On the lead Sandship.
After warning the helmsman about the Cephalos school, Nymera pulled off the face covering painted with strange runes and hurried over to Isis.
Isis had clearly gone off the rails as well, trading howls with Hibiki as if they were competing for volume and occasionally firing a shot into the sky mid-howl to add to the excitement. Together, they formed a bizarre rhythm.
"Isis! Monsters ahead!" Nymera shouted right into Isis's ear, afraid she would not hear if she spoke too softly.
"Monsters? Monsters! Ahahaha!" Isis cackled madly for a moment before the words finally registered a few seconds later. "Huh? Did you say Monsters?"
Nymera nodded, her expression serious.
Frizzy-haired Isis shook her head, leaned her Glavenus Gunlance aside, and slapped both cheeks hard to force herself back to lucidity.
"What kind of Monster, and where?"
Though they had been rather wild these past two days, they had never forgotten that their primary purpose aboard the lead ship was to ensure the competitors' safety, not merely to provide musical entertainment.
"Cephalos school, less than three kilometers in that direction. The lead ship has already begun turning. If all goes well, we can go around them."
"Sandstorm!" shouted a crew member who was climbing the mast to adjust the sails.
Isis's expression immediately soured. Having spent a fair amount of time in the Great Desert, she was quite familiar with the desert region's ecology.
"Cephalos have huge appetites. They don't linger where the desert is barren. There are bound to be other Monsters lurking nearby, and the sandstorm will mask their movements. They might use it to get close... Nymera, can Mochi expand the warning perimeter?"
Nymera shook her head. "The wind and sand are getting stronger, and visibility is poor. Even from high up, she can't see very far."
"We need to prepare for combat." Isis folded her Gunlance, fully reloaded the spent Ammo, and secured the Large Shield to her arm. "I have a bad feeling about this... The Hunters on the other escort ships should have gotten the news too, right?"
"Yes, the SOS Flare has been launched. All vessels are converging on our position."
Nymera had also swapped out the Rathalos Cannon she had been using for "fireworks" and equipped the more versatile Valkyrie Fire, tilting her head as she studied Isis.
Her hairstyle and the greasepaint on her face were still just as comical, yet Isis now gave off an entirely different impression than before.
She had almost never seen Isis so earnest and serious. Even though Nymera herself was older and held a higher Hunter rank, talking to Isis somehow felt inexplicably like reporting to a superior...
Even during ordinary work discussions, Nymera had never seen her enter such a state. Could it be because... Altaïr wasn't around?
After observing through the binoculars for a moment, Isis lowered them. "The sand and dust are still intensifying. I can only faintly make out the shadows of ships approaching us.
"Can you have Mochi confirm the extent of the dust cloud from high altitude? This visibility is too dangerous."
Nymera nodded, then blew a whistle to relay instructions to the Cohoot circling high above.
Clawdia tugged at the hem of Isis's fauld, pointing toward the bow. "What about that one on the figurehead, meow? Should we haul her back, meow?"
"...Mm. You and Sajji go together. Once you've pulled her back onto the deck, have her play sharp, rhythmic notes to serve as a Mist Bell and help the ships in the dust confirm our location."
"Okay, meow."
Before long, the aerial report reached the helmsman. The lead ship adjusted its course again, preparing to break out of the dust-covered area.
From the bow came intermittent, sharp, metallic droning sounds. The vast, loosely gathered fleet slowly converged.
After several tense minutes of navigation, the surrounding dust gradually thinned and finally cleared entirely. Led by the lead ship, the clustered fleet had finally broken free of the dust-covered area.
Everyone could not help sighing in relief. Fortunately, they had not encountered a massive sandstorm, the kind that blotted out the sky and could bury a person alive with nothing but blowing sand. Otherwise, breaking through would not have been so easy, and the small Sandships might even have been flipped on the spot.
"Rrrr woof!!" On the foredeck, Hibiki suddenly dropped into a low stance, baring his dagger-like fangs and snarling repeatedly toward the front.
"Monster incoming!" Isis roared, sprinting a few steps to the bow and bracing her Gunlance and Large Shield.
At the very moment she shouted, a Cephalos burst out from beneath the sand and lunged, snapping at Lambert as she hung from the bow.
Lambert's pupils contracted.
