Ask Monster Hunting Wihtout The Fancy Monster Hunter Armor

[Param Vour]

Ottethan, a jungle planet, a rancor planet. Half of her wanted to relay the planet to her new friends of Rancor Squadron, the other have wanted to give the planet location to Kai. It was near Jedi space, and so would probably be better off in Rancor Squadron hands. As much as Param tried to forget him, she’d given Rancor Squadron so much in terms of slave camps and distrubitaries, yet given Kai only scrap of what they wrought.

This time the spoils would go to Kai.

“Send him (@Sreeya ) the coordinates and what’s here,” Param said in the cockpit of her ship. Vee, the red and silver BD-1 unit chirped and got to work, sending Kai a message with coordinates of treasures and what those treasures were. Many thought rancors were sentient or semi-sentient, but Param knew them to be beasts that could be trained like any other beast. The blind eye she’d turned toward Kai’s indulgence into slavery wouldn’t’ have to be extended for this. When Vee asked if she was sure, Pram gave the droid a warm smile.

“Yes, let’s make sure he isn’t walking into anything unexpected,” she said. Param herself would stand, dawning her echani war sword at her left hip and walk off the ship, leaving Vee behind. They were connected only by the EZPod in her ear. It would allow Vee to hear everything she heard, but also for her to give commands as needed.

First order of business, was finding out what kind of monster terrorized the settlement, here on Ottethan. The starport was small, the capital village even smaller. Param walked through the streets, confused as to how anyone could keep a straight, normal face despite a monster terrorizing the village as the distress beacon had indicated.

@lizziie

 

[Reikki]

This was the sort of thing Reikki used to do with her sisters, and for a while after their ... disappearances, she'd retreated into the shadows and only thought of work. Fear wasn't the word to describe her feelings toward the matter. Nervousness, yes, — though apprehension was probably a better word — but also a smidge of grief. She couldn't think of hunting monsters, delving into ruins, or providing mercenary services without also thinking about Kaiyak and Akkali. It was painful, but the hunger panes pained her more. Food cost credits, so back to work she had to go.

She'd arrived here three days ago at the starport and had only spent a few hours sniffing around the hamlet of a village for last-minute supplies and rumors before she ventured out into the wild to hunt this monster that bothered them. It was so strange to go through all of this without them. Everything went so ... smoothly. She supposed she couldn't really fight with herself, now could she?

"All trails lead here." She'd been camping out in the woods for the past three days, tracking the monster and carefully observing its environment while she searched for the creature itself. The villagers might even assume her to be dead; she hadn't shown her face since. Normally her sister and her would have confronted it already, but being alone this time, the Nightsister felt far too unsure and a bit too underprepared to go about it so quickly.

She had made her discoveries though. The creature likely lived in the cave not twenty meters ahead of her. It didn't eat its victims. She often found the bodies of the stolen villagers torn to shreds, but she never found any evidence of consumption (and no droppings from the creature either). It was quadrupedal, and whatever it was, it could bleed. Its blood was almost unnaturally red, and it stank of the Force.

An incantation fell from Reikki's lips as she notched an arrow in her energy bow and waited for the stirring monster to emerge from its shadowy home.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Param Vour]

Param approached, clad in her tan hooded poncho, black longsleeve shirt, and brown, tight leather trousers. All tails led here. That was as much as the woman said and what Param herself had gathered from the populace. The camp looked used and worn, something Param wasn’t foreign to but also not exactly used to. It meant what she said was law, and would be used as law, but there was no need for that law. The person at the camp already said it: all trails lead here.”

She looked over her shoulder at the BD-1 droid that sat perched on her left shoulder. “Record everything,” she said. It was the single command Vee knew to send everything he had ever gathered to Kai. While Param had moved on from her lover, he still held the softest part of her heart.

None of that mattered here, with the woman knocking an energy arrow at a den. Param approached carefully, making sure she didn’t’ cause a stir. She noticed the incantation and still kept silent. I twas clear this person wasn’t normal.

“Why?” was all Param could muster at the being aiming at the monster. The monster had done a lot of damage, but why would the woman attack it so?

@lizziie

 

[Reikki]

She had fully intended to stay perched and wait for the monster to leave of its own accord before she loosened the arrow, for two reasons: one, she wanted to get a good look at it, and two, fighting a creature in an enclosed space it was likely intimately familiar with was a bad idea. But the arrow whistled out from the bow and crashed into the rocky wall of the den entrance, causing rocks to crack and fall down as Reikki felt her heart skip a beat. If she were a cat, her hair would've stood straight on end, and if she'd been a cartoon cat, it would've electrified her whole body.

