The usual noise of the jungle was disturbed by the sounds of battle.
Blade against claw.
On one side, was a man armed with a longsword.
His opponent, a decently sized Congala.
Three times, their attacks clashed with each other in short succession.
The man was clearly outmatched in raw strength, but that did not even seem to cross his mind.
His sole desire appeared to be to cut what was in front of him. Compared to that, nothing else mattered.
All he could think of was cutting.
Suddenly, the wind began to pick up.
Something caused the attention of both parties to waver.
Just a moment prior, the wind had barely been moving. But now it was as though a storm was approaching.
Heavy footsteps drew close. They were unlike the sounds of any kind of living being that the man had heard.
It sounded like a large suit of armour was approaching them.
The footsteps sped up.
A Kushala Daora lept into view.
The Congalala was its target. In an instant it descended upon it.
The man with the longsword watched on from the side, going completely ignored.
"Hey, hey. That's my target, you know? You've got some nerve interfering like this."
He studied the dragon before him for a moment.
Instead of scales, it was covered in metal. An armoured dragon.
Something that he never could have even dreamed of.
Taking all of that in, he was suddenly overcome by the urge to cut it.
"Not going to even glance at me? That's rude. So don't blame me if you die!"
He dashed forwards, ready to swing. It only took a few seconds to get within range to attack. He swung
And then, nothing happened.
He did not reach anything.
Instead, he found himself touching nothing but the air. Somehow, he had ended up in the air. Just a moment prior, he had
Like a large gust of wind had suddenly carried him away.
The force that had launched him failed to continue holding him, causing gravity to take effect once more.
The hunter plummeted towards the ground. Unable to find any way of stopping or breaking his fall, he crashed head-first into the ground.
He woke up being rolled onto the ground.
It took a minimal amount of time to recognise his
Behind him were three felynes and a cart. The largest felyne in the group, with a tabby coat, spoke to him.
"That'll be 140000 Zeni, nya."
His bewilderment was immediately replaced by exasperation.
"Don't try to scam me! That's more than the quest reward! It's supposed to be a third for each cart, I didn't forget that just because I hit my head! I didn't suddenly become stupid! "
"It's not a scam."
A smaller felyne, with purple fur, standing to his left, chimed in.
"Besides, we don't think that mew became stupid. Mew were born stupid, weren't you?"
"What'd you just say!?"
"Hey, don't rile him up." The calico felyne to the right told the other. "People don't like it when you point out that they're idiots."
"Couldn't you have just said that I don't like being called an idiot? You're still implying that I am one if you say you're pointing it out."
"Could mew two remain quiet?" The larger felyne interrupted this diversion. "It seems there's some things that mew don't get, Akem."
Akem Okino.
22 years old.
Hunter rank 20.
The year 1296.
"And what are those?" The young swordsman asked back, unable to disguise his irritation.
"Our job is rescuing hunters. We put ourselves in danger to save hunters who have been knocked out by monsters. The money
Well, hunters like mew are so unreasonable and stingy that we've had to settle for a third of the quest reward, but that still applies here. Mew started a fight with a Kushala Daora. So we're charging what would be a third of the price for that, nya."
"That's such a rip off. So I'm being charged all that just because a Kushala happened to wander in and attack me? You're just doubling up my misfortune here. I'm a victim of both random attacks and scamming."
"No, you tried to fight it. We all saw you."
Akem went silent.
"No I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"I might've."
"You did."
"Alright, fine! I know that I tried to fight it, but what's so wrong with that?"
"We had to rescue you. Because it was way above your level."
"Yeah, but… I really really wanted to fight it."
"But that got us in more danger, nya."
"Is it really wrong to put you three in a tiny bit of danger, so that I can gain a far deeper understanding of the way of the sword? Is there really something so wrong with that?"
"There is, nya. Now pay up."
"Um, well, that's kinda…"
Akem rubbed his head, looking away.
"Do mew not have enough?"
"It's a bit…"
Akem paused, sighing.
"Of course I don't."
"How does someone at hunter rank twenty not even have 14000 zeni, nya?"
"Times are tough right now." Akem looked extremely irritated. As the conversation died off, the purple-furred felyne found her eyes drawn to something.
"That's a nice sword, nya."
Akem looked back at her, dragging his longsword slightly further back.
"Did mew spend everything you have to get that sword built, nya?"
"It's a really nice sword. The blacksmith said that it can go up to white sharpness. And it's got a high affinity."
"But you spent everything on it, nya?"
"Not everything. I had enough for the quest fee."
"Sell the sword, nya."
"No way!"
After several more minutes of back and forth arguments with the cart felynes, Akem was finally let go on the condition that he would keep on giving all of his earnings to them until his debt was repaid.
"So anyway, this Kushala…" Akem's sentence began trailing off. "Does he have a name?"
"What?"
"I figured that a dragon that fearsome would have some kind of cool or fearsome name. So that I can remember who he is."
