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.

33. Heavenbound

For as long as I can remember, it was always on my mind.

Looking up at the clouds, I could only wonder what was past that.

At some point, I became convinced of only one answer.

Heaven must have been past them.

Years later, I finally made it. Upon reaching past the clouds for the first time, I found nothing.

After all that time spent climbing to the peak, what I had begun climbing to reach was not awaiting me at the top.

In an instant, I realised so many things.

The heaven that I was searching for was not there, atop that peak. I realised that it must be even further than that.

I also realised just how thin the air was up there.

In other words.

The number of people who could live at this altitude was limited.

Rather than just being a coincidence, that was surely an intentional design.

This space was reserved exclusively for those strong enough to defy gravity.

The ground below had enough air for the common masses to live on.

All of them could surely live their full lives in blissful ignorance, never once stopping to question the gravity they were subjected to.

Even after reaching this far, I still could not see the point at which the sky ended.

The blue stretched out endlessly, taunting me.

Heaven must be past even that point.

So I set it as my next destination.

But as I did, I realised. The air would surely become even thinner than it was now. It was already difficult to breathe at this paltry height. How thin would it

Considering all of that, I only felt a long-held belief of mine being confirmed.

That not everyone can go to heaven.

---

Fera Gladius arc part 10: Heavenbound

---

Two attacks met each other in the air. To be more specific, two monsters crashed into each other.

From above, a Valstrax.

From below, a Barroth.

The two bashed into each other with roughly equal force. A headbutt against a wing. The result was both of them being driven back.

The Barroth slid across the ground.

The Valstrax landed on the ground, slightly ripping the road up as he did so.

Their companions stood on each side.

Next to Goliath, the Valstrax.

David Ben Gilmore.
21 years old. 200 cm.
HR 333 (estimated).
The Limit Breaker. Known with Fera Gladius as the Knight of Heaven.

And standing directly across next to Panzer, the Barroth.

Luke Shoot Gilmore.
18 years old. 167 cm.
HR 16.
No titles of note.

Attack power, endurance, speed, experience. In almost every category that mattered, Luke knew that his older brother outclassed him completely.

That was why, even though they'd competed nine hundred and ninety nine times before, Luke had never won once. Bearing the weight of the knowledge that it was the thousandth match, Luke studied his Davi carefully.

"His helmet's gone. He must've taken some serious damage while fighting the SD-B team. It seems like they managed to cut through parts of his armour as well. His tonfas… don't seem to be damaged, though. He couldn't have had any time to sharpen them between the last fight and now, so if we can endure enough attacks then he should weaken. If he notices and tries to sharpen them, then there'll be a chance to strike. Even if he predicts that we're waiting for that, he'll either have to give up on it or focus on creating an opening for himself to safely sharpen them.

That could be quite a while away, though. They look good enough to be white sharpness, at the very least. It's not as though I'm qualified to make that judgement, but that's the impression they give."

He studied further.

"Tonfas. Like always. I've never known him to use anything else, so that shouldn't have been something to worry about. What do I know about them? Fast, mobile, stubby. Has a big attack to watch out for if he can land enough hits. Two modes, which flip how good he is at dealing damage to certain parts. Very mobile in the air, but that would just make him an easier target for me. No reason for him to get into the air here unless he's fighting Panzer. Those weapons are good at close range combat, so I should keep my distance until an opening appears."

Then he reflected on the previous encounter.

"No, that's the wrong answer. He'll just say that I'm being passive again. If he gets bored, then he'll just leave. It's not like he has anything to prove by beating me, so what point would there be in staying? If he goes to leave, I won't be able to stop him. I've got to hook him in somehow. To reveal just a bit of what I've got up my sleeves, without showing too much. There's no way I'll win if he knows everything. I just need to give him a taste, to let him know that there's more to come. So to make a strong impression, I'll-"

All of that calculation took only a fraction of a second.

Luke dashed forwards, closing the distance in a near-instant.

"He got real fast all of a sudden." Davi took a fraction of a second to think that.

Luke aimed his gun.

---

"What? I didn't hear you properly. You want to get better at aiming?"

"You did hear me properly, that's exactly what I said."

"Oh, that's good. Just had to be sure. But why are you asking me?"

On the first day of preparations for the battle against Fera Gladius, Luke had come to Bal with that question.

The Starward Diamonds' tactician seemed rather taken aback by it.

"Because I don't know how to."

"That's a pretty bad question. You don't know how to aim at all? IS that what you're saying? All you gotta do is point it."

"No, I know that."

"Then ask the question better. Narrow it down."

"I want to get better at aiming. Because I can barely hit anything."

"There you go." Bal took a moment to process what Luke said properly. "Wait, what? Really? But you use a light bowgun."

"Yeah."

"...Then you can aim, right?"

"I'm decent at it at best. Not good."

"But you chose it as your main weapon, didn't you?"

"Because I'm too weak for any other weapon. And because I wanted to stay as far away from any monsters as possible."

The question of "Then why did you even become a hunter?" crossed through Bal's mind, but he deduced that it was probably the worst thing that he could ask and quickly found something else.

"Alright, hold this for a second."

Bal reached around his side, grabbing and unfolding his bowgun. He held onto the barrel and presented it to Luke.

Luke grasped onto it in the same way, but ended up almost dropping it when Bal took his hands away.

Just barely, he kept it upright, but he was clearly struggling somewhat.

"You feel the difference in weight, right?"

Bal felt like he was being glared at for a moment.

"...You think I can't tell that a heavy bowgun is heavier than a light bowgun without feeling it?"

"No, no. I know that you know that. Don't give me that look. I just think it's one of the things that you can get without fully getting it until you properly try it."

Bal sighed as he felt the glare recede slightly.

"It's completely different, right? Not just a bit different. Different to the point where it's difficult to believe that they're in the same weapon category. That kind of different."

"Yeah, I guess."

"So you get what I'm saying here, don't you?"

"That it's heavy?"

"Yeah, I am saying that. But I meant the secret meaning behind that."

"...It's heavy?"

"We're going in circles, are you getting a message other than it being heavy here?"

"No."

"I'm saying that there's not much point in learning how to aim from me."

Luke seemed slightly taken aback, but continued pressing.

"Please, there's still so much I don't know, and I only have-"

"Hold it. I said that there's not much point learning that, not that I wouldn't help. Think about what I was demonstrating for a second. Even though they're the same weapon, they're completely different. My style is to find a good spot, hunker down and keep firing from there until the monster either dies or moves. Even if I taught you that, what good would it do you? Light bowguns have more deviation and lower battle. It'd be fighting an uphill battle. Plus you've got that monster with you, so it's a whole different thing."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Plus, to be honest, I'd have no idea what kind of advice to give even if you did use a HBG. Never been taught, never taught anyone else, I worked out most of it through intuition. And there's only one other member of my group who uses a gun, but well…" He reflected on all the hundreds of times he'd seen Lotus obliterate his surroundings. "In his case accuracy isn't really a factor. Though that's not really relevant right now. Look, just think of it this way. Did you know that up until a century or so ago, people used greatswords and longswords in the same way?"

"Yeah."

"Of course you would. Someone explained it in full detail to me years ago, but I can't really remember the specifics. It only happened in a few regions, mostly to the west. Translation errors and the like prevented word from spreading about the techniques for a few years, or something like that."

"What?"

"Well the longsword was invented around Yukumo and Kamura, right? So I think the designs for longswords headed west before proper information on the techniques did. It's not too important. You get the point, right? For years, those hunters were using the weapon at only half of what it could've been, simply because they didn't ever know or think to try a different method. It's the same for you. A light bowgun shouldn't be used like a heavy one. So we're going to find your equivalent of that spirit combo."

"So what are we doing, then?"

"I dunno. You'll have to be the one to tell me. I'm just here to advise as a fellow gunner."

"Then… I want to be more aggressive. I can't keep cowering behind Panzer forever. If I'm going to get anywhere, I'll start with that."

From that point, it began.

"Alright. Let's start with the simple, overplayed advice. The type that's not helpful at all. Everyone's heard this one before. Can you guess?"

"Don't shoot where they are, shoot where they're going."

"Yeah. That's what I was going to say. I didn't think you'd get it instantly. Alright, so how about you tell me what's wrong with that?"

"It's a lot easier said than done."

"Yup. It's nice to say, it makes sense, but it's hard to tell. All you can do is study your target's movements and make an estimated guess. But well, we're going to go one step above that. Aim where they're going, but also adjust for where you're about to be."

---

After only a week, he already had some results to show.

He lacked the time to completely rebuild himself. Instead, he just had to keep building on what he already had.

If the others in his group had seen him, they wouldn't have noticed much of a difference other than increased aggression.
Luke's speed had not miraculously increased. It was simply that he was running with far more purpose than before.

But to Davi, it was a shock. His unathletic, bookworm younger brother was now approaching him with considerable speed. Not nearly as fast as he was, even without the benefits his tonfas provided to his manoeuvrability, but certainly far quicker than he'd ever seen him.

The second to last time they had seen each other was over six months ago. All of Luke's progress had taken place within such a small window of time.

It was true that they had clashed a week prior, but in that state Luke could barely fight. He hadn't been able to give even remotely close to his best in that situation.

The result of all of these factors coming together was enough of a surprise to dull his reactions, allowing Luke to make the first attack. Though, he hadn't expected to be able to make a surprise attack.

He fired his gun at Davi. The bullets hit him in the chest, knocking him back slightly. Luke used the hit as an excuse to move in closer, firing another shot. A similar response.

