Valen completed a last check of his equipment. His backpack was full of everything he might need during the hunt — several potions, a couple of them mega even, courtesy of a hive Nikki found for him. He had nullberries, rations, a few whetstones, and a lot of items to cure specific ailments should anything unplanned happen during the hunt.

  His backpack was given a once-over, and he focused on his armor, flexing every limb, and rolling his shoulders to make sure he had a good range of motion. He did a couple of jumps in place to test the stability, and decided that it was to his satisfaction. Finally, he checked his Switch Axe one last time to ensure that there were no faults in the mechanism that he might have missed earlier. He had already dismantled it to clean every internal part the past evening. Switching modes a couple of times and finding no faults, he hung it on his harness and nodded. Everything was ready.

  Descending the stairs, Valen looked at the empty hall. Not even the receptionist was up and about, which wasn’t much of a surprise, the sun hadn’t even risen yet. Thus he exited the building and wandered through the empty roads of the town. Only a few rays of sunshine of dawn gave him enough visibility to navigate through, and he kept as a marker the airship currently docked at the station.

  Even the blacksmith was silent, only embers powering the forge. Anybody else who wasn’t a hunter would be troubled by the eerie air, but for Valen, it was how he knew what a hunt’s day was like. You had to depart early so that you could have as much of the first day available to track your target. Because the more time between the posting of the hunt and its start, the harder it wass to find your target. The only exceptions were for urgent quests, which had dedicated trackers that provided regular updates on the status and position of the rampaging monster.

  Valen climbed the tower, which dominated the town’s skyline and allowed a safe docking place for airships as long as its buoyancy was maintained. It didn’t stop disasters from occurring, notably when a rampaging wyvern took it as a target when attacking a town or during violent storms, but it was why most towers had a clear space around them with no buildings that gave a buffer in case a rupture occurred.

  Once at the top, he was greeted by the captain of the airship, a man who had pepper hair and a well-trimmed beard, which was proof of his years of experience. He had kind eyes and was smiling at him. Behind the captain, there was a green colored balloon, instead of the usual white. He took note that it was due to the skin being dyed instead of being an unusual monster skin.

  “Hunter Valen I presume? Welcome to my ship, the Green Wing! Your companion is yet to be here but after all, you are early. I have been given an update on the area where your target was driven into right before I left, so you should not have too much difficulty tracking it down.”

  Valen nodded, it was good luck, he had to work with days-old information before, and it always increased the duration of the hunt, but having a fresh update was good. “I remember that a few dragonships were tasked to drive it off the sea and keep it off the shore?”

  “Indeed, three dragonships were assigned to the task. They couldn’t finish the hunt themselves, the bugger was faster than them, but at least they were keeping it off the shore. They pelt it with ballistae and cannons when they catch sight of it, which has been enough to dissuade it for now.” He retrieved a scroll from his pocket, checking something then continued. “They are worried it may try to either cross further east and escape the blockade or go further inland and disturb the ecosystem.”

  Valen scratched his chin in thought, pondering, then nodded. “I guess that’s the best we can hope for. We shouldn’t have much difficulty tracking it at least, a Piscine Wyvern that is landlocked leaves a lot of tracks, given they usually stay in the water. Thank you for informing me.”

  The captain nodded and was about to reply before both of them heard the footsteps coming from the stairs, the sound of somebody climbing up. They waited until Austin came into sight, fully geared out, his Greatsword immediately noticeable, given that it looked like an oversized kitchen knife. He nodded towards the captain and only looked at Valen for a split second, grudgingly grunting in approval at him being already here.

  The captain repeated the information he had already given to Valen, and Austin nodded, evidently not having any comments on the situation. Then the captain said that they would be leaving in a couple dozen minutes, with only the final preparations to complete.

  Valen volunteered his help and they were able to leave a bit sooner. Once the last tasks were done, the captain undid the knot anchoring the ship to the tower, and he started the propellers.

  The technology used to make the propeller function in the airship was something that was not widespread, but from what Valen could glean, it used the supernatural properties of monster sacs — the source of their power, able to function long after their death. It was the same kind of technology that powered a spit-roast burner, for example, just scaled up to make an airship propeller function.

