Fanfic: The Green Menace

The Green Menace

 Chapter 1 “Stories”

Monsters. For many people they are fearsome beasts that endanger their livelihood. It doesn’t matter where you look, they are in every environment you can think of; in swamps, in the mountains, in the seas, in the volcanoes or on one of this worlds poles. As these monsters are usually carnivores and higher in the food chain than we, this would be a problem for our civilization. So that is where I and many others come in. We are Monster Hunters.

Somewhere in the big city of Valor, is the hunter’s tavern, a place for monster hunters to gather, to be send off for quests or to grab a drink after returning from one. Although I am not in either process of that. “…and then he stands in the way of my upswing, is send flying and lands in the Qurupeco’s mouth!” Yells a hunter, half-way to being drunk as he pauses and gulps down the last drops of his Demontator brew. “My partner has his armor stuck on the ‘peco’s teeth while the fowl is completely dumbfounded by what just happened.” Says the hunter, as he keeps his glass upside down above his face, vigoursly trying to get more Demontator brew out of his glass. The hunter next to him sighs and says; “Ed, you realize you’ve already told that story to us?” Ed puts his glass down, and ask bewildered; “Did I, Mike?” “You did, Ed, more than once, if memory serves.” I tell him while sharpening the blade of my weapon.

“Okay, okay. I quit.” Says Ed while flaying his arm covered in the armor of the beast called Great Froggi. “But in return I want someone else to tell a story!” Although seemingly saying that, his eyes slowly wander towards me''. Fuck''. I feel the scar on the left side of my face pulsating, I know what he is going to ask of me. ”I have told that story many times already, my throat is sore of it.” I tell to them, although I told it only once before. That is not a problem for Mike and Ed as they now both stare greedily towards me. “we have yet to hear it, Kim, we came back just a day ago.” Says Mike, looking for any opportunity to make me tell the story of my scar. “Urgh, fine, fine. But you pay my drinking bill then.” Before Mike can make any protest, I start the story.

“It started two weeks ago when I was still running around in Bhanabra armor. I was prepared to go again to the Flooded Forest for any monster hunt I could get the excuse for.” But then once I arrived in the tavern, I noticed a hunter pretty banged up. His armor was broken on several places, and the guy himself was in bandages. I decided to ask another hunter what happened; “He got beaten up by a vicious Rathian, and he’s not the first one. The one before him didn’t even survive the encounter.” proclaims the hunter. “Having any interest in the quest, Kim? It is in the Flooded Forest, where you like to be.” I look to my side and see that it was the guild master asking me the question. “Maybe, but that Rathian seems to be more than I could handle alone.” Barely had I finished that sentence, did I noticed somebody thought it was their cue to appear. “Shall I go along with you then?” Does a young bulky hunter say. He was completely clad in thick Rhenepolos armor and carried a spiky hammer. “Your name is?” I asked. The hammer hunter stood up the straightest that he could to over tower me, and almost yelled; “The name is Mulder, and not a single monster has escaped my hammer yet!” I took a good look at him, and many a hunter in the area could read on my face that this guy was an idiot with too much self-confidence.” The Guild master came running with the hunt request, almost giddy. He loves to see people annoyed I guess. I looked around but saw no one else looking like they wanted to get killed together with this Mulder guy. The guild master was in the mean time busy drilling holes in my back with his stare. He was good at it as I gave up to resistance and signed myself up for the quest. While signing I took a good look at the details, the fee was small, while the reward was good enough even after being split into two. It appeared that a merchant had requested this, as this Rathian has attacked his caravan numerous times, while his guards either got killed, fled or let it happen. As for the quest, the main was to hunt the Rathian, simple in nature enough. But then I noticed that a sub quest was recently added in scribbly handwriting: Capture Rathian. “Did you add these subs?” I asked the master while Mulder plucked the request out of my hand. “Yes, I did. The arena recently got a fresh Rathalos in and we want to add Rathian to it, for an upcoming Two Flames arena quest.” I eyed the guild master as he walked away. ''I never understood why people wanted to hunt monsters in the arena. It ain’t natural nor is it very profiting. Then again, you are right in your hometown so no travel distance.'' “Done!” yelled Mulder, drawing my attention to him. “Are you ready to go?” I asked him, anticipating he had to go home to get stuff. “No, I just need to buy some antidotes, then we can go.” Was his answer, making my idea of him as an overconfident idiot shaky. Before we left I could not resist to look up the name of the quest; The green menace. For reasons unknown, I had a cold feeling in my stomach while reading this. “In hindsight, I should have abandoned the quest while I could, but at that point I didn’t knew what would happen.” Chapter 2 “Amazement”

