User blog:BiscuitOfLies/The Chameleos

I think it's about time I put this up on here. Story is a hunt against a Daimyo hermitaur and then Chameleos (which has slain all previous hunters to fight it), recognised from my story at DA chapters 36 & 37. Characters include Nerrin (the guildmaster) and Berren. If you read the actual fanfic there is mo to it than this but I left certain parts out on here as they are unnecessary to this, sorry about the small writing - it is quite long. BiscuitOfLies 07:32, April 30, 2010 (UTC)

Berren kept watch over the jungle up ahead vigilantly, Nerrin thought the Chameleos was stalking them and was in the jungle. Berren hadn’t seen any sign that that was the case but even so he kept looking just to be sure. They were heading to a jungle camp by a waterfall and beached area that Nerrin said he knew well. Berren was tense about hunting the Chameleos, it had killed countless hunters back at Dondruma without even being seen, what hope did they have? He knew that Nerrin felt the same way about it but at least was thinking about how to actually do it. Knowing the Chameleos was an elder dragon he was forcing Berren to use an ‘eternal strife’ shortsword and shield, widely known as a dragon killer he was sure it would come in use against the beast. He meanwhile had spent almost all of his money to create a weapon that he was sure could never be replicated. Over his Big Menacing Scythe the armourers at San Calluca had expertly fused Rathalos materials, it had a stronger strength and was possibly the sharpest known weapon in the world. But the main thing was its ability produce a fire element stronger than no other which, along with its debilitating poison, he assumed could force even an Akantor into deathly submission. He had seen that the Chameleos had a shell of some sort of wood-like substance, and wood burned. Suddenly Nerrin, who was up ahead looking down over the waterfall from some rocks, stopped in his tracks and called Berren over very quietly. Berren looked down, hermitaurs as far he could see, and the camp was just in view no more than two hundred feet behind them. They had picked quite possibly the worst time to be there, breeding season for the hermitaurs, they’d be there for most the day. Looking ahead Berren could see that there was no easy way around, the only other way to avoid combat with them was to backtrack at least a mile and then find a way around, but what if the beach on the other side of the camp was full with hermitaurs too? Suddenly something landed right in the middle of the huge pack of hermitaurs, something big. Knowing it to be their leader the Daimyo Hermitaur were now even less likely to go down onto the beach, Daimyo’s were proud leaders and not to be underestimated. They weren’t as adolescent and dangerous as their cousin the Shogun Ceanataur but that didn’t mean they weren’t deadly. Many a hunter had not lived to tell the tale, and to make it worse this one had a full pack of its minions to back it up. They were just about to turn and leave to head back the way they came when something else, far more dangerous, happened. Though it may seem trivial a tree snapped just one-hundred feet before them. The dangerous thing; they weren’t able to see what had snapped the tree, it was Chameleos, it had to be. ‘I take it back Nerrin’ Berren almost whispered ‘that thing is following us’ ‘Shit, we’re not ready for this yet’ was all Nerrin could say. This intrusion gave them only one choice; to jump into the hermitaurs, something neither of them had hoped to do.

