trials of the crimson gunner

The division of team pink: The trials of the crimson gunner

Chapter 6

The rathalos did not follow Liam and had not dealt any major damage to him. This was however no major comfort to Liam as he was plummeting to the ground at great speed from a rather high cliff edge. Liam himself had engaged in many life risking battles of late and had contemplated what his final thoughts and words might be many times. However these thought had gone out the window, as the only thoughts going through Liam’s mind were profanities. As Liam fell he just kept looking at where he had once been on the cliff edge of area four. He was too scared to do anything else. He may have chosen to close his eyes and hope for a swift death had his mind not been flooded with a thousand words for distaste. Eventually it took his brain partly shutting down out of fright to get him to close his eyes. All he could do now was listen to the air rush upwards past him and feel his stomach swelling from the fall.

“This will probably hurt” his brain eventually managed to squeeze out. “Hope the cats don’t rob my corpse.”

He felt the pull of gravity getting stronger. He knew the ground was near. He remembered the feel of falling caused by many up-swing accidents caused by Mikle. He pulled what thought he had together to grit his teeth and hold his eyes closed tight. However the hit was surprisingly less painful then he originally anticipated.

“What’s this?” he thought realising he hadn’t died. “This isn’t ground its softer?”

“Get off me!” yelled a girl's voice.

Liam opened his eyes to find he had in fact landed on a female hunter.

“Get off!” she yelled again, pushing Liam off and getting to her feet. “What just happened? Where’d you come from?”

“Up there.” Replied Liam. Finally regaining full control of his thoughts. “I was hunting this rathalos up in area four and it just kinda knocked me off the edge.”

Liam stood up to see if anything was broken. Interestingly and impossibly enough nothing was broken. Some bruises and a lot of pain but nothing that wouldn’t mend. He brushed off any dust or broken kut-ku scales from his armour.

“So what’s a noob hunter doing attacking a rathalos?” she asked in a condescending way looking at his armour.

“Noob?” replied Liam confused and a little insulted. “Oh I see, my armour. No no I’ve killed way bigger monsters than a kut-ku I’m just wear this cause I prefer it.”

“What kind of hunter prefers pink armour?” She spoke to herself with a childish giggle. “Was there this other guy with you in pink armour with a defender great sword?” she asked like she’d picked up on something.

“You know Mikle? Why the question?” asked Liam more intrigued

“Oh no real reason. So you do stuff with him do you?” she asked in a joking rhetorical manor.

Liam brushed off the remark as harmless banter. “So what your name?”

“Trix” she replied.

Liam took a moment to see if she was joking and then noticed something. “ This area isn’t registered on the guild map. Your not allowed to be here.”

“I’m on a special quest for the guild. I got situational clearance to be here.” Trix replied “ I had just finished when you landed on me.”

Liam felt like she was insulting him without letting him know it. He sensed that she felt superior because she was wearing rathalos armour. Liam then noticed what she was wearing on her ear. He sniggered to himself at his internal victory. She was wearing a protection piercing, a piece of jewellery that made a hunter guard when they should if they hadn’t learned how to guard right.

Liam’s victory was short as from on top of the cliff he heard a rathalos roar. As it began to fly into sight, Liam pulled out his blood shotgun and engaged the scope. It was not the same rathalos that had attacked him. It was younger, much younger. Its hide hadn’t a scratch on it. It still had shine to its scales and a glow in its eyes. It was a teenaged rathalos. One of the worst kind. It must have just learned how to fly and attack. Teenage rathalos were terrible; as they had never experienced battle they had no fear and never flew away. Liam loaded one of his last two clusters.

“What is it?” asked Trix anxiously.

“wyvern.” Replied Liam. “Now let me aim.”

“I got the impression it was a wyvern, I wanted to know what kind.” Insisted Trix angrily.

“It’s a teen rathalos and it hasn’t spotted us yet. So please be quite and let me aim”

“ yer but what are we gonna do?” asked Trix frustratedly pulling out her poison axe.  

“I’m going to shoot it! So shut up and let me aim!” shouted Liam.

He readied the shot. Liam took into account all the calculation of drift, distance and speed. He now had his perfect shot that if it hit the rathalos would fall into a near by cluster of bomberries and ignite them, blowing itself up. He prepared the shot. Trix nudged him to get his attention and knocked his aim. He fired.

“But what if you miss?” Trix whispered.

