The Hunt Begins
The next morning, I was on the final watch. I stirred the three of them awake as they still lay curled inside their sleeping bags, reluctant to move.
I'd gotten up two hours earlier than the rest, but I wasn't tired. A clear head made packing up the camp a quick job.
Now that we'd established a base, there was no need to haul our heavy packs around with us.
I gathered the bags in one place and covered them with a blanket so monsters and wild animals wouldn't mess with them. My body felt so much lighter without that weight. Without the heavy pack, my shoulders practically wanted to take flight.
Breakfast was stew Leo had made. It wasn't particularly good.
Cheiler crossed my mind for a moment. That guy really did have a gift for cooking.
No one said a word until the meal was finished — none of them had slept well. Even the usually bright Chloe moved around half-asleep, and sturdy Aaron looked a little wilted. Only Leo was more or less holding it together, though his eyes were hollow.
Monster howls through the night. The rustle of leaves. The drone of insects. An unforgivingly hard ground. Plenty of things had conspired to ruin a good night's sleep, so it was only natural.
I touched the skin beneath my eyes. I was doing better than expected. I'd slept well enough… if it hadn't been for the watch, I probably wouldn't have woken up at all.
"Ugh, I can't get my head on straight."
"Let's get ready. If we keep this up, we'll just keep dragging. Go wash your faces, too."
We finished eating and cleaned up. I scrubbed the pot hard so the smell wouldn't draw monsters, then put the lid on. We smothered the campfire with sand. Only after washing our faces were we finally ready to set out.
"All right, let's move. We've got this."
Leo dusted himself with Cooling Powder as he said it, trying to put some spirit into the group. I raised a fist and nodded.
Today's goal was to reach the plains, and if the Kometras wasn't there, scout the surrounding area.
It wasn't much of a plan — vague and open-ended — but it was the best we had. There was no such thing as precise calculation in a hunter's work. Finding a monster living out in the wild took a certain amount of luck. Even turning up a trail would be a win.
By the time the sun hung high overhead, we had finally reached the plains.
"Well, these are the plains, but…"
"…There's nothing here."
Still no sign of the Kometras.
All the plains held were wild herbivore monsters, or bones and discarded carcasses something had already picked over.
Leo looked over one of the carcasses and shook his head. Judging by the state of decay, the meat was old.
"Kometras eat rocks, right? Let's check the rocks."
Chloe, who had been quiet until then, offered the suggestion. It made sense.
We carefully inspected the large boulders scattered across the plains for any trace of the Kometras — marks where its mouth-heat had melted and eaten into the stone. Its signature…
"Found something."
Aaron spoke a little louder than usual.
"Here. Marks where the rock's been torn into."
Everyone gathered around him. Just as he'd said, the Kometras's handiwork was plain to see.
A boulder warped and melted as if something had dissolved it, and a handful of rubble beneath. No saliva, so it wasn't fresh — but it was hope.
"If we're lucky, we might find it today…"
"This side of the forest has more rocks. That narrows its range."
"Nice. Looks like this job might wrap up quick."
Leo pulled a red powder from a small pouch and rubbed it onto the rock. First trail. We were getting closer to the Kometras.
The rock wasn't the only sign we found. There was also the Kometras's distinctive hardened, clumped droppings.
They didn't smell — just looked like strange lumps of rock impurities mixed together in an odd shape.
It had clearly been through here relatively recently. There were several sets of footprints, too…
The creature was definitely active on these plains. Easy hunting grounds for food, most likely.
But the longer we searched, the stranger it felt.
"…Where the hell did it go?"
Every trail just looped endlessly within the plains themselves. Leo rubbed his mouth.
Judging by the tracks alone, the Kometras had never left the plains. And yet there wasn't so much as a glimpse of it.
"Did it fly off?"
"Come on. You know it can't fly."
"Yeah, yeah~ I was just saying."
The thing walked on four legs. It couldn't fly.
There was no way a creature like that had taken to the sky.
Which left only one answer.
"…It's still here."
Everyone else had contributed something. Now it was my turn.
"It's here?"
"Yeah."
I looked around.
Somewhere among the boulders studding these plains, a sleeping Kometras was hiding.
After feeding, a Kometras would even change the color of its skin to mimic rock, then tuck itself in among the stones to sleep.
It was how they protected themselves from powerful predators.
"Everyone, get ready."
Aaron took up his hammer. Leo drew his sword and shield from his back.
Chloe unfolded the bow she'd been carrying collapsed in half.
I began touching the boulders one by one.