"No way. Is he really-"

Another shot slammed into his chest. Abandoning that thought halfway through, Davi lashed out to escape from his present situation.
He swung his tonfas around. Luke saw the signs of the attack approaching, but was too late to do anything to dodge. The tonfa swung around, eventually connecting with the side of his helmet and causing him to stumble a few steps to the side.

He refused to let his momentum die, taking aim again and unloading the rest of his clip. Several shots in quick succession hit Davi around his chest.

Luke noticed another attack coming and made it more of a priority to dodge this time.
Goliath's wing cracked the ground where Luke had been standing just a second prior.

"There's the Valstrax. It really does use its wings like it's punching. They're normally so reclusive that there's barely any information on them. I wish we didn't have to meet like this, I'd love to observe it more closely. But the fight that I saw last week and the accounts I read should be enough for now."

Even though Luke had dodged away, Goliath's attack had not yet ended.

The left wing unfurled, extending its range greatly and swung once more.

"The wings can be extended for extra range. Just like the attack I saw it use against Fen. It's almost a spear. Its speed is absurd, but it still has such ridiculous reach. Well, I can clearly see why it's classified as an elder dragon. That level of unfairness is exactly what I'd expect from one. But…"

Luke hurriedly changed his ammo type and reloaded his gun, wasting no time before dashing towards the monster.

As he ran past, he fired several ice shots.

All of this only took a few seconds, not even enough time for Goliath to recover. The shots were only a minor annoyance.

Luke hurriedly reloaded. Panzer charged in, attacking Goliath to take the elder dragon's focus away from Luke.

Once more, Luke and Davi were face to face. Davi attempted to rush Luke before his gun could fire, but that strategy failed. Several more shots hit him in the chest in quick succession.

Davi then realised that he couldn't dodge and concluded that he was better off not bothering. He simply braced himself and pushed through the attacks.

He'd gotten used to their impact by now. More powerful than he'd expected from a light bowgun, but nothing compared to what he'd endured before. That much wasn't enough to slow him down.

He marched through the bullets and hit Luke in the chest in turn.

They locked eyes for a second. Davi seemed as though he was considering something, even despite being in the midst of the fight.

Luke backed off by a few steps. Panzer charged forwards in an attempt to flatten Davi, who vaulted out of the way.
While still in the air, he launched himself backwards.
He launched several punches into Panzer's side before landing.

Panzer twisted his body around, but Davi managed to dodge through. Goliath now caught up, trying to knock Panzer down with an extended left wing.

It wasn't nearly enough to keep him down. Panzer reared his head back, pulled Goliath to the ground, before stomping on the Valstrax's back.

Goliath wasted no time expressing pain, focused instead on trying to counterattack. A right wing turned into a spear, aimed for Panzer's head.

He swerved it to the side, causing the attack to only bash into him.

Not wasting any time being distracted by this fight, Davi closed in on Luke.

Luke took aim.

"The same as before. Why can he shoot so quickly? I've never seen a bowgun that fast before. But it's fine. It's light. Those attacks are barely anything, so I'll just endure and then attack."

He breathed in, preparing himself for what was to come.
Luke dashed forwards. The gun fired.

Only then did Davi notice that something was off.

One shot whizzed past him.

A second managed to connect with his face, dispersing and releasing some gas.

"Wh-"

Another missed. Then a second shot landed. Two more missed, before a third one finally hit him.

Tranquiliser rounds. That was what had hit him in the face.

By the time that the realisation dawned upon him, it was already too late.

Davi fell to the ground.

Luke took a second to catch his breath.

---

"Well, what do you think?"

The firing range. A few days prior.

Luke was standing only a few meters away from his target, holding a new bowgun. In response to the question, he turned and raised his helmet to answer.

"The power's good. Reloading is easy, it barely takes a second. And the rapid fire is just what I wanted. It's perfect, I think."

"Ah, that so? As long as you're fine with the drawbacks, then I guess it's all good. I wasn't sure whether it was really okay to make a weapon like that. But if you're happy with it, then I guess it's fine."

Fen paused for a few seconds.

"But still, that wasn't what I was asking about."

Luke tilted his head.

"Sorry, I really can't think of anything else that you'd be asking in that situation."

"Well it's something far more important than you needing to confirm something as obvious as me having done my job properly."

"What? Apart from calling that sentence overconfident, I really can't think of anything else to say here."

"I'm not overconfident, I'm exactly confident.I don't need to be told I made the right weapon, it shouldn't be down to any kind of chance. It should be certain."

"Okay, but still…"

"How those weapons are used isn't up to the maker."

"But you use your own weapons all the time?"

"Yeah, I'm the exception here though. And that's only some of them. Fine, we'll say that I can't use the weapons I can't give to others."

"Yeah, that should be obvious."

"Stop interrupting, I'm only halfway through my point."

"Oh."

"Now what was I getting to? Weapons can't be used by their makers, except for me, but… yeah, there we are. This thing's still missing one thing before it can really become powerful, you know? Since it was a personal request, I thought it'd be best to leave it up to you."

"What?"

"It should be obvious."

"But it isn't. I don't get it at all. All these hints are just making me more confused than before."

"I'm talking about the name! What could be more important than that?"

"The power?"

"Yeah, I guess. But still, the name's important."

"I've never given my weapons names until now."

"...Are you serious?"

"Why would I? They've just been normal bowguns."

"You don't get it at all, do you? Good weapons need to be given names. Saying that just naming a weapon is enough to make it strong would be an insult to what I do, but I certainly can't think of any strong weapons without a name."

"I don't see how that would make a difference to its abilities, though? Names are just for convenience, aren't they?"

"You're looking at me like I'm spouting off nonsense, but I really can't see how it doesn't make perfect sense. Names mean that you're attached, yeah? So giving a weapon a name, distinguishing it from everything else, means that you're attached. On the contrary, I doubt that a weapon that someone hasn't even bothered to bestow a name to can do anything special. What you want to do is something special, isn't it? So it needs a special name."

Luke went silent for a few moments, appearing to be properly

"I see. Sorry, I shouldn't have come across as so judgemental. It's not really in line with how I usually think of things… but I think that it's a good viewpoint."

"As long as you get it."

"There is just one thing that's bugging me, though."

Fen waited as Luke slowly worked out how to deliver his realisation. A feeling of dread swept over him. He had a premonition that what he was about to hear would be nothing good. After some careful thought, Luke finally decided how best to express his observation.
The blunt approach.

"You never gave Zara's wirebug puppet a name."

"Hm?"

Fen stared at him for a few moments before Luke heard the sound of something snapping. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Fen collapsed to the ground. Then like a puppet that had its strings hurriedly reattached to get it moving again, he punched the ground while yelling in frustration.

"Gah! You're totally right! I was so focused on getting it right that it completely slipped my mind. Since then it's been bugging me the whole time, but I couldn't remember why. Damn it! What a disappointment I am! A disgrace! Nothing but a stain about the history of blacksmiths! How dare I go on about all that while failing to follow it myself!"

"It's not that big of a deal, right? You can just give it a name now."

Fen's tantrum was cut short, Luke's words seemed to completely drain the energy from him.

"Yeah, I will. Now that I've remembered it I can't stand this feeling anymore. That's now definitely the second entry on the list of all my priorities in life at this very moment. But first…"

He turned his head towards Luke, but didn't get up off the floor.

"Your weapon. We're naming it first so this doesn't happen again. Then I'll move."

"Right. But as we just established, I didn't care about any of this until just now. So I haven't got any in mind."

"You don't have any ideas for a name at all?"

"None."

"Not even a general idea of what to call it?"

"...I don't think I've ever named anything in my entire life before."

"What? Never? Not even once in your entire life?"

"Every time we were told to name something Davi would yell one before I could. I think I might've tried to bring up my own ideas but he kept on insisting that they were bad compared to his. Then when I kept pressing enough, he just started making a siren noise at me."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"It wasn't always him. Mary did something similar sometimes."

"That makes less sense. But it doesn't matter. Alright, if you're out of ideas I've got some."

Luke didn't interject with anything, just waiting with anticipation.

Fen continued on, still not standing back up.

"Well, they're calling your brother the knight of heaven, right? Since it's the weapon being created to counter that guy, it only makes sense to spin it around that."

"He had two titles, didn't he?"

"Well what's the opposite of a limit breaker? A limit unbreaker. Enforcing the rules? Doesn't exactly sound like you're fighting an uphill battle."

"What if we try to supersede him with it?"

"What?"

"Go further than breaking limits."

"...But what's further than that?"

"I don't know, it just sounded cool in concept. I was hoping you'd fill it in for me."

Fen tilted his head from side to side to indicate that he was in thought.

"Nah, can't. I'm going for the lower hanging fruit here, heaven's far easier to reach. You can find the opposite of heaven easily, right? It's hell."

Luke frowned.

"So we're calling the gun Hell?"

"No, that's too simple. We've gotta go for something smarter. You're going to face unbeatable odds and try to prevail. When talking about chances of success that low, they'll talk about 'a snowball's chance in hell' or 'no shot in hell', won't they? The point is that people seem to have the idea in their heads that hell is a place of what's unexpected. So let's use that. So presenting… the shot in hell!"

Luke's frown intensified.

"I'm not calling it that."

"Why?"

"Too long."

"Long weapon names are cool in their own way. I think a really long name can be fitting sometimes."

"I thought the point of a name was for trust. What's the point if the name's too long for me to say easily? I'll bite my tongue."

"You've got a lot of criticisms for someone with no ideas of his own. Well, it's the weapon specifically built to match you. No point if it doesn't match your tastes. So go on, give me something good."

"I can't think of anything good."

