DBA FG

by HyperBrachydios

A quarter of a century has passed since the conclusion of DBA G. The new generation of monster taming hunters set out into unknown lands, only to find a world beyond their control and blood that stains the ground deeper than they could possibly understand. This is nothing more than a story about finding something. Beyond the end, the expedition of the powerless begins.

31. To Be King

He wanted to be king. That was his sole driving force. All that he ever wished for and dreamed about was to be king.

If asked what he wanted to be king of, he couldn't have answered. He wanted nothing in particular but to rule. So the answer was probably everything. He didn't put that much thought into it.

He simply wished to reach the top. So he set out. To gain strength. To gather allies to support him.

To overcome what lay before him.

But the world that he wished to rule over wouldn't have allowed something like that.

He only realised that at the end. At the end of the world. At the end of his journey. Before what could've been called the end of all things.

That was the difference between him and the monster that faced him down.

The strong ruled. The weak were ruled over. One's place in this dichotomy was already decided on by the time of their birth. It was immutable. A law of the world, out of the reach of every living being subjected to it.

Until that moment, he had believed that with enough effort anything like that could be overcome. What hovered above him was the proof that served to smash that belief to pieces.

Upon realising this, his heart burned with resentment. Not towards the enforcer of the rule, but towards the rule of itself.

How could he fight a rule? A rule that everything in this world was subject to. Something

As his brain raced at a million miles an hour, he came to understand some more.

It was only people that had gained any semblance of doubt in it. Everything else never suffered from any such delusions. At that moment his mind went deeper, understanding that all of civilisation was a desperate attempt to deny that rule. A torch of self-deceit, passed down for generations.

When people began to deceive themselves, they created a label for everything that existed outside of the delusion. They called all of it wild.

All in the space of less than a second, he experienced these revelations. But he felt no joy. If anything, he felt only further resentment that even despite now understanding everything about this world on a far deeper level than anyone who had come before or would ever after come after, his life would be snuffed out in just a second as though he was a normal human.

Of course, that was because he was cursed to be below the top. This world never meant for him to win. This wasn't the world that he was meant to reach the top of.

He, still alive, having lived his whole life, couldn't accept that it would disappear as though it was nothing. As so many nameless others had done before him.

The storyline had no place for him.

So he decided that he must twist it. Over and over again. Bending everything out of shape, rendering it incomprehensible.

Until it was finally for him.

So he thought, as he reached his hand forwards.

---

Fera Gladius arc part 8: To Be King

---

"Alatreon."

That was all Judah found himself able to say.

"Oh, look at that. There's more of you now. At least you seem a bit more observant. Nail on the head. Have you ever seen one before?"

"No."

"Of course you wouldn't have. But you can somehow tell, just from a glance. It's interesting, isn't it?"

"You must be the king, then?"

"Oh, you're good at pointing out obvious things for everyone. I like you. Have you considered switching careers? I'd be willing to use you just for that if you surrender. I think you might be wasting your talent if you stay as a hunter. At the very least, you'll probably live a lot longer if you switch now."

"Couldn't he have just said yes?" Judah thought.

"What happened to the other two that were with you?" Mary asked Isa.

"What happened to yours?"

"Disappeared."

"Both Laura and Spencer ran off while fighting." Judah added.

"No surprises there, I guess. But what do you mean disappeared?" nah, actually, it doesn't matter."

"What about Luke and Zara?"

"Luke went to go fight his brother."

"What?"

"He was right close by, so he went to go fight him."

"You just let him go?"

"He's the one who thought of it."

"But you let him go!?"

"He said he could win. I still wanna beat that guy up, but I'm believing in him. Because he seemed serious about it."

"...What about Zara?"

"On the way in here we ran into the one with the spear. Zara said she'd keep her busy while I went ahead of her to deal with the king."

"That was Minerva, wasn't it?" Judah asked. "I… know this might sound disrespectful, but I don't think Zara and Arachne alone can handle her. Just going off what we were told. We really should go to help her. The Alatreon is out of our league, let's retreat for now to gather up some more numbers before we even think about challenging him."

"Hey, you seem to be forgetting that I'm here." Wild interrupted. "Just to be clear, now that I've gotten going I'm not gonna wait around any more. I'll be eliminating you all the second you get done arguing. Oh, but don't take that to mean you can argue forever. Once you stop arguing or once I get too bored, that's when things will kick off."

Isa was still looking at her teammates.

"She trusted that I'd beat the king. She told me she wouldn't be a sacrifice. If I turn back now, then I'll be a liar. Besides, he's right here in front of us. If we get the secret of how he's controlling the monsters out of this guy, then this whole battle's going to be turned on its head. You two want to get Luke's brother back, right? That'll be so much easier if we can beat him."

Mary paused for a second before asking one question.

"You know what an Alatreon is, don't you?"

"Yeah, course I've heard of it. Everyone has, right? Didn't think it was a real thing, though."

"You'll die."

"No, I won't. Because then I'd be a liar."

Mary hesitated for a few seconds.

"I'm not going to let you just throw your life away-"

"Like I just said, I-"

"So I'm going to stay here and fight it to make sure you don't die!"

Isa looked back at her, finally silent. Before she could find a response, Judah stepped in.

"This whole system's going to fall apart if you two ignore my advice."

"Ah, sorry." Mary seemed to get somewhat embarrassed as she said that.

Isa didn't apologise.

"This is probably going to be the most dangerous fight we've ever been in. With any luck it'll be the most dangerous fight we ever get into. I'm not going to leave the two of you to die here. So if we're going to make it out alive, I need you both to listen to my orders no matter what."

"Yes."

"Got it."

"Oh, so you're fighting after all." Wild looked up. "Are you sure about that?"

"You just told us to stay and fight a second ago." Mary pointed out.

"Everything that comes out of his mouth is nonsense," Isa was speaking from a few minutes of experience. "Just focus on the fight."

"I'm just giving some advice. Your minds are probably scrambled right now, aren't they? For everything that you can gain by fighting, you risk losing it all. That fear isn't unfounded. Just from a glance, you should be able to tell that what you're up against isn't within the realm of the beings you normally clash with. The risk has been multiplied, spiralling so high that it can no longer even be properly calculated. So I'm telling you that it's fine. Humans were made to run from creatures such as this. Do you really think I would look down on creatures for following their instincts?"

"You talk too much."

Three hunters. Three monsters.

Stood against one poacher and one monster.

Isabel Page, hunter rank 18.

Mary Gilmore, hunter rank 28.

Judah Harrison, hunter rank 47.

Were now facing down a monster only told of in legends.

Fighting the average monster was generally considered a massive undertaking. Fighting more than one was unusual. Fighting more than two was considered even more so.

In this bizarre, one of a kind situation, they had been thrust into several life or death battles in a row.

Fighting a legend while in top condition was clearly rash, but fighting one while exhausted was indescribably rash.

Of those present Isa was currently the worst off, having just scared off Nebulo minutes prior to encountering the king.

The other two, looking at her, assumed that she was exhausted. But ironically, she was still on a high from her previous battle. She felt as though she was at her peak, in spite of all the damage she'd taken until now.

To any outsider observing and even to themselves, they appeared woefully underprepared. But what kind of person could ever, at any point in their lives, say truthfully that they are fully prepared for a fight against an elder dragon of the Alatreon's caliber.

No one is ever ready to become a hero. No one is ever ready to encounter, or become part of, a legend. It simply occurs.

"Monster, wipe them all out."

And so, without any preparation at all, those six were thrown into a legend.

The Alatreon dashed forwards.

"We're going with the normal strategy for now!" Judah announced that to the others, before dashing into the Alatreon's path. He braced himself, crashing his shield into the ground. Every single part of him was focused on the act of guarding this one attack.

The Alatreon crashed into him, pushing him back.

"It's strong! I should've expected something like this, but its strength is completely disproportionate to its size! This feels like I'm getting hit by a Duramboros! That's why it's a legend, isn't it?"

He dug his heels into the ground, trying desperately to stop the elder dragon in its tracks.

The force was too great. Judah was pushed back all the way into the wall.

"Judah!" Mary yelled out of concern.

As he crashed against the wall, he felt some memories coming back to him. From years ago.

Luke was telling him about what he'd learnt from reading

"Every account I read of it, one thing always seems the same. It always appears where people shouldn't be. People never talk about it coming towards civilisation, it only ever attacks when people are far away from it. That's interesting, isn't it?"

In the present, remembering those words, he thought to himself.

"I get it now. I really do get it. Being hit like that let me feel it. This is definitely not something people were ever meant to face. It's more like a warning, isn't it? If people dare to venture too far into the forbidden land, then death will certainly come for them. This must be that certain death."

The dust cleared. Judah still stood tall, even when pressed against the wall. He struck out, aiming for the Alatreon's horns with his lance.

"Well, I'm still alive. For now, at least. Let's see how long we can make that last."

Hearing noises behind him, Wild turned to see Kasa flying towards him. Mary was on her back. The Alatreon didn't miss the sound of Kasa's wings flapping either.

Mary felt Kasa freeze up. As its eyes moved, she could instinctively tell that she'd been spotted. That she was being targeted.

The Alatreon spun around, almost knocking Wild off its back with the sudden burst of motion before lunging towards Kasa.

Something jumped between them.

Irontusk leapt into the air with Isa standing on top of her, raising her to the perfect height for an attack on the Alatreon's horns.

Like a spring being let loose from the maximum level of compression it could manage, she launched her hammer into the Alatreon's left horn.

"That should've been a good attack. So why does it feel like it did nothing?"

The attack had sounded right, but it hadn't felt right. The Alatreon had barely been affected by the strike.

Having spent more than a year as a hunter, Isa was no stranger to the idea that an individual attack of hers wouldn't have much of an effect on a monster. That was to be expected.

But she knew that it at least did something.

Even the most durable of monsters would surely fall if she hit it enough times, in the same way that enough drops of water in a bucket would eventually fill it.

But this time it was different.

"It's like nothing happened at all. I chose this spot cause it looked like the weakest point, but it doesn't feel like I did anything. Just what is it made of?"

Gravity pulled Irontusk back down, leaving her briefly open to an attack. The Alatreon did not miss this chance, readying itself to bite through her.

Judah just barely managed to get between them, blocking the bite attack. This time, he managed to resist being pushed back.

"That Alatreon is far too dangerous. It's so far above anything else I've ever seen. There's no way that we can fight that. The best idea, and the fastest one, is to go for the one ordering it around."

Mary thought this to herself before giving the order.

"Aim for the man on its back, Kasa."

Kasa spit out several fireballs, aiming for Wild.

Wild heard the sound of them behind him. He only glanced backwards before giving orders.

"Monster, turn around!"

By the time he gave the order, it was already too late. The Alatreon was too slow to block all of the fireballs, resulting in one hitting Wild.

He had come prepared to fight. The armour he was wearing prevented the fireball from incinerating him instantly. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

His whole body recoiled from the impact. Luckily for him, he managed to avoid catching on fire.

As his mind pieced itself back together, Wild thought to himself.

"I see how their formation works now. Isabel will attack from the front and… oh, I forgot to ask for their names. No matter. She and the Tetsucabra attack from the front, while the bird girl circles around from the back. The lancer seems intent on blocking everything. Even worse, he's already getting used to the Alatreon's strength."

He contemplated some more.

