Hunting the Tigrex

	Roy sat in a tall bush, binoculars peering out to spot a Velocidrome nest. That wasn't what he was concerned about, but it *would* be excellent bait for what he WAS worried about. His dark blue Azure Rathalos armor blended in easily with the shadows, and he was making as little noise as he possibly could. His partner, the halfbreed Rathian Kinoreia, was in the same bush, lacking binoculars. The male Hunter had admonished her for forgetting something like that, then rolled his eyes and let her borrow them for 'just a moment'.

	Their target was the local Tigrex, which had a mark out on it for attacking a caravan and killing all of its occupants. The mark was put out by the Trade Guild, very unhappy with the wyvern for assaulting their people and their property, in that order. Roy was equipped appropriately, an Ivory Lagiacrus sword attached to his back and a matching shield on his left arm. Kino was restricted to her natural weaponry, as the Hunter's Guild was still struggling to create equipment for halfbreeds to use. Ones without wings, such as Zinogre hybrids, could cram themselves into standard armor, but otherwise...

	Luckily, adult halfbreeds had thick enough scale and plating to not need it, and it didn't affect their agility in any way. The natural plating would only get denser and more protective as they aged, and still wouldn't affect them in any real way. Armor that upgraded and repaired itself was still beyond the Hunter's Guild and their many, many blacksmiths.

	A loud thump drew Roy's attention to the middle of a clearing, several dozen meters away. Orange scales, blue stripes, quadruped with winged front legs...yep, that was their target. The Tigrex was slowly recovering from its typically rough landing, the Tigrex species as a whole never really caught on to a softer landing than just slamming their bodies into the ground. The Hunter supposed that's why older Tigrex had heftier plating on their stomachs, though it split just as easily against any kind of electrical attack. Roy silently handed the binoculars back to Kino and pointed in the Tigrex's general direction.

	"There it is. See it?" Roy asked, and Kino nodded an affirmative.

	"Yeah, I see it. Should I set up?"

	"...yes, actually." Roy said after a moment's thought. "I'll lure it in, and then you strike from above. Here," the Hunter said, digging into his pack for a minute. The Azure Rathalos-clad man then soon pulled a Pitfall Trap constructor, handing it to the Rathian halfbreed. “Take this, and go set it up somewhere back there.”

	"Gotcha."

	Quick as a flash, Kino burst from the bush and vanished back into the forest. Roy waited for a few minutes, praying the Tigrex wouldn't just leave.

	Luck was with him, as the Tigrex simply had its fun with the smaller raptors. Busy slaughtering the local Velociprey, the Tigrex was clearly distracted and not going anywhere. How long this would last, Roy didn't know. The orange wyvern was easily tearing through them, he'd give the pack another two, two and a half minutes before they were all dead. It was roughly a minute when the local Velocidrome appeared and called a retreat, the surviving Velociprey quickly falling into line and fleeing. The Tigrex bellowed in victory, the sonic boom echoing throughout the valley.

	Kino soon returned, then hoisted herself to the top of a nearby tree behind it. Roy, meanwhile, fished through his pouch and yanked out a Flash Bomb. He pressed the plunger, arming the device. Now ready, the bomb should explode into a blinding flash of light roughly three seconds after the plunger was released... if it wasn't a dud, of course. The Hunter grimaced, remembering when one had gone off in his face because of faulty construction.

	Roy stepped out of the bush, and whistled loudly. The Tigrex stopped cheering for its easy victory, looking about for the cause of the sound. Roy rolled his eyes. Tigrex weren't exactly bright, but it should have easily figured out where that sound had come from. He whistled again, and the wild wyvern spun around, finally spotting the much, much smaller Human. Narrowing its eyes, the Tigrex roared a challenge before charging straight at him. With a short prayer to any god that was listening, Roy let the Flash Bomb fly and covered his eyes.

	A flash bright enough to be painful with his eyes closed, and a pained whimper, followed. The Tigrex abruptly ceasing its charge forward and tumbled onto its side, feeling around for the ground as it stood back up shakily. The wyvern was completely blinded, tossing its head in every direction to attempt to 'see' its assailants. It couldn't, and wouldn't for at least another fifteen seconds, but its predicament didn't particularly concern the two Hunters. Kino came swooping down soon after, poisonous talons carving several bloody trenches in the wyvern's back.

	The Tigrex writhed for a moment as the necrotic toxin coursed through its veins. It let out several high-pitched shouts of pain as scales fell off its skin, the skin itself taking on a sickly green hue. Roy shivered at how quick and dangerous Rathian venom was, as he and his partner committed to their grisly work. Roy swung his sword, electricity from the Lagia organs crackling through the air as it made contact on its back leg. The Tigrex scales on and near the impact site simply burned away, exposing more of the wyvern's pale skin to the elements. Roy pulled the weapon out and swung again, not quite making contact as he was violently tossed aside from the recovered Tigrex.

	A whoosh of air leaving him was the only sound as his back struck a rock, winding him. Roy's breathing was labored and painful, but he *was* still breathing. That was enough for the wyverness to be certain he would get up eventually. Until then, the green scaled woman lunged forward, putting several slice marks in the orange wyvern's face to lure it away from Roy. Kino then dashed into the forest, leading the blue-striped wyvern deeper in. She spun on her heel and launched a small, but intensely hot, ball of fire into its face every now and again, making sure to keep its attention on her.

