New Encounter - Capital C Hunter

	The Hunter dove to the right, avoiding the Great Sword-like tail. It was hot, just judging from how it rippled the air as it passed by. However, there were obvious openings for a counterattack...like right now.

	The Capital C's Hunter unleashed a barrage of precision slices to its belly...whatever the hell it was. He was rewarded with blood spray and a groan, the blue and red monster leaping away with agility that he had thought simply unbelievable for a monster its size.

	It spat a fireball at him, which was expertly evaded. While his Azure Rathalos mail had warded off more than its fair share of fire, the Caravaneer had told him that Azure Rathalos parts were in short supply after his last stunt of driving off a Crimson Fatalis...on his own. Practically had to rebuild the armor from scratch, though The Man didn't mind.

	The Hunter's own distraction nearly put a nail in his coffin as he dove, evading that oddly sharp tail once more. The quest details did mention a grinding noise, maybe there was a huge whetstone around here that this beast used?

	He then got a good look at the monster's head. Four teeth, each hard and gritty. His suspicions were confirmed when the red and blue brute brought its tail into its mouth and began to sharpen the tail edge. An loud, unpleasant grinding noise echoed through the cavern, and the beast's tail grew warmer, glowing with heat from the friction.

	Then, unexpectedly, the tail got stuck in its mouth. It tugged, and tugged, and the Capital C's Hunter suddenly had a very, very bad feeling. He had to move, NOW. He dove, and the beast let go of its tail, spinning quickly with its tail a blur of red hot, sharp death. If the Hunter hadn't dove, he would have been cleaved clean in half. Instead, he merely lost a chunk of his helmet, the rest of it falling forward into the dirt.

	His weapon was completely unsuited for this monster. He had Golden Eclipse on him, and this was an obvious fire monster. He had to retreat for now, come back with something else. Grabbing both pieces of his helmet and dashing away, he looked back to see the bladed monster had actually gotten stuck in the wall. Now would have spelt the wyvern's end if he wasn't concerned for his own life.

	Reaching camp, he pulled his flare gun and pulled the trigger. One more failed quest to add to his Quest Log, but at least he was going home alive.

	Sophie would kill him otherwise.
===

	The Hunter had a man pinned against a wooden post, fury in his eyes as he stared the supposed researcher down. The pinned man, fancy robes now ruined, had been the one to make the request.

	"Shouldn't be an issue, huh?" The Hunter hissed, ready to feed the terrified man his front teeth. "Just a grocery run, huh? WHAT WAS THAT THING!?"

	"I-it's called a Glavenus! Please don't hurt me!" The Wycademy scholar said, attempting to protect his face and failing. "It's a new wyvern in the area, but I thought it would keep its distance from an actual threat!"

	"You know what they call that?" The Hunter said in a low snarl, free hand clenching in anger.

	"W-what?"

	"IMPORTANT INFORMATION!" The Hunter shouted, releasing the uninjured man and stalking off. He passed by the Caravaneer on his way to The Man to see if he could salvage his helmet. It was in two neat parts, perhaps just some carbalite to seal it...

	"I'm glad ya didn't level 'im. Though now that I think about it, I jus' might in yer place." The Caravaneer said as the Hunter walked by, not offended at all when he didn't respond. The Hunter likely had a million things on his mind, a decent reply not one of them. He sometimes got that way, Sophie should cheer him up soon enough.

	"Hey Doodle! What happened out there?" Sophie asked a few minutes later. Noting that he didn't reply to her, or even give a passive 'I'm kinda paying attention' nod, she grew concerned. Her concern compounded when she looked at his face.

	He was no longer smiling. Instead, his lips were peeled back to reveal a vicious snarl.

	The Hunter stopped, taking several deep breaths and turning his expression perfectly neutral.

	"Sophie."

	"Yes?"

	"Find out everything you can about a Brute Wyvern called Glavenus. Reports, stories, legends, hell I'll even take limericks. I want it, because Glavenus will NOT survive round 2."

	"On it already, Doodle! You rest up, you look a little rough."

	"Mm."

	The Man predictably didn't have much to say to the Hunter, only that his helmet would be fixed in a couple hours. With that done, he returned to his room and stripped his armor off, falling on the bed and hoping his bad mood would pass when he woke up.
---

	Apparently, the Glavenus had popped back up, essentially holding a few of the Wycademy's scholars hostage. A few escaped to report this, and according to Sophie there was talk of just abandoning them to the savage wyvern. Then, unexpectedly, the very same scholar that he had choked out threw the Hunter's name in as a potential solution, and it was almost unanimous vote that he was to take the Glavenus down.

