"Any creature bearing something which identifies it position from a distance," Saix said, giving Axel a significant look, "would not survive long enough to become big enough to be a mark." There was a note in his voice that suggested he was teasing, it was difficult to discern, but it was there.
So was the faint suggestion that he relished the thought of what lay ahead of them. Not the part where they were likely to spend the next hour searching for their mark, but the part where it would be the two of them against a Mark for which they would likely be a light snack. Something that was mean enough that someone was willing to pay money for somebody else to kill it.
He urged his chocobo on to follow Axel's. They weren't in any real rush, although Saix would be glad to be able to get off the bird. "Let's start downwind," he said, "there's little point in giving our quarry all the advantage." The sun might be in their eyes, but that was easily rectified when it came to the fight, but they didn't want the mark smelling them coming too early on.
Axel snorted a little and shook his head. There was something funny about Saix's statement regarding scent, really.
"Is there any such thing as 'downwind' of a chocobo?" He asked, not knowing how monsters with a keener sense of smell couldn't catch a waft of these things for miles regardless of direction.
Still, he agreed with Saix and followed him. He wasn't much of a hunter, so he didn't think like the animals they were tracking. He just wanted to smash them and get paid. Saix, however, seemed to be well-versed in this type of hunting, so he got to take point and Axel was content to follow behind.
Of course, any comments made about Saix's animalistic nature would be met with casual innuendo about Saix's sex life, and, ultimately, agreement. He knew it would be sufficient revenge, and would stop any such smart aleck-y comments being made again in a hurry.
"On the bright side," he said, as he guided his chocobo to a fresh vantage point, "their smell may help to mask ours." Provided their mark didn't discern between wild chocobos and domesticated ones. To Saix, they smelled much the same.
They searched for a while, roving slowly and methodically through the plains. The fog had lifted entirely, leaving no trace of morning behind it when they spotted something on the horizon, just far enough off to make out the species. There had been a couple of previous raised hopes, and subsequent disappointments with much more normal Tyrant beasts, so Saix didn't get excited, but he pointed it out and led them to investigate.
As they got closer to the monster in the distance, Axel noticed that his chocobo was beginning to fret. It warked nervously and pulled to a stop without his instruction and, even with urging, refused to go any further. For a creature usually undaunted by Fiends and Beasts, that sort of acting out could only mean trouble. Trouble of the 'Full Of Teeth' kind.
Axel turned his head to Saix, wanting to look to check whether his companion's mount had done the same as his, but at the same time, he didn't want take his eyes off the Tyrant in front of them and did so only for a second.
It looked bigger than the ones they'd seen and the ones he was used to. Not a great deal, but markedly so. It's back was decorated with a spined and ragged sail that was visible even from a distance. Axel noticed that it's skin was criss-crossed with the scars of many past failed attempts on it's life and, quite likely, fights for dominance with it's own species. It looked weathered, but the muscles that rippled beneath it's well-marked skin didn't give it the appearance of something weak and old and it's stained claws and teeth certainly didn't belong to the sort of creature that was going to lay down without a fight. Whatever had scarred it hadn't lived to tell the tail, that much was apparent.
"That's the thing, right?" Axel asked, awaiting confirmation of their Mark's identity before dismounting. He didn't sound too worried.
He was, of course, but just a little. He'd not taken on one of the local Rabanastre varieties so he had nothing to compare it to, but he didn't want to look like a wimp in front of his buddy. Especially not his hunting partner. He'd fought comparable Heartless in the past, but he'd never felt like his life was on the line. Still, this thing was reported to be weak to fire, which boosted his confidence tenfold and raised both his anticipation of the coming battle and his heart rate. He was going to enjoy this.
Saix began having similar difficulty with his own chocobo, but only after Axel's had stopped. It danced, giving an unhappy wark and trying to step backwards before Saix gave the reins a sharp pull.
