Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

378. An Ironclad Will.

-???, Oleander-

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH?!” I ran screaming through the maze as a giant yellow sphere with a large red bow gave chase to me with a wide gaping mouth.

“Waka waka waka…” That was the only noise it made as it hovered after me… menacingly!

-About three fourths of the way to Ironclad City and the Kingdom of Valora proper, campsite cave, evening, Pom-

I peeked out of the cave again and glanced around.

“Pom, we’re more likely to get caught if you keep looking for trouble.” Stated Quetal gruffly and I pulled back to sit with everyone else.

The Spheal were simply being playful and cute… their default stated if anything. Dormarch was running health checks on us all and was rather interested in Dolly’s face after it got badly clawed by Fou, she was doing fine and I could even feel it. Quetal was becoming slightly better and less bitter the further away from Nixtorm we were getting, we have still yet to cross the border. Curdle was just being a blob of sentient cream, the Spheal seemed to like her, but if it wasn’t an emergency then I was never eating a part of her.

“So… that was a pair of legendary Pokémon?” I asking as I took a seat between Dolly and Dormarch. I have to admit Domarch was getting really good at tapping my senses, he wouldn’t have been as accurate with his attack without it.

“A pair of Legendary Pokémon Outsiders, I believe that was Zacian and Zamazenta.” There was a pause as Curdle received our attentions. “The actual Zacian and Zamazenta have noticeable injuries and scars, those two were outsiders guaranteed! Give me a moment to remember what’s special about them.”

“I wonder if those were the two that Oberon mentioned…” I’d bet it was and that being attacked by them was some kind of misunderstanding. Wouldn’t put it past them if they have some decent reason to be attacking travelers moving along the coast towards Valora.

“Highly likely.” Quetal grumbled as he leaned back and crossed his claws. “If they attack us again we might need a strategy for them.”

“The red one is a Zamazenta, which would make them a defensive specialist. The blue one is a Zacian, which would make them a offensive specialist.” Well that’s more knowledge than we had a second ago Curdle. “The reason why I know of Zacian is because it’s a Fairy Type Pokémon, Zamazenta is a Fighting Type. What is notable is that they both have an alternate form known as a crowned form that gives them Steel Type on top of their base types. The true legendary Pokémon are sometimes known for testing leaders of kingdoms on their offensive, defensive and strategic abilities in battle, they are known for fighting Dynamic Maximized Pokémon. As far as godly aspects go, they themselves are considered conceptual embodiments of swords and shields. The Honedge line of Pokémon are big fans of the two, it is said that the Aegislash final evolution is said to be a homage to the two legendary warriors.”

“Nice to know we can use fire if they change forms at least.” That is if they attack us again, which was highly likely knowing my luck if they didn’t let me talk first. “Also I wouldn’t want to be hit by an attack from the Zacian, I’m pretty sure it has the ability to pierce my wool’s protection like Gilgamesh could do so easily.”

“Okay, while we’re on the subject of iffy things.” Quetal looked at the gold ring of wool above my right hoof and I slightly covered it with my left feeling self-conscious about it. “How bad is your wool turning golden?”

“Imagine being able to live for a total of one hundred years, now imagine that my lifespan has been exponentially reduced to the point that I’m not going to live to even be thirty.” There was a long pause after I said that and Dormarch whimpered loudly. I calmly ran my right hoof up and down his back gently. “That’s if it doesn’t get any worse, when I use the golden glow it’s now taking up three of my legs, it’ll go to my other leg and then my tail, my body and then my head, if at that point that I’m fully covered in golden wool… well I might grow wings and at that point I’m guaranteed to die.”

“…” The look of consternation on Quetal’s face said it all. “You can’t control your urges to sacrifice?”

“Would if I could.” I stated quietly, because I really would turn it off if I could. “A strong willpower can only do so much to suppress something as dangerous as what I have. It’s not a curse, but it sure acts like one. I have no regrets that it’s where it is now though.”

“Why?” Dormarch ask as he nuzzled into my chest.

“Well that power helped me bring you back.” It needed to be said and I really couldn’t keep using it without it becoming worse. There is small aspect I was hiding about it from Dolly and Dormarch, most people really and even another Lambkin would never tell that secret for fear of what someone with ill intentions might try, but we all know and feared it coming to light eventually. The largest can of worms that the Lambkin race was hiding.

