Valen rolled to the left, making sure his weapon was parallel to the ground during the motion, the whistling of the air to his right telling him he had dodged correctly. Then he immediately rolled to the right, avoiding the follow-up. Once his feet were back on the ground, he pushed with all of his might, converting his momentum into a forward motion, and started running, his weapon held behind him.

  In front of him was Nikki, who was in the middle of retracting her right wing, however, he immediately noticed she was starting to crouch, which meant she was about to rear up for a bite. Judging the distance between them, and the time she would need to pounce, he continued his run for a couple more steps and then immediately pushed his right foot to the side, adjusting his momentum to the left.

  Even though Nikki was holding herself back on her attacks, she completed the motions when she was sure he would not get hit, which still meant that Valen could feel all the energy that was put into the bite she did when her beak snapped closed with an audible clack.

  The instant he started sidestepping, his arm was in motion, swiping the axe head low to the grass and then upwards, and he was rewarded with a meaty thwack when it collided with Nikki’s forearm. He didn’t stop there, instead pulling the axe towards him and squeezing the outside trigger of the weapon as he rotated it, the weapon smoothly shifting as he completed his strike with a unified blade that simply slid over the scales without damaging them.

  Using the momentum of the strike, Valen backstepped, avoiding the retaliatory swipe from Nikki. He paused a split second, and, noticing that she overcommitted and was off-balance, pushed up the trigger he was holding, and struck again with his axe, using the extra reach that shifting the weapon had given him.

  It was only when his weapon connected with her forearm again that he saw Nikki was ready to swipe with her wing. She didn’t commit to the motion but he dropped his weapon immediately.

  They both stared at each other for a while, neither moving, gauging each other, and then Valen nodded. He knew he had lost this bout. ‘I yield’ he signed.

  Nikki nodded and backed away, Valen then picked up his weapon and switched it back into carrying mode.

  They had started doing this sort of training the day after he met her back at the clearing. They first had to agree on how they would make it safe though. That went by using two words that were used a lot while they were adapting: ‘Faster’ and ‘Slower’ the first being a horizontal swipe of the hand/claw that started slowly then sharply picked up speed. Slower was the opposite.

  The training started slowly, with Nikki showing him some attack patterns she could do, just aiming at the air. The most common one was a simple stab with her wings, which was the true proof of how versatile the membrane between them was. She had initially started at full speed, but Valen had quickly realized he couldn’t yet keep up, and asked her to do it more slowly until they found a speed he was comfortable with. A speed where he could dodge them, but still fast enough that he had to keep his guard up if he didn’t want to get hit. It also allowed Nikki to abort the attack if he couldn’t dodge them in time, thus reducing the risk of accidentally injuring him.

  They didn’t stop with just wing stabs though, and quickly added more and more complex attack patterns. Claw swipes, bites, and sweeps with the wing. The range of attacks Nikki was able to demonstrate was staggering. They did agree on something though, that Nikki would never go through with charges that necessitated her propelling herself with her wings. Instead, Nikki would go through the charging motions but aborted every time, and if Valen couldn’t get from the expected path in time, he was considered as being ‘hit’.

  What they could practice safely, however, was the wide array of projectile attacks the Valstrax was capable of. She could tone down the power of it while still keeping the speed. So if Valen got hit by one, it was considered a loss for him.

  The end result was that it looked like Nikki was trying to hit Valen but with exaggeratedly slowed attacks while Valen sidestepped, rolled, or moved away from the attacks.

  Valen, on the other hand, had no such limitations. No matter the force he put into his strikes, he couldn’t even dent Nikki’s scales, so he was free to put as much power into his attacks as he could. It did dull his weapon though, and he had to spend time sharpening it at the end of every session. Even so, he avoided slashes at Nikki’s head, because while her body was tougher than a human’s there was still a weak point, and he didn’t want to accidentally blind her, given how reliant a Valstrax was on their vision.

  Their training was also an occasion to considerably expand their vocabulary, assigning words to items, plants, or animals they found in the forest around them.

