"Why can't you be more like him?"
That was the question that seemed to pervade the young boy's entire life.
A pair of twins, born to a noble family. The younger brother, capable of everything. The older, incapable of a single thing.
He had been all but given up on. Even the boy himself gave up hope.
If he couldn't live up to their expectations, then he had nothing else. Reflected like a mirror image was his ideal self, the one that was loved gave him that relaxed smile. But the boy was trapped in his own body, cursed to be unideal.
It crushed him. He finally cracked, falling away.
There was only one round remaining. As the two sides stared each other down, Spence suddenly remembered something.
He walked up to the other group, holding three headbands. He handed one to Michael first, followed by giving one to Stanley.
The headbands had "Loser." written on them. Michael begrudgingly accepted his while Stanley accepted without much concern.
Bal backed off as Spence tried to hand it over.
"Don't you think this is a bit excessive? It's just training."
"I said I'd make you wear it, so I'm gonna do it."
Bal felt a hand push him back towards Spence. It was Lotus.
"It's fine, isn't it? Because you went and lost, you need some punishment."
"Don't be so unreasonable. Besides, I had to lose. If I won, there'd be no point in having the last round. Since it's a best of three and all. Then you wouldn't get to fight Judah, would you?"
Lotus made a face of sudden realisation.
Luke looked down.
"Oh, so we only won because he let us. Yeah, it makes more sense now."
Isa pointed at Bal. "Stop making excuses!"
"You lost fairly, now you gotta follow through." Spence told him as he attacked with the headband.
"No one without hair could ever be telling the truth." Jean added, with no evidence to support her claims.
Spence finally returned to the group after successfully getting rid of his headbands.
Isa gathered the three who had just fought.
"I didn't get to say until now, but thanks for winning. I really appreciate it. Just leave the rest to me."
The three of them were quite shocked by this display. The smile remaining on her face, Isa turned to Judah and Zara.
"So either of you got any idea what to do? Cause I got nothing."
The three of them went back to feeling unsurprised.
"Nope. We probably should've started earlier, since we know who they're going with this time. The ones left are that rude girl, the science guy and-"
"Lotus." Judah finished off the sentence.
"I was just going to say that. What did you interrupt for? I wasn't trying to be dramatic or anything. I didn't even give you a pause to cut in, I kept talking normally, what the hell man?"
"Uh, sorry. But I wanted to say it to emphasise that he's probably more dangerous than the rest."
"Yeah, you said before."
"It bears repeating."
"Why, though?" Isa asked. "As far as I can see he's just a regular guy. I can just beat him up if you're scared. I plan on trying that anyway even if you're not."
"I felt the same way when I first started hunting with him a few years ago. But he has the greatest destructive potential of any hunter I've seen before or after then."
"Huh?"
"As in how much damage he can cause."
"No, I get what it means, I'm just confused at how."
"Unless he changed his weapon since then, he uses a gunlance. It's hard to describe how exactly, especially with how long it's been, but you should be able to tell once you see him in action. It's something to do with his fighting style. It almost feels like he could cause all the destruction by himself, the gunlance is just an accessory. No, that's not quite right-"
"Look, I'm sure he's great, but you're completely losing me here."
"Oh, sorry. I rambled a bit."
"You still haven't even said what it was like hunting with him before." Zara added. "More specifically, why he has such a grudge against you."
"I already said that I don't know."
"Oh, so you're hiding it. Got it. Must've been really bad. Wow, never thought I'd feel sorry for him."
"I'm not hiding anything."
"I don't think he is." Isa chimed in.
"Oh. Disappointing."
"Is it?" Judah asked back.
"Well do you wanna say what happened?"
"It's nothing really special. I hunted together with him and Bal a few times. He was normal at first, but after a while he started treating me the way he does now. He's always so aggressive, it feels like I can never do anything without him pointing out something wrong. Your guess on why he changed like that is as good as mine."
"You killed his entire family." Isa guessed.
"You blew up his house." Zara guessed second.
"At some point you said something seemingly innocent that could be taken as a horrific insult when interpreted another way, which he did."
"He's just a little hater."
"Is it really okay for you of all people to say that?"
"Okay, nevermind, I immediately take back that last part." Judah sighed. "Your guesses are nowhere near as good as mine. Please stop making them. Should we just try to work out a plan?"
They continued to discuss things for a while.
Eventually, the time arrived. The two groups stared each other down.
"We meet at last." Said Doctor Professor Science.
"Who the hell are you?" Zara asked in response.
"It doesn't matter who he is." Vicke cut DPS off before he could start yelling. "What matters is who wins."
"So, us." Isa answered back.
Lotus almost chuckled. "I can at least applaud your baseless confidence."
Judah sighed again.
"Can we please just start? There's no need for all this."
"Someone's in a hurry."
"No?"
"Very well, then. Just like you want, we'll end this quickly."
"I didn't say that."
Lotus released the balloon.
A tense sixty seconds passed before they broke away from that spot.