"Then we'll call it 'the shot in hell."

"Is 'the' part of the name?"

"Yeah."

"Then double no, I'm not owning a weapon that starts with the word 'the'."

"I just said to provide your own ideas instead of being so critical over nothing."

"Alright, I get it. Then I'll just go with a spin on it. How about…"

---

Hellshot V1.

That was the name he had gone with. A bowgun defined by its exceptional speed.

Light enough to provide no hindrance to Luke's movement, a reload speed fast enough that barely any time was wasted, and an overwhelming rapid fire speed.

The power barrel attached did not hurt its effectiveness.

A bowgun that had been developed to match the new style that Luke was trying to create for himself.

A bowgun built specifically for this fight. A bowgun made so that Luke Gilmore could drag his brother down.

He remembered what he'd been told a week prior.
Remembered how Davi had pointed out that he was just hiding behind Panzer.

That was what drove him to change to running forwards, directly into battle.

He also remembered something else Davi had told him.

About how he couldn't bring him back without killing him.
It was clear that lack of resolve was part of the gap in strength between them.

But he refused to do that.

The entire point of this journey was to bring Davi home, to make things right.
Despite everything that had happened, Luke could not accept an ending with Davi dying.

So part of his plan involved pretending that he was listening to his advice, while really ignoring it.

But that created a question. Just how could he successfully defeat him?
While he sought to deny them, Luke did find some truth in his words.

Weapons were made for killing. To use them for anything else was hypocrisy.

It was like a fish swimming up a waterfall.

But he saw a potential route to victory. To be more accurate, he heard of it.

The poachers of Fera Gladius had a strange relationship with their monsters. When compiling together everything they had learnt, that was the first observation.

After enough discussing how their monsters would only move as instructed, the question inevitably surfaced.

"Do you think that Valstrax that was with Davi is the same way?"

Judah was the one to ask it.

Luke and Mary both seemed uncertain.

"It must be." Zara asked. "I can't see anyone taming an elder dragon."

Spencer made a counterpoint.

"Well, he is meant to be pretty good at getting along with monsters."

"How the hell do you know that? I thought you were in the same boat as me. You met the guy?"

Spencer smirked.

"I know secret information now."

"That is definitely the most annoying look I have ever seen you make, and let me tell you that is not an easily won competition."

"You're just mad cause I know something you don't."

"That's right, so tell me."

"No. It's a secret. If I told you then you'd know."

"Have you thought about how easily you could die right now? It would even be possible for someone like me to kill you with how bad your injuries are. I'm thinking about that a lot."

"Can we stop getting side-tracked?"

Zara and Spencer both turned their heads to the one who asked that.

In unison, they asked.

"Who are you?"

"You know who I am." Isa replied. "This is serious, so stop talking about dumb shit. No following this up by asking if I've been replaced just because I'm asking to stay on track for once."

Spencer really wanted to keep going with the digression, but couldn't disagree that this was a serious topic, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Then get on with it." Zara replied. "You're one of the ones who fought him."

"I'm not sure."

"That's useless then."

"It's not. I wasn't paying attention to how he ordered it around. Why would I? It's not like I knew yet. And my head's kinda hazy when I think back to it. So I'm not sure. It doesn't really sound like what I said but… something about their connection was weird. Like it was way too good to be true. So maybe that's what you're talking about?"

"I didn't really get that sort of vibe from the guy we faced. Not like I gave him much of a fight, though? What about you two?"

She looked to Laura and Jean, who she had fought Rondo with. Jean made a troubled face.

"Hmm. Well they were certainly of one mind, but not really in the way you'd expect. So it either could or couldn't be the same. It could be either possibility."

"That's obvious. Don't say something so obvious like you're saying something profound."

"I didn't pay any attention at all." Laura told her.

"Of course."

Jean turned to Fen.

"What about you?"

"Oh, yeah. I don't know either. Same reasons as her. I was kind of hoping one of them would clear it up before I could say anything."

"Well, that makes sense. I figure that it's going to be whatever we expect the least."

"So you think he really could've tamed an elder dragon?"

"I dunno. Has it ever been done before?"

Mary shook her head.

"Not as far as I know."

"But do you think he could do it?"

"...I guess I won't say that it's impossible. But I don't think it's very likely. Even for him."

Luke's strategy revolved around this.

From everything that had been observed, every fragment of information that had been collected, there was one common thread among the poachers.

The monsters could only follow their orders. Whatever method they had used to control them, there was no room for independent decision making.

The monsters could only do what they were told, until given new orders.

So if a poacher was rendered unable to give more orders, the monster would only be able to follow the last orders it had been given.

He didn't know if they always had to give orders verbally, or if there was something else.
He had not a clue what the method even could have been, save for the

There was so much that he didn't know.

Not knowing disgusted him. To not understand was something he found viscerally uncomfortable.

But he couldn't afford to be picky.
If he did not dive into these unknowns, then he feared that he would spend the rest of his life wallowing in uncertainty.
So he had to compromise and make the best of what he had.

Putting everything that he had together, gathering everything he could, he schemed to the best of his abilities.

It was too unreliable to be called a weakness. But he had to use the defining trait of all of the poachers to his advantage. That taking out the poacher would cause the monster to behave strangely.
He had one easy method to avoid the need to kill his opponents.
Tranquiliser shots.
Just as Bal had employed during the team battle, only a short while prior. Though to him that felt as though it was years ago.

He knew that it would be an unreliable method.

If Davi had any allies fighting with him, then they could just as quickly wake him back up, undoing all of his work.
But if his monster really was the same as the others, then it wouldn't be able to, unless specifically ordered.

Knocking Davi unconscious, then dragging him away from the Valstrax's range and restraining him before he could wake up.
A cheap and unreliable tactic.
But as long as he succeeded, anything would work. The only problem that remained once he threw away any notions of pride was the low chance of success.

Become faster, more aggressive, just as his brother wished for him to. So that he could fight. Give the impression of a miraculous improvement, in order to make him expect a proper fight. All to trick him into not seeing what Luke truly had planned.
Challenging him without the rest of the group's assistance was only part of that strategy to instil a fake sense of confidence. He pushed his bluffing to its very limit.

The gun's defining trait was its absurd speed. That was what he had specifically requested. It was so that no chance would go wasted. He did not expect a plethora of openings. Even a single one was above his hopes. But if he did happen across something of the sort, then he couldn't afford to risk wasting it.
The rapid fire was there to close out the fight as fast as possible.

In the battle immediately before Luke had arrived, Davi's helmet had been broken.

Failing to land the tranquilisers would likely result in his defeat. He recognised that well.
So even though he couldn't waste a chance, he couldn't be too impatient.

He had been expecting a hard fought battle, gradually whittling Davi down until he could land it.

That obstruction having been removed was nothing short of miraculous.

Even so, he couldn't just aim straight for his end goal. He had to set things up first.

That was why the fight had played out like that. The real shots were only meant as deterrence, a minor bump in the road for Davi. The second that he realised that they were ineffective and felt the small victory of overcoming them was when Luke changed strategies.

All that led up to now. Davi, collapsed on the ground. Unconscious.
Luke, still standing. Desperately trying to catch his breath.

"How long was that? A few minutes? It was only a few minutes and I'm already this exhausted. Isn't that pathetic? After all of that."

Luke shook his head.

"Stop thinking about that. You're thinking too much. We can't waste this chance that we've been given. Move."

He turned his head.

"The Valstrax is still fighting Panzer. I need to move Davi out of its path. No, it's a Valstrax. Where does its path end? That doesn't make sense. Nowhere's safe. We've just got to keep running. Will it chase us? We'll just have to run and see what it does. If it did, I doubt we'd be able to get away from it. Could the two of us take down a Valstrax by ourselves? I doubt it. Though it might not be as good as a normal Valstrax. I don't know. But what I do know is that if we take too long, then Davi will wake up again. Then everything will go to waste. So the first priority should be restraining him."

Having decided on that, Luke moved forwards. From the very first step, he could feel that something was wrong.

A sudden pressure bore down upon him. Luke turned his head, realising that there was only one potential cause.
Goliath's attention had shifted from fighting Panzer to where the two humans stood.

Not even a single second was afforded Luke to process this. Goliath's wings shifted around before they ignited, launching the elder dragon towards the ground.

Of course, Luke was unable to dodge. The Valstrax slammed into him, the vast gulf in their sizes resulting in Luke being flung backwards.

As he hit the wall, the pain did not shake his focus. He looked solely at Davi, still on the floor.
Luke wasn't the only one staring at him. Goliath too, now stared down at Davi.

A second passed. He felt like the tension was cutting into his throat.

"I have to do something before-"

That opportunity ended before Luke could seize it. Goliath's wing slammed into Davi's chest. The pain caused him to awake with a start.

Davi started coughing. Luke could do nothing but watch as his brother pulled himself off the ground, going from lying down to a sitting position. He turned his head a few times, gathering all the information he could from his memories before losing consciousness and the current state of his body, before turning to Goliath.

"What the hell!? Couldn't you have been a bit more gentle about it?"

Goliath made a clicking noise back at him.

"Yeah, I get it. But you still could've been a bit more careful. What if I'd died?"

A higher pitched click.

"Shut up."

Davi then looked over to Luke, as well as Panzer who was now standing next to him.

He breathed in for a second.

"Just what was that about!? I started getting this sneaking suspicion that you still weren't taking this seriously when we were fighting, then you just had to go and confirm it. Why did you think that would work anyway? You're not stupid. Hey, tell me."

Luke didn't answer. That lack of response ended up giving Davi an idea.

