"GET DOWN!!"

A man pushed a woman down, hitting the deck himself as a purple ball flew over their head, hitting a large rock and detonating on it's surface in destructive glory. The two hunters, Adrian and Fensha, were working together in a hunt as they usually have, this time with an additional helper provided by the Guild named Marlo.

Why? Well, they're on the Heaven's Mount in the middle of a day shrouded by dark. There's only one reason a group of Hunters would be here in a scenario like this, and it's because of a highly dangerous Elder Dragon, Shagaru Magala.

Adrian stood up quickly after he pushed Fensha down, drawing his Bowgun and popping out the scope to aim at the beast, which was currently distracted by the ever sharp tip of Marlo's Lance. He steadied his breathing and pressed the trigger, letting out a piercing round straight to the beast's head, which netted a prize with one of it's horns snapping from the base.

"Finally some big damage!" He looked over to Fensha, who was finally recovering from the harsh shove and was back on her feet. "Careful Fen, that thing still has breath!"

"Yeah, I can see that!" She began running towards the reeling Elder Dragon, it's eyes quickly narrowing on the moving figure running right at it.

The Shagaru stepped back from another poke by Marlo, charging a blast of Frenzy that it quickly fired at Fensha, who was halfway unleashing her weapon too. She brought her right arm to bear, letting the small shield absorb the hit and slide her back a few feet, but leaving her almost entirely unharmed.

"Smart bastard huh? Well, I just gotta be smarter!" She ran ahead, her Sword and Shield shining off the Shagaru's reflective scales that she wisely used to blind it's vision.

The Shagaru flinched at the glare and looked away, shaking its head to try and fix the new spots in it's eyes. It didn't get to recover properly before Fensha sprang on the beast, her sword digging into its softer underbelly and bringing a howl of pain from the Dragon.

"Hit it now!" Her shout roused the other two, and Marlo ran forward to pierce into the beast's scales as well, whereas Adrian fired a sticky shot into it's cheek.

The Shagaru reeled from the hits, and as both melee combatants pulled away and hid behind their shields, the sticky shot exploded, completely ruining the Shagaru's sense of balance and knocking it on it's side, leaving it open for a critical strike.

Adrian lowered his Bowgun and put it on his back running towards the fight. "Marlo, stab your Lance into it's chest! Fensha, punch the Lance as deep as you can once he does!"

A strange plan that was, but right now, it's the best thing they got to work with. Marlo put his shield to his back, yelling as he ran ahead and thrusted the Lance deep into the Shagaru.

The thing howled in agony, thrashing harder and smashing a claw into Marlo and sending him flying, but still alive. Fensha acted quick once Marlo was sent flying, rearing her shield back and slamming it into the Lance, cracking the scales further and eliciting another shriek of pain from the Elder Dragon.

Adrian finally got up to them, where he reached into his pack of ammunition and pulled out a powerful sticky round, his only level 3 explosive left. "Pull it out!"

"Right!" Fensha gripped the spear and tugged, pulling it out and letting blood spurt everywhere as the Shagaru finally got its footing and stood up, Adrian just coming up to it as it did.

The Shagaru was critically wounded, but not out of the fight yet as it took to the skies, screeching in fury to cover away the pain of its new chest wound. It's roar was sharp and loud, forcing the three to cover their ears throughout it's duration, which gave the Shagaru the opening it needed.

It dove down towards Marlo, who barely recovered from the toss it gave him and nearly got shredded to bits had he not brought his shield out. He was slammed into the dirt, forced down under the crushing force of the Elder Dragon attempting to kill him with hits body weight.

"Hey Ugly!" It's head snapped to the voice, where Fensha was smiling and holding a particularly bright glowing bug. "Smile for the picture!"

She crushed the flashbug, creating an ultra bright flash of light that properly blinded the Shagaru and sent pain through its eyes to its brain. It shrieked and jumped away from the pinned Hunter, screeching madly and thrashing about as it tried to recover its vision.

Adrian used this chance to once again rush for the critical spot, narrowly avoiding being slapped away by its claws and wing arms before finally getting underneath it. He used a match and set slight to the primer of the shot, and jammed his fist into the wound of the Shagaru's chest.

It roared in pain from that, but thanks to the pain, it knew exactly where one of its enemies was. One arm grabbed the Hunter and yanked him away from under it, and one of its wing arms raised up, ready to crush the bastard for causing it more pain.

That is, until the bullet finally exploded.

The explosion was muffled, but the effects were immediate. The Shagaru flinched as some scales on it's chest pushed outwards, and a veritable waterfall of blood poured from it's chest, the damage being unbelievably severe.

Severe enough for death.

The grip on Adrian laxed, as the beast let out a soft and quiet whimper before falling down, the life leaving its body quickly with it's ruined vitals thanks to the explosion. The three took deep breaths, having been fighting the Elder Dragon for well over an hour at this point, and all equally exhausted thanks to it.

Though, smiles did come to their faces soon enough, just as the dark skies of the Magala's scales cleared away to reveal the beautiful sunlight.
—————

"Man, I'm going to sleep in for a week after this!" Fensha stretched her back as they walked down the mountain, already having gotten past the more perilous sections and now on a casual stroll through the much less dangerous valley sections as they made their way back to Cathar, the village within this mountain range.

