The Other Huntress (Kotallo/OC)

Chapter Four: The Twilight Path

"What the-DUCK!" Orea cried, rolling just barely in time to avoid being fried braid-to-boot. Dry grass sizzled and scorched at her feet, set aflame by blaze. The day so far was not off to a great start. "Whatever those two are building, it had better be good!"

"You're telling me," Aloy grunted, weaving in and out of cover as Scroungers stormed toward her one after the other, her twin loading arrows onto her bow faster than a flying fox.

After ensuring Vuadis and Joruf were on their way to Barren Light, Aloy and Orea had finally been able to get a proper look around town; Chainscrape proved as vigorous as any Oseram settlement without a work stoppage to jam its gears cold. On the outskirts of the city, they'd met two Oseram tinkerers, the sisters Delah and Boomer. Though diametrically opposed, the two sisters seemed skilled inventors, and had offered the Nora Seekers a brand-new weapon: a javelin thrower-if they could retrieve the right parts. Said parts included a rib from a single Fanghorn, a Grazer-like machine common in the Daunt. Sounded easy enough, right? What the sisters had failed to mention was that said Fanghorn was capable of shooting fire from its antlers! Delah and Boomer had also forgotten to discuss the herd of Scroungers patrolling the area, Scroungers that had been alerted to the commotion of the two huntresses shooting and had decided to join the proverbial party. The battlefield had then quickly devolved into pure and total chaos, Orea breaking off to slay the Fanghorn while Aloy dealt with the Scroungers. 

"I'm-really-starting to hate this thing!" Orea ground out between frantic breaths and split-seconds dodges. "How are things on your end?"

"Not much better!" Aloy called, enjoying the same hectic game of mad dash as her sister. "But at least I'm not on fire."

"Oh not again!" Orea bemoaned, patting down her hide skirt for what felt like the thirtieth time. With a metallic shriek, the Fanghorn looped back around, dashing forward toward Orea with its winding antlers ready to clamp harshly shut. Regular attacks aren't doing enough damage for my liking-let's see how this thing likes the cold.

"Aloy!" she cried, "got any frost ammo?!" Wordlessly, her sister tossed her a small pouch of arrows, their tips coated white and cold to the touch. Loading one into her bow as quick as a flash, Orea stood the machine down, waiting until she could see the individual plates of its armor before releasing her shot, tearing through the Fanghorn's singular ocular sensor and effectively blinding it. At the same time, frost spread across the machine body, cracking as it hardened and turned brittle.

"Don't like the cold, do you?!" Orea smirked triumphantly, shooting forward to bring her spear down in a single, wide arc, the Fanghorn shattering upon her in its weakened state.

"Done with the Fanghorn!" she announced, taking special care to extract its rib. "And got the part."

"Scroungers are all dead," Aloy reported in turn, a newly-formed graveyard of machine scrap forming a makeshift perimeter around the huntress. "That, and the Charger horns...we should be done," she muttered.

"Let's get back to Delah and Boomer; get those javelin throwers." Thankfully, the journey back to Chainscrape was relatively uneventful, the salvage in Orea's pack chiming with every step she took. Delah's eyes widened as the tinkerer noticed the sisters' approach, gaze brimming with excitement.

"I know that look," she drawled, grinning. "You two have all the parts, don't you?"

"Retrieved and delivered," Orea greeted, handing the components over.

"Outstanding!" Delah gasped, taking the pieces with cautious hands. "I only need a few minutes to finish the prototypes."

"These are the versions that won't blow our arms off, right?" Aloy asked with a raised brow. The tinkerer didn't answer, hurrying off to the back of the tent. Orea then felt a pair of eyes on her, glancing up to meet the curious scrutiny of Delah's sister, Boomer.