Roar of the Anjanath

 Nergigante. A so far unknown creature to the commission, but a pain in their sides. What is known is that this spikey menace loves to feed on elder dragons during the elder crossing, when it is often most seen.

 The siege party all grip their weapons, eyeing the wyvern in the skies as it too observes them, if only for a moment. Nergigante then crashes into the shell of Zorah Magdaros, casing it slight discomfort from the impact. Uncaring of its distress, Nergigante then sinks its fangs into the creature, siphoning what bio energy it can from the shell.

The radios of the hunting group blare to life as the Commander gives the order. "Hunters, you MUST drive Nergigante away! GO!" without further prompting, the group rush to where the spikey elder dragon is feeding.

 "Take this, you prickly pest!" The cyclops corps, having been the closest when Nergigante crashed, arrived first to deal with it. Rein crashes into Nergigante's side with as much force as possible, causing the creature to stop its meal and focus on the one-eyed lance user. 

RrAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGG!

 Nergigante roars, wings flaring out as a shockwave blasts out. Rein, being beside the creature, is disorientated as he clutches his ears, trying to avoid his eardrums from exploding. The extinction dragon then swipes its claws, aiming to maim the small annoyance interrupting its meal. Rein manages to bring up his shield at the last second, only being sent a few meters back, lance embedded into the shell to ensure he doesn't go flying off. Kane, having been able to sneak up behind the creature, draws his great sword and aims at the back of the creature.

Clang!

 Sparks fly as spikes meet blade, with neither losing ground, to Kane's surprise, as he had been buffed by the horn user from earlier. Nergigante then launches the spikes at Kane. Seeing the danger heading his way, Kane turns to the side, hoping to mitigate the damage as he is still airborne. 

 The spikes land, though thanks to Kane's action, only his torso is majorly unharmed. "Ugh!" Unfortunately, One of the spikes manages to pierce his sword holding arm, making it temporarily unusable. Kane lands onto the shell and Rein comes to support him, lance and shield poised to keep Nergigante at bay. Nergigante, as if seeing Rein's actions as a challenge, swipes at the weapon. "Dammit, hold on Kane this is gonna be rough!" Losing his offensive tool, Rein holds the shield with both hands Infront of him.

 Before he knew it, he found himself under the unrelenting attacks of the quilled monster, straining to hold his ground.

 Something flies over the cyclops corps' heads, landing directly on Nergigante. The object suddenly explodes, causing Nergigante to roar in pain as it is forced back, giving the brothers a respite. Zephyr and Elise suddenly appear from where the explosive was shot, each hacking and slashing at the limbs of the elder dragon. Spikes fall to the ground as Nergigante recovers from the explosion to the face.

 It then brings its wings forward, forcing the hunters of the hunting trio to back off, not wanting to become its next example of quill art. "What's with these quills, they seem tougher than steel!" Elise complains, inspecting the damage done to her dual blades' sharpness. Jonas, reloading his weapon points out, "Not every part of it is covered. Aim for the spikes that are still growing so we can target the limbs. If you can, chop its tail in order to reduce it's range." 

 The fight rages on as two-thirds of the siege engage in combat with Nergigante. The two opposing groups go back and forth, claws, ammo and blades, flying about. Elise, having been struck by the claws, kneels to the ground, clutching her wounded leg. Seizing the advantage, Nergigante, lunges at the fallen hunter, ready to snuff out her life. 

 "God if your out their, let me survive this!" Pale faced and unable to move freely, Elise clasps her hands and prays for a miracle. As if a divine being had heard her prayers, Sullivan appears, standing between Elise and the fast approaching pin missile(Nergigante). Sullivan, with all of the might he can muster, further bolstered by an XL attack melody, smashes the weapon into Nergigante's path. A note plays out as the extinction dragon is forced away.

 Sullivan then positions his musical weapon in front of him and begins to play. The hunter trio and cyclops corps feel their wounds heal and energy return to them as their strength is revamped by the combination of attack up, self improvement and recovery.

 RrAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGG!

 Enraged at being pelted once again in the face, Nergigante flies up into the sky, eyes blazing with the intent to pulverize the ants beneath it. Nergigante then dives towards Kane and Jonas, having regrouped after trying to injure it previously. 

"'GET OUT THE WAY!'" Zephyr and Rein both yell as they rush towards their teammates. The two then shove the targeted hunters away and ready their shields, bracing for impact. Nergigante, collides with both, sending the two tanks of the siege flying as if they were nothing more than pieces of paper.