"The lancer is by no means fast, but he's certainly less slow than I expected. He'll probably stick to the Alatreon's front as much as possible. I wonder if I could tire him out by ordering the Alatreon to spin endlessly. No, I'd disorient myself before anything else. Hmm. I get the feeling that he's what's holding things together. So if I can take him out of the fight, then the other two will fall easily. But if I were to sort them by the immediate threat they pose to me, he definitely ranks the lowest. I doubt he can get up to where I am with that heavy armour and weaponry. I'll go in the order of most dangerous to least, so you're first."

Wild finally spoke.

"The Alatreon isn't best known for its strength. It's known for its mastery of the elements. So it'd be a waste if I didn't use that. What was the saying again? Right, that's it. Fight fire with fire. So monster, engulf that bird wyvern over there in flames."

At his command, the Alatreon shot forth a ball of fire. It dwarfed Kasa's attacks, swallowing them whole as it scorched through the air.

Kasa dropped to the ground to avoid it.

The fireball continued past her, annihilating the section of the castle behind her. A clear indication of what would've happened if it had caught her.

Paying no heed to damage, Wild continued talking.

"Your reflexes really aren't bad. It's a shame that there's not a lot more you can do except dodge. Now-"

Wild stopped, hearing a voice echoing from above. He looked up to the next floor.

"I hear it! The sounds of a fight! Don't think you can hide from us!"

Spencer and Storm dropped from above.

"Found you!"

Both of them focused solely on the king and his elder dragon, preparing for an attack from above.

"Mons-"

Before Wild could finish the first word of his sentence, the ground under the Alatreon crumbled away. It did not simply fall because of their weight.

It crumbled because something was rising upwards.

Laura emerged from below, her greatsword already in the process of being swung. The Alatreon just so happened to be in her path of attack.

The sword continued rising into the air. It drove itself into the Alatreon's chest, drawing blood.

In spite of the considerable size difference, Laura's attack was enough to launch the Alatreon into the air. Wild desperately clung on to its back.

Blood sprayed through the air. The dragon rose up. Those directly above it had no chance of dodging. Spencer and Storm found themselves in that unfortunate position.

Just like bowling pins (if both the bowling pins and the bowling ball were in the air, for whatever reason that may be), they were scattered aside.

Laura landed nearby.

"Laura?" Judah asked. "Why did you come out of the ground?"

She turned.

"I was under the castle. So I jumped up."

Judah wasn't sure where to start questioning that statement, or whether it was even worth spending the potentially very limited time that he had left to live on trying to get a coherent explanation out of her.

In the meantime, Spencer slammed against a nearby wall and slid down it.

"The hell were you doing up there, idiot!?" Isa yelled at him.

"Don't call me an idiot, what the hell are you doing down here!?" Spence yelled back, before pausing. "No, seriously, what are you doing down here? Where's the other two?"

Spence looked around before pointing at Mary too.

"You're here too!"

"Yes, I know that."

"And what's with that monster I just tried to attack?"

"Alatreon."

"What? For real?"

"Yeah."

"Damn."

"There's no time for this right now." Judah stepped forwards. "That's an Alatreon. On its back is the king. We need to take him down as quickly as possible. Understood?"

"Understood!" Spence yelled back.

"I didn't think these things were real. But now that it's here… I'm getting a little excited."

Laura turned to face Judah.

"This one's worth a lot of points, right?"

"Huh? Ah, sure, if we're still doing that."

"Then he's mine."

"I was here first." Spence argued back.

"Oh, you're here too."

"I was here first!"

"You realise that you're both late arrivals, right?" Isa tried to remind them, but got ignored.

"I don't care! I'm taking him down first!" Spencer dashed forwards.

"Not if I get him first!" Laura followed after him, ready to cleave through the dragon.

Watching them go, Judah failed to miss the effect that Laura's attack had on the Alatreon.

"It's bleeding from its chest, where she cut through it. I knew that she was strong already, but it's a relief to know that she's strong enough to be able to damage it properly. With those two here, we might have a chance."

Isa noticed as well.

"So it can bleed after all. I'm a bit annoyed that my attack didn't do anything while hers did, but it's fine. She proved something important. If it's got blood, that means it needs it. Means it'll die when it's out of blood. So that means all I've got to do is keep hitting it until it dies!"

"You newcomers are so noisy."

Wild tried analysing the situation once again, watching his new attackers approach. Two hunters and one Tobi-Kadachi running alongside them.

"If I'm not hallucinating, that greatsword girl really did some serious damage to my Alatreon. There doesn't look to be anything special about her sword, so it must exclusively be a result of her freakish strength. I'd say she's the biggest risk now. Perhaps just to the Alatreon, not me. No, just where did she jump from? Underground? I shouldn't assume I'm safe just because I'm up here. And what of the other one?"

He looked around.

"Just where did he go? The monster too. I was just looking at them, so just where-?"

Crackling. The only hint he received was the sound of crackling. Turning his head slightly to the left to trace its origin, he finally saw them.

Spencer and Storm were upon him.

A second prior, they had picked up their speed and headed to the side of Wild. Half a second following that, they had launched themselves upwards.

Less than a minute after using it to defeat Nitro, the pair performed the Monster Art: Thunderbolt once more.

Unlike before, Wild didn't even have a chance to attempt a response. By the time he noticed it, it was already too late. He was given a momentary chance to process it, and that was all.

Spencer and Storm hit the Alatreon, but only ended up grazing Wild. It wasn't that he had dodged, but that their aim had been off from the start.

"Damnit, that one wasn't right at all!"

Unable to stop themselves, they carried on before hitting the ground nearby.

"Don't use your monster arts so recklessly." Judah told him. "I've told you before."

"But I thought that if we did it quickly then it'd work.."

"Thunderbolt needs Storm to build up static charge before it becomes effective, right? You barely charged it up that time, of course it wouldn't work."

"I guess you're right, but still. I wanted to go bzzt as quick as possible."

"Just save it for later."

Laura finally reached the Alatreon in the time that this conversation took, forcing Wild to focus on the fight again.

Laura swung her sword around in a vertical arc several times, the momentum increasing the force.

"Monster, take to the air."

The Alatreon jumped backwards as the sword crashed down, splitting the ground.

Wild turned, seeing Kasa diving towards him with Mary atop her back.

There was barely any space between them. They were clearly going in for the kill. The Alatreon reacted.

Seemingly following its orders from earlier, the Alatreon began charging up a fireball.

Mary remembered the earlier attack. At this range, with this little time, she could tell that she would surely be caught in it.

"That idiot. Hey, gimme a rock. Quick!"

Irontusk complied with Isa's request, quickly digging up a chunk of the ground and throwing it towards Isa.
She batted it towards the Alatreon at full force.

Monster Art: Glamorous Slugger.

The projectile smashed into the Alatreon's head, diverting it enough that the fireball shot into the upper levels of the castle.

Even though they had both almost just died, or perhaps because of that, Mary and Kasa's attack continued. Simultaneously, Spencer and Storm jumped towards a wall and then kicked off it to get closer to Wild.

He was being closed in on. Wild could instinctively recognise that much.

"Monster, continue to ascend."

It was the only response he could come up with. In a single powerful flap of its wings, the Alatreon rose out of the reach of its attackers. Spencer diverted his course, boosting himself into the air to catch up. He failed to reach above the Alatreon, the best he could settle for was landing a slash attack on the elder dragon's underbelly before he fell.

Kasa had no such obligations towards the pull of gravity. She rose, the two of them chasing the Alatreon further than anyone else in the group could.

Another fireball threatened them. This time, they were expecting it.

Kasa swerved underneath the Alatreon, getting completely clear of the fireball.

Those still on the ground dove out of the blast range.

"Monster, just do anything to get them out of the air!"

At Wild's command, the Alatreon attempted to hit Kasa with its claws. She glided out of the way once more.

The Alatreon was by no means a lumbering beast, in the way that its attacks continuously being unable to land implied. By the standards of Elder Dragons of its type, it was small and agile.

That only served as a testament to Kasa's agility in that moment, even with a hunter carried on her back.

She twisted around the Alatreon, slashing at it with her beak at every opportunity. Mary joined in with her sword as well.

The fight showed no sign of descending. The two sides danced around the cramped space inside the castle.

Finally, things drew to a close. Kasa rose above the Alatreon slightly, providing ample opportunity for their real plan.

Mary jumped, kicking off Kasa's side, her sword raised. She only had one target there.

She focused on Wild. This one slash was likely all she would get. From this angle, from this speed, she knew that it would be effective. So she put

Only to hear the sound of something being stabbed. An instant later she felt it.

A sword, slightly longer than hers.

That was what had stabbed through her abdomen.

Her momentum died completely. The decisive attack failed.

Wild smirked.

"Bet you thought I was unarmed, didn't you?"

"Where… were you hiding that?"

In lieu of answering, Wild simply drew his sword back.

A two handed sword, but still smaller than the average longsword or greatsword.

The king's sword.

Mary was falling.

Distracted for a moment, Kasa ended up being caught by a swipe of the Alatreon's claws.

"Spencer!"

Judah yelled out his name to attempt to get him to act, but Spencer and Storm were already taking action. Like they had before, they jumped into the wall and then kicked off it. Not to attack, but to break Mary's fall at least somewhat.

Storm caught her in mid-air before landing a few seconds later.

"I'm alright, it wasn't that deep of a wound."

Mary reassured the others before they could even ask how she was.

"You should still drink a potion regardless."

"Sure."

As she followed Judah's advice, the Alatreon began descending.

"Don't try anything like that again." Isa warned her. "The rest of us can't follow you into the air."

"I know that."

"Then don't do it. You'll probably die if you try again. Not a good look when you were saying that you're only fighting here to stop me from getting myself killed, is it?"

"There's another good reason not to go off on your own again. You took so long that Storm's completely lost all the static we built up fighting. Now we're gonna have to start over."

"Oh, sorry."

"Oh, yeah." Laura seemed to remember something. "I should top up too."

She reached into her pouch and pulled out a bottle filled with red liquid. She removed the cap, leaving it open for only a second before she started to chug it.

"Hey." Judah interrupted.

She stopped drinking. "What?"

"What are you drinking?"

"Demondrug. Don't you know it?"

"I know it. That's why I know that there shouldn't be steam rising from it like that."

"Huh. Isn't that just cause it's super hot? Like whenever I drink this I feel like I'm on fire. That's why it makes me stronger.."

"No, it's not meant to be hot."

"It isn't?"

"...Laura, please don't tell me you thought that hot drink was a demondrug."

"But it's red. Demondrugs are red, aren't they?"

"They're both red. Have you been using a placebo this whole time?"

"Heh." Spence smirked. "A wimp like you needs a placebo."

"Do you even know what that means?" Laura asked him.

"No. But I know you don't either."

"I'll explain it afterwards. Here, Laura." Judah reached around in his pouch "This is a real demondrug. You'll probably get more use out of it than I will, so take it."

Wild watched them from above.

"Even though one of their own just got injured, they're completely relaxed. No, I shouldn't focus on that. Just how can they relax when they're up against an Alatreon?"

"They're not taking me seriously enough. That's all there is to it."

He inspected them more closely.

