Monster Hunter Pie

by BronyArmitage

Chapter 4 - Upgrades and Arzuros

Pinkie was really starting to feel the time drag. Her excitement at the prospect of doing real work mixed with the fact that she could only occupy the daylight hours with menial tasks made for very long days. Two days into the official waiting period, after Pinkie had decided it would be a good idea to continue to gather resources during the downtime, she'd managed to gather enough monster parts and ore to feel she could be near Magnum without him yelling at her. She'd wrote down what she would need to upgrade her Bone Axe, but was pleasantly surprised when she met up with Magnum after another day spent gathering.

"Y'know, Pinkie?" Magnum spoke as he hammered away at the Bone Axe, using the parts she'd brought to help reinforce it further. "When you first showed up, I thought you were gonna' be a flake." Pinkie wanted to interject with a witty comment, but her vivid memory of Magnum's temper kept her quiet. "You've really pulled it together these last couple days. Maybe having that Qurupeco knock your skull in was just what you needed."

"Heh. Maybe..." Pinkie responded, a little unsure how to take this comment. She resigned to the fact that it was probably as close to a compliment as she was going to get from the blacksmith and smiled to herself. He turned around and handed her the weapon back.

"There ya go, kid. One Bone Axe Plus!" he presented it with pride. After she took it from him, he looked back over the list she had brought him that contained the entirety of her inventory. "Well, I know you're going to start needing new armor soon. That leather that the Guild sent with you is really bare minimum." he scratched his chin, furrowing his brow as he read. "You got a lot of Jaggi parts, but you'd need to take out a Great Jaggi or two before I could make you a full set of armor. However, you seem to have collected quite a bit of ore." Magnum's eyes had wandered down to the mineral section of the list. "Which we can use for one of two things. Alloy armor, or I can make you a completely new Switch Axe." Pinkie stared, wide-eyed.

"This...Is the hardest decision I've ever had to make." she deadpanned. She rolled the pros and cons around in her head, looking down at the armor she was wearing now. The leather was finally broken in and much easier to manuever in. New armor would be in order, but that left the issue of how quickly her current axe would be underpowered. The same went for the armor. How long would basic metal armor last before something melted it into her flesh? Magnum smirked.

"The best defense is a great offense." his words rang true in Pinkie's head. That was all she needed to hear. She went to her house and grabbed up the materials, running them back and handing them to the blacksmith. He went through them, then started to melt the ore down. "I'll have it ready by tomorrow, kid. Come back in the morning and we'll see if this puppy is to your liking." Pinkie grinned and nodded, almost skipping away as the sun sank the rest of the way under the horizon. According to what Lyra had said earlier, the business from the Guild would be in. She threw herself into her bed and stared at the ceiling. She started counting Antekas, and was asleep before she reached ten.

/) (\

Pinkie was torn from her slumber by a loud clap of thunder. She sat upright so fast that she nearly threw herself out of her bed. She placed a hand on her chest, feeling her heart hammering against its cage. She took a few deep breaths before stepping outside. Sure enough, the sky was getting darker and darker. She set her jaw, thinking. Lightning arced across the sky, illuminating the village as it started to drizzle. Pinkie made her way over to Lyra's counter. The liaison sat, ever vigilant through the storm, and greeted the Hunter as she drew closer.

"Ready for your big day?" Lyra smiled, handing Pinkie a piece of paper with an illustration of a monster that she'd never seen. The Hunter took the paper and read it over.

"Slay an Arzuros?" she read it aloud, a question lingering in her tone. "I've been running around this island for a week now, and I've seen everything this place has to offer as far as monsters go. Nothing out there looks like this." she patted the back of her hand against the page. Lyra had an oddly malicious smile on her face, and Pinkie would have been lying if she said it didn't make her uneasy.

"You think you've seen all this island has to offer? I bet you haven't seen the half of it." Lyra folded her hands in front of her face, staring over them at Pinkie, who got the sensation of ice running down her spine. "This is your first official job that is within your area of ability. Do try not to get murdered out there. Oh! And give me the 500 Zenny fee."

"Fee?!" Pinkie recoiled. "I have to pay you to go risk my life?!"