"Dunno, nya. It's just a Kushala."
"Alright, I guess."
"My job's preventing mew from dying. Not naming any monsters."
As Akem walked away, he muttered to himself.
"Prospero. How's that? Yeah, that seems right. I'll go with that. Next time we'll settle this, Prospero."
Akem headed back to where he had been fighting the Congalala in hope of encountering either monster again, or at the very least to find some sign of where they had gone. All he found there was a few patches of pink fur.
"...Can I still get the quest reward for this?"
A year passed before their next meeting.
While waiting for them to meet again, Akem swung his sword every single day.
From dawn until dusk, he swung his sword. To any outsider
But with every swing, he could feel himself getting closer.
He wasn't even yet sure what he was approaching. All that he understood was that he was getting closer to something further beyond.
He continued to swing, in search of it.
They eventually met again in the same fashion they had the first time.
A hunt just like any other.
"Prospero!"
That was what Akem yelled out as he saw him, recognising the Kushala Daora from before.
Prospero, unaware that he had been given such a name, did not even turn his head towards the hunter. Once more, he was there to feed. His sights were fully set on the Daimyo Hermitaur that Akem had been fighting until just a moment prior.
"Damnit, nothing?"
He gripped his longsword tighter, the frustration beginning to take a hold on him.
Then Akem abruptly dropped his sword to the ground, sitting down with his legs crossed.
"Alright then. Could be a while before I get another chance, so there's no point in rushing in and wasting it like I did before. I'll watch for now, until you've had your fill. So in exchange, show me how I can beat you. That sound fair?"
Prospero was not paying attention to anything that Akem said, for he was focused on eating.
The Hermitaur that he was fighting had lost any focus on Akem as well, clearly considering the Kushala considerably more of a threat.
Upon realising this, Akem's frustration multiplied, but he still managed to force himself to stay out of the way.
The Daimyo Hermitaur stood in the shallow water. The Kushala was approaching from the beach.
The space between them was minimal, enough that either could have closed it completely in a few steps.
The Hermitaur chose not to move. It instead opted for a ranged attack, shooting a beam of pressurised water forwards.
Prospero did not bother dodging. He charged towards it
Akem watched from the side, marvelling as the attack was brushed off.
Prospero pushed through the resistance until it was just a step away, at which point it reared up on its hind legs and slammed its upper body into the Hermitaur. The crustacean's shell seemed to give Prospero more trouble than expected.
The Hermitaur swung back, several of its punches leaving dents in Prospero's metallic scales.
It began to flap its wings in response. The wind began to gather up, forming a tornado.
The spot he had chosen was directly below the Hermitaur. A moment later, it was launched upwards.
Upon landing, another tornado was formed. To be more accurate, Akem observed the Kushala beginning to form new tornadoes as the Hermitaur was launched into the air, just preparing it in time for it to land.
"Oh. Never seen a monster that could juggle before."
The wind repeatedly flung the Hermitaur into the air, before it dropped back down. Each impact slowly wore down the Hermitaur's resilient shell. Until eventually it completely ceased to move.
In all, the match that Akem had set aside his pride to watch was over in the space of a few minutes. Prospero completely, one-sidedly, unfairly dominated the Hermitaur.
A few more minutes passed by as he watched the elder dragon tear its fangs into the barely moving Hermitaur.
Akem watched it eat, reflecting until it was almost done before he made his move.
He stood back up, walking over slowly as he began to ramble.
"Y'know, I did most of the work in softening up for you. It was about ninety nine percent my work, you just swooped in to steal it at the end. So in exchange for that, and the last time, and all the money I lost last time… don't you think I've earned a proper fight by now?"
Akem stopped, getting ready to draw his blade.
Prospero finally acknowledged his presence, turning to him with a strong hint of irritation in its stride.
Their second fight began.
He could feel the wind beginning to stir around him.
"It's just like I read. He can control the wind."
Akem jumped backwards as a tornado appeared where he had been standing.
As the distance between them widened, Prospero found it more logical to continue with the ranged attacks. He reared his head backwards before shooting a blast
Akem fell to the ground to evade it. The wind shot past his head, threatening to take him with it.
"Come on, you'll have to try a bit harder than that!"
A second later, Prospero threatened to trample him underfoot. Akem rolled out of the way of the elder dragon's charging attack.
Akem mumbled to himself.
"His attacks aren't easy to dodge, but if I stay focused then I can stay ahead. I'm fast enough. But dodging alone won't be enough, now will it? I need to confirm whether my victory is possible or not."
He removed his longsword from his back and held it to his left so that the handle faced towards Prospero. His right hand gripped the handle, while
The wind began to surround him once more. He could feel it, but refused to acknowledge it.
His focus was solely on cutting. Anything was excess noise to be tuned out.
His mind closed in on that single point. Simultaneously, the wind continued to close in on him.
It arrived.
A moment of clarity passed within Akem's mind, while in real life he burst forwards.
