point, but now I know they're not real. So I can't be scared of them. Because there's nothing to fear."
"...Got it."
"Don't act like they never freaked you out too."
"Well, I can't remember ever-"
Before Luke could finish his attempt at bragging, they both heard something. An ominous song in the distance.
The two of them froze up.
"Th-that's just someone playing weirdly, right?"
Luke frantically nodded.
"Must be."
"...But let's go make sure, just in case."
"Sounds good."
"Then we can kick their ass for playing music this late."
"Yeah, for sure."
They slowly climbed up to the top to find the source of the music, trembling the entire way there. When they finally reached it, they saw something that they perhaps shouldn't have.
An enchanting, otherworldly scene under the moonlight.
The music came from a humanoid shape. That musician was surrounded by a serpentine being, dancing around them. The two continued their dance near-silently, causing the two observers to freeze in place, unable to move away.
A sudden pause. The one from the other world stopped, noticing them. Even without seeing its eyes, they could feel it staring directly towards them. But, an even stranger feeling followed. They could somehow tell that it was smiling.
"Wow, I can't even remember the last time I slept this well. I think it probably had something to do with how I felt like I was about to die."
Zara got out of bed. "Hey, what's up with you? You look like you didn't sleep at all."
"You're just hallucinating." Isa replied immediately, the bags under her eyes heavier than they'd ever been before.
"...Sure."
As they met up with the others, they saw that Luke was the exact same way.
"So you were scared of it too, after all."
"Shut up. How else am I meant to react? We saw it right there."
"What're you two mumbling about?" Zara asked.
"Don't worry about it."
"I wasn't."
They headed over to the quest board. Mary turned to Judah.
"It'd make sense to have us leading the two different teams, right?"
"Yeah. Probably."
"Okay. So let's see here… who wants to go fight an Uragaan?"
"I do!" Laura yelled.
"Me as well!" Spence added, trying not to be outdone.
Zara sighed. "I guess I should go to make sure those two don't die. That leaves you three on your own."
"Sure."
The other two still seemed out of it.
"I wonder if they'll actually be okay? Well, Judah's still stupidly strong, so it should be alright for them."
"Okay, that just leaves us. Any ideas."
"I wanna fight a Khezu." One of the ones standing behind him said in an upbeat voice.
"Oh, you're certainly sounding better-" Judah turned, seeing a new face standing between the two. "Who the hell!?"
The other two spotted them and jumped away, seemingly having not noticed anything until now.
"That's rude."
"S-sorry? Who are you, though?"
"Well, since you're so dying to know, I guess I'll have to go ahead and answer. Jean Demonlord, at your service."
"That's a hell of a last name." Isa commented.
"That's a good line."
"What was?"
"Don't worry about it. Cute name, isn't it?"
"Not really what I was thinking."
"Anyway, let's go hunt a Khezu."
"Why are you joining us?" Luke asked.
"Huh? Isn't it obvious? There's only three of you. So you could use one more, right?"
"That doesn't really explain why."
"I just said it though."
"He's asking why you'd join us specifically. I think."
"Oh." She contemplated for a while, before having what seemed to be an Eureka moment. With great confidence, Jean declared: "Dunno."
"That's it?"
"Seems kinda fun."
"Nothing else?"
"Is anything else needed?"
"I guess not."
"Then stop talking so much and let's go."
A short while later, the four were outside the base. Titan emerged from hiding, followed by Panzer and Irontusk.
"Ah, I guess we should've mentioned." Luke said "We fight alongside monsters. It's not really a requirement to join or anything, but y'know, you might find it weird, so like-"
"Don't worry. I can do that too."
"What?"
"Okay, time for the dramatic entrance." She snapped her fingers. A serpentine shape emerged from the waters, curling around her. "Nice one, Tama. they seem to really be in shock."
"You're that ghost from last night!"
"Oh, so you do remember me. I'm not a ghost though. I think. But I'm always happy to greet fans."
Judah had no idea what was going on, but he decided to just remain silent until he could work it out.
"Why were you playing like that late at night?"
"For practice. More importantly, why were you listening?"
"Cause it was creepy."
Jean looked shocked.
Luke tried to interject. "No, wait, that's not fully accurate. The song itself was nice, I think it's just because of the time and place that there was something unsettling about it, so it's not-"
"So it was creepy, huh…?" She sighed "Guess that means it turned out exactly how I intended. Means I've got nothing to improve."
"So it was on purpose!"
"Why is that a surprise? I'm not such an amateur that I'd play without thinking about it."
"Okay, I was gonna get more mad but I'm really past my capacity to care. Now that I think about it, you're the only one that introduced yourself here. You should probably learn our names before we go hunting together, right?"
"No need. I'm already well aware of your names."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, impressive, isn't it?"
"Okay, so prove it."
"Not a problem," She smirked before pointing towards her. "Jennifer."
"No, my name's Isabel. That's not even close."
"I knew that much already."
"No you didn't."
"It was a test."
"To see if I remembered my own name?"
"Exactly. Imagine how terrible it'd be if you forgot! You're welcome."
"I- Okay yeah I still don't have the energy to get mad at this. You're annoying though."
"I suppose that's about all the time we have. You should really work on your reactions a bit more, but we can always try this routine again sometime."
"What?"
"I said we can try again later."
"No, before that. It was a routine?"
"Of course. You really think I act like this normally? Don't be ridiculous, my dear Isabelthat'snotevenclose."
"What's up with that name!?"