I pray to never grow wings, because when that happens the truth will come out in some shape or form about the other thing than it being worse than a death sentence. If people knew about it, some would try to force ‘it’ to be used for whatever cause you could think of, but you can’t actually do that and trying will always end in tears for the one attempting to do so.

We lambkin try to be unassuming and live far away from other civilizations for quite a number of reasons, there is one unique thing that happens when a lambkin becomes a full on Chrysomallus and it’s a nasty itch, a terrible urge and one that is impossible to ignore forever. Right now I can suppress that, but I can’t do it forever.

If there were any unicorn within the vicinity of me at the time that I do eventually sprout wings, they are going to immediately know what’s going on with me and will either be absolutely horrified or the worst case scenario dementedly ecstatic. They’ll certainly be able to feel it and just about any being connected to me or is sensitive to magic would be able to figure it out rather quickly too, Ocellus would definitely know what it is if she knows unicorns as well as I think she does.

We were just sitting there in silence, even the Spheal were looking sad.

“I am still going to be with you all the way, to the end!” Dolly reaffirmed with a serious stare, which said she would stick to my side regardless of what happened or was to come. “I’ll be there for my little bro Dormarch if something happens, but it’ll have to be something pretty huge to stop me from trying to help or save you.”

What Dolly wasn’t saying is that Dormarch and me reminded her of her and her birth mother, a birth mother that died of a terminal illness. She had to be a big puppy for the rest of her family afterwards, but took that to mean making sure those around her were happy and having fun.

I didn’t exactly have a terminal illness, but it was getting there and I could feel some of Dolly’s quiet sorrow bleeding through our bond.

“Thanks Dolly.” I hugged Dormarch a little bit tighter to myself as Dolly started hugging me.

“Well you’re certainly not dying on my watch, that’s a promise!” Quetal said with a grin and some bravado.

I sighed, things tend to conspire in ruining such hope in a decidedly horrible manner Quetal. Not that they could stop me from sacrificing, but they could do far more to stop it from getting worse or committing to big sacrifices.

Still, if there was one thing I was going to do, as their guardian I was going to get my charges home and possibly die trying or even far worse than that.

“How long can you keep suppressing it?” Quetal asked with curiosity in his eyes.

“Functionally forever, in actuality not so much, provided that I don’t feel the ‘need’ to use it for any reason.” One would think my willpower is meek, then you would not know me very well. “Suppressing part of myself isn’t the problem here.”

If one were to ask me if I could live for myself, then I would have to say I could even if it would be quite hard to do. If one were to ask if I would live for others, well I’m always trying my best to do so on that front at least.

“Let’s just… let’s get some sleep alright?” The smokeless fire I started should last us the night, even if it takes a bit of doing it was a good way to avoid being spotted when camping in the wilderness.

“I’ll take watch.” Quetal offered and eventually we all laid down to get some sleep. Tomorrow we would hopefully reach Valora and find out what’s going on. If Shanty was there, then so were Ocellus, Smolder and Dodo.

-Tomorrow, on the road to Valora, Dolly-

The silence was so tense you could cut it with anything, we were actually on a road leading southeast and in the distance we could see a city that was still standing. There was smoke in the sky and even at this distance I could almost practically smell the danger and I wasn’t about to tell Pom not to go in there.

We were passing through a small patch of trees when I thought I felt something off, I stopped and so did Pom as she was paying a lot of attention to me and Dormarch.

“Dolly, what do you sense?” Pom was asking me, wasn’t she usually on top of this stuff? “If you think you’ve noticed something that the rest of us haven’t speak up.”

“I can’t call it sensing something exactly, but it’s more of a feeling…” What made me somewhat happy was that Pom immediately sharpened her senses and was looking around at the trees near us too, it made me feel safer at the very least.

Suddenly I saw I green triangle near one of the trees, I immediately leapt forward and up at it. I didn’t know what I was reacting to, but I was doing so anyway.

I suddenly felt my mouth become hot for a split second as I spun about with a bolt of energy I had caught in my teeth, with a flick and quick snap of my head I sent it flying back into the shadowy torso in the tree.

The bolt of energy flew from my mouth and struck that torso dead center. This knocked a strange winged upper torso looking angelic thing with a bow from the tree and its long spinal tail followed it as it flopped to the ground and soon started turning a strange dark color and then exploded into a shower of bright cubes.