	The Hunter had his armor ready, weapon tucked in its sheath and shield in place on his forearm. The Odyssey Blade was his weapon of choice this round, the choice the result of Sophie's fact gathering 'quest'. He was in the marketplace, double checking everything and cramming as many potions and whetstones as he could in his bag's pockets.

	"I heard a rumor that you're going after the Glavenus, surely they can't be true!" Came from his right, straight from his least favorite general store. At least the woman at the Wycademy was bearable, even when she was clearly...

	Sighing, he nodded.

	"In that armor? With THAT weapon! Ha! Who would believe such a thing?"

	"Well, better check your sources. I'm taking it out." He said with a shrug, eyes narrowing.

	"I, uh, well... Actually, I had no doubts about you at all! Your gear is fine, break a leg out there!"

	The Hunter's practiced neutral expression darkened a bit. He truly did NOT like this store.

	"Now that THAT bit of awkwardness is over, is there anything you needed from our shop?" The woman asked with a nervous chuckle.

	"No. I think I'm good." The Hunter replied with an almost-growl. "Sophie?" He called, his tone pulling an immediate one-eighty.

	"Yes, Doodle?" She replied, looking up from a Lagiacrus plushy in mid-construction.

	"Get me what I need?"

	"Why Doodle, you act like all I do is make plushies!" Sophie replied with a coy grin, and the Hunter rolled his eyes with a small smile. She lifted a large tome and turned a few pages. "Glavenus, once thought to be extinct, was recently found to not only be not extinct, but in fact is in the middle of a population boom. The wyvern's scales are hard and flame resistant, though water and ice attacks crack them wide open due to the stark differences in temperature. Its tail can cleave through rock with little difficulty, and it sharpens its tail using its four whetstone-like teeth. This causes the tail to become superheated after a few strokes." Sophie read off, miming the grinding motion right after.

	"Anything else?"

	"It sticks mostly to tropical or volcanic environs, and is considered extremely dangerous blah blah recommend full parties, blah." Sophie mocked as she read what had to be the most overused Guild warning in existence. The Hunter in front of her had taken on more dangerous creatures alone and come out...mostly okay. Then there was that time he literally saved the world...twice. "And no, I didn't find any limericks." She finished, sticking out her tongue.

	"Heh, alright. I'll suit up then, can you put in that I've got this job?"

	"Absolutely! After all, you're the one to get it done!"

	"Thanks."

	After that last little briefing on the target, the Hunter was on his way. The Guildmarm went back to the Wycademy's library, quill and ink well at the ready for her own notes. Pulling out another book, she looked at the entry for Glavenus and gasped.

	"I lied to Doodle...here's a limerick right here..."
---

	Wyvern and Human stared one another down, the Hunter fully aware of the scholars hiding in a cave behind and above the Glavenus. They'd be dead if the wyvern had the sense to actually look up. It had been preoccupied for the past fifteen minutes, however, anything other than the Hunter being almost forgotten.

	The Hunter made the first move, charging straight ahead. The beast spat a fireball that the Hunter ducked under, and the blade-tail wyvern couldn't react fast enough to stop the Hunter from then springing up and stepping along its face, the human drawing his knife and driving it into the Brute Wyvern's back.

	"C'mon, show me what you've got!" The Hunter shouted from atop the Glavenus, driving his Eltalite-reinforced knife into its back over and over again. There would be no surrender, no retreat, no mercy for or from either. The Hunter had a job to do, and the Wyvern had a pest to remove from its territory.

	The knife struck gold, cracking the spinal armor with the repeated impacts and biting into the spinal column. The wyvern yelped in pain and toppled over, launching the Hunter to the ground and causing him to slide. He quickly gained his footing and drew his weapon again. Odyssey flashed in the jungle sunlight, the self-cleaning blade keeping it clear of blood or other imperfections.

	The Brute Wyvern's throat was glowing orange, which made it a prime target. Lifting the weapon in a reverse grip, he brought it down like a dagger into the throat and glowing organ.

	A deafening *BOOM* sent him soaring through the air and crashing to the ground, the momentum forcing him to roll multiple times before coming to a slow, painful stop. Sore but still mobile, the Hunter picked himself up and looked at his wyvern opponent. The Glavenus had picked itself up as well, glaring daggers at the Capital C's Hunter.

	"Want some more, huh?" He taunted. He had remembered that someone told him that some wyverns could, in fact, understand human speech. He wasn't sure if that were true, but it was still fun to taunt them. "I can do this all day!"

	A raspy, quiet cough from the Glavenus was the answer. Not a retreat, as it charged at him and swung its massive blade straight down to tear the Hunter apart. The Hunter sidestepped it and slashed with all his might into the Glavenus' thigh, hopping back before leaping forward to unleash a powerful strike into the same wounded area. His sword struck bone and cut through, and the Glavenus toppled over once more.