The shell rocketed through the air exploding but a few feet from the rathalos teen. It roared in anger and dove the origin of the shot. Liam proceeded to swear at Trix but his anger would have to wait as the wyvern got closer. Liam loaded another cluster shot as Trix guarded. The rathalos swooped over them, claws bearing. Liam dived and Trix was shook back by the block. It swooped again catching Trix and Liam off guard. Trix escaped the attack with a gash in her armour but Liam was sent flying into a small bush of bomberries.

“Perfect” thought Liam grabbing a hand full.

Trix ran at the beast as it landed. The gust alone forcing her to guard. The monster quickly turned and ran at her. Trix quickly fell to her back and as the wyvern ran over her she slashed at its belly. The wyvern let out a pain filled scream. It had never felt such pain before. Enraged it span round to face Trix and fired its largest fireball at her. She rolled to the side avoiding the blast, ran at the blazing mouthed creature and got between its legs as she had with many other of its kind before. She slashed and hacked at the creature’s underbelly as its blood spilled out in gushes. The rathalos flew up, the gusts knocking Trix back. She began to wonder what happened to that pink hunter who had miraculously disappeared. She looked up to see the creature lunging at her with its stinger. She panicked and forgot to guard. The monster continued its flight path and stung her in the belly. She flew back in pain.

“Damn.” She grunted clutching her belly with one hand and searching her pockets with the other. “Why did I forget the antidotes?”

The attack itself was powerful and its poison was slowly draining away Trix’s life. The cocky teen rathalos knew this and slowly walked up to Trix. It salivated and snarled, as it knew Trix was now too weak to move. Trix thought about what she could do. The kitty wagon wouldn’t save her; she wasn’t in a guild-registered area. She couldn’t go and find parts to make antidote the poison would kill her before she could even find a blue mushroom. Trix still clutched at her axe, even though she no longer had the strength to lift it. She looked up and the drooling face of her monstrous killer as it almost seamed to smile in delight of watching her suffer. Suddenly she felt a shot from behind, she was engulfed in green light and she felt a small amount of health return. Not much but enough to do what she was going to do. She swung her axe up with all he might at the rathalos that was stunned by the shot’s light. It stuck right into the flesh of the rathalos’s lower jaw. The beast gurgled blood for a few moments until Trix removed the blade and unleashed a frenzy of stabs and slashes. Scales and chunks flew off the monster’s head in every direction a Trix swiped and slashed not letting a second go by without more bloodshed. Eventually the rathalos managed to get airborne, blood dripping from the sky out of its wounds. Trix looked up to see rocket after rocket blast into the rathalos. It swooped and dived dodging a few but for each it missed three more collided. The missiles seamed endless, Trix looked round frantically to see were they came from. She looked over to a hill to see Liam on top of it. Next to him a pile of bomberries and husk berries. After every shot he mixed one from each pile to make another cluster shot. The rathalos made a short retreat behind a large hill as Trix ran towards Liam, the burst of health from the recover shot being withered away by the poison.

“I need an antidote.” Trix demanded as she arrived at Liam exhausted.
“Oh is that all the thanks I get for saving your life?” Liam joked.

“Antidote! Now!” yelled Trix, not willing to put up with any flimflam due to the extreme pain of the poison.

“Ok ok.” Liam replied passing her an antidote. “But I did save your life.”

“Yer. Well if you’d been there shooting from the start I wouldn’t have been in that situation. Where were you?” asked Trix in a frustrated voice as she gulped down the antidote.

“I was getting these bomb and husk berries.” Replied Liam. “This hill is abundant in them.”

From out of nowhere the rathalos struck. Liam panicked and every shot he fired at it missed as the monster got closer. It landed right in front of the two of them and bit right at Liam. It knew what the threat was. Liam thought as quickly as he could, jamming the blood shotgun into the rathalos’s mouth. The monster ripped it away from Liam and tried to chew at it. The bowgun began to spark and sizzle, eventually exploding inside the rathalos’s mouth, it reminisce still caught in its teeth.

“Fuck!” yelled Liam. “My gun! I need that gun! I’m a gunner! Gunners need guns!”

In a foolish blind rage, Liam whipped out his carving knife and ran at the teenage rathalos. The rathalos span round, hitting Liam with its tail and sending him flying. Trix rolled her eyes at Liam’s stupidity and ran at rathalos with her poison axe.

