[<u>Everwood Hunting Ground - Alistair</u>]<br/><br/>Her skin was surprisingly tough, and hardened scale deflected many of his thrusts, but several got through and as both monster girl and hunter slowed to a stop she was the one worse off than he, bleeding from several shallow stab wounds in her torso while he was merely battered and cut in a handful of places.  His armour would need repair too at this rate, but it had done it's job at least, protecting him from her attack.<br/><br/>Alistair rallied faster, but the Kut-ku had the range advantage, as even with her slower recovery she was able to begin spitting fireballs at him again, but he could see desperation in her eyes.  She was back up into a corner now, too tired to run, too wounded to fight for much longer before she bled out...  She was trying to keep him at bay as her eyes darted around the cliffs and caverns, searching for some sort of plan or way to save herself most likely.<br/><br/>Time to finish this, one way or another.  A cornered monster was always the most dangerous kind, for they were reckless in their desperation, and could easily kill a hunter or huntress even as they took a fatal blow themselves...<br/><br/><br/>[<u>On the Road - Kaze</u>]<br/><br/>The Rathian was still slumbering peacefully in Kaze' arms as he snuck about the camp and none of the felynes seemed to notice him as he made his way to the road but as he made his way towards Val Habar he found he was beginning to tire.  The strength was fading slightly, and his bruises and scratches seemed not nearly so far away as they'd been before.<br/><br/>Not to mention the Rathian was stirring in his arms as he ducked off the road to avoid the third caravan that evening, clearly beginning to wake up.  Kaze wouldn't have been able to make it much further in his state anyways at this rate and he certainly was not up to fighting a Rathian.  Without the Black Dust influencing her behaviour she could easily end up just killing him if he wasn't careful...<br/><br/>Whatever he was going to do about all this, now was the time to do it...<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Ancestral Steppes - Sonya</u>]<br/><br/>Seeing Sonya move, Nat twisted the gun, the mechanisms inside complaining as the Seltas' claw was wrenched in the case, buying precious seconds as the insectoid monster fought to free its limb.  In a trice the huntress managed to pull her sword free, and while Nat scrambled away, she had the chance she needed to circle around and make that final decisive thrust.<br/><br/>She wasn't sure what she hit, stabbing blindly into the fractured exoskeleton of the creature, but whatever it was, it sent the Seltas into spasms, twisting and tumbling as it struggled through it's last moments before it fell to the ground with a dull thump, legs curling in on themselves as it finally died...<br/><br/>Nat picked herself up slowly, and then looked down at her bowgun, then back up at Sonya before wordlessly raising her hand for a high-five with a huge smile on her face.  "We did it!"<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Port City of Val Habar - Kyra</u>]<br/><br/>The Guildswoman attending gave her a sharp look.  "Are you sure you're not-..."  She cut herself off quickly, biting her lip to stop whatever else she'd been about to say before she spoke again.  "Ah, Rather...  That's all we have at the moment, though new requests are coming in all the time, and even if it's not posted there, you could always go clear out some of the Great Jaggi in the steppes.  Keeping their numbers low is something of a perennial problem after all.  Only reason it's not on the board right now is because the Guild is worried about some increasingly aggressive behaviour the monsters in the western part of the region have been displaying but if you stay away from the Everwood border you should be able to keep out of the hot spot..."<br/><br/>The Guildswoman gave Kyra another look, not so much sharp this time as simply dubious, and perhaps a little embarrassed as a faint pinkness touched her cheeks.  She coughed, then covered a snicker as she caught sight of something behind Kyra an instant before the huntress heard a crash as a couple of hunters walked into the nearby guild shop stand, and it wasn't too hard to guess what they'd been looking at to have such an accident...  The Guildswoman coughed again, her flush a little brighter now.  "Ahem!  In any case, Great Jaggi and Jaggi clearing, If you think you could handle a Basarios at your level of skill, surely you could handle a pack or two?"