  Valen remembered though when Nikki came back one day with not a dead catch… But very much an alive one. He didn’t understand the reason until when she was sure he was watching, she slashed out the throat of the struggling Jaggi with her claws, killing it on the spot. Then she mimed slashing her throat with her claw.

  Valen looked at the bleeding monster, the long tail laying completely flat on the ground, still, the frills that were adorning his face partially covering its muzzle and its pink scales that were starting to get stained by the rapidly spreading blood. He nodded and looked at Nikki, then repeated her motion with his thumb. There was no mistaking what word she just demonstrated. It was ‘Kill’.

  Nikki and Valen were both lying on the grass, the human on his back while the Valstrax was sitting on her haunches. The pair were looking at the stars, night having fallen several hours ago. Their immediate surroundings were illuminated by the flickering light of a campfire, Valen tending to it every so often to keep it alive. Neither were moving and they were simply enjoying each other’s presence.

  The wind was rustling the leaves of the trees surrounding them, and had their training not trampled down or shortened considerably, the grass would be swaying around the campfire. Only the sound of Nikki's powerful, regular breathing could be heard over the ambient noises of the forest.

  The stars in the sky were all burning bright, only the full moon shining pure enough to dim the stars around it. They were all of various intensity, some were barely visible next to their sisters. Others were simply indiscernible from their neighbors.

  One, however, stood out from all of them. One whose light was not diminished when the moon passed near. This one shined a pure blue, a blue so intense none of any other stars could hope to be as grand as her. She shined so brightly she had no neighbors, sitting alone in her corner of the sky.

  The star was called the Sapphire Star, a symbol of hope in the darkest times. A silent vigil that guided sailors and hunters in the wilderness. Hunters sent their prayers to her when they needed comfort and when they needed to be brave. Legends were told about her, about her birth, and what she meant, now part of the folklore of the world.

  Both Valen and Nikki were fixated on the light in the sky, simply sharing the moment together. Valen was motionless, while only the tip of Nikki’s tail occasionally twitched.

  It had been almost a month since Valen came back to the clearing, training daily with his companion. When he compared his result to the first day… The difference was staggering.

  He may have had a slight limp while he was walking long distances, but it vanished the moment he entered a fight. All of his muscles responded as they should, moving exactly as his thoughts directed them. He was faster than he was before for sure, but the limits of the human body meant that while the difference was noticable, it wasn’t that big of a difference. His awareness, on the other hand, had improved drastically.

  He now knew how to pay attention to every part of a monster, or at least Nikki’s body, but he expected to be able to adapt to other monsters without much trouble. He had quickly realized that what mattered in hunting wasn’t how hard he could strike, nor how fast he could be. Striking hard didn’t matter if you never landed a hit on your quarry. Moving fast didn’t matter if you jumped into the next attack of your opponent. One rule was simply needed above anything else, at least for his weapon.

  Do not get hit.

  Not getting hit… Meant that his opponent expended much more energy to try to hit him than he did. The stamina he spent moving out of the area of an attack was more than the stamina a monster spent trying to hit him. A tired monster couldn’t attack as often, had slower attacks… Couldn’t react as fast. A tired monster would die quickly.

  This was a golden rule of hunting. The reason why hunts were often done in teams was so that they could all split the attention of a target monster and tire it faster. With the sole exception of great-shield users, who were protected by a wall of steel, all hunters avoided being hit as much as they could.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  But Valen had quickly realized something crucial about Nikki during his training.

  Elders didn’t tire.

  No matter how much he trained in a day, and how hard the training was… Nikki never showed any signs of tiring, even long past the point where he knew regular wyverns would be panting. This, more than anything, showed why Elders were so dangerous. They could fight for hours and not suffer exhaustion. Even if a hunter could dodge their attacks for hours on end, everyone would eventually make a mistake, and then it’d all be over.

  Valen knew he was still missing one major part of the equation, and that it was the only way some hunters were able to successfully hunt Elders themselves. The equipment made out of monsters, somehow, allowed its wearer to take more hits.

