The Rathalos charged like a runaway dump truck — seemingly unstoppable — but it had too much ground to cover, and Lin had long since slipped away into the trees. The opening charge amounted to nothing more than a dozen snapped trunks before the beast ground to a halt.
Sergeant Arlo had been waiting for exactly this moment. He darted forward the instant the Rathalos stalled after its charge, driving his blade straight into the tendon connecting its body to its membranous wing.
The power sword, crackling with a vivid blue corona of electricity, sheared through the Rathalos's scales with contemptuous ease and bit deep into the flesh beneath. The Rathalos's muscles clenched instinctively, trying to stem the bleeding — but the residual energy from the power sword sizzled and spat inside the wound, charring the tissue black. Healing was out of the question, at least for now.
The surge of current drained the tension from the muscle entirely. The Rathalos had been using its forelegs to pivot and turn, and that sudden loss of strength sent it stumbling badly.
The damage from the power sword made the Rathalos shudder. It stared at Sergeant Arlo in disbelief — seemingly unable to comprehend how this insignificant creature, the same one it had been running down moments ago, had suddenly become a genuine threat.
But the Rathalos was the master of the land for good reason. Its reactions were anything but slow. It coiled its body tight, then unleashed a violent spinning sweep, turning its claws and tail into a wall of force that threatened to batter away anyone who dared close in.
Sergeant Arlo had no intention of eating that hit. He threw himself backward, getting clear of the Rathalos's spinning radius.
The Rathalos pressed its advantage. Coming out of the spin, it happened to be facing exactly where Sergeant Arlo had rolled to. It lunged forward and snapped its jaws wide, aiming to swallow him whole.
Sergeant Arlo adjusted just in time, barely dodging the first lunge — but the Rathalos gave no quarter. It stepped forward and bit again, determined to snap him in two.
But Sergeant Arlo was not fighting alone. While the Rathalos was fixated on him, his two brothers had already crept up from behind, and both drove their swords down across its back in a coordinated strike.
The pain stripped the force from the Rathalos's lunge. Its fangs fell just short of Sergeant Arlo by a hair's breadth. Unrattled, Sergeant Arlo even found time to slash it once across the skull before turning and stepping back to open the distance.
All three of them disengaged by unspoken agreement after the exchange, watching the Rathalos's condition after taking a full round of punishment.
"Sergeant Arlo, how does the hunt feel?" Lin asked over the comm. "Are the power swords doing their job?"
"The monomolecular edge cuts through its scales, and the energy field on the blade prevents the wounds from closing while causing brief stiffening in the affected area. Its counterattacks are fierce though — there's rarely an opening to stack more damage." Sergeant Arlo's voice was steady with confidence. "But as long as we can deal damage, the rest is just a matter of time. I'm confident we'll finish the hunt before the powered suits run dry."
"Then carry on as planned." Lin nodded. He was tracking combat data on the Rathalos from a distance while quietly arranging to prevent the creature from escaping. "Before it enters its rage state, draw it into the engagement zone we scouted earlier."
Sergeant Arlo acknowledged the order and signalled the other two brothers to fall back in a coordinated retreat. The Rathalos had no idea what these small creatures were up to — it understood nothing of baiting an enemy into a trap, and cared even less about preserving itself.
Its wounds had stoked its savagery to a killing fury. It did the only thing it knew: fix its eyes on the Astartes and charge. The Astartes gave ground, dodging and skirmishing as they fell back, and in this game of pursuit the fight was gradually drawn to the base of a cliff face.
Sergeant Arlo planted himself with his back to the cliff, squaring up to the Rathalos. He gave his sword a lazy, taunting flourish — then raised his middle finger.
As it turned out, contempt translates perfectly across species. The Rathalos may not have known what the gesture meant, but it clearly understood the dismissive arrogance radiating off Sergeant Arlo and was furious.
The Rathalos — a creature that had made its reputation on one devastating charge — reared back and launched itself at Sergeant Arlo with a thunderous rush. But Sergeant Arlo was no novice. He sidestepped the charge with casual elegance, and as the beast barrelled past, he drew his blade along its neck in a long, thin line of red.
The first charge having failed, the Rathalos tried to swing around for a second run — but now it was facing the cliff, and Lin was not about to let this moment slip by.
Seeing the Rathalos still unable to arrest its forward momentum, Lin gave the order without hesitation.
"Flashbombs — throw!" he barked over the comm.
The CMC powered-suit squad, which had stayed concealed throughout the fight, moved the moment Lin's order came through. They reached into their leather hunting bags and drew out the glow-insect flashbombs.
These firefly-type creatures had been used purely as natural lanterns until Lin arrived and fashioned them into crude but effective flashbombs. This was the first time they had ever been deployed in actual combat — and the result exceeded all expectations.
When the flashbomb was fired from its simple launcher directly into the Rathalos's path, the creature — having no concept of what a flashbomb was — made no attempt to avoid it. When it detonated in a blinding burst of light and a thunderous crack, the Astartes all instinctively turned away. The Rathalos took the full blast dead-on.
Overwhelmed by the searing light and the deafening noise, the Rathalos lost all sense of direction. It couldn't turn, couldn't slow down — it couldn't even stop its legs from carrying it straight into the cliff face. It slammed into the rock with a crash that shook the entire cliff. Boulders shaken loose by the impact rained down on its back, and the beast let out a howl of pain.
There was no need for Lin to say a word. Sergeant Arlo and his two brothers surged forward immediately, hacking furiously at the Rathalos while its head was still buried in the crater it had caved into the cliff face. No technique required — just as many wounds as they could open across its tail and back before it recovered.
Lieutenant Vigan led the CMC squad out of hiding as well, breaking concealment now that the flashbomb had done its work. They levelled their C-14 Impaler gauss rifles and poured fire into the Rathalos without restraint.
The creatures of this world all had considerable resistance to firearms — but Lieutenant Vigan's team was shooting directly into the wounds already carved open by the power swords, wounds that refused to close. The dense stream of solid rounds tore into those already-ravaged gashes at high velocity, driving the Rathalos's injuries further toward critical.
In the window created by the flashbomb stun, the hunting party had dealt the Rathalos devastating cumulative damage. But Lin knew the Rathalos's hide well — thick skin, deep flesh, enormous vitality. This level of punishment alone would not end the hunt.
He watched the Rathalos shake off the effects of the flashbomb and finally wrench its head free from the cavity it had punched in the cliff face. His eyes narrowed as he caught the telltale sign: the creature's head and forelegs were beginning to flush a deep, blood red.
Lin knew what that meant. The hunt had entered its final stage.
In the next few minutes, the outcome between this hunting party and the Rathalos would be decided.