"I hope you remember that we still have to deal with the paperwork that comes with this right? That thing was causing problems, so we have additionals to do now that it's dead."

Fensha sighed, groaning after what Adrian said since it was entirely true. A Shagaru Magala was a top tier threat, and has to be killed as soon as possible lest it's frenzy causes massive and irreversible damage to the ecosystem.

"I wouldn't be so sure." They both looked to Marlo, who offered a smile. "I was sent here as additional support by the Dundorma guild for the subjugation. Thanks to that, I'll be the one making the report on the airship back to Dundorma."

"Oh thank goodness...I hate paperwork!" Fensha was always the quick to move of the duo, hence why she's the frontliner compared to the calmer Adrian with his Heavy Bowgun.

Along the rest of the way, they had some smalltalk, especially about how Dundorma compared to the two's home village of Fellid, which was strangely enough not on most of Dundorma's maps due to the minor size of the village. Thusly, he asked for the details needed so that he can see about getting it properly marked, and luckily it shared the plains with a properly marked settlement, Bherna.

"Right then. I'll head off on my way you two. The Airship probably already saw the cloud dissipating so ill head to my pickup point. Sure you two don't want a ride?"

"Nope, frankly the heights scare me." Adrian was not afraid to share his grievances, that's for sure.

"Ahh, it's a common understanding. Take care you two, we did fine work today." Marlo waved them off as he set off in another direction, and above them was the very airship that was recording and documenting their battle, slowly descending to the ground no doubt him pick him up deeper in the valley.

"Welp!" Fensha set ahead, with a big smile and a pep to her step. "We gotta get on home and make some shiny new weapons outta this guy! Next time we gotta set out to hunt some stuff, it'll be a cinch!"

"You act like we always go out to hunt the biggest and meanest monsters..."

"Well, we are the best hunters from Fellid."

"The only Hunters from Fellid."

"Yeah, that's why we're the best!"

As usual, she's too energetic for Adrian, but that's her charm...and also why he's planning a special thing for her when they get back. The two continued on the path, now reaching the bottom of the valley as they then set forth heading up the neighboring mountains harboring the village they sought.

Though, it wasn't without a slight change of course, as Fensha stopped in her tracks and looked to their side, something Adrian noted. "Something wrong?"

"...You hear that?"

He trusted her sharp hearing, just as she trusted his good eyes, and so he quieted down and listened to the wind. There was a few seconds of silence, soon slightly disturbed by the distant cry of...an infant?!

As soon as they both confirmed the sound, the took off in that direction, Fensha drawing her weapons as she prepared to fight off whatever may be scaring or harming the child. Adrian was right behind her, putting in a clip of more powerful standard rounds to blast these unknown monsters to the next continent.

The crying got louder now, and it all came from just behind a few bushes near the lake. Either the person this baby belonged too hid them there for their safety, or the baby crawled in and got stuck, either way, they needed to get to them before any monster did.

Fensha pushed through the bushes, coming across the sight first and only slightly recoiling, with Adrian pulling up alongside her. There in front of them was, sure enough, a baby, and with no parents in sight.

Worst thing is that this baby was covered in blood! Not only that, the baby's eyes were wide open and had a deep purple tint, a color they never saw before that only added to the mystery of this child.

First thing's first though, the baby's health.

Fensha put her weapons away  and picked the baby up, not minding the blood to her gear as she gently rocked and soothed the baby. "It's okay dear, you'll be okay..."

"Where could their parents be?" Adrian looked around for a moment, not seeing any person or monsters around to indicate an attack.

It was almost like the kid was abandoned here all on their own...

Fensha slowly stood up, taking some cotton wrap meant to cover wounds and repurposing it as a wrapping for the child. "We have to take her to Cathar."

"Her? No jewels down there huh?"

"Nope, clean slate." Even in this situation, they could make room for jokes, but it did help to lighten the mood as they left the bushes and went back to continue scaling, keeping an eye out for any possible dangers or other humans that may know this baby.

Not to mention, she had strange little bumps on her body, two on her forehead and two on her back, which were extremely worrying to both. Did she have a birth defect? Is that the reason this baby was left here, more or less fresh from...the womb?

"Heartless monsters for parents..." Fensha hugged the girl closer, a smile coming to her as she heard the little coo from the baby loving the warmth.

"...Fen, I got a proposition."

"Huh? What is it?"

Adrian looked over to her, a little smile on his face. "When we get to the village, I'll tell you."
—————

Back down in the bushes, shortly after the two had left, a lone Ioprey wandered through and sniffed around, smelling the lingering blood trail that once existed here thanks to the baby. It pushed through the line and went deeper in, and with the stronger nose of the monster compared to Humans, it sniffed out something special deeper in the bushes.

It continued through and followed the smell, soon coming up to the wonderful sight of a meal. It was a dead human, one who's skin was pale and marked by purple gashes, a human who has suffered the so far not thought possible: a Shagaru's Frenzy influenced death.

However, most striking of all was the wound that must have killed him, a large and open chest wound that was already starting to dry of blood that seeped out. The way it was formed looked as if something clawed out of his chest too...

But to the Ioprey, it didn't matter. Dinner was served.