  Regardless, they quickly picked up speed and altitude, the town first occupying a large part of their sight at the bottom, then rapidly shrinking until it was only a dot on the ground. It was also at this moment that dawn properly started, the sun peeking beyond the horizon and spreading golden rays of sunshine over the land. The sight mesmerized Valen, the only other time he ever took an airship having been already in the middle of the day.

  “Amazing sight eh? I never get tired of it, and it’s why I prefer taking passengers only at the first light when possible. The sheer marvel on their faces is what allows me to wake up so early in the day.”

  “I… can understand. I won’t say it's the most beautiful sight I’ve seen, but it comes close.”

  “Ohoh? Not often somebody admits they have seen something better before. I won’t pry but can’t deny I’m curious.”

  “It’s something I’m sure I’ll share only with a few… If ever.” Valen said while the memory of the light of dawn illuminating Nikki’s sleeping form flashed through his mind. She had looked at peace and yet it put in focus just how much she was different from the surrounding nature… It truly showed what she represented to him. A reminder that while they had a precious friendship, she was something completely outside the normal ecosystem, something that could be destructive if she wished so, but she took great lengths to keep the disturbances to the minimum.

  Shaking his head to clear the memory, he noticed the captain smiling at him, while Austin just grunted, looking away. Then the captain looked ahead.

  “We have reached cruise speed, at this rate we should be where you need to be at midday.”

  Valen nodded, that would give them enough time to try to track their target and maybe even engage it before nightfall. Then he tilted his head, a question coming to his lips. “I’m curious though, I didn’t know there were airships that only needed a single person to operate, the other ones I’ve seen I’ve always seen a crew of a few people on it, same when I used one with… My old team.”

  The captain nodded. “It’s something you can apply for once you have been captaining for a few years. However, the tests to make sure you have got what you need to handle it are really tough… Maybe even harder than the Guild Knights tests.” Valen was surprised by this fact, to which the captain chuckled. “Airships are vulnerable to anything in the air above the size of a Remobra, most of my test was to make sure I could use routes that would let me stay safe and that I could fend off the smaller flying pests. I don’t regret it, it allowed me to get one of the fastest airships available and the guild pays me well since I mostly handle transport for urgent quests.”

  Valen nodded. The captain’s arguments made sense, even if he hadn’t given it much thought before. He looked down at the ground, slowly passing by down below. It also made him realize that an airship would never match a Valstrax no matter what. They were flying at a snail’s pace compared to the short flight he did when Nikki got him down the mountain. But at least he was somewhere he could walk on instead of being carried in her claws.

  “Go do something, I don’t care what so long as you don’t run around my ship. I’ll warn you once we are getting close to your destination. You’ll have to be prepared to go down by rope then because taking off after landing on the ground is a pain.”

  Valen nodded, about to go sit down and meditate before he frowned his eyes and asked one last question. “Why the green balloon?”

  “Because I like it!”

  The sun was at its zenith when Valen was sliding down the rope the captain threw overboard, hovering on the top of a cliff that faced the sea. A dragonship could be seen patrolling a bit away from the shore, its sails filled with wind. Valen could faintly see the white bones reinforcing its hull. Then it disappeared, out of sight now that he was on the ground.

  Looking up, he shouted. “I’m safely down! You can remove the rope!”

  “Thanks, lad! And happy hunting!” The captain shouted back in response, beginning to drag the rope back up. It only took a short minute, and then the airship started pulling away, helped by the winds and its propellers.

  Once the airship was safely away, Austin grunted to attract Valen’s attention.

  “Some ground rules before we start the hunt. First of all, do you know the callouts?”

  “Contrary to what you may think Austin, I’m not a novice. This is just a hunt I picked to get new gear after my previous set was destroyed.”

  The antagonistic hunter gave him a stink eye for this rebuttal, then said, “I’ll take that as a yes, but I’ll not be responsible if you don’t listen to my warnings. The second rule is that you let me do the damage and just do your job and act as a distraction.” He raised a hand to stall Valen’s protests. “That is a fact, your crude weapon can’t do fuck-all damage to our target. You can try to take some potshots, but the reality of the matter is that I’ll be the one that will split the scales apart and dig through the soft parts.”

  Valen grumbled he didn’t like it, but his companion was right. With his current gear, he would be hard-pressed to deal damage to a monster of the Plesioth’s caliber.