"Now that I think about it, just why should they take me seriously? Aren't they just perfect? Hunters that fight with monsters. The real thing. Now that they've come out of nowhere, I must seem like a fake. I see, that's perfect. Of course they don't need to take this seriously. Even though I have the world's strongest power at my disposal, even though they're weaker than me, they're the real thing. The world must mean for them to prevail against me. Youth is a wonderful thing. They're going through this journey, getting stronger at every bump on the road."

"The sin of the strong is their ignorance. A predator can't understand the feelings of its prey. The talented have no idea what it means to be untalented. Those destined to win can't understand the lives of those without that destiny. There's no way the unchosen can win against the chosen. And so what? I know that already! From the moment I understood that rule, I loathed it so much that I poured my whole soul into breaking it. That's how I obtained this power. It was all to twist this world off course. To desecrate that destiny that insures them!"

"I shouldn't be here. They shouldn't be here. No one in this place should be here. This power that I found in the depths of hell is what has twisted fate to this point. That's all the more reason that you can't lose here."

"I have to go further. What's the point in being so defensive? The world's strongest is at your command, so use it. Fight more aggressively. Fight more unfairly. You know how it fights, so you have to put them through the same experience. Make them lament having ever encountered me, make them protest that they had no way of being ready for this, make them cry out that there was no possible way they could've ever won. That's the only way that I can break through their destined victory."

And so, with his full soul bared, the king barked out the order.

"Monster! Rain lightning down upon them!"

Numerous bolts of lightning began to form around the room. Those below were unable to do anything to stop them. Moving as far away as possible would have been the only logical option, but it seemed there was no corner free from them.

Wild looked down upon Spencer and Storm.

"What's that look for? You wanted electricity, didn't you?"

As he finished speaking, the room was engulfed in bright light.

Lightning burst off as his words trailed off, engulfing the entire room with its glow.

---

Manifestation record
WR #217

Manifestation name: Monster Domination (This is too boring, let's change it later. I'm thinking of something to do with the group's name.)

Effect: User can take control of monsters. Initial subjugation required close contact with the user (unverified).

Following that, any verbal command he gave would be followed without question. The monster would become unable to do anything other than follow these commands.

User's aura was presumably used to control the minds of monsters.

Seemed to have no limits on what monsters could be subjugated, as he was able to command Elder Dragons. Unclear what would happen if used on a person. Perhaps it relied on the user's personal interpretation of what a monster is. Since manifestations are a product of the mind, he may have been unable to directly control anything capable of conversation.

Also unclear how exactly the monster would know how to interpret these commands, but this could have been the aura interpreting the words into directions the monster could follow.

While Wild was the only one that could control monsters, the others in his organisation could give orders in the same way. This was probably a loophole. It's plausible that if he gave the order to a monster to follow someone else's commands as well, then they would be able to order the monster around in the same way as him.

That was how he amassed an army of poachers backed up by monsters.

Category: External targeting.

User: Steven Dwyer. Preferred to be called the king of the wild. Former hunter. Leader of the poacher group Fera Gladius.

Age at awakening: 27

Origin: In 1370, he led an expedition into the final area of the Frontier Grounds. The group was not heard from again. Presumed deceased for several years, but shortly afterwards the group Fera Gladius was formed. As he used a fake name and his face for several years, the Guild was unable to confirm his identity and abilities until after his confrontation with the hunter group FG.

No other members of his expedition have been confirmed alive or dead, so it is reasonable to assume that their deaths were the trigger for his awakening.

His motives as the leader of Fera Gladius were unclear, from his aggressions towards the guild and amassing of large amounts of power by exploiting his manifestation, it was mostly likely some desire to rule over the world.

Or at the very least, rule over monsters.

This theory would explain how he was able to consciously take advantage of the loophole in his manifestation. Referred to himself as the king, assigned the others in the group titles.

He was the king, while they were the followers utilising the power he distributed to them.

More powerful followers were awarded more powerful monsters (except the ones who already had a monster under their control when they joined up, in that case they weren't given any. But both ended up in the higher ranks regardless, somehow).

Information compiled by Argenti.
December 27th 1376

---

Isa felt her senses starting to return to her.

First was her sight. Her surroundings were unclear, but as time passed she came to realise that it wasn't because she couldn't see but because there was nothing around to see. She and Irontusk were in the middle of a giant dust cloud. Distantly, sunlight seeped in through the shroud.

Her hearing was next, a constant ringing to remind her she was still alive.

Finally, her mind recovered to the point of being able to find it strange that sunlight was coming from above. She had just been inside a castle. A decrepit, long abandoned and very recently un-abandoned castle, but nevertheless a castle with a roof. She had no idea about the heated battle between a hunter and a hero of justice a few minutes prior which had left a hole or two in that roof, and would never know, so it had no impact on her judgement.

A place with a roof shouldn't have sunlight coming through the top of it, so she reasoned. This meant she was outside somewhere.

At the very edges of the dust cloud, she caught sight of familiar scenery. The city surrounding the castle.

Then she realised.

Isa hadn't been blasted away. She was more or less where she was before the attack, in the middle of the ancient city. It was the castle that had disappeared.

There was rubble strewn around her. The lightning had torn completely through the castle, finally bringing it down.

"So it destroyed everything around us? How are we alive? No, it doesn't matter right now. I'm still alive, so let's keep going."

She heard the voices again. Those voices that drove her forwards. She'd never had them show up multiple times in the same day before, though at that moment she wasn't in the right mental place to realise it.

The pain of those memories far outweighed the pain in her body. That was how she was able to keep moving, even past what should've been humanly possible.

She remembered the liars. She wished to crush the liars. There was a liar in front of her. That was all she needed to keep stepping forwards.

As she was looking around, she saw her again. Through the dust, there were the outlines of the girl and the bird.

Even from the moment they first met, she had felt a slight amount of unease. The more she interacted with her, the more overwhelming the feeling became.

This girl was undeniably similar to those she hated.

Isabel strove to be straightforward. That's why she couldn't stand these complicated feelings.

When pressed on whether she was truly concerned for the wellbeing of the one running away, that person had lied. Isabel decided that was the best time to confront her about it. If she proved to be just like the rest of them, then Isabel would've been content to treat her in the same way.

Isa didn't think anything strange of her ability to pick apart lies. It was natural to her, the way she was for as long as she cared to remember. Because of the way she was, she would never consciously hide anything.

She never thought of it as strange enough to tell others, since she assumed it was the same for everyone.

Isabel could see words. More accurately, when the words she heard were interpreted in her mind, she could see their colour. This was how she sorted between what was truthful or not.

Even if asked to explain it, she wouldn't have the right words to pin down the sensation. It was a subconscious link pulled together in her mind's eye.

Not one of the girl's words had ever registered to her as completely true. That was the reason for her unease.

Not true, but not a lie either. Sometimes it would tip more towards deceit.

Compared to the village she grew up in, where she only ever saw lies, she was unfamiliar with it.

At that moment and that moment alone, Isabel finally felt that the girl was speaking the truth for the first time.

That was why she was confused. She'd spent this last week investing herself into her training as a way of avoiding the problem.

But once more, she was here. Her ears were ringing. Her body ached.A force that could end the world was nearby.

She knew at that moment that she had to act.

So she stepped towards the outline in the dust. Towards Mary.

Mary didn't seem to notice her until the last moment. As she turned, Isa spoke.

"South-west from here. You'll have to go around. About a dozen kilometers in that direction. They should still be in that general area."

"What?"

"Directions."

"What?"

"I said they're directions."

"No, I get it, but I don't understand why you're saying this all of a sudden."

"Isn't it obvious? It's where Luke and his brother are fighting."

"...But why are you telling me that now?"

"So you can go. Seriously, we haven't got the time for all these obvious questions."

Mary stared at her in complete disbelief.

"You know that there's still an Alatreon nearby, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why are you-"

"Cause you'll die if this keeps up. You're trying to rush through this fight because you want to go to where those two are. It's pretty obvious. That's why you got stabbed. So you should go now instead of dying. That makes more sense."

"I can't just leave all of you to fight-"

"What good are you going to do?"

"I-"

"You can't fight like this. To be honest, I don't really get most of it. What's going on with his brother, why you both wanna get him back, why you're like this. But the one thing that I do get is that your worries are genuine. Let's just say I can't ignore that. So just go on ahead, sort all that out."

"But what should I do about Zara? Leaving all of you here is one thing, but she and Arachne are still on their own."

"I said earlier. She's trusting me to beat the king, she's handling things until we work out how to get the monsters out of their control. Seeing her before then would be breaking that promise. So it's fine. You're just getting a head start here anyway. We'll have the king down before you can reach those two. Or what, you think I'll lose?"

Mary paused for a few seconds, before looking Isa in the eyes for the first time.

"No. Not even a bit."

A moment of silence passed.

"If we're talking about our earlier conversation, then just why do I have to remind you that things will fall apart if you both go on and make decisions without me? That's the entire reason I'm the captain of this group, isn't it?"

"Ah." Mary went, looking at Judah.

"Ah." Isa concurred, before switching to a question. "How did you sneak up on us anyway?"

"I didn't. I can't sneak in this armour. I walked over normally. You just weren't listening. But back to what's important."

Judah paused for a second, mulling over

"This might look bad when I was just trying to reprimand you two for doing your own thing, but I think that Isa is right. Your new orders are to go to Luke and Davi. I certainly can't tell someone that can't keep their mind on their battle to fight an Alatreon."

"...Thank you, both of you."

With those words, Mary dashed off, followed by Kasa.

The dust was finally starting to be picked up by the wind, filling the sky.

"Was that really the right choice?"

They heard the flapping of wings. The Alatreon came into view, with Wild atop its back.

Something about him had changed since they last saw him.

"It's just the two of you left, isn't it?"

"Nah."

"Oh, I suppose it is three with that monster. But still, these numbers aren't looking good for you. Oh, I suppose I could understand it if you were valiantly sacrificing yourselves for her."

"That's not it either."

"Wouldn't it be better to call it that? If there's no reason to sacrifice yourself, then your life's being thrown away for no reason. You already lost half your group in a single attack, so you may as well give some purpose to losing your life to the next."

"Seriously, you don't get anything. Idiots like that don't stay down easily. If anything, he should be getting more worked up than before right about now."

---

Spencer stood back up, shaking the rubble off.

Something wasn't right. After being struck directly by the lightning, he could feel that his movements were off.

The electricity was causing his limbs to randomly spasm, effectively paralysing him in place.

As he was stuck, his thoughts flowed endlessly.

"I've never seen that much lightning in one place before. That's overwhelming. My whole body hurts. Can I even move? My leg's doing its own thing right now. It did all that with just one attack? I don't think I've ever run into something this powerful before."

That which he had engraved into his mind all played back in that one instant.

The memories of distant thunder.

The memories of his own powerlessness.
The memories of what he had been entrusted with.

"Don't be so noisy. It's time for action."

"That was some good lightning! That's wild unfairness just what you'd expect from an elder dragon, isn't it? But I'm not gonna whine. It's just getting me more amped up!"

Spencer hit his trembling leg to stop it from trembling. His focus was now solely on searing the image of the Alatreon flapping its wings above him into his eyes.
The electricity could still be felt crackling through his body. Acknowledging it, he burst forwards.

"Let's get it, Storm!"

---

At the same time, Laura Ford was standing back up.