Judah studied the other group as they travelled.
"Good. He hasn't changed his weapon since then. Well, maybe not good, but at least it's what we expected."
"How the hell is he carrying that around? It's the same height as him!" Thought Isa, before looking to the others. "That loud girl looks like she has a switch axe. About what I expected. And the glasses guy…"
"What the hell is that?" She unintentionally thought aloud.
"What is what?"
"The glasses guy's weapon."
"Um… A bow?" Judah asked.
"I don't think bows don't look like that."
"I guess, maybe it's just a weird one."
"If I'm not wrong…" Zara began, before stopping herself
The others waited for a few moments, until Isa lost her patience.
"Just say what it is."
"I'm still thinking, I can't remember. But there was one weapon that I saw. Maybe I didn't see it, but I definitely at least heard of it. It was… uh,"
"This is on purpose, right?"
"For once, it's not."
"It's called a magnet spike, you imbeciles!"
"Oh, so that's it." Judah finally processed DPS sprinting towards him. He raised his shield to block the scientist's advance. DPS smirked as he moved his right hand out of view. It emerged holding something.
Judah's eyes then widened as he spotted the gun.
"What the hell?"
He tried to move the shield to block it, but DPS instead fired at Irontusk.
"Heh. This gun wasn't meant for you."
"That's… a relief?"
"Now your monster has been magnetised!"
Judah stared at him for a moment.
"She's not my monster, though."
"Huh?"
"She's my partner." Isa told him.
"How was I supposed to know?"
"I told you!" Lotus yelled. "I told you the Dodogama is his. It worked out for the best anyway because the Dodogama was the only one you weren't meant to hit, but I know that wasn't your intent so this isn't a compliment."
DPS ignored this.
"You're all too bunched together. That's why I couldn't tell."
"And what do you want us to do about that?" Isa asked. "We're on the same team."
"You don't have to do a thing. I'll fix it for you."
As he said this, he launched off the ground. He swung his weapon around and crashed it into the Tetsucabra's tusks, driving her back using only the momentum he'd gained.
The DBA were shocked into silence.
"A guy that scrawny can't be this strong, right? That just doesn't make sense."
The scientist chuckled.
"This is the beauty of the magnet spike! Even with its immense weight, movement is hardly an issue. Because of magnetic forces."
"I never could've guessed from the name." Zara threw in a comment from the side, but the explanation still continued.
"By using my gun to magnetise the monster, I'm able to pull myself towards it effortlessly using the force of attraction! Now-"
Isa tried to crush him with her hammer, but he dodged at the same speed as before.
"You utter fool. Did you forget what the other well known property of a magnet is?"
Isa smirked.
"No. Because I have no idea what the hell a magnet is."
"It appears that my words are wasted on you."
"Stop talking then."
"I'll stick to just communicating with the sentient life forms around me. As you all saw, this magnet spike can also utilise the force of repulsion. With mastery over both of these, I am untouchable. Unequalled! Unbeatable! A weapon of this magnificence can only be wielded by a genius like myself. Not only that-"
"Dude, chill." Vicke interrupted his rant. "You're taking up all the time here."
"But I never get a chance to explain it."
"And that's not my problem at all." She drew her weapon. "Let's get going already."
She dashed forward, barely giving Zara enough time to block with her puppet. DPS gave up on trying to explain things and launched himself back towards Irontusk.
Lotus was the only one left open, he started to run.
"Ah, so that's why he didn't want the scientist guy attacking Titan." Zara thought. "He just wants to race those two to the target, while the other two keep us back. Which is probably the worst case for us, they can't go fast at all. Now that I think about it, no one here can go that fast. We might've screwed ourselves."
Lotus turned back, checking for his pursuer. As he did, Isa crashed her hammer down. He barely blocked it.
"I'm not just letting you do what you want."
Lotus seemed disgusted.
"You're not who I want to fight. Move."
He went on the counterattack.
Isa moved her body to avoid a quick poke from the gunlance, before moving to his right and swinging her hammer around. As expected, it collided with Lotus and launched him into the air. Isa sprinted after him, hammer still drawn, trying to land a second hit as he hit the ground.
The chance never arrived.
As she closed in, he pointed the gunlance at her. Flames emerged without a moment's hesitation. Outside of the attacker's range of vision, he had taken a moment to charge up his gunlance before spinning it around.
Isa's mind froze. It was too late to save herself.
"Ah. I'm-"
A large force pushed her out of the way just before she was hit. Judah's shield blocked the flames. Titan was the one who had pushed her.
After confirming she was still alive, Isa's head fell back as she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, big guy."
"This is why I said to avoid fighting him." Judah told her.
"Ok I didn't think it'd be quite that-" She paused, finally regaining her usual self. "What the hell are you doing, shrimp? You could've killed me!"
"But you didn't die."
"No, but if Titan hadn't saved me I'd-"
"Are you dead?"
"No."
"Then it doesn't really matter."
Isa paused.
