Following the Pariapuria's trail, the Hunters pressed deeper into the cave.
As they advanced, the plants, fungi, insects, and reptiles that had once been common grew increasingly scarce, leaving the cave more barren with every step.
By the time the familiar stench of rot filled the air, hardly anything alive remained in sight.
That in itself was normal. Every extreme environment had a transitional zone. In the Great Desert, for example, the fringes bordering the outside world were relatively lush, but the terrain grew more arid and desolate toward the center.
Yet this only deepened everyone's doubts.
"There has to be an intermediate layer, or some kind of creature that fills the same role," Ms. Meow-It-All said with confidence. "Otherwise, nutrients from the upper caverns could never become concentrated enough to support the apex predators below. A gap like this is far too strange, meow."
Before she had even finished speaking, a faint swish came from overhead.
Isis reacted instantly, raising her Large Shield over Honeysuckle and Ms. Meow-It-All.
Her shield stopped a small, slimy creature that resembled a cave-dwelling frog.
The Small Monster's ambush had failed, and it immediately sprang away. Its claws scrabbled rapidly while its streamlined body twisted and wriggled, carrying it a surprising distance in the blink of an eye.
"Catch it, meow!" Ms. Meow-It-All yelped.
The Hunters tried to give chase, but they were too late. The little creature twisted into one of the countless cracks in the ground and vanished.
"Did you all see that? What was it?" Theo asked, sounding flustered.
There were no broad patches of Brightmoss to illuminate the cave at this depth. The Hunters could see only by the light of their alchemical lamps.
The lamps cast narrow, concentrated beams, making it difficult to discern anything clearly in the surrounding gloom.
"It's probably the creature Honeysuckle mentioned earlier." Morgan kept his eyes fixed on the crack where it had disappeared. "Fifty to sixty centimeters long, a grayish-brown back, fairly well-developed forelimbs, and no functional hind legs, so it has to wriggle its body to move.
"It really does look like some kind of deformed juvenile shark. I'd guess it's an Amphibian."
As he spoke, he readied his Heavy Bowgun with a click. "Let's take this slowly. There are probably more of these Monsters nearby, and they may already be stalking us.
"Next time one appears, I'll bring it down with Spread Ammo..."
"Don't fire indiscriminately," Ms. Meow-It-All interrupted. "Monsters adapted to such a dim environment probably have poor eyesight, but their hearing and sense of smell will be extremely sharp.
"The report of a Heavy Bowgun and the scent of blood would draw much more trouble to us, meow."
"...Fine." Morgan reluctantly lowered his Heavy Bowgun for the moment, though he left it loaded.
"The stench is getting much stronger." Sajji looked around. "We should be close to that Pariapuria."
"Triangle formation. I'll take point. Isis and Theo, cover the flanks and rear. Morgan, stay in the middle with Ms. Meow-It-All. Honeysuckle, you stay with them too." Altaïr issued the orders in quick succession.
The Hunters followed Ms. Meow-It-All's guidance when choosing their route, but Altaïr held full command over their tactics.
The group quickly reorganized. Honeysuckle jumped down from Isis and tucked herself into the center of the Hunters' triangular formation. She clutched her flower basket nervously and pushed her persistently curious cub back inside when she tried to poke her head out again.
Everyone slowed down and advanced cautiously.
Whoosh! Another dark shape sprang from the shadows and lunged straight at a Hunter's face.
Altaïr did not waste time drawing the Long Sword from his back. Instead, he pulled a knife from his waist and swept it upward at an angle.
The impact through the hilt told him he had struck something. The shadowy creature gave a piercing screech as the blow sent it tumbling backward across the ground.
Everyone immediately looked down at it.
It was clearly the same kind of creature as before, only larger, about eighty to ninety centimeters long. The sharp blade had split its slime-covered belly halfway open, spilling some of its entrails.
Ms. Meow-It-All instinctively stepped forward for a closer look, but Isis suddenly grabbed her by the scruff and yanked her back.
The next instant, a massive maw lunged from the rocky shadows beyond the lamplight, closed around the creature's body, and dragged it into the darkness.
Skreeech!
Grrawr!
Riiip!
