[IC] In Hunting Beasts and Nightmares

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny returned to the bar downing a few shots of the "wine". Despite his joking attitude and cheery demeanor, he was honestly shaking from that encounter with the Vexture. If it wasn't for the fact that Roless was there to watch his back, and to give himself something to fight for with Maribel, Donny would have high-tailed it out of there. Fuck hunting monsters, Donny wanted to live. The spew wasn't so bad after the fight though. Certainly made it go down easier.

Looking at his armament, Donny could tell he was going to need something more impressive if he was going to be living here. His axe and knife was nice, but he needed something more practical like a spear. That and there were only so many puns he could make about axes and knives. Seeing that Roless has some pretty custom weapons Donny turned to him. "Hey Roless, where'd you get your gear at? They don't look like something you could just find in a shed. Or did ya make them yourself?"

[RoflsMazoy]

He saw the entrance to the Ravine proper up ahead. It was pretty dark but so was everything else in the world. He dashed in blindly through the shadows, he knew the path was straight so it was probably fine. But pretty soon after he entered he saw light up ahead. Ahead of him, he saw a weird rock-beast thing standing on what seemed to be straight up pillars for legs, some weird pitchfork arms and even a volcano for a head.

It was super weird but whatever it was, it was going down.

"A new challenger appears!" He shouted.

He crouched down and then leaped upwards, his Zweihanders always above him. Normally going through rock just with a Zweihander would've been difficult but first of all, gravity; second of all, his jump height was like 12 feet; and third of all, he had two Zweihanders. He brought his blades down on one of the weird volcano-pitchfork-crab thing's knees, easily shattering it and staggering the beast.

"Hey Akemi!" He called out to his fellow veteran, "That was good right? I did well right? What even is this thing?"

[Bubsy 2]

Akemi was barking rebukes at the hunter's performance, something that annoyed Tatsumi, Have a heart, this is our first time! He almost shouted, but held back. She is scary, although he certainly would've liked an explanation on his magic, and Macey was being a little weird about the spider... I don't think I liked spiders in our world, did I? He shook his head, bringing his attention back to the battle. Soon enough Sinthe was vocalizing his complaints, shouting at Akemi. Something tells me they're not a couple, Tatsumi mused to himself.

Luckily for their group it appeared their attacks had a good effect on the 'Roushta', as the hideous spider-creature beginning to stagger.

Unluckily for their group it appeared that the 'Roushta' wasn't their real enemy.

Everything happened at once. A great shaking took over the ravine. Tatsumi struggled to keep his footing, plunging his sword towards the ground to keep his balance. Ground that appeared to be rapidly deteriorating, great cracks appearing around the monster, which was unluckily where Tatsumi was positioned. He leapt back for safety, madly scrambling away from the quickly rising Roushta. It was hefted into the air by a stony hand, and then dropped, to be replaced by something very scary. A seemingly impossibly large monster made of molten stone, towering far above the now tiny hunters, cresting to where the ravine met the sky.

Gulp.

There's always a bigger fish.

Tatsumi, for once, wasn't rushing in by his own volition. The seemingly naive hunter was surprisingly perceptive. That thing's made of lava, isn't it? My sword is toast if I try to fight it. He sheated his sword. He did have another method of attack, even though Akemi seemed to disparage his use of it. He ran for the creature's beefy leg, sword not in hand. Instead he focused again, trying to manipulate the shadow of the great beast. A shadowy sword leapt from the darkness, flying into Tatsumi's hand. This is handy! I hope there isn't a limit to it... He charged the beast, wheeling around the leg towards the back, jumping up and leveraging his weight against his 'sword'. He was out of reach of the knee, far above him, but with a little focus the blade extended, reaching the creature and appearing to deliver a solid strike against it.

[TheWendil]

And so the battle began.

Akemi leapt in first with the notion of striking the Monolith in its joints. Sparks flew as the fox demon dashed about, her flaming sword making contact with the creature’s molten skin. A loud, thunderous groan that sounded more like trees splitting apart filled the ravine and the Monolith responded by bending forward and unleashing a stream of liquid magma from the volcano that acted as its head.

The creature was somewhat blind, a fact that again, only Akemi knew. But it could read the heat signatures of its prey much like the Roushta from befor and itt sensed Sinthe as the one Hunter not currently attacking it. It directed its bulbous stream of lava in his directions flaming embers the size of cars launching off into the air and hurling towards the earth below. Meanwhile, the lava began to fill the ravine and surrounded all sides at a slow crawl.

