//------------------------------// // Behemoth Studies // Story: The Slayer 6 // by MrAquino //------------------------------// Grogar's monsters are quite interesting. All are a mix of various creatures and one of the six main elements, with an additional seventh that's more of a safeguard. I was but a filly when Grogar started his takeover of Equestria and the monster forces following his every order. Equestria's first tyrant, the father of all monsters, was nigh unstoppable, and there was barely anything we could do. Taking down a monster would make you a local legend, but to Grogar, you were nothing more but an annoying thorn to his side and would be eliminated immediately. What I have below is a guide to the monsters, and how you may be able to- "HEADBUTT!!! HEADBUTT!!! HEADBUTT!!!" The loud cheering and roar of the barbicans interrupted Yona, reading Gusty the Great's journal, sitting in the nearby tavern. "What barbarians cheering about now!?" Yona asked with an annoyed sigh, followed by Ocellus, whom was taking notes. "They're headbutting the rams around here." Sandbar answered. "And it looks painful." Silversteam added. Yona placed the journal to the side, walked out, and looked around the corner. A few meters away, the barbarians all crowded together as various recruits anxiously waited in line with a ram standing. The next recruit meekly stepped forward to the ram, with the barbarians cheering them on. In a flash, both the recruit and ram headbutted each other, the ram unphased by it, but the recruit staggering back a bit, but still standing. All the barbarians cheered loudly as some gave the recruit what appeared to be a kinda wooly hat with horns on it, and taking his shirt off with a necklace placed around his neck. "Wow, and I thought the Aetherpunks were loud." Sandbar commented. "I just hope Gallus and Smolder are doing well." Silversteam added. Aboard Markus' ship, Gallus awkwardly sat between two of the barbicans. To his left was a man, with ripped muscles, a bald head but a large black beard and warpaint  around his eyes. On the other side was a woman, luckily wearing a bra, but was still close to being naked, and had braided red hair.  Smolder practiced swinging her new axe, looking quite giddy under that mask of hers. "Bird is rather quiet." The man spoke. "Toggaf not sure why bird quiet." "Um… I'm a griffon." Gallus shyly answered.  "Is Griffon scared of Charrogg?" The woman asked. "Gaece keep cute griffon safe." "Cute!?" "Hey, what about me?" Smolder asked. "I'm a literal dragon here." Both barbarians gave a stern look at Smolder. "Toggaf slayed several dragons." He replied. "You much smaller than other dragons." "Wait, there's dragons here?" "We're near the Charrogg!" Markus announced. Both Barbarians got up, Toggaf pulling out a hammer that looked like one giant block of iron, and Gaece pulling out some very sharp looking chain blades. "Answer later." Gaece replied. "Hunt now." Her entire body vanished in fire, catching the two creatures off guard. Toggaf jumped out of the ship, with both creatures following through. Unfortunately, he tripped fell into his face, as Gaece appeared in flames, her left shoulder still on fire, but flicked away by her right hand. The sounds of a sort of gurgle was heard in the distance. Gallus picked up a stick and poked Toggaf. "You ok?" He asked. His answer came in the form of a low groan. "Eh, he'll be alright." Smolder replied. "We've got ourselves a monster to take care of." The gathering of Barbarians died down as only about a tenth of new slayers joined the clan. All the others who failed were unconscious, laid flat on the floor. Though beyond the groans of some of the various recruits in pain, everything became silent once again… well, as silent as a city could be. Yona kept reading to herself, with the others around her, waiting for something interesting to come up. "... Found anything yet?" Ocellus asked. "Hmm… so far, Yona see interesting part about Grogar's monsters." "Really!?" Silversteam asked "Like what?" Yona cleared her throat as she began to read. Grogar's monsters fall under one of 7 main different types; Neutral, Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightning, Radiant, and Umbral. Though these monsters are unique, a fair amount do share the same body type. If I have to hypothesize, Grogar is planning to make monsters that share the same body type so he can save resources while also having an army that works mostly the same, but is unique enough to cover other areas. Of course, it seems the most he can do is have two monsters together at a time. Any more and not only will there not be any survivors to bow to him, but also the monsters will fight each other to the death. "Well, that seems to be quite the relief a bit." Ocellus commented. "I don't think any of us would be able to fight as many behemoths at a time." "But it did say that they work best in pairs." Sandbar replied. "This can mean that we'll be battling a different pair of behemoths in the near future." "I just hope we can take them on." Silversteam added. "Yona not scared!" Yona shouted. "Yona will headbutt that ram if needed!"  "Did someone say headbutt!?" A random barbarian yelled, followed by at least a dozen of the near naked men and women picking up the Yak and taking her away. "No! Wait! Yona not mean thaaaat!!!" "... I just hope Gallus and Smolder are doing better." Sandbar spoke. The group, with Togaff behind, looked over the  landscape on top of a mountain and found the Charrogg. Said Behemoth was like a mix between a salamander and a turtle. It's entire body is kind of long, with a sort of flat shell on it's back. Gray scales covered it's body, with red highlights on it's underbelly. However, the face looked like it had a permanent grin, with very sharp looking fangs exposed. "Huh… looks kinda… dopey." Smolder commented. "Gaece know Behemoth more dangerous than look." Their female Barbarian replied. "Gaece hope creatures ready." "TOGGAF SMASH!!!" Their male barbarian yelled, firing himself with his hammer and delivering a heavy blow to the otherwise unaware Charrogg. The other followed through, Smolder delivering a heavy swing at the behemoth's left legs. While before, leaving a scar on the behemoths was practically normal, now the scars were glowing. Gallus slashed at the part Smolder made with his sword, making some of the scales come right off, leaving a deeper wound. "Whoah! Did we just do that!?" Smolder asked. "Spikey armor good at wounding behemoths!" Gaece answered as she ducked from the Charrogg swinging it's tail at them, though hitting Toggaf to the side of the wall. "What?" Gallus asked.  "Spikey armor make wounds. Wounds great at breaking parts." "... I don't follow." "Gang way!" Smolder yelled, tackling the Griffon out of the way as the Charrogg reeled back and spat out a large ball of magma that rolled across the floor at a steady pace. Said ball rolled towards the two creatures.  "Is that ball seriously following us!?" Gallus asked. "More importantly, is that behemoth shooting fire from it's side!?" Smolder asked, their attention going to the Charrogg. The Charrogg hopped in the air as jets of fire shot from it's shoulders and nearby it's tail. It began to walk around in a circle,  setting Gaece on fire. Instead of running away in fear, perhaps screaming, she still fought, not taking any damage. "She's fireproof?" "Aren't you also fireproof?" "Aren't you?" Smolder let out an annoyed huff, getting up and cracking her knuckles, picking up her axe. "Let's find out!" She charged at the behemoth, only to get hit with the rolling ball of lava, which exploded upon impact, making a puddle of lava. Though she is a dragon,  Smolder felt the lava burning past her armor, not melting it, luckily, but it was really hot, as she rolled across the floor,trying to get herself off fire. "Ok, esther blaze is DANGEROUS!!!" "Duely noted." Gallus readied his sword and charged, slicing at the tail. The Charrogg charged ahead and turned around, flicking it's tail in the air, making more puddles of lava around. One of the puddles got on Gallu's feet, which, similar to Smolder, set him on fire. Difference is that he was able to roll the flames faster, and didn't hurt a lot… though not to say it wasn't painful. Toggaf quickly ran to the Charrogg and hit the behemoth in the face, knocking it out. Everyone began to circle and beat the behemoth down, followed with Smolder slicing the tail off, the final blow to the Charrogg.  "I AM TOGGAF!!! THE STRONGEST BARBARIAN EVER!!!" "... It's just a normal Charrogg." Gaece said with an annoyed tone. "Say, I know your barbarians and all," Smokder spoke, talking a deep breath. "But any reason why you have those names?" Both barbarians thought for a bit. "Gaece named Gaece because it's nearly Grace." Their female barbarian answered. "Toggaf's father gave Toggaf's name because father thought it funny if Toggaf learned how to spell." A silent pause fell to the two creatures after the quick realization. "... And I thought Grandpa Gruff back home was cruel." Gallus muttered to himself. Yona sat on a makeshift throne that appeared to be forged with various sharp metals and flames around. All the barbarians chanted wildly as they danced to their new champion, though Yona didn't enjoy it. Silversteam, Ocellus, and Sandbar watched as Gallus and Smolder came back with their new gear. Smolder's new axe lookee rather bulky, with the Charrogg's scales making the middle. Gallus, meanwhile, wore a more exposed looking armor, being really asymmetrical with a look that felt very barbarian-like.  "Uh… what did we miss?" Gallus asked past his new helmet. "Yona became the champion of the barbarians after headbutting every ram." Silversteam answered. "Ah… that explains all those passed out rams." Smolder added, as every ram was on the floor, unconscious. "Luckily, we took this time to make lanterns." Ocellus added. "Lanterns?" Gallus asked. "Yeah, we sorta forgot to make them and were just lucky." Sandbar added. "But we made Yona a lantern called "Drasks' eye", myself called "Skarn's defiance", Silversteam "Shrike's Zeal", and Ocellus "Embermane's Rapture."" "... but none of us fought an Umbral or Radiant Behemoth yet." Smolder replied. "They don't have any lanterns on those yet." Ocellus replied. "I don't think they can." "Well… that stinks." Gallus commented. "And how many lanterns are there?" "6 total." Silversteam answered. "Well… 7… the first is given to everyone,  apparently, but the last is held by Lady Luck." "So… only 5 real unique lanterns?" Smolder asked. "Um… yes." The sounds of sirens blared, causing all the behemoths to scatter. "Yes! Finally!" Yona cheered. "Yona hate being praised for something easy." Landing on opposing sides, were various soldiers that looked pretty similar, wearing pretty advanced armor, but with kinda dorky looking helmets. On one side, the soldiers had green neon lights, but on the other, was purple. "I didn't think you'd return, you deviants!" One of green soldiers yelled. "Says the people who can't endure like their own team name!" One of the purple soldiers replied. "Oh great, Zephyr Strike has returned." Kat groaned. "Zephyr Strike?" Sandbar asked. "It's essentially a clan that's divided in.half for competition." "That… doesn't sound too bad." Smolder replied. "It isn't. But when they get competitive,  they get COMPETITIVE! And it seems you've gotta work with them to take down some more behemoths. A Drask, but also a Pangar and Hellion." "... So… three behemoths now?" Yona asked. "... Think we can trade a bit?" Gallus asked Smolder.  "Oh you better." Smolder replied before giving a playful jab at the griffon's shoulder