She rarely cared to remember the names of monsters. The information didn't make a difference to her, as long as she knew enough to be able to tell what she had to fight at the moment. But even she remembered this monster's name.

She'd heard it so many times in rumours, all without a single shred of evidence that it really existed. All that she knew was that she wanted to fight something like it someday.

The fight until this point had left her doubting whether it really was everything that she'd been led to believe that. That blast of lightning confirmed it.

She popped open one of the demondrugs that Judah had just given her and downed the bottle in one go.

The reaction was instant. A shot of power spread throughout her entire body. This wasn't the same as before. She didn't feel like she was burning up. It was something far deeper.

Her eyes widened. Her grip tightened involuntarily, crushing the glass bottle. She grinned with such force that her teeth might break, before turning her attention to the Alatreon once again.

Everything that she'd ever dreamed of was right there, just above her. This was the kind of opponent she'd come all this way in search of. She could feel her restraints loosening up.

She got the feeling that this one might just suffice.

Laura kicked off the ground, causing it to slightly crack.

---

These two events occurred as Isa was still in the middle of talking.

"We don't need those two to beat you. That'd be overkill. We're not foolish enough to use a cannon to hunt a Kelbi, you know?"

By the time she had finished, they were finally closing in.

Isa saw a liar above her.

Spencer saw a monster with dominion over lightning.

Laura finally saw a worthy opponent.

All three of them had reached their respective zones. The damage they had accumulated could barely be felt anymore.

At the same time, the King's mid-battle epiphany had led him to an unforeseen level of power.

He had reached his own zone.

As always, Spencer and Storm were the first to reach the target. They jumped, aiming for the

"Monster, attack to your left!"

In response to Wild's commands, the Alatreon turned to them and swung its tail around.

Storm had no way of avoiding the attack, but Spencer managed to use his glaive to evade it before striking the Alatreon's tail.

As they landed, Wild spoke.

"I'll admit that you posed a slight threat before, but with the walls gone you won't be able to reach me anymore.

"Oh? Is that a challenge?"

A yell came from the side.

"Don't fall for his goading!"

Judah's orders went unheard, as Spencer had already fallen for the king's goading.

In the time this took, Laura and Isa had both reached the Alatreon.

"Now, cover the ground."

The Alatreon aimed its head downwards, opening its mouth to cover the ground with a shot of ice breath.

It rapidly solidified and spread outwards, knocking its attackers away.

Judah just barely managed to use his shield to prevent himself from being knocked to the ground by it.

"Monster, descend."

The Alatreon dropped, crushing all of the ice it had just created. With a moment's hesitation, it swung at Judah with its forelegs covered by dragon energy.

He shielded himself once more, being pushed back a considerable distance. Judah then turned his gaze slightly upwards towards the monster's horns and attacked.

"Keep attacking him."

The Alatreon roared, before unleashing a string of attacks on Judah, each strike infused with dragon energy. Several claw strikes in short succession

Judah just barely managed to block the first and had no choice but to stand there defending against the rest.

Despite the attacks chipping away at him, Judah still managed to remain standing.

This endless chain of attacks would have likely continued until either Judah fell or the Alatreon grew tired, but it was interrupted by an outside force.

Wild felt a presence behind him. Something alarming. A chill ran down his spine. He knew that if he did not do something soon, then the fight would be as good as over.

There was Laura, with her greatsword raised over her shoulders.

"Monster, retreat! Get away from her!"

She brought her blade downwards, aiming for the Alatreon's tail. The blade only skimmed it as the Alatreon pulled away, but blood was drawn.

"Hey, you scared?"

Isa managed to get ahead of them, swinging her hammer overhead. It bounced off the Alatreon's face. That one strike wasn't as effective as she'd have liked it to be, so she wasted no time in trying again.

Repeatedly, Isa frantically smashed her hammer into the Alatreon. Irontusk dug up a chunk of the ground and raised it to smash it into the Alatreon's horns, finally pushing it back slightly.

Spencer and Storm caught back up, tearing into the Alatreon's side. Laura was only a few steps behind, readying another strike.

Judah was still just in front of Wild and the Alatreon, charging back into the fray. His will had not even slightly diminished, even after getting hit so many times.

"They're persistent." Wild thought while watching this. "They've finally recognised my threat, that's why they're so desperate to end this as quickly as possible. But you know… you kids still don't understand the real depths of desperation."

His gaze shifted to the side.

"I'll teach you."

Then, he spoke.

"Hah, it's just like I thought. The disappointing thing about getting wiser is that you can't be surprised anymore. Hey, electric boy. Without the terrain advantage, you two are actually the weakest links in this team, aren't you?"

Spencer stared at him in complete bewilderment.

"What did you just say?"

It all pulsed through his mind. Electric impulses shot through his brain, reminding him of everything that mattered to him.

His promise to Luke.

The title of he'd taken from the Thunderbearer.

That crushing feeling of powerlessness.

Each lasted less than a second, playing back repeatedly. Each recurrence hammered the image deeper into his mind, the point where it felt as though it was on the verge of splitting.

Wild spoke again.

"Did you not hear me or did you not get it? I'm calling you dead weight."

The final nail had been hammered in. Spencer looked directly at Wild, his eyes practically scorching.

"I'll show you dead weight."

Isa yelled out a warning.

"He's obviously planning something, don't fall for it!"

"Yeah, he's planning to die!"

"Monster, knock him away."

The Alatreon swung its tail around, catching both Spencer and Storm and launching them a short distance.

Spencer hit the ground feet-first and immediately turned his attention back to the fight. Storm seemed to realise his partner's fighting intent and responded in kind.

"We're doing it! We've built up enough charge, the distance is right! This one'll take the soul out of your body, so just stand there and wait!"

"Only a fool of your level would actually do that. Monster, destroy the Tobi-Kadachi and that idiot next to it."

The Alatreon started to move towards Spencer and Storm, readying an attack.

Judah charged forwards.

"If he takes an attack from it head-on, it could be fatal. Especially at that speed. Before that happens, I have to-"

The Alatreon abruptly swung around on its hind legs to face him.

"Huh?"

Charging up its dragon energy to the limit, it slammed its whole upper body into Judah with the intent to crush him.

Caught in the middle of running to intervene, Judah could not do anything in the time before it hit him.

The most powerful attack that he'd seen today was now coming towards him, with no time to stop it.

---

At the very last second, a hail of arrows shot down from above and knocked the Alatreon off course.

Everyone's attention turned upwards. Not much further above them, atop some of the ruins of the castle that were still barely standing, was a new challenger.
To be specific, four of them.

"Seriously, I leave you kids alone for a week and you end up in a situation like this? You really are something else!"

Terrence was there, fully recovered and smiling. Behind him were Demi, Sam and her Rajang.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm here just as promised, everyone! There's no need to worry anymore, I can deal with this!"

---

"It'd be really nice if something like that could happen right now."

That turn of events had simply been Judah's wishful thinking. Still face to face with the Alatreon about to crush him, still unsaved, he continued to think.

"Hmm. I doubt it, though. Terrence should be back at some point soon, but I don't think he'd come all the way here. And he probably hasn't fully healed yet. At the very least, not healed enough that he could fight an Alatreon. I don't really know for certain how strong he is, anyway, so I don't know if he could fight an Alatreon normally. He probably could, right? But who else could help? Ah, maybe…."

---

At the very last second, a slash rended through the Alatreon's side, knocking it off course. The dragon crashed into the ground next to Judah, just barely missing him.

Judah then realised that for a while now he had been able to hear the sound of something rhythmically tapping the ground, which had now finally reached him.

"Woo, you youngins look like you're a little in over your heads. Don't worry, you're in luck. I've dealt with this type before. So let me give you a demonstration on how it's done."

---

"No, we can't keep relying on Akem for everything. Hasn't he already done enough for us? He does seem like he's fought at least a few monsters on this level before, but maybe not an Alatreon. EIther way, someone else, it has to be someone else."

---

At the very last second, someone jumped in front of Judah to block the Alatreon. Its attack was deflected with such force that it stumbled backwards before falling over.

He looked ahead to his newly arrived guardian, now standing over the fallen elder dragon.

As proud and tall as ever, there was Alexandra Harrison. She turned around.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Judah? I've taught you how to deal with this exact situation before."

Alexandra walked over to the Alatreon without a hint of fear. She stuck her lance forwards, not aiming for the Alatreon but just below it.
The lance was now between the dragon and the ground. She then flicked her left wrist upwards, promptly launching both the Alatreon and the king into the stratosphere in an instant.

Treating the feat she had performed as nothing unusual, Alexandra turned back to Judah and pointed at him.

"See? Like that. Have you been slacking on your training while on this expedition? There's no way that you should be struggling with one measly Alatreon."

---

"No, there's one clear problem with that. Mother has no reason to be here right now. Everything else seems right, it's just that one problem that sticks out to me. Alright. It doesn't seem like I'll be saved by anyone else right now. What is going on right now, anyway? If my mind was racing, then these thoughts wouldn't be so clear. Well, as long as I can think, let's analyse this situation."

---

"So, to recap. The poachers seem to have been given one monster each. Those monsters don't act at all like monsters should, instead they only act on the orders of the poachers. Each poacher can only command their own monster. When given an order, the monster will follow that until they die. That's what we've collectively observed. No one has any problems with that overview, do they? Nothing seems out of place?"

Bal looked to the room of other hunters that he was checking this information with.

Three others from the Starward Diamonds. And three from the DBA.

Those that would go on to lead each of their sub-groups in the coming raid.

Mary raised her hand.

Lotus looked over. "You don't have to do that, just ask normally."

"Oh, sure."

She put her hand back down. Several seconds passed by with nothing happening.

"Are you not going to ask anything?"

Bal crossed his arms.

"Don't get so riled up over something so petty, Lotus."

"I'm not getting riled up. I was just progressing the conversation. Would you rather we sit here with nothing happening forever? We haven't got all the time in the world to work with, so we should get this discussion over with as fast as we can. Besides, the only thing that would get me angry is insinuating that I'm getting angry when I'm perfectly calm."

"Saying all of that is just delaying us further."

"Huh? Are you looking for a fight? Insubordination? Is this a mutiny?"

"How would this even count as any of those?"

"So I wanted to just confirm something." Mary decided to interrupt before things got any worse. "So like you said, the monsters will follow

So that means that even if we deal with the poacher, the monster will still keep going, won't it?"

"That's right. The reason that I said all that is because there were quite a few that we knocked out while the monster was acting, so we had to put the monster down. I think that it's

The only ways to avoid that outcome would be to render them unable to give orders before they can give even one, take them down while the monster's stopped, or make them stop the monster. None of those are very feasible if we're going to be fighting many of them back to back, though."

Bal seemed slightly frustrated.

"I guess you lot might have a slightly better chance of knowing than us, even if that chance is still minimal. Have you got any idea how they're controlling the monsters? I know that your relationship with them is pretty different, I've seen both first-hand, but surely there must be some trick to it. If we had just even the slightest clue, then…"

"What if they're imitating its cries?" Stanley asked. "Like that one bird wyvern."

"I was asking the DBA. Besides, wouldn't we have heard it?"

Luke chimed in.

"Qurupeco only imitate monster cries to get other monsters to come to where they fight. They can't control the behaviour of other monsters to any greater extent than that."

"Oh, yeah. That too." Bal paused. "You know of any cases of monsters controlling other monsters? That might be a start."