  He knew that his now-destroyed Royal Ludroth gear was leagues above the simple steel gear he currently wore. Even such a lower-rank monster gear allowed him to tank a couple of claw swipes from wyverns that he knew would have pierced through his current armor and torn him apart. He also knew that his old weapon would have bit through Nikki’s scales at least a bit… Though he had no idea why. He only knew there was a reason that hunters were encouraged to upgrade their equipment with materials carved from monsters instead of all wielding the sharpest weapons made of the purest steel.

  Why? Because doing so simply allowed hunters to survive longer and kill faster. But how? That was what eluded Valen. He knew something was missing in all of this. But he simply didn’t know why.

  He sighed. He had started the subject with Nikki a couple of times but every time it fell flat because they missed words to convey the meaning… She often tried to use the word ‘Element’, but he had his suspicions that the sense she meant when they decided on it, and the sense he could understand was not the same… They tried to discuss the word itself more but he was still as confused as before, so they abandoned the subject.

  Nikki looked at him, breaking out of the trance that she was under while watching the stars, and rumbled inquisitively. Valen looked at her and just shrugged, and he tapped his index finger on his head, which meant ‘Thinking’. She just hummed for an instant and rubbed him on his cheek. Valen chuckled then rubbed the side of her head in response. Then he sighed again.

  Pushing Nikki away, he waved to get her attention. Then said: ‘Tomorrow, me back. Needs… Hunt.’ He didn’t want to leave Nikki at all, having never felt so at peace since… Ever. His time training with her was simply amazing, full of companionship and kinship. Even though he knew he had no way he could ever hurt her, and several ways she could kill him accidentally, they managed to find a way to safely train. He trusted her to be careful, more than anybody else he ever was with, the scant memories he had of his parents (and he didn’t want to think about it, lest he thought of the reason he lost them), his training instructor, or even his late hunting group.

  So he just stayed with Nikki, enjoying this last night with her. But then she let out a low growl, grabbing Valen’s attention. And what she said made him smile.

  ‘You… Get stronger. Need hunt. Come back.’

  And he answered her, pointing at himself, then clasped his hands together, like in a handshake. ‘I promise.’

  They agreed to go to sleep after, and Valen fell asleep with a smile on his face.

  Two days later, Valen arrived back at the village, and went directly to the guild once the guard allowed him past the gate. The receptionist looked up from a book she was writing in, and smiled once she recognized him. “Hunter Valen! How has your training been?”

  “It went very well, I’m back to top form and even beyond!”

  “Very good, I received several quests you were cleared to do to get new gear. Pick one and I’ll be able to send it back.” She then started to spread them out, a half-dozen pages in total. She read out the first one. “Rathian, she has been noted to have lost her mate and is brooding, hasn’t shown signs of aggressiveness but the guild is worried about the possibility of her lashing out.”

  Valen didn’t even need to think. “Pass, I want to hunt only monsters that are genuine threats.”

  The receptionist nodded. Valen’s request wasn’t a sentiment held by the majority of hunters, but a moral code was a common enough thing on the whole. She removed three other leaves, only leaving two options for him. “A Yian Kut-Ku has been attacking convoys and seems to be in a frenzy, the guild is sure there is no way to calm this one down.”

  “What about the other? I’d prefer something bigger profile if I could.”

  She seemed to hesitate for a moment before sighing. “If you pick this one, you will NOT be alone. Another hunter has already signed up for it, he’s just waiting for a partner to start. Don’t worry, he isn’t interested in the materials and you’ll have the full share regardless.”

  “That doesn’t bother me, what’s the target?”

  “A Plesioth.”

  Valen groaned. The Piscine Wyvern had an infamous reputation, and for good reason. The receptionist chuckled. “It’s sunk a fishing ship already, eating all of the sailors in it. The guild has even listed it as an urgent quest and the monetary reward has been increased. But if you take this one you’ll need to be careful. You only have basic gear, and this one’s a particularly strong specimen.”

  Valen took a bit of time to think it over. There would be no shame in him choosing to hunt the Yian Kut-Ku, especially as a solo hunt. But Plesioth had a reputation for a reason, even if he wouldn’t be alone. He was confident after the training with Nikki though, so he nodded. “I’ll take it. Who am I going to be partnered with?”