Liam landed on the other side of the hill. He shook his head and got up. He looked around and began to think more logically. He would need a weapon, any weapon. He strayed only a few meters from where he landed to find something quite interesting. It was a skeleton, in armour, with and eager cleaver kantana still in its hands. The skeleton was still standing in the great sword holding pose but most interestingly was it was still smoking from were some wyvern had incinerated him and the grass around him. Liam snapped the skeletal hands on the blade and placed in on his back. Apon doing this he realised that there were footprints in the ash around the body. They looked similar to yian kut-ku but slightly different. Liam also knew that a yian kut-ku could not do this much damage so he dismissed the entire thing and ran off in the direction of the rathalos.

Trix was still fighting the monster. She had been ducking and rolling to dodge its attack and slashing whenever possible. The tail flew round to strike her. Trix saw her chance and leaped into the air. The made a powerful downward cut on the tail and the stinger was cleaved straight off. The rathalos screamed and flew into the air. It began flaming at the mouth; it was going to blast a fireball straight at her. Trix once again panicked and forgot to guard but just as it was about to fire the flames resided and the rathalos rotated. It had found a new target. Liam had come yelling and charging over the hill, kantana in hand and not a clue how to use it. The rathalos shot a ball of flame at him, missing but hitting the pile of bomberries Liam had left there, igniting them. The berries blew sending Liam flying right at the rathalos at incredible speed on fire. The fire burned away and the frail blue webbing keeping his pink armour together. The armour fell off burned and charred as Liam shot further onward at rathalos. The teen beast fired blast after blast at Liam, each one adding to the ball of fire that was the helpless hunter torpedo. Liam realised that despite the immense pain, that shooting at the dragon on fire could be a good thing. He readied the kantana, gritted his teeth and stared onward at the approaching rathalos. The ball of flames hit and Liam delivered a mighty stab into the monster's back. Liam followed it through and ran down the monster’s spine, dragging the blade with him thought the monsters bones and organs. He arrived at the head, pulled the blade out of its neck and stabbed it right into the beast’s brain. They fell together in flames. The corpse of the former wyvern slid across the ground. Liam hopped off the body and began to carve. Trix wasted no time in running up to the dead rathalos.

“Is it dead” she asked quite stupidly

“If its not it suffers from some major ass narcolepsy” Liam joked pulling the sword out of its head and brushing off ash from his arms and chest.

“Why aren’t you burnt to a crisp?” Trix asked flabbergasted at his survival.

“Oh I took a mega-armourskin before I came charging up that hill yelling and shouting. I’m not a complete idiot.” Liam smirked.

Trix looked at Liam with the angry look of someone who was just made to look stupid. Liam looked at her with cocky confident eyes of someone who just killed a rathalos. The stare of anger lasted a few moments until it was interrupted by a white cat popping out of the ground.

“Message for one Miss Trix from a captain Doyle” Announced the cat in guild uniform. “He asks if you have finished your mission here?”

“I have” replied Trix.

“The he asks that you return to the fortress and enlist the assistance of any hunters you see on the way.”

“I shall.” Replied Trix. The cat and Trix saluted each other and the cat popped back into its hole. “I guess I’ve got to enlist your help. Would you like to assist the guild and your country by joining me at the guild mister……?”

“Oh its Liam and yes I will come with you to the fortress.”

Without a word they both set out east to the fortress and away from the setting sun.

Chapter 7
  
After two days of continuous walking and arguing they arrived at the fortress. It was early morning and the sun was still behind the grand castle, rendering it an epic silhouette. The two hunters walked up through the very long caverns to eventually reach the grand gates of the fortress.

“Open up!” yelled Trix at the gates.  

With these words the gates opened just enough to let Liam and Trix slide in. Liam pondered if it was because they were being very secure in fear or just being lazy that made them open that door slightly. Liam looked around in awe at the vastness of the structure. Trix just kept walking, rolling her eyes at Liam as he stumbled around looking at the castle and the armour of all the hunters who currently inhabited it.

“What are all these hunters doing here?” asked Liam.

“Defending the fortress and the city that’s behind it.” Replied Trix.

“I guessed that much.” replied Liam sarcastically. “What I meant is what are they defending it from?”

“Ask captain Doyle yourself when you volunteer.” She replied whilst approaching a wooden door.

They entered and in sat an old but by not means weak hunter, who was yelling at a lesser hunter.

“What do you mean the guns wont work!?” yelled the older and much larger hunter.

“What I mean captain is that the guns in the stores are old and dusty. They won’t fire more than two or three shots with out exploding themselves.” Replied the other hunter looking a little intimidated.

