//------------------------------// // The Lesser Gnasher // Story: The Slayer 6 // by MrAquino //------------------------------// After Marcus had dealt with that one Slayer that needed to buy some tonics, the group of creatures were boarded on a zeppelin, heading to their first hunt. Yona looked excited as she held onto her hammer, Gallus inspected his sword, Smolder taking a few practice swings, Silverstream twirling her repeaters, Ocellus quivered a bit with her Warpike, and Sandbar looking unsure with his strikers. Marcus manned the zeppelin they were in.  "You all ready for your first hunt?" He asked. "Yona ready!" The yak replied. "Yona ready to smash behemoth!" "I like your enthusiasm, but it won't do you well without knowing about your enemy." "We gotta learn about these behemoths?" Smolder asked. "I think we should listen." Ocellus replied before turning to Marcus. "What do we need to know?" "Thank you, miss." Their Buson spoke. "Though a lesser Gnasher is the first behemoth every Slayer takes on, it's nothing to be taken lightly. Many Slayers have met their end after being crushed by it's tail, or their leg bitten off by it's razor sharp incisors." "... You're joking, right?" Gallus asked. "And this is the first Behemoth we're going against!?" "A lot of potential Slayers think they're easy prey, until actually hunting them. But like every Slayer, you'll all be jumping out when we get over there." "What!?" Sandbar asked. The bottom of the wooden floor opened, showing the island below. "Relax, you'll get used to it. On 3, jump! 1… 2…" "YAK SMASH!!!" Yona jumped down without a thought. "Yona, wait!!!" Sandbar followed, screaming on the way down. "Geronimo!!!" Silverstream added, flying down. The rest jumped down, heading into danger. Yona fell down on the floor below, crashing into the ground, getting her bottom half stuck. Sandbar landed by her, but tripped and fell face first. Silverstream and Smolder landed with a "Superhero" pose. Gallus and Ocellus landed, pulling their weapons out. "... Yona stuck." Yona simply said as she tried to pull herself out. Gallus and Smolder sighed, with Smolder pulling Yona with her arms, and Gallus pushing her out. The yak came out, though it was followed by Yona shaking the dirt off. "Testing, testing…" Marcus' voice spoke through a radio. "The behemoth is somewhere nearby. Get ready, you're gonna need it." "Finding that behemoth shouldn't be too hard," Smolder spoke. The sound of trees falling over made the group jump. Everyone pulled out their weapons. "Alright, let's do this." Gallus spoke, leading the way. The rest followed the griffon into open grassland, decorated with a few trees and flowers. Besides the sounds of the leaves blowing in the wind, the loud snarling of a large creature was heard in the distance. After a few moments, peeking over a cliff, below was the large creature making all the noise; it could only be described as it had the head of a squirrel that's stuck in an angry face, the tail of beaver, and the body a raptor from the dinosaurs, with a spine of hair sticking up and scales on it's side. "Huh… it doesn't look that scary." Silverstream commented. "Remember what Marcus said?" Ocellus replied. "It may not look dangerous, but-" "YAK SMASH!!!" Yona yelled, jumping from the cliff with the hammer in her hooves, ready to slam the behemoth. The Gnasher looked up at the yak and jumped backwards, avoiding the slam attack, snarling loudly, got onto it's belly and swam towards her.  "Wait! Hold on!" Sandbar yelled, jumping off the cliff and tackling Yona out of harm's way. The Gnasher jumped out of it's swimming position, and raised it's tail up, ready to slam it on the two. Yona quickly grabbed her hammer, and on accident, blasted the tail, making the Gnasher stagger back a bit and snarled at the two. "What are we waiting for!?" Smolder asked. "Let's get em!" She jumped off the cliff, landing on the floor by the two, and charged at the behemoth, giving it a good cut across it's left cheek. Gallus, Ocellus, and Silverstream followed, the griffon going by it's tail and slicing at it as the changeling stood by it's left leg, stabbing at it. All while the Hippogriff shooting at the other leg.  "Yona's hammer saved us?" Yona asked. "Um… yeah, I guess it did." Sandbar replied. "Ooh! Perhaps Yona should have listened to new friend?" "... Again, yeah." "Yona probably needs to think straight before-" "Hello!?" Gallus interupted "We're fighting a monster here!" "This is easier than I thought!" Silverstream spoke. " Bang! Bang! Bang!" The Gnasher began to Glow red, and released a small burst that pushed the four creatures around it back. Sandbar and Yona got up, the former's strikers going over his hooves as if they had a mind of their own. "Ok, what's happening?" Sandbar asked. "Yona think Gnasher angry." Yona thought aloud "It already looks angry!"  