"There's no way. I don't believe it. I won't believe it unless you tell me. There's no way that you really thought that I was like everyone else here, did you!?"

"...Yeah, I did."

"You know, if you just came here to insult me then you've succeeded. That did more damage than anything you've ever hit me with. Don't lump me in with the rest of these freaks, I'm the same as I always was. I thought that you'd at least be able to tell the difference between an imitation and the real thing."

"I know that. But taming an elder dragon is just- I just couldn't see it. How did you do it?"

"Because the two of us get along. Doesn't matter what kinda monster she is."

"Hm? She?"

"Goliath's a girl."

"Oh. But what do you mean about not lumping you in with the rest of them? I have no idea what the rest of them are doing. I know it's not normal, but I don't know what it is."

"I guess I can tell you, since it won't matter much soon. Though I dunno how it works. Never seen it. The king takes a live monster, then later it's under his control. That's all I've seen of it."

"That's not helpful at all." Thought Luke. "No, it's sort of helpful. The king definitely has to do something with it. I should get that information to the others, that could help them out. Wait, why are you acting like you can right now? There's something more important here."

Luke opened his mouth.

"So why are you even here, working with these people? The others are probably just here for the monsters, I get that. But it's because I get that, that I don't get this at all."

"If I tell you then will you finally leave?"

"That depends on the answer."

Davi sighed.

"I think what this group wants is world domination, or something along those lines. But honestly, I couldn't care less. It's not like I disagree with the guild's way of doing anything, and it's not like I'm interested in making a profit as a poacher. All that I'm interested in is fighting what I want to fight."

"Alright, that's great. But I don't see what it has to do with anything. Can you stay focused?"

"Shut up, lemme finish. Of course you won't get it if you interrupt my story halfway through. What are you acting so cocky for all of a sudden anyway? You're the one who was just looking at me all despairingly. Now where was I? Right, right, right. I'm here cause I wanna fight someone."

"Who? I don't understand why you have to be in this group just to fight someone. That's going against what you said about fighting whoever you want."

"Didn't I just say not to interrupt? Do you think I'll just leave if you point out things well enough? I've got clear reasons, if you'd actually let me say them. Seriously, if you could just keep quiet then you'd already know by now, but I suppose you just love to waste our time."

"But you're just making it take even longer by doing this." Luke thought, but kept silent.

"Minerva."

"Huh?"

"Don't 'huh' me. That's who I'm looking to take down."

"But that- she's on your side, isn't she?"

"You think I don't know that? Did your brain drop out of your head on the way here? Of course I know that."

"Stop acting like I'm the one being ridiculous here. What you're saying doesn't make any sense."

"A few months ago… how long was it? Dunno. Some punk from here showed up and started going on about how I should either join him or hand over Goliath. So I beat him up, then I figured that I might as well take on the rest. Most of them were nothing. Until I ran into her."

He paused, reflecting for a few moments.

"I couldn't win. But after that they didn't kill me or anything, the king said I should join and take the place of the guy I beat up. I'm not here out of gratitude for not dying or anything, I can leave whenever I want. It's just handy to have her close by, that way I can start a fight whenever I want."

"Does that really matter so much?"

"It does. You wouldn't be able to get it unless you saw her in action. She's far above the realm of humans. There's nothing that weighs her down except her own body. That's the sense I got from fighting her. But all that means that if I can overcome her I'll be going past humans too. That's how I can get away from this gravity."

"He's talking nonsense again."

"Just to be clear, none of you have any chance of beating her either. I'm not gonna say that no one can do it, I don't know that. But I know all of you, and you certainly can't."

"You don't know all of us."

"Oh? There's still more. But still, unless you've got a master rank hunter or fifteen waiting in the wings I don't think you've got any hope."

"We'll be the ones to decide that."

Davi sighed again.

"You don't get it. If you got it, you wouldn't be here, would you? I'm a nice guy, so I'll give you some real clear instructions. Go get everyone else from your little group that's still alive and go home. I'll save you the trouble of needing to lose before giving up. You should listen to your brother's caring advice."

"No."

"You've just been asking why and saying no this whole time, that's not a conversation. So why don't you tell me why, for once?"

"Because you'll die."

"We all die. I don't mean that as some obvious statement, that's just what it means to be a hunter. We live closer to death than normal people, so we should expect to die sooner."

"You think I don't get that? But there's a difference between risking it and just throwing your life away like you're doing."

"Risking it, not risking it. It's all the same result in the end."

"Are you stupid? Of course it's different. If you think it's all the same, then you might as well die now."

"Aren't you the one being stupid? You were just telling me not to die, now you're telling me to die. Make your mind up."

"I-" Luke stopped himself part way through continuing, realising that this wasn't what he wanted to say. "I just want to go back to how things were before. That's all I want. We can make everything right if you just come back with us."

"Come on, be serious now."

Luke paused for a few seconds.

"Dad's still alive."

"Huh?"

"I'm not sure if he's woken up yet. But he's still alive."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I just realised that you wouldn't know."

"Huh."

"That's why I'm saying that we can still make everything right. You just have to come back."

"The guild wants me dead, you know? I killed one of their knights."

"I already know that. And I don't get it. But it doesn't matter right now."

"Prideful bastards like that can't just let the murder of a guild knight go. They'll keep coming for me until I'm dead. I couldn't go back to a normal life."

"I'm sure there's still a way."

"And what would that be? What if you have to fight them?"

"Then I'd fight them."

"And what if you had to kill them?"

"Then I'd kill them."

"Hey, hey, hey. You're saying some crazy things. You're the one who's meant to be on the side of justice, I'm the evil one here. But what you're saying sure doesn't make it sound that way."

"Hunters, poachers, good, evil, justice, none of that matters right now. Me, Panzer, Judah, Mary. We came all this way just for you. If you're not there then it won't be the same. That's what everyone wants. That's the only way that everyone can be happy."

Davi didn't say anything in response to that. Luke continued on.

"I never wanted to become a hunter. You should know that. I love monsters, sure. That's why I wanted to be a wycademy researcher. I never wanted to fight. I never wanted to come here for anything other than research. The only reason that I came all this way with Panzer is because you left. This whole journey was just so that we could reach you and finally get you to come back. These six months of non-stop fighting, all this preparation, it was just for that. I've come so far just for something that simple… the least you can do is stop running away!"

Davi's head cocked.

"Huh? Just what are you talking about?"

"What could this be but running away? After all of that, you vanish without a trace. Wasn't your job to collect monsters for these guys? But you beat us up and then said that you didn't need them. That's obviously a lie, Panzer isn't any weaker than the average monster in this group. You keep going on and on about me needing the resolve to kill you, but you don't even have that. Haven't you done it before? I'll use your own logic on you. If you want me to shut up and leave you alone, then just kill me. You can't, can you? You don't want to. You just wanna run away."

"I'm running, you say? And in your theory, just what would I be running from?"

"I don't know! I have no idea! Not a clue! It's driving me insane!"

"The hell are you going on about all that for, then!? That's a pretty wild accusation to make when you can't even dream up a reason!"

"I don't get it, but I'm sure that's it."

"Argh, I'm sick of this. We've wasted enough time chatting like this, haven't we? I guess it makes sense that someone as smart as you would try and steer this into a shouting match rather than a real fight. I'm sick of just getting insulted non stop. You're saying all this and that about how you want to go back and what you think I'm up to, but that's all just talk."

"It's not. I'll prove it."

"You're delusional. I guess I'll have to get a bit more serious about knocking some proper sense into you."

"That's my line. I'm the one who's going to be knocking sense into you. We'll just go all out, the one left standing will be correct. It's that sort of thing."

"But have you ever beaten me?"

Luke's mind recalled the answer perfectly, down to the exact number of losses he'd sustained.

"Dunno."

"That wasn't a rhetorical question, I don't remember. I don't think I've ever lost to you. Well, it doesn't matter. I already told you that talking like this is pointless. The fight's already started, this was just a break. Oh, and one last thing."

He took a fighting stance, lowering himself to the ground.

"I keep trying to tell you this, but I really would rather die than be caught up in the gravity of that place again. So if you're going to try to bring me home, you might as well save us both some time by killing me first."

With that out of the way, he finally dashed forwards.

"Here he comes, charging right at me! In that case, the best thing to do would be to shoot at him. If I hit him, he slows down. If he dodges, he'll still have to slow down."

Luke raised his gun, taking aim. Davi was not deterred.
The distance between the two continued decreasing, eventually reaching a point nearing zero.

Luke determined that the time was right. He pulled the trigger, unleashing a barrage of bullets towards Davi. His calculations were correct enough. Had the target continued running at the same speed, then he would have been hit.
But he didn't.

At the last moment, Davi abruptly accelerated. The bullets shot past him as he pushed forwards.

A single strike slammed into Luke's chest. Just one punch.
He couldn't believe the force packed into it. That single hit felt equivalent to being run over by a brute wyvern.
His mouth involuntarily opened wide, causing drops of saliva to fly out of his mouth and cover the inside of his helmet.

Luke flew backwards, crashing into the nearest wall.

The attack was not yet over. Goliath finally kicked back into action.

Panzer had been distracted by the attack. That opening did not go to waste. Goliath launched herself into him, completely knocking the Barroth off his feet.

Davi and Goliath's onslaught of attacks continued. The second that Luke felt himself hit the ground, he was knocked away again.

Twice more, he was struck. The attacks were relentless, never ending.

They didn't allow him away with just being launched. As he soared helplessly through the air following another attack, Goliath demolished several buildings to overtake him and then knock him back the way he came from.