  “Also, is that limp going to be an issue in combat? I need to know before you overextend yourself.”

  “Never was in my training after I recovered, and I did several sessions that lasted a whole day.”

  Ausrin seemed a bit dubious but accepted this statement. “Let's start tracking then, we’re burning daylight.”

  Valen nodded, then pulled out a piece of parchment. “Here’s the report of the last sighting that the captain was given. We should be able to get a track from here.” He handed the parchment to his companion, which Austin snatched away immediately.

  After studying the report for a moment, and comparing the notes with his map, they both checked their positions with their compass, then they set out in the direction of the last known position of the monster.

  A couple of hours later, they found footprints that matched their target. The hunt was on. They followed the tracks, the soft ground making the task easier for them, and the fact they could confirm it was fresh meant that the Piscine Wyvern was not that far ahead of them.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Both had already eaten the large takeout meal they were handed out for the hunt, giving them enough energy for the strenuous activity that would soon take place. And soon enough, Valen noticed something.

  “Austin, look at my Right Wing. That looks like a deceased Ludroth." His companion turned to look and nodded, that was a Ludroth cadaver indeed. Valen approached it and inspected it. “Shattered spine. Looks like a tail swipe from our target. It hit that tree back-first, the tracks seem to confirm the motion. Its mane is also still damp… We’re close.This isn’t even one hour old.”

  The Greatsword wielder grunted, he acknowledged the inspection Valen did and they both went on guard, the presence of the Ludroth meant that they might be ambushed as well.

  Their suspicions were confirmed when they arrived at the top of a cove a while later. It was a large one, and there was also a deep pool of water at the bottom, however, the cliff was steep and didn’t look scalable. The tracks seemed to go around it. Valen inspected them, then immediately put a hand on his weapon, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice. “Very fresh, it’s nearby. I suspect it wants to go to the bottom to reach the water, but doesn't want to be trapped.”

  He then turned around and immediately shouted. “AUSTIN, LEFT REAR!”

  Even as he called out Valen had already rolled to the side, drawing his Switch Axe in the same motion. Instinct seemed to take over Austin, who rolled perpendicular to the direction Valen indicated and narrowly avoided a blast of water expelled by the Plesioth in his direction. The Plesioth looked like a giant fish with legs. Blue scales swept towards its tail, each as big as one of Valen’s fists, and they looked sharp enough to cut his hand should he even brush up against them the wrong way. The tail finished with a fan of webbed spikes, powerful enough to propel the monster underwater. Its head was hideous, the eyes larger than Velen felt they should have been. It swiftly cut the pressure jet of water that it was expelling, and immediately drew itself up and roared, challenging them both.

  Austin looked back, and immediately, Valen could see his whole stance shift. He went into a crouch, Austin’s hand gripped tightly his weapon’s handle… And what he said next gave Valen chills.

  “Finally… The hunt begins! I will claim your heart!” The bestial, wild tone of the hunter immediately told Valen that something was not right with his companion. He shook his head to clear the distraction away.He could worry about that once the hunt was done.

  Austin exploded into motion, running up towards the Plesioth, who had started to lunge to try to bite through the Greatsword wielder in one swift move, but he deftly sidestepped and drew his weapon with one smooth motion. The attack wasn’t very swift, but possessed a great deal of momentum. It crashed into the Plesioth’s scales, cracking a couple of them on impact. Reeling from the blow, it recovered swiftly and tried to bash Austin with his head, who was recovering his weapon from the ground and barely had the time to interpose it between himself and the giant fish.

  A loud CLANG resounded through the air, and Austin was sent skidding back a few meters, bracing himself so that he wasn’t sent flat on his back.

  While all of this happened, Valen had crossed the distance between him and the Plesioth, and once he reached his opponent, he struck at the fin on its flank, deciding to leave the head for his companion. Valen’s overhead axe attack connected with the Plesioth, but almost no effect was visible. The Plesioth flinched a bit before dismissing him as a threat and decided to focus back on the one that struck its head.

  Valen sighed. He probably was in over his head when he decided to pick this hunt, it’d take a lot of strikes to tear through the scales… But he wouldn’t let it discourage him. He would carry his own weight on this hunt, and wouldn’t leave all the work to his rude companion.