The quickdraw slash cleaved through the Kushala's chest. Splashes of red contaminated the shallow water they stood in.
A sheepish smile broke through any attempts he made to suppress it.
"It worked! It's tough, I feel like I barely did anything, but I can cut it! Even if it takes forever, that means that taking it down is possible. Just remain focused. I can win this!"
Akem was flung into the ocean a few minutes later.
The fight had gone as he had expected. Akem was just barely able to cut his opponent, and just barely able to stay ahead of his attacks. It was exhausting. But with each exchange, he felt his mind growing stronger. The destination he was moving towards drew closer and closer.
Until he angered Prospero.
The Kushala had roared, interrupting Akem's movement.
Wind began to swirl around it.
Resuming from where he had left off, Akem swung once more.
His attack was deflected. He should have cut through Prospero's chest, but the wind caused his swing to divert from its intended path. He tried again, only for his sword to bounce off once more.
No matter what he did, it appeared useless. He couldn't cut through the wind that surrounded Prospero.
At that point, it would have made sense for him to retreat. But now that he had gotten started, he couldn't stop. He was single-mindedly, hopelessly, focused only on cutting Prospero. That he couldn't frustrated him to the extent that it completely took his mind out of the fight.
Left open, Akem was hit by a blast of pressurised wind, launching him out towards the sea.
He drifted, carried by the waves. He was still conscious, he felt awful and he knew that would have to move eventually or he would never be able to return to land. But after that turn of events, there was something that took priority over any of that.
A feeling deep within his soul, that he had to scream out, even if it would never be heard by anyone other than him.
"Damnit! Next time we'll settle this, Prospero!"
Another year passed by.
During that time, Akem continued to swing his weapon endlessly.
They ended up encountering each other by chance.
"Prospero!"
Akem raised his hands to the handle of his longsword.
The Kushala Daora turned to face him this time. There was no hesitation, no waiting. It roared at him.
A few seconds later, Prospero charged straight towards the hunter, ready to attack.
In response, all Akem could do was grin.
"Yeah, I like that. That's the spirit. That's how it should be!"
The fight played out in much the same way as before. The only differences were that Akem had a much easier time cutting it, and that Prospero's behaviour was far more aggressive than before.
Rather than trying to attack him mainly with the wind like before, he relied more on trying to crush him.
Eventually, that pivotal moment arrived once more.
Prospero roared once more, forcing Akem to cover his ears. As he looked forward, he saw wind begin to surround the Kushala once more.
"That barrier again. Now to see if my blade can cross it this time."
He swung. Just as he had before.
The wind failed to resist him this time.
"Huh?"
Prospero, surrounded by the wind, was cut by his blade. It had managed to get through the barrier.
"What? No way. I didn't-"
Akem pushed down his shock.
"Then let's win."
The wind still offered him some resistance, but it was minimal enough that he could still deal considerable damage. As he continued circling the Kushala and attacking, he realised that the resistance was even weaker at the ends of its body. The head and the tail were easy targets.
The two attacked each other without end, wearing themselves down until they were left barely able to move.
As they both stood there gasping for relief, Akem found that he couldn't move like he wanted to anymore. He was undeniably doing better off than his opponent, but that didn't mean it had been a flawless victory so far.
Unable to attack, all he could do was study Prospero.
His scales seemed to be different than before. He had assumed it was just the light playing tricks on him at first, but now that he took a second to slow down he could clearly see that wasn't the case.
Then he finally realised.
"No! No way I'm going to accept a win like this!"
Akem pointed his longsword towards Prospero. It was taken aback by his sudden yelling.
"You're rusted, aren't you? That's why your wind control's all off today. I thought that it was that I'd gotten stronger, but it's just because you've gotten weaker. Ahh, that's so annoying. Don't mess with me! I've already basically won, so I'm letting you go today. Go shed that skin and come back to give me a proper challenge once you're done.I won't accept beating you when you're as pathetic as this."
He sheathed his longsword and turned to walk away. Prospero stood there, seemingly dumbfounded.
Akem muttered as he left.
"Next time we'll settle this, Prospero."
After getting far away enough, Akem sat down and reflected.
"What is this feeling? I lost control for a few seconds there. Why did I get so annoyed?"
He played the fight back in his head repeatedly.
"Well, no matter how I slice it, one thing's pretty clear. I don't want to win like that. Is it because I hold a grudge against Prospero? No, that's probably not it. If it was just a grudge, then wouldn't I be happy to win? It's something else."
Something came back to him.
"Oh. Ohhh. Now I get it. How could I have forgotten?"
Stories that he'd read long ago. Of a swordsman who could cut anything. Fire, water, even space itself.
Wind wasn't out of the question.
Without question, he'd believed that he could be like that one day. It was only later that he realised that it was a work of fiction. But all of these years after that realisation, he came to a second.
"I wanted to be like that, didn't I? No, that's not accurate. If this feeling's right, then it's not in the past tense. I still want to be like that."
Akem let out a slight chuckle.