"No. You're paying the Guild to go risk your life. It's a motion that was set in order to prevent them from running out of money on scrub Hunters. Collateral, if you will." Lyra shrugged. "If I told you how many Hunters succeeded compared to how many we're slaughtered, you'd probably wet yourself. I saw at least three dozen take turns trying to kill a Tigrex that was terrorizing Pokke Village. One finally succeeded, but not before my career suffered." Pinkie felt another chill down her spine. She remembered reading about the Tigrex back at the academy. It was one of the more fearsome creatures in the Hunter's Compendium. She'd never seen one, but the horror stories were enough. "Don't worry, though. In addition to the reward for success, I'll pay you twice the additional fee. Unless you fail. In which case, I'll have to report to the Guild and they'll take it out of my pay. Remember, you're not just hunting for yourself. You're hunting for the whole village. Don't let us down!" Lyra's cheerful attitude had returned. Pinkie nodded and smiled. Those words helped her motivation. Lyra was right. This was for the good of everyone.

Pinkie ascended the stairs up towards Magnum's shop, the rain starting to come down a little harder. She pushed the door open and found the blacksmith hammering the finishing touches on a vicious looking Switch Axe. The head looked like a dragon skull, the blade being comprised of the fangs. She stared in awe at it, drawn in by its beauty and ferocity.

"Good timing." Magnum grunted, running a whetstone along the blade, a gleam showing as it was sharpened all the way. He slid his thumb against the blade, pulling it away and examining the layer of skin it had shaved off. Satisfied with his work, he twisted the handle, the blade returning to axe mode, then clicked the button on the hand guard, compacting it to be travel ready. "She's all set." he handed her the weapon, a sad look in his eye, akin to that of a parent watching their child leave for college. "I call her the Rough Edge. She's got a Dragon phial installed to make the sword mode more powerful." Pinkie looked confused. He'd asked about the exhaustion field that the Bone Axe had, but had never explained what he meant. "Ah, just go use it. It'll be easier for you to see it than for me to break it down to the nitty-gritty for you." he shook his head. "Now get goin' before this storm gets worse. Go on!" at that, he shooed her out the door.

Lightning tore through the sky, waves splashing against the docked boats, making them lurch uneasily in the darkened water. This was not going to be an easy task. Pinkie contemplated the complications this weather would have on her ability to hunt this creature. She purchased a few necessities from Rarity and was on her way. She crossed the bridge and came to the hunting grounds. Her first stop was the base camp, picking up whatever the Guild decided would be a necessity for this hunt. She pulled out a map and examined it. She pursed her lips, thinking hard, the large rock the base camp had been built under forming a natural umbrella. She turned the map all kinds of directions, trying to see if that would help her figure out where the Arzuros would be located. She bit her bottom lip as she pulled a phial from her pouch. A sickly yellow-orange liquid swam around in there. She stared at it, her brow furrowing.

"First time for everything, Pinkie." she psyched herself up before opening the phial and taking a swig, careful not to inhale as to avoid tasting the brunt of the serum. Despite her best efforts, it still tasted rancid. She looked ill, and almost vomited, but she held it down. After the initial wave had passed, she felt like all her senses had been sharpened. The colors of the world seemed brighter, and she could smell something. Even with all the conflicting smells from the ocean and the rest of the hunting grounds, something stood out. Her nose twitched as she threw the empty phial into the Guild trunk as she looked around. Once she pinpointed the direction of the smell, she started walking towards the source. "Time to follow my nose." she giggled at herself, starting to skip along.

After walking for about five minutes, she'd come back to the area where she'd first seen the Rathalos. She stopped and took another deep whiff. The pounding rain made hearing a no-go, but she could smell whatever it was, and it was close. She passed through the natural valley and came to the area with the not-so-shallow-anymore wetlands and her eyes fell upon a creature. A large, blue, lumbering monster. It moved down on all fours, and she noticed its destination. It was approaching a nearby beehive. She ducked behind a rock. Peeking over the top, she watched as the Arzuros sat down.

