//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Everytime I Hear Urgent // Story: Monster Hunter Pie // by BronyArmitage //------------------------------// Pinkie returned from a new job, one in which she had been charged to kill a Great Jaggi. It had gone quite well, the alpha raptor having succumbed to the Rough Edge rather quickly. It hadn't taken her more than fifteen minutes to hunt the monster, an she paraded herself back, feeling excessively good. She kept her head high all the way to Lyra's counter. The liaison shoved Pinkie's payment across it lazily. The Hunter took her money and started to turn to leave before she noticed the alarmed look on Lyra's face. "What?" Pinkie said, when she got no response, she started to panic. "What is it?!" she leaned in, eyes wide. Lyra waved a hand to indicate she needed to be quiet. Pinkie quieted down, the worried expression never leaving her face. Lyra looked as if she was listening to something. She would nod periodically, the Hunter enraptured by her every move. "Yeah?" she finally spoke, Pinkie leaned in close. "She just got back. Now?" and closer. "Like, right now, right now?" and closer. "I suppose she might be okay. I'll talk to her. Just leave everything to me, ma'am. I'll get it taken care of." Pinkie's face was pressed against Lyra's. "Will you back up?!" she pushed her away, but not too hard. "Geez. Anyway, the Guildmaster has called in your first 'Urgent' quest." Lyra performed air quotes, and the look on her face suggested she didn't find it nearly as urgent as everyone else did. "If you can prove yourself and accomplish this, the Guild will start to assign you more difficult tasks." "Really?! Wooooohooooooo!!!" the Hunter jumped around ecstatic. Then she paused, and her mind drifted to a certain leviathan. "W-what do they want me to do?" she asked, any sense of bravado drained from her voice. Lyra pulled a paper, seemingly from thin air, and started to read it. "You need to slay a..." Lyra paused, mostly for dramatic effect, and Pinkie feared the worst. "Royal Ludroth." Pinkie exhaled the breath she'd been holding. "Why the sigh of relief? These things are supposed to be terribly dangerous." "Maybe." Pinkie slid the fee across to her. "But it's no Lagiacrus." and she made her way to the hunting grounds, a bounce in her step and a smile on her face. /) (\ Pinkie sat at the base camp, a bar-b-que spit set up in front of her. She was rotating it, slowly. A watchful eye kept on the piece of Aptonoth she was cooking. She had been quite the baker back in her home town, but cooking anything but confectionaries had eluded her. She prodded at the meat, trying to tell if it was done. She pursed her lips and then pulled the meat off the spit. The Hunter took a small bite, and it didn't taste like it should still be munching on grass. She chalked it down as a victory and consumed the rest of it. Since she hadn't gotten a break between the Great Jaggi hunt and this one, she decided it was best to waste some time resting and filling her belly. She'd dealt with plenty of Ludroth, so a bigger one couldn't be much worse. She stood up and stretched before opening the Guild supply trunk. Humming happily to herself, she placed all of the free supplies into her pouch. She checked to make sure she had room before moving away from the base camp. Pinkie had become so accustomed to these hunting grounds that she didn't even bother with a map anymore. She skipped along, passing up Aptonoth and Jaggi alike. The predators kept their distance, they were all lazing around the carrion of some manner of herbivore, basking in the sun. Full bellies made Jaggis far less hostile. She skipped into the wetlands, and a few Ludroth raised their heads, watching her approach. They made noises that alternated between clicks and hisses. Their bodies were very serpent-like. They looked like smaller, less threatening Lagiacrus, minus the back spikes. The Hunter stopped skipping as soon as she noticed the Ludroths approaching her. She grabbed her axe and swung it around to the stance she'd found that allowed her the most freedom of movement. When they noticed her making threatening moves, they charged in, mouths wide open, saliva dripping from their fangs as they hissed threateningly. Pinkie was relatively nonplussed. She raised the axe above her head and brought it crashing down on the closer of the pair, burying it deep into the monster's skull. It slammed into the ground under the force, falling victim quite easily. This display of force did not deter the second monster, which lunged at her. She actually let go of her weapon, hopping back a few steps. She had sunk the axe head so deep into the other creature's skull that she was having difficulty removing it. Teeth gnashing at the air, the second Ludroth had a surprised look in its eyes. It had expected to tear into flesh, not air. Pinkie hauled off and kicked the monster in the side of the head. The Ludroth reeled back, giving her time to collect her weapon from the one she'd left dead. Instead of attacking her immediately upon recovery, the Ludroth let out a panicked cry before its life was ended by a clean swipe through its neck. The monsters head hit the ground a few yards away, blood seeping into the shallow water that covered the entirety of the area. Pinkie turned her axe to sword mode and burried the tip into the ground. It stood perfectly straight as she started carving away at her fresh kills. Pulling hides off, she swore she heard movement from her right. She stood up straight and looked around. Nothing but empty wetlands as far as she could see. She shrugged and started carving the other Ludroth. She heard it again. It sounded like something breaking the water's surface, but this place was too shallow for any monster to hide in, much less a larger Ludroth. Pinkie put her spoils into her bag and picked up the Rough Edge. Not a moment later, a vicious roar came from behind her and she heard the sound of something large breaching the water's surface. She reeled around, surprise written on her face as a massive Ludroth burst from an underwater cave that she hadn't even noticed. The crest around its head looked to be made of a spongy material. From head to tail, Pinkie noticed that it was easily as long as three of her, right before diving out of the way of the creature which was on a crash-course for her. The Hunter recovered from the initial shock as the Royal Ludroth crashed clumsily into the ground. Its spongy crest cushioning the blow. It lumbered up to its feet, and it stood a bit taller than Pinkie had expected. It was considerably longer than the Arzuros and almost as tall. She folded