"What a fool I've been. I put it all down as childish, as beneath me, when I was really chasing it the whole time!"
The chuckling turned into full-blown laughter.
"I guess that even despite everything, I'm no better than a kid then! What a joke. Honestly, how ridiculous."
He fell backwards, staring up at the distant sky with a smile on his face.
"I don't know if cutting the wind's impossible. Just that it's impossible for me now. If I keep fighting him, I might just get there. No matter how long it takes. Even if it takes my whole life. Even if it takes all of yours. I won't give up until I can cut through it."
A few months later, Akem was wandering through the jungle on a hunting job when he sensed something drawing closer.
Instinctively, he dived to the ground. A blast of wind swept past where his head once was. Still on the ground, Akem turned his head to where the attack had come from to see his attacker.
"Ah, Prospero! Your scales are looking great!"
Before he could get back up, the Kushala shot another blast of wind. Akem recognised the danger just from the feeling in the air surrounding him. He scrambled to his feet to get out of the way.
The wind nearly annihilated the spot he had occupied until a moment prior.
It was clear that Prospero was stronger than ever before. Akem recognised that instinctively, and also instinctively recognised that he'd be likely to die if he spent too long marvelling at that fact.
"I take it that you're properly prepared this time? Seeing as how you're the one initiating the fight this time and all."
Prospero only roared as an answer.
"That's a good answer. Then let's enjoy ourselves."
And so, battle commenced.
Time and time again, the two wuld clash in that jungle. With each fight, they would drive the other to further heights, previously thought impossible.
No matter how the fight went, through some turn of events it would always be interrupted before the fight drew to a close.
Akem got into the practice of telling Prospero that next time would be the time they settle things.
There was one incident, over a decade after they had begun to fight, that Akem would never be able to forget.
The day that a devil arrived in the jungle.
Worldeater.
That was the classification reserved exclusively for abnormally large Deviljho.
A regular Deviljho was potentially enough to send an entire species into extinction. That was the reason why the guild made it an immediate priority to deal with them.
The scale was entirely different for Deviljhos of such an exceptional size.
An entire country being wiped out by a single monster was not out of the question. Perhaps even a continent.
They were considered living cataclysms on the same tier as the average mythical elder dragon.
Hence, a Worldeater. A Deviljho that could potentially devour the world.
According to reports from a nearby wycademy observation balloon, the Deviljho had suddenly burst from the ground and begun its rampage without hesitation.
Everything within its sight that could be devoured was devoured.
And now it was headed towards the jungle.
"I wonder what it's planning to do next? As in, once it's eaten everything here. We're right next to the sea. Maybe it's gonna dive in and start? Or maybe it's planning to go right over? One time I heard someone say that Deviljhos got to the new world by flying with their dragon breath and laughed it off, but looking at this guy I'm starting to doubt whether that was a joke. He could probably get across like that."
A man in his forties sat in the branches of a tree, watching the World Eater walk through the jungle.
"Well, I don't really want to find out what it'd actually do, so let's leave that as wild rambling. Time to get going."
Akem dropped down, drawing his sword as he fell.
The sheath fell behind him, but Akem paid it no mind. He swung his sword into the Deviljho's side, tearing through it as he fell.
The force of gravity only served to make his attack all the more effective. His sword cleaved through the Deviljho's side, causing blood to gush out.
A sublime slash.
Akem finally landed on his feet, catching his sheath and once again placing the longsword into it.
The Worldeater finally looked at him. The brute wyvern that towered even over the trees was now focused solely on him. A single bite would've been enough to end his life. That was an undeniable fact.
With that in mind, he couldn't help but nervously sweat.
"God damn, you're terrifying."
The Worldeater's roar caused their surroundings to quake.
The battle began.
The countless days that Akem had spent swinging his sword did not betray him. He swung ruthlessly, never holding still for a second.
To the Deviljho's eyes, it was as though the man before it was rapidly morphing between different shapes.
He flowed between sword techniques without even a moment's delay. Constantly on the move, constantly slashing.
The monster was large and slow, but its vast size made it difficult to avoid its attacks. It was not that it was precise, but simply that there was little room to dodge.
Its tail demolished the surroundings. Its stomps cracked the earth. Its dragon breath left the land smouldering.
Every attack the Worldeater made further decimated the hunting grounds that Akem called home.
"This is different to what cutting a monster usually feels like. It's more like I'm cutting into a squirming mass of flesh. No, maybe it'd be more accurate if I compared it to a mountain? No matter how much I cut, it's like there's always more to go. This thing must be endless."
As the fight dragged on, the Deviljho's muscles swelled and contorted, revealing a countless number of scars
The proof of all the battles it had survived until now. The marks of those that had failed to kill it before. Of those that had been devoured.
It showed no signs of slowing down.
On the other hand, Akem was barely able to hold it together.
"I really must be getting old. How much longer can I keep this up? Once I stop moving, I'll probably-"
The Deviljho's head snapped towards him, jaws open.
