A/N: This might've just been one of the most intense weeks I've ever had in fanfic writing. And now, back to The Legend of Dragoon I go.

Do enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: The following is a fan-made fiction based on the Monster Hunter series. I own only the story and characters, Monster Hunter itself is owned by Capcom.

If you enjoy the story so far, please feel free to review and leave your opinion. I will be sure to reply to any questions.

The Tigrex's wounds had not recovered, only worsened. Now, in addition to the injuries it had obtained during the mountain scuffle, the reptile showcased a brand new set of scars and still open cuts covering its scaly hide, possibly due to its fall. Max was sure it was the same one they had met and paranoia gave him the push he needed. He bitterly reminded himself, "These things don't just happen".

And now we finish this...

Chapter XVII

Fang, Fang: You're Dead

A roar ripped the darkness and drops of drool rained upon the party. Max could hear the Popos outside rearing wildly with panicked cries.

In one powerful sweep, the Tigrex destroyed the upper section of the carriage, tearing it clean off. Instinctively, Corr and Max had managed to duck but were given no time even to feel the fear of it, for the coach then exploded into the air with a second blow, this time coming from below them, cleaving it in half.

Max found himself twisting over himself wildly in the air before landing headfirst into the dirt, miraculously not breaking his spine in half. His face became covered in mud and small scratches from the fall, leaving him even more disorientated as he heard shouts echo through the increasing downpour of rain.

The shock of landing had jarred Max to his teeth and he was trembling as well. That hit must have thrown Lucia off, too. He thought. He took three or four deep, shaky breaths. Only then he looked around to see where he was.

The rain was falling hard on him, soaking the road and his cloak, a cold wind chilling him to the bone. It poured over half-buried ruins and broken signs, all as forgotten as those who had built them. Thick clouds clung to the sky above, darkening the night even further.

In the Furahiya, spring was going or gone, yet here in the road to Dondruma it held a while longer. Only evergreens provided color to the road, against the brown mud or gray rocks.

The wind jerked at his cloak, pulling his hood back from his head, but his mind was not really on the cold. Eyeing his destroyed vehicle, he wondered if his companions felt it too. Not the cold that cut through their clothes, but fear.

Sounds of moving coaches no longer came from the now faraway group in the distance. Those in the carriages must have heard the commotion, however. Max knew they would listen awhile, maybe watch for what had caused it and then continue on their path. They would soon forget the strange noise, probably associating it with a random lightning strike. Perhaps when they counted the number of Hunters arriving in Dondruma some would remember and wonder. Inquiries were heard, and after a moment a short answer responded them. The convoy was resuming its course.

Max tried to clean some of the filth on his face away and grab his Longsword but he did not find its hilt standing over his shoulder. He then recalled to his dismay that he had left his equipment and weapons in the stagecoach's dedicated luggage deck, located on the roof of said coach.

The Tigrex was perfectly visible, its orange scales contrasting with the background, as it flung one of the coach's Popos towards Max as if it were a pebble. In his panic, Max only had time to scream in shock, rolling away back into the mud before he heard the disgusting sound of the Popo's bones getting crushed upon impact with the ground behind him, as the herbivore screamed and died.

He saw the remnants of the coach placed right next to the Tigrex, the upper half of the coach, and all thought of anything else left him. He ran towards it.

To his surprise, Max heard shouts answering the chaos as men began to rush from their carriages, garbed for combat, but with poor quality swords and axes at the ready. With a bestial roar, the Tigrex went forth to meet them.

He knew he should have been afraid, but urgency suppressed fear. All that mattered was that he had to reach his weapons, had to find Lucia, had to get them both out of there. Sprinting as fast as he could, he crouched behind the coach, placing it between himself and the monster. Now safely out of sight, the teenage Hunter found someone already positioned around the corner of the wreck.

The Loc Lacian was knelt down against the wooden carriage wall, back turned to him. The fleeting light from the pale moon showed his expression, deep in thought as he was as he watched the carnage.