His chocobo stopped, rooted to the spot for all of two seconds, and then it backed off again as the thing ahead of them caught the scent of scared chocobos and showed interest. It probably was big enough to eat them, if it felt like it.
"That is our mark," Saix confirmed, already starting to dismount. It was easy enough to tell; it was bigger, and it was angrier, and it looked as though hunters before them had tried their luck and found it to be lacking.
Once his feet were on the ground, and determinedly ignoring the ache in his buttocks, Saix summoned his claymore. He could do it faster than most, but it was an ability that was crippled when he went berserk. Creating the weapon required concentration; something he significantly lacked when he was in a berserk state.
His chocobo backed off another few steps, but stayed, unhappily.
"Are you ready?" He asked, without looking over at Axel. Having him on this hunt would make all the difference. It would also make the fight into twice the fun.
Somewhere, deep, deep down in Saix's heart, it brought back those memories of what it had been like to run off on dangerous adventures with Lea. Now his skin prickled with the thrill of what was to come.
Axel smirked as he dismounted, reassuring his Chocobo with a pet to the wing.
"Good chocobo. Stay." He said, pointing at it in time with the command. When he was satisfied that it wasn't going to bolt, he looked back at the Pylraster. Needless to say, the Tyrant looked even bigger now he wasn't sitting on the back of a giant bird.
With his hands now free, he pulled his pair of weapons free and looked at Saix, looking more than up for the battle ahead of them. His eyes looked alive, there was no trace of falseness or anything forced in his grin and he took a moment to loosen up before holding his arms out straight and igniting the wheels in his hands.
Saix smiled, bright and cruel, the wolfish expression of a predator that intends to enjoy the prey. He hefted his claymore, swinging it behind him, and took off.
He didn't intend on going berserk just yet. Not this early into the fight. He preferred to see what the Pylraster was capable of. Going berserk wasn't always the best plan, it was simply Saix's preferred one.
With an enemy this size, standing on only two legs, there was an obvious enough place to club. Saix made damn sure to stay out of teeth range as he headed or the creatures legs, the spikes unleashing from his weapon with audible sharpness before he hit. He kept one eye out for what Axel was doing, and what the beast was doing, as he went to work.
He knew full well the range of his hunting partner's swing and didn't want to risk getting in the way of it even for a second. Instead, he darted up behind him and stopped just short of it's maw. Keeping his attention on it (and it's attention on him) gave Saix ample opportunity to try and disable it's legs.
Of course, the first swing from the claymore hit with a dull thud. The monster roared with both anger and pain at the assault and swung around, trying to club at it's attacker with it's long, thick tail. It's leg was already bleeding --something not new to it judging by it's well-marred hide-- and it's forelegs were too small to be worth much in the way of retaliation.
Axel held out his chakrams and concentrated his chakra into his hands. In seconds the flames spread from his fingers all the way to the tips of the spiked, using the framework as paths to travel along. When he was sure Saix wasn't going to be hit by one, he threw the leftmost, sending it spinning at the Tyrant's face and spraying embers out into the air as it did. It's left eye was already blinded from somebody's earlier attempt at the same trick, but putting the other out of commission couldn't hurt.
Saix's blood raced with adrenaline. He enjoyed the fight, always had, even when his quarry was a pack of wolves, or the other, more common beasts that roamed the deserts of Dalmasca, or the Highwaste near Lindblum.
He enjoyed this more. It wasn't the element of danger, but the beast being a more equal match. Fighting alongside Axel helped, too. He could get into the fight, without being concerned for a healer, or having to watch what he did, because Axel knew him well enough to know how to fight alongside him.
He blocked the swing of the creatures tail, but he could still feel the blow rock his balance. It was powerful, but that wasn't a surprise.
As Axel attacked its eyes, Saix swung again at its legs, hitting hard at the ankle joint, and bringing his claymore around again for a successive swing. He hoped to cripple it. If he could slow it down so that it wasn't quite as fast with that tail, he could let loose in full.
