Desert Wyvern Egg

Noticing the other hunter finaly had their prize Leo ran next to them to fallow just incase they needed help with anything. Leo was extremly releaved when the flash bomb hit so the had time to get a head start. "So what are we gonna do about her?!" Leo yelled to Arsen.

ooc:
I suppose we'll start moving on without YKK Bane. (How ironic.)

-

Once more the efforts of the gunner to distract the large Wyvern failed, mostly due to the fact that she had larger priorities than him.

Despite being robbed of her sight the Rathian marched forward towards the egg thieves, keeping enough sense not to charge and run into the stone wall. The only thing between them and her was Arsen, who feeling some sort of obligation tried to delay her pursuit.

He swung the shield around hard into her face, shouting at the same time, both in an effort to draw her attention. Though the attack barely fazed her, she stopped moving forward and groped around for the hunter with her head and jaw, snarling and drooling all the while.
To hold her attention, Arsen pushed the shield up against her snout, letting her know where he was. She tried to bite the obtrusive object, but to the hunters' fortune it was too tall and wide to fit into her mouth perpendicularly.

The rest of the group, save for Vlad, Arsen and Jati, got about three quarters of the way towards the exit of the area.

-
ooc:
Expect the flash to wear off next post (or big post).
Arsen is not going to be able to get out of there without help. (So help me if you guys leave me here.)

Vlad frowned, then slammed another mag in. He took aim again before emptying the gun, two shots into each wing. He didn't bother reloading, as he was already slinging the gun over his shoulder and getting ready to run.

Realizing just running hard out into the open was an atrocity of an idea, Andras quickly glanced back towards the cavern that the group had surfaced from. (Currently facing southeast, based on the map design) "We need to get away from this bitch!! I'm heading back to the cavern..."

Trudging off as fast as he could Andras was careful not to wear himself out from the heat. Already sore from the rough trip down the ledge, he wheezed as he jogged towards the cavern entrance.

Jati slid down the face of the cliff as quickally and safely as possible. Now that nois wasn't an issue he just wanted to get on solid ground as fast as he could.

OOC: I can't believe that you guys were guna leave me

OOC: And I can't believe its not butter! We would have come back...eventually...maybe...okay, we probably wouldn't have, but this whole mess is mostly your fault. *point*

ooc:
@YKKB: There's not much we could have done for you when you're up there.

-

The two rounds fired by Vlad punched two small holes into the Rathian's wings, but didn't pass through entirely. Once more though, she didn't seem to register the gunner's attacks.

Jati slid down the mountain side fast, the friction from the hill against his armor doing very little to slow him. He landed hard on his feet to a painful degree and fell backwards, not breaking anything fortunately.

Arsen quickly glanced over his shoulder to see where the others were at, seeing that those trying to escape the area were now at the exit and halfway out.
Now Arsen, Vlad, and Jati were the only ones still inside the area. vlad was by the cliff side, Vlad opposite about the Rathian, and Arsen directly in front of the angry wyvern.

Arsen started retreating towards the exit, but knew he wouldn't be able to just back out of the area. He also had to account for any kind of attacks the Rathian might throw at him, thus he paced around to its side to avoid a head on charge.

The queen looked directly at him as he backed away, a sign that it knew exactly where he was and that its vision had recovered.

-
ooc:
@Runners: You'd be going out into the sand now.

"Whoo! Bring it on bitch! This is why I signed up for this baby! I'm following you Andras! Let's do this" Leo trailed Andras to the cavern just in case he needed backup.

OoC: lmao @glyph that was funny... I can't believe it's not butter xD

Jogging at a steady pace, Andras heard the rapidly approaching Leo trailing behind him. Slowing his advance to catch his breath a bit, he called out to the hunter. "Glad you joined me... *gasp* Definitely could use some backup should I run into any opposition!"