“Listen missy I didn’t send a team of hunters to collect bomberries to make a big fucking bomb pie!” Yelled the captain at the almost crying female hunter. “Those berries are becoming cluster shells and those guns will be fired if they have to be used as explosives themselves after wards! You are dismissed Mickey!”

“eeeerrrr Meikaea captain.” She replied timidly.

“I said you’re dismissed!” he yelled again as she promptly left the room. He looked over to see Trix and Liam waiting. “Report Trix. Did you get the bomberries?”

“I went to the hill sides where they were abundant.” She replied. “I managed to collect three hundred.”

“Good but I don’t think it will be enough.” Spoke the captain peering out a window at the caverns. “Were there and difficulties?”

“Yes captain, a teen rathalos attacked us but we deal with it.”

“We? Who is we?  No one else is allowed in that area.”

“Yes but you see this hunter here fell from area four captain.”

Captain Doyle turned round and looked at Liam who still hadn’t found any armour and was just in battle leggings.

“So he survived the fall from area four? That’s quite impressive.”

“Well he landed on me captain” replied Trix

Captain Doyle burst into laughter. He had to lean on his great sword just so he didn’t fall over from laughing so hard. Trix tried to conceal her humility and anger. Liam began to snigger slightly only just realising had it not been so painful it was actually quite funny. Doyle eventually calmed down and looked a Liam.

“So you came here to help out did you?” asked Doyle.

“Well yer I guess. It would help if I knew what I was helping for.” Replied Liam respectfully.

“Oh Trix didn’t tell you. The rathalos and rathians are migrating from the snowy regions of Mineguard but unfortunately their normal migratory route is blocked by volcanic activity. So their route will come through here and they will need to feed from their long flight. What do you suppose they will feed on?”

“I see. So how many will come through here?” asked Liam.

“The last scout claimed there was three fifty coming through. Most red and green ones but some blue and pink and there was even a report of a gold and silver pair leading them.” Answered Doyle walking towards the door. “Follow.”

They walked through the system of courtyards and battlements. Hunters and cats were cleaning cannons and preparing ammunition. Others were making alterations to the smaller cannons so they could aim both up and down. Although this fortress had some of the most advanced technology guarding it there was not enough to be over confident and hunters were constructing catapults and large barrel bombs as ammunitions for them. Liam stopped and stared out at the bridges noticing they were constructing rather rudimentary cannons that would fire anything loaded into them. Liam almost let out a laugh as he noticed the cannons were being filled with cutlery.

“Our plan is simple.” Announced the captain still walking and not actually looking at anyone. “Every blademaster hunter will be armed with a one of the old bowguns from the armoury and three cluster shells. When the raths first come flying into distance we will fire at them in a line by line formation hopefully knocking as many onto the ground as possible. Once a blademaster hunter has run out of clusters or their gun has broken according to Micky, they will run out into the caverns and attack any fallen raths who are still alive. Chances are the rathians will land and attack from the ground anyway, so any hunter who just thinks they’re killing the weakened ones might get a horrible surprise. Now for gunners we will have them on the cannons until there is nothing left to fire. Then they will pull out their guns and open fire on the rathalos who might be reluctant to land and join our blademasters. We’ve also hired several teams of cats. Some to operate kitty wagons, other to throw bombs down from the canyon sides and other to operate a system of large torches.”

“What are the torches for?” inquired Liam.

“Tonight we will turn off all the lights in the fortress and city. Then light several torches in areas around the canyon. These will look like packs of hunters to raths and some of their numbers will go and attack these supposed hunters in search of food. This will divide their force giving us a better chance of victory.”

Liam wondered why the captain was being so respectful of him. He could only assume that he was being judged on the impressive great sword he had stolen from the incinerated skeleton. Liam didn’t mind though but it would be hard for him to explain to the captain that he was useless with it and was in dire need of a gun if he were to be of any use in the battle tonight.

“Captain where might I get some armour and a bowgun?” Liam asked in as eager voice as he could muster.

“Ha ha cocky aren’t we boy. You’ll still have to wait til night to kill something. But you may be able to get something from the armoury. Just ask around and you should find it.”

“That’s ok. I’m sure Trix will show me were it is.”

“I’m afraid not boy. Trix and I have things to discuss. See you tonight.”

And with that they walked off. Liam asked around and was eventually shown the way to the armoury. He asked for any armour and managed to get his hands on some old and dusty basarios blademaster armour. He was eventually allowed in the gun stores but it wasn’t what Liam had hoped. They were all basic crossbow guns. None of them had been fully upgraded, with no zoom scope or long barrel. Worse yet they were very old and about to break. Liam looked for ages finding the best of the two thousand bow guns to be mod level four with a wooden tube for a long barrel and a pair of binoculars with one eye broken strapped to the top of it for a scope. Not that this mattered very much as each hunter was only given three shots. He spent the rest of the day practising with the kantana and not getting much better.