With no time to prepare any melody, she had no choice but to swing her Iron Horn forward. Yet, whether due to insufficient combat experience or because being hung there made it hard to exert force, her swing with the Horn came slightly late and lacked power.
Just as she was about to be snatched in the Cephalos's jaws, a thunderous "BOOM!" erupted. Searing explosive flames and shrapnel burst against the Cephalos's chest, flipping it straight back onto the sand.
Badly wounded, the Cephalos writhed and bucked, just about to burrow back beneath the sand, when the lead ship plowed right over it, leaving a scarlet trail in its wake at the stern.
"Why is she still hanging there?!" Lowering her smoke-wisping Gunlance, Isis's voice carried a rare edge of exasperation.
With Sajji's help, Clawdia was straining to pull at the chain wrapped around Lambert loop after loop. "It's stuck, meow!!"
Nymera: "..."
Earlier, partly for safety and partly for fun, she and Isis had bound Lambert with the iron chain, winding it around her many, many times.
They had never anticipated this scenario.
Right now, Lambert, tied to the bow, was like bait dangling from a hook, exuding a deadly allure for the oncoming Cephalos school.
Within seconds of the first Cephalos being crushed to death, more Cephalos, spurred on by the scent of blood, lunged forward one after another.
Isis and Nymera took turns firing their weapons, picking off the Cephalos as they hurled themselves aboard.
"...Fair enough, meow." Clawdia abandoned her attempts to loosen the iron chain. "If the Cephalos school focuses its attacks here, the other small Sandships will be safe, meow."
Still biting the chain and yanking it backward, Sajji raised his head and stared at her in shock. "You're also a damn devil, meow."
Lambert's body was bound tight in coiled iron chains, and beneath her feet, bloody maws kept bursting from the sand, lunging to bite. Those dull-yellow, densely packed fangs were all so clearly visible.
The roar of the Bowgun and Gunlance erupted right beside her ears, nearly deafening her. The acrid smoke from the gunpowder choked her breath and stung her eyes shut.
Another Cephalos burst out from beneath the sand. In the next second, it would clamp down on her thigh and tear her body in half.
"Bang!"
Less than half a meter from her, the Cephalos's triangular head was blasted to pieces by Spread Ammo from the Bowgun. Blood, chunks of flesh, and brain matter splattered all over her.
A hard, sharp fragment grazed her cheek; was it a bone shard from the Cephalos? Or a flying piece of shrapnel? Who knew? Who the hell cared! Her heart and lungs spasmed, her throat constricted, and she could not breathe. Was it from elation? Or terror? Did it even matter? This was the symphony of life and death she chased!
"Yah-haaa!!!"
Amid shrill laughter that was clearly a sign of an abnormal mental state, Lambert fiercely strummed the metal strings twice. The melody of the Echo Wave was woven into form with unprecedented efficiency.
She yearned, yearned for a Cephalos to break through the blockade of Gunlance and Bowgun fire and bite her head off in one snap.
And she, in the final instant of her life, would play death's melody and shatter its brain! As if answering her expectation, a Cephalos with entirely bluish-gray scales and an unusually massive body burst from the sand. Its gaping maw, large enough to swallow her whole with ease, lunged to attack.
Isis's and Nymera's faces twisted in horror.
"Cephadrome!"
A Large Monster of this caliber posed no threat to them, but in that split second, they had no way to stop it from harming their companion.
Lambert was, after all, bound to the bow by their own hands. In other words, they themselves had caused the death of this junior Hunter they were only just beginning to grow close to...
As the final moments of her life seemed to arrive, Lambert felt absolutely no resentment toward the two of them. Her mind had no room for such thoughts right now.
"It's here, it's here, it's here, it's here!!!!!" Lambert's eyes gleamed with a terrifying light.
Just as the Cephadrome's bloody maw loomed over her, about to snap shut, another colossal shadow violently breached the dune. A gigantic horn, half as long as the Cephadrome's entire body, pierced straight through it in one go, like a Lance.
"Rroooaaarrr!" A roar that belonged uniquely to a Large Flying Wyvern echoed across the sand sea.
"AAAAHHHHH!!!" Thinking she was already dead, Lambert let out a string of meaningless shrieks. Driven to an extreme pitch of excitement, something in her brain snapped, and her eyes rolled back as she fainted.
(Translated by yourtl.app)