Landing on the soft sand of the beach below Berren and Nerrin hoped they’d avoided the Chameleos for at least the time being, they could deal with that later. He hated to admit it but they weren’t ready yet. That left them with the only choice of fighting the hermitaurs. Berren, who had landed by two of them, chopped the first apart by surprise then countered the second’s clawing attack with a thrust to the heart. Though Nerrin had landed in the clear one hermitaur had noticed him and was rushing forward, as yet the daimyo had no notice of either of them. Nerrin waited until the small crab was close enough then swung his scythe over his head in a huge arc which descended onto the crab’s shell. The shell cracked and split, the heavy scythe piercing its complete set of organs and killing the creature. Looking up he could see Berren charging at full speed towards the great daimyo which, as most of Minegarde’s creatures did, looked twice the size when closer to it. The daimyo turned and saw Berren, in one instant the element of surprise was lost. It ordered the hermitaurs to attack, from behind its gargantuan body crabs appeared and came out to make the beach a battle ground. Berren didn’t seem to care much though and charged onwards, by now four hermitaurs were ahead of the others (of which there were about somewhere between twenty and twenty-five). Upon reaching them Berren hacked the first down with a precise slash across its claw which forced it down to the ground. Turning on his hips Berren batted another with his shield and then thrust his sword into its neck, it died on the ground it stood, blood dribbling onto the sand. He retreated a pace as the third attempted to hit him with its claw, stepping in he hacked off both of its claws and then pushed it into the sand, of which it would now not be able to get up. The final hermitaur tried to taunt him off by standing up on its back legs. This only gave Berren the perfect opportunity to slice through the crabs skin with ease. The other hermitaurs which had been charging in had slowed down considerably with his showing at that last killing made them stop entirely. The daimyo angered, Berren had just killed four of its hermitaurs, and sent a huge burst of water and high speed towards him much like a Plesioth would. Berren dodged but the actions of the daimyo had rallied the hermitaurs and they once again charged at Nerrin, courage refilled. Nerrin had remained unseen miraculously throughout all this and now got closer to the daimyo with the intention of taking it by surprise. He was nicely nestled in some rocks to the side of the conflict. He waited until he had a clear path to the daimyo hermitaur before beginning his charge on it. This meant that Berren would have to take all the minions by himself, but Nerrin had faith in him, the only problem was the sheer number of them. Yet as Nerrin got closer to the daimyo it seemed that Berren was decimating the smaller hermitaurs, he dodged here and cut there, already another three had fallen to his blade. The daimyo, still not noticing Nerrin, sent another water blast at Nerrin, who dodged consequently making the water slam into a hermitaur behind sending it flying into its death throes. The daimyo, now clearly angry at the events slowly walked to the conflict and raised its huge claw to crush into Berren. Now Nerrin was close enough to start his fight, he swung his scythe in an underarm swing to catch the daimyo’s claw, the impact of the blow shocked the daimyo who still hadn’t seen him and sent it recoiling. Using its other giant claw it swung for Nerrin in retaliation, putting his whole force behind his defence he held his weapon as a greatsword user would guard. As the claw got closer he thrust his scythe into the giant claw, each bone edge making a crushing impact onto the shell which instinctively got drawn back for safety. Following his chance up Nerrin swung at the claw with a great deal of might, he hit the claw in the weakest part of its shell which resulted in each bone creating a hole in the claw. Stepping backwards to avoid more pain the daimyo shielded its claws, looking at Nerrin ignited its rage. It made a hip check for him but Nerrin was too fast and dodged to his right, this however put him in the path of two angry small hermitaurs. Nerrin instinctively sweeped through with his scythe and sent both flying. Turning on the spot he arced his scythe once again, this time into the path of the daimyo’s still strong claw. Though he didn’t break this one aswell it was still gravely weakened. The daimyo retaliated and tried to swing for him, Nerrin retreated. As the huge crab stepped forward again a blade came in to stop it. Turning to see what had happened Nerrin noticed that Berren had killed all the smaller hermitaurs and was now attacking their leader. Taking it by surprise he drew blood, slicing into the weak side of its body, where it kidneys would be were it human. Somehow the fight had moved away from the main beach and Nerrin now stood at the foot of the cliff from which they had jumped earlier. The hunters circled around the carapaceon until the crab was at the foot of the cliff, it now realised its mistake in positioning itself and struck for Berren. He lifted his shield up and battered at the claw, using monumental strength he held the giant claw off then, swinging with his sword he hacked clean through the whole arm of the crab. It writhed around on the floor for a few seconds, that gave Nerrin just enough time to do what he had to. Swinging his weapon he winded the crab before pushing it back into the cliff wall where it fell completely on the ground. Stepping over it he lifted his scythe up and brought it crashing down with force enough to rock its very foundations. The Daimyo didn’t even have time to enter its death throes, it passed on just like that.