Chapter 8

It came to night and like captain Doyle said all the lights went out. All the blademasters stood in thirty-one lines of thirteen across the main fortress wall. Their dusty tapped together guns to their right on the floor and their three shells on the left. The first row on one knee with their guns in hand loaded with one shot. The second row was doing the same except standing up. Liam was in the third row. He could just make out some gunners on one of the bridges. One was smoking, that section of the bridge visible because of it. Makeshift cannons with their operators behind them, the persons who would load it again its side. Liam looked again at the man with the cigar, another hunter came at him and knocked it out of his hand, shrouding the bridge in shadows again. Liam watched the cigar fall through the canyon and go out in a puddle on the ground. Liam listened and heard the sound of plates in armour slightly knocking as the hunter tried to stay still, slight whispers of prayers and convocation between friends. A quick shush from the captain and it was silent once more. Liam began to wonder what he was doing here. When he agreed to do it he just thought it was what hunters are meant to do. But now as he looked at the hunters next to him with far superior armour and weapons looking so full of fear, he wondered if agreeing to this suicide mission was the greatest of plans. He looked out as far he could see which was only to the front row and noticed that all the hunters had lances.

“Coincidence.” Liam thought wishing that he had a proper gun.

The night only got darker and the silence was broken by the sound of beating wings. The flaps got louder and more numerous. The raths were comings. Their growls began to work their way through the air and to all the hunters in the canyon. Liam looked around to see some of his fellow hunters shacking in fear. Liam himself started shaking. A female hunter in front of Liam held tighter on her bowgun and began to aim. All the hunters in the two rows in front of Liam did the same.

Captain Doyle whispered. “Ready…aim…”

The count was interrupted by a blast from the bridge. Some one had worried and fired to early the position was given. The raths began firing at the bridge.

“Fire!” yelled the captain.

Like he had pulled the trigger himself, everyone in the first two rows fired into the rath hordes in the sky, this was soon followed by all cannons and bombardier cats. The barrage of explosive was quickly followed as the hunters reloaded and fired again. The raths tried to dodge the armada of explosives and fried numerous of their own. The hunter loaded and fired their final cluster; the night sky was illuminated with fire. Many rathalos and rathians fell from the sky and crashed into the rocky caverns. The first row dropped their guns and jumped from the wall, shortly followed by the second row. Apon landing the hunters with lance formed a line and locked their shields together to form a wall. With their lances held back behind the shields the wall charged at the fallen dragons. The wall pushed the fallen with them and forced the ones who had got back to their feet to reverse. Once all the dragons were clustered together in the tightest part of the cavern, the wall of hunters pulled their shield to the side and continued the charge with their lance pointing prominent. Most of the fallen raths were skewed and killed, the rest were torn apart by the second row who had had jumped down and followed.

The battle was far from over, as many more raths still inhabited the sky. The third and forth row moved to the front of the wall. Liam picked up his gun, loaded and began to aim. He was promptly kicked in the back of the leg by the hunter behind him as he had forgotten to get down on one knee to let the hunter behind him fire. The kick caused Liam to accidentally fire and the shot flew of course and hit a pile of small barrel bombs on one of the bridges causing them to explode. Liam quickly recovered and entered into shooting wyverns like the others. The others had fired all threes shots and had since jumped off the wall to attack while Liam was still aiming. This was however very worth the wait as Liam fired and hit an azure rathalos in the mouth, as it was about to spit a fired, which caused its head to explode. The hunter behind Liam was yelling as he was ruining the formation but Liam was to busy concentrating. He noticed a pink rathian that had landed on a bridge and was attacking the cannon operators. He waited for it to get close enough and fired at a pile of large barrel bombs, incinerating the pink wyvern were it stood. Liam was quickly kicked off the wall and down into the crowd of hunters and rathians fighting. He got up and in a truly unprofessional style began to panic. Just as the female hunter had informed the captain his bowgun began to spark and shake. He quickly threw it away before it exploded in the air, scorching the hair off a rathian’s back. Liam then proceeded to pull out his kantana and run at the nearest cluster of hunters. A large group had formed around a rathalos that had just landed. It span round frantically, biting at anything that got close enough and knocking hunters left and right with its tail. Liam watched as a hunter in gravios armour jumped into the fight about to attack the red beast but got hit by a blast from a rathian a few meters away. Liam waited for his opportunity and lunged at the beast, driving his blade into its softer underbelly. Unexpectedly the rathalos spun quickly with the blade still engulfed in its body, ripping the hilt from Liam’s inexperienced grip. Liam looked at his hands like he didn’t realise what had happened, he then looked at the sword still in the monster’s belly. Liam ran at the blade hoping to possibly regain it but he was to late, the monster beat its incredible wings and took off to attack the cannons. Liam looked around helplessly, with no weapon in a sea of hostility he was as good as dead.