"Corr!" Looking at the teen's folded Gunlance, Max couldn't help but wonder where he had kept it. "Resourceful of you to keep that around, huh… wherever you keep that around."

"Max, I have an idea. A good one, really." Corr said, his voice struggling to be heard in the full-blown storm. Max simply stared at him awkwardly at the mention of a 'plan' but the old squad member paid him no mind. "I need to find a safe position from where I can deal damage. Can you grab its attention and bring it to me once I am ready?"

Well, this is just too rich…

The situation was sounding quite a bit like déjà vu. Something was bound to go wrong for sure. Little chance of not getting eaten and yet, what choice did Max have? If he hadn't come up with a plan of his own, what difference did it make anyway?

"Do I have to?" Max asked in a whimper.

"Oh, and now you have second thoughts about your career choice. Brilliant. Of course you have to, Hunter! Now get in there!" Corr said as he uncorked a bottle of green liquid, most likely Hunter's Potion. He took a long swig.

Max crouched down and looked for his weapons inside the still intact luggage deck. Inside he found his Eager Cleaver and Bone Kris. While the Sword and Shield combo would bring a welcome amount of safety, the Longsword prevailed as the more powerful choice of the two by a mile and a half. And so, naturally, he picked the electrically charged katana.

"But Corr…" He paused as he got up. "Do I really?"

The red haired Hunter finished downing another gulp of the healing potion. He tossed it into Max's hands. "You most definitely have to, my friend. My sincerest condolences."

That said, Corr began to climb the coach's remains. In preparation for his battle, Max tried to drink some of the Potion but, to his surprise, it was already empty. He tossed it away with a grunt.

Unsheathing his blade and leaving its oversized sheath behind, Max stealthily circled around the coach's wreckage as he heard more shouting and gunfire. Straining his vision in the storm around him, he was able to make out the silhouette of the Tigrex battling a group of twelve or fifteen people but no sign of Lucia in sight.

The Tigrex was out in the night as well, dancing its own dance among the frail humans. Its only apparent weapons were its fangs and claws, but where they struck, a splatter of red painted them. Its tail swished in the air, and men howled as they were hit, sending them flying.

An entire tree burst into splinters from root to crown, then another was uprooted, and another broken in half. Mercenaries screamed in the destruction, but they did not stop swinging their spiked axes and iron swords.

Max gathered up his bravery and quickly ran toward the wyvern, his blade upraised. "Over here you damn lizard!" He cried, striking at the Tigrex's hind leg.

But the monster moved like a viper. While his blow was still falling, the Tigrex's scaly tail lashed out like a clenched fist, brutally slamming into his side, knocking him away into the air as he landed back next to the luggage deck.

A convulsion wracked his body from head to toe, as if he had been cracked like a whip, his sword dropped uselessly from spasming fingers. His ribs hurt him more than he had expected, damaged as they were by the Tigrex's abrasive scales and blunt power.

Well… can't say it coulda gone any worse. He thought to himself as he scrambled to his feet. But if at first you don't succeed…

His attempt had not gone unnoticed however, as the Tigrex turned heel from its opponents and chose him as its next victim. Sliding clumsily across the muddy road, the monster's mouth opened wider and wider as it encroached upon Max, a deep purple drool covering its goofy-looking tongue.

Aw, bloody Elders…

"Hey, lizard! Fight me!" He heard Corr shout. Looking over his head, he saw Corr standing over the coach's wreckage wielding his Gunlance in hand, massive shield raised defensively in front of his body.

Its greed proving greater than its sense of survival, the Tigrex adjusted its head in Corr's direction, clawing away at the dirt even faster in its eagerness to meet him.

"Sit down!" Corr blared. A blast of Wyvern Fire exploded on the Tigrex's skull, illuminating the night like lightning. The monster was stopped dead on its tracks, even getting partly lifted by its point blank range power. Its two forelimbs lifted in the air, it looked as if it were about to fall flat on its back. In place of its head, only a dark cloud of smoke remained.

