Isis came up beside Nymera and nudged her arm. "Nymera, are you serious? You really want to take the Princess to find a Lagiacrus nest?"
Nymera leaned closer and whispered, "Of course it's a ruse. It's true that Lagiacrus sightings have been reported in the nearby seas, but not around the Deserted Island.
"Years ago, there really was a Lagiacrus nest on this island, and Large Monsters often appeared here, but after multiple culls by Az and other Sea People hunters, no Lagiacrus has dared to nest on this island again.
"We might find some traces from back then and let Her Highness have a little fun, that's all.
"Of course, to avoid any mishaps, I've already sent Mochi to keep watch from the air."
Isis glanced up at the sky. Sure enough, she could vaguely make out the form of a gray-white Cohoot circling high above, its body nearly blending into the clouds.
"So that's how it is. As expected of you!" Isis gave her two thumbs up.
Nymera chuckled softly. "Since Her Highness paid a generous reward, it's only right that we let her enjoy herself to the fullest.
"Just treat it like we're taking her on a grand adventure."
As she spoke, Nymera raised her chin toward the Princess, who was riding ahead on Hibiki, commanding him to sniff all over the place as she tried her best to find some kind of tracks.
Hibiki glanced back at them, an almost human helplessness written across his canine face.
Without a doubt, Her Highness was a complete amateur. Even the tiny tracks left by little crabs scuttling across the sand made her urge Hibiki to run over and sniff them.
What was he supposed to smell there? Nymera gave him a firm behave signal, so Hibiki had no choice but to keep playing along with the Princess, sniffing here and there.
This was Isis's first time doing this kind of thing, and she was a little giddy too. She hurried forward a few steps, running ahead of the Princess and Hibiki.
She looked both ways for a moment and quickly found something. "Your Highness, look over there! There are Monster tracks!"
"Go check them out, ja!" the Princess urged Hibiki to run over.
On the soft sand and gravel near the coastline, there were indeed several sets of tracks leading into a nearby tropical jungle.
"Pointy! They have claws, but they're a bit small. They don't look like a grown Lagiacrus. It must be a Lagiacrus cub, ja!
"Hibiki! Let's follow them!" The Princess, draped across Hibiki's back, kept kicking her heels against his ribs to hurry him along.
"Hruuuu..." Hibiki let out a heavy sigh.
A Lagiacrus cub? These were clearly Jaggi tracks. "Her Highness has found something! Let's hurry and catch up!" Nymera shouted, laughter in her voice.
Isis also quickened her pace with a giggle. "Hurry, hurry!"
This kind of activity reminded her of the Hunter games she used to watch the neighborhood kids play when she was little, a bunch of children screaming and shouting for ages after spotting a cat's pawprint, then chasing after it in a swarm.
When she told everyone it wasn't a Monster, just Felyne tracks, she got shunned for it; eventually, they just stopped letting her play at all.
Now she felt, strangely, like she was making up for a childhood regret.
A Palamute could run fast through the jungle. If Hibiki really stretched his legs, Isis and Nymera would definitely be left behind.
Under the Princess's repeated urging, Hibiki badly wanted to speed up, but remembering Nymera's earlier warning, he kept to a leisurely, unhurried trot.
Before long, deep in the woods, they came upon several wandering Jaggi.
Two males, plus a bulkier female. Hearing movement, all of them turned their heads and let out a series of threatening, rumbling growls at the approaching group.
"Ohhh... didn't expect it to be Jaggi, huh?" The Princess, perched on the Palamute's back, showed not the slightest fear. Instead, she urged Hibiki on, wanting to get a closer look.
Hibiki didn't treat these Jaggi as a threat either, and simply walked up to them.
The Jaggi seemed to take this as a provocation. Snarling, they all attacked together.
This startled the two following behind. Isis quickly broke into a run, planting herself beside the Princess and raising her shield in defense.
Nymera raised her Bowgun, took brief aim, and pulled the trigger. The round bored precisely into the mouth of the lead female Jaggi, blowing off a good chunk of its skull.
The death of their companion didn't frighten the other two male Jaggi; it only inflamed their ferocity further, and they howled as they lunged at the Hunters before them.