"No."

"Damn. So we've got nothing? Maybe it's some kind of mysterious item? Like an object from the past? No, that's ridiculous. Why would an ancient civilisation have better technology than we have now? Surely something that important and world breaking would get passed down. Oh, but maybe that's the point? Like it was too dangerous, so they sealed it away around here? Maybe in the fifth zone. Right, right, that kinda plot might work out."

While Bal was busy contemplating this, Judah had his own dilemma to contemplate.

He had a slight idea of what the answer might have been. But the answer wouldn't make any sense to them.

That was why he wasn't sure whether to say anything.

He wasn't even confident that the entirety of his group would be able to understand it. It was something that only the first six of them had encountered, just before leaving the first zone. Before that, it had only been a distant tale, something he would've otherwise marked down as fiction.

But the undeniable proof of something so unbelievable had been seared into his skin and mind on that day.

In the half a year since then, it hadn't left his mind for a single day. Every time he recalled it, it felt as though his soul itself was crawling.

Something about that unknown force was revolting to him. He didn't know what. Every time it crossed his mind, he was overwhelmed by familiar and unfamiliar feelings, all mixing together into a pool of nothingness.

But.

In this desperate situation, going up against indomitable odds, Judah couldn't afford to squander something that could even slightly increase their odds of succeeding.

"I think I might have an idea what it is. But I need you to listen without calling me crazy."

Judah paused, realising that he had no idea where to even start.

Luke and Mary both seemed to realise what he was about to talk about, but had no help to offer.

"It's something unnatural. I can't explain it properly. But there are some people out there with abnormal abilities, defying any kind of logical explanations. I heard about it from my mother. I never fully believed her, but a few months ago we encountered one ourselves."

"What?" Lotus tilted his head. "Seriously, I don't get it. So you're saying it's magic?"

"I… not exactly, but sort of. I don't know."

"Ah, well that's nice. It's magic. How convenient. Magic that lets you control monsters. I'd like something that useful."

"It changes depending on the person. The one we encountered before could create poison from nothing."

"I fail to see how these two are related."

"They're not." Judah paused for a few moments, rubbing his temples. Mary decided to speak up.

"The point is that it could be some kind of strange ability that someone on their side possesses."

"They can all control monsters, though." Bal reminded her. "So does that mean they've all got this?"

"That's unlikely." Luke added. "It's supposed to be rare, all fifty of them having it would be impossible."

"How does someone even end up like this anyway?"

"I don't know."

Lotus sighed.

"If you're going to suggest something so wild, you should at least have a better idea of what you're talking about first."

Luke rubbed his chin while continuing to sort through his thoughts.

"It could be one person with the aura, who has the ability to let others

Control monsters."

"Would that even be possible?" Mary asked.

"I don't know. I guess it might be more likely than unlikely. We don't know anything, after all."

Lotus looked upwards. "So what you're going through all of this to say is that rather than it being one specific trick or something along those lines, what we're targeting is one specific person?"

"That's pretty much it."

"Hmm. I'm no expert on these kinds of things, but if there's some kind of gimmick to it, then they'd be guarding it the most heavily. With how this city is laid out, there's only one place that could be…"

"Oh, you mean the castle."

"I was setting up a pause for extra impact. Don't ever interrupt me again. Now where was I? Oh, right. If it's a person, then it's probably the king. Maybe that's a bit too obvious? But even if it's not him, it's definitely someone they won't have on the front lines. If it's what's holding everything together, then it's too valuable for them to lose. Do you understand?"

---

"Every poacher until now has had to issue instructions through speaking. That's been the most identifiable trait of this group until now. That's also their biggest weakness. The monsters don't always do exactly what the poacher says, though. If they order it to attack, then it seems to interpret how to attack on its own. If the orders are vague, then it will probably act on its own judgement. Is that right? Does it have judgement in a state like this? I guess that it doesn't really matter."

He tried to refocus his mind.

"The Alatreon was ordered to target Spencer and Storm, but it suddenly switched to me. It's unlikely that any other order was given. I would've heard it. But it still suddenly turned to attack me. So what does that mean? There must be a way of giving orders without the need to say anything. Then why have they been doing so until now? Were all of them hiding it? Or maybe the others didn't know? Did he not tell them, or is that they couldn't use it even if they did know about it? Yeah. If he knows more about it than anyone else, or if he can possibly do something with controlling the monsters that the others out, then there's little room for doubt. I can't think of any possibility other than it being aura."

He paused, focusing back on the fight.

"Whatever the cause is, this was probably his plan. I spent all this time having it drilled into me that I have to pay attention to what they say, only to get caught when a monster attacks without an order being given. A brutal trick, especially this far in. And? Where does that get me? Understanding it doesn't change that I'm still being attacked. I already fell for it. How could I not have? I couldn't have possibly known about something as unnatural as this. There's no way to predict something that doesn't make any sense. Is that all there is to it? …Am I going to die like this?"

More memories flooded his mind, going further back.

---

In a distant place, he remembered waiting.

A rectangular wooden box.

The box couldn't be opened. Judah wasn't allowed to see inside. He was told it was his own good.

Those three had seen it. They had seen what was contained within. Each one had changed completely, in an instant.
But Judah hadn't been there with them to see it. So he was the same as he ever was.

He wasn't familiar with the circumstances of his birth. From the point that his memories began at, Alexandra was his mother. He knew they weren't related by blood, but had never asked why things were the way they were.

A good portion of his childhood memories were of time spent living with the Gilmores, while his mother was participating in an expedition.

He didn't think of it as strange. No matter where he was, it made no difference.

Looking back on it years later, he only could've described it as a cloud. A cloud that hung over him at all times. It dampened everything that he did.

No matter where he was, no matter what he was doing, it persisted.

He remembered running along with the others, lagging just behind. Getting ahead of them didn't cross his mind, neither did catching up. All he could think about was the possibility of that moment coming to an end.

He often heard others call him gloomy or quiet, but he couldn't understand why. Having no memory of life without it, not yet being able to understand that others may not live the life he did, Judah had no idea it could be called a cloud.

He only first became conscious of it there. For the first time, looking at the exterior of the box, it grew heavier.

He heard the sound of someone entering.

"Oh, so you're here, Judah."

"Mother."

He looked up at her.

Judah didn't have any normal words to offer her at that moment. Instead, he felt compelled to ask something that he never had asked before.

"Why did you adopt me?"

"Because I thought it would be a waste not to."

"...I don't understand."

"It's a long story. I thought you'd ask some day, so I really should've written it all down. But I didn't, so I'll have to remember it as I go. Uh, what was it again?

She rubbed her temples for a few moments.

"So there we were, leading an expedition into the Frontier Grounds. We were in the last area. You know how that is. But when we were travelling around, we happened upon you. Couldn't have been any older than a year. No sign of anyone else around. Everyone kept telling me that it was a trap and that I shouldn't take risks in a place like that like some monster was using it to bait us in. But I went anyway."

"But then… how did I get there?"

"Dunno. We never found any signs of anyone else, no matter how hard we looked. There are certainly people that live in the Frontier Grounds, but no one's ever reported any signs of any people living in the fifth zone. It's too dangerous, too unknown. I'm not saying that there couldn't possibly be any, just that they've never been seen. If it was anywhere else maybe we could write it off as you being abandoned, but that doesn't seem likely with how deep in you were. Maybe you're just a miracle child born without parents? Whatever the truth is, I decided that I should take you back with me."

"I still don't know why you did that."

"I'm getting to it. Though what was it, exactly? The others all thought that we found you by lucky coincidence. But to me it seemed different. I think we only found you because you were determined to live, not because of random chance. Even back then, when you could barely move, there was something that compelled you to stay alive until we happened upon you. When I got that feeling, I also got the feeling that with the right training, you'd be someone strong."

"But, I'm not that."

"Hmm." Alexandra leaned closer to look at him. "I guess I could say 'not yet', but I don't think such pointless reaffirming will do much good. Let's try a question for you instead. Hey, Judah. You're not alive because you love being alive, are you?"

"I don't understand."

"Uh, to put it a bit less succinctly… It's part of that feeling I got back then. Different question, then. You're blaming yourself for all of this, aren't you?"

Judah stared at her. Logically, he could only refute her words. Because it made absolutely no sense for him to blame himself.

In a place he was nowhere near, without his knowledge, an event that was far beyond his power to change occurred.

Even a moment's further thought, considering the world's population and its total history, would have led to the conclusion that there were more cases of this than there were grains of sand in a desert.

It was simply part of being alive. A rule enforced upon every living thing. How could he, powerless to change what was in front of him, fight against a rule?

The only difference this time was that he had learnt about it afterwards.

Just as there was no point in learning about every individual grain of sand in the world, there was no point in feeling guilt about something out of his hands.

But, even so.

"Yes. I don't know why. I don't understand it. There wasn't anything I could have done. I wasn't anywhere near them, I couldn't have done a thing even if I was. I know all that. And even despite all that, my heart's still telling me that I failed."

"Yeah, I had a feeling. It's a good thing to have your suspicions proven right, especially ones that have gone on this long. You're the same as I am, Judah. I've felt all that before."

"Then when does this feeling go away?"

"It doesn't. If my suspicions continue to be true, then it won't ever."

Judah didn't have any kind of response to that.

"No matter what you do, it'll always be there. Just doing nothing won't get rid of it. You'll probably just pick up more. Even if it wouldn't have made a difference, you won't be able to help but take on the burden of believing that you should've done something. It's not just regular guilt. It's a self-centered delusion. Some people would call it madness. I doubt that it's that different to what those cursed by the blue feel, though I couldn't tell you what's different enough between us that we don't get superpowers out of it like they do. Maybe it's the lack of a target? I really don't know, and I don't think I ever will."

Alexandra paused, seemingly realising that she was rambling in the wrong direction.

"If you have some goal in mind, then work towards that."

"Then when I get to that, will it go away?"

"No clue. I decided upon becoming the world's strongest hunter, and I'm still climbing towards that peak. Maybe once I do I'll be content. I won't know until I get there. For you it's a bit more vague, so you'll have to work out your goal by yourself."

"I see."

"Ah, this is turning into a depressing speech. That's not my aim here."

Alexandra snapped her fingers.

"Humans are powerless against the larger world, and even each other. All it takes is one roll of the dice to lose everything. Maybe it's an admirable human trait to accept that and go with it. But in that case I'm not at all admirable, because I can't. I doubt that people like us can ever be satisfied living as mere humans."

She held her hand forwards.

"That'd be the madness I mentioned. I doubt there's anything alive that can be truly, completely logical. If we were capable of that, then there'd be no need to feel this guilt. Get it? Emotions and logic are natural enemies. Feel something strongly enough and it becomes madness. No matter how logically you go about it, it won't go away. So if you can't get rid of the cause of your suffering, you might as well use it to your advantage.

Grasp that madness tightly. No matter how many times you get broken, no matter how many times you run into rigid logic trying to stop you, as long as you have that madness you'll be able to endure it. Maybe once you're finally strong enough to change something, it'll disappear. Hah, I'm no good at talking like this. All I've been doing for the past thirty years is training and fighting. Not talking."

She looked Judah in the eyes.

"So, I guess I'll finish by summarising your answer. When I saw you there, I picked you because you seemed like you had the potential to be madder than anyone else."