“You ride on a Great Froggi?!” Yells Mulder in amazement. “Yup, I do.” I answered. Currently we are halfway towards the Flooded Forest. The grassland is getting thicker and small trees are rising up. It won’t be long for we reach it. Meanwhile Mulder has given in to his urge to break the silence and truth to be told, if it wasn’t him it would have been me. “How the hell did you tame it? I mean it’s a freaking carnivore that’s capable of eating you!” Says Mulder with a cracking voice. “I Once took home an egg of what I thought would be a Gagua, but apparently is was a Froggi. With no parents to teach it how to hunt, I could tame her fairly easy. These days she is full grown so I can saddle her up.” ''Mulder stares at me with amazement, does he think I’m bad-ass now? Maybe it is. ''“How…how…the poison?!” Stumbles Mulder. “The poison it spews can be a problem, hence that I am usually stocked with antidotes. But there is another problem with Froggi.” I say with a frown. Before Mulder can ask me the obvious; ‘That would be?’ I continue; “It somehow learned to drink from open bottles, not a problem usually unless you have an open bottle of alcohol you used to disinfect wounds and she decides to drink it.” Mulder continues to stare at me, his mouth half open from being speechless. “It is a strange feeling being hit by a poison cloud that both poisons you and makes you drunk.” From that point after a minutes of silence, we started talking again, and I found out that Mulder is a pretty nice guy. At twilight we arrived just beyond the edge of the Flooded Forest, where we decided to set up camp. We were pretty beat from the distance, but we swiftly set up shelter and a fire. I was ready to stuff myself with rations and dried food when Mulder pulled out a cooking pan from his bag. He cooked some water, put various plant and shrooms in it before he grabbed his weapon: “Could you watch the fire ?” he asked. Before I could answer he was gone but mere minutes later he came back with a Ludroth’s tail. “This is a feast compared to what I usually eat.” I told him. He looked with a blank stare at me and asked: “What do you normally eat then?” I grabbed a piece of dried meat from my bag and showed it to him. “Really?” “Yup.”

“That hit the spot” I yelled out loudly. The stew that Mulder made, was thick yet easily eaten. It tasted kinda weird but I added a hot pepper to my portion to spice it up and somehow made it taste weirder. As the moon rises, we talked about our hunting exploits. How Mulder apparently was the one that captured the Rathalos the guild master mentioned earlier. The topic went on, on the dangers of the volcano and the different ways our hunting parties defeated a Uragaan. My choice for toxic weapons and his hammer came around, and we even discussed heavily the dire topic; which Guild girl is the hottest. But to everything comes an end, and our ability to stay awake was no different.

 Chapter 3 “The devil is in the details”

“Okay here is what we do.” I laid out a map of the general area in which the Rathian should reside “I go through the eastern roads and you take the western roads as both are relatively open spaces thus it’s easy for one to locate the Rathian. It does not matter if you find her or not, we meet in the central area.” What do we do if we don’t find it?” asked Mulder. “Then we go through the thicker areas together.” “Okay, that settles it. Time to go hunting!” He yells with confidence overflowing. “Not too loud, Mulder. We are not at the top of the food chain.”

As Mulder walked straight forward, slightly curving to the left, I went through a hunter-and-monster forged path towards my designated zone to search. Normally Hunters would communicate a monsters location by Hunting Horn, the non-weapon kind. But mine was cracked and pretty much broken while Mulder didn’t carry one. Thus the proposed midway meet-up. Every now and then, I looked up into the sky to check for any kind of flying monster. It is a Rathian we are hunting for but that does not say it’s the only monster here. Bird wyverns, carapeceons, leviathans and even elder dragons are said to roam the area. But the forest is large and there is plenty of space. With a bit of luck, the only thing I find is the Rathian, I thought but as soon as I walked in the clearing I knew I jinxed it.