OoC:
@SRK - Your post is very contradictory to me, its like you are challenging the Rathian, yet running away from her as well. Maybe I am reading it wrong, haha.
@DB - Where would you say Leo and I are at the moment on the map?

Jati shook himself to get rid of the pain and began a dead sprint towards the area where his fellow hunters had dissapeared. "Vlad, Arsen c'mon follow me! I have smoke bombs to cover our tracks!" Jati ran for Arsen's location, withdrawing a smoke bomb as he went.

OOC: Well tecnically it's DB's fault because he's in controll of everything. Like god...only he doesn't have a beard. Or does he...

Occ: lmao Andy...

"Hey andy I'll carry the egg if you need me to. That's what I'm here for. To protect and survive my fellow hunter!" Leo said running beside Andras.

Vlad looked around desperately. Finding nothing, he simply decided to shout at the green wyvern.

"HEY! I'VE GOT YOUR KIDS!"

The hunter then turned around and mimicked holding an egg, making sure she only saw his back and arm position. He turned his head far enough so that he could see the Rath, and prepped himself to avoid her.

ooc:
@Andras: I saw that contradiction as well.
I would say you two just left the narrow passage way. (I would have let you go farther, but something's coming up that you might want to do something about.)

@YKKB: Be aware that it will take a good few seconds for the smoke bomb(s) to deploy enough smoke to really cover us up.

@Everyone: It should be said that the Rathian is at least somewhat intelligent. Even if Jati's smoke bombs cover up our escape, she'll know we 'went that way' and have a general idea of where to search for us.

-

Andras and Leo each left the narrow stone pathway to the open sandy desert. To their fortune no monsters had come to the area while they were gone, and none were obstructing their path to the cavern entrance.
Lying off to the side of the exit was Andras equipment. It comprised of his gun lance, his helmet, the two pieces of his torso protection, his tasset, his gloves, forearms guards and elbow guards.

The Rathian saw Vlad run into its peripherals and Jati run towards Arsen. Out to kill all three of the hunters but unable to do so in one motion, she brought her head back like before, except this time with flames crawling from her mouth.
She then brought her head forward and launched one of her infamous fire balls at Vlad, which quickly covering the distance between him and her.
Her head repeated the back and forth motion, and another fireball was launched at Jati, then once more at Arsen.

Vlad saw the fiery mass flying at him and bounded out of the way, letting it crash into the ground where he was standing. Like a barrel falling from a high place the fire ball deformed and exploded on impact, leaving a residue that continued to burn.

Arsen quickly brought Andras' large shield to his front as he saw the other fireball coming at him, still remembering some basics of impact. Rather than tense up and fully resist the force, he relaxed his body some and went with it.
As a result he was knocked back a few paces, but potential damage from the attack was completely negated, along with any real discomfort. Some of the residue continued to burn on his shield, though he barely noticed the minor detail.

-
ooc:
@SRK: Carrying all of that equipment will be difficult. You'll have to get creative.
If you want to pick up anything, you will have to stop and such, which will take time. The more you pick up, the longer.
Then you'll have to run with it, which is more time loss, more weight, less maneuverability, and you might drop something.
I'm not trying to dissuade you, I just want to let you know what you'd be getting into.

@YKKB: Evade the fireball however you want, just keep it reasonable. (If I feel that your method is inadequate, there may be consequences. :P)

Seeing the fireball coming at him from the sky and too fast to dodge, Jati made a bold move. He stopped, raised his sheild in front of his face and braced for the impact.

OOC: Bold? Guffaw. It has to work, DB just did it in the post above you. And I'm pretty sure that the fireball travels at the same height, and I don't remember being able to block them. Just me? (I haven't played Monster Hunter for 6 months or so, so it probably is just me.)