"Then I'll do it. If that's what you say, then there's no other choice. I don't know if this will ever get any lighter. But I don't want it to get heavier. So please… teach me to be strong like you are. So that I can change something."

"Alright. I'll start training you properly tomorrow."

"...So everything until now wasn't proper training?" Judah murmured back.

His bewilderment had caused his thoughts to spill out of his head, but he caught himself partway through and lowered his voice in the hope that his words wouldn't be legible.

"Of course not." Alexandra heard him regardless. "I was only putting you through what would push a human to the limit. From here on we've got to go further than that. If you are serious about this, then it should be no problem, right?"

Even though it had been a completely one-sided, long-winded, somewhat confusing speech, Judah had engraved each word of it into his mind.

"It's true that I don't want to fight this. I won't lie. If I could run, I would. But everyone's here. Even if I go, I'm sure they'll stay and keep fighting. I wouldn't be able to live with that at all."

He paused.

"The only reason I have to fear death is that I can only die once. My life has the potential to protect the lives of many others. If I die, then that potential will dry I could throw my life away over and over again, then I happily would. However, in this situation… I have teammates to keep alive. We're fighting an elder dragon, controlled by the king of this whole group. If we fall, he'll surely aim to annihilate everyone else here. And this is all to allow Luke and Mary to reach out to Davi and finally bring him home."

That memory from earlier played back again.

And again. Repeatedly, thousands of times, compressed into less than a second.

"Taking into account all of those factors… this is definitely something worth dying for."

One last memory echoed through his mind.

A time when Alexandra was talking to him personally, later than that.

It was some time during his training, though he couldn't have said when. All he remembered was her rambling.

"There's something important I've learned over the course of this life of mine, which I'm going to teach you early so you don't waste time in the same way I did. When going into a fight, it's not about whether you can win. If you only judge it with that, you'll either end up an idiot who dies quickly or a coward who lives forever. What matters is what you stand to lose and gain. It doesn't matter who you're up against. If you're up against something you can't handle and you can afford to run, then run. Even if you think you've got a chance. But if you can't run, then fight. Even if you think you've got no hope. A battle with meaning will make you stronger. So don't waste time sizing your opponent up, you'll either win or die."

---

"If I don't fight, I'll lose everything here. If I die, then everything will still be lost. So I'll risk it all. I'll risk every last part of myself in order to pull through here."

---

The Alatreon finally hit Judah.

Completely unprepared, he couldn't do anything but take the attack head on.

As though the Alatreon's weight wasn't enough, its body was covered in bursts of dragon energy. Judah was crushed into the ground by it. He sank further down, at clear risk of being completely flattened.

But, even so, he continued to struggle. Because he still had life in him to spend. Because he had spent all of these years doing nothing but preparing for a situation like this. Because he had to.

Wild felt that something was wrong. It should have been over by now. Then he realised that something was pushing the Alatreon backwards.

Judah stood up, grabbing the Alatreon to lift it off him.

Even for him, it was impossible to restrain or lift an elder dragon with only his own strength. But all he needed it to do was stay in place for a moment.

Isa stopped, bewildered at the sight of the one she thought was in danger apparently being fine. Laura did something similar.

Only two continued on their path. Spencer and Storm, still in their midst of their thunderbolt attack.

Wild's intent had been to deal as much damage to Judah as possible before dodging out of the way. The unexpected resistance had delayed the dodging part of this plan, so Judah only had to stall him for a few seconds longer.

They approached. Judah let go. The two hit the Alatreon in its side, launching it several meters back.

Spencer landed.

"Sorry, Captain! You got hurt because of m-"

"If you really feel bad then do what I tell you to from now on."

"O-oh. Sure."

"Things worked out by coincidence, but we can't keep assuming that we'll be so lucky. No more monster arts until they're needed. We won't survive this if we keep taking unnecessary risks. Anyway…"

Judah turned his head as the others approached.

"You two saw what happened there, didn't you? With every poacher and monster combo we've encountered until now, the monster would only act on the poacher's verbal commands. No matter what. But in that case, it should've gone straight for Spencer. Instead it turned to attack me, without him saying anything. Something's clearly up with that."

"What, so there's some other way of controlling it?" Isa asked.

"I don't really get it, but it sounds like he's getting desperate." Laura added.

"We shouldn't assume that. Overconfidence is the last thing we need now. Though I have one more thing to say. It might be a bit late, but I've got no more doubt that he's the reason they can all order the monsters around."

"I was saying that from the start." Isa interjected.

"I know that. But I also think he's still hiding something about how it works from us. So be vigilant."

"I get how to deal with him now. So I'm going to need all of you to only act as I order you to. Do that, and I won't let a single one of you die. Understood?"

"Roger!"

"Got it!"

"Sure!"

Judah too, had finally reached his zone. As a guardian. As a leader. As a hunter.

As Judah gave his orders to the others, Wild recovered enough to focus on the fight again. He found himself transfixed by Judah.

A wave of understanding washed over him.

"I see now. You're like me, aren't you? Even from here, I can tell that you're serious now. Not because you think you can win, but because you've realised you're outmatched."

He looked down upon them.

"This must have been what it felt at that time. I went through just the same thing before, you know? Are you phantoms of the past here to haunt me? Just to rub it in? Ahh, it doesn't matter. None of that matters at all. All that does matter is that when I look down at people loved by destiny like you all… I just can't help but wish to twist it all off course."

Each participant was now reaching beyond their limits.

They closed in.

Judah led the charge, aiming straight for the Alatreon with his lance. Spencer and Storm didn't overtake them, but split off to the side.

"They're clearly banking on me targeting the captain. But isn't that fine? I want to attack him, he wants me to attack him. That's called a win-win."

"Monster, cover him with ice."

The Alatreon spat out ice breath, freezing the ground before it. Judah was completely swallowed up by the ice.

It froze him to the spot.

But he continued on. Judah had no resistance to the ice. But that didn't matter to him. He pulled his legs off the ground in order to keep walking.

He simply pressed forward, drawing ever closer.

"Then how about this? Monster, change to water."

The Alatreon spat a strange liquid at Judah.

"Now, blast him away."

The Alatreon opened its mouth once more, charging up a fireball. Judah saw it coming. He did not dive out of the way. He did not run. He simply continued on his path.

As the inferno shot towards him, Judah raised his shield at the last second.

The liquid he had been covered in was oil. That only caused the fire to burn brighter.

An explosion engulfed Judah's upper body. Even so, he remained standing.

"Might you be the type who doesn't care about whether you die?"

"Of course I care. That's why I blocked it."

"Give me a break here."

Judah reached the Alatreon at last, stabbing his lance into it.

"Monster, next-"

Wild felt his blood running cold again, which cut off his sentence partway through.

The hunk of iron was quickly descending towards the ground.

Laura swung her greatsword around, perhaps with even more force than before. The Alatreon was unable to get away in time, it cleaved through its side mercilessly.

With no more flesh left to cut, the sword slammed into the ground, cracking it.

"Monster, retreat before she can attack again!"

The Alatreon began to take off, flapping its wings.

"Hey, don't run away!"

Wild seemed to completely lose focus on what he was doing.

The Alatreon snapped its focus towards Laura and quickly reared its head, charging up another fireball.

It swung its head downwards.

Laura, still recovering from her previous attack, was unable to do anything but lift her sword in an attempt to block in time.

Judah got between them.

"There it was again!"

Was all that he thought before the blast collided with his shield, launching him backwards. Both he and Laura were knocked away.

Wild watched them go and prepared to follow up with an attack, when something caught his eye.

Spencer slashed away at the Alatreon's tail.

"You again."

"Yup, me again."

"It'll take those two at least a few seconds to return to the fight. This is a good chance to pick the rest off."

"Monster, focus everything on crushing these two."

Spencer preemptively stopped attacking the Alatreon's tail to roll out of the way of its first attack.

The assault continued. Blasts of lightning, fire and ice. Attacks made for destroying the world.

The two just barely managed to stay ahead of it all. They weren't given a single moment to breathe between all of those attacks.

"Is dodging the only thing that you can do? Don't tell me that I was spot on with my evaluation of you, dead weight!?"

Spencer remained silent as he dived through another attack.

Not a sound was emitted from him.

He only kept dodging while circling around the Alatreon.

As the elder dragon fully lent into charging forwards, Wild had a premonition of something being wrong.

The attack came from below, just out of his cone of vision. The Alatreon had seen it, but had no reason to pay attention to anything that wasn't its targets.

A rising hammer, combined with Irontusk rising up from the ground. Not unified or refined enough to be called a monster art, it was simply the two of them attacking together.

The attacks finally connected, resounding with enough force that it felt as though their surroundings were shaking.

"Dodging's his job. Attacking's mine. And look at that, I finally landed a hit that felt right."

The dragon fell over.

"Hey, I can attack too!" Spencer protested as he landed and turned around "I was just following the plan. Don't make it sound like all I can do is dodge."

"But all you did was dodge."

"That was for the plan! The plan! Do you know how hard it was to do nothing but dodge all that!?"

"Not really."

"Now's not the time for that!" Judah yelled out. "It's down! Take this chance to pile on!"

"Right!"

The hunters dashed towards the Alatreon, their weapons ready.

---

"I can't believe it. Did that idiot really manage to fool me? He resisted my attempts to taunt him, which caused me to become so focused on getting him to fall for it that I was taken by surprise like that. Have I fallen so low that even an idiot like that can trick me!? It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was meant to be stronger than any of them. I was meant to stand at the top. But my own lack of experience is dragging me down."

He glanced around.

"It all started with you. From the moment I first met you, everything's been going off course. No, that's not the right way of saying it. Everything's correcting itself back on course. It all started with you. If that's what's destined, then I just have to reach out and twist it. That's the reason that I'm still standing here. I'll twist it all!"

---

As the Alatreon's opponents closed in on it, one of them noticed something approaching.

Wild dashed forwards, with a desperate look in his eyes.

His targets were Isa and Irontusk.

Isa glanced towards him as he sprinted towards her. She studied the look of madness in his eyes.

---

He remembered.

Back then, he had instinctively reached out to it. Without understanding why, without understanding what it would accomplish, he unconsciously reached towards what had robbed him of everything.

The dragon had no reason to react to him. He was beneath its notice. Their fight, as generous as it may have been to define it as such, had proven as much.

What he was doing couldn't even have been defined as an attack.

So it did not move. It had no reason to move. It had no reason to fear the strange blue energy emitted from him. It had no reason to fear the sudden change in the one before it.

The fight was already over. The results already decided. Their respective fates sealed.

Until his hand touched it.

In an instant, the situation reversed. The dragon entirely ceased to move.

He willed that it would move away from him, and the dragon stepped backwards.

He looked up at it, shocked by the result. He didn't understand what had happened. He couldn't explain a single part of it. Perhaps he had just died, and this was now his final dream. That was a more logical explanation for what was before him than it being real.

But somehow, he knew what it was.

He knew that this was the power to twist fate.

From that sensation, he learnt to control monsters. All it required was some form of physical contact between the two. Monsters would carry on doing what they were told until given a new order.

He found it rather inconvenient to only be able to control them through contact, so he experimented with ordering monsters to receive commands through his voice.

A success.

His next experiment was with getting monsters to listen to the words of another.
A success, once more.