Using his natural pull over the Fire in his thrown weapon, Axel charmed his thrown chakram back to him. It hit, of course, and the smell of smouldering flesh was testament to that, but it missed the eye. The Pylraster wasn't stupid. It wasn't expecting to lose the fight either, judging by it's deliberate turn of the head to protect what precious little vision it had left.
No matter! Axel simply threw the wheel again once he'd allowed for the recoil, re-adjusted his grip reset the concentration of fire. This time, it positively glowed as it streaked towards the monster.
Meanwhile, Saix's attacks were taking their toll. It was favouring one leg more than the other and the blood that ran down from the numerous cuts and spike wounds scented the air with copper. It's swings were less calculated and more desperate and, as it swung around the other way to snap at it's attacker, the chakram struck home.
It wasn't down, but with it's vision destroyed and one leg becoming more painful by the moment, it was disorientated.
That was the time Saix decided to back off. Axel could handle it for a few minutes while Saix attended to another matter.
Going berserk here was different. It had taken time to get used to. In the worlds he knew, all it took was a little moonlight, and a little time to lift those self restrictions and go. Here it was less complicated, but the feeling was much the same. It was less restrained, like some collar had been unfastened. He could see the movement of the Pylraster more easily, like the brightly waved flag and loud noises Axel had asked for from their mark earlier.
He could also smell the blood, and it smelled like victory.
His scar split, and his eyes flashed. He snarled as he charged in to attack the creature, hitting wildly, and with violent relish.
While Saix backed off, Axel moved in. He was happy in either long-range or short, so the sudden switch-up of positions didn't impact him negatively. Upon taking back his chakram for the second time, he swung both blades at it, adding yet more marks to it's map of scars. He laid the fire on thick, burning the fresh slash wounds as he carved them, minimising the distracting sprays of blood that erupted whenever the Tyrant was cut deeply enough to properly penetrate it's thick hide.
It snapped at him in desperate retaliation, but he was faster than it. He leapt back and hurled a ball of fire magic at it's face as it opened up it's jaws wide, giving it a bite of that instead of him.
It reared back, shaking it's head and trying in vain to extinguish the fire with little swipes from it's undersized front limbs. While it's attention was elsewhere, Axel stayed back and swung one hand out in an arc. An ethereal substance, like dark ichor, crept along the ground with the movement. With a smirk, he altered the direction of his swipe to a skywards one. Upon receiving that command, the ooze exploded up to mirror the movement. It struck hard at the Pylraster, hitting it's legs and underside with a blast of something akin to tar.
The darkness faded quickly but the exertion left Axel feeling momentarily off. Still, it was of no matter. Seeing that Saix had achieved what he'd set out to do, he didn't move back in for another attack. If anything was going to be able to ground it, the berserker would.
The berserker did. The attacks came relentlessly, one strike followed by another, by the next, and another. There was barely space to blink between them; the berserker was fast.
And he hit hard. Axel might not have sprayed the beast's blood, but Saix did. His senses were swamped in it, and his face and clothes spattered. Every swing threw more blood around.
The spikes meant that every clubbing, crushing blow bit in, hit that bit deeper. It wasn't as efficient as an axe, but Saix wouldn't have exchanged it for anything. Once he'd got his weapon back, he wondered how he'd ever managed without it. Like this, the battle was so much more fun.
The Pylraster roared as something in its leg finally gave way, and Saix swung again, hard, as it toppled.
Axel braced himself as the Mark went off it's legs, watching for a struck out leg or a vicious bite laced with failing desperation. It kicked out with it's decent leg, but he was no where near it -- that was Saix's problem. It was too much to ask for the Tyrant not to struggle, after all.
With it down, Axel concentrated on his use of fire.
He could probably stick it with a chakram and immolate it in much the same fashion as he'd been able to as a Nobody, using the wheel as a go between between himself and the monster, but Saix seemed to be enjoying himself too much for Axel to want to end it quickly. As such, fireball followed fireball as Saix relentlessly assailed it with blows.