It would be a long, delicate process, but the Monolith would eventually flood its prey in a sea of flame, scavenging and picking apart the remains to consume greedily. Likewise, the ongoing attacks on the monster’s knees were slow as well and would most likely favor in the creature’s patient strategy. That is, until a certain Zweihander-wielding newcomer arrived on the scene, instantly shattering one of the Monolith’s pillar knees and staggering it.

Before the monster could react further, the searing pain of darkness incarnate made another loud rumble erupt as Tatsumi struck hard and fast with his shadowy blade. The Monolith was almost brought to its hands, falling forward and precariously falling. But then a pronged hand gripped onto the side of the ravine and held it in place. The shifting of earth was heard once more as rocks began to fly out of the monster’s exterior and honed in like guided missiles.

If it couldn’t burn the Hunters, then it would resort to crushing them with sheer force alone.

At least things were less disrupting back in Iredele, or rather the White Wolf Tavern specifically. Maribel found herself sitting next to Donny at the bar, sipping on yet another mug of bubbling red liquid. Another drink that she had demanded onto Donny to pay for.

[Lucius Cypher]

"Hey, angel cheeks, I appreciate you saving my life before I got here and all, but even I'm running on a tight budget here." That is to say, he had no budget. Donny had stopped drinking if only because he noticed the cups stacking up and was legitimately starting to wonder how he was suppose to pay for all of this. And while he could certainly be noble and chivalrous and all that cal, he is also broke with not even a penny to his name. He doubt slaying one monster, as creepy as it was, is actually going to get him much recognition here. If the eerie atmosphere and Roless were any indication, he had to fry much bigger fish before anyone here would respect the name Donny.

Of course, he'd have to be able to handle those fish. Truth be told he kinda wished he had Roless's weapons. A gun, a bad ass spear, and was that a gatling gun? Shit, if he had those, he wouldn't even had bothered to gone upstairs. While he was certain he could make due with an axe, dagger, and some rope, he also knew that the more the merrier. Time for an upgrade. "Anyways delicious cake, I'm going to walk around the village, see if maybe there's anything worth looking at. I know you'll probably warn me about leaving the village on my own or getting jumped by more monsters, and I'm glad you're concerned about me. Come with me if you'd like. Otherwise don't worry. I'm staying in the village, just looking around. And if anything does come to get me, well, I'll be sure to either scream very loudly or say something cool before I die." Donny got up from the table and left the inn. He actually wasn't going to look around the whole village, though he could once he was done with his business.

Donny's memory was still fuzzy, but he could say with utmost certainty that his past life, whatever it was, had more accommodations then this. Lights, water, beer that at least looked like it was made with hops and in a barrel instead of gunk scrapped off a corpse. If he had to hazard a guess, he must be in the past. Of course, he hardly knew what his past was like, let alone what the history of his previous life was. Point is that this place seriously needs some renovations. Or at the very least Donny needed better gear. And if this place was as old timely as he think it was, it ought to have a shed full of tools somewhere.

Donny rigged himself a torch using a fairly dried stick he found and a piece of his rope tied to the base, which he had dragged through the mud. He guessed he had about five minutes on the thing at most before it fell apart. Using it to light his path Donny looked for shed looking places. He couldn't say for certain if the villagers would like him rummaging around their backyards, so he was only looking around. He'd memorize the places that looked like good hits and come back for them later. About thirty minutes of wandering around and looking over his shoulder Donny killed his torch and went back to gather the materials he needed, but all quiet like. This also seemed oddly familiar to him. Maybe he was a thief in his past life? It would certainly explain how he got to this hellhole; he's being punished for obviously being an awesome thief. Whatever, he had work to do.

Most of what Donny grabbed were small tools, thing like hammers, nails, screw driver basic stuff. Two big things he had to go looking for however were two shovels. And not just any shovel either, but things he vaguely knew as "Sharp shooter" shovels. Long, but narrow, almost like a blade. That was the hard part. Fortunately for him he stole one right out of a garden, and the second shed he looked into had a similar looking one. With all his loot gathered together, now all Donny needed to do was find a place where he could work on this. A workshop of some sort. A forge maybe. That's a thing old timely places had right? Blacksmith forges? "Well, I did say I'd look around..."