“What… was that?” Milk asked while shivering as I turned and looked around for any more signs of danger, I was on high alert and Dormarch… he was by the body and doing something to the cubes coming off of it as it evaporated. He was sucking them up like a vacuum cleaner? Not many pups back him likes the noise the vacuum made, but it was necessary to keep things clean with ninety nine of us running around all the time. “Also how did Dolly catch energy with her teeth like that?”

“Dolly saw an ‘action opportunity’ and reacted accordingly, apparently it gives her some unusual abilities in the moment she reacts to those triangles.” That’s right Pom, if I hadn’t done that then it would have… wait a minute, it was aiming that shot at Pom!

I could feel anger rise up in me from just noticing that Pom was being targeted again, .

“I didn’t get much from the digital energy, but I think I got enough. Let’s see… an identification… Assault Program, Class Archer, Seraph, number five eight seven two three zero three nine one. This thing did not come from the Yggdrassil System and it’s not a Digimon or a Digibot.” Dormarch announced and started to shiver and whimper and he cuddled up to Pom.

“I guess it’s finally time for me to ask this, is this related to the same thing that sent your body and soul out to kill me Dormarch?” The look on Pom’s face was fairly stern as Dormarch flinched slightly.

“…. Yes, it is. I didn’t think it would be a problem so soon, but now it is… it’s something called Moon Cell and is likely something on par with Yggdrasil System in scope.” Well that doesn’t sound good Dormarch, it sounded like a bad thing. “Also judging by the identification number, there are probably more of them… a LOT more.”

“Hey, it’s okay little bro, I mean we only saw one right… how many more of those things can there be?” The haunted look I saw from my little Dalmatian Fish bro was rather haunted.

“Dolly, if the number of these things were all present right now, there would be enough of them to blot out the sky in this general region.” After Dormarch said that I froze up and thought about how many that would be and paled, basically it was a number I can’t even count to. “To put it in perspective, a single attack from each one would be about enough to kill everyone in the vicinity of this general area.”

“Let’s keep moving and keep these things in mind then. I don’t want to be ambushed here, these things don’t have a smell and it had so very little presence that I’m surprised Dolly even caught on before I did.” Well that’s another one for me Pom, my job is saving your life and I’m going to try and make sure you live a long fulfilling and happy one! You are not dying, no matter what you say! If we can bring back Dormarch, then we can solve your problem too!

“Really? They smell awfully bland and like horrible cleaning products to me.” Dormarch whined while rubbing at his nose with those goofy claws of his.

“Dormarch takes lead from here on then, if he can sense them.” Pom said all of the sudden and nobody said anything against it.

Before we could really get moving one of the beach balls opened their mouths and fired a concentrated blast of ice energy ahead of us as something just ran out from behind a tree while moving its right arm upwards.

The tall, pointy headed, robotic looking thing that just became a sudden frozen statue was wielding a blazing axe giving off a lot of heat that started to rapidly melt the ice.

“Something tells me that this is part of the ongoing problem in Valora.” Pom said flatly as she moved forward and then turned around and launched a harsh buck. It snapped the frozen thing in half and more of those cubes showered down from it, Dormarch was immediately on it doing his thing as a living computer or whatever. “It is probably only going to get worse now that I’m here.”

“Identification… Assault Program, Class Berserker, with the designation of… Viking? Purpose… forward raider, well that was kind of obvious. Well while that’s all very interesting, they do come from the same source though, coding definitely fits for it.” So according to Dormarch whatever this Moon Blood thing was, it was definitely trying to go for Pom because that was the second attack on her in so many minutes. What did Pom ever do to them? “I suggest we start moving again, apparently it’s transmitted our location and Pom is a primary target for them.”

“Why me though?” Pom stated as we started moving forward again, when we exited the trees we didn’t see any more of those things. I don’t doubt that there were more of them around though. Nobody answered her question.

“Is anyone going to bring up the fact that one of the Silly Spheals actually reacted to it before it came out from behind the tree?” The sugary Ms. Muffet asked as she looked around at everyone.

“Well they are military unit.” Pom responded blandly as we continued on the road towards the city. "They are a specialist unit in Fontaine for some reason, might as well be combat prowess as I seriously doubt they would be considered as a intelligence gathering or scouting unit."

