“Ear plugs.” Silvia said and everyone, except me, put some in.
Thankfully Irelia noticed and gave me a spare she had in one of her small bags around her belt.
Everyone was raring to go and Stonard already stood at the edge, eyes tracking his target.
He slammed his gauntlets together to pump himself up and exhaled.
Not even a second later, Stonard ran down the steep wall as if it was a slope.
He dashed towards the Boreagard, while I just barely managed to squeeze in both plugs.
The monster roared.
It was ferocious.
Without ear plugs its booming scream would easily have overpowered and stunned me.
Unimpressed, Stonard jumped, his heavy body leaping a few meters and smashed his crystalline gauntlet into the Boreagard’s jaw.
It screamed even louder than before, anger flared up in its eyes as the massive feathered raptor turned.
Silvia took a few steps back, then sprinted towards the edge, just to jump off.
She somersaulted through the air, war hammer drawn and smashed right into the beast’s skull, sending it tumbling.
My legs shook as I saw how skilled they were, but as Irelia was already sliding down the wall, I had to get on too.
I slapped my face with both hands and took off, following her down onto the lower plateau.
It was steep, too steep to be called a slope.
My right hand tried to find purchase on the rocky wall.
The edge of my shield scraped against the rock face, sparks flying as the ground came closer.
I barely managed to slow a fraction before landing and did a somersault forward.
Stonard and Silvia had turned the monster away from us, but it was truly angered.
Our attack helped its meal get away and now we were its planned meal.
I ran in a wide bow around the Boreagard’s rear, ending up on its right.
A tail swipe came and I barely managed to dive through, ending up on the other side before the tail came down again.
I huffed with strain.
My whole body felt like being crushed as its tail slammed into my shield.
After parrying this hit, I tried to counter and stabbed at the beast’s tail, but my sword barely grazed the skin.
My arms felt numb after the third strike, finally lodging the blade into the skin properly.
This close I felt every punch Stonard delivered towards the monster’s front.
Quick right hooks smashed into the screaming beast.
He pulled his arms up in defense instinctively and the Boreagard’s claws screeched like nails on a chalkboard when they impacted with his crystalline weapons.
I broke out in sweat, ‘fuck if this beast hits even one of us wrong, we”re done for!’ Still, I tried to level my head and slashed more at it, even if it barely did anything.
There were heavy blows right next to me and suddenly Stonard skidded across the rocks after having used his gauntlets to block.
A small trace of blood ran down his chin, his lip split.
Coming to a stop next to me, he dove forward again, his gauntlets ready.
His right pulled back and he punched into his target with a sickening crunch.
Out of the corner of my eyes I noticed Irelia coming down, almost as if she was flying.
Her glaive sliced into the creature’s tail very deep as she used her whole body to drive the weapon into the monster.
She didn’t stop, instead using her momentum and the long glaive to vault herself up into the air again.
This time she landed right on the monster’s back and drove her knife into the beast’s neck.
The Boreagard let out another howl as it jumped onto the other plateau, out of our sight.
Irelia strained yells coming from the upper plateau,” I’ll steer it down!” She held onto it for dear life.
With every second the feathered beast grew more agitated.
It thrashed around, trying to get this woman off, but she was too stubborn and began to thrust her carving knife into the monster’s neck a few more times.
“Now!” She screamed as she managed to steer the monster down again.
The Boreagard almost stumbled uncoordinated and slid down the steep wall, fully off balance.
Irelia then back flipped off fluidly and landed down next to me.
Her breathing was rugged and she seemed like it took her all to just stay standing after rodeo riding a 15 meter long feathered raptor.
The Boreagard slammed snout first into an ice wall.
It stumbled for a few steps and our whole group moved in.
Silvia began to swing her hammer, turning herself into a human spinning top.
With every turn, her momentum built up more and more until she reached the struggling Boreagard.
All the built up spin went right unto her war hammer moving upwards, surging into its face.
The impact felt ear splitting and the whole beast flew backwards a few meters.
It roared in pain almost looking dizzy from the strike to its head and tumbled, losing its balance.
The Boreagard finally went down, injured and bleeding, but still alive.
Silvia herself looked exhausted now, her war hammer slammed into the stone ground.
Cracks formed, the heavy hammer stuck deep in the stone.
She strained her arms to lift her heavy war hammer again, but didn’t follow up any further as it took her all to dislodge her weapon.
All Silvia managed, while catching her breath, was shouldering her weapon.
Her muscles bulged, the strain on her Bizeps visibly high.
Instead Irelia and I moved in, giving the others a moment to breathe.
My guts told me I should stay close.
One step behind her, we reached the fallen and thrashing beast.
Together we began cutting into the monster’s tail, but my blade didn’t even break the monster’s skin.
A leg swept past my head, thudding into my shield.
“Fall back!” Irelia shouted as the Boreagard got back onto its massive hind legs, while she vaulted backwards and away.
Sweat poured off me and I moved to follow, keeping my shield high and my eyes on the beast.
It was hurt and the jaw looked already broken, but it took off and ran deeper into, disappearing inside a cave.
I let out a long, drawn out breath.
Silvia and Stonard fist bumped and she announced, “we’ll take a short break and then follow the Boreagard.” My legs finally gave out and I sank onto the surprisingly warm stone floor.
I felt my hands shaking from this short fight and they hadn’t even given the monster a chance, while I basically did nothing much to help.
Irelia sat down next to me, “you have potential, you just need more experience, don’t worry~.” I smiled exhausted at her, Nordic braids clinging to my face and neck, “I just need a moment…
to catch my…
breath..” the sweat wasn’t even the worst and there were still stains of insect goo on my armor and as it mixed with the monsters blood, it seeped and dripped off.
My shield arm still felt numb and I clenched my fist a few times.
Irelia pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to me, “it’s my….
uuuhhh…
I mean it’s Dana’s, please wash it before giving it back, but if you stay that soaked you’ll catch a cold~.” “Thanks,” I scratched my cheek.
The handkerchief was beautifully covered with floral stitching.
I had no idea the mostly silent Dana would like a design like that and remembered the canteen.
A blush filled my face and despite being on a hunt, I just had to ask Irelia, “Umm I didn’t mean to pry, but are you and Dana a couple?” Irelia smiled bashfully, “we are something similar you could say~.” Her gaze turned pained for a second, “I wish it was as easy, but she doesn’t like labels and I’m too afraid to ask her again~.” I cleaned my face while listening to her and blurted out, not thinking, “but you two looked like you are in love with each other!” I clasped my hands over my mouth, suddenly self conscious.
This wasn’t something to talk about on a hunt, but it calmed me down a fair bit.
Her head went bright red, blushing up to her ears, “do we?!” She paused, realizing her own outburst and let out the fakest cough I’ve ever heard, “I mean, of course we do~.” Her eyes moved to Silvia and Stonard, both slowly getting up from where they rested and ended our conversation with a simple, “looks like we’ll soon get going again~.” Silvia came up to us, “Rookie, your weapon bounced off, right?
How’s your sharpness going?” She pointed at my holstered sword and I pulled it out.
The blade looked in dire need of sharpening.
It wasn’t chipped, I maintained my weapon and would’ve had a smithy fix it, but the edge seemed almost blunt.
I pulled out the whetstone I had with me and sharpened it.
It would really make me happy if you added it to your collections too <3 Love you folks