[RoflsMazoy]

"Whoa, that's dangerous!" He said as a barrage of boulders started flying towards them. They weren't just thrown either, they were actually homing in, presumably it was using the same power it was using to keep its tail up to guide the boulders. He quickly dashed backwards and a boulder crashed into the ground where he used to be, another boulder sped in from his right and he launched into a back flip. A boulder from above curved downwards and was flying straight towards him from behind, even as he spun in the air.

Risky! He thought.

He extended his arm, Zweihander point first towards the ground and used it to vault over the boulder and gain extra height as his legs went 90 degrees. The boulder whistled just past his head and fell to the ground. This guy was really weird, he didn't fit the normal beast kind of thing, because they were made of flesh and blood. This guy was made of rocks and fire, but even though he obviously wasn't a normal beast, it was like it was made to be in the ravine. His thoughts were cut off however, as he saw more boulders coming his way.

"Guess it'll be alright to use this!" He said.

Just like he'd done when he'd gotten up that morning, he threw one of his Zweihanders high in the air. He changed to a two-handed grip with his other Zweihander and started to dash forward. A boulder came in from his left but his Zweihander was already in motion, breaking it into pieces, a boulder above was met with his upward swing and he kept going. None of the boulders were going to touch him, the momentum from his swings carried him forward without sacrificing his speed.

This was a technique he'd made himself after he'd decided to wield two Zweihanders at once, and no one would be able to replicate it without his physical capabilities. Having two Zweihanders was quite cumbersome, by reducing his weight his other Zweihander was going to come out fast, with not much reduction in damage.

He quickly closed the distance between him and the beast, and as soon as he reached it he leaped onto its back. It noticed him and lava started to flow from its head, rapidly approaching him. But that didn't matter so much, his aerial Zweihander was in position. He jumped again, grabbing his plummeting Zweihander and letting it pull him down into a front flip, adding to his centrifugal force.

"Get down boy!" He said as he brought his Zweihanders down on the arm, shattering it to pieces.

[Bubsy 2]

Tatsumi rallied as their attacks started to wear down the Monolith. Alright! This hunting stuff is kind of fun! He thought to himself, a grin making itself clear on his face. He felt in his element. At first the Monolith appeared to be failing, We beat it already?! So quickly? But Tatsumi was proven incorrect as a stony hand clutched for support against the ravine. The earth shook as the massive creature recovered. Now it was on the offensive! It shot lava from it's mouth like a cannon, and the ravine was rapidly getting a whole lot less roomy as it began to fill with the molten rock. We better close this up quick before that stuff gets too high, or we'll be roasted alive!

The lava attack was quickly wasn't all. Massive rocks began to fly towards the hunters. Not only that, they were really flying directly towards them, assumingly propelled by magic. Gotta get a move on if I don't want to get crushed! A trio of boulders were moving right for the happy-go-lucky hunter. The first was the easiest, Tatsumi diving to the right, going into a roll and barely moving out of the way before the rock crashed against the ground. By the time he recovered the second boulder was already almost upon him. He didn't have time to dive again so instead he pushed himself off the ground and deftly leaped above the attack. The final one was really homing in on him, looking to catch him in the air. There's no way I can dodge! For a moment he panicked, but he took a deep breath, realizing he had to keep calm if he wanted to survive. His shadow sword was still in hand, so he had a chance! He extended the blade, bringing it down on the stone and cleaving it in two. As he landed on the ground he thought to himself, Wow, that was too close!

Tatsumi took a moment to rest, finding himself out of breath after his acrobatics. His attention was taken by a man who seemed to be a completely unfamiliar hunter. Tatsumi realized that he came in earlier, when they were attacking the Monolith. He attacked the monster with two massive swords, and then greeted their apathetic vixen companion. He must be another vet! I can't wait to see him in action! Tatsumi watched him eagerly. He dodged the boulders effortlessly, all while handling his two unwieldy weapons. Two greatswords?! He must be strong! Tatsumi was in awe as he threw one of his heavy swords into the air like it weighed nothing. He then rushed forward and snatched it from it's fall, using the momentum for his attack. Amazing! He's way cooler than Akemi, and seems a lot more lively! I wonder if he'll teach me moves like that?! The coordination and strength an attack like that must take! Is this the power of a veteran hunter?! Tatsumi was, to say the least, highly entertained by the new hunter's skills. He eyed the slovenly fox-girl. I wonder if she's that strong when she's trying?