"There's a better reaction. You're getting there."
"Um… can we go now?" Luke asked.
"Oh, yeah. Lead the way."
"I still don't get what's going on." Judah silently contemplated as he followed them.
They made their way into a cave.
"So, any plans on how to deal with it?" Luke asked.
"Just hit it." Isa replied.
"Other than that."
"Don't get hit."
"I don't think a Khezu needs any special strategy." Judah explained "Just be sure to keep your distance when it's charging itself up."
"Sure."
They walked through the cave, keeping a lookout for any signs of it.
"Are we sure it's even up here?" Isa asked.
She heard a noise as she spoke. Slowly, she turned upwards. A strange shape was above her. Before she could warn the others, it dropped down and crashing into the ground.
Isa froze up as its neck stretched out, sniffing the room around it. The others were also freaked out by its movements, slowly backing off. But Isa didn't really have much of a choice, as its neck stretched past her.
So, without the option of running away, what else could she possibly do?
She swung. At full force. Into the creature's neck. It put up more resistance than expected, but her strike still clearly dealt damage. The beast let out a chilling roar a moment later, causing the group to back off slightly.
"Let's just kill it and go home." Isa told Irontusk. "I don't want to look at this for much longer than necessary." She seemed to be in agreement, launching forward and trying to catch the beast between her jaws.
Her attacks missed, it barely slipped out of her grasp. Jean spun around, slamming her hunting horn into the creature's side before beginning to play a song.
The music invigorated the rest of them. Judah crashed into it head-on, trying to overwhelm it.
It planted its tail into the ground.
"Get back, it's about to attack!"
He hopped away. Isa and Irontusk weren't quick enough to respond, getting shocked by the electricity. She staggered back briefly, before the Khezu jumped at her and knocked her over.
Luke tried firing at it, but at the sound of his gun going off the Khezu extended its neck towards him. It tried to chomp at him while he froze up in confusion, but Panzer shoved it out of the way. His charge began, but the Khezu was able to avoid him by hopping out of the way.
Realising that running it over wouldn't work, he advanced. The Khezu could tell he was close, so it stretched its jaws, biting him on the leg. Panzer flinched, but was now close enough to do some damage. The Khezu stuck its tail into the ground and charged itself with electricity, trying to shock him.
It had no effect.
"Guess it wouldn't know that electricity doesn't work on him." Jean commented, before the flying wyvern was smashed into the ground with a headbutt. Panzer repeated the motion. Without relenting, he crushed the Khezu into the ground again and again, forming a crater.
The Khezu managed to stretch itself to slip out, fleeing from its natural enemy.
The others surrounded it. It noticed a new smell and decided to pounce towards that. The moment it landed, the ground exploded.
The Khezu flew back, heavily wounded.
"I can't let Panzer do all the work for me." Luke opened fire at it.
It started to fly away.
"Ugh, we're seriously gonna have to chase after it?"
"Maybe not." Jean stepped forward. "It's our turn, Tama!"
The Mizutsune nodded, firing off a beam of pressurised water. It connected with the Khezu in the air, knocking it down.
"Stand back, because she's got one last trick up her sleeve!"
She released bubbles towards the Khezu. As it got up, it walked directly into them, unable to see anything. A moment later, the Khezu slipped and fell over. The bubbles coated it, making it difficult to even get back up.
"Wait, you said it's our turn." Luke pointed out "But you didn't do anything. That was just her."
"The show isn't over just yet, young man."
Jean dramatically posed before closing in on the target. She spun around multiple times in succession, bedazzling her viewers. Finally, she swung to the ground with all the force she could muster.
Which proved to not be much. The hunting horn bounced off the Khezu's side. Jean stumbled back a few steps, before sheathing her weapon to give a thumbs up.
"...That's it?"
"No no, you're supposed to applaud here."
Judah finally charged at the monster, joined by Titan.
"You shouldn't be messing around during a fight!"
A few minutes later, the group was back outside and heading back to Valrag.
"What was up with that explosion thing?" Isa asked "It was so weirdly cool. You should use it more often."
"I can't use wyvernblast that much. It activates whenever too much force is applied. Like a monster stepping on it. That's the entire problem. If we're fighting in a group it has more of a risk of hitting someone on my side than the target. But in that situation… it was okay. Cause I knew it'd smell the explosives."
"Huh, go figure. That would be annoying. Okay then, next question. Why didn't you just use the bubbles from the start?"
"Cause you all would've run into them. Then you would've been in the same situation as the Khezu, you know?"
"You don't seem like the type to care that much."
"Well, that's true. It would've been pretty funny to watch you all slipping around, but since it's our first hunt together I had to hold back for a first impression. What'd you think? I look impressive and responsible, don't I?"
"Not after you explained all of that. Besides, what do you mean by first impression?"
"Because I'm joining as your musician."
"What?" The other three replied in unison.
Jean seemed confused in response.
"You need another member. So I might as well join."
"I'm never going to get to decide on who's joining, am I?" Judah sighed.
"No, don't just admit defeat like that." Isa urged him "If you show weakness there'll be no getting rid of her."
"So you didn't refuse." Jean smiled.
"See? She already did it!"
"Isn't it fine to have one more?" Luke asked, "We're balanced out this way."
"So she's gotten you too… Okay, I refuse to give in now."
"It's too late, Isabelthat'snotevenclose. I've already won."
"Stop it with that name!"
The musician laughed at her, dancing down the path with a leviathan by her side.
TO BE CONTINUED