The Roushta reacted almost instantly as Sinthe leaped upon its back. Its meal forgotten, it hissed out and spun around in the attempt to buck him off. Now that the Hunters had taken the initiative to strike first and ruin its feast, it would insure these humans die with its fangs between their throats. The spider smashed itself against the walls of the ravine, wanting to knock Sinthe down and consume him first.

Its focus on Sinthe only increased as the Hunter caught his airborne torch. Now with the flames billowing above it, the snakes lashed out in confusion, the heat signatures of the other Hunters blinded from their sight. That wasn’t enough to deter the monster however, as it turned around and pinpointed eight beady eyes devoid of all light right at Macey and Tatsumi.

Then the creature began to stagger, as one by one the snakes supporting it were taken out by Macey’s shots and Tatsumi’s sword strikes. The shadowy spears formed by the Hunter pierced through its furry hide but did not sink into flesh. Rather, it stuck out like a malformed pincushion, only making the creature angrier. As the battle raged on, Akemi would feel the presence watching them shift in irritation. These idiots were going to get themselves killed alright but it wasn’t their problem in the end. As long as Akemi was safe, none of this was their fight to handle. The mysterious watcher’s presence grew even more annoyed at the group’s methods with Sinthe’s actions.

First he went about plucking out the bristles of the spider with his wrapped hands. The hairs were coated in solidified black tar and stuck to his skin regardless like plastered glue. No effects were noted so far but an experienced Hunter knew better than that. Second was the way how he talked to Akemi, as if he knew everything, as if he knew a fraction of what lay in this twisted world. No matter. The mysterious watcher would enjoy seeing his downfall by his own calculation.

And if not? Then he would die by their hand.

Those thoughts and more were halted though as the sound of forced squealing rang out. The spider was in pain and in fear as the ground beneath it seemed to have collapsed on itself. No…No, it was more like the ground rose up to clench the Roushta into a hardened cage. Whether Macey would choose to leap away from the spider’s body had left to be seen but the Roushta was soon lifted high into the air by what appeared to be the ground itself. It carried the spluttering spider over to the massive volcanic formation nearby and dropped it, the monster plummeting to its death.
[hr]
[color=a0410d][u][center][h2]The Monolith[/h2][/center][/u][/color]
The world shook. Rocks collapsed into each other as the ravine seemed to get that much more narrow. Something buried, ancient, and huge was unearthing itself from the ground up, rising out to meet the outside world. What appeared to the Hunters was a massive creature that towered to the very top of the ravine. It was impossibly black in coloration, its body being made of the very environment as something resembling molten core pulsed beneath it, almost as if the rocks were armor and the lava rock was flesh.

Four pillars of stone held it up high, acting like legs while a long, stream of boulders swung around the end of its body like a tail. The upper half turned upwards in a sharp manner, highlighting the torso as being composited of many rocks while its arms were made of stone, ending in three prongs. 

At last was its head, or lack of it. Indeed, the volcano from before ended in nothing, acting as a throat and neck with nothing attached to form a head. Large buffets of smoke and ash plumed out of the crevice like a chimney before a large groaning sound was heard. Smoke became mixed in with blood as a splatter of red erupted from the creature’s “neck”, spraying the earth below. This was all that remained of the spider; a red mush that matched the other stains on the ravine floor.

It seemed Macey wouldn’t be getting her samples after all.