Tatsumi steeled himself. He was getting pumped up. He couldn't sit on the sidelines when a guy like this was here! The monolith was only down one arm from his attack, after all! He readied his shadow sword, and rushed towards the lava monster. I've gotta pull out some cool move too! Tatsumi thought to himself excitedly. As he closed the distance between himself and the monster he formulated his plan. I'll make sure to impress even Akemi! He grinned to himself. The monolith was in front of him Let's go! He used the shadows below him, using the magic that he was rapidly growing accustomed to, and perhaps dependent on. He formed a 'springboard' of sorts, bounding off the shadows and pushing himself upwards. Soon enough he was above the beast. He raised his dark sword, the length of it rapidly expanding. "I'm gonna cut you in two!" Tatsumi cried out excitedly. He brought the shadowy sword down.

He didn't exactly cut it in two. In fact, he only barely clipped it. Tatsumi highly underestimated how unwieldy a sword as long as the one he had made would be. Damn! Everyone saw that, didn't they? He thought to himself as he was rapidly falling towards the ground. He made contact with the stony surface of the ravine, using shadows to cushion his fall. And that was almost cool!

[Spriggs27]

Sinthe saw the new hunter appear wielding two great swords, his first thought of the guy was that his fighting style was clunky and slow since he's wielding a two big swords, he appeared and attacked the monolith with Akemi, when the monolith began trying to attack Sinthe, the tall white haired guy dove out the way of the creature's attack, he then got back to his feet and began moving away from the creature's attacks, he then noticed the creature was bring up magma from the ground.

He sighed seeing the creature's attack and began to climb up the side of the ravine to stay off the ground, then that's when the monster began to shake the ravine to bring rocks down on them, Sinthe groaned as he hugged the wall as rocks began to rain down on them, Sinthe made sure none of the rocks came down on him, as he put his back to the wall and looked up to see a large rock heading towards him, he dodged the rock by jumping to another point on the wall and looking at the others, he stayed out of the fighting again knowing his fist weren't fire proof.

[KoL]

Here it is:

---

"Hey Akemi!" He called out to his fellow veteran, "That was good right? I did well right? What even is this thing?"

@RoflsMazoy

Akemi turned turned to look when someone called her name in rather loud way. The only one who could be this flamboyant was obviously Alto, which was proven right once he came crashing down on the monolith with a dynamic entry, while wielding his trademark zweihanders.

"Not bad, but I've seen better" the vixen replied taking a shot at his pride, butb surprisingly not maliciously "Anyway, this thing is what they call the Monolith, though I never seen before. The important is to know that to kill it, we have to target its weakspot" she pointed to the monster's chest.

A couple minutes later...

Well if the fight wasn't being easy, almost depressingly so, Akemi thought as the Monolith's joints creaked and it fell, using the walls of the ravine to support its massive body. However, it was about to change when lava began to spew from the creature's neck and rocks flew in their direction.

Avoiding the fiery death was easy, all that Akemi had to do was stay away from the lava and she would be ok, though it was easier said than done, since it keept pilling on with every passing second. The rocks would prove more of a challenge, but Akemi had a plan that to actually use her brain in this fight, unlike those fools who fought driven by their lower heads.

Instead of dodging the first boulder to fly towards her, the vixen waited until it was too late for that and jumped on it, using rock as a stepping stone to jump even higher, bounding off of the second stone's path and landing at the small of the walking volcano. As the third and last stone came homing in a her, Akemi steeled herself and gritted her teeth waiting for the very last moment to side step off of its path and let it crash on the monster's back, splitting the nigh unbreakable as easily as an egg shell.

Or so she thought, as at exactly that moment Alto split the giant's arm making it lose its already precarious balance and the boulder only grazed it's left flank, cracking the armor, but not splitting it like Akemi planned to. Not only that, but Tatsumi literally came down on her wit a shadow sword large enough to cleave the Monolith in one hit, but missed the attack completely and fell on the ground. "That idiot, when will he listen?" Akemi clicked her tongue, extremely displeased with Tatsumi's ignorance and bullheadedness.