	They both crossed into a clearing, Kino taking wing and using her momentum to spin, her tail lashing out like a flail. The Tigrex leapt over it, its head making solid contact with her stomach mid-spin. Luckily, its mouth was closed, those extremely sharp teeth stored safely in its mouth. Enough blunt force was left over to smack her out of the air and across the clearing, her stomach plating cracking and leaving a large bruise across her midsection. The Rathian, in fact, felt like throwing up.

	“Ah Hell...” Kino groaned, spitting blood onto the earthy floor. “Don't hit me like that, man...”

	She slowly hauled herself up, narrowly evading the Tigrex's reckless charge mere seconds later. She tucked into a roll, feeling the Tigrex's scales brush up against hers, before coming out of it and leaping deftly up a nearby tree. Kino waited for the wyvern to stop, before lunging off of the tree for another aerial attack.

	A large fireball built up in her throat, then was launched in the wyvern's direction. It split in multiple directions while moving forward, a cone of hellfire searing the very air as it passed by. The Tigrex ignored the flaming impacts, crushing the tree underneath its massive, razor sharp claws. Kino jumped the very instant the tree rocked, landing on the Tigrex's back and slicing more scale and flesh with her own claws.

	It went into a frenzy, tossing and turning to try and dislodge the halfbreed, to no avail. It eventually decided to land on its back, attempting to crush the wyverness with its sheer bulk. The woman jumped off before she was harmed, but she quickly realized shw was back to square one.

	“Hrraah!”

	From behind the Tigrex, a lightning-clad sword slashed into the distracted Tigrex, biting into its injured ankle and severing several tendons. One of its rear legs now useless, it screamed in pain and anger. Veins appeared in its forelegs, pulsing a bright, angry red. Bellowing in fury, the sheer force blew Roy away, though he managed to catch himself and remain upright as he slid backwards.

	Both Hunter and Huntress looked at one another and grinned, moving in opposite directions to force the raging Tigrex to split its attention. Tigrex in general were terrible at dividing their attention, and the two would be abusing this factoid maliciously.

	“Reia, the trap!” Roy shouted as his weapon sliced through wing membrane, the Tigrex attempting to lunge at the Rathian halfbreed before pain forced it to change targets. Roy placed his shield between himself and the angry wyvern, deflecting its tail upwards as it spun in a vicious circle.

	“Right! It's over here!” She called, taking off towards it. The trap itself was weighted, neither Monster Hunter heavy enough to trip the trap. Kino ran right across the camouflaged netting, then belted out a heavy roar of her own to grab the wyvern's attention.

	It didn't work, the Tigrex still dead set on turning Roy into an armored pancake with several crushing stomps. Kino tossed a fireball its way, but missed as the orange wyvern leapt at Roy to pin him. To his credit, the Hunter held his shield between himself and the wyvern, then pointed his sword where the wyvern's chest would land. The sword skipped off of its sternum, but still bolted the creature with a crack of lightning. The Tigrex quickly abandoned the pin, unwilling to be shocked again.

	Roy stood, holding his electrified sword over his shield and straight out. The wyvern tried to prowl around him, but all Roy had to do was turn on his heels to keep his face (and more importantly, the sword) towards it.

	After taking a few turning steps, the Hunter turned and ran. Smelling victory, the wyvern gave chase. It had even spotted the green scaled human, it could end both of them in one go! Luck was going its way for once!

	Roy stood next to Kino, and put his sword away. Underneath his helmet was an almost villainous smile, as the trap strained on the first step the Tigrex took. Before the dimwitted wyvern could understand why the green one was grinning, the ground caved in beneath it. A yelp turned into an angry growl as it thrashed around in the trap, attempting to get free.

	Reaching into his bag, Roy pulled out and tossed two red colored capsules towards the furious wyvern's head. They split, a cloud of what appeared to be grey mist wafting over the immediate area. The Tigrex inhaled a good deal of it, motions slowing until it unceremoniously collapsed in the trap and began snoring.

	“Haha, excellent work.” Roy said, taking his helmet off and wiping the sweat off his brow and out of his silver hair. “Do this often?”

	Kino rolled her eyes. “Only with you.”

	“That's right. I almost forgot.” He replied with a good-natured chuckle. “Anyway, I think we're done here. Want to do the honors?”

	“Gladly.”

	With that, she reached into his bag and pulled out the flare gun, loading it expertly and shooting the bright green flare upwards. It held in the sky long enough for the Hunter's Guild to see it, the nearby outpost quickly loading a balloon used for heavy lifting. Roy and Kino rested against the tree and each other until then, smiling and relaxing. The tranquilizer would keep most wyverns of that size down for several hours, so there was no real rush.

	Kino then lost her lunch, her bruised midsection suddenly flaring in pain. Unfortunately, Roy was almost directly in the path, his armor contaminated with half-digested Popo tongue and various brighter colored stains that had once been fruit.

	“Aw, ew! Kino, c'mon!”

	“You have a Tigrex headbutt you in the stomach, we'll see how you feel. Ugh.”
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