A cacophony of shrieks and tearing flesh erupted from the darkness, enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
The Hunters immediately turned their lights and gazes toward the sound. Three or four similar creatures were scrambling and fighting over the Small Monster, which was not yet dead.
The smallest was barely half a meter long, while the largest measured no more than a meter and a half.
Before the struggle could be decided, a Monster the size of an Aptonoth, a good five to six meters long, dropped from the cave ceiling.
It pinned one of the larger juveniles beneath its foot and began devouring it, swallowing the creature whole.
Unlike the smaller juveniles, which had only forelimbs and had yet to grow hind legs, this one was clearly more developed; its rear claws were already beginning to take shape.
Even then, the few smaller creatures did not flee in panic. They continued frantically fighting over the scattered entrails and scraps of flesh.
Their insatiable, self-destructive hunger, together with a skeleton that became increasingly suited to life on land as the creatures matured, brought everyone to the same grim realization.
These bizarre creatures dwelling deep underground appeared to be Pariapuria that had not yet fully matured.
After swallowing its still-twitching kin, the Monster turned its ravenous gaze toward the nearby Hunters.
It lacked the intelligence to judge an opponent's strength by anything other than size, and it seemed certain that a feast awaited it.
Altaïr sheathed his knife and reached back for his Long Sword.
A gaping maw like a bloody pit emerged from the darkness and clamped down on the Monster's tail and one hind leg.
The creature struggled wildly, but to no avail. A giant claw, every bit as formidable as a Tigrex's, pinned it flat against the ground. Bones snapped with a sharp crack, and blood gushed from its mouth, forcing out the half-swallowed corpse of its kin.
The Hunters retreated cautiously as the struggling Monster was dragged inch by inch into the enormous maw.
Their converging lamplight drove back the darkness, revealing a familiar silhouette.
The injured Pariapuria craned its neck and forced its half-grown kin down its throat. Its bulging eyes swiveled from side to side before fixing on the Hunters only a few meters away.
"This isn't about whether we want to hunt it anymore. It looks like it really wants to eat us."
Theo raised his Sword and Shield.
Ms. Meow-It-All wore a troubled expression. What she had just witnessed had already given her a rough understanding of the Monster's twisted ecology.
First came the palm-sized aquatic salamanders found throughout the caverns, which fed on small fish. Next were the Small Monsters between fifty centimeters and more than a meter long, which had grown forelimbs but still had to wriggle to move. Then came the aggressive, medium-sized individuals they had just seen, with their newly developed hind claws. Finally, there were the adult Pariapuria.
They were all members of the same species.
From one stage to the next, larger individuals fed on smaller members of their own species, allowing a single species to occupy every ecological niche from the lowest tier to the highest...
Perhaps nature had punished them for this grotesque cycle of cannibalism.
Even adult Pariapuria were far less intelligent than other large Flying Wyverns. Their minds held nothing but hunger.
This Pariapuria could not even connect the Hunters before it with the Airship that had pursued it all day. Its memory was exceptionally short, and it was showing aggression only because it believed it could swallow the creatures in front of it...
"Let's finish it off," Ms. Meow-It-All said, her voice heavy. "Even if every adult Pariapuria dies, new ones will still be born in these caverns, meow."
The Hunters had already drawn their weapons. Even without Ms. Meow-It-All's order, they would have done the same. A Monster that attacked them first gave Hunters free rein to retaliate.
"Slither... slither..."
A sickening sound of mucus sliding over stone came from the darkness. As countless hungry gazes converged on them, Honeysuckle's voice trembled. "So... so many..."
Ms. Meow-It-All bared her claws with a sharp hiss. Although she could not fight, the display was pure Felyne instinct. She looked around warily. "It's the scent of blood, meow. This Pariapuria is badly wounded, and its blood has drawn in all the juveniles nearby, meow."
Altaïr drew his Long Sword from its sheath. "Morgan, Theo, find a defensible corner and protect Ms. Meow-It-All and the others. Those juveniles will probably swarm us in the chaos. Leave the big one to Isis and me."
P.S. Official records state only that Pariapuria's method of reproduction is unknown and that scholars are curious about how the juveniles mature. The ecology presented here is original to this story and should not be taken as official lore.