Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Monster Hunter, only how the story goes. The characters and world of Monster Hunter belongs to Capcom. The only thing that I do own are the OC's of the story. I do apologize for any errors in grammar and/or if I was not accurate in reference to something.
A/N: What a way to help start off the New Year, huh. I do hope that you enjoy this new mini-arc. Like a lot of other monsters, I've been waiting to bring this guy in. Also, we'll be addressing something that's over twenty chapters overdue.
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Chapter Fifty-Three: A Possible New Adversary
Jacob didn't return to the Ancient Forest for three more days. And during that time, he either rested from his rematched with Ares or enjoyed spending as much time as he could with the Glavenus. On the day that he planned to return to the forest region, Ares had accompanied him back to the waterfall. He decided to keep the last stick that he had made as a memento of their training together. Both boy and monster soon stood on the bridge and stared at where the tunnel was. Jacob looked up when Ares gave a small growl. The Glavenus had a look that said he would miss his human brother. The teen from another world gave a comforting smile and said, "I'll be sure to come back and visit.
"And we can spar every now and then." Jacob promised him. Ares gave a small growl as if saying he would like that. The teen then made his way down the bridge and across the water. Before moving through the waterfall, Jacob gave one last glance back to Ares. Though it looked like the Glavenus was wanting him to stay, with a small motion of his head Ares told his brother to go on. Taking a deep breath, Jacob turned and walked on.
…
A little later, Jacob emerged back into the Ancient Forest after some time away. He stood amongst the lush greenery and took in a deep breath of the forest air. The boy hoped that he could get back to the boat without running into anything that he didn't want to. Hoping down from where the tunnel was and carefully made his way down the path to the shaded forest.
…
After a short and uneventful walk, Jacob made it back to the boat. He hadn't run into Grumper or anyone else that he knew on the way. Glancing out to the ocean, he didn't see any sign of Calypso anywhere. He climbed down the cliff, walked across the small path and up onto the boat. He made his way down to the living quarters and placed the whittled stick against the wall. Looking around he noticed that the place had become awfully dusty while he had been gone. He would clean up a little later when he came back. Deciding to change his gear up a bit, Jacob removed the sword from his back and placed it and the shield next to the wooden sword and took the Dual Blades with him. Placing the holder onto his back, the teen then decided that it was about time to visit the Jagras pack since it had been a while since he had last seen them.
After making sure that he had everything that he would need, Jacob left the boat again. Climbing down the rope ladder, walking across the narrow path and climbing up onto the ledge, the human made his way back into the Ancient Forest. Walking across the tall grass and through the narrow pass through the dried brush, Jacob came upon the south opening of the Jagras' turf. Going in a little, Jacob gave a small bark like call to see if the Jagras pack was nearby. A response was heard up in the tree branches and saw a few of the nine sitting up in one of the trees. When he repeated the noise, it drew their attention and they looked down to the south entrance to their territory. They gave happy sounding screeches before climbing down from their tree and Jacob stepped out from the safety of the entrance. After hopping down from the small ledge, the human teen was joined by the girls as Jenna, Juno, Joss and Jess all swarmed around him. While the latter two pressed up against the teen's legs, Jenna and Juno stood on their back legs while wrapping their forelimbs around him in a hug of sorts. Their combined weight caused them and Jacob to fall to the ground, scaring Joss and Jess into jumping back in slight fright. Jacob gave a chuckle as he sat back up and was swarmed by the four again. They looked up when they heard more Jagras screeching and looked to see the five boys coming into the clearing. They all gathered around Jacob and the girls and they were all surprised to see Julius simply nuzzling their human packmate. They backed up a bit as the teen got onto his feet.
"I guess that you boys had gone out hunting or-" He started to ask when a bunch of bugs started lifting out of the tall grass. The human and the Jagras all watched with curious looks as they floated past them and some surprised them when they gave small sparks of electricity. The group of ten was so mesmerized by the sight that the sound of growling didn't come until it was too late. Jacob was the one who happened to glance behind them at the last second to see a large, teal and yellow shape rush through the trees and quickly grabbed the human in its mouth as it went by. Jacob cried out as he was quickly snatched away from the nine Jagras who gave startled cries at what just happened. The human felt the teeth firmly holding him, but they weren't digging into him so he knew that he wasn't in any immediate danger at the moment. With him being gently carried in the creature's mouth, Jacob did his best to turn his head to see that his abductor was a giant four-legged creature. With an annoyed look he questioned, "Hey, what is the big idea, huh?!"