With how jumpy the Nightsister was, it was a surprise she didn't just tumble out of the tree and fall flat on her ass. Instead, her head jerked around, and her dark eyes went straight for the hooded figure that was approaching her from behind. With furrowed brows and an open mouth, the woman was about to stutter out something. "Who are you?" "What the hell?" "C- Can I help you?" However, before she could say a singular thing, a bone-chilling scream cried out from the cave.

The creature emerged, teeth all over bared, with blood staining its maw and paws. Though it had no eyes, it seemed to pick Reikki and Param out almost immediately. Its head snapped their way, and it began to advance quickly toward the two.

"Shit." She hoped this woman could fight — or run quickly — because there was no way she'd be able to take this thing down while trying to protect the stranger.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Param Vour]

Param didn't know why she'd approached in such a way, nor did she understand why she felt the need to speak and ruin the woman's shot. It wasn't until the woman turned back to her that she realized her mental misstep. Param was better than this, yet here she was. And now the monster had emerged, teeth barred. It had no eyes, but seemed to pick the two of them out and charge. It was a fight, or a run, for their lives. No more mental mishaps.

Luckily, Param's body wasn't as foggy as her head. She drew the echani war sword from its scabbard at her left hip. It was her mess up; she wouldn't let someone else take the fall for it. Param jumped down, Vee chattering nervously on her shoulder. The only range Param had was the Force, but she would rather conserve that, and standing next to the Nightsister only made them both targets. At least this way Param could angle the monster away from the huntress.

Param eyed the charge to try to find any weakness, cursing under her breath when there really wasn't one. The Force it was, then. Param shot her left hand out, quickly performing a form of echani martial art. The Force extended from her through the ground until a wall of rock shot upward directly the in the monster's path. It would stop the charge, at least at Param. A slowed beast was a killable beast.

@lizziie

 

[Reikki]

Reikki notched another arrow — an eerie green sort of color — and shot it a few seconds later, the hazy object whistling through the air until it struck the monster in the shoulder. She hurried to notch another but was distracted momentarily by a feeling that brushed against her skin. It was equally familiar and alien; it was the Force, but not the sort she was used to. No, when this stranger outstretched her hand, the Force responded. Reikki was surprised enough to pause for a moment longer, but she had at least enough of her wits about her to try and take advantage of the given opportunity.

Raeppasid. In a falling of misty eerie green, the Nightsister disappeared briefly. Her voice faded with her form, but rang out sharply when she reappeared a short distance away. Laever. Dnah ym ot drows. A green sword manifested in her outstretched arm, fully forming just as her swing reached its peak. It cut clean into the monster's side, spraying crimson blood along the incision. She'd been a bit too slow in her veiled rush over though; the creature had recovered enough from its daze to retaliate.

"Ah!" The Nightsister cried out as the monster's head slammed into her side, sending her tumbling back. The strength of it was unexpected, and she hoped she'd mistaken the crunch of a stick for the sound of her rib cracking.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Param Vour]

"Vee, will you go keep the ship company?" Vee, the little BD-unit on her shoulder, chirped an acknoledgement and hopped off. He took the moment of reprieve to scurry away, making sure to conceal himself behind trees or rocks as to not draw any attention to himself. They'd been through this many times before. When things got dangerous in Param's immediate vicinity, she sent him away. At least it would mean easy retrieval if the two women managed to kill the beast; a feat that seemed manageable even as the Nightsister summoned a blade, cut through the monster, and had the monster return the favor. It reminded Param of the tarentatek she fought on Korriban. A shudder rolled up her spine.

Param used the Force to leap upwards, arcing up until her leather boots delicately landed on the top of the earthen wall she'd created. The creature was just below, focused on the Nightsister, but not charging... yet. Param wasn't about to let it. It was clear to Param that her mess up earlier or not, this would have been a bloody fight from the start. It made her feel a little better, but even so, she wasn't going to let the other woman take the fall for her doing.

She stepped off the side of the wall, flipping her sword to a reverse grip. Her feet fit the monster's back, then the curved blade sunk into the flesh between it's powerful shoulders. Param held her sword with her right hand, but gripped the creature's mane with the other. As soon as the initial roar of pain had worn off, the monster began to kick and buck, twist and growl, like a wolf with a bee landed on its back. It took a bit of Force empowerment for her to keep her grip and stance, but Param managed it. The heart wasn't where she thought it was, which means she had really only pissed the thing off.