From every direction, at every time, new attacks appeared. There was no remorse or relief to be offered to them, and no possible form of resistance. Without end, Davi and Goliath continued to strike at them. To beat them down.

Every time they even began to think of struggling back, those thoughts were instantly beaten out of their minds. The two attackers flew around at high speed, working together to reduce the target's chances of escaping to near zero.

Luke and Panzer were swallowed up by that vortex of never ending, omnidirectional offence.

---

"So this is what he's like when he's serious. I didn't think it'd be such a drastic change. Am I even fighting a human anymore? No, of course I am. Davi's still a human. It's just that I'm a weak human and he's a strong human. The only reason he's able to do all this is how good he is at fighting with that Valstrax. He's so far ahead of me. But I knew all of that."

"I went in knowing that I could lose. No, saying that I 'could lose' is putting it too lightly. Be honest. It's that I'm likely to lose. That I'll almost certainly lose, unless something exceptional happens. I haven't lost nine hundred and ninety nine times before just to let things go to my head. All of this preparation has been to create that exception."

"Back then, I probably could've won with the tranquilisers. I lost my chance because I didn't know. But it's not like I couldn't have worked it out. I had enough evidence to work with to work out that Goliath wasn't like the others. The reason that I didn't properly confirm it must've been that I didn't want to deny it. I pushed the thought down, acting like there was no way that he could possibly tame an elder dragon. Not just any elder dragon, but one as wild and elusive as a Valstrax. Logically, that should be impossible. But of course Davi would. Because that's just who he is. If I'd just accepted that and kept my mind open, then I would've seen it. So why was that? It's not pride. I have no problem believing that he could do it. So was I just getting desperate?"

Luke considered that.

"Yeah, that must be it. Of course I'm desperate. Desperate to fix things before it's too late. How could I not be desperate, after all this? All that preparation for a fight that I don't know if I can win? Everyone's trusting me to win, so wouldn't it be disrespectful to those wishes if I wasn't at least desperate? I had to set everything up, to get his guard just lowered enough, without giving a single hint as to what I was really planning. So right there, at the very last step, I got so desperate that I made a mistake. That glimpse of hope made me lose it all."

He felt like sighing in desperation.

"Well, that's just how it is. My best chance of victory's already gone. Thinking about how I could've won certainly isn't going to make me win. It'd be nice if I could say something like 'so what' or 'even so' and keep going regardless. But to be honest, can I? The others probably could, but I'm not that type. I'm not a hunter, so there's no way I can dispense cool lines like that. I can't just shrug off having lost my best chance at victory.. It's just- I'm still so frustrated by the gap between us. It's all just so…"

---

"I'm sorry, Panzer. If only I was better at fighting with you… we'd be able to use monster arts, like them."

"Monster arts?"

Luke had meant to apologise to Panzer, who he knew was lying somewhere near him. In his dazed state, he hadn't realised how close Davi was.

Luke's eyes moved around to ascertain his surroundings. He was lying on the ground, in what remained of a house.

He realised that his helmet had been partially broken, leaving his face exposed.

His body was covered in cuts, his nose was bleeding.
Had he broken anything? He couldn't be sure until he moved. But at that moment, his body was too painful to move.

Panzer was on the ground as well, just nearby. It was clearly him hitting the house that had demolished it.

Davi stood directly over Luke, at such an angle that the sun illuminated him from behind. As a result, looking directly up at him was about as painful as moving was in that moment.

But, even so, Luke caught the impression that Davi was considering what he'd just heard.

"Monster arts? Like hunter arts? You said that he can't do them because of you, so… oh, it's a thing you do together. I get it now. I like that. I might just use that."

Davi seemed to be contemplating it further.

"I don't remember you ever talking about something like that before, though. In fact, if it's something so convenient, then wouldn't your buddies from last week have used it? Hm. Hey, hey, hey. I'm really getting worried now. Is it possible, is it really possible, could it really be possible that you only came up with these monster arts in the last week?"

He smirked.

"That's really not good at all. See, I believe that there's one part of a hunter that matters more than anything else. It's not just about wanting to win, if that was it then no one would ever win. It's not all about brute strength either. It's preparation. Hunters must be prepared for everything, when going into a fight. I don't mean just bringing antidotes to fight poison and stuff like that. Knowing your opponent, making yourself stronger, getting good enough equipment, that's all preparation too. Everything we do is. But coming here to challenge me with these half-baked special moves you only thought up a week ago… you can see why I'm saying that's not good, can't you? Seems like you're not prepared at all. Are you making fun of hunters?"

"Shut up already."

Luke finally spoke back.

"You know that I never wanted to become a hunter anyway. Don't get so full of yourself because you started earlier than I did. You've always won at everything without trying, so don't act like you even slightly get the meaning of something like preparation."

Luke slowly rose back to his feet, bearing the pain. As he did, he thought to himself.

"My mind might melt soon. I wish I could just collapse and be done with this. But that can't happen yet. It was my best chance, but it wasn't all that I had prepared. Everyone's still waiting for me to win. There won't be a thousandth loss."

Then he opened his mouth once more.

"At least wait until you've seen everything that's up my sleeves before you start making accusations like that."

---

After such a declaration, Luke had built some anticipation for his next move. Wasting no time, he reached into his pouch and grabbed hold of something before throwing it towards Davi.

A farcaster. As the green smoke emerged, Davi realised that's what it was.
It covered his field of vision, obscuring any sight of what was ahead of him.

"That's predictable. Shouldn't you go for something more interesting?"

In his head, he analysed the situation.

"So is he running? There's no way he'd say all that and then run. I've been trying to give him an out this whole time, if he wanted to give up he could just say so. That could only mean that he's getting some distance to try and recoup. Or maybe he's hiding? But all of that's gonna be pointless. Goliath and I have a bird eye's view, we'll catch him in no time. As soon as this smoke clears away, I'll-"

The smoke finally did start to clear up as he thought that. He noticed a shape nearby. Luke was right there, next to him, with the barrel of the gun only mere centimeters from Davi's head.

"Wha-"

He pulled the trigger. Davi jerked to the side, just managing to move his head enough that the bullet only skimmed him.

"Why isn't he retreating? But it's better this way. Close range is where I have the advantage. He's the one that made a mistake."

Davi switched his tonfas into short range mode, getting ready for a fight.

Luke fired again, the bullet this time hitting Davi's chest plate. Davi pushed through the pain and swung a punch at Luke's gun. Luke pulled the trigger to fire again. He was too late. Davi's uppercut angled the gun away from himself, causing the shot fired to miss. He kept his arm in place to continue preventing Luke from attacking and swung his free arm around to punch Luke in the face.

The hit knocked him onto the ground with a thump. Davi descended, prepared to land another strike to knock Luke out.

Luke whipped his bowgun around and pointed it at Davi. Reflexively, Davi guarded his face with his free tonfa.
The gun fired.

The shot collided with Davi's chest, doing barely anything to slow him down. Luke rolled to the side, being grazed by the tonfas.

Davi was about to go for a follow up attack, but something began to bug him. Just why had the shot not slowed him down? Luke's normal shots, until now, had left an impact. Equivalent to being punched. Not a very powerful punch, but nonetheless there was still some feedback.
That's when he realised that he hadn't been shot with the type of bullet he had come to expect at all.
The shot had stuck to the lower left side of his chestplate. .

It took him a moment to realise what it was.

The sticky ammo exploded. It was relatively small, but at such close proximity that mattered little.

As the smoke cleared, a gap could clearly be seen in his armour around where the ammunition had stuck to.

"When did he swap over to that? He shouldn't have been able to- no, there was one moment. When I hit his gun away. But that change of ammunition was so fast it should've been impossible to do it on reaction.
Which means that he was ready for that before I attacked. No, did he want me to attack him to begin with?"

"What happened to not killing me? You almost shot me in the head just now, and now this."

"What happened to you telling me to kill you? Don't complain after just a little bit of danger."

"Is it a bluff, or is it not? Is he really serious now, or is he just trying to give me that impression? If he's not serious, then he won't actually hit my head. Which would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about guarding there. Not enough information to justify risking it. Just have to keep seeing what he does. I'd get bored just waiting around, though. I'll make the first move."

Davi locked eyes with Luke before jumping out of a window.

"I thought that being in such a cramped space would be to my advantage, tonfas should be better up close than a bowgun. But that bowgun of his really is fast. Maybe not faster than me, but it's too close for comfort. If I'm going to keep fighting him, what I need is open space."

Davi vaulted into the air, jumping away from the building.

Luke watched him go.

"He's getting away. Is he running? No, he couldn't possibly have gotten bored already. So then, does that mean that he worked it out? No. Not yet. I don't think he's worked it out yet. So…"

Luke turned around and took a few steps, crouching down in the rubble.

"We're not done yet. Let's fight, Panzer."

---

As Davi reunited with Goliath outside, he heard something rumbling nearby.

Panzer burst out of the building they stood by, slamming his head down in an attempt to crush Davi.

Davi rolled out of the way of the attack, before striking back at Panzer.
He noticed a shape falling towards him. Luke had been riding on Panzer's back until now, having now dropped off to get closer.

He pulled the trigger. Davi twisted himself out of the way. The shot ended up missing, the bullet skimmed past Davi.

The two landed and spent a few moments fighting in close quarters again.

They whirred around, as if dancing, strategically executing their attacks not only to inflict damage on the other but to also block the other's attacks in the process.

With their speeds almost evenly matched, settling the fight fell to other factors.

Davi's greater wealth of experience allowed him to slowly gain the advantage. Luke found himself being pushed back.