But the beast didn't stop its running with its captive as it jumped up a small ledge and quickly rush towards the tunnel that went down to the small pond with a tree standing over it and the mean looking fish. The giant teal and yellow creature jumped through the opening and when it landed, it turned its body as it began to slide down the tunnel. When they reached the bottom of the slope, the creature's large front and back paws splashed into the pond before turning again to the right and bounding up the rocky hill. Going through the opening on the left, the new creature carried Jacob past an Aptonoth herd that was spooked by them. But the beast with its captive ignored them as it continued on a bit. Stopping in the middle of the clearing the teal and yellow creature released Jacob from its jaws. The teen landed on his rear and the spot became sore while Jacob looked up to his captor with a glare. But just when he thought he had seen just about all the New World's inhabitants, it continued to surprise him.
Standing before him looked very much like a wolf, though it was very large, had teal fur and yellow spikes covered its body. Upon the head was a set of two large yellow horns and had spikes protruding from its chin. A club like tail swished behind the creature as it looked at the human. Jacob slowly scooted back and was spooked when the wolf creature took a step forward. Quickly getting onto his feet, the human didn't take his eyes off the teal and yellow wolf as it started to move around him. Jacob didn't know what he assumed to be a Fanged Wyvern wanted with him, nor if it was good or bad intentions. He thought about trying to find an escape route, but he had to keep up with the wolf creature every time it moved. Jacob had a feeling that it was deliberately trying to keep his focus on it. The human tried to carefully walk backwards to where he could try to get away, but he had to duck down a bit when the wolf creature quickly jumped over him to block him from escaping. He looked back with a look before turning around. When he tried to back away in another direction, the Fanged Wyvern quickly moved around him to block his path. He had to take a step back when it came a bit too close again. Jacob started to ask in confusion, "What exactly do you want from me?"
The teal and yellow wolf creature started to turn its head towards the clearing. When he was sure that its gaze wasn't on him, Jacob slowly slipped his hand into the pack and he could feel the texture of a flash bug on his fingers. Slowly pulling it out of the pack, the teen's eyes didn't leave the wolf creature as it started to turn its head back to him. Quickly loading the bug into the slinger, Jacob was a little nervous when the wolf creature growled at him. Not wanting to take any chances, Jacob quickly aimed the slinger in between the two of them and fired the flash bug at the ground.
The bug smacked against the ground and unleashed its blinding light. While the teal and yellow wolf creature let out a startled yelp, Jacob had quickly covered his eyes to avoid the bright distraction. When he opened them again, the wolf creature was blindly stumbling around and was swiping its large claws at just about everything. Seeing this an opportunity, Jacob hoped that this would do much better than how it had gone when he had first met Ares as he started to run from the blinded monster. Keeping out of the beast's reach as it slashed again he rushed into a large log and moved through to the other side.
He stopped in another clearing and took in a deep breath. But his moment of slight relief was cut really short when the log behind him suddenly burst. He ducked down to avoid being hit by flying debris and looked up to see chunks of the wood crash down around him. Jacob turned around to see the wolf creature looking at him with a glare. With a groan the teen shouted, "Aw, come on!"
(Cue Spark of Blue track from Monster Hunter World: Iceborne)
The wolf creature growled as it started to circle around him and Jacob figured that he was once again gonna have to fight. Reaching back he removed his Dual Blades and held them at the ready. This seemed to irritate the beast as it growled at him. The new Fanged Wyvern turned its body and tried to knock into him with its shoulder. Jacob was quick to avoid the attack by quickly moving back. The wolf creature turned its head towards the teen and swiped at the boy's legs. Jacob swiped a Dual Blade to make it think twice. The Fanged Wyvern pulled its paw back, but remained on the offensive by twisting its body around to swing its tail at him. The tail knocked into the teen and sent him rolling away. Jacob groaned as he started to push himself up again. When he looked in the direction of the wolf creature he immediately became worried. Jacob cried out as the Fanged Wyvern came down on him with its claws out stretched. He dropped back down just the beast landed on him with its forepaws over him.
The wolf like creature carefully and partially raised a paw to look down at the human it had pinned, but became confused to see that Jacob was kneeling down close to the ground in such an odd way. Carefully removing his paws from the boy, the teal and yellow wolf looked around to the boy's head and saw his face against clasped hands. Jacob appeared to be looking at something between his hands. The giant wolf beast seemed to become curious and brought its head closer to the boy's hands. Jacob looked up to see that the wolf was trying to get a look and abruptly pulled his hands away while turning his body a little. He then put his eye close to his hands again. Really wanting to see what the boy had, the wolf creature carefully moved around to try and get a look. They boy saw this and started to move away again but quickly stopped. Jacob looked back to see him still standing there, removed one hand away from what he seemed to be holding and pointed to the fist. The wolf creature seemed to still be quite curious as it leaned much closer. Jacob moved himself to where the beast could get real close. He held the fist up and the wolf creature leaned a little bit closer. While it tried to look in Jacob's enclosed hand, Jacob carefully reared his free hand back. Then in one swift motion, Jacobb swung his free hand in a fist in an upward motion. The fist connected with the wolf creature's left eye and it gave a pained yelp from the blow. It backed away from the boy while placing a paw over the afflicted spot.