  She pointed towards one corner of the room where Valen could see a rough-looking man sitting alone at a table, sipping at a tankard with a scowl on his face. “Over there, his name is Austin. I’d suggest you get introductions out of the way. I will send the confirmation of the hunt you took to the guild in the meantime.”

  Valen nodded and walked towards the hunter. As he approached he could quickly see that the distance hadn’t played any tricks on his eyes. The man was the most burly hunter he had ever met, with thick muscles covering his arms and broad shoulders. Valen had more of a slender build, and he favored a more agile style. If nothing else, the appearance of the man before him told him that the other hunter favored a style centered around brute force.

  The hunter was wearing Tetsucabra armor, the distinctive bulky shoulders and the orange-blue plates covering them making identifying the set easy. As though that wasn’t enough, the golden coil with a purple rope was also another feature unique to the armor. He didn’t see a weapon holstered at the hunter’s back, but he supposed that the man had just left it back in his room.

  Valen sat opposite him at the table, at which the burly hunter raised an eyebrow and studied Valen for a moment before snorting. “What do you want, pipsqueak? If it’s help for your Velociprey hunt then scamper, I’m already booked for a real hunt.”

  Valen frowned. He didn’t like the casual dismissal, nor the attitude of the hunter, but he only needed to work with him for one hunt. Shoving his irritation down, he replied. “I’m not a newbie despite what this chain-mail armor might imply. My previous set got trashed on my last hunt, and I signed up for the Plesioth bounty to replace it.”

  “Sure…” the hunter drawled. “You’ll just let me do all the work and use the opportunity to get the gear you totally don’t deserve. And all of that only to die to an Arzuros once you go on a real solo hunt. Or you’ll just keep hijacking hunts of other, real hunters.”

  Valen tried. He really did. But he wasn’t going to sit there and let some random, arrogant asshole throw abuse at him based on assumptions. In one smooth move, he knocked the tankard out of Austin’s hand, pinned it to the table using a textbook armlock, and speared his carving knife into the table less than an inch from his wrist. Valen’s message was clear. I could have removed your hand and ended your career as a hunter in less than a second. The clattering of the tankard attracted eyes, and silence swiftly fell when everyone in the room noticed the scene.

  “Shut,” Valen hissed, glaring into Austin’s eyes, “The. Fuck. UP!” Valen punctuated every word, and shouted the last one. Austin still hadn’t reacted, stunned by the turn of events. “I did not survive several weeks, alone in the deep wilderness after losing my entire party to an invader just to be berated by some two-bit hunter that thinks he’s the stars’ gift to humanity! I watched my entire party die, and have done nothing but train for a month straight now just to make sure it won’t happen again, and I will not let that effort be dismissed. Apologize. Now.”

  Valen released the lock and shoved the hand back, glaring at the hunter. Austin stared back at him unflinchingly, rolling his wrist but otherwise remaining motionless. Murmurs broke out all around them, but neither of the two hunters reacted. It lasted long enough that the receptionist was starting to head towards them to break the argument when the burly hunter finally spoke, his lip curling as he tried to reclaim his bravado.

  “You’ve got guts I will admit. Meet me tomorrow, we leave at first light and don’t be late. The airship waits for no one.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be there,” Valen replied, with steel in his voice.

  Austin nodded, picked up his bag, and started heading towards the stairs, but paused at the bottom of them and turned to Valen. “Just to be clear, I’ll not foul you out of the hunt, but don’t get in my way once it properly starts.” Then he walked up the stairs, ending the discussion.

  Valen waited for a while longer to allow him to go in his room, then he stalked up the stairs and hurriedly entered his own room, locking the bolt behind him. One he was sure it was secure, he released the breath that he had been holding in a long, drawn-out sigh.

  “I never had my temper rise up like that,” he idly murmured. “I’m not usually that bothered by personal insults. What changed?” Taking deep breaths for a couple of minutes, he then went to get his belongings in order. He needed to prepare for tomorrow’s hunt… Where he would face off against a Plesioth.