After jumping off of the giant's back, Akemi landed in front of the place where Tatsumi stood, lowered her hood and walked to him with her fangs bared in an angry scowl, before yelling "What's your problem, you fucking idiot? Why do all of you newbies act like you knew everything and never listen to what I say?" Her voice like that of a raging demon, which in a sense was true, but still it looked like Akemi was truly worried about Tatsumi.

"If you do not believe me, why don't you take a look at you own shadow, then?" In fact, if Tatsumi did, he would notice that his shadow was distorted and seemed to be kind of alive, which is the first of many signs that he was abusing shadow magic a little too much. "Also, I doubt you'll be able to sleep for a couple days because of the nightmares, so I hope you like to stay awake."

With that said, she turned back to the fight, but not before closing in even more and licking Tatsumi's ear before saying in her typical provocative voice "If you want to impress me so much do it on another place..."

[RoflsMazoy]

"She's right actually, next time you sleep you might actually die." Alto said, appearing behind Akemi. He poked the new guy's gigantic darkness sword, and unexpectedly, his finger went in it. He felt a prick, and his finger came out with a little darkness fish on it. "Yeah, you're definitely going to die, so hold off for a bit."

He shook it off and turned back to face the Monolith. Then he turned back around again.

"Actually, how do we kill this thing?" He said to Akemi. He'd never seen this beast before or anything similar so he really had no idea. He was assuming they had to smash up its molten core, but his Zweihanders were going to melt before that happened.

[Bubsy 2]

Tatsumi was really at the end of his rope with Akemi. He was the kind of person that tried to look past people's faults, but that was getting really difficult, and he was at his boiling point. "I am so sick of you! Like, really, I tried being nice, but you're just... a really bad person! All you do is yell at us, and tell us nothing! This is our first day here! We just came from our completely normal world! This is the first time I've ever seen anything like... this! You might be experienced, but we know literally nothing! We've lost all our memories, you know that, right?! Honestly, maybe you should've told me that using this magic would..." Tatsumi finally looked at his shadow.

"What the fuck?! Would it be so hard to say 'Hey, newbie, by the way, shadow magic really fucks you up' All you did was yell something about shadow magic inbetween yelling at the rest of us! You're really supposed to be our teacher?! And now... and now you're coming onto me?! What is your problem?! Do you just fuck anything that has a cock?! I'm tired of this," Tatsumi vaguely gestured towards the Monolith, "I'm tired of the people around here making no sense, I'm tired of monsters, I'm tired of darkness,and I'm really fucking tired of you, Akemi! I really try to believe everyone is a nice person past whatever the show on the outside... but... geez!"

Tatsumi felt at first that this world was right, but it was clear to him now that it was really fucked up.

[Brodie]

[color=EE82EE]

Mu thought about the situation at hand. He did not feel the slightest bit of guilt when his fellow hunter engaged in combat and he sat back and watched. He thought hat if they really needed him they would ask for his help, plus something inside of told him that this situation was not his fight and he would only complicate things further. Then the whole lava monster thing just popped out. It was pretty big and had Mu on edge the whole time.

When the others engaged it they seemed pretty good listening to the fox ladies commands and attacking it were it hurt. When the other hunter appeared Jin had jumped down and was playing with dirt and rocks on the ground. After it was brought to its knees the beast seemed to have made a decision and decided to bury them alive. Rocks and boulders started to fall, Mu and Jin were dogging them left and right mocking each other, looking like to dancing monkeys. The one giant rock came down and it looked like it was going to hit Jin, Mu jumped faster than he knew how and re-strapped the umbrella to is back and drew the Nodachi and cut the rock in half.

Jin scrambled up Mu's leg and back inside his jacket. He let out a breath of relief and patted his chest were the monkey was. "Whoa! That was a close one." He looked over when he saw that Tatsumi was blowing his fuse and it was pointed at Akemi. Mu rushed up behind him and avoided any more boulders coming his way. "Hey man! Calm down, we don't have time to be bitching and yelling. Now pay attention to the big red thing before you get crushed, and if we survive you can do and say what you want to the fox lady, but for now I NEED YOU TO FOCUS!!" He said the last words with his voice raised and Mu rarely raised his voice at any one. But this situation seemed familiar to him and it got his blood boiling.
@Diggerton

[TheWendil]

A loud crack echoed across the ravine as one mighty stone arm was shattered into nothing more than pieces. The creature sensed the Hunter with the twin Zweihanders and gathered up a mighty boulder in its one remaining arm. Gripped in its pronged hand, it hurled the thing like a plummeting meteor at the one who had crippled it so.