Aveket quickly ran ahead to catch up with Leo and Andras. He unholstered his flare gun and loaded another flare, just in case. "We should keep moving, a shit tempest is coming this way, and its showing no signs of slowing."

ooc:
@Glyph: By flare, do you mean flare like you launched at the Cephalos earlier on, or a flash bomb like you just did?
Rath' fire balls were always able to be blocked. You might be thinking like Gravios (which, with the right armor skilled, could be blocked). I'm not sure.

Don't mind the mild time paradox I've about to post. It's for the sake of comparison, and a little retcon could easily fix it anyway.

-

Jati had less in his favor when his time to block a fireball came. He was lighter than Arsen in body weight, had less time to get into guarding position, and his shield was also lighter and smaller in area.
Despite these drawbacks, he was able to save himself from severe damage, granted less effectively.

The force of the fireball sent the hunter stumbling backwards some, and some of the flame of the fireballs blew past his shield, though his armor protected him from any burns. His arm was in a bit of pain though, comparable to that in his ankles.

Aveket caught up with Andras and Leo and saw Andras equipment lying by the side of the exit.

-
ooc:
@Runners: I'm mostly waiting to see if you guys want to try and retrieve Andras gear, or just go without it.

@Decoys: Just waiting to see how you guys want to get out of the area (Jati had them smoke bombs).

OoC: My armor and weapon are not of major importance. I can recover it after getting the egg back to the base camp.

"I'm good for now, Leo. Just need to catch my breath for a bit." Andras stated as they advanced upon the cavern entrance. "You all don't need to worry about my armor for now, our mission objective is a bit more important. I can retrieve it a bit later, or we can come back for it upon delivery."

"Then let's get a move on!" Aveket responded.

OOC: @Glyph: It could have been considdered more "bold" because of my lower boddy mass, much much smaller sheild, and the fact that facing a fireball isn't a very natural thing to do.

"Mother fucker!" Jati yelled at the wyvern. He shook the arm holding his sheild to deffen the pain and continued running towards the other hunters. As he ran he made sure to zig zag back and forth in an attemt to become more difficult to hit.

The egg escorting hunters, including Andras, Aveket and Leo, continued along, passing half way across the nearby body of water.

Still no monsters obstructed their path to the cavern, and the Cephalos were far enough away that it was unlikely that they'd wander close enough to be a problem. If the Rathian made an appearance in the desert, the chance of piscine wyvern issues would diminish to nothing.

~

The Rathian caught her breath after her three pronged fireball attack, and saw that each of the hunters were still standing.

"You got those smoke bombs!?" Arsen asked urgently, backing away from the Rathian nervously, both to get closer to the entrance and away from her.
He and Jati were about twenty yards still from the exit of the area. Vlad was significantly closer, about half the distance.

The Rathian then stepped towards the duo, more so Arsen because he was closer, and lunged her massive jaw at them.
Like before Arsen held the shield up in defense, but this time her maw grabbed the corner of the large plate of metal, and firmly held it in her teeth, trying to tear it from Arsen's possession. His arm was strapped in though, so when her head yanked back six feet he was dragged along that distance like a rag doll, losing his footing entirely and falling to his knees.

-
ooc:
I hope I'm not being a glory hog here. I figure its the job of the tank to be the distraction and front-linesman.

@Andras: You couldn't have brought a bigger shield!?

ooc: I'll take some of that glory off your hands db :).

"Hold on Arsen, I'm coming!" Jati yelled as he saw his fellow hunter fall to the ground. As he ran for the wyvern he primed and flung the smoke bomb high in the air, it trailing a small amount of smoke as it went. He had aimed directly for Arsen, in hopes of obscuring him from the wyver's senses.

ooc:
For the record, I'm seeing Jati and Arsen fairly close to each other. Within a few yards.

-

As the smoke bomb trailed through the air, any smoke put out rose up and did little to nothing to conceal the hunters. When the smoke landed by Arsen though, it was putting out smoke almost at full speed, reaching its maximum rate of emittance soon after.