-Two hours later, now outside of Nixtorm and in the Valora region proper, plains with heavy amounts of ore, Dormarch-

I was nervous being in the lead and we were parked at a boulder, we were no longer in Nixtorm and had properly crossed the border into Valora according to Quetal.

“We got incoming.” I detected them coming easily enough, these ones were new digital entities similar to those we saw before. They looked a bit more wiry, moved faster and were wielding two knives bordering on short swords. If they were based on the classification system of my secondary core… I’d think those would be classified as Assassins coming after mom.

Wouldn’t surprise me, I didn’t know much about Moon Cell aside from its name, but it really did not seem to like mom’s very existence for some reason. It did send a Chaosdramon X after her in its first attempt and that turned out to be a good thing for us in the end, not so much for Nixtorm and I really couldn’t feel guilty about that because I wasn’t in control of my body at the time.

We watched as they came from the direction of the city still a fair distance away and were getting closer to us, lunch was already finished. We still had to clean up our campsite which was among a few boulders and not really a good place to hide in for too long.

Those things were definitely looking for us with their wide sweeping search pattern and there wasn’t many places to go where they wouldn’t spot us moving eventually, since we were on an ore covered plain with very little cover to speak of aside from some tall grass.

Valora was the most mineral heavy nation in all of Ransei and metallic ores were practically bursting from the ground, Steel Type Pokémon notably lived on said ores as a food source and it became part of their armored bodies. At least that’s how Quetal explained the existence of this kingdom being run by Pokémon with metal skin.

The Pokémon around here were weak to fire and I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few Steel Types had problems with those Viking Program things and their heat axes.

“Do you think we can ambush them?” Mom asked while watching as the ten or so ninja like digital constructs continued to move around looking for something… likely us or more importantly mom.

“I’m pretty sure they are after you.” Didn’t take much to guess that really.

“Yeah, not surprised, especially if it’s that Moon Cell thing that sent your body after me.” Pom was looking at the ten or so assassins and possibly a few more moving around out there, they all seemed to be specifically designed to be quite stab happy and mom wasn’t exactly great against piercing attacks.

In fact her history with them was quite abysmal to say the least given she’s been stabbed a few times and shot, on top of numerous other things her body could barely handle under constant stress. At least mom mastered and adapted to Dancing Flame to a level where it no longer hurts her much to use it constantly, at least as long as she doesn’t press her limits too often.

“I’m game if you guys are.” Quetal said as he stared at the things with the knives.

“Word of warning, about the weapons they wield, their hands look to be able to turn into scythes on a whim.” I was telling this to everyone still cleaning up the campsite quietly. “So if you disarm them, be careful, they might just turn their arms into a scythe.”

“New information being retrieved from other Digivice’s scan data within the given region. Data logged, most digital entities of similar make have been termed Enemy Programs by one Commandramon, designation Sami Soldier. Targets are of a given designation of Reaper, Classification Assassin, sighted as being extremely dangerous in close combat.” Well that Yggdrasil System dump just let us know that Sami was around, if we were receiving sharing information from their digivices. I don’t know about broadcast range so they could be anywhere from just on the other side of those assassins or within the vicinity of Ironclad City itself. “Suggested methods to deal with them is to apply ranged attacks constantly until more than three fourths of the body has been destroyed, even while missing three limbs the lethality level of an EP-Reaper digital entity is still at seventy percent efficiency, so it is best to make sure of complete de-resolution of the body before any Digimon approaches the data clouds to absorb the digital energy. They have yet to kill anyone, but they are noted for going after softer targets, Steel Types have been noted down for being nigh impossible for them to deal with and not for the lack of trying. They have a record of six hundred and ninety seven attempts on the leader of Valora, King Ieyasu Tokugawa the Aggron… noted for his use of a massive cannon pike and shield, also being indestructible by most normal physical means. User Dalmamon designation Dormarch is correct in his assumption about transformative property of the EP-Reaper limbs.”

“Well that’s helpful to know, a decent confirmation that Canard and Sami are around at the very least.” Pom stated pleasantly, before her mood dipped downwards. “So how are we doing this thing?”

They were getting far closer and we couldn’t stay behind a boulder forever.

“We send Curdle in, hey Curdle how do you feel about things that can’t eat or even taste how good you are as a being?” Pom called out sweetly and I shivered at where this was going, Curdle didn’t seem to like beings who can’t feasibly eat her.