  Continuing his assault, Valen struck again at the fins, aiming for the point where they were connected to his body this time, hoping that he would distract it at a crucial moment by severing the softer tendons.

  While doing a rising slash, he noticed that the monster had paused his assault and was rearing back his tail. Knowing what it meant, he immediately shouted: “TAIL SWEEP!” Before preparing to duck through it should the monster do a complete circle.

  The Greatsword wielder paused and refrained from committing through an overhead slash aimed at the cracked scales. He held his Greatsword with both hands, one hand on the handle, the other on the blunt side of the blade, and dove forwards, the tail passing above him while he was close to the ground, rolled forwards using his heavy weapon as a pivot, then once he was back to his feet, he planted his feet steady on the ground and used what remained of his momentum to transfer it to the gigantic blade, holding both hands on the handle this time and did a powerful rising slash with a grunt of effort.

  The slash connected with the bottom of the tail, finding a gap between two tails and digging an inch inside the soft flesh.

  A high-pitched roar of pain was what the monster emitted in response, causing Valen to clasp both his hands on his ears, while Austin just withstood the pain.

  Once the ringing in his ears stopped, Valen turned to look and blanched. Bubbles started leaking from his mouth, and he could feel the anger in its eyes, he knew what it meant. “ENRAGED!” Valen shouted as loud as he could.

  A monster being enraged was both good and very bad news. Good because it meant it tired out faster. Very bad… Because it meant that now it wanted you dead and would no longer fight for territory or just to make you go away. It would chase you until your body was completely broken. Not all monsters went into a rage state, and rare were those that did it so early in a hunt. Most of the time they were already very tired from the prolonged fighting and only could sustain it for a couple minutes since it was a last resort for them.

  This early though? It meant that it had been irritated enough by being driven from its natural habitat and no longer cared about its future health as long as they ended up a bloody puddle.

  Valen was worried about his companion though, because of the way he started the hunt. If his hunch was right, and he hoped it was wrong, Austin would probably try to power through the rage because he thought he could take it.

  And as he saw him stare defiantly at the Plesioth, his Greatsword held in a guard stance, he knew what Austin was trying.

  “COME AT ME FISH! SHOW ME HOW PUNY YOU ARE!”

  Then the Plesioth threw his head forward and sent a big jet of pressurized water at him.

  Austin tilted his Greatsword upwards, deflecting the water above him, though it still was drenching the top of his helmet. He used the tilt to redirect the force downwards, allowing him to dig his heels on the ground… Which was rapidly turning into mud due to the great amount of water that was pouring into it.

  Recovering his spirits, Valen ran towards the side of the head where Austin had scored his first blow, and, smoothly shifting into sword mode, put all of his force on the cracked scales, managing to damage them just a bit further. The damage was better than what he tried before, but it was enough, making the giant monster flinch and diverting the pressure jet from the other hunter. Not deterred, Valen followed with an upswing in the same place, actually drawing blood this time.

  It was then that the Plesioth decided to close his mouth with a loud CLACK, stopping his breath attack. Valen didn’t need to wait for it to start looking at him to know it now was about to only focus on him. And by the time its gaze was turned on him, Valen had sheathed his weapon on his back and was bolting, running as fast as he could, glancing behind after making sure he was not running towards a rock.

  His initiative was the right one, as the Plesioth immediately started running towards him, shooting a quick blast of water occasionally, trying to trip him. But it had to build up momentum before it could catch up to him.

  Valen ran for a few seconds then immediately turned left, having heard his opponent getting closer. He felt the SNAP of the jaws trying to bite him, but only closing on empty air, and a glance behind him made him note that the Plesioth was skidding, losing traction when trying to turn the corner. It immediately picked his speed back up, now screeching in fury. Valen knew it would be a long while and a test of his endurance… To outlast the wyvern.

  The next minutes were a blur for the hunter, dodging trees, and water blasts, changing direction occasionally once it was catching up. But Valen could see it was getting closer with each attempt, managing to turn the corners better, to not bleed all of its speed at once. He had to rely on using natural obstacles like trees or rocks to slow it down more and more. And he didn’t know how much energy it still had in it.

  It was when he looked behind him he saw the first sign, suddenly the Plesioth tripped a bit but managed to catch himself back up, but a tad slower than before. Slowing down a bit to catch his breath, he noticed that ahead of him was the cove. If he could make it fall down, it would make their task easier he thought.