"Okay, never mind. I'm going back to killing him."
"Did you forget what just happened?" Judah asked, sounding slightly desperate this time.
Lotus charged up his gun once more, pointing it at the ground. The blast pushed him backwards through the air. He repeated this twice more, using the weapon as a form of transportation.
"I'm going to try stopping him. You two try to get ahead."
"You're being kinda unreasonable." Zara replied, moving her fingers to have her puppet block another axe swing.
"I'm sorry, but there's like… y'know. What else can I choose here? It's kinda-"
"What are you wasting time explaining it for? He's getting further away!"
"But you were-"
"I complain about everything on reflex, how do you not know that by now?"
"O-ok."
Judah ran off.
"You sure get along well." Vicke continued her attack.
"That's rich coming from the one whose captain just ditched her."
"Huh? Yours did the same."
"Were you not paying attention? We're gonna catch up. Right now."
The puppet drew its swords, pushing Vicke back. With no way of blocking them, she was forced to jump back to avoid the half dozen slashes.
The puppet moved forward, pressing the attack. Finally being challenged, Vicke began to take the fight seriously. She lunged at the target, aiming to cleave it in half.
Zara saw the attack coming. In the few moments her opponent spent in the air, she managed to ready a counter strategy.
Arachne picked her up and ran off in the direction of the captains. The puppet was dragged behind her.
"You damn coward!"
"I said we were gonna catch up, didn't I?"
By this time, Isa had already returned to Irontusk's side.
DPS dashed forward again, attacking with the magnet spike and disappearing before they got the chance to strike back.
"We can't escape him, he's too fast." Isa thought briefly, before looking to the Tetsucabra. "Can you dig up the ground? I think that might be the answer here."
As she created a shield of earth, DPS suddenly appeared behind Isa.
"Do you really think that will accomplish anything?"
Isa was freaked out, jumping back.
"My speed enables me to get around something as simple as this before you can even think. What were you hoping to achieve?"
"Well, sure. You can get around it easy enough. But you can't break it, can you?"
DPS paused. Then he began laughing.
"You really don't get it. You really don't understand how great the magnet spike is. I'll show you. The greatest in speed… and power!"
DPS repelled himself again, before angling himself to face the boulder. The force of attraction was strong enough to pull him forward at a blistering speed, even with the object between him and the monster.
Still in its blunt mode, the magnet spike crushed the rock with barely any resistance.
"Now do you see?"
The dust that was created by the attack finally cleared, allowing DPS to see his opponents.
The first thing that caught his attention was the hammer being swung wildly, only a fraction of a second away from his face.
The scientist was slammed into the ground, causing his glasses to shatter. He didn't move.
"That was easier than I thought." Remarked Isa, sheathing her hammer. She and Irontusk dashed off.
The two captains clashed, further ahead of the rest.
Lotus had the clear advantage in speed, but still failed to overwhelm his opponent. It was like a fight between a battalion and a fortress.
Judah was unable to do much except block. The role of attacker was left to Titan alone. Every time Judah blocked a strike, the Dodogama would retaliate for him.
When Lotus attempted to attack the monster, the hunter would shield him. To him, it was confusing. It should be the other way around, shouldn't it? He simply couldn't comprehend it.
Once more, he tried shelling Titan. Judah rushed to block, only barely catching the bullets. This left him completely open for Lotus to follow up with a short blast of wyvern's fire.
"Protecting that thing's just going to keep slowing you down."
Judah tried to find a comeback, but got distracted.
"What?" Lotus asked. "What are you looking at? Say it already. Don't make me turn around… Fine."
He turned in time to see the blades of Zara's puppet flying towards him, leaving him barely any time to move out of the way. They grazed past him.
Judah was the first to speak.
"Good job."
"It's just catching up, it's not that big of a deal."
"I thought Vicke was supposed to be stopping you." Said Lotus.
"Yeah, she was, but y'know how it is."
"No I don't."
The girl with the switch axe finally caught up, stopping to catch her breath.
"Yo- you can't escape now, coward. I'll be sure to- oh. Hey, captain."
"You were meant to stop her."
"Yeah, sorry. But she's too damn fast."
"Hey!" Isa rode in on Irontusk's back. "You miss me!? I'm here to pay you back for almost killing me!"
"Seriously?"
DPS limped in shortly after, his glasses still broken.
"You'll pay for hurting me like that."
Isa was shocked that he had gotten back up, but put that aside for a moment. "Stop living in the past."
"The hell happened to you?" Vicke asked.
"Hit him in the face. With the hammer."
"Nice." Zara commented.
"No, that's dangerous." Said Judah.
"I didn't have much of a choice. Besides, as you can clearly see, no lasting damage. I think."
"All of you. Be quiet."
The group finally took notice of Lotus. A slight chill ran down each of their spines. Even DPS and Vicke had never seen such an expression on their captain's face before.
"Stop interrupting. This was supposed to be a personal fight. You shouldn't be here. I specified that much. But if you won't listen, then that's fine. I'm done with this. I'm done!"