The kick from the Pylraster hit Saix, knocking him back. Luckily, it didn't leave him dazed; if it had, it would have knocked him out of his berserk state. Instead the berserker seemed to shrug the blow off, moving in again to shower the wounded animal with savage blows. They'd have shook the ground and left shockwaves in his wake, if they'd hit there. Instead, they made short work of the creature's other leg, and anything else they made contact with.
Then Saix backed off again as he came out of it, breathless and exhilarated, and splattered with gore. Their mark was as good as finished already, and Saix's body sang with the exertion and the joy of violence.
Truly enjoying a fight. He hadn't ever been able to do that when he was a Nobody. The smile he'd worn when they began was still on his face now, and his scar was a little reddened. That, under the drops of the Pylraster's blood, made him look violently insane.
Vicious snarls still rumbled as it tried to catch it's breath in the calm after Saix backed off, but it was done for. It's nostrils dilated as it tried to smell which direction it's attackers were in, but it's sightless eyes couldn't back it up. The monster feebly struggled with it's forelimbs, but every tiny movement obviously caused it agony. After a few moments, it's movements and growls gave way to naught but shallow breathing.
Axel looked at it, seeing that it had no fight left in it and probably nothing more for his slightly psychotic hunt partner to enjoy. Still, he looked over at him, undaunted by his battle-happy behaviour or his blood-splattered appearance.
"Do you want to finish it off?" He offered, pointing to it's prone form with one of the tines of his chakram.
So was the faint suggestion that he relished the thought of what lay ahead of them. Not the part where they were likely to spend the next hour searching for their mark, but the part where it would be the two of them against a Mark for which they would likely be a light snack. Something that was mean enough that someone was willing to pay money for somebody else to kill it.
He urged his chocobo on to follow Axel's. They weren't in any real rush, although Saix would be glad to be able to get off the bird. "Let's start downwind," he said, "there's little point in giving our quarry all the advantage." The sun might be in their eyes, but that was easily rectified when it came to the fight, but they didn't want the mark smelling them coming too early on.
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"Is there any such thing as 'downwind' of a chocobo?" He asked, not knowing how monsters with a keener sense of smell couldn't catch a waft of these things for miles regardless of direction.
Still, he agreed with Saix and followed him. He wasn't much of a hunter, so he didn't think like the animals they were tracking. He just wanted to smash them and get paid. Saix, however, seemed to be well-versed in this type of hunting, so he got to take point and Axel was content to follow behind.
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"On the bright side," he said, as he guided his chocobo to a fresh vantage point, "their smell may help to mask ours." Provided their mark didn't discern between wild chocobos and domesticated ones. To Saix, they smelled much the same.
They searched for a while, roving slowly and methodically through the plains. The fog had lifted entirely, leaving no trace of morning behind it when they spotted something on the horizon, just far enough off to make out the species. There had been a couple of previous raised hopes, and subsequent disappointments with much more normal Tyrant beasts, so Saix didn't get excited, but he pointed it out and led them to investigate.
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Axel turned his head to Saix, wanting to look to check whether his companion's mount had done the same as his, but at the same time, he didn't want take his eyes off the Tyrant in front of them and did so only for a second.
It looked bigger than the ones they'd seen and the ones he was used to. Not a great deal, but markedly so. It's back was decorated with a spined and ragged sail that was visible even from a distance. Axel noticed that it's skin was criss-crossed with the scars of many past failed attempts on it's life and, quite likely, fights for dominance with it's own species. It looked weathered, but the muscles that rippled beneath it's well-marked skin didn't give it the appearance of something weak and old and it's stained claws and teeth certainly didn't belong to the sort of creature that was going to lay down without a fight. Whatever had scarred it hadn't lived to tell the tail, that much was apparent.
"That's the thing, right?" Axel asked, awaiting confirmation of their Mark's identity before dismounting. He didn't sound too worried.