No need to rush. I moved carefully, slowly, so as not to wake it. I drifted between the rocks at an easy pace, reaching out to each in turn.
Then I found one that hummed with a faint vibration.
It sat nestled among a cluster of stones.
Harder than the others, different to the touch. But to the eye, the disguise was flawless. Looking closer, though, parts of it were clearly skin, not rock.
No wonder it had been so hard to find.
I stopped in front of it and closed my eyes.
I could feel it. Amid the wind sweeping the plains, the vibration of a living thing. The creature's breathing, resonating right here.
Until now, it had eaten rock, hidden its body, woken to eat more stone, and slept again… that was how it meant to live.
That ends here.
The knowledge that I could finally fight made my heart race.
How would we take on the Kometras? How would the four of us move together?
Chloe's bow. Aaron's hammer. Leo's sword and shield. My greatsword. What kind of synergy could we create as we drove the monster into a corner?
Just thinking about it filled me with a joy I could barely contain.
But in its current state, there was no good way to attack with a greatsword.
And the best way to wake a soundly sleeping baby… was with a nice, loud noise.
The path to a fully hardened carapace was a hard one for a Kometras.
Its rock-clad body was still soft. If a predator appeared, it would die without any means of fighting back.
So they camouflaged themselves as stone and protected what they could.
The rocks they managed to eat while surviving gradually transformed the Kometras's body. Melted down by the searing heat within, the purest elements became part of the creature itself.
With time, it grew harder and stronger.
The near-gray stones shifted in composition, darkening, until at last they reached a point where no attack could crack them.
It became able to protect itself.
At the end of that road, a knight of iron armor was born — one that cast off the bitterness of the weak and crushed its enemies.
Monsters were faithful to instinct. They were born, and so they grew; they grew, and so they became strong. And because they were strong, they were a threat.
The Kometras was no different. Because it had been born, it ate rock and slept, over and over.
Simply to clad itself in iron at the end of it all. Simply to live.
But endlessly fragile humans would not allow that.
Hissss—.
The Kometras opened its eyes at a strange sound close by.
It wasn't the usual insect drone of the plains, nor the roar of another monster.
And there was an odd smell. Gunpowder. Something burning. And… the scent of an unfamiliar living thing.
It was human malice — something the Kometras had never heard or felt before.
BOOOOM—!
A thunderous blast rolled across the land.
In an instant the ground heaved and shook. Cracks spiderwebbed across the Kometras's carapace.
———Kyaaaak!
The Kometras was engulfed in the explosion. It shrieked.
Pain it had never known in its life. The Kometras rose from within the smoke.
"…Direct hit."
Humans were weak, so they had to kill it before it could don its iron armor.
Leo leaned back against a tree and swallowed hard.
Without hesitation, they had planted explosives in front of the boulder they believed was the Kometras, and Chloe had loosed an arrow to detonate them before the creature could notice.
If it hadn't been the right target, the loss would have been severe — but luckily, just as Alice had said, that rock was the Kometras.
Thanks to Alice, things had gone smoothly.
———KuAAaaaa!!!
The Kometras's roar, thick with pain, was full of rage.
Whoever had dared to shatter its deep sleep would have to answer for that fury.
Tension wrapped itself around the hunters.
Lips pressed tight, each of them took up their weapons.
We can do this. We can do this.
They repeated it to themselves, trying to ease the excess strain. But their feet still wouldn't move easily. Hunters or not, they were still rookies who hadn't even finished their first year.
Facing a monster was still a frightening thing. Someone had to make the first move.
And the one who broke the silence was Alice.
Alice alone walked forward without hesitation. She stopped in the middle of the plains and looked at the Kometras.
Its yellow eyes were searching for the source of its pain.
At the end of that search, they met Alice's.
Her hands and feet tingled. Her instincts screamed that this was dangerous.
That this was an enemy a human could not stand against.
That she should run, right now.
But Alice did not refuse the creature's hostility. Even the thrill running through her body was a pleasure.
The wind across the plains stirred her white hair. Alice swept the flying strands back from her face.
She reached straight up and took hold of her greatsword's hilt. As always, she thought of launching herself forward and meeting it head-on.
But as she started to move, Alice stopped and turned her head slightly.
Before she knew it, three hunters stood beside her.
Leo, Aaron, and Chloe. All of them, together.
Each of them carried fear, but their eyes were full of resolve. Not one of them would turn their back and run from this place.
Alice smiled faintly.
Because her comrades were at her side, she didn't go first. Sharing a moment like this with someone else — that was a truly romantic thing.
"…Let's go."
At Alice's quiet voice, everyone nodded.
The hunt had begun.