*

They turned, what they saw scared them beyond what they had thought possible, and it certainly was not good. ‘Chameleos!’ Nerrin yelled though that much was already obvious, the pulse of both hunters went up considerably. It stood in the entrance to the beachhead, visible to both of them. It was positively the most ugly and disturbing looking creature Berren had ever seen, but he would not forget its deadliness and efficiency in battle. It looked a lot like a moving tree, which were only thanks to four wood legs. A giant horn about two feet long, no nose almost, protruded from its face and pointed directly at them. The face itself was a good foot away from the body due to an overly large neck. It had a large mouth and eyes which was what proved it to be the Chameleos and not a tree. Then there was its tail, it too looked to be made out of wood yet it had what must be the only bit of colour in the whole of it. The tail had a purple tint to it and looked like a leaf from Nerrin’s angle, Berren could see better though and said that the beginning of the tail was indeed like a stem. Both hunters were dumbfounded, how could this creature be, it seemed physically impossible but here it was; a tree that can turn invisible. It made a step towards them, each and every step it seemed were individually thought about had the exact same emphasis on. About half way through each step it drew back a little then went forward again. In this fashion it got to the end of the wooded area before the beachhead. Berren and Nerrin drew their weapons in anticipation of the fight, the Chameleos snorted from its nose/horn, the hunters could not decided what it was and then it smashed its head into a tree to the left of its face as a clear threat to the hunters. The tree first shook violently then something began to give in it, some of its deep roots began to show from its bottom. The Chameleos struck it again and now the roots were clearly showing, the tree, balance lost, tipped and began to fall. Another large tree caught it on the way down and a whole bunch of branches were broken off and sent flying before the first tree landed on the ground with a loud thud causing a dent in the sand. Some of the branches flew into the path of the Chameleos but they didn’t seem to bother it in the slightest. Berren could almost feel his insides tie up, now they had nowhere to run it was either it or them. He looked at Nerrin who just nodded, it would be a fight to the finish. He knew what he was getting into but he just had to come to accept it now. His dragon element would come into use often and Nerrins advanced would have its uses. He knew that in this fight the poison in it would be useless but the high fire attribute he’d paid hundreds of thousands for would more than make it for it. Nerrin hoped he could burn the dragon out of existence. By now the Chameleos was ten feet onto the sand, the shift in the grounds weight didn’t seem to change anything and it was a good sight to see sand particles on the dragon’s stumpy feet. Nerrin gave the command to wait, he wanted to fight it on an open space, then they could have perfect vision on it all the time. So they waited until the Chameleos was within twenty feet of them by which time it was clearly out in the open. Berren just realised something which he hastily told Nerrin, though the Chameleos could go invisible at will it would serve no advantage as they could track its movements by watching the sand as it moved wherever the Chameleos stood. Nerrin smiled at this, it wasn’t much but it was certainly helpful for what was to come. ‘Attack!’ he yelled in a proud voice, today was a day of fate, if he could kill the Chameleos it would be his best achievement to date. The battle begun, both hunters charging in, Berren on the left of it and Nerrin on the right, the aim to flank the creature for greater effect and to get more opportunities to attack in total. The Chameleos saw this and stepped backwards on an angle, making a swipe for Nerrin as it went back. It was fast when it needed to be. Nerrin jumped back to avoid the long arm whilst Berren simply averted his course and continued going around it to flank the beast. Nerrin immediately jumped in, scythe outstretched, with an attack aimed for the creatures head. The Chameleos, they knew would fight to the death, so he wanted to make it feel the same way about them. The attack hit home just to the side of its right eye, rolling out to his left Nerrin avoided a second swing for him and plunged his weapon in the body of the beast and twisted, the guts of the beast weren’t as tough as its body. Seeing another swing, this time the Chameleos turning to face him completely, Nerrin withdrew his weapon and span his weapon in a three hundred and sixty degree turn around him. The scythe hitting the incoming arm Nerrin had protected himself well and stepped backwards to find another way past its defences, the Chameleos looking directly at him. Berren, jumping in from directly behind its body, made his first attack of the battle against the weak part of the tail, the dragon element in his blade clearly making an early impact. This averted the attention of the Chameleos who turned on the spot to face him and swiped, but Berren fortunately jumped back. Nerrin now found him right behind the Chameleos, he jumped in with a vertical arcing attack on the creatures tail where Berren had just struck. At the same time the Chameleos brought poison to its mouth and spat the deadly dose towards Berren, he rolled to his side and only just missed it. Poison it must be said generally smells bad but the poison of the Chameleos gave off a smell that made even Nerrin, feet away, begin to feel slightly sick. The Chameleos instantly became invisible, turning fast the tail hit Berren and sent him rolling off to one side, dropping his weapon it would take most of his strength to get back up. Remembering what Berren had said earlier Nerrin made a defensive position for himself and watched the sand for movement. It was clear the Chameleos was in front of him, though he knew not where exactly, then he saw it, just two feet in front of him. Bracing himself he felt as though a mountain was barging into him, it was charging him. Standing his ground Nerrin used the full amount of his strength to hold it off from him, enraged that something was standing up to it the Chameleos ignited and pushed harder. Amazingly Nerrin held it off, becoming visible again Nerrin found his eyes just inches away from the dragons, looking into each others. Berren was now back up, picking up his weapon he found he was a good thirty feet from where the conflict was. Picking up a stone he threw it at the Chameleos. Just as the Chameleos roared into Nerrin’s face the stone hit it directly in the eye, recoiling it turned and charged for Berren. Berren held his ground and when it was within striking distance he slashed out for it, connecting its neck he had no defence against it and they collided, him rolling for a good while across the sand so that Nerrin was now further away than Berren had been. Nerrin began to run across to Berren. The Chameleos made two swings for Berren in quick succession, the first was avoidable but Berren was hit by the second and was winded by its strength. Following up the Chameleos pushed him to the ground and roared, the pain of it was undeniable. Though he could not get to his potions whilst on the ground he could do one thing; as the Chameleos’ finished its roar Berren swung out with his sword and caught the dragon’s horn. He put all of his strength into the action and it sliced right through the horn, hacking it completely off. It fell from up high and landed on the soft sand beside Berren, now just an ornament, yet just moments ago it had been part of the dragon. Berren stabbed his sword into the creatures body before the rage in it came out, with its right arm it crushed Berren’s body into the ground and spat poison at the motionless plate of armour. Nerrin could do nothing, the Chameleos had killed another hunter, another friend – this time it was Berren. As Nerrin stood dumbfounded by this next killing of his friend the Chameleos snorted over the body and turned to face him. The only reason Nerrin survived those next few minutes was instinct, he didn’t attack, just dodge attack after attack from the dragon. The Chameleos forced his speechless state further and further back towards the cliff-edge with every attack it made, suddenly Nerrin found himself in the mouth of a cave of which the Chameleos couldn’t enter. Suddenly get his mind back he sat down at what had happened, now Berren was dead. He wondered how many people were left alive in Minegarde now, if Ulfgar, Artal and Jerrenost still were. It was all too much to take in at the moment. He couldn’t leave the cave the way he came in, that was where the Chameleos was now. He had to find Berren and give him some proper funeral rites, that was the only thing that mattered to him now. Getting up he slowly tried to find another exit to the cave complex, the Chameleos ever roaring at him from outside the cave.