Before Max or Corr could celebrate however, the monster shakily regained its footing. They saw it assume a standing position for a moment, its neck stretched far back behind itself, before going strangely still. And then, breathing in an enormous amount of air, the Tigrex launched its slightly charred head forward and roared with all its strength.

Max's hands shot up to his ears in pain as he felt the force of the yell destroy one of his eardrums. His legs were pushed over himself as he was sent rolling against the coach.

As he felt the force subside, he looked up to find the Tigrex lifting its tail over him. He quickly rolled away to the side to avoid collateral damage and felt the earth shake as the Tigrex smashed down not only the coach but Corr as well.

Rolling to his feet completely caked in mud, Max was able to faintly see the group of escort guards swarming the Tigrex with blades and axes. He did not join them however and ran towards whatever was left of his once hunting partner. As he approached Corr though, he found no body but instead the Gunlancer's massive shield covering what he assumed was the still living Fitzroy.

Before Max could lift the shield, Corr was able to push it up himself and then use the shield as support to slowly and painfully roll himself into a kneeling position. His body had not suffered significant trauma though his shield arm looked suspiciously shaky and his forehead bled in matching tones with his hair. In fact, what seemed to have taken the blunt of the blow had been the shield itself, which was now slightly bent in its center.

"Is the Potion helping?" Max asked.

"Kind of wish I knew, Max." He choked on his words for a moment. "I thought we could just scare this thing away, but this fight is getting too dangerous. We're going to have to slay it before it does more harm."

"What?!" Max asked loudly. "I can't quite hear ya!"

Corr bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. He wanted to laugh at his bad luck but his lungs hurt too much.

The rain began to fade at last and they were finally able to get a better view of what was going on in the battle nearby. But it was only then that they finally noticed a familiar person crawling to her feet.

"Oh, for the love of… Lucia!" Max shouted at her, running towards his childhood friend. The swelling roar of fighting and dying swallowed his words, even if he could not hear it. He slipped in the wet dirt and twisted an ankle, falling face down into the merciless ground again. "Godsdamnit Lucy, hide! You hear me?!"

Ignoring him, she unfolded her composite bow and nocked one of her massive hunting arrows on it as she attempted to stand up, putting tremendous strain on her yet unhealed back. Max could only limp towards her as she slowly lifted the up bow and aimed it towards the Tigrex. She lacked the strength to pull the bowstring.

"Don't you dare push yourself!" He begged. "Lucy, listen to me!" Rocks skittered away under his bare hands as he scrambled up to his feet, though he did not feel the bruises and cuts. The Tigrex's tail rose like a cat's. "Luciaaaaaaaa!"

The Tigrex spun, claws flashing toward Lucia. She was hit with a dry thud, yelling as she pinwheeled away into the dirt, her ribs creaking on the point of breaking. Lucia's bow was gone in the fall, but one of her large arrows had sunk into the monster's paw.

With a roar that shook the air around it, the beast struck out with its tail, tossing her even further back to Max's feet. Soundlessly she convulsed, limbs spread wide, hands clutching the air sporadically.

For a moment Max lay there, fighting for breath. The scars across her back had torn, and he saw the redness of blood. His knees protested as he fell on them. "Lucy?"

She was still immobile, huddled in front of him, no more than half a yard away. He dropped his Longsword and turned her over gently. Purple liquid stained her lips, and her eyes stared up at him, looking surprisingly lively. An accusing stare, it seemed to him.

"Kill it." Lucia said roughly, unaware of his near-deafness, but then a different voice repeated the command, one permeating with rage. "Kill it!" She spat, her lips curling back in a snarl.

The Tigrex leapt from the distance, its black shadow dwarfing them as it fell in front of the two Hunters. Its hungry gaze was fixed on Max. It bore a stench of death.