I jumped into the bushes the moment I saw the scene, but it took a minute before I realized what had happened. Next to a lonesome tree, half knocked over, stands a huge green behemoth; Deviljho, a brute wyvern. If I know one thing, it is to never, ever, cross path with it unless you want to be crushed alive by his grotesque jaw. Around him were scattered pieces of hunting armor, poor fools who had tried to pick a fight with it. There was no telling how many hunters tried to fight it, Deviljho made sure to destroy any evidence of who and with how many they were. Even as I hid there in the green, I could see right into a open ribcage, without doubt did the brute wyvern took a bite out of it, maybe even while that person was alive. Yet I have to give those hunters some credit, they managed to cut of the monster’s tail. But the thing that upsets my stomach, which has seen many things through the years, is that Deviljho was devouring it. Its teeth, which numbers are many as they even grow outside of its mouth, are piercing through the flesh and ripping the fibers of the muscles apart of that which was once part of its own body.

I kept carefully crawling through the woods out of the zone, although I didn’t have to worry about the sound since Deviljho was busy crunching the bones. Throughout the whole thing my heart was pounding like mad, I was ready to piss my pants. But I made it out, safely leaving Deviljho for the rest of the quest behind me. In this zone, water flooded most of the land, but as I went uphill the ground rose out of the water. I decided to rest for a moment and use a ration, the event earlier left me hungry.

From the spot where I sat I could oversee the area fairly well, though the trees blocked my vision. I became overcome with nature’s calm, the sound of water, the wind rustling through the trees. I saw a Ludroth being annoyed by a pair of Froggi’s, Bhanabra buzzing through the air, in the distance I thought I saw even a Kushala Daora flying, but I am unsure of that.

The places where I come when I’m hunting, this is the life I am living.

 Chapter 4 “To all good things, comes an end, to bad things, maybe.”

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Except for the Deviljho part, your story is pretty boring, Kim.” Says Ed, his lips touch a new glass of Demontator Brew. “You had to become impatient at the most wrongest moment, did you?” I reply to him. “At the wrongest moment? Do you mean…?” “Yup, as I was climbing up the hill I suddenly heard Rathian’s roar.” I continued the story.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">I heard the roar coming from further up the supposed place where Mulder and I would meet up. ''Mulder probably has already arrived and found the beast. Has he began to fight it because we would meet each other at that spot?'' But when I arrived I stopped. I saw Mulder writhing as his abdomen were consumed by a large Rathian pinning him down. He coughed up blood as he cried out in agony. Then came the silence, broken by a slobbering, flesh ripping sound. I stood there frozen at the scene, but inside something came boiling up from depths I have never experienced before. Hate, sadness, rage, despair, it felt like a mix of all of those yet I felt something else; a primal instinct to flee and an instinct to fight. While my mind had not decided, nor it would ever do at this point, I grabbed the handle of my weapon and pulled it from my back.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">My switch axe, Randgrid unfolded into it’s axe form. It was coated with poison, used a status phial to boost the poison it was coated with and was made of Rathian materials. But the irony of facing a Rathian with a Rathian weapon was lost to me. The green wyvern held it’s head high while eyeing me, almost like it was looking down on me. My blade firm in hand, my anger exploded. I ran to the Rathian, spinned around carefully placing my feet swinging my weapon at full velocity had the beast. The Rathian jumped back, my axe narrowly missed, but the wind created by the Rathian made me trip. The Rathian’s eyes sparkled for a moment and it lunged from the air to me, its claws extended. ''I made a mistake! ''Her claws scraping my armor, I almost couldn’t dodge it, but I did.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">As I regained my posture, the Flying Wyvern inhaled and let out a piercing roar, it’s mouth set ablaze. As I cringed in pain, I knew that any moment it would use the opportunity to attack me, I had to move. The Rathian strained it legs and took to the air with a tail sweep. I barely avoided it with the roar still ringing in my head. With the moment of opportunity while Rathian tries to regain balance in the air, I attack! Putting my weight behind it, the axe transforms into a sword and slams into the tail. The Rathian reacts shocked while I twist my body and slash the shaking tail from below. It becomes clear how much harder the top green layer of the scales is as barely a cut has been made into it while the bottom yellowish scales have been cut through.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Then the Rathian does something unexpected; it flew 90 degrees around me, something I only have seen a Rathalos do. This Rathian isn’t normal! I swiftly sidestep as the wyvern launches fireball after fireball to me, then lands. Returning my switch axe back to axe mode, I anticipate the attack as Rathian begins it’s charge. I roll to her side and slash her leg, making her lose her footing and fall down. I jump up, transform to sword mode and jab the blade between it’s back plates. Pulling the phial mechanism, the switch axe charges the phial into the small wound and explodes. The back plates shatter, the wound rips open and the Rathian stumbles up. I jump back to prepare for the next attack but Rathian went ahead and charges again. I sidestep to her other side but the beast glares at me. Almost if it was smiling.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Mid-charge the wyvern turns around, I turn around to dodge but her tail hits me hard in the back. I hear my armor crack and one of the spikes has penetrated my armor and pierced my skin. As I am sent flying, my bag tears open and my items spill out. I fall on the ground, disoriented from the hit. But from the corner of my left eye I see Rathian’s blazing mouth, wide open. The next moment a searing heat engulfs me, flames scorch my armor and burn my face despite my attempts to protect it. It hurts, it keeps burning even when the flames have died down. While I struggling to stand up, I see the Rathian panting, struggling to keep standing on her own feet. The fire raging in her mouth has vanished, from what I could gather, the poison has kicked in.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">With a moment to spare I quickly searched the area for what I searched, only to find it two feet away from me: a shock trap! I quickly prepared it and threw it towards the Rathian. It landed near her feet and activated immediately. Rathian screamed, but he body tensed up on the influence of the trap. With my body still hurt from the burns and my back sore of the tail, I got back on my feet and quickly ran over to where my tranqs had fallen. Time was ticking and my stumbling did not make it easier. But soon two tranq bombs flew through the air, the Rathian made a final attempt to leave the trap but at last the beast went down. She cried as the darkness weighed down her eyelids, but I could finally rest. Yet as I sat down I started to cry myself for what happened to Mulder.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Nya?”