	"This is coming off!" He shouted, moving to and hacking just above the tail to remove the other obvious threat. The blade itself seemed too rigid to cut easily, so this would be the next best thing. The second slash missed as the tall Wyvern stood, fixing a heated glare right to the Hunter. The Hunter matched it, though his faceplate was in the way. Glavenus swung its tail, then swung it again as the Hunter rolled passed it. The flat of the blade struck him in the back, tossing him away.

	The beast tried to spit a fireball as a follow-up, but the wounded flame sac just caused problems. An explosion, while not as massive as the first, fired off inside the organ and caused the Brute Wyvern's head to be thrown back, the Hunter hoping that the sac was simply gone now as he got back up. Glavenus drool and small amounts of flame powder dripped out of the wound, each drip igniting when it hit the ground and then extinguishing almost as fast.

	The Glavenus brought its tail into its mouth, and the Hunter now knew what it was doing. One scrape, two scrapes...stuck, the weaponized bone and scale heating up to levels that would put a Silver Rathalos to shame. The Hunter just waited, then placed the buckler in front of him and leapt forward.

	The sound of metal warping and melting was followed by a cry of pain as he was struck in the chest, the shield now a useless lump of scorched metal that wouldn't be blocking anything anymore. He flew backwards and struck the opposite wall, suddenly having difficulty breathing without fire in his ribs. Still better than being cut in half, though.

	"Alright...you're done." The Hunter panted, using the wall to lift himself off the ground. He pulled the ruined shield off and threw it at the beast, the metal bouncing off of its hard scales to no apparent effect...not that he expected any. Glavenus, however, was stuck in the wall, just like last time.

	No retreat this time around, he wanted to end this.

	With a primal roar, the Capital C's Hunter sprinted forth, trying his damndest to ignore the burning in his chest. He slashed and cut the beast as much as he possibly could, the water properties cracking shell and splintering scale while allowing the blade to slice deeper and deeper. Finally freeing its tail from the stone, the Wyvern bodychecked the man, sending him tumbling across the cave and coming to rest on his back again.

	The man could no longer stand, his body almost literally screaming at him to stay down. He could drink a Potion, but...that would require moving, which he couldn't really do.

	The Glavenus slowly stalked over to the Capital C's best hope. It gave a rasp of victory, despite its own injuries. Its tail was dragging through the dirt, and its steps were clumsy. It tripped over its own feet, crashing down near the Hunter. The Capital C's Hunter couldn't waste this chance, no matter how wounded.

	The man used his sword as a crutch to stand, then pressed it to the Glavenus' throat.

	"Good fight. See you in the afterlife..."

	A swift stroke across an artery, and the beast's fate was sealed.

	The Hunter then fell over again, exhausted and in pain. He fell into the pool of blood the wyvern's heart was pumping through severed arteries, slowly stopping over roughly a minute. He wasn't keeping track of how quickly the Glavenus was bleeding out for Sophie's notes. He was simply done for today, the blunt force trauma adding up. Motion from above caught his attention, only for it to be the no-longer-trapped scientists slowly climbing down from the tunnel above. A few made their way over to him, calling orders to the others.

	He didn't hear any of it as darkness took him.
===

	The Capital C's Hunter was on mandatory six weeks 'vacation' for recovery, though his efforts did indeed make that area safer. The Guild paid him, and The Man was working on a replacement shield for Odyssey Blade. It seemed as though the large wyverian was letting Little Miss Forge try her hand at it this time around, which was good. She could always use more experience. His armor was next on the list, though it wasn't nearly as damaged as the shield, thus less important. The Man would be handling that personally.

	"Doodle?"

	He jumped slightly and hissed in pain, before turning away from the window. The Guildmarm, Sophie, was standing in the doorway, an Azure Rathalos plushy in her hands.

	"I wanna say great job on that last hunt!" She beamed, placing the plushy on his nightstand. "The Caravaneer is in Kokoto at the moment, so he can't congratulate you himself."

	"That's fine." The Hunter replied, sitting on his bed. "Ugh, I hurt."

	Sophie chuckled. "Well, getting hit over and over by several tons of wyvern tends to do that. What did you expect?"

	"Confetti and balloons." He replied, rolling his eyes as he laid down. Sophie walked over and knelt down to his eye level.

	"Do you want me to get you anything?"

	"No Sophie, just some peace and quiet." He said, closing his eyes. He briefly felt soft lips on his cheek, then heard a gentle chuckle.

	"Of course, Mister Hero. I'll make sure Guild Officials talk to me first. I'll be outside making more plushies!"

	The wounded Hunter chuckled, sleep quickly taking him. As the Capital C Caravan members told him constantly...

	He was the one to get it done.