His gunlance had been charging as he spoke. It was finally done charging. He unleashed a fully charged wyvern's fire on the trees around him, burning through them in an instant.
It was only at this moment that the other two members of his team understood Judah's warning. In only a moment of rage, the area behind him had been ravaged almost completely.
One of the trees fell onto the balloon, breaking it without much resistance. The coin fell to the earth. This snapped the rest out of their daze.
Lotus' gunlance was still cooling off, preventing him from using firing for a while. Instead, he ran. This presented just a slight opening for the other side.
Isa dashed after him. The girl with the switch axe followed her, realising what she was trying to do. DPS also activated his magnet spike once more, closing the distance between him and Irontusk near instantly. Zara and Judah then went for the coin after this.
A scramble with nine participants ensued in a very small space. A flurry of random punches and kicks followed, with no way of telling who was hitting who.
The two sides broke away, backing off.
The Starward Diamonds checked. They each confirmed they hadn't gotten the coin.
The DBA discussed plans for a moment. Then they turned to face the other side.
Zara held up the coin. Before they could do anything she hid it from view again. The three passed around the coin quicker than their onlookers could keep up.
"Now who has it?" Zara asked.
"That's simple." Lotus replied. "Doctor Professor Science, which one has it?"
"I don't know."
"But you can usually follow something like this easily."
DPS signalled to his broken glasses.
"Oh. Damn it. Why weren't you more careful?."
Zara ran away. Vicke began to chase her, but was cut off by a hammer.
"Sorry, but she doesn't like dealing with you. Wanna fight me instead?"
"Sure."
The two ran off in another direction, their weapons still clashing.
DPS sighed.
"Go after the spider girl." Lotus ordered.
"I could already tell that you were going to give such an order."
Any of the three of them could have the coin. So they had to chase all three.
This left just Lotus and Judah once more.
"Looks like we're back where we started."
"You don't have the coin, do you?"
"Huh?"
"So you don't. That makes sense."
"No, I never said that-"
"The game might end before we're done if we take too long. Since it's only a matter of time until your subordinates lose."
"Don't be so sure of that."
"Point is, we can't be playing around anymore. Let's finally take this seriously."
"In what world does any of what you just did count as playing around?" Judah thought, preparing himself to fight.
"Why the hell is there a bridge here?"
While clashing, Isa and Vicke had reached a strange bridge.
"I don't know. It's always been there."
"How would that work? Bridges aren't a natural occurrence."
"Well someone must've built it."
"Yeah, but why?"
"Gap's pretty wide. Easier to get across than jumping."
"Yeah, ok, that is true. I meant like… how?"
"It's a complex process, but I think you start by getting-"
"Okay, who!? That's what I meant to ask!"
"Oh, you finally got to the point. How would I know? I wasn't here when it was made."
"I don't care anymore."
Isa attacked, forcing Vicke back. They ran onto the bridge.
It was only upon reaching it that the hammer wielding girl came to the realisation it was too narrow for Irontusk to cross. As she started to go back the way she came, her opponent vaulted over her.
The girl and the monster stared up in awe as she flipped through the air, landing on the railing.
She barely kept her balance, carefully climbing down.
"That was close."
"You completely undermined any coolness you had going for you there."
"It's dangerous, I don't wanna fall off."
"It doesn't even look that deep, don't be such a coward."
"I can't see the bottom. Fine, you jump then."
Isa considered it for a moment.
"Why would I ever do that?"
"To prove your point."
"How about you prove my point?"
"No."
"Well I don't want to either. So I guess there's no other option but to try knocking each other off."
"Perfect. I'm finally done getting warmed up."
She swung her axe around, switching it into a sword.
Arachne ran through the forest, the scientist still following her. He was slowly gaining them, probably as a result of Zara and her puppet on Arachne's back. Zara looked around, finally spotting something of interest.
"Go down there."
Arachne moved to the right, jumping down a slight cliff. The forest went deeper. DPS went after them, hesitating slightly at the drop.
"Calm down. Fear is illogical. The more you hesitate the harder they'll be to find. Keep them in sight."
He hopped down. The trees seemed to stretch even further above him here. The light barely reached this spot, so he was surrounded by darkness. It took about a moment before he realised they had completely disappeared.
"I really wish that one of the others had been the ones to deal with this."
DPS took a step forward. Something swung out from the trees. He barely had time to avoid before the blades of the puppet grazed him. Arachne finished her swing, disappearing back into the trees.
"So that's your plan."
Multiple more attacks followed. From unpredictable angles, at varying intervals. Never giving him a chance to anticipate anything.
"Taking advantage of my lack of vision to attack me like this… I'm glad that I'm the one who had to fight you. This strategy far exceeds any expectations I had of you. However-"
Arachne swung in again. Instead of trying to attack with his magnet spike, DPS held up the same magnetising gun from earlier. It was a near blind shot. But by some miracle, he managed to catch her with it.