"Hey!" a voice rang out in Pinkie's head, making her jump. She looked around and saw no one. She was careful not to make any loud noises, since she didn't want to draw the monster's attention. "Can you hear me?" the voice sounded again.

"Y-yes." Pinkie answered quietly. Even though it sounded like it was inside her head, she couldn't tell who it belonged to.

"Good. I was worried I hadn't understood how this part of being a liaison worked." Pinkie finally recognized it as Lyra's voice.

"How are you doing this?" Pinkie asked, returning her eyes to watch the Arzuros, who was digging at the ground beneath the hive.

"What did I tell you about liaisons and secrets?" she asked, and Pinkie could hear the smile in Lyra's voice. "I can see that you've spotted your target. Best advice I can give you is watch out once it's enraged. Arzuros are very much like large, spiked bears. Wounding them only makes them fiercer." Pinkie nodded and began her approach.

The Arzuros had found the source of its desires, golden honey dripping from its claws. It began licking them clean and Pinkie found it hard to view this thing as fierce when it was doing something so adorable. It stopped being adorable when the monster caught her scent. The rain had done a good job of masking it, but when she got within ten feet of it, the wind blew a gust that put the Arzuros downwind of the Hunter and it rounded on her. It dropped onto all fours, snarling and bearing fangs almost as large as Pinkie's carving knife. She took a few steps back and drew the axe. She had to give herself room to manuever with this monster. It let out a roar that paled in comparison to the one the Rathalos had exhuded and began barreling towards her.

Pinkie put both hands on the hilt of her weapon, drawing a slow, steadying breath. This was it. This was her shot at redemption. If this thing beat her, she'd have to turn in her license out of shame. She set her jaw and made a smooth sidestep out of the monster's trajectory. She used the momentum to rotate around and put her axe into the back of the Arzuros's leg. The bear let out a roar of pain, rising onto its hind legs and taking a powerful swipe with its front legs at the Hunter. She backed up in time to avoid the full force of the blow, taking three slashes across her face. She narrowed her eyes took two steps forward as the Arzuros was standing up to full height again. She thrust the axe forward, ramming the tip into the monster's soft underbelly. She was unable to wrench the blade away as the creature took a massive swipe at her. Striking her with enough force to knock her through the air, a spurt of blood splashed into the water beneath the Arzuros as its swipe had torn the axe from its body. Pinkie hit the ground hard, her axe skidding past her into the deeper water.

The Hunter pushed herself up, coughing and emptying her lungs of the offending fluid. She felt like she may have cracked a rib, but that was a minor detail. She pulled a potion from her pouch and popped the lid off as she ran toward her weapon, the Arzuros close behind. She downed the contents of the bottle and threw it into the distance. Performing an impressive dive out of the way as the monster lunged at her, she wrapped her hand around the axe hilt and rolled into a crouching position. Standing up and facing the monster, a bright flash of lightning and a crash of thunder filled the air. The adversaries faced one another, sizing each other up. Both having inflicted a fair amount of pain on the other. Pinkie plunged the axe head into the ground and pulled one glove off, and then the other, her eyes never diverting from the Arzuros's. The bear stood up to its full height again, reaching upwards of fifteen feet and it let out another bellowing roar.

The Arzuros barreled at her again as Pinkie grabbed her weapon. The creature lunged through the air, crashing into the Hunter and slamming her into the ground. What it hadn't counted on was her snapping the weapon into sword mode and driving it into the monster's own stomach. She fell beneath the creature as it howled in pain. She was pinned under it, but noticed something on the Rough Edge that she hadn't noticed on the Bone Axe. She reached up with her right hand and pulled up on a slot in the back of the axe-turned-sword. It almost looked like some manner of exhaust for an engine. She didn't have any time to think about it and rotated the hilt of the blade. She heard it start to rev and felt it vibrate in her hands. Her eyes widened as the Arzuros let out another wail of pain and tore itself away from her and the object that had forcefully invaded its organs. An odd smelling smoke was spit from the exhaust port she'd opened, and she got to her feet.

