Tell me I'm not pretty

Reina was dozing off. Her armor was familiar and comforting, so much so that she felt like sleeping in it. Her trusty gunlance, sharpened to a perfect point, was resting beside her as she used the ridge of the wagon as a very stiff, very shaky pillow.

It had been a while since they'd done a hunt like this--Sev had gotten pretty badly hurt in their last hunt, though it wasn't because of their foe. Something about him just made her accidentally fire into him, even though she wasn't aiming at him. What an annoying power.

As the wagon came to a stop, Reina shook herself awake and slid off the wagon, taking her weapon and a belt of ammo for the gun. The shells were small enough that she could carry an anomalously large amount of ammo, so she'd never worried about running out before. She glanced at Sev, then quickly glanced away. Even though he was attractive enough without his armor, something about the prepared for battle look his armor gave him made her feel...

Jittery.

Even then, she could sense something wasn't quite right. This was far from their first hunt, but his countenance seemed off. The way he went about setting up camp with a weary slump of the shoulder and an unnerving amount of breaks.

"Hey," she said, hands resting on her hips. "You're still hurt from last time, aren't you?"

She frowned deeply at what he said, because it felt uncharacteristic. Hunts like this were easy for her teacher. She'd seen him take down monsters as large as cities on his own and barely break a sweat. He'd stopped, mid-battle, to put her elsewhere while he finished the battle because she's gotten too hurt to stand. He was caring, but he was free spirited, goofy, nothing was supposed to be hard for her teacher. That was how things were. That's how things were supposed to be.

It occurred to her, for perhaps the first time, that her teacher probably wouldn't hunt forever. She would be on her own then. What would she do? She couldn't take on monsters like her teacher. Even after years of practice, that first look at a monster still managed to make her lock up in fear for a few moments.

A deep breath. She left her hand under his for a moment before steeling herself and following her teacher. Reina had a map of her own, but Sev was more familiar with their target and its... 'migration patterns'.

"Alright then. Don't think this conversation is done, though. We're still talking about this when we get home."

Reina carried her gunlance on her back. It was a heavy thing to hold in her hands, and she would have a hell of a time trying to maneuver in case anything came out to jump at them if she constantly had it at the ready. As they walked, she listened to her master's plan and found herself frowning as he described his plan.

"So... I'm just gonna be letting you handle this then?"

She seemed to huff. If she wanted someone else to handle all her fights for her, then she might as well've just stayed in her home fishing village. What had even been the point of her coming out here, following her master's footsteps, if all those years of comraderie and buildup amounted to her just... running around and dodging, and not even using her weapon?

Ultimately, she knew what he was doing. He just wanted to protect her. If she was another girl, then she would find this noble, or even sweet. But it felt.. condescending. Maybe the real reason is that he was mad at her for shooting him at point blank range that one time, but in her defense, he jumped in front of her.

Whatever.

"Fine. Whatever. I'll do your plan."

Reina was surprised. She hasn't been the primary damage dealer since.... well... damn, she couldn't remember when. Had it ever happened? Had Sev ever actually handed off damage dealing duties entirely to her? Her warrior heart swelled with pride, but that also set off more alarm bells. If he was handing off damage completely to her, then that meant that he probably couldn't deal damage himself.

She bit the inside of her cheek. The conversation had been shelved, so she didn't want to bring it up again, but now she was concerned. In situations when she hadnt been relegated to defense duty and parrying shots (her gunlance shield was very sturdy, and the ability to shoot while guarding was a bonus), they'd always fought together.

As they approached the young wyvern's stomping grounds, she ate some jerky and braced herself.

The Wyvern was as unhappy as she'd expected and when Sev yelled, she immediately took off, accelerating to her top speed in an instant to cross the rocky clearing. She moved to its back to flank it and drew her lance, immediately feeling incumbered by its weight. There'd be no dodging here.

She pierced the young wyvern with the end of her lance, firing off her gun with each poke.

Reina was doing her best behind the wyvern. Mixing in shots of various strengths into he slashes and stabs, she could tell that she was at least slowly wearing it down. When the wyvern turned its attention to her, she started to back down, bringing up her own metal shield in response, rather than running. She figured that a charged shot to the face from a guarded position would be enough to stagger the beast.

Come on, just a little bit--

Then Sev got its attention again.

It happened quickly; a loosed fireball, an explosion her master crumpled on the ground as the monster ignored her completely in favor of trying to devour her teacher.

Now, logically speaking, the gunlance was a very different beast from the lance. Its added gun gave it the ability to fire shots, but the added weight of the gun made it lose the lance's ability to do a wild charge, slamming the full brunt of the lance's long hard conical body into the enemy for extreme damage.

But Reina wasn't a normal lance user. Her ability to accelerate meant that she could still do a charge. It wasn't a wild charge, but more like....

Running up to a monster and stabbing it with a fork.

She sheathed her weapon, and felt the ground under her feet before running as fast as she cold toward the Wyvern. It wasn't paying any attention to her, really--it was fully focused on her master with its head low to skulk towards Sev, it was an easy target.

As she got closer to her prey, she unsheathed her Gunlance. It was impossible for her to keep running that fast, but her built up momentum and sharp gunlance was more than enough.

It pierced the wyvern's throat, almost coming out the other side.

The baby screamed, and flailed wildly in agony, as its heart sent its own blood splattering over the rocky plain. Reina tried to keep her feet planted, and managed to free her gunlance from its neck before the Wyvern let out a gurgling death roar.