Luckily, the creature’s aim was interrupted slightly as Tatsumi leaped into the air with a shimmering sword of black. With a heave, he brought it down on the Monolith with one swing, an arc of darkness leaving the blade’s wake. Unfortunately for him, he had not counted on the lack of force behind the extended length. Still, the action alone was enough to anger the foul beast.

The massive monster roared in a plume of fire and brimstone, smacking its arm against the side of the ravine in an attempt to knock yet more rocks and debris onto the new Hunters. When it was becoming apparent that the group was surviving longer than expected, the Monolith sprayed a stream of lava down its own torso, the hot liquid pooling downwards its body with a trail of lingering fire falling behind. Now it truly was a walking, rampaging volcano.

The lava was fast approaching and if the Hunters didn’t react fast, it would coat the Monolith’s body completely, leaving it practically invincible to their weapons now. Only Akame knew that the soft folds lying just between where the joints connected to the main torso was its sole weak point. Binding its hard exterior together was a layer of soft rock that could easily be cut and torn. The problem was the lava flowing down, soon sealing up those vulnerable points forever.

That being said, it didn’t look like Akame was in any mood to give out that information so freely, if her mood with the others was to be noted.

Back in White Wolf Tavern, Maribel only rolled her eyes at Donny’s continuous nicknames along with his carefree attitude. Before she could answer his question about a budget though, the Hunter was already out of his seat and loitering off somewhere else, saying something exploring. Sighing to herself, the young girl went back to her bloody mugs. After all, the only one who collected taxes and due finances in Iredele was the mayor of course.

[KoL]

"Ok, now I'm officially pissed off with you, cherry boy" Akemi said while placing a finger on Tatsumi's face "I'm not your mother, so I have no obligation of telling you that putting your hand on the fire hurts. If I told you once to not do it, why have you continued like a gleeful idiot?" She was having her time chewing on the boy, but it was either that or the worst alternative.

Anyway, when she saw the development of the fight, Akemi turned her back to Tatsumi and went towards Alto and the others "If he can't learn after all that, I won't care for it anymore" she thought on the way there.

"Simply put, we have to shatter his armor. His body won't be able to keep its form until it reforms the armor and we will get a free chance to destroy the core" The vixen said when Alto asked her how to destroy the Monolith. "Lucky you, I have a plan for that." she said sheathing her sword and placing her hands on her hips.

Inspiring OST

"We need to drag him further into the ravine, until we reach the Lake of Tears. There's many pools of water there, it this thing drops on one of them, his armor will become as easy to crack as an egg shell" Akemi explained her plan to both Alto and Sinthe via a series of shouts while she tried to dodge the oncoming lava and rocks. "Since you're already up there, why don't you act as our navigator while we guide the thing from here? All you have to do is be sure that we keep on going to Southwest" She said, asking for Sinthe's collaboration and pointing to where Southwest was supposed to be.

After she explained her plan Akemi jumped in front of the Monolith and threw a rock at its face to try to attract the creature's attention "You clear the way ahead, I'll take care of the Monolith! You're the vanguard, after all. Am I right?" she told Alto, pointing to the dark crevasses ahead of them, which no doubt would be full of dangers to overcome.

"The time limit before the lava reaches Iredele is about two hours if I'm right. Now move your asses!" Akemi shouted as she jumped above the rocky fist that came crashing down on her. This would be the newbie hunters first true test, the outcome of which would affect their future lives forever.

"Do or die, heh? I always liked that part..."

---

@RoflsMazoy@Diggerton@TheWindel@Spriggs27

[Kitsune]

"Ooooo, someones in trouble~"

Jenniver's mono tone came ringing out as she returned from whatever she had been doing, coming just in time to see Akemi telling off the boy Tatsumi for his actions. She could tell that despite the fox girls attempt to seem like she did not care all that much about them, that bout of yelling along with her rather empathetic actions up to this point proved otherwise, it was rather cute.

Still it was time for a real plan to be put into action! Thankfully Jen had been making sure that none of the monsters from the surrounding area would interfere so hopefully they would not be caught out as they enacted Akemi's plan to lead the thing to the lake of tears past the ravine, easier said than done. "I shall be apart of the vanguard too!" Jen said while raising her hand like she was still in school trying to attracted attention from the others.