"That must be the Dragon phial that Magnum was talking about." she said to herself. She hadn't noticed that the Arzuros was limping away. It was severely injurred, and she couldn't have lost track of it, since all she would have to do is follow the trail of blood. "This is it, Pinkie. Time to make this a success." she chased after the monster. "Where do you think your going?!" she saw the creature look over its shoulder and glower at her, pain in its eyes, before it started to move a little quicker. The rain was hindering the Hunter. The deep puddles and slick ground making it hard to run full speed. She chased the bear deep into a cave. It was pitch black until they reached a clearing. To her right was the open ocean, waves rolling in and lapping against the cliff that formed the edge of the cave. Enough light came from the opening that lead out to sea that Pinkie could see clearly. The Arzuros was nursing its wounds, licking at the gash in its stomach. "Hey!" it turned on her, and the look in its eyes made her blood run cold. Pinkie could swear that the monster's eyes were glowing yellow. She swallowed hard, it was too late for doubts.

The Arzuros lowered itself to the ground on all fours before making a violent charge at her. Pinkie wasn't sure what emotion, or sixth sense, or whatever dictated her next move, but she crouched slightly. She moved her weapon down and to her right until she felt the tip press against the damp rock. She took one step forward and then pushed off her right foot into a roll. She used the built up inertia from the roll, as well as the Arzuros's own recklessness and dragged the sword in a wide arc along the ground into a high-speed upward swing, sending sparks flying in the blade's wake. She heard the undeniable 'pop' of a true, puncturing strike, and she knew she'd hit home. In a swift motion she ripped open the exhaust port and rotated the hilt hard. The blade vibrated fiercely, revving as black lightning shot up from the hilt and into the monster. It let out pained wails, it's insides being turned to liquid. Giving one more hard twist, she managed to overcharge it, and a blast of the black lightning shot up through the Arzuros's back. It carried enough force behind it that it knocked Pinkie backwards, a massive plume of smoke firing from the exhaust as the weapon reverted forcefully to axe mode.

"Okie dokie loki..." she said slowly, eyeing her weapon. It was definitely far different from anything she'd ever used. In both function and form. The Arzuros collapsed to the ground, a few helpless twitches escaping as it died, eyes lolling into the back of its head. Pinkie was still not fond of carving, but she swallowed her fear and went to work, carving as many salvageable parts off the monster as she could. Another bright flash of lightning and rolling thunder came, almost feeling as though they were congratulating her. She stood up, covered in both her blood and her prey's, storing her spoils in her bag. She heaved out a sigh of relief. She wasn't a failure. She could do this. Now, all she had to do was make it home.

/) (\

Pinkie walked back up to Lyra, the rain was starting to slow, but it had done a fine job of washing all the blood from her skin and clothing before she got back.

"Well, well! Congratulations are in order, Pinkie my dear!" Lyra said, clapping her hands together after pushing Pinkie's payment across the counter towards her. "You know what this calls for?"

"A party!" Pinkie shouted, grinning broadly.

Comments

[BronyArmitage]

2409310
I was a Longsword user back in MHFU. Something about the Switch Axe appealed to me, but I always loved co-operating with my hunting partner (Wookie Love) because he uses Gunlances, S&S, and Lances. He likes to tank. I like to hit things. We make a good team.

[Chrome Masquerade]

"Good timing." Magnum grunted, running a whetstone along the blade, a gleam showing as it was sharpened all the way. He slid his thumb against the blade, pulling it away and examining the layer of skin it had shaved off.

"There! That's sharp enough to split a hair!"
(pause)
"Split a hare."

[Chrome Masquerade]

"First time for everything, Pinkie." she psyched herself up before opening the phial and taking a swig, careful not to inhale as to avoid tasting the brunt of the serum. Despite her best efforts, it still tasted rancid. She looked ill, and almost vomited, but she held it down. After the initial wave had passed, she felt like all her senses had been sharpened. The colors of the world seemed brighter, and she could smell something. Even with all the conflicting smells from the ocean and the rest of the hunting grounds, something stood out. Her nose twitched as she threw the empty phial into the Guild trunk as she looked around. Once she pinpointed the direction of the smell, she started walking towards the source. "Time to follow my nose." she giggled at herself, starting to skip along.

If she finds Froot Loops cereal, i'm gonna laughh SO hard.