FanFiction:MHQ:To Hunt A Man Chapter 12 - A Scorched World

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Previously: MHQ: To Hunt A Man Chapter 11 - Bounty Hunter

Language Warning

The trip is dragging on. Half of the day is gone already as the group makes their way to M’s hideout. Kreuz and Rebecca were silently sitting in the front of the cart, while the others were in the back. Annie and Sky were going through supplies, not that they can do much if they happen to have forgotten something though. Blue is just laying around.

Kreuz tries to will himself to speak, but can’t quite find the words. He glances over at Rebecca every now and then and, everytime, feels both the urge to speak and the difficulty to do so increase. She seems very focused.

He then happened to glance back at the others. Annie was smirking at him and waggling her eyebrows. He glared and rolled his eyes as he turned back. He sighed and admitted in his thoughts, Who am I kidding at this point, she’s right.

With a deep breath, Kreuz was finally ready to speak. But just as he was going to, Rebecca broke the silence first. “It shouldn’t be too much longer. You can see the tower in the distance.”

“Oh, fucking finally” Blue said in his usual tone.

They entered a part of the forest that was damaged. Old tree stumps littered the area. No grass grew here. There was even the occasional leftovers of buildings. It made the group uneasy. Rebecca especially seemed to tense up. Kreuz took notice of this. “So...what’s up with this place? Did M burn it down?” He asked.

There was a brief hesitation before Rebecca replied, “No. There was a war here...a really long time ago.”

“Oh.”

“The people here were peaceful...they didn’t deserve to be attacked. It just happened one day.”

Rebecca paused, and there was silence, save for the sound of the rickety cart. At least until Blue spoke up. “Well that sounds unfair as fuck.”

“Yeah….” was all Rebecca uttered before becoming quiet again.

Kreuz can see that the subject upset her. He went to place his arm on her shoulder to try and comfort her, but before he could do that, Sky suddenly shouted out, “Get out of the cart! NOW!”

Without asking questions, everyone immediately dove out of the cart. Although Blue somehow managed to hit his head and disorient himself for a moment. Annie managed to drag him out though, and not even a second later, a fiery beam engulfed the cart, burning it to ash.

They looked to the direction of where the beam came from, and saw a Basarios not too far off. They instinctively knew it was the same one they had encountered before. It dug into the ground and vanished before the group could do anything else.

“God damn mother fucking son of a bitch-ass piece of shit!” Blue shouted furiously. “Oh I can’t wait to deal with Pinky!”

Kreuz sighed as he checked on everyone. No serious injuries were sustained, at least for the people. The two Aptonoth that were pulling the cart are alive, but they’re gravely wounded.

“Well, there goes our transportation and supplies. But at least we still have our weapons and armor.” Annie tried to look at the positives.

The group didn’t have time to waste, and so they continued their journey. The tower isn’t terribly far, but it’ll be a tiring walk.

“Watch them not even be there when we get there.” Blue said, annoyed.

“Oh they’’ll be there…M will want to make sure we’re killed.” Rebecca seemed very confident in this. It’s not like they can turn back at this point anyways.

As they all trekked through the depressing landscape, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by what appeared to be boulders. It didn’t take long for them to figure out what’s up.

“Do you think they put all of these rocks here to fuck with us or do you think it’s just sheer convenience?” Blue asked.

Before anyone can answer, there was a faint rumbling sound. Rebecca was able to react and warn everyone, as the Basarios appeared from the ground and fired off another beam. Everyone was able to avoid it.

The Wyvern didn’t run this time. Instead, it came all the way out of the ground and was prepared to fight. The group readied their weapons as well. Rebecca however, doesn’t have a weapon and gave the group some space.

“It seems like that bastard isn’t here to give it orders. This should be easy!” Blue exclaimed with confidence. He then charged straight for the monster, while Kreuz and Sky followed.

The Basarios decided to charge for them itself. Blue skidded to a stop before dodging out of the way. Blue’s sudden stop caused Kreuz and Sky to try and stop as well, but they ended up tripping over each other.. They tried to regain their footing and get out of the way, but they couldn’t do it in time. The Basarios plowed right through the two of them, but it wasn’t a direct hit.

Blue went straight after the monster again and tried to slice at its little tail, but he had to jump at it. The monster went to turn around towards him, but became distracted by the arrows pelting its rocky armor.

Annie had gained the monster’s attention, but she wasn’t doing much damage. What’s more is that she wasn’t safe at that distance. The Wyvern quickly fired off a beam at her. It was fast, and Annie had no time to get out of the way, so she just put her arms up to block what she could.

Oh god I’m gonna die she thought. But just before the attack connected with her, she was suddenly pulled aside. Annie flew through the air for a few feet before hitting the ground. She looked around, confused. All she saw was Rebecca standing a short distance away, but there’s no way she could’ve ran over here and did that so fast.

Annie thought about it for a moment before remembering that there was a fight going on. But it was going nowhere fast. The group just couldn’t seem to damage this monster.

“I thought Basarios was supposed to be an easy monster!” Blue complained while dodging a tail swipe.

“This one was trained by Pinky. It’s probably tougher than others.” Kreuz responded. He took a large swing with his Greatsword, but it just bounced off the side of the Basarios.

Frustration was beginning to set in. The monster showed no signs of slowing down, and the hunters were starting to make small mistakes, taking hits here and there. They were also starting to get worn down.

“Ok this is some BULLSHIT!” Blue roared as he swung for the monster. His sword was deflected, and the Basarios countered with its tail, knocking him aside.

Things were looking grim, until Rebecca called over. “Guys, come here, quick!”

The hunters gathered themselves and ran over to Rebecca. Kreuz expressed his concern, “Is this a good idea? You don’t even have a weapon.”

“Just trust me.”

The monster charged for them. But before it got there, a large portion of the ground suddenly collapsed beneath the Wyvern. With a roar, it fell into the dark, seemingly bottomless pit. The group watched on.

“Huh. I guess it wasn’t really all that smart.” Blue stated.

Kreuz was trying to figure out what just happened. “How? How in the world did you-”

Rebecca cut him off. “Just a thing I learned, don’t worry about it. We need to go now.” She began to continue the journey, leaving Kreuz confused.

The rest of the group continued with Rebecca, but there were doubts now. Can they really handle M in this state? No supplies left and already wounded, they don’t have much of a choice to continue.

Kreuz took one last look at the pit, as a crash echoed from within.

“Yeah, that thing won’t be getting up after that…”

Next time: MHQ: To Hunt A Man Chapter 13 - Stairway to Hell