Cold seeped through Max's arms and legs as the Tigrex stared at him. His chest felt like a lump of ice. "Lucia." He whispered. He could not bring himself to run. "Lucy, please get up. Please."

The Tigrex raised one of its forelimbs, as if the convoy's mercenary escorts had been dealt with but, in one very accurate toss, a rope managed to wrap itself around the monster's neck and then pushed it back down, slamming it against a bed of rocks and muddy water, dirt flying into the air with the impact. Like a rabid dog the Tigrex attempted to break free, its limbs thrashing and tearing at the ground in rage.

Massive holes and mounds were left where those limbs hit, reshaping the road. The wyvern bellowed as thick, purple sludge poured out from its mouth. On and on it roared, as if enraged at the Elder Ones for abandoning it.

It was almost as if everything that could've gone wrong that day had indeed gone wrong.

… blood.

Max wanted to get up, wanted to fight, but instead lay there kneeling in the mud as if frozen. Flashes of red reached him through the clumps of dirt blocking his vision, scooping up some of his more painful memories. There is no use. I know it. We all know it. Elders damn me, I never wanted to be a part of this. The red color floated up from the bottom of his memories. The red color drifted even higher. Blood. Blood. Blood. The color of nauseating memories visited him.

He felt sick, a sour taste filling his mouth. Death? The sharp word came to mind without justification as he teetered on the verge of panic. I can't die, not here. I mean, I could, but I won't. I've only just begun, it wouldn't be fair! His fingers shook on the Longsword's hilt, his hand squeezing it so strongly it hurt. I just… I just need to get up. And then… and then I'll… But just as quickly as he'd gathered his bravery, he lost it and went from squeezing the hilt to dropping it uselessly on the ground. Oh, who am I kidding. We're all dead.

He could not hear anything around him and thin red lines trickled down from his ears. Abruptly, he felt somebody grabbing his head behind him. Hey, what are you doing? Let go of me. Don't you understand we're finished? He thought. But the person didn't care. Max felt something being poured into his ear, followed by a slight pain and a faint voice.

His limbs were too heavy to resist. His joints hurt. He felt terrified.

If I died, it would've been so much easier. Everything just gone in an instant.

Suddenly Max's body jerked against his will in the stranger's grasp and the person's hands pushed him away instead of clutching him. One of his ears clicked with a dull sound… and a familiar voice burst through the receding silence.

"Get up!" He heard the voice shout, his ears finally remembered their purpose as he began to pick off sounds other than screaming.

"…Corr?"

A strong hand hooked itself under his armpit and he was swiftly lifted up to his feet. Before his fractured brain cells could fully recover, he heard another command, "Get these to Lucia and don't you dare let her back into the fight! Then you go for the tail, I will distract it!"

Turning his back on Max, Corr left his last two potions on the ground next to the Pokke native. He could only hope that the brown-haired boy had heard a fragment of what he had said. These were relatively expensive potions he had just wasted away on the boy, after all.

He gripped his spear with his weakened arm. Maybe an inflammation and some muscle damage, he reckoned. Too bad he didn't have enough potions for himself.

And then, right in front of him, the Tigrex.

A pseudowyvern from a time long past, now once again commonplace in the mountain and desert regions. He knew his way around these.

The very poorly equipped guards were fighting an utterly unmatched monster. It roared, like an unbreakable orange fortress dirtied with mud. Its claws were caked in red and a rope dangled uselessly around its neck. Three corpses surrounded it now but Corr counted less than half of the original fifteen men and women.

His battle trained instincts told him to jump into the fray but his arm was certain to fail him as soon as he thrust. So he approached carefully with his shield raised in front of him.

The monster began to swing down its forelimbs, smashing them into the ground around itself as it threatened the remaining seven guards, not including Corr. He blocked one of the random blows with ease, noticing how the Tigrex's strength had dwindled after its many wounds.