*

Nerrin suddenly stumbled on another entrance to the caves he was in, leading back out to the beach. He’d lost count of how many vespoids he’d killed in the caves, but it didn’t make up for Berren’s death, only one thing would; the death of the Chameleos by his hand. His weapon was still in his hand, he’d been carrying it in his right hand ever since he entered the caves, it was heavy but not as heavy as the burden of knowing he’d failed to keep everyone alive from the Chameleos. Though it was only one person it was an important person nonetheless. He found that he was on the sand, off to the right of him by about a hundred was the Chameleos, anger flooded over him. He had to avenge his fallen, now. Setting off in a sprint it was not long until the Chameleos saw and recognized him, letting off a loud roar they sized up, Nerrin still charging, careless of the consequences. Spitting out some poison to block his track the Chameleos moved into an aggressive position for the fight. Diverting his path to run around the poison Nerrin, still near the cliff-face, jumped up onto a set of some rocks that made a clear path to the Chameleos. Sprinting as fast as he could Nerrin jumped off the last rock and crashed into the figure of the Chameleos, his scythe cutting down across its face in a line of fire igniting as it went. The Chameleos stepped back, its right eye had been struck earlier in the fight by Berren, may he now rest in peace, and was clearly bloodshot to Nerrin’s eyes. The dragons horn had also been cut off from the efforts of Berren. Nerrin remembered that all Berren wanted to respect the memory of Sigmund, his hunting mentor it seemed who had been the first to die from the Chameleos’ reign of terror. Nerrin felt that he had at least done that much for the man but he did not have time to think as the Chameleos was on him almost immediately. Rolling under an arm swinging for him he lifted up his blade, swinging for the beasts torso the scythe struck its target in a whoosh of flame. At first it looked like he had stumbled the dragon but it rolled on its side as the Basarios and Gravios do and was soon back up on its feet, facing him again. Charging in again with his scythe raised Nerrin forced the Chameleos back a step. Circling around each other the Chameleos swung for Nerrin again, avoiding the swipe for him Nerrin began to move slowly backwards. Avoiding two more swipes for him Nerrin suddenly stumbled on something, looking he saw it was Berren’s body. He ignited in a fury of rage, attacking on all cylinders he went all out against the Chameleos that was still just in front of him. The Chameleos, not expecting this, was taken by surprise at his anger and almost stumbled when Nerrin attacked its leg. Side-stepping to get around the back of it Nerrin made sliced into its back legs. Withdrawing his blade Nerrin brought it up behind his head and then took it crashing down in a vertical cut onto the creatures tail. Putting all of his power, his strength and his rage into the strike he hit it with all the possible force he could muster. The cut split Chameleos from tail, letting out a great howl of pain the Chameleos fell to its feet. Beside the tail of the dragon was the horn, turning on the spot Nerrin made another attack for the dragon, tearing into its limbs this time it did stumble and fall to the ground. Its balance lost it tried to do the only thing it could – become invisible, it could not. Clearly the tail of the beast granted the powers to it, much like the Kushala Daora’s horns had granted it the power of the wind. Standing with the beach-head in front of him Nerrin raised his scythe, casting it down he brought the scythe onto the head of the elder dragon. The threat of the Chameleos was at an end, but at terrible cost; on his scythe dripped blood, the blood of an elder dragon.