her weapon back into axe mode with a quick twist of the handle. She immediately started moving to her right, trying to circle around behind the monster. In a swooping motion, it rotated its head towards its tail, snapping its teeth through the air. Pinkie could tell the monster had poor directional hearing, since it took a bite at nothing. Then, as it was coiled up, it lashed its tail out and caught Pinkie in the back of the leg. She took a spill and the Ludroth lunged at her. She rolled to the right, escaping the beast's fangs by a hair. She pushed herself up quickly, careful to regain her balance before starting to run circles around the monster again. Pinkie was kiting it. She was giving it a wider berth, now, but she kept close enough that it was throwing itself at her constantly. It wasn't long before she started to notice its movements slowing down. She moved in to attack. She ran by and took a swing at its left foreleg, tripping it up and causing it to faceplant. Rather than take a swing at the head, she ran to the end of its body and swung the axe down at its tail. It cleaved into it, but not through it, and the Royal Ludroth let out a pained cry, flailing. The motion caused Pinkie to lose her grip on her axe, then the tail swung back at her, axe in tow and struck her solidly in the chest. It didn't knock her through the air, but she felt a crack as she staggered backwards, dazed from being hit with her own weapon. Now, Pinkie had two problems. This thing was mad, and she didn't have a weapon. She started to try and run to the monster's left, but it turned its head and spit a large ball of water at her. She stopped just short of its trajectory, flailing her arms to catch her balance. She thrust her left hand into her pouch, her eyes never leaving the Ludroth. She pulled out five throwing knives, which had been coated in a poison that was hand made by the Guild. She stared at them, bewildered. "Welp...Beggars can't be choosers." she threw the first one, and it hit the ground with an unimpressive splash. "Fudge this." she ran at the Ludroth and ducked under another water ball, ramming one knife into its chest, another into its left foreleg, the third in between its ribs, and the final one into its back left leg. In an impressive display of agility, she dove through the air and wrapped both hands around her weapon's hilt. She clung on for dear life as the Ludroth whipped her around like a toy. It slammed her into the ground a few times, winding her, but the poison knives, which were still stuck in the monster's body, were doing their job. The Royal Ludroth was running out of energy. Pinkie felt her feet hit solid ground, then her right foot found the monster's tail and she tugged, freeing the weapon from its prison. She backed away quickly, noticing that the Ludroth was heavy lidded and drooling. It was tired. She cranked the Rough Edge into sword mode and made for the tail. She felt her weapon strike true, black lightning appearing at the point of impact, and half of the creature's tail went spiraling through the air, its previous owner stumbling forward in pain and rage. It didn't attack her, though. It let out a roar, then booked it out of the area, tailless body swaying as it ran. Pinkie put the axe away and carved at the tail, getting what appeared to be a few valuable scales off of it. She immediately made a break for the area the Royal Ludroth had escaped to. Upon passing under the stone archway that lead to an area resembling a beach, she could hear the snores of her target. The poison had exhausted it to the point where it had to sleep. She closed in on it quietly, drawing her weapon and turning it to sword mode. In a swift manuever, she took a step back, then lunged forward, ripping open the exhaust port on the back of the sword and driving it deep into the Ludroth's spongy crest. The initial impact woke the monster, at it rolled into an upright position, dragging Pinkie through the air until she was standing on top of the monster. It flailed around she she revved the weapon, pumping it full of black lightning the same way she'd done the Arzuros. The Ludroth made a mighty swing of its body right as Pinkie managed to overcharge the weapon, which set off the final blast, throwing her mercilessly into the nearby body of water. The Rough Edge returned smoothly to axe mode, Pinkie recovering under the water. She clambered back up onto the shore, the Ludroth's spongy crest looking much closer to Swiss cheese than it had before. The monster was weak, Pinkie could tell it was at the end of its rope. She'd cut off its tail and severely damaged the rest of it, in addition to the fact that he knives were still embedded into the monster. "Alright. Let's do this!" she swung her weapon over her head and took an intimidating battle stance. Truth was, Pinkie was in an incredible amount of pain. This monster had spent the last half hour slamming her around like a rag doll. "Death or glory, mister!" she charged at the Ludroth, and it advanced toward her with newfound vigor. When the gap was almost closed, she sidestepped the Ludroth's last, valiant attempt to finish her, whirled around, switching the axe to sword mode again and cleaving into the monster's neck. It hit the ground hard, still alive. As it started to recover, she brought the sword down again, mercilessly. She continued her vicious assault, striking the monster four or five more times after it had succumbed to death. She burried the sword into the Ludroth's head and climbed up on top of what was left of the spongy crest. She pumped both firsts into the air. "Yeeeeeeesssssss!" she let out a few gasping breaths before finally calming down and beginning her slow, methodical carving process. /) (\ Pinkie, feeling incredibly proud of herself for the second time that day, which was twice as proud of herself as she'd ever been, made her way over to Lyra, dropping to her knees in front of the liaison's counter. "I..." she was panting. She'd never hunted so much in one day. "I did it." Lyra smiled, she could only see Pinkie's right hand, which was giving her a thumbs up. She heard a gentle 'thud' from the other side of her counter, and she leaned over to look at the Hunter. Pinkie's cheek was pressed up against the outside of Lyra's work space, and both her arms had fallen limp to her sides. She was snoring gently, having worked herself to pure exhaustion. The liaison grinned and shook her head. Lyra motioned for the elder's son to come give her a hand, and together they carried Pinkie to her home, intent on letting her sleep for as long as she wanted to. From here on out, things were going to be much more difficult.