There was one other critical difference between the two. A bowgun would eventually need to be reloaded, while tonfas would not.
After several hits, Luke slowed down. His abrupt change in pace indicated that he could no longer fire, that he needed to reload. Davi had been looking for that hesitation the entire time.

He struck out, catching Luke in the chest. With no more fear of being shot, he could go all out. But even as he did, he remained watching Luke's hands, waiting to see if he would be attacked like last time.

Panzer interfered in the fight, slamming his head down. Luke scampered off. Davi retreated to the side.

Goliath hit Panzer's head, knocking him back into a nearby wall. Panzer continued to struggle, attempting to bite at Goliath.

Davi jumped in and assisted with a mid-air attack. Both hunter and monster alternated between attacking Panzer, driving him further into the wall.

After a few seconds, a bullet hit the wall near them.

Luke stood several meters away from them, now crouching down. Behind him was a clock tower which had stopped moving long ago.

Davi smirked. There was no question about what to do. WIth Panzer out of the equation for a moment, securing the victory would be a lot easier. There were no obstructions between them. There was no reason to hesitate.

He and Goliath charged forwards, aiming to close the distance as soon as possible.

As Davi ran forwards, something felt off. There had been obstacles ahead. All he should have had to watch out for was Luke's bowgun.

As Goliath touched the ground at a certain spot, they both heard something click. An explosion followed.

The blast launched both of them away. The flames engulfed Goliath's leg completely, but the explosion failed to launch her as far. Far lighter than the Valstrax, Davi was slammed into the wall of the building that had been to his left.

A wyvernblast. A special one, prepared just for this fight.

Had it been a normal wyvernblast, Davi would've spotted it. The smoke would have given it away instantly. So he had worked with Fen to create a special type of wyvernblast that did not emit any smoke. The other key difference was that all of the charges detonated simultaneously, creating an instant but far more powerful attack.

The landmine was far more sensitive than normal. He'd expected to just use it against Davi alone, so even a human's footsteps were enough to set it off.

The lack of indication and the increased sensitivity made it just as much of a threat to Luke as it was to his targets. If he lost track of it, then he risked stepping on it and setting it off himself. That was the risk he felt he had to take to overcome this battle.

"He probably won't ever fall for this again. It'd be nice if it made him more apprehensive about his approach, but that seems unlikely to me. He can fly. If he makes any change to his plans, it'll just be sticking to the air from now on. I almost certainly won't get a chance to surprise him like this again. So, if this is my only chance, then… not going all in would practically be giving up, wouldn't it?"

Davi opened his eyes, seeing a shape approaching. He was too late to move to stop Luke from approaching. The barrel of the gun pressed against the exposed section on his lower chest, making sure that there was no possible room to miss.

Luke fired without hesitation.
The bullet tore through Davi.

Instinctively, he lashed out. Standing so close, Luke had no chance of dodging the swinging tonfa that hit the side of his head.

The pain was manageable. Even though he had been shot, it hadn't hit anywhere important. Davi had dealt with worse before. That was what he told himself as he tried to push the pain down.

Davi pulled himself back to a standing position, ready to keep going.

He stepped forwards. What flowed through his body was not pain, but a feeling of numbness. A feeling that could only be described as "nothing" spread throughout his body, taking his strength away.

Against his will, he fell to his knees.

"Paralysis? No, that doesn't feel right. It feels like I've been poisoned. But then why can't I move? It must be both. It must've been something with that bullet. What the hell did he shoot me with?"

Davi looked up. Luke's broken helmet left his facial expression completely exposed for Davi to see.
It was something that he'd never seen from his brother. He tried to yell, but his mouth movements were too slow to form any kind of sentence. The only thing that remained unaffected were his thoughts.

"Why the hell do you look so surprised? Weren't you just talking about being prepared. If this was part of your preparation, then why are you wearing that 'Wow, it really worked' look!?"

As Davi thought this, Luke snapped back into action. The first and second phases had gone well. Now all he had to do was take advantage of this opportunity as best as he could.

To that end, he dashed forwards once more and steadied his bowgun, aiming at Davi's chest.

He switched to rapid fire once more.
Bullet after bullet crashed into Davi's chest. They repeatedly fired around the same area, trying to break through his armour. The attempts proved unsuccessful, but each unsuccessful attempt still resulted in blunt force trauma equivalent to a punch.
Repeatedly, rhythmically, loud thumps echoed out as the bullets slammed into his armour.

Like an endless rain of hail precisely aimed at one region. Each carrying the entirety of the younger brother's determination to catch up.

Davi's weakened state prevented him from doing anything to retaliate. Near powerless to fight back, each attack felt more devastating than it should've been.

Without end, Luke continued to pull down the trigger. Repeatedly, bullets hammered into Davi's chest. His own vortex, to match the one from earlier. Hardly unescapable, but nonetheless a string of attacks with no end in sight.
Luke's eyes were focused only on doing more damage, ignoring everything else.

Davi did not escape through his own strength. Outside interference saved him instead.

Goliath slammed into Luke, knocking him back several meters. She then turned to Davi, trying to work out what was wrong with him.

He'd recovered from his state somewhat, but still not enough to properly communicate. He flicked his wrist around dismissively, trying to reassure Goliath that he'd be fine.

Understanding that message, she immediately took off to continue attacking Luke.

Luke opened his eyes again, seeing Goliath flying towards him. She was flying sideways, with her right wing stretched out to the point where it was stuck in the ground. As her wings propelled her forward, the ground was torn up. Anything caught between it would clearly not survive.

Luke rolled to the side. As he did, Goliath curved around and slammed into the ground with her free wing, slamming him against it. Without missing a beat, she followed up with a spear attack. Luke rolled to the side, causing it to just graze past him and chip his armour.

This was the fastest of all elder dragons. Luke had read it before, but had not truly come to understand this fact until this day. Goliath's attacks seared that understanding into his mind.

Goliath prepared another attack.
Thundering footsteps grew louder, building up to Panzer headbutting Goliath out of the air.

The Valstrax hissed at him and switched targets. She very rarely encountered opponents as persistently annoying as this one. Those weaker than her were usually preyed upon without much resistance, or intimidated without much effort. Only those on the same level as her would attempt to put up a fight.
But this brute wyvern was not on the same level as her. He should've spent its entire life on the ground, helplessly looking up at her. But no matter how many times she pushed him down, Panzer continued to rise.

He could not fall yet. By all means, he should've been nothing more than an ordinary Barroth. There was nothing exceptional about him, except for his determination.

Panzer's presence gave Luke the strength needed to stand up once more and brandish his bowgun.

"I doubt that she'll let us get close to Davi right now. That's fine. Instead of wasting our time on that, let's do as much damage as we can before he can come back to the fight. It's two versus one now."

Davi was unable to do anything but watch as he waited for the paralysis to pass.

Luke and Panzer cooperated, trying to overcome Goliath. She used the propulsion of her wings to circle around them and attempt to catch them by surprise, but Luke was able to offset the effectiveness of that tactic by keeping track of her and instructing Panzer on where to counterattack.

"Now that I get a chance to watch him properly, he really is fast now. I already knew it, but it's just ridiculous. Bizarre. Unnatural."

Panzer kept on charging in, attempting to trample on Goliath or catch her with his jaws. Every time that Panzer successfully landed an attack, Luke would follow up by closing the gap and firing several shots in quick succession, before backing off.

"Hmm. Wait a minute. Could that really be it? Shots get weaker the further they get from the point they were fired at. Even I know that much. I thought that was the reason why, but maybe…"

Panzer and Goliath continued to struggle. The pattern had repeated several times by now.
In front, was an invincible shield that refused to follow. Behind it was not one who cowered away, but one who had now found the determination to fight. Through that combination, they were managing to stand their ground against Goliath.

Until the moment that Davi came charging back in. Luke recognised that he was headed directly for him.

"I thought that he'd be sticking to the air from now on. Well, he's been watching this whole time. So I guess that's why he's not worried about me having planted any more landmines."

He raised his gun. Davi continued running forwards, evidently ready to attack.

The distance between them vanished at an increasing rate. Davi drew closer, ready to throw a punch. Luke aimed his gun, ready to fire before he could be hit with a punch.

Davi abruptly halted his advance just a few steps short of Luke. A step or two out of his own attack range.

He didn't do anything. One moment he was moving at full sprint, the next he was completely still.

Luke froze up with confusion.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to shoot? If you don't shoot, then you can't hit me. That much should be obvious."

The entire fight seemed to have come to a halt.

"I can't hit you from here. But that's a problem that only I should be having right now. A gunner like you doesn't have that kind of restriction, now do you? But if we were even one step closer to each other, then you'd be in my range. That's why it'd be best to shoot now. Come on. You've hit me with mines and so many bullets, surely you still can't be hesitating because you're worried about hurting me or something like that. I'm giving you a chance, this is a free hit, so come on!"

The sound of the bowgun firing rang out. The bullet passed through the air, embedding itself into a wall several meters behind Davi. Luke's eyes shifted over to it only briefly, remaining silent the whole time. Davi turned his head back, smirking.

"Huh? It really missed? From that distance? Why, I could've sworn you were pointing it right at me. That's some awful aiming! I know that you probably just picked it because you're too weak for any other weapon, but is it really okay for a gunner to have such terrible aim? Is that really the case? Oh, maybe it was just bad luck. A gust of wind? Or… if it's not any of those, then might it just be that the price for that bowgun's abnormal speed was awful deviation?"

He glanced back at Luke, who was now wearing a grimace.