Jacob took the opportunity to get up and back away with both of his Dual Blades at the ready. His opponent gave a growl when it lowered its paw and glared at the human. The wolf creature then rushed up, reared a paw back and brought the paw down as a slam. The teen backed up to avoid the paw crashing down into the earth and jumped out of the way when it repeated the motion with its other paw.
He turned around to face his opponent again but stopped while holding his weapons at the ready. Jacob became greatly confused when the wolf creature suddenly hunched over. He became surprised when the bugs from earlier started to lift off of tree and out of the patches of grass around them. They flew towards the Fanged Wyvern and when enough of them gathered on its body, the wolf creature raised its head and gave a howl. Jacob covered his eyes as a flash of lightning enveloped the wolf's body.
When he looked again, the human was surprised by what he was seeing. The fur along the wyvern's body was sticking up, as were the spikes and horns along the beast's body. Bits of lightning crackled along the fur and Jacob could barely see some of those bugs sitting in its fur. From the electrified look of the Fanged Wyvern, Jacob knew that this just got a lot harder. The Fanged Wyvern gave another growl and made a rush for the boy. Jacob wasn't sure about continuing the fight as he ducked under the beast's electrified claws. But Jacob knew that he probably wasn't going to get out of here without one.
The boy remained on the defensive as he jumped out of the way when the wyvern slammed its paw down. The impact created a small burst of electricity and Jacob was close enough to feel it and it caused his hair to stand up a little. Deciding to take a chance, the human lunged forward with a Dual Blade. The weapon managed to nick the beast's arm. While the strike managed to make the beast yelp, it mostly served to anger it further when the wolf creature gave another howl. It retaliated from Jacob's attack by lunging forward and knocking into him with its head. While Jacob was glad that he took the broad side of the beast's horns, that didn't stop it from hurting him as he knocked back a few yards.
Getting tired of being knocked around, Jacob decided to switch tactics up a bit. Carefully attaching one of the Dual Blades to the grappling hook, Jacob got up and fired. The Dual Blade stretched out from him and the Fanged Wyvern jumped out of the way to avoid it. But Jacob didn't let up as he moved his arm while retracting it, hook, weapon and all. The weapon moved towards the wolf like creature and it reared up to avoid being cut again. When the hook brought his weapon back, Jacob repeated it by launching the projectile again. The wolf creature raised its foreleg up and the blade passed right under it. With a stomp of its paw, the weapon became stuck, unable to be pulled back. But Jacob didn't let this stop him as he made the cable retract. Since the blade was stuck, he was pulled forward and readied his remaining blade.
The Fanged Wyvern narrowly avoided the edge of the blade when Jacob swung by jumping back. With the hook free again, Jacob retracted it back before removing the weapon from its hold. He twisted the blades around to where they faced backwards and rushed forward. Jacob then started slashing the blades like crazy. While the wild swings put the wolf like creature on the defensive, the teen was secretly trying to get it to back up to where he could get to a spot to run.
He managed to get the Fanged Wyvern to back up to a tall rock. After one swing, the wolf like creature jumped back. It suddenly turned and slammed its energized tail down. The impact caused Jacob to fall backwards and he quickly scooted back when the wolf creature reared up to slam both paws down on him. He was nearly crushed by the creature's paws when a few shapes suddenly leapt onto the large wyvern. The larger monster gave startled yelp from the sudden attack and backed away a bit. Jacob was surprised to see his Jagras pack had come to his rescue. Jupiter, Julius, Jenna, Joss and Jess were swarming the bigger beast as they scratched and bit at it.
The wolf creature turned its body to throw the five Jagras while Jacob was quickly joined by Juni, Juno, Junker and Jumpa. The human got up onto his feet just as the teal and yellow wolf monster jumped into the air with a spin of its body. It enough to make the five Jagras fly off its back. The large lizards rolled across the ground before picking themselves up with a hiss. Seeing that they were all out of their league with this beast, Jacob really knew that it was time for them to try and get away. Twirling his Dual Blades back into their forward position, the teen from another world rushed forward just as the large monster came down with a thud. It saw the human coming and it gave a snarl as it rushed forward to meet the smaller being head on. Jacob dropped down and slid across the ground when it leapt at him.