“Perhaps it is time for me to run?” he thought, setting off through the crowd of monster and hunters.

Trix had been in the second line of hunter, a few people down from Liam’s view. Now she was at a far end of the canyon, fighting off the gold rathian that had been leading the hordes to the fortress. It was good, very good. Faster, stronger even smarter than a green or pink rathian. It truly knew what it was doing. Most rathians attack randomly, hoping for its victim or aggressor to perish. This golden one knew what attack to use exactly when. It spun and stuck a hunter into the air and quickly turned to catch it its mouth to crush his bones. It spat the victim out on fire knocking into a another hunter, sending her flying through the air. More and more hunters ran at the shinning beast. Making never more than two hits before being hit, the attacks always bouncing off its think hide. Trix wasn’t attacking. Not out of fear, she was waiting for her moment to implement her plan.

“Everyone away form her! Now!”

All hunters moved away from the beast. The gold rathian spun but hit no one. She paused and looked ahead of her to see only Trix staring at her, clutching her poison axe tightly. The floor was littered with dead raths and hunters. The rathian reared its head back, it mouth set fire. This was the chance Trix had waited for. The rathian fired three huge fireballs at Trix, far larger than anyone had ever seen. Trix jumped as far as she could to the side landing hard on her chest, the fall completely winded her. She stood up quickly, she had no time to take a breath. She ran at the golden monster and grabbed hold of the jagged horn on its chin. The thorns on it cut in to Trix’s hand but she had to hold on, just for a moment. The monster pulled back it head in surprise and sent Trix vaulting up wards onto the monster back. She landed on the hair like spikes, her armour broke most of them like twigs but several got in through the joints and stabbed her. She breathed deep and ignored the pain, as she crawled up the back and neck to get the monster’s head. There she pulled out her carving knife and stabbed at the creature’s eyes. Even they were tough, like stabbing at wood but nether the less the monster screamed in pain. Thick blood pored from the sockets. Trix then wrapped her legs round the golden beast’s neck and started hitting the monster with her axe. Nearly every hit bounced off but Trix was in too much pain to care. The rathian shook its head and spun round in every attempt to knock her off. During this time the blinded rathain was being attacked by other hunters, it could not defend its self and resorted to randomly attacking like its lessors. After a great deal of time trix's axe broke through ither beast's brain, the monster unleashed a final roar and it fell to the ground dead. Trix rolled on of its head, exhausted; she laid there and looked as her fellow hunters fought raths all around her. She had no energy left and closed her eyes.

Liam hopped over corpses and climbed over fallen raths in his attempts to escape danger. He ripped off parts off his basarios armour to gain speed as it was heavy and made of rocks. After a rather small rathalos corpse he was engaged by a sturdy looking azure rathalos. With no time to think Liam quickly grabbed an olilion great sword off from the hands of a dying hunter and drove it into its chest. The wounded beast roared as Liam abandoned the sword and ran on. A male hunter brandishing a blue kut-ku dynamic hammer came running past him only to be sent flying through the air in flames dropping his hammer right into Liam’s hands.

“Thanks very much,” said Liam stuffing it into the mouth of a snarling dragon and running off.

He climbed over a fallen rathian and hoped off its head to the over side. Liam looked to see a fireball hit a group of hunters and a halberd landed beside him smoking. The rathian he just hoped off snarled and Liam quickly grabbed the smoking great sword and smashed it directly into the female monster’s head before running off. A rathalos crashed dead on the floor in front of him with a kantana in its chest. Liam quickly pulled it out to reveal it to be a bone kantana ‘dragon’. Liam sighed and stuck the sword right back in and carried on running. Explosions and fireballs surrounded and flew passed Liam as he stumbled through the canyon. He eventually spotted something that resembled a gun. He cried in joy as he shifted dead bodies to get to it. It turned out to be a lance that just looked like a gun, Liam even tried firing it to no success. He sighed again and threw it into the hands of a hapless hunter who lost his lance.

