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Yasha Nydoorin - A-List Hunter
Preferred Weapon - Greatsword
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Beauregard Lionett - A-List Hunter
Preferred Weapon - Insect Glaive
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“Hunters, our resource caravan was intercepted returning out from the Ancient Forest. The riders were thrown from their ladened mounts and quickly ran.
The Aptonoth’s themselves were lost in a flash - not a trace of them could be seen by one who glanced back for a moment.
Now this could be just simply the work of a Great Jagras, but the scale and speed of this loss has me entrusting this to our best, just in case it’s more than the ordinary.”
The heavy thump of carved wood impaling worn dirt behind them sounded the beginning of the quest, the two women taking the trail of packed dirt out into the outskirts of the forest.
With the rhythmic tap of the greatsword on her back, it served as her ticking clock of their assigned timeframe to investigate; 50 minutes - a hunt hadn’t taken almost that long since she found her feet in the New World, and they were quicker still with her hunting partner by her side.
“So, we’ve got a rough idea of where it all went down,” her partner announced, flourishing open her notebook to the charted map of this local section of forest - the large Kinsect on her gauntlet shifting out of the way, “In all their infinite wisdom the caravan went straight through Jagras territory before it was hit in the open buffet zone.”
Marked ‘Zone 1’, the common grazing area and watering hole for most herbivores - naturally it was by direct circumstance to also be a favourite for carnivores to poke their large-mawed heads into.
“Do we want to just cut into their nesting area then or check the incident scene in case the culprit is still around?” She asked, “we know Jagras like to hit and return back if they can, but It could have come back out for more.”
Yasha smiled fondly as she weighed their options. Beau was always great to have around - thought like her weapon; with no limits - She’d have just wandered until her Scoutflies eventually caught wind of something, target or not.
“We’ll take the scenic route, there’s a good chance that if the culprit was a Jagras then it’d be soon back anyway.” Yasha decided as the smaller women beside her stowed the notebook away with a satisfied nod.
The journey to the base camp outside the forest proper wasn’t long, trailing a respectful distance from the shore dwelling Kestedon’s to avoid them getting in the way they passed through the sparce outer canopy and into the main rivers, keeping a watchful glance at their Scoutfly cages for a lead.
“you think it was a Jagras then – seems like the best assumption for the fact there wasn’t anything left over.” Beau pondered as the splashed through the rivers, the usual grazers hadn’t returned here just yet.
Great Jagras were the best bet for what could be found right around here, large, yellow quadrupedal fanged-wyvern that had a penchant for swallowing large prey whole to break down and regurgitate for its lesser pack mates later.
The pairs eyes soon fell on the scattered and smashed remains of whatever was being transported as they crossed the last small stream, a few of the intact items glowed green as their tracker began their inspection. Joining them, they gathered what could be salvaged; intact healing potions and some forage around the shattered wooden carts.
“All signs point to a Jagras.” Yasha agreed, tracing the massive smearing of dirt that covered a collection of three completely pulverised storage crates, “this size though…” The largest recorded was around 20 meters in length and a bloated gut of about 10. This was reaching upwards of around 16 meters.
“Somethings not right about this, we need to find- “, Beau was cut off as a vicious roar shook its way through the forest ahead of them, “-them – guess we have our target.” Flitching at the sudden sound, she spun to track the direction.
Monitoring the Scoutflies, Yasha watched their normally green hues redden briefly, before surging quickly away from the scene and back the way they came and further.
Scrambling into her supply bag, she fished out a bundle of potions, two a deep red and two a darker orange, rolling one of each to Beau as the other hunter tracked her own Scoutflies moving off, she grabbed them with a nod before running after their trackers.
Swigging her own potions as she ran, she felt the familiar surge of power from the Demondrug as her skin began to partially harden with Armourskin, watching ahead of her as Beau’s own skin took on a slightly darker hue in response to her own duo of buffs.
Zone 9 was closing in, the sounds of a prolonged fight hadn’t stopped since they started moving – whatever two or more monsters had come to blows were evenly matched, she snatched a few loose stones for her Slinger.