Time seemed to slow down as Jacob watched as the wolf creature sailed over him as it watched him slid underneath it. The beast landed just as Jacob started to get up again. While it had its back to them, Jacob shouted to the Jagras pack just as the five fallen started to get up again, "Get out of here! Go!"
The wolf creature turned to face the human with a snarl. The nine looked to each other with unsure looks, but when they looked to him again he shouted, "Go, NOW!"
They happened to quickly notice that he was digging into his pouch again. Thinking that their packmate had an idea, the Jagras turned and started to make their escape. The wolf creature glanced back, but turned its focus back on the human before it. While it had looked away for a brief moment, Jacob had prepared yet another Flash Fly on his slinger. The beast didn't seem to notice it and he hoped to keep it that way for the time being. With a holler he rushed again just as the crackling of electricity around the beast seemed to die down as it jumped forward with its jaws wide open. Jacob twirled around while delivering a slash to the creature's cheek. It yelped in pain from the scratch before turning its head and landed a blow with its shoulder. Jacob fell backwards, but managed to keep his footing before firing his grappling hook. The hook managed to snag one of the spikes on the beast and Jacob zipped through the air. The wolf creature twisted its body to swipe its claws at Jacob, but they missed by a hair as he sailed over it and flew through the air. Landing with a roll, the human turned back just as the wolf creature turned to him.
He aimed his slinger and fired the Flash Bug at the ground again just as the wolf monster moved towards him. The teen had quickly closed his eyes and once again heard the startled yelp from the wolf creature. Carefully opening his eyes, he saw that it was once again blinded. Seeing this as an opportunity, Jacob turned and ran in the direction that the Jagras had taken. But had he looked again, he would have seen that the wolf creature had gotten over its temporary blindness. It hunched over and gave a quick howl, causing its charge to return. With a quick spin of its body, it created spheres of electricity that spun out from it. Jacob had gotten close to the tree just as Jupiter was about to climb. The others were screeching down at them when one of the spheres of electricity brushed against his leg.
The shock caused Jacob to cry out and he fell to the ground. Jupiter and the others looked worried for their packmate as the leader started to move to help Jacob. The electricity coursed through the human for a moment, but he was able to look back to see the wolf creature leap into the air and turn its body to where its back faced him. The human thought that this was the end as he couldn't move out of the way in time.
(End of track)
Jacob covered himself with his arms just as the giant wolf creature started to come down on him back first. But before the human could be crushed under it, a shape quickly rushed through and grabbed him by the shoulder. The teen cried out as he was pulled out of the way just as the creature's back slammed into the ground. The impact created a large dust cloud followed by what sounded like a clap of thunder just as the new creature carried the human from the haze and away from the clearing. Jacob grimaced from the feeling of the new creature's teeth holding him pretty tightly, but couldn't really see what had him in its grip as it turned and rushed off. From the corner of his eye, Jacob saw the wolf creature starting to get back up onto its paws as it moved its body around.
The new creature carried Jacob up the path next to the wall of vines and the west entrance of the caves before making its way up the tunnel to the next level of the Ancient Tree. Back with the pack, all nine Jagras' screeched after them as they made their escape up the small slope and into the tunnel. They entered the spot underneath the botanical arena and the creature carried him up to the small wall of vines before jumping up onto the ledge. Jacob was surprised to be held up out of the way by the creature when it landed against the vines. It seemed to struggle a bit before pulling itself up while holding the boy up in its jaws. The creature moved onto the arena before setting Jacob down and releasing him to where he could stand on his own two feet. The teen rubbed his sore shoulder from the bite and a familiar growl made him lift his head in surprise. Slowly turning around, he found himself in the presence of someone he hadn't been around in a good while. After over two months, Jacob was finally reunited with Boltia as the Tobi-Kadachi gave the human a happy sounding growl.
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Author's Note: Like I said, this has been over twenty chapters due. I'm pretty sure everyone was wondering when our two friends would make up. And yes, the new friend of the mini-arc is a Zinogre. I do hope that you enjoyed that little gag during the beginning of the fight. I know that their beginning was a bit rougher than with Ares, but hopefully the next chapter or the one after it will shed a little light on the subject. And a bit of sad yet happy news; a little while ago, after I had gotten through my week of jury duty, my game data had been corrupted and I had to restart. But thankfully, I'm progressing fairly quickly and should hopefully be back to where I was in World and Iceborne before long. I hope to get back to the Guiding Lands soon. I look forward to reading your reviews. Be sure to leave a comment either about if I've done something wrong or if you want something specifically to happen. See you all next time.