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> Chapter 5 Fighting fire with fire

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“I managed to conviently get some help from nearby felynes, who took care of transporting the Rathian back to the city.” I said. “How in hell do those small cats transport a Rathian?” asks Ed confused. “They didn’t do it themselves, they found and asked another group of hunters for that. But they did bound the Rathian so it couldn’t go on a rampage again.” I answered. “So that’s it, most of it ended well, you survived and took care of the Rathian, which you carry now as armor.” Tried Mike to summarize. “Actually, no.” Mike and Ed looked confused at what I said. “Remember what the intent of the quest was?” Mike and Ed, thought for a minute, but I answered for them: “It was a capture quest, which I so happen did.” Suddenly Ed realized where this was going: “Then it went to the Arena?!” “Yes, it did.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Despite my objections, they put the Rathian together with a Rathalos that Mulder earlier had caught. Thus another round of problems, came up.” I answered. “Due that Hunters often manage to kill the arena monsters, the guild had a shortage. But the Rath pair remained sturdy, and managed to defeat one pair of hunters and from another pair lost one member her life. I decided it was time to avenge Mulder and take down ‘our’ legacy.”

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">I first had to heal up, the Rathian’s tail did a number on my back and also managed to poison me. Luckily the amount of poison was small enough that I did not even notice it until later. My burn wounds needed to be tended too as well, and weren’t easily fixable with Lifepowder or a potion. A firedouse berry extract managed to undo much of the damage, but I would have some scars remaining. Aside from my health, what worried me was that my Bhanabra armor was wrecked due to the fire. Thus I had to make a new armor. My choices were limited since I tend to clean out my materials from time to time, but I had recently slain a Gigginox, so materials were a plenty. The armor felt discomfortable if you thought of the creature it came from, but it was very easy to move in and that was what I needed for the coming battle.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">I started out to find a partner, as two people were allowed to fight the Raths and it would be foolish to try that alone. I decided to try and find one near the arena as that would give me the best chance. Upon arrival, as usual there was a small crowd at arena near the arena boards, chatting about the monsters on it. Guess we like to small talk about that. “Duo Diablos and the Rath couple, who do you think is more dangerous this time?” A hunter asked to the crowd. “The two Diablos off course, once they are raging a hunter does not have his life in his own hands. But I must admit the two flames seem particularly vicious this time, I wouldn’t want to be in that arena even if it was a Run-for-your-life-quest.” A second hunter answers. “Who would be foolish enough to take those Raths on after the last battle?” Wondered the first hunter. I felt that as my cue but I was not the only one. “I would be foolish enough to try to take them down.” A huntress stepped forth. She was a Gunner wielding a pink Ludroth bow wearing Qurupeco armor. “So do I.” I answered.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">The huntress turned around and sized me up. “With that new armor?” she smirked. Annoyed, I answered; “I had too, that Rathian destroyed my old armor when I captured it with my late partner.” The huntress reacted; “Late partner…, was that guy named Mulder by any chance?” I reacted shocked at the question. “You know him?!” “He was a dear friend of mine, I want to kill the monster that did it!” She shouted angrily. I smiled; Guess I have found my partner.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> Chapter 6 Raging Venom versus Blazing duo