He had to move. To throw himself to the side, anything that would get him clear of its jaws.
Or there would surely be nothing of him left behind.
But at that moment, he could not will his body to move. He had pushed his body over its limits, ignoring all the warnings of his pain and fear, and was now facing the immediate consequences.
The jaws drew closer. Akem struggled to move.
Something blew the Worldeater's head off course.
It had been a blast of wind.
Akem jerked his head to the side, hearing the distinctive sound of wings slowly flapping.
"You-!"
Prospero descended to the ground.
"Prospero. That's right, I guess it'd also be pretty bad for you if this guy destroyed the jungle."
Akem took a second to catch his breath, watching the Worldeater rise back to its feet.
"I won't complain about you interfering in my fight. Just this once. Though I should warn you that this guy's crazy tough."
Prospero walked up to him and started staring. Akem felt a twinge of nervousness in his spine.
"So anyway. I'm uh, y'know. Suggesting that. That we do something like that."
Prospero stared blankly at him.
"Right, I guess you wouldn't know. Uh, well, it's like… you wanna fight together? Just this one time."
For some reason, even though the Kushala Daora showed no visible emotions, Akem could feel the message that the one in front of him was communicating.
"Don't you start mocking me! I'm only suggesting it because it'd be bad for both of us if he keeps on going. You won't win on your own. In fact, you'll feel extra stupid when you die. It'll be the worst embarrassment of your entire life. If getting eaten doesn't take priority over that, your pride's gonna get hurt. I'm hurting my pride here to save yours, you know? So just shut up and give your answer."
Akem turned.
"Are you with me or not?"
Prospero turned back to the monster, giving a roar to challenge the Worldeater.
"That's good. Then let's enjoy ourselves, Prospero!"
The battle was the toughest that either had ever struggled through.
The Worldeater's boundless appetite drove it to keep going even past what should've been its end. It was as though any and all attacks, no matter how brutal, were completely pointless.
But both hunter and elder dragon alike were able to achieve a similar effect. Their pride compelled them to keep standing, rejuvenating them and propelling their minds ever higher every time they reached their limits.
Not pride in their own strength, or anything of the sort.
Neither wanted to show their uncool side to the other. Neither wanted to lose before the other did.
So since neither could lose, their only option was to desperately crawl forwards in the hope of scraping victory out of the jaws of defeat.
A blast of dragon energy hit Prospero, tearing through his wind and searing his steel scales.
Akem continued running forwards, driving his sword through the Deviljho's torso once more.
The two had spent several hours tearing away at the unending flesh of the Worldeater.
But, something felt different this time. Something was different about this attack.
His body and mind were both on the verge of collapsing, but it was because of that he could feel it.
The creature's life was within his reach. Life was there, in front of him, clear to see.
Wasting no time, he attacked once more. Thrusting his longsword directly into the center of its life.
Akem stabbed the Worldeater's heart.
The Deviljho stumbled backwards, taking a few steps before crashing to the ground. The force with which it fell caused the surroundings to be shaken for one last time, before their surroundings finally went still.
Gasping for air, Akem immediately changed his focus.
"Prospero!"
He ran over to where the Kushala had fallen.
"Oh, so you're still fine. Don't go scaring me like…"
Akem couldn't finish his thought before his legs gave way, causing him to fall backwards involuntarily.
"We won."
The two of them, barely able to move but still just barely alive, lay there silently in the desolation the battle had caused.
After what could have been a few minutes or a few hours, Akem finally regained the strength to get back up.
He saw that the one he fought alongside was already walking away, having seemingly recovered just before him.
Akem had only one thing to say.
"Next time we'll settle this, Prospero."
Akem could've sworn that he saw the dragon nod in response. Though he wasn't sure if he was seeing things, given his current state. He lost his strength and collapsed once more.
"Oh, right. Right."
Akem shot off a flare to let those he had left behind know that the fight was over, before losing consciousness once more.
In the days spent recovering from that fight, Akem played it back in his mind a countless number of times. Analysing his missteps, working out what he needed to change in order to overcome the same challenge on his own next time.
One exchange stuck out in his mind. When the Worldeater's dragon breath had hit Prospero directly. The wind barrier had done absolutely nothing to stop the attack.
Dragon element could tear through the wind.
That much seemed clear to him. He knew from personal experience that dragonblight could nullify the elemental properties of weapons, so it didn't seem like that wild of an assumption to him that dragon element could negate the effects of the Kushala's wind as well.
Even after decades of swinging his blade in the hope of learning to cut wind, his efforts had not borne even a hint of fruit.
He wasn't discouraged a bit by this. He had no reason to despair. A mere twenty years without hope certainly couldn't come close to breaking the resolve he held.
But for the first time, he had caught a glimpse of a way forward. Observing the reaction between dragon element and wind felt like a small thread was being lowered in front of him.
He didn't know if it would lead anywhere. But he wasn't stubborn enough to ignore it.
