Ryo stood up from the monsters corpse. He cleaned and sheathed his carving knife. Majority of the Great forest Mori wasn’t a hunting ground, only nearby villages such as Silva are. As a result the hunter guild had no jurisdiction here and couldn’t come collect any of the many corpses Ryo had left behind. Due to this Ryo limited himself to three carves per monster. At least that way he could hopefully make a decent bit of money when he next reached civilisation without overwhelming his storage. He packed away the parts he’d carved on a patiently waiting Cali, saddled up and rode off leaving the huge, purple, scaley body of a Yian Garuga behind.

‘Just how many monsters was that now?’ Ryo wondered. He had expected to run into quiet a few monsters travelling through untouched land, and away from the recommended travel routes, but still what he’d experienced was absurd. He’d killed over nine monsters in the last two days ranging from Rathians and a Yian Kut-Ku to Zinogres, Tigrexs, Nargacugas, Rathalos and now a Yian Garuga. It was strange, there shouldn’t be this many apex monsters this close together, even in a Great forest like this. It was almost like they were running from something or maybe trying to hunt something. Like there was something here that threatened every creature’s existence. Ryo didn’t know what exactly was happening, but it kept him on constant guard.

Ryo was forced to travel away from any of the routes the people in Silva village had recommended to him. He had travelled through the Great forest Mori before and knew all the ‘travel routes’ if you could call them that in a place like this, were purposefully kept small and discrete to reduce the chances of running into any monsters. However, due to this, his humongous stallion Cali was unable to follow any of them. As a result they travelled straight across the forest however they needed to. It was more dangerous, but Ryo didn’t mind, a monster fight wasn’t anything new to him and it was also a lot faster travelling this way.

With a firm squeeze of his legs and quick lash of thick reins, Cali galloped off forward. If they could keep this pace up, Ryo estimated they’d be out the forest by the end of the day, at most tomorrow.

Astra’s heart stopped as she watched that silver sword tear through Amara’s armour and body alike. However, unlike Astra, Amara quickly recovered from her shock and pulled away from her attacker, instantly putting pressure on the wound.

Now standing on the battlefield was a man covered in a tattered black cloak and metal plated armour. He wielded weapons clearly more designed for killing people than monsters. Suddenly, more of these cloaked armoured figures appeared from the tree line.

“Rouge hunters!” the blue armoured hunter spat as he charged forward.

Astra had heard of them before. Disgusting, exiled hunters and criminals that would rather make a living by hunting and robbing other hunters or travellers than by hunting monsters. Without a hunting license they couldn’t obtain any monster crafted weapons or armour and as a result usually utilised more generic equipment and usually those weapons were more adapted to human warfare anyway.

The blue armoured Greatsword wielder swung his huge blade at Amara’s attacker. It tried to raise its small steel shield, but it was futile. Under the immense force of the enormous sword the rouge hunter crumpled into the ground with a gruesome crunch.

“Two o clock!” the green armoured hunter called out. The blue armoured hunter quickly dived to the right avoiding a sword strike aimed at his head. The hunters quicky gathered up together and prepared to battle the eight rouge hunters that had ambushed them.

Astra quickly helped Amara who was slowly backing away. Amara pulled out her reinforced glass flask filled with a thick green liquid. She took a sip of her potion to try and tend to her wounds, but Astra didn’t know how much that would help with the stab wound. It didn’t look natural. Astra had heard that rouge hunters cover their weapons in oilmen’s to hinder or subdue a hunters traditional healing methods. From the grimace on Amara’s face she clearly thought the same however, also knew she had to do something. Astra supported Amara’s body as she rubbed some sort of substance on her wounds and slowly led them back to the horses.

Suddenly Amara pushed Astra to the ground and drawn her Longsword with one hand. She spun and with one clean slash severed a rouge hunter who’d tried to secretly kidnap Astra.

‘How many of them are there?’ Astra questioned. She looked away as two body halves dropped to the ground.

“They’re here for you” Amara growled in pain clutching her side. Those rapid movements couldn’t be good for her. “That means they’re tracking us. It explains everything at least. Fuck! I should’ve seen this coming. They somehow sent those monsters to attack us and wear us down before they attacked. Shit! We’ll have to kill them all, escaping isn’t an option”. Amara’s head snapped towards Astra. “Saddle up and get far away from here. If we go down run as far as possible-”.

With loud grunt of pain and the sharp clash of weapons. The blue armoured hunter came crashing down beside them. As he stumbled up, Astra followed his gaze. Three rouge hunters lay dead across the battlefield however that wasn’t what drawn Astra’s attention. Two new people had entered the arena.