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">The huntress, named Liana, and I went back to my tavern spot after signing up for the Arena quest. There was no going back now. “I’m glad I am able to avenge Mulder.” Liana says to me. “I didn’t go hunting with him because I wanted to prove to myself that I could hunt solo. Thus he apparently found you to hunt with.” I paused with my reaction for a bit, but I thought to give my thoughts straight. “Strange, if Mulder didn’t apply to be my partner I wouldn’t have been on that quest either.” Liana turned to me and asked; “Why not?” “It would have too dangerous, the Rathian in question appeared to be very strong, one I couldn’t handled alone, even though in the end, I did. But maybe because Mulder’s spirit was with me, I did win.” Liana smiled upon my answer, but I could read in her face that it was a front for the sadness within. An increasingly awkward silence followed.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">‘So two fire breathing wyverns, who are also called dragons. What do we do about them?” I asked to Liana. “Well the simple method would be, that you take the frontline and I back you up.” Judging from how her sentence ended with a sighing sound, I knew Liana knew that her method was flawed. “This would be fine if there was a single monster. But now we are fighting two, and one is particularly strong.” I said to her and continued; “We are hardly capable of taking them both on one-on-one since the Raths won’t follow our rules.” A felyne came by to hand us our drinks, and while I took a sip, Liana said; “ What if we did two-on-one?” I looked up from my Monster Cola when Liana said that. I didn’t grasp what she meant so I jokingly answered; “You mean one of us fights the two Raths and the other watches the massacre?” “Yes, indeed!” she joked. “Great idea!” I answered by slamming my drink on the table.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Actually, I mean we take on one of them at a time while being wary of the other.” She explained. “Risks will have to be taken anyway, it seems to be a good plan and it is the best we have now.” I said. I then noticed the bow on her back and that inspired me for a question. “Will you be using that bow as your weapon?” She pulled the bow from her back and laid it on the table. “Yes, Amethyst is my main weapon.” I remembered fighting a pink Ludroth before, while a normal Royal Ludroth throws around water, a pink one adds poison to it. “Isn’t it a poison weapon, just like my Randgrid?” I pointed to the Switchaxe I laid leaning against the table. “Yes, but it also posses a water element.” She answered. “It will be a good weapon for the upcoming battle, but there should be more we could do.”

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">-A day later-

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“It’s a beautiful day today, at the arena, folks!” Yelled the announcer. “Today, we have a new pair ready to fight the Two flames of Land and sky! The monster duo has started a winning streak, will they overcome our hunters once more, or will they fall?” From the shadows, Liana and I stepped into the arena. “This is it, we kill them or die trying.” Said Liana with vigour to me. Yet that was lost to me. In my chest I felt something brimming, itching, burning. It were no raging fires ready to explode, no, it felt like ice raging. My blood felt cold, my spine was frozen and my hate would remain for an eternity. Liana noticed my change from my usual self, as we walked further into the arena. “Kim, are you alright?”

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Now as I take my leave here, let me introduce to you this match favourites, Rathian and Rathalos! “

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> Chapter 7 Royal Issues/An attachment to the sky

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">The gate to the monsters opens as the announcer leaves through the staff gate only to pop up a moment later between the audience. “As usual with meat munchers, we leave them hungry on the day of a fight so they will get into their hunting spirit… “ The announcer barely finished his sentence when a green blur came flying out of the shadow of the gate. The Rathian sped towards the hunter pair with a roar that deafened the audience the moment they wanted to cheer for Rathian. Narrowly the Rathian missed me as I dived aside, but Liana got hit by the wings as Rathian passed by. The green wyvern turned ninety degrees mid-air using its right wing as a brake while landing. Immediately I stood up as I saw Rathian’s tactic unfolding, to kill the fallen Liana as quickly as possible. Rathian grabbed the soil under her claws firmly, as she dashed towards Liana. “Liana, watch out!”

