Monster Hunter: Stars of Hope

Chapter Twenty-Five: The White Flame

The Hopesbane had arrived, seemingly after a recent fight with the Nergigante that left it with some damage, but had not yet engaged the hunters below. It was merely circling in the night sky, the light of the Well shimmering off of the bottom of its wings as it analyzed the situation before it. There had been many incursions upon this place that it had struck down, but none like this. It could see clearly that there were many stationed on the previously abandoned walls, some running things through the ruined buildings all around, but its focus remained primarily on the four hunters, three humans and a felyne, who stood closest to the source of the divine, yet all too agonizing waters that it had come to rely upon.

Said hunters looked very familiar to it.

"If this goes paw-rly, I just want to say that it's been an honor working with you all", Perren declared nervously as he watched the wyvern circle overhead, his freshly sharpened spade drawn for the fight to come, to which Nia was quick to rebut, "No. No talk like that. We are all making it through this, I promise", as she gripped the hilt of the Greatsword on her back as firmly as she spoke. Bucket, who was making final checks of the ammo in his Heavy Bowgun, remarked, "You know, that's exactly the kind of thing people say right before someone dies, and our odds aren't exactly the best right now", to which Nia responded, even more quickly and firmly, "Come on, we can do this. We fight together, watch each other's backs, and use everything at our disposal to succeed! Just like we always have!". Then Sariko spoke up, her Longsword held at the ready, "Nia's right!", causing Nia to briefly turn her gaze away from the Rathalos and towards her friend, who looked back at her with a smile as she added, "We've gotten this far together, and nothing has stopped us yet! Why would that change now?".

Suddenly, a roar was heard from on high, and the hunters turned to see the Rathalos descend into the air just above the glowing pool in front of them, the light within it matching the light below it as it held position in the air for a moment. There, it took a final look at the four who challenged it, before locking eyes with Nia. In all of the previous times it had done this, there was anger, fear, or confusion in her eyes; not today, though. Now, when she looked into the eyes of the wyvern that long been her nemesis, that she now understood more than ever before, there was only one thing driving her. It was something that even the Rathalos could notice, though it may have not been capable of identifying the change that had happened in the human it had grappled with so many times. It was also something that Haldys, who had been briefly pulled from the efforts to organize the counter-assault they had been readying by the sight of it, could see. It was something he had always seen in Nia's eyes, even in the days when she struggled to so much as become a hunter at all, never mind the kind that she had become now. Though, he had never seen that spark lit up like this before.

In her eyes, naught could be found other than determination.

The Hopesbane let loose its opening war cry of a roar, a sound that no longer fazed Nia, and quickly lunged down at the hunters below with a slam of its claws that all of them managed to evade. The battle had begun. Nia was the first to recover from her evasion and strike back, sending her blade out in a mighty, drawing swing that successfully cut into the leg of the wyvern before her. Last time she drew her blade against the Hopesbane, her blade bounced; not this time. The sound of Bucket's Bowgun shots began to fill the air as the Rathalos lashed out viciously at the first human in its sights, Sariko dodging the bite with a fluid motion of her blade that saw the Longsword slash across the wyvern's face, before she began to attack the side of it opposite to Nia with several more elegant swings of her weapon. Yet, she could not complete her assault before she was forced to dodge again, much less offensively this time, when the Hopesbane came at her once more with another lunge of its deadly fangs, repeating the attack again and again until its jaws found purchase on her tatara steel blade. Yet, before it could twist its grip to disarm her, Perren leapt forth and struck the Rathalos in the side of the face with a blunt-sided uppercut of his spade, knocking its grip loose and allowing Sariko to surge forward underneath it with a flurry of slashes at its lower side.