[<u>Everwood</u>]<br/><br/>The scene was chaotic, and Alistair had difficulty seeing through the horde to get a complete picture at first, but as he watched he found he could at least acquire a good general idea.  The Genprey pack had initially been ringing the wyvern, clustering around the creature and sneaking in shallow wounds at its sides but a series of explosions that sent charred and smoking raptors sailing through the air had forced the pack to spread out into a loose, keeping the Kut-ku trapped without giving it big groups to target with its flames.<br/><br/>While the pack formed the Arena, Alistair could see a pair of 'dromes fighting in the center, one male, one female.  One-on-one a Kut-ku was costly prey for a single drome and their pack to pursue but between the two of them and occasional intervention from their lessers they were slowly wearing the Kut-ku down, dancing around it with nimble agility, keeping the Wyvern from focusing on one of them for long enough to land a truly telling blow.  Tiring it out with slow but steady blood loss and constant battle.<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Primal Forest</u>]<br/><br/>The *snap* of bowstring meeting bracer echoed, the faint whistle of the arrows flight was as a scream in the tense silence and the Rathian shuddered, whirling to stare wide-eyed at Kaze, to duck as she saw the arrow, low, but not quite low enough to dodge the ball, which struck her and detonated in an instant.<br/><br/>The explosion shattered the silence, orange-yellow flame tinged purple at the edges<i>Purple?  That's not normal...</i>But in the midst of it, Kaze could hear a roar of anger, and as the smoke cleared he could see the Rathian, slowly pulling herself to her feet.<br/><br/>Her sea-green scales had been blackened, her skin -such as it was- was singed, but she was far from dead, and her gaze had gone feral, bared teeth and lashing tail in anger, wings spreading from behind her back.<br/><br/>She roared again, and a ball of fire left her mouth, returning the explosion in kind towards Kaze, and much his detonation had shone, her fireball was tinged with flickering purple, which Kaze was beginning to realize came from detonations of the black dust he could see in the air here...<br/><br/><br/>[<u>Ancestral Steppes - Step Cliffs</u>]<br/><br/>While some monsters were surely intelligent enough to know the difference (though the stories never seemed to differentiate), many monsters -particularly lesser ones like the Seltas- simply didn't always realize the difference between a huntress and a monster girl, particularly since trial by combat was a common mating ritual amongst most species of monsters.  The insect didn't mean deliberately to humiliate her, but rather simply thought it had found a queen, and intended to do as nature demanded and breed with her, never knowing the difference.<br/><br/>Of course this was not likely to be of any comfort to Sonya at the moment given the state it had put her in.  The Seltas was a capable lover for (or perhaps thanks to) its mindlessness, its thrusts were powerful, regular, and reached far deeper than any human had ever gone as they managed to press against her cervix every few movements, and as the huntress began to respond with faint moans and pleasure of her own the Seltas eagerly stepped up its assault, redoubling the symphony of slick squelching sounds as its thick 'cock' slid in and out of her.<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Port City of Val Habar - Dust</u>]<br/><br/>"I'm very busy!  Unless you're a-!  Wait..."  Dust could hear footsteps approach the door from the other side and it suddenly opened.  "Of course, of course it's the hunter, everyone else knows better, except Gully."  The woman in front of him was tall, barely an inch or two shorter than Dust himself with a mess of auburn hair framing her face and calculating brown eyes as she looked him up and down before meeting his gaze contemplatively.  "Hmph, you look more like a mercenary than a monster hunter, but if she sent you my way I guess she must think you're up to the task."<br/><br/>She blew a couple of errant strands of hair out of her face, looking Dust up and down one more time.  "You'll have to do.  You'll be guarding me while I go look into some reports of monsters behaving strangely in the eastern regions of the Everwood, they've become more aggressive than they should be by far and the region is growing unsafe as a result.  I do hope you're up to the task."<br/><br/>She shook her head, realization crossing her features suddenly.  "Of course, my apologies.  I'm Vianna Phelrik, Guild Investant.  And you?"