"Rein!" "Zephyr!" Jonas and Kane yell out seeing them fall. They have no time to check however as Nergigante is still rampaging. As the groups were going to continue fighting, the "battlefield" began to shake as Zorah Magdaros Howled in what seemed like...pain?

The volcanic crater in the center of Zorah's shell erupted as magma flew to the skies. Globs of molten rock crash onto the shell, exploding on impact.

 Nergigante takes to the skies as the hunters try to keep themselves from becoming charred corpses. 

"HEADS UP! there's a massive one heading our way!" Jonas, with his sharp eyes points out to the group. The hunters jump to the sides as the object comes crashing down.

Smoke rises from the newly made crater as the siege party observes it.

"Christ what a thing." Rein whistled, having gotten back up on his feet with Kane's assistance

"Hey something's coming from the crater!" Elise yells

Before the disbelieving eyes of the group something did jump out. The hunting trio tense up. The cyclops corps felt their empty eye sockets sting. Sullivan even felt a headache coming on. For right before their eyes...

stood the anjanath variant.

(1 hour ago, Evans)

 Evans, hidden amongst the boulders of the Great Ravine, watched as Zorah Magdaros was pelted by heavy firepower yet still was advancing as if nothing was happening. "That is some shell alright. If only my scales were that tough." green with envy, Evans continued to observe. His eyes lit up as he saw Zorah became bound in place, with majority of the hunters vacating the area to a great distance save for some familiar faces. 

 "What do you know, I get to meet some old friends." If the hunters could understand and heard what he said, they would have likely popped a vein at the audacity of this strange anjanath. 

 Evans then sneaks past the oblivious pack of hunters, to focused on the elder dragon and to arrogant to think nothing would get past them.

 As Evans approached the leg of Zorah, he hears in the distance Nergigante's roar. "Good, that just makes it easier to avoid being detected." Now sure he wont be spotted, Evans then jumps as high as he could. When he began to descend, he sunk his teeth into the molten shell, feet planted to it. 'Eugh! the taste of charcoal is really not that great' complaints in his mind, Evans climbed and climbed. If someone was paying attention, they would find a pink t-rex sauntering up like a worm, a strange thing to behold.

 "Phew! that was something, but I made it." Finally reaching the top, Evans looks down to see the siege party converging to force Nergigante away.

"Really going at it huh? well, they don't see me, I won't get in the way...for now. Here goes nothing." with that, Evans dropped himself into the large volcanic opening.

 Evans lands with a crash. he looks around, seeing the rock like flesh towering high above. "There it is!" Evans eyes land on his target- the Magma core. Excited at the newfound treasure, Evans makes his way over to the core. He then clamps his jaws around as much of the core as possible. '1...2...3!' And with a yank, Evans rips out a chunk of the magma core, holding it in his mouth.

Zorah, still agitated, from the invaders on its shell, suddenly feels indescribable pain from his center core. Releasing a painful how, Zorah begins to charge up as much bio energy as it can into its center.

 Evans, over the moon with joy, suddenly feels the ground beneath him shake. As he looks around, Evans sees red cracks staring to form, all leading from the core that has been damaged by him. Evans first thought for his new situation was 'Uh oh.' before magma erupted under his feat, launching him along with whatever debris was around him.

 He flies towards the outer shell, the momentum of the eruption leaving him. And with a fierce impact, Evans now found himself in a crater made by his short flight, burns covering him but thankfully still alive. 'ohhhhh. next time I should probably go for something that's NOT in an active volcano.' Clutching the core piece, Evans shambles out of the crater, coming face to face with the siege party.

 "ITS HIM! LETS KILL THAT PINK BASTARD!" Rein yells, face twisted with anger as the brothers rush in. The rest of the group follows, aware of the danger Evans poses to their operation. Nergigante, high in the air, senses the abundant amount of bio energy coming from Evans' direction and plunges down, spiked wings acting as a makeshift battering ram.

Time seems to slow for Evans. An angry mob charging him head on. A barrage of bullets heading for his eyes. And a salivating elder dragon ready to pierce his head. 'SHIT! looks like I'm gonna have to gamble.'

Before the eyes of all watching parties, be it man or monster.... Evans consumed the magma core.

A/N: Hey there! hope you enjoyed the chapter. as for this message, I'm proud to announce that I now have a patreon up and running!(I think) so if you really like my work, check it out:

patreon.com/Gearjay