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Liana tried to stand up as quickly as possible, not used to the fight already being in high gear.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">As Rathian made it near Liana, I intercepted her, and unsheathed my switchaxe in the attack. Rathian saw me coming and at the last moment, as my blade touched the horns on her head, she jumped back in the air. As she landed, this time taking a defensive stance, we heard another roar. With crimson scales, the male Rathalos came flying out into the arena. He immediately flew over to Liana and spit a fireball aimed at her. This time Liana dodged without a hitch. She pulled the bow from her back, and aimed it at the crimson wyvern, the king of the sky, Rathalos. As I stood at her back, I readied myself for the opponent at the other side, the green wyvern, the queen of the land, Rathian.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“It’s seems Rathalos remembers me.” Liana said to me, half whispering. Keeping my eyes on the queen, I slightly turned my head. “Didn’t Mulder caught this beast?” I wondered out loud. “He did.” She answered. “Together with me.” “He left that out when he told me.” I said to her, as I realized our battle might be harder then ever, now both Raths have a reason to kill us, besides the hunger. “Then we can’t fall anymore, if we do, one of these monsters will come for the kill.” I remembered how lucky I was last time, when the Rathian was worn down from the poison. This time it will be not that easy.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">The Rathalos began flapping his wings harder than necessary. Liana and I reacted instantly and dodged his claws as the flame wyvern lunged at us. After his failed attack, Rathalos quickly went up again, but Liana swiftly sends an arrow after him. The arrow pierces the base of his tail, prompting his partner Rathian to start dashing at us, while he cries out. I place myself between Rathian and Liana, and run towards the green wyvern. Nearing each other, the Rathian twists around again, sweeping her tail at me. I dodge her barbed tail, with the feeling of a spike scraping my armor.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">The fire wyvern turns further and spreads her fanged jaw towards me. In defense I raise my axe in front of me, as her sharp teeth plunge into the handle. I brace myself as I let go of my Switchaxe with my right hand, clench it and punch Rathian in the eye! The beast lets go of my axe as Liana fires an arrow a moment later piercing her side. The Rathian stumbles back giving me the opportunity to place my blade into her head. Unfortunately, the head was thick so my axe didn’t came to the skull, but I saw blood dripping from the wound.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Rathalos shrieked as he flew over our heads launching fireballs wildly. None came near me, Liana had to evade one but repaid Rathalos double as she sends two more arrows after him. Only one hit the fire wyvern, but Rathalos came around ready for the next attack. Rathian, on the other hand, flew off in the other direction, probably to lick her wounds.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">I couldn’t do anything against both Raths as they were airborne, but as Rathalos came after us on his third air raid, Liana shot the wyvern into his shoulder, stunning him with pain, and slamming him down on to the ground. I ran like the devil was on my heels to attack Rathalos, which in essence was on my heels, as Rathian came charging after me. I switched to sword mode and used my weapon on Rathalos’ neck to pole-vault to his other side. Immediately I turned around, and started slashing as I kept Rathian in my eye.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Get him, Kim!” Liana shouted, while fired several arrows at the green wyvern angering the green wyvern greatly, but as the beast slowed down it seems torn between protecting her mate or giving Liana an asswhooping. In the end it was Rathalos that stood up, as I had hacked several times into his scaly hide. The crimson wyvern turned his head slightly, eyeing me, while blood flows from his neck. His eyes looked dull for a moment, but then they flashed bright again with killer intent. That or it were the flames that started leaking out of his mouth. Instinctively I knew I was far to close now, and I hopped backwards with my weapon in front of me to evade his next move.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">He roared while turning around and released a massive wave of flames engulfing the ground and my weapon, as he took to the skies once more. Rathian lifted off the ground as well and together they roared, announcing a new round of the fight. They both flew straight to Liana, as I followed them. Rathalos soared closely past to Liana spewing fire along the way, while Rathian tried to bite Liana right after Rathalos flew by. Her fangs hit the armor but Liana managed to retract her arm before they penetrated. But then a hard sound was heard. As I looked past Rathian, I saw Rathalos had smacked into a wall and was not moving.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> Chapter 8 The Green Menace