He attempted a shot at the Tigrex's eye with the Gunlance's short range firepower but his arm failed him. Then he tried another but this time slipped in the mud under him.

The Gunlance's shield had blocked the monster's attacks before, but the wyvern came at him from a different direction now. It swung its enormous tail horizontally. The impact pushed back Corr, but he managed to stay standing. He took aim and another shot.

This time, the shell hit closer to its mark, he could tell. The pellets nailed themselves into the Tigrex's skull, gouging out small scales. The Tigrex turned towards him and gurgled a strange and incomprehensible sound. Corr had fought many times in his life so he knew when he was being threatened but this wasn't quite the same feeling he was used to. Could this thing be laughing at me?!

The monster made the same weird sound as he glared at it, simultaneously knocking aside three mercenaries who had approached it in another powerful sweep. It must be laughing at me… ass.

Corr despised being ridiculed and underestimated. People never understood how much it hurt him. So he dropped his shield and grabbed a hold of his Gunlance with both hands. He was not about to throw his life away, he simply did not stand being looked down upon.

He saw a boomerang, the everyday man's secondary weapon, fly through the air at the Tigrex's face, distracting it at the right moment. "It's toying with us! Let's show it who's stronger!" Corr roared.

The orange wyvern closed in with so much pressure that it crushed that challenge. A massive arm smashed down on Corr's position, meeting nothing but the dirt.

"Is that all, monster?" Corr taunted as he raced under the Tigrex's wounded limbs towards the exposed abdomen.

"You dumbass! Don't just charge at it! Boy, calm down and-" A female voice shouted. But Corr's will was focused solely into directing as much brute strength as he could into piercing through his enemy with his spear.

Some say the Tigrex's weak spot is the head. But, even if it wasn't, Corr's low quality spear would never have gone completely through. Some say that can be taken as a fact.

"Gaah… ah." Corr heaved. A small trace of blood slid down his Gunlance, which had pierced into five inches of Tigrex flesh. He tried triggering his Wyvern Fire as a surprise attack but the function was still on cool down.

More chuckling sounds reached his ears, the Tigrex's body shaking with each laugh. Corr lowered his Gunlance's handle and crouched down.

Neither the unfamiliar escort guards nor the beast were expecting what happened next.

"Watch out! Here goes nothing!" Max yelled from behind the Tigrex.

Max's positioning, blade power and sharpness. All three were an ideal match to the Tigrex's exposed tail. Corr couldn't have planned this any better when he had seen that Max was the owner of an Eager Cleaver Longsword.

Max threw the Longsword down with as much strength as he could and the monster's tail twisted and jerked as the blade tore halfway through bone, scale and flesh. Lightning broke from the wound, burning the flesh into a crisp as it did, but the tail was still not completely severed. In the middle of the chaos Corr stood, his safety only ensured by the Gunlance that kept the wyvern above him. The Tigrex looked startled but then howled in pain. The Gunlance had it pinned in the air and so the more the monster struggled, the deeper the weapon dug itself into its torso.

With another well aimed descending strike, the monster's tail was finally shortened, sending the wyvern into such a reckless thrashing that it nailed itself further into the Gunlance, breaking it under its weight.

Rolling his way to safety, Corr crawled back onto his feet with a pompous stance, certain of their victory. And then, to his horror, a roar was heard directly behind him.

"What the-" Somehow still alive, the Tigrex blindly struck the earth around it in rage, like a child throwing a tantrum, ready to squash their toys. Corr could see its green eyes turning a vibrant red, its mouth an abominable pool of blood, sludge and human flesh.

"Run!" The Loc Lacian commanded. His face was white with fear. "All of you run!" Corr dashed unarmed across the mud, towards the unholy beast.