Isis stepped forward with a long stride, and her Glavenus Gunlance, shaped like a Great Sword, swept out sideways. That single blow cut both Jaggi clean in half at the waist, ending the fight neatly and decisively.
The scene was a touch grisly. After flicking the blood from her Gunlance, Isis folded the weapon and stowed it away, then turned with some concern to look at the Princess behind her.
All that earlier business with finding tracks could still be called Hunter games, but what lay before her now could no longer be described as a game.
Easy as it had been, this was, without a doubt, a real Hunt.
The Princess did not show the terror or nausea Isis had imagined, nor was it some morbid, thrill-seeking excitement. Instead, she wore a curious, questioning look.
"That biggest Jaggi... wasn't it missing half its tail?"
Nymera stowed her weapon and walked over. Passing Isis, she flashed her a hand signal: stay alert.
Crouching beside the female Jaggi's body, she observed it for a moment, and her relaxed look gradually hardened into seriousness.
"Bitten clean off by some Monster. Judging by how the wound has healed... it happened within the last few days."
"Bitten clean off?" Isis's expression changed too.
This female Jaggi was not small; its back stood roughly as tall as a grown man, and its body length even exceeded five meters. A female Jaggi's tail was far thicker and sturdier than a male's. To bite off this female Jaggi's tail in one go, the culprit had to be some kind of carnivorous Large Monster.
It might still be nearby.
Nymera put her fingers to her lips and whistled. Soon, Mochi's cry echoed down from the sky.
"Mochi says there are no Large Monsters nearby, but I'm not entirely convinced," Nymera whispered to Isis. "That may not mean there are none. It may mean one is hiding."
That conclusion made Isis's scalp prickle. A Monster skilled at concealment was often the most dangerous kind of predator.
Without hesitation, she went to the Princess and said, "Your Highness, there may be a highly dangerous Monster in this forest. Let us escort you back first."
The Princess frowned at this, but she didn't make a fuss at a time like this. "Fine, let's go then."
Nymera and Isis tightened their formation, guarding the Princess from front and rear. At the same time, Nymera used her whistle to relay an order to Mochi overhead, telling the Cohoot to keep a sharper watch on the surroundings and give an immediate warning at the first sign of anything unusual.
The group moved through the forest in a state of high alert. Suddenly, Isis, running at the very front, slipped and pitched forward onto the ground.
What?
Nymera and the others behind her were momentarily stunned. How could she suddenly slip and fall? Hibiki took a few steps forward, intending to grab Isis's belt and help her up, but then his own paws also lost traction.
Although his four legs managed to stabilize him at the last moment, the Princess on his back was thrown off with a startled cry of "Ah!"
Nymera moved to help the Princess up, but Isis, down on one knee, raised a hand in a stop gesture. "Don't come any closer. Something's wrong!"
She looked down at her armor. It was wet and stained with some kind of liquid. She dabbed a bit with her finger and rubbed it. It was sticky, slippery, and filled with fine bubbles, very much like soap lather.
Nymera halted and warily examined the ground nearby.
Because the ground was covered in fallen leaves and weeds, it was easy to miss without close inspection. But all around, the ground was dotted with patches of foam and slime, along with bubbles of various sizes.
Foam?
A memory sparked in Nymera's mind, and her heart sank. She quickly scanned her surroundings, her gaze settling on a pool formed by converging streams several dozen meters away.
The pool was covered with floating leaves, leaving the water murky. The foam and slime on the ground trailed all the way back in that direction.
To avoid getting lost, they were retracing their original path. They had passed this pool earlier, but back then, the ground hadn't been covered in this trip-inducing foam and slime.
"Hibiki! Take the Princess and run! Straight back to the village!"
Nymera shouted, raising her Bowgun.
"Bark! Woof!"
Receiving the command, Hibiki grabbed the Princess's clothes in his jaws, tossed her back onto his back, and sprinted at full speed toward the coastline.
The instant Nymera shouted, a loud splash rang out in the distance. A massive, brightly colored form emerged from the bottom of the pool.
Its colossal jaws opened wide, and a terrifying blade of water, shaped from foam and a high-pressure jet, swept horizontally toward the Hunters.
The water blade sliced clean through trees so thick it would take two people to wrap their arms around them, toppling them in an instant.
(Translated by yourtl.app)