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Rathian flew to the unmoving Rathalos and landed close by. She lowered her head and after staring for a moment she nudged the Rathalos with her head, but he didn’t move anymore. He had died. Rathian roared softly in sadness of her fallen partner, lamenting his death. Then she turned around, facing us. Flames start leak from the sides of her mouth, her eyes became fiercer. She has the arrow still in her side, but she doesn’t care. Rathian raises her head and then she roars, one roar unlike any other.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">We grab for our ears as she screams that horrifying sound, it felt like my skull was being torn apart. As the roar died down, Rathian inhaled, and sprinted forward. Closing in on us, who were still dizzy from the roar, she exhaled a wall of fierce flames, cloaking herself as well. Liana and I split to evade the flames, but neither one of us escaped form being hit by the force of it. Lying on the ground, smoke rose from my armor, it had been clearly singed at least. Liana’s Qurupeco armor provided her with more protection, but even her armor got burned.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">As I looked at the flames, Rathian appeared, towering over me. Her body covered in dying flames, her saliva turned to steam from her fire ridden maw. I switched my blade back to it’s axe form, and swung it at Rathian’s face. She pulled her head back but that was not the plan. I used the force of my blade to quickly get on my feet and gain distance. But in retaliation she sent a fireball after me, sending me back to the ground, burning my armor.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Liana cried: ‘Kim!’ Drawing the attention of the Rathian, she hastily prepared an arrow but the Rathian, choose not to divide her attention any further and focused solely on her prey, me.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Urgh.” The blast got me good, it was hard enough to knock the breath out of me. Gasping for air, I leaned on my axe, when I heard the rhythmic trembling nearing me. As the Rathian charged at me, Liana fired the arrow as swift as she could, but her aim was lacking because of it.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Guess it was luck or fate or just the brilliance of her bad aim, that the arrow landed on the back of the Rathian’s knee, the exact same spot when I battled her the first time. This meant, that Rathian’s knee fell to the ground and the entire wyvern slid across the ground to right at my feet. The left side of her face turned to me, I swung my Switchaxe above my head, transformed it and planted the point of the blade in her face. The Rathian reacted but I unleased the charge of my weapon on to her face. “Take this, ya green menace!” Building the charge up and up as I pressed down on the sword, I thought of how Mulder got killed, eaten by Rathian.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">''But then something struck me, as the charge of my blade ended. Since we killed Rathalos, her mate, isn’t the score evened?'' The tip of my Switchaxe exploded on Rathian’s face, showering poison and blood. ''Yes, right now Rathian is fighting for revenge, while for us it is a matter of survival. No, it is as it all started; as our job. We are monster Hunters.''

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">Rathian screamed and shrieked, with the left side of her face shattered gushing out blood. I backed off for any attacks at my life Rathian my still attempt. She turned her head, her right side facing Liana, and then she was airborne. Still after several poisonings and the side of her face gone I thought; She can still battle?! But I was wrong, Rathian was dying and she knew it. She flew haphazardly over Liana, who shot another arrow in her, a wasted one. As Rathian came down she couldn’t brake properly, and stumbled forward, falling down inches from Rathalos. With her last breath, she pulled herself closer to Rathalos and stopped. She laid down and rested her head on that of Rathalos. And closed her eyes.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> Epilogue

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">For a moment it is quiet at the table but then Ed breaks the silence. “And so it ends, right?” “No.” Kim answers with a most serious look in his eyes. Ed and Mike stare with their eyes wide open at me. “Rathian has risen from the grave as a vampire and now I need to kill it again!” Ed staggers backwards, and shouts: “Really?!” But from the look in his eyes he was joking, even Ed couldn’t be taken in by that.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“By the way…where we you guys when this all happened? You never told me.” A simple innocent question but as time and the silence grew longer the couple of hunters across me grew slightly pale. “We don’t want to talk about it.” Answered Ed. I squinted my eyes to gaze the truth out of them, but to no avail. “They have failed the quest.” Answered the Guild master, who had appeared at my side. “They had abandoned the quest after they got their asses handed over to them by the Uragaan.” He sincerely said. “Wait a minute,…what quest did you choose for us?” I asked them.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“The Uragaan.” Answered Mike sighing. “I thought so.” I said while hanging my head. Ed finishes up his seemingly last Demontator Brew, and not so covertly writes it on my bill. No matter, it’s Mike who will pay it as I forced him too when he forced the story out of me. “But now we have twice the manpower!” retaliates Ed. “I think you see Kimes double, Ed. There are only three of you.” Belittles the Guildmaster. “Ed is right.” I counter. The guildmaster looks at me wondering what I mean. I turn around and point at a Hunter, clad in Rathalos who just walked away from the item shop towards us.

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">“Hey, liana. Ready?” I ask. “Ready.” She says, with a sweet smile.

<h2 style="text-align: center; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt">~The End~

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