Max was aware of others moving, some of the mercenaries dashing away at the edge of his vision, shouting 'unnatural!' and 'undead!' as they went, but all he could really see was Corr. The red-haired teen ran fast but it was not bravery that urged him on, Max realized. Corr was sprinting towards his shield for protection, the ground under him shaking sporadically as he ran into the wyvern's rampage.

But the Roaring Wyvern could not be hidden from. Just as Corr managed to get himself under his shield, a rain of brutally fast strikes immediately assaulted him. Thunder applauded the destruction as the orange beast violently pounded into the shield with a flurry of merciless attacks.

The force of its strikes transferred through the shield, bending it, burying it in the mud, but they did not stop moving for even an instant.

"Hold on!" Max howled and his Longsword whirled into his hands, his eyes fierce and determined.

The Tigrex glanced at him unconcernedly and he felt the air stir above him like the crack of thunder as the Eager Cleaver howled with him. He was not even halfway to Corr before he was swatted like a fly, the wyvern slamming him and all else in its wake with a monstrous backhanded blow from one of its forearms, shooting Max away like a bullet.

He struck a nearby tree with his entire back. Cracks formed in its bark and pieces of it scattered off into the night. Rushing in recklessly would not do. Close to losing consciousness, he felt his body slide down on its surface before hitting the ground, his hood sliding over his face and his sword lying away from his outstretched hand.

With no armor, no Longsword, broken bones… The pain Max felt stabbing through his chest was unbearable. The simple difference in power couldn't be compensated for and no amount of willpower would ever make up for it. He spat blood onto his cloak.

Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. The pain in his nervous system was rising. Red burned the back of his eyelids, he could still remember its color. The sight of Lucia's wounds was burned into his retinas. The body of nameless assassin they had slain, her life so abruptly ended.

A black impulse rose in his chest. Burned buildings, spilt blood, lost lives. It all turned into black heat flowing through his veins.

Destruction. Defeat. Unfairness. Murder. He could not forgive any of that so-

"Drink up." A voice said to him as he felt a green bottle fall on his lap. He was woken out of his stupor by the sudden weight.

Rick's sword flashed coldly in the night. "That fear you feel now is vital to your survival. Drink and you will live, lad."

Max froze at his father's arrival. Normally he would be thrilled by his presence, but he knew it was useless to face their enemy. He could only see his father's back under his hood, which both meant he had not been recognized and that his father was actually going to fight. His voice failed him.

Rick did not move a muscle. It was dark and he was too far away to tell what the exact situation was but they clearly had deceased and wounded. The Tigrex stood in the middle of the road, dueling the four remaining mercenaries that still hadn't retreated. The others were all around it, the rest of the convoy's guard.

"This isn't a battle, this is a comedy and a tragedy. To find a Tigrex this far away from the mountains… And not a proper Hunter in sight." The veteran grunted before leaping forward, breaking into a sprint. Before he had taken three steps the full moon burst into sight, its light reflected on iron, blood and mud as he dashed down the path.

He could see more clearly now as he examined the survivors. Some held drawn swords, others waved broken axe shafts. Behind the barred faceguards of each guard every eye looked grim but every low quality weapon was still pointed unwaveringly at the Tigrex.

Closing in on the threat, Rick sheathed his sword and brought out his dagger. It would be a much safer and maneuverable weapon for the task ahead.

Rick kicked the ground, then a nearby rock, then the shoulder of a fellow mercenary. The white-haired veteran moved faster than his allies, surpassing the Tigrex's reaction speed.

"Gotcha!" If the Tigrex caught him in midair he'd die so he had to pick the direction he was flying in carefully.

The dagger's sharp blade stabbed deep into the wyvern's chest as Rick grabbed a hold of the rope he found wrapped around the Tigrex's neck with his spare hand, his foot finding a hold on the broken Gunlance that was still nailed into the monster's torso. Changing position quickly, Rick managed to evade the monster's attempts at clawing at him. The Tigrex then tried to body slam him, throwing itself at the ground and Rick changed position again. The dagger, shining in the moonlight, slashed and stabbed the wyvern's shoulder muscles, leaving them bloodied and ruptured, causing them to lose strength. The Tigrex thrashed and cuts tore at its chest, slashes decorated its back, stab wounds bled from its neck.