Akem grasped onto the first chance he had received with both hands.
He had a longsword forged from the Worldeater's parts.
He didn't expect it to be a convenient, sudden solution. His expectations were not betrayed.
The Deviljho's longsword was rugged. Certainly, it was sharp. But it was difficult to cut cleanly with it, as he was used to.
He'd had it custom made to more closely resemble a conventional longsword, but even then it was still more rough than sharp.
And hitting a monster with it produced nothing similar to the results of the Deviljho's dragon breath.
But of course. Hunters were able to wield elements using weapons made from corresponding weapons, but blights remained out of their dragon element imbued into this sword was only good for dealing damage, not negating elements.
If it was so simple, then the answer would've been discovered by others years ago.
But even so, he continued to swing this blade. To tame it. To understand it.
So that one day he could draw out the power he believed so strongly was possible.
The sword had been made from a terrible, rarely-seen calamity. It had been forged with a special purpose, of cutting what had never been cut before.
Therefore it only made sense to give it a unique name.
Supreme Gluttony.
That was what he called the sword.
He kept on swinging his blade.
Every time the two met, they would fight. With each fight, they grew sharper.
The two chipped away at each other, building the other up. The process continued without end.
Years passed by in the blink of an eye.
Akem's body gradually grew weaker. But he did not give up. If he could not move like he used to, all he had to do was cut the movements out.
He refined his techniques further, cutting out any unnecessary movement from his swings.
He could no longer rely on any kind of brute force, which meant that he had to elevate his technique. As his body weakened, everything else about him only grew sharper.
His fights with Prospero only grew more intense.
But, that could not last forever.
In his early hundreds, Akem could feel that something was wrong. It wasn't the type of pain that he normally felt as a result of age. This was something else entirely.
He knew that his time was near. Which meant that if he was ever going to settle things, then it could only be then.
So he set out, searching for Prospero.
The Elder Dragon was nowhere to be found. After so many decades of fighting, Akem had gotten a sense of where his rival should have been. There were only so many places to check. But this time, Prospero was nowhere.
He spent days searching. But there was no sign of him, dead or alive. It was as though he had suddenly disappeared from that jungle.
Their rivalry remained unsettled. Their final showdown was gone.
Twisted off course.
So he began to search. To find the one he wished to settle things with.
His journey began, wandering anywhere that seemed like Prospero might be there.
Eventually, following those hints led him to the FG. He wandered directly through the first and second zones, before finding some unexpected conflict in the third.
He happened upon some young hunters, each clearly looking for something.
Even though he barely knew them, seeing their aimless desperation reminded him of his younger self. That was likely what formed his hunch about what his next action should be.
He wasn't sure whether helping them would be of any benefit to him. He knew that he had little time left, and that training them
But he had been guided here on a hunch. In the same way that he gained a hunch that he could cut the wind, and in the same way that he became fixated on using dragon element to do so.
Akem decided that he would help those children to grow stronger.
All of that led up to that moment.
Akem Okino.
102 years old.
Hunter rank 999.
December 21st, 1376. 12:15
Akem sat there, across from the unmoving Prospero.
As they had for hours now.
Defeating the poacher that had him under control wasn't enough. Interrogating another also yielded no results.
But there was nothing else to do. He simply sat there and waited for the moment to arrive.
In complete silence, he reflected. In complete silence, he planned. In complete silence, he prayed.
Something shifted.
Akem heard a resounding cacophony of monster roars around him, coming from all across the city.
His heart dared to hope.
"Looks like I was right to train them after all. It's nice to have good deeds rewarded."
Akem reflected on the training further.
"Those kids are always talking to their monsters. I never thought about it before seeing that, but isn't it sort of strange how after all this time I still don't know what I should say to you here? No, maybe not. We've only ever needed one way to communicate with each other. So let's just stick with that."
Prospero finally stirred. The elder dragon rose to his feet, scanning his surroundings.
Given a few more seconds of confusion, he probably would've begun to rampage in the same manner as the other monsters that had been confused.
But, there was something that prevented him from doing so.
In front of him stood Akem.
Prospero had no need to know what had happened to him. He had no need to know where he was. All of these unknowns were irrelevant to him now. The one he wished to settle his rivalry with was right there. That was all he needed to know.
He assumed a battle stance.
"That's good. Very good. I'm overjoyed that you still feel the same way. Then let's settle this, Prospero."
The two readied themselves. As they had countless times before. Both prepared for it to be the last time.
With the state the both of them were in, the fight surely last no longer than a single minute.
Fera Gladius arc part 9: 32 Seconds
The fight opened with a blast of wind.
The distance between them was minimal.
A distance that was clearly disadvantageous for Prospero.
He, better than any else that had ever preceded and any that would follow, fully recognised Akem's skill. That's why he knew that waiting for him to attack would prove fatal.
By the usual standards of elder dragons, Kushala Daora was quite well known.