“Ready Babe!?” Beau shout in front of her, a flurry of motion and her Glaive was out behind her, the Thunder-charged Kinsect out and keeping pace with her speed.
“Let’s do this!” she shouted back as they approached the drop off in the area proper.
They hadn’t fought a Jagras in months, while a nuisance, they were the lowest of the carnivores on the food chain. Regardless of if it was a much larger specimen, they’d fought Elder Dragons that were the embodiment of gods at this point and come out the apex, they could handle a larger Jagras with-
Her self-aggrandising was interrupted as she quickly dug her heels into the dirt, screeching to a halt just before she collided with a stock-still Beauregard. The sounds of battle were just below her.
“Babe? What’s… The fuck.” Yasha gaped at the sight below.
She’d heard of and even fought once the anomaly that was the Greatest Jagras, the largest they could ever reach at that 20 meters in length. They could hold off Deviljo’s if they needed too.
This thing was gargantuan as it towered on its hind legs over its adversary, an Anjanath; the fiery bipedal kings of the forest floor. Yasha noticed one thing for certain; something was very wrong with it; the normal dread-like yellow hairs were raised into a frill of fine spines, the smaller spines that adorned the edges of its limbs and tail were longer and sharper too – it’s usually smooth set scales stuck out in diamond shaped and the small toe-claws were sharper, thicker and cutting a deep blow into its normally much stronger opponent.
The pair watched as the Anjanath tried to retaliate, knocked onto its side with its feet flailing but another heavy slam from the Jagras met its chest with an echoing crack and it fell silent.
“Holy shit, Yash – what the fuck d-you think happened to this thing?” Beau breathed, her face had blanched just a little at the spectacle as she looked at her partner.
“I don’t know, the only other time something close to this has happened is when they eat something that’s eaten some crazy stuff itself.”
“regardless, we need to get rid of it.” Beau resolved, her eyes searching the space below to formulate a plan, “Hey, found where this one’s set up – the cave entrance. Anjanath must have been trying to get through.” She followed her gaze down to the right where the sodden remains of various caravan parts were bundled together. As she watched, her peripheral gaze caught the massive Jagras beginning to drag the corpse towards its nest.
“Alright. Idea time, while its distracted with that, we get down and set a trap – shock I think will be our best bet – that’ll keep it still enough for us to get in a set of good first strikes to wear it down.”
“let’s do it.”
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If the sight of it beating down the Anjanath wasn’t their first sign this wasn’t going to be as quick as a normal Jagras hunt, the moment it stepped through the shock trap unfazed certainly was.
Quickly chugging the mega health potion to ease the bruising and slashes, Yasha charged back into the fray, as beau kept it harried above – somersaulting above its bites as her Kinsect struck its jaw in a burst of yellow dust.
So far most of the weaker strikes she’d been making had just been scraping off of the differently shaped scales that now adorned it. Beau had done her best to compensate for the misses, diving blade first at the head of the beast or quickly launching a flash bomb if the jaws were looking to snatch her girlfriend completely before she could block.
Yasha swung the massive Lunastra greatsword again against the same spot she’d ben whittling at for the past five minutes of battle, quickly shifting the flat blade in front of her as its large toothy maw came slamming into the blade. Conserving the momentum she had, she brought the head of the blade back, slamming the grip into its retreating mouth, ginning wildly as she saw a few teeth chip off.
Fully charged, she brought the blade back, channelling her strength into a true, charged, swing – waiting for the right moment. The Great Jagras made its move, jaws coming back at her again, above; grappled to the rock face, Beau watched as with a yell of exertion, she brought the blade blazing down upon its head, shattering spines and hardened scales with a satisfying crunch. “Fucking finally”, she sighed in relief.
The efforts to weaken the Monster for capture had long since passed – if they couldn’t trap it then they couldn’t properly sedate it. Either way, they needed to get it out of the ecosystem in the next 30 minutes or the fall back to report and try again.
They could get it done before then, they’d managed to break most of the weakening points on it, despite its toughened scales. Just a little longer and the quest would be cleared.