They were clad in armour and equipped with weapons forged from monsters, A Greatsword and Hammer. They were either hunters who hadn’t been exposed and convicted as rogues yet or they’d stolen the equipment off previous victims Astra guessed. Either way it was obvious there were a lot more skilled than the black cloaked assailants. As if their situation wasn’t already awful two more monster armoured rouge hunters appeared.

The red and green armoured hunters finished killing the black cloaked rouge hunter they were fighting and retreated to the blue armoured hunter.

Suddenly there was a pained yelp and a gruesome crunch behind. Astra spun and her heart dropped. A fifth monster cladded rouge hunter had appeared. It’d cut open Coco’s neck. Blood drenched his dark fur and the stallion crumpled to the ground, convulsing. Gris reared back into the air pushing the rouge hunter back before he then sprinted off into the forest.

“Coco!” Astra screamed. She wanted to sprint to her horse but was instantly ragged back by Amara who pulled her towards the other hunters. The four of them surrounded in her in a protective circle.

“Change of plan. Astra you stay right behind me where I can protect you” Amara ordered. She grimaced and with a grunt of pain stood up straight and gripped her Longsword properly with both hands.

Ryo quickly noticed the changes in the environment as the Great forest began converting into mountainous grasslands. He was reaching the outskirts.

“Nya!” Nix suddenly called out. Ryo turned to where the palico had gestured to.

‘Smoke’. It drifted up just above the treeline.

“What of it?” Ryo asked his palico, “It’s probably just a monster turf war”. His palico grumbled at him. “It’s not going to be people needing aid. And so what if it is, that’s not our problem. You shouldn’t come here if you can’t handle it”. Nix stared directly into his soul. He sighed “Fine. We’ll check it out” Ryo grumbled.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Tugging on Cali’s reins they sprinted off to the left.

After a few minutes of sprinting he arrived at the edges of a camp. Instantly his mood turned foul, and a feeling tugged on his stomach. He’d seen the scene before.

He dismounted Cali and drawn his charge blade and silently gestured for Nix to remain with their horse. He calmly crept through the camp but discovered it was seemingly empty. It was covered in old, worn, tattered guild designated hunter tents.

‘Or more appropriately worded stolen’ Ryo commented dryly. It was obvious from the moment he saw it, a rouge hunter camp. They were always a possible threat in areas that weren’t guild hunting grounds.

The campgrounds and tents were covered in stolen equipment and resources from their previous pillages. Most of it didn’t seem too valuable and was most likely from travellers which was a relief. Travellers wouldn’t put up a fight and therefore would usually survive the encounter. From a quick glance it seemed like they hadn’t attacked any hunters. At least not yet.

‘Good job I listened to Nix’ Ryo considered. Vermin couldn’t be left to fester.

Ryo walked further through the camp. At the camp’s centre was a campfire and a man sat in front of it with his back to Ryo. He had short black hair and pale scarred skin. But what grabbed onto Ryo’s attention was the armour. Forged from the corpse of Zinorge, Ryo didn’t know if it had been stolen or he’d forged it before being exiled. It didn’t matter either way, he lost all rights to it after being exiled.

Ryo scowled.

He approached and purposefully slashed a tent’s rope alerting the rouge hunter. The man quickly stood and turned, dropping the chicken leg he was eating. A steel sword sat at his feet but without warning, Ryo dashed forward at unreal speeds. His large blade ripped into the disgraced hunters throat. Without a second thought Ryo tore his blade free and let the man drop and bleed out. A rouge hunter deserved nothing less. Ryo scanned the area for anyone the commotion might’ve drawn out. Nothing.

‘They’re on a hunt’ Ryo realised bitterly, this camp was big enough to support almost thirty rouges. He quickly analysed the entire scene, looking for anything that could help him find them. He wasn’t just going to leave here and let scum hunt the innocent while he could do something about it.

‘The fire’ he quickly concluded. A group of rouge hunters this size wouldn’t be foolish enough to reveal their position to their prey. That meant their prey was somewhere the treeline hid the smoke. Ryo’s mind raced. ‘The trail’ he realised. It wasn’t far from here at all and despite passing the huge tree was still quite shaded.

He sheathed his weapon and sprinted back to Cali and Nix. He practically flew onto Cali’s back as they sprinted off to towards the closest route he knew. It wasn’t long before he began to hear fighting.

Astra fell to ground again, adding another bloody scrape and bruise to her body, as she leapt out the way of another falling tree. Never did she think a battle between humans could cause so much destruction. It looked as if part of the forest had been excavated, as destroyed trees covered the unearthed ground and the monster corpses from before were now a gruesome mess.

To her despair the fight also wasn’t going well. At all. There had been casualties on both sides, but the rouge hunters still dominated them with numbers. The red and green armoured hunters had fallen. Overwhelmed by the rouge hunters dressed in black cloaks and monster armour. Amara had thankfully killed the rouge hunter that murdered Coco but due to her injury and Astra’s presence she clearly couldn’t do much more and it shown on her scowling face.