"Damnit." Zara thought. "Now it's going to get difficult."
DPS activated the magnetic force, pulling him towards the trees.
"Nowhere to hide now!"
As he reached the trees, Arachne dropped below. DPS grabbed the branch to stop himself from falling, but this proved to be a mistake.
From the darkness to his left, on the side of the tree, the puppet lunged. A straight thrust from the blade on the left arm caught him as he backed away. DPS considered fighting back, but he found himself with minimal footing. Fortunately, he noticed the monster was still directly below him.
DPS repelled himself into the air by pushing off what was beneath him, avoiding Zara's attacks. From above the trees, he considered his next move.
Arachne shot out some webs. Since DPS was unable to do anything but fall in this situation, it caught him.
"I can break out of something like this easily using magnetic force."
DPS decided to wait until she pulled him in to surprise the other pair. To his own surprise, Arachne swung the web around, smashing him into the ground nearby.
The webbing broke. DPS tried to catch his breath as they went on the attack.
"We can't hide anymore because of that annoying weapon. Finishing this as quickly as possible is ideal."
"Stay calm. You've got a foothold in this. Just gotta drag it out for a little bit, then it'll all be good."
Arachne led the way, attempting to bite him. Zara trailed behind.
DPS got up and activated the magnetism. He drew close, landing a few quick hits before flinging himself away.
"We need to change plans. He's just going to keep flinging himself around."
The process repeated numerous times, DPS consistently landing just a few hits. After a few minutes, Arachne tried to trap him in webs once more. Recognising the attack, DPS repelled to get out of the way.
He ended up flying through the air directly into more webbing. Having not expected this, he hesitated for a moment before trying to escape. That single second was all that was needed.
Zara stood nearby. Her puppet descended from above, colliding directly with his head. The scientist was almost knocked out. Arachne jumped down, finally managing to bite him. DPS felt the poison almost instantly.
Instead of running, he swung once more. At such a close distance, Arachne had no chance of dodging.
"Let's retreat!" Zara ordered Arachne. "It's just a matter of time now."
"Just a moment."
Arachne didn't move.
"That was close. If I'd landed one hit less, it would have certainly been your victory."
"What are you talking about?"
"Why exactly do you think your monster can't move? The magnet spike has one more trick. With every hit, the target becomes more magnetised. And once they're fully magnetised, I can perform this magnetic bind. Your chances of escape have already been lowered to zero. Only one hit less and victory would've been yours. Isn't that frustrating?"
A magnetic orb appeared around his weapon before he slammed it down on Arachne. Zara was also caught in the attack.
The dust cleared. The two of them didn't seem to be moving.
"Another perfect victory."
DPS felt like he was about to collapse as a result of the poison, so he decided to prioritise finding antidote herbs over anything else.
Victor of the battle in the deep forest: Starward Diamonds.
On the bridge the two continued fighting with reckless abandon. Their styles were too similar, to the point where it irritated them both.
Isa spun around, but was deftly sidestepped. Vicke readied her sword, going for an elemental burst. Her opponent managed to twist her hammer around to push it off course, causing it to hit the bridge instead. The blast shook the ground, causing both of them to lose balance. They rapidly recovered and went back to exchanging hits.
Vicke switched back into axe mode, increasing her range. She swung it around overhead, trying to keep Isa out. She backed up slightly, nearing the edge of the bridge.
"Hey, be careful. I'm running out of space here."
"That's the idea."
"Come on, this is a lame way to go out, isn't it?"
"It's fine by me."
Isa dashed, keeping her head low to the ground. Her plan had worked. While effective at preventing her from getting closer, those axe swings were tiring. Talking at the same time only caused Vicke to become tired more quickly. Her opponent had to catch her breath. This presented an opening.
Vicke swung down, just grazing Isa. But she continued, undeterred. With a rising swing, the girl was knocked clean off the bridge.
"Shit!"
Vicke flailed around. She thrusted her axe with all her might, just catching onto the side of the bridge.
"Whoa, seriously? That's some tenacity. Too bad it's gonna be for nothing."
Isa raised her hammer, ready to attack the moment her opponent tried to climb up.
"Science kick!"
"What?"
Isa did not know how to process the strange man swooping down to kick her in the head. DPS adjusted his glasses as he landed. By the time her mind caught up, she was already falling with no hope of return.
"Shit!"
Victor of the battle on the bridge: Starward Diamonds.
Lotus attacked. The shells exploded against Judah's defences. The assault seemed to have gotten even more intense than before.
Judah frantically blocked.
"What's wrong? Are you scared? You won't make it anywhere like this!"
Judah didn't respond. Titan suddenly lurched at Lotus, catching him off guard.
"Oh. At least you've still got some fight left."
Lotus stabbed at Titan. The accumulated heat from his attacks only intensified the pain.
"Far too slow, though."
Judah failed to reach them in time to shield Titan, but interrupted Lotus' attack by hitting him with his shield.