"So that's it, then? It's not even that you hoped I wouldn't notice, right? You made sure that I wouldn't. It was good. Maybe you should consider just getting a job like that? What about a Remobra oil salesman? But unfortunately for you, all those tricks won't win you a battle of strength. Ah, it's a shame. It really would've worked. If I'd kept fighting you, then I wouldn't have noticed a thing."

"Then what? How did you work it out?"

"Shouldn't it be obvious? While I was fighting you, I was under that spell of yours. But when I got poisoned, I couldn't do much but wait for it to wear off. All I could do was sit there and watch for a few minutes while you fought Goliath. So really, I've got to thank you, Luke. It was nice of you to give me a break so I could work everything out. Not sure if it was wise, though."

"No, you-"

Luke tried to form some words in response, but they died before reaching past his lips. He desperately struggled, looking for any other possible answer.

"The plan that I struggled so much for… ended up backfiring on me?"

"Ah, that's more like it." Davi thought. "There's a face that I'm used to seeing. You always look like that when something doesn't go according to plan."

He reflected for a few seconds.

"To be honest, my body's still feeling kinda sluggish. As things stand, he might still be faster than me. The paralysis is loosening up, but I'm pretty sure there was some poison mixed in too. So overall, these conditions aren't ideal. He's fast, but because of the deviation on that he probably can't hit a thing that's even slightly far away from him. So then it makes the most sense to stick to long range mode for now."

He played out the idea in his mind, imagining how it might go. Staying just out of Luke's effective range, baiting him into missing his shots, then going all in on his attack the second it was safe. It wouldn't be fair by any means. That was why Luke had tried so desperately to cover up his weakness. Now that Davi had caught him by the tail, that path to victory was clear to see.

"But that won't do here. I'm fighting Luke. Why should I need to use cheap tactics against someone like him? I could win easily if I exploited his weakness, but that'll give him the wrong idea. He'll think that I won that way because I was desperate, because he really was pushing me back, because he had a chance! If I give him any room for excuses, he'll take it all! I've got to crush him and leave him without even a glimmer of hope. Otherwise he'll keep on getting back up to drag me down with him."

Davi started to speak again.

"Well anyway, about time we finished this. Now that I've worked out what was bugging me there's no reason to keep this going. I'll be beating you down in full force now."

Luke shifted out of his despair.

"Why are you saying that like you've been holding back until now?"

"Because I was."

"I don't believe you."

"I was just humouring your attempts."

"But you've taken so much damage!"

"Never heard of sandbagging?"

"Why would you even be-"

"So you don't feel too bad about losing. I thought that if I played along a bit, you might feel better and go home. I mean, come on now. You've seen me fighting at full force before. You should remember it well. I doubt that a guy like you could forget something that was only half a year ago. So you should be able to tell that if I really went all out, then you'd already be dead."

Luke went quiet, Davi's words causing those memories to play out in his mind. As they had done before, countless times. Over and over again.

"I can still-"

"You had the best possible chance, and you gave it everything you had. If you still couldn't win that just means it was never possible, so you shouldn't feel bad about it. It's just an undebatable fact of the universe that you can't win here, it's the natural order of things."

"Don't talk like it's already over."

"But it is over."

Davi stepped forward and uppercutted Luke. The sudden switch to attacking left the younger brother with no time to even consider guarding, as a result he was launched into the air.

"Goliath, spike!"

Goliath immediately understood the command, springing into action. Faster than Panzer could block her, she flew into Luke and dragged him forwards. The two slammed into a nearby building.

Panzer roared and attempted to attack, but Davi stood between them.

He jumped up, hitting Panzer several times. Panzer attempted to retaliate with a headbutt, but Davi dodged around it.

Several attacks followed in sequence. He repeatedly dodged around Panzer's attacks.

They knew every movement of the other. That was the natural result of all those years spent fighting side by side.

Neither had any question about what was to happen. Panzer tried to the best of his abilities to catch Davi, but it was to no avail.

He was simply too evasive, too agile, for Panzer to ever keep up with.

Davi lunged forwards again, attacking relentlessly.

---

It was so stifling.

A feeling like suffocating. No matter how much I tried to breathe, my body would always feel devoid of air.

No matter what I tried, that feeling of suffocating followed me everywhere. That's how I worked out that it must've been the air.

The world is so full of life. Things that breathe can be found everywhere in the world. Humans will breathe far more often than they will eat or drink or sleep over their lifetimes. It's so commonplace that most don't even have to think to do it, it just happens naturally.

People breathe in the air, pass it through their bodies, then pass it out. Then it goes to the trees and gets made usable again. That was how it was explained to me.
There's an extra step along the process, but what I came to understand from this is that people breathe the same air in and out repeatedly.

Those of us who live in this time must do so while breathing in the same air that had already passed through hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of trillions before us.

The air that circled through the world and its people, picking up all their folly and all their hatred and all their curses and passing it into whoever breathed the air next.

Why was I the only one who could see that?

I watched people breathe the same air in and out repeatedly. As they did, they fell into cycles. Repeating the mistakes of the past, turning into their predecessors, falling down like an endless spiral of dominoes.

The air cycled between them. Each domino fell in order, pushing the next in line down.

Starting from the same day that I became able to see this, I began to see the others around me get trapped in their own cycles.

I saw one dedicate his entire soul to becoming a pillar of strength, all the while remaining hollow. I saw the next try to use herself as a replacement for what had been lost. And I saw the last sink into the depths.

I wondered why I was the only one there who'd become able to see this, but then one day I realised that it was probably a curse.
To be able to see human foolishness, to be able to understand it, but to be trapped within it regardless.

The world is filled with so many things that breathe, transmitting their mistakes onto others. It must have been designed as such in order to punish us for some kind of sin that I'm not aware of. If not, then I couldn't make sense of it.

The corrupted air filled my lungs and flowed throughout my body, threatening to burst my head open. I realised that if I stayed here, no matter what I did, I would inevitably sink into the bog with everyone else.

The only way to avoid sinking was to head upwards.

That's when I realised that the only place that could be free from this would have to be above the sky. Up there would be a world free from this.

Gravity is what prevented me from reaching it.

I realised that the only reason that gravity existed was to prevent us from reaching heaven. To keep us stagnating and fading away. To keep us sinking.

If I was going to live, then I would have to be free of gravity. Words could not convince those within the bog that where they lived was such, so I had no choice but to abandon them.

To reach the point of freedom, I had to keep ascending. To ascend, I had to get stronger. That meant I had to keep fighting those stronger than myself.
All so I could be free.

---

I couldn't just let him go.

I couldn't just stay there and watch him get so far away from us all. It was like I was stuck crawling on the ground as I watched him float further and further away.

I, who had always been powerless. I, whose powerlessness had caused everything to happen.

Since it was my fault, it was only natural that I should be the one to fix it.

I was the one who broke everything, so it's only natural that I should be the one to fix it.

That's what everyone wants.

Those hundreds of miles travelled to catch up to him changed me. There are people that believe I can win now.

It's because I gained that hope of victory that I finally became able to see my surroundings.

I realised that below me is a bog that stretched out infinitely, going almost a thousand meters deep.

I don't know if it's rising, or if I'm sinking. All that I know is that it's getting closer to my head.

If I let it swallow me, then it'll be over. No one can be happy anymore. I won't be able to reach you, up there in the sky.

I wonder how long I spent here without realising it. It's possible that it only appeared

If I went under again, then would I ever find my way to the surface again?

I can't go back anymore. Now that I've tasted the air, I've realised what it feels like to breathe. That means that I'll finally be able to feel the pain of drowning.

I can't go back. That's why I-

---

"I'm not done yet! I can still keep going! There must be some card that I still haven't played that can still let me win. I just have to find it-"

He cut off his thoughts as he saw Goliath flying through the air, preparing another attack.
Luke reached into his pouch and chucked a flash bomb towards her.
It flew into the air, setting off just before her. Blinded, the Valstrax fell to the earth.

Luke wasted no time in getting up and running past her, heading straight for the others. Davi was still attacking Panzer.

He turned in mid-air to focus on Luke, launching himself towards the ground to punch him in the face before he could respond.
Luke stumbled backwards but retaliated by blindly firing several shots. One whizzed past Davi, the other almost hit him but he dodged out of the way.

Davi closed in again without any fear.
Another shot missed. One slammed into his chest, but he continued on regardless.

Luke was repeatedly battered by the tonfa strikes. He tried to quickly line up and another shot and retaliate, but he felt his gun click. Nothing happened.

Once more, Davi's face contorted into a smirk. A strike launched forwards, distorting the space around it, to land in Luke's stomach. There was no more reason to fear any threat of retaliation. Davi attacked with wild abandon, as though trying to crush Luke into the ground.

Panzer rejoined the fight, slamming into the ground and forcing Davi to jump out of the way. The tremors, ironically, only ended up affecting Luke. A fact that Davi did not miss, closing in for a second mid air attack.

Panzer stepped between the two. Davi tried vaulting over him, but Panzer had grown used to this manoeuvre and completely flipped himself over, catching Davi beneath.

Exiting from his dazed state, Luke gazed around. Apart from the three of them there, their surroundings were empty.

"Hm? That can't be right."

He looked again. Only the three of them were there. Himself, Panzer and Davi. No one else. He kept looking, but that remained unchanging.
Finally, his eyes glanced skyward.

At the very edge of the sky, at the furthest point he could see, was a red dot. It slowly began to expand.

"Was it really such a good idea to take your eyes off Goliath? I think that flash bomb really pissed her off."

Goliath was currently several thousand of miles above the ground, with that distance rapidly sinking. Dragon energy was burnt up even more aggressively than it had been all day

Luke remembered reading about this. The attack that a survivor had called "Around the world".