Moving up to stand by Alto, her rather thin two handed sword paling in comparison to his duel large weapons, though she liked to think she was far more elegant with her other weapon. "Let's go." Shifting on her heels with just that she started to head towards the ravine to meet the monsters head... Woe to all beasts that were to meet the wall of steel now advancing.

[RoflsMazoy]

"Cool! I'm on it" He yelled up to Akemi.

Another newbie hunter appeared and stated intentions of joining the vanguard. Actually, she probably wouldn't be the last one either.

"Dark kid, you better stay behind us." He said to him, "It'll probably be safer than staying here."

He didn't say anything to the other new kid which had appeared just after Akemi had shouted at Dark Kid, mostly because he wasn't sure what the guy was about and he sort of seemed to be pretty useless at that point in time. He hadn't been in the Ravine before so he didn't know what any of the beasts in there really were but that just meant taking someone who didn't seem to be that strong wasn't going to be a good idea.

"Vanguard, forward!" He shouted.

He bounded forward, easily catching up and surprassing the new hunter and dashed straight into the darkness. He wasn't sure what was in there but he was pretty sure it bled.

[Spriggs27]

"Ok, now I'm officially pissed off with you, cherry boy" Akemi said while placing a finger on Tatsumi's face "I'm not your mother, so I have no obligation of telling you that putting your hand on the fire hurts. If I told you once to not do it, why have you continued like a gleeful idiot?" She was having her time chewing on the boy, but it was either that or the worst alternative.

Anyway, when she saw the development of the fight, Akemi turned her back to Tatsumi and went towards Alto and the others "If he can't learn after all that, I won't care for it anymore" she thought on the way there.

"Simply put, we have to shatter his armor. His body won't be able to keep its form until it reforms the armor and we will get a free chance to destroy the core" The vixen said when Alto asked her how to destroy the Monolith. "Lucky you, I have a plan for that." she said sheathing her sword and placing her hands on her hips.

Inspiring OST

"We need to drag him further into the ravine, until we reach the Lake of Tears. There's many pools of water there, it this thing drops on one of them, his armor will become as easy to crack as an egg shell" Akemi explained her plan to both Alto and Sinthe via a series of shouts while she tried to dodge the oncoming lava and rocks. "Since you're already up there, why don't you act as our navigator while we guide the thing from here? All you have to do is be sure that we keep on going to Southwest" She said, asking for Sinthe's collaboration and pointing to where Southwest was supposed to be.

After she explained her plan Akemi jumped in front of the Monolith and threw a rock at its face to try to attract the creature's attention "You clear the way ahead, I'll take care of the Monolith! You're the vanguard, after all. Am I right?" she told Alto, pointing to the dark crevasses ahead of them, which no doubt would be full of dangers to overcome.

"The time limit before the lava reaches Iredele is about two hours if I'm right. Now move your asses!" Akemi shouted as she jumped above the rocky fist that came crashing down on her. This would be the newbie hunters first true test, the outcome of which would affect their future lives forever.

"Do or die, heh? I always liked that part..."

---

@RoflsMazoy@Diggerton@TheWindel@Spriggs27

@KoL

When Akemi began to give people orders, Sinthe hoped that she sobered up enough to give them good enough orders and would be a good leader in the moment, when she said for Sinthe to give them directions he nodded looking down to Akemi and the others on the ground."Okay !" When he looked out to the distance he could see the sky's moonlight reflect off the ground and Sinthe could tell that it was the water that Akemi was looking for.

Sinthe pointed to the direction of the lake, it was further in the ravine." Down there ! I see the moon's reflection in the lake, it's just further into the ravine." Sinthe told Akemi and the others, he began to climb towards the lake staying up high and keeping his grip on the ravine's walls so he wouldn't end up a stain on the ground or get them lost. He looked out far to see the reflection of the moon in the ground and saw the lake once again.

[Bubsy 2]

Tatsumi was mad, but regretted his outburst. It's not advantageous for me to make enemies, but Akemi isn't exactly making this easy... at least she's trying to help now. Tatsumi had no choice but to follow Akemi's plan, although it appeared he didn't have a part to play. Is that on purpose because I pissed her off? I should probably apologize at some point... but it's not exactly like I'm solely at fault here... Tatsumi shook his head. It was best to get moving with the group. The shadowy sword dispelled, fading from Tatsumi's hand. Whatever I think about her it's probably best to listen, I'll get the full story on this stuff from someone less abrasive later.