"Come on. Take this seriously! There's no point otherwise!"
His breathing was frantic. His eyes wild. Lotus had completely changed.
Judah couldn't understand the reason behind this. He had no idea why. But something else was affecting him.
"Don't hurt Titan!"
For the first time in a while, he felt anger grip him. No matter how many wounds he gained, he was always emotionally resilient. But at the sight of his injured friend, the giant became enraged.
"That's better."
New life was breathed into their battle. Lotus still led, but Judah's responses became sharper. With every opening, with every chance, damage was accumulated on his opponent. Titan had almost run out of rocks, but was using them up without concern.
Lotus boosted himself again, slamming into Judah. The sensation of armour hitting armour caused both of them to become momentarily stunned, but they recovered at around the same time. An exchange of blows followed, both thrusted with the same timing. Judah had a slight advantage in range, allowing him to hit first. But Lotus pushed through to deal a deadlier strike.
Several short hits in quick succession followed, each aiming to force the other back. Judah was the one to succeed. Lotus stumbled back, but still managed to keep his footing.
"That wasn't bad. But you need more strength behind it! Finish me off properly."
"What is your problem?"
"What are you talking about? I just want to fight you at your best. Isn't that normal?"
"All you ever do is criticise me. Even after all this time, you're still acting the exact same."
Possibly as a result of getting too into the fight, Judah was a lot more outspoken than usual.
"And what of it?"
"You shouldn't look down on everyone all the time. This all started because you were doing that to my teammates."
"They started it."
"I'm sorry about that, but I know they wouldn't start a fight without reason. Just because you're such a great hunter doesn't mean you should look down on us."
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't need to be humble, it's obvious. You're great with that thing. Far more powerful than I could ever be. Plus, your teamwork is so far ahead of ours. I think that's clear enough from how you've been able to keep up with us with only half the numbers. Really, I'm envious. It's crazy to think that we're the same age when you're so far ahead. Oh, and there's also-"
"That's quite enough."
"Oh, okay."
Lotus looked away.
"Criticism is supposed to help you improve, isn't it?"
"What? I didn't hear you."
Lotus went on the attack once more. His attacks were far more wild than before the heat of the gunlance threatening to melt through Judah's armour.
Not wanting to lose, Judah struck back. The two exchanged hits with an increased ferocity.
They both seemed to be reaching their limit.
"There's only one way I'm going to be able to win this." His gunlance began to charge up, an attack that Judah had yet to witness was soon to follow.
The temperature of the flames broke through its limits. The tip of the gunlance became surrounded by mysterious energy.
"So I'm trusting you to just barely survive this."
It exploded, engulfing Judah. This was the dragon's breath.
Lotus looked into the flame. A shape burst out as the attack dispersed. He tried to raise his shield to block, but was out of energy. The hulking figure of Judah stood over him, ready to attack.
But, nothing followed. It took a moment to process.
"You were just a step short. That would've been a great comeback, if only you hadn't taken so much damage beforehand."
He relaxed his arms, accidentally tapping Judah's back. The giant hunter fell forwards.
Victor of the battle in the clearing: Starward Diamonds.
"Why'd you have to interfere?" Vicke asked. "I almost had her."
"Sure. So did you acquire the coin from her?"
"Oh. No, didn't get to check."
"Why were you trying to knock her off the bridge, then?"
"Says the one who actually knocked her off."
"That was only because you were trying it when I was looking from above!"
"But I didn't do it, did I? Whatever. So I'm guessing the spider girl didn't have it either?"
"I couldn't see it."
"Can you even see anything right now?"
"...I may have failed to account for this during my search."
"Great, so we've gotta check both of them. Well, let's start by checking the one at the bottom of this bridge. I'll try finding a way down. That Tetsucabra is glaring daggers at us, so you stop it if it tries to attack."
"I don't take orders from you. But I'll do it anyway."
"...That's good?"
Vuce started to survey the surrounding area.
"Hm. What could that be?" DPS wondered aloud, while staring off into the distance.
"What could what be?"
"The strange object I'm looking at."
"That doesn't give me any idea."
"I'm calling it strange because I can't tell what it is."
"Well describe it."
"I don't know how to."
"What do you mean you don't know how?"
"Well I can't see it that well. If I can't make out the details then how do you expect me to?"
"Just describe the shape."
"It's like an orb."
"Okay. Anything else?"
"It's grey."
"Go on."
"Well what else do you want me to say? Oh, it's getting larger. No, wait. Now I get it."
Vicke was forced by her curiosity to finally look up. The two spoke at the same time.
"It must be a cannonball." "That's a goddamn cannonball!"
The cannonball in question hit the bridge, causing it to shake. This stacked on top of the previous damage done by the fighting.
Something shot out of the trees, while the two of them were both unbalanced and completely distracted. Within a moment, both of them were caught in webbing.
Zara emerged, grabbing the magnet spike and throwing it as far as she could. Which was a short distance away. Arachne appeared and moved it off the bridge for her.