“Thanks mate” cheered the hunter stabbing into a rath with it.

“No problem.” Replied Liam nodding his head and running on through the battlefield.

He ran on and eventually picked up a buster blade.

“What self respecting hunter come to an epic battle like this with a buster blade? He thought not noticing the rathian sneaking up behind him. “Never know I guess.” He also thought chucking the sword behind him hitting the monster in the wing.

An explosion happened over head on one of the bridges and a make shift cannon fell from above and landed right in front of Liam. He wasted no time loading in all the smaller blades he could find. To calm himself he tried to name them as he dropped them in.

“That’s a deathprize. That’s a blazing falcon and a thunder tip. That ones a errr upper battleaxe, frost edge, pair of cyclones and a single cutlass.” He murmured to himself as he robbed the corpses of dead hunters. “Both gradios, some dromenail and the black melting wail.”
He lit the fuse and yelled “everybody get down or guard.”

The smarter ones listened as the cannon fired impaling many wyvern. A slightly sturdier rathian with a short sword in its head looked at Liam and growled maliciously. Liam knew that look and ran on terrified as the rathian charged after him. He heard as it snarled and roared behind him getting ever closer. Liam quickly grabbed a short sword whilst still running. It was a rusty old sabre that couldn’t be of any use. Liam ran on but suddenly remembered this trick he saw Trix doing when they were killing that teen rathalos. He fell to his back and let the rathian run over him as he began hacking and slashing at its soft underbelly. Black lightning shot from the sword and Liam could tell it was hurting the monster a lot. Liam got up and saw the rathian run onward but suddenly pause. Liam looked on and saw there was a man in front of the beast with a great sword. It was Captain Doyle, who just stared at the monster for a few moments before releasing a powerful up swing, slicing the raths head in half.  Doyle looked at Liam and smiled.

“Lost your sword eh? Terrible shame that. But it seams your doing alright with that little thing.” Doyle laughed before running off to attack more dragons.

Liam stopped for a second to take a breath when another explosion happened over head. Rubble and gunners fell from the sky into a large pile and Liam saw it. A hornet gun pointing out of the rubble. Liam had been waiting for this the whole battle. He ran at it with a face full of joy and pulled at the end dragging out he top half of its owner with it.

The gunner coughed “tell my wife and kids that I lov”

“Sorry mate I’ll be needing these.” interrupted Liam prying the gun from his and taking the ammo pack from his back.  

Liam ran into a small enclosed section with the corpse of many dead but mainly a dead gold rathian with Trix laying on it head. Liam hastily went over to her. She wasn’t moving.

“Hey” said Liam with no response. “You can’t have a rest at a time like this, we gotta fight.” Liam put his hands on her shoulders and began to shake her. “Come on now wake up.” There was no response and Liam shook her again. “Wake up Trix. Wake up.” She began to open her eyes a spoke weakly.

“Liam? What’s going on”

“You fell asleep. What happened to you?”

“I killed the big bitch I’m sittin on. Ha. But not before she did her best on me.”

“How bad is it?”

“I’ve had worse, it just doesn’t feel like it right now. Give me a sec and I’ll come save ya from something”

“Well it looks suspiciously like I’m saving you.”

“I’ll have you know I was doing just fine and would have been killing something sooner if you hadn’t shown up”

She was joking. They both were and they both knew it. She was clearly in a lot of pain and incapable of moving but the jokes moved away from that harsh reality. They had been looking at each other for a moment not saying a word. It seamed silent but I clearly couldn’t be. Liam was about to speak until something else broke the silence. A silver rathalos had landed behind Liam. Trix’s eyes filled with fear as she looked on trying her best to move. The silver beast looked at the golden rathian and seamed angered. It was likely that rathian was its breeding partner. The rathalos let out a hate filled roar and charged at the two hunters. Liam picked up Trix and jumped away from the rathalos’s attack, landing on his back. He got up and began running for cover with Trix in his arms.

“Just so you know this isn’t cause I think you’re incapable of running, I just think this is faster.” Liam joked running into the tighter part of the canyon. Trix simple giggled.