-Near the dozen or so Assassin Class REAPERS five minutes later, Curdle-

“I’m walking on sunshine whoa-~” I sang loudly as I approached the area where these mouthless heathens were, those monsters were unable to taste the glory that was my body and I pity them for that. “And don’t I feel good~?!”

Twelve blades entered my body in quick succession, my right eye twitched as they were interrupting my song.

“Well now, that’s just rude!” I said and unleashed a Dazzling Flash, blowing them all over and forcing their blades out of my body. Every single one of them kicked up onto their feet within an instant and swiftly flashed by me with all their blades going straight through my body. “Hey, stop that, it really tickles!”

The twelve REAPERS, the strange bipedal monsters with singular glaring red eyes were all just staring at me blankly now from their heads being backwards on their bodies. Kind of creepy really as I giggled about their blades tickling my insides.

“What were you maybe expecting me to do, fall apart?” I grinned and then spun in a circle while blasting Mystical Fire from my mouth, said fire was powerful enough to melt three of them into those cubes of light and made the other nine leap back to avoid the flames spewing from me.

A Beat Up suddenly erupted and two went down in a flash of attacks from the shadow copies of Pom, Dolly, Dormarch, six flying Spheals, my shadow copy blasting them with a dark type copy of my dazzling gleam and a shadow copy of Quetal himself all tearing havoc through them.

The sudden flashing sight of the shadow copy of Pom had the seven remaining REAPER things redirecting their efforts onto Quetal or at least his general direction.

“Spheal!” Six attacks united and blasted four other Reapers completely apart in a hail of united Ice Beams in a unit command attack, the Silly Spheals unit of Fontaine were a little bit smarter than they looked... but not by much though.

The three remaining started to turn to run only for Dormarch to flash into position in front of one and jam his four sets of claws into their limbs and then bit them where their neck was while knocking them the down to the ground.

Dolly came screaming out of the sky to ram her skateboard through ones back and out of its chest, it immediately dissolved and as for the last one…

Pom, calmly walked out into plain sight while inhaling and as soon as it saw Pom… the last REAPER immediately turned around. This was regardless of being outnumbered by everyone and made a Combee-line straight for her.

Combee’s really do like to dance in the air, never will forget that one particularly fun conga party in Titania.

This basically confirmed that they were here to kill her specifically.

As it closed in on her, Pom went onto her hind legs and waited in a defensive stance.

Once it was close enough, Pom exhaled and in a flash the two passed by each other, one swinging low and Pom leaping upwards over the attack from what little I could follow of their movements.

Just the flash of two blades swinging out one at a time, a claw swipe and then…

The two blurs resolved themselves, the head of the last REAPER was wildly spinning as it fell away from its still standing body. One blade held horizontally and the other in the motion of stabbing upwards. The body started to move again and was promptly bisected by Pom bucking out to split its top and lower torso entirely in one clean blow from behind, causing the two halves to start dissolving immediately.

Pom had done that finishing blow with her eyes closed eyes and afterwards took a calming deep breathe, she opened her frightened looking eyes and sighed audibly.

“We need to move and find someone who knows what’s going on around here.” You mean aside from these strange one eyed monsters specifically coming for you Pom? “My Fleet Cunning Doe leaping bypass almost failed there, if I were a little slower I’d have a blade in my guts... terrifying thought really.”

Pom was shuddering, but she seemed to still be moving towards the city in the distance. She was clearly afraid after the near miss and yet she was still going?

“Nothing for it, like Pom said, we need to keep moving.” Quetal called out and waved towards the Spheal who quickly hurried up to keep escorting us towards Ironclad City. “Pom, that movement must have taken nerves of steel… also you’re not exactly known for your killer instinct.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe Quetal.” Pom stated while still shuddering as Dormarch hopped onto her and licked at her face affectionately, she smiled weakly and ran her right hoof over his head affectionately as we continued forwards along the plains near the shore heading southeast towards our destination.

Dolly barked cheerfully or at least looked to be trying to sound cheerful or positive.

“At least we confirmed that I’m a major target, it ceased running the instant it caught sight of me. It didn’t care if it got destroyed.” Yeah, that was terrifying to see Pom.

“Talk about priorities… it seems that no matter how small the chances of taking you out are, you are a major target mom.” Dormarch muttered as he nuzzled against Pom’s back and hugged her.