He was, of course, but just a little. He'd not taken on one of the local Rabanastre varieties so he had nothing to compare it to, but he didn't want to look like a wimp in front of his buddy. Especially not his hunting partner. He'd fought comparable Heartless in the past, but he'd never felt like his life was on the line. Still, this thing was reported to be weak to fire, which boosted his confidence tenfold and raised both his anticipation of the coming battle and his heart rate. He was going to enjoy this.
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His chocobo stopped, rooted to the spot for all of two seconds, and then it backed off again as the thing ahead of them caught the scent of scared chocobos and showed interest. It probably was big enough to eat them, if it felt like it.
"That is our mark," Saix confirmed, already starting to dismount. It was easy enough to tell; it was bigger, and it was angrier, and it looked as though hunters before them had tried their luck and found it to be lacking.
Once his feet were on the ground, and determinedly ignoring the ache in his buttocks, Saix summoned his claymore. He could do it faster than most, but it was an ability that was crippled when he went berserk. Creating the weapon required concentration; something he significantly lacked when he was in a berserk state.
His chocobo backed off another few steps, but stayed, unhappily.
"Are you ready?" He asked, without looking over at Axel. Having him on this hunt would make all the difference. It would also make the fight into twice the fun.
Somewhere, deep, deep down in Saix's heart, it brought back those memories of what it had been like to run off on dangerous adventures with Lea. Now his skin prickled with the thrill of what was to come.
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"Good chocobo. Stay." He said, pointing at it in time with the command. When he was satisfied that it wasn't going to bolt, he looked back at the Pylraster. Needless to say, the Tyrant looked even bigger now he wasn't sitting on the back of a giant bird.
With his hands now free, he pulled his pair of weapons free and looked at Saix, looking more than up for the battle ahead of them. His eyes looked alive, there was no trace of falseness or anything forced in his grin and he took a moment to loosen up before holding his arms out straight and igniting the wheels in his hands.
"Let's dance!"
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He didn't intend on going berserk just yet. Not this early into the fight. He preferred to see what the Pylraster was capable of. Going berserk wasn't always the best plan, it was simply Saix's preferred one.
With an enemy this size, standing on only two legs, there was an obvious enough place to club. Saix made damn sure to stay out of teeth range as he headed or the creatures legs, the spikes unleashing from his weapon with audible sharpness before he hit. He kept one eye out for what Axel was doing, and what the beast was doing, as he went to work.
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He knew full well the range of his hunting partner's swing and didn't want to risk getting in the way of it even for a second. Instead, he darted up behind him and stopped just short of it's maw. Keeping his attention on it (and it's attention on him) gave Saix ample opportunity to try and disable it's legs.
Of course, the first swing from the claymore hit with a dull thud. The monster roared with both anger and pain at the assault and swung around, trying to club at it's attacker with it's long, thick tail. It's leg was already bleeding --something not new to it judging by it's well-marred hide-- and it's forelegs were too small to be worth much in the way of retaliation.
Axel held out his chakrams and concentrated his chakra into his hands. In seconds the flames spread from his fingers all the way to the tips of the spiked, using the framework as paths to travel along. When he was sure Saix wasn't going to be hit by one, he threw the leftmost, sending it spinning at the Tyrant's face and spraying embers out into the air as it did. It's left eye was already blinded from somebody's earlier attempt at the same trick, but putting the other out of commission couldn't hurt.
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He enjoyed this more. It wasn't the element of danger, but the beast being a more equal match. Fighting alongside Axel helped, too. He could get into the fight, without being concerned for a healer, or having to watch what he did, because Axel knew him well enough to know how to fight alongside him.
He blocked the swing of the creatures tail, but he could still feel the blow rock his balance. It was powerful, but that wasn't a surprise.
As Axel attacked its eyes, Saix swung again at its legs, hitting hard at the ankle joint, and bringing his claymore around again for a successive swing. He hoped to cripple it. If he could slow it down so that it wasn't quite as fast with that tail, he could let loose in full.