“Get down!” she called to Astra. Exhausted and aching Astra dived to the grass. Amara’s Longsword decapitated a rouge hunter, adding the final black cloaked rouge to the death tally. Astra quickly scampered away from the rolling head and grabbed onto Amara before she keeled over. Through her helm, Astra could see she looked like death. All the fighting was only making her injury worse, and it didn’t help that any healing item she used had almost no effect. Astra turned to their only ally left. The four monster clad rouge hunters were upon the blue armoured hunter. They charged. He spun swinging his Greatsword with all his might and ripped apart the slower Greatsword wielding attacker. However, due to his weapon’s size he couldn’t pull it back to him in time as the other hunters attacked. Like the red and green armoured hunters he went down. A hammer slammed against his helm and blades tore through his body with murderous intent. As their final ally’s body hit the ground all three remaining rouge hunters turned to the thirteen-year-old girl and crippled hunter, with not a single care for their own fallen ally.

They charged forward. Amara pushed Astra behind her and raised flat of her Longsword. She blocked the attacks of the three rouge hunters but, with her handicap, couldn’t endure the force of their attack for long.

Amara was sent flying back straight into Astra. Together they crashed into the collapsed tree behind them completely shattering its outer bark layer.

Astra gasped from the pain. It felt as if her back had just split open. Maybe it had she considered as she felt something warm and sticky trickle down her spine.

“Are you okay?” Amara asked desperately, somehow pushing through her own pain and stumbling up the tree to face their attackers. Astra couldn’t respond, she could only breathe deeply in and out and try not to vomit from the pain.

“Final chance girl!” The front rouge called out. “Come with us and we’ll leave the hunter to try and survive her injuries. Deny us again and we’ll make sure she doesn’t have the chance” he told them.

“Rot in hell scum!” Amara roared.

“You have no chance of coming out of this alive” the rouge hunter stated. “There are more of us hidden in the surrounding area ready to attack and we’ve been leading a dozen apex monsters towards you now for days. Those two you faced are only just the beginning. Give up now and we’ll give you a quick death” he said, and despite his helmet Astra felt like he was grinning. She grimaced disgusted through her pain about their entire existence. Those hunters they killed were good people who helped others, these rouge hunters are complete filth, who cowardly kill and ruin others for their own self gain.

Despite her exhaustion and wound, Amara continued to stand her ground and guard Astra. The three hunters laughed and advanced. Dread filled Astra. It was over. Everything was for nothing.

In a last desperate attempt, she dragged herself off the ground using the fallen tree. Maybe if she gave herself to the rouge hunters they’d let Amara live. It probably wouldn’t work but Astra had no choice. She couldn’t lose Amara, she was all she had.

She went to stumble forward when something moved in the shadows behind their attackers.

An abrupt noise emerged behind them. The battle stopped.

“Keep guarding the perimeter” the rouge hunter growled. Just another rouge. Astra’s heart fell.

Suddenly something was thrown from out the shadows. It rolled across the ground and came to a stop between the two groups. Astra’s heart jumped.

‘A head’. A bloody decapitated Tigrex helm rested on the ground. Instantly the three rouge hunters spun, completely losing interest in Amara and Astra, their full attention on the shadows.

Someone emerged, powerfully stomping across the grass and muddy ground.

“Who are you!” the rouge snarled. The newcomer didn’t respond didn’t even acknowledge their question. As the armoured figure approached Astra could see it was a man, a hunter.

She couldn’t explain it, but he was somehow majestic, dominating, powerful and terrifying all at same time. He wore a set of armour she’d never seen before. He looked like a knight from the old legends. His armour was forged from gold-white scales, plates and claws. A large, beautiful prismatic cape draped down from his shoulders, that looked to be made from wing webbing. His weapons were just as mesmerizing, a huge shield and blade forged from a gold-white material and black bone and at the centre of the shield was a red gem that almost seemed to be glaring at her.

Amara dropped her Longsword and collapsed against the fallen tree with a long exhale “Looks like luck is on our side” she stated, “We’ve won”.

He continued forward. The rouge hunters clearly felt as scared as Astra and wanted nothing to do with the man “Reinforcements!” they screamed. Astra scanned the surrounding areas, but no one came.

“They’re dead” The hunter stated coldly, “All of them”.

‘That voice’. Even muffled inside his helm Astra recognised it. The hunter back in Silva village, Ryo.

The three rouge hunters stood motionless, then they began to tremble.

“The heavenly hunter” she heard one of them whimper.

Ryo moved faster than Astra could register. He leapt across the battlefield and in a single moment ripped apart the three rouge hunters. Limbs and body halves flew through the air, and they all dropped dead.

Ryo looked to the sky and an exhale of air escaped his helm “Scum” he muttered.