His eyes snapped open.
Sounds of wildlife were all around him, and they became rowdier as he felt his consciousness returning to his body. His back was propped on something hard and uneven. Reflexively, he sat up. His eyes were immediately scanning his surroundings in a slow motion, seeing only overgrown forest in every direction. His eyebrows raised majestically as he found that he was lying down in the middle of a clearing, vine-laden trees enclosing the space.
A sudden premonition struck him. Patting his clothes and pockets, then his whole body, he sighed in relief. Nothing had happened to his body. His limbs were intact, as was his head. The thing he had stored in his pockets was nowhere to be found, but he was in one piece. Considering what he had gone through, it was a miracle that none of those things had eaten him yet.
Checking his vicinity one more time and finding no immediate threats, he slowly stood up, eyes vigilant against movement among the trees and their branches that entwined the sky above. The air was full of the sounds of birds. The canopy swayed restlessly over him as those small creatures hopped from one branch to another. He recalled what they were: Anothraxes. They weren't a threat when they were alone, but once they congregated on a single hunter, they became C-level dangers. He had to stay hidden as he moved if he wanted to avoid the critters.
Fortunately the ground was endorsed full with lush undergrowth, some of the plants reaching heights that could hide his body even if he only slightly bent his knees. Deciding what he needed to do, he made to dive into the conevenient natural cover for hunters, when his feet struck something that was hidden under a bush. It made a dull cluttering noise, like metal striking against ground. As he looked at his feet, he saw a familiar handle-like object. It was only one part of an item, and the rest of it was gone. He crouched low to retrieve it but felt slight resistance. Comprehending, he used his free hand to break apart the bramble while the hand holding the broken item tugged on it.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Hearing the nasal voice made him spin round and take a fighting stance. Years of being a low-ranked weak hunter had made him more susceptible to danger from stronger hunters. Rather than monsters that only attacked on instinct, humans were far more dangerous with their malicious thoughts. At least he only ever fought weaker monsters, but the apex predators might have been intelligent.
The broken item on his hand was further tugged. The thing that had restrained it loosened, but he didn't take notice of it. His mind was on the man who had warned him not to do something; the one who had been standing behind him and was now staring him down, looking comprehensive, hands in front of him like he was trying to tame a monster. Suddenly, as the stuck broken item that he'd gripped tightly to pull was freed the man lunged at him, his expression lighting up in alarm.
"H––hey! Don't do tha––shit!"
From the direction where he had freed his item something emerged from the ground, following the vine that had apparently entrapped it. Cracks began appearing before the noise they made resounded in the clearing and stabbing through the forest around them. Monsters from miles around would hear the commotion and cower as they envisioned the awakened beast, in contrary to those in the upper ranks of the food chain who would rejoice for the new comrade-in-arms to join them in their conquest to thrash mankind.
The man couldn't stop his momentum––and crashed into the younger man before him. The latter had held out the broken sharp-looking object toward the former in a moment of panic as they collided, but it didn't have an effect on the older man. Tough metal-bound leather armor had gotten in the way of the blade, and the man's even tougher countenance was many times that of the normal person.
"Goddamn it! Why the hell would a greenie like you be here––in this timing, and out of all places?!" The man grunted and groaned as he shoved the boy aside, roughly embedding him in the undergrowth. The force of his push sent the boy a good distance away, out of the range of the beast's attacks. Plus, he was out of sight. Now the man had only to clean up the mess the brat had made out of petty ignorance. Great, this day couldn't get any worse. And here I thought a bunch of anthoraxes would be enough for a day's hunt. Really, my luck couldn't get any worse. Have mercy on these old bones, will you? To think he pulled on one of the vines of a Goriath...it's the most common trap, you idiot! There's a limit to being ignorant; even a fresh greenie should know!
Having had his fill of spitting at the boy in his mind the old man (not exactly old)––with his weather-beaten looks and six-foot-six tall body, add the ripped muscles, his beard that grew to his abdomen, and hair long enough to make him look like a beast himself––stood before the beast called the Goriath with his greatsword at the ready, brandishing it menacingly in front of him––and amazingly, he held it in one hand. His other hand was holding a huge shield that went with the sword as a set. An open scabbard was strapped on his back––and it had two slots for the double weapon-shield.
He gripped both and made a cross with them over his chest, then he raised the shield on top of the greatsword's blade––and attached them together. It was effectively a docking transformation, and now he brought the newly combined Axesword above him to plan a slam down on the goriath as soon as it sent one of its eight vines to attack him––and as usual, it should be a direct attack from the front. The goriaths had a simple attack pattern: it would attack with its eight vines while the main body stayed at the rearguard, hiding behind a makeshift shield made from the bark of the main body––it was a tree, a Boreas monstros.
The goriath hadn't fully come out of its den yet. It was still half-buried in the earth––but there was a reason why the man hadn't taken advantage of the handicap the monster had placed on itself. Goriaths, when they were woken up forcibly from their dormant state, was to put it simply, grumpy. They would be in a half-madden state that was similar to the berserk skill seen from berserker-class hunters. Even though they were the ones to put out traps themselves they still became grumpy. Those traps meant food, so the creatures would arisen whether they wanted to or not.
"Hey, kid. Whaddaya wanna do, standing there? Don't interrupt me, or I'm gonna go for you next." The man didn't look back, but he spoke to the boy standing behind him. It looked like he had recovered from the fall, but what was he doing, sneaking up behind him? Did he want to pincer-attack the man by working together with the goriath? That wasn't even funny. But then the boy spoke up for the first time.
"I...help...fight." He spoke in a raspy, drawn voice, as if his throat had only newly formed and was testing to see if it could converse normally.
"Huh? A greenie like you helping me? Don't make me laugh...is what I wanted to say, but we're up against a goriath, and one needs every help one can get.
"Heh," the man continued in a ridiculing tone, "so what list are you in? If you don't even know a goriath's vine trap when you see it, then you can't be anything other than a fresh greenie E-list hunter who just registered in a guild...right. I'm currently a C-list hunter, affiliated with the Nerumoth Monster Hunter Guild from the town of the same name. And the name's...Geros. What about you?"
There was no answer, so the man stepped back and looked behind him, still keeping all other senses trained at the goriath. It was still in the process of emerging out of the ground and the smaller vines had began to whip about. The bigger vines that were made up of only eight stayed docked on the bodily tree––but each one was massive and was thicker than the tree trunks of large-categorized Boreas monstroses, which was the reason why it was on the upper tiers of the monstrose scale. In addition that wasn't even the only reason why it was entered in the B-list of monster ranking.
As Geros saw it, the boy seemed to be mentally unstable, as his eyes that looked into Geros was dulled and unfocused. Geros saw no reason to try to strike a conversation with the boy anymore. He clicked his tongue and resorted to the most reliable measure that could be taken. Still facing the subdued goriath he grabbed the boy's arm and used a skill of evasion to backstep and arrive outside any effective range from the target, called Acubens. They were standing in the cover of trees as Geros looked into the boy's soul.
STATISTICS:
Name Auros
Life Form Homo rexis
Soul Level 9.93 0.7
Occupation Monster Hunter
Affiliation Monster Hunter Guild HQ, Centros
Listed S-Listed
Might 93.7 16.2
Agility 18.1