Wild reflected on all of that, reminding himself of how it should be, as he dashed forwards.

"I want to see it. I want to see them torn apart. I've never gotten the chance before, I want to see beautiful partners like these two forced to fight each other. Will she refuse to fight? Or will she put herself first?
Will she beg me to stop this and consider joining me? Or will she stay against me to the very end? I want to see it. I want to see your destiny thrown off course. Not just you. The lightning boy too. And the fire girl too. Maybe once this is over I'll try it for every one of you just to see what happens. I want to see it all!"

He picked up speed, feeling reinvigorated.

"They may be beginning to catch on to the fact that I'm the origin of this phenomenon, but they still have no clue about how it works. I'll attack Isabel with the sword in my right hand, then graze the Tetsucabra with my left. It's not a feint. I fully intend to attack her. All I need to do is use this chance to get close enough to tap it. Then this battle will be mine."

The distance between them was no more. He had reached his destination.

His panicked mind had caused his thoughts to accelerate, it had only been a few seconds since the Alatreon fell.

He stood between Isa and Irontusk, at a close enough distance to attack either. He gripped his sword tightly in his left hand and swung it with all of his weight behind it, aiming for Isa.

Both hunter and monster readied themselves for the attack.

Typically, a hammer cannot be used for blocking. But this was only the case for fighting against monsters. Against a weapon of the same size, it would have sufficed.
Blocking was the logical answer in this situation. As was dodging. Even counter attacking would have made sense, in Wild's mind. These were the possibilities that he built his plan around.

He was not so bold as to assume he could read exactly what someone he had just met would do, but he knew enough about combat on a theoretical level and his opponent's level of experience to form a general idea.

What followed was completely outside of his expectations.

She lent into the attack. The blade sunk through Isa's armour, drawing blood.

This wasn't a suicide. She was simply getting closer in order to reduce the risk of missing as she swung her hammer down.

Towards Wild's right hand.

The hand was smashed into the ground, bringing him down with it. He didn't have any time to process what was going on. The unexpected act, the sudden pain, all of it overwhelmed his mind to the point where it finally became nothing but white noise.

Calling it broken would have been an understatement. Isa's attack had caught him completely off guard, leaving him no time to prepare. His fingers had not been crushed cleanly. Each was bent in its own unique way, at an angle it never should have reached.

He looked skywards in search of some kind of answer as to what had occurred, only to see the light of the sun blocked out by a hunter raising their weapon into the air.

It should have cleaved him in two. Had he not pulled himself out of the way, it would have. Possessed by his body screaming at him to live on, Wild just barely found the strength to roll to the side. The attack still clipped him, cracking a few ribs, but he survived.

He tried to stand back up, to take his last chance at turning the fight completely in his favour, but Isa stood between him and Irontusk.

"Don't let him near your monsters! It's something to do with him touching them! I don't know how it works, but don't let him near them!"

"How can you even tell?" Wild thought while panting. "What possible hint could you have received? Was it magic? The only possible explanation is that you must've used magic. My plan was perfect. The preparations were perfect. My execution was perfect. It was all perfect! No one could have done any better! And yet, I still lost."

His heart began to sink.

"That's how it always is, isn't it? It's simply destiny. Destiny sided with you to prevent me from grasping victory. No matter how hard I try, it still won't break. That's the cause of this pain."

Out of the corner of his eyes he spotted something.

Faintly glimmering, radiant shapes. Impossible to discern, and yet he could easily recognise them.

"Oh. Now I see. It's been a while since I last saw all of you, hasn't it? If you're here, then I must be close to death. Just like I was back then, I'm still powerless. So does your presence mean that this is the end, and that I should just give up? Is it finally time to join you?"

He paused. Even without them saying anything, he could understand the phantom's words.

"You're right. You're exactly right."

After having his hand smashed, Wild finally uttered his first response.

"I won't accept this! I won't accept any of this world! So each and every one of you, bear witness! To the moment destiny's hegemony is shattered!"

By this point, the others had reached the toppled Alatreon. Spencer and Judah had both slowed down slightly in response to Wild's unexpected movements and Isa's yelling.

Only Laura had completely ignored all of that in order to attack.

Wild dashed backwards, reaching out to the Alatreon with his mangled hand.

"Move. You can't stay on the ground."

It stirred. Even though it still should have been far too early for it to be able to move again, the Alatreon got back up and roared, forcing its attackers to a stop.

It pulled Wild onto its back before taking off and spitting a fireball towards the ground. It hurtled downwards before exploding. Judah and Laura were both forced to block, while the rest sprinted away from the blast radius.

As he became able to see around him, Judah looked up

"He's not saying anything anymore. So does that mean he's given up on trying to trick us?"

Judah turned his focus.

"Isa, what basis did you use to work out that he controls the monsters by touch?"

"I got a feeling."

"That's all?"

"It was a strong feeling."

"Well, it seems like you're at least somewhat right. Every time the Alatreon's acted without him saying something, he was always in direct contact with it."

Judah began to think.

"There's no more doubt. It absolutely must be an aura ability. Think, what do you know about them?"

He tried to recall.

"By default, they're good at fighting. Some of them have special abilities outside of that, which are unique to the user. The unique abilities and the general ones can't be used at the same time. So it clearly must be something like his gimmick allowing him to control monsters. How does it work for a case like this? Maybe his ability lets him designate subordinates, or something like that? I wish I knew more about the specifics. That part doesn't matter right now. Focus on what's in front of you."

He reflected on the fight so far.

"He can give monsters orders through his voice or through direct contract, but he can probably only put them under his control through direct contact. It wouldn't make any sense if he could use his voice for it, otherwise the fight wouldn't have gone on this long. That's why he was reaching for Irontusk. How close does he have to be? How long would it take? There are so many unknowns here, but I don't want to take the risk of finding out more. The best outcome would be capturing him and finding out everything from him, but considering his ability that's become too much of a risk. Will knocking him out release the monsters from captivity or will it stay the same? I don't know. Maybe things will improve or maybe they'll get worse. But leaving him conscious is far too much of a risk. I'll just have to shoulder the responsibility myself."

Judah went back to speaking.

"I think that he's an aura user."

"Like the Apollo guy was?" Spence asked back. "He hasn't used any poison, though."

"They all have different abilities. I think that's how he's controlling the monsters."

"Huh? Weird, but fine I guess. I've been waiting for a chance for revenge against that guy."

"Huh? Laura asked. "What are you talking about? I don't get it."

"Don't worry about it for now. I'll tell you later, so stay focused. If he can control monsters with a touch, that makes him the most dangerous opponent we could possibly encounter. We're changing objectives. Don't knock him off the Alatreon. We have to render him unable to fight in a single shot."

That was all Judah had time to say. The dragon was descending upon them.

It crashed into the ground, forcing them to split up. As she dived away, Isabel took a glance at Wild. A single thought crossed her mind.

"Ah, he's completely lost it."

---

It was as though the Alatreon had suddenly grown in power, in response to Wild's desperation. Several times more powerful. Several times faster. Several times more dangerous.

Without even a moment's respite, they kept fighting. The dragon was far beyond them. Each moment pushed them further beyond their limits.

And yet, the DBA kept on standing.

All that stood against the dragon with the power to command the entire world, were a lightning bolt that could only shoot upwards, a boulder seeking to crush that which was against it, a wild beast clawing for the top of the food chain, and an unbreakable, moving metal tower.

That was all that opposed it.

Wild had no words left to give them. He focused his entire soul only on crushing them. Judah was the recipient of the majority of the attacks. The others weren't completely safe, occasionally getting caught in the radius of a blast or gaining the enemy's ire for just a brief moment, but the target was overwhelmingly Judah.

Perhaps it was Wild's pride at work. But they had no time to consider why, or any other question. All they could focus on was how to secure a path to victory.

After several minutes of fighting, Laura caught just a brief glimpse of something.

It was not reliable enough to be called a path by any means. If it had to be called anything, it would've been no greater than a glimmer.

But, she stepped forward. Without hesitation. Without even considering an alternative. She could do nothing but move forwards.

Laura's sole intent in coming here was to find stronger opponents. Enemies that would make her fight with everything she had. The Alatreon was such an enemy.

To anyone other than her, it might have seemed as though she was reaching new heights, but all that she was doing was allowing herself to return to where she was before.

Her limitations had not been placed consciously. It was unclear whether she was even remotely aware of them.

Perhaps they were a way to ensure that she could still get the most out of any fight, even against opponents much weaker than her. Perhaps it was so that she could grow unexpectedly stronger, like weighted clothing. Perhaps it was for no other purpose than lowering her chances of victory. Whatever the reason may have been, these conditions were beginning to wear them down.

For the first time since the battle with the Alatreon had begun, she finally felt herself breaking free.

She slammed her greaves into the ground, swinging her sword towards the Alatreon, with the aim of smashing the wall between her and victory.

Swung at the perfect moment, enhanced by the demondrug. Putting everything she had into just a single swing.

If all of the millions of times in her life that she had swung a sword throughout her life were all to be ranked in order of effectiveness, then this would surely have reached the top spot.

Monster Art: Big Bang Slash

It cleaved through without mercy, tearing a chunk out of the Alatreon's torso.

The attack was enough to cause the Alatreon to stumble slightly, completely interrupting what it was doing.

"Not enough! That's not enough yet! Irontusk, we're keeping it going!"

As Isa yelled that, Irontusk pulled out a chunk out of the ground and dropped it onto the Alatreon's head.

Both of them attacked the rock from above, slamming the Alatreon into the ground as they broke through it.

Their goal was to crush. To demolish everything that stood in their paths until they could live a life free of it.

From the very start, she had recognised that Wild was an enemy of hers. Not just because they were on opposite sides of this battle, but on a spiritual level.

Even if they were aligned, they could never get along. That was the feeling she had. In a way, Isa was relieved to once again find herself facing such nuanced evil.

So, like the rest, they crushed it. For all they could do was crush what was before them. They would reject every single part of their enemy's existence for the sake of moving forwards.

Monster art: Luminescent Shattering

It was down. The Alatreon had lowered to the ground just enough for Wild to be in danger. Every participant in the fight realised that fact.

But some were faster to realise than others.

The air briefly crackled. Lightning surged forwards. Spencer and Storm were on their way upwards, aiming directly for Wild.

No matter what, they had to aim upwards. No matter what awaited him above, no matter what happened to him, he had no choice but to keep aiming upwards.

Because they had made a promise.

Something that they would rather die than leave unfulfilled.

So, they pushed themselves ever so closer towards death, for the sake of victory.

Monster art: Thunderbolt.

The attack that had been used so many times in this fight alone was being used once more. Even in his current state of mind, Wild could easily tell it was coming without having to see any sign of it.

Of course, just knowing that it was coming didn't necessarily mean he could do anything to stop it.

He tried to throw himself out of the way.

The attack just grazed past him

"Hah!" It was impossible to tell whether he was gasping for air or laughing. "You missed! All of that set up was for nothing! Your best attempt completely failed! Now, in just a second, my Alatreon wi-"

He froze. His mouth would no longer move.

Wild's mind raced at a million miles a moment, leaving his body far behind. Finally, after searching through every possible answer, he realised the cause.

"Looks like it's finally working. Hey, you should be careful about who you call dead weight."