"Even after I told that weird blacksmith to leave the cannon out of the puppet at least a dozen times, he still wouldn't. Guess it was helpful this time, though."
"How are you still conscious?" Asked DPS.
"It's pretty easy to fake unconsciousness when your opponent can barely see and has to run off right after the fight."
Vicke spoke this time. "You must've been watching for a while to know that hitting the bridge with that cannonball was a good idea."
"Yeah, that's right. Hitting the bridge was definitely my plan for sure. My aim wasn't off because of inexperience or anything like that."
Vicke didn't respond to this.
"Wait, where's the hammer girl?" DPS asked.
"Underneath the bridge, where you launched her. Why ask?"
"You didn't save her?"
"Huh?"
"It'd make perfect sense if you had your spider create webbing to break her fall."
"Do you think I'm superhuman? I didn't even know what you were planning when you jumped down from the trees like that, or why you thought it'd work."
"Because I calculated the angle perfectly."
"Yeah, sure. But the point is I couldn't have known. And how would we have been able to do that without you noticing?"
The two couldn't provide a counterargument to this. Arachne began to lower herself into the depths below, so Zara climbed on.
"Oh, wait. Arachne, go back up."
She did as instructed.
"You two. One last thing."
She pulled out a coin.
"Check more carefully next time, idiots."
Ignoring the man asking what it was she held and the woman yelling out protests that she had nothing to do with it, Zara descended into the depths.
She found Isa at an awkward angle, having passed out after landing there.
She woke her up and bandaged her injuries.
"It still hurts. Couldn't you have had Arachne catch me?"
"I'm not explaining this again, no."
"But it's the first time I asked. Argh, it still hurts!"
"Don't be complaining. You shouldn't have gotten into a fight on a bridge over some mysterious chasm if you didn't want to risk falling in."
"I know that now."
"Look, you're a big girl. You're just gonna have to get over it. Not much else I can do at this point besides kiss it better."
"Well. I uh, wouldn't mind. Exactly. If you're offering, then-"
"You really need to learn to be dishonest sometimes. Come on, we've gotta get going."
"Can't you just leave me?"
"No, I need all the meat shields I can get right now."
"That's harsh."
"Even if those two don't free themselves, we've still got a big threat around."
"Yeah, I guess so. Ok, let's do it! I'm not gonna be a meat shield though."
The group pulled themselves back up, Isa finally reunited with Irontusk. They then set out at top speed, heading for the start point as quickly as they could.
Silently, they advanced. The forest around them was silent. This created a sense of tension. No sounds of fighting could be heard. They recognised that the fight between captains was over, but had no way of confirming the victor without putting themselves at risk.
Prioritising success, all they could do was run. Keeping watch for any signs of the human incarnation of destruction chasing them.
The trees around them seemed to cover an endless distance, every tree hiding a potential danger. Their eyes scanned their surroundings, feverishly looking for anything amiss. Even a single instance of preparation could spell the difference between victory and defeat, when dealing with an enemy of this calibre.
Zara's heart felt like it was on the verge of exploding. A sense of dread surrounded the group, as though the shadow of death itself was creeping up on them.
The end drew near. Freedom was just a few short steps away. But they recognised that this moment of hope was perhaps the most deadly of them all. Without ever letting their guards down, they advanced at that steady, hurried pace.
They reached the goal, seeing the rest. In turn, they were shocked to see the four of them here.
Isa felt like yelling.
"He really didn't show up after all that!?"
Victor of the group training: DBA.
After putting her released tension aside and firing a blue flare, Isa returned to the group with a smile. Zara trailed just behind her, still not fully processing that they had won.
"Showed his tiny ass."
"Speaking of the captains." Mary replied. "Where did they end up?"
"Oh. No idea. Judah and the little guy went off to fight alone, but we didn't find out what happened. Yeah, we should probably leave celebrations until after we get Judah and Titan back."
They travelled into the forest, first freeing Vicke and DPS.
They found the clearing once more. The two were there lying on top of each other. Titan was just to the side, not doing anything.
"Um, sorry." Said Bal. "Are we interrupting?"
Lotus' head snapped up to look at the group.
"N-no! Not at all! This oaf fell on top of me when he fell unconscious and I've been trapped since! Get him off me!"
The group pulled him out with minimal effort, before bringing them back to base. Judah woke up a short while later.
Lotus stared at the other group, while wearing a headband that said "Loser". In spite of this, his expression remained the same as ever.
"Come on." Bal told him. "You know what you have to say, it'll just be over if you get it over with."
"I know that. Give me time to think."
"We're waiting." Spence told him.
Lotus paused for a moment.
"I admit that… you all exceeded my initial assessment. Even if you're weak, you still won."
"Kind of underwhelming now that we actually got here."
"Yeah, I thought it'd be a lot more satisfying." Isa added.
"What more do you want from me?"
"Maybe try sounding more hesitant?" Zara suggested. "Try to sound like you really hate us but you're forced to admit we're better. You seemed a little too quick to say it."