"The heart," Param called so that the other woman would hear. "Where's the heart?"

@lizziie

 

[Reikki]

'Gods- yeah, that's a broken rib.' The Nightsister winced as she rolled back up onto her feet. Her eyes immediately jumped back to the creature. Param's words registered in her head, and the woman quickly began to try and work out where the heart could be.

Considering the stranger's position playing rodeo on the monster's back and the sword she had buried in between its shoulders into account, it was clear at least that, if the heart was in that general area, the sword wasn't long enough to pierce through into it. She couldn't think of where else the heart could possibly be, which meant that in order to get to it, she was going to have to try from underneath.

Reikki adjusted her grip on her sword, got into something like a runner's position, and shouted, "Can you get it to rear?"

Assuming Param was able to, Reikki burst forward, sword in hand, and went to drive the sword into the monster's chest. The eerie green blade slid in, meeting little resistance, and was met by the agonized scream of the monster cut short by- well, death. The monster slumped over the second the blade pierced the heart, and she was forced to quickly roll out of the way to avoid being crushed by the corpse.

"Ack." Safe and out of the way, the pain from her cracked rib reared its ugly head again. It wasn't too bad, but she was sure she'd need to get it checked out. 'There goes half the reward for this.' Hopefully the stranger hadn't come here looking to collect on the same bounty. It would only be fair though...

Speaking of. "You um- Are you alright?"

@TheDudeMike

 

[Param Vour]

Get the creature to rear? Param looked around for a moment, clinging to the creature’s back for what was literally her own life. Without any form of rope or restraint, getting a creature of this size to rear was going to mean causing it much more pain than Param was already. While she would rather end the creature quickly, she didn’t have time to worry about it in her current state.

Param grabbed the hilt of her sword with both hands, twisted the curved blade while it was still inside the creature, and began to drag it through, with some strengthening of the Force, through the creature. The monster did just as Param had intended for it- it reared and roared in pain. The process dislodged Param’s sword and Param herself to be flung back. She tossed the sword away from her to keep from stabbing herself right before she hit the ground and rolled.

Her silver eyes turned upward the moment her roll came to an end to see the creature falling over, slain. Param got to feet slowly, feeling every bruise that had yet to appear on her limbs and back from her tumble. She sauntered over to her sword, picked up, flicked the blood from it, and sheathed it back into its scabbard on her left hip.

Hearing the woman’s voice, Param turned toward her with an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry. That was my fault,” she said. Param walked over to the woman, hands at her sides to show no aggression. “I’m okay, just some bumps and bruises. You?”

@lizziie

 

[Reikki]

"It's- don't worry about it. It turned out fine." Ever the nonconfrontational soul, Reikki waved off Param's concerns with one hand while the other held her side. "I think I cracked a rib or something, but I'll be okay," she answered. As if to prove her point, the Dathomirian woman attempted to straighten up, but was met with a strong pain in her chest that caused her to cough — and thus wince — in pain.

'Fine, shallow breaths only.' She turned toward the corpse and regarded it for a few long moments before she resummoned her sword and cut off a paw; this would have to be enough to bear proof that the monster was dead. She'd give the villagers the location of the body so they could come check for themselves if they really wanted to.

Once the paw was wrapped tight in a cloth (to prevent its bright red blood from staining everything), the woman glanced back at the stranger.

"I'm Reikki, by the way."

@TheDudeMike

 

[Param Vour]

Param gave the woman a smile, but an apologetic one at that. While she said it was fine, the woman could have likely taken the monster unscathed had it not for Param. It wasn’t something Param was going to push. If the woman said she was fine, favoring her side as she was, then she was fine. The least Param could do was make sure she made it back to town safely.

“Param,” she said with a small nod. It was the first time she’d used her real name in a long time. The more she got to know the galaxy and met its people, the more she hated lying about herself to them. “Can I walk you back? This isn’t the only monster roaming the planet.”

The thought of a wounded woman, even if she was a Nightsister, getting ambushed by a rancor was not one Param wanted to think about. The planet was full of apex predators, and while for the moment the two tops of the food chain were Reikki and Param, that could change in an instant. Though, Reikki certainly knew what she was doing.

Param took out her EZPhone and snapped a picture of the corpse. If anyone didn’t believe the paw Reikki had wrapped, there would be picture evidence as well. She had no intention of taking whatever reward the woman was after, just settling the debt that she had started by causing such a scene earlier. She offered the the woman another warm, apologetic smile.

“So you’re a Nightsister?”

@lizziie