Launching on a boost of air, Beau dove again for the reeling Jagras, the Kinsect recovering on her arm fluttered ahead of her as she reached a forelimb and struck with the crescent, painting the target for her flying aid to strike. It followed suit, hitting with its claws a sample of the scale and depositing it in its thorax to quickly ferment.
The Hunter backed up, bosting upwards to miss the other limb swipe for her as her Kinsect returned to her arm, its back glowing now a vibrant red as it transferred it over to Beau, feeling the surge of strength hit her, she boosted quickly back over to its large stomach and began striking rapidly, slash after slash, chipping scales and cutting slightly into the thick hide underneath. She heard the sounds of Yasha striking at the other side, feeling the weight of her blows shifting it slightly closer to her.
“Beau, look out!”
Wah- shit, she was getting too focused on her strikes she didn’t notice the torso shifting, too late she turns to see the open mouth coming at her, shattered and chipped teeth and all, with no time to evade now, her only choice is a reluctant one, she jumps up and tucks her legs as the mouth passes around her.
Holding tight to her Glaive outside the mouth she feels her legs shift from the side of its mouth to open space as it raises itself onto its hind legs, trying to swallow her down – she catches a glimpse of sunlight before she slides down a foot and stays there, the glaive now reigning its mouth. It’ll be an endurance test now as she holds on.
Outside she can here the angry shouts as Yasha continues to hack at it, “DROP HER YOU OVERGROWN SLEEPING BAG!” her girlfriend angrily cutting at its back legs and tail to bring it down to all fours, but the Jagras isn’t budging yet from its standing position
Swing after swing she delivers as its attempting to dislodge the metal rod from its mouth. Charging her next attack, she lets loose a cleaving swing at its foot, severing a clawed toe or two. The monster bellows in pain as its balance falters, the sound is near deafening, but she pushes through it as she watches the monster smack hard into the rock face, swallow and fall down, the Insect glaive falling from its mouth to clatter on the stone.
Shit.
If there was one thing Jagras were good at it was eating rapidly, lose an Aptonoth to a Great Jagras and it’ll be gone in seconds to its fast acting stomach. Lose a hunter to a Jagras’ maw, and oddly you’ve got a better chance – its stomach working significantly more efficiently on large creatures than on human sized prey.
She’d have about 30 or so seconds – thanks to the armour she wore though, about a minute instead to cut her out.
But that’s only if the Jagras doesn’t get away from her, like its now trying to do, scrambling on its four worn legs to the cliff face they’d descended down.
“Oh no you don’t!” Yasha’s back on it in seconds with her sword, she needs to strike at its stomach but its moving to fast for her to hit it with any good strike, she switches attack, instead then as it tries the first few grasps onto the rock face, she dumps the stones from her Slinger and switches the function to grapple. Firing into the cliff face above it, she surges it ahead of it before detaching the hook and falling back down towards it.
Blade first.
It strikes true, catching the back of its tail she brings it down with her, the hits they both did on it have weakened it enough that it comes free, and she tumbles down beside the Jagras.
Gritting thought the impact, she scrambles back to her feet and charges the prone monster reaching the spot that Beau had been working on, she can see the slightest protrusions emanating from around there – Beau’s attempting to carve her way out from the inside.
“Watch out.” she warns quickly as she quickly flips around her sword and presses the back point into the spot her girlfriend was trying. with a shove she felt it pierce with a pained roar from the monster.
“Gluttonous fuck, this one’s mine.” She snarled, and pulled the blade down with all her strength, squinting as the stomach began to tear in a shower of blood juices. As the blade passed downwards, a gloved hand shot out grasping the air.
Letting her sword fall down, she grabbed for the hand and pulled, digging her heels into the ground as the Jagras attempted to shakingly right itself, a gasping Beau slipping over and out as it flipped.
“Err, fucking Jagras. Fuck.” She cursed as Yasha caught her and steadied her.
“Thanks babe.” Beau sighed, soaked through but otherwise mostly still unharmed thanks to the Armourskin holding back the acid.
“You okay, Beau?” Yasha asked, quickly holding a potion from her secure bag out – the Jagras forgotten for now.