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No matter! Axel simply threw the wheel again once he'd allowed for the recoil, re-adjusted his grip reset the concentration of fire. This time, it positively glowed as it streaked towards the monster.
Meanwhile, Saix's attacks were taking their toll. It was favouring one leg more than the other and the blood that ran down from the numerous cuts and spike wounds scented the air with copper. It's swings were less calculated and more desperate and, as it swung around the other way to snap at it's attacker, the chakram struck home.
It wasn't down, but with it's vision destroyed and one leg becoming more painful by the moment, it was disorientated.
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Going berserk here was different. It had taken time to get used to. In the worlds he knew, all it took was a little moonlight, and a little time to lift those self restrictions and go. Here it was less complicated, but the feeling was much the same. It was less restrained, like some collar had been unfastened. He could see the movement of the Pylraster more easily, like the brightly waved flag and loud noises Axel had asked for from their mark earlier.
He could also smell the blood, and it smelled like victory.
His scar split, and his eyes flashed. He snarled as he charged in to attack the creature, hitting wildly, and with violent relish.
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It snapped at him in desperate retaliation, but he was faster than it. He leapt back and hurled a ball of fire magic at it's face as it opened up it's jaws wide, giving it a bite of that instead of him.
It reared back, shaking it's head and trying in vain to extinguish the fire with little swipes from it's undersized front limbs. While it's attention was elsewhere, Axel stayed back and swung one hand out in an arc. An ethereal substance, like dark ichor, crept along the ground with the movement. With a smirk, he altered the direction of his swipe to a skywards one. Upon receiving that command, the ooze exploded up to mirror the movement. It struck hard at the Pylraster, hitting it's legs and underside with a blast of something akin to tar.
The darkness faded quickly but the exertion left Axel feeling momentarily off. Still, it was of no matter. Seeing that Saix had achieved what he'd set out to do, he didn't move back in for another attack. If anything was going to be able to ground it, the berserker would.
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And he hit hard. Axel might not have sprayed the beast's blood, but Saix did. His senses were swamped in it, and his face and clothes spattered. Every swing threw more blood around.
The spikes meant that every clubbing, crushing blow bit in, hit that bit deeper. It wasn't as efficient as an axe, but Saix wouldn't have exchanged it for anything. Once he'd got his weapon back, he wondered how he'd ever managed without it. Like this, the battle was so much more fun.
The Pylraster roared as something in its leg finally gave way, and Saix swung again, hard, as it toppled.
Now was the time to start finishing it off.
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With it down, Axel concentrated on his use of fire.
He could probably stick it with a chakram and immolate it in much the same fashion as he'd been able to as a Nobody, using the wheel as a go between between himself and the monster, but Saix seemed to be enjoying himself too much for Axel to want to end it quickly. As such, fireball followed fireball as Saix relentlessly assailed it with blows.
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Then Saix backed off again as he came out of it, breathless and exhilarated, and splattered with gore. Their mark was as good as finished already, and Saix's body sang with the exertion and the joy of violence.
Truly enjoying a fight. He hadn't ever been able to do that when he was a Nobody. The smile he'd worn when they began was still on his face now, and his scar was a little reddened. That, under the drops of the Pylraster's blood, made him look violently insane.
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Vicious snarls still rumbled as it tried to catch it's breath in the calm after Saix backed off, but it was done for. It's nostrils dilated as it tried to smell which direction it's attackers were in, but it's sightless eyes couldn't back it up. The monster feebly struggled with it's forelimbs, but every tiny movement obviously caused it agony. After a few moments, it's movements and growls gave way to naught but shallow breathing.
Axel looked at it, seeing that it had no fight left in it and probably nothing more for his slightly psychotic hunt partner to enjoy. Still, he looked over at him, undaunted by his battle-happy behaviour or his blood-splattered appearance.
"Do you want to finish it off?" He offered, pointing to it's prone form with one of the tines of his chakram.
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