The Gnasher snarled at them, stomping a bit before charging at them. Sandbar closed his eyes and reacted quickly, throwing a right hook across it's face. Their monster rolled in place, almost as if it tripped and fell to the side, trying to get back up.  "YAK SMASH!!!" Yona began to bash her hammer on the downed Gnasher, slowly, but each hit had a loud "CRUNCH" behind them all. Though Sandbar was taken back at how he knocked a monster down, he joined Yona, delivering, though not as powerful, still strong punches in rapid succession, almost looking like a blur. The other creatures, with dizzy heads, saw Yona and Sandbar working together in beating the downed behemoth, both glowing themselves. Yona jumped into the air, slamming her hammer down to the floor, causing a shockwave of energy to flow, as Sandbar leapt into the air, delivering a huge blast at the Gnasher! The behemoth let out one final snarl before silence… and it's body glowing, with the Gnasher fading away. “Well done,” they heard Marcus over the radio, “I’m impressed that you were able to handle yourselves out there. I’m on my way to pick you up right now.” "... We did it." Sandbar gasped, falling to the ground. "We actually did it." "Yona know." Yona replied. "Yona and Sandbar were EXCELLENT!!! Yona can't wait for the next hunt!!!" "Um… yeah…" Sandbar's cheeks swelled, making him get up and run into a bush, hurling loudly. The group landed back in Ramsgate, Yona jumping happily, making the ground shake a bit, Sandbar still looking sick, and the rest being indifferent. They all stopped upon seeing Kat standing up, fully awake, arms crossed, and looking a bit impatient. "Ok… so it wasn't a dream." She began. "We really do have creatures in Ramsgate." “Kat, if I may-” Marcus now spoke up as he walked out from under the outstretched wing of his airship. "Zip it! First thing's first, just how the hell did you all get here?" "Yona not remember!" Yona spoke. "Yona just want to go to the next hunt and slay more behemoths!" "... What?" “As I was trying to say,” Marcus spoke up, “While you were out, our friends here had the chance to talk to some of the locals. Since they don’t have a means to go back to where they’re from, it was suggested that they help us fight against the behemoths. We just returned from hunting a lesser gnasher.” "... Marcus… did you seriously let all six on this hunt!?" “Well, it was more ideal to have them stay together. That, and the slayer that found them had to go out on patrol,” the bosun explained, “Besides, it was a lesser gnasher. They’re not as tough as the real thing.” "You know the rules, Marcus! Only four Slayers per hunt. I'm going to let you off with a warning this time, but don't let it happen again. We may be together, but I don't want to risk more lives than necessary,” Just as she finished her sentence, Kat turned back towards Sandbar and the others, “As for the rest of you; I've got my eyes on you all. The second you start acting up, your heads will serve well as trophies over my fireplace." There was a sense of Dread upon her saying that… with Ocellus turning into a rock again.  As she walked away, Marcus just sighed, “Don’t mind Kat. She’s… got a lot on her shoulders. She’s seen too many slayers that weren’t trained properly die on hunts, so she takes the role of training new slayers very seriously.” "Someone should really help lighten her up." Gallus commented. "Anyone up for it?"  “It’s not exactly something that you can solve immediately, my dear friend,” the bosun told the griffon, “But perhaps, if you can demonstrate to her how effective you are in the field against the behemoths, that could change. Though… she is right about one thing.” "What's that?" Silverstream asked.  “There are rules that we need to follow,” he told her, “Given the threat we face, we’re only allowed to send four slayers to face a behemoth at a time. That way we don’t have a shortage of slayers on hand-” "Well, Yona ready for next hunt!" Yona spoke  “I… don’t think you understand correctly, Yona,” Marcus explained as they all walked into Ramsgate, “It means that all six of you can’t be together at the same time. We’ll… have to find a way to work with this, but don’t expect other hunts to be like the one you just finished.” "Well that's great." Smolder sarcastically replied. "Seems we're going to be here for just a bit longer guys." "Wait, are we still going to use these weapons?" Ocellus asked. "I uh… think my weapon broke." “Hmm…” Marcus replied, “Weapons don’t usually break, but Wils can help you improve upon the weapons you have and forge new ones from the trophies of behemoths. The same goes for armor too,” Ironically, as he said that, another slayer in town passed behind them that wore a fur coat made of Gnasher parts, “Take some time to see what gear you can improve upon, then come see me when you’re ready.” "We're going to use parts of behemoths to slay other behemoths with?" Ocellus asked.  "That… sounds… AWESOME!!! I'm gonna blast more Behemoths with everything!" Silverstream quickly ran to the market, but was stopped by Gallus, who held her tail.  "Easy there," he spoke. "I don't think we should jump ahead and make everything we can." "Aww, but why not?" the hippogriff complained. "Maybe we should ask to see what it'll cost before we jump ahead." Sandbar suggested.  "My thoughts exactly." Gallus replied. "Besides, we may want to specialize in something." "Aren't we already doing that?" Smolder asked. "We don't know all the behemoths we'll be facing, so it's best to plan ahead and think what we'll do next.” “We could also talk to that Moyra lady? See if she has any advice for us?” Ocellus asked. "Hmph! Yona will follow through." Yona spoke with some annoyance. "As long as Yona still uses hammers." The group arrived to Moyra, having just finished making what appeared to be a crystal helmet to another Slayer. "Oh hey, you're all back!" She greeted them happily, "How was that hunt?" "It went well,” Sandbar explained, “Though, Marcus suggested for us to improve our equipment first before we get ready for the next hunt.” "Ah, yes, that is good. Though, most Slayers handle the lesser embermane first before getting their armor." "We're not like others." Smolder replied. "And what's an Embermane?" "A fast blaze behemoth." "See?" Gallus spoke. "We're trying to make a plan on how to tackle these behemoths. Can you give us a general idea of what we're going up against?" "Sure,” Moyra told them, “No two behemoths are the same after all. There's seven different types of behemoths in what they are; Blaze, Frost, Terra, Shock, Radiant, Umbral, and Neutral. To make it easy, if you go against a blaze behemoth, wear blaze armor, but if you want to do damage, see Wils in making a frost weapon. Besides neutral, all armor and weapon types are best against each other like this.” She pulled out a chart, showing a drawing of fire and ice hurting each other, with lightning and Terra following, and under those two is what appeared to be light and darkness. "... This seems simple." Sandbar commented. "Yeah, and here I thought that earth was weak to fire, and fire weak to ice, in a circle." Ocellus added. "Well, thanks," Gallus spoke. "And what does that Gnasher fall under?" "Neutral." Morya answered. "One of the three neutral behemoths." "Only three neutral Behemoths?" Yona asked. "... Yona disappointed." "You'll be surprised to see how tougher they get." "Well, thank you, Miss." Ocellus replied before having everyone get together in a group. "Ok, seems we all have an idea what we'll be going against. Any takers?" "I'll take the Ice armor and blaze weapons." Smolder answered. "Dragon, remember? Not a fan of the cold, but I can sure melt them." "Eh, no complaints here." Gallus replied. "Guess I'll be taking the flame armor and frost weapons."  "Why?" Sandbar asked. "Griffinstone, remember? I'm used to the cold, not so much with heat." "Oh… my bad." "Yona want earth armor and electric weapons!" Yona spoke up. "Yaks great at smashing rocks!" "Um… then perhaps I can use shock armor and rock weapons?" "Because you're an earth pony?" Ocellus asked. "... Yes." He bushed. "Well then, that leaves you and me, Ocellus." Silverstream spoke, pulling out a bit. "Flip a bit? Heads, I get radiant, tails, you get it?" "I… don't know." Ocellus answered. Silverstream flipped the bit into the air, and it landed on tails.  "Well, there's that!" "What about the neutrals?" Sandbar asked. "... Well, since you both did so well, why don't you get the stuff" Gallus suggested. "Really!?" Yona asked. "Eh, it's only fair." Smolder added. "And there's other neutrals. And I personally don't want a huge coat." Silverstream and Ocellus no, dded. "It looks too heavy." Silverstream added. "And I don't want to accidentally shed in mine." Ocellus added as well. "Come on, Sandbar! Let's get our stuff!" Yona shouted, dragging Sandbar with her. In a few minutes, Yona and Sandbar approached their friends wearing matching coats. They had just enough extra to make new weapons, as on Yona's back, she had what was called "Raging Crash" and Sandbar's new strikers, looking more like blunt claws, called "Raging Fists". "Hey, not too shabby you two." Silverstream complimented. "Yona like new hat." Yona replied. "And Wils said new hammer is stronger than the old one! Now Yona can smash harder!" "And I feel a bit more protected now." Sandbar spoke. "I'm just not sure if I want to go on this next hunt." "No sweat." Gallus replied. "Smolder and I need to do this. Yona can join us, and either Ocellus or Silverstream can be our 4th." Ocellus and Silverstream looked at each other. "... Flip a bit?" Silverstream asked.