The hunter had recorded that the speed of the dragon was unfathomable, it looked as though it could cross the entire world in an instant. Looking up, Luke shared that sentiment.

He remembered seeing it last week. It was the same attack that had instantly demolished Isa and Irontusk when they tried to guard against it. The same attack that had been a prelude to Davi's victory against Fen and Fang.

He looked up, feeling the despair wash over his heart.

Absolute domination. It was the pure essence of Goliath's elder dragon status expressed as an attack and lorded over those of them that couldn't do it. That unparalleled unfairness was that which cemented Valstraxes as elder dragons.

In just a few seconds, that comet would crash into the earth. In just a few seconds, everything would be over.

He could feel the bog expanding even further, pulling him down.

Even after all his effort, Luke was no stronger than the others were when they'd lost to Davi before. He knew that. All his efforts had been towards defeating Davi, not catching up to them.
If it was a barrier that even they couldn't cross, then how could he?

Only one thing was different this time.

"You're still here."

He looked over at Davi, refocusing his mind.

"Goliath took off in her anger, leaving you behind. You look like everything's going according to plan, but there's no way that's the case. If Goliath's angry enough to resort to this all of a sudden, then there's no way she's going to worry about who gets caught up in the attack. No one's ever measured a Valstrax's top speed, but the reports said that it was at least several hundred miles per hour. Even if she did spot you in her path and even if she did try, I doubt that she could stop it at the last second."

He felt the gears of his mind again.

"That attack broke through even Irontusk's defences with ease, so there's no way that you'd be fine if it hits you. If I can just make it so that it only hits you, and not us, then we'll have a shot at winning. I'm not out yet. This is my very last chance!"

"Panzer! Keep going! We have to keep the attack up!"

Any attempt to give a reason as to why they had to keep fighting, even in this situation, would have immediately given everything away to the one they were fighting. That's why Luke didn't say anything other than that.

They had both borne witness to the attack once before. Even without the need for information like Goliath's current speed or the force that she would hit the ground with, he understood what was important. Soon, this spot and everything in it would be destroyed by the descent of the elder dragon which embodied a comet. Anything that wished to continue living would want to get well clear of that area. To stay was to head towards almost certain death.
Even so, Panzer complied with Luke's orders.

Davi was stuck between the two of them. They continued to fight while standing just beside the stuck clock tower.

Luke and Panzer attacked relentlessly, without slowing down for even a moment. Davi met with a response of equal aggression and reckless abandon.

Sandwiched between hunter and monster, he attacked and defended both sides simultaneously, making switching between the two vastly different opponents appear effortless.

Luke could feel his body nearing its limits. He continued pushing himself further beyond, not giving up on the hope that his path to victory would become clear if he could just remain standing for a single second longer.

He could not allow himself to fall. He would not accept defeat.

After coming this far, after burning this much of himself away, after picking up so many hopes, after receiving so much kindness, after all this preparation, after all the deceit, after all these breakthroughs, after all those losses, after shedding so much blood, after suffering through so much grief, he couldn't face the idea of losing.

Goliath drew closer, leaving a blazing trail of red mist in her wake.

Luke's eyes were focused solely on the one he'd been trying to catch up with this entire time.

"I know that I said all that about me and Panzer having the best odds of beating him alone, but it's not like we have to be the ones to beat him. I'm not prideful enough to care about that. If it's a draw, then that means it's up to someone else. Even if I just weaken him some more, then everyone else will have a better chance. As long as we win in the end, then it doesn't matter anymore. That's why, if it's come to this, then we'll just-"

He snapped out of his thoughts and yelled out a single order.

"Panzer, hold him down!"

"Won't work."

Panzer followed the orders without question, readying himself to crush Davi.

Davi turned back to face Panzer without any fear in his eyes. At that moment, it became abundantly clear to both of Davi's opponents that he'd been expecting something like this since before the exchange began.

Davi dashed forwards into Panzer and thrusted both of his tonfas forward together, hitting Panzer's chest.

In the span of under a second, several points along
The special technique of tonfas, the dragon spirit piercing attack. Prepared by first targeting specific areas on the monster and weakening them with repeated attacks, then causing a strong enough vibration with both tonfas to rupture all of those points simultaneously.

To those without any knowledge of this, it would've appeared like him hitting Panzer's chest and causing explosions across his entire body.

Luke had seen it before, just a week prior, when it had been used to defeat Fang. He had been under the impression that if Davi was going to use it against Panzer, it would be whenever it was ready to go.
It was true that Davi could've used it at any point in the fight. But he saved it, having expected a moment like this to eventually arrive.

Panzer's entire body shook, feeling as though it was being torn apart as it ruptured. In a dazed state, he could no longer stand up. Davi spoke just loudly enough to still be heard over the sound of him crashing to the ground.

"Just cause he'll do anything for you doesn't mean you should exploit him like that. Making him get caught up in Goliath's attack just to do damage to me is irresponsible."

"I wasn't going to let him go alone."

Luke lurched forwards, grabbing Davi with all the might he had left.

"We'll all go down together!"

The pupils of Davi's eyes seemed to almost distort in shape.

---

As I began to climb towards heaven, the hands of others reached out from the ground to try dragging me back down.

They wanted me to remain trapped in their gravity. Since they couldn't see past their own gravity, they must've convinced themselves that it was fine. That staying trapped on the earth was fine, that everything was to be accepted as it is.

Having no such delusions of my own, I felt nothing but disgust towards that idea. But the hands wouldn't let go.

I wish they would've at least had either the decency or the clarity to admit that they were only doing it to make me suffer.

If I stay on the ground, then that stifling gravity will split my head open. With my brains spilled on the floor, I'll just become another one of them.

I'll spend the rest of my life writhing pathetically on the ground, looking up the sky.

At least, that's the best outcome I could hope for in a scenario like that. If my eyes clouded over, I could ignore it like they do, I could be happy like they are.
But what if I remain able to see it all? What if I spend the rest of my life stuck on the ground, always able to see it? Cursed to forever look up at it as I writhe around helplessly.

The only way I can live is by becoming free.

That's why-

If a hand reaches for me, I'll shake it off.
If it won't be shaken, I'll stomp on it.
If it still clings on, then I'll just have to cut it off completely.

It was all to become free of gravity. It was all to ascend. It was all to reach heaven.

---

It was a facial expression that Luke had never seen directed at him before.

He was given no time to ponder it.

Davi burst into action instantly, starting by punching Luke in the stomach. More attacks followed.

Luke clung on with all his might, struggling to keep Davi in place for just a few seconds longer. This only seemed to cause Davi's attacks to intensify.

Like a cornered animal, he continued to put his entire soul into every attack.

A strike landed directly on Luke's chin, causing his grip to loosen up as he entered a daze. Davi did not miss that opportunity.

He struck again, breaking free of Luke's grasp before he attacked again. More attacks followed without stopping.
First punch, knock him off his feet. Second punch, make sure that he stays down. Third punch, make sure that he never gets back up.

As Davi looked down at Luke, he seemed to realise that the red he saw was not a trick of his mind. The space they were in was changing colour. Knowing that there was no time left, he quickly got up and dashed off.

"If you want to die here, then both of you can just die! Leave me out of it!"

Luke, still just barely clinging on, struggled to reach out.

"Not yet. It- it won't end like this-! I-"

What he was reaching for was a miracle. A miracle that could, if only temporarily, turn over the rule that "David Gilmore will always win against Luke Gilmore".

One engraved into this world's core, like a food chain.

All of his preparation, all of his training, the information that he recalled of the life spent growing up with his opponent. All of it was compiled into a single chance to grab onto a miracle.
Performing at the very best he had ever been, going far beyond what he ever dreamed he could, he reached out for that miracle.

And yet. The miracle still remained out of Luke's grasp.

The red rapidly overtook the world around him, casting out everything else. The brilliant crimson descended through the skies, crashing into the area that Luke and Panzer occupied.

In an instant, the world was overturned. Goliath had reached the limit of her speed, surpassing any other living creature and even sound. As a result, the impact destroyed even the sound within that space, drowning out Luke's yelling.

Davi just barely got clear in time. The earth being turned upwards caused the foundations that held up the clock tower to crumble away. As Luke and Panzer were driven into it, it collapsed on top of them.

Its time had frozen. The gears had stopped moving long ago, but they could've been replaced. But now it would surely never return to functioning like it had before.

Goliath landed a short distance past the fallen tower.

Davi sheathed his tonfas as he landed on the ground nearby.
He stopped for a few seconds, breathing slowly before reaching up and sweeping his hair back.
As he did so, he took a few steps towards the rubble and crouched down.

"I can't believe that you thought that would work. Hey, can you even still hear me? You probably can't. But since I'm such a nice guy, I'll give you a chance to prove me wrong. Get up in the next three seconds and we'll keep going. Otherwise I'm out of here."

He waited in silence.

A second passed.
Another second passed.
Then finally, the third.

Nothing stirred.

"That means we're finally done here. You can't drag me down anymore. What a relief! This feeling must be relief, now that I'm free from your gravity. With this, I'm that much closer to heaven."

He stood back up, walking over to Goliath without taking any time to rest.

"Let's get to cleaning the rest of them up. I've got a good feeling about today. Only two more left to cut off."

---

11:33
Luke Gilmore and Panzer.
Defeated by David Gilmore, the Knight of Heaven, and Goliath.
The win-loss record between them left at 0-1000.

Hunter side: 15 hunters, 7 monsters.
Poacher side: 25 poachers, 26 monsters.

TO BE CONTINUED