For a time, man and monster kept on like this but it did not last long.

Rick did not hold back and neither did the wyvern as they fought with everything they had while they grappled in the mud. Sweat began to fall from Rick's determined face but he looked no longer tired, no longer old, and instead he almost seemed reinvigorated by the struggle, like a strong man in his prime.

As the monster's movements began to lag behind his, Rick pointed the blade at the Tigrex's heart. "It's over!"

Moonlight flashed from the dagger as the metal met its mark, burying itself up to the hilt. Wailing, the Tigrex threw up its winged arms in pain. Rick could feel the creature's muscles relax until only the slow growl of the wyvern remained and so he twisted the dagger, knowing it would finish the job. I said it's over!

The strike shook the monster's body with force, turning its muscles to jelly. The jelly then shook and howled from the pain raging inside, the dark rage consuming it to no end. Rick then removed the bloodied dagger and hopped away from the monster.

With a groan like a tree branch breaking under too much weight, the Tigrex finally lost its strength to continue and collapsed on the ground in front of the few remaining survivors. Half its torso was crimson red. Splurges of sludge still spewed from its mouth, like lava from a volcano, waves of it gushing forth as it gurgled a dying sound. For the first time since the beginning of the fight it was possible to see its beating red pulse slowly subside which each throb.

Its breathing progressively went from the adrenaline pumped growls to long and desperate heaves for air. While the creature's struggle to cling to life was visible, it was clear that it was finished since it could no longer move aside from the occasional twitch.

All around it, faces were split between enlarging grins and unchanging stone cold expressions. No one had sheathed their weapon out of fear of a surprise attack.

"It is done." Rick said. He looked weary but satisfied, slightly worried as well.

He was the first to sheath his dagger, prompting others to follow his example. A few began to disperse and circled around the dead wyvern while others simply walked away. Abandoning his position by the tree, Max pushed himself up unsteadily with aching muscles and approached it.

He slowly walked towards the head and examined it, looking for signs of the strange virus, and found them. The monster's mouth was flooded in the stuff. What he also noticed were its wounds, covering its head. A horn-like ear was torn, part of its upper jaw had been lost, multiple slashes and gashes made their home all over the wyvern's body and what saliva wasn't colored in dark purple was red instead. He felt no sorrow for the beast but he then noticed something that could either be even more alarming, or simply very depressing. The Tigrex's eye was still moving.

First it gazed directly at him, then it blinked and stared down at the ground in front of it, as if contemplating its fate. His face set with grim purpose, Max grinded his teeth as he felt a violent impulse to stab the monster. So many that were dead, so many that could've died, all because of a murderous beast that hadn't even killed for any reason other than sport. It took three failed attempts from Max's damaged body to try and lift his sword before he gave up, dropping onto his knees. Oblivious to his reaction, the dying Tigrex shed a tear and closed its green eye one last time, finally departing from the living world to the next.

"Are you alright, lad?" He heard a familiar voice ask. Without turning back to face Rick, Max grunted a weak 'yes' in response.

The teen then felt a heavy hand fall on his shoulder as Rick assured him, "There's no shame in being afraid, kid. You can turn to your comrades for encouragement whenever you need it. I'm sure you'd do the same for them. Part of being a Hunter."

With a smack on his son's shoulder, the veteran Hunter turned back and went to rejoin the others who were still alive.

Post-chapter Note: This should be the penultimate chapter for this prologue and so I decided to release a teaser for the next arc alongside it (you should find it on my Stories page since it technically counts as the first chapter for Act I). Thoughts and opinions on this chapter and the fight itself, feel free to leave them in the review section.

I hope you enjoyed it and, as always, thanks for reading!