“I see myself being live bait in the near future.” Pom muttered while wilting a bit. “Moon Cell is now my target… after what it did with your body Dormarch, on top of definitely making itself my problem, I’m going to eventually declare war on it where it can hear me succinctly.”

“One step at a time Pom, once we reach the city, I’m sure we’ll find all our friends waiting for us somewhere in there.” Yeah, on top of a lot more of those things that’ll be gunning for us Quetal, more likely they’ll be gunning for Pom on sight.

-Not too far behind the group, a badly brutalized Zacian and Zamazenta-

Fou was definitely not their friend, well at least the blue Zacian’s friend.

It had almost seemed like Fou went out of his way to completely ignore the red Zamazenta no matter how aggressive they got with him. Fou was still quite a nasty monster to fight even if he wasn’t out and out evil or on the prowl to cleanse the world of people, he was still wandering around and comparing himself to strong opponents.

In fact the two of them just gave Fou some of his strongest comparisons yet, which is probably why they were still alive even after they fended him off successfully. Even if they held him no ill will, he still grew enormously strong in their presence.

“Hmm… some are getting through… far too many.” The red Zamazenta stated. “This world is in grave danger.”

“Yeah, but they are drawn to the one that holds ‘THAT’ spear.” Spat out the blue Zacian, seemingly upset about the spear being present.

“Did you notice? She didn’t use the spear.” The Outsider Zamazenta stated.

“Yes, but she still carries it.” The outsider Zacian answered. “I need to keep my eye on that weapon. It must not leave my sight!”

“She doesn’t seem to be aware of its true power though.” The Outsider Zamazenta received a scathing look.

“Doesn’t matter, she’ll eventually come to know of it the longer she holds onto it.” The Outsider Zacian wanted to know why the Rhongomyniad had chosen a sheep to wield it. Even if said sheep could not bring out its true power, the spear still definitively resonated with the Zacian when they had clashed briefly not too long ago. “That is if she doesn’t already have several good guesses as to what kind of power that thing holds with the way she wields it.”

The outsider Zacian took up an average looking sword in their mouth and it started to give off a powerful glow, they started to quietly move. Only for Zamazenta to breaks the silence with one last comment.

“She wasn’t using it offensively, she trends towards the defensive… as what was once a Shielder, I think I can see her heart on the matter of self-defense and the protection of others. She would die on her hooves for such a cause and she sacrifices greatly.” Zamzenta didn’t received a response, it was quite obvious to them that the Outsider Zacian had a big chip in their shoulder about that lance and what it did in that one particular timeline. “What of the three tailed canine that felt vaguely like a servant, but was paradoxically alive? They could be some form of demi- or pseudo- servant like I once was.”

“…” Again the Outsider Zacian didn’t respond, they looked to be too busy thinking about it themselves.

The black spotted three tailed fish dog was quite odd, but there was no grail war taking place here making the feeling of its living presence even odder.

The two of these legendary outsiders were busy trying to figure out how to preserve this world and to do that they would have to protect it from something of that has doomed many civilizations numerous times over and was far more powerful than they could face alone. A thing that could utilize famously strong souls like its personal weapons.

Unfortunately these two were currently short on allies and the benign gods of this world were quite busy trying to contain the situation already… yet oddly enough, they let the sheep through and let her go straight towards danger without attempting to stop her or even explain the situation.

They just quietly let her by and watched without a single threat or even an attempt to stop her to save her from her current path, what was their game involving that sheep? Was it even a game to them at all?

There was no loftier goal for these two than to do what they currently were, for they were seeking for a way to save this world with absolutely everything they had.

They still had time to consider their positions and that of the many others on the board, there were two civilizations in the path of destruction here and at best if they had to save a world it would be the one that was their new home.

-To the far south, in the middle of the Terrera and Cragspur conflict, Jiri-

“King Evan?!” I blinked and then blinked again in disbelief what was he doing here on the frontlines in Terrera?! With troops from both Greenleaf and Violight no less?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Moon Cell is going to be feeding Domarche an awful lot of recover and power up data.

[Herald of Opera]

“Hey, it’s okay little bro, I mean we only saw one right… how many more of those things can there be?”

The identification number suggests half a billion, at least as far as what the Moon Cell was expecting to need.

a massive cannon pike and shield

I interpret this as a Monster Hunter gunlance, scaled up for an Aggron but not otherwise larger. That's more than enough to qualify as "massive" even though Aggron are apparently "only" 7 feet tall.