Tatsumi ran to catch up to the 'vanguard', lagging behind Jen who was in turn lagging behind Alto. Tatsumi was ordered to stay behind. He's trying to leave me in the dust?! How can he possibly think so negatively already? I didn't even do anything! Tatsumi ignored him, charging behind the vanguard. I can't just sit here and look like and idiot! But what kind of trouble does Akemi expect? Are there more monsters in the ravine? Tatsumi raised his sword, following Alto into the abyss. "C'mon, don't just count me out like that!" He shouted to the clearly more experienced hunter.

[RoflsMazoy]

"I ain't really counting you out yet," He called over his shoulder. "But I'm not really sure if you're up for this either."

As Alto ran, glowing eyes followed him from above. Eyes he recognized. They belonged to certain wolves known to inhabit rocky mountains and cliffs, their specialty was mostly just climbing and that was as far as it went. Directly ahead of them, a seemingly innocent pile of rocks came to life and even some scorpion bats made an appearance.

"I don't know about your skills beyond that darkness sword of yours but if you use it again you really might die." He said, turning around. One of the wolves from above finally came down for an attack.

It bounded down the angular rock face and lunged for him, but it was met with a solid kick to its ribs from below, and Alto sent it sailing over his head. He threw one of his Zweihanders backward, grabbed his other Zweihander with both hands and swung upwards as he launched himself into a backflip. He easily cut through the wolf beast, spraying blood all over his clothing.

They finally bleed! He thought gleefully.

He completed a flip, and used the momentum to spring into another one. The bats cleared away from him, clearly not intent on meeting the same fate as the wolf. The golem however was unperturbed, and pulled its fist back to strike where the little man would be once he finished his next flip, but the Zweihander Alto had thrown earlier came down now and hitting its knee hilt first and cracking it. Another swing and it shattered toppling the golem.

Grabbing his other Zweihander, he thrust the two massive swords right through the falling Golem's chest, breaking its core.

"I said you could go behind us if you didn't want to risk anything, but that's all I said." He pulled his Zweihanders from the remains of the golem. "I don't really care what you do, just don't die."

With that, he turned back around and continued forward, leaving the others to deal with any wolves who wanted to attack them and also the bats.

[TheWendil]

“My, my, that’s a lot of good stuff you got there.”

The voice came from behind Donny and out from the darkness appeared none other than the mayor of Iredele himself. Spencer tipped his fedora in greeting before casually placing his hands in his pockets, tilting his head to get a better look at what Donny was doing.

“You know, I usually don’t approve of outright property stealing and manhandling, but people don’t usually care about this kind of stuff either. Don’t know if we met or not, but the name’s Spencer Parker. I’m the mayor of this fine little town. Mind telling me what you’re working on little Hunter? It must be something important if you didn’t join your friends at the ravine-”

“There you are! Honestly, I wait almost half an hour for you and you still have the nerve to just leave me alone!”

The second voice this time came from Maribel, storming past a surprised Spencer. The white-haired girl took one glance at the messy pile Donny was creating before standing on her tip-toes and glaring at him face to face. She didn’t want to admit the fact that she was feeling lonely now that Roless had pretty much abandoned her so she kept up her glare with more heated words.

“Are you making a weapon? You know there’s no blacksmith around here, right?”

Back in the ravine, the Monolith let out a guttural screech much akin to boulders being smelted together boiling oil and ice. Its attention focused solely on Akemi, it began to follow her deeper into the ravine, waving its massive arms around in the attempt to clip the fox girl and smash her to a bloodied pulp on the ravine’s walls. Instead, its flailing attacks only ended up helping Alto’s group as it unknowingly swept aside the shadowy wolves, hurling them down the side of the ravine to a plummeting grave.

At last, the Lake of Tears were in full view as the vanguard continued onward. Multiple pools of crystal, blue water reflected the twin moon’s light. Some of the pools were frozen solid and some were not. Whatever Akemi was planning to do, now would be the time to implement her words into actions.

Even as the Hunters fought, the dark presence that had saved them before was watching in silence.