Monster Hunting: No Way!

by GhostlyDarkness

Nothing Like Sand Fishing!

"A sand monster?" Twilight asked sounding confused. "And it swims in sand? How is that possible?" she asked.

Both Rain and Soul rested their faces in the palm of their hands. "There are monsters that swim in lava, why is one that swims in sand so strange?" Rain asked with a sigh.

"Well just because it seems impossible," Twilight said objecting to the idea.

"Look stop babbling about what's possible and impossible you two are hunting the thing," Soul said sounding annoyed at the two. He looked back at Twilight, "remember what I said and you both just might come back alive," he said before walking away and disappearing into the crowds of hunters around him.

Rain turned back to Twilight, "anyway we got a hunt to do so let's go," he said walking away to their usual spot to prepare for a quest before taking the hot air balloon ride there. the two were dropped off at what looked to be a desert savanna. There were small trees and structures in some places before meeting the edge of the desert that seemed to continue on to the horizon.

"Well we're here and where we're going you're going to need one of these again," Rain said tossing over a cool drink to Twilight. "Don't drink it now though wait till we get closer," he said fixing up the same equipment he had brought on their previous quest.

Twilight nodded and followed after him. As she walked beside him she looked around at the environment and noticed everything felt temperate and that life seemed to flourish here. "This place is surprisingly alive and temperate for a place pretty close to the desert," she said looking around.

Rain nodded, "it's very nice in this part if it because it get's somewhat of some rainfall," he said looking around. "This way," he said leading the way.

The two of them made their way through a cool cavern to come to the sandy desert plains. The sun seemed to have grown harsher in not only in heat, but in sunlight as well.

"How come it suddenly got so hot?" Twilight asked as she wiped the sweat that already began dripping from her forehead.

"Drink the bottle I gave you now," Rain said as he too began drinking the drink thirstyly.

Twilight did the same and was relieved to feel the cool chill through her body, "that's better," she said with a slight smile.

Rain smiled but then heard the clacking of something hard. Out in the distance two Rhenopolos's were having somewhat of a small dispute. They backed up and got into a low stance before charging and butting heads with each other. He sighed, then noticed something stealthfully approaching the two rhino-like creatures. Before they could back up a light brown monster with huge mouth showing row after row of sharp teeth jumped out of the sand and swallowed the two of them whole.

Twilight looked at the beast with fear and horror, "is that's what's called a Nibelsnarf?" she asked hoping he would say no.

Rain nodded in shock to have witnessed the scene himself. "Well let's get it before it gets away," he said running out towards it.

Twilight sighed before joining him, or before it get's us she thought to herself.

The beast immediately noticed the two hunters and surprisingly fled back underground.

"It's running away from us?" Twilight asked looking confused as the monster vanished underground.

Rain sighed, "there's only one way to draw it back out," he said feeling around in the sand. He felt around till he could feel solid ground, "Twilight come over here," he said waving.

Twilight looked around and saw the monster was nowhere to be found, yet she still seemed reluctant to walk out onto the sand. Trust your partner Soul's words repeated in her head. She slowly stepped onto the sand and made her way towards Rain. She could feel the vibrations of movement underneath the surface of the sand. She closed her eyes and repeated the word in her mind trust trust trust. She made it to Rain feeling relieved to be on a solid surface. "So how are we going to get this thing out of the ground?" she asked sighing.

Rain dug in his pouch and pulled out two collapsible fishing poles, "why of course sand fishing," he said with a slight smile before giving her a rod.

Twilight looked at him as if he was crazy, "how is that going to work?!" she asked seeing the proposition as foolish and impossible.

Rain looked at her with a confused look, "you do know this is a fish-like monster right?" he asked before sitting on the hard surface and casting out his rod.

Twilight sighed and sat beside him and cast out her rod slightly to the left away from his.

Without warning a school of Delexes jumped right over the two and let out a screechy cry. The sailfish sand monsters hopped back into the the sand to continue on their way.

Twilight looked even more scared than before. The desert seemed to be more like an ocean with most things living underneath the surface.

Just then Twilight got a bite on her fishing pole. She stood up trying to reel it in, but found she was too light to stay grounded and felt she was about to go for a swim in the sand.

Rain grabbed the rod and positioned himself right behind her to help her stay grounded. "Keep reeling I got you," he said holding onto the rod as well as her.

Twilight could feel Rain straining with all his might to pull the beast out. She kept reeling and pulling back until the beast finally popped out and laid on it's back exposing its bright blue and yellow underside.

"Great," he said to Twilight before running over to the beast to draw his sword into a slash that seemed to have exploded water onto the monster.

Twilight sighed a moment before drawing her bow to launch exhaust coated arrows.

The beast flipped back over onto its web-like feet. It immediately raised up on its hind legs to bodyslam Rain, but he rolled sideways to avoid being crushed. He retaliated by doing a wide slash to flinch the beast.

The nibelsnarf hissed somewhat at Rain before turning its attention to Twilight. It dove underneath the sand and swiftly approached towards Twilight.

Twilight watched as the beast came closer and closer. She began to panic looking around for a way to escape being chomped down by the monster. Just as the beast seemed to be right in front of her a loud screech sound was heard and the monster popped out of the ground seeming dazed and confused. She looked back to see Rain who ran up to her totally forgetting the sand monster.

"Are you alright Twi," he asked looking at her with a worried expression.

Twilight nodded slowly still a bit shaken up by the ordeal.