"We're leaving. I'm done."
Lotus turned, signalling the rest of his group to follow.
"Yeah, more like that."
Spence and Michael fist bumped.
"Next time I'm definitely gonna win."
"I'll welcome your challenge any time, stupid."
Vicke and DPS, now also wearing headbands, glared at Isa and Zara before they left.
Sol bowed to them respectfully, while Milla seemed to have already forgotten the other group existed.
Stanley just waved farewell normally. Kalo offered a warm thumbs up.
Bal was the only one normal enough to go and talk to them.
"Thanks for putting up with Lotus." He said to Judah "He's a good kid, he can just be a real handful sometimes."
"Stop treating me like a child."
"Stop requiring me to treat you like one." Bal turned away from his captain back to the crew. "I hope you were able to get something out of it at least."
He nodded to Luke, who didn't respond.
"It was fine." Judah replied. "I think that we got a lot out of it."
"You're not alone." Bal walked off, waving with the back of his hand.
Even though he was the first to walk off, Lotus was the last one left looking at the group.
"We'll be off to the next area soon. I'll be expecting to see you there."
Judah paused.
"Fen, is your hunter rank over fifty yet?"
"Nah."
"Got it." He turned back to Lotus. "As you heard, we're not going to be going for a while."
Lotus made a difficult to read expression.
"I see."
He rushed off.
Jean watched him go.
"Hey, I had a thought."
"That's unusual." Replied Zara.
"I noticed something important."
The group waited for her to elaborate. Before she did, she started pushing Judah away.
"What? What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Jean, stop."
Jean did not stop. Judah eventually gave up and walked off.
"That Lotus guy is way harsher to our captain than any of the rest of us, isn't he?"
"Because he hates him." Laura explained something that didn't need any explanation.
"Hm, maybe. But maybe it's the opposite?"
Laura stared at her in confusion.
"What else could it be?"
"Oh. So that's why he stopped fighting when he fell on him."
Luke sounded satisfied after having worked out the answer to something that confused him.
Isa nodded. "I finally know what was bugging me about him the entire time, too."
Zara stared at her.
"I didn't know you were homophobic."
"N-no. I don't care about that. I dislike liars, not gays."
It took until this moment for Spence and Laura to work it out.
Judah tried to listen in, but was unable to catch anything being said.
Having failed the ideals, he wandered. The only path that he found left for him was that of a hunter.
The man he was with introduced to him another hunter he had met. Something about needing more allies. But to be honest, he didn't care about the reason. He was completely uninterested in a single thing.
That was until he saw him.
A shining example of everything that he was unable to be.
A perfect defence. Standing tall, he protected everything behind him without a single concern for himself.
Invincible. Unbreakable. Dauntless.
It wasn't perfect. Far from it. But compared to it, he was nothing.
Even here, he couldn't escape from the ideal. Unable to reach it, all he could do was watch. That fragile boy couldn't stand to look at it, but he couldn't live without it. For him, it was akin to the sun.
That was what changed him. He finally saw hunting as something other than an escape. His life had truly begun anew. Chasing after that ideal he saw before him once more.
The next day, the DBA went out hunting as usual.
As Judah, Isa and Fen set out to hunt once more, they noticed another group.
"So we meet again." The short man greeted them.
"Hmm? Lotus? This is a surprise." Judah replied. "I thought you were leaving."
"I said we were going soon! Can't you remember that much!?"
"Oh, that's true."
"So that doesn't mean we were leaving right then. Just sometime soon. It makes sense. There's no special reason for it!"
He rushed through his words, as if desperate to make excuses.
"Oh, ok." Was all Judah gave in response. It seemed as though he truly hadn't noticed anything off.
Lotus showed a strange grin.
"He's way too obvious." Was the thought that united the onlookers from both sides.
TO BE CONTINUED
It's been a while, but I feel like writing an author's comment again. Now you might find yourself asking why such a long chapter could possibly need one, the answer is that it doesn't.
I'm sorry about the length. I went through the majority of this on sheer momentum after finishing the previous chapter and before I knew it it was the longest chapter of anything that I've ever made. It was only a good while in in that I realised that having training go on this long might kill the pacing a bit.
This chapter was made relatively quickly, but that isn't really a sign of anything to come, I've still got a lot of things outside of this that I have to do. Still, I hope that I can keep up a pace similar to this. I've got a lot of things after this that I just can't wait to get to. So here's hoping that I can.
Now for some fun facts, because I like revealing things like these.
The Starward Diamonds were originally planned to be one-off joke characters, but at some point in the process of developing their captain I must've gotten too attached to him. I certainly never expected that it'd turn out like this.
Lotus was going to be a girl at first, but after I decided on the crush on Judah I decided to make him a boy. Also, his name was difficult to decide on, so I stole it from a NPC in a ttrpg game I'm running. A lawful good rival to the party who is themed around diamonds and ideals as well. Maybe I'm just unoriginal.