“I will be once this fuck out the picture. Now where’s my ah, thanks” Yasha pointed where her glaive had fallen, her Kinsect that’d been hovering above where she was snatched returning to her arm as she picked it back up.
Meanwhile Yasha watched now as the massive Jagras tried once more to haul itself up and away, the task significantly messier now with its stomach leaking down the cliff. Beau joined her as the considered how they wanted to do this.
“do we chase or call it here.”
“This ones all you baby.”
“Alright, mind giving me a boost?” Beau asked of her girlfriend.
Grabbing her greatsword again, Yasha set herself up in line with the cliff but with the flat of the blade on the ground for Beau to step on. Quickly jumping on her ride Yasha channelled her strength once more and launched the blade up as high as she could, throwing Beau up towards the retreating creature.
Rapidly approaching, Beau adjusted her glaive underneath her, activating the air boost to bring herself much higher than the Monster. And then she descended, to unlike before, she went for the skull the sharped spaded end of her weapon meeting with its skull in a concluding crack of bone.
Yasha watched proudly as Beau rode the body down, jumping off to boost herself over to Yasha before it impacted with a heavy thud. Breathing a sigh of relief, the two embraced as silence filled the area of forest.
“Job done – good work.” Yasha cooed, as the adrenaline began to wear off.
“Yeah,” “could of done without getting eaten again, though – why’s it never you?”
Pulling back, Yasha looked her girlfriend over with a sly grin
“well, I guess you’re just too irresistible,” she suggested, the energy that followed a hunt usually effected the two of them differently, and hers just loved to set off Beau’s.
She watched Beau’s eyes darken in response, her signature cock-sure grin making its appearance, “Oh yeah, you fixing to take your chances now?”
“most certainly – but later,” she decided, nodding over to the body and then the small poll of water gathered over near where the Anjanath had fallen, “first, we need to finish up here, and you should probably clean yourself of the Jagras juice.”
“Rain check then.” Beau relented, heading over to rinse herself off.
With needing to return back within 15 minutes time, the pair take turns in rinsing off the respective messes on them, while the other set to work carving what parts can be useful for Astera from the two monsters, by their ten minute marker Beau calls her partner over to the abnormally large Great Jagras.
“Here, Yash. come take a look at this,” the smaller woman was holding a strange crystalline cluster in her hands, partially fused to a removed section of stomach.
“Is that a wyvern gem?”, such things were a rare find within a creature: highly sought after and very elementally potent depending on the Monster it was from, they formed much like a stone would in a humanoid but would seldom ever pass through the monsters system; instead, usually fusing within their body.
“yeah, on the gem part, but look closer, not notice something weird about it,” she pressed, excitedly shifting in her perched position beside the puncture made by Yasha.
Yasha looked again, but yeah, it was a gem a little larger than a normal one and stained with blood – wait. No, it wasn’t stained – it was naturally deep crimson, much like a… “what the hell is an Elder Dragon gem doing inside a Great Jagras,” she exclaimed.
“honestly, your guess is as good as mine, but there’s more than just a gem,” she revealed with a laugh, passing the now exceedingly rare and very valuable gem to her before rummaging within the tear and pulling more strange finds out, a fused on scale, then a fang morphed into a pattern she didn’t recognise and finally a scared but still recognisable section of silvery hide – definitely from an Elder Dragon.
Yasha was stunned, there was absolutely no way a Jagras could take out an Elder Dragon, but that didn’t leave many other ways it managed to end up with these fused into itself, “you think maybe it found the corpse of one and took its chances? Eating something that held that sort of power can’t not leave you a little changed.”
“-Maybe leave you a lot bigger and stronger even.” Beau added, staring over at her.
“maybe so. Let’s gather what we more we can for now until the researchers can come have a look.” Yasha agreed, pulling Beau in for a kiss which she readily accepted.
Collecting what other parts they could find, they climbed their way back out of the basin and back towards home.
“What do you think we should tell the commander then?” Yasha wondered, mulling silently over what happened for a moment before finally deciding.
“Perfectly ordinary hunt?” she offered to Beau with a grin.
“Perfectly ordinary hunt.” she agreed.