Its life cycle could have been considered somewhat common knowledge, even to non-hunters.
Its scales were akin to metal in every sense, even down to rusting. To deal with this problem, it would shed its skin periodically.
The abandoned skin was quite bountiful to any hunters that happened upon it.
What wasn't as commonly known was that with each cycle, the Kushala's scales would harden.
With each iteration, it would become less able to move. As the years passed by, Prospero had become trapped within the cage of his body.
However.
He gained something in exchange for this restraint. The hardened scales were not only more difficult to cut through, but its signature ability to control the wind grew stronger in proportion to the hardness of the scales.
The blast of wind emitted in all directions from Prospero levelled the surrounding area, the force strong enough to pull the nearby buildings apart.
Akem was only wearing light armour, anything heavier would have made it difficult for him to move. It offered minimal resistance to the gale. Small cuts appeared across his body, caused by the wind slicing him.
The wind began to swirl clockwise. The rubble it had created was caught up in, circling around Prospero.
After shedding its skin countless times, the Kushala Daora could barely move. After being reborn countless times, the Kushala Daora had obtained an unparalleled dominion over the wind.
A tornado formed, sweeping up the entire section of the city with it.
That left just those two standing in the eye of the storm.
What had occurred until this point was not an attack. It would have been wrong to call it one.
It was more akin to a human warming up before exercise.
After regaining consciousness for the first time in a while, Prospero was just making sure that he could still control the wind properly.
In essence, it could've been called preparation.
The attack began after that.
The wind was given a proper direction. Towards Akem.
He did not need to turn his head to observe, for he already knew that the assortment of buildings and other objects were being aimed to crush him.
Confirming it would've just wasted time. Wasting even a single second would surely result in his death.
Akem respected his opponent enough to have absolutely no reason to doubt that.
Akem ran towards Prospero at full speed. Rubble descended towards him. He could have tried cutting it down and likely would have been successful, but there was simply too much.
In the time that it would take him to recover, he would get hit by something else. Taking out just one would result in the rest mercilessly bombarding him.
He drew closer.
As always, a barrier of wind surrounded Prospero. It howled more fiercely than he had ever heard it before.
They stood in the middle of a tornado. But Prospero was surrounded by wind that would blow anyone that got too close back.
To simplify, Akem had been placed between a rock and a hard place.
If he did nothing, then he would be trapped between the two sources of wind and crushed by the rocks.
So he closed in, drawing his blade.
He approached the wind head-on.
The most identifiable trait of the dragon element would be its incompatibility.
When used by monsters, the black and red energy would negate any other element it came into contact with.
Fire, water, electricity, ice. Even other types of effects like paralysis.
All useless.
The element was most commonly found in elder dragons, anomalies of nature. Very rarely could it be wielded by anything else.
There were only a few known cases of hunters being able to wield the same power when using dragon element weapons.
It would certainly do more damage, but it would not negate the elemental properties of a target.
That remained the exclusive right of the monsters.
Even in cases where it had been observed to work, its effectiveness was limited, only working on other elder dragons and only within specific locations.
A satisfactory answer as to why this was the case still had yet to be accepted.
Numerous theories flew around, none able to find enough evidence to reach the level of "commonly accepted knowledge".
There was one particular belief held by a forgotten part of the world, that observed the elder dragons closely.
Dragonblight could even affect the abilities of other elder dragons.
Therefore, one theory went as such. That dragon energy was the direct manifestation of the will of what created it.
The energy that subjugated all other forms of life, pushed them down, asserting the dominance of its origin.
In other words,
The proof of a ruler.
Akem's approach came to a stop just before where the wind barrier raged.
As he slid across the ground a stray gust hit the left side of his face, shaving part of it off.
The pain didn't even seem to register to him. His mind was no longer within the world. He had reached the same place he entered while fighting the Worldeater.
He was not dead. But he did not see as the living would. He stood between the two. No longer able to see the world, but clearly able to see life.
As he drew his sword, time seemed to grind to a halt. Every memory that he'd
All of his battles. All of his preparation. Everything that had ever made him keep going, all played back faster than the speed of light.
Prospero, not content to simply wait and hope that his previous attack would reach in time, went for another attack. A blast of wind aimed directly at Akem, from a point blank range.
Akem swung.
The attacks closed in.
This theory about dragon element provided an answer to the question of why only monsters could use it to destroy other elements.
It was their very soul, overpowering the souls of other monsters.
The soul did not reside in a weapon made from their remains. The dragon element could be utilised, but it was not the same.
All that Akem had to his name was countless years spent swinging his weapon. For decades, he had swung that very longsword, intent on conquering it.
If the problem was the lack of a soul, then all he had to do was pour his soul into it as a replacement.
But without knowing that, without any proof to support the idea, all he could do was blindly fumble his way around until finding the answer. Trial and error.
If he went through every single wrong answer, then eventually he would arrive at the right one.
It was like searching for a single grain of sand. All that he had to do was individually remove every other grain, one at a time.