The silver rathalos was in pursuit and wasn’t going to let them get away easily. It began flying sideways through the tight canyon, knocking anything in its way be it hunter or wyvern. Liam stopped suddenly; he had noticed a small cave. So small it could only fit Trix. He sat her in it and loaded the hornet gun with two clusters. While he stood waiting for the silver menace, he heard it smash through people and wyverns to get there. He heard screams and explosions. He then looked over at Trix who had rolled over onto her front, showing Liam her poison axe. He was then suddenly reminded that James had a poison axe and he wondered what happened to him and mikle after he fell from the cliff. But Liam had no more time for thinking as the silver rathalos came crashing down the canyon, its wings scraping down the sides as it area got tighter. Liam fired his two clusters into the wyvern face but it still kept coming, Liam loaded his remaining cluster and in stead of firing began to aim. The incredibly angry silver dragon getting ever closer, its mouth burning with blue flame, its eyes filled with rage at the murder of its mate. Liam continued to aim, making all the calculations in required to perfect this shot. The monster getting ever closer, Liam could feel that hot breath and smell its foulness. Liam continued to aim even as the cavern got so tight that the monster’s wings were closed and it was clawing its way there. Liam closed his left eye and shaked his brown hair out of the way; he had to make this last shot count. The monster a few feet away opened it mouth a readied a powerful blue fireball.

“Now!” yelled Liam.

The shot was fired, entered the silver rathalos’s mouth and exploded. The shot's explosion ripped open the beast’s inferno sacs and ignited the contents, causing the rathalos to crash and burn form the inside out. Liam looked on at the fallen king and fell unconscious from exhaustion.

Chapter 9

When he woke up it was the next day morning. He was in a bed inside the fortress. His bed was next to another bed with Trix in it. Not that that was anything special as on Liam’s other side was another bed with a huge burly man in it. He got up to see he was in the fortresses ward with many other hunter and medic cats hopping every where trying to deal with all the casualties. Liam fell back into his bed and looked over at Trix who was asleep and covered in bandages. A doctor in a purple coat with a young girl next to him entered the ward and inspected the patients, stopping at Liam’s bed.

“You just fainted out of exhaustion, you don’t need any medical attention” asserted the doctor.

“Is she gonna be ok?” asked Liam looking over at Trix as he got out of the bed.

“Oh she’ll be fine my boy. Me and Anya here are miracle workers. Why just two days ago we cured a great hunter with a broken arm and was clinically dead for several hours by garuga poison. Not that it was my work, that man was a great hunter indeed” Reassured the doctor.

“He sounds like a great kinda guy.” Replied Liam wondering who he was.

“That he was my boy that he was but not as great as I. Now I must go see to other patients”
   
“She’ll be fine I’ll make sure,” said the little girl following the doctor off.

As Liam left the ward and entered the main courtyard he bumped into Captain Doyle who was now wearing an eye patch.

“That looks like a nasty wound there captain. Are you alright?” asked Liam

“Oh it’ll be fine. I’ve got another. I’m surprised I only lost it just now in my age.” Jested the captain walking over to the badly damaged gates. “Oh! By the way, I never asked you your name?”

“Its Liam, captain”

“Well Liam we found out that you’re actually quite a dab hand at gunmanship and have decided to make you armour from one of the many slain rathalos last night.”

“Oh I never asked how it went last night?”

“There were many casualties but we managed to kill all of the raths and none made it into the city. But as I was saying we have your armour.”

At that exact moment to soldier hunters brought in a set of red rathalos gunner armour and gave it to Liam.

“Thanks but why captain?”

“Because you killed that silver rathalos boy and that destroyed the moral of the other raths so they became easier to kill.”

“Then why isn’t it made out of silver rathalos?”

“Because the guild needs it's parts to sell and pay for all the damage done to the fortress. That goes the same for that gold rathian corporal Trix killed.”

“She’s a corporal?” exclaimed Liam

“Well yes. You didn’t think I’d let a regular hunter go into none guild areas to collect those bomberries did you?”

“I suppose” replied Liam getting into the rathalos armour and noticing and inscription in the rathalos helm. “What’s this? Crimson gunner?”

“Oh it’s a marksmanship award the fortress gives its best gunner every year. I guess the boys who made you that armour awarded you the title.”

“Thanks” smiled Liam putting the helmet on and swinging the hornet gun on his back.

“So what will you do now eh?” asked the captain. “Join the fortress permanently perhaps?”

“Maybe some other time.” Cheered Liam walking through the large hole in the gates. “I’ve got to go find the rest of my team but tell Trix I’ll come back later.” Liam continued to leave and walked down the cavern.

“You’d better come back boy.” Captain Doyle spoke to himself. “Cause something big is coming and we need all the help we can get.”
  
The end