The attack hadn't missed. It had grazed past him. That brief moment of contact was finally enough for thunderblight to begin affecting Wild.

His whole body was paralysed.

"So? Is that all?" The King asked in his thoughts. "If it's just that, then all this is doing is delaying your demise. You still missed me. Even if you use that glaive to launch yourself towards me, those few seconds should give me enough time to recover and order the Alatreon to attack you. It's over. You're acting all cocky for no reason, you've completely failed at the one job you had. As the only one that can reach me, knocking me out should have been your job. It's something only you could have done, and you already failed."

Then, he heard it.

The sound of something exploding from just off to his left.

His sense of control returned to him gradually. By this point it had returned enough that he could turn his head towards the origin of the noise, in the hope of seeing the cause or the

But his view of the ground was obscured by something. The space blotted out only grew larger by the millisecond. He then realised. It was a person.

Judah was, somehow, in the air. Flying directly towards him.

Beyond the outline of the rapidly ascending giant, Wild caught a glimpse of something.

He realised that it was a monster. A Dodogama.

Titan was afraid of fighting, or any type of harm befalling him.

That was why he always hid behind Judah.

Judah always wanted something to protect. This agreement was beneficial to both of them.

In a typical fight, Titan pitched in far more. Judah was the shield, while he was the sword. It was slightly different when up against the Alatreon.

Even in spite of never having encountered one before, he instinctively recognised what was before him as the greatest danger he could possibly face.

That was why Titan hadn't appeared once until that moment.

But he had not fled. He had spent this entire fight hiding just outside of Wild's range of perception.

All for this one moment, where he could support Judah.

A blast to launch Judah into the air, directly into any opponents outside of his normal reach.

It was something that Wild never could have predicted. Something that he never could have understood. Something that he would never fully comprehend. That was what had led to this.

Monster art: Rocket Lance

The time before they would hit each other was less than a second. Wild reached downwards, trying to break through his paralysis.

A single touch was all that it would take. Just a few more centimeters and he could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. All that he had to do was break free before he was hit.

He struggled. For less than a second, for all of eternity, for his entire life, he struggled to break free.

The companions that he had lost were screaming into his ears, demanding that he moved. All he needed to do was reach it.

Finally, movement returned to his arms. He desperately reached out for the Alatreon below him, trying to grasp on to anything.

It simply wasn't enough.

He failed to reach the Alatreon in time.

Judah slammed into him not with his lance, but using his full body. With more than 40 centimeters of difference between their respective heights and a far greater difference in weight, Wild never stood a chance.

The collision knocked the King clean off the Alatreon's back. But as he fell, he felt no pain.

His mind felt surprisingly clear.

"Ah, I see. What a fool I am. Last second saves like that… aren't for unchosen people like me, now are they?"

As he flew, he felt as though he came to an understanding.

Just as much as he burned to overturn the rule that dominated this world, there was a man before him who burned in order to protect everything within his reach.

Just as he had once burnt.

That point of commonality, the gravity between them, was enough to ensure that the attack could never have missed.

He realised that at the very end.

"How nice."

Wild crashed into the ground head-first. The force with which he collided into it caused him to bounce while still flying forwards. He skimmed the ground a few more times, eventually coming to a stop as he slammed into a nearby wall.

It was an ungraceful position for a king to be in, yet he had no more energy left with which to protest it.

Wild wasn't even aware of a single thing happening any more.

Judah also hit the ground in much the same way that a rock would.

"Captain!"

Spencer landed with slightly more grace and rushed over to help Judah get up, but failed. Isa went over to assist.

With each of them taking one shoulder, they somehow managed to lift him off the ground.

Isa sighed as they lifted him.

"You're way too heavy to pick up, don't end up on the ground like this ever again."

"I'll try my best."

Spence spoke next.

"But still, good job. I doubt that anyone could get up from you slamming into them."

"No. I have a feeling that we can't rest yet."

"Yeah, we've gotta get to Zara. I remember."

"Not that."

"Then what? We already won, didn't we?"

The entire time this conversation was taking place, Laura was busy staring in the other direction.

Something stirred.

The Alatreon slowly rose to its feet, surveying its surroundings.

To put it simply, it was baffled. Something that it had never felt for its entire life.

Just a moment prior, nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. It was where it should have been, rejecting those who were where they shouldn't have been.

And now, here it was. In a completely unknown place, the landscape dotted by unknown things, with these creatures it didn't recognise before it.

Pain enveloped its entire body. Its head ached. These sensations were unfamiliar.

In a second, the world had turned on its head.

One moment everything was normal. The next nothing was normal. That was the order its memories went in.

It had no recollection of any of its time under the king's control. Its memories of the spell were non-existent.

It was like a deep sleep, without even dreams, that it would never have stirred from had Wild not been knocked out of the fight.

The Alatreon had no response prepared for this situation.

So it went with its default answer.

The habits and behaviour of Alatreons were for the most part, a mystery, as a result of their abnormally high aggression and affinity for obscure locales. But those that had survived an encounter with them would have almost all described them as highly territorial.

Without any idea of what happened to its territory, the Alatreon decided to make this spot its new territory.

Which first involved utterly crushing any of the intruders before it.

It would eradicate all the pests within its sight, until it was finally at peace.

And so,
The Alatreon roared.

As he uncovered his ears, Spence yelled out.

"What's going on!? We already beat that guy, didn't we? So why's it getting back up?"

"It's what I feared might happen. I said that it was because of his aura, didn't I? It seems like knocking him out undid that."

"Oh, I get it." Isa followed up. "Well, not fully. But I get the important stuff. You're saying that because all the monsters are free, they're back to just being monsters, right? Which I guess is good for weakening the enemy side, but… we've got this monster to deal with now."

"Oh. So that's how it is. So we've still gotta fight."

"Are you okay to keep going?" Judah drew his lance and shield once more.

"Of course. What would we even do if we weren't? Just lay down and die?"

"You can run. I'll hold it off somehow.

"There's no chance of me doing something like that, captain. You should know me a bit better than that by now."

"And what about you?" He looked to Isa.

"I do want to go help Zara, but…" She hesitated. "Well, what'd be the point if this place gets destroyed anyway? Let's just get this over with."

"That's some attitude to take on a legendary elder dragon with."

"What kind of idiot would go into a fight expecting to lose?"

Laura was already running towards the Alatreon.

The Alatreon turned its gaze down towards the nearby group of pests.

"Stay focused. This fight isn't anywhere near over."

"I'm focused." Spence replied. "Honestly, I'm kinda relieved."

Judah snapped out of his focused state in response.

"What? How?"

"Well, I was getting pretty sick of fighting people all the time."

"It's only been a few hours?"

"Felt like a year."

"How?"

"I'm surprised that you can say something that makes that much sense." Isa looked ahead. "I agree. It just doesn't feel right unless we're hunting a monster."

---

12:15

Wild, King of Monsters.
Defeated by Judah Harrison.

As a result, all monsters under the poacher's control were freed from his control. The resulting chaos significantly altered the course of every battle occurring simultaneously.

Hunter side: 16 hunters, 8 monsters.

Poacher side: 25 poachers, 27 monsters.

TO BE CONTINUED

---

So here we are at last. The staple last boss of stories that started on here around the early 2010s.

But DBA started at the end of 2014, which I'd definitely consider mid 2010s, so it's only a mid boss here.

To be honest I never got the hype around it back then. All those stories were written by people slightly (at least half a decade) older than me, who got into these games with Tri.

I knew about MH when Tri released, the cover art with the greatsword hunter and the Lagiacrus is burnt into my memory, but I didn't actually try it out until 3 Ultimate.

I sometimes find myself thinking about what DBA would've been like if I approached it when I was around their age, I think that a more normal version of that story would've probably still ended up with a final fight against a Dire Miralis. To me back then they were a lot cooler.

Though I get the feeling that would've been quite a bit more difficult to write.

But really, maybe they all only used Alatreon for the sake of convenience. Because writing all of this gave me a new appreciation for the Alatreon as a boss monster.

I mean, doesn't it have everything going on that a last boss could possibly need?

Locked to one forbidden spot (usually), mastery over all the elements (very useful for this story in particular), looks close enough to a stereotypical evil dragon (everyone can think of at least one) and compact as well (it's seriously tiny compared to the other final boss elder dragons)!

One of the only monsters with an officially named attack, too. There's also a bunch of cool aspects that go totally underexplored, like how it's all covered in reverse scales, since it's not like uneducated and barbaric FanFiction dot net writers like myself would be willing to do the bare minimum of research into Japanese legends when writing stories derived from this Japanese video game.

The elder dragon that can do it all. Great value for your investment, whether that's having it be a recurring presence or just throwing it in a chapter before it's fought.

Honestly what I wrote here still feels too brief, which is a bit confusing when it's the longest fight I've ever written by a large margin. It's basically two chapters in one at this point.

Well, maybe I'll find ways to go on for longer in the future.

The Alatreon isn't yet defeated. And the Fera Gladius arc has only just now reached its second half.

So I hope that you still have some room for more battles, because there's plenty left to go.

Personally speaking I don't think I'll ever be able to get enough of reading or writing fights.

Also this is just a tirade but I have to include it with this chapter.

For several months I had a gag planned for this fight where Spencer would need to charge up quickly and remember that Luke advised him to try charging Storm up with a shock trap.

And then he would make the mistake of doing this directly in front of the Alatreon so he would get hit.

Then I'd give everyone various reactions. Isa would call him stupid, Mary (if she was still there for this part, I wasn't fully certain where it would go at that phase) would try to be kind about it, if not then Judah would fill that role but slightly more awkwardly, then I was planning to go with a final punchline of Laura calling him stupid but only because she has no idea about the effect of shock traps.

I wrote that joke down several times just to remind myself about it. From the moment I finalised the number of chapters in this arc it was certain that it would show up in chapter 31.

I do like Tobi-Kadachis quite a fair amount, but they are just budget Zinogres. And that's fine, this story wouldn't have shaped up like it has if that wasn't the case.

So I was convinced that since Zinogre are known for having that interaction, Kadachis naturally would too. I never had any reason to doubt it, since I would never use a shock trap on an electric monster anyway. Because of my experience with Zinogre (and Rajang, I know that it's only sometimes but I'd rather be safe).

Unfortunately, truly embodying the spirit of being a budget Zinogre means that Tobi-Kadachis cannot charge up from shock traps.

I didn't correct my understanding until I was in the process of putting the joke in, at which point I suddenly got paranoid and thought "There's no way I'm wrong about this, but just to be sure I'll check."

This is an eulogy to a joke that I didn't get to use.

I've occasionally wondered if all characters in a story are just extensions of the author, but in this case it seems that I am even dumber than the character I wanted to present as dumb for a quick gag.

Many things happen in the world.

Also this is just a final part of the note, I'm writing this during the editing process, but rest in peace Akira Toriyama.

This is a final section of the author's note because the news dropped midway through the editing process but rest in peace Akira Toriyama.

To be honest I never even once considered that Toriyama could die until I read about it. It's just unbelievable that the world can owe so much to one person.

This story certainly would not exist without him, I can guarantee that.

I just love writing fights. If you're reading this, then I hope you love them too.

So let's keep on trying to create better and better fights forever. It might end up with us spending forever in Toriyama's shadow, but what better shadow could there be to live in?

That's what Son Goku would want. I think. Probably.