  It was when he was thinking about a plan that he turned around and his eyes widened in horror.

  The Plesioth finally had enough and with open space around him… It was finally able to perform the move that his species was most famous for. It was pivoted sideways to Valen, his gigantic legs reared back, and thrust his whole hips forward.

  The Plesioth hipcheck was among the hunters the move that had the most speculation about it… Not because of how powerful it is or the awkward way it looked while doing it… But as to how such a move could create a shockwave able to send hunter tumbling or break bones at close range.

  Some hunters were outright killed just because of standing in front of it, taking the full brunt of it. And standing behind the Plesioth while it was performing didn’t make you safe either, as for some reason there was still enough overpressure to knock somebody on their ass if they were not bracing.

  The only saving grace was that it seemed to be a move that was exhausting for the monster as well, only doing it a couple of times per hunt at most, but it was the move all hunters watched for while hunting this monster.

  Thankfully for Valen, he was far enough away that all of it did was send him rolling in the dirt. It still knocked the air out of him though and he had to take a couple deep breaths before being able to look back to his opponent.

  Which was now panting heavily, but walking towards him slowly, its whitish eyes glaring at him with sheer anger. And it managed to start trotting towards him only a moment later… Before lunging at him.

  Due to not being back on his feet properly and not braced correctly to dodge sideways, but with his legs still under him, Valen jumped in the only direction he could.

  Up.

  Suddenly the jaw snapped at loose dirt, and he was astride the gigantic fish… It only took a split second before he reacted and unsheathed his weapon, unfolding it into axe mode and slamming it on the wounded side of its face, behind his leg, which had only dried blood now.

  That had more effect than before this time and the Plesioth reared back, jostling Valen around, and throwing him on his back. But he managed to hold on, and with desperation, unholstered his carving knife and stabbed it between two scales, stopping him from sliding away further. It didn’t make him safe now, as the Plesioth was now bucking around, trying to throw him off, but Valen held on, left hand with his knife, right hand with his Switch Axe that was using one fin to stabilize.

  The wyvern flailed around for several seconds before it stopped, trying to catch its breath. And Valen would not let the opening go to waste. He ran up its spine while pressing both triggers on his weapon, transitioning it into sword mode and making a glow build up in the axe part… And when he slammed it into the wound, he slid his hand down a bit, making the inside trigger pop back up, and release the built-up pressure, making an explosion detonate inside its flesh. Some bits of muscle were thrown around, however, the effect that he looked for the most happened. The Plesioth ran away instinctively from where it got wounded…

  Directly into the cliff and the drop below.

  Knowing what was about to happen, Valen pulled back the other trigger, morphing his weapon back into Axe mode, wincing about what he was about to do.

  He slammed the axe head into the cliff, digging deep into it but his weight and momentum were still dragging him down, and the result was that he was carving a deep scar into the cliff, which thankfully wasn’t a compact rock, so he was going down at a reasonable speed.

  The side effect was that it produced a high-pitched sound that hurt Valen’s ear but he just grit his teeth and pursued his descent.

  Several seconds later, he wrenched violently his weapon out of the cliff dropped the last feet down, and got himself back into stance, noting immediately that the axe edge of his weapon was ruined, so he idly morphed it back into Sword mode.

  The Plesioth was thrashing around, having definitely been impacted by the fall it just suffered. However, Valen knew it would only last a moment, and that he had to finish it off before it could get back on its feet.

  It was just as when Valen was about to trot as fast as he could that he realized that he was hearing a loud shout of rage, and just because he could puzzle it out, a blur impacted the flailing head of the Plesioth, and a loud CRUNCH and CRACK of bones splintering resounded loudly into the cove. An explosion of gore was projected on the opposite side of it… And the monster immediately went still.

  It only took a moment for Valen to realize what just happened, as he saw the form of Austin next to the decapitated neck of the monster, holding his Greatsword with two hands… The Greatsword that he could see was now missing a chunk in the middle.

  Only the sound of panting could be heard for a while, before Austin turned towards Valen and said: “I retract what I said, you ain’t bad.”

  Valen was stunned for a moment before a chuckle escaped him, then full-out laughed, joined by his partner. The tension that had mounted on him over the beginning of the hunt finally faded away. Their task was complete.