What followed was not a miracle.
It was merely the cumulation of all those years spent searching for the path to what he dreamed of.
"You just get more and more ridiculous every time I see you. I can't believe that you created a tornado without even trying! If it'd been anyone else, they probably would have given up right there. That's a real unfair move, you know?"
Prospero seemed indifferent.
"Though I think that's good that way. There'd be no point in having spent all that time mastering the wind if you couldn't be at least a bit unfair with it."
Prospero seemed annoyed.
"You're saying that I'm certainly one to talk? I suppose you've got me there. My skills are unfair too. That's how things are balanced out between us. I'm not complaining. If anything, it was a relief to see something so ridiculous. I was getting a bit worried that something had happened to your strength, seeing your performance when that guy was ordering you around."
Prospero seemed confused.
"Right, I guess you wouldn't know. Well, it doesn't matter much. They probably caught you when you were sleeping, right? Whatever they did, I don't know, but I doubt they had the chance to see your real abilities. If they had, then they wouldn't have lived to tell the tale. But because of that, he had no idea what you could do. It'd be tasteless to talk about other people right now, wouldn't it?"
Prospero agreed.
"Ahh. So much fun. We had so much fun together. I never could've even dreamed that it could've turned out like this. I really don't want this to come to an end. What about you?"
Prospero agreed again.
"I want to keep fighting you forever. I want to keep on going recklessly higher to match you. But the world isn't built for that sort of thing. If we got any stronger, we'd probably end up breaking it in half during one of these duels. I suppose that's why our time is limited."
Prospero closed his eyes.
"If we meet each other on the other side, then how about we have another fight? But I guess it'd be tasteless to start thinking about that now, so I'' just go with this instead."
Akem looked forward.
"Goodbye, Prospero."
They crossed through each other.
Leaving even sound behind, the world remained still for a moment. Akem sheathed his blade.
The dragon that lay dormant within the weapon had finally been mastered by Akem. After years of refinement, in that state between life and death, he had finally gained the ability to control it.
In his advanced age, Akem found that no longer had energy to waste. Excess had been carefully removed from every movement of his. Not just his sword swings, but even how he carried himself. Nothing about him was wasted.
In other words, his years of effort had finally allowed him to bloom.
It was only because of that, that he could cut the wind so cleanly.
Akem had finally cut the wind barrier.
With it, Prospero. With it, everything behind him.
All of it had been cut with that single attack.
Akem had not even taken the time to consider the name for the attack.
He had executed a regular sakura slash, but the results had greatly varied. It was only later that another would come up with a name for it.
Hunter art: Draconic Blossom.
Prospero fell to the ground. The wind dispersed. The massive tornado faded away as though it had never been there, causing the sky to once again clear up.
The rubble it had gathered scattered around the city, being thrown in random directions.
As the noise faded away, Akem found that remaining standing was becoming increasingly difficult.
He fell to one knee.
"No. Not yet."
He struggled back up.
"I'm not dead yet. I don't know how long it'll last, though. Well. There's no point in just waiting until my time's up, now is there? So how about I repay some favours and see how many of them I can take over to the other side with me."
He focused. The sounds of another battle were nearby.
Akem Okino pushed himself back to his feet and began shambling towards those sounds, leaning more heavily on his longsword than before.
12:15.
32 seconds after the mass-unshackling of the monsters under the king's control.
Prospero, the Kushala Daora, defeated by Akem Okino.
Hunter side: 16 hunters, 8 monsters.
Poacher side: 25 poachers, 26 monsters.
TO BE CONTINUED
Two chapters in one month? Can you believe it? I'm going to hope that it's still March when this chapter is released, otherwise this comment will look very silly.
I wrote a pretty ridiculous fight this time.
As a fun fact, because I'm probably the only one keeping count, this is the first chapter in the story where none of the DBA appear.
Up until there was always at least three per chapter.
Also, this is kind of pointless to say when they're all missing this time, but in every chapter until now at least one of the four introduced in the first chapter had appearance.
One of my biggest regrets with the original is how little the original four mattered in the end. They all got their own moments since DBA G was a story that gave the limelight to all eighteen of its main characters (some more than others), but what I'm lamenting is the complete lack of a group dynamic they had.
I think that if I started over with a more normal monster hunter story I'd still have a story with a team as its main characters, but rather than just one or two I'd probably go for the full four at least.
I've thought about this a few times before, which is how I came up with the idea of Akem. Not as a main character, but just as some elderly hunter working nearby who would've gotten one chapter like this where he settles things with his old rival.
I doubt I'll ever go back and write a normal MH story, but why waste a good idea? So I forced him into this arc instead. Though I did initially plan on introducing him while they were in the second zone. I moved his introduction to later since chapters 10 and 19 were already sort of similar plots and it probably would've gotten repetitive.
Finally if I get even one person commenting that Akem's draconic blossom is just elderseal I will attack you like some kind of chimp or other ferocious primate.