Rain nodded before turning back to the beast who seemed to have recovered from its daze and looked angry. It puffed out its reddish gills and let out an odd sound before diving underneath the sand and heading out before it seemed to turn around and head straight for them.

It's head slightly poking up above the sand exposing its top row of sharp teeth. It was closing in on them fast.

"Twilight come! Get out of the way!" Rain yelled getting ready to dodge the oncoming attack.

Twilight was ready to join him when the word ran through her mind trust. She looked at Rain before looking back at the charging beast to draw her bow back as far as she could.

Rain looked at her, "what are you doin--," he said until she cut him off.

"Just trust me," she said not taking her focus off the monster.

Rain nodded and grabbed his sword, ready to strike.

Twilight was surprised that he stayed with her by her side. She then realized something, the one who saved her life time and time again, the one who put himself in the way of danger to keep her safe, was the same one who trusted her fully with his own life; then there was no reason she couldn't do the same for him.

The beast raised its head even more out of the ground and showed its wide mouth coming for them. But, before it could reach them Twilight let the arrow fly. It shot straight through the beast piercing it's mouth and its eye before still flying at high speeds as it left it's body.

The beast cried out before diving underneath the two and seemed to have fled to the cave they came through.

Twilight lowered her bow and watched the puff clouds from the monster lead to the cave.

Rain put his hand on her shoulder, "nice shot!" he said smiling.

Twilight smiled, "well it was nothing," she said sighing. "Anyway it seems like it went this way into the cave," she said pointing to where they had originally came in.

Rain nodded, "alright well we're going to try and capture this monster," he said shuffling through his pouch. "I was looking into a book and found out how to craft one of these," he said pulling out a small disc similar to the one Soul had used in the volcano. "It's a shock trap, it sends out electrical pulses that can immobilize a monster temporarily," he said putting it back in the pouch and taking out a couple bomb casings. "Here these are tranq bombs that we need to capture the monster," he said handing her four. "We only have one shot so we have to be sure the monster is exhausted enough so we can use these," he said looking towards the cave.

Twilight nodded and proceeded towards the cave. Inside they both could see the Nibelsnarf peacefully resting near a small water source towards the back.

"I guess it's already tired," Rain whispered to Twilight. "I'll set up the trap and then go wake it up, you then can distract it and lead it towards the trap to be captured," he said resting his hand on her shoulder.

Twilight nodded and got into position while Rain began setting up the trap.

"Ok now I'll go wake it up," he said before slowly going towards it. While he was coming closer to the monster a couple jaggies came in and began to cry out at the two. It wasn't long before the Nibelsnarf had it's sleep disturbed and awoke to see the two hunters. It puffed up its gills before and opened its mouth wide before trying to suck everything in its way.

Twilight watched as everything seemingly flew towards the beasts open jaws. Rain was no exception and began slipping as the beast's current caught him. He did all he could to resist falling into it's jaws before long he went sliding closer and closer towards it until it stopped and whipped it's tail around to send him flying to the walls of the cave.

The Nibelsnarf then looked at Twilight and charged her at medium speed.

Twilight couldn't draw her weapon out in time enough, her only hope was for the beast to stumble into the trap so she could tranquilize it.

Rain got back to his feet slowly and noticed the beast charging for Twilight, but it wasn't going full speed. He ran towards the beast not drawing his sword but looking it's tail. He knew it was getting ready to jump at Twilight and it did just that.

The monster leaped into the air aiming for Twilight and looking as if it would miss the trap completely.

Just as it leaped Rain grabbed onto it's tail and pulled tightly. His feet grounded firmly causing the beast to fall short from Twilight and falling right onto the shock trap where it lay seemingly in discomfort.

"Now," Rain said as he fell to the floor.

Twilight instantly threw two tranq bombs at the beast before it stood up slightly and fell down with little resistance. It's soft breathing could be heard as they both sighed full of relief.

"We got it," Rain said smiling and walking over to Twilight. The beast was inches away from her and yet she looked calm and relived as ever.

"Yeah it was really something else fighting this thing," she said smiling.

"I guess you could say it nibbled on more than it could chew," Rain said sarcastically.

Twilight rolled her eyes along with a small laugh. She went to the back of the sleeping monster and carved a single scale from it. "Alright I'll go get the felynes to get this guy," she said walking out of the cave.

When the two got back they could see Soul waiting for them by the gate. "So you guys aren't fish food eh," he said in a mocking tone.

Twilight gave him a sly grin and grabbed his hand to put the single Nibelsnarf scale in his hand.

Soul looked down at the scale and grinned at Twilight. He then leaned down by Twilight's ear, "well it seems you finally learned to trust your partner good because you're going to need it," he said before backing away. "Listen up you two apparently the guild has been keeping an eye on you two and well you got a personal urgent quest they want you to do. This quest is also your chance to get into high rank hunting," he said somewhat proudly.

Author's Note:

This is the last chapter before they actually enter hunting high rank monsters. :O anyway I''ll be away for the week so expect this chapter to come out sometime late next week. Happy hunting :)

Comments

[Shadow Lord Malice]

I've always found it odd how you can fish up a Niebelsnarf like it's in water. Anyways, nice chapter once again. Keep up the good work.

[SoralTheSol]

This is a decent story, but you really need a proof reader.

[GhostlyDarkness]

Yeah I could use an editor to help pick up what I miss.

[BurningLance]

yay mr.nibbles lol

they sure can be a pain sometimes to hunt and to dodge if its gigantic like the one in the arena