As that happened, the Rathian continued to jerk Arsen about, dragging him another few yards in the other direction, threatening to snap his arm that had to sustain the incredible force.
He hurriedly undid the straps securing him to the shield she dragged him by, made difficult by her yanking him around and his efforts to keep his arm from breaking.

When his arm finally came free he was released from the Rathian's control, who continued to wave the shield around for a moment, the thick metal plate punched full of holes.
His first priority was to get away from the Rathian, and fast. He got up using his good arm and sprinted away, but turned around and stopped to watch the wyvern should she charge.

A large cloud of smoke was by the Rathian's head, spreading itself out a few yards in every direction. The group of hunters could hear the sound of metal hitting stone, then saw as the Rathian stepped forward, the shield gone from her jaw.
Now the smoke bomb was directly beneath her, and was doing basically nothing to obstruct her view.

Vlad sprinted past the Rathian in front of Arsen and Jati, deliberately crossing her line of sight. He then picked up a nearby stone, stopping to throw it at her head.

The gunner continued sprinting across, hoping that had attracted her attention. He kept an eye on her, ready to evade anything she did.

OOC: A gunner throw a rock to get attention? Seems like more trouble than its worth.

Looking over his shoulder, Aveket saw a rising cloud of smoke emanate from the entrance of the wyvern's lair. He slowed his pace (I assume that we've been moving at least some of this time?) and eventually stopped. He waited to see what would happen next.

ooc:
@Glyph: Sure.

-

As the egg runners continued, they passed by the remainder of the body of water. They only had maybe thirty plus yards until they reached the cavern entrance.
Aveket saw the thick smoke to continue to rise, and could identify it as a generic smoke bomb. As it reached higher altitude it was blown more and more into the wind.

~

As Vlad ran across the Rathian's front she moved forward, and she made an unsuccessful grab for him with her jaw. Vlad got her attention though, as she turned directly towards him, now perpendicular to the other two hunters.

Like before, she brought her head back and forward and launched a fireball at the bow gunner, but then repeated the motion to launch another fireball ahead of the hunter where she knew he was going to dodge to (ooc: As in after you start evading the first).

Arsen moved towards the exit of the area, getting about ten yards away from it. He was nervous to leave Vlad on the opposite end of the Rathian though, and so far away from the exit. There wasn't a whole lot he could do though, without putting himself in essentially greater danger than Vlad.

OOC: Sure what? I'm not sure what you were answering.

OOC: Sad how I *knew* that was gonna work. An explosive and an armor piercing round doesn't do it, but a lowly stone does.
--

Vlad planted his feet as soon as he finished his roll past the first fireball, stopping his momentum and diving in the direction he just came from.

"Run dammit! I've got another exit!"

Jati nodded to Vlad and followed Arsen's retreat. He to felt bad about leaving the hunter but figured that he had a plan to deal with the beast.

ooc:
@Glyph: I was confirming your assumption "that we've been moving at least some of this time".
If that still doesn't make sense, don't worry, it doesn't matter really.
If you weren't aware though, you (the runners) are just past the body of water (see map).

@Coyote: What made her go after you was the fact that you ran right by her face, not the thrown rock.
When you shot the crag and pierce shots her mind focused on other things.

@Everyone: Sorry I haven't posted in awhile; I got swamped with school work.

As you probably saw in Frozen Hallucinations, S.R.K. won't be active for awhile.
Like all the other characters, he will be assumed to tag along. If his involvement becomes of imperative importance, I'll likely bot him.

-

Arsen reluctantly made his retreat back out the exit the group had originally entered from. He knew that he'd be checking back within the minute to see that Vlad got out safely.

He and Jati then left the area out into the open desert. They saw Andras' equipment lying close by in the sand, and that the others were further ahead close to the cavern.

The Rathian shook her jaw free of flames, annoyed that her target had alluded her once more. Taking a more direct approach in the